AN: Thanks guys for the reviews. I'm glad some people are enjoying it. But I'm having fun writing it regardless! I've always liked Brynjolf myself. I'm probably like the rest of thousands of fangirls depressed by the fact you can't marry the man. But hey, that's what fanfics are for! And in honour of that, have this chapter here from the man's perspective. Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Brynjolf

I first met the the lass one day in the plaza. I had to admit the Guild was in shambles and I was desperate to do anything I could to scrape the rare horde of coin our way in this run down city, filled with dishonesty, bankruptcy and corruption. And I was a part of that.

A lot of members left. I didn't blame them. We'd gone to complete crap. With rumours of Dragons and war, this was only going to get worse. Everyone who was left, did what they could just as I had. Vekel had threatened to pack up and leave, but depressed men and women still flocked to the Flagon to temporary ease their troubles and find their power at the bottom of a bottle.

I walked up to the plaza each day, doing the same junk of work and summary of complete lies and scandal. There was one job that needed to be done, but I wanted to also prove to Delvin that this supposed 'curse' was non-existent and we were in over our heads. It was to suss out the weak and the clever, the stupid from the those with talented hands.

I put up with it to give the Guild a trickle of coin with the absolutely most useless shite that my imagination could conjure. I really didn't have much else to work on. The Guild was the only way of life I'd ever known. I wasn't going to let it go down without a fight. But everyone else that was around me knew of me and my bullshit. It got harder every day to convince people. One day I would lose hope.

Then comes in this lass with barely a septim to her name stumbling through the front gates with a thin, dirty, bony face that'd seen it all. Her light brown hair tied into a messy pony tail and bags underneath her glassy light blue eyes. I'd never seen her before. An outsider. Which was just what we needed.

She wore little else than the torn yellow dress and a pitiful pair of boots. She was awfully small. Small people could get into tight spaces with ease. But it looked like she'd been to Oblivion and back. She also had worn a permanent scowl as if the world had pissed her off. What ever compelled me to give her a chance to earn her place. Her back story didn't matter. I weighed the pros and cons even before I even talked to her. What ever could help the Guild with what resources I could find and this just pops up right in front of me. Me who was just pretending to play shopkeeper and looking like a thousand septims.

I am a thief, aye. But I wasn't a monster. I'm not religious, coin was coin and Mercer wanted us to try every angle. His specific instruction was just see what I could do with a nobody. And that's what I exactly intended to do. Then again, if she didn't agree. It wasn't my place to force her. I wanted to at see, to try how events would unfold. She was just a stranger.

She came into the plaza while I was at my stand and I'd caught her eye. It'd been some kind of weird snap between us. Written in her light blue eyes was an unopened book that I instinctively wanted to read. Newcomers to our rotten town always had stories to tell. You don't normally come to Riften for honest reasons. That died out years ago. You only came to Riften if you're already corrupt, you were a wannabe corrupted, or you were an orphan. No reason was honourable enough. Or if you were just desperate.

She'd come here for a reason unknown. She could have had hundreds of places to run off to but to consider Riften her choice was not for me to judge. But for me to understand. To this day, I still don't know why myself.

"Running a little light in the pockets, lass?"

The girl was a combination of being stubborn and just looking to just sit in a corner and heal. It wasn't uncommon. No one like's being seen as weak. She'd held herself, arms crossed and pretended everything was okay. She was just like the Guild.

Gods' forgive me for taking advantage of the young one. I wanted to imagine myself as doing her a favour. I didn't even know her yet.

She'd turned to me and was...silent. For a moment.

"That is none of your business."

Were the first words I'd heard. That had been her one and only attitude that she'd had since the day I met her. I liked her already. A spike was what the Guild needed. A fresh face and someone stubborn as itself. I wanted to see if she could do as she was told first.

"Aye lass, but money is my business."

She turned away and headed off elsewhere. I didn't see her for the rest of the day.

