"I've never seen so many Dragur and traps in my life," Maeva breathed out, leaning against a dust covered wall with her hand on her erratically moving chest.
"Thank the Divines I had you with me," Mercer said, his breathing just as ragged, "I don't think I could have taken them all on by myself."
"We make a good team," the Breton teased, her eyes closed as she tried to slow her heart beat down to its normal beat. Other than when she was stealing, she wasn't used to this kind of adrenaline moving through her body at one time. It was almost invigorating.
"Come on, we can't wait for much longer or Karliah will bolt," Mercer's gruff voice barked out, making Maeva snap her deep blue eyes open. His eyes had hardened considerably, but the Breton just waved it off. It was time for the final show down.
While Mercer worked his magic on the door, Maeva took a glass arrow from her quiver, making sure that she dipped it in the poison vile she had kept safe in her pocket during this journey. It glowed a sickly green color for a moment before fading into a clear goop that covered the tip.
When the woman heard the door start to move down from its locked position, Maeva hugged the wall and notched her arrow, putting all her concentration into that one shot, because she was only likely to get one.
The door was completely down for a moment, leaving the hall and next room quiet as the two thieves waited. It was now or nothing.
Maeva threw herself into the room, barely giving herself any time to find the dark body before she went to let the arrow go. However, Karliah had been quicker. Her own poisoned arrow shot straight into Maeva's chest, immobilizing her instantly so she lost her arrow—which went flying who knows where—as well as her bow, and fell to the floor.
Her vision was just as green as her poison had been, and gods did her chest hurt. The arrow was comically sticking out of her body, straight and deadly, but the sharp point was soon overwhelmed by the fact that the woman had hit her head. Her vision blacked out a few times, but she was still very aware what was going on around her.
That's when she saw Mercer step over her body to enter the room. The black clad archer who had shot Maeva down stood not too far away, her bow at her side almost uselessly. Realizing this, she put it across her back and just stood there facing Mercer.
"Do you honestly think your arrow will reach me before my blade finds your heart?" Mercer's voice was a little foggy, sounding deeper than it should have been, but Maeva could hear the words loud and clear. She blamed her throbbing head for the sound. She thought she had a serious head injury when she heard Karliah's voice.
"Give me a reason to try."
I know that voice, Maeva thought, desperately trying to place it. It was so damn familiar, but her head was hurting too much. Where had she heard it before?!
"You're a clever girl, Karliah. Buying Goldenglow Estate and funding Honningbrew Meadery was inspired."
"'To ensure an enemy's defeat, you must first undermine his allies'," she quoted, "It was the first lesson Gallus taught us."
Gallus. That name rang a bell too. Pushing forward, Maeva remembered it was the old Guild Master, the one Karliah had killed. The way she said his name though… so sadly…
"You always were a quick study."
"Not quick enough, otherwise Gallus would still be alive."
"Gallus had his wealth and he had you. All he had to do was look the other way."
Look the other way? From what? What had Mercer done that was so bad?
"Did you forget the Oath we took as Nightingales?" Karliah almost spat, sounding furious, "Did you expect him to simply ignore your methods?"
"Enough of this mindless banter!" Mercer shouted, taking out his blades, "Come, Karliah. It's time for you and Gallus to become reunited!"
Mercer killed Gallus. That son of a bitch murdered a man he had called a friend and blamed it on someone who had loved and mourned the man. That bastard!
With a small shake to her head, Karliah took out a potion and drank it quickly, wiping her mouth and turning invisible in only a few seconds.
"I'm no fool, Mercer. Crossing blades with you would be a death sentence. But I can promise, the next time we meet, it will be your undoing."
They both could hear as the woman's feet walked away, but had no idea where she was because of the potion. With a grunt, Mercer was forced to turn around and hopefully catch her on the way out. His eyes locked on to Maeva's body, however, and he remembered the nuisance.
"How interesting," he mocked, looking down at Maeva's paralyzed form, "It seemed Gallus's history has repeated itself. Karliah has provided me with the means to be rid of you, and this ancient tomb becomes your final resting place."
He laughed at that, shaking his head like he found himself so hilarious. "But you know what intrigues me the most? The fact that it was all possible because of you. You willingly accepted my invitation to come here, where I was going to be rid of you whether it had ended this way or not. You thought you would come back to the Guild as a hero and take my place, aye? I would never let that happen, not with the knowledge you would have learned. It would have been too suspicious to get rid of anyone else."
If the Breton would have had the ability, she would have spat in the man's cocky face. He had thought she meant to steal his place in the Guild? All Maeva had wanted from them was a place to call home! She should have known something was wrong with the way he glared at her with almost every passing, but she was so caught up in her own life that she never even noticed until now, and she was about to die.
Mercer then took the liberty of taking out his blade which menacingly shined in the dim light that hovered in this place. Maeva knew just how sharp and deadly his blades were, and knew that she wasn't going to make it out of this place alive.
"Farewell. I'll be certain to give Brynjolf your regards."
His dwarven blade hit its mark right in Maeva's stomach, causing agony to course through her. She was lucky, though. The poison had helped make her suffering less. With its help, as well as the blood loss, she was able to slip into unconsciousness, then death.
