Author's Note:

Just a tiny update – I'm almost done with the re-edits, they should all be done by tomorrow or the day after that, hopefully. So I hope that the typos and other errors as well as some clunky writing are fixed, although I may have missed some… there's a lot to go through… :/ In any case, the story got a little enriched by some lines here and there, but nothing major.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

Chapter CIII – Past Affections

"Alright, ladyship, spill it."

Bishop folded his arms across his chest the second the door to their room closed behind them.

They've spent a few more hours with the paladins before it got too late to continue the evening merriment. Bishop was predictably grumpy the entire time, but she didn't let that ruin her night. She couldn't expect anything else after all, since she asked him to spend time in a relatively amicable mood with the man he hated so much.

He was going to hate what she was about to tell him even more.

"Well… Casavir was telling me about the vampire troubles in the Hold. They've been struggling with them because the clan is scattered around several lairs and every time they storm one, most of them just run from the back entrances and regroup. He thinks that they finally pinpointed all the lairs and he asked for my help. His men would split into three groups, each attacking one lair and the last one… we'd attack together… you know… since I already helped deal with that one near Morthal," she gave him an uncertain expression. She wasn't sure herself how she'd do in battle along Casavir. They were both melee fighters and that didn't usually sit well with her, but he was definitely capable – she saw that when he lunged himself at that dragon before.

Bishop stared at her in surprise, for a while, before his brows creased deeply.

"You want to hurl yourself into another vampire nest to help out that fop?! He's got a whole army at his beck and call! Why should we risk our lives too?" he finally threw his hands up exasperatedly.

"I offered. And… not… 'we'. Me…" she bit her lower lip nervously. He was definitely going to hate this part.

"What?!"

"I… well… Casavir asked… not to… take you with us…"

His answer was an incredulous stare.

She agreed to that?! Why? She had no trouble defending their 'companionship' to anyone before. What the fuck was going on tonight? This better not be some attempt to slowly get rid of him, now that her 'friend' was here! That was what he originally asked about anyway, before she started talking about vampires.

"Look, I wanted you to come with, but… he… he doesn't trust you… at all. He doesn't trust you not to… try and do something. I told him you wouldn't do anything to jeopardize our efforts, but… he just wasn't willing to take the chance."

"So why did you agree?!" he asked through gritted teeth with his voice raised.

"I want to help them! And he wouldn't take us both with him. It was either just me or neither of us. I tried to convince him, but I couldn't. And from what he was telling me, those beasts are really menacing everyone in the nearby settlements. I want to help," she said adamantly. She was a bit wary of going there without Bishop covering her, but she was also excited for the action. And she did plenty of adventuring without him with the Companions. She handled the nest near Morthal without him too. Not to mention those times she braved dungeons alone before they've even met.

It wasn't as if she was planning for this to be more than a one-time thing…

His gaze turned from angry into a more desperate one. The exasperation was palpable in his voice. "Princess, fuck… I hate it when you go off without me. I know you can handle yourself but… I want to watch out for you…" he sighed.

That made her feel kind of guilty.

She understood. Anytime he went off alone to sneak somewhere, she got so worried. But they still needed to separate sometimes. She wished that she'd managed to convince Casavir, but the man was adamant.

Then again, she understood that as well. With what Casavir thought about Bishop, it was no wonder that he didn't want him at his back. He would have to constantly watch out for him. He would have to go through the entire dungeon with the nervous feeling that Bishop was going to do something to harm him. She knew that Bishop wouldn't do anything, but her certainty never convinced Casavir – he was still sure that Aeyrin was somehow constantly being manipulated into even being close to Bishop.

She approached him and laid a hand on his cheek affectionately with a sympathetic look.

"I know. And I'll miss having you with me. But I'll be fine, I promise. And after that, we can leave the city again… go adventuring, just the two of us," she planted a gentle kiss on his other cheek before she gave him a warm smile.

He couldn't help but return the smile at that prospect.

