Fire and Frost
Aila woke up shivering in the cold air. Groaning, she reached over to pull Kathryn closer to her, but her arm found nothing. Confused, she opened her eyes and sat up, looking around the campsite. She was nowhere to be found. Aila yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She had the weirdest dream. What was it about again? Something about wolves and vampires. And a dragon? She wasn't sure.
She stood up and stretched out her arms. She was just about to go and look for Kathryn when she heard movement nearby and turned to see her emerge from the marsh. "Oh, there you are. Where'd you go? The bed's cold without you." She pouted for effect.
Kathryn stopped and stared at her wide-eyed at her just long enough to leave Aila feeling confused. Why was she looking at her like that? Then she dashed quickly to her and scooped her up in her arms, holding her tightly like she was afraid to let go.
While Aila always welcomed Kathryn's embrace, this particular one worried her. "Kat… what is it? What's wrong?"
"Three days, Aila," Kathryn mumbled into her hair.
"What?"
"You were unconscious for three days.
What? Unconscious? But how… Then it started coming back to her. Her dream. It wasn't a dream at all. The important parts were still fuzzy, but she could recall Karsten telling her she was infected. "Oh Kathryn, I'm sorry. You must've been so worried. But I'm fine now."
Kathryn pulled her away and held her at arm's length, looking at her with doubtful eyes. "How do you know? What in Oblivion was even happening to you? You bit me, and I thought you were… I was afraid that you… but then you started screaming and… Gods, Aila, I was so scared, I didn't know what to do or what to-"
Kathryn kept on, not giving Aila a chance to interject. It would have been cute if she wasn't so upset. "Kat," Aila tried to interrupt, but Kathryn didn't seem to hear her. "Kat!" she tried again, with no luck. She let out a sigh and stepped forward onto her toes and pressed her lips to Kathryn's. Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick as Kathryn quieted down, losing herself in the kiss. Aila wrapped her arms up around her neck as Kathryn held her by her waist and pulled her closer. The two enjoyed their passionate embrace for several heated minutes before Aila pulled back slightly, allowing herself a moment's breath as she looked up into Kathryn's glistening silver eyes.
"There's no need to worry," Aila whispered to her breathlessly. "I can handle a little sickness. I should be apologizing to you."
"Apologizing?" Kathryn whispered back. "What could you have to apologize for?"
Aila's gaze trailed down to Kathryn's neck, expecting to see bite marks from when she sunk her teeth into her earlier, but she saw none. "I bit you," she said sadly. "I hurt you."
Kathryn shook her head. "No, Aila you don't need to apologize for that. You weren't yourself and it was just a bite. It healed up easily enough."
"That's not the point, Kathryn. I hurt you, and I-"
Aila silenced herself when a sudden, angry thought reverberated through her mind. One that wasn't her own, but at the same time was.
She isn't so pathetically weak so as to be hurt by one insignificant bite!
The suddenness alone of the thought startled her. She wasn't sure where it came from, but she found herself agreeing with it. Kathryn wasn't weak by any standard. To insinuate that such an injury would cause her any real harm was insulting. But still, Aila had harmed her, something she never thought she would, or even could, do.
"I… I'm just sorry."
Kathryn remained silent, gazing at Aila with concerned eyes. "Are you sure you're alright? You seem… dazed."
"Yes, I'm fine, Kat," was her automatic reply, but then she stopped to think. Was she really fine? Physically, yes, but mentally? She felt odd. She felt the same, but different. And she was distinctly aware that she was forgetting something. There was something incredibly important that had somehow slipped her mind, and now she couldn't remember. Was it something to do with the dream she had while she was unconscious? She wasn't sure. And a part of her was saying that she was better off forgetting.
But why? What could be so important that she needed to forget? Deciding that it was definitely something that happened in her dream, she racked her brain for everything she could remember about it. She remembered Karsten explaining to her about Vampirism and Lycanthropy, then fighting a wolf and some kind of creature, and then… nothing. Just a distinct feeling of security, and midnight-blue scales. And an overwhelming need to get stronger. Much stronger.
Aila was suddenly aware of Kathryn waving her hand in front of her face and calling her name. "Huh? What?"
"You were gone for a solid minute there, Aila. What happened?"
"Oh, uh, sorry. I got lost in my thoughts."
Kathryn tilted her head cutely in question. "What about?"
"Just trying to remember something."
"Oh? Remember what?"
