AN: Wow. Thank you so much to everyone who read and took enough time to review my first chapter! Every review, favorite, etc. has made me smile. I am extremely unsure of how long & how many chapters my fanfiction will have. I hope to cover the main questline of the Thieves Guild and perhaps a little after that.
I am a perfectionist, but I hope that my chapters will not be published very far apart. Currently, I am touching up chapters 3 and 4, while in the writing process of chapter 5.
Also, from here on, there is occasional mild cursing so reader beware!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is property of Bethesda Softworks. I own nothing but my OC (name revealed in this chapter!). Thank you for allowing my words to have the privilege of your time.
The Seer and Her Thief, Chapter 2
As soon as she entered her room in the Bee and Barb, the Nord threw herself onto the bed and took a moment to catch her breath. Damn that Brynjolf, she thought. I didn't expect him to be that intimidating. She may have caught him off guard and threw him off his game, but she still felt a sliver of fear from his air.
She felt around her hand that had grabbed the man's shoulder. His clothes were so soft. Granted, they weren't what he normally wore, maybe they were not even his, but they were still soft. His smell of honey, mead and musk lingered in her nose. The roughness of his voice and his accent were still ringing in her ears. The scene that she had just lived through played through her mind again.
The Ragged Flagon. She was able to get information about it from Maul and some of the locals. The Ratway was a nasty place, according to them; a perfect place for thieves to hang about though. Her hands wandered around on the bed spread of the inn. It must be from a bear, likely a snow bear from Winterhold. The straw bedding under it wasn't exactly ideal, but the woman had slept on worse than straw and bear hide.
She sat up and rested her back against the wall, closing her eyes. Laying down for sleeping left her too vulnerable, despite whether she had a dagger on her hip and under her pillow or not. She quickly fell into a light slumber before she headed under Riften.
As soon as she entered through the wooden door, she heard two voices. Two male voices. She crouched to make sure neither one of them could see or hear her begin to walk closer to them.
"I dunno, Drahff. They'd skin us alive if they knew we were doin' this." one of the men said.
"Why are you always acting like such a big baby?" the other, Drahff, responded with. "I've gotten us this far."
Two Nords… A bandit that favors the bow, and warrior who uses a sword and shield, she thought to herself.
"This far? We're livin' in a sewer. You said we'd have a house as big as the Black-Briars' by now."
Without being detected, the Nord woman slipped behind the bandit, quickly snapping his neck and letting his lifeless body slump to the floor. She quickly pulled out her bow, put her foot on the now dead Drahff and notched an arrow into its place and steadied her arm on her knee. Before the warrior had time to prepare his weapons, she shot an arrow right between his eyes. She listened in satisfaction to his body hitting the stone floor and the silence of him not getting up nor breathing.
After she looted both bodies of their gold, she moved on and stopped at a ledge. There's something wrong... a bridge is supposed to be here, yes? she silently questioned to no one in her head. Clicking her tongue softly once, she found the bridge but it was not lowered; it most likely had not been lowered in a while. The lever must be on the other side.
Her nimble jump from the ledge to the floor made no sounds. Another click of her tongue revealed a cage-like door, locked. The lock was an easy pick and the door opened without much effort. She took care of the lowlife hanging around the table near the entrance of the Ragged Flagon.
Sheathing her dagger after determining it was safe, the woman listened to the large pool of water before her. The footsteps and breathing of at least six people across the pool reached her ears.
Two of them aren't thieves, she noted without a sound. She listened to their voices.
"Give it up Brynjolf, those days are over," one male voice said. She knew he wasn't a thief.
"I'm telling you, this one is different," that voice could only belong to Brynjolf.
"It's time to face the truth, old friend. You, Vex, Mercer… you're all part of a dying breed. Things are changing!"
"Dying breed eh?" Brynjolf scoffed. She knew that he was aware of her at that moment, despite her trying to be silent as she approached the bar. Getting past the guard/muscle was easy enough that she got a bit ahead of herself. "Well, what do you call that, then?"
She heard him begin to walk over to her, so she stepped toward him as if she wanted to make her presence there known in the first place.
"Well, well, color me impressed lass!" Brynjolf said, throwing his arm over her shoulder and walking her to the man he just finished talking to, and she sensed that the other three thieves were in the same area. "I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again."
"She made it down here… But that doesn't mean much Bryn," a new male voice said; he sounded like a Breton. The woman kept her head hanging down, her face almost parallel to the floor. "Where is her superb skill and bold attitude you went on about?"
