There was definitely blood on me, but I doubted it would alarm these people. The Flagon was about as full as the game portrayed, but there were a few faces I couldn't recognize. I didn't remember many except the main few. I could see Brynjolf, seated at a table with a couple of others. I approached around the side, holding the dagger loosely at my side. I didn't want to appear threatening, but I didn't want to get any more blood all over myself.
I'm sure I didn't go undetected, but no one turned to look at me. They were just at ease. This was their domain, after all. Brynjolf saw me as I approached, and stopped saying anything to the rest of his group. I wondered if he was having to talk me up to them. I stopped in front of him, and I got the first word.
"I think this is yours," I told him. I held out the blood covered dagger. He snorted, but took it, and pulled out a rag to clean it.
"I see you made it," he said.
"Of course I did." He looked like he appreciated my confidence. I actually felt rather confident after my scrape with the man outside, despite the fact I wasn't trained or prepared for the thing I was about to undertake. The adrenaline was wearing off and I wanted to properly wash out those scratches before they got infected. Who the hell knows what was on that guy's hands. Brynjolf's eyes scanned my body, clearly noticing the fact I was a bit injured. I could feel them now, and I could tell they were only flesh wounds. No big deal.
"Better get you cleaned up. Come on," he started. He led me away from the table and towards the cistern. "The Guildmaster wants to meet you. Mercer Frey. After that, I'll show you around and tell you about how things work here."
The cistern was the same general shape and layout, but there were more rooms off of it than I remembered. Also, there weren't beds in it. I assumed they were elsewhere, which made more sense when I thought about it. Mercer did have a little office of sorts off to the side, with the classic desk, which he was bent over, reading something.
He's stealing from the Guild, I remembered just then. I tried to remember anything else about the quests. He killed the former Guildmaster, who's name I couldn't remember. There was the dark elf, Karliah. Nightingales. I couldn't remember specifics.
Better not to mess with that. I'm sure it won't come up.
Brynjolf led me over to the Guildmaster's corner of the cistern. We stopped in front of the desk area. It was an interesting little corner. Bookshelf, ledgers, some fancier artifacts.
"Mercer," Brynjolf said to get the man's attention. It drew my attention back to the meeting at hand. The Guildmaster looked at Brynjolf first without even sparing me a glance, but now I had looked at him. I almost choked on my own tongue. My face was hot. It was the guy, it was fucking Mercer Frey. I didn't know how to react. He hadn't looked at me yet. Would he recognize me? I recognized him. I swallowed hard. Would he say anything? I really hoped not. I don't know what I would do. "Here's the recruit I told you about."
I fought off a blush. I was still warm, but forced myself to remain still. He slid his gaze over to me, finally. I held my breath.
"I need to make one thing perfectly clear. If you play by the rules, you walk away rich," he started. This speech was sort of familiar. Probably the standard for new recruits. "You break the rules and you lose your share. No debates, no discussion… you do what we say, when we say, and we get along fine. Do I make myself clear?"
I was still in the process of choking on my own tongue, but somehow managed to force out a quiet "yeah." I hadn't looked into his face since he had turned his attention to me, and I was terrified to. I brought my eyes up despite this. His face was completely passive, unreadable. I couldn't even tell if he recognized me. I sure as hell recognized him. He pressed his lips together when I answered him.
"Brynjolf will get you settled in." He sat down in a chair a few feet away from his desk. "Delvin and Vex can give you jobs. I've been assured that you'll earn your keep, so you'd better not disappoint." His eyes examined me even harder, as though unimpressed with Brynjolf's decision to recruit me. He doubted I could steal shit, probably. I couldn't say he was unjustified. He stood up and walked back over to his desk. The man turned a page in the leger before glancing back up at me for a second.
"Welcome to the Guild."
That was the end of that. My face was burning as Brynjolf led me away from Mercer and around the cistern.
"He can be… like that. Sorry, lass," he said. He thought Mercer had upset me? It may have been funny if I wasn't completely embarrassed at the moment.