"That's what I'm trying to remember." She sighed and shook her head, looking back up to Kathryn and smiling coyly. "It doesn't matter. I'd rather go back to kissing."
Kathryn chuckled softly. "Well, I'm always happy to oblige with that." She leaned forward, capturing Aila's lips with her own once again.
The two kissed for a long while, at some point transferring themselves down onto the bedroll. Eventually though, it became prudent that they needed to keep moving if they ever wanted to continue making progress toward Solitude. So, reluctantly, they packed up their little camp and made their way forward.
The trip was, as ever, uneventful. Kathryn's ribs had already healed to a light bruise, so she insisted on walking next to Frost to keep her going stir crazy. Even with Aila being incapacitated the past few day their little shortcut through the Labyrinthian had managed to cut about five or six days off their journey. Although they were ahead of schedule, when they reached Dragonbridge sometime in the evening of the third day of travel, they stopped only briefly to eat supper at the inn, a welcome change to the dried venison and stale bread they usually had while traveling. Afterwards, they kept right on moving, not wanting to get held up or wrapped into anything like they had in Morthal. Considering everything that had happened so far, everything was going rather smoothly for them.
But of course, Aila should know by now that only meant things were about to get rough.
As they at last approached Solitude, Aila began to get a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. It felt vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite name it, so she simply put it down as excitement at finally bringing their long travel (at least temporarily) to an end. But as they neared, they feeling grew exponentially. She grew agitated and impatient for no discernable reason. Kathryn questioned her sudden change in mood, but she couldn't give her an answer. At least, not until she heard the distinct sound of an alarm bell ringing in the distance and the frantic shouts of panicked people
It was excitement she was feeling, but not for the end on a long journey. It was excitement for a challenge in battle.
"Dovah," Aila said before Kathryn could comment on the noise.
Kathryn looked to her, a puzzled expression on her face. "What?"
"Up ahead. I'm guessing it's attacking Solitude, judging from the noise."
"What is?"
Aila turned to her. "A dragon. I just said so."
Kathryn raised a brow. "You said dovah."
Now it was Aila's turn to looked puzzled. "Yes. Dragon." What was so confusing about the word dragon?
Kathryn stared at her for a moment before letting out an exasperated sigh. "You're doing it again."
"Huh? Doing what?"
"Nothing. We can talk about it later. Right now, we apparently have a dragon to fight." She let out another sigh. "Can't say I'm too thrilled about that."
Aila stared at her curiously, but let it drop. "Wish I could say the same," she told her honestly. "I think that whole walk-out-of-a-vampire-den-relativity-unharmed thing went to my head. I'm kind of excited."
Kathryn looked at her incredulously. "Why?"
Aila shrugged, turning her attention back to the commotion ahead of them. She expected to see smoke rising in the air, but was somewhat surprised to see none. Every dragon she had encountered so far had been quite liberal in their use of their fire breath. She lifted herself higher atop Frost and strained her neck in an attempt to gain any sort of grasp on the situation, but the trees blocked her sight. They would just have to get closer.
"I'm starting to think," Aila began, still keeping an eye out for the dragon. "now that I'm actually fairly competent, I rather enjoy fighting."
Frost seemed to finally be picking up on the fact that something was wrong, as he started fidgeting nervously. Aila reached forward and stroked his mane in an effort to calm him, but she knew that they would soon need to leave him behind if they didn't want him to get hurt.
"It's sort of like the feeling I get when on the job." she continued. "It's exhilarating and exciting, especially since the risks are much greater." Her brow furrowed in thought. "Though every real battle I've been in so far, I was either too scared or too angry to properly enjoy it."
Just then a guttural roar pierced the air, startling Frost as he reared, nearly throwing Aila off. Luckily, she managed to keep her balance, but decided that they had traveled far enough with the horse. After sufficiently calming him down, she dismounted and fastened him to a sturdy-looking tree not too far off the road before heading on.
"Well, you're not angry now," Kathryn said as Aila drew her bow while she readied her ice magic. "And you're certainly not scared."
Aila glanced at her with a large smile. "And thus, my excitement."
The two rushed toward where the roar originated, and at last their awaited battle unfurled before them. Dozens of guardsmen were huddled together with their shields up in a vain effort to protect themselves from the dragon, apparently not realizing that this only made them a larger target. Dozens more lay dead on the ground with wounds ranging from hemorrhages to… frostbite? After a quick glance over, Aila found that none of the bodies suffered from any sort of burn, but instead appeared to had suffered the opposite, as if the heat was sucked right out from them. Despite the fact that is wasn't snowing, and hadn't for many days, the area was littered with what looked like puddles of frost. Aila was briefly confounded before looking up to the sky.