He enveloped her in a tight hug, reveling in the closeness she was so strangely flustered about just a few moments ago.

It reminded him again of his original question.

"So… that actually wasn't what I was asking about before…" he disentangled himself from her while rubbing the back of his neck. This seemed so silly to be concerned about now.

She gave him a questioning look as he took a deep sigh.

"What's the deal with you and… that guy?" he couldn't hide the disdain from his voice.

"What? You mean Azshan? He's a friend of mine from Chorrol. You know that," her brows furrowed in confusion. "I actually thought you'd like him… somewhat. You keep complaining about how uptight and pompous the paladins are. He isn't really like that…"

True, but he was a whole other kind of infuriating.

"You never mentioned him before…" Bishop tried to convey as little suspicion as he could. The conversation would definitely not go well if he let her know right away what he was suspecting. Accusing her of harboring some feeling towards any given paladin, that they've just happened to meet, certainly did him no favors the last time.

"I did. I told you about my friend, the one that taught me how to play the lute for the ghosts in the undercroft," she gave him another confused expression.

She did mention that. She's never specified that it was a guy… Not that she had to… it still bothered him weirdly. It was an innocent enough story, still… now he couldn't stop wondering what else they were doing in that undercroft. More 'healing' lessons?

Fuck, why couldn't he stop obsessing like that?!

It was because of the way she was looking at Azshan all evening – she almost seemed enraptured. It wasn't a wanton and excited look, not something he saw from her in their more intimate moments, but it was affectionate. Affectionate enough to make it preoccupy his mind.

"So… anything ever happened between the two of you?"

Her brows shot up at that question as if in outrage, but the crimson blush spreading on her cheeks was unpleasantly telling.

"W-what? Why?" she stammered.

"That's not an answer. You fucking flinched when I touched you in front of him! Like you didn't want him to know…" he folded his arms across his chest again. She could have sworn there was a hint of hurt in his voice.

"Oh… it's… It was just uncomfortable… it wasn't really…" she mumbled for a while but, soon enough, she sighed and shook her head.

"Look, he left the temple so long ago… people usually take vigils when they turn eighteen and I wasn't even anywhere near making that decision yet. The night before he left… he kind of… kissed me. He told me that he had feelings for me and he wanted to take things… further. I wasn't even thinking about that! I've never thought of him that way. Never really… thought of anyone that way back then. And I didn't know if it was allowed… before the vigil. I guess it is… it's voluntary after all, but… I got worried about him. I didn't want him to jeopardize his future at the church, and mine, potentially, especially since I wasn't even thinking about him that way. He was just a friend to me," she shrugged uncertainly. He's always been handsome and charming, but just the fact that she wasn't willing to even take a small risk like that to be with him, was probably very telling. If she didn't think a slim chance of jeopardizing their future at the church was worth having a relationship with him, she figured that it was the right choice.

"He just left after that. But he did write me a letter a month after his vigil. He was talking in it like nothing had ever happened. We wrote to each other for a while, avoiding the subject. First every month, then every season, year. We haven't even been in contact for almost two years now. We've never talked about it again and I… I guess I got nervous on how he'd react when you touched me…"

He observed her for a while. He was not really sure if he was relieved or not. He still wasn't comfortable with that. Did she really consider him just a friend? Or was she just worried of what their relationship might do to their futures at the church?

"He's still obviously into you," he shrugged. He was not really certain what else to say anymore. It was not like there was something to be upset about, but… he just couldn't help himself. It was definitely this fucking city… if brought out something weirdly obsessive in him.

"You say that about everyone," she chuckled. "I just… it was nice seeing him and I hoped you two would get along. I don't want you two to be sniping at each other like you do with every other guy who you claim is 'into me'," she smirked at him.

He sighed. Even if it weren't for this, he didn't like that guy. Although… he may have been too influenced by their familiarity.

"I'll try, sweetness. For you," he pulled her back into his embrace and planted a kiss at the top of her head.

