Chapter XXVII – Camaraderie and Adventure
The Companions invited both of them to celebrate Aeyrin's joining and to spend the night in Jorrvaskr.
They offered her permanent quarters with the other recruits, saying that the longhouse would from now on be her home whenever she needed.
Some of them still barreled her with questions about being a Dragonborn, but to his credit, Vilkas made the effort to change the subject whenever he noticed her unease, spending the majority of the evening by her side for that reason. Every time he managed to steer the conversation away, Aeyrin shot him a grateful smile in return.
It was slowly starting to look like the place she needed – a home she could return to.
A touchstone which was not dependent on surly moods and drunken escapades.
Bishop was less then pleased with the direction the evening took.
He knew there was something shifty about these people – he could tell shifty. Not only that, it was increasingly obvious that she was there only because she was the Dragonborn – her title on everyone's lips wherever he turned. Did they even know her name?
She barely spared him a glance all evening.
Vilkas was around her constantly and his brother was no better, both of them inconspicuously leaning towards her or touching her under the pretense of camaraderie. She was too naïve to see through that but he knew better. He recognized the look in their eyes. He wasn't really worried about her doing anything with them, she would hardly approach sex or anything related that casually, especially after what happened between them.
But it still made his blood boil to watch their pathetic attempts.
It was a bitter feeling, to see the easy closeness they shared together before to be given so freely to others when he was deprived of it. He hated how careful she got around him. He thought she wanted things to return to what they were before he kissed her, but this was a far cry from that.
"Not one for celebrations?" the Dunmer smirked as he took a seat beside Bishop.
He was in no mood to talk to any of them, his eyes still set on Aeyrin and the two brothers hovering around her eagerly. The Dunmer followed his line of sight for a while and observed the three for a few moments alongside Bishop.
"The jealous type then?" he laughed somewhat mockingly, earning a glare from Bishop.
"No wonder she takes to them, having only you for company so far," he continued goading him.
Bishop was in no mood to entertain him, it was obvious that the elf enjoyed taunting people, he wasn't about to take the bait.
"See all those people around her?" the Dunmer seemed to take on a serious tone suddenly, motioning towards the part of the long table where Aeyrin sat, surrounded by the two brothers, Aela and another Nord – a slightly older one with a bald head and war paint under his eyes. When Bishop's eyes roamed around the room, he noticed the remaining companions – the two young girls throwing the group rather nasty glances and a few other warriors completely disinterested in them.
He narrowed his eyes at the Dunmer, trying to discern his intentions.
"Those four are 'the Circle' – our best and most senior members. When Farkas and Vilkas returned from the Rift, they almost burst with excitement at meeting the Dragonborn. And now…" he scoffed derisively with Bishop still baffled by his monologue. "Aela's been whispering everywhere that your girl's a priestess. Those four were even more thrilled about that than the Dragonborn thing," the elf turned to Bishop, narrowing his eyes, signaling his suspicion.
Bishop shook his head. It was kind of weird that they would get interested in her religion, but a battle priest was likely a welcome sight. She would no doubt be invaluable for their excursions.
"What's your fucking point?" he barked at the elf, tired of his vague insinuations.
"My 'fucking point', n'wah, is that they barely spare a glance to any new recruit we have. The fucking Emperor could stride in and they would still call him 'milk-drinker'. But your girl… they are like a pack of wolves, descending on their prey. For some reason, they desperately want her here. They're never all smiles and kindness, believe me," he gave him a meaningful stare.
Still, it was hardly surprising that they wanted the Dragonborn around, but the fact that even one of their own was suspicious of them made Bishop uneasy.
"Why are you here then? You don't seem all that 'friendly' with them yourself," Bishop asked him, still baffled by the fact that he was the recipient of this strange confession.
"Are you kidding? A greyskin, good with a sword? What else would I do? Mercenary work to get spat on by fucking snowbacks?" he scoffed derisively. "Your girl's in the same boat, even if she's got tits to make the Nords nicer to her. They know damn well how easy it would be to make her feel welcome here. And when they pounce, she won't see it coming."
Bishop narrowed his eyes at the group on the other side of the room. Each of the brothers was seated on one side of her, Vilkas telling her something with a proud smile on his face, while Farkas watched her reaction intently. It's not like he never saw men pay such rapt attention to her, but with everything the elf said, uneasiness gnawed at him more and more.
"Do you actually have anything useful to say, or just vague conspiracy theories?" Bishop barked at him, irritated at how much this was getting to him, "Why would you even tell me this?"
The elf shrugged, now seemingly completely disinterested: "I don't know shit, n'wah. I just watch and get called knife-ear by the almighty Circle. Maybe I just don't want a fucking Dragonborn to join them and spit on me too."
