Chapter LXXIII – Back to the Fray
"Do you really think it's him?"
Aeyrin shuffled her feet nervously at the entrance to the meadery.
Their journey back south was blessedly uneventful, giving them a chance to leave behind all the politics, conflicts and danger plaguing their stay in Solitude. They even mostly avoided the villages on the way back, only briefly checking on Erik, who has been making some impressive progress as an adventurer. Otherwise they were sleeping in the wilderness, enjoying some more privacy for a change.
Their journey turned all too brief, however, as Bishop was surprisingly overeager to get to the meadery, curious about what their mysterious contact had to say.
"Who else would it be? The letter appeared right after we left the warrens. And the whole cryptic shit about paying the price… that's just like Raven," he shrugged, nodding at her resolutely after a while.
They entered the meadery, hands on their weapons, just in case. They were greeted by a man behind a bar, clearly not Raven, who gave them a curious look, his eyes roaming over them.
"You here to see the lad?" he nodded at them.
"I… think so?" Aeyrin shrugged uncertainly. It would have been so much easier if everyone wasn't so secretive.
"Through that door, then upstairs into the attic room," the man nodded, getting his attention back to some ledgers on the bar.
They followed his instructions, the tension getting them somewhat excited. The cloak and dagger stuff was pretty fun, when there wasn't a crazy paranoid Blade involved. Then again, the mention of the 'attic room' was pretty suspicious, but it was likely a coincidence.
They reached the room on the upstairs floor, knocking with anticipation.
After a while the door swung open, Raven's grin greeting them.
It turned into a surprisingly bashful smile as he outstretched his arms at Aeyrin, enveloping her in a brief hug. He seemed… tired and there was an odd hint of sadness in his eyes. Aeyrin returned his hug tentatively, but it was short-lived, as if suddenly he didn't want to overdo it with his affections.
That was a rather surprising change.
"Raven, I'm glad to see you. I feared…" she sighed, but he interrupted her with an understanding nod. He turned to Bishop, giving him a wry smile and briefly patting him on the back. Bishop narrowed his eyes at him, an unsettling suspicion creeping into him.
"Raven, what happened to you? Bishop overheard the Guild members talking about…" she was interrupted again, by a finger, gently pressed to her lips.
Raven smiled at them conspiratorially, ushering them into the attic room.
They entered the room, looking around – there was a Dunmer woman, sitting by a large table, numerous papers splayed over it as she stood up at the sight of them. She had lithe dark leather armor on, her long black hair tied into a thick braid, draped over her shoulder. Her eyes were mesmerizingly violet, there was a sly smile on her lips, her expression gleaming and enigmatic.
"I am glad you arrived in time. I feared the cryptic messages would have left you too wary to follow them," her soft voice greeted them, looking them both over.
"Raven informed me about your ordeal with the Guild. And some events past…" she gave a meaningful look to Bishop. "We have determined that you two might be just the people to help us in our efforts against Mercer."
"Who are you? Why are you going after Mercer?" Bishop questioned her, his eyes still narrowed in suspicion.
"My apologies. My name is Karliah," she smiled, waiting expectantly instead of continuing. Aeyrin frowned, not sure if that name was supposed to mean anything to her, but Bishop's brows shot up in realization.
"I've… heard of you. You killed the last Guildmaster," Bishop's eyes went wide, watching the woman warily.
Karliah gave out a long sad sigh, shaking her head, her eyes lowered to the floor. "I expected this… it is what Mercer wanted the Guild to believe. The truth… the truth is far more complex. But be assured, that it was Mercer, who killed Gallus. I… would have never hurt him," there was sorrow etched in her eyes, but she chased it away in a second.
Raven approached the woman, giving her a sympathetic look for a while, but then nodding his head at her encouragingly, pointing to the papers on the table.
"Aye… Raven had something he wanted you two to know…" Karliah looked over the papers, picking up one that looked like a letter.
Aeyrin turned expectantly to Raven, but he gave her a wry smile, shaking his head. What did that mean? Bishop didn't even spare him a glance though, still looking at Karliah suspiciously.
"Aeyrin, Raven wanted you to know that he's sorry about the amulet and that you were left in Ravyn's hands. He tried to appease Mercer after he was taken away, but… Mercer is not easily appeased," Karliah spoke, looking over the notes on the paper.
Aeyrin looked at her in shock, her eyes trailing back to Raven who only nodded at her with a sweet smile.
"Why isn't he talking?" she asked quietly, getting a sinking feeling that she already knew. Mercer's 'price of freedom' seemed crueler than she imagined. And who knew if it was the only thing that he did to Raven?
