Nothing Personal
4E 205 3rd of Rain's Hand
Vallan had arrived back at the Cistern four days ago and had thrown herself into planning heists like she could be called to the Evergloom at any minute.
No one in the guild was too concerned when she went straight to her desk instead of collecting her cut of the sweep job; it wasn't unusual for the thief to bury herself in her work for a day or so and some of the best thefts the guild had accomplished were the results of such dedication.
Their apathy collapsed when Vallan refused to sleep for three days.
It wasn't entirely known how the Bosmer had managed to stay lucid under such sleep deprivation. She sat hunched over building layouts, constantly adding little coded notes and would eat only when pressed and never away from her workspace. Whenever Jenassa had tried to coax her away from her work the Guild Master would calmly but firmly deny her and the Dunmer would return to her anxious, and slightly peeved, silence. Brynyolf and Karliah had talked of an intervention whilst Vex was all for Tonilia slipping Sleeping Tree Sap into her food. With all the scheming surrounding the Guild Master it had seemed slightly anticlimactic when Vallan had, without any warning, passed out on her papers.
No one had dared breathe in case they woke Vallan, well apart from Jenassa, who'd scooped up the lanky Bosmer and unceremoniously dumped her on the nearest bed, indifferent to the flinches she received. Numerous sighs of relief could be heard as the elf remained dead to the world and with all the excitement over, the guild returned to normal working practice, content to let sleeping dragons lie.
So the Wood Elf was more than a little disorientated when she woke nine hours later on one of the only lumpy straw beds left in the Cistern. Vallan shot up from the bed only to stumble slightly as the aches in her body made themselves known. A quick glance around showed the other thieves in the Cistern were all looking pointedly in another direction and her breath hissed out of her as she dug her nails into her palms, irritated with herself for displaying such weakness even amongst friends.
"Cynric!" Vallan barked and the Breton scrambled to her side before blanching at the quick fire questions launched at him. "What day is it, where is Jenassa and has anything happened while I was sleeping?"Vallan demanded and Cynric was forced to jog to keep up with her long-legged stride as she made for her desk.
"Turdas, she's in the Flagon and two Dark Brotherhood assassins turned up about twenty minutes ago." He said, jerking his thumb towards the door. Vallan's eyes widened slightly at that, before flickering over to Ravyn Imyan. She abruptly changed her course.
"Make sure Ravyn stays in the Cistern." The master thief murmured to Cynric in dismissal before marching towards the Ragged Flagon. One condition of the agreement between the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood was that the full members of each guild were safe from the other but it never hurt to be cautious; she didn't need an inter-guild incident when she had a much bigger problem to focus on.
Vallan had worked hard to push her trip to Solitude from her mind. It wasn't the first time she had been ambushed by her memories of life before Skyrim and focussing her energy elsewhere usually helped; if she was so caught up in plans and adventures how could she think of Cyrodiil? But this time the memories didn't come to her in dreams or phantom twinges of scar tissue, instead they were whispered and hissed at her in the voice of the woman who had caused her so much pain. Her presence here in the sanctuary Vallan had built was a slap to the face and she would not let it go unanswered.
There were assassins in the Ragged Flagon. Nocturnal had gifted her luck to her Nightingale once again.
Even with the recent improvements of the Thieves Guild, the Ragged Flagon still managed to look dark and seedy, but since the vast majority of its patrons were dark and seedy it wasn't much of an issue.
Vallan slipped into the tavern stealthily, wanting to get the gist of the meeting so far. She sidled up to the bar next to Brynyolf unnoticed and tapped him on the shoulder then nodded to Vekel, although neither of them batted an eyelid at her sudden appearance, instead continuing with their obviously forced conversation. The Bosmer caught Vex rolling her eyes at her before roughly gesturing towards the table closest to the bridge. None of the occupants had seen her yet, so caught up in their discussion. From the look of frustration on Delvin's face it wasn't going very well.
"I'm telling you she ain't up for any job." He said slowly, clearly having said the words many times in a variety of different ways.
He was sat opposite a Dark Elf and an Argonian. They both wore the signature armour of the Dark Brotherhood although only the elf was hooded. The Dark Elf sighed and spoke so softly Vallan couldn't catch a single word, although if the deepening grimace on Delvin's face was anything to go by they weren't admitting defeat.
Looking up from the monotonous meeting, the Argonian's eyes widened as they lighted upon the Bsomer at the bar. He lightly nudged his companion who followed his line of sight and they both made to stand from their seats, but Vallan waved them back down and made her way over. She felt a presence behind her and knew Jenassa was once again the shadow at her back. As she sat in the seat next to him, Delvin gave her a sour look.
"I thought you were comatose, boss." He grumbled by way of greeting but quickly got down to business. "These two 'ere have brought us an Elder Council's Amulet. I offered them a letter of credit but they insisted on seein' you."
"Astrid wishes to speak with you," the Dark Elf cut in. "She instructed us to bring you to Falkreath."
Vallan raised a thin eyebrow. "I'm already obliged to parley with Astrid. Why did she not come here herself and why are you rejecting your… offer?" She asked, glancing dubiously at the slip of paper in Delvin's hands. It hurt her head to think of how many zeros may be in that figure.
It was the Argonian this time who answered her. "The terms of payment will be decided by Astrid. She would have come here in person but the target that procured us this amulet requires all of her attention."
Vallan nodded before turning to deftly pluck the paper from the man next to her. She ignored his indignant grunt, focussing instead on the breath-taking sum he had promised the Dark Brotherhood.
