"Come on, have one more."
Bishop gave her a conspiratorial wink and raised his tankard of mead to her.
"Why are you trying to get me drunk?" she furrowed her brows in turn while she adamantly moved her empty goblet of spiced wine closer towards herself to insinuate her reluctance. They were having lunch down at the common room before Casavir arrived, supposedly with some of his men.
She wasn't sure how big his contingent was, but part of the reason why she sent the message to meet her at the inn, was that he probably wouldn't take all of them with him. She was happy to meet them, but a large crowd and all the attention on the Dragonborn again… that did not sound good at all.
"Because… last time, he was so horrified with how drunk you were. It was hilarious. Can you imagine… if he brings all of his other pompous tits here to meet you… and…" Bishop didn't even finish the sentence as his snickers turned into loud laughter.
"Ass… I bet you're just hoping he gets so disappointed with me he wouldn't want to talk to me again," she narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion while shaking her head.
"Fuck… I didn't even think of that! Have one more!" he laughed again. He was in a surprisingly good mood, considering what their plans were.
She wasn't even sure if he should be there, but then again, it would be strange to send him away while she met with the paladins. Honestly, she kind of thought he would not want to be there himself. Then again, maybe he was still paranoid about Casavir. He still didn't tell her everything about what happened – there was probably something to it that he didn't want her to hear from the paladin.
"You're all chipper today…" she smirked at him teasingly.
"Yeah, well, figured I'd entertain you before you were thrust into the depths of eternal righteous boredom," he rolled his eyes with a slight chuckle.
She snickered with and shook her head before digging back in into her food. For some reason, she felt strangely pressured to eat and drink before Casavir and his men came. As if to avoid being judged for indulging in any excesses. Although, at the ball it became abundantly clear that the paladins weren't as strict in their vows as the priests were, it still made her feel somewhat odd. She blamed the meticulous attention to avoiding tempting the other initiates during her upbringing. At least the wine was an exception to that in Chorrol.
"Why did you ask to meet them here anyway?" Bishop pondered after a while.
"I don't know… I thought… I don't really know how many of them he wants me to meet and this way… I thought less of them would come here. And… I don't really want to be at the Castle. If Casavir heard about what happened in Windhelm, it's likely that Tullius did too. I really don't feel like being questioned on that…" she shivered at the idea of being 'questioned' by any military leaders. After the whole ordeal, who knew what any of them were capable of? And it was possible that the General felt just as spiteful towards her as Ulfric did.
"Less of those pompous tits is always better. Why does he want you to meet them at all?" Bishop scoffed. The usual morose attitude, which he always had when they talked about the paladins, returned to his voice steadily.
"I'm not sure. We talked about it last time. I told him I'd be glad to meet them…" she shrugged. It was true, but she didn't expect him to organize it like this. She just thought she'd meet them more… accidentally.
"Ugh… fine. At least I'll get to see for sure that all of them are hypocritical assholes like the tin-head."
"Just… could you maybe not antagonize them right away? It's kind of hard to talk to people when all they do is complain about you…" she grumbled. The last thing they needed was a whole bunch of paladins trying to arrest him or something…
Bishop rolled his eyes again, but surprisingly enough, he nodded after a while. "For you, sweetness…"
There were only two ways this was gonna go anyway. They'd either fawn over her so much she'd get too uncomfortable and try to cut things short, or the tin-head already told them all about Bishop and they'd be the ones antagonizing him all afternoon, making both him and Aeyrin angry and annoyed enough to leave.
He just hoped the tin-head wouldn't try to spew some shit about him that he wasn't supposed to again. At least Aeyrin already knew not to take anything he said about him at face value.
He considered not being there and spending some time with Karnwyr, going on a hunt. But… he just knew he wouldn't be able to stop obsessing about what was happening. As much as he hated the idea of spending the afternoon with those pretentious righteous fops, he'd rather do that than spend the entire time wallowing in paranoia.
He hated being in Solitude so much…
…
It didn't take long before the paladin appeared at the door, clad in an elegant ivory doublet with his black hair neatly combed back and his brows creased in his usual stern expression.
It must have been exhausting to always look so neat and proper, even if he was only going to the local tavern. But he likely had to exemplify the Order's status all the time.
It was odd that he was alone though.
Aeyrin waved him over and stood up from her chair to greet him with a brief hug when he approached their table. He blushed slightly at that. He seemed to get just as easily frazzled as she did, if not even more easily. She sympathized – it definitely had something to do with their upbringing.
He cleared his throat before nodding in greeting: "It is good to see you again, my lady."
"You too," she smiled and gestured towards one of the empty chairs by their table.
