Chapter 6: First Assignment
Sugar-Lips Habasi had personally selected the people to accompany her in this job. First was Phane Rielle, the old Breton Wet Ear that usually worked behind the bar serving drinks. His official capacity in the Thieves Guild was to be a middle man to pay so that existing bounties of other members may be erased. Next was Sottilde, the tall red haired Nord woman that greeted Zayden when he first entered the South Wall. These two would act as defacto negotiators for their task.
Next was Tappius Esdrecus. He was a tanned, shaven head Imperial that frequented the cantina. He was strong and was usually seen with a sword and shield. He was not a member of the Thieves Guild but for a price he was willing to act as muscle with the fifth and final member, Zayden.
The job was simple enough: collect dues. North of Balmora, past Cladera, past Buckmoth Legion Fort, and into the gray Ashlands was a major city named Ald'Ruhn. A chapter of the Thieves Guild operated within the city in an inn called "The Rat In the Pot." Over the past few months the region's ash storms have ramped up, both in intensity and frequency. While it is normal to have a season of stronger winds during the year, this one came too early for the locals' liking.
This had caused some locals to worry, some of them to an extreme. As a result, there had been a rise in unsanctioned criminal activity. There also had been a growing number of businesses becoming late in payments of protection money. Couple all this with a handful of thieves unwilling to leave their homes due to superstition and the guild bureau in Ald'Ruhn was left with no choice but to call for outside help.
Sugar-Lips received correspondence from Ald'Ruhn the day Zayden was promoted to blackcap. She offered, as a show of good faith and honor among thieves, to come to Ald'Ruhn personally and help free of charge. It was just her luck that Zayden became blackcap when he did for she saw this, a simple city shakedown, as a perfect opportunity to put his skills to the test.
In the three days leading up to their departure from Balmora, Zeela gave Zayden one final refresher of everything she had taught him. They trained and sparred just as they had done and she was pleased to see that everything had stuck. The only thing she was worried about going forward was the possibility of him taking a life in his line of work as a racketeer. The Thieves guild was no assassin group, and though it is rare for a thief to kill on the job, it was not unheard of. And throughout her training with Zayden, not once was the topic of killing ever brought up. She reassured herself that his skills were good enough for him to avoid killing, but the possibility still lingered.
Sugar-Lips assembled her party early in the morning, had everyone eat a quick breakfast, and pack some food away for the journey north. Even by silt strider, following the most direct path along main roads, it would take nearly all the daylight they had to reach their destination. Balmora was just waking up and shops were beginning to open their doors as the party left the South Wall. Zeela made it a point to walk Zayden to the strider platform. She was uncharacteristically overbearing and protective of her student that morning and Zayden was quick to notice.
"Please, Zeela, enough," Zayden pleaded as he followed the group to the southern end of Balmora. "It's a simple enough job. Sugar-Lips assures me that trouble on these kind of jobs is rare. Honestly, I do not understand your behavior right now."
"You're my student," she quickly answered. "I've put a lot of time and effort into you. I have a vested interest in seeing you perform well. It reflects well upon me, in the end." She spoke with the same confident tone as always but this morning something else tinged her words. Uneasiness? Worry?
"You have taught me well," Zayden reassured. "I'll come back without a scratch, your reputation similarly untarnished."
"It's not just about me, Zayden. I wanted to make sure that you…" She paused to search for the right words. She feared saying too much or being too direct would plant seeds of doubt in Zayden. "Just keep your wits about you. Prepare yourself for the unexpected-"
Sugar-Lips suddenly halted in place and spun around. "Zeela!" she called out, causing everyone to jump a little. "You are not part of mission. You are in charge of South Wall while we are away. Go back!"
"Y-Yes, ma'am," Zeela relented, giving Zayden one last glance before turning and heading back east.
Sugar-Lips groaned in annoyance once she was out of earshot. "Zeela never act in this way before," she commented aloud. "Never act so foolishly." She then turned her gaze to Zayden and added "Khajiit blames you, Imperial," before pivoting back around and continuing forward, leaving everyone else to catch up.
"Me?" Zayden asked. "What have I done?"
His question was met by Sottilde. "Stop playing dumb," she said. "You know Zeela has never taken up an apprentice before you." Zayden hadn't known this. "You clearly mean something special to her," she added with a hint of… jealousy?
"Of course I do. You heard it from her lips just now. I am a 'valuable asset,'" he mocked. "One she doesn't want to lose her investment on. I have a debt to pay, after all."
This was met by a swift yet friendly punch to the shoulder by Tappius. "I'm starting to think you are as stupid as you act," he joked. "Think about it for more than two seconds, won't you? Why would a woman like Zeela waste more than a passing glance on some from-nothing slub like you unless…" He left the end of that sentence open for Zayden to finish. He gave back only a blank stare.
"By the gods!" Tappius groaned. "Because she sees something special in you, and not just profit. Apparently everyone but you recognizes this. Zeela could have left you in the streets, from what I've heard. Sugar-Lips could have assigned you to any one of the others to train you in the basics. But she chose Zeela and Zeela chose you. Think about that, Imperial, and if you have any sense left in you you will take advantage of your good fortune."
A spattering of amused groans came from the women and a chuckle from the Breton Phane. Though they all knew and tacitly agreed with what Tappius was bluntly getting at they tried not to acknowledge it. The only one not fully grasping the implications was Zayden himself. It was hard for him to imagine Zeela seeing him as anything more than a means to an end. That was how she had always treated him. Was there something he was not noticing all this time?
A silt strider stood waiting at the platform for the group of thieves. It had been in wait for nearly an hour at that point and, much to the chagrin of the other residents of Balmora, was not accepting any other patrons. Sugar-Lips had personally rented out the beast for she and her party alone. Once the group boarded and half payment was made (the other half being promised at the end of the journey,) the beastmaster mustered the strider forward on their day-long voyage.
It started off heading west, making a brief fording of the River Odai before reconnecting to the main road. When the road split the company cut north, following this new winding road for many unhaulted hours. When the sun reached near its zenith the city of Caldera was coming into view, marking a halfway point in the journey.
The city of Caldera, as its name would imply, was situated near the center of a large crater of a long dormant volcano. It was an Imperial mining town constructed near an ebony mine to the west. Nearly all the town's inhabitants were miners and their families. Caldrea also served as a place of rest for travellers going between Balmora and Ald'Ruhn.