"Thank you. It doesn't have to be weird. I really liked Susanna too once the… awkwardness passed," she chuckled, but there was a bit of a sad undertone in her voice at the memory of her.

"That's different! First of all, I didn't ask you to. You were the one who kept hanging around her. And second, it was just one night with her. There were no… feelings…" he scoffed.

"Well… I'm asking you to. I just meant… there's no reason to miss out on a friendship because of ancient history…"

He nodded against her head. He wasn't exactly eager to try to get along with him, but… if it was that important to her…

He still got uncomfortable at the thought of their 'healing training' though.

"You really never felt that way about him?" He cursed himself mentally for sounding so insecure.

"I... I don't really know how I felt back then, but… I know that it definitely wasn't the same that I… that I've always felt for you…" her face was hidden in his chest but he knew that she was blushing wildly.

That was more comforting than she probably realized.

"Well, I'm gonna make sure you remember that," he smirked. He bent down briskly and caught her by surprise as he deftly hooked his arm under her knees and lifted her into a bridal carry.

His mouth descended on hers instantly and he absorbed all her attention with a long deep passionate kiss. Without stopping the movement on his lips and tongue on her, he carried her over to the bed and threw her down on it with a wicked smirk.

He was going to make sure that the only things she could concentrate on the next day would be the memories of this night.

…

A knock on the door echoed through the room just as they were lazily getting dressed to get some breakfast.

Granted, it was pretty late for breakfast already, but they've been… busy.

Aeyrin walked over to the door after she managed to finally get into her clothes. Her legs still felt somewhat wobbly, likely mainly since they've been wrapped around Bishop's head for what felt like hours. He seemed really determined to make her unable to think of anything and anyone else than him. He was definitely successful at that.

She opened the door while she raked her hand through her tangled messy hair.

"Heh. Did you just wake up?" Azshan grinned at her from behind the threshold as his eyes roamed over her disheveled state.

She just nodded slightly in response, praying that her flushed cheeks weren't too telling. She still wasn't certain on how to act about these things in front of him. She didn't want to hurt his feelings, but she certainly didn't want to assume that there were any to be hurt, despite Bishop's suspicions.

"I was thinking we could work on those spells. I even thought of something special to teach you, since you'll be battling vampires soon," Azshan winked at her with a bright smile.

"R-right. We haven't even eaten yet," she gave him a wry smile, rubbing the back of her head.

"You haven't…" Bishop snickered to himself in a quiet murmur. He wasn't sure if either of them heard him, but he kind of hoped that Azshan did. Although… would he even know what he meant by that? One could never know with paladins.

"Well, come on then, I'll keep you two company. Then we can get to it," Azshan nodded amicably.

He probably didn't hear…

…

To his credit, Bishop did somewhat try to be friendly.

He wasn't laughing with Azshan or talking to him excitedly, but he didn't roll his eyes at everything he said or scoffing at him. Not too often, at least. And he tried his best not to throw him murderous glances any time he touched Aeyrin's shoulder or nudged her with his elbow.

Azshan was his usual cheery self, fortunately. He did not seem concerned about their relationship at all.

After breakfast, Bishop left to go hunting with Karnwyr somewhat reluctantly while Azshan took her to Castle Dour. She was still a bit wary of being around all the legionnaires, but, hopefully, he'd just take her to some secluded private room for the practice.

They weaved through the confusing halls together while they occasionally ran into one of the paladins from last night and greeted them amicably. Luckily, none of the legionnaires bothered her and no one dragged her into Tullius's office for interrogations about Windhelm.

Finally Azshan ushered her into one of the rooms. It had a large bookcase, as well as several shelves by the walls and two stone tables in the middle. One of them was empty and the other one had a… corpse of a naked man splayed upon it. He had an enormous hole in his chest, making all his organs plainly visible. At second glance, it wasn't a corpse. It looked… fake. There were also several flowers in pots on the shelves. Some of them were blooming beautifully, but some of them were dead and dry. Against one of the walls, there was what looked like a… stuffed draugr. There were several metal plates nailed to the wall, surrounding the creature, but they were all charred, almost beyond recognition.

