Enjoy


Chapter: 12: Connection

'How are you feeling, Sev?'

Those dark brown eyes were full of concern. She ran her hand through her hair, scanning my face. I smiled. 'I'm at full health now, thank you Arissa.'

'Good! Because Lorena and I are tired of picking up your slack, so get back to work.'

I chuckled. 'I see, thank you again. I will make it up to you. The both of you.' I stretched my arms and body trying to break in my new guild armor, which was still stiff from just being freshly made by Tonilia.

It has been a full week.

A full week has passed since I confronted Leila about the nightingales, and my destiny. She talked to Brynjolf and Karliah about my dreams and what it could mean for the three of them. Karliah who was only interested in the fact that I spoke to Gallus, had a multitude of questions. And I happily told her about the meeting we had. It made her happy and in turn made me happy aswell. Leila said once my recovery was done she and Brynjolf would personally train me to better with the sword and dagger, to become able to match even the mightiest of warriors in combat.

'When you are ready we have to talk to Leila, she says that she has a special job in store for us.'

'And where is it.' I asked.

'The city of Dawnstar, way up north. Says it's a big one and she's going to send all of us. That's all I know. Anything else we'll just have to wait untill she gives us the details.'

'Dawnstar,' I shook my head. 'I've never been, I've done to jobs in Winterhold, and I've met with contacts as far as Solitude.'

Arissa chuckled. 'It'll be fun. All of us together on an adventure.'

The sun shined it's light down on the cementary, illuminating all of Arissa's beautiful features. For a thief, she had very soft looks. I've always noticed that about her. In civilian attire, you wouldn't dream she was a member of the guild. She looked like royalty, like the beautiful maidens that lived in the Blue Palace or the great White-Gold Tower in the heart of Cyrodiil.

'I love adventure.' I said, staring into her eyes.

She smiled, that smile that could melt your heart away. I've noticed how much she does that now. When I first met her, she was always intimidating. Job after job we went on. We grew closer, and I grew more fond of my guild sister.

'Say Arissa, do you ever think of what you would be if you hadn't joined the Thieves Guild?' I asked. The question was random, but i've been wanting to ask her about it for a long time.

She shook her head. 'Well, I'd probably be dead.'

'Dead? Why do you say that?'

'The guild sought that I wasn't tracked down and executed like the rest of my family... Like my brother. I believe we would both be in the guild if he weren't caught.' She sighed. 'Besides.. Skyrim is a vast and terrifying place. No place for a small and frail imperial girl like myself. Being in the guild, everything that I've learned here, made me tough, showed me how to protect myself.'

A cool breeze whipped her hair in front of her face. I smiled and she returned it.

'Well, i'm glad you were here when I came here. You've truly made this place home for Lorena and I.'

She chuckled. 'And i'm glad I met you.. the both of you. You're so tough, tougher than I can ever hope to be.'

'That's not true.' I said shaking my head. 'You've been through so much, and yet you strive on. You're a survivor.'

'Well I couldn't of done it without you and Leila.. and the rest of the guild.'

I couldn't help myself but to smile. What was it about Arissa that made me want to smile? She was the first guild sibling that I met. I think she maybe the first friend I ever had. Arissa, whenever I woke up in the morning my first thoughts was to find out if she had jobs in the same hold I had a job in. Or if she was willing to wreak havoc in the streets of Riften with me. What were these feelings that I had for her.

'Enough with the melodrama, Plagarius.'

I spun around to see Ragvir and Ania, sitting together on the bench. Those two were a spectacle. Always together. So obviously in-love, though I did not truly know what love was. If I had to guess, it is what they have.

Arissa laughed loudly. 'Especially having these two love birds here.'

'Love birds?' The two nords said in unisen.

'Ah, there is no denying it, this one sees it aswell.' Paws said from behind. 'Even more so than anyone else.'

'Where in Oblivion did you come from?' I almost yelled. 'You all must be taking lessons from Delvin.'