"I wasn't aware the scoundrel would be joining us…" Casavir scowled deeply at Bishop before sitting down. After that, he threw a brief and seemingly impatient glance towards the server who was leaning idly on one of the walls.
Bishop looked ready to bark some snide comment at him, but he stopped himself, shrugging instead: "Don't mind me. I'm just here for the drinks."
That was shockingly… non-confrontational.
"How surprising. You? Drinking?" Casavir gave him an exasperated and disdainful expression in turn.
Well… it was nice while it lasted…
"Sarcasm? Isn't that an unnecessary excess of speech or something, church boy? Am I tempting you too much that you can't help but misbehave?" Bishop sneered at him in retort immediately.
Casavir, fortunately, only threw him a hateful glare without commenting further.
"Done?" Aeyrin rolled her eyes at them.
"Apologies, my lady," Casavir looked genuinely ashamed of the very brief exchange. Bishop did not, however, and he only snorted in response.
"Casavir, I thought you wanted me to meet some of your men," Aeyrin turned to him a moment later. She wasn't exactly sure if she was relieved or disappointed.
"Yes, my lady. Some of them will be joining us shortly. I had some business to discuss at the Radiant Raiment and I came a bit early."
"I bet coming too early's your specialty," Bishop let out a snide snicker.
Aeyrin's cheeks flushed instantly, knowing full well where his mind went, but before she managed to change the subject, Casavir already barked back at Bishop with anger: "Punctuality is a virtue, brigand. I wouldn't expect someone like you to comprehend basic human decencies."
Bishop only laughed meanly when his insult was clearly misunderstood. She kind of wished that she wasn't so used to his trail of thoughts either so that she would have missed his point too. Then maybe she wouldn't be this embarrassed.
"Please, stop," she gritted her teeth, earning a grumbling sigh from Bishop.
"Indeed. Let us stop this frivolousness. I've been meaning to ask, my lady…" This time Casavir's brows creased more in worry than in annoyance. "What exactly happened in Windhelm?"
"Umm… what have you heard?" she rubbed the back of her head nervously.
She wasn't exactly eager to relive the events, but aside from that, she was still a bit wary of Casavir's connection to the Imperial Legion. She didn't have any inclinations of protecting Ulfric, but if what she told him spurred some… rash actions from the Empire…
She really didn't want any unnecessary bloody battles on her conscience.
"We don't have many good sources of information in Stormcloak-controlled regions. Many of them are too influenced by rumors. I have only heard that there was some… crime spurt in Windhelm and that you were… banished from the city for hindering the investigation into the matters." He seemed clearly unconvinced of her culpability in the matter.
"R-right… I suppose Ulfric sees it that way. He wasn't doing much to investigate the crimes and I just tried to help get to the bottom of things," she sighed, shaking her head sadly. Ever since they left, she occasionally imagined scenarios on what was just happening in Windhelm. How many more victims were there? How many elves were taken into the dungeons because they were 'suspects'? How many Argonians were starving at the docks since they had no money from their Nord employers?
It wasn't the Butcher ruining their lives, it was Ulfric.
She just hoped there were more people around like lord Free-Winter, who would help them if things became too dire. It wasn't much comfort, but it was as little as she could find.
"I see. I assumed you wouldn't be involved in something… unseemly, however…" he threw another disdainful look at Bishop, "some more… concerning scenarios occurred to me."
Did he think that Bishop was the criminal and she was trying to cover for him? This petty dirt-spewing was starting to get really tiresome.
"Fuck you, tin-head," Bishop only scoffed in response at the insinuation.
Before they could continue their snide spat, however, the door to the inn swung open and five people, all clad in fancy, neat, decorated clothes, walked in.
"Aeyrin!"
A vaguely familiar voice rang through the tavern.
Her head snapped to locate the man – the tall Redguard with silky black hair, neatly trimmed beard around the excited grin, and stunningly green eyes.
The eyes gave away his identity immediately.
"Azshan?!"
She got up from her chair instantly and her mouth opened in disbelief. His chuckle at her shock echoed through the room before he spread out his arms invitingly. Without hesitating, she ran towards him, dodging the chairs and patrons that were in the way. She still couldn't believe that she was seeing a familiar face.
Azshan gave her a fierce hug, enveloping her with his strong arms. A powerful but pleasant and familiar scent of domica redwort assaulted her senses. After a while, she startled as he picked her up and twirled her around briefly. She couldn't help but laugh heartily – it was just like when they were kids…
"Divines, do you have any idea how shocked I was when Casavir told us about you? I asked him for every description of you he could recall just to make sure!" he shook his head. His merriment was still palpable in his voice as he let her gently back down onto the floor.
