Riviere walked nervously into the Bee and Barb, making her way slowly towards the inn's bar. The Argonian woman, Keerava, was busily scrubbing the inside of a Flagon with an old cloth, but looked up when Riviere came to a stop at the opposite side of the counter.

"Excuse me. Keerava?"

"Yes. What do you want? Food? Drink? Room for the night?"

"Uh, no. I'm supposed to be meeting, well, uh... You wouldn't happen to know if Maven is around here somewhere? I was told she might be here, or she might not be. I couldn't find someone who'd give me a straight answer."

Keerava smiled slightly, her sharp teeth shining out from the small gap that formed between her scaly lips. "Unless she slipped out while I was busy, she should still be upstairs somewhere."

"Great. Thanks."

"Alright. Oh, but before you go up there, you might want to relax a little..."

"I'll try..." Riviere sighed nervously.

"If it helps, she seemed in a pretty good mood."

"Maven? In a good mood?"
"Well, as good a mood as she can be in."

"Great. Well, if I don't come down again..."

"Just go, kid. If you keep the woman waiting, there's a higher chance of that happening."

"Ah, yes. Right. I'm going to go now. Upstairs. Those stairs. Over there..." Riviere looked over her left shoulder, in the direction of the stairs to which she was referring. Once again she sighed nervously. "I am beginning to have second thoughts about this..."


As it turned out, Maven was upstairs as Keerava had said. Sitting alone at a table located behind the stairway, the matriarch of the Black-Briar clan was waiting with a rather bored expression on her lined, tired face. Her greying, dark hair fell loosely down to her shoulders, except for two small sections at the front that had been braided around the sides of her head to keep them away from her face. As Riviere approached slowly, Maven glanced in the girl's direction briefly before turning her attention to a piece of debris that had taken up residence on the left sleeve of her tunic. She brushed the speck onto the floor, then looked back at Riviere. "I take it you're the one who wanted to see me?" Maven inquired, squinting slightly as she studied Riviere, who had stopped a few feet away from the table.

"Yes. Ms... Mrs... Ms Black-Briar?"

Maven rolled her eyes. She waved her hand at a second chair beside the table. "Sit."

Riviere nodded, and quickly took the seat.

"So?" asked Maven, her apparent disinterest evident even though she had barely spoken.

"So?" Riviere repeated, though she immediately regretted not articulating a better reply.

Again, Maven rolled her eyes. "Unbelievable. No wonder you lot have fallen apart. Never did understand why they took you on in the first place, anyhow..."

"Hey!" Riviere protested, losing a portion of her nervousness and replacing it with frustration. "I may not be as loud... or as arrogant... or as, well, I may not be what you'd expect from a member of our organization, but I am good at what I do!"

"Oh sure you are, dear. You know, you really are adorable..."

"Alright, fine. You know, I didn't come here to debate my career choices with you-"

"And I believe you. So why don't you go back home to your fellow sewer-dwellers, and see if one of you imbeciles can-"

"No," Riviere said firmly. Whatever trepidation she had been feeling before had drained from her. She had always been quite good at holding her own against insults directed at her, but as soon as friends and family were slandered, she was quick to anger.

"No?"

"You heard me. Congratulations."

Maven stared once again at the girl, though instead of looking with disinterest, her eyes were open wide with disbelief. "What did you... Did you just talk back to me, dear?" she stuttered, taken completely aback by Riviere's response.

"Oh, did I?"

"Listen hear, you little pest. You know who I am and you know exactly what I can do to you-"

"And you know exactly who I am, Maven. Now, before either of us get carried further away, I came here for a reason."

Maven raised her right hand, index finger pointed towards Riviere, and opened her mouth to say something. But then, she curled her finger into her fist, placed her hand into her lap, and twisted her mouth into a smile. "Perhaps not all of you are so hopeless after all."

"Uh, thanks? I guess?" Riviere replied, unsure of whether or not she was receiving a compliment or some kind of strange, veiled threat.

"So, what did you come here for, exactly," Maven asked, her voice strangely calm.

"Well, I came here to ask about Vald, the guy looking after Mercer's place."

"That lout? Whatever could you be asking about him for?"

"I want to clear his debt."

"You... what? Why? Why on Mundus would you want to do that?"

"I need to get into Mercer's place, and as it stands, Vald is preventing me from gaining entry."

"Well, I don't really think I want to know why you are interested in breaking into your employer's home, so I shan't ask. But did you really hunt me down just to ask me that? He's hardly worth anyone's time, let alone their service."

"Look, I'll pay whatever he owes you-"

"Oh, I don't want your money. I have enough of that already, believe me. Look, are you truly so desperate that there is no other way? I can think of a few alternatives, though they are a little more, well, messy."

"I am trying to avoid bloodshed where possible, thank you. Unlike you, I have certain objections to needless slaughter."
"I see. Well, then that leaves only one solution. Somehow, you are going to have to retrieve the object that put Vald in my debt in the first place."

"Doesn't sound too bad..."