'Thats the downside with living with thieves Sev, never know when they will sneak up on ya.' Ania added shooting a fierce glance towards Paws, making the khajiit flinch.

The scraping of the secret entrance began to fill our ears. 'Oh, good this saves me the trouble of tracking all of you down.' Leila stepped out from under the alter, giving all of us appraising looks. 'Sev, we're going to need Lorena, where is she?'

'Up here.'

We all looked to see where had the silvery, small voice came from. Sitting on the roof ledge was my small giggling sister. He small legs dangling off, her smile reaching ear to ear.

Leila spun around. 'I'm glad to see you all so lively today, it's perfect. Gather around, I need to discuss the details of the Dawnstar job.' She looked into everyone of our eyes as she explained what needed to be done. 'Recently the minors in Dawnstar came across a vast deposit of moonstone ore. This was big news for the entire city, but unfortunately, the Jarl has decided to take full profit of all the earnings from the mine.'

'So an angry minor contacted you then?'

'Not just one angry minor, Arissa.' She continued to explain. 'An entire town of angry minors and laborers. Every last one of my contacts sent me a letter on the matter.'

'So, whats the plan, Boss? Ragvir asked folding his arms, almost impatient.

Leila shot a glance at him. 'We're going to answer them all. And hit everyone responsible.'

We all stared blankly at Leila. Paws, who was already so blank minded began to scratch his head. My little sister and Arissa turned towards each other and shrugged. Ragvir, Ania, and I looked up at our guildmaster eagerly. Looking around I could tell everyone was confused.

'How exactly are we going to do this? It's only us against an entire city.' I asked Leila.

Leila grew impatient and folded her arms. 'Let me finish.. I've gotten requests to utterly destroy everyone profiting from the mine and so I came up with a plan.'

She had our full attention now. 'You're going to collapse the entire mine. This is the best way possible to take care of all of these clients wishes. We're being paid a large amount of coin for this so don't muck it up.'

Ragvir pushed threw to the front of us. By the smug look on his face I could already tell what was on his mind. 'And who is going to spearhead this.. Little project?'

'That, responsibility will fall on Plagarius.'

An sharp gasp left my throat and I was largely taken aback. 'Me..?'

Arissa began laughing hysterically. I didn't know if she was laughing at the fact that I was chosen to lead the group or the look on Ragvir's face. Ragvir, may have been the best thief in the group, but he was no leader.

'Alrighty, big bro, you got this.' Lorena said sounding excited. I could always count her rooting for me.

Leila chuckled. 'This is about our little talk we had a week ago.' The wood elf winked at me. 'Show me what you got, okay Severus?'

It was like pride and fear had formed into one emotion and grew in the pit of my stomach. I haven't felt this way since the special mission that I did in Windhelm with Ragvir. The image of the dead elf still fresh in my mind. I nodded back at Leila, whose head then tilted and smiled. Her smile was pretty refreshing and reassuring.

The wind blew across the cementary and the afternoon guard came through on his occasional patrol of the area. He stared at us for a moment before recognizing our guild armor then she looked forward and hastened her steps.

'I won't fail.' I said determined.

We all split and planned to meet up at the stables with in the next hour. Lorena and I was the first two to be done. We were always squared away. I think it was due to the fact that our father never let us be disorganized around the house. If he found even the smallest book out of order, it would end with a bloody mouth or a swollen eye. Arissa came after. Ragvir and Ania took the longest, the two nords were always the slowest. We found Paws already at the stables, meditating. That khajiit was always rather unusual.

I stroked the light-brown fur on Ysmir's thick neck. It's been almost two weeks since i've been able to ride him. I could tell he was anxious to get some excersise.

'So that beast got a name?' Ragvir said given a judging look at my horse.

'Yeah, it's Ysmir.'

'Ysmir?' Ragvir laughed jumping on his own horse. 'You mean like the Dragonborn, Ysmir?'

