Author's Pre-Notes: Sorry it took so long to update, if anyone actually reads this...I got caught up in reading the Sacrifices series by Lightining on the Waves. If anyone like Harry Potter fan-fics I definately reconmend it! Anyway, I'll try to update more often if you leave even a littel review...
Sasuke and Naruto waited a few days before heading to the smuggler's coast since they were loath to leave until they were sure Okami's wounds were healing properly. They had been horrified when they tried to move her to her bed and discovered the puncture beneath her shoulder blade (via a stain on the couch) and had scolded her thoroughly the next day for neglecting to mention it. Okami made certain they didn't skimp on supplies, as they were prone to do because of their own misplaced sense of guilt over their inability to make as much money as she did. She also forced them to take her most precious item, a bag of holding, though Sasuke protested vehemently. The young man was nervous they would somehow lose the rare and expensive item. At the rate the two made money they would never be able to replace it. Okami only had it because as a Morag Tong operative she had right of ownership to anything a victim might have on their person, and one of her marks had been carrying it. There was no way they could afford something so extravagant on their own.
Okami walked them to the south gate of Balmora, their chosen city of residence, and waved until they were out of sight. She had misgivings about letting them go, but she knew they were completely unreasonable. Sasuke and Naruto could take care of themselves. She was just being a mother hen. Besides, the two young men would be alone together for a good while. It might be a good catalyst in their as yet non-existent relationship.
Also, their absence would spare her the bitching she would be subject to if they knew she planned on doing some moonlighting up near Caldera. There were reports of bandits preying on the supply caravans to and from the ebony mines. It was an opportunity for some scavenging, but she'd have to move quickly before someone else was hired to take care of the problem. The imperial ebony mines were not something that got screwed around with for long.
There was other business to take care of in Caldera, business she needed to keep on the down-low. Exterminating bandits was really just a cover for other activities. Okami secretly belonged to a third organization called the Twin-Lamps. Since it would be a very bad thing for this fact to get out, she told no one, not even her boys.
The Twin-Lamps was an anti-slavery ring that operated in the shadows of society. Law in Vvardenfell protected licensed slavery, so the task she had ahead of her, that of freeing Caldera's mine slaves was highly illegal and very risky. What made it worse was that the Imperial Government owned these slaves. This wouldn't be like freeing a few poor creatures that had been smuggled in to avoid paying taxes. That was perfectly okay. This meant severe punishment and a huge stain on her spotless reputation if she got caught. She knew the risks, and she chose to take them. With one last glance in the direction her friends had vanished, Okami turned toward their home to get ready for her own little adventure.
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"Man, this is…harsh," panted Naruto. "Why'd…we have to…come this way?"
"It's a short cut," said Sasuke for what he was sure was the hundredth time. Naruto had been complaining non-stop since they began the arduous climb up the path to Odai Plateau. There was a small estate owned by some House Hlaalu noble at the top, and steep paths had been created on either side of the mountain range for the convenience of those living there. As if anything about living in the crotch between two high peaks was convenient!
"Who the hell…would wanna live…in a place…like this?"
"People who don't…want to be bothered…by whining idiots…idiot!" replied Sasuke, even though he had been wondering much the same thing. The difference was Sasuke was keeping his complaints to himself, while Naruto insisted on wasting his breath. He never was able to understand why his blond counterpart felt the need to be so vocal.
"I wish O-chan…would have gotten…a jump spell or…something," continued Naruto, not taking the hint. "Would make…this sort of thing…a lot easier."
"Spells are expensive…stupid, even…if she does…save money by…teaching us herself…instead of buying it…three times," scolded Sasuke. He had to admit, a jump or levitation spell would be nice right now, but they had far more important things to use their money on than spells of convenience.
"But it would…make life so…much easier!"
"You already said that! Shut up…and just climb. We're almost…to the top."
"Finally!" gasped Naruto. "Can we eat…when we get there? I'm starving!"
"Sure," agreed Sasuke. He was hungry too, for it was well past noon and they had been hiking since dawn. It took nearly twenty minutes to scale the last mile to the flat area that held the estate. When they got there Naruto simply flopped onto his back on the ground outside the gate. Sasuke asked the lone guard's permission to use the well and was curtly given leave. He emptied the tepid liquid from their water skins and refilled it with sparkling clear, ice-cold mountain water. When he brought them back Naruto snatched one away and gulped the contents greedily, surfacing for breath only after half of it was gone.
