Sharia opened the hatch slowly, peeping out while scanning the other side of the area. She entered it, and we all followed. When I entered, I assumed we had entered the kitchen of the palace; There was a stove, a cooking pot, various chef hats, and aprons stained with spots of presumed seasonings and sauces, and there were barrels, reeking of fish and fowl within.
I focused. "So where do we go from here?" I asked quietly.
Sharia pointed at the door, the exit door, which was closed. "There are going to be two paths from this room; One hallway that goes west, another that goes east. Our scout couldn't get this far within the castle without getting held by the guard, so I don't know exactly where to go from here. That being said, we're splitting up."
We all nodded, acknowledging her command.
"Ly'ro, You're going with me to the west. Silvan and Renandra, You're going east. Now move..." Sharia ordered, still silently.
We took to the opposite sides of the hallways, Hoping to find the jarls chambers, where our goal lies. Sharia took the lead and passed through the dark hallways, avoiding any guards passing by. Her stealth was highly commendable; I analyzed her footsteps with praise, Realizing that she put time and effort into perfecting her cat-walk, no pun intended. I felt like a complete beginner, watching her nimble movements. I was agile too, sure, But not nearly as silent as her. We had prowled through the castle's dark exteriors, moving past the tired and dull looking guards, to come across a staircase, leading to a double-door, guarded by four men. We had glared at them from the shadows, contemplating our move to circumvent them.
"What do you suggest we do?" I asked.
Sharia continued to survey the guards.
I assumed she was still thinking about the next move, but something bad happened after that. A guard, looking surprised in comparison to the other guard's bored expressions, rushed in, barging through a door on the other side of the area.
The guard was breathing quite heavily. "Come quick! Intruders have been spotted in the palace!"
The guards followed him with haste as they left the door the same way the one guard came in.
"Damnit! Renandra and Silvan must have been spotted." I whispered to Sharia.
"Well, the guards are gone, so now's our chance..."She said, noticing the opportunity.
We creeped up the staircase towards the double door. Of course, the door was locked.
"I got this." I murmured to Sharia, confidently.
Sharia stood and crossed her arms, looking at me expectantly, waiting to be impressed.
I equipped my probe and lockpick and got to work on the lock. First thing I did was inspect the lock. Of course, I knew this was going to be a difficult one, this is a belonging of royals. But my inspections revealed something unexpected; This was a relatively difficult tumbler lock. No puzzle locks or anything truly extreme that I've been trained to get by. This especially surprised me, considering it was a door that was the entrance to the jarl's chambers. I guessed they never thought anyone would get this far, Or maybe I was just expecting more. I pick the lock, taking about 40 seconds, having almost no trouble.
The satisfying clicking noise, along with me slowly twisting the knob and pushing the door open caused Sharia to give me an impressed smile. I tried not to show her how much her compliment meant to me by turning the other cheek, pretending I didn't notice her doing that. She re-enters her stealth-stance and continues to creep, only I took the lead this time. Our next room had all the symptoms of the room we were looking for; a hallway that leads to 3 different rooms, the one in front of us had no door and a desk with some bookshelves were present.
"That must be it." I whispered.
We both sneaked to the end of the hall to the room with the desk, inspecting the desk, first of all.
Sharia said, "I'll search the desk, Ly'ro." and rummaged through the desk drawers, along with the papers and envelopes laid out on the desk.
while scanning the area, I paid close attention to the gold ship model, displayed on top of the bookshelf. My greed came first; I snatched it and shoved in into my pack.
"Found it." She murmured while I wasn't paying attention.
I stepped behind her to see the note. "What's it say?"
"The letter says that he's going to be transferred to Bruma, South of Falkreath." Sharia explained.
"Isn't that outside of Skyrim?" I asked.
"Yes, they must be giving him to Cyrodiil's guard so none of us can get to him." She said, predicting the government's moves.
"Right... What's so important about this guy again? He is the White Knight, isn't he?" I said, cluelessly.
Sharia explained. "Of course not... this guard just happens to have a connection with this person in some way, we just need to get to him and find out what he knows. Once we interrogate him, We can find the White Knight, and deal with him. Understand?"
I nodded.
She put the guard transfer order in her pocket, then grabbed all the envelopes and notes in the desk and put it in her backpack.
I raised a brow, confused by her actions.
