Chapter 8 –
I gazed intently at the mirror, and a thousand different thoughts whizzed through my head; the most glaring of which was the absolute certainty that the face looking back at me wasn't my own. That wasn't a bad thing though, if anything I was impressed, Estette certainly knew her way around a pair of scissors and a box of pigment, that's for sure.
"Do you like it?" She asked, her practiced shyness clipping the pride from her tone, leaving only anxiousness and an eagerness to please.
"I do, it's just…" I studied my reflection again, trying to figure out what felt so wrong. I looked like any normal human being should do; My hair was brushed and cropped back down to a manageable shoulder length style, my face was clean and free from its usual light coating of dust and dirt, and Estette had worked some kind of herbal-colour-magic to get rid of the dark shadows beneath my eyes.
"Just what? I didn't mess up your hair did I? I'm so sorry if I did, I-"
"It's not that, I don't know…" I really focused this time, but I didn't know what was wrong. I looked good, respectable, like me, but with the edges sanded of into smooth curves.
"I think you look good." Nalimi commented from his position by the bookcase, I glanced toward him, secretly glad that he liked my new appearance, despite my own doubts.
"This One agrees with Knife-Ears, but it is strange to see you looking so… clean." J'barri chimed in.
"Hey! I was clean before, cat." I shot back, but kept it at that because Estette looked really pleased at the positive feedback.
"You must remember Elsewyr has a higher standard of living than most places in Hammerfell." Estette began, and I felt certain she was about to regale us with a tale from her travels, which whilst interesting, where starting to get a little old. "When I was living in the Alik'r dessert, I only ever had a bath once a week. There's little point in staying squeaky clean in a place where the sand instantly undoes the entire wash within seconds. In Elsewyr on the other hand, most humans living there wash at least once a day because of the humid conditions."
"J'barri has never even set paw in Elsewyr; he was born and raised on Kenarthi's Roost." J'barri said indignantly.
Estette looked confused, "Kenarthi's Roost?" she said "Where's that?"
"It is on the South Coast of Elsewyr, full of lush trees and plenty of moon sugar, unfortunately it is also full of Elves, and not nice elves like our friend here." He gestured towards Nalimi, "It is no surprise you have never been there, Goldilocks, border control can be very…ah… intimidating these days, yes?"
"Sounds like a challenge." A spark glinted in her eyes.
"Ha! A precious flower like you would not last five minutes against even the most benign of moon sugar farmers." J'barri taunted.
"And you would?" She replied, standing up to her full (short) height.
"This One could beat up a thousand moon sugar traders with a single claw." He stood up as well, now they were nose-to-nose.
"We'll see how confident you are after your fur's all singed, Khajit." She uttered, and I wasn't sure if she was being playful or serious.
"Tonight, on the rooftop, we shall see who the strongest competitor is then, Blondie." J'barri flashed Estette a wickedly feline smirk, one that she matched with equal vigour.
I glanced at Nalimi, almost pleading with him to intervene, but he just looked satisfied with the confrontation and gave me a knowing smile.
(-)(-)(-)
"I can't believe you're seriously going to fight him!" I exclaimed, keeping my voice to a minimum so as to avoid the terrifying glare of Urag-Gro-Shrub, the Orcish librarian.
"I don't see why not," Estette whispered from behind a huge stack of ancient books.
I sighed, it felt like sacrilege, having a conversation about a fight in the middle of a library, but we had work to do, and it was the only place J'barri and Nalimi were unlikely to wander in on us. "It's a crazy idea, if you don't manage to kill each other, Tolfdir certainly will. You know the college's policy on practicing dangerous spells on other students."
"Oh come on Sharli, don't be such a spoilsport, I won't beat him up too badly!" She grinned fiendishly, and for a moment I wondered how I could ever have thought she was shy.
"That's not what I'm worried about." I said grimly, and it was true. It didn't matter how badly they hurt each other, Nalimi was a restoration genius; he'd be able to patch them up in a matter of seconds if things got out of hand.
"Then what are you worried about? It can't be J'barri's pride, if he needs anything it's to be taken down a peg, that guy's got way too much self-confidence." She uttered.
"What I'm worried about is you getting caught!" I slammed the spell tome I was studying closed for emphasis.
"Why would that matter to you? It's not like you'd be getting punished." She reasoned with a casual shrug.
"You'd manage to drag me into somehow." I muttered.
Estette chuckled, "Stop being so cynical, I'll leave your name out of it, I promise."
"Hmmm, I don't believe you." I looked at her doubtfully, she looked happy, excited even. I felt a pang of guilt, who was I to try and take that away from her? Especially after what happened to Brendr, she deserved a little joy to help with the grief.
"Just have a little faith, and help me get my head around this conjuration spell whilst you're at it, I've never been able to understand these things." Estette said merrily, totally oblivious to my dilemma.
(-)(-)(-)
After our study session in the Arcaneum, Estette and I both decided to head straight back to the Hall of Attainment; me to finish brushing up on my wards, and Estette to catch a power nap before her match with J'barri.
As we trudged silently through the fresh covering of ankle-deep snow, the comfortable lack of conversation allowed my imagination to take centre stage in terms of brain power. I couldn't stop thinking about who might have killed Brendr, even though most of my theories where nowhere near plausible. At first I'd been fairly fond of the conspiracy idea, but I'd decided that even though something was definitely going on, and Brendr was definitely involved, that didn't necessarily mean that's what had led to his untimely demise. It could just have easily been an unfortunate coincidence or even my original theory that people from my homeland had followed me here...
