Chapter XXVIII – The Dangers of Adventuring
Much to Bishop's dismay they have spent the next couple of weeks in Jorrvaskr.
Aeyrin went on quests with the Companions often and Bishop noted that it was mostly the four that the Dunmer Athis called 'the Circle'. He would have been concerned about that, if it weren't for the fact that after each of these little adventures, Aeyrin couldn't wait to excitedly relay every detail to him.
Apparently her newfound friends did not share her fascination with the beauties of Skyrim's dungeons. They seemed much more interested in battle than ancient secrets and treasures.
He spent the hours that she did her work for Companions on hunts with Karnwyr, just like the old days.
Not that he minded that, but he was itching more and more to go back to adventuring with her. And to get away from the Jorrvaskr altogether.
Aeyrin still kept her distance from him, which was infuriating, especially since the brothers got increasingly more 'friendly' towards her. All the more since they noticed how she at times flinched away from him.
At the very least their friendship lost on some of its coldness, as she couldn't stop herself from telling him about her new experiences.
The Companions still largely ignored him, aside from a few exceptions.
There was Athis, who for some reason loved complaining to Bishop about the others. He didn't give a fuck about the elf's troubles, but it was pretty entertaining how often he badmouthed the members of the Circle. He also constantly shot Bishop meaningful looks when the brothers seemed particularly clingy towards Aeyrin. That was annoying – as if he needed a reminder.
The old man Kodlak tried to strike up a conversation with Bishop a few times, trying to butter him up by saying he had honor despite his attitude or some similar shit.
As if he cared what the old fossil thought about him.
Barking at the man would however in no way help his relationship with Aeyrin – she was quite fond of him, so he only nodded when necessary and largely ignored the man.
The only other Companion who ever talked to him was Aela.
She approached him one day, praising his hunting skills. When he inquired how she knew, she admitted to following him on his hunt – she was curious what he does when Aeyrin was away. It pissed him off somewhat but truth be told, he was mildly impressed that she managed to avoid his notice.
She started pressing him about joining the Companions too but he was adamant. He had no interest in their group; it was annoying enough that Aeyrin joined.
Aela still tried to lure him in at times, even tried flirting with him to achieve that – completely ineffectively, but he was a bit disappointed that Aeyrin didn't witness that. He was all too curious about how she would react.
He refused to believe that she just lost interest in him completely after that morning in Ivarstead.
But, at the very least, Aela stopped throwing him disdainful glares.
She even insisted on joining him on a hunt one day. She wasn't half bad.
…
"You know, I still can't imagine who would use an ancient ruin as a shortcut," Aeyrin chuckled as she checked her equipment bag one more time.
She was supposed to clear a ruin called Brittleshin Pass with Vilkas – apparently travelers used it to traverse the mountains and lately bandits decided to take up residence.
It was an old ruin and she hoped to discover another Word Wall in there.
She tried her new Shout alone on the plains around Whiterun – it produced a large spray of flames right in front of her and her throat burned strangely for the rest of the day. It seemed even more dangerous than her first Shout, but she was determined to learn to control them both.
That was easier said than done.
She spent most of her times with her new comrades and she didn't want to use her powers in front of any of them since her sparring match with Vilkas. It made her uncomfortable, she was not there as the Dragonborn.
"It's perfect for bandits. New ones are gonna be crawling through that place soon after you clear it out. Pointless," Bishop scoffed, placing the arrows he's fletched last night into his quiver.
"Do you want to come with?" she smiled at him bashfully after a moment of silence.
"What? Isn't that like top secret Companion business?" he smirked mockingly. He knew he wasn't welcome on their excursions.
"Secret? No one said it's secret. If so, I already told you about everything anyways," she chuckled. "They said it was part of training – to get use to fighting alongside each other," she added with a sigh.
He watched her expectedly, waiting for her to continue.
"It's been long enough… and they never let me take point anyways. I'm not good at watching their backs," she gave him a hopeful look.
"So you want me to take over your shoddy job?" he smirked at her mockingly.
"It's not shoddy when you're actually good at it! And there's always so many nasty traps and you're good at noticing them. And Vilkas always runs ahead just killing everything he can find… he doesn't even look at the treasure!" she exclaimed the last thing like it was such an indignation.
He laughed at her pouting. Vilkas would be pissed off if he went with them. Another reason to join. Besides, he kind of missed plundering dungeons with her.
"Fine, I suppose I can spend the day watching your ass," he smirked again, looking over his equipment to make sure he had everything necessary for dungeon delving.
Aeyrin turned back to her pack quickly hiding the slight blush and wondering how Vilkas would react.
…
"This is Companion business only, pup. Leave your mongrel here," Vilkas practically growled at Aeyrin's suggestion.
Bishop thought about responding, but Vilkas's expression was already priceless. He only smirked at him smugly, deepening the Companion's scowl even further.
