The Thief That Stole His Heart
Summary: Since the Dovahkiin restored the Guild to its full strength, the thieves have enjoyed their luck and filled their coin purses to the brim; but their luck will become even stronger when a foe becomes an ally. But what ties to the Guild does this thief have and why is Brynjolf so drawn to her?
XIV: Mercer Frey
As they delved deeper into the sanctuary, nerves couldn't help but bubble away in Elsie's stomach; what if Mercer didn't want to see her? He didn't really have a choice, but he could be hostile with her. Before she could even think about that, she had to worry about Nocturnal, she had never come face to face with a Daedric prince and she never thought she'd have to but as Brynjolf placed his hand in hers, nervousness seemed to fade away.
Karliah was standing at the Ebonmere when the two thieves stepped through the door. She turned around with a scowl on her face. As she marched up to Brynjolf, she kept her eyes on Elsie.
"What is she doing here Brynjolf? You can't bring her here, she isn't a,"
"Nightingale, I know," he nodded towards Elsie, "she knows too but I need a favour of you, lass. I think you owe Elsie."
"I don't owe anybody anything." She said as she folded her arms across her chest. Karliah stared Brynjolf down, willing him to give up first but it wasn't going to happen. "What do you want?" she looked at Elsie a little more softly than she had Brynjolf, mainly because she did want to put what happened between them in the past.
"I want you to speak to Nocturnal and ask her if she would let me speak with Mercer."
Karliah's eyes widened and she regarded Brynjolf. "Do you know what I would be asking of Nocturnal? To reanimate Mercer for a brief time, the one who stole from and betrayed her?"
"It's a lot to ask, but if anyone can convince Nocturnal, it's you." He looked down at Elsie sympathetically and looked towards the entrance. "Do you mind waiting outside, lass? I think I should explain things to Nocturnal, personally."
She nodded and looked at Karliah. "Whatever the outcome, thank you. I know you don't have to this and that your feelings towards him are negative, but I appreciate this." She let go of Brynjolf's hand and stepped towards the door. The short walk felt like miles as she felt both sets of eyes on her; she wasn't looking forward to sitting alone with her thoughts.
"The lass would benefit from meeting Mercer, she's been having nightmares about him and she mumbles his name when she sleeps. Elsie doesn't know she's doing it, but every aspect of her life is occupied by him. She's not going to be willing from moving on with her life if her head is constantly spinning."
"Nocturnal won't do this without asking for something in return, you do realise that, don't you?"
"I've already agreed to guard this temple when I die, what more could she ask for?"
Karliah shrugged and turned to the Ebonmere. "Nocturnal is hard to read, she may ask for nothing." she waved for Brynjolf to take the spot beside her and once she had, she spoke to the Ebonmere. "I call upon you Lady Nocturnal, Queen of Murk and Empress of Shadow. Hear my voice!"
Nocturnal was keeping them waiting, it made Brynjolf feel weary; she could take his request well or she could react with fury and he hoped for the latter. When she finally emerged, she had a face of wonder.
"Karliah," she locked eyes with Brynjolf and smirked, "Brynjolf. I wasn't expecting to hear from you."
"Lady Nocturnal, Brynjolf has come here to seek a favour from you." Karliah bowed her head, unwilling to look her mistress in the eye.
"A favour from me? Brynjolf, this is very out of character for you." Nocturnal turned her gaze to the door of the sanctuary and let out a breath. "I'll hazard a guess and say that it has something to do with your new wife."
He followed her gaze to the door and turned back to Nocturnal. "Aye, it is. Lady Nocturnal, what I'm going to ask for is something that is needed and not necessarily wanted."
"I already know what you're going to ask of me Brynjolf and I can tell you that it is very much wanted. Usually I wouldn't accept such a request, but I've been informed that Sithis wants her soul and if it's going to keep her out of the void and give her more strength, then I'm all for it. I've saw what's to come of her and if it means the future that I've seen is guaranteed, then I'll grant it… On one condition."
Brynjolf let out his held breath as Karliah turned to him in amazement; in her decades long service to Nocturnal, she had never saw her accept such an unreal request. Whatever Nocturnal saw in the future, it had to be special.
"Whatever it is, I will pay it." He replied graciously.
"Oh, my dear, you won't be the one to pay the price. I want to speak with her." She looked back towards the door. "Bring her in Brynjolf and leave us to speak."
She had been out of the Ebonmere for a while and the longer that she sat there, the more she regretted agreeing to Brynjolf's idea. Elsie was happy not knowing Mercer and she didn't think that he would be able to say anything that would change her thoughts and feelings towards her father; that was if he even admitted to his faults. The bits and pieces she had heard about Mercer from the other thieves was that he could never admit to his mistakes and he was corrupt. Perhaps in death, whatever made him like that released him from its grip.