"Raven… was punished for… breaking an agreement with Mercer. He was put in charge of watching you on a condition… and he broke it. Mercer made sure he could not… divulge more secrets… in his own twisted manner," Karliah gave Raven a sympathetic look, her head shaking in regret.
The words of the Bosmer madman echoed in her head unpleasantly once again. But what was this agreement that they kept talking about? Did she cause this? By coaxing Raven to talk? It wasn't as if she manipulated him intentionally. She was scared, and he seemed to respond to that, comforting her and telling her more to ease her thoughts. And the amulet was entirely his idea. Still… she couldn't help but feel guilty for some reason. At the very least, the insinuation seemed to be he lost his tongue. She sorely hoped that was the only punishment, but knowing Mercer's viciousness… she wasn't so sure.
"Raven… I'm so sorry…" she gave him a sorrowful look.
Raven shook his head at her, smiling sweetly. He reached out taking her hand and enveloping it in his own, as if trying to comfort her again.
"Raven knew he was breaking the agreement, Aeyrin. This was in no way your fault. Whether he wished to or not, he went against Mercer knowingly," Karliah gave Raven a compassionate and pleased look, apparently happy to have found an outcast from the Guild.
"If it weren't you, would've been the next one," Bishop shrugged. The next one? What did that mean? He seemed to know more about this agreement. Why didn't he tell her before? She asked if he knew what it meant after they left the Guild.
Raven raised one of his hands from hers and made a rude gesture at Bishop, scowling at him disdainfully.
Bishop smirked at him, shrugging again: "What? Would've happened sooner or later. Just be glad you got out of there alive."
Raven threw him another scowl but their exchange got interrupted by Karliah clearing her throat.
"Well… this brings me to you, Bishop. Raven wanted to ask you to… let bygones be bygones. If you agree to help us, you two will need to trust each other, no matter what happened before," she smiled wryly, looking them both over. Raven didn't seem all too thrilled about this message now…
"Whatever. It's not like he can come running to Mercer this time," Bishop scoffed disinterestedly, a mean grin spreading on his face a second later. "And even if he did, what's he gonna say?"
"Bishop!" Aeyrin gasped at him. That was rather callous, but Raven didn't seem so fazed. He only shook his head at him, walking back over the table, shuffling the papers there around.
"Aye… if… we're quite done, let me tell you why we're all here," Karliah started to shuffle the papers alongside Raven, putting some of them which included what appeared to plans and blueprints in the forefront.
"Ten years ago, Mercer murdered the previous Guildmaster Gallus and blamed the deed on me. I had to go into hiding, bide my time until his hunt for me stopped. It wasn't easy. All my contacts were from the Guild, every person I could turn to for help was now one of Mercer's associates. It took me a long time before Mercer believed I was gone for good and I could find allies again. Allies that were brought down by Mercer, just like I was. Just like Raven was. And… just like you were," she gave Bishop a meaningful look.
"I have been working for years now on undermining Mercer's connection to his associates and to the Guild. I have turned every turncoat, every person that Mercer betrayed or sold out, to my cause. After Raven was… released from Mercer's service, I figured he was the perfect person to help with my plan. We discussed lengthily what happened prior to our meeting and he suggested that you two would be likely willing to help our cause," she looked them over expectantly.
"You think you can actually turn his associates against him?" Bishop raised his brows at her. There was such intense eagerness in his eyes, it was clear he was beyond intrigued.
"I do. But it will take a lot of work. You already put a little hitch in my plan to get him on Maven Black-Briar's bad side," she chuckled lightly.
"What do you mean?" Bishop frowned at her.
"The Goldenglow estate. I was the owner. I was going to keep it from Mercer's hands until Maven got so frustrated with his lack of success that he'd fall out of her favor. I had everything under control. I knew all of his best peoples' tricks… not yours though…" her smile seemed a bit impressed.
"Not like I had a choice…" Bishop grumbled at her, folding his arms across his chest.
"Aye, I know. And it was no accusation. I actually found an alternate plan, but more on that later," she nodded determinedly. "Tell me, then… are you willing to help? To take Mercer down with us? We will not harm the Guild members! We only wish to… steal them from him," she smiled again, mischievously, giving them a sly wink.
"Yeah," Bishop didn't even hesitate. He was so surprisingly trusting of her. He mentioned he's heard of her, but still, it was likely only that one rumor.