The silt strider bent its slender legs down slightly to pass under and through the main gate of the city. A wide main street cut through the center of Caldera making only one gentle bend left before leading to the city's other end. People cleared the street to allow the beast by but otherwise paid it little mind, this being a common enough occurrence.
The strider stopped and bent fully down to the ground to allow the company thirty minutes to get out and stretch, get food or water, or go to the facilities. Sugar-Lips charged Zayden and Tappius to refill water skins and the others to gather food sundries for the remaining half of the voyage. The tasks were done in quick order and everyone was given a chance to visit any public restrooms. The company was back and ready to continue within twenty minutes.
The strider ducked beneath another gate as it left Caldera and continued to follow the road northwest. Beyond this point was a wide valley of the West Gash region. Unlike Balmora, which was bordered to the west by the swamps of the Bitter Coast and a tapering sliver of the volcanic Molag Amur, everything north of Caldera, as far as the horizon, was the rocky scrubland the West Gash was known for. This of course would diminish as the hours past and the borders of the region to the north grew larger in view.
A distinct range of gray-tipped mountains spanned from east to west, forcing the strider to head west and find the pass through the range into the Ashlands to the north. This would come in the late afternoon when the company finally came upon the main pass into the next region. It was a relatively narrow and straight crevasse in the very rock, as if a great axe fell from the sky and cleaved the way.
The strider entered the passage and almost immediately everyone took notice of the warm, dry breeze that blew from ahead, tinged with the scent of ash. As the beast lumbered forward the strength of the wind continued to steadily grow. Near the crevass's midpoint did the winds reach their peak of near constant gale force. Ash and dirt was picked up and swirled upward in tall thin columns that thrashed against the stalagmite stone pillars to the left and right. What trees remained in such a wind tunnel looked malnourished and scant of leaves.
At long last the passage ended and opened up into the Ashlands proper. While the winds certainly subsided the view before the company was of no reward. Gone was the green grass and the leaves of trees. What few trees now remained were charred thin husks stripped of all vegetation. What flora that could exist in this climate were low thick thorny vines and a type of algae that grew in occasional bubbling pools of thick water. All of this was blanketed under a dull, gray overcast sky.
Zayden asked the others of his company if any of them had been to this region before. Sugar-Lips said she had multiple times; always brief stints of no more than a few days, always for business purposes. Tappius similarly had been in the Ashlands only once. He went as far north as Maar Gan working as protection for a trade caravan. For Zayden and all the others, however, it was their first time in the Ashlands.
From this point forward the main roads of travel became less distinct, the avenues often becoming windswept and thinly carpeted by dirt and dust. The beastmaster, however, had taken such paths too many times to keep count. Even if in the dead of night and in the midst of an ash storm, he would boast, he could navigate the region. He followed the faded path with strong certainty for the remaining hours of daylight bringing the company to Ald'Ruhn.
The city's architecture was a stark difference to the mud and clay buildings of Balmora. The majority of structures were made from the hollowed out carapaces of large bug creatures. Many of them, Zayden would later find out, were hundreds of years old, sometimes passed down through generations of individual families. The largest structure of Ald'Ruhn was similarly made thousands of years ago from the shell of an Emperor land-crab dubbed "Skar," a shell that measured an astonishing thousand yards across.
Much like in Balmora, a tall obelisk landing near the southern tip of the city accepted the silt strider at the end of its journey. Sugar-Lips gave the rider his remaining fee as the rest of the company filed off and down the stairwell to the ground below. There they all waited for Sugar-Lips to once more lead the way to their meeting place of the Ald'Ruhn Thieves Guild: the Rat In The Pot inn. As it was, the inn was mere minutes from the strider platform.
The inn opened up into a split-level foyer with a stairwell leading doward into a large open eating area and a stairwell leading up to the bar. The company headed up and Sugar-Lips was met with a few warm greetings from patrons and workers alike. The inn's proprietor, a Breton woman named Lirielle, informed the company that Aengoth was already in the private room and that food and drink would be served shortly.
A third narrow stairwell near the back of the main bar area led down to the inn's cellar. Two of the long walls were lined with large casks. In the center of the room a small table and stools were set up just ahead of the company's arrival. Sitting at the table's far end was the male Bosmer Aengoth "the Jeweler." His nickname, as Zayden would learn later that evening, came from the elf's personal obsession with jewels, both as a thing of study and as prizes to steal. Couple this with his taste in dress, tonight being black tailcoat and pants, and the name only seemed to make sense.
Aengoth greeted the company with similar warmth, inviting everyone to take a seat. Moments after everyone was settled the proprietor descended down the stairs and served everyone a mug of ale and the table a platter of bread, butter, cheese and cold meats. Aengoth let everyone eat and drink for several minutes before getting down to business.
"Thank you all, once again, for coming on such short notice," he began. "Please believe me, I would not have called upon you to come so far if the need were not warranted. Ald'Ruhn had been fairly stable ever since the beginning of my leadership here. Such was the case during the pervious mastermind's tenure. But this trend, looking back with hindsight, had been slowly growing over the years. A few more lax payments than usual, nothing too out of the ordinary. But for the last few months, these storms… It's as if the storm brought a symptom of madness along with its winds."
Sugar-Lips moved her plate and untouched beer aside and leaned in toward Aengoth. "Tell Khajiit exactly what is happening," she asked the elf. "Aengoth had mentioned thieves refusing to work because of 'superstition.'"
"Hmm, yes," he conceited. "I was unsure of something at first and did not include it in my original letter to you. But after some thought I am now certain. I noticed something immediately about the thieves who were refusing to work: all of them are Dunmer. Same thing with the remaining late payments. Nearly all of them are Dunmer. Many will not say exactly what, if anything, is causing them trouble, but some have. They make reference to the rise of Sixth House. And Dagoth Ur."
Such is a tale better told by historians and poets. An artifact of immeasurable power, discovered ages ago in the center of Red Mountain. A dispute of ownership between demigods. A cult long disgraced, a Tribunal's legitimacy in question. The death of an elven hero. Accounts of such things vary depending on the teller's race and faith but a common thread runs through them all: a legend of a great evil figure named Dagoth Ur and his dreaded fabled return to power. Zeela had explained to Zayden, when asked, about her people and their beliefs but not even she believed much of it.
