Chapter II
The sound of clashing blades and metal scraping against stone were loud enough to wake the prisoner in her cell. Her eyes flashed open as the shouts coming from the centre of the room grew louder and more people entered the chamber. She lay there as still as she could for what seemed like an eternity, while the fighting in the room continued. But eventually she heard silence, followed by the unmistakable sound of a sword being thrust through a man's chest, and then the sound of a lifeless body falling down onto the stone floor. She had guessed that the person who had just dropped to the floor had been the interrogator, as in the next few moments, she could hear several men talking with Nordic accents. She was relieved that the fight had not been caused by the return of her captors, but she also figured that these men were most likely rebel soldiers. While she didn't think that they would kill her, she was not on their side, and didn't want to be, and because of this figured that calling for them to let her out of the cell was useless. Besides, her mouth was still gagged, and so even if she managed to get their attention, she couldn't explain to the men why they should let her go. So she just lay there, as still as ever, and waited for the men to eventually leave the room. But as soon as they did, the girl mentally kicked herself for letting go what was most likely going to be her only opportunity to escape. But now that the men were gone, and she was alone, she figured that she could at least turn around to face into the chamber again. She slowly lifted herself up from the floor by leaning against the wall for support and pushing with her legs until she was sitting upright. Then, she swung her legs around in much the same manner as before, and faced herself around to see into the chamber. This time, though, she twisted the chains above her head so that she could sit without her arms folded across her chest as they had been before, when she was originally locked into the cell. Looking out into the centre of the chamber, she saw the three bodies lying there, all bloodied and lifeless. The first body she identified was that of the interrogator, affirming her assumption from before, that he had been the last one to slump to the floor. He was lying almost on top of another body, that which the girl identified as a rebel soldier. So she had been right about that, too. The third body, she could not recognize. From what she could see from her cell, which really wasn't that much, he was much younger than the others, and so she guessed that he was the assistant who the interrogator had mumbled audibly about several times while she had been awake earlier. The girl at there and continued to gaze out at the bodies. She supposed that had she been almost anyone else, she would be feeling sick because of the fairly gruesome scene before her. But even at her young age, she had seen more than her fair share of death. This scene was nothing new to her. Still, she eventually shut her eyes and turned her head away. It certainly wasn't a pleasant thing to be looking at, especially if it was quite likely the last scene that she was ever going to see. With her eyes still closed, she leaned back and rested her head on the wall. It was as cold and damp as ever, but somehow the cool stone felt slightly relaxing against her head. The girl breathed in deeply, and then slowly exhaled, repeating this a few times until a small wisp of her chestnut hair flopped down in front of her face, tickling her nose. She opened her eyes to look at the dangling strands, and tried to blow them away from her face, before she realized that her mouth was still gagged. So instead, she flipped her head to the side to try and move it from her face, but she swished her head just a little too far. The side of her head landed with quite a thud on the wall, causing her to wince in pain. She cursed under her breath as she sunk her throbbing head down to her chest. After a few more moments of agitated mumbling to herself, the girl sat up again, very carefully this time, and rested her head back against the wall. Again, the piece of hair casually dropped down across her face. The girl was about to try another tactic to remove the hair from its position, but then she heard something. She closed her eyes and listened as hard as she could to try and identify the source of the noise. As she listened, she could hear a not so soft thudding sound, a sound she knew to be caused by running footsteps on the stone floor. At first, she thought that for some reason, one of the soldiers from before had retraced his steps and was coming back for something. But as she continued to listen, she realized that the sound was coming from the other end of the chamber, the way that led down from the town above. She opened her eyes now to look out at the corridor, both curiously and anxiously, hoping that the person who was evidently about to round the corner and enter the chamber was not another rebel soldier. She didn't want to be stuck in the cage, but at the same time, she didn't want to ask a rebel for help. She wasn't on their side after all. In another second or two, the cause of the sound entered the chamber in the form of a young soldier, a Nord with brown hair, expectedly fair skin, and a red tunic. The girl looked upon this man with a huge sense of relief. This man was on her side, or at least he should be if his uniform was anything to go by, as the man's red tunic identified him as a member of the Imperial Legion. The girl was not a member of the Legion herself, but she was born and