Disclaimer in Chapter 1
"Damn Elven bitches!" Mercer's voice shattered the relative quiet of the Cistern and startled the guild members inside, including Eshne who was seated on her bed sharpening her dagger.
"What happened?" Brynjolf asked. Mercer and Elise had gone to Snow Veil Sanctum a few days before to deal with whoever had been toying with the guild. Now Mercer was back and it seemed he was alone.
"A trap, a set-up, I knew I should not have trusted that Bosmer whore when you brought her down here," Mercer snarled. Eshne rose from her bed and slowly made her way over to the two men, her blood boiling hot at the slanders Mercer was throwing around about Elise. "We go to the Sanctum to find out who has been trying to destroy the guild, only to find out it was being destroyed from the inside out." Eshne's blood froze and she took a step back, eyes darting around to find an escape route. She had not been doing much to take down the guild, but any interception of the correspondence between her and Linwe could spell trouble for her.
"Mercer what are you talking about? Elise has been nothing but a boon since she joined. We are doing much better than before," Brynjolf stated.
"You would think that," Mercer growled. "But then you wanted to jump into bed with her from the moment you saw her, we all know. You may as well admit it." Eshne forced down the stab of white heat that flared through her at the thought of Brynjolf and Elise together and focused on the matter at hand.
"You better start explaining now, Mercer," Brynjolf rumbled back at him.
"Karliah was there," Mercer said and from the gasps around the room Eshne knew that this Karliah was somebody important. "It was a trap. She was waiting for me. That Dunmer bitch had enlisted your dear little Bosmer friend to help lure me there to kill me. They would have succeeded but I threw that bitch into the line of Karliah's shot before it could hit me and then I ran."
Brynjolf was shaking his head. "No," he refused, "I do not believe it."
"Believe what you will," Mercer responded. "I was there, I would know."
Brynjolf ran his hands through his hair in a frustrated gesture and then he looked helplessly around the Cistern before storming to the back entrance and heading up the ladder. Eshne was up the ladder and climbing into the mausoleum after him before she realized it. "Brynjolf," she called at his back and he turned to look at her.
"I am not in the mood, Little Fire," he sighed and began trudging away from her.
She bit back the sarcastic retort that had instantly flown to her lips and ran the short distance to catch up to him and placed her hand on his arm. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. He shook her hand off and kept walking. "Brynjolf please," she called. He paused and tilted his head back towards her. "She is my friend too," Eshne continued. "If you do not want to talk, can I?"
Brynjolf looked at her, eyes carrying an emotion she could not fathom and then he nodded before turning away. She ran to catch up to him, falling into step beside him as the two walked through the dark streets of Riften. Eshne opened her mouth several times but could not settle on something that felt right. She knew deep down it was because she herself was so much like Elise, working to bring the Guild down, though admittedly she was not working as hard as Elise apparently had been. Several things rolled through her mind, quickly dismissed before she settled on, "How did you meet her?"
"Same as you; saw somebody in The Bee and Barb with more money than they should have had," he stated.
Eshne frowned. From what she had seen Brynjolf and Elise shared a closeness that went beyond the relationship the older thief had with anybody else in the Guild. That had to have come from somewhere besides a chance meeting in an inn. "Why do you care for her like you do?" she pressed.
He stopped walking and Eshne glanced around to find that they were standing in a dark corner near the orphanage. He considered her for many moments before he leaned back against the wall, the darkness of his armor causing him to almost disappear completely. "It was a week after she joined, found her right here." He nodded to the corner they were in. "Curled in a ball and sobbing her eyes out. Managed to talk her down and got out of her what it was that had her so upset and helped her work through it." He ran his hand over his face. "Divines I am a fool," he sighed.
Eshne shrugged and looked at the ground, digging the toe of her leather boot into it. "Love makes everybody a fool," she grumbled.