"I have been thus far unable to change much of the Dumners' minds on this. This has gone on too long and I am losing my control of the situation. Your thieves in Balmora are the closest I could call upon. Not to mention your track record, Sugar-Lips, in keeping payments steady is beyond doubt. Whatever you can do to help…"
"Khajiit shall do everything she can," Sugar-Lips reassured Aengoth. "Tell Khajiit what late payments remain." Mugs and plates were pushed aside on the table creating enough room to lay out a map of Ald'Ruhn. Every house, shop, and building was stamped with a shadowmark. In addition there were seven locations marked with a distinct red "X."
"These locations are the remaining holdouts," Aengoth explained. "Three businesses, four households."
Sugar-Lips let everyone get a good look at the map before she stood up from the table and began rolling it back up. "There is room with four bunk beds in lower floor," she stated to everyone. "They will be quarters for time in Ald'Ruhn. Khajiit will go to one now and study map. Rest of you, if you want, eat and drink by complement of Aengoth. Be sober for work tomorrow." The company chuckled at the last order, Sugar-Lips managing a smirk herself.
The Khajiit took the map and her drink and followed Aengoth back to the bar level and down the main stairwell to her quarters. Zayden and the others retreated back to the bar upstairs and ordered another round of ale. Two more rounds would follow before the night's end.
-o0o-
Sugar-Lips had the map and information on the remaining holdouts well memorized by the next morning. The company awoke before first light and ate a filling breakfast with plenty of water. The ashlands were like a desert and retained little heat during the night. If volcanic winds did not blow nights could get very cold. Similarly, on clear days with little to no cloud cover the heat could rise significantly. Today would be such a day, the first break of sun Ald'Ruhn would have had in over a week. Sugar-Lips hoped this would bring the city's people in higher spirits and make her job easier.
Zayden, for the first time after arriving in Vvardenfell, could see his breath in the pre-dawn air. Sugar-Lips, as always, led the group out of the inn and into the mostly empty morning streets. Phane and Sottilde followed the Khajiit closely leaving the two "thugs," Tappius and Zayden, to cover the rear. Tappius had drunk more than the others the previous night and was presently regretting it.
At this early hour most of the city's inhabitants were still asleep and some of the shops were beginning to open their doors. Sugar-Lips counted on this. With any luck she would tackle all the shops first before customers began showing up. Sanctioned by the local guard or not, the presence of Thieves Guild racketeers tended to draw ire. Get a few angry townsfolk together, direct their focus on a single foe, and the possibility of violence breaking out was all too real.
The group reached their first shop just as light was first breaking. It was a pawnbroker shop owned by a Dunmer man, Daynes Redothril. The shop was just located outside the main entrance of Skar, part of the building covered overhead by the wide brim of the shell. Only up close could one truly take in the massive size of this carapice. It made Zayden shiver at the thought of such an enormous creature being alive and just what it would have taken to kill it thousands of years ago.
Sugar-Lips ordered Zayden and Tappius to keep their eyes on the street and stand guard while she, Phane, and Sottilde approached the shop door. The Khajiit gave the door a few forceful knocks and for a minute there came no answer. When she knocked a second time a muffled voice sounded from the other side. "Who's there?" he called out. "The store's not open yet. Come back in two hours!"
"We not here for business," Sugar-Lips replied. "Khajiit come to collect dues."
Another moment of silence passed before the door unlocked and parted slightly, the man poking his head through. "Wait, what dues? Who in Oblivion are you?"
"Khajiit is Sugar-Lips, Mastermind in Balmora. The Jeweler called us to collect. Said you were giving him trouble."
"Trouble? W-Wait, hold on. I can explain this." Daynes opened the door fully and met Sugar-Lips face-to-face outside. "Please believe me, I would have paid my dues last week were it not for a customer of mine. He still owes me a lot of money."
"Khajiit not interested in excuses," she hissed.
"No, it's the truth! Honest! It was another Dunmer. Lenas Sarandas. I sold him two stones: one raw glass, one raw ebony. Her paid half then and promised to pay half later. That was over a week ago and I can't get the bastard to pay. I've tried banging on his door and he's either not home or is not answering. He owes me one hundred fifty gold, more than enough to pay what I owe. Y-You're all thieves, yes? I could tell you where he lives. You guys can go and steal the money he owes me. Or if not, steal back the glass and ebony. I can sell it to someone else by the end of the day and pay off Aengoth immediately."
"Now you tell Khajiit what to do?! Tell Khajiit to steal back what he already owes?"
"It's my money! He and I had a deal and he's reneged on it! If anyone deserves to be shaken down it's him! P-Please, believe me, I have no intention of not paying. It's just that bastard not keeping his word"
Sugar-Lips growled with annoyance but ultimately found the Dunmer's story plausible. "Where is this Lenas?"
"Back down the street. Take the second street on the right, first house on the left."
"Tappius! You and Phane stay with Daynes. Zayden, Sottilde, we go to Lenas's house."
Tappius approached Daynes, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and forced him back inside, Phane following them in. Sugar-Lips followed her directions and led Sottilde and Zayden back down the street heading south. "Daynes speaks the truth," she told the others. "Khajiit recognize name on map. He told correct house of Lenas."
"How will we collect the money from him?" Zayden asked.
"Do not be stupid. We are thieves and Zayden is racketeer. We will do what we must. We either take money he owes or items back."
Zayden found himself chuckling. "Looks like these blades of mine might finally get some use… To wound, of course, ma'am," he quickly added at the end. Sugar-Lips grinned.
The trio followed to the intended house and this time Zayden approached the door. He gripped his right hand around the dagger on the right side of his hip. With his left hand he gave the door three hard wacks. To no one's surprise there came no answer. Another three knocks yielded the same results.
"Pick the lock," the Khajiit commanded. "We will stand watch." Sottilde and Sugar-Lips turned to face the street, blocking Zayden from view and allowing him to crouch down in front of the door. He retrieved a pick from a small stitched pocket in his left sleeve cuff and began his work. Though he had plenty of practice with training locks, this would be Zayden's first true lock pick. He wondered how long it would-
*ping*
Three pins in and the tumbler suddenly rotated freely. "Wow, that was surprisingly easy," Zayden whispered to himself. "Door's open, ma'am."
"Khajiit stay lookout outside. Sottilde go inside. Zayden protect her. Do what you must."
Zayden tucked away his pick and, returning a hand to his dagger hilt gently opened the door. The single-room house was clearly uninhabited but there was an open stairway to the left that led to a basement where Lenas could be sleeping. "I'll look around here first," said the Nord. "Watch my back, Zayden."