raised in the heart of the Empire, and she was definitely in support of them. So, having decided that this man was perhaps going to be her best chance at escaping from her cell, she decided to get his attention. She could not use her voice to call over to the man, who was now stooped cautiously over the dead bodies on the floor. Instead, the girl twisted her wrists around in the shackles so that her hands could grab the chains. She grabbed each chain as tightly as she could, and with all the strength that she could muster, she yanked as hard as she could on the chains. The heavy metal links rose slightly into the air, but landed with a hard thud on the wall behind, clattering loudly against the stone and each other. The impact of the chains was enough to shake the girl's entire body for a brief moment, but the clattering was also enough to attract the attention of the Imperial soldier. But the clattering didn't attract his attention in quite the way that the girl had hoped. The noise had been so sudden that the soldier had wheeled around in an instant to face the direction of the sound, drawing his steel sword as he did so. He held his blade out in front of him in a ready stance, thinking that there was someone trying to sneak up on him from the other side of the chamber. But there was no one standing there, not that he could see. He stood there staring in the direction of the girl's cell, but from where he was standing, he could not quite see into her cell, and couldn't see that there was in fact someone in there. The girl realized this, and rolled her eyes. She could always shake the chains again, but then she had a better idea. She decided to make herself at least partly visible. As quickly as she could, she wriggled her right foot out of its leather boot. Then, with an awkward outwards kick, she flicked the boot towards the metal cell door. The leather boot landed with a soft thud against the metal bars, and then fell down to lean against the door. The soldier had been staring in the direction of the cell when the boot hit the bars, but as he had not exactly been expecting a shoe to come flying from the shadows, he jumped back slightly in surprise. Then, somewhat regaining his composure, he walked forwards, sword outstretched, in the direction of the mysterious flying boot. Well, at least he knows I'm here... thought the girl. The soldier inched cautiously forwards until he was standing several metres away from the cell door. He peered into the darkness, but he was rather surprised when his eyes rested not on some dangerous looking prisoner as he had expected, but on the body of a girl not much younger than himself. While he didn't know what she could possibly locked up in there for, she certainly didn't look dangerous. He lowered his sword to his belt and walked a little closer to the door. The girl in turn looked towards his face with pleading eyes. Their gaze met when the soldier stood within an arm's length of the cage. For a minute, the two of them just stared at each other, until the soldier realized that he was staring rather intently at the prisoner, and he turned away slightly, an embarrassed smile forming on his face. The girl would have giggled were it not for her mouth being tied up. The young soldier turned back to face the girl in the cell. He was about to ask her what she was doing in there, but then he noticed the cloth tied around the girl's mouth.
"Uh...so... you can't exactly tell me why you're in there right now, can you?" he said in a soft, fairly deep Nordic accent.
The girl shook her head in reply. She then looked in the direction of the heavy lock on the cell door.
"And, if I want to know who you are, what you're doing in there, I have to let you out now, don't I?" said the soldier as he too looked towards the lock.
The girl nodded in agreement. Again, she looked up towards the soldier. She figured that since she previously had some sort of success with staring helplessly up at him, if she wanted him to do as she desired, then playing the part of the poor, innocent damsel in distress seemed like a good plan. Plus, she certainly didn't mind staring into his eyes. After all, she had always had something of an attraction towards Nordic men, and this young soldier was definitely no exception.
The soldier could see from the corner of his eye that the girl was staring pleadingly at him again, but he tried his hardest to retain his composure. He was, after all, considering freeing a potentially dangerous criminal from a high security cell. But he gave in to his curiosity, and again found himself looking into the girl's hazel eyes, eyes that seemed to sparkle slightly through the darkness. He shook his head and looked away again. The girl would have burst into laughter at this, had her mouth not been tied shut.
"Right..." said the soldier. He looked at the lock. It was a heavy, metal thing, but he thought that it also looked quite old, and that his sword would be able to smash through it.
"If I let you out of here," he said, "you had better not try and kill me, okay?"
The girl rolled her eyes playfully, and nodded her young soldier unclipped his sword again and lifted it up. He moved so that he was standing in a good position to land a heavy blow on the lock, but just as he was about to slice forcefully downwards with his steel blade, he was interrupted by a frantic mumbling and furious head shaking from the girl.
"What? Don't you want me to let you out?" he said as he stood ready to swing, blade held high above his head.
The girl sighed. She picked up her leg and pointed her shoeless foot towards the sword.