My favorite tale in all of Skyrim is the tale of The Last Dragonborn. A man who appeared in Skyrim eight years ago by the name of Rolvar, carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders and defeated the evil Dragon Alduin. I remember those days; I was so scared to go outside, yet even more frightened to stay inside with a enraged and drunk father. I actually witnessed the smoke raising in the air when Helgen was attacked. It was scary to think I had been that close to a god.

I smiled at Ragvir. 'Ah, you misunderstand. I mean Y-S-M-E-R-E.' I choked on my own laugh. 'Get it. Ysmir, Ysmere.'

Ragvir stared at me with a blank expression. His blue eyes, filled with so much disgust, instantly making me feel bad. 'Amusing..' He said dryly.

'By the divines, you should be a jester with that type of joke, Sev.' Arissa said throwing a saddle on top of a silvery white horse. I could tell she was being sarcastic.

Lorena giggled. 'I thought it was funny.. and clever.'

I heaved a sigh. 'Thank you, Lorena. Atleast someone has a sense of humour.'

'Well, Ysmere is a nice horse, isn't that right.' Lorena said petting the horse and making kissy faces at him. 'I've named mine Snowbell, she was bred from the same horses Arissa's was bred from.' She turned to Arissa who wore a smile.

'This one is all for the naming of great steeds, but the roads to Dawnstar will not get shorter.' Paws added in sounding agitated.

I snickered. 'Hold your... Horses.' I said. I began to laugh so hard I nearly fell off of Ysmere. There was no response, all they did was shoot me blank glances. Even Lorena who usually laughed at my jokes, simply smiled and shook her head slowly. I put the horse into a slow trot, feeling ashamed. In the back, I could hear the silent snickering as all five of my friends tried to hold in there laughs.


'Brother, it's cold.'

Lorena's voice. She had the right to be, I was cold too. We were nearing Dawnstar and the trip had been long and tiresome. The strong willed horses pushed through several feet of snow. Ragvir and Ania had been the only two who seem to be faring quite well. As expected of the two nords. Their blood allowed them to tolerate the cold tundras of Skyrim. And their experience of traveling these harsh lands gave them a helping hand.

'It should be just a few more miles.' Ania said trying to comfort the girl. 'Dawnstar has a nice dainty inn we could warm up at before we begin.' Ania looked up me. Which suprised me at first, then I remembered I was in charge.

I nodded, my eyes meeting her icey blues. 'Right, and we can make a plan on how to actually do this.'

Arissa's horse trotted close to mine. 'Look at you.. Talking like a true leader.' Arissa swiped a few strand of hair from her face. 'I guess there wasn't much of choice, when picking someone to lead this job. I mean.. You are Leila's favorite.'

'That is not true at all!'

'Dar'zu agrees. The guildmaster gives Severus the most fondest of looks.' Paws said his ears pointing backwards. His tailed swaying back and forth slowly.

I snorted. 'You all need to lay off the skooma and save some for the beggars.'

'It's true, Plagarius.' Ragvir added.

'You too? You're suppose to be on my side! I thought we were suppose to be friends!'

'Think again, Imperial!'

I growled at Ragvir and he raised his fist. 'Jealousy doesn't suit you well.'

'What you- Damn you, i'm not jealous. I have more experience and should've been the leader.'

Arissa sighed. 'I for one don't really mind. And besides I can see why, you're so easy to like.'

My brow furrowed. 'Really.'

'Yeah, I think so.'

Her words made my heart flutter a little. I loved when Arissa praised me, even when everyone else didn't. It felt good to have a friend to do that you. She smiled at me. I looked at Ragvir, who simply shrugged and kicked his horse into a gallop to catch up with Ania and Lorena who were hurrying to Dawnstar to get out of the cold.

'Looks like it's just us.' Arissa said smiling.

I patted Ysmere on the neck. 'And our good friends here. Can't forget about these two.'

