Chapter Thirty-Six
"Mjoll..." Aerin whispered again, hardly able to believe she was right there in front of him. He threw the blanket off of himself and pulled her towards him, wrapping the adventurer in his arms and hugging her for all he was worth. "You've been gone for so long!" Gasped the imperial man, brown eyes closed as he embraced the nord woman. "I was starting to think you wouldn't be coming back!"
"Not too long." She tried to comfort him. "And of course I was going to come back, I always do."
"Almost three weeks Mjoll!" The man corrected her as he pulled back from the hug, relief and hurt filling his body as he stared at her tired face. "Almost three weeks without any word either, I was starting to think you were... dead."
Mjoll shook her head rapidly and gently put a hand on his right cheek. "I'm so sorry I was gone for so long, we've spent so much of it traveling I didn't even realize it had been so many days." She felt guilty for abandoning the man who'd saved her life like that, for just leaving after some strange woman that had walked into her life and changed everything. Mjoll would never regret going after Yosa'Min, but certainly that it left him so vulnerable and endangered her best friend. "After we found Yosa, things started picking up and I couldn't come back to check on you."
A scowl spread across his face, and he shook his head angrily, pulling back from her. "That woman..." He snarled, looking at the bed with fury building. "None of this would have happened without her." Aerin spat. "We would still have a home."
With another shake of her head, Mjoll took hold of one of his hands and gave it a squeeze. "Aerin, there is a lot that wouldn't have happened, and some of that is far too beautiful to just want no more of her." She said. "And she didn't set the fire, Vex did."
"Because of her though." He pulled his hand free and glared at her. "I thought you'd left me, Mjoll. I went down into that basement and found Vex trying to kill you! Next thing I know I'm on the ground bleeding and I passed out. When I woke up there was no sign of you and only a note saying 'thank you for saying me but I must leave'." Fingers trembled as he continued. "How do you think I felt, waking up to find you gone, not even a proper goodbye?" He looked at her dead in the eyes, Mjoll's mouth opening but no words coming out to defend herself. "Like I no longer mattered, Mjoll."
"You do matter!" She could barely get the words out, throat clenching tightly. "You're my best friend Aerin!"
Snorting, the man's scowl only grew deeper. "But only as that right? Only your best friend?"
"Yes Aerin, only my best friend." Tears began to slip from her golden eyes, burning trails down her face. "I'm sorry, but I will never feel that way for you. I do love you, but as a brother, not in a romantic way."
With teeth gritted, Aerin pushed on. "Why? What is it about me that you cannot love? Is it because I am a man, is that it?" He demanded.
"Aerin-"
"Answer the question Mjoll!" Shouted the imperial, cutting her pleaded words short. "I've nearly twice died for you because of all this! I've lost so much for you because of that damned woman, my home, my dignity, the woman I have loved for years yet she could never see! So answer me! I deserve that much!" Mjoll stared at him, broken within at his sudden turn on her, hesitating to answer. Her silence however, only fueled the man on further, and Aerin grabbed her shoulders forcefully. "Why can you not love me Mjoll? Answer me!"
Pain flooded her face, torn between the man she'd known and the man before her. "Because you are a coward!" She screamed, shaking where she sat. When she'd searched for him she'd expected some hurt feelings for having been gone, but this, no she hadn't expected this. Her heart was wrenched from her chest, anger and sorrow only deepening as Aerin's pointed words sliced more and more on her flesh. Whipping her back with anger and jealousy.
He scowled, hopping from the bed entirely. Mjoll quickly rose to meet him. "I am no coward, I've saved your life enough times to prove that!"
"Oh, because finding me out in the snow was such a dangerous task!" Mocked Mjoll bitterly. "What a brave man it takes to find an injured woman who can do nothing to defend herself!"
"I took a blade for you, I should have died because of that for you!" He screamed in her face, shoving her accusingly on the shoulder.
Mjoll retaliated, shoving him right back down onto the bed. "Then why didn't you die for your empire huh?" Aerin froze up, staring at her with wide brown eyes. "That's right Aerin, I know you're a deserter." Growled out Mjoll, glowering at him. She hadn't come here to argue about Yosa'Min, she'd done enough of that with the redguard herself. She'd wanted to be reunited with her friend, only to find he'd become a bitter enemy in her absence.