"You were shocked? I didn't even know you were in Skyrim! I haven't seen you in ages and now you're just… here…" she gaped at him.
"Hehe… yeah. I got stationed here over a year ago when they were bolstering the ranks. It's so damn cold in here…" he smirked at her before he draped his arm over her shoulder, ushering her back towards the table while all the other paladins followed.
Casavir stood up from his chair and, oddly enough, that stern expression was still etched on his face, despite the now rather amicable mood. Bishop remained sitting with her brows creased. His own face looked even more morose than before for some reason.
"Right. Lady Aeyrin, you already know Sir Azshan. This is Sir Marcius Lambret, Sir Taarnya, Sir Sidlur the Grey and Sir Riana Amnon," Casavir nodded, gesturing towards the three men and two women standing by his side.
Aeyrin smiled at them kindly and extended her hand in greeting to each of them. "Aeyrin. This is my companion Bishop. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
Bishop only nodded disinterestedly in their direction without getting up from his seat for a second.
"There are ten more men in our contingent, but some of them are not currently in the city and some stayed at the Castle, in case they were needed by the Legion. We've been dealing with some troubles in the Hold lately and we need to have some men on alert," Casavir explained while they all took their seats around the table, gathering any nearby empty chairs.
Sixteen paladins for the whole province? That seemed like a very meager number.
"There are other orders around Skyrim. Namely the Vigilants – they are here in force," the Altmer, Taarnya, nodded at Aeyrin when she saw her confused expression.
"Oh. Right. I heard about them. A friend of mine seemed to think they're mostly concentrating on battling Daedra and vampires and such… We haven't actually met any…" Aeyrin shrugged. Aela seemed to be rather fascinated with that aspect of that particular Order.
"Which? Vigilants or Daedra and vampires?" the Imperial man with long light brown hair tied into a neat ponytail, Marcius, chuckled.
"Oh… heh… Vigilants. And Daedra I guess… except for summoned ones. We've run into plenty of trouble with vampires though…"
"You mean the nest near Morthal? We have heard about your brave actions there, my lady," Casavir smiled at her with some measure of admiration.
She blushed slightly. It was still so weird that people heard about the things they did around Skyrim. She was adventuring and helping out in various places before, but nobody actually knew who she was back then. At best, people would say that 'some stranger' helped them out, leaving her identity to belong only to herself.
"Speaking of vampires, we've been working with the Vigilants for a while now, trying to get rid of a particularly cunning clan of the beasts. I've been meaning to ask if…" Casavir's brows creased into his regular stern expression before Azshan slapped his hand over his shoulder with a wide grin.
"We don't need to bore her with Order business. Who wants to hear about that?" Azshan chuckled merrily.
"You haven't changed, have you?" Aeyrin snickered at him. He's always been so dismissive about his paladinhood, always called it boring. She wondered why he'd undergone a vigil in the first place, but back then, he just shrugged and asked what else was he going to do.
"Why would I? I'm already perfect," he laughed. His confidence didn't seem to diminish with age either.
Casavir sighed and folded his arms across his chest. She could have sworn she noticed him roll his eyes subtly.
She was used to it, Azshan's attitude has often thrown people off, especially coming from a cleric… or now a paladin. But, anyone who knew him well, would have known that he wasn't being serious half of the time. She would have assumed that Casavir would be one of those people, but it didn't appear so.
"Well, for once, I agree with Azshan," the Imperial woman, Riana, smiled. "We're much more curious about you and your travels."
"Indeed. We only hear rumors of your deeds. Casavir told us what happened with the dragon after the ball, but other than that, one cannot exactly rely on word of mouth around Skyrim. And Azshan wouldn't even share stories from your time at the temple with us," Taarnya gave Azshan a feigned admonishing look.
"That's because it's more fun to tell them when she's around to hear. She gets all flustered when she's embarrassed, it's so cute!" Azshan snickered and poked Aeyrin teasingly into her upper arm.
"H-hey!" she felt the involuntary blush spread on her cheeks. Damn him! She smacked his hand away instantly with a mean glare.
"See? It's fun already! Besides, Casavir tells us you're traveling with a 'scoundrel' we wanna hear all about that," Azshan snickered again before he gave Bishop a curious look.
"Of course he did…" Bishop scoffed dismissively, rolling his eyes, while Aeyrin gave Casavir an exasperated look. Casavir didn't seem too concerned though. He was clearly adamantly standing behind his words.
And now he looked mad at both Azshan and Bishop.
It was going to be an interesting evening.