Arissa giggled. Gods that giggle, I would never forget it. 'Oh right, Ysmere and...and-'

'You haven't named your horse yet haven't you?'

Arissa shook her head and looked thoughtfully at the sky. 'I'll name her, Hope. You like that name? Hope.'

'I do indeed.'

'Good.' She said smiling.

There was a brief silence before the howling of the wind rang through out the air. I could see Arissa tense up just a bit, trying to brave the cold bitterness of the air. I guess I was the only one to come prepared for traveling in the northern region of Skyrim. I pulled off my winter cloak and gave it to Arissa.

'Here, if you're cold.' I said handing over the cloak.

She looked at me, shock in her eyes. 'Thank you, Sev.' She said with a smile. She threw the cloak over her head and pressed the warm fur against her face. Her face began to grow red. 'Hey, Sev. About earlier, why'd you ask me that question? If I never joined the guild what would I be.'

My grip tightened around the reigns. 'Well, I wanted to ask- do you ever see yourself, like, married? To someone you love?' It was a question I was curious about. Not only for Arissa, but for everyone else. I know Ania and Ragvir definitely love each other and eventually they'll get married. But what about someone like Leila, who was infinitely more busy than everyone else. Would she ever get a chance at love.

Arissa's was in a full on blush. 'Well, yes..' she shot a glance at me. 'I would like to fall inlove. But right now all I see is the guild. I'm not lonely or anything because I have you.. And the rest of you guys.' She smiled. 'That's good enough right now.'

Looking forward I could see, Lorena, Ania, and Ragvir stop at the top of a hill. In my peripherals, I saw Arissa bury her face in the cloak.

'I'm guessing we're here.' I said and kick the side of my horse, sending him racing towards the top of the hill. I looked back to see Arissa and Paws who was dragging a few meters behind.

When I arrived to the very top of the hill I could see the entire City of Dawnstar, which looked more like a town compared to other cities. The buildings and structure were less impressive than I had assumed. Their port was no where near as impressive as Riften's, Windhelm's or Solitude's. It was dark, bathed in the silver and ruby lights of the twin moons. The purple, teal, and green auras in the sky reflected off of the powdery white snow, giving the streets a soft glowing light.

After, making it to town and tethering our horses down in the stables, we settled down in Windpeak Inn to discuss how we were bring our plans to fruition.

'So just how are we going to collapse an entire mine.'

This was a time where I was glad I was a book worm of sorts. I've read a multitude of books from all genres. Magicks, history, science, law, war, battle tactics, alchemy. As busy as I was at times, I would always find myself in a book when ever I had downtime or didn't pick up a job from any of the senior members. My friends looked eagerly at me.

'I've read enough books of great campaigns of war and battle tactics that the smartest of men has used throughout the ages.' I said smiling. 'I've picked up a few things, Ania.'

'We're waiting Plagarius.. What did you have in mind?' Ragvir took a sip of his mead, waiting for my reply

My mind raced back to a tome I had stolen from a stormcloak fort a few months ago. It was a tome written by a tactition and master alchemist of the Alik'r. Once, being stationed on an Alik'r battleship, he wrote about a battle between them and the Aldmeri Dominion's fleet. The redguard had used a clever alchemic mix of fire salts, dragon's tongue, void salts and lantern oil. Mixing these four ingredients would have a very explosive chain reaction to fire.

'We need fire salts, that's the most important thing. We need the plant called dragon's tongue, some lantern oil, which i'm sure we'll find an abundance of inside the mine. What else? Oh Void salts..'

Every one of them seemed to be a bit taken back on how I knew all of this. Everyone except Lorena who I had given the book too. She loved the books I recommended to her and read them with as much passion as I did.

'It seems feasible, Plagarius, but void salts? It's a rare substance. We can't just find some in a shop somewhere.' Ragvir pointed out.