"I… uh… it depends…" Aeyrin cringed a bit. She definitely liked the premise, but what was Karliah going to ask them to do? If it were only preventing Mercer's schemes, that would have been alright, but what if she asked them to do something else? What if she turned out worse than Mercer?
"We will discuss everything. I'm not about to order you around and threaten you like Mercer would. This is a… cooperation. If you don't like my plan, I will find someone else to help. Or we'll figure out something else," she gave her a reassuring smile, eliciting a slow nod from Aeyrin.
"In time, we will turn all Mercer's associates against him. And we will make sure that the Guild sees the extent of his corruption and treachery. Things will be able to go back to the old days… like when… like when Gallus was still alive," she smiled sadly, wistfully.
"Now… Mercer has been continuing with his work for Maven. Now that she has Goldenglow, she decided it's time to eliminate competition. The largest competitor of course, is the Honningbrew Meadery. That's why we're here. We have gained information from one of our associates that there's a planned sabotage to an upcoming event. The meadery will be hosting several influential guests in introduction of their new mead. It is a homage to the juniper berry mead which used to be made in Helgen. It could make Honningbrew even more popular than the cheap swill that Maven puts out. We know that Mercer will send someone to do something to the mead… poison it in some way. That would make all the investors on the event withdraw their funds. But we can stop this," she smiled confidently, pointing to one of the plans.
"This is the plan of the building, including the basement and the brewing areas. With all of us here, we could manage to watch the main areas until the Guild acts. We let them, watch them, then we undo the damage. They'll think they succeeded so they won't try again. And we will know exactly what they did and be able to fix it before the event. What do you say?"
"That… actually sounds like a good thing to do…" Aeyrin gave her a surprised look.
"We are trying to bring down a despot, not become one," Karliah creased her brows slightly, looking over at Bishop for his reaction.
"Easy," he nodded noncommittally.
"Excellent. Aeyrin, I was told you don't exactly have… the same skillset as us," she chuckled lightly. "We will have you watch the main place of the event then. We can disguise you as a house-guard. All you will do is watch the room, make sure there's no member of the Guild you'd recognize and that there's no one sneaking around. Although I do suspect that they will strike before the event."
She looked down at the building plan again, pointing to various spots. "Raven will remain here and monitor the side hall from up here. Bishop, I think you'd do well in the tunnels. There are good vantage points here and here. I will be monitoring the brewing areas. The owner of the meadery knows about the threat and our plan to stop his business from failing. He will not get in our way," she smiled reassuringly.
"I do hope you are rested. The event is tomorrow and the safest course of action would be to start right away, we need to be vigilant through the night."
…
Waiting an entire day in one place with limited supplies was no easy task.
It must have been almost morning. Still hours and hours to go.
Bishop legs were cramping constantly and his breathing was a bit more labored than he'd like. He was no stranger to lying in wait, but the vantage point was hardly a place to do so. He was squeezed in a small cavernous alcove above the ground, lying there with only enough room to roll around occasionally and move his arms. There was no way that he would be seen though, it was completely dark in there and the sounds of the skeevers below him made enough noise to drown out his breath.
As uncomfortable as this was, he was excited by their new alliance. He kept wondering what Karliah meant when she said they would eliminate Mercer's connection to all his allies. Did she know about Thorn? She must have. Raven knew about him all too well. He was beside himself when Jules was sent back to him. He even half-expected him to follow, to voluntarily enter Thorn's employ to be with him. It would have ended badly for Raven. Bishop was surprised that he even lasted this long in the Guild. Mercer was hardly tolerant of his… shortcomings.
He wondered how much he would have to divulge to Aeyrin about Raven and why he was punished. She was curious about their agreement and now she knew that Bishop knew what it was about. It wasn't hard to figure out, he knew exactly what Frey hated so much about how Raven conducted himself. It must have been the last straw when he asked to be in charge of watching Aeyrin.
His thoughts went back to Thorn and Karliah's insinuation about taking down Mercer's network. The only sure way to cut ties with Thorn would be to get rid of his group. Maybe they would manage to get rid of Thorn only and replace him as the bandits' leader. That wouldn't work… he had so many loyal to him. But if they somehow managed to take him down… preferably without getting Aeyrin involved…
It was only wishful thinking.
If she had a plan to remove Thorn from the picture, it surely only involved cutting his ties with Mercer.
He couldn't ask anyways, not without Aeyrin finding out.
Wait… that wasn't a skeever!
He peered down, the cavern below him lit slightly by a nearby torch.
There was a person sneaking around.
A woman, lithe, a hint of platinum hair peeking from below a black hood.
Vex.
Of course he would send Vex.
