We had entered Riften in all it's dank and gritty glory. It was dusk by time we opened the gate, so that didn't make it look any more pleasant. The houses were all wooden, and partially filled with woodpecker holes. The town smelled strongly of canal-water, honey and mead, which I assumed were due to two of Riften's most important distinctions. One of the many things my mother taught me aside from how to count and read, were the things that make all different hold capitals unique. Solitude was different by being the holder of Jarl Elisif the Fair, who I basically called queen of Skyrim to some point. Whiterun is the hold in the center of Skyrim, so it's a trading center almost, along with the companions. Riften had the Black-Briar Meadery, which is assisted by the guild.
It also had a canal system which served for transporting cargo crates by boat. There was also a fishery, which I didn't care too much for. The town was almost empty, with it being night at the point we arrived. Guards carrying torches scouted by as we continued to tour. I looked down in the canal-works below town; hooded men and women were were creeping by below. A complex of planks, wooden railings, logs, ropes, boats and more were constructed down the canal to contain human life. Doors leading to homes, rags and clothing being hung out to dry, crates, fishing gear, and partially water-soaked boats sitting just outside their doors were all things that I saw during the look down below; It was quite a unique sight to be had. With no forgetting my goal, I found a staircase leading down the canal and continued through. As we took our steps down the planked road, we were greeted by a burly, not-so-friendly voice.
"Hey!" The voice called, aggressively.
Hildir winced, and I turned to the mystery voice with my dagger on standby.
A large, bearded man standing by a brazier fire, with two women were looking at us, All of which I could easily see thanks to the fire.
The Man spoke, "Come here. Now."
We approached the three, slowly.
With a closer inspection, I learned that it was a nord man with two women in revealing dresses, one absorbing warmth from the flames, and the other casually standing, holding a flower basket. The two women had long hair, somewhat skimpy dresses and had quantities of make-up on themselves, at night; It was painfully obvious what their "profession" was.
The nordic man spoke, "I don't know you. You in Riften looking for trouble?"
"No. I'm here to start my work for the guild."
Hildir began look at me with slight fear.
The nord responds,"A little cat like you? Ha!"
My anger rose, but I turned the anger into arrogance. Mother taught me better, but I didn't mind using it on someone I assumed was just a street rat. I smiled. "You obviously don't know who I am."
"Oh?" The nord raised his eyebrow. "Well, who are you then, little stray?"
"I am Ly'ro. Son of the guild master."
The nord, the women, and Hildir all stared at me with surprise.
The nord changed his tune from interrogative and undervaluing, to respecting and apologetic almost instantly. "Oh, it's you!" He submissively said.
I nodded and grinned a little.
"Sorry about the questioning; guards have been cracking down on illegal activities for some time now, and you can never be too careful."
I assumed my position gave me some form of natural respect among thieves, so I decided to keep that in mind whenever I spoke from now on. "Don't worry about it, just watch who you're speaking to next time." I said.
"Absolutely! You aren't going to tell your father about this, are you?"
I was confused why he would ask a question like that for something so insignificant. I guess my father is extremely strict with the guild or something. However, One of the extremely few things my father taught me was that opportunity is always your desire, in all situations, not just stealth. That being said, I took opportunity by the throat. "Hmm... well, what would you offer to prevent that?" I asked.
The nord claps twice, looking at one of the girls. The woman holding the flower basket places it on the ground, and comes very close to me, glaring at me in a flirty manner.
"How about a free treat?" The nord says.
I blushed. "Okay, that's not necessary, I was just wondering what you would offer." I said hastily.
The woman backs off, laughing. "Such a shame, I was dying to see all the strong muscles under that gray fur of yours, young khajiit."
I took a deep breath. "Anyway, I'm trying to find the canal locksmith?"
He points right across from himself to a door with a sign that from what I assumed said "Canal Locksmith".
"Thanks."
He nods, and the flower lady waves me goodbye.
I turn around to move over there. As I turn around, I notice Hildir has still been staring at me blankly, this entire time.
"Quit your glaring and come on." I order her with irritation.
She follows me again after a few more seconds of staring.
We approached the door and I knocked on it.
An argonian woman cracked the door. "You have questions?" The argonian woman looks at me, slightly annoyed, possibly from being awoken from sleep.
