Bit of big news, our move is finalizing, and ATT is unavailable where we're headed, so, until I find another internet provider for that area, it's going to be harder to get you guys some chapters. I will continue to do my best, however. Gracious thanks to xTRESTWHOx and NaanContributor for helping put it all together.
Also, I'd like to give a big shoutout to Mann Henry Bayhon, who has become my first Patron on Patr(e)on and pledged a full dollar a month. You rule!
"What do you mean, someone burned down the Hall of the Vigilant?" Weiss gravely demanded from the group assembled in front of her. As soon as Aela revealed the terrible news, everyone was moved immediately and, once sequestered in a secure room, relayed the news.
"It is as I said. Burned to the ground." Aela's voice was grim, and the air had a heavy weight to it.
"How do we know it wasn't a dragon attack?" Ruby asked, and Aela nodded.
"That's what we thought, too. Wouldn't be too farfetched of a thought that a dragon attacked the hall. It's happening more and more, nowadays."
"But you know it wasn't," Blake stated rather than asked.
"We have reason to believe the act was not a random dragon attack, but an attack from some other group. An unknown third party, a collection of well-equipped men and mer."
"You have any proof of this?" Yang asked, leaning forward.
"Eyewitness accounts," Farkas spoke. "The people of Dawnstar have reported no signs of dragon activity in the area in or around the Hall, before or since the attack. Not to mention, many of the wounds inflicted were stab wounds, electrical scarring, frostbite, and an assortment of various injuries. In addition, we had a survivor of the attack itself."
"Had?" Weiss pointed out, and Farkas grimly nodded.
"A day after the apparent attack, Keeper Carcette, the leader of Skyrim's Vigilants, hobbled into Dawnstar with mortal injuries. They said she expired from her wounds shortly after her arrival. According to her, they were attacked in the dead of night out of nowhere. There was no warning, no provocation, no quarter given. This group of individuals was powerful, well versed in magic, and well equipped with highly maintained and well-crafted arms and armor."
"Dammit," Yang cursed and looked to the side. That ruled out run of the mill bandits and cultists. "Do we know anything else? Anything at all?" Farkas and Aela looked at each other for a moment then turned back to the others.
"We have reason to believe the attackers were all vampires," Aela revealed, and Weiss' breath hitched.
"What?" she breathed out. "Vampires?"
"Yes, but not the group you are affiliated with," Aela reassured the vampire. "Kodlak has been in touch with Jarmak, and Duskfall is currently helping in the investigation."
"How do we know it's vampires?" Lydia asked.
"According to Keeper Carcette, before she passed, the attackers all exhibited signs of advanced stage vampirism. Yellow eyes, pale skin, unnatural breathing, and a weakness to fire. In addition, they attacked with death hounds and gargoyles, along with a small army of thralls. Finally, they were led by a vampire lord."
"Just like the vampires that attacked Whiterun and the ones in Bloodlet Throne," Ruby pointed out.
"Our thoughts exactly. The final piece of evidence they described was that several of the dead had shriveled bodies and bite marks on the neck." Everyone turned towards the resident vampire, who grimly touched the spot where she'd been bitten seemingly so long ago. Nothing visible remained, but it still haunted the heiress.
"Sucked them dry," she said as she looked towards the others, her icy blue eyes now a golden yellow. Aela and Farkas nodded, and the air got heavier.
"So, let's recap," Yang clutched her hands together. "A few days ago, the Hall of the Vigilant was attacked and burned down completely, leaving only one survivor who died soon after reaching safety. Before she did, she revealed that the attackers were all vampires, and evidence collaborates that. They were all well-equipped and well trained, and coupled with a rise in vampire attacks with similar methods, that can only mean they were part of the same group. A large, powerful group of vampires running amok." Yang paused.
"Shit," she finished, and the group grew quiet. The silence hung for several moments as everyone tried to determine the best course of action. Finally, Ruby spoke up again.
"Aela, Farkas, what's the response in the other holds?"
"Whiterun is entering into a state of emergency," Aela said. "No one is allowed in or out of the city without express permission from officials, and guards are receiving triple shifts. Everyone is being more tightly scrutinized as well."
"Our contacts in the other holds told us that Solitude and Windhelm are doing the same, and it's only a matter of time before word reaches Markarth, and Riften. Dawnstar, Morthal, Falkreath, and Winterhold are in a state of emergency as well, but without walls of their own, they are increasing the number of guards."
"And the Legion and Stormcloaks?"
"From what we can tell, Tulius and Ulfric have both sent investigators to determine what had happened. They further collaborated Carcette's report," Farkas finished and Ruby clasped her hands together.
"Okay, here's what we're going to do. Yang, you go with Aela and Farkas back to Whiterun. Find out everything you can about the attack from Kodlak and the Jarl, then go over yourself and figure out what happened."
"Got it." Yang nodded. Ruby then turned to Blake.
"Blake, you take M'rissi and Inigo back down to Riften. We may need the Guild's information network now more than ever." Blake nodded and Aela scoffed.
"You're going to trust the words of thieves and liars?"
"Those 'thieves and liars' gave me a complete list of all guards who were working with the Dark Brotherhood. I'm confident whatever information they have will be accurate," Blake replied, her tone sharp. "I don't like them and I'm fairly certain they don't like me, but I trust their information."
Aela raised her hands in defeat. "Fair enough." She turned back to Ruby. "What about you, Ruby?"
"Weiss and I will continue as before, figure out what this Magna-Ge wants. With any luck, we can figure out something that can help us take these vampires down."
"Magna-Ge," Aela muttered. "That always inevitably circles around back to Meridia. If anything can help against a vampire horde, it's their power."
"Hopefully whatever they have in mind will be useful," Weiss agreed. "After I help Ruby, we'll head back to Winterhold and scour the college records. There may be something inside that can help us." Everyone looked at each other, each asking if there were any objections. None raised their voice.
The group split apart yet again then and there. Yang trekked north towards Whiterun with her fellow Companions at full gallop, Ruby, Lydia, and Weiss travelled northwest toward Haafingar, and Blake, Inigo, and M'rissi rode east to Riften. After a day of travel, the three felines reached their destination. As the Companion had said, the city was on high alert, and Blake barely obtained the approval to enter. As the catfolk entered into the city, Blake had to take a few deep breaths as she headed toward the Bee and Barb and then looked for any signs of a Black-Briar. Her cousin Hellen might have run a clean and decent operation with the Sunny Shield Tavern, but Maven was a cutthroat through and through. The Faunus had been thinking about how to approach the problem ever since she committed to making sure the operation messed up, and now it was time to double-down. She went upstairs and saw the woman going over some sort of ledger with Talen-jei, likely something to do with a shipment of mead. As the Argonian saw her, he nodded and said something to Maven before leaving. She turned and saw Blake, and her expression changed from neutral displeasure to disgusted displeasure.
"Well, there you are. Should have known you'd end up a complete failure." She scowled, and Blake had to fight down a glare of her own.
"I did my best, but Mallus messed up big time with the crazy man in the cave. The whole thing got turned on its head."
"And you couldn't have covered up for one mistake?" she accused, and Blake let the words roll off her cheek.
"It was a very big mistake. He didn't have time to cover up the hole and clean up the skeever corpses before Sabjorn sent guards to investigate and caught him doing it. They figured he was trying to cover up a murder, and it all spiraled downward from there. I poisoned the vats and rats. That was my whole job. It's not my fault he was so incompetent."
Maven sneered. "Very well. Did you at least bring me the information I requested?"
"I did." Blake handed over the note, which Maven took and quickly scanned over the contents.
"This doesn't tell me much. The only thing that could identify Sabjorn's accomplice is this odd, little symbol."
"I've seen it before," Blake admitted. "The same symbol was on the Goldenglow bill of sale and the note Aringoth received."