"What about it?" the soldier said when he realized that the prisoner was indicating the blade.
The girl lowered her foot, and tried to think for a moment how she could possibly tell him that the lock was old, but also deceptively strong. Finally, she picked up her foot again, but this time pointed it at the lock.
"Yes. The lock. I was about to smash it..."
The girl shook her head frantically.
"Do you want to get out of there or not?!"
The girl rolled her eyes again. She nodded.
"So, you do want to get out..."
Again, she nodded.
"...But, you don't want me to smash the lock?"
The girl nodded again, very pleased that she was beginning to get her message across.
"Then what do I do? Unless there's a key somewhere, I don't..."
At the mention of a key, the girl nodded frantically again. She picked up her foot once more, but this time she pointed beyond the young soldier, and indicated in the direction of the bodies on the floor.
"They're.. dead, yes, I don't think they can help..." said the soldier, feeling slightly confused.
Had her hands been free, the girl would have buried her face in them. She continued to point with her foot at the pile of bodies. The soldier turned around and studied the dead men.
"What do you... wait... the interrogator?" said the soldier, suddenly coming to a sense of realization. "I suppose if anyone is going to have a key, that would make sense... this is his place, after all..."
The girl sighed with silent relief, and nodded her head in agreement.
"Alright, then..." said the young soldier. He stood up and turned to face the pile of dead bodies that he had been stooping over before. He hadn't seen any keys then, and so he figured that unfortunately, that meant he would have to rifle through a pile of corpses. But on the other hand, he hadn't been searching for anything before, and so he could have easily missed something. After a moment of silent hesitation, wondering again just why he was doing this for a girl he didn't even know, a girl who happened to be locked up in a prison cell, the soldier walked towards the pile of bodies and looked down at it. The bloody mess was enough to make even a fairly experienced soldier's stomach churn slightly, but this was not the first scene like this that he had seen, and he knew that it would definitely not be the last. Carefully, he leant down by the bodies, careful not to kneel in the crimson puddles that had pooled across the stone floor. He stared down at the three forms, all mostly unfamiliar to him. But he could tell that one was a rebel soldier by his uniform. And he knew the old man was the interrogator, as even though they had never met, the soldier had heard the old man mentioned before, described as a grumbly and rather creepy old man. This was all that he needed to know. Luckily for the soldier, the old man was lying somewhat on top of the other two bodies, as he had been the last of them to fall. This meant that much to his relief, he shouldn't have to dig too far into the pile of corpses. The soldier leaned over the body of the interrogator and looked around for any sign of a key. At first glance, he couldn't see anything of use. He decided that he would have to move the body if he was to get a better look. After another moment of quiet hesitation, the soldier put his right hand underneath the old man's cold body, and just as he was about to reach down with his left hand to grab the man's other side, his right hand brushed against something that had a rusty, metallic feel. It felt like a large, heavy, metal loop attached to one of the interrogator's belt loops. The soldier grabbed on to the ring shaped object and pulled it carefully out from under the interrogator. To his surprise, and again to his relief, it was a large metal hoop that held several keys. Most of them were small, but one large brass key looked about the right size for the lock on the girl's cell. The soldier managed to unhook the ring from the old man's belt loop, as the loop had a simple clip mechanism at the top which allowed it to be unhinged quite easily. Taking the keys, the young soldier stood up, brushed his hands on the bottom of his tunic, and walked back over to the girl in the cell. When she saw the loop of keys in his hand, the girl was quite overjoyed and didn't bother to hide this feeling. She nodded her head happily as the soldier held out the keys towards her and asked if one of them was the one that would free her from her cell.
"Alright then," said the soldier. "Let me see..."
He fumbled around with the keys a little, but again arrived at the conclusion that the large key looked like the one that would fit in the cell's lock. He place the large key into the lock and turned it slowly until he heard the familiar click of a lock mechanism opening. He smiled as he removed the key, and then proceeded to open the door. He stepped inside and knelt down on the girl's left, and gently removed the gag from her mouth.
"Better?" he said with a smile as the girl opened her mouth and took a couple of very deep breaths.
"Much better," the girl replied after a moment. As she continued to breathe deeply for a little while longer, the soldier began to study the much smaller locks that secured the shackles around the girl's wrists.
"You wouldn't happen to know which one of these keys unlocks those shackles, would you?" he asked.
