Chapter Twenty-Six
Inside the dwemer museum it smelled like dust to the thief, the cold stone walls taking any heat and eliminating it. She was crouched in a corridor, clinging to the wall where little shadow existed and could hear the sound of voices ahead of her, grumbling about being on guard duty there. Amber eyes watched for a moment before she started moving towards them, ducking behind the pillar between them.
Vex peeked her head around it, spotting the two grumbling guards, countless glass display cases filled to the brim with dwemer artifacts and massive robotic mechanization placed about the large chamber. She could see at least five guards, each armed and moving about on duty as the duo split up. Gears ground together with a slightly painful sound, steam pipes running courses along the walls and ceiling. If she'd actually been interested in the objects, she might have actually seen their worth. But to the woman, there was little of value in them safe for what held jewels or easy to pawn items.
She started to creep forward to a half wall, pressing herself against the cool stone and working her way to the right. A guard stood before her around the corner, facing the massive centurion construct in the center of the foray of the museum. Vex sucked in a breath of air as she pressed herself into the biting stone the best she could, waiting for the guard to move on elsewhere, the helmeted man looking around almost as if bored. He stepped off the post he'd taken, two half walls flanking him and more stone counters with dwemer gas lights upon them, and made his way towards the center.
She stepped light as snow across the small gap, the other guards moving about and just missing her as she ducked behind a pillar on the other side, the door not far away but still exposed. Peering ever so slightly around the stone and metal decorated column, Vex could see a guard walking by just where she was, and another patrolling the open path she needed to take only from the center of the room besides the centurion.
Excitement started to fill her body from her toes up as she waited for the right moment to move, holding her breath as it arrived and then rolling forward from her crouch to quickly move herself away from the pillar and to the door, pulling a lockpick out of her pocket only to pause for a moment in confusion.
It was unlocked.
The woman stared at it for a dangerously long moment before slipping through the door, deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Still, it had the hairs on the back of her neck rising, it shouldn't have been open. Someone else is here. Decided the thief, a hand slipping to her daggers with caution. The new portion of the dwarven chambers appeared to be a laboratory of sorts, the lack of display cases and instead presence of crates and numerous amount of still in place rubble helping her come to that conclusion.
The pathway led to the right, and so thusly she moved that way in the newly granted shadows, opening a door and slipping into it. There was a decent sized room with benches pointed to a raised platform with a throne upon it, a woman moving about in an obvious patrol pattern. It didn't take Vex long to realize that unless she could turn invisible she wasn't going to get past her. Eyes peering about for something to give her an advantage with, she spotted a heavy, full bottle of wine on a stone counter behind a pillar. Vex moved there silently, grasping it by the neck of the bottle, and lifting it up and chucking it into the room to the left she could tell dead-ended, probably housing bedding for the guards in the deeper parts of the museum.
The guard went running right to it, Vex sprinting across and going to the door that should have been locked, once again finding it mystifying and alarming that it was in fact not. As Vex slipped between it, shutting it promptly behind her as silently as she could, the female guard walked back muttering under her breath about hearing things and it being a second time.
Her suspicions were confirmed then and there, someone else was in there and they were ahead of her.
Vex moved past countless steam vents, the hot air making her brow drip with sweat as she moved further in at a faster pace, refusing to be beaten to her goal she had no doubt was shared with this intruder. The corridor sloped upwards, the sound of voices returning and a woman and man were debating over the purpose of a large metal shaft sticking out of the ground, the woman claiming it to be a trap.
Steam rose wildly from the floor, the duo running back and forth in a pattern making it infuriating for Vex as she ducked behind a steam pipe, and debated just how to get past them. Obviously the other thief had, and it was getting on her nerves to see herself being beat. Taking a fist sized piece of rubble in hand, she tossed it down the stairwell across from her, both of them shouting and running down it without a moment's hesitation. Vex sprinted down the corridor and up a stairwell, twisting and turning for a few moments until a room opened up before her with a single guard in it besides a door, two minor rooms flanking both sides.
The imperial quickly decided that the best way to get through this, was distractions. She crept to the room on the left, an eating like space set up in the side room, and grabbed a large bowl from a stone table. Vex looked it over once, and then hurled it down the corridor she'd just left. The guard was speeding like an arrow after it, Vex only having to press herself against the stone to stay hidden and then dashing through the doors and shutting it behind her.