"What are you talking about?" He tightly asked.
Scowling down at him, Mjoll's hands balled into fists. "You were a soldier for the Imperial Legion, and when your platoon got ambushed instead of staying and fighting with your comrades you ran like a scared little pup with your tail between your legs!" She accused him.
"What in Oblivion would make you believe that Mjoll?" The imperial man demanded.
"Because do you remember when I went down to Cyrodill with that group of hunters three years ago? We went to the Imperial City to trade our fresh caught game, plenty of people looking to buy after all." Her words were cold. "Can you guess what I was beyond a doubt amazed and confused to find posted on the wanted board?" It was her turn to demand something of him.
Ducking his head, Aerin avoided her hard gaze. "What Mjoll?"
"Oh no, I want you to guess my friend. Go on, it won't hurt." She urged harshly. "No? Not gonna guess? Pity." Sneered the woman who had had enough of dealing with his jealousy. "I found your wanted poster Aerin, for deserting in battle. That's punishable by death you know?" There was a mix of concern still in her voice, fear for him despite his behavior, however anger nearly completely hid it below.
"Mjoll that's all wrong, I wasn't deserting!" He piped up to defend himself, Mjoll raising an eyebrow, allowing him to continue. "I was a scout not a soldier. I was sent ahead to see if there was any Stormcloaks and then I was to report back. You know the area, Mzinchaleft is right along the border between Dawnstar and Solitude, fights broke out all the time there between our two sides. I was scouting when I came across you, injured and dying." His words were pleading. "I saved you, but when I got back to camp there was nothing but burned tents and butchered bodies. The horsemen who arrived just an hour later as reinforcement accused me of cowardice and deserting just as you are now!"
The nord however, wasn't entirely believing anymore. "If that's true then why have you never tried to clear your name?"
"Because they'll hang me on sight!" He said loudly, as if it were the most obvious thing in all of Tamriel.
"You were still too much of a coward to tell me. You always just said you'd been in the area when I asked of how you found me!"
Shaking his head, the man rose back to his feet. "That's not a lie, I had been in the area."
"But it wasn't the whole truth either, was it." She sharply jabbed.
"No, I suppose it wasn't." He whispered back in defeat.
Staring him right in the eyes, Mjoll gritted her teeth. "Now do you see why I could never love you? Because I could never love a coward like you."
"What about your redguard then eh?" He hissed angrily. "She's as much a coward as I've ever seen, what with the silver tongued liar she is!"
It took a lot for Mjoll not to smack him for that one, her arm jerking towards him and getting half way there before she stopped herself. She was too angry, too out of control. Shakily, she lowered the raised arm. "Yosa'Min is braver than anyone I have ever known."
"What, for what she can do in combat? Face down a world-eating-dragon and whatnot? That's not the only type of bravery and cowardice there is Mjoll, you know that." Mocked the man.
"I am not here to argue about Yosa'Min with you Aerin." She dismissively said, shouldering past him towards the stairs. "In the end, she's braver then you, or I, ever will be." The woman threw over her shoulder as she paused for a moment. "And to completely answer your question; I could never love a milk-drinker who became so jealous and angry over someone else, that they'd throw away our entire friendship, and been too much of a coward to have ever tried before."
Storming down the stairs, Mjoll left a breathless imperial man behind. Haelga voice rose as she made for the exit. "Lady Mjoll, is everything alright?" She asked after her.
The Lioness paused in the doorway, holding it open to the thick night air, and shook her head without a word before stepping out. She got as far as the bridge before her legs gave out from underneath her, hands just barely catching her heavy body in time. The nord woman dug her nails into the wood, splinters digging fast into her fingers between the holes in her worn gloves. Tears were streaming from her eyes, burning hot trails down her cheeks. Her head was pounding, her heart was racing, aching, crying out in pain. Everything inside her seemed broken.