The girl looked at the keys which the soldier held out for her to see. She hadn't really been paying that much attention when she was locked up before, and so wasn't able to identify which of the small, brassy keys was the right one.
"No, sorry," said the girl. "I didn't really get a good look when I was being shoved in here. You'll just have to try them all until one of them fits."
"Alright then," replied the soldier. "There aren't too many of them, though, so it shouldn't take long."
As the soldier stared curiously at the locks, then at the keys, and then back at the locks to figure out which key would do the trick, the girl looked awkwardly over her left shoulder and into the young man's face for a moment before quickly turning her head around to the other side, realizing that her face must have been turning quite a nice shade of red. After a few moments, and a few attempts with different keys, the soldier managed to slide the right key into the lock of the shackle around the girl's left wrist. He turned it until again they could hear the unmistakable sound of an opening lock. The lock gave way and the shackle opened, freeing up the girl's right arm. Then, the soldier quickly went around to the other side and unlocked the other shackle. The girl's right wrist slid out from the metal constraint, and for a moment she sat there and caressed away the slight tingling that she had begun to feel in her hands, as she only now realized that they had been suspended above her head for a few hours now. As she continued to massage her palms, the young soldier stood up beside her and walked around in front to face her. The girl grabbed for her boot which was still lying roughly where it had fallen earlier, and she pulled it onto her bare foot. As she did so, the girl looked up into the soldier's face and smiled shyly.
"Thank you," she said earnestly.
The soldier began to smile a little, and then he extended his hands towards the girl. She reached up and put her hands in his, and he then pulled her to her feet.
"I've seen enough people in pain today. More than enough death, that's for sure," said the soldier. "I figured that if I could save a life, or at least help someone get back to living theirs, well... even if you were locked away in a prison cell."
The girl laughed.
"Well, thanks," the girl replied as she began to stretch. "Not many people would do what you just did. Probably for good reason, in most cases, but you know..."
"I guess so, but you don't look so dangerous, so I figured...what?"
The soldier stopped mid-sentence when he saw the amused look that had spread across the girl's face.
"Oh, nothing," she said. "I get that a lot, that's all."
"Oh. Alright... Well... I suppose we'd better get out of here, huh?"
"Good idea. But before we go, I'll just have a quick look around. There's probably some useful stuff around in here..."
"Sure."
The girl stood there and scoped out the room a little. As she walked slowly over to look at the pile of bodies on the floor, the soldier stared after her.
" My name's Hadvar, by the way," said the soldier.
The girl turned back to face him.
"Riviere," she replied, before going back to looking around the room for anything of use.
The next few minutes were nearly silent as Hadvar stood somewhat impatiently by the passageway that seemed to lead further into the keep, and hopefully outside. Riviere walked around the chamber during this time, looking for anything of use, or even better, anything of value. She decided not to rifle through the pockets of the dead men on the floor as she was trying to be as quick as possible. She did, however, reach down and pick up one of the swords that was lying amidst the bodies. The blade was covered in a thick layer of blood, so Riviere looked around the room for a piece of fabric or something else to clean it up a little with. Her eyes scanned the room carefully, and eventually rested on a small tattered piece of once-white material lying beneath the chair that had earlier belonged to the old interrogator. She walked over and bent down to pick up the cloth, and in doing so, her eyes rested on the table next to the chair. She first noticed the small dagger sitting in the centre of the wooden surface. She generally preferred small, light blades, so this was more to her liking than the heavy steel blade. She picked it up and inserted it into a belt loop of her olive green, slightly loose-fitting trousers, and then placed the sword on the chair. She then looked at the book that was also on the table, but made no gesture to remove it from the table. The final item that Riviere took note of was the small leather pouch that was resting on the wooden surface. She picked it up and weighed it in her hands, realizing that it was much heavier than she had thought it would be. She undid the little clasp on the front of the pouch and looked curiously inside. Her eyes widened as her gaze was met with the sparkling glow of several brilliant diamonds. A smirk shaped her lips as she closed the pouch again and stuffed it into a pocket on the left side of her trousers. She then stood up, and brushed her hands on her dirty white blouse.
"Ah, I don't mean to complain or anything," started Hadvar as he looked over at Riviere, "but we should probably get going soon."
"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I'm almost done," replied Riviere as she walked back towards her companion, but stopped in front of the cell that held the body of the mage. Something was glistening slightly beneath the collar of his robe. Something gold.