"Well, whoever this marking represents, they'll regret starting a war with me. Take this information to Brynjolf. Speaking of…regrets, I'm going to go have a chat with someone." The woman turned back and collected her ledger before leaving. Blake waited a moment before heading back downstairs and walking out with both Khajiit behind her.
"She was very mad," M'rissi stated as they headed into the Ratway, deciding to take the scenic route as people would likely see them at the graveyard entrance.
"She can keep being mad. I don't care. Everything's going to come crashing down on her head one day if she keeps this all up." They emerged into the makeshift tavern. A few glares were sent their way, but nobody spoke up as she went by, finding Brynjolf after a moment nursing a drink.
"Lass, you're finally back. Started to worry you weren't coming back, that the vampires got you, or you'd headed for the hills. What happened?" he asked, disappointment and anger in his voice, yet at the same time willing to hear her out.
"With our how long we were gone or the Honningbrew Meadery?"
"Both!" His voice grew sharper before backing down. "Eh, start off with Honningbrew. What exactly happened there?"
"Mallus screwed up," she lied with no qualm. "I went in, poisoned the mead, poisoned the skeever nest, but I also ran into a crazy man who had been breeding the skeevers. I had to kill him in self-defense, then told Mallus he needed to do something about it. I was also expecting an explanation for why he didn't tell me about that problem, but Sabjorn got suspicious and had some guards look into what he was doing locked up in the brewery. They found the body, the tasting was canceled, and Sabjorn figured out the mead was bad before the day was up."
"Gods, so everything just went wrong then?" He rubbed his forehead "You couldn't have given the biter a hand?"
"Not within time to stop Sabjorn from figuring out about the poison. I did send a journal I found detailing the crazy man's plan to use venomous skeevers to plague Skyrim, so Mallus should be cleared and free."
Brynjolf sighed. "Here I was hoping our bad luck was gone, but now… Maven's not going to be happy about this."
"No, she wasn't."
"Oh gods, you already told her?"
"Figured it was better to get that out of the way." Blake hummed and rubbed her chin. "Interesting thing though, I found a note from Sabjorn's partner. No name, but the same symbol was on it from Goldenglow."
"Then it wasn't a total loss. At least we've figured that much out now. This is going beyond mere coincidence. First Aringoth and now Sabjorn." Brynjolf took up his drink and gulped down a deep draught. "Someone's trying to take us down by driving a wedge between-"
"Belladonna!" everyone heard from the direction of the cistern. All of the thieves went rigid as Mercer walked in, a furious expression on his face. He saw Blake, and his sneer deepened as he walked over to her. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" he accused, pointing at her.
"Mercer, what's going on?" Brynjolf asked.
"What's going on is that I just had a talk with Maven! She's getting ready to pull all support away from us! Because of her!"
Blake balked at that. "What? But it wasn't-"
"She told me that she was waiting on your answer before she took any action," Mercer cut her off. "Apparently, it wasn't good enough, because now she's saying that she's beginning to think working with the Guild isn't worth the trouble! Without her making up reports that keep the guards out of the Ratway, they'll start heading down here to try and smoke us out! We'll have to pack up and leave, and where could we possibly go?"
"You can-" Blake looked around, confusion and fear gripping her, but not from everybody around her glaring daggers. "There's got to be something!"
"Surely she wouldn't just throw us away like you're saying?" Brynjolf inquired, to which Mercer took a big breath before slowly releasing it. "She can't replace us that easily, can she?"
"She has plans to replace us, but she's given us two options. One, we find a way to gather a hundred thousand gold by the end of the week."
"A hundred thousand…septims?" Brynjolf hesitated.
"To prove we're still worth associating with. She's already counted up what we have, currently."
"But that's impossible! Going hard at it we could probably make that in a month, but one week?"
"What's the second option?" Vex asked.
"The second is that you," he emphasized while pointing a finger in Blake's face, "leave Riften and never come back, by hook or by crook." He withdrew his hand and crossed his arms. "This is all on you, Belladonna. You fix this mess, one way or another. Bring the coin you owe us for your monumental failure, or leave and stay gone."
Blake's ears bent back all the way as she backed up a step as guilt seeped through her being. Every thief in the room save for her two friends were looking at her with differing levels of disdain and hatred. One Bosmer stood up.
"What if we just ki-" Delvin slapped a hand over his mouth and pulled him back down with a shush.
Blake looked back at Mercer, Brynjolf, and the anger and disappointment in their expressions.
"I…" she began before giving up and leaving, M'rissi and Inigo right behind her, watching for anyone that might try anything as they left.
"Please tell me that means it's over," Sapphire begged.
"This cat knows that one does not give up easy," Gnives said as he scraped under a claw with his dagger. "Gnives believes she will try to get the coin, for her shite honor. That and to spite Maven, if anything."
"Of course she will!" Vipir yelled out. "And she probably won't leave until the guards are knocking down our doors. We'll have to pack up and leave ourselves!"
"Well, I've got a contact down in Valenwood," Niruin suggested. "We could probably make it down there."
"Or we could, you know, kill her?"
"Oh, because that worked out so well for the Dark Brotherhood," Vex objected. "Let's face it, none of us here could touch someone like that, except maybe Mercer."
"Yeah, Mercer could take her," another thief agreed.
"I think you're all overestimating her, while ssimultaneously underestimating her," Salthasar spoke up. "Remember, she iss a very…charitable ssoul. She might try to find the coin, but, in the end, that moral compass of hers will end up leading her to leave in her exile."
"At this point, it's wishful thinking to suppose she'll go with it," Delvin explained. "We need to be ready in case she feels like pushing the envelope with Maven any further."
"We'll be ready for whatever comes," Mercer reassured the thieves. "While we can hope the girl does the right thing and leaves, we can't bank on it. We need to be ready. I'll start drawing up plans to move what we can. You all be prepared to do some heavy lifting this week."
As Mercer left, Brynjolf sat down on a stool and cradled his head with a sigh. Vekel looked over to him with a little concern.
"You all right, friend?"
"Just… I really had a good feeling, you know. And now, this has happened." He sighed and took another drink.
"Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are…costly."
"Never this much though. I really thought I saw something there, you know?" He let out another sigh then rose to his feet. "I'm going to take a walk."
"Take your time, Brynjolf."
Out of the Ratway, Blake took a long minute to sit down and think over her situation. While she didn't really care about the Guild's well-being itself, she had begun to see them in a little better light. Really, they weren't so much the cause of much of the corruption in Riften as they were an effect. People like Maven were far more culpable when it came to the state of things.
"This is all because a greedy, old woman didn't want competition," Blake bemoaned aloud.
"Yes, the old hag hates that."
Blake sat up and turned in surprise. M'rissi and Inigo looked back as well, and all of them saw a Khajiit in fine clothing running a finger across his whiskers.
"Good to see you again, Shadowkiller," Vasha greeted in a warm tone, looking every inch the wealthy crime boss he'd claimed to be in the shack Astrid had imprisoned them in.
"Vasha? What're- No, I probably don't want to know what you're doing here."
"It would be safer for both of us that way, methinks. I heard Maven is quite angry about a certain someone and is taking it out on the Guild, making the Guild angry at the someone."
"Yeah, it's…not good." Blake looked away and groaned while Vasha nodded.
"Uh, Blake, who is the shady cat with more rings than fingers?" Inigo asked.
"This is Vasha, at your service," the Khajiit greeted him. "I owe your friend here quite a bit after she killed my captor and freed me."
"Really? Well, how about, uh, a hundred thousand gold?" Inigo asked with a hopeful tone, and Vasha playfully gasped and clutched his chest.
"Such naked greed! I hope your other odd friend is not so selfish, Shadowkiller."
"It's not greed," Blake explained. "That's our actual problem. Maven said the Guild needs to either run me out of town or present a hundred thousand septims to 'prove they're still worth associating with'."