Sottilde entered the house and began to quietly look around for the items of question. After a few minutes of checking the most obvious places first she found the raw glass and ebony tucked away in a small box atop a wardrobe. "Found the stuff. Hmm, ebony's heavier than it looks." She quickly slipped the stones into pockets hidden within her robe."Let's go, Zayden."
"Wait," said Zayden, noticing a coin purse on a nearby table. He stepped quietly to it and lifted it up. "Heavy as well," he commented. "At least a hundred coins, if I had to guess… We'll take this too. Payment for wasting our time."
"I like the way you think," Sottilde said with a smirk, "now let's go." The two left the room as quietly as mice, locking the door behind them. Lenas, sleeping downstairs, would not know until hours later that he had been robbed.
The three made their way back up the street with a slightly quickened pace. "Success?" asked Sugar-Lips.
"Yes," Sottilde replied. "I found the glass and ebony. And Zayden even took a coin purse for himself."
"Truly? Khajiit would not have expected this from Zayden."
"Neither would I, before today," Zayden agreed, "but something felt right about it in the moment. The bastard tried to skimp out on a deal and he gets robs in retribution. Seemed fair to me."
"Now Zayden think like thief. Coin purse yours to keep, then. Congratulations on first steal. Now we bring back glass and ebony to Daynes."
Zayden never would have guessed a simple purse grab would bring him this much satisfaction. Perhaps this is the "thrill" some thieves feel. It surprised Zayden just how intense the feeling was. He could easily find himself becoming addicted to it. He was barely containing the grin on his face presently. But as the three continued back toward the pawnbroker shop, a new realization swept through Zayden and the temptation, swelled by the thrill of his first theft, was too great to pass up.
"... Hey, Sottilde?" Zayden said from the moment of silence. "You said the ebony was heavy when you picked it up. How heavy do you think it is?"
"Maybe ten pounds, at least?" Sottilde guessed.
"And the glass chunk?"
"Not even half that, I guess. Why do you ask?"
"I… Sugar-Lips, I think I have an idea. If you will allow it, when we return to Daynes, let me handle the negotiation."
Sugar-Lips stopped dead in her tracks and pivoted around on her toes with lightning quickness. "'Negotiation?' What nonsense is this?" she nearly hissed at Zayden. "What does Imperial ask of me?"
"Please, Mastermind, hear me out. That coin purse I snatched? It had to have at least one hundred coins in it, which is just about what Daynes owes in dues. Well, when we stopped in Caldrea, I overheard a couple of traders talking. One of them said that ebony production in another mine in Vvardenfell was slowing down, raising the value of raw ebony in Caldera to that similar of raw glass: twenty gold per pound! Sottilde, you said it yourself. That hunk of ebony has to be worth at least two hundred by weight alone! And if I'm wrong, that and the glass together will definitely get us more gold than giving them back to Daynes. I say we give him the coin purse first and, if that isn't enough, we'll take it back and give him the rocks. We stand to gain either way."
Sugar-Lips pondered the proposition for a brief moment, purring to herself as she did. "Hmm, yes," she whispered aloud. "Khajiit sees… Very well, Zayden. Khajiit accepts plan. But Khajiit handles negotiation. Understood?"
"Understood…" Zayden relented.
It would be another few minutes before the trio returned to the pawnbroker shop. Daynes, flanked on both sides by Phane and Tappius, sat patiently on the steps in front of the shop's door, rising to their feet when Sugar-Lips and company came into view.
"Welcome back," Phane greeted. "Did all go well?"
Sugar-Lips nodded to Zayden and he tossed into Daynes's hands the coin purse. "Count out coins," she commanded the Dunmer. "Phane will go inside with you. Give what is owed to Phane, then we leave." The Dunmer did as instructed, Phane leading him forward back inside the shop. Only Phane reemerged a few minutes later.
"The coin purse was just under," he explained as he returned to the group, "but he could easily scrounge up the remainder."
"Which leaves him paid up and us with stones," the Khajiit grinned. "We will sell in Caldera on return journey." She paused for a brief moment to groom the fur around her left eye before continuing. "Now, let us move on. Tappius and Phane lead." The next on their list was another business not far away, just one street over. The two men took point, leading the two women and Zayden to follow.
As the group got underway Sugar-Lips held back just long enough to start walking close beside Zayden and Sottilde. "Khajiit still 'Mastermind,'" she reminded Zayden, "and Khajiit will have no up-starts on first assignment, even if 'Blackcap.'"
Zayden grumbled an irritated but affirming grunt in response, lighting a half-smoked cigar he produced from a pocket. "Yes, ma'am…" he said through clenched teeth.
"But Khajiit will remember Zayden picking lock fast," she then added. "Khajiit will remember Zayden making first steal. Zeela's teachings having good effect. And effort will not go unrewarded." Zayden could have sworn seeing the faintest of grins on Sugar-Lips face before she suddenly quickened her pace and caught up with the two in front. Zayden could not help but begin to grin himself, but it was a tempered grin. It stung slightly to not get full credit for his work, but this was his first assignment. There would be plenty of chances to prove his mettle in the future.
-o0o-
The light of the sun was now fully unhindered in its height in the sky by the time the company was making its way to the second business on their list. While under such light one could warm themselves there blew a persistent tundra wind that kept everyone chilled. Regardless the city was beginning to fully wake. Pedestrians were coming out into the street and other various shops were opening up for the day's business.
One such business, one street over from the pawnbroker, was a clothing shop owned by another Dunmer; a woman named Bevene Releth. By this hour the door to her shop was wide open but no customers had yet come. Once again Zayden and Tappius were ordered to stand guard outside as the others entered. Ten minutes was all it took for the dues to be collected. Sugar-Lips described the exchange as quick and easy when she and Sottilde reemerged.
Bevene, apparently, told much the same story as Daynes. Lenas was beginning to grow an untrustworthy reputation of owing other people money and Bevene was just another victim of his delinquency. Thankfully for her she had come into enough money the day before yesterday to pay dues.
The company's third and final business stop was a smith owned by Dandera Selaro. Events played out just as the last stop and with no resistance whatsoever. While Tappius began to bemoan the tedium and lack of action, Zayden began to wonder if such lack of resistance was normal. When he later asked Sugar-Lips she confirmed that, indeed, it was. Most people, save for the young and the senile, usually avoid conflict whenever possible and due collection was, by most accounts, a uneventful affair.