She didn't speak. The longer I stay silent, the further I'll make it into the Guild, she repeated to herself. Or, the longer I keep my secret, the greater the chance of me getting my ass booted out will be.
Brynjolf playfully shook her shoulder, trying to get her to talk. "Ah, she's just actin' shy now," he teased. "Come on lass, introduce yourself to us finally."
"Wait, you don't even know her?" one of the female thieves said. She must have been a small Nord, about the same size as her. "You've got to be joking, Bryn."
"Vex," Brynjolf returned, "you know thieves keep things to themselves, especially names."
Vex turned away and sat down, ordering a tankard of mead.
"Seriously, Bryn," the Breton called, "quit playin' your games. It's not fun anymore."
"This isn't a game, Delvin. I have confidence in her. She may be the one to break this curse you claim we have."
The woman made no movement, face still to the floor. Come on… you've gotten this far. What are you waiting for?
The room fell into silence before the first voice she heard talking to Brynjolf, the bartender, spoke up, "Well? Did you pick up a mute now? She hasn't said a word!"
The woman inhaled a deep breath and took a quick moment to whisper something into Brynjolf's ear.
"Roseleigha," she said in a voice only he could hear. Her breath tickled his ear and he didn't hide the little shudder it sent through his body. "My name is Roseleigha." Brynjolf nodded in understanding to her, smirking to be the first to know the mystery girl's name.
"She's probably some dumb whore Bryn picked from the streets," Vex said.
Things moved so quickly, even to the thieves. Roseleigha made her way behind Vex, grabbing an arm and pinning it behind her back, and talked into her ear, "Call me a whore again," she said, swiftly pulling a knife to the back of Vex's neck.
All the other guild members were ready to pounce at Roseleigha before Vex stopped them with the wave of her free hand. She smiled to the woman that had freshly threatened her, "Hey Del," she called over her shoulder, "I think I found that skill and attitude you were looking for."
Getting as much satisfaction as she could with that, Roseleigha released the thief from her grasp and sheathed her knife. This may be her new friend. But the rest of them were furious with the new girl.
"Did you just see that, Bryn?!" Delvin shouted. "She just threatened my Vex! And you're still going to say she's the new member after that?"
Vex stood up from her bar stool and Roseleigha heard the gripping of a leather collar and the growl of Vex, "I'm am not yours, Del. I'm not anyone's girl, and you'd do best to remember that. Did you even read my warning?" She heard Vex walk back to a table tucked near a board that separated some of the stock of the bar, sipping her mead.
Brynjolf seemed slightly amused but extremely troubled by this. He stomped over to Roseleigha, pulling her shoulder so she faced him, "What the hell was that, lass? Do you have any idea who you just threatened?"
"Yes," Roseleigha said, no sign of regret, remorse or intimidation. She looked Brynjolf right in the eyes. "That was Vex, the infiltrator of the guild, yes? I've heard she isn't exactly unfamiliar with a man's body herself." Vex furrowed her brow at that remark, but wasn't troubled too much because she knew it wasn't a lie.
Brynjolf left out a sigh, relaxing his shoulders and looking at the ground before continuing, "Look lass, I like that spark and spirit, but you can't threaten other members of the guild, alright?" She nodded, so he continued on. "Now, back to business…"
"Back to business?!" the bartender shouted, pointing to the new hopeful recruit. "Are you kidding?! That woman is blind!"
"VEKEL!" Brynjolf said with just as much volume as the bartender. Roseleigha took a deep breath and prepared herself for the upcoming words she had heard for years and years.
"Blind?" Vex said after choking on her mead. "By the Nine, Bryn! What kind of a thief is blind?!"
Delvin slammed his fists on the table he was standing near. "I knew this was a game, Bryn. We can't play games anymore! Are you trying to destroy us or somethin'?"
"So much for a new member of the family," the second female thief, a Redguard, said sarcastically.
"Calm down, everyone!" Brynjolf yelled, shielding Roseleigha behind him. She didn't understand the sudden protective nature of the man that hardly knew her, but she somehow felt safer with his large back in front of her. "Just let me explain, okay?"
"What the hell is going on out here?!" A new male voice said. Everyone became silent as a new and heavy presence filled the room. Roseleigha didn't recognize the voice, but judging by the sudden and extreme shift in the air, she knew exactly who it was.
"Mercer Frey," she whispered.