"This is where we train our restoration magic. Some noble paid to furnish everything. Even this weird mannequin for anatomy study. And the draugr. People will pay for the craziest stuff once you get all courtly around them," Azshan chuckled heartily before he walked towards the library and started looking over the books.

It was pretty impressive. She's never seen equipment like that in any temple. The priests could surely use it for teaching initiates. The whole mixing with the nobles was apparently really working. She just wondered if the temples benefited from it as much as the paladins did.

Azshan pulled out several books from the case and placed them on the empty stone table.

"Healing takes a lot of practice and perfecting, as you know. I was thinking we'd start with something useful for your upcoming battles. And it's pretty simple," he opened one of the books and beckoned her to him. He promptly showed her the page with arcane symbols and formulae for a spell. It was restoration magic but there were some parts that she didn't recognize and understand at all.

He noticed her confused expression and chuckled lightly before he draped his arm over her shoulder, squeezing her to him.

"Alright. Just tell me which parts you can understand and perform, we'll go over the rest together."

…

They've been practicing for hours and the already-charred draugr was looking even worse for the wear by the minute.

The spells that he taught her were more on par with destruction magic. He showed her how to shoot a strange offensive ray of warm-white light from her fingers as well as how to make a rune trap from the same element. He called them 'sun spells' and he said that they were only harmful to the undead and to anything with a strong connection to the Outer Realms. She asked if that included conjurers too, remembering Falion's talk of residual Daedric essences, but Azshan was convinced that it was harmless to them.

It didn't look harmless at all. She would definitely not try to cast it on a person just to try it out. But Azshan was so certain. He even walked over the rune trap to demonstrate. She was still worried it would go off at any second.

"You're doing great. No offence, but I didn't really expect you to be such a fast learner after our initiate training," he chuckled at her as he ruffled her hair amicably. Ugh… he was still doing that to her?! She used to hate that. But… now the gesture did have some… sentimentality to it.

"Yeah… this is easier. I don't know why," she shrugged. A disturbing thought crept into her mind. Maybe it was just in her blood – the affinity to destruction.

"Come on, let's take a break," Azshan interrupted her thoughts as he jumped up to sit on the empty table and pushed the spell books out of the way to make room for her. She joined him there and let her feet dangle down from the table idly above the rune that she's made shimmer on the floor below.

"How come the stuffed draugr gets hurt? I thought that the spells somehow responded to the… well… to whatever conjuration does," she pondered after a while.

"I don't know! Don't ask me stuff like that! I guess it's maybe something in the skin or the flesh or something… or maybe they enchanted it. I never thought about that. Why do you think about stuff like that?" he laughed at her, shaking his head.

"I don't know! I can't help it…" she shrugged bashfully. How was he not thinking about stuff like that? How was he not constantly concerned about something and overthinking everything pointlessly? He's always been so phlegmatic, so laid back and so unencumbered by anxieties and trepidations. She really envied him that.

"Don't think about how it works and what it does. Just blast some bloodsuckers into Oblivion with it," he ruffled her hair again with a chuckle.

She gave him a brief demure smile as he moved his hand to stroke over her back briefly.

They spent a while sitting there in a comfortable silence. She was so glad to have him back in her life. Master Therien always said that you could tell you are close to someone when the silence between you isn't uncomfortable anymore. She only ever experienced that with a very few people, Azshan and Bishop were ones of them. Then again, with her anxiety, many situations seemed awkward to her that probably didn't to others.

"So… you and that… companion of yours, huh?" he chuckled at her lightly.

Alright, now it was awkward…

"Oh… I… uhmm…" she stammered nervously and fidgeted with her fingers.

"Hey… it's been five years, you know? You don't have to tiptoe around me with this stuff," he snickered at her while he squeezed her around her shoulders briefly.

