Chapter 4: Hate

When morning came, Izeera felt something tickling her nose. When she opened her eyes, she saw that her face was buried in buried in Lyall's hair. The spellsword's arm was wrapped around the Dunmer woman. Izeera could feel Lyall's breath tickling her throat. Quietly, the Khajiit removed her arm from the other woman. Lyall began to stir, mumbling softly. Izeera froze, still practically nose-to-nose with the Dunmer woman. Even for friends, this was far too intimate. It was all the Khajiit could do to hold back a sigh of relief when Lyall rolled over, still sound asleep. Izeera then quietly slid out of bed. She tried to recall the last time it was when she'd had a bath. She generally didn't have to bathe much because she didn't sweat much. Her palms and feet sweated, but that was it. It had been less than a week since her last bath, so she was probably okay. It's not like she licked herself. She was a Khajiit, not a housecat. All she had to do was give herself a quick brush every now and then to keep her fur looking neat. She also needed to keep her mane looking good, too. That was why she kept her brown mane in box braids. As long as the fawn Khajiit kept her mane, face, and hands clean, she could go for a while without bathing. The thing was, she really liked being clean. Unfortunately, the reality was that she could not bathe as often as she would like. She did sometimes have to put her foot down and insist that she have a bath at least once a week. She would insist that they all bathe. Izeera, Shame, and Hildegard had all seen eachother naked. For a Nord, Hildegard seemed to be faring surprisingly well with the whole situation. For the first month and a half or so of her nearly two months with the group, the Nord was convinced that the Khajiit was sleeping with Shame. Izeera denied it repeatedly, but Hildegard refused to believe it. It took a while to convince the Nord, but eventually she saw the truth: there was absolutely no sexual attraction between Izeera and Shame. Even if Shame had been attracted to her, Izeera would never be attracted to him. It wasn't because he was an elf and it wasn't because he was a priest. It had something to do with the Khajiit's sexual preferences. Though her one-time seduction of Hildegard could easily be dismissed as mere curiosity on the Khajiit's part, there was a certain truth that Izeera could not deny from herself. She was attracted to females. She was attracted so exclusively to women to the extent that she was not attracted to males at all. It wasn't something that she bragged about. It was something she had been trying to deny for almost her entire adult life. Though Izeera would never be anything more than friends with Hildegard, much to the Nord's relief, the Khajiit's experience still cemented something that she had been trying to deny for years: she would rather bed a female than a male. Izeera sighed softly and glanced over at the still-sleeping Lyall. Quietly, Izeera headed downstairs, where she equipped her gear and headed to the other room to wake Hildegard and Shame, who were sleeping like two normal people: neither cuddling nor lying on opposite sides of the bed. "Be quiet." Izeera whispered. "Get ready and we will leave soon."

Once everyone was ready, Izeera wrote a quick note, thanking Lyall for her hospitality, and left it on the table in the main room, along with enough gold to pay for their stay and more than enough to pay for the food. She felt bad about leaving Lyall without saying goodbye, but each time Izeera came to Windhelm, saying goodbye to the Dunmer woman just got harder and harder.'

Though Skyrim had its problems, one thing that Izeera was always grateful for was the fact that there were always things to do for money. Usually, 'things to do' involved killing someone or something. In this particular instance, they had to kill a bandit leader in the Lost Knife Hideout. Weren't they a bit overqualified for this? A job was a job, though. Besides, any gold they found while they were killing the bandits would automatically be theirs. That would most certainly be a plus. One of Izeera's ears twitched. It was fortunate that the sound of her multiple earrings hitting eachother did not make much noise. Not that it mattered. They weren't inside the cave anyway. It took them a while to locate it, in fact. It wasn't until Shame tripped and landed in the pond nearby. When he saw the slaughterfish eggs, he immediately scrambled out of the pond. There were no slaughterfish in the pond. Izeera let out a laugh. After that, the cave was easy to spot. Just follow the trail of impaled corpses. Izeera pulled her hood up over her head and said, "Let's go."