Hadvar watched her kneel down in front of the door.
"Hey, if you see something there that will help us, I think I might have a lockpick or two somewhere. I got locked out of places a few times when I was younger, and even though I never really learned how to do it, I still..."
"No need," said Riviere. "But thanks anyway."
She reached behind her head, and grasped with each hand a pin that had been holding the majority of her hair back from her face. Each pin's top was ornamented simply with a few reddish stones arranged in the shape of a small rose. As she pulled the pins away from the top of her head, her chestnut hair cascaded down over her shoulders. After shaking the her hair out a little so that it all flopped onto her back, Riviere looked at the lock which adorned the door of the mage's cell. The cell was much smaller than the one she had been in, and the lock was much simpler. This was going to be easy. She took the pins in her hand, and rotated them so that she was holding them by the roses, and so that the thin, pointy ends were pointed towards the lock. She placed the end of one pin in the lock, and then the other one in beside it. With one hand, she maneuvered a pin in the lock until she could feel it was in the right position, and then rotated the lock itself with the other pin. The lock clicked open with ease. Riviere smiled to herself and opened the door. She reached inside and quickly pulled a small amulet on a golden chain from around the dead mage's neck. She stuffed it into the same pocket where the pouch of diamonds now rested, the stood up and ran over to join Hadvar by the passageway. He looked at her curiously. He had been getting impatient waiting for her to finish, but after watching her pick the cell lock with so much ease, his sense of curiosity had overcome the bored, annoyed feeling that had begun to arise.
"Ready?" Hadvar questioned.
"Ready."
"Good. Let's get out of here."
The two of them then walked briskly off through the cold, dark passageways, searching for the way out.
After walking further into the passageways beneath the keep for a few minutes, a delayed sense of shock hit Riviere, as she realized that she still had no idea what was going on.
"Uh, Hadvar. Quick question… What exactly have I missed… exactly? I take it something pretty major happened, what with all the running and shouting and fighting and such…"
"Oh, I thought you'd heard… I mean how could you not, really."
"Semi-unconsciousness does wonderful things to a girl's perception."
"Oh, yeah, right. Sorry. Well… what didn't you miss."
The two of them stopped for a moment, and Hadvar explained the situation.
"It was all very exciting and confusing," he continued, "but you figured that out. And I guess you also saw that several of the rebels escaped. Wait, you know about the execution, yes?"
Riviere nodded in affirmation. "Here's what I do know, before you go on, so you can see how much I actually missed. I know about the rebels, and I heard something about a lot of people dead in the town, and fire. Oh, and I heard this really strange sound, somewhat like a rumbling shout, but I couldn't hear what it said, if it did actually say anything. But it sounded almost like the language of the dovah but that's impossible, so…"
"Dragon," Hadvar said.
"Yes, language of the dragons, that's what I said. But again, impossible, so I must have…"
"No! Dragon! There was a dragon! Not joking either. I didn't think it was possible, but apparently it disagrees."
Riviere looked questioningly at her companion. Normally she would have immediately dismissed this claim as the ramblings of a madman or a drunkard, but as far as Riviere could tell, Hadvar was definitely neither.
"So, you mean to tell me that there was… a dragon… a fire breathing dragon… and it just destroyed the town?"
Hadvar nodded. Riviere smoothed a hand through her hair as she thought about this for a moment. This was hardly believable, yet the more she thought about the things that she had heard before, the terrified shouts and the pain filled wails from the town above, the more this idea made sense.
"Huh. Very interesting," she said with a pensive look on her face. "Who'd have thought. Well, come on, my friend. We'd best continue on our way."
"Wait, that's it? That's all you have to say? Interesting!?" said Hadvar, unable to believe Riviere's strange remark.
"Come on," Riviere motioned as she walked forward, continuing on through the keep.
Hadvar just stared disbelievingly after her. Just who have I released from that cell? he thought to himself as he walked cautiously after Riviere, who had begun to quicken her pace along the stone pathways. They passed through another chamber that looked like a small annex for the interrogation room with a few cages, some empty, some filled with old bones and scraps of fabric. Beyond this small room, down the corridor, Riviere noticed the pathway curved off to the left. At first she assumed it was another chamber, but as she walked slowly towards the end of the corridor, a cool breeze washed over her. She stopped suddenly, about three quarters of the way down, and crouched down against the wall, leaning her head against the cold stone wall. Hadvar stopped and crouched down beside her in much the same fashion, though he didn't know what his curious companion was doing.