This dragon was different from any dragon Aila had seen before. It's spines running along its back were long and narrow and sharp, a far cry from the short and jagged spikes she usually saw. That wasn't what caught her attention, though. No, what really surprised her was the dragon's lack of scales. Instead, nearly its entire body was covered in what looked like slippery smooth ice that shimmered in the sunlight. The pieces clicked together for Aila. It wasn't much of a stretch to say that this dragon breathed frost instead of fire.
There was loud, raspy, guttural noise coming from the dragon, that Aila recognized as laughter. It was enjoying this immensely.
"You may want to switch to fire," Aila suggested to Kathryn as the dragon began shouting in an amused tongue.
"Geh, mey joorre! Krif! Med kodaav ko reyth!
It was mocking them, obviously not at all threatened by the swarms of guards. Not that it should be, really. Aila idly wondered whether this dragon was under Karsten's control, but its next words answered her question.
"Yuvon dii qalos erei mal geinsesuleyk bo!"
Evidently, the dragon was simply entertaining itself while waiting for her to arrive. She felt oddly flattered that it had more or less called her the 'strong one', but the feeling was mostly counteracted by the fact that the only reason she knew it was talking about her was because it called her little.
"I'll show you little," Aila muttered to herself, earning an odd look from Kathryn which she ignored. Aila cautiously moved closer to the battle with Kathryn tailing behind her, not wanting to reveal herself quite yet. Using nearby foliage to keep herself as hidden as she could, she waited until she was nearly directly under the hovering dragon, who still seemed to be laughing its horns off. Kathryn's hands flooded with fire magic as she got ready to attack, but Aila held out a hand to her. "Hold on," she whispered. "I want to try something."
Kathryn raised a brow, but nodded, and Aila turned back to the dragon. She slowly breathed a deep breath, sucking in as much air as she could. She wasn't sure what sort of range she had, but she hoped it would be enough.
"YOL!"
Kathryn stumbled in surprise, clearly not expecting her to suddenly spew flames from her mouth, while the dragon stopped its laughter snapped its head to them to see a flaming ball hurtling towards it. Unfortunately, it moved quickly, beating its wings in one great thud and doing the equivalent of an aerial side-step, the fireball only just nicking its tail.
"Damn," Aila muttered, stepping out into clear view.
"Since when," Kathryn demanded as she stepped beside her. "Can you breathe fire?"
"Since the vampire den," Aila told her with a sheepish smile. "Did I forget to mention?"
Kathryn just shook her head. "Nevermind. Let's just focus on the dragon, shall we?"
"Yes, let's," Aila agreed and returned her attention to her quarry.
It was looking up to where the fireball sailed past him and into the sky, then turn back to the ground and Aila could have sworn it was grinning. As much as a dragon could grin, anyways.
"Vonun gein! Thuri said that you were partial to the shadows. Zu fod prodah nos!"
It seemed amused that she had managed to sneak up on her. She wondered if this dragon really saw her as a threat, or simply another source of entertainment. Regardless, it seemly marginally more friendly than the others she's fought, so she decided to reply.
"What shadows?" Aila hollered back in a playful tone. "Magnus is shining high in the sky, if you didn't notice us then I'm sure a even a mammoth could take you by surprise!
The dragon's rambunctious laughter filled the air. "Goraan! But are your teeth as sharp as your tongue, I wonder?"
"Sharper than yours," Aila taunted. "So get down here and fight like man, and we'll show you!"
"Why don't you come up here and fight like a dovah?" The dragon easily replied.
Aila glared up at the dragon for a moment. "Cheeky little…" She quickly drew an arrow and fired it directly at the dragon's head.
It didn't need to, the ice covering its skin would most definitely would have protected it, but the dragon moved its to the side to avoid the arrow and watched it go past, probably in an effort to show its superiority. Which is exactly what Aila was hoping for.
It turned its head back to them and opened its mouth, probably to mock her, but by then Aila had already nocked and fired three more arrows, the first of which just pierced its frosty wings.
The dragon snarled lightly in surprise and pain followed quickly by more snarls as each arrow pierced through. It staggered and dropped in the air slightly before regaining its balance, looking frustrated. Aila noted, though, that it seemed less upset with Aila for tricking her, and more so with itself for falling for it.