When I came back up the next day to sell my usual bogus elixirs I'd look around town for her. I went to the Bee and the Barb. I was greeted by the usual occupants. The Argonians didn't like me loitering but I was just looking out for the lass.

Call me crazy for trying but when someone comes in town beaten like as she was, it was a cause for concern, because you know no one else in town was not gonna give two septims about it. When I couldn't find her here, I'd asked Keerava, the Argonian woman running the joint, if she'd seen a girl wandering around like she'd jumped into a pit of wolves.

Kind Keerava just screeched and pointed me into the direction of the Temple of Mara. Of course.

I'd suspected as much. She was homeless. But wasn't disabled as far I'd seen and though she was injured, it could be helped with a potion or two. I went to the Temple to see if she'd gotten stuck there.

I looked inside and asked the Dunmer Priestess if she'd seen a girl. Lass didn't like me either and just outright said no. Fair enough. I wasn't going to argue.

I'd exited the temple, left wondering where else she'd gone. It was amusing how much trouble I'd been going through to find her. If it was anyone else they'd just given up. Simply because they'd didn't have time to follow a lost cause and that there'd also be a chance someone else would wander blindly through those gates. But then you'd have those types of people who'd either want to get up to mischief or the opposite like Mjoll and attempt to 'save' Riften and fail miserably. You have to either be incredibly clever and resourceful like Maven or just lucky in order to get some kind of recognition or respect. To me I wanted to see what I could do if just persisted enough because I'd been playing the same game for days and this was something new to work around.

To my own luck, I'd wandered around to the side, to see her leaning against the base of the Shrine of Talos, her arms wrapped around her legs, looking down at her feet.

She was capable of hiding. A bonus. I liked that.

She had been hiding in more ways than one. She may keep her mouth shut up about it as the way she held herself made it obvious.

We're not known for being an awfully cheery bunch of louts. We're just lowabouts that were falling on hard times and were trying to keep up the front of a quickly decaying group. I'd did my darnedest to keep things together.

I wasn't going to intimidate her. She'd run away again. I'd have to meet her on equal footing. So I sat down next to her. I didn't look at her. She'd run away from that too.

"I thought I already told you no." The lass said coldly.

The job I needed to do, I couldn't promise to be easy. She'd have one go at this. I could either save her or I couldn't. That's what it'd boil to. She'd walked into those gates like that. I like those who could survive. What I didn't like was those left forgotten and had the potential to heal. She could heal. I could tell. Her front was just the bandage to what plane Oblivion she'd just come from. The effect' been easy to see. But I personally believed the Guild would help her. If not, help us all.

All we had to do was break past that barrier. Then get sorted.

I'd explained to her about our organisation did and what it took to have guts. That if she could do this one job for me that we could give her food and shelter. And all she would have to do was be wise, smart and take orders. I ushered it to her in simple terms that sounded appealing.

She was taking it in slowly. I watched her contemplate my words. I wanted it be tempting on all accounts of turning what she was doing into a positive characteristic.

"You like to hide? I know. But, you could use that to your advantage."

"I don't want to hide." She said out bluntly.

"Could have fooled me." I joked.

She groaned and stood up and turned to look at the Talos statue, trying to ignore me but really, she was taking consideration for this and I took that as a good sign.

"You're not saying this out of pity are you?" She questioned with such the bored monotone in her voice.

Brutal honesty helps out too.

"You think this city is going to feed you that? You're wrong. You can't find pity. Nor can you sell, use it or even eat it. I'm giving you the choice lass, a choice for your freedom to claim what you want, when you want it. That you can make so much coin that you can afford to stand around and do nothing. No one cares about your past. Nor your future. You came to hide? No one else will bother to find you."

I had to be honest of course. It was a boon to tell the truth in all it's awful, atrocious glory. It wasn't perfect but it ran the way it should. It was just the breadth of daily life here.

"Good."