I shook that thought off immediately. Blaming myself wasn't going to get me anywhere, and the Arch-Mage had already said I wasn't at fault. I trusted her, she had given me a home in this college, trusting her judgement was the least I could do.
Suddenly, Estette stopped dead, her eyes momentarily widening in fear before she quickly fixed them firmly upon her feet. I stopped with her, my own eyes scanning the surroundings for the source of her discomfort.
"What's up?" I asked when I didn't find anything.
"Over there." She gestured discretely towards the door to the hall where Tenise and Dar-Ja, two of the other apprentices in our group, where stood talking.
"What's the problem? It's just Dar-Ja and Tenise; they're not exactly going to eat you." I pointed out, but she just shook her head in response.
"They might be alright with you, but with me it's a different story." She uttered quietly.
"Just stick with me and you'll be fine." I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but she just looked at me doubtfully. When she still refused to move, I gave her sleeve a small tug and walked confidently towards the door.
As we neared the entrance, Dar-Ja stepped in front of us, blocking the path. "Hello there little mouse, I see you finally found a friend." She hissed at Estette, who flinched as if she'd just been slapped.
"We just want to go inside; can you let us past please?" I interjected, angling myself so that my shoulder was between Estette and the hostile argonian.
"We're not stopping you from going anywhere new-girl, we just wanted to have some fun with the little mouse." She stepped towards me, "Unless you want to join in too?"
I was about to respond angrily, but I suddenly found myself unable to move. I glanced towards Tenise's hand; a paralysis spell.
"That's what I thought." Jar-Da grinned, her pointed reptilian teeth flashed in the winter sun.
"Please…" I could feel Estette trembling behind me as she spoke "We just….we just want to go inside…"
"I bet that's what Brendr said." Tenise said maliciously.
"Don't say things like that… we never…"
"I bet you did." Dar-Ja said, "And I bet you weren't the only one either."
"Please stop!" Estette pleaded, I didn't have to see her tears to know they were there.
"In fact, the people in town said they saw him leaving on the night he died with your friend," Dar-Ja leaned past me towards Estette and whispered something very quietly in her ear. Estette stiffened, and she gripped tightly onto my arm.
"That's not true… Brendr would never… "Her voice was hoarse, doubt and shock rang through every syllable.
"The evidence is all there, I say we-" Dar-Ja was cut short as a dark green paralysis spell slammed hard into her stomach.
"Goldilocks told you to stop." said J'barri as he walked towards us. "This One suggests you do as she says, you do not want to be getting claw marks all over those lovely new robes." He flexed his claws in front of them and smiled widely, putting his perfect set of pointy white teeth on full display.
The spell on Dar-Ja quickly wore off, and she glared at J'barri "Three against two is no fair fight, cat."
"It isn't exactly fair to drag the names of the dead through the mud in front of their friends." He replied, staring her down.
"This isn't the end of this." She hissed before walking off, Tenise in tow. I collapsed against a pillar, exhausted, but glad that I was able to move.
J'barri instantly turned to Estette who was breathing deeply in an attempt to regain some semblance of composure "Are you okay? They didn't harm you did they? If they did, J'barri will gladly hunt them down and kill them for you."
"You didn't have to do that. I can fight my own battles." She said harshly.
"That was not a battle you could have won." He replied, shaking his head sadly.
"Oh yeah? How come?"
"There are two types of blows you cannot be expected to recover from, the first one, is a blow to the heart." He said.
"And the other one?" Estette asked, her curiosity overruling her pride now that she'd had time to recover from the verbal assault.
"I think you know what the other one is." He grinned slyly. Estette blushed a shade of crimson I'd only ever seen on Daedra hearts.
(-)(-)(-)
"What was it you wanted to show me?" I asked, making it clear that I really didn't appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night by an overexcited Nalimi.
"They're not fighting." He grinned broadly, unexplained elation dancing in his eyes.
"What on Nirn are you talking about?" I muttered through a barely suppressed yawn. He sat next to me at the top of the stone steps.
"J'barri and Estette, they're not fighting." He grinned, gesturing towards the door we were leaning against "See for yourself, just peak through the crack."
I did as he asked and pressed my eye against the rotted wood that led to the roof. True to what Nalimi had said, J'barri and Estette weren't fighting, far from it. Instead of the high octane duel Estette had been blabbering about all day, they were just sat there, talking, their arms just inches apart.
I smiled, they looked peaceful. I pulled away, giving them the privacy they deserved.
"They look good together, don't they?" Nalimi said quietly.
"Yeah, they do."
A/N: Thanks again for reading! I'm not entirely sure about this chapter =/, so I'm sorry if it's really bad! I was kind of experimenting with something that's a bit more self-contained, but still contributes to the wider plot, a bit like an episode of TV, I think it worked quite well, I'm not sure =/ At least it was fun to write! =D
I'm not sure how well it came across here, but I really like J'barri and Estette together, they sort of created each other in my head =)
On another note, updates might be a little bit slower from here on out, I go back to school tomorrow so I'll probably have less time on my hands because of homework and stuff, so sorry about that =(