"Fine, then," Aila said. "If you won't come down, then we'll just have to make you!
And thus began the real battle.
The dragon reared his head which Aila realized meant he was about to use his breath attack.
"Move!" Aila shouted to Kathryn, who until just know had been watching their exchange with a more than bemused expression. No sooner than she spoke did she hear the dragon's voice.
"FO!"
The two dove out of the way of a torrent of ice and frost, both quickly rolling to their feet. Kathryn clasped her fire-clad hands together for a moment before thrusting them outward, a fireball forming in front of her and hurtling towards the dragon, while Aila quickly drew and fired several arrows in a quick succession.
The fireball being more obvious, the dragon swept to the side to avoid it, only to be met with Aila's many arrows. It growled lowly in pain and with a flap of its wings, it flew forward, flying over Kathryn and opening its jaws.
"FO!"
"Kat!" Aila screeched. She didn't know for sure how far Kathryn's tolerance to the cold went, but even if it was somehow enough to resist the dragon's breath, the blizzard of tiny, razor-sharp ice particles would cut her to ribbons.
Her fears were unwarranted, though, as she soon found out. Kathryn held her hands out above her head, the fire dissipating and replaced by a soft, glowing, blue ball of light that quickly expanded out above her head. The frost swarmed her, but buffeted against the blue light keeping her from any significant harm.
Aila breathed out a sigh of relief and then quickly berated herself for worrying so much. Stop fretting! She can take care of herself, just focus on the dragon!
As the dragon circled back around, Aila nocked another arrow and aimed as best she could. Dragons were difficult to hit mid-flight. Seeing its jaws open and realizing it was heading for her next, she spared no more time aiming and fired. Unfortunately, it merely bounced off the slick ice, and Aila sucked in a breath, preparing a shout, but before she could make so much as a noise, a fireball come from nowhere and smacked itself right in the side of the dragon's head causing it to roar loudly and stumble through the air.
Aila took a glance at Kathryn to see her smirking triumphantly, obviously pleased with herself. This brought a smile to Aila's face as well as she turned back to the dragon, deciding not to waste the breath she had taken with a follow-up attack.
"YOL!"
The dragon's pain-ridden roars intensified as Aila's own fireball, much larger and much hotter than Kathryn's, collided with the dragon's head and torso. The impact had forced the dragon off-balance, and it fell through the air, crashing into the ground with such a force that the ground shook.
Aila and Kathryn both drew their swords then, and rushed toward the crashed dragon. Aila reached it first, just as it righted itself. She was pleased to see, as it snapped its mighty jaws at her, that about half of the ice on the dragon's head had melted right off, leaving the leathery skin underneath vulnerable.
"SU!"
Aila quickly and nimbly ducked to avoid the dragon's bite, and slashed her sword upward, slicing right into the dragon's cheek. It growled loudly, and made to bite Aila again, but just then Kathryn reached its side, and she made her presence known by plunging her sword deep into its torso where the ice had melted off.
More roars of pain, and the dragon lifted its wing and made to swat Kathryn away. Unfortunately, Kathryn wasn't quite as fast as Aila, but she did the next best thing. Just before the dragon made contacted, she lifted her free hand up and coaxed a fireball to form in front of her, as large and as hot as she could make it, and thrust it into the dragon's wing, scorching a good part of it before being sent tumbling backwards with a grunt.
Growling, it turned back to Aila and reared its giant head. Aila recognized what was coming and quickly sucked in a breath.
"FO!"
"FEIM!"
The dragon's frost passed through her now incorporeal body, and Aila used the opportunity to easily maneuver past the dragon's head and thrust her sword as deep as she could get it into its exposed skin, where its long neck met its torso, just as she regained her physical body. However, when the sword was nearly hilt-deep into the dragon, she hit something hard and the sword stopped with a jarring thunk.
She attempted to pull the sword free with a yank, but it wouldn't budge an inch. She tried several more times with no luck, and was so focused on pulling out her sword that she didn't notice the snarling dragon spread its great wings and beat them in order to take off. And when the sword threatened come free of her grasp, Aila's first instinct was to tighten her grip.
The very next thing Aila knew she was looking with wide eyes down at the ground dozens of feet below her, hearing Kathryn scream her name, and gripping onto the hilt of the sword imbedded in the dragon for dear life while her other limbs flailed wildly. Refusing to acknowledge how high up she was, Aila managed to draw her dagger and stab into the dragon's neck, giving herself another handhold and more or less steadying herself.