My stomach fell. Strangely. The girl continued to stare at the statue. She had the confidence definitely and the bite to support it. No one with such bite since Vex and Sapphire. The girl was actively trying to avoid people altogether but she'd taken herself to living in the safety of the walls of the city.

What I came to realise that she was hiding from what ever was outside these walls. That she feared being found. I stood up, not staring at her. Somehow I had to make that the run down Ratway was a lot more appealing than lying around in the dirt feeling sorry for yourself.

"If you do this, I can get you somewhere to stay. A place to call your own. Sure you'd have to do work once in a while but that work involves a bit of risk but your main goal is not to be seen. We'll never ask you to kill anyone. Just their hearts. Just kidding, but it's just taking people down a peg or two."

I'd sworn to have to seen the side of her mouth rise into a minor smile. This was a snag.

She had her disdain and her reluctant spirit to consider talking to people. It was a start.

"What do you want me to do?"

I'd been surprised that the plan went off without a hitch. When I made the distraction in the plaza with my bogus Falmer Elixir, acting through, that in the corner of my eye, I could see her sneaking about as I had told her and no one was the wiser. The guard was tipped off about Brand-Shei's apparent thievery, and they'd never even suspected her, then they went for that obnoxious dumner and with that, the job was done. I relayed that pleasure to her and reminded her if she wanted more where that came from that to traverse her way down to the Flagon via the Ratway. I'd warned her about the dangers that came from wandering the Flagon. She'd said she'd be fine.

I was inclined to believe her. I had doubts but truly she'd just proven that she could handle the dirt work without a problem.

That was an entertaining moment, giving birth to new developments. It brought change to the guild, what had been needed for years. The others were suspending their hopes in what could this little girl do for the Guild. Vekel knew the place was a mess as it was. He wasn't lying but I remained steadfast in my personal beliefs and retained a positive outlook.

Time passed by as I waited at the Flagon. The others taunted me and called me a fool for getting them riled up over nothing over the new blood. I'd sat at the Flagon, sipping my mead and waited.

My ears twitched when I heard a door squeak nearby. I smirked. This had to be here. Foot steps came closer and closer as Vekel continued with his brash negativity.

"Forget it Brynjolf, your people are a dying breed!"

I loved proving others wrong when footsteps became louder.

"Then what do you call that?"

She'd stood there staring at me and awaited for me to speak. I looked at the dagger, that she ever so tightly grasped in her hand and that was covered in blood. I didn't tell her that she needed to kill. But I was more pleased she dealt with more layabouts. And that I could see that she could defend herself when worst comes to worst and that she wasn't scared off by all the real danger. I'd decided to get to know her a bit better. Just placing myself on her level again.

"Apologies for not introducing myself earlier. I'm Brynjolf."

She'd blinked twice. No smile. Face still dead.

"Petra."

I nodded. It make have looked like she was out for more blood, but she'd had more sense in grabbing her tattered dress and wiping the blood off the dagger, sheathing it.

"What's next?" She asked me. Eager without the tone for it.

We'd had another discussion about another test. She wasn't complaining. I'd told her to take care of some deadbeats for me. This time she didn't say no. But I yet again had to remind her that she didn't need to kill. I'd made another quick glance at her dagger.

"No deaths."

Her face was stone cold and still and emotionless. I was worried she would have gone too far. I didn't know her at all still and I could have just made a terrible mistake that could have just cost the Guild the last of it's sponsorships...

But no...she'd erased all doubts when she came back later with bags of coin. No story, no chatter. All the money was there.

So not only now did we have a capable creature on our hands but a fiesty one as well. It'd taken her some time to get adjusted. Especially when I introduced her to Mercer. I'd escorted her through the secret entrance to the cistern, the inner sanctum of our rabble.

"Mercer this was the one I was talking about." I told him.

"This better be not another waste of the Guild's Resources Brynjolf."