When the door opened, she jumped onto her feet and looked at Brynjolf with a raised brow. She couldn't read his face, he wasn't giving away any detail of how his conversation with Nocturnal went and then she spotted Karliah behind him, her face was easier to read; she looked like she had saw a ghost. Her dark grey skin became greyer and her violet eyes became darker. Whatever Nocturnal had said to them wasn't good.
"What did she say?" She placed her hand on Brynjolf's face and watched his green eyes roam onto her face.
"She wouldn't tell me what she wants from you in return but I'm guessing from what she was saying, the only reason she's doing this for you is firstly because of the assassin after you; she doesn't want Sithis to have your soul."
Elsie nodded and shrugged her shoulders. "That's obvious, I'm a thief and a follower of Nocturnal. If I was going to serve anyone, it would be her."
"The second thing she said, and this is something that Karliah picked up on, Nocturnal seems to think that you are going to mould the future for us thieves and whatever it is, it's pleased Nocturnal."
"So, she's going to let me speak with my father?" Elsie looked at Karliah and then to Brynjolf.
"Only if you accept her conditions. You don't have to, I want to make that very clear, lass. Neither of us are holding a dagger to your back telling you to go through with this; do whatever your heart is telling you to do."
"I have served Nocturnal for most of my life and I'll give you a piece of advice, take Nocturnal's offer because you'll never get another chance." Karliah shared a look with Elsie, giving her a fleeting smile. "I know what your heart is telling you, I can see it in your eyes. You want to find the answers you've been looking for, don't you?"
Elsie looked down at the floor and let out a sigh. "I just want to know why he left me. That's the only thing that bothers me the most."
"Hear her out, lass before you agree to anything." He kissed her on the forehead, holding her in his arms for a moment. "We'll wait for you here."
Delvin hadn't spoke a word to anyone since he returned, he was spending most of his time at the bar drinking away his sorrows. Vex cared for him, no matter how mean or nasty she was towards him, she still considered him to be her only friend and to know that she was responsible for the way he was feeling gave her the slightest bit of guilt. It wasn't a lot, but it was something. She took the empty stool beside him and ordered herself a tankard of mead.
"I take it that the meeting with your contact was a bust?" she said lowly, their conversation was going to be between the two of them and only them.
"Yes, and I told Odin the outcome; to put it mildly, he wasn't pleased. He said that we should expect the Guild to take a dip in profit until the matter is resolved."
"But jobs should still be pouring in, Brynjolf set that all up before he took Elsie out of here."
Delvin shook his head and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. He was stressed and upset; he really thought that he could get Astrid to drop the contract, he would've bet all the gold he had on it. He was lucky he didn't.
"Any job that he set up involved Elsie's magic; they were all high stakes and big pay offs. No one in this Guild can use magic except for her so until then, we're sitting ducks."
"What about the work that we do, won't that tide us over?"
"It'll keep us busy, but it won't bring in as much as what those jobs could have." Delvin looked at Vex with a frown, he shook his head back and forth as he tried to come to terms with the disappointment he felt in himself. "If they don't come back in a matter of months, then we're going to go back to the Mercer days; no coin and no reputation."
She knew she screwed up, she let her anger and her hurt get the better of her rationality and now the Guild was going to suffer. Vex drank her mead, gulping it down as she stared off into the distance. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know, recruit and hope we find someone with a bit of skill to send out into the market. Odin needs Brynjolf much more than he admits; he's got a baby on the way, he's not going to be knocking around here as often as he used to. He wants me to fill Bryn's shoes and let me tell you, they're big shoes to fill."
Vex placed her hand on Delvin's arm, the corner of her mouth turning up ever so slightly. "You can do this, it's only until Brynjolf returns. Hopefully, it'll be soon."
Vex didn't know the Dark Brotherhood like Delvin did, he was a lot wiser than he let on to be; Brynjolf and Elsie weren't going to return for a long time, he didn't even know if they would return at all; if it came to a fight, Brynjolf would die if it meant protecting her. Vex was living in a fantasy world and it put a couple of thoughts into his head.
She stepped back into the Ebonmere and feasted her eyes upon Nocturnal in the flesh. She stood in front of the Daedric Prince and bowed her head; she didn't want to offend her or anger her, she wanted to leave the Twilight Sepulcher with the answers she craved.
"Lady Nocturnal, I'm ready to hear your terms. Thank you for considering what I'm looking for."