The dragon, however, did not care for this one bit, and turned its head to her. It could not Shout at her, luckily, not without harming itself since much of its ice had melted off. That was just about all Aila had going for her in this particular situation.
Instead it brought its head closer to her and tried to grab her with its jaws. Aila somehow managed to swing herself out of the way of the first bite, and on the second, as its head neared, she raised her leg and kicked the dragon right on the snout with as much force as she could muster, not really expecting to do much, yet still appearing to damage it.
The kick, or perhaps her swinging, or even just the jagged motions of the flying creature, seemed to dislodge the sword slightly, as she could feel it start to slip out of the dragon, and Aila panicked for a moment before she had and idea.
It was a really stupid and dangerous idea that would probably end up with her being dead, but hey, the way things were going she was going to die anyways. Might as well take the dragon with her.
As the dragon made to bite her again, Aila lifted herself up and placed her two feet flat against the dragon's skin and pushed off with all her might. The sword and dagger pulled free, and for one, terrifying moment, Aila was falling through the air, unsuspended, and then she crashed sword-first right into the dragon's head.
The dragon roared and shook itself vigorously, and it took every ounce of Aila's strength to hold on. The very second there was a moment of relative stillness, Aila took the the chance to transfer her grip from her sword to the dragon's horn and pull her sword free only to plunge it even deeper into its skull.
She felt the dragon go rigid for a brief moment before relaxing completely. It stopped trying to shake her off. It stopped beating its massive wings. Its skin began to sizzle and burn, melting away as Aila began to take its soul. It was dead.
And it was plummeting toward the ground with Aila in tow.
Aila braced herself for the impact.
The dragon hit first, thankfully cushioning some of the impact. That didn't mean it hurt any less, though, when the impact threw Aila from the dragon and had her crashing into the ground and rolling a significant distance over sticks and twigs and small rocks, as last coming to a stop several yards from the dragon. No, Aila thought that hurt quite substantially.
Aila groaned loudly as she turned herself over onto her back, an act her body violently protested. She didn't bother to look over at the dragon as she absorbed its soul. She could feel its power flooding her as she soaked up its essence, filling her with even greater strength than she had before. Not that she could use it at the moment.
Despite her muscles screeching at her, she lifted her arm up and stretched out her hand, watching the light shine between her fingers.
But it's still not enough, Aila thought to herself with a frown. Not nearly enough.
It wasn't long before Kathryn appeared, standing over her with worried concern written all over her face.
Evidently, she knew better than to ask 'are you okay?'
"You know," Kathryn said, "I thought you couldn't get any more insane than walking alone into a vampire's den." Aila cracked a small smile as Kathryn held out a hand to her. "But then you had to go and prove me wrong by taking a dragon for a ride."
Aila chuckled weakly as she reached out and took Kathryn's hand. With no small amount pain, difficulty, and Kathryn's help, Aila managed to stand while holding onto Kathryn for support. Her whole body ached something fierce, but Kathryn was able to sooth her somewhat with her Healing Hands as she checked for injuries besides the obvious cuts and bruises.
"Is anything broken?" Aila asked. Her voice sounded weak and speaking itself was a chore. Though she wasn't sure if it was because of fall or of all the Shouting she did.
Kathryn hummed in thought for a moment as her hands gently raked along Aila's body. Honestly, the feeling would have been arousing if Aila hadn't been in so much pain.
"Well… I'm not really sure how it's possible, but no, it doesn't look like it. Some serious bruising, mostly along your arms torso, but no broken bones. Then again, I'm not exactly an expert at this, so I recommend we go see a healer."
Just then a lone guardsman came rushing into view, his gaze frantically switching between the two and the nearby dragon skeleton. "By the Eight, you killed it." He said disbelievingly. "You really killed it…"
Soon several more guardsmen and women followed, all wearing the same wild, incredulous look on their faces. At least, those that weren't wearing helmets.
Aila buried her face into Kathryn's shoulder as she realized what was happening. It was the same thing that happened in Whiterun. "Dammit," she muttered to herself.
"She killed the dragon?" A voice said. "All by herself?"
"How is that possible?" said another.
"She's Dragonborn! She must be!"
"No way! The Dragonborn's a big Redguard, not some skinny little elf!"