The elf didn't say anything further, downing his drink and leaving the room altogether.
Bishop looked back at her again, laughing among her newfound peers.
What would he even tell her? She would never believe him, not in the state that their relationship was in.
…
The next day, Aeyrin was excitedly preparing for her first outing as a Shield-sister.
She was to accompany Farkas into a nearby Nordic ruin, looking for a fragment of an ancient battleaxe belonging to Ysgramor himself.
"I thought you wanted to help people. What is getting some sentimental chunk of metal gonna help anyone?" Bishop scoffed, lazing on a bed in one of the bedrooms while Aeyrin fastened her new black plates to her underchain. The blacksmith apparently worked on them for her all morning. She was slightly disappointed that no one mentioned that – she would have loved to see what kind of strange metal the black armor was made from, and perhaps even to help the smith with making her plate. Although, this way, at least, there were no mistakes in the measurements.
"It helps the Companions," she shook her head at Bishop. Of course he was grumpy about her plans – he was grumpy about anything. But she was exited to travel with someone new, to see whether they made a good team in battle. And she missed the closeness that watching each other's backs garnered.
Maybe she missed the closeness she shared with Bishop, but it didn't matter anymore. She needed to keep her distance. They weren't right for each other and she was too wary of the effect he had on her.
"Yeah, they're really suffering without their little axe," he smirked but the scowl never left his face. He couldn't shake the suspicions planted by both Karnwyr's behavior and the elf's words. He knew she could take care of herself, but he still didn't like the idea of her going alone with Farkas anywhere.
Gods forbid she would actually come to like that slobbering dog. The Deadlands would freeze over before he would let anyone snatch her away.
Aeyrin ignored his comments, looking over her new shield and mace, fastening them to the clasps on her belt.
"I'm coming with you," Bishop suddenly got up from bed, earning a scowl from her.
"You can't. It's part of my initiation," she shook her head. Maybe they would allow it, but she wasn't about to ask.
"Not on your little adventure, princess," he frowned at her, although he was kind of hoping for her to agree regardless. "I wanna see if Karnwyr tries to kill you," he gave her a mean grin, heading outside to look for his wolf.
…
Bishop was kneeling by the wolf when she caught up with him. Karnwyr immediately raised his head when he smelled her nearby, his eyes darting all around before he spotted her.
He darted away from Bishop with speed, leaving him staggered by the dead tree.
The wolf stopped a hair's breadth before Aeyrin, making her nervous about his reaction.
In a second he barked happily, nuzzling her leg affectionately as she let out an exaggerated sigh.
"See? He's smarter than you give him credit for," Aeyrin chuckled as she scratched Karnwyr behind his ears.
Bishop narrowed his eyes at them. He had a theory about something about the armor making his friend skittish – maybe wolf hair used in the fur? Either Karnwyr controlled himself for Aeyrin's benefit, or something else about the Companions made him go crazy.
…
The dungeon was crawling with draugr.
They made short work of them but the traps started to become a problem.
She only scoured two Nordic ruins before, both with Bishop, of course. He always took care of the traps so she didn't exactly pay rapt attention to the mechanisms.
Another mistake on her part.
She needed to be able to take care of herself fully, not relying entirely on Bishop with some tasks. This was proof enough – there would be times when they weren't together. Divines know they almost parted ways for good several times before.
Farkas was handling himself well, but they were both more comfortable with melee weapons.
Aeyrin got stuck watching his back, hanging behind and only attacking so the things he didn't see coming.
She was uncomfortable in that role.
She was way too used to getting in the thick of it and she was hardly skilled at scanning the surrounding and finding things in the shadows. She was more accustomed to improvising when some beastie jumped out at her, back when she was adventuring alone.
They made their way into a large cavern with no discernable exit.
There was a passageway but a thick metal grate was barring the path.
"Let's look around for some levers," Aeyrin suggested when Farkas pointlessly tried to shake the thick bars loose.
After a while she located a strangely conspicuous lever in a small alcove. Seeing no alternative, she pulled it, only to hear a loud clank behind her.
She found herself trapped behind another thick grate. Pulling the lever again did nothing and she looked up helplessly at the approaching warrior.
"Now look what you've gotten yourself into. No worries, just sit tight. I'll find a release," Farkas gave her a light chuckle, but before he could turn away from her, she noticed two people approaching behind his back.
"Farkas, behind you!" she cried out, but the people didn't attack, despite their menacing stance.
"Well… what do we have here?" the man that appeared behind Farkas approached the bars to the alcove while the woman pressed her shortsword to the Companion's throat.