"Come on, every helping hand is good. Besides, I'm getting rusty on the sidelines," Aeyrin gave him an encouraging nudge. She knew he could not possibly have a logical reason for not taking Bishop with them – it was free help, how was he gonna say no to that? Well, Bishop might be a bit upset later about the 'free' part, but it's not like anyone usually paid them for their own dungeon plundering – the treasure was always sufficient.
Vilkas narrowed his eyes at the both of them, but luckily didn't protest further.
Bishop started to actually look forward to spending time with that man, if he was about to keep that pissed off expression for the entire time.
It was so rewarding.
…
The necromancer hiding in the pass was a powerful mage, but with their substantial strength in numbers they made short work of him in no time.
The rest of the pass was crawling with bandits waiting for an easy target.
"Why are you on the ground?" Aeyrin approached Bishop, splayed on his back in a passage, fiddling with a tripwire right above him.
"See that hole in the wall right next to you?" Bishop chuckled at her as she jumped back in alarm.
"You can join me on the ground, just to be safe," he winked at her suggestively while pulling out his hunting knife.
"You know, you can just trip the wire when you see the release spot. There's no need for all that posturing," Vilkas scoffed with disdain, approaching them, careful not to get in the trajectory of the trap.
"I'm sure you're right…" Bishop smirked while cutting the tripwire suddenly. A steel spear thrust out of the wall as they expected, but one more sprang from the wall behind the passage, stopping only a hair's breadth from Vilkas, earning a malicious laugh from Bishop.
"It's sad when a group of bandits outsmarts the mighty Companion," he smirked smugly again while getting up on his feet deftly.
Vilkas narrowed his eyes at him hatefully before answering: "Not all of us are intimately familiar with the workings of a bandit's mind. It's not surprising that you are."
Bishop scoffed. Vilkas knew nothing; it was a cheap guess, nothing more.
"Or maybe I'm not stupid enough to underestimate everyone who isn't a lumbering tin-man."
Bishop noticed how Vilkas fought. No wonder he never let Aeyrin take point – every time he concentrated only on the largest, most armed and armored enemy, ignoring everyone in the shadows with arrows and daggers just waiting for an ice-brain like him to hurl himself into their sights.
If it weren't for him and Aeyrin, he would have been dead ten times over.
He wondered how that man survived his adventures before.
He underestimated Aeyrin in their sparring match too, counting on his superior strength and stature and then getting beaten by a simple ruse. Bishop would have really enjoyed how she handed his ass to him if he could have gotten the image of him pinning her down below him out of his mind.
Vilkas scoffed at his comment again, but held on to his original insinuation stubbornly. "Men like him don't make for good comrades, pup. He has no honor… and he's shady," he nodded at Aeyrin meaningfully.
"He's shady alright, but on the other hand, I never got impaled by a trap," Aeyrin only grinned in response, giving Bishop a small smile afterwards. She already gathered that Bishop had a checkered past, but for that matter, so did she, in a way.
Vilkas only shook his head, heading into the passage before he could be a recipient of another one of Bishop's annoying smug looks.
…
The adventure was vastly different.
She didn't need to chase after Vilkas constantly, with barely enough time to look around the rooms.
She could fight in the thick of it while comfortably relying on Bishop having her back if anyone lurked in the shadows.
And best of all, he didn't mind explaining her things about the ancient Skyrim barrows – he knew nothing about history but he did know some folk tales and he could tell her all about how some mechanisms and traps work.
The Companions mostly just ushered her forward, hoping to finish the tasks as quickly as possible. She understood why – everything was probably old news for them, but she still barely saw a fraction of Skyrim and she couldn't help her curiosity.
Vilkas seemed extremely grumpy. Not only did he scoff at anything Bishop did or said, he also kept tapping his foot impatiently when they were looking over the chambers for loot or anything else of interest.
It was somewhat getting on Aeyrin's nerves.
They continued on through the pass, nearing the exit.
They encountered another group of bandits in a narrow hallway – the close quarters promising a precarious battle.
Aeyrin charged at them first with Vilkas right behind her.
Bishop drew his bow short way away – there was really not much room to maneuver and shooting at close range was never ideal, but he'd make do. He shot one of the bandits attacking Vilkas right through his ear and quickly prepared another arrow to thin the herd.
Before he managed to draw his bow fully however, Vilkas suddenly positioned himself in front of a heavily armored bandit and charged at him with full strength.
The man staggered far enough to crash right into Bishop, his bow tumbling on the ground from impact.
Before he could reach his knife, the bandit already twisted around, thrusting his sword forward hurriedly.
A sharp pain forced his eyes shut as it spread throughout his body.
He felt the sword go all the way through, his arm flapping heavily on the ground and the cold feeling of blood soaking through his armor could be felt all over his chest.
He heard a crack of crushed bones as if from far away before he finally managed to compose himself at least a little.
Aeyrin was kneeling in front of him, gripping at the sword lodged mercifully above his heart frantically while Vilkas stood motionless behind her, his eyes betraying no emotion.