"I must admit I thought that Brynjolf would've brought you here sooner, but with what happened between you and Karliah, it must've put him off." Nocturnal smirked at Elsie and it sent shivers down the Breton's spine. "I did have a part to play in that, I can admit when I am wrong. Now, let's negotiate, shall we?"
Elsie nodded and lifted her head. "I'm listening."
"What I want from you is life service and when I say life, I include the afterlife. I'm going to assume that Brynjolf has already mentioned the secret of the Nightingales?"
"He's told me about it, yes."
"And do you know what it means to be a Nightingale?"
"I know that it means protecting the Sepulcher."
"Once a Nightingale dies, their spirit joins me in the Evergloam to serve me for as long as I deem fit. Sometimes, I will release a Nightingale of their duties before they have expired, and I feel like Karliah deserves to live the rest of her life however she chooses. If I'm to give you what you want, I want, in return is for you to take Karliah's place as a Nightingale but know that you will never have the chance to be released from your eternal duties as she has been."
Elsie considered this for a moment; she didn't care where she went when she dies, she was too young to think about the afterlife.
"I accept your condition."
It seemed as if Nocturnal was smiling as she clasped her hands in front of her body. "Then I grant your desire. I wish that this makes you stronger in your fight against Sithis because I will not let him take your soul, not when the seed for the future has already been planted. Go, speak with your father and find the answers you are looking for."
There was a noise at the end of the corridor and when Brynjolf moved to investigate, he came face to face with his mentor. Nothing had really changed with him; he still had that scowl that could make your blood run cold and he still had his hands fixed onto his hips.
"What is the meaning of all of this? When I die, I expect to stay dead." His eyes roamed away from Brynjolf's face to Karliah's, he reached for his sword, but it wasn't there. "Karliah, my greatest foe."
"Mercer, I expected that I would never see your face again. Looks like never came sooner than I anticipated."
"Looks like the lass took Nocturnal's offer." He said to Karliah, looking over his shoulder at her.
"What are you talking about, Brynjolf? What am I doing here?" Mercer was getting angrier by the second.
"There's someone that has been waiting their whole life to meet you and she's struck a deal with Nocturnal to make it happen." Brynjolf replied, folding his arms across his chest.
"I don't want to meet anyone. What I want is to return back to the Evergloam and forget that this ever happened."
The doors to the Ebonmere opened and Elsie emerged with her head down. She looked at Karliah and waved towards the door. "Nocturnal wishes to speak with you."
Karliah nodded and looked towards Mercer. "You've got what you wanted, I pray that it works out."
Elsie looked at Brynjolf and then to Mercer, her jaw dropping when she saw him standing there, flesh and bone. She stepped towards them slowly, taking her place by Brynjolf's side. He looked at her with a raised brow as he noticed the hazel eyes; he had saw them before.
"Who are you?"
"I'm your daughter, I'm Elsie Frey."
With Brynjolf gone, the air became tense and silent. Elsie sat on the floor, staring up at her father as he paced back and forth, trying to wrap his head around everything that was happening. She wanted him to just sit down and talk to her, she only had an hour with him, but she didn't have enough courage to ask him all the questions that had been running through her mind for over two decades.
"You look a lot like your mother, I can see my likeness in you but it's not as prominent. I guess you were lucky in those regards." He said as he glanced down at her. "How old are you now?"
"I'm twenty-eight. I bet you thought that you would never see me." The way he grunted at her made her blood boil, when she rolled her eyes at him, he stopped pacing and lowered himself down to her level. "You didn't want to see me, at all."
"Why are you here?" his voice took a different tone, a softer and less angry tone.
"I want answers to questions I've been asking my whole life."
"You may not like the answers to most of them."
"I don't care, I need to know."
He sat in front of her, his legs crossed as he stared at her face. He couldn't get over how beautiful his daughter was. Seeing her stirred up all these instincts that he didn't get to feel. "Ask me whatever you want."
"Did you ever want me?"
"You have no idea how pleased I was to learn that your mother was with child. It was the best moment of my life. Leaving you was one of my greatest failures."
"Why did you abandon us then? If you were truly happy knowing that you were going to be a father, you wouldn't have left."
"You've grown up hearing only one side of the story, it's time that you know what really happened." He reached out to take her hand, but she pulled it away, securing her hands in her lap. "Your mother and I were married by the time we were eighteen and found a small farm to live on as we settled into marital life. From the very beginning we had a turbulent life together; she wanted a simple life, but I wanted riches beyond compare. I always wanted a child, an heir to pass on my legacy to but first I had to create that legacy; I was always a gifted thief, I had been doing it my whole life. My father used to tell me that I would get caught and rot in a jail cell, but he was wrong, I lived in the shadows... Your mother didn't agree with the way I made money and we constantly fought over my line of work."