With the final business done the company tackled their first residential mark. For this they traveled across the width of the city east to an impoverished part of Ald'Ruhn. These streets were more narrow and ever more crowded. Many groups of sitting people lined each side of the street, usually smoking and drinking. Zayden quickly noticed he and his company were getting many more glances and stares. Most were brief and people turning cheek quickly, but others locked their eyes and glared. Tappius was also quick to notice this.
"I think we're not appreciated here," he said aloud to no one person in particular.
"Less money people have," Sugar-Lips answered, "more they do not want it taken. But dues are dues. All must pay what they owe."
"Owe?" Tappius questioned. "I was never made aware the protection money your guild collects was something people volunteered to pay." Sugar-Lips said nothing and an odd silence fell over the group. Zayden shifted his eyes between his fellow thieves and noticed a panged look between them. Tappius, the outsider to this company, clearly struck a nerve in everyone else. He continued regardless. "What exactly do people lose when they refuse to pay?"
Phane jumped in to answer. "Protection! And insurance," he said with an annoyed huff. "What the people pay helps us fund our efforts to cull petty, uncontrolled crime. If such things happen to those under our protection, we compensate them for what has been lost."
"And who can the people pay to protect themselves from your band?"
Sugar-Lips craned her head back and over her right shoulder to look Tappius in the eye all the while keeping her pace forward. Her demeanor remained calm in the face of his interrogation. "Hypocrite that Imperial is," she shot back, "given what he is doing presently. What he volunteered and is being paid to do."
"A job is a job," he chuckled. "Believe me, 'Mastermind,' I'm not here to destabilize or poke holes in your organization. Just a little curiosity. I'll be a good boy and follow orders."
"Then follow this one: Stop asking so many questions. Especially within earshot of others." She motioned her eyes to the poor people of Ald'Ruhn around them before looking back forward. The company was receiving even more unwelcome looks. "Curiosity kills the khajiit."
The company followed the street into a type of small cul-de-sac with tightly spaced duplex houses. Their next mark, an Imperial woman named Pellecia Aurrus, lived in the bottom floor of one of these buildings. Sugar-Lips approached the intended door and after a single bout of knocking the woman in question answered the door. She quickly began apologising the moment she realized what everyone was here for. No excuses, just apologies. Once more the three entered and the two Imperials stood guard outside.
Zayden held off for a few minutes before deciding to confront Tappius himself. "The cat's not wrong," Zayden warned him. "It's not wise to second-guess the Thieves Guild. Especially when you elected to do this job."
Again Tappius chuckled with a smile and without tone of uneasiness. "You never ask questions of your elders or superiors?" he asked Zayden. "Just do everything you're told, do you?"
"I have the Thieves Guild to thank for everything I have. Without it I would probably be without a coin to my name, slumming the streets of Balmora."
"Which is, I'm sure, exactly what they would like you to believe. I, Zayden, have never pledged myself to anyone or anything my entire life. For people and things, for money, yes. But never unquestioningly, or without any promise of a deal. One should always question oneself and ask why they do what they do. I know why I fight and kill, Zayden… Because I love to fight. And killing comes with the territory. There's nothing I love more in the world than the thrill of a good fight. Not even wine or women stand above it. And if I die then so be it." Zayden chuckled, unsure if Tappius was being serious. "So then answer me, Zayden. Why did you join your guild?"
"Because… I suppose because when Zeela offered me a place in the guild I could not refuse her," Zayden replied with a smirk.
Now Tappius laughed. "Fool's love," he joked. "I've been told from others the event in question. The elf steals your money, then your future, and now it seems you're trying to steal her for yourself!"
"N-No, that's not-"
"Not a bad trophy, I'll admit. I suppose she is beautiful. For an elf, at least."
"This is twice now you've implied I should claim Zeela for myself. What do you care for?"
"I don't, really. Just saying, from one Imperial to another, she's 'ripe for conquest,' and she may be thankful for your boldness of the act... Speaking of 'ripe,' feast your gaze on that one there!" Zayden, in the moment, was thankful for the distraction.
Down the same street the company had entered the cul-de-sac came stumbling a lone, young Imperial boy, one clearly coming off a long night of drinking. He nearly fell off his feet twice before coming to a wobbling stop after laying eyes on both Tappius and Zayden. His care-free demeanor quickly faded and, after taking another moment to compose himself, made his way to the two of them.
"Who are you two?" the boy slurred at them. "This is m-my house. A-And you two don't live in this neighborhood. What are you doing here?"
"Guild business," Zayden answered simply. "You Pellecia's boy?"
"Y-Yessss, and I do not approve of your being here. M-My mother-"
"Owes guild protection money. Your approval is irrelevant. So unless you can contribute to paying her dues, you have no business here."
"Now w-wait a moment! I've been trying to tell her for months we no longer need your protection, thieves. Nor anyone in this neighborhood, for that matter! We protect our own here. We don't need you."
Tappius glanced around him. Some of the locals had stopped to overhear the boy's speech. Once they were met with Tappius's gaze they quickly looked away and moved on. "No one seems to agree with you, boy. They seem unwilling to defend you."
"But t-they will! In time, they will. L-Leave us, you thugs."
"I take orders from the Khajiit inside," Zayden interrupted. "I don't take orders from you. We should be on our way in a little while."
"I said-!" The boy took a bold step forward and was met with both Zayden and Tappius reaching for their swords.
"Don't be a fool," Tappius warned. "Go back and get yourself another drink. No sense throwing your life away."
"You wouldn't dare…" the boy growled.
The boy took another step forward and Zayden snapped into action. With one fluid motion he unsheathed his sword for the first time and made a wide horizontal swing in front of him. The very tip of the blade nicked the bridge of the boy's nose. The boy jumped and fell backwards, clutching his new wound. He gave a few muffled curses before checking his now bloody hand. A crowd was beginning to form.
"Y-You cut me!" the boy gasped. "You lunatics! You bastards!"
"Next cut will be deeper," Zayden threatened. "Get. Lost."
The boy stumbled back to his feet and fled back up the street, babbling the whole way. Zayden watched him go the whole way through unblinking eyes, eyes that then turned to the people now surrounding from a distance. Onlookers kept their distance from the two Imperials but refused to disperse. They now looked on with glaring eyes. "Perhaps the boy was right…" Zayden whispered aloud. "These people look like they want to rip me apart..." Zayden glanced at his sword and noticed the tip of the blade was splattered with a small amount of blood. He whipped it off with a corner of his cloak before sheathing it.