He did that on purpose.
He didn't even have the guts to try to kill Bishop himself. Trying to stage an accident... pathetic.
Bishop shot him a murderous glare, making sure that the coward saw that he knew. Maybe he managed to escape Aeyrin's notice, but never his.
Another stab of pain coursed through his body as she pulled the sword out, making him let out an involuntary grunt of pain.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw Vilkas approach slowly and lay a comforting hand on Aeyrin's shoulder. The gall. He might as well have tried to twist that sword before she got it out to get his point across.
"I will go ahead to clear the pass, so that nothing surprises us. You… see if there's anything you can do," his voice was somber as he squeezed her shoulder gently before turning away.
What the fuck? Did he actually think he managed to get him killed? Or did he just want to piss him off?
Aeyrin's underchain was already stained with blood as she was reaching the clasps of his leathers; her hands seemed to be shaking a bit.
Did it really look that bad?
"Careful, sweetness. You might actually have to touch me for this," he gave her a weak smirk, making her pause in her movement for a split second.
"Bishop…" she frowned disapprovingly as she managed to open up his leathers enough to reveal the blood-soaked tunic. At least from his tone of voice it didn't seem like the wound was life-threatening.
"Do you really want to talk about that now?" she shook her head, not expecting the conversation to go any further.
"Why the fuck not? I'm pretty fed up with watching that horker-fucker paw at you all the time."
She shot him a surprised look as she ripped his tunic to reveal the wound, making him flinch slightly from the movement. Her eyes darted quickly to his wound, finding it only slightly above any life-dependent organs, breathing out a sigh of relief.
"Who? Vilkas?" she shook her head disbelievingly while she set out to clean the wounded area with fresh water and a clean rag from her pack.
"He's not 'pawing' at me," she let out a small chuckle despite herself. It was very clear that Bishop disliked Vilkas and the rest of the Companions, but it never occurred to her that he might have actually been jealous. It actually made her a little happy.
Dammit, she needed to stop thinking like that.
"Seriously, how are you so naïve? He's so obvious," Bishop rolled his eyes, interrupted by his own pained hiss as the rag scraped over the open wound.
"He's just being friendly," she shook her head again, her eyes still concentrating on his wound.
"Yeah, he's friendly alright. So tell me, how is it that you claim we're 'friends' yet you flinch like a startled Nixad every time we get even near each other, but you have no problem having him get all… 'friendly'," he let out another pained grunt as she pressed both her hands against the wound above his chest, a pleasant warmth spreading through him a second later while they started to glow with healing magic.
Her eyes still refused to look at him but now she seemed rather flushed.
"That's… different," she answered quietly.
Was she actually trying to pay him back for saying that sleeping with that girl in Ivarstead was 'different' from being with her? It was more spiteful than he would have expected from her.
"Right… Look, I know you're still mad…" he sighed. He was tired of keeping his mouth shut, it didn't help anything anyways.
"Mad?" she interrupted him, finally looking up at him, "I'm not mad…"
"Then how the fuck is it 'different'?" he scowled.
She looked back down, shaking her head with a sigh: "Are you really gonna force me to say it?"
What? She hated him? She found him repulsive after what he did? It seemed like an overreaction, but at least he would know and this stupid uncomfortable tension could finally end.
She dropped her hands from his wound, now soothingly warm above his chest. The other end of the wound was still incredibly painful but before moving on behind him, she twiddled her fingers nervously in front of him, her eyes still lowered stubbornly.
"It's different, because when you do it, it makes me… nervous… and it makes want to… do things," she flushed profusely, quickly making her way behind him to hide, pressing her palms to his shoulder blade swiftly.
That was the reason? How did that not occur to him? Fuck, she was a bad influence on him, making him all insecure. He should have known, all of that could have been avoided. But maybe it was for the best. Maybe she needed some time, maybe even to see that he wouldn't push her when she pulled away.
But there was no way in Oblivion he was going to stay away from her now.
She dropped her hands from his wound, it was still painful but decidedly less so. He would need to visit the temple, but it was good enough to make it back to Whiterun with no major hassle.
He turned to face her, her face still red and eyes downcast.
"That's a stupid reason, princess," he smirked, brushing a stray hair from her forehead and quickly planting a kiss on the top of her head pointedly.
"Bishop!" she took up an admonishing tone, looking up at him, but her mouth quirked upwards ever so slightly.
He raised his hands in mock surrender and laughed: "Just being 'friendly'."
She shook her head and readied herself to get up but he stopped her. He was already a bit woozy from the blood loss and if he didn't say it, it would hardly rid her of her doubts.
"I meant what I said… that it wasn't the same… I just… wasn't thinking that night. But with you… it would mean something. Fuck I actually like you, ladyship," he slowly placed his hand on her cheek, stroking lightly.
She gave out an exasperated sigh but still leaned into his touch slightly, her lips quirking upwards.
She didn't answer, but she didn't push him away either.
It was enough for now.