"Hm, quite vindictive, but I suppose you've destroyed one of her preferred options and now it looks like you're turning another away from her. Vasha might be able to help you there."
"You could lend us the money?" M'rissi asked hopefully, only for Vasha to laugh.
"Oh, I probably could, but that is a very hefty investment, and I'd rather not drag someone I owe so greatly into such." He laughed and shook his head. "No, I have a mark, if you're interested. One that has all the gold you'd need and more. Much, much more."
"You know a place where we can steal all of that gold?" Blake was actually astonished by that information. "It's not the bank, is it?"
"Oh no, that sort of work is for a very experienced and talented group. You may have some talent, but that will not get you through bank security. No, this mark has something specific I want, as well as all the coin you could want. You get me what I want, and in exchange, you can get all the gold you need to satisfy Maven's demands. Are you interested?"
The three cats all looked at each other, each thinking about their options. After a moment, Blake nodded. "We're interested."
"Excellent! Now, onto the important business. You know of the dragon roosting at the Bonestrewn hills?"
"Vulgahrotru?" Blake asked. "The highwayman dragon?"
"Yes, that one. Some say Jarl Ulfric plans to parlay with the dragon, but has not yet undertaken such a task. As of now, the dragon has a great hoard of gold, nearly covering the top of his hilly home. Rough estimates put the amount at nearly ten million septims worth of gold, all in one place." Blake's eyes bulged out of their sockets, as did Inigo and M'rissi's.
"T-ten? Million?" Blake asked through her sputtering, and Vasha smiled and nodded.
"And...all of that is ours?" Inigo requested to know, and Vasha nodded again. M'rissi had almost fainted on the bench and was slowly coming back to her senses.
"Indeed, my feline friends. All of that gold is yours for the taking, except for one piece. Specifically, though, he has an enchanted gold circlet with a slightly cracked ruby inset at its center, shaped like a six-pointed star."
"That is a very specific description," Inigo mentioned, to which Vasha chuckled.
"Of course. It is an item I have coveted for a long time now. It may be unfair to ask you to recover it when Vasha already owes you, but consider this as us holding our equilibrium. I told you where to find your gold, you can grab this one thing for me on your way. A simple and fair trade, all things considered." The three cats all looked at each other in silent conversation before nodding.
"Well, to be honest, it sounds fair enough. And you're right. I wouldn't mind robbing him of all beings." Blake stood up from the bench, feeling much better than she had a moment earlier. "How do we get the coins from there to here, though? It's close to a full day's ride to get there, and I have a feeling a bag's not going to cut it for holding that much."
"A few barrels could work." The Khajiit turned to see Brynjolf standing behind them in the shadows, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "A few barrels, a horse-drawn cart, and some ropes to secure them. Shove as much as you can into a barrel, hammer down the top, and we're good to go."
"Brynjolf…?" Blake murmured.
"I guess you want in on this little venture as well?" Vasha asked the Nord thief.
"Not for profit, amazingly. To be honest, I can understand why you dislike Maven so much, lass. I'm no fan of her myself, but we work with a lot of people we don't like. You, however, I do like. You have conviction, and you stay true to yourself no matter what, something I can respect. Admittedly, I was disappointed that you botched Honningbrew, and I have to guess you did that on purpose. By any rights, I would have more than enough reason to kick you out, to set an example for the others." Brynjolf's smile widened. "But, I knew from the moment I spotted you that you were something special, and here I find you agreeing to heist a dragon's hoard with a crime lord. The others wouldn't do that, would tell Vasha here to rot in Oblivion, but not you."
"Indeed, it is why I went to her in the first place. I trust her more than any of your average thieves with the task, no offense." Brynjolf waved the Khajiit off, not offended.
"I'm just making up for my mistake," Blake responded, and Brynjolf came closer, out of the shadows and into the light.
"You're doing far more than that, lass. Look, the Guild's been a big part of my life's work. I don't want to be some sap and say it's like my family, but it's damn near the closest I have. A lot more drunk uncles than I would have imagined, yet still. I don't want the Guild to end like this, with a drawn-out whimper. Besides, what mischievous little boy never dreamed of taking a dragon's hoard?"
Blake cracked a smile and laughed a little. "Then you're with us?"
"Aye, I'm with you." He offered out his hand and Blake clasped it. "Now, let's go make some plans to rob a dragon."
Yang splashed some water from her canteen on her face before groaning as she felt along her scalp. She felt nasty, all covered in dirt and grime, not to mention the smell. A few days without a bath or shower were starting to get to her. She had been planning on getting one at Sunny Shields, but the sudden news about the Hall of the Vigilant had dashed all other plans. She would have to wait until they got to Whiterun to totally cleanse herself.
"What a mess," she murmured to herself as she combed her hair with her fingers, grimacing at the dust in her prized locks. She didn't particularly like the Vigilants of Stendarr. After all, a few of them did attack Weiss at one point simply because she was a vampire. But overall, they were good people, hunting down dangerous cultists, actual man-eating vampires or lycanthropes, and helping victims of the daedra and their worshippers. There was a reason why they were so respected across the Empire, and now most of the Vigilants in Skyrim were dead. By vampires, no less. Something very bad was about to happen, but what it was, Yang couldn't tell.
"Yang," she heard Aela call out to her, breaking the blonde out of her thoughts. "Come here. You need to see this."
Interest piqued, the Huntress followed the huntress off the road. A little ways up she could see where a small body of water was being fed by a waterfall running from the Throat. It was an idyllic scene, up until they got past a copse of trees and she could see the cave right next to it. At its entrance, someone had taken spikes and impaled charred corpses and skulls upon them. On two spikes there were wolf heads, and one of the bodies was different from the rest. The ears were more triangular and higher up the skull, and the canines were elongated. Yang gasped as she realized from the shape of the mouth that she was seeing a werewolf who had been killed mid-transformation.
"I've already looked ahead. They're Silver Hand."
"I checked around," Farkas said as he came up from the side. "I think this is the only way in or out."
"Then we have them trapped," Aela said with a grin.
"Whoa! Hold up!" Yang protested. "Time out! I get that we can't let this just keep going, but you're treating this less like it's a cave full of bad people and more like it's filled with some particularly distasteful monsters."
"What're you saying?" Aela growled out. Farkas, wisely, took a step back from the two women.
"Just calm down. Keep your head clear. Don't charge in mindlessly. These aren't some trolls that are going to swing their anchor arms around hoping to hit you. These are sentient, thinking beings that will strategize against us if they have even a second to prepare." Aela seemed annoyed, but took a breath and straightened herself.
"Fine. You lead the way then." Aela threw her arm towards the cave entrance, and Yang nodded. Again, her worries towards Aela's attitude grew, fearing that she was taking things too far. She would have to talk to Kodlak about this, but for now the priority was keeping the others safe.
"All right. Just keep an eye open." The group entered with Yang at the head. Farkas went ahead and took out his sword while Aela prepped her bow. Yang flicked a flame from her hand a moment to ensure there was no problem, then quietly continued forward. A stream ran into the cave from the pool outside, rushing over rocks as it went with a light roar. Yang saw a couple of men up ahead and starting hearing them speak.
"So you're saying you brought that cat down alone?" one asked another skeptically.
"Why? You don't think I could do it?"
"Wasn't our last catch a cave bear?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Take down that one with your bare hands too?"
"Troll's blood, was he a tough one!"
Yang rolled her eyes as she caught sight of the braggart in question, a rather small Bosmer. She looked back to Aela and nodded, and the woman took aim at him. As the other Silver Hand let out an exasperated sigh, Aela's arrow flew through the air and sunk deep in the wood elf's chest. He stumbled back and cried out, and for a moment his companion looked on in confusion. He turned as he reached for the silver sword at his back, only for a fireball to collide with him and send him over the campfire. He tried to pick himself up, but Yang sent another ball of flame, this time more concentrated, which both knocked him back down and burned away part of his face and neck. As the Silver Hand died, Yang could hear commotion from up ahead, and a quick look revealed a small group of hunters charging at them, silver weapons in hand.
