Chapter 2: Payback

Once the giant of a man had been healed to the best of her ability, he crept through a partially broken down wall in his cell. "Come on, let's get out of here," Wisteria whispered to the man before her. As he looked back at her he rubbed his wrists and said, "I need to get my things back from that damn Thalmor Justiciar, will you help me?" Wisteria looked back to the entrance of the prison and nodded, following the man through the crumbling wall and into another locked cell. As she fiddled with the key she found earlier, a tall figure dressed in hooded robes started to quickly walk down the hallway towards them. The heels of their boots clicking loudly on the wet cobblestone floors.

"I need to find out where that… that imbecile found this longsword! Elenwen will have my head if I fail at getting the information needed," the tall man said to himself.

"That's the Justiciar I mentioned earlier.." the man grimaced behind her and whispered. "That's the damned elf that chained me up and stole my gear." She nodded, hearing the venom in his voice as he spoke. She unlocked the cell door, the only thing separating them from the Thalmor. As it swung open, its rusted hinges groaned, catching the attention of the Thalmor. Immediately, she conjured a bound dagger into her right hand and projected a ward from her left, she flung herself from the doorway and into the elf's path, effectively blocking his stream of sparks and slicing through one of the sleeves of his hooded robes. Before he could react, she took a giant breath in before unleashing a shout, forcing him to back into the wall behind him. The Justiciar looked at the mage before him with a wild look in his eyes.

"So this is the fabled 'Dragonborn'," he snickered while raising sparks in his left hand, "I cannot wait to deliver you to the Embassy myself along with that… that mutt." Before he could utter another word the man, whom she had just freed, rushed by her in a blur of black hair. He had hurled himself into the cornered elf, knocking the air from his lungs and disarming his fist full of sparks. Wisteria finally had her chance, without a second thought she took her ethereal dagger and shoved it into the neck of the stunned Thalmor. She could feel his life slipping past her fingers and dripping onto the floor, ruining the intricate robes that clothed the golden skinned enemy.

As his terrified emerald eyes looked into her calm blue ones, she spoke softly, "The Embassy will see me soon, of that I can assure you, but it will be on my own terms, elf. Not yours." She spat on his boots as her dagger fled back to Oblivion, motioning for her rather large accomplice to drop the body as he was no longer a threat. He did as she bid, and let the Justiciar fall limply to the floor.

While wiping the blood from her hands with the hem of the elf's robes she spoke to the man beside her, "I'll stay here and keep watch while you get your gear back, then we can get the hell out of this place," waving him off in the direction of the prisoner collections hall.

"Aye." he responded, nodding his head. Backing away, he ran towards the hall containing his gear. Wisteria looked back to her casualty, looking confused. She had just noticed the longest sword she had ever seen peeking out from underneath the crumpled golden body that lay before her. She rolled the Thalmor off of the weapon and picked it up gently to inspect it. It was heavier than she thought it would be. "What purpose does a magic user need a six and a half foot longsword for?" She wondered out loud. She turned the sword over and noticed an odd inscription carved into the steel. Her eyes went wide as she recognized the markings that the engraving was written in. "Dragon language…?" she whispered to herself quizzically.

She didn't notice as her accomplice shuffled his way back into the main hall with his full set of armor on, boots quietly scraping on the stone floors as he approached. "Son of a bitch had it coming," he snarled as he laid his eyes on the corpse in front of him. He looked toward Wisteria and said "I can't thank you enough. I know you didn't have to help me." his appreciation practically flowing from his words.

She looked behind her and nodded before rising, longsword still in her grasp. Meeting his eyes, she observed the giant man that she had freed from chains only moments ago,

"Who are you and what did the Thalmor want with you?" she said finally.

"Aye, I guess I owe ya that much. My name is Kaidan," he responded confidently, "As for the Thalmor, I couldn't tell ya what they wanted from me. I didn't have the correct answers to their questions." His eyes dropped to the longsword in his savior's hands and his face lit up with excitement, "You found my sword!" he exclaimed. Wisteria furrowed her brows as she looked down into her hands at the engraved weapon, and asked "What's the story with this sword?". Kaidan dropped his gaze, knitting his brows together before giving her an answer. "That's the question I'm afraid I'm unable to answer," he stated painfully before continuing, "It was my mother's sword, you see. I never knew her… this sword is my only clue to finding out who she was." Wisteria nodded knowingly, reaching her hands out towards the man in front of her.

"Listen," he started, " I owe you my life, and I'm not a man who's comfortable being in debt. If you ever need me, I will fight alongside you until that debt is repaid in full." He looked at her with a stern determination as he said this. She looked up into his eyes and nodded thankfully. While looking at the blade between them she commented, "The engraving on this piece looks to be in the dragon language," while releasing the sword to its owner. His eyes widened as she spoke. "I can't translate it now," she sighed dejectedly, "but I am an apprentice at the mages college currently, and I think I know someone who could help us…"

He stared at her with full appreciation. "That sounds like a plan," he said as a smile appeared across his face, "let's get out of here, I could use the fresh air." With that, they started making their way out of the abandoned prison, passing by each skeleton Wisteria had seen on the way in. Once outside, the pair started their journey north towards Winterhold and hopefully they could find the answers Kaidan has been desperately searching for.

...

Authors Note: Thank you for reading the second chapter of this WIP story! I'm having so much fun writing and I hope you are enjoying reading it too! I've decided to start a soft upload schedule, please check back after every weekend for new chapters as I mostly find time to write while I'm working my overnight shifts. Please leave any and all feedback, everything contributed is 100% appreciated! (Disclaimer -I do not own TES:V or Kaidan 2 mod, credit goes to Bethesda and LivTempleton for those, respectively.)