It's another short chapter, sorry I really hate uploading anything under 8k words. I'm breaking down the quest or certain events in the story to serve as chapters. There isn't really enough content this early in the game to make the chapters longer and if I tried I'd likely just bore you guys anyway. Trust me though they'll get longer in the future.

The mages first mission

5K Words

The captain woke a little while later feeling herself being nudged in the side by a foot.

She open her eyes to see the Breton standing over her and felt the urge to scowl but found she no longer had the will to do so and just remained silent.

Quintessence was surprised that most of the rage and contempt towards her she'd seen yesterday was already gone. Inside the woman's eyes was a look of acceptance, and behind that was a number of other emotions she was doing well to hide but Quintessence found she didn't really care to dwelve that deep.

The only emotion coming from the woman she cared enough to concern herself with was what she could see on the surface.

"The fight already gone out of you that fast? You are aware it's only been a day right? And not even a full one at that." She remarked smirking a bit as the captains eyes flashed with anger and hate.

"You try finding yourself incapable of the slightest movement and see how much fight you've left inside you. I'm completely at the mercy of you and anyone else who happens to stumble upon me in this pathetic condition. What would even be the point of fighting anymore?" The captain questioned not exactly looking for an answer.

"I don't know, maybe giving yourself a fighting chance?"

"What would be the p-" The captain froze as Quintessence leaned towards her getting so close to the woman she could feel her breath on her face.

"Did anyone ever tell you you smell pretty decent?" The Breton questioned giving her a toothy grin.

The captain would've paled were she not of the darker Imperial skin complexion. This was it...this was what the woman was keeping her for. She intended to voilate her, she'd just been waiting till the right moment.

The captain held back fearful tears and snarled at the woman unwilling to allow her the satisfaction of breaking her easily.

"About time you showed your true colors you scandalous dyke bitch! I should've k-"

She found herself cut off as Quintessence slapped her hard across the face before grabbing her chin and turning her to look at her directly once again.

"Don't flatter yourself captain... For starters I don't swing that way and two, although I can't say you're unattractive there are finer women out there than you. I'm hardly the type who's desperate enough to rape someone."

She smirked again before she moved her head to the side of the captains face and started licking her neck.

The Captain eyes widened and she attempted to move away but nothing had changed in a few hours and her body was still completely unresponsive. She began breathing heavy in fear of what was to come as her jailer continued running her tongue along her neck.

"Could've fooled me, seems like yo-" The woman's words died in her throat as she felt a sharp pain in her neck that was soon overwhelmed by a euphoric sensation the likes of which she never before experienced.

She lost her awareness of everything. The world slowly faded and all she was aware of was the delightful feeling coursing through her being, and the woman who was causing it as she drained the crimson life nectar from her neck.

Quintessence pulled back after a moment and just as fast as the feeling had come it was gone. The captain looked at the woman and didn't know what to think for a moment as her mind was completely blank.

She'd forgotten she'd made mention of being a vampire the day before. Did...did this woman just feed on her?

"What was that?" The captain finally spoke unsure of whether or not she was reffering to the heavenly feeling or the act of being feed on itself.

"A decent meal." The other woman said wiping her mouth on an animal skin.

"I mean the sensation that came after you bite me!" She growled knowing the woman was just bullshitting with her and knew what she was talking about.

"Vampire fangs are enchanted. We can choose whether or not to make our victims feel the pain from our bite, and we can give them pleasure if we so desire. It's how we're able to ensure sleeping victims don't wake when we feed."

"So you kept me alive to be your personal blood bank, is that it?"

"You should stop attempting to guess why I've kept you alive and just focus on staying that way for now."

She scoffed furrowing her brow at that response. "Because I'm in a condition to look after my own health right now?" She questioned lacing her voice with sarcasm.

"No you aren't but I am, and your own survival depends on how you act towards me. So by extension your are fully capable of ensuring your continued health. You just aren't in any type of condition to do so."

"You retarded bitch! What does that even mean!?"

Quintessence smirked at the woman before moving to the cooking pot in the room and pouring what smelled like some apple cabbage soup into a wooden bowl.

The captain felt her stomach growl but ignored it refusing to rely on this woman to feed her. Maybe when she was nearly starved she might have a change of heart but for now she'd still retain some of her dignity for as long as she was able.