"You got a new bitch?" the man laughed as he slammed his axe against the bars, unsuccessfully attempting to make Aeyrin flinch.
"Is she turned yet?" the woman barked at him, a deep scowl etched on her face as she refused to take her eyes off Farkas.
"I don't know… but we'll have so much fun with her either way," the man gave Aeyrin a disturbing grin. He poked his axe inside the bars in provocation, attempting to nudge her with the pointed tip at the end of the handle.
How stupid was he?
Aeyrin grabbed at the weapon instinctively, just below the axe head. She pulled it from the surprised man's hands, poking her breastplate lightly due to the momentum.
Before he could react, she fastened her grip on the weapon and smashed it through the bars – right into the man's head.
"What the fuck?!" the woman exclaimed in shock as the man slumped to the ground, axe planted firmly in his skull.
Aeyrin wasn't sure if she was more surprised about her friend's death or his idiocy.
Farkas used her surprise immediately, grasping her throat with his strong armored hand, forcing her to drop her sword and attempt to dislodge the Companion's grip from her neck.
Farkas didn't hesitate to pull out one of his handaxes and driving it into the woman's torso with force, effectively splitting her in half.
The grin on his face was a little disturbing as he wiped the woman's blood from his face: "Good work, pup. I'll go and find a way to set you free."
Aeyrin stayed quietly in the alcove, looking down at the two corpses on the ground. They seemed to know Farkas. And what did they mean by 'turned'?
…
It took some time before the bars finally rose back to the ceiling, but Farkas was now nowhere to be seen.
She tentatively left the alcove and continued down the now opened path, looking for the Companion.
She saw more corpses on the way, but it didn't look like Farkas killed them. There was a group of five people, all their bodies mangled and mutilated – as if a wild animal tore into them.
She hoped the same fate did not meet the Companion.
She finally spotted him in large chamber filled with a few dead spiders and myriad of cobwebs.
His back was turned to her and he seemed like he was re-fastening his armor.
"Farkas, are you alright?" she asked a little worriedly, the scene in the previous hall made her wonder what else would they run into there.
"There you are, pup," Farkas turned around with a smile, the blood still covering his face.
"There were a lot of corpses in the hall. It looked like something nasty attacked them," Aeyrin winced, looking over the large chamber warily.
"It was probably the spiders. I already took care of them," he grinned at her again, apparently unfazed by the scene.
It certainly didn't look like a spider attack. Besides, wouldn't the spiders entangle their victims?
"I don't know… it didn't look like it was the spiders. Something worse is here. We should be careful," she shook her head at him.
"We should always be careful, pup," he grinned again, he looked so strangely cheerful, and there was a… vigor in his eyes.
"Farkas, who are those people?" she finally asked the question that has been gnawing at her.
"They call themselves the Silver Hand. Bandits mostly. They hate the Companions. They likely heard about the Wuuthrad fragment here and decided to ambush us," he stated that matter-of-factly.
"Why do they hate the Companions?" Aeyrin raised her eyebrows. Who would even give so much energy to hating such a group.
"Don't know. Some say they are rejected recruits," Farkas grinned again.
She thought for a while. She didn't think that the Companions rejected anyone. She was all but welcome with open arms. And how could they possibly reject so many people to constitute an entire other faction?
"Don't think about it too much, pup. You need your blood rushing to your arms and legs during battle, not your head," he patted her back amicably and ushered her to continue away from the spider-infested chamber.
…
They didn't encounter anyone or anything in the next few chambers.
There were some draugr corpses on the ground but it looked like those were taken care of by the Silver Hand.
They finally reached the final chamber – the fragment of Wuuthrad mercifully visible on one of the stone tables beside some strange equipment.
It looked like… torture tools.
Farkas stashed the fragment into his pack victoriously, but then Aeyrin heard the familiar drumming.
She heard herself telling Farkas to watch her back as if from far away.
She didn't even need to search for the location of the Wall – it seemed to draw her in. Her legs carried her on her own as the only thing in her sights were the glowing runes. She stopped a hair's breadth from the Wall, staring at the symbols. There seemed to be heat emanating from them.
YOL
She whispered the word under her breath, already imagining what it could mean and how much havoc it would wreak. She really needed to work on her control of the Shouts.
"Can you hear? You're being weird," the voice sobered her delirium.
The world around returned to her as she turned back towards Farkas.
He looked at her with a raised brow. He didn't look concerned at all, mostly confused. There was a strange aloofness about him during their journey. He didn't look like he was fazed by anything that has happened.
"I'm fine. Let's get out of here," she smiled at him, the word still unpleasantly echoing in her head.
She didn't feel like explaining. He didn't seem that interested anyways.
For some reason she couldn't wait to tell everything to Bishop.