"We are strangers here," Tappius reminded. "They don't know we're Thieves Guild. Not that it matters much now. I hope the cat finishes up soon…" His wish would come true a few minutes later. Sugar-Lips, Sottilde, and Phant reemerged from the house seemingly pleased with their work, only to quickly change demeanor when spying the crowd.
"What has happened?" asked Sugar-Lips.
"No time to explain now," Zayden answered. "We need to get out of here. Do you remember a quick way out of this place?"
"Follow Khajiit."
Sugar-Lips led the others at a quickened pace across the cul-de-sac bearing north. Taking the way back down the street was no longer a possibility. The crowd of angry onlookers had grown and filled it completely. Their only option now was to snake their way through the thin walkways between houses. These paths were barely wide enough for two to walk abreast. These blocks between the streets, thankfully, were sensibly built and were easy to navigate if one knew the cardinal directions.
The five hurried on and spoke nothing for several minutes until they finally made their way back to Skar. They regrouped by a section of the wall near the main entrance. Once everyone had a moment to catch their breath did Zayden recall everything that had happened with Tappius confirming the events. Sugar-Lips said little during the retelling and then, once complete, said even less. Her only remaining thought on the matter was to say "What is done is done," and to once more lead the group to their next mark, bearing back south down Ald'Ruhn main boulevard.
This reaction, or lack thereof, left Zayden perplexed. He was fully expecting a scolding for having bloodied up a boy. But to receive so little backlash compelled him to demand answers. He jogged toward the head of the group to come abreast with Sugar-Lips.
"Mastermind, please. I'm confused. Was I not in the wrong with what I did? That I used my blade on the boy?"
"If Khajiit had disapproved," Sugar-Lips answered, "Khajiit would have made Zayden bloody. Or let onlookers bloody you themselves. If Zayden's story is truth than Khajiit pleased with conduct." Complements from Sugar-Lips Habasi were rare but pointent and Zayden just received his second one today.
The company continued its way toward their location, another residential home south of the market district. It was the same middle-wealth district back near the southeast entrance of Ald'Ruhn, within short walking distance of the strider platform and The Rat in the Pot. Once this spot was complete only two more residences in this district were left. This first home belonged to an older Dunmer woman named Hanarai Assultlanipal. Zayden knew such longer surnames usually came from Ashlanders, tribal Dunmer that have lived for many generations in the Ashland wilds.
The woman was quick to answer the door and was polite to invite the usual three inside. Once alone with Tappius again, Zayden asked of him the same thing he had asked Sugar-Lips; if he had done right in taking a swing at the boy. Tappius seemed, if anything, just as pleased at Zayden's choice of action.
"The boy, drunk as he may have been, tried to take you on," he explained. "So you swung at him, gave him a bloody nose, and he went crying off! Ha ha ha! No more trouble! One could not ask for a better outcome! I'm not sure I could have pulled off such a precise wounding cut myself!"
"But that's just it!" Zayden interjected, a new swell of anxiousness washing over his face and voice. "There's something about that cut I haven't mentioned. I never actually intended to wound the boy! I swung the blade with the full intention to kill! And what's worse is that I never even thought about doing it. I just did it! The only reason I didn't kill him was because I misjudged the length of the blade. If I swung too late… By the gods…."
"But Zayden…" said Tappius with caution, "you seemed so sure of yourself at the time, like everything was in control. I find it slightly hard to believe that-"
"I wasn't. I wasn't in control. All that training of the body and not enough of the mind controlling it."
"It's your first assignment. You're nervous. Take some deep breaths, try to calm yourself down. Everyone makes mistakes, but it's when you're nervous you make the biggest ones. These shakedown runs, I've been told, nearly always go off without incident. That kid was probably the worst of it."
Zayden took a moment to close his eyes and take deep even breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. He kept it going for nearly a full minute and by then the Imperial's frayed nerves were finally beginning to mend. But then noises came from within Hanarai's home. First came the shattering of glass, the tumbling of furniture, then followed by a cacophony of shouts and yelling.
Zayden and Tappius reacted at once, both unsheathing their swords and the latter taking up his shield. "Me and my big mouth," Tappius groaned. "Get behind me, Zayden. I'll open the door." Zayden did as asked and Tappius inched toward the door, reaching out to the handle with his sword hand. Before he could touch it, though, another burst of yelling sounded and the door flew open, the three thieves spilling back outside.
"What in Oblivion is going on!?" Zayden shouted. The three came to a stop a few meters from the door before turning back to face it.
"We're not sure," Sottilde said back. "Everything was calm at first, business as usual. Then Sugar-Lips asked her about the Sixth House rumors and she just went off! She went into a rage!" Hanarai came rushing out of the house a moment later gripping a large meat cleaver in her left hand. She charged at Tappius first, he being the closest. She swung wildly at his shield, the blade slamming against it with dull thuds, screaming and grunting with each effort. The attacks were relentless but Tappius kept the shield steady and easily blocked every attempt.
Tappius made a few tackles forward with his shield, slamming its flat surface against the woman. Each caused her to stumble back a few steps but she came charging back each time. "Someone get her off me!" Tappius shouted. "Zayden!"
Zayden took a pair of steps toward the two and caught the woman's attention. Her fury and rage immediately turned to him and she began to charge again. Zayden quickly realized that something was indeed not well with her. Her movements were erratic and uncoordinated, her attacks wild and without form or forethought, her eyes glazed over and emotionless. Nothing he saw seemed to indicate that the woman was aware of what she was doing.
Hanarai made a long and heavy overhead chop once she was within striking range of Zayden. The attack was easily side-stepped and she went stumbling past. She turned and again made a similarly uncoordinated strike, one that was once again easily avoided. When she came in for a third charge Zayden dodged once more before deciding to finally putting an end to this. He swung his sword in a light arc toward her feet and struck her left ankle. The blow was "light" but deep enough to cut the flesh and send her collapsing forward onto her stomach.
The woman continued to wail and groan maddeningly, clutching her now bleeding leg. Zayden took this moment to rush in and kick out of her hand the meat cleaver. She began to curse and spit at Zayden for being a "blasphemer" and it was at about this time a hole in the surrounding onlookers opened up and a rush of Redoran guards came closing in, swords drawn and demanding answers.