"S-sorry… I just… didn't want to…" she shrugged, trailing off. Didn't want to what? Upset him? That still seemed oddly presumptuous to her.

"It's fine! Besides, I'm a paladin now. We don't think about that stuff, remember?" he laughed mockingly.

She giggled. He kept joking about the Order and about being a paladin, but she knew that he found his calling, even if sometimes he needed to dismiss its importance for his own peace of mind. The letters that he sent her after the vigil made that very clear… eventually.

"I was just… a little worried, I guess. Casavir mentioned him briefly and… honestly, I haven't actually seen him talk about anyone with such disdain. Well… maybe the vampires…" Azshan snickered, but there was still a hint of concern in his tone. "He just… he seemed somewhat convinced that… you're being… manipulated into something…"

"No! Casavir is… there's just some bad blood between them. He tends to assume the worst of Bishop. And to be honest, so does Bishop about Casavir…" she sighed, shaking her head. "I really care about Bishop. And I trust him."

"What happened?" he asked curiously. Truth be told, she was a little surprised that Casavir didn't share his version of the story with his men. He seemed eager for people to know just how bad Bishop really was.

"Just some… well… Bishop just doesn't have an exactly… upstanding past and… Casavir just seems to assume the worst. Some things went down between them, but honestly, neither of them knows what exactly transpired. I think they both just filled in the gaps and now they're blaming each other for how things turned out."

Azshan raised his brows curiously at her with a look that could only mean that he wanted her to explain further.

"It's… I don't know what happened either… I just really think it's all a misunderstanding but they just keep claiming that the other one is lying. They refuse to believe each other's versions of what happened," she shrugged exasperatedly.

"Why does it bother you? You can just let them hate each other, can't you?" Azshan asked after a while. His brows still remained creased.

"I guess… I just like spending time with Casavir and I want to be able to do that with Bishop around. But they just can't stop sniping at each other. Casavir wouldn't even tolerate having Bishop with us in the vampire nest, even though it could be really useful to have him watch our backs. And Bishop gets angry just at the thought of coming near Solitude now…" she shook her head. They were really exaggerating it with the mutual disdain.

"I see… So… when you say 'not upstanding past'…" he gave her another curious look.

"Oh… I don't really want to get into that. I don't even know the whole story anyway and it's not mine to tell. It doesn't matter, in any case, the past is in the past…" she sighed. The truth was that she didn't like to think about it herself. As much as her rational mind excused him, she still got an uncomfortable feeling in her gut whenever she thought of Bishop as a bandit. She chastised herself for it, it wasn't really fair to him, but she couldn't make the feeling stop. It was best just to avoid those thoughts altogether.

"Alright…" Azshan sighed with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "So… you really like this guy, huh?" he went back to his usual grin within a second.

"Y-yeah…I… I care about him a lot…" she blushed. She was still a bit uncomfortable with discussing this with Azshan. He was right though… it's been five years. And whatever teenage infatuation was there was surely long gone now, regardless of what Bishop thought.

"Aawww… is little Aeyrin in love?" he snickered teasingly, poking her in the upper arm.

"I-I don't know… I… I think so? Stop asking me things like that!" she flushed deep crimson and averted her eyes from him. She still wasn't sure how she would tell. She knew that her thoughts returned to Bishop almost constantly. And it always gave her this odd churning feeling in her stomach.

Azshan laughed heartily at her and ruffled her hair yet again. It was almost more messy now than it was this morning.

"Well… I'm glad that you're happy. Really am," he gave her a genuine smile. She almost got to revel in the comfortable moment, before his expression twisted into a mischievous smirk. "So… what's the plan here? You always plan everything. Marriage, kids, the whole 'normal life' away from the temple thing?"

Her eyes went wide in shock at the question. He knew that it would fluster her!