Izeera drew her axe and prepared a fireball spell. Shame prepared an armor spell and a healing spell. Hildegard, of course, was ready to use her warhammer. One by one, the trio headed into the cave. Over the sound of the water flowing through the stream that went through the cave, Izeera could hear two bandits talking about wrestling a sabre cat that they have caged. It was also mentioned that someone supposedly killed a cavebear with their bare hands. Izeera rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth, prepared to quietly whisper her plan, when suddenly a roar erupted from behind her. Hildegard charged at one of the bandits, warhammer at the ready. "That stupid Nord!" Hildegard hissed, unsheathing her axe and charging into the fray as well. Shame cast the armor spell upon himself and drew his mace. By the time the Nord woman had buried her hammer in the mushy remains of the bandit's skull, the other bandit had gotten to the cages and released several caged animals. "This," Izeera snarled, firing a fireball down the throat of a sabre cat, "is why we need a plan, Hildegard!"

One by one, the animals quickly fell. When Izeera pulled her axe free of another skull, she looked up to see the bandit fleeing. "Oh, no you don't!" the Khajiit whispered. She released another fireball at the bandit. He was dead before he hit the ground. Hildegard seemed to spot something hanging from the belt of the bandit that was killed by Izeera's spell. It was a key. The Nord woman immediately took it.

Izeera gave the room a quick once-over before spotting a bridge. The de facto leader of the group pointed in that direction before heading over the bridge and following the stream. The stream led into a large cavern with an underground lake. Hildegard was about to step ahead of Izeera when the Khajiit placed her arm in front of the Nord, halting her. With her other hand, Izeera pointed up at a set of bone chimes. Had Hildegard blindly rushed ahead, the bone charms would have alerted any bandits that might have been listening. Hildegard swallowed audibly, but proceeded to follow the Khajiit's lead. On the island, patrolling the scaffolding, were two bandits. "We take these ones at a distance." Izeera whispered, preparing her fireball spell. Hildegard nodded and drew her bow. The Nord woman drew an arrow, aimed, and, at the Khajiit's signal, fired. Spell and arrow flew through the air, each simultaneously hitting and killing a bandit. With the two bandits dead, the group proceeded on. The next bandit was taken out quietly, but the remaining ones, thanks to Hildegard, were alerted. More direct measures had to be taken to silence the attacking bandits. When they found a chest, they took the loot. They would divvy it up among themselves later. For now, there was a job to complete as they headed to the next area.

Once inside, they could hear several bandits chatting. Something about the leader getting drunk and challenging the men to duels. Hildegard looked at Izeera quizzically. The Khajiit nodded. A look of glee erupted on her face. Her hammer at the ready, she charged with a roar. Izeera followed her into the tavern-like space, killing whatever got past Hildegard. The spellsword figured that she'd let the warrior have some fun. Once the bandits were taken care of, the group took a quick break to let Shame heal any wounds they might have recieved. Izeera made a quick side-trip up to the bandits' living quarters, where she snagged a copy of Orsinium and the Orcs. The Khajiit then swaggered back into the tavern-like area and said, "Izeera is ready for her adoring public."

Shame's amber eyes rolled as he finished healing a rather ugly-looking gash in Hildegard's side. It didn't seem lethal, but it must have been causing the Nord woman quite a bit of pain. "You know," Izeera said, "When we get to town, Izeera could make you a new set of armor."

"This set belonged to my mother." Hildegard replied, "I'm keeping it."

"All right," the Khajiit said calmly, "but if you want to keep working with Shame and Izeera, you need to either learn an armor spell, get better armor, or learn to dodge."

"I do not need to use magic!" Hildegard insisted indignantly.

"Learn to dodge, then." Izeera said, "And stop charging in like an idiot."