…
Fuck, he hated that entire evening.
Those annoying pompous tits pissed him off with each word any of them uttered.
But she looked so happy talking to them.
Bishop knew he was likely just biased – after knowing Casavir, every time some of them tried to brag about how stupidly righteous and virtuous they were, he couldn't help but see the desperate lies behind those words. He didn't know them, maybe they weren't lying through their teeth, hanging tooth and nail to their perfect masks. But he couldn't help himself.
But Azshan was the worst. He was the only one of them who didn't try to put that mask on, the only one constantly making fun of their own Order, their own ways.
Bishop should have liked that, he was kind of echoing his sentiments.
Why did it bother him so much?
He kept asking himself: why the fuck would that man join something he seemed to despise?
Then again, Bishop wasn't really one to talk…
Still, something just rubbed him the wrong way about him.
Aeyrin seemed to be hanging on his every word. She was always laughing at some inside jokes and she never took his derision of the Order seriously. Why didn't it bother her? The other paladins seemed to be pretty exasperated with his mocking.
He could just ascribe his hatred of Azshan to simple jealousy. After all, he and Aeyrin were way too familiar with each other for his liking. But it felt to him like there was more to it. He just didn't know what.
The paladins did try to engage Bishop in conversation several times, but he always kept his answers short and noncommittal. It was too easy to start scoffing at what they said and arguing with them and he decided to keep his mouth shut, despite everything. For her. And to avoid getting so insanely obsessive like he did the last time they were in Solitude. That certainly didn't do him any favors.
He just had to grit his teeth and bear through it.
He's been hanging around the bar for a while now, pretending to wait for his drink. It's been poured already, but he decided to finish it and wait for another one, just to spend some time away.
He could just leave, but he knew that he would just be constantly thinking about what was happening, whether Casavir tried to use his absence to spew more shit about him, or whether Azshan would try to get even 'friendlier' once he was gone…
It was so obvious he wanted her. He wasn't even trying to be subtle.
And of course she didn't even notice.
Or did she?
Bishop watched as the Redguard walked towards the bardess and stopped her in her performance to borrow her lute. He started to strum some tune for the tavern while Aeyrin observed him with palpable admiration in her eyes.
She never mentioned him, did she? She sometimes told Bishop stories about some of her friends back at the temple. He wasn't sure if she included him in those. Maybe there was some history there. He knew all too well that, whatever might have happened, didn't go too far, but… the thought still bothered him.
Maybe that was the reason she never mentioned him…
He noticed that some of the patrons were throwing Azshan stupidly googly-eyed looks. Of course… paladins… people always seemed to be so fascinated by them…
Bishop barely even noticed Casavir standing near him at the bar and discussing something with the innkeeper. He was too preoccupied with watching Azshan and Aeyrin.
The Redguard took a deep bow when he stopped his performance. He pointedly ignored the approaching girls, who were clamoring around him, and he headed straight to Aeyrin. He draped his arm around her shoulder immediately and whispered something into her ear as she giggled in response.
"Fucking asshole…" Bishop grumbled under his breath, unable to help himself.
"Indeed."
He jerked his head towards the paladin by the bar with palpable shock in his eyes. He wasn't sure if he was more shocked that Casavir heard him, that they actually agreed on something, or that he admitted his own disdain for his compatriot.
Casavir's expression was no less horrified. He turned on his heel promptly and marched back to the table with quick strides.
Even that fucking tin-head hated the Redguard. Why was she constantly hanging on his every word? Bishop sighed and turned back to the innkeeper to order his next drink. He really needed one.
After a while of waiting and looking absentmindedly at the man cleaning a tankard for his drink, he felt an amicable slap over his back. He turned his eyes, only to see the grinning Redguard standing beside him. Bishop instinctively looked around the room to locate Aeyrin, until he spotted her on the other side of the room, talking to the Altmer girl.
"Mate, you're throwing them down like no tomorrow," Azshan chuckled at him briefly before he inclined his head towards the barkeep.
"Who knows, maybe there isn't…" Bishop shrugged disinterestedly in response.
In the meantime, the barkeep quickly placed a goblet in front of Azshan – he didn't even have to wait a single second. The Redguard smirked and looked over his shoulder briefly before he downed the entire goblet in one. He returned it just as quickly to the innkeeper with another look behind his shoulder. Was he… drinking?
Only after this whole display, the barkeep poured Bishop his drink and placed it on the counter if from in him.
There was a minute of awkward silence until Bishop decided that he would rather go back to the table to suffer the company of the rest of the paladins. But Azshan stopped him before he could get away.
