Emery wasn't exactly sure what she was doing just north-west of Riften outside something called the golden glow estate, but here she was and here she was going to get something rather than nothing finished.
There were about a dozen mercenaries in there, and by the looks of it, they were hostile, that and there was a dead guard lying outside their gate.
So, being a natural trouble-magnet, Emery decided, with her most rash decision making, that she was going to somehow formulate a brilliant plan to get inside and kill every single mercenary in there.
Of course, it was a rich estate, which meant gold, which was half the reason she was going in the first place.
There was only one troublesome thing about this all, and believe it or not it wasn't the amount of hostile men inside those tall gates, it was the fact that the only way Emery was going to get inside was swimming through the lake and down to a sewer which ran under the house and lead up right in the heart of it. Except, divines curse her, Emery couldn't swim.
Wiping her hands a few times over her leather trousers, courtesy of Whiterun's blacksmith, she snuck up to the edge of the gate, just where the bridge stopped, and a small gap, just small enough for her to get through, was between the stone fencing and the bridge wall.
Sneaking past the mercenary who was sitting lazily on top of the gate itself, no doubt being bored of guard duty, she squeezed through the gap and plunked straight into the cool water, only reaching her rib cage, so far, so good.
But, as is happens, she spoke too soon. Wading out barely a foot into the cloudy water, she found herself kicking her feet in desperate attempt to not drown herself.
Huffing, Emery hauls herself over to the nearest bridge support and holds on for dear life. Scowling, the blonde nord thought about herself drowning and figured it would be a very sad day for all those who believed the dragonborn was destined to defeat Alduin, to figure out she'd drowned in a pond, that and she'd be the laughing stock of sovengarde.
She barely has time to flicker her dark eyes up to the man on the fence before a light flickers into existence, and Emery finds herself cursing those stupid mages and their candlelight spells. Having barely enough time to squirm away from the bridge pillar she manages to squeeze herself under the bridge itself, and it was a nice plan at first before she found herself unable to grab onto anything suitable to hold onto, not even a foothold.
Panic races through the dovakin, and she finds herself wishing, not the first time that day that she could be back at breezehome with Lydia, stoking the fire and cooking her splendid meals.
Emery takes a deep breath, stocking her lungs full of air before she stops kicking her feet and sinks under the water.
Opening her eyes, which would make them water had she been on land, she looks around for a way out from under the bridge, only she underestimated just how dark it was going to be under the water, and she found herself unable to see anything, and that air she had stocked up on was running low.
In desperate attempt to get to some sort of air, Emery's lungs without consulting her brain or rationalization it seems, took a huge breath of water, and the small nord resists the urge to look for a flame nearby, because her lungs are on fire, her air supply vanished, and choked down by water, and now that it's in her system, she feels her arms and legs almost physically turn to molten lead and she's unable to kick, or scream, or fight the water in any way or form.
Just as the dragonborn feels her brain going fuzzy, and the pain subsides a small amount, a leather clad hand grabs hers and hauls her out of the water with a splash, and life bursts through her like a spark, her lungs on fire once more, and her limbs simply, screaming in pain.
She doesn't even get a chance to open her eyes, or even breathe before she feels herself black out in a haze of darkness.