I nodded. 'I'm hoping those ships at the port would have some, listen we need void salts. They'll give an explosion that extra oomph of power we'll need to actually collapse the cave walls. We've all robbed enough ships in Riften to know what kind of rare items and would be aboard.'

My guild brother nodded in agreement. I looked into each of there eyes. I knew they wouldn't fail. We were members of the thieves guild. We could make this happen, Leila wouldn't had asked us to carry out the job if we couldn't handle it.

'To get this done as fast as possible, we'll split up into two-man teams.' I said folding my arms. This part was simple, i've worked with each and every one them to understand their strong and weak points. And they all best with the people they usually work with. 'Lorena and Paws, you two will clean every last shop of this city for fire salts and dragon's tongue. Understood.'

They both nodded. 'You can count on us, big bro.' Lorena said in her usual merry voice.

'Right.' I turned to the two nords. 'You two, scout the mine and make sure it is cleared. Also, spill as much oil on the ground and walls as you can.' They gave approving nods and I finally turned to Arissa. 'You and I will be heading to the port, i'm sure some of those ships will have void salt.'

'I'd be surprised if they didn't.' She replied with a shrug.

'Alright, let's get going.'

We all took the last sips of our mead and went back out into the cold night. Lorena and Paws made their way to the shops, Ragvir and Ania headed off towards the mine.

'Shall we?' Arissa said presenting the snow covered road.

I chuckled. 'We shall.'

Arissa and I began making our way through the shadows, avoiding guards and a few late night stragglers around the small city. The way the houses and building were so close together provided great cover. And we could of easily walked around with out to much effort.

'Hey, about that question earlier, Sev..' I turned to Arissa. She still had on the cloak I had giving her, and she looked very comfortable wearing it. 'What about you? Do you see yourself falling in love? Like.. Could you see yourself caring for someone more than you care for the guild?'

'That's hard to answer,' I said, but the memories of the encounter I had with Gallus and the words he had spoken that day filled my mind. I smiled at Arissa. 'I guess.. I guess I do, but I would have to create a balance between the two.'

'A balance?'

'Yeah.' I continued. 'I don't want one thing becoming all of who I am, you know? I want to allow other, beautiful and exhilarating things into my heart. And at the same time, protect the things I already do love.'

Arissa smiled, she looked happy. 'Which are?'

'You should know.' I said back at her. 'Lorena, our guild family, our close friends. They all mean so much to me. But if I was to fall in love with someone, I wouldn't dissappoint the two parties.'

'What if they were one in the same?'

I chuckled. 'You're full of questions tonight.' I said with my brow furrowing.

'Answer me, Plagarius.' She demanded in a low tone.

'Well, what do you mean?'

She shrugged. 'What if you fell inlove with a fellow guild member?'

Her question didn't register. My mind had become preoccupied by the fact that we had finally arrived at the docks. The twin moon's light shimmered across the sea's waves and the ships quietly creaked, rocking back and forth. 'We'll talk later, right now we have business.' I said. I didn't look back to see her face expression. By the way she fell quiet I could tell she was disappointed.

There were only two guards on either side of the ports. A handful of sailers were on there decks, drinking the night away. By just looking at a few of them, I could tell most were on skooma. They were all fairly large ships, any one of them could take about an hour to search the entire thing.

I sighed and looked at Arissa. 'It's all a guessing game now.. What do you say?'

She pointed towards a bigger more prestigous looking ship. 'I know that one, we're in luck. That ship is the Forerunner, it carries goods all over Tamriel. There is bound to be a ton of void salts in there.'

I looked at my guild sister appraisingly and sent a silent prayer to Nocturnal. I almost reveled in the fact that I had a daedric prince of luck to send an extra boost of luck from time to time.