The Breton placed the wooden bowl on the wooden bench behind her and sat down on the sleeping mat across from the captains.

"It means if you don't piss me off too badly or start boring me eventually you'll continue to live. You're capable of ensuring your own survival through me, but you aren't in any condition to survive without me."

The captains frown deepened along with the hate she felt towards the woman for doing this. Why the hell was she being so cruel? Sure she'd ordered her death for no reason, but she'd never do something this messed up and demeaning to a person.

"God's will you stop grinning so much! I fucking hate that smug look of satisfaction on your trash bin of a face!"

"Apparently either your continued survival doesn't mean much to you or you chose to ignore what I just said." She said smirking at the captains angry outburst.

The captain chose not to reply. She just looked up to stare at the roof of the cave hoping the woman would go away and leave her to fall back asleep soon.

"What's your name Imperial?"

The woman brought her eyes back down to shoot the curious looking Breton a frown.

"What the hell is it to you?"

"I'd rather not keep reffering to you as bitch, captain, or the Imperial woman."

She scoffed yet again and turned back towards the celling. "Only people that I call friends or comrades may have the pleasure of knowing my name."

"The pleasure you say?" Quintessence smirked. "There you go again flattering yourself." She snickered before standing up.

"I guess if that's how it is you can have it your way then.. Bitch... I just thought you'd prefer being addressed by your real name rather than a word of disrespect." She shrugged walking to the entrance of the room and calling chopper.

"I'm going to go survey the area around the mine. Feed our guest and make sure she's comfortable." She said walking past the Orc towards one of the mines exits.

"Yes ma'am." The Orc said picking up the bowl of apple cabbage stew and stooping down to the Imperials level holding out a wooden spoon of the soup to her.

She scowled and wished more than anything she could slap the bowl and spoon right out of the slave mans hand. She settled for an angry glare instead wishing she could move enough to spit on the Osmer. "Get the hell away from me!"

Quintessence was walking down the road towards Riverwood wondering if anyone in the town had any soul gems or better mages robs than the pair she had on. Being raised as nobility one got used to a certain standard. While the novice robs she wore were certainly preferable to the furs of a bandit or a clunky suit of heavy armor, they still weren't quite what she was used to.

Two wolves jumped out of the woods behind her as she passed but luckily she'd heard the creatures ahead of time, she hit one with a fury spell causing it to quickly turn on it's pack mate. The wolf jumped on the back of it's unsuspecting brethren and proceeded to rip it's throat out.

After the brutal killing of the only other living creature on the road it rushed towards Quintessence but was blasted into the river by a weak bolt of lightning.

She looked at the carcass of the other dead wolf and entertained the idea of skinning it but decided there'd be too much blood on the pelt and continued on her way towards Riverwood.

Upon arriving she saw a tan skinned Nord male arguing with what she assumed to be a wood elf over what she assumed to be a woman.

After a few choice words were exchanged between the two they parted ways and Quintessence decided she might as well be nosey considering there really wasn't anything else to do besides heading back to the mine.

She walked up to the Nord and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and looked slightly startled upon coming face to face with a fair skinned woman with shoulder length ebony waves.

He looked a bit unnerved and Quintessence could tell it was her eyes. While men always found her angular imperial features attractive the odd bright golden eyes were another thing entirely, especially when coupled with the fact that she usually wore dark red lipstick, which actually happened to be a blood stain from years of feeding. No one who looked at her could tell though considering it appeared to be lipstick. When she wanted a more unapproachable look rather than just a fierce one she covered it up with black lipstick, which was the only color of lipstick she actually wore.

She gave the impression of one of those darkly beautiful woman it'd be best to stay away from. Something she was always grateful for as she hardly found herself attracted to men, or even women for that matter. She smirked at his surprise careful not to accidently charm the man as she didn't need some weak pesent slave following her around.

"What were you and that bosmer arguing about?" She asked sparing no time and cutting straight to the point.

To her satisfaction the man wasted no time filling her in.

"Camella Valerieus knows I'm the best man in Riverwood. That elf is kidding himself if he thinks she would choose him over me. I've seen him sneaking over to the Riverwood trader to speak with her when I'm not around, and he's wasting his time."

