When Karliah had disappeared earlier in the ruins, she had not run away as Mercer had thought. Instead, she had hidden herself on the far side of the chamber, and while still under the effects of the invisibility potion, she had listened to Mercer's speech and watched in silence as he pierced his sword right through Riviere's paralysed chest. Mercer had left shortly thereafter, which for Karliah was quite fortunate as the potion's effects had barely lasted until then. Karliah left her hiding spot and moved over to Riviere's side. She bent down beside the lifeless girl, placed the fingers of her right hand against Riviere's neck, and smiled. There was a pulse. Thank goodness Karliah thought to herself with an immense sense of relief. Now, to get you out of here... Without hesitation, Karliah then took Riviere's left arm and draped it over her shoulders, before rising slowly to her feet and thus pulling the limp girl up with her. Though Riviere was thin and not at all heavy, she was a few inches taller than Karliah, which made it hard to carry her along in such a manner. The journey out of the ruins was not to be a fast one.

The wind had died down by now. Instead of whipping its way across the snowy tundra, it merely danced across the frozen ground. Of course, the coldness in the air was still present, but much of its harshness had disappeared. It was far darker outside by this hour, but the moonlight reflected brightly off the clean white snow. There was another source of light in the darkness, a bright burning flame that came from the now blazing fire pit beside Karliah's makeshift camp. Karliah herself was seated with her back against a rock. She had been sitting there for several hours by now, barely moving an inch, watching the fire as it swayed elegantly in the gentle breeze as that passed periodically through the camp. But every so often, she would turn her head to her right and let her gaze rest upon the form lying motionless on her bedroll. Karliah sighed. "Do me a favour and wake up. Sooner rather than later would be nice. Alright?"

Another half hour passed and still there was no movement from Riviere. "This shouldn't be happening," Karliah worried. "It has never taken so long for the poison to wear off." Karliah stood up from where she had been sitting and began to walk over to Riviere, but before she could make it, the lifeless girl suddenly flashed awake. Karliah, rather startled by Riviere's sudden movement, leaped backwards, cursing something inaudibly under her breath.

"What the hell just happened?" Riviere wheezed as she tried to sit up. She then turned her head towards Karliah. "Who-" she began as she studied the other woman. Her eyesight was a little fuzzy, but she could at least make out that the woman was wearing dark leather armour, the armour of a Guild thief. She could also see that the woman had dark grey skin and crimson eyes, features characteristic of a Dark Elf.

"Easy, easy," Karliah spoke softly, regaining her usual calmness as she came to Riviere's side. "Don't get up so fast. You've been out cold for hours. How... how are you feeling?"

Karliah attempted to place her hand comfortingly on Riviere's shoulder, but the girl pulled away and tried to stand up again. After realising that she was too shaky to stand she gave up and sunk back down onto her knees. For a few seconds, she breathed heavily as she looked down at the ground, trying to remember what had happened before she ended up outside. "I... we were in the ruins," she began quietly, speaking more to herself than to Karliah. "It was strange... And quiet... And... And... Then something happened, and I fell to the ground. I couldn't move, no matter how hard I tried. And then there was Mercer, speaking to someone else, who then disappeared into thin air. And then... then... Mercer... That bastard, he stabbed me!" Riviere looked down at her chest. "But... I didn't feel a thing..." she murmured as she studied the place where she had been wounded. Her tunic was bloodied, and there was a large scar on her left breast, however something was wrong. There should be much more blood, and that should not have healed at all. That... that was practically in the heart. How... How am I not dead? Then, Riviere suddenly remembered the sharp pain that she had felt in her chest before she fell. She remembered the arrow that had struck her. Then, looking towards Karliah, she realised who she was looking at.

"YOU," Riviere gasped, again trying to scramble to her feet. Still to weak to move normally, she stumbled backwards and fell onto the cold snow. "You... YOU SHOT ME! You bitch! You tried to kill me!"

"No," Karliah corrected, managing to remain calm as Riviere yelled at her. "I saved your life."

"You shot me!"

"The arrow was tipped with poison, a very powerful paralytic-"

"Oh, wonderful. You poisoned me too!" Riviere laughed sarcastically. "Well, that explains the jelly-everything..." She reached down to her right thigh, expecting to find her dagger. Instead, her hand grasped only air. She then checked the other side. Both daggers were missing.

"Looking for these?" asked Karliah, holding Riviere's daggers. "Now, if you'll allow me to continue. Please."

Riviere scowled at Karliah, but said nothing.

"As I was saying, that poison completely paralysed you, and I see you can still feel it. But what you don't seem to realise is that it didn't just stop your movement. It also slowed your heart, which stopped you from bleeding out. That is why you are alive. If indeed I had intended to end your life, we would not be having this conversation."