"So you and him were... A thing?" Yosa'Min slowly asked as they stood over the corpse of Mercer's guard. She gave him a small shove of her boot, trying to ignore just how violently Vex had carved into him. There was hardly a thing left to recognize him, just a slightly crooked nose and a mess of brown hair. Vex snorted as she patted down the pockets of his studded armor, looking for a key into the home so they didn't have to waste any lockpicks. "That wasn't... distinctively an answer Vex..."
Amber eyes shot up at her angrily. "Why do you care?"
"I don't!" Quickly Yosa'Min defended herself. "Just you know... An odd thought, you and... him." She tilted her head to the side, face scrunched up in thought. "Though I'm assuming he was far more handsome before you gave him a second mouth."
Ignoring the redguard, Vex continued searching the body until at last the small key was found. "Come on, we'll go in from the balcony." Vex said, and then narrowed her eyes. "You can shoot that mechanism right?" She asked, pointing at the way they'd get the ramp lowered.
With a roll of her eyes, Yosa'Min drew her daedric bow and knocked a single arrow. In one fluid motion she raised her arms, back arching some and took in a stablizing breath before she loosed the arrow. It pierced right through the rope, the gears turning and wooden ramp up lowering swiftly to connect with a stone set of stairs level with the Temple of Mara that was right besides them.
They dashed up it and slipped the key into the lock, one turn and a click, and the pair entered Riftweald Manor. Instantly they heard the sound of voices, muttering amongst themselves in the breton's disused house. They balcony had led them into a storage attic, cobwebs and dirty crates littering it. Lowering themselves and stepping lightly, they approached the only other door that led into the rest of the house.
Yosa'Min peaked out of it, spotting a pair of khajiit that was dressed like many of the bandits she'd slaughtered over the years. She looked at Vex and shook her head lightly. "Bandits." She whispered.
Drawing her daggers that rested at her hips, Vex nodded her head that she was ready. Pushing the door open lightly, Vex and Yosa'Min tiptoed out into the larger room over towards the two bandits too enveloped in their conversation to realize that they had visitors. The imperial drove forward, digging one dagger into the closest bandit's back, the other reaching around and slitting his throat. The second one had only a moment to witness his companion's demise before an arrow sailed right into his throat. He gurgled, clutching the injury with wide eyes before his body slumped forward and crumpled on top of the nearby wooden bench.
Yosa'Min walked across to him, pulled the arrow free from his matting fur, and smirked at Vex before they started down the stairs into the dining room. Vex scowled when she spotted all the silver and jewelry decorating the room. "Greedy bastard." She muttered under her breath as they began the search for clues. "We got them all." Vex said, standing up straight when she'd noticed there wasn't a sound of another soul in the finely furnished home.
"Good, alright, we should split up. I'll check downstairs, you get that side room." Yosa'Min instructed, already walking towards a stairwell she had spotted just a bit beyond the lavish dining room set. Vex wordlessly agreed, opening up the doors to the other room as the redguard started down the stairs. She instantly frowned upon her arrival at the bottom, there wasn't much promise in the storage cellar. Food, herbs and pots littered a large, singular ground shelf, a barrel or two flanking it and a cupboard with more pots and pans within it.
Just to be sure, she poked her nose in every nook in that dusty room before Vex had walked halfway down the stairs and laughed. "Careful now, wouldn't want to sneeze fire." She teased.
Huffing indigently, the redguard straightened up. "I don't do that Vex." And then she smirked faintly. "Although it would be nice payback for Mjoll's house." A devilish look crossed her face before she waved it away. It wouldn't be good for the city if another home burned down. "So you find anything? Because I've got nothing." Yosa'Min asked more seriously.
"Yeah, a false back panel in a wardrobe, I already got it open too." The imperial nodded, turning and leading the way with the redguard not far behind. They quickly crossed over the wooden boards towards the side room. The open wardrobe led to a small room with another set of wooden stairs leading to a cobblestone floor room, a pullbar along the wood wall besides them. "That closes it." Vex stated when she spotted Yosa'Min eyeing it.
"I know what it does." Yosa'Min muttered.
"Sure you do." Vex sarcastically replied as she started down the stairs into the hidden cellar room. There wasn't much of a distinct note about it, aside from the gaping hole in the wall.