"So… Aeyrin only said you're her 'companion'. What does that mean exactly? You walk around carrying her stuff like some squire or something?" he snickered with a mocking undertone in his voice.
Fucking asshole… trying to patronize.
Bishop considered telling him all about what their 'companionship' entailed, but then again, it would be much more effective to make their relationship clear with Aeyrin around. And he got the uncontrollable urge to tease the guy.
"Aaww, are you trying to 'subtly' find out if I'm warming her bed?" he snorted mockingly in turn, making sure to come across as condescending as possible.
Azshan looked a bit taken aback for a second there. He was so fucking obvious. Bishop would have wondered why he bothered, due to his vows, but even if he didn't just see it for himself, he knew too well that those didn't mean shit.
"Heh… a straight shooter, I see," his surprise was replaced by the cheery chuckle within a moment. He didn't really seem all that fazed by the insinuation anymore. "There's no need for that. It's not like I care one way or the other. And besides, I know her too well to know you're just messing with me."
Apparently he did not.
And what did that mean? That she wouldn't be with someone like him? T
Bishop raised his brow at him. He acted like he knew Aeyrin better than he did. She really never mentioned him. If they were this close the entire time, she definitely would have. Unless… there was really something going on that she was avoiding telling him.
Fuck, now he was getting nervous. He wanted to find out more about their previous relationship, but he still needed to appear casual. He really didn't want it to escalate like it did last time with Casavir. And the last thing he needed right then was another paladin tit that was trying to take Aeyrin away from him or to have him thrown in jail.
"Do you? How long's it been since you even saw her?" Bishop scoffed. It must have been a long time, right? Although… she's only been in Skyrim for several months… it could have been any time before, supposedly.
Azshan frowned slightly. He looked like he was seriously pondering on the question, for some reason, but it was more likely that he was just reluctant to answer.
"It's gotta be around five years now. Still, I've known her since we were kids, there's not that much that can surprise me about her by now," he smirked somewhat smugly.
He seemed like he got stuck at that age…
Besides, five years? She must have been around sixteen then. That hardly meant anything… but it was a bit comforting that she was so young the last time they saw each other. If there was anything between them, Bishop assumed it must have been a mild teenage infatuation at best.
"Yeah? Not shocked at all that she turned out to be a fucking Nordic legend?" he scoffed.
Azshan just chuckled a bit dismissively and he didn't answer.
Right… that was answer enough probably.
Bishop got ready to finally leave again, but then he noticed that Aeyrin got up from her seat and started walking towards the two of them. She approached them tentatively and raised a brow at Bishop as if to ask if he was behaving himself. Well… it was somewhat of a fair concern…
But right then, he just needed to do this…
He reached out to her waist and pinned her closer to him into a half-embrace. "Hey, sweetness. Having fun?" he smiled at her and planted a brief kiss at her temple.
Fuck, did she just flinch a little?
She tensed up instantly – that wasn't a good sing. Maybe she didn't want Azshan to know that they were together. His expression did get weirdly pensive at the performance, but he didn't say a word and his grin returned only momentarily.
"Y-yeah…" Aeyrin looked down somewhat nervously and her cheeks, predictably, turned red.
Fuck, was she really that uncomfortable with him knowing? She was usually fine with such chaste expressions… Bishop was now convinced that there was something going on between them.
"Hey, what I wanted to tell you back there before Cas interrupted me again…" Azshan rolled his eyes with a chuckle. "You complained that the mages wouldn't teach you better spells, right? I could help you with that. We used to practice together all the time anyway."
Bishop felt his grip on her waist tighten involuntarily at just the thought of that. He remembered the 'healing' massage she gave him last night. The image of this grinning asshole receiving the same care from her made his blood boil. He was kind of glad that Aeyrin was now looking at Azshan and couldn't see his expression.
"Really? I… I thought the Order had their hands full with the vampires now. You'd really have time to do that?" she beamed at him hopefully.
"Always for you," Azshan winked at her with that fucking smug grin still plastered on his face. What he wouldn't give to fix it for him. "Besides, it seems with your help, we won't be so busy for long."
"Wait, what?" It took a few seconds before Bishop realized what the Redguard just said and he gave Aeyrin a surprised look.
"I'll… tell you later…" she shrugged slightly with an innocent smile.
What did she promise this time?
"Anyway, I'm sure there'll be time to go over some things, at least, before you head out. We can meet up tomorrow," Azshan gave her a warm smile. It seemed weirdly sleazy to Bishop, but he may have been just imagining it too much.
He just couldn't stop obsessing over this. He fucking hated Solitude so much.
He needed to talk to her about all this.
Alone.