"This one's cocky that's for sure, maybe I can stire the pot a little." She thought smirking inwardly.

"He sounds persistent. Why not do something about it?"

"You may be right. Camella may see Faendal as more than a friend although I'd have no idea why. Here..give Camella this letter. It's full of Venomous nonesense. Tell her it's from Faendal."

Quintessence took the letter and looked at it for a moment before shrugging and walking towards the Riverwood trader.

"Funny how the best man in Riverwood would rather undermine the competition than fight for the madiens hand like you'd expect from a real man. I thought men liked competition anyway." She mentally sighed opening the door to the building with the traders sign hanging outside.

"Well one of us has to do something!"

"I said no! No adventures, no threatrics, no thief chasing!"

Quintessence paused in the doorway wondering if she was interrupting something.

"Well what are you going to do about it huh? Let's hear it." The woman she assumed to be Camilla said folding her arms and frowning at the man behind the counter.

"We are done talking about this." The man said with finality before turning to notice Quintessence in the doorway.

"Oh, ahem mh." The man cleared his throat before wiping the frown from his face and putting on a business friendly smile. "Excuse me and my sister, I'm sorry you had to hear that."

Quintessence nodded and walked into the store figuring now was as good a time as any to see the man's wares.

"I don't know what you may have heard but the Riverwood trader is still open. Feel free to shop."

Quintessence nodded intending to do just that with the few septums she actually had on her person.

"What have you got for sale?"

The man grinned and stepped to the side giving her a better view of his merchandise.

"Some may call this junk, me I call them treasures."

Quintessence surveyed his goods and felt herself delight upon seeing he had three sets of apprentice robes. A set for alteration, a set for illusion, and a set for restoration. Much to to her dismay though the robes were all over three thousand gold a piece and she only had sixty seven septums to her name.

She asked him about soul gems and found them being to pricey for her pockets as well. A filled petty soul gem would run her one hundred and twenty two septums, she could afford the only petty soul gem the man was in possession of as he told her he would let it go for only thirty septums. She choose not to buy though considering she'd be needing gold for other things in the future and soul gems weren't a necessity at the moment.

"So I take it with the war going on there's been a dwindle in supplies causing prices to skyrocket?" She asked having never seen apprentice robes sold at such a cost before.

"Fortunately for us traders but unfortunate for just about everyone else. Sorry I couldn't give you any better deals but times have been harder around here lately."

She nodded in understanding and walked towards the man's sister who was sitting at a table on the left side of the room looking rather upset.

"Maybe you could talk some sense into my pathetic brother."

Quintessence raised an eyebrow at the hateful tone she took towards the man.

"Did something happen?"

"A band of thieves broke in and stole and old family treasure me and that's been passed down along our line for years. Originally our family started out in Skyrim but moved to Cyrodile ages ago long before the sack of the Imperial city. My brother and I seeking to be independent from the rest of our family moved back to Skyrim a short while ago right before the war broke out, and being the youngest of our family looking after the ancient relic was a duty that fell upon us since we're expected to pass it on down the line."

Quintessence nodded showing she was following where the woman was going with this.

"Last night while me and my brother slept a thief or some thieves broke in and randsacked the place taking with them only a few septums and the claw of solid gold that's belonged to our family for generations. I want to track down the loathsome bandits and get back what's rightfully ours but my cowardly brother think it's best just to stay put and do nothing while those unwashed flichers are out somewhere likely selling our families herilome.

Quintessence covered the urge to snicker at her unwashed comment and nodded her head in understanding seeing why the woman was clearly upset.

"I'm very sorry to hear that and I wish you the best in talking some sense into your brother on the matter. Although I do understand where your coming from the matter isn't mine to discuss with the man."

Camilla nodded sadly unsurprised that she replied in such a way. "I understand your reason and although it does little to alleviate my sadness I am grateful for your understanding anyway."

Quintessence nodded before pulling out the letter she'd received from Sven and handing it to Camilla.

"Sven wanted me to trick you into believing this letter was from Faendal."

"What are you talking about, what's in the letter?" She said as she opened the paper.

"Oh my.." She continued reading on until the sadness in her eyes was replaced with anger and she threw the letter into the fireplace she sat beside.