"Up ahead, there's a station!" Farkas called out as he charged forward.
"Stick together!" Yang warned as she went after him. Farkas clashed with a man with a silver battle axe while Aela loosed two arrows upon another archer on a small structure. For half a second, Yang was distracted by their surroundings, but refocused to clash with an orc who had a silver mace with four spikes around it. With a fist covered in flame, she socked the Orsimer across the face, hearing bones crack under the blow, but not enough to stop the orc entirely. He went back at her, swinging more furiously than before, but Yang was able to backstep before timing herself and striking with an uppercut. His head snapped back with a loud crack, and the Silver Hand collapsed lifeless. At the same time, Farkas chopped through his foe's wooden haft as well as most of his body. Aela's target was already down, gasping as she tried to drag herself over to a table with an arrow in her thigh. Yang went up to the wood balcony and approached the downed archer, at first thinking she was an elf, but then noticing the bit of fur clinging to her ears as well as the tattoo-like markings on her face.
"Hey, hold still," Yang warned the woman as she knelt near her and started looking at the embedded arrow. From the smell, she could confirm that she really was Khajiit. The Ohmes looked deathly frightened, but didn't try to resist as Yang took the dagger from her belt and tossed it aside, disarming her near completely. Aela came up on the balcony as well, looking at her downed foe with anger. Yang saw her pulling back on her bowstring, and turned her attention from the wound to the Companion with a scowl. No words were said, but Aela understood and loosened up her tension, placing her arrow back in its quiver.
"Get me some rope or something to tie her with," the blonde commanded. Farkas immediately moved, but Aela was still watching with disdain, her fingers twitching. Soon, Farkas came back with a decent coil of rope, which Yang used to tie up their prisoner once the arrow was removed and the wound healed.
"This one…" the Ohmes got out after she was almost completely bound and far less frightened, "…thanks you so much for sparing her."
"You just got lucky," Yang responded truthfully. "All right, I'm going to gag you now. We'll come back once everyone else is down."
The Khajiit just nodded and Yang took a strip of leather and tied it around her head. Completely restrained, the woman could do nothing as the Companions ventured forward.
"That seemed a tremendous waste of time," Aela complained.
"Wasn't a waste for her." Yang's response earned only a roll of the eyes from her fellow Companion.
"Because a murderer's life means so much."
Yang sighed before finally taking a look around the cave they had been in, noticing how they had been on something of an island within a large, subterranean pool, being filled by the stream from outside. A little amazed at the natural formation, she continued on, going past yet another waterfall feeding the underground complex. Yang warned them of a tripwire, which they all stepped over, and then they went up a ramp to a higher level. Immediately, three Silver Hands beset upon them. Farkas clashed with an orc for a moment before overpowering him and taking off his head. Yang knocked a sword slash away before taking out her axe and swinging hard, breaking through the soft metal blade and halfway into the man's body. Aela's foe charged her, only to end up with a dagger in the eye. As Aela started cleaning her weapon, Yang picked up the broken silver sword, looking it over.
"You know, I get the hammers and axes, but swords aren't really that good when made of silver."
"They're not actually supposed to be for werewolves," Farkas clarified. "Asked Vilkas about it. Silver swords are made for ghosts and specters. Weapons don't really need to be sharp when taking out a ghost. You can kill them with a silver stick just as well. Silver Hand never seemed to get that information."
"So, these guys are violent, unlawful, and misinformed," Yang said as she dropped the blade, rubbing her fingers in the dirt to help end the sting. "Well, better for us, then."
They heard a gasp and turned to see a young elf woman in an out-of-season, midriff-baring outfit, with a platter holding five plates of food and six cups in hand. The Altmer slowly set the platter down and held her hands up as she slowly backed away.
"T-take whatever you want! Please don't kill me!"
"Just hold still," Yang said as she started to walk over. The high elf jerked back in surprise as she did so, and Yang realized that she was far more scared and nervous than she had thought. As she raised her hands to speak, the elf bolted back to where she'd come from.
"Hey!" Yang called out, ready to run after her, only for an arrow to zip by and hit the running woman in her back. She fell with a cry and Yang looked back to her companion with a start.
"Aela!"
"She ran! She might have told everyone in the cave about us," Aela defended herself.
"I was going to catch her! There's no way she could have outrun me!" Yang rushed over to the woman, and noticed two things. One, she was still breathing, though raggedly. Two, checking over her person, Yang didn't find any weapons except a single iron knife of the same sort people used in daily life. She started pulling out the arrow while healing the elf, holding her down as she did, and Aela walked up, frustrated.
"Why are you trying so hard to save them?!" she shouted, confused and indignant at Yang's actions. Farkas stayed silent, his eyes wide as he watched the two women stare each other down.
"Because that's what I do!" Yang yelled back just as loudly, her eyes going red and sending Aela back a few steps. "We're taking these guys down because they're a threat to good, innocent people, but that doesn't mean we're going to wholesale slaughter everyone in here! All we know is that they're Silver Hand, and as much as we all hate them, they're people. Look at her, she isn't even armed." Yang shook her head and turned back to the frightened Altmer woman. "Farkas."
"Uh," the man began before Yang held out a hand.
"Rope."
"Oh, right." The man went to get the rope tied to the rock trap they had passed by. As all the stones fell and he brought it over, Aela and Yang continued to have a stare down. Yang tied the elf's arms together behind her back then propped her up on a chair.
"Okay, can you answer a few questions?" The elf shakily nodded, rattled from her near death experience, and Yang nodded with her. "Okay, good. Now, what exactly are you doing here?"
"Um, cooking, cleaning…" She blushed and seemed to sink into herself. "Maid things."
"All right, and how many are up ahead?" Yang's voice was soothing, and the maid appeared to calm down slightly.
"Uh…" she looked over at the corpses and gulped. "Twelve. Thirteen if you count the captain."
"Any more maids we should worry about?"
"No, it was… It's just me."
"Alright, you're going to wait here until we're done." Yang stood up and looked behind the elf to make sure she was secured and then headed towards the plank bridge she'd come from.
"Um, that way's the storeroom. The… Everyone else is at the fighting hole, down that way." The Altmer indicated a tunnel with her head, to which Yang nodded.
"Thanks." She turned and went down that way instead, the Companions behind her. As they headed deeper, they saw a stone structure with a hole knocked into one of its walls. Past it was another wooden balcony built on a higher level of ground, but they ignored it for the moment as they came up to the odd building's opening. Peering around, they were able to spy another pair of Silver Hands griping about something.
"Looks like the boss is at it again."
"Why? What's he doing now?"
"He's on one of his drunk rants again. Except this time he's challenging everyone to a duel over in the hole." The man let out a disgusted grunt. "We got him locked in there now, but he's still challenging anyone that looks crooked at him."
"Someone should let that cat loose. That'd shut him up real quick."
"Hey, don't say that too loud. You don't want it getting back to him."
"Nope," Yang agreed before Aela sent an arrow flying into one man's skull. The other turned, only to receive one as well. Two more ran at them from further in while the last took out his own bow. Yang's war axe went flying into one's chest while Farkas shoulder checked the other. As arrows flew by, Yang rammed into her opponent while yanking loose her axe, and Farkas' fell to a deep chest wound, possibly hitting his heart. They pressed forward, going past the archer pinned to a bookcase. Up a stone staircase, they came across a barracks-like setup within the dry stone building. Further along, they came outside onto the balcony they saw earlier, to find that it was a bridge leading deeper into the cave. On a table next to a straw circle target rested a severed arm clutching a flute. Yang grimaced at the sight and kept going, though Aela took one of the arrows and looked it over before tossing it away.