"Ahhhaaaa! That's got to be the best water I've ever tasted!" he exclaimed happily.
"If you keep chugging it like that you'll get a stomach ache," Sasuke pointed out, taking small sips of his own water.
"Don't care," Naruto replied in a singsong voice.
"Then don't make a fuss when you have to climb down this mountain in discomfort."
"Whatever!" snorted the blond and began rummaging through his pack looking for food that didn't have to be cooked. Eventually he came up with a package of rice balls wrapped with hackle-lo leaf and spiced with trama root. He began stuffing them in his mouth with gusto. Sasuke nibbled his slowly, not bothering to warn the other young man about the consequences of gorging. Naruto wouldn't listen anyway.
Sure enough though, less than fifteen minutes into the climb downward Naruto was groaning and clutching his stomach. Sasuke nobly refrained from rubbing it in with a smug 'I told you so' and instead slowed his pace to accommodate his suffering comrade.
Why do I put up with such childish behavior? he wondered. Naruto was such a pain in the ass. Sasuke wasn't the most forgiving person in the world and usually didn't tolerate foolishness or incompetence. Okami didn't bother him. She was reliable and capable. No reason to complain there. But Naruto was a constant strain on his patience. Despite that, the dark-eyed young man had a soft spot for his blue-eyed counterpart. He chalked it up to having been through so many trials with the boy.
In a way he admired and envied Naruto, though he would only acknowledge this in the deepest parts of his mind. The blond was so completely unrestrained and uninhibited, laughing when he was happy, crying when he was sad with no regard to what others thought of these actions. Sasuke had a deep need to feel in control, but it could be so hard, even painful to maintain his composure. He sometimes wished he could just let go and shout his feelings to the world the way his companion did so easily.
That was near impossible for the serious young man though. Something inside him demanded he maintain his cool no matter what, was fearful of what might happen if he ever lost his iron grip on himself. It wasn't because he was scared of ridicule. He was afraid of himself.
Sasuke, Naruto and Okami were Lorkahn's children, which meant they each carried the burden of abnormal powers. These could be useful or deadly depending on circumstance. Okami was fully in control of her abilities these days, even the deadly black entity that dwelt in her left arm. She could manipulate her powers as easily and delicately as a master lace-worker could tat an intricate wedding shawl. Naruto's power only manifested when he or his friends were in dire peril. The threat of death seemed to bring it to life, but even then he was in control of his actions. Sasuke was another story.
The young man possessed two LC traits. The first was in his eyes, and when summoned could give him a tremendous advantage in battle, for he could see a few seconds into the future. When you knew exactly what your opponent was going to do before they did it, it became easy to dodge, block or counter attack to best effect. He could even imitate his enemy's moves or spells before they did them, which really messed with people's heads.
Sasuke's second trait was born from a tiny mark that rested between his neck and shoulder on the left side. When he became angry, it began to spread, feeding on his intense emotions, and the more it spread, the less he could control himself. Something else inside him took over when those strange patterns crawled across his skin like living tattoos made of fire and night, something cruel and dangerous. He wasn't sure exactly what he was capable of in that state, and his worst fear was that he would lose control and hurt the ones he loved. He shuddered as he thought about the few times it had manifested when he was young. It left him feeling filthy, like a miasma had impregnated his skin and no amount of scrubbing would remove it.
"SASUKE!!!!" Naruto's yowl jarred the other boy from his thoughts.
"What now?" growled Sasuke, clamping down on his irritation.
"Uglies at north o clock!" While this phrase may have seemed like gibberish to a random bystander, after ten years Sasuke had become fluent in Naruto-speak. 'Uglies' was Naruto's term for hostile beasts or monsters, and the rest was simply a garbled attempt to say 'look northward.' The young man did so and spotted what had alarmed his companion. A small flock of cliff racers was nearly upon them.
"Why didn't you say something earlier?" Sasuke griped as he unsheathed his wakizashi and called upon his special sight. Immediately phantom images of the winged reptilian creatures appeared several feet in front of the actual beasts.
"I did but you were off in la-la land or something," snapped Naruto. Sasuke saw the shuriken arch toward the enemy seconds before they actually did so, and registered the avian reactions.
