Normally setting up a funeral pyre in a climate as cold and treeless as Winterhold would have been impossible. It was easy to imagine why ancient Nords opted to bury their countless dead in iced over catacombs instead like in Snow Veil Sanctum. However, so little of Gallus remained that even just sheltering the bones against one of the stone monoliths surrounding the tomb and engulfing them with their magic was enough to cause them to crumble.

It was just taking a really long time.

The two women had been burning him for well over an hour already and the bones were finally starting to whiten into dust, mixing in with the ashes of some firewood which had long since incinerated. Isobel was near faint from having her magicka reserves running so low for so long, but the potion Karliah kept handing her kept her going.

Dusk had been still and cloudless, but a storm rolling in off the Sea of Ghosts had darkened the sky very quickly and brought winds along with it. Now the ashes of wood and bone were starting to be swept up into the air, mixing in with the snow that was beginning to flurry every so lightly.

"We better hurry." Karliah had muttered. It was the first time either of them had spoken since they started, which Isobel was not happy with.

This was their first time alone together, and Isobel wanted desperately to pick at Karliah's brain. There were questions trapped in her head that she needed to get out. About the Guild, about Gallus and Mercer, about what exactly happened twenty-five years ago and how Karliah survived Mercer's betrayal. Instead they sat in silence, just as quiet as they were when they were translating Gallus's journal in the wine cellar of the Frozen Hearth.

Enthir had only began to set up his invitation for Urag gro-Shrub to join in on their irresistible Falmer knowledge when the Orc librarian laughed smugly and said he already had a copy of the text. Apparently decades ago a certain "brilliant but odd" man by the name of Anthony Pavetta had transcribed Calcelmo's research and sold him a secret copy.

"That must've been Gallus..." Karliah had whispered when Enthir told her and Isobel about his attempt to recruit the barbarian scholar.

"You can bet your quiver it was." Enthir paced around the basement of the Frozen Hearth. "When he came asking me about how to learn Falmer for a heist he was planning I pointed him to the exact same direction I did to you. To Calcelmo. He must've made copies of whatever you found and sold them for coin."

"Why are you so upset then?" Isobel had to ask the Wood Elf. "This means he's already probably deciphered the texts."

"Oh, and you can bet your floating Scroll of Invisibility that he has, he's made a whole damned Falmer translation key! He's just charging me three thousand septims for me to have access to it!"

Enthir coughed up every piece of coin Isobel had earned for him during her stay at the College, and he did so begrudgingly but with a sense of relief. This meant their work was cut down drastically, what would've probably taken months or possibly years of waiting had already been deciphered and translated, they just needed to apply it to Gallus's writing. They were that much closer to returning to Riften.

Isobel was far less than adequate when it came to dead languages compared to the two elves, and she still had to attend classes, so she didn't have the abundance of time Enthir and Karliah had. When she did join them she spent most of her time staring blankly at the ugly text or pestering them with questions.

"Do you think Gallus purposely sold a transcription of Calcelmo's research to Urag because he thought you or Enthir might go there if you needed to read his journal?" Isobel asked Karliah during one evening of translation.

"Yes." Karliah said simply without taking her violet eyes off her page.

Enthir was in the basement of the inn now, chipping away at the brutal work. The two women thought it was as good of time as any to take care of Gallus's body.

More time dragged by, the sky was now almost black and the wind was getting fiercer. The very last of Gallus's bones had turned to dust under their arcane flame, now Karliah had signaled for Isobel to stop and let the ashes cool. Isobel did so with a heavy exhale, taking a few deep breaths to try and bring her woozy energy levels back to normal.

"Gods, that took a while..."

"It needed to be done." Karliah said, stomping out any last embers and testing to see if the ashes were still hot. It only took a few minutes for the freezing air to cool them down, and Karliah quickly stuffed what didn't blow away into a large leather sack.

"Where are you going to take him?" Isobel inquired.

"Where Nightingales are supposed to go when they die."

Isobel couldn't even respond to that information. She mindlessly nodded her head, first with sycophantic understanding which morphed gradually into a squinty-eyed, suspicious stare.

The Nightingales... she'd heard myths and stories about them even in Cyrodiil. A unholy trinity of Daedra worshiping thieves... bound to serving Nocturnal. It was a myth though, the same way Nocturnal's curse on the Gray Cowl was a myth, they were just good ways to instill a sense of fear and power to people outside of the Thieves Guild.

But Isobel hadn't heard Karliah crack a single joke since meeting her, and her tone was far too serious to be one anyway. The Dark Elf simply continued packing up her belongings, stealing glances at Isobel as she did so.