He couldn't afford any mistakes.
He trained his eyes on her, watching her carefully.
She approached the skeever nest, shuffling around the straw, muck and stolen food scrap remains.
She put something in there.
Vex looked around the chamber tentatively. She was careful. Smart. But hardly a threat to him. There was no way she could see him there.
After another thorough look around she snuck onwards, heading towards the tunnel exit.
Bishop waited, watching the skeevers scurry around. None of the little fuckers went close to the nest yet. He needed to see what she did there.
When he was certain she would be far enough, he extracted himself from his hiding place, jumping down deftly, the noise of the impact muffled by the simple silver ring he kept from his infiltration of the embassy.
He approached the nest, scouring it for anything new. There was some new food in there, fresh, likely very tempting for any hungry skeever that would approach. He sniffed one of the apples left behind. It was definitely laced with something. It was possible that it was some food that would make the skeevers go crazy, something that would make them run out of the tunnels, possibly getting back all the way towards the front rooms, or at least make enough noise to be heard. If the investors found out that there were skeevers under the meadery, they would likely withdraw their funds immediately.
Karliah mentioned that the owner of the meadery asked them to get rid of the vermin, but they needed to do that after the Guild's intervention. If the skeevers were part of Mercer's plan, the member who did the job might have just come up with an alternative plan and even come back to execute it later, perhaps catching them off guard then.
He removed all the new food carefully, leaving the old scraps so the skeevers wouldn't go mad from hunger.
Now back to his hiding spot, unfortunately. He needed to stay there until the event was over, just in case.
It would take hours yet.
…
The event was finally over.
The investors were ecstatic with the Honningbrew's new product; everything seemed to have gone according to plan.
Aeyrin waited for about half hour longer, standing still in the room, acting the obedient house-guard. It was a precaution, in case the thief still lingered.
Finally she headed back towards the attic room.
Raven gave her a kind smile as she entered, removing the full-face helmet covering her. She hated helmets, her whole head was drenched in sweat and her hair stuck uncomfortably to her face.
"Did you see anyone?" she asked Raven curiously, blushing in embarrassment when she started to wonder just how he would answer.
Raven handed her a small parchment with a smile.
.
Guild member, likely Vex. Early before morning hours. Sneaking through the room without doing anything, heading towards the tunnels.
.
He must have had that message ready for them.
"Did you see her leave?" she furrowed her brows lightly, but Raven only shook his head, shrugging.
It reminded her of her own inability to speak back in the sewers. But Raven's situation was so much worse. She knew Mercer was cruel, but this…
The door opened again and Karliah and Bishop entered, chuckling at something, pleased look on both their faces.
They seemed to be bonding over their mutual hatred of Mercer.
"Good, you're both here. What did you see?" Karliah smiled at them, already seemingly certain of their victory.
"I didn't see anyone suspicious at all," Aeyrin shrugged, giving her an uncertain expression. She hoped she did well enough, she wasn't exactly attentive about this stuff.
"Aye, it's not surprising. A thief would generally get inside through the window in the small hallway between the chamber you covered and this one," Karliah smiled at her reassuringly as Raven handed her the note.
She read it aloud, still smiling.
"Vex came to the tunnels then, she left some food in the skeever nest, likely laced to make them freak out or something. I took out the food afterwards. She didn't return the same way," Bishop nodded, looking over to Karliah to give her own report.
"She came to the brewing area. She added something to the vat with the new mead. Not to worry, we anticipated this. All the vats were fashioned with safety sacks, anything being poured inside would just end up in them. She left through the window. I removed the sack after I was sure she was gone. She never returned."
"Sounds like everything worked out," Aeyrin looked a little surprised. She didn't remember the last time they actually pulled off some plan without any complication.
"Yep, told you, easy," Bishop grinned.
"What now?" Aeyrin turned to Karliah.
"Now I will be researching Mercer's next step as well as Maven's reaction. Hopefully he will fall out of her favor fast. Maven is his most profitable ally…" she smiled conspiratorially at them, sitting herself behind the large table.
"You two should go rest, but we will be in touch. Once we have our next goal, we may need your assistance again.
Raven clasped Aeyrin's shoulder with his familiar sweet smile before they left.
She didn't know why but his touch didn't feel sleazy anymore. There seemed to be a genuine want for friendship and affection behind his gestures. His easy-going overly sweet face gone. All she could see now was the genuine one, the one she always hoped was real.
It was getting late and they left the meadery exhausted.
There was nothing sounding better to them than a warm bed and Lydia's cooking.