"Shoddy craftsmanship," she muttered before running to catch up to her Companions.
In the tunnel, another waterfall was flowing through, seemingly having carved a hole through the floor over time before continuing on down. The tunnel opened up into a wide cavern with tiered floors. Yang could see several cages around on the lower tier, and the remaining seven Silver Hands were amongst them. As they were spotted and the Silver Hands began to move, Yang saw that in one cage there was a sabre cat, and she immediately got an idea. Aela started firing arrows while Farkas met the charge of two Nords who didn't quite measure up to him, and Yang jumped from where she was onto the cage holding the sabre cat. The large predator looked up at her and growled while threateningly waving a paw at her, but Yang just smiled down before she bent down and started lifting the sliding gate. The cat seemed to notice, and so ran out once enough space was cleared for it. Yang then hopped down as the predator pounced upon the back of one of the Silver Hands. A leather clad man turned at his comrade's scream, and then the fangs of the cat speared into his belly before ripping out. As he fell, the sabre cat charged at one of the archers, who completely missed his mark as he panicked. He screamed as the sabre cat pounced on him before the animal's jaws clamped around his neck and ripped out his throat.
The last of the Silver Hand down, Farkas and Aela came down to Yang's side and paused when they saw the sabre cat over the corpse of one of their enemies. Aela started to draw an arrow, but Yang put a hand to her shoulder. As their eyes met, Yang gently shook her head and Aela sighed before putting the arrow away. The cat looked over to them and let out a low growl, but Yang kept an eye on its ears. They were lowered, but slowly kept twitching back up. Eventually, its ears went up and the growling ended. The sabre cat licked its jaws and seemed to loosen itself up.
"I'll be damned," Farkas murmured. "Never got close to one of those without it trying to kill me or running off."
"It's a smart critter," Yang explained as she crossed her arms. "It saw us fighting these guys who've probably tortured and starved it, and it saw me free it. Plus, no need to fight for food with all of these guys lying around, morbid as it is."
"That is true," Aela nodded, agreeing with Yang's logic.
"H-hey," they heard someone slur out. The Companions and cat looked over at the fenced off lower level to see a man dragging around a greatsword in one hand and holding a drink in the other. "You…six… Water you all thinkin' yer doin'? Get those lazies up offa the groun' 'fore I ge' up there and smack you all around." He took a deep draught of his mead and then tossed the empty bottle aside. "And who in Bivion says you can have a dog?"
Yang looked at the sabre cat, which had started growling at the drunk while setting itself into a pouncing position. The Silver Hand's eyes widened in realization, but rather than prepare, he dropped his sword in surprise and the cat ran and leaped over the fence, claws outstretched and mouth roaring. The man shouted, but the cat crashed down upon him and began shredding him to pieces. Yang nonchalantly went over to the gate and opened it as well, leaving a way for the cat to get out when it was ready.
"Mission accomplished?" she asked Aela as she dusted her hands off. The woman took in a breath and released it with a small smile.
"Yeah."
"To be honest, Ashpi has nothing against werewolves," the tied up Khajiit said as Yang set her onto Lucky Day's back. "She only joined these men a few days ago to steal much of their silver weaponry. They liked her pretty face, and she is not above using her feminine beauty to fool foolish males. Before Ashpi came, Niri was the only woman in the hideout, and she was exhausted."
Yang's eyebrows shot up at that, while Niri, now protected from the cold by a bear fur coat, blushed at the implications. Farkas' expression was likened to a deer in headlights, while Aela simply paused in rumination before continuing on.
"Why didn't you leave?" Yang asked the elf, who looked downcast.
"Where would I go? What could I do? I'm not that good at magic, which makes me worthless to most other Altmer. I'm not strong at all, and I can't take the sort of pain farmers get from their work. All that's left for me is to be a servant or go to a brothel, and no one in this day and age wants a high elf in their household."
"And the ones that would are those same Altmer who hate your low magic skill?" Niri nodded at that and Yang sighed. "Well, I can't really say you've done anything wrong, so right now this isn't so much an arrest as it is an escort." Yang paused and tapped her chin with her finger. "Actually, I may have a few ideas. As for you, Ashpi."
"Yes?"
"What work can you do?"
"Um, this one is good at walking and carrying many things, quietly."
"Neat, then I'm giving you to the caravan. They're leaving Skyrim soon so you'll be out of our hair and out of the cold. I doubt you want to be in the dragon filled land with a vampire army popping up all in the dead of the coldest province's winter."
"You make a sound argument. Ashpi also does not like her chances against the men and women who fight like daedra and casually befriend sabre cats. Besides, her homesands should be lovely this time of year."
"Then it all works out. All the Silver Hand who mattered are dead, you both get a job, and we get about thirty pounds of silver to sell." Yang shifted the bag on her back filled with silver weapons. "Oh, and big kitty goes free."
Thesabre cat in question was walking out of the cave at that moment. It drank from the pool for a spell, cleaning the blood from its lips as it did, before looking back at the group. Yang and the cat met eyes, and then the beast prowled off into the wilderness.
"Alright, so let's go through the plan one more time," Blake said in front of a large map nailed to a wall. To her side was a smiling Brynjolf, his arms crossed and leaning back against the wall, while M'rissi, Inigo, and the rest of the Thieves Guild sat down in front of them. "The dragon Vulgahrotru has taken nest at Bonestrewn Crest. From here, he has had complete reign over the entire Frostwater Tundra region of Eastmarch, through which he has robbed hundreds of merchants, soldiers, bankers, and travelers of their gold. By now, he has accumulated over ten million septims, which is far more than what we need to satisfy Maven's demands of a hundred thousand septims. Inigo and M'rissi have already acquired a few mead barrels to gather the gold, and Brynjolf has gotten us a carriage."
"The job itself will be simple and clean, in and out," Brynjolf spoke up. "Vasha's men will create a distraction to draw away the dragon, where then we will then swoop in, gather as much gold as we possibly can, along with Vasha's mark, then bug out as fast as possible. We can get far more than enough for Maven. All in all, the job should take at most thirty minutes. Any questions?"
The cistern was dead quiet as everyone stared at the Faunus and Nord. Impassively, Blake and Brynjolf stared right back without flinching, resolute and determined. Finally, Mercer heavily sighed and stood up
"You all," he said loud and clearly, "are out of your Gods' damned minds. Your 'plan' is suicidal and stupid beyond measure, and I would rather take my chances with the Legion than to rob a dragon. I will not risk the Guild to cover for Belladonna's mistake, so you four are on your own."
"I'm with Mercer," Vex spoke up as well. "You want to get yourself killed, kitten, be my guest. I'm not going down with you."
One by one, more and more thieves spoke up, each one agreeing with the Guildmaster until only Delvin was left. Everyone looked at him as he nursed a mug of Cyrodillic Brandy before chugging it down. Wiping away the excess on his lips, he looked at Mercer then Brynjolf, then shook his head.
"Sorry, Brynjolf. I'm not joining in."
"Can't say I'm not disappointed in you lot," Brynjolf said, displeasure clearly heard in his voice. "Where's your passion? Commitment? Here we stand at the opportunity of a lifetime to obtain more gold at once than we have ever achieved in the history of the entire Thieves Guild. This one job would put us on the map again, and you're just throwing it away?"
"The answer is no, Brynjolf!" Mercer stated firmly, leaving no room for argument. "You want to save your protégé, be my guest. Meeting dismissed."
At his command, the rest of the thieves all got up out of their seats and left the cistern, leaving the Faunus, Khajiit, and Nord behind. As the door closed behind them, Inigo sighed.
"Well, that could have gone better." He rubbed the back of his neck while M'rissi pouted.