The duo approached it cautiously, Yosa'Min pulling her bow off her back and knocking an arrow loosely, no tension to it. "Ugh, smells rancid in there." Coughed Yosa'Min after she'd caught a whiff, a slow breeze from some connecting steep tunnel blowing it into their faces.
"Get over it, we're going in. Just watch your step, Mercer could have left traps after he fled the city." Vex said harshly, only a faint note of concern as she finished and started walking into the tunnel. Right off the bat they'd both spotted a small circle placed in the center of the first turn in the tunnel, both of them sidestepping around it and walking a bit further before they got into a room about the same size as a small bedroom. There was only a foot or two of normal stone before the rest of the floor turned into pressure plates with holes spotting the center.
"Fuck." Muttered Yosa'Min with a heavy note of disapproval. "Fire plates, just what we needed."
"What?" Vex asked with confusion, seemingly never having come across this type of booby trap before.
The redguard quickly turned to her, and held a hand out towards Vex who stared at it with confusion. "Let me see one of your daggers." She said.
Pale eyebrows knitted together, hands protectively dropping to her hips onto the hilts of the twin ebony blades. "Will I get it back?"
"Of course, and I'm the one that gave them to you so obviously I don't want them." Growled Yosa'Min with annoyance as Vex begrudgingly handed over her left one. The redguard gave a mock bow, and then underhand tossed it to a nearby tile. The moment it hit the tile, lowering it just a fraction of an inch, flames erupted wildly burning in streams from the holes in the slab of stone. "See, fire plates. Very, very bad." The redguard said with an outstretched hand, and then smirked at Vex who was scowling. "Don't worry, your blade will be fine, we'll cool it off in that pool of water see." Said Yosa'Min as she pointed at the small pond of water just on the other side of the doorway.
After she carefully reached out to retrieve the blade, cringing at the heat on the hilt and quickly looping it back where it belonged on her hip, the imperial put a hand on her hip and sarcastically motioned towards the tiles. "Well how do we get across genius?" Hissed Vex angrily, she had come to rather like the weapon, despite the gifter of them.
Yosa'Min looked at the three nearest tiles, the room was set up five by four, and sighed. "Trial and error really. Just, push down on it ever so slightly, see if you get burned, if you do step back, if you don't keep on going."
"Really?" Scolded Vex. "I'm going to lose my feet this way aren't I?"
Shaking her head, Yosa'Min muttered a few choice words under her breath. "The other option is I whirlwind sprint us across, but considering how it's not that far I can't guarantee I won't go right into the wall, and you'd have to be on my back." She offered.
The imperial frowned in thought, but soon decided she'd rather not melt her face off, and nodded her head. "Fine, use your thu'um to get us across."
Nodding, Yosa'Min crouched slightly, Vex carefully hopping onto her back, legs looped by Yosa'Min's arms. "Just hold on tight alright." The woman said cautiously as she stood back up. Vex wrapped her arms over the shorter woman's shoulders, linking her hands together tightly. She hadn't given someone a piggy back ride in a long time, and though Vex was light it was quickly putting an unfamiliar strain on her. She took a deep breath, focusing her eyes on the other side of the fiery trap, and then shouted out, "Wuld!"
They made it across the traps in a single breath, but as Yosa'Min had feared it was too short of a distance, and her face slammed right into the moss covered stone wall. She cried out in pain as she flew back from it, just barely able to keep her legs sturdy enough to not stumble back into the trap they'd just evaded. Instead however, she slipped on the water, and fell to the right. Vex clutched her tightly, making them fall heavily onto the ground, Vex rolling away from her further down the new tunnel.
Before the ringing had even stopped in Yosa'Min's ears, face screaming out in protest at the impact, she heard a distinctive sound that belonged only to some trap mechanism undoing. Her head whipped around to her left, and she spotted the circular pressure plate Vex had just unwittingly triggered. "Vex! Move!" She shouted, the imperial opening her amber eyes and blinking with confusion, head swimming just as well. "Move dammit!" Screamed Yosa'Min, scrambling to her feet and sucking in another breath of air. "Tiid!" She shouted, the world growing an off yellow color to the redguard as she rushed to Vex, tackling the confused imperial and sending them skittering down the tunnel, ending with Yosa'Min protectively over the imperial woman on the filthy floor.