Sugar-Lips with her cat like reflexes was quick to cut the guards off, present herself and her purpose here. Zayden kept a watchful eye on the writhing old woman as the Khajiit in quick but professional tones told about what had occurred. Tappius, Phane, and Sottilde similarly stepped in and qualified her story. A few minutes was all it took for the guards to be convinced.
"We will take her into custody, then," said their captain, distinguished by slightly more ornate bonemold armor. "If you have any more business today I suggest you continue it tomorrow. We've already heard word of one of your men this morning cutting someone else." Zayden forced himself to keep his stern gaze on the woman. "Allow time for gossip of this to simmer before you show yourself on these streets again."
"Khajiit understands," Sugar-Lips replied, "and thanks you for your understanding."
"Very good then." The captain turned to the two men to his right and ordered them to bind the woman by her wrists and ankles before carrying her off hanging from a pole like a hunted boar. She continued to wildly squirm, spit and curse the entire time, screaming the name of 'Sixth House' and 'Ur' as her voice faded away into the crowd of sullen onlookers. Once she was beyond sight and sound Sugar-Lips called everyone over to quickly order them to retreat to The Rat in the Pot, stating the rest of their work would be done tomorrow.
Just as they were ready to head off a fell voice came from the crowd. "Bastard!" All the thieves at once turned to its source. A lone figure emerged, one Zayden and Tappius recognized immediately. It was the boy from that morning, just as stumbling and drunk as before. Only now he sported a fresh, bloodied bandage across the bridge of his nose and a heavy wooden club in his right hand.
"Imperial! My mother wasn't enough for you, was it?!" he called out across the street. "You need to abuse old elven women too? You bastards left my mother and I with nothing left! All because you need your 'protection fee.' We don't want your kind here anymore!"
"Your drinking," Tappius called back, "leaves you without coin on your own. You didn't need our help!" As true as it might have been, Tappius's jab was met by a sharp hiss from Sugar-Lips. She then stepped forward and addressed the boy directly.
"Do not be foolish," she said, inadvertently echoing Tappius's earlier warning. "Boy was allowed to live earlier. Khajitt cannot promise this again."
"I have nothing to say to you yet, kitten!" the boy retorted, then turning his glaring eyes to Zayden. "It's him I want. I will deal with you once we're finished." The boy raised his club, clutching it with both hands, and charged Zayden.
Zayden took up a fighting stance and as the boy took his first swing Zayden immediately knew he made a fatal mistake. His earlier humiliation of the boy made Zayden too cocksure and made him overestimate how drunk the boy truly was. The club's first swing went chest high at first but then made a sudden dip and struck Zayden in his left femur bone. Zayden felt and heard the bone fracture and a shock of immense pain followed, so much so that it brought him crumbling to his knees and loosening the grip of his sword. This allowed the second swing, which struck his right hand, to disarm him. The third went for Zayden's head but this one, fortunately, went low as well and struck the collar bone, breaking it. All of this had occurred in mere seconds.
Zayden's vision went blurry as he collapsed and fell completely on his back. He knew he lucked out with the collar strike; a strike to the side of the head could have easily knocked him out, leaving him defenseless. Before Zayden's head hit the ground the boy raised the club to make another, overhead strike. Zayden, now in a blinding panic, raised his left arm to block the attack. The club struck with full force and broke both bones in his firearm, sending a even greater pain surging through Zayden's body.
This was bad. Zayden knew it could be another few seconds before the others jumped in to save him but by then it might already be too late. One good, true strike to the head now could be all it takes to kill him, immediately if not later. Zayden knew he could only block perhaps one more strike before he could defend himself no longer. As the next strike of the club fell Zayden with his right hand reached for his dagger. The club hit in nearly the same place on the left arm, bending the forearm to a forty-five degree angle. A new surge of pain blurred his vision even further.
The boy lifted his club for what would be the death blow. Zayden unsheathed his dagger and, at the club's apex ,Zayden lurched his body upright and his arm forward, plunging the blade between two ribs where roughly the heart would be. Zayden could not see the boy's face through his fading sight, only hear him give a sharp gasp of breath. As Zayden's world turned black he removed the blade from the boy's chest and thrust into it again. And again. And again.
And again.
And again.
And again…
-o0o-
Zayden had been tracing shapes with his finger in the shadows of the plaster ceiling above him for what seemed like hours... A rabbit, a guar, a cliff racer... It had been nearly all he had done since waking back up in his spartan quarters in Balmora. He had no recollection of time between waking up and his fight with the boy. The memories if it kept shooting back in intense burst, haunting him like a curse.
He craned his head to the left and looked once again at the things next to him on the floor. His clothes and weapons, still dirty with gray ashen soil, sat in a neat folded pile. Underneath his blanket he was naked but held together by stiff, hardened bandages on his right leg and left arm. Next to the clothes pile was a large and heavy leather coin pouch. Zayden earlier had tested its weight and guessed it held at least two hundred septems. He further guessed this was the profit of selling the raw ebony and glass, now awarded to him. Next to the coin purse was a clay pitcher of watered down ale with a clay mug.
Zayden forced himself through a dull but intense pain in his neck to sit himself upright and pour himself another drink. Each shoot of pain sent the blurry image of the dying boy back into his mind. He forced down his throat as much liquid as he could before he started feeling sick, waited for his stomach to settle, and drank again.
Zayden caught the sound of approaching footsteps from outside the door and pivoted around to face it. The door unlocked and holding another pitcher of ale and another mug was a dearly welcome face. "You're awake!" Zeela nearly gasped. She fell to her knees, nearly breaking the clay vessels as she put them down, and threw herself against Zayden to embrace him. Squeezing Zayden's body caused him a bit more pain but he remained silent and smiling. "I had been told you would ultimately be ok and that you'd wake up eventually. Just not exactly when!"
"How long have I been asleep for?" Zayden asked.
"It's about midday now, so… About two days, then. They brought you back to South Wall early yesterday morn on an overnight strider. By then you had been partially healed."
"Healed?" Zayden asked, Zeela breaking her embrace.
"Yes," Zeela answered. "After you went unconscious, Sugar-Lips brought you to a local healer in Ald'Ruhn. They were able to mend your broken bones, but not heal them completely, which is why you have these cast on for the moment. They were, however, able to save you from any permanent damage anywhere else. Another healer from the Balmora Mages Guild is set to come tomorrow morning and finish your healing. Afterward you should be good as new…"
Zayden had to scoff at the last line. "Unless they can erase memories, I don't think I will ever be the same again..." He reached for his mug and drained it, Zeela filling it and hers up after. "Sugar-Lips must have told you what had happened…"
"Yes…" Zeela whispered, her expression changing to deep sullen. "She did... And it's my fault it happened."