"Whatever else these other messages are about, they could be worth a lot once the guild knows them all." Sharia elaborated.
I nodded and We both left the room together.
"We should go find Renandra and Silvan." I asked, attempting to be their saviors.
"No, we shouldn't; they failed to be unseen, and they will take the loss for it." Sharia replied strictly.
As sharia said that, Renandra barged in through the other door the guards rushed out of, wounded.
"Silvan... that bastard..." He murmured, while clenching his blade wounds.
"Renandra!" I approached him, trying to help him walk. "What happened?" I asked him, confused.
"It's Silvan... He..." He couldn't speak; He seemed to be in a lot of pain at the moment.
The sounds of footsteps and chatter were heard, coming closer and closer from the door Renandra barged out of.
Sharia sighed, realizing her chances of being completely undetected were over. "Just follow us!" She stood up in her normal stance.
We had ran back, retracing our footsteps to the hatch in the kitchen of the palace, with the palace guards gaining on us. I wasn't under that much pressure, we were far enough from them to make a decent getaway. We had found the kitchen door, and Renandra charged into it. He merely bounced off of it, fumbling into the ground.
I tried to open it normally. "Why won't it budge?" I twisted the knob and it opened perfectly, but the door wouldn't open.
"It must have been Silvan's doing..." Renandra said while slowly getting up.
"What? What are you talking about?" I said, still unknowing of Silvan's doings.
"He must have put something on the other side of the door, holding the door shut." Renandra explained.
I thought hard about what I could do to get to the other side while I was hearing the guard's yelling and footsteps getting closer and closer. I remembered just in the knick of time what I could do to get past this obstacle.
"Guys, stand back!" I said.
I retrieved the Acid potion Morina gave me before we ventured from my backpack, and tossed it at the door. The glass smashed and the liquid splashed on the door, dissolving and disintegrating the fine wood. the acid melts the door down, a whole shelf falls down out of the melted door. I assumed Silvan put that there to block our escape.
We had ran into the kitchen, opened the hatch and hastily slipped in, before any guards got an eye on us, Me and Sharia anyway. We had re-entered the dark, musty sewers, and Sharia lit her torch again. We ran back, retracing our footsteps, along with some map navigation.
"So, tell me the whole story, Renandra. What happened?" I asked Renandra.
"Silvan had purposefully drawn attention to me and ran away back to where he had come from..."
"Why would he set you up like that?" Sharia asked, confused.
"Well, he has been talking about getting tired of the guild for the past months..." Renandra remembered.
"Are you badly hurt?" I asked.
He had stood up straight, trying to move as if he had no harm done to him in the first place. "Renandra can manage."
We had rushed back, passing the sewer dwellers we had encountered before, quickly making it back to the hatch to the hideout. Then we had come back to the hideout to find almost everything gone, the bedrolls, the scrolls, everything. Morina was wounded, on the ground, battered and beaten. Hildir was nowhere to be seen. Noticing this, I panicked, and rushed to Morina.
"Morina, Where's Silvan and Hildir?" I asked, anxious of Hildir's fate.
"Silvan had brought some backup..." She said, slowly getting up with pain and difficulty. "He got some goons to take everything here and kidnap Hildir.
My anger and fury had arisen quickly. "That son of a bitch!" I shouted, quickly and angrily unsheathing my dagger. "I swear to the gods, I'll kill him!"
Sharia grabbed my shoulder. "Calm down."
"To Oblivion with that! I told him that If he laid a finger on her, I'd murder him!" I looked to Morina. "Morina, where do you think he went?"
"I don't know, but he and his thugs left only a few minutes ago; they couldnt have gone far." Morina explained.
Renandra offered Morina some of his potion. "Take as much as you need." He said, Graciously.
She took one sip. "You can have the rest."
Renandra drank the rest of it.
"Ly'ro, what time is it?" Sharia asked.
Silence was abroad.
"Ly'ro?" Sharia said.
I was already gone, hoping I could catch up to Silvan and his thugs before they left Windhelm.
Ignoring the cold, I rush to the gates, and running out of the entrance's bridge, leading to the stables. As I did, I noticed a bunch of wood elves, holding an awfully large sack, hauling it into a private carriage. I saw Silvan riding on the passenger seat, next to the driver. The carriage began to ride, with the passengers on board.