"What is it?" he whispered in Riviere's ear.
"Shhhhh!" she hissed as she placed a hand over his mouth and continued to crouch, remaining absolutely still.
She turned to face Hadvar, and pointed to her ear, before mouthing for her companion to listen. Hadvar nodded and followed Riviere's actions. As they crouched together by the wall, Hadvar began to hear what had stopped his companion in her tracks. Voices were emanating softly from ahead. They were unfamiliar, but as they continued to listen, they could both begin to understand some of the conversation.
"We're not lost," said one. "We just need to go through there."
"No, we don't. We just came from there!" hissed another.
"Yes, we do!" countered a third. "We go back that way again, and find another way out. There has to be another way that doesn't involve going back up to the town."
Riviere listened in complete silence for a few more seconds, and then carefully stood up in her position. She put a finger to her lips as she faced Hadvar again, and motioned for him to follow her swiftly and silently back to that small annex chamber that they had come through before.
Slowly, the two crept back to the annex. Once there, Riviere sighed deeply as she rubbed her forehead pensively.
"Those people in there," began Hadvar, still whispering.
"Rebels, I think," replied Riviere. "All Nords, and I'm pretty sure that I heard one mutter something like at least we still have our heads on our shoulders… And you can stop whispering here. They are far enough away."
"Alright then. What should we do?" Hadvar continued. "It sounded like quite a few of them were out there. I could try and negotiate with them to let us through, or I could try and fight them. Whatever has the highest chance for survival, I suppose."
Riviere smiled, realizing that her companion was assuming she was just some girl who managed to get locked up in a cage. A scared, young girl who had never fought a day in her life. Riviere smiled, as her companion couldn't be more wrong about her if he tried.
"How about neither of those options for now," Riviere said. "How about I try and sneak up to the end of the corridor and take a look at what we are facing?"
"Uh, wait. Are you sure? You might…"
"Be seen? Get hurt? Get my blouse torn or my hair messed up? Trust me, Hadvar, I'll be perfectly fine. Plus, I'm smaller, lighter on my feet, and not wearing an Imperial uniform. If I am spotted, they shouldn't be too quick to pick me as an enemy."
"Well, if you're sure…" said Hadvar, a slight tone of worry in his voice. "Just be careful, alright?"
Riviere smiled mischievously. "I promise, I'll try not to die."
And with that, Riviere turned to face down the corridor again, and padded her way almost silently along the pathway. Hadvar watched her, and was interested by the way that she was walking; not quite crouching, but hunched down, walking closely against the wall, stepping quite silently along the cold, hard floor stones.
Keeping close to the wall, Riviere continued silently yet surprisingly swiftly down the corridor, stepping very carefully and very lightly to avoid shuffling her feet. She made every effort to remain out of sight and earshot, but the men in the room ahead were still arguing loudly, and didn't ever seem to look towards the corridor making it easy for Riviere to remain unseen. When she had reached the end of the corridor, Riviere remained hidden by the wall. She pushed her back against the wall, steadied her slightly nervous breathing, and then carefully peered around the bend. Her gaze was greeted with the sight of a large, dark chamber that looked to be the beginning of a cave network that spiraled out from beneath the keep. The air was cold and damp, a sensation that was attributed to a gently tumbling waterfall cascading down the rock wall to Riviere's left. The chamber was roughly circular in shape, with a large pit in the centre that was connected to the upper platform circling around it by a small set of well weathered stone steps. It was at the top of these steps that Riviere caught a glimpse of the group of men, still arguing away. Riviere studied and listened to them intently for some time. There were three men standing in a small huddle, two tall and strongly built, the third slightly shorter and stockier. The shorter of the three held in his left hand a gently flickering torch, its flame illuminating the huddle enough for Riviere to identify the men as she had guessed before; Nord Rebels, all wearing the blue tunics of the Stormcloak soldiers. The dancing flame illuminated the scene enough for Riviere to make out a few more details from her distance, revealing that the stocky one had short-cropped, dark hair and a , whereas the two taller ones were both wearing helmets that completely covered their heads and short one stood there relatively quietly now while the other two continued to argue heatedly, gesturing wildly at each other. At first, Riviere had thought that maybe these were the men who had come through the interrogation chamber earlier, but now she was unsure. The argument had begun to subside, and the voices were getting hard to hear, but as far as she could tell, none of their voices were familiar. They were Nords, same as before, but to her ears it sounded as though the men