"What did you say?" Isobel asked bluntly.

"There were three of us. Myself, Gallus and Mercer. We were an anonymous splinter of the Thieves Guild in Riften. Perhaps I'll tell you more about it later. Right now, we need to head back to Winterhold before this storm throttles us."

With that she stood up and made to head off, making Isobel scramble to her feet and follow suit.

"No no no, you don't just drop something like that on me and then follow it up with an 'I'll tell you more later.' " Isobel argued adamantly by Karliah's side.

"You will learn in due time." Karliah replied coolly, barely audible over the whistling wind and still walking briskly away from Snow Veil Sanctum. "Once Gallus' journal has been translated all will be revealed. I just feel like you should have a fair warning before... before you learn what happened."

Those final words were so ominous and secretive and everything Isobel hated. She had to grit her teeth to prevent her tongue from wagging any more. It did really seem like Karliah wanted out of the old Nordic burial site as soon as possible, and Isobel could easily understand the reasons why. And so the two sped westward to the Winterhold, the distant, warm lights of the Jarl's keep and the inn a beckon in the encroaching darkness.

Isobel refused to have their walk be as silent as they had been the past few days, she had waited for Karliah to return for a month so they could talk about the Thieves Guild and Isobel couldn't wait any longer.

"Tell me about Gallus." It wasn't a question this time. It was a demand.

"He was a scholar, a master thief and a natural leader. Everyone respected him and followed him without question." Karliah talked surprisingly freely at first, it wasn't until she spoke further that her tone became more strained. "It was Gallus who inducted me into the Nightingales and honed my skills to a razor sharp point. I owe everything to him. We were... very close."

"So you were lovers?"

"Gallus once said he felt comfortable around me, able to let his guard down. I can't help but think that I'm responsible for what happened to him." There it was, a wavering in Karliah's voice, a crack. A mist in her eyes. Finally Isobel was getting some emotion from her again. Not that she was being sadistic, she just craved to know how Karliah overcame that very pain...

"How did you do it?" She pried further, ignoring the dangerous ground she was trespassing on. "Before you left for Markarth you told me to solve et coagula... How did you coagulate?"

"I had no choice." Karliah said curtly.

"There is always a choice." Isobel argued, their fast, crunching steps in the snow falling into sync. "You could've ran far away from the Guild and Mercer, you could've numbed everything with drink, you could've just killed yourself... How did you pull yourself together and plot vengeance?"

"You will learn of the actual situation I found myself in once Gallus's journal is fully translated. You do not know the whole story." Karliah snapped, harsh but still with copious amounts of restraint and grace. "Do you want to hear my advice on a different yet similar topic?"

"Yes! Please!"

"Snuff out whatever feelings you have for Brynjolf before you get him killed."

The words hit Isobel like the blast of thunder that sounded far off over the ocean. Instantly she shut her mouth tightly and glared at Karliah.

"Enthir has told me about your obviously transparent softness for him, and he has expressed the same concerns I have." Karliah continued tearing into Isobel. "Gallus would probably still be alive if it wasn't for me and what we had, and he is far from the only Guild Master who lost his life due to a weak spot for a lover. Don't tempt Brynjolf into making the same mistakes Gallus did. Do not be like me."

"Don't worry about it." Isobel tried her damned hardest to sound unfazed, but her voice betrayed the hurt she was actually feeling. "As soon as I get my letter from the Gray Fox I am going back to Cyrodiil where I belong. Brynjolf won't ever see me again-" She was barely able to finish the last sentence before her throat closed off completely.

Brynjolf probably never wanted to see Isobel again, not after that night in the Ratways and whatever terrible confrontation took place while she was piss drunk. Enthir's letter had to be about all the others in the Guild. It was mostly the thought of her never seeing Brynjolf's handsome grin or hearing his roguish voice call her "lass" again that made her feel like there was a giant hole in her chest.

Karliah turned to eye the teary Breton, her expression still firm but now with a new hint of sympathy.

"You know the Gray Fox?" Karliah inquired, obviously trying to change the subject and regretting her previous ferocity.

"Mhm." Isobel nodded, still keeping her lips taut.

"That one has a complicated history with Nocturnal, that's for sure." Karliah trailed off for a bit, deep in thought. "Has your Guild experienced any bad luck as of late?" It was an oddly specific question, but it was still one Isobel could answer confidently.

"You have no idea. Nothing like the Thieves Guild here, we're still prosperous. But we just had a massive heist fall through in every possible way and I'm the only one who survived..."

"Interesting..." Karliah muttered and reverted back to her usual stoic silence.