"I told you they'd say no," Blake told Brynjolf, who sighed and looked down.
"Yeah, I know. Still, was worth a try." He straightened himself out. The group then moved towards the back entrance of the Cistern. "Guess we're on our own. This is going to be a lot harder with just four people. Needed at least one more to make sure everything went off without a hitch."
"It would," Blake conceded as she pulled on the lever, revealing the trap door underneath an empty grave in Riften's graveyard. The four walked out of the hidden stairwell and out into the cold night air. "But what are the odds that a fifth person with the right kind of skills would just appear out of-"
"YOU!" a male voice shouted across the graveyard, catching everyone off guard as they spun around towards it. At the opposite end of the graveyard, near an iron gate, they saw a male Argonian with contrasting pale white and dark black scales with blue markings and bright blue eyes boring right into Blake's.
"Finally, I found you!" The Argonian marched towards her. Under the moonlight, they could see he was wearing a set of leather armor and a steel axe strapped to his waist. He oddly had a fancy hat atop his head, which looked quite out of place against his disheveled armor. "I can't believe it took me so long! Do you know how many Holds I've searched! All of them!"
"Uh, lass who is this?" Brynjolf was thoroughly confused as the Argonian continued to approach.
"I…have no idea," Blake admitted. She only knew so many Argonians, and this wasn't one of them. For his part, the Argonian looked disappointed at the revelation.
"Really?! After everything we went through? It wasn't that long ago! And you were some of the first land-striders to pronounce my name correctly, too! You even put it on that grave marker you made for me. Oh, right, you must have thought I was dead! Surprise, Deakutuactyl is alive and well."
"Grave marker?" Blake asked, mostly to herself as the others all turned towards her.
"Blake, the odd Argonian seems to know you. You should at least hear him out," Inigo told her.
"It looks like you hurt his feelings, too," M'rissi said innocently. Blake sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Okay, maybe I need a refresher. Where did we meet?
"Right outside of Rorickstead! Me, you, your friends, your blonde friend's orc lover, and Sam! By the Hist, it was Sam that told me where you were!"
"What do you..." Blake paused and her eyes went wide then narrowed. "Sam..." Blake muttered in realization. A few scattered memories came flooding back into her head, most of them with Deakutuactyl at the forefront and Yang and the orc being way too clingy in the background.
"Never...again..." Blake shivered, and Inigo patted her shoulder.
"Oh, so now you remember! You and your friends dared me to go into that bandit camp. Well I did and brought back his stupid hat like you said, so give me the ten thousand gold you promised!"
"Um, okay, just a moment. We bet ten thousand gold…for you to get a hat?" Blake looked bewildered then slightly impressed. "And you got it while drunk?"
"Mostly White made the bet, but you all agreed to it. I didn't mean for it to take so long, butapparently the leader went mad -both sorts of mad- when his hat went missing. His mother made it for him, apparently. I had to hide in some collapsed debris while he and some other bandit got into an argument that led to a civil war."
"Where is it?! I know you took it, you dastardly son of a crab!"
"I didn't steal your Arkay-damned hat, you frothing skeever!"
"I know it was you! You've been thinking of replacing me for a while now! I can see it in your eyes, you troll spawn!"
"At this point, it'll be in our own best interest to take you down! You've clearly gone mad! We can't have a mad leader!"
"If you think taking me down will be that easy, then you've got another thing coming, boy!"
"What are you going to do, huh? Stab me?"
"He really did stab him in the end."
"Huh?" Blake went.
"What?" he shot back, seemingly confused.
"You got this faraway look in your eyes," Inigo explained, "and then looked really deep in thought. Then, you just randomly said something about someone being stabbed."
"Oh, sorry. I get lost in thought sometimes. Where were we?"
"Blake owes you much gold and some bandits had a civil war," M'rissi reminded him.
"Ah, yes. Well, they all died killing each other, so I got out okay, but when I did none of you were there. Just a little sign with my name and an epitaph on it. It was touching, but I nearly died for this hat, so I want my money." Curious, Blake took out her scroll and brought up the folder holding the pictures from 'that night'. Sure enough, Deakutuactyl was in several of them. At least now the five pictures of them crying over a poorly-made sign made sense.
"I...see," Blake murmured as she put the scroll away. Deakutuactyl continued to stare into her, and his foot began to tap the ground.
"Well? I'm waiting." Blake began to nervously laugh.
"Here's the thing... I don't...have ten thousand gold on me..."
"What!?"
"But!" An idea suddenly sprang into Blake's mind, and she pounced on it. "We are about to get a very large sum of money."
"Indeed, we are," Brynjolf continued, immediately seeing where Blake was going. "You see, my scaly friend, the four of us are in a bit of a bind with Maven Black-Briar. She's having us get a hundred thousand septims all at once or she'll pull her support of our...organization. We're about to get that gold and more. Help us, and you get a cut."
Deakutuactyl stared at the Nord for a moment. "I'm listening."
"Excellent," Brynjolf smiled. "Are you aware of the dragon on Bonestrewn Crest?"
"Go by Falkreath, up past Ilinalta, by the Hjaal, past the Karth, up to Solitude," Ruby sing-songed as she looked at the map in her hands. A bard in Sungard had suggested trying to sing the directions while traveling, and so far it had served Ruby well, though Lydia was still technically in charge of navigation. Weiss had just had a talk with Yang over their scrolls about finding a maid for Proudspire Manor. It was sort of funny to Ruby how, along with coins, potions, and weapons, Yang had apparently 'looted' the bad guys' maid, too. Weiss had been abashed, and started up about how people weren't belongings before Yang calmed her down and told her it was just a joke. Even Lydia got it. She didn't laugh, but she definitely got it.
As the group approached Falkreath, Ruby noticed that there were a lot of Imperial soldiers just outside the walls of the city. They were working on setting up barriers, alongside priests who were all either chanting, placing charms, or carving symbols in certain places. She wondered what they were doing, but then Weiss began to bristle up, and Ruby realized that this was all being done to defend against the vampires. It was likely having some effect on her partner.
"Hey, it's okay," Ruby said to her as they pulled to a stop, Weiss' new mount letting out a few worried snorts. "We'll just camp outside the city. Looks like it might be crowded right now, anyways."
"I…think you might be right." As the girls led their horses and boar away from the city gate, Ruby caught sight of a familiar pair of horns. She smiled when she saw Neriro among a group of legionnaires, but then her interest was caught by a few beings near him. Three of them were small, even smaller than Bosmer, and had green-grey skin. Two of them were far larger, with bulky bodies, tree-trunk legs, and maybe a head taller than most orcs, but with similar heads and facial features as the smaller people. One of the big ones was a little thinner and shorter than the other though, and had long, braided red hair. All of them were well-dressed, save one of the smaller ones who wore plain clothes.
"Hey Weiss, I think those are goblins and ogres," Ruby pointed out as they got closer.
"Mulukrin and Mulukrog," Weiss corrected. She then hummed to herself as she looked upon them. "Yes, they definitely match the descriptions. And that being there-"
"That's Neriro! Come on, I'll introduce you!" Ruby dismounted and took Weiss along with her. Lydia looked nervously at Toggle, who oinked at her questioningly before she led him and the horses to the stables.
The two Huntresses went over to the group, Weiss feeling as though she was being mentally dragged along despite Ruby not grabbing her at any point. The goblins and ogres were all speaking to a Nord man with close cut hair and decked in an officer's armor. Seeing the symbol on his chest, Ruby immediately deduced that he was a legate, likely making him in charge of all of Falkreath's forces.
"We understand there's an issue," a goblin dressed in a silk shirt, cotton breeches, and a red hat said, "but we've already come all this way. We planned on being here all winter and beyond."