"How dare Sven attempt to do such a thing! If he's afraid of a little competition than he never deserved my affections anyway!" The woman growled seething with anger.

"My thoughts exactly." Quintessence agreed smirking inwardly and wishing she could see the look on Sven face the next time he attempted to talk to Camilla.

"Thank you for telling me the truth traveler. I don't know how I would have reacted to Faendal the next time he came to visit me if you'd have done what Sven asked you to."

"No problem at all." Quintessence replied moving towards the door to the Riverwood trader.

"Before you head to wherever it is your travels may take you I think you should speak with Faendal. He might wish to think you for standing up for him."

Quintessence nodded and left wondering what else there was she could get into inside the small town of Riverwood. She walked towards the town blacksmith figuring he might be a decent conversationalist.

The man was tempering a sword on the grindstone and she asked him what there was that he could tell her about Riverwood. He proceeded to give her the story of how the small town was established starting with how Gerdur, Ralof's sister established a mill and basically the town had grown from there. It made her wonder if Ralof and the other Stormcloaks were still around but she'd rather not go searching for them so she decided to ask the next question that crossed her mind.

"Do you need help around the forge?"

The man looked at her curiously surprised a mage type would ask such a question.

"You have knowledge of how to temper steel?"

"A little bit, I'm not a master blacksmith or anything but I'm a pretty decent smith when it comes to iron and steel."

The man didn't look quite like he believed her but he nodded his head anyway.

"Well then yes actually, I suppose there's a bit you can help me with. How's about you smith me an iron dagger, here's everything you need to make one." He said pointing to a pile of iron ingot and leather straps.

She grabbed one of each and moved towards the forge, pulling on the string to heat the ember's and going to work.

Around forty minutes later she presented Alvor with an iron dagger and the man looked moderately impressed.

"Not bad, reminds me of when I started smithing. It's a little dull though, how's about you sharpen it up? Just need a bit of metal and the grindstone over there."

She nodded grabbing another ingot and sitting down at the grindstone doing just as he asked.

Feeling satisfied with her work around fifteen minutes later she handed the dagger to the man looking pleased with herself.

"This looks good, you put time into your blades. That'll serve you well when you need them. You want to keep helping, how about you make some armor? Let's start by tanning some leather on the rack."

She nodded and moved towards the rack with a deer hide in hand and began doing that finding the work to be calming in a way. She finished that quickly and took the leather to Alvar.

"Here's that leather you wanted."

"Ahh good, a lot of weapons and armor need leather for straps fittings and that sort of thing. Let's see if you can make a hide helmet, here's the materials you need."

Quintessence took the two pieces of leather and the leather straps and moved back to the forge noticing the man wasn't actually using her to help out but more like he was testing her to see what she really knew.

Crafting the hide helmet took considerably less time than it'd took to make the dagger since it didn't require her to shape and wait for the metal to cool

He seemed genuinely pleased when she presented him with the helmet.

"I should hire you to be my assistant at this rate. Let's improve the fit, take the helmet and this leather to the work bench over there." He said about to motion to the work bench but Quintessence was already on her way there.

In less than three minutes she was sure she'd improved the helmet to a level that Alvor would be satisfied with. Grinning at the blacksmith she presented him with the helmet.

"You have talent. Keep working at your craft and you'll be a fine smith one day. Why don't you keep that dagger and helmet. Just remember me when you're making Skyforged steel eh?"

Quintessence didn't know what Skyforged steel was but she smiled none the less grateful for the man's gift. She bid him goodbye after offering her thanks wishing the blessings of Kyne upon him which he seemed grateful for.

She made her way towards Gerdurs mill figuring she might as well see if Ralof was still in town and offer the helmet and dagger to him as she had no need for them but didn't want to let the blacksmiths gift go to waste.

On her way over she saw a man with pointed ears and assumed he was the bosmer Faendal. Riverwood was a pretty small little town so there couldn't be that many wood elves here. His fair almost human skin complexion differentiated him from the golden skinned altmer, and the aashen skinned dunmer. The man most certainly wasn't and Osmer or a Dwemer so by process of elimination he had to be a wood elf.

She walked towards the man who didn't notice her approaching as he gazed at the river with a far off look in his eyes.