What got me was that once the two had gotten to see each others face, was that her very presence altered the variables. I'd seen Mercer face a future of uncertainty and someone who made him question everything. She'd managed to creep him out with her back straight and her cold dead eyes spearing into him. Mercer's true wealth was confidence and the way he relayed that back to everyone. The lass's very existence made him shift uncomfortably. I'd knew he'd smack down the law to her like he had to everyone else. But it's as if there was a sudden shift in the wind.

But even after all his ranting, which was just the necessary part of the package I had to remind the man.

"Oh since Brynjolf reckons you'll be nothing but a benefit to us, welcome to the Thieves Guild."

It took some coercion when Mercer suggested that Petra should do the Goldenglow Job to let the girl take some time to get ready. He didn't take it lightly. I'd gotten him what he wanted.

While the lass had the knack for taking care of people without their demise and the proprietary for trickery, she'd need to be properly trained to seriously inflict damage out there. I'd shown her that she can practice as much as she'd likes and that as soon as she was ready, she could take on her first set of series of jobs.

She'd gone to Tonilia straight away to get her some gear. No snark, no talk. Her way with words were strictly business only. She reminded me of Maven. But the air of mystery surrounded her, that perplexed Tonilia.

"What made you think she was the one Bryn?" The Redguard queried. No doubt that was also the question on everyone else's minds.

I crossed my arms and smiled.

"She'll listen. And she's willing to learn to have what it takes to be a real thief." I said with pride. I was going to make sure this was worthwhile

And she looked great in her armour. Her hair looked a lot better, more neatly tied up. Her face was cleaner to see that crisp pale face of hers. It'd take her some better food to eat to get rid of the bonyness but she just appeared a lot better and to my own opinion, more suited to the armour than anyone else. It shot out her intimidating appeal greater than expected.

The girl should have been far from capable to the naked eye. But I observe and judge by the way they are. As people and as the individual. Petra was a tough nut to crack that was for sure. It was a challenge I was willing to accept. Because the hardest ones usually turn out to be the best investments.

Most would have seen her having difficulty with the simplest task because she was just skin and bone when I'd found her. She came out well and I was impressed with her tenacity, her skill and willingness to do the dirty work and listen well. When she wanted to.

Delvin came to like her. He'd offered her a job to what ever dreaded corner of Skyrim, with absolutely no complaints. Delvin pointed out she had backbone to which I agreed to.

While the Guild had been falling apart, I was more interested in seeing the developments, that she was assisting with, were gonna take us. And the luck of Petra put more interest back into the Guild if anything else. The other's failed to see it, but me...as well as Delvin, Vex, even Tonilia came to see that she was in fact bringing in a lot more coin that they'd seen within the last few years.

Yet while she was the avatar of the guild, skilled and a near master of thievery with every coming day, she never talked about anything other than business. The others played practical jokes on her without knowing the hidden respect the best of us had for her.

It was tradition. All new bloods copped it within their first week. At first it made sense since we had more people leaving than joining and it was hard to take fun when you're falling so hard down the scales and you and your people are just broke. It'd been more harsh than what it seemed. If anyone one wanted to make this place more appealing they'd at first would have to know where to draw the damn line.

Petra took it in her stride. By Shor she was tough. Mostly jokes about leaving stuff for her to trip over or putting a fish in her bed. She covered herself so well that I couldn't see if she was getting angrier over time or...

It's just a phase. It always was. Merriment is hard to come by, especially during these dark times.

I forgot to mention also that more than once I've walked by her more than once while she was sleeping. Her bed was conveniently one of the closest to the door to the Flagon so each time she was just in the corner of my eye as I walked around the cistern. She eventually had a board put up a the end of it for a bit of privacy but other than that, she was in an area by herself.

Each time was different. She'd face inwards, away, often curled into a little tiny ball and arms wrapped around her legs like the day I recruited her. I feel like a weird stalker when I say that was her common way of sleeping and the position she was in a lot of the time. But there were times where I could hear her crying.