A small path continued directly in front of her, an inconspicuously empty chamber besides it, lowered with a gate and stairwell blocking the path. Opening it back up, Vex furrowed her brow with thought at the look about it, plates and other items shoved to the side as if recently disturbed almost violently. "What the..." Whispered the imperial, creeping across towards where the door was, amber eyes trying to bring in as much information as they possibly could. But despite her attempts at finding it, nothing would give any hint to the identity of this other thief, making Vex frown with frustration and run across to the door.
Every moment she wasted was one they could be using to get away with.
The single path to the stone tower that jutted from the mountain was easily covered, Vex throwing stealth to the wind for a moment and crossing it in only a few heartbeats. She threw open the door, and slipped inside, and when she peered up down the pathway to where the tablet she was sent to destroy awaited, she spotted the shape of someone besides the tablet from the other side, an elbow poking its way out on the side as they traced it. Vex scowled, There they are! She thought, creeping along the left wall towards the stairs that would put her behind them.
She stepped up the stone stairs as silently as she could, not having to bother with the door into the study as it was already open. The imperial woman slipped towards the second door, where she could just faintly hear the sound of charcoal scraping over stone on paper. Drawing her blades, Vex slunk forward through the doorway and paused as she looked at the figure shrouded in the shadow of the stone tablet.
Her heart started racing as she took in the unaware thief's form, curves and dark skin, the Guild's recruit issued armor, wild black hair that flowed down to her shoulders. There was only one person in all of Tamriel that she knew of that could be the woman before her, and she was supposed to be dead. "Yosa'Min!" She whispered in a gasp, her knees giving out beneath her as the redguard pooled herself over the tablet with a piece of parchment and charcoal, rubbing tracings of it into the paper. Instantly the redguard dropped the tracings, drawing an arrow from her quiver and twisting around violently fast.
"Vex." Replied the blue eyes redguard, her bow still aimed at the imperial who was too stunned to move, ebony blades clattering onto the ground. "What are you doing here?" Asked Yosa'Min.
Vex sputtered, shaking her head as she tried to figure everything out. "Me? What am I doing here? What are you doing here!" She waved a hand to the woman she had thought dead, believed dead. Seeing her standing before her though, for one reason or another Vex didn't understand, made part of her feel alive and nearly happy. And a whole other part seethed with hate. "You're supposed to be dead!" Stated the imperial, shock still thick in her words.
Yosa'Min lowered the bow slightly, arrow still readied. "Well then I'm one dark ghost." Sneered the woman.
"Divines, I- How?" Asked Vex, her mind racing a thousand different solutions, a thousand different possibilities. She didn't really like any of them as they pointed to only two people. Both of which she had no idea where they were.
"Mercer lied Vex." Firmly replied Yosa'Min. "He tried to kill me, not Karliah, and she didn't kill Gallus either."
Vex shook her head. "But Mercer-" Her words stopped short, Yosa'Min cocking an eyebrow at her. "Mercer..." Repeated Vex, looking down at the nearly finished tracing on the ground. "That bastard." Her mind was on fire, rage building back up to consume the shock she had felt.
"He fooled you and everyone else in the Guild Vex, and he's done it again." Said Yosa'Min. "Why do you think you're here?"
She snapped her amber eyes up to the blue ones of Yosa'Min, a surprising lack of white around them. "To destroy that tablet."
"Exactly, because it's a threat to him and all that he has done for all these years." Yosa'Min waved a hand back to it. "That piece of stone will be his undoing."
"Why are you doing this? What proof do you have that he is the one that killed Gallus?" Snarled Vex, slowly reaching towards the fallen ebony daggers. Yosa'Min turned to look at it for a moment and then back at Vex, having missed the motion. "Just that dunmer bitch's words?"
Yosa'Min laughed coldly. "It doesn't take much to convince me that the person that tried to kill me has done it before in the past."
"She could be playing you!" Accused Vex. "What if whatever she's done to you, is just her trying to get your help to destroy him because she couldn't in the past?" She glared angrily at the redguard. "She has magic I'm sure, all elves do. What if she had messed with your mind and memories so you'll believe her on this? So you'll be her puppet and tool in her actions?"
"She's not." Repeated Yosa'Min.
"How do you know?" Pushed Vex.
"She's not!" Shouted Yosa'Min, anger filling her eyes. "By the Divines woman will you just open your eyes and listen to me? Just once stop jumping to conclusions for once?" Her fingers curled around her bow, tensing as she took a step towards Vex.
Vex laughed coldly at her words. "Well when it came to you I didn't make enough so I think I'm done with waiting and seeing what you'll do." She cut the woman with her words, grief crossing Yosa'Min's face. "Don't act like you still care for me." Growled Vex at the expression that lingered on smooth dark skin.