Her mind boggled when she tried to imagine exactly what service she could possibly provide that was worth fifteen thousand septims.
Looking Delvin in the eye, the Bosmer folded the note in half and slipped it into one of the pouches on her cuirass before rising from the table. "I will accompany you to Falkreath but first there is some minor business I must attend to here. I shall not be long." Vallan felt multiple gazes burning into her at those words and knew that the guild would not take kindly to another leave of absence.
"Good, this is not the time to keep Astrid waiting. Meet us at the stables at dusk." The elf commanded haughtily before both she and her companion swiftly rose from the table and made for the Ratway. Whilst the assassin was in no position to demand that Vallan do anything for her, she let it go as the tension in the room steadily climbed with every light-footed step they took towards the exit.
As soon as the Ratway door shut hands clamped down on Vallan's shoulders and she felt herself twitch; she had never been one for restraints but manhandling escalated the aversion. Jenassa, for even in her 'family' no one else would dare to contain the woman who had defeated Mercer Frey, just tightened her hands.
Realising an interrogation was coming, Vallan sat back to think. Whilst she was uncertain how to proceed she couldn't just brush off her panic attack in Solitude and the arrival of the assassins seemed like a divine gift. But with the combined glares of the senior members of the thieves' guild on her, she couldn't figure out how to justify this new venture.
Or how to weasel out of a true explanation.
"What the void do you think you're doing?" Vex demanded angrily. She was leaning towards Vallan, both hands planted firmly on the table she had been sat at.
"Taking care of some business." Vallan answered simply.
"Bullshit! I heard what you said. If it was as simple as that then their leader would come to you!" The Imperial jabbed a finger at her, looking very much like she would like to jab it into her chest. Vex never did react well to liars.
Brynyolf laid a calming hand on Vex's arm. "Look, lass," he implored. "We weren't gonna say anything before; personal business is personal, right? But we can't ignore this."
'You could quite easily,'Vallan thought petulantly before sighing. She glanced imperiously at Jenassa who removed her hands from the Bosmer's shoulders.
"It does actually tie in with the Dark Brotherhood business." She started before Tonilia cut her off.
"I told you before you can play it tough or you can play it smart and you ignored everyone's advice when you sought them out. What did they do?"It seemed boss or not, they'd rip her a new one if she screwed up. Only this time the ripping was completely unwarranted.
"It's nothing they've done, it's something they can do." She explained exasperatedly. The others' gaze turned impossibly sharper at her words and Vallan found herself choking on her speech as she tried to articulate it. Vallan had never voiced what had happened to her, not even to Jenassa and found she still didn't want to speak about it. But she couldn't lie to those she had become close to, her chosen family. It was obvious from her encounter in Solitude the past couldn't be buried and it was time to get closure.
"Before I joined the guild, before I came to Skyrim, I was hurt pretty bad." She stopped to take a deep breath and realised that one of her hands had unconsciously reached up to press of the slit of scar tissue curving around her throat, broadcasting exactly how bad she was hurt. She paused to glance around at the faces surrounding her. Each one of them looked grim but there was no surprise or disappointment. She supposed having a past was common in this trade. Vallan was a bit amazed hers had stayed secret this long but like Brynyolf had said, 'personal business is personal'; the only reason the guild had intervened was that she'd made it a public issue.
She cleared her throat and started again in a slightly stronger voice. "In Solitude I overheard the woman who had orchestrated it all. It's been affecting me long enough and I feel the need for closure."
Vallan forced herself to straighten up, to show confidence in what she was about to say. This was one course of action she would not be dissuaded from. "I was never in a position to adequately pursue my revenge but now I'm the leader of a very well connected criminal syndicate, the thane of countless holds and have an understanding with a cult of assassins." With each addition to the list her ego swelled and she could finally look Brynyolf, her second-in-command and biggest adversary on this front, in the eyes.
"With the help of the Dark Brotherhood, I will kill that woman. Her death, however, will be by my hand." The last words were hissed out through gritted teeth.
No one spoke for a minute. It was much like how it had been when she first suggested their alliance with the assassins. Finally Brynyolf nodded in assent. "If this is what you need to focus again lass, you have my support." The others added their agreement and a small smile twisted on Vallan's thin lips before she wiped it off as Brynyolf began talking business again. "The guild practically runs itself but if you've got any heists for us we'll have a run through before you go. You can leave the guild to me Vallan, but make sure to check in once every couple of weeks and don't get yourself killed." At her nod he made his way to the Cistern. He stopped at the door to jauntily call over his shoulder, "and don't forget to let Karliah know."
Vallan wasn't too bothered about Karliah, she more than anyone understood the need for revenge.
The Guild Master made to follow her second only to be stopped by a hesitant hand on her shoulder. Jenassa had stayed quiet throughout her interrogation and Vallan wondered how much she had already guessed through their five years together. She also wondered how offended Jenassa would be that her employer for half a decade had never confided in her.
There was a caution in her gaze that had never been there before and the Bosmer hoped that her omission wouldn't cost her their friendship... their kinship.
"Serrah," The Dunmer began and Vallan was momentarily distracted by the light from the sconces dancing across the golden war paint on her face. The next words caught her attention however. "How are you?" It was simple and to the point and Vallan would never have answered truthfully if the question had come from anyone else. Jenassa was cynical, sarcastic, and callous but there was a sorority between them that had developed one backhanded compliment at a time.
"Exhausted."
Thank you for the follows and favourites. I aim to update this story bimonthly but there may be some delays. Out of all my playthroughs Vallan was my favourite so I'm glad I've finally managed to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and get the headcanon off my chest.