"Two to the left, three to the right," he informed his companion as the real set of shuriken left his hands. Naruto was far better with distance weapons than melee. The blond nodded and smiled with satisfaction as every missile he'd launched met and sliced into flesh. The cliff racers scattered just as Sasuke had predicted and the boys leapt to either side, taking the battle to their adversaries.
Sasuke had no trouble with the beasts. They flicked long tails that were covered with sharp serrated scales at his head, but he saw it before it happened and his blade intercepted the whip-like tails, severing all three cleanly with one move. With hoarse cries of pain they turned to retreat.
"Don't let them go!!" shouted Naruto from behind him. "My shuriken are still stuck in them!" Sasuke glanced at his friend and saw Naruto had things well in hand. The two he had faced off against were flopping on the ground, their wing membranes shredded and the blond was moving in for the kill. Sasuke turned his attention back to his fleeing quarry. Using his foresight, he placed a kunai in a wing joint per racer. They spiraled to the ground and he quickly crossed the uneven terrain to end the maimed creature's suffering and retrieve what weaponry he could. Even low-quality chitin shuriken weren't cheap.
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A long way to the north Okami was also crossing mountains. Alas, she didn't have the benefit of a path, however steep it might have been. She had already visited the town of Caldera, made a few quiet inquiries about bandit activity, and tracked the outlaws down. After efficiently executing them and stripping their lair clean of useful items, she had returned to town and sold most of it, even though she could get a better price from her regular fences and pawnbrokers back in Balmora. This was all to set an alibi after all.
She had set back south at dawn, ostensibly returning home, but had cut into the mountains as soon as she was out of sight of the settlement. The mines were a little west and south of the actual town, in a volcanic crater. It had taken her almost half a day to work her way through the low peaks and tall hills that surrounded the area. Now she gazed down on the mining facility and watched the coming and going of guards and other personnel.
There were several buildings in a line extending from center of the crater to the north lip where the only easy pass into it lay. They were perched on rock outcroppings and connected by wooden bridges. The offices and storage area were farthest north, and next came the living quarters. South of that on the largest outcropping and surrounded by a fence were the slave quarters and a single guard tower. Far from the solid stone construction that graced the rest of the buildings, the slave quarters were nothing more than three tiny hovels made of badly fitted, rotted planks. Okami was aware that there were 11 slaves that labored in the mines. That was a lot of bodies to pack into a trio of small huts.
Directly below her was the entrance to the mine itself, a track for the mining carts winding like a tongue from the cave mouth to lick at the base of the warehouse. Every so often a bedraggled slave would exit, straining to move a heavy cart. Okami eyed the contents of those carts speculatively, wondering if she dared filch a bit of the ebony. Since all ebony mines were owned by the empire it would be risky to try to fence the stuff, but for the very same reason the precious substance was worth a bundle on the black market.
Okami lay patiently amongst the broken stones for hours. When night fell the haggard slaves were escorted back to the central, fenced in area. They were exclusively argonian and khajiti, she noticed. It seemed that 90 of the slaves in Vvardenfell were of one these two races, because being reptilian and cat-like respectively, they were considered by many to be overly intelligent animals, not people. They were served a meal of bitterroot mash, which was not only disgusting but also not very healthy, and then left to huddle together in their cramped abodes.
Okami continued to wait until well past midnight, when only the guards on duty were still awake. When she was sure the coast was as clear as it was likely to get, she made her move, slipping a black hood and mask over her head, and making her stealthy way toward the offices. The key to the slave bracers should be located there somewhere. It would have been easier to just pick the bracers, but due to the magical nature of the items only the key tuned to the enchantment would release the bindings.
Timing her furtive movements with those of the guards she broke into the office and began rummaging carefully through desks and cupboards. As she did she came across something very interesting entirely by accident. She flipped through one ledger lying on a table, her mind making absent note of the numbers therein, but when she picked the lock on a fancy polished oak desk in an upper office she found a second ledger in the back with an entirely different set of numbers. With only half a thought for it she stuffed the second ledger into her rucksack, feeling somehow that the information could come in handy in the future.