Maeva's last thoughts were ones of welcoming embraces in Sovngarde and Brynjolf's shattered heart.
"Satha," a younger Maeva asked as she looked up at the stars in the sky, "Have you ever been in love?"
"Where is this coming from?" the Dunmer asked, her accented voice sounding distant.
Maeva turned her head to look at the woman and shrugged her shoulders shyly, though she continued on. "I just saw a couple together today and wondered if that would ever happen to me. We're on the road so much, there's usually only time for you and me."
Satha put down the bowl she had been using to make her posion and turned her body so it was facing the teen girl. Her purple eyes looked up into the stars as she thought, though they darkened with a deep and long going sadness.
"Yes, I've been in love."
"What was it like?" Maeva asked excitedly, bouncing up in a sitting position and looking just as eager to hear the story as she was to train in archery. Satha laughed and gave her a smile.
"It was an amazing thing Maeva. Love is something that everyone should cherish. He and I loved each other very dearly, though we kept it a secret so that it wouldn't interfere with our business. He was an extraordinary man."
Maeva cocked one of her eyebrows and tucked a piece of her silver hair behind her ear, giving her mentor a serious and confused look. "What happened to him Satha?"
"He was killed," the Dunmer said softly, placing her hand in front of the fire to warm her cold body, both inside and out, "By a man with a never ending appetite for riches."
"Have you ever loved after that?" Maeva inquired softly, never having seen the woman this sad before. She was used to her being strict and sometimes brutal, but never sad.
Satha gave her a sad smile, but it was a smile none the less. "Not in the way that you mean. But I have loved. The only other person I've loved besides him was you."
Maeva gave Satha that grin that the older woman loved so much. "I love you too Satha."
"Wake up Maeva. I know you can hear me."
I know that voice now.
"Satha," the Breton groaned, trying her best to sit up and open her eyes, though she failed when it came to both.
"As you've figured by now, my real name is Karliah," her accented voice commented, helping to push the thief into a sitting position. Maeva whined out in pain, feeling the sharp punch in her stomach whenever she moved an inch. As soon as she was finally in a sitting position and was resting against a very cold stone wall, she was able to open her deep blue eyes.
Satha, or Karliah rather, was crouched in front of her, her hood down and dark brown hair blowing in the slight wind that was reaching them. Her deep purple eyes were searching Maeva's and the Breton couldn't help but let a smile dance across her lips.
"It's been so long since I've seen you."
Despite the circumstances, Karliah managed to give her a smile back, resting her dark skinned hand against Maeva's cheek the way she used to when she was a child. "I would say the same, but I've come across you secretly many times during our separation."
Unlike when she had been poisoned, Maeva's mind was able to register things a lot faster than before. "You were the one that shot that ebony arrow into the dragon, weren't you?"
Karliah nodded her head and sat down on the ground, still facing her friend. "I had been watching you in Riften and when the dragon attacked and you were all having difficulty, I had to step it. I was surprised to see you using poison as well."
"I learned everything I know from you. I save the poison for big scary bears when I go hunting."
The two women laughed together for a moment, but it died quickly when Maeva bent over holding her stomach in pain. Karliah helped her sit back up, and this time her eyes were serious.
"You're lucky I was using a paralytic poison. It slowed your heart and kept you from bleeding out. I had been meaning to use it on Mercer, but the coward had been using you as a shield and I never had a clear shot. I made a split second decision to get you out of the way, and thankfully prevented your death."
"How long did it take to make that poison?"
"Over a year," she sighed, "and I could only make enough for a single shot. I had been hoping to capture Mercer alive."
"Why didn't you just kill the son of a bitch?" Maeva cursed, her voice pained.
"Mercer must be brought before the Guild to answer for what he's done. He needs to pay for Gallus's murder."
"He needs to pay for everything he's done," the Breton growled, holding her stomach even tighter, "but how are we going to prove it after all this time?"
"Using Snow Veil Sanctum to ambush Mercer wasn't simply for irony's sake. Before both of you arrived, I recovered a journal from Gallus's remains. I suspect the information we need is written inside."
"Suspect?" the silver haired woman asked.
"The journal is written in some sort of language I've never seen before," Karliah sighed, for once cursing Gallus's intellect and cunning, "I can only hope it can be translated by Enthir, a friend at the College of Winterhold. He's the only outsider Gallus trusted with the knowledge of the Nightingale identity."
"You're going to have to explain this whole Nightingale thing to me. Who are they?"
"There were three of us. Myself, Gallus and Mercer. We were anonymous splinter of the Thieves Guild in Riften. I'll tell you more about it later, but right now, we need to get you healed up so you can head for Winterhold to get the journal translated."
"Whoa, whoa. Why do I have to go and get it translated, seeing as I'm the one who's hurt?"
"We weren't hiding all that time together because we might have been caught as thieves Maeva. We were hiding because I was wanted by the Thieves Guild for a murder I didn't commit. They had connections everywhere, and still do because they've grown again. I can't risk someone seeing me right now, and you're the only one I can trust for this task. Please Maeva, you need to do this."
With a loud groan, Maeva nodded her head. "Alright, I'll do it. As long as Mercer pays for this, I'll do anything. Give me those nasty healing potions and I should be on my way."