Yosa'Min looked at her, the woman standing higher than her in actual height and upon the few steps to the doorway. "I told you before I only regret hurting you. That doesn't mean I don't care for you still, just not the way I thought I was going to." Confessed Yosa'Min, watching as emotions of all types ran across Vex's face.
"You love her don't you?" Suddenly asked Vex.
"Yes." There was no delay on the response. Vex lowered her head slightly, remembering words she'd said to a woman she at the time thought was going to be loyal to her. She had promised the woman she'd try to make her happy, even if it meant removing herself from the equation if things got serious with Mjoll. But of course she'd been expecting a bit of forewarning, not discovering the pair out in the woods shaking it up like wild beasts and then cuddling together as if nothing else in the world existed.
The imperial lifted her gaze, and stared at the woman squarely, both of them tensed as if ready to spring into battle. "Good." Vex said tightly.
"Good?" Puzzlement crossed Yosa'Min's face. "What do you mean good? I mean, that's not what I'd expect from you Vex, of all people."
A slight smirk crossed the imperial woman's face, making the redguard feel ill-at-ease. "It's good, because after this she'll have to reside with you Yosa'Min. I hope you and she can get along in such a close proximity." Disdain colored her face, Vex tilting her chin up slightly. "Not like you've not gotten closer before."
"What did you do?" Asked Yosa'Min, horror flooding up her body, her hand trembled. When Vex offered no reply she found herself gritting her teeth. "Vex, what did you do?" She repeated more fiercely, stepping towards her again.
Vex smirked, her head lolling to a side and she just let the shrug roll off her shoulders as if she couldn't care less. "What did I do? Well, for one thing, I made sure I reminded that whore every night of what she'd done, payed a little personal visit and then when given the order I burned that shack to the ground. Wish you had heard Aerin's pitiful screams from inside."
"Did you kill him!" Shouted Yosa'Min, as much as she hated the man to have him burn to death in his own home would have been just a horrible way to go. And Mjoll, she would certainly never stop trying to avenge her friend's death if he had been.
"Oh if only." Drawled Vex as if disappointed. "No, the lucky bastard got out just in time."
Horror rooted the redguard to the ground, blue eyes widening at the woman before her. "Vex, what's happening to you?" Came the weak question, lips trembling. "Why are you doing this? Why are you becoming this monster?"
Coldness crossed the woman's face, her fingers tensing around the hilt of her blades once more. "Monster?" Scoffed Vex. "I'm not becoming a monster, I'm opening my eyes!" She shouted.
"Then see what Mercer is doing to you!" Shouted back Yosa'Min.
"He's not doing anything to me! You're the one that did this! You're the one that slept with Mjoll!" Screamed Vex. Any thought of stealth was long since lost between the two.
Yosa'Min rolled her eyes. "You never would have burned down someone's home with them in it before Vex!" She argued. "When I was falling for you it was for a woman that was a thief, not a spiteful witch!"
Suddenly Vex threw a dagger at Yosa'Min, the ebony blade sailing through the air and just narrowing missing the redguard's head, landing with a thunk on the floor after it bounced off the stone tablet. Yosa'Min loosed the arrow at the same time, it went sailing past the imperial's head and hit the back wall of the study. Both of them were warning shots, the women staring at one another near to blows almost.
"What do you know about me?" Demanded Vex, suddenly running over and tackling Yosa'Min against the tablet, the redguard grunting as her bow was wrenched from her grasp. "What in Oblivion could you possibly know about me!"
"You're not a sheep Vex!" Said Yosa'Min loudly, trying to get the woman that was pinning her against the stone off her. "Open your eyes, and I do mean open them! Just listen to me please!"
Vex glared at her coldly, her heart and mind pulling in two different directions. They were hardly inches apart, but the feeling of the other's body pressed against their own no long held the same erotic drive to it. They both nearly felt repulsed by such contact. "Chose your words wisely." Hissed the imperial, her other blade pressed to Yosa'Min's throat. "Very wisely."
"I have his journal."
Blinking at the unexpected words, Vex's hand wavered for a moment. "Who's journal?"
"Gallus's journal Vex, it has the truth to everything!" Said Yosa'Min urgently. "It has the answers you and I both want!"
"Give it to me, I want to see this truth." Demanded Vex.
Yosa'Min sighed, rolling her eyes with frustration. "If it were that easy I would have gone straight back to the Guild once Karliah gave it to me. No, it's written in the falmer tongue, which is why I'm here trying to get a base for translation. Until you showed up."
Vex stared at her through narrowed amber eyes. "And Karliah isn't the one that killed Gallus?" She growled out skeptically.