"Yes, but the situation is a lot worse than what you have heard," the legate responded. "It's not just sporadic dragon attacks anymore. They're getting worse all the time, and now vampires are attacking en masse. A group of them burned down the Hall of the Vigilants not even a week ago. I'm sorry, but I can't spare the men to escort you to Whiterun, let alone all the way up to Solitude."
"Surely you can spare just a few men?" the red-haired ogre asked in a pleading tone, but the legate shook his head. She then sighed and looked to the goblin. "Guardian's mercy, how are we supposed to get to Solitude now?"
"Well, I'm going that way," Ruby spoke up, drawing everyone's attention. For a second, several soldiers made to intercept her, but Neriro held up a hand.
"Wait a moment. Legate Skulnar, permission to speak freely."
"Granted, Quartermaster. What's going on with this girl?" Legate Skulnar pointed to Ruby, who hesitantly waved.
"...Hi," she awkwardly got out, causing Weiss to slap her face and sigh.
"That, sir, is Ruby Rose, Thane of Solitude and Dragonborn."
"Wait, the Ruby Rose?" Skulnar looked over to her and rubbed his chin. "I see. Well then. My lady, if you are willing to help the Pigmole Field Research Team, be my guest. I can't send men so it's either you, mercenaries, or they go alone."
"Well, I for one certainly will welcome her presence over that of any mercenary, so consider your offer graciously accepted." The head goblin smiled and bowed, as did the other goblins and ogres.
"Thank you. We'll be happy to escort them," Ruby said to both the legate and the researchers. The legate saluted in response then left to handle the rest of the preparations, leaving Ruby and Neriro behind with the goblin-ken. The Dragonborn turned back to the researchers and clasped her hands together. "Hi, everyone. I'm Ruby. This is my best friend, Weiss. We're headed up to Haafingar anyways, so it shouldn't be any trouble."
"A pleasure to meet you," the lead goblin greeted. "I'm Professor Coiroy Concifus. Here are my colleagues Sherman Wreckhaus," he indicated the ogre to his right, "and Jo'puut Baatesh." Ruby looked down where he was gesturing and noticed a cat that she had missed before, only dressed in full clothing. She almost squealed when she realized he was an Alfiq Khajiit and not a housecat, but held it in.
"Nice to meet you all." Ruby smiled, as did the researchers.
"Same," the Alfiq said with a glow of his collar.
"Aye, goot to meet you," Sherman greeted in a heavy accent, catching Ruby slightly off guard. "We'll dae our bes' ta nau be a hassle."
"And here are a number of our students," Coiroy gestured over to the other goblins, "as well as Sherman's wife."
"Name's Fiori, darling," the ogre woman replied, definitely more feminine that Sherman.
"Hi."
"I know the rest of you probably haven't noticed," the plain dressed goblin began, "but she's a little small for a human."
"She's confirmed to have killed several dragons in the past couple of months," Neriro told him. "One of which I was witness to." The goblin nodded at that while Ruby bashfully kicked some dirt back.
"Yeah, but you helped big time with that one," Ruby told the Minotaur, who chuckled.
"Maybe, but, looking back on it, you pretty much had him handled. I just made things easier."
"By caving in a dragon's skull."
"And yet, I'm sure you would have killed it, anyway."
"Might I ask what a team of researchers from Pigmole are doing here?" Weiss questioned the leader.
"We've heard rumors that Giants in Skyrim have started mining and forging iron," Coiroy explained. "It's all crude at the moment, but it was the last push we needed to secure the funding to finally get up here and see if Giants can be brought into the fold of civilization. Continuing the Guardian's Mission, as it would be." Ruby nervously began to twirl a toe into the ground at that. "We're going to try and establish dialogue and then go from there, all while studying their culture and heritage to better understand them."
"I…actually…have talked to some Giants…before," Ruby got out. "A lot of them…know me."
"Really?" Sherman asked, an excited chortle rising up from him. "Well dat makes the whole thin' 'bout yay better than we were thinkin' it'd be. How'd you learned ta be speakin' wit' them?"
"Uh, I bought a few amulets from a tradeswoman in Whiterun." Ruby pulled out one of her Giantspeech amulets and handed it over to Coiroy, who began looking it over. "She never told me where she got them from, but they work perfectly."
"Hm, this is very similar to the Silent Ta'agra enchantment," he mused. "Might actually be an alteration based on it. I think we're looking at Kay's work here."
"Once again, eh?"
"Looks like we're in luck!" Fiori announced happily. "Okay, let's all get our things together. We've got an escort, a guide, and a translator all in one."
"Right," Coiroy agreed while passing the amulet back to Ruby. "This is the best news we've had since getting out of the Pale Pass. Come along, gents, let's get ready for the task of a lifetime!"
As the goblins and ogres cheered and went towards a set of carts and carriages, Neriro smirked in Ruby's direction while the girl looked at the amulet in her hand.
"Um, should I mention the part where I showed the Giants how to work iron?" she nervously asked as the Pigmole researchers and students began to check their gear.
"They'll figure it out on their own, I'm sure," the Minotaur said as he began to walk away with the dispersing group of soldiers. "By the way, how's the new blade?"
Ruby smiled. "It's great! The weight's barely any different than before, and I've sliced through non-butter things like…butter!"
"An actual dragon hoard," the Argonian mused as they hid behind some large rocks. They could hear Vulgahrotru's breath from above. The lack of gold on their persons seemed to be keeping them out of his sights, but they didn't know how long that would last. "Something talked about in only the most fantastical tales. Never thought I'd… Wait, remind me. Are there ebons?"
"No, the dragon only takes gold," Blake answered. "Trust me."
"Ah, xuth! I can't just tote around ten thousand septims! That's not practical!"
"If you don't mind keeping your voice down?" Brynjolf requested.
"Sorry, I'm just so excited to finally get what I'm owed."
"Don't worry, I understand. Wait here, I'm going to scout ahead." Silently, Blake crouched and moved forward through the underbrush, her boots masking her footsteps as she gently maneuvered her way towards the crest. Once she got close enough, she stopped.
Blake peeked through the underbrush at the massive hoard of gold. The amount in front of her was simply mind-boggling. A childish part of her thought about diving into it and swimming around, but she was reminded of why that was a bad idea by her knowledge of physics and the dragon sleeping soundly atop the pile. There were probably a million reasons the bronze dragon with stripes and a belly of grey decided to make his bed out of gold coins, along with two million reasons why this was a stupid idea, but there was also ten million coins to steal. The coins quickly won out.
With the mark scouted, Blake made her way back down the hill where the other four were waiting. M'rissi's tail swished anxiously while Inigo polished his sword and Brynjolf flipped a diem. Deakutuactyl remained silent as he seemingly tried to stare through the hillside between him and the literal mountain of gold above.
"Well?" the Nord asked, continuing to flip his coin.
"It's up there all right, but so is the dragon. About how long until Vasha's distraction comes up?"
"Shouldn't be long now." The man pocketed his coin and stood straight. "Phew, I'm feeling nervous! Glad I took care of business earlier."
"Barrels ready?"
"All ready to roll," Inigo announced, patting one of the barrels on the side.
"Each of those should hold about thirty thousand coins filled up, give or take," Brynjolf explained.
"And we have five?"
"That should give us a hundred-and-fifty thousand. A hundred for the Guild, fifty to split among the five of us." M'rissi looked at Brynjolf with naked greed and he threw up his hands. "Hey, if I could pack all ten million coins, I'd do so in a heartbeat. Buy me a small island somewhere. I wouldn't do much with it, but then I could brag about having a whole island to myself."
"There are really nice islands in Iliac Bay, I hear," Inigo suggested.
"That would be the dream." Brynjolf sighed.
"When can we go in again?" the Argonian asked, slightly impatient.
"As soon as-" Blake paused as the air around them made a thump. They all looked up, and saw Vulgahrotru take off, heading towards the west where Vasha's man gave them a signal by throwing a lightning bolt into the sky.