The group's unofficial leader ended the conversation, giving the Nord woman no time to argue. Hildegard looked expectantly at Shame, who shrugged, as if to say 'don't look at me for answers', before following after the Khajiit. Letting out a sigh, the Nord woman followed as well. When they finally did find the bandit leader, he was in an arena-like area. He kept taunting them from where he stood in his cage. Hildegard scowled and, before Izeera could react, unlocked the cage. The door flew open, knocking the Nord woman on her back. The bandit leader charged out. He went after the smallest of the group, Izeera, first. Izeera was not a tiny woman. She was five feet, eight inches tall and fairly solidly built. It spoke for the bandit leader's strength that when Izeera brought her axe up to block his strike, it almost knocked her over. Before the bandit leader could swing again, he was struck from behind by Shame's mace. All it seemed to do was stun him. When the bandit leader briefly turned around to face the Altmer, Izeera put her axe away in its loop at her belt and put some distance between herself and the bandit leader. When she saw what looked like the group's leader fleeing, the look on Hildegard's face was fairly priceless. Still, the Nord woman got up, grabbed her hammer, and charged, using her hammer to help Shame take on the bandit leader. Izeera may have been running, but she didn't get far. This was not because she was stopped in an attempt to flee. No, she stopped of her own free will, turned around, and glared at the bandit leader. In one open palm, a flame appeared. The other hand, instead of drawing the axe, called forth a ball of flame as well. The Khajiit brought the flames together. The flames mingled, increasing in heat and magnitude. She held the flames together just a few seconds longer before releasing a bowerful bolt of flames at the bandit leader. He seemed to try to go after Izeera, but Shame and Hildegard kept him quite busy. With the bandit leader occupied with the priest and the warrior, there really wasn't much he could do to fend off repeated wounding from the spellsword's Destruction magic. Finally, the bandit leader saw an opening. He swung at Hildegard's legs, hitting her and knocking her down. He then ran, like the coward he was. The Khajiit's copper eyes focused intensely on the bandit leader as she prepared one last dual-cast fire spell. It hit him in the back before he could get far. With the bandit leader dead, Izeera ran over to the still-downed Hildegard. It was plain to see why the Nord woman was still down. The injury where the warrior had been hit was deep. Had it not been for her armor, it would have probably gone to the bone. To her credit, Hildegard was holding together quite nicely. There were relatively few cries of pain and more cries of, "If you do not save my leg, Elf, I will see to it that you never have children!"

As Hildegard said this, she yanked Shame's white-blonde hair. "You're making it hard to concentrate on healing you when you keep pulling my hair." the Altmer replied with an annoyed tone to his voice, though he still did his best. Golden light emerged from Shame's hands as he held them over the wound, which slowly knitted shut. Hildegard still complained the entire time. Instead of thanking him when he was done, Hildegard instead asked, "What took so long?"

Shame brushed his white-blonde hair back and said, "For the love of Stendarr, Hildegard! Izeera has killed things that didn't complain that much!"

"Why did you use Izeera an example?" Izeera asked.

"Because, over the course of our friendship, you've killed more things than I have." Shame replied.

"Oh, yes." Izeera said, sounding rather pleased with herself, "This is true. Come. Let us leave this place. Our money awaits."

Hildegard sat in Candlehearth Hall, enjoying what was, in her opinion, a well-deserved drink. She wondered how Shame and Izeera fared as they were presumably recieving the group's pay. Her question was soon answered by the door swinging open and the Altmer and the Khatjiit walking in. Izeera appeared to be in a particularly foul mood. "What happened?" Hildegard asked.

"They wouldn't pay us." Izeera snarled. "They accused Izeera of stealing the bounty letter and said said, 'how do we know that the elf is not a Thalmor agent in disguise?'"

Shame sighed and said, "May Stendarr have mercy on them when their cruelty comes back to them."

Izeera let out a sigh and patted Shame on the back. "You are too good, Shame." she said with a smile.

"What are we going to do?" Hildegard asked the group's de facto leader.

"We are going to get out of Windhelm." Izeera replied. "Izeera can't stand to spend another minute in this city. It is fortunate that Izeera has a hunch that this place will change soon."

Hildegard nodded. Izeera's hunches were never wrong. It was very, very strange. In the Nord woman's opinion, this strange thing couldn't be explained by the Khajiit's magery. Izeera's magic was strictly offensive. Still, Hildegard had no explanation for the accuracy of the Khajiit's hunches.

"How do you think it will change?" Shame asked.

"Izeera has a hunch that the Jarl will be dead within a month." the Izeera replied ominously. "Izeera is not threatening him. Izeera just has a hunch."

Hildegard raised her drink and declared, "To change!"

Shame and Izeera simultaneously said, "To change."

"Now," the Khajiit said, "Let us leave this place!"

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to Lyall?" Shame asked.

"Izeera cannot say goodbye to Lyall." Izeera said with a sad sigh. "With such a friend, it is hard to say goodbye."

"Where will we go this time?" Hildegard inquired

"Solitude." said Izeera. "Less likely that we will be killed in our sleep."

"Izeera, you're overreacting." Hildegard groaned.

"Izeera is not overreacting." the Khajiit insisted. "Finish your drink, Hildegard. We're leaving."