"According to her and it should also be in there in the journal. Mercer was acting out of their trinity or something and killed Gallus before he could stop him and then framed Karliah. No one in the Guild could question him on it, and we all know how great he is at being a thief! It's not a stretch that he'd lie to the Guild to keep his sins a secret." She stated firmly. "Now please Vex, don't become his puppet and do this!"
Silence reigned for an eternity before Vex opened her lips to answer. "I am no puppet." Vex stated with anger in her eyes, and then Yosa'Min felt the bite of a blade against her throat deepen. Panic filled her body and she instantly was shouting.
"Fus!" The imperial, at point blank, was sent flying across to the study, slamming into a table and sending countless papers flying. Yosa'Min frantically picked up the paper roll and charcoal, only one corner left to trace down, and started to finish it as Vex tried to recover.
When Vex had gotten to her feet and was running towards her, Yosa'Min had finished the tracing and jumped to the side. Vex went right into the stone, the sound of it cracking filling the air. The imperial shoved off it, and lunged forward once again with the blade. Panic made the shout come springing from the redguard's lips. "Fus!" The wave of light and air hit the attacking imperial square in the chest, sending her flying back to the tablet.
Another horrendous cracking sound filled the air, Vex crying out in alarm as she fell forward with it onto the lower level, Yosa'Min peering over with worry. Then voices came from up ahead, the imperial laying there still, unresponsive as three armed guards and a mage approached her. The redguard was near to panic, as they closed in on the thief.
For a moment she realized that she could have snuck away at that moment, that they wouldn't be able to get her. But it would doom the imperial that she still didn't want any harm to come to to their form of justice. There was only a few moments to decide in.
"Divines fuck it!" Shouted Yosa'Min as she jumped forward after the imperial, grabbing her by the hood of her uniform and hauling her out of the shattered pieces of the tablet. The men shouted, running forward with drawn blades, and Yosa'Min wasn't going to have it from them. "Yol Tur Shul!" Fire poured from her mouth and enveloped the trio of armed men, the mage screaming and bringing up a magical shield just in time. Throwing the hardly conscious woman over her shoulder, Yosa'Min sprinted for the door, the mage screaming after her as the trio died in flames.
Running clean out, she started towards the door to the museum when the realization that it would be crawling with alert guards dawned on the woman. Yosa'Min stopped on the bridge, a waterfall to her side, guards starting to come from the museum, the mage from the tower. Yosa'Min looked to her right, spotting a bit of flat rocks leading to one of the many waterfalls, and she muttered a few words under her breath before sprinting that way.
Screams for her to stop came behind her, arrows whizzing past. Adrenaline fueled her body forward, and Yosa'Min wrapped her arms around Vex the best she could before she took one last step on the stones and sent them both flying forward into the waterfall. They were swept down, violently smashing against stones and landing in the pool of water near the mines that raged with power.
The world was nothing but blurs and colors as Yosa'Min struggled to the top of the current, Vex's body dead weight in the current. For only a moment did she manage to get their heads above the water for breaths, tumbling about in agony. They were surged back under, carried past the watermill and thrown down another waterfall, only the pool at the bottom was shallow. Yosa'Min saw it with but only a moment, and twisted them about to keep Vex from hitting it, grasping Vex forcefully around her shoulders to keep her still.
Her voice was pained as her back slammed into the shallow water, rocks biting painfully into her body. She cried out in agony. Her head swooned as she laid there in the water, something was bleeding, Vex above her and struggling for breath as she stirred. Yosa'Min's vision started to go black, the sight of alarm in amber eyes above her filling the last few seconds she saw. She could feel her mind growing fuzzy, unable to remember things easily, unable to remember how she had gotten down there at the bottom of the river. But what she saw as things grew dark, was something she couldn't possibly forget.
The woman who was so cold, so angry and so fierce, who didn't allow anyone to cross her and get away with it, was clutching her tunic and lifting her head above the torrent. Her lips were moving with unheard words, frantically begging things of Yosa'Min she could only guess at if her mind wasn't growing so fuzzy. Her name she recognized on the imperial's lips, but slowly she wasn't certain it even was her own name. Something was splattered across her cheeks, blood from the fall, blood from Yosa'Min, it coated her body, it pooled around them both.
But what Yosa'Min saw in that last moment as it all faded black wasn't the blood or the moving lips, it was the fear on her face, the sheer overwhelming terror for not herself, but Yosa'Min. There was a translucent liquid that ran down her cheeks, washing away the blood.
Vex was crying.