"Right now! Let's go! We have no idea how much time we have!"
"Working the docks has prepared me for this moment!" the Argonian cheered as he grabbed one of the empty barrels and charged up the hill. Each of them were placed down and Blake and Inigo got to work filling one with septims, doing their best to push away anything that wasn't a coin as they did so. Brynjolf opened another and gestured towards the newcomer.
"Help me with this one, lad."
"Call me Deaku, if you don't mind," he responded before he began shoveling handfuls of septims into the barrel.
"M'rissi, the circlet!" Blake called over to her friend.
"She's on it!" M'rissi started following her Clairvoyance spell, stopping where it dipped into the pile of gold near the back. She started digging down, but also looked up to see a wall with ancient writing on it. "Blake, there is one of the dragon walls here!"
"I'll get it in a moment. Let's get to where we're not in a rush first."
It took several minutes to fill the first two. Deaku and Inigo both pushed the filled barrels to the edge and began to slowly roll them down to the cart, sliding down while holding the barrels behind them. Blake looked over at the wall and decided to take a quick picture of it before going back and helping Brynjolf fill another barrel. When it was nearly full, Deaku and Inigo had come back up and began filling the fourth.
"She found it!" M'rissi announced as she ran over to Blake, holding a circlet in her hands. The object was triple banded, and had a small, slightly cracked ruby shaped like a star at its front, the symbols representing the Eight Divines etched into the gold band all around it.
"Yeah, this is it." Blake put the circlet in her pack and nodded at M'rissi. "I'm going to take this barrel down. Help Brynjolf fill up the last."
"Okay!" She saluted then ran over to Brynjolf. Together, the two of them quickly filled the massive barrel to the brim. Once no more could be placed inside, Brynjolf quickly hammered down the lid, making sure it was secure before rolling it over to the side.
"You certain you've got this, lass?" he asked in concern.
"I'm way stronger than I look," she said with a confident smirk before pulling the barrel over the edge and then pushing up against it as it tried to roll down. Her feet slid side to side and downwards in a slow and controlled manner as her hands slowly moved, bringing to barrel from the top of the hill to the bottom. When she finally made it, she rolled the barrel up the ramp onto the cart then propped it up. She ran up to help fill up the last one while Deaku brought down the fourth. After tossing handfuls of coins into the last barrel, Brynjolf hammered it closed and then they rolled it down as well. With the hardest part of the task finished, the five began to laugh as they tied ropes all around the barrels to secure them to the cart. Brynjolf hopped into the driver space and whipped the horses forward. Everyone was still laughing even as they rode away from the hill, only stopping after about a minute.
"Okay," Blake got out, her cheeks beginning to feel sore from the smile she was wearing. "Do the signal."
M'rissi aimed a lightning bolt up at the sky, making sure it went towards a cloud. With the signal for Vasha's man to no longer press his distraction, everyone felt more secure that they were now getting off scot-free. As they rode along, they heard a dragon's roar, and wondered for a moment whether or not it was Vulgahrotru. After a moment, the sound of wingbeats could be heard, and the group looked back to see the dragon coming directly at them, his maw warped in fury. All happiness drained from the group and Blake looked up at Brynjolf.
"Uh oh…"
"We may have called it a hair too soon," Brynjolf plainly stated as he looked back a moment. Beads of sweat were beginning to grow on his brow.
"Go! Faster!" the Faunus ordered in a panic. The Nord whipped the reins and the horses began picking up speed. However, the dragon was far faster and caught up to them within seconds, angrily roaring as he closed the distance. The three cat people prepared their bows as he glared down venomously at them.
"Thieves! Reprobates! You will die if my gold is unreleased!"
"I am beginning to regret this route of action!" Inigo yelled.
"You are?! I don't even have a bow!" Deaku yelled, continuing to hold onto the barrels, ensuring that they weren't going to fly out of the carriage.
"Aim for his wings!" Blake yelled. Arrows were loosed upon the dragon, mostly going for his shoulders. The steel-tipped arrows of Blake and M'rissi barely pierced his scales, if that much, but the ebony arrows from Inigo's quiver sank in deep. One hit directly on Vulgahrotru's left shoulder, and the dragon roared in pain before taking a deep breath. A wide cone of frost leapt from his mouth, and all of the thieves had to duck down as it blew against them. Blake stood back up shivering, Inigo and M'rissi right after her. Deaku remained on the floor in the fetal position, shaking like a leaf in the wind. Brynjolf, amazingly, looked barely affected. Blake cursed his Nord hardiness.
"Hold on! We're going through trees!" the Nord warned them before turning the horses in the direction of a grove. The dragon had to go higher, but could still see them through the treetops. He took in another breath, and this time Shouted flames upon them. M'rissi raised up her hands, calling up a ward to block the fire. As fiery breath clashed with the magical shield, the Khajiit woman fell to one knee from the strain. Cracks began to show, but M'rissi held on until it ended. Blake looked at her worryingly, but M'rissi waved her off before raising up her bow and firing. The other two did so as well, their arrows hitting with puffs of fire or sinking in more deeply.
"He's not giving up!" Blake realized. She looked forward and saw that they were approaching where the grove ended and began formulating a plan. "I have an idea! Brynjolf, I'm about to run ahead! Try to follow my trail!"
"What? Lass, are you daft?!" Brynjolf shouted and reached back for her, only for Blake to turn away.
"Trust me!" Blake hopped onto the side of the cart then jumped off, hitting the ground running. She picked up speed quickly, and was soon going past the horse-pulled cart, leaning forward with her arms held straight behind her, one hand casting a green spell. Brynjolf blinked in amazement for a moment, but kept his steeds on track.
"Did s-s-s-she just leave us?" Deaku asked as he began pulling himself back up. "That makes two now!"
"Do not worry, my friend," Inigo reassured him as he held his bow at the ready, waiting for the treetops to clear. "I trust her to really have a plan in store."
"She trusts her with her life!" M'rissi agreed.
A few moments later, the cart burst out from the tree line. Brynjolf looked around for a sign of Blake, seeing her coming back towards them and waving her arms.
"Give me the reins!" she yelled, going straight into their path, even as Vulgahrotru closed in with the ground and the cart. Brynjolf said a silent prayer and scooted himself over. Just as the horses were almost about to run her over, Blake leaped up into the air, twisted as she did, so that she came back down and landed right in the seat. She quickly took the reins from Brynjolf as he stared at her in surprise and steered the horses a little. Vulgahrotru was releasing another fiery breath upon them, but this time Deaku added in to the defense, though not with nearly as much power as M'rissi could. Blake gritted her teeth- and urged the horses to go faster, right towards the midpoint of two foothills. As the dragon gained on them, opening his mouth to grab the cart, Brynjolf felt them go by something, and less than a second later, Vulgahrotru came to an abrupt halt. A pair of trees appeared, having been magically camouflaged, and the other four could see that the dragon had wedged himself into them. He struggled a moment, before roaring in frustration, then a few more trees appeared, only these were falling onto the trapped dragon, having had chunks cut from them before Blake used the Chameleon spell on them.
"RAAAGH!" Vulgahrotru yelled in sheer rage. He attempted to Shout more flames at their retreating cart, but they were already out of range. He continued to roar as they sped off, the sound shaking the ground beneath them until they finally ceased.
"I...I think we got away..." Deaku muttered as he looked back towards the entrapped dragon.
"We just got a hundred and fifty thousand septims in one sitting...by robbing a dragon," Brynjolf breathed out. A pregnant pause followed, and then Brynjolf began to laugh, joined in by the others soon after.
Blake handed him the reins and went to the back of the cart before plopping onto the floor. She let out a sigh and smiled, her rapidly beating heart calming down. As the others continued to laugh uproariously, still lying on her back, she joined them.