"You saw her Shout, she must be! There's no other explanation."
Finally, Aila had enough. "Hey!" she shouted through the pain, and the crowd immediately went silent. Aila smirked slightly, thoroughly amused by their reaction. "Are you all just going to stand there gawking, or are actually going to, I don't know, point me to a healer? I did just fight a dragon, you know."
Okay, maybe she was being a bit of a bitch, but she was in a lot of pain and in no mood to be nice. And, it was really pissing her off that none of them even mentioned Kathryn. She helped too!
It took them a moment to break from their stupor. "Oh!" cried a guard, possibly the captain. "Of course, our apologies." He pointed to another guard. "You, accompany the Dragonborn to the Temple and get Freir to attend to her personally."
"Yessir!" the guard cried. She stepped forward and addressed Aila. "Right this way, Dragonborn!" The guard then turned on her heels started marching back to Solitude.
Aila just rolled her eyes and followed, leaning heavily on Kathryn and making every effort not to cry out with each step.
They entered Solitude and, under other circumstances, she might have stopped to take in the sights, but Aila was too focused on keeping from biting her tongue off while trying not to scream to care for pleasant sights.
After an agonizingly long walk the guardswoman led them through the doors of the Temple of the Divines and called to a nearby priestess. "Freir, your help, please."
"One moment," the priestess called back as she tended to one of the injured guards. She waved over another priest that took over for her while she turned her attention to Aila, and frowned when she saw her. "Is she one of the civilians who were hurt when the dragon first showed? Why hasn't she already been tended to?"
"She's no civilian," the guard said. "She's the one who finished off the dragon. She's Dragonborn!"
The priestess' eyes widened in surprise. "Dragonborn? But I thought the Dragonborn was a Redguard?"
"She is, I saw her Shout. I saw it with my own eyes, shot fire right from her mouth, just like a dragon.
Aila was getting real tired of people talking of her like she wasn't right there in front of them. "Yes, yes, I'm Dragonborn," Aila said none too kindly. "Shocking, I know. Now can I please get some medical attention?"
The priestess Freir shook her head apologetically. "Of course, Dragonborn, my apologies. Take a seat right over here and remove your armour, if you can."
Aila followed her words, though she needed Kathryn's help getting out of her armour. She supposed she would've normally been embarrassed to be around anyone besides Kathryn with nothing to cover her but her breast-band from the waist up, but, and she wasn't sure if it was the pain or some other unknown reason, she couldn't find herself to care.
"Let's see here," Freir muttered to herself as her hands began to glow golden with healing magic. Her hands hovered over various parts of her body for a few moments before moving onto others, checking the extent of the damage. "Hmm… Doesn't look too bad, all things considered. Mostly just bruising and a couple minor fractures. We should be able to get you fixed up and ready to go within an hour. Two, at most."
"Great," Aila breathed. She didn't want to be stuck in this Temple any longer than she had to.
Time crept by slowly as Freir the priestess worked her magic to heal Aila's wound. There was no conversation, at least, not from Aila. Freir seemed to be too nervous in the presence of the 'legendary Dragonborn' to say anything worthwhile to her while Aila was far too irritated with the actions of those around her for speech. Kathryn, however, being the chatty little thing she was, managed quite a bit of back-and-forth dialogue between herself and the priestess, talking of meaningless things like where they had come from, why they were in Solitude (she lied about that, of course), as well as how they had managed to kill a dragon and if they had killed any others.
As the session neared its end and the last of Aila's bruises were nearly faded, a man with fiery red hair and dressed in rather extravagant clothing, at least by their standards, entered the temple and approached Aila. "Are you the Dragonborn?" he asked.
Aila regarded him with a hint of suspicion. "Yes…"
He reached into fancy tunic and pulled out a piece of paper. He held it out to her, and Aila tentatively took if from his hands. "Jarl Elisif the Fair would like to formally invite you and your friend to join her for a royal dinner as thanks for rescuing her city from further destruction at the hands of the dragon. And, if you have not already arranged for such, she would like to offer you a room to stay at the Blue Palace for the duration of your stay in Solitude. I can personally guarantee its quality."
It took a fair few moments for the initial shock to wear off, but once it did Aila's mind began to fill with glorious possibilities. The fair Jarl had just invited a thief to stay in her palace. Oh, this was going to be fun.
Aila faced the man, a wicked grin growing on her face. "We would absolutely love to join the Jarl for dinner."