in this group were all much younger than those who Riviere had heard earlier, as their voices sounded less deep, less calm, and much more confused. Riviere looked on at the group for a little while longer, but finally to the conclusion that even though they weren't exactly yelling at each other anymore, they weren't about to move on any time soon. Riviere moved back into the corridor and sighed. She sat down against the wall and tried to think. She figured that her waiting companion was getting rather impatient, and so figured that she needed to figure something out as soon as possible. Riviere peeked into the chamber again and looked back over to the soldiers. The torchlight had begun to die down a little, and Riviere had to squint a little to see if there was anything more she could gather about the group. There were three of them, and one of her. If she had to fight them, she thought, she could probably handle it. She had survived quite a few scuffles in her time, after all. Besides, she did have someone to call for help if she needed to. But as she continued to squint in the direction of the Rebels, she figured that if they were as young as they appeared, there was a good chance that they were fairly inexperienced in combat. So she had an advantage there. But then she noticed that all three were armed with either a longbow, a sword, or both in the case of the short one. Riviere took a deep breath, and then began to frown. If only I had my own bow, she thought to herself, as she reached down and touched the small dagger attached to her belt, the only weapon besides her own body that she had with her. Though…If I'm quiet enough, she thought, I might be able to sneak in there unseen. It was quite a risky idea, but at least it seemed better than just charging into the chamber. Riviere studied the outer edges of the chamber a little more. The stone walls were incrementally lined with small, iron sconces that had most likely once burned with a fiery glow, though they now sat there smouldering gently, producing an amount of light that brightened little more than the insides of their metal holders. For Riviere, this was a good sign. This incredibly dim lighting meant that for the most part, the chamber was very dark around the outer edges, and if she stuck close to the walls, Riviere could walk quietly around and get closer to the men on the other side of the chamber. Riviere looked over to the left side of the chamber once more, towards the bubbling waterfall. A pair of small stone bridges ran across two valleys in the floor where the water ran down the wall and into the chamber. They appeared to be covered in a light layer of water-spray from the cascade, so Riviere judged that if she was to move that far, she would have to be careful to avoid sliding across the floor. But aside from that, it looked easy enough for her to sneak in. It was certainly dark enough, which had been Riviere's main concern. As long as she could keep her footing, she should be able to get close enough to the men to try and wonder whether or not they had a plan, and to make a plan of her own.
Riviere took another deep breath, and closed her eyes. She bent down, crouching beside the wall like a large catlike creature, ready to leap into the chamber.
"Shadow hide me," she whispered to herself. In one quick movement, Riviere extended her right leg behind her body, still crouching with her hands on the ground in front, and pushed forcefully off the ground, propelling herself into an elegant lunge that landed her almost silently on the floor at the chamber's outer edge. Her movement hadn't even slightly attracted any attention from the men across the room. She smiled to herself as she pulled herself into a more upright position. She had been practising that jump for quite some time now, and was very pleased that she had managed to pull it off. Riviere now stood about two or three metres away from the waterfall in the left corner of the chamber, and a slightly shorter distance from the first of the two bridges. Riviere relaxed herself into the same stance she had taken when she had wandered down the corridor not much earlier before, and after hesitating for a few seconds, began to walk her way slowly across the first bridge. The stone was a little slippery beneath her feet, and every time she put her foot down, her heart would beat a little faster as she dreaded the possibility that her feet were about to fly out from underneath her body. But after she had padded her way across the first bridge, she stopped. Not because she had made herself too nervous to continue, but because she had spied something. She had walked into a position where she could now clearly see the ground beneath the group of soldiers, and noticed something that she had not before. She had thought that the ground seemed to be reflecting the light from the torch back up at the trio of soldiers in an odd manner before, but had just assumed that the ground was covered in water, as there was a waterfall in the chamber after all. But now, Riviere could see that the ground's reflection wasn't just reflecting the light, but it was lightly glowing, a myriad of colours dancing gently beneath the feet of the soldiers. That was definitely not water, Riviere realised. It was oil.