"Yes, I'm the one who's supposed to deliver this package to you." I took the package out of my backpack, and held it up it to her in display.
Her tired eyes widen. "Ah, tis' you. And this woman?" She says, staring at Hildir.
"Oh, her? She's with me."
She nods. "Come inside, both of you."
We entered the house. Her shop area looked no different from any merchandising area; Wooden display counters stood in an angle dividing customers from merchandise, displays and stands lied on the counter showing various items regarding locks and keys and so on. The only real difference right now is that its underground, surrounded and encased in stone.
The argonian woman calls for someone. "Shadows!"
Another argonian appears, from around the house; A male. I assumed he was Walks-in-shadows, my contact for the job.
He looks at the other argonian. "Thank you, Sister. You can go back to sleep now."
She leaves, and the male stands and looks only at me.
"Ah, so you're the thief prince." He looks me up and down. "Young and enthusiastic, Even at nightfall, I like that."
I nod with confidence. "I am Ly'ro, and this is my... companion, Hildir."
he looks at her, with suspicion.
"Don't worry, she's just a skooma-addicted Nord."
Shadows turns his attention. "Well then, I'm not sure why you would choose to burden yourself with such a woman, but I won't ask.
Hildir frowns, and hangs her head.
"Anyway, you're probably ready to get introduced into the guild." Walks-in-Shadows said.
"Absolutely!" I smiled and responded in noticeable fervor.
"Well, too bad!" Shadows replied in a happy form of sarcasm.
My smile flipped to a frown quickly. "W-what?" I asked in complete bafflement.
He wiped his hand against his scaly face. "I'm completely tired right now, so you're going to have to wait until I get some sleep. Tomorrow, basically." He says, then afterwards yawns.
"Wait! B-But..." I try to think of something that can negate this. I had thought about using my position as the guild master's son as leverage to make him do as I say, but I didn't want to push it. The odds seemed unbalanced to me; He already seems to know of my position, and due to the way he's talking to me, he doesn't seem to care at all.
Shadow responds with more irritating sarcasm, "No butts for sale here! If you're looking for those, there's two women and a Nord outside the door. They are the ones you're looking for."
"I saw them." I reply in reaction to his sarcasm.
"Well then, with that being said, I guess I should give you your package now."
My ears twitched. "Wait, what?"
He had walked to a corner and opened a crate, Retrieving a package, wrapped in leather bindings, just like the one I had, and handed it to me.
"Give me your package."
I had handed it to him, as ordered.
"Good, now take this one and open it at the counter over there." He said, pointing at the said counter.
I did as he said. I walked over to the counter and placed the item there and unwrapped it from the bindings.
It's contents contained a rolled up kit of basic thievery tools and accessories: Five Lock-picks, a clear vial labeled "invisibility", a black vial with a skull on it which I assumed was poison, and a key." I knew that those were lock-picks because my previous trainers told me how to use them. The key, however, I didn't know anything about.
I picked it up and asked shadows,"What's this?"
"That would be the key to your new living space, next door."
My eyes widened. "Oh, uh... right, thank you."
"You needn't worry. Now, I would explain more, but like I said, I'm tired. I gave you your place to sleep, now take your tail out of here." He said, giving a waving motion.
I left with Hildir and brought the tool kit with me outside to the door next door, locked, obviously. I used the key to unlock the door, wondering what the house looks like, other than an underground adobe. I opened the door and entered. My opinions on the Canal House were a mixed bag. I was surprised at its attempts to look so... cozy, minus an odd smell. There was a cooking pot and a fireplace with wooden chairs directed at it.
There was a wooden table with wooden plates, forks and an unlit lantern on top of it. Around the table was a cupboard, with slightly dusty empty boxes, ready to be filled with whatever clutter is prepared. Another object near the table was a salmon rack, with a left over fish still on it, which explained the bad smell. There was a second floor, led by a staircase that is, of course, made of wood. Hildir stayed put on the bottom floor while I climbed to the top to continue my tour. It was a small room, containing a bed for one, a personal chest on top of a table, a dresser, and a grey knapsack, similar to mine, leaning on the dresser. I went back down to speak to Hildir.
"Hildir." I called.
"Yes?" Hildir said, with great grief.
"There's only one bed in the house."
"Oh..." she replied with despair.