He barked out a laugh, startling her. "Is that what you think Little Fire?" he asked. "That I am in love with Elise?" She looked at him blankly and he chuckled again. "Ah, no, love the Lass like a sister I do, but she is not my type. I tend to prefer my women a little fuller," he stated and she swore his eyes rolled across her from head to toe. "And you, why do you care for her like you do?" he asked. Eshne started and he grinned, teeth shining in the dark. "Not hard to notice," he told her, "except for Vex, Delvin, and me you only talk to your Guildmates out of necessity and even then it is all sass and vinegar. You seem to have no issues getting cuddly with Elise though."
Eshne shrugged and looked at the ground. "I saw her kill a dragon," she stated and then dared to glance back up at him. The shadows that fell across his face made it difficult to see but she was pretty sure the look he gave her was one of understanding. "Do you believe him?" she asked. "Mercer and what he said?"
He shrugged. "I do not know Little Fire," he responded. "Mercer has been Guildmaster for some time and Karliah, well she is bad news." He trailed off and looked up at the sky, taking in the stars. "I cannot bring myself to believe Elise betrayed the Guild though. She is many things, but a traitor is not one of them."
"What do you mean?" she asked as she moved to lean against the building next to him, placing herself between him and the corner so that any guards passing by would not see either of them. "That she is 'many things'?"
Brynjolf snorted and ran a hand through his hair. "It is truly not my place to tell you Little Fire. Just know that Elise has been to Oblivion and back and walks a fine line every day to stay out of it. I do not envy her."
Eshne chewed on her lip for a few minutes, head tilted back so she could look up at the stars, absently picking out the signs she found. She saw Brynjolf shift from the side of her eyes and wished for a moment that she could see him better. "Who is Karliah?" she queried after several minutes of silence.
"She is a thief, one of the best. The old guild master, the one before Mercer, his name was Gallus and Karliah and he were lovers. One day the three of them, Mercer, Gallus, and Karliah all went off on a job and Mercer was the only one who made it back. He said Karliah had turned on them and murdered Gallus and," he trailed off and frowned.
"And he barely made it out alive?" Eshne questioned. "Sounds suspiciously familiar."
"That it does Little Fire, that it does, but we have no evidence and no accusations will be thrown around without proof," he scolded her.
Eshne sighed but nodded in understanding and slumped further against the wall. "What do we do now?" she questioned softly.
"We wait," he stated simply.
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Brynjolf slumped on the stool at the bar of The Bee and Barb, a half empty bottle of mead sitting before him and several other empty bottles lined up next to him. "If you are going to be here all night, pay for a room, otherwise I must ask you to leave," Keevara's raspy voice jolted Brynjolf from his dark thoughts and he looked up at her. She gave him a look and he was pretty sure that if she had eyebrows, one would be raised impatiently while she waited.
"Ah Keevara, let an old Nord drink himself to Oblivion for once," he groused.
She made a noise that sounded faintly like laughter and he glowered blearily at her. "You are far from old," she pointed out, "And if you want to get to Oblivion by overindulging, you are going to need something stronger than Black-Briar to do it." He sighed and slouched further down onto the stool. "Now pay up or get out," she said, though not unkindly. She had mentioned Elise's absence to him earlier in the week and had received a nasty look and mean comment in response. He had nearly gotten himself tossed out of the place permanently and then Eshne had arrived, taking Keevara aside to hastily make excuses for him. She had helped him stumble back to the Cistern, dropping him on his bed to pass out.
He glanced about now, absently hoping that the redhead would show up, but alas she was nowhere to be seen. In fact the only one in common room of the inn besides him was Keevara. He blinked rapidly at the Argonian and frowned. "Time?" he asked.
"Only a few hours until dawn," she answered, smiling lightly. "I would let you stay through, but if I do not get at least a few hours rest I will never make it through tomorrow."
He sniffed and stood, dropping some septims to cover his drinks. "One for the road?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes but reached behind the counter and produced another bottle. "I would not recommend hitting the road in your state," she commented. "It appears the only thing you should be hitting is a bed."
He glanced at her in surprise. "A joke? From you?"