"I guess that's why she detested my habits so much, it reminded her too much of you."
Mercer shrugged. "Probably. I didn't expect your mother to get pregnant a few years into our marriage and she gave me an ultimatum; give up my lifestyle or give up my chance of being a father and I chose to give up my lifestyle, but farming wasn't producing the money we hoped it would. Our crops died, and we had to feed ourselves over the livestock, so I hid the fact that I was stealing. I was so naïve to think that she wouldn't find out but when she did, she pushed me away. I should've fought to stay by her side, to have the chance to be a father but I was young and foolish; I should've known that she wanted me to stay but I was so angry with her, all I wanted to do was provide a comfortable life for you and her… So, I left for Skyrim. I'll admit that I tried to forget about you but every so often I would wonder what you were doing, what you looked like and how your voice sounded."
"You could've written a letter, you could've returned to High Rock to look for me. You have no idea how bad you abandoning us left things for me. We lived in poverty because we weren't making any money and when I started to steal, she had me thrown in a jail cell. I came here to find you and by the time I got here, you were already gone." Elsie bit her lip and looked away from her father. "I learned that you betrayed the Guild that embraced you and came to the conclusion that you were ruthless, then I read your diaries, you wrote about me once."
"I tried to forget you, Elsie. Understand that I couldn't write about you without feeling so much loss. It was a loss that I tried to fill with gold. I stole the skeleton key from Nocturnal and it changed me, it turned me into a monster."
"Do you regret what you did?"
"Yes, if I didn't do it, I would still be alive, and I would've crossed paths with you. I can see myself in you, we're cut from the same cloth, but you have clearer outlook on life. Gold and power ruled me."
"And it ruled me too until I fell for Brynjolf. He was the one that changed me, I let love change me for the better."
"I thought I could sense something between the two of you… You're good for each other, you are making him tougher and he brings down the walls you protect yourself with."
She didn't want to discuss her relationship with Brynjolf, she wanted to learn more about Mercer. "Well… Do I get my magic from you or from my mother?"
"Definitely me," a smirk crossed his face as she lifted her head back to him, "I loved magic just as much as I loved stealing. How did you get into magic?"
"I felt it coursing through my veins and the money I made from thieving went into lessons. Mother thought I was getting them for free until she caught me in the market stealing from a traveller."
"If you don't mind me asking, why did you join the Guild?"
"I planned on taking my revenge against you, I stole plans from the Guild and executed them before they could. Odin sent Brynjolf to recruit me and I've been with them ever since. They gave me your journals once I proved myself and then Brynjolf told me things about you; mostly bad but he had a few nice memories."
"Did the Guild know who you were when you joined?"
"No, I knew that I had to keep that secret until there was trust. Brynjolf had no judgements but Delvin and Vex found it difficult to digest."
"That doesn't surprise me, but if you'll let me give you a piece of fatherly advice… Be careful of Vex; her anger and her jealousy can be deadly."
"I'll keep that in mind." Elsie was starting to feel the weight being lifted from her shoulders; she had burdened herself with doubt and wonder for her whole life and now she was free of it.
With the little time they had together, Elsie told him everything about her life, she wasn't going to hold back anymore, and it was his turn to learn about her; she told him about Vorstag and Markarth, the way she undermined the Guild and her marriage to Brynjolf. The only thing she was hesitant with was the mark placed on her head; Mercer was dead, he wasn't going to be any help to her and there was no point of him spending his time in the Evergloam worrying about her.
"I want you to know that I love you and I have since I found out about you. What I did, it wasn't your fault, it was mine. I should've fought for you, but I was stubborn."
"I forgive you, thank you for giving me the answers I've been looking for. I was expecting this meeting to go very differently." She let out a sigh and plastered a fake smile onto her face, she didn't want him to leave her again, but she knew that neither of them had a choice. "Can I ask you one last thing?"
"Of course."
"Can I have a hug, father?"
He smiled sadly and held her in his arms for the first and only time. She hugged him tightly as he said farewell; his hold on Nirn was slipping and he couldn't allow himself to go without holding his daughter. She was left by herself feeling like she had found everything she was looking for, as he faded away. This chapter of her life was closed; she found her peace with Mercer.
A:N Thank you for all your reviews and thank you for coming back to this story. Hopefully you enjoyed seeing Mercer again. Now that Elsie knows more about herself, do you think it'll change how she views her life and experiences? Let me know what you thought of this chapter and thank you again for reading!