The shout wore off quickly, Yosa'Min's lungs burning from such a rapid use, Vex blinking at her with confusion as to what just happened. The redguard rolled off the woman, completely spent and covered in sticky filth, hair damp and gritty. "What just happened?" She asked, equally as dirtied as the woman who'd just saved her life though she wasn't certainly exactly how.
"Not, now." Breathlessly said Yosa'Min, waving a hand with as much effort as she could.
Getting back to her feet, though they felt rather unstable now, Vex nodded her head. "Alright, you catch your second wind, I'll go ahead and see what I can find. It looks like we've gotten to his little lair." She indicated the last turn where a single last bend was at the other end of a normal looking passageway. The woman took one step before she'd triggered something, and axes and battering rams where swinging in and out methodologically from gaps in the wall along the corridor. "You have got to be kidding me Mercer." She groaned.
Turning back towards Yosa'Min who was leaning against a slimy wall, she shook her head. "Paranoid bastard," she swore under her breath before raising it back up, "I'll see about disarming this on the other side, there has to be some sort of off switch."
"Be careful!" Managed Yosa'Min.
"When am I not?" Joked Vex, staring down the corridor, watching the movements of the swinging blades of death. First the axes would all swing out in unison, then swing back into the walls. The imperial thief counted the seconds between the next swing, making it as far as four before the axes swung out again, the battering ram in the center lurching into the corridor along with them this time. Another four seconds before the cycle repeated. "Got it." Vex whispered, amber eyes steeled on the other side with certainty. She waited for the pattern to cycle through twice, legs building up tension.
The moment the axes had swung at the end of the second, she sprinted forward, peeling down the stone with incredible speed. Once on the other side she rapidly searched about for a lever, a button, anything to disarm the trap of swinging death. Much to her dismay however, there wasn't any, and she looked up at the recovering redguard with sudden horror. "I don't see anything!" She called over.
"What? Nothing at all?" Yosa'Min called back.
"Nothing! You'll have to run across! Can you use a shout?"
Shaking her head, Yosa'Min readied herself to follow after the imperial in the same manner. "No, those two were too close, if I want it to work I need to wait a little while, and time is not something we just easily have. Not with that coward out there on the run getting harder and harder to track down!" She explained, focusing on the path just the same as the imperial had. Once her breath felt entirely her own, she sprinted, racing down as fast as she could to get past the deadly trap.
The last step she took over into the clear was a split second before the ax swung past, the whistle of the blade in the redguard's ears. She doubled over panting with hands on her knees. "I'll skin Mercer for this." She threatened between heavy breaths.
"You and me both." Vex agreed. Once the Dragonborn thief could stand straight, they continued down the path, going down one last set of stairs until a door was before them. "Look." Vex said with narrowed eyes, noticing the small trap to the side of it, going into the wall. "Probably shoots poison darts." She said, noting the small black and distinct holes at the top of the door frame.
"Good eye, alright, stand back." Yosa'Min agreed, stepping towards it. She opened it and jumped through the doorway, darts flying out towards where she'd just been standing. The moment the hail of poisonous projectiles halted, Vex followed her into the room. "Finally, we found it." Yosa'Min smiled.
"The rat's hole." Remarked Vex, walking across to where a table resided against a wall, a bowl filled with jewels, a note, a bust of the Gray Fox, and an obvious set of plans rested on top. The imperial quickly examined the plans, drawings of some sort of tunnels passageway with scribbles along side them, and a statue that looked rather important besides them, a large 'x' at the end of the tunnels. "We got him." Smiled Vex with a sadist look across her face.
Yosa'Min smiled, peering at the plans as well as she agreed, equally as thirsty for revenge on the breton. "I do believe we do."
AN: Alright, the hunt is on and hearts are aching, do let me know what you think in a review, I'd certainly appreciate it! Also, funny story, a long time ago I misread Aerin's information as being an Imperial soldier, rather than an imperial warrior, so while I am not certain if he ever did serve in the Legion, frankly I don't mind making up stuff to fill blank backgrounds. Plus, why else would he be randomly out there in the wild when he found Mjoll? Any who, just don't go thinking it's total canon there, thanks for reading!