After thoroughly searching the office and pocketing the key, some other small valuable items and a good bit of loose coin, she slipped out and worked her way to the guard tower at the southern point of the complex. There were two guards patrolling and a third at the top of this tower keeping a look out. They called in every half an hour, and the one on the top had a good view of the other's movements. If the slaves were to have a chance to get away, the guards would have to be silenced, and she had to start with the top one. If he noticed one of the others break patrolling pattern he'd raise the alarm.
Okami scaled the side of the tower that was least visible to the other guards and hung from the crenellation until they called their next check. With the clock beginning to tick, she struck fast. Pulling herself up and rolling over the lip of the tower she rose behind the unsuspecting dunmer and slapped a hand over his mouth. The other jabbed a tiny dart into his neck. It was coated with a fast-acting sleeping poison that would knock him out for almost twelve hours.
The man struggled for only a second, then slumped in her arms and she lowered him carefully to the tower roof. From there it was easy to put the other two to sleep and it was over in less than ten minutes. Okami wasted no time in rousing the slaves and freeing them of their shackles. From her rucksack she pulled 11 sets of pants and shirts, since beast race slaves were generally kept naked, and handed them out. She also pulled out 11 small pouches of coins and gave a quick verbal account of where they should go and whom they should talk to when they got there, if they wanted to return to their homelands.
By now it was almost time for the slumbering guards to call their checks again. While this might go unnoticed, since everyone else appeared to be sleeping, she wouldn't be surprised if the absence of such a familiar phenomena woke someone, so Okami urged the newly freed and grateful folk into action, cutting short their attempts to thank her. She played silent guardian until they had passed the offices and where loping north along the trail leading away.
Luckily no one seemed to be stirring in alarm at the lack of routine noise, so Okami decided to peek at the warehouse and see if she could snag a few pieces of raw ore. The lock was incredibly complicated and had a nasty poison dart trap attached to it.
This proved of little trouble to Okami, for the mistress of Balmora's thieves guild had taught her very well. Okami had a hunch that her involvement in the twin-lamps was a well-known secret amongst the beast races of Balmora, for those people always treated her quite warmly, despite the fact that she was an LC. The guild mistress, a khajiti known as Habasi Sugar-Lips, had warmed to her considerably shortly after Okami had joined the twin lamps and carried out her first successful mission. Habasi had made it a point to train Okami as thoroughly as she could in the thief's arts.
Once inside Okami began poking through the myriad of containers. There were dozens of wooden crates and barrels, large canvas sacks and clay urns stacked in a disorganized manner throughout the building. The warehouse wasn't only used to store the ebony for she found a large food and liquor supply near the door. She helped herself to bread and ash yams, and tucked several bottles of expensive cyrodil brandy into her rucksack. Without the bundled clothes there was plenty of room in the leather bag for loot. She had funded this entire thing out of her pocket, so it was only right she get a bit of recompense.
Continuing her search she came upon the unexpected. There was a guard sleeping in a corner. She froze at first, but realized she hadn't woken him yet. Apparently the man was supposed to keep watch over the valuable ore in the warehouse, but this job was so uneventful and boring she had no doubt he spent most nights sleeping. If he'd been awake he surely would have noticed that the guards outside hadn't checked in for nearly an hour. The poor guard would catch hell tomorrow. Feeling a bit sympathetic, and also not wanting him to wake while she rummaged trough the rest of the goods, Okami stuck him with another sleep dart.
"Lucky for us both I brought spares," she murmured as the guard stirred in protest to the sharp pain, and then settled back down. "Unlucky for you, I'm going to pick your pockets now." She patted him down, but found little of value, a cheap ring and a few coins. On the other hand, when she turned her attention to the area around him, she found something much more valuable. His weapons had been leaned against a crate, and to Okami's surprise and delight, the man owned a sword and dagger made of glass.
Glass weaponry was pretty rare and super expensive. The items were forged and reinforced with magic, making them as strong as fine steel. They wouldn't shatter no matter how delicate they looked. The best thing about glass equipment was it was extremely light and sharp. With a grin of glee, Okami claimed the weapons. Those alone made the entire trip worth it ten times over.
Sparing only a few more minutes to find some ebony and pocket half a dozen good quality pieces of the stuff, Okami decided it was time to go. The longer she stayed here the higher the chance of getting caught, and she already had enough loot to make life sweet for several months. Summoning her magic she recalled herself to her home.