"W-what?! No! I mean… I… I don't know! I haven't even… I don't think about that stuff… There's… I doubt that that's… there are dragons and stuff to worry about… and… I don't even know if I want…" she stammered, shaking her head frantically. She was just getting used to being that close to someone. She really didn't want to start thinking about life-altering questions like that.

"Haha! You should see yourself. Your face is like a strawberry," he snickered. He was obviously pleased that he managed to rile her this much. She only punched him lightly in his chest in retaliation with a shake of her head.

"I think we better get back to the spells before your cheeks burst into flames."

…

They've practiced the sun spells for an hour or two more before she was more confident in her mastery of them… and before they got too hungry to continue.

Azshan accompanied her back to the Skeever, intent on dining with her rather than at the barracks. The food was better at the inn anyway – the funds at Castle Dour were hardly concentrated on the quality of food with the war. There were likely more important things to invest the nobility's money into.

Bishop wasn't back yet from his hunt so they ordered food for themselves and settled themselves at one of the tables.

Bishop was taking a rather long time. He was probably making up his neglect to Karnwyr. She remembered when he used to go hunting with him every night back when they only met each other. He gradually seemed to become preoccupied with spending more and more evenings by her side and, ever since they became intimate, the hunts became mostly just a necessity to get food.

She kind of felt guilty for that, but then again, definitely not guilty enough to actually try to convince him to change that. She was reveling in their nights together way too much for that. She couldn't believe that, even now, when she was enjoying her time with a long lost friend, she still thought about him so much. It used to be concerning that she got so attached and… perhaps it still should be. But she couldn't help herself. All those concerns meant nothing when she was with him.

Shortly after they sat down, the server rushed to their table with two goblets of spiced wine. Azshan took one of the goblets and took a long sip, followed by a satisfied sigh.

She stared at him in confusion, tilting her head to the side questioningly.

"Wine. You know that wine's an exception. I'm not gonna forget my roots just because of some vows," he laughed. That was kind of heartwarming, in a way.

"But Casavir makes an annoying judgmental face whenever he sees me drink it, so I have a little deal with Sorex over there. Every time I come here with Cas nowhere in sight, he needs to bring me a goblet as soon as possible. He gets a nice tip and he gets to defy Cas. They do not like him here," he snickered in amusement.

"I… I noticed before that he was a little… brash with the proprietors. It seemed… unlike him…" Aeyrin pondered his words. Casavir was so polite to everyone. Sure, he seemed stern at first sight, but he was nothing but courtly unless someone appeared to have deserved his disdain. What could the staff at the Skeever do to deserve that?

"Yeah, it's a funny story. So, some nobles got all charmed with Cas at some event or another and they decided to donate some money to the congregation. So Cas takes them to the Temple of the Divines because they want to see how their money's gonna be used. When they get there, they ignore all the wounded and they say that the temple looks fine and that it doesn't need any repairs or stuff like that. Now Cas has to convince them that the money wouldn't actually be used on the temple, that they would use it to help out in the city when it was needed, help the poor, the wounded and stuff like that," Azshan rolled his eyes in amusement.

"Anyway, they get the bright idea to see the actual people that the money would be used on. Cas takes them through the infirmary at the temple and they're still not satisfied. So he gets a bit desperate. He wants to show them some of the less fortunate but, the truth is, he doesn't know where to find any. The priests deal with them, we're stuck with the nobles," he smirked. "So the only thing he can think of is to get them here and hope that the patrons would be too drunk and haggard that evening to outrage the nobles."

"What? This place is outright fancy!" she stared at him in disbelief. It was definitely the nicest tavern she's been in... in Skyrim, at least. It still had nothing on the Tiber Septim Hotel in the Imperial City.