She hummed and smiled again. "Do not tell, it will ruin my reputation," she teased. "Now go."
He took the bottle and held it to her in a silent toast before stumbling to the door and opening it. He tumbled into the street, barely catching himself on the railing of the nearby bridge. He heard Keevara close and lock the door and absently considered picking his way back in just to irritate her, but knew he should not. She had been incredibly tolerant of his attitude and drinking during the week since Mercer had returned from the Sanctum and he felt himself softening just a bit towards her.
He adjusted himself against the railing so that it looked like he meant to lean against it, not that he had fallen upon it. Taking another pull from his drink he sighed, eyes staring blindly at the water below him as his mind again flashed over every encounter he had with Elise since spotting her in The Bee and Barb all those months ago. "I was wondering if she would kick you out eventually." He glanced over and blinked until the blurry shape next to him became Eshne. She was sitting on the railing, eyebrow raised in amusement as she looked at him.
"Could have stayed, but would have needed to stop drinking," he muttered.
She eyed him and the bottle. "You only got one bottle to go, that will not last you until morning," she pointed out. He shrugged and took another drink. She watched him for a few more minutes and then sighed, standing up and throwing her arm around his back, tugging lightly. "Come with me, you need to sleep it off."
He jerked out of her hold, nearly falling over the railing as he did. "No," he grouched. "Cistern is not a place I want to be right now."
"Good thing that is not where we are going then," she said, again wrapping him in her arm and yanking on him. He allowed himself to be pulled from the railing. She shifted so that his arm was around her shoulder and hers around his back. He leaned heavily on her, enjoying the feel of her next to him and inhaled deeply.
"Where we going?" he murmured into her hair.
"Honeyside," she answered, guiding him carefully over the bridge and past Haelga's.
"When did you buy a house?" he asked, voice tinged with hurt at not being told about it.
She chuckled and it vibrated from her chest and into his. "I did not. Elise did. She does not use it often and gave me a copy of the key to use in dire situations."
He tugged away from her, falling against the wall of the house. "Something else she did not tell me about," he muttered. "This is not a dire situation."
"You trying to drink yourself to death is a dire situation, at least by Elise's definitions I think." She unlocked the door and propped it open before turning back to him. "Besides, maybe we can find some answers inside."
That thought more than anything else tempted him to push away from the wall and totter forward through the door. He glanced around after making it in, eyes taking in the small dining area and the larger bedroom immediately next to it. There was a door that probably let out onto a porch and then stairs to a basement. He dropped into one of the chairs and helped himself to a bottle of Elise's mead, amused that it was from Honningbrew. Eshne crept into the bedroom, eyes perusing the bookshelf inside.
"Anything interesting?" he asked.
"No, just a bunch of books and an impressive pile of jewels," she commented. "I could look deeper but I do not want to violate her privacy like that."
He snorted and levered himself up. "Violate her? Are you kidding, Little Fire? After what she did to Mercer? After what she did to the Guild?"
She rounded on him, poking a finger into his chest. "Do not pretend you are this upset because of what she supposedly did to Mercer and the Guild. You are upset because of what she did to you. Yes, she betrayed us all, but you two were closer. You were like siblings and now you are just pissed because you did not see it, right?" she asked.
"You do not know anything," he growled out.
"Did you ever think Brynjolf, that maybe you were right? That you did not see anything because there was nothing to see?" She pressed both palms flat against his chest and shoved him back. "The only proof you have that she did any of this is Mercer's word. I know you have known him longer than I, but if I had to choose one to believe, it would not be Mercer." She turned and stepped away from him, attempting to run her fingers through her hair, only to have them catch due to the braid. She made a frustrated sound and turned back around to face him. "Just, sleep here tonight Brynjolf and think about it. Think really hard." With that she spun away from him and stormed out of the house. He debated going after her to continue the argument but did not, almost too drunk and exhausted to stand, let alone chase her. He glanced at the large inviting bed and then shrugged, tugging off his boots before falling into it and allowing sleep to claim him.