I moved in closely keeping my footsteps quiet like many, many times before. I signaled for Arissa to follow and she snuck hastily behind keeping her eye out for any guard or sailor that decided to look our way. The moons, and northern lights did us no justice. It might aswell had been day time. Slowly creeping, a guard turned around casting his torchlight towards us. I thought quickly and pushed Arissa behind some fish barrels. The guard turned back around to continue his partrol. I snuck back up and boarded on the ship. Arissa, not far behind.

The hull of the ship hummed and creaked slowly and quietly as the wind and sea slowly bent and turned it's wood in all directions. With a quick show of lockpicking skill, Arissa had us inside in mere moments.

'That was impressive, you've improved.' I said, complimenting her.

'Not as impressive as this entire plan. You've outdone yourself, Sev. And i'm having fun.'

I chuckled softly. 'Thats good to hear. But we need to find this the void salt.'

She tapped my shoulder. 'Follow me, I have an idea.' Arissa pointed to a sleeping nord just a few meters down the corridor. He was obviously a hired mercenery to keep guard of the ship. He had on iron armor and a large steel longsword lay next to him.

Arissa snuck closer and closer to the man. Keeping her feet as quiet as possible. I copied after her analysing what she was doing. Arissa was a superb thief. A total natural at what she does. I admired everything about her when she is in action. The imperial girl withdrew one of her twin ebony daggers she had Arnskar, the guilds blacksmith, craft for her. During our training sections with Niruin, she showed deadly skill in double wielding techniques and could probably carve a man up like a goat.

She held the dagger to the nord's throat and grinned as he woke up, his eyes widened in horror. 'Listen up, pal. I know you truly don't care about the goods on this ship. You're only concern is to get paid.' She said with a slight growl in her voice. 'We'll steal you something nice, if you tell us where they have a good amount of void salts.'

The nord looked down at the blade being held to his throat and swallowed hard as he looked into Arissa's eyes. He nodded as if he knew exactly what was going on. 'Oki, oki. Aye, 'tis ship gots plenty err, void salt you speak of. If there is enything init fer me, pretti lady, then me wants a case of that good ol' dragon's breath mead. Should fetch me ah nice price.' The nord said, his eyes switching from me to Arissa.

'Good tell us, where the goods are at and we'll leave your mead onshore for you.' I told the nord.

'How I know we gots a proper deal, imperial?' The nord's eyes were squinted.

'You can come with us, if you aren't sure about it.'

His brow furrowed. 'It's best if me stay me post, you see, don' want eny sailors see me away. Might cut me pay again. We gots a deal then, leave it offshore and I come fetch it later. Sell it to those cat fellows before we set sail again. The goods you want is down in the lower level, 'ere all the rest of the cargo be. Ain't no other guards sides me enyway. So just head down.'

We made our way down to the rocking corridors. Trying to keep balance, the bay had been calm, but the slightest waves made the ship sway back and forth. When we finally arrived to the cargo rooms, the easy part began. The mercenery had been true to his word. There were atleast two sacks full of void salt ready for the picking. I smiled to myself. I couldn't but to be proud of my guild. We get things done, without bloodshed. Everyone spoke one language and thats coin. We never kill our marks. And I was one hundred percent fine with that. Death is not a good answer for anything.

Arissa found the case of Dragon's breath mead. And I held the sack of void salts and we made away back up to the outerdeck of the ship. Sneaking pass the city guards again was as easy as sneaking in. I found a good place under the docks to hide the case of mead. We rushed towards the mine where our friends had been waiting.

'You two made it back finally.' Ragvir said.

'We had to make a new friend, but we have the void salt. Is Lorena and Paws back yet?' As soon as I said that, two figures entered the mine rolling down two large barrels. Lorena, had several beads of sweat rolling down face and Paws looked exhausted. 'Thought we lost you guys.'

'Do you know how hard it is to rolled two heavy fire salt filled barrels through snow is?' Lorena asked trying to catch her breath.

'This one promises to get much more excersise.' Paws said collasping onto the ground. 'Dar'zu carries the dragon's tongue.' He pulled out a pile of orange-yellow flowers from a knapsack.