"Most of the richest nobles don't set foot in a tavern unless they've got a really good reason. They eat and get entertained at palaces and mansions. But Cas actually hit the nail on the head with his idea. Turns out, they were more interested in well… slumming it. They got shocked and outraged about everything here and they seemed to really enjoy that. So Cas played along to finally get the money. But then they got really mean when the servers were too slow for their liking. So they started a whole spat with them and Cas tried to diffuse it. He still had to keep the nobles placated though, so he couldn't really rein them in, and the servers started to get a bit… aggressive. It all escalated, of course, and Cas had no choice but to put the servers in their place, threatening them with prison and things like that. Ever since then, there's been this… dynamic. He really hates that. He hates the whole 'placating the nobles' part but we don't really have a choice in that. And the servers did get aggressive and he refuses to apologize for threatening them, so now he has to keep up this whole dynamic."

Azshan laughed heartily at the story, Aeyrin she couldn't help but feel sorry for Casavir. First of all, for the fact that his calling in life involved something so… awful. She could never imagine herself just… smiling and nodding while some stuck-up nobles scoffed at everyone 'below' them. And secondly, just the fact that he had to keep up all these power-plays. It sounded so exhausting and… maybe even lonely.

At least he had his Order. Azshan talked about him like an old friend, even calling him 'Cas'. Then again, he got really friendly around everyone fast. That didn't mean that it was mutual. Besides, Casavir was technically his superior – it was odd that Azshan would call him by a nickname in front of everyone.

Knowing Azshan… it may not have been just amicability behind this.

He's always kept up his little rebellions. It helped him deal with the things that he disliked about the life at the temple and his upcoming vows.

She understood, it simply wasn't a clear-cut path for everyone and Azshan's coping mechanisms were always harmless. Like the wine, or when he used to play at the inn in Chorrol, once in a while, to earn a little money just for himself.

The door swung open, after a while, and Bishop walked in. He ordered at the bar and headed straight towards their table. He nodded at Azshan noncommittally before he gave a brief kiss to Aeyrin in greeting. She seemed way more at ease with that now.

"Hey. Didn't you go on a hunt or something?" Azshan raised his brow at him.

"Yeah..." Bishop returned the grimace. He did not get what point the paladin was making.

"No luck then, huh?" Azshan chuckled somewhat maliciously.

"What? I already sold the haul to the folks at the mill. Did you think I was gonna walk in here with an animal carcass over my shoulder?" Bishop scoffed at him.

"Well… yeah. I was kind of looking forward to seeing that, to be honest…" Azshan sighed a little sadly.

Did Bishop's lips just quirk up subtly?

That was a good sign. She knew those two could get along! It was just a matter of getting past the jealousy, apparently.

"Any luck with the magic?" Bishop turned to Aeyrin before he, Divines forbid, showed too much amicability to the man.

"Yeah. Azshan taught me some offensive spells against undead and Daedric things and such," she beamed at him excitedly.

"Huh," he nodded before he inclined his head towards Azshan briefly. "No healing?"

"Not yet."

Did his lips quirk up a bit again? Why this time?

"These ones will come in handy tomorrow. Those bloodsuckers have been nasty," Azshan nodded thoughtfully. "Hey, I know that Cas won't have you at his back, but you wanna come with my group to the other lair? We could use the backup. And the fact that Aeyrin trusts you is enough for me," he added somewhat eagerly. Always so friendly.

"Fuck no!"

As if Bishop would risk his neck to help out their stupid Order! And it wouldn't help Aeyrin in any way if he wasn't even with her.

He half-expected her to try and convince him, but she didn't push the issue. In fact, she didn't say a word. He kind of liked to think that the feeling was mutual and that she just hated the idea of him being in danger without her there to watch out for him.

Azshan seemed a bit taken aback by the abrupt answer though and he gave Bishop a questioning look.

What the fuck was there to question?

Bishop didn't elaborate further, lest he would get into a whole thing about why he wouldn't help out the people he generally despised.

He promised Aeyrin that he'd try to be friendly.

Maybe he could give the guy a shot, as long as he behaved himself around her.

But he certainly wasn't going to go gallivanting with a whole bunch of righteous dimwits among a nest of bloodsuckers.