Nissa stretched as she awoke. After the night she'd just enjoyed with her wife she could tell that she was going to be stiff that day, she smiled at the irony of the term "stiff" and walked over to the wash basin. After pouring the water she heated it with a spell then poured in some cleaning salts she'd bought in the Summerset Isles and replicated with a spell.

As she cleaned herself, she heard Katrea stir in bed then sit up and look at her, "You need to go a little easier on me dearest," she settled back into the bed, "Or else you might break me," she finished on a yawn.

"You're the one who keeps asking for me to super charge the spell," Nissa said with a smile, "By the way, have you seen the large house just outside the wall but down the road a way?"

"I have. I think it's called Skyfall Estate*. Why?"

"Is it empty?"

"Yes, I asked about it and was told the Yarl was going to make it a barracks or a personal home, but the funding ran out."

"Hmm, I'll have to ask him about it. It looks like it'd be a nice home." Nissa said as she finished washing herself. She cleared the basin with magic and began to put her clothes on, deciding to wear those instead of armor.

When she was done, she kissed Katrea then headed out to find Serana and food before talking to the Yarl. She found Serana purchasing a full set of a multi piece armor set that was a dark red color* as well as a few pieces of glass and metal. When she had everything, she turned and found Nissa standing there she smiled before grabbing her new gear and walking out.

"How did you pay for all that?"

"I couldn't sleep so I was wandering around outside the wall and cleared out a bandit hive. I sold the man in there all the armor and weapons I took from them." Serana replied as she entered Nissa's house to put the armor on. Some of it made Serana think it was meant to be for a man's viewing pleasure, but when it was all on it did a good job of covering her but not restricting her movement.

As she was about to leave Katrea motioned her over to her and whispered, "Keep her safe, but feel free to try and get her to stay out there for a while. I'm needing a break."

Serana blushed before asking, "Need help in the bedroom?" with a nervous smile.

"I got it covered but just need a break."

"Hm, well just so you know, I'm getting a bruise on my back."

That caused Katrea to pause before she laughed which caused Serana to smile, "I take it you can't ride a horse on your own?"

"Nope, they're all too big for me, and I'm not able to get relief like you can. Although and don't take offence to this, but I..."

Katrea gave her a 'say no more' gesture and looked at the door before she motioned Serana to follow her. They headed down to the basement where she moved a stone in the wall and pulled out an object wrapped in silk, "I have a bag upstairs with a blue square. There's a secret pocket on it. Touch the square while opening it and anything put inside will be hidden using magic." She said as she handed over the hefty object.

Serana unwrapped it before gasping then recovering it.

"When you're alone, in a ruin, and just escaped something big you get horny." Katrea said with a shrug.

Serana just shook her head mumbled, "Perverts, the both of you," before going to find the bag.

"Thought you might have fallen asleep in there," Nissa said when Serana exited the house. She'd gone and grabbed a bag of dried meat and was currently gnawing on a large piece.

"This armor took a few minutes to put on." Serana said shouldering, Nissa noticed, a new bag.

"Hm, well I take it you ate while clearing out the bandits?" Nissa asked in a low voice.

"Yes." Was all Serana said, hoping to avoid having to lie about what all was in the cave.

Nissa shrugged and they headed to the palace. A stuck-up looking man tried to flaunt that he constantly visited the 'cloud district' and they didn't but got a fist in the jaw. As they passed a statue of Talos Nissa sighed regretfully before impaling the man preaching with an ice spear. The guards tried to arrest her, but she flashed her seal of the Thalmor and told them to have the priests preach or worship more privately.

They begrudgingly had to let her go though one ran off to tell the Yarl who didn't look happy a minute later when she approached him. "Tell me why you went and killed a man when he was bothering no-one."

"As an agent of the Thalmor I have to uphold their laws, even if they conflict with what I feel should be ok. Worship of Talos is forbidden, and like it or not I have to enforce it. Resident of your hold or not. It's my duty."

"*Sigh* I understand. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Yes, I was hoping to purchase Skyhold Manor."

"Your intentions for it?"

"Well primarily I was hoping to have a big family and need a house big enough for the job."

"Well you won't find any better of a home. When I was having it built I had the mages collage create magical pipes that heat water from a natural spring below the manor for taking hot baths or showers, plenty of space for placing armor mannequins, room enough to house a small garrison, and areas for forging and crafting. There's even a pool feed by a hot spring in the basement."

"Sounds lovely, I'm assuming it'll have a very high price tag."

"Indeed, I'd half wanted to make it where I'd retire after passing the throne to my son, but due to the war I had to put the funds towards fortifying the city. Thus, it's not furnished, and will lower the price."

"Well then I'll just have to fund that when I get it. How much?"

"Fifteen thousand."

Nissa thought of the amount of requestable funds she had access to for armor, equipment, and housing. She had the skill to make her own armor, weapons, and clothing, plus the skill to enchant them and brew potions so her possible funds had gone mostly unused for some time except for her buying the breeze house and furnishing it for Katrea. She'd purchased Honeyside Manor with funds gained from her adventuring. She was just a little over twenty thousand, so she was ok there, so she decided to bargain a little.