I reached for my coin-purse to pay for her troubles, again. I gave her about 30 gold. "Get yourself a room at the inn." I said.
"There's an inn here?" Hildir replied, confused.
I handed her the coins. "You better hope so, otherwise you're sleeping on the stone floor."
She gave me a sad look.
I groaned. "Is that all you do is frown, cry, and complain about everything?" I replied in irritation.
She began to get angry and raise her voice. "Don't you understand what's happened to me, you self-centered thug?"
I stepped back, surprised at her sudden anger.
"I was once sitting in my bed in Cyrodiil sleeping in the noble districts of the Imperial City!" Her eyes are filled with anger and releasing tears. "And now, I've become this... this..." She sits in silence for a moment.
"Wench?" I replied, carelessly.
She bursts into tears. "Why did you even help me if you don't even give a damn about me? How can you even be so cruel?!" Hildir said with many sobs before and after her sentence.
Admittedly, she was right. I wasn't the person I was pretending to be. I was only acting that way towards her because that would be the way my father would act, but then again after thinking about it, I hate my father, so maybe it would be a foolish move to do that. I decided to confess to her, "Because... You reminded me of someone when you were sitting there, hopelessly crying back in Whiterun."
She continued to cry.
I decided it was time to stop pretending to be this way towards her. I sighed and approached her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Listen, Hildir."
She looked at me with the same pitiful, tear drenched look she's given me 3 times now.
"You have to get a hold of yourself."
"How?" She replied.
I dried her tears with my hands. "Let me tell you something... You see Hildir, I was specifically trained to be a thief as soon as I turned 13. I had many different people training me in the art of stealth, lock-picking, pickpocketing, mercantilism, and battle. One of those trainers I got really close to. He was a big and strong khajiit, the nicest out of all of them, and always talked to me when my parents and my sister wouldn't. I had developed somewhat of a crush on him, to be honest. His name was Ma'arda."
She began to look at me, listening to me as I spoke.
I continued, "One day, I learned about skooma. Then, I learned that Ma'arda, who I was looking up to all this time, was addicted to it. One other day, he took me to some place and told not to say anything. We went to a ship and he brought me to these men. I had no idea what was going on, but it only took me a while to realize he had tried to sell me to pirates so they can hold me for ransom. The pirates tied my hands together and threw me in the cargo area. Luckily, my sister was following me for some time, and she brought my father before the ship attempted to leave. My father, and my sister, both armed with deadly blades, slayed every last crew member on the ship to rescue me. When they unbound me and took me out of the cargo hold I came out to a deck of dead sailors everywhere. Ma'arda was still alive on the deck, mortally wounded and on the ground, bleeding out from his lower torso." My eyes begin to squint from remembering such a painful memory. "I said one word to him, because I knew massive amounts of guilt was among him, along with massive pain. 'Why?' He burst into tears, pitifully, on the ground and said exactly what you said. 'I just really needed it.' He died only a few seconds after that. I've despised skooma and I haven't trusted anyone outside of my family ever since."
Hildir continued to look at me, waiting for my point.
"Hildir, I cried about that for a very long time, but my family told me that I had to simply get over it. Life goes on, and you have to live with what you've dealt with, and deal with what you live with. Besides..." I moved her hair out of her face. "At least you've got somewhere to go now."
She wiped her own face dry and nodded. She hung her head again, staring the floor for a few seconds, but I assumed she was sucking it up.
"I understand this is a lot to take in. But things can go awry in life, there's no telling what can happen. You just happened to make acquaintance with me, that's all. I mean, would you rather be out catering to men's desires for skooma again?"
She nodded again. "Good point..."
"Just relax, quit your crying and suck it up, because really, that's all you can do; and crying is not getting you anywhere."
"That's true." She looked back at me. "You were so cruel earlier..."
"Yeah... sorry about that, just pretend it never happened, okay?"
We stared at each other for a moment then got back to the subject. "Right, so here's the money for your room in the hopefully existent inn." I said.
"It's okay." Hildir replied.
I raised a brow.
"I'll just light the fireplace and sleep near it."
"Are you sure?" I responded.
She nodded and searched for a tinderbox.
"Well... alright, goodnight." I responded, slightly concerned.
We took to our rest and slept until the next day began.