Dreams are often funny things. They drip on in unwarranted. My dreams are pretty average by far. Like the lass, I take a lot into my stride but at least I'm not hiding anything. I can be business but I can also just sit back and relax when I can. Be the fun lad. No problem.

And that was also the issue of everyone else here. And she picked up the slack where everyone else just either gave up, or were too drunk to take any proper work. Don't get me wrong, some of these people I have worked with in the past and they are talented in their fields, picked from all trees of life. She'd just did more jobs.

No one asked questions, instead people just told their answers and stories over a tankard and often forgot about them the next day. The average night spent in the flagon consisted of the usual larking and boasts...Vex and Delvin talking about failed jobs, Vekel and Tonilia and their lover quarrels.

Petra didn't spruce up the place. No, she's definitely not the partying sort. But it made for a change of conversation.

If she wasn't sitting on her bed reading her book, she often sat in her lonesome in the corner of the Flagon...drinking or just reading there as well. No one dared to bother her once she'd found her little cradle in the guild. The conversations became mere murmurs out of fear since she was in earshot of their little talks. All because of the nerve Vipir struck, forcing her to snap out at him.

That shocked everyone. The little quiet girl decided enough was enough. I'd watched the whole thing unfold. I'm not one to say if the lad deserved it or not, but this was where the line was definitely drawn to her. It'd gone over the limit of teasing the new bloods and she'd lasted longer than expected. Vipir just crossed the threshold. It was then I told him to stop.

That's what struck the hidden but shameful fear of the lass. She became, annoyed by me which I couldn't understand. I'd just helped her out. I believe now that she was in fact insulted that a superior had ordered someone to stop for her, instead of facing her fellow member on equal grounds and eager to prove herself and not to be a push over.

I'd ruined it for her, ruined her plan to make sure no one messed with her. Instead, I became her guardian and the notch for father like taunts. It hadn't been my intention at all. My only intention was to teach and guide the lass to reveal in her talents and put them to good use.

Still, despite that, I think she'd still managed to prove her point. That perhaps at this stage she'd become developed enough to perhaps take on Goldenglow after all.

Then it came to a head after she'd came back to Riften from her job in Markarth. I was, by sheer coincidence, just at the Riften stables, conversing with a client, when I'd seen her horse, Cody, arrive back by itself.

I actually think the others were quite jealous that Petra even managed to make enough coin to afford a horse. She never spent too much on drink at the Flagon, so she had common sense to save her money on something that didn't back chat her.

She adored that horse. I put the thought in her mind that normally horses are good companions. I was glad she took the suggestion to heart and had asked Tonilia if she'd bartered in them. That was a good laugh, according to what the Redguard told me. Lucky Tonilia had a respectable heart to the lass (since they got along the best in my opinion. Even if Petra never talked to many people, I could tell Tonilia was her favourite by far out of anyone. And I already knew of her thoughts on me)

So the lass bought her ride and that was that. Took it everywhere. I'd imagine she'd managed to spill secrets to it. I mean, a horse can't tell tales now can it? Funny if it did.

Some days I'd find her leaving the cistern to go to the surface, most likely to either hang with Cody or go for a ride with it. I witnessed it one day, and managed to actually catch another smile from her. Cody made her happy, gave me a warm feeling that she was going to be okay after all.

Tonilia often told me in the small chats she had with Petra was that she talked about Cody a lot. So now the only way of making her speak now included horses. Tonilia was the first to break the first barrier to the young girl, wanting to force her to open herself. How that the horse was smart as a whip, she'd confided in it and how it was exceedingly loyal.

By this time my skills to appeal to the girls heart had increased. In fact, Vex, Delvin, Tonilia and me had once discussed this. Petra made for perfect talk and business in our little circle because it was all we had to talk about. Because our business was beginning to boom again and that we'd...we'd have to thank her for it.

When that horse came back on it's own, I could speak for the us all that we were all afraid of losing her.

And we'd never said thanks.