"No problem," I replied. The farther we got from him, I felt a little better.
Brynjolf started showing me around. Luckily, Mercer stayed back at his desk and I pointedly avoided looking in that direction at all. The cistern was a common room, basically, with chairs and such. Off to one side there was a large door leading into a kitchen. It made my day; if I bought some ingredients I could cook there. People did it frequently, he said. Sometimes they share. He showed me the training area, which wasn't huge. It had practice locks and dummies. There was no place for archery, something I was curious about learning. I had even wanted to learn it back home, but I was too afraid to join the class. Well, look at me now.
"Some of the senior members have more private areas, but most of the guild sleeps here if they're in Riften," he said. He was showing me the bunkroom where I was given a bed and a storage area. I was glad for this. I knew I'd have a roof over my head. It was a simple room, but looked comfortable enough. It was empty at the moment. "We leave Riften often. It isn't good for business to steal too much here. Enough to scare, and remind, but not enough to push them into raiding us."
"That makes sense," I acknowledged. There were other doors he hadn't shown me. One was clearly the vault, which needed no introduction. I assumed the others were sleeping quarters.
We exited back into the main area of the cistern. I noticed there were some targets set up on one side, presumably for archery. I decided to ask about it.
"Do you think somebody would teach me to shoot a bow?"
"Probably. A few people here know how to. I'm no expert myself, but you could probably ask Niruin about it."
"What about lockpicking?" I pushed.
"I can teach you that one sometime. It's an important skill for a thief, lass, so you'd better pick it up well," he warned, but I could tell he wasn't serious. He smiled at me. He was rather nice, for a thief.
"I'm a quick study," I muttered. It was generally true, but applied more to academic pursuits than practical ones. I was an honor student but fucked up constantly with a cash register. To be fair, I mostly just got nervous when being watched. Makes it hard to do anything competently. That was just me, though.
"You should probably wash up," he pointed out. He gestured at the dried blood on me. "Um, that's actually lake water, it's fairly clean." He gestured at the cistern's lake.
"I thought these were the sewers?"
"They are. Just not here and in the Flagon, even though the smell seeps in most of the time. The Guild had people divert the sewage and fix it for us a long time ago. We might be thieves, lass, but we're a bit better than that."
"Well," I started, "I'm definitely glad for that."
I was glad that it was the middle of the day and most people appeared to be out and about, because it let me have the run of the kitchen and clean myself up. I didn't have anything to change in to, though Brynjolf said I could go see Tonila for armour. I wanted money beforehand though. I needed some clothes and things like that. Basics I just didn't have. I had filled my satchel with the only other things I had, being basically a lump of maybe thirty gold, some stolen jewelry and stolen potions. Which I could now sell, I realized.
I grabbed a medium sized pot from the kitchen and went out into the cistern to grab some water. As I knelt at the edge of the lake to fill it, I looked up and across the cistern at Mercer Frey.
I was shocked. I mean, I had wondered who he was, and I suppose now my questions were answered. However, it was much harder to fantasize about it with the man across the room from me. He didn't seem to recognize me, or if he did, I was lucky he hadn't said anything.
As the water filled the bucket, I took a second to look up at the man. He wasn't conventionally attractive, and I had thought that a few nights ago as well, but holy shit. His eyes and demeanor and voice. His general presence, even across the room, was making me freeze up and blush.
Suddenly, he looked up from his desk and right at me. His eyes met mind and my skin crawled. Instead of freezing, I immediately sprung to action, pulling the full bucket out of the lake and breaking away from his gaze. I turned and hurried into the kitchen and around the corner, out of sight. The water in the pot splashed around and sprayed the front of my dress. I leaned against the wall, breathing heavily for a minute. The pot of water was clutched to my chest, still getting me wet.
Once I calmed down, I made myself cross the room and place the pot over the cooking fire. Luckily, fire starting was actually a skill that I had, for once.
I sat back on a stool and waited for water to boil after that. Mercer Frey.
What the hell are you thinking?