Riviere smirked. "Well, then why didn't you try to kill me? Or better yet, why the hell didn't you try to shoot Mercer?"

"I never had a clear shot."

"You had a perfectly clear shot when he was standing in front of me! He was wide open!

"No I-"

"Ugh. Whatever. I don't even care. It's too late now, he's gone and I'm still barely functional."

"Look, I made a split second decision, alright? I chose to get you out of the way, and prevent your death. I could have tried to go after Mercer, sure. But what if I'd missed? I only had one arrow with enough poison to take someone down. If I had missed, Mercer would have come after me, and then surely turned on you. I heard his speech, I know more or less what he tried to do to you, and for that I apologise. But facing Mercer in combat is too dangerous. If I had tried to fight him, you would most likely have tried to fight me too, because you two came here to hunt me down, after all. And I don't know you, so I don't know your level of skill in combat, but I figured that since Mercer had brought you along and you had both survived, you have to be able to handle yourself. So yes, I did shoot you. But I saved your life."

Riviere stared at Karliah in silence for a few moments, before lowering her eyes and sighing deeply. "I...I'm sorry," Riviere apologised, looking up at Karliah again. "I suppose I should be thanking you. I suppose I actually owe you my life."

Karliah smiled. "More than you'll ever realise. That poison took me almost a year to get right, and like I said, I only had enough for a single shot. But it's alright. I suppose I owe you an apology for not warning you before shooting you. Not that I could, but I should have expected your reaction..."

"Yes, well, people don't generally enjoy being shot."

"That is true. I still wish I had been able to go along with my original plan, though. I had intended to capture Mercer alive, to bring him before the Guild and expose him for what he did. He needs to answer for what he did to us, what he did to Gallus."

Riviere huffed. "I guess I screwed that plan up, didn't I? Well, my presence did. It was Mercer's idea to bring me along, so technically it's his fault. But then again, isn't it all his fault? But now that your original plan isn't going to happen, what are you going to do now? I don't really know much about you, but something tells me you don't give up easily."

"You're right about that," Karliah agreed. "As a matter of fact, I do have another plan. It's not necessarily much harder, but it'll take far more time. You see, I didn't just lure Mercer here for an ironic ending to his treachery. I don't know if anyone told you, but this is where Mercer killed Gallus."

Riviere nodded.

"Before you two arrived," continued Karliah, "I recovered this." She reached into a pouch strapped to her belt and pulled out a small journal. It was bound in smooth brown leather, and had a large round emblem on the front that depicted the image of some kind of bird. Riviere had not seen this symbol before, though it was similar to one she had seen a few days ago, on the mysterious cloaked woman's box. "This is Gallus's journal. I recovered it from his remains. I think the information that I'm going to need is inside it."

"You think? I'm sensing that there's a but in there somewhere..."

"Take a look," Karliah said as she handed the journal to Riviere, who opened it carefully and began flicking through the pages. They were covered in writing, but it was a script that Riviere could not recognise. "It's beautiful, but I've absolutely no idea what it says. I'm guessing you have no idea either."

"Not a damn clue," Karliah replied.

"Well, even though neither of us can read it, do you know anyone who can? I think I know someone who might, but it's a long way to travel."

Karliah stood silently for a few moments, thinking hard as to whether or not she knew of anyone who might have the knowledge that she sought. After a moment, her eyes widened in realisation. "Of course..." she murmured. "Gallus had a friend at the College of Winterhold, a Bosmer by the name of-"

"Enthir!" Riviere smiled. "That'd make sense! He always seems to know more than he should..."

"You know him?" Karliah asked. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though. He has always had some kind of connection to the Guild. As a matter of fact, he was the only outsider that Gallus trusted with his true identity..."

"Which is..."

"A Nightingale."

"A Nightingale," Riviere repeated. "You mentioned that to Mercer in the ruins. I've heard of that before, but I can't remember."

"The Nightingale Trinity. It's a, well, almost like a branch of the Guild. An anonymous one, in the service of Nocturnal."

"That's it!" Riviere replied. "I read that in a book somewhere, but I didn't know if it was true or not."

"Well, it's true. The three of us; Gallus, Mercer and I, were all members. But I'll tell you more later. Look, I think we can help each other here. We need this journal translated, and Winterhold isn't too far away. Why don't you take the journal to Enthir, and once it's translated, we can work from there."

"I suppose I could, but I really need to get back to Riften as soon as possible..."

"If we translate the journal first, then we wont have to worry about, well, I think it's better if you go to Enthir now."

"Well, where will you go?"

"I have some cleaning up to do here, and something to look for. I'll meet you in Winterhold when I'm done."

"Uh, alright. But try not to take too long. Like I said, I really need to get back."