"Oh, it isn't. Unless, of course, you don't like swimming."

"Ah. Right. So... what exactly did he do?"

"He made a simple task far more difficult than was necessary, and lost something of mine along the way."

"Hmm, yeah. That'd do it. And you want me to retrieve said item, yes?"

Maven nodded.

"And," Riviere added, "the retrieval involves... swimming?"

"Indeed. You see, the idiot Vald lost my invaluable item when his rowboat sunk into Lake Honrich."

"Alright. So I just need to find where his boat sunk, find the, wait, what am I looking for?"

"A quill. The Quill of Gemination."

"...Right."

"And then you can bring that back to me, and we can talk about clearing Vald of his debt."

"Uh, alright. I'll... get right on that." Riviere contemplated extending her hand for Maven to shake, but decided against that and instead just nodded in thanks to the older woman, who nodded in return. Riviere stood up and started for the stairs, but before she could get there, she turned back around. "Wait... A quill? Really?"

"Yes. A quill. Now run along, girl. I have better things to be doing."

Riviere complied, and headed back downstairs. "Must be some ridiculously fancy writing implement," she muttered. "I mean, it's a damned feather. A feather!"


"Hey! Wujeeta!" Riviere called as she ran across the rickety wooden platforms just outside Riften's dockside gates.

An olive-skinned Argonian woman in a tattered blue dress turned her head at the sound of her name. "Whaaaaaaat?" she called back, not immediately sure of who had shouted at her.

Riviere was shortly at the argonian's side, though for a minute or so, was too breathless to talk.

"Are you, alright there?" Wujeeta asked, somewhat concerned at the way Riviere was doubled over, hands on knees, struggling to regain a regular breathing pattern.

"Just...a moment," Riviere wheezed. "Dammit... I... need... to run more..."

"Did you... did you need me for something?"

"Ah... yes." Riviere managed to straighten herself up, and after a few more seconds of deep breathing, she was able to properly form her thoughts into words once more. "Remember how I helped you with your, uh, situation... that time?"

"Yes, I remember. What of it?"

"I need a favour..."

"And since I owe you my life and all that-"

"Well, I wouldn't say you owe me that much. But I do need your help. Or, more specifically, your lungs."

"My what?"

"I need a thing. Well, Maven needs the thing. A thing that fell into the lake, and that I have been tasked with retrieving"

"Oh. Right. And since you can't breathe underwater, you need the help of someone who can."

Riviere nodded. "Yes. I just figured that if I was going to try asking someone for help-"

"It'd be a good idea to start with someone who you helped when they needed it."
"Please?"

"Well, you did do me a huge favour. I guess diving into the lake is a fair request. But just out of curiosity, what is it that you want me to fetch."

"A quill."

"A... quill?"

"Don't ask. I never did understand Maven Black-Briar..."

"Uh-huh. Well, I guess I'd better get to it then. Just point me in the right direction."

"Out there." Riviere gestured to the lake. "Somewhere."

"Right."

"Look, if you do this, I promise I won't ever bring up your, uh, situation... again."

Wujeeta sighed. "Fine. I'll do it. You just wait here, and I'll bring you the... quill. Really? A quill?"

"Exactly what I said."


"Oh Va-ald," Riviere hailed from across the fence separating Mercer's back yard from the path that ran behind it. Vald, a brutish, angry looking Nord with closely-cropped dark hair, had been leaning lazily against the back wall of the manor, his eyes closed against the afternoon sun. Upon hearing his name, he opened his left eye to look directly at Riviere. With a grunt, Vald left his position and wandered over to face Riviere, who was less than surprised to find that the man towered about a foot above her.

"Who are you and what do you want," Vald demanded in a deep and very gruff voice.

"I am a messenger, and I come bearing a gift."

"Oh really?" Vald asked, raising his eyebrows as he studied Riviere. A keen smile began to form across his lips, obviously coming up with his own interesting ideas about the gift that the Riviere was supposedly about to present to him.

"Hey!" Riviere took a step back from the wall. "Watch it, mister, else I'll get Vex up here."

"Oh, hey now. No need for that," Vald said, also taking a step back from his side of the wall. "Why are you here then?"

"To give you this," Riviere answered, taking a folded piece of paper from her pocket and held it out to Vald.

"What is it?"

"Read it and find out, genius."

Vald snatched the paper and unfolded it, reading over its contents rather slowly, furrowing his brow as he did so. Eventually, he finished reading the paper, and curiously looked at Riviere. "So, wait. I can go? My debt has been cleared?"

"Yes. You are now out of debt with Maven."

"But how did... Who even-"

"Not important! Just get out of here."

"But-"

"Go!" Riviere gestured towards the gate. "Be free!"

"Uhm, alright. No need to question the good will of Lady Maven..." Without waiting any longer, Vald unlocked the manor's back gate and walked on through, then disappeared down the path and into the city.

"Well," Riviere whispered. "That's one guard down. And... who knows how many more inside. This should be interesting..."