"Would you take fourteen then an extra six to use your contacts to finish the furnishing?"

"It'll take more than six, and it took the fifteen to get it to where it is now."

Nissa sighed then took out a leather booklet from her pack and wrote slip of credit then handed it to the Yarl, "Take this to the Thalmor embassy and they'll pay you. Start the furnishing of the upper house then move on to the basement."

The Yarl took the slip and handed it to his steward who said, "I'll see it done."

While this was going on Serana had gone off to investigate an odd feeling she was getting from the Yarls' son. Talking to him for the few minutes Nissa talked to the Yarl told her all she needed to know why the boy was acting like a little piece of shit. Luckily a little mind magic fixed him and she quickly slid a note to a guard to slip to the Yarl explaining he needed to put the Ebony Blade in a more secure and out of the way location with more than one door separating it from people.

Preferably to place it deep in a mine, seal in behind several large doors, collapse the tunnels, then melt the keys down.

The daughter also needed some mental tweaking but that took less time than her brother. Then she went exploring.

Nobody stopped her due to her traveling with the dragonborn, so she was able to enter the Yarls bedroom where she found an odd crystal. Looking around and seeing nobody she quickly swiped it and put it in the secret pocket with Katreas' gift.

After that they began to head to the gates when a priest asked them to clear out some undead from the towns tomb. They did so and while they did Serana found another of the gems. She decided that when she got the chance, she'd use a magic circle to find any more, but for now she put it away and followed Nissa out.

After that they headed north-west to Solitude to talk to the queen about several reports of bandit activity, animal activity, a few reports of dragons, strange magical sightings, and even a report of a headless ghost rider that a witness believes to be the ghost of Ragnar the Red.

As they headed through the city, they passed a group of Thalmor who talked to Nissa for a while about how they'd gotten permission to use a house that was for sale as a place to rest.

"While we were going through it, I found this," One of them said, holding up another of the strange gems. Serana walked up to him and 'convinced' him to hand it over before putting it in her bag.

"Remind me to buy the items needed for a locating ritual. This is the third one I've seen so I might try to find them all and then see if we can't do something with them." She said to Nissa when the agents were out of ear shot.

"Alright."

Over the next week and after the ritual they gathered the gems but were told by one of Brynjolf's associates that for them to be of any value they needed the crown they'd been pried from. It was a simple matter to acquire the frame and then reset the gems, and afterwards they were told of the effects it would have on their luck at finding valuables in places they may otherwise not find them.

During this time Serana showed some of her other skills by making a sight that she then attached to Nissa's bow to make it easier to hit targets at greater distances. It wasn't much, mostly just a piece of glass with a crosshair on it for quick shots, as well as another that had a second glass with more markings on it behind the first for crouched shots where the shooter had the time to properly aim.

Nissa at first was dubious about it but after 'sniping' a few mages she warmed up to the little attachment.

After their 'find the jewels' quest they started running errands for the dawn guard that had them going through several ruins, during which they did begin to find two to three jewels in just about every pot, urn, and old chest they looked in. After a week they had so many jewels that they paid off the cost of furnishing Skyfall manor, bought a farm nearby meant to supply the mead vats in its basement called Heljarchen Farm, bought plots of land in three of the nine holds for building houses on, a house in the other six holds plus furnishings, and still they had gems to spare.

Then Serana had a crazy idea. They were currently at Skyfall with Nissa directing a group of men where she wanted different crafting stations in the basement when Serana said she needed a list of materials that made the men pause. Some of the items were obscure but easy enough to find with the right contacts… which they had, but the design of the apparatus she was going to build made them scratch their heads.

She explained it was for adjusting the hardness/denseness/toughness of a material. She would have gone into the magical/scientific theory of it, but the men were already blank staring at her, so she didn't. She just told them to gather the materials. It took a few days but once they arrived with them, she got to work. It was fairly simple to build the base but more complex to make the engravings she needed for the enchantments she'd need it to have for the job the device would perform.

Once her prototype was complete, she did a small-scale test with some garnets. At first it looked like nothing was happening, then the stones began to look like they were jiggling, a few minutes more and they'd melted. Serana opened the chamber, pulled out the pan they were in and poured the garnet fluid into a mold with a handle she'd had Nissa make.

They waited an hour for the fluid to cool/harden and then Serana tentatively removed the now complete dagger from the mold. It held up so she did a few test swings. When she was happy with the weight and balance came the true test, she put it on an anvil and had Nissa strike it with a Warhammer. It stayed in one piece.

"Amazing!" Nissa said.

"Now all I have to do go full scale," Serana said, slipping the dagger into a sheath she'd made.

"But maybe later, we have several things we need to do. First is to investigate a rumor of hag ravens near dragon bridge."

Serana paused as she had been reaching for some sapphires. Luckily Nissa was facing away from her so she didn't notice. Serana thought about the potions the ravens were saving for her, then thought of Nissa. They'd had fun hunting down the gems then building the gem forge.

'Can I really betray her like this?'