'Perfect lets start spread this stuff around.' I uncovered the salt and everyone did the same. We sprinkled fire salt and void salt in every corner of the mine. Lorena plucked the metals off the dragon's tongue and randoms dropped them in fire salt. Ragvir and Ania, mixed the void salts in with the fire salts. I directed them and Arissa threw what remaining oil that was left, over it all.

'How does all of this work?' Ania asked folding her arms as she dropped the last of the salt. The rest of them done with their job surrounded me.

'Well, you see the oil and the fire salt is flammable, the fire salts intensifies any type of fire, doubling the heat also. The dragon's tongue has a weird magical property when burned, it becomes a weird acid that burns through anything, in this case the wooden beams. I already explained what the void salt accomplishes. It'll work. And we'll have a grand ol' light show.'

'You'll be talked about in the guild for months.' Arissa said looking at me. 'This whole plan is genius.'

'Aw, I don't take credit for it. It's thanks to a hundred year old tactic used by the redguard sailors.' I looked back at the main cavern of mine to make sure all of the ingredients had been place evenly and heavied in certain places. I took pride in all of there efforts, including mine. We were just about done. Only step now was to make an oil trail to the entrance of the cave, where we can safely light it.

I sent a quick nod to Paws who picked up a bucket of the remaining lantern oil Ragvir and Ania had collected. We all stood by the entrance of the mine and watch as Paws slowly let oil spill from the bucket, making a trail out the door and into the night air. We quickly traveled to a hill not far from the mine, making sure we avoided any curious guards that might want to know what a group thieves were up to. Luckily, none came to investigate and we were home free.

'Everything set?' I said looking back at my team. Ania began to wrap a soft looking clothe around one of Lorena's arrow and doused it with some wine from her flask. As soon as she was done she smiled and nodded.

Arissa, who had been looking eagerly at me, stood by my side. My body felt warm, even in the cold air of The Pale. I slowly felt comforted by her presence. So I dared to take a chance. Slowly, I reached my across her back and pulled her closer towards me. She didn't fight it, instead without effort she leaned in closer. My heart began to pound. And I felt warmer yet. If it wasn't obvious then, it is now.

There was no denying it. No way in Oblivion. Even when we first met I noticed certain things about her. It's so clear to me now what Arissa meant to me. This girl, no, this woman. She is so beautiful. Arissa Acies Aufero... I truly do love you.

A pang of sorrow hit me. I may love her, but does she love me? Does she feel the same way? Would she ever?

Lorena readied her- now lit- arrow and took aim. Her head snapped to me, excitement and eagerness filling her eyes. I chuckled and nodded.

'Fire away, sis.' I said with a smile. Arissa looked up at me smiling and looked forward towards the mine again.

Lorena released her arrow, her bow string making a twang sound as she released. The flaming arrow flew through the air with incredidle force. I was impressed on how strong and skilled of an archer Lorena had actually become. The thought left my mind as the arrow landed right on target, igniting the oil on the ground. The fire scorched the entranced and traveled in the mine. I tightened my grip around Arissa, sending a multitude of prayers to the divines that my plan would work.

A few agonizing moments later, there was a large boom and a rush of air crashed into us soon after. Dust and wooden debris flew from the mine's entrance, scattering around the place. The thunderous sound of the cave caving in, alerted all of the town's guard and they were rushing to the scene. We were all safe on a hill, and no one suspected us. My body felt light, as the weight relieved itself from my shoulders. When I heard the rest of the group cheering and celebrating, I loosened my hold of Arissa.

'Congratulations.' She said, turning to me. 'That was something, really.'

I smiled. 'I couldn't of done it without you, seriously, the whole bribing gig.' I place my hand on her shoulder.

She made a flinching move and her eyes widenened, her smile never left. She threw her face into my chest and embraced me. And my heart leapt into my throat...