"You're Faendal I pressure?" She said coming to a stop a short distance behind him.

"Hm? Oh yes, pardon my day dreaming. Did you want something?" The man asked in a kindly manner.

"Not really, just passing the time and looking for something that may spark my interest or give me something to do." She said moving to lean against the wooden fence and gaze at the beauty of the white river.

"Well Gerdur's always willing to pay someone to chop some firewood if works what you're looking for. I work at the mill whenever I'm not out hunting or-"

"Attempting to wooh Camilla with poems and tender words of sweetness." The Breton interrupted grinning at his surprised expression.

"How did you know that?" He asked looking puzzled.

"I basically got the gist of what was going on from Mr Perfect, or Sven as he's called. Bastard wanted me to deliver a rather nasty letter to Camilla and say it was from you, it makes me wonder why he already had the letter on his person. Apparently the bastard had been planning this for a while now and just needed someone to deliver the letter for him."

Faendal nodded his head but there was still an unspoken question in his eyes. Quintessence thought she had an idea of what it might be.

"As for the poems and what not I was only jesting with you. I hardly know what you do in your attempts to garner Camilla's heart but you seem to me to be the tender or romantic type so poetry seemed appropriate." She said eyeing him questioningly knowing she'd likely been right.

Faendal laughed at her words, she had no idea how right she actually was about that. He had no intent to answer the question she was asking with her gaze though, she'd been right but there was no reason he should let her know it.

She noticed his neglect to do so and didn't hold it against him as a persons love life was their own business and no one else's. Instead she decided she might as well change the subject, the elf seemed agreeable enough to her.

"I don't think Camilla will be spending anymore time with Sven."

The bosmer smiled at the statement turning his gaze from the river to the clouds for a moment before looking back down and looking at Quintessence.

"I appreciate your help, please take this. Some gold I saved up from working at the mill." Faendal said handing her a small amount of septums.

She looked at the palm of her hand and held it out towards him causing him to look at her in confusion.

"I could hardly accept payment for doing the right thing. No doubt you've worked hard to save this coin, I'd rather you continue to save it and maybe get miss Valarius something nice in the future."

Faendals cheeks adopted a red tint but he pushed the woman's hand back insisting she take the coin as it was the least he could do. Not one to turn down free coin more than once she thanked him for his generousity and added the septums to her pathetically light coin purse.

Faendal adopted a sad look for a moment as he looked back towards the lake and Quintessence wondered what that was about.

"Something wrong?" She asked curious as to where the change in demeanor came from.

"Oh..it's nothing really. I was just thinking about how Camilla seemed rather upset about losing her family ornament when she came to inform me of your good deed earlier. I was thinking of following those thieves and retrieving it for her but I know I'd only die in the act of trying, I'm no warrior." The man sad rather sadly as his ears dropped a little.

"This man really cares about Camilla." Quintessence thought deciding she might as well help him retrieve the item as she'd been looking for something to do anyway.

Plus if their quest involved killing thieves their was a chance those thieves might have gold, gold she could definitely make use of at the moment.

"I'll help you retrieve the item if you'd like."

Faendal looked up his features painted in surprise for the second time that day.

"Are you sure? I couldn't really ask you to do such a thing, there's sure to be danger."

Quintessence smirked a slightly excited and toothy grin.

"I insist, it'd give me something to do and perhaps even provide a bit of coin. Do you know what the thieves ran off to?"

"I do! Camilla said her brother mentioned they likely ran off to bleak falls barrow. An old Nordic crypt in the montains not far from here." Faendal said with an excited gleam in his eyes.

"This woman definitely seems confident enough and she wears the robs of a mage. Perhaps if we catch them by surprise we'll be able to defeat those fool thiefs and get Camilla her claw back!"

"Well then if you're ready lead the way my friend." Quintessence said with a gesture of her hands and Faendal smirked doing just that.

Quintessence may come of as being much nicer in this chapter than the last two but like I said her morals are generally good. It's just when it comes to certain situations she has no morals and her kindness goes out the window to be replaced by a cold and callous disregard for human life. You'll understand more of her as the story progresses, just know that I'm not changing how she is or anything, there's just different sides to her and this is how she usually acts around regular people.

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!