"What? How can that-?"
"Tappius told me how you reacted to cutting that boy, how you were doubting yourself. That's my failure. You are my first apprentice, Zayden. I know you've been told this… I spent all those months training you how to fight but I utterly failed to prepare you to fight. To do what is necessary… To kill… And look at you now, as you are…"
"... Such things are rare," said Zayden, trying to reassure her. "Everyone says that-"
"Yes!" Zeela interrupted. "But this does not take away from the fact that such things are rare. That's what we tell new recruits this to keep them from running away. The truth is, Zayden, that no matter how much we may act as the lesser of two evils, we still act as evil. And people hate us for it. We're only allowed to exist because we're only slightly more tolerable. And if we didn't hold a monopoly on crime we'd be hunted down like all other criminals... I should have prepared you for this, Zayden, but I failed. I failed you. I was a fool. For one that has lived for over sixty years one might assume some wisdom, but-" She trailed off in thought for a moment, her eyes falling down toward her mug. "I hope to rectify my mistake to you, Zayden. By one mean or another I shall."
Zeela paused to gain a moment's composure. "Your actions, however justified, have put us in a very uncomfortable position."
"Your in the uncomfortable position?!"
"Please, Zayden, listen to me! I might have put the debt of my knife over your head, but our master, Sugar-Lips, has invested much more. Lest you forget, she housed, fed, and allowed for your training for many months without asking anything in return, until this first assignment. Killing or not, your investment by her value has not yet made profit. You will still be expected to fulfil your investment value! And because I failed to harden you to death I have failed myself to your worth to Sugar-Lips."
"Zeela, you needn't worry yourself about-"
"Do not patronize me!" Zeela snapped. "Do not take this away from me! I was your master, Zayden. I, ultimately, am responsible for you, and you just killed a boy, in broad daylight, in the streets of Ald'Ruhn, and nearly got broken as a result!" Zayden forced his gaze to the ground and grimaced. "It was deemed 'lawful self-defence' by the guard and Sugar-Lips has given you her blessings and excused the act, but it should have never happened in the first place! And it is because of me!
I. Failed. You."
Zayden remained frozen and speechless. It was like the light of the sun burning away a fog. Zayden had always known Zeela as someone brimming with confidence and purpose. In her every step, in her every action, she never cast a hint of doubt. But now, in the face of what she saw as monumental failure, she crumbled. And it broke Zayden's heart to see her fall so far. He dreaded what she would say next.
Zeela snatched up her own pitcher and took a few large gulps to try and drown her sorrows before continuing. "We're it my choosing I would consider your debt to me fulfilled. But Sugar-Lips deems otherwise. I have half a mind to ignore the cat and help you escape. I could do you no more harm that way."
"I wish to stay!" Zayden finally managed to blurt forth.
"Wait!" Zeela yelped. "You may want to reconsider! Please listen… If you wish to remain in the Thieves Guild, know that it will be as my apprentice no further. I, as of this moment, resign my place as your master. In fact… You may very well never see me ever again."
"What are you talking about?" Zayden asked.
"I wish I did not have to put this upon you so abruptly, at such a time as now, but events are unfolding quickly… There has been a heist, Zayden, that has been eleven years in planning. A heist on a bank vault in Vivec. I was amongst the first three over a decade ago to conceive of the plan. Naturally, such a long-organized plot was conceived by fellow elves. We now have over twenty operatives work in conjunction to make this job happen, and in three days I leave for the Thieves Guild bureau in Vivec to begin our operation.
The job itself may take well over a year to set up before even attempting it. During such a time my contact with South Wall, Sugar-Lips, and you will be cut utterly and completely. Everyone will be ordered to act as if I have never existed…"
Zeela's gaze slowly turned to the items on the floor. "That coin purse?" she said. "Sugar-Lips told me you made your first steal: a piece of raw glass and ebony. I never would have thought you to actually take the plunge…" She forced another grin. "They sold the two pieces in Caldera, at your suggestion. Got about three hundred for it. And it's yours. That should last you a while on your own…
Now do you understand what is at stake, Zayden?" Zeela stressed. "In spite of my failure, I feel I have taught you enough to survive on your own in the world. Or in the guild, if you so choose. Either way, we will be separated for a long time. Maybe forever- Gods forbid- if things so south. In either choice, I stand by my decision. I revoke my titleage of 'Master' over you."
Silence deafened the room for what seemed an eternity and for an equal amount of time neither Zeela nor Zayden had the courage to look each other in the eye, both of them instead choosing to keep their gaze toward the ground and the ale between them. The tension was finally broken when Zayden reached for his pitcher and poured the last of his ale between the two of them.
"Let us assume for a moment," said Zayden in a quiet, cautious manner, "that you return from your heist. Would you come back to Balmora?"
"Normally, yes," said Zeela, "had this been a regular job. I would return to the business as usual before I took you on: protection shake-downs in the city and the occasional petty theft. Those kind of things. But a heist of this magnitude… It would require me to 'go dark' for a while. I spoke of this before. It helps being an elf in such circumstances," she remarked. "You can go dark for a few decades and return to the life of a thief still somewhat youthful."
"So that is what you would do? 'Go dark?' What would you do during that time? If I might ask…"
"Well…" Zeela shifted to lying on her side, taking a more relaxed position. "I would probably head off to another place and take up the role of a commoner. I'd find myself an older man for a husband and have a few children. By the time they grow up and move on, I will have fattened my husband into a happy, early grave, at which point I would slip back into the shadows and return to the profession I love."
Zeela said all of this with no hint of jest, but Zayden could not help himself from bursting into uncontrolled laughter. Zeela did not fully appreciate this. Even when she threw her drink into Zayden's face did he not fully stop laughing. "Forgive me, forgive me," Zayden said, continuing to chuckle, "but you speak of such things as if they are regular acts! As if you speak from experience!" He took another moment to catch his breath and stop laughing. "Although, to be fair, I have heard of elven women doing such things throughout their lifetimes. Some of them take on multiple husbands and families with shorter lived men."
"You should hear the tales of similar elven men," Zeela retorted. "Even 'monogamous' Altmer men can have upwards of nine human wives throughout their lifetime because they simply outlive them all!"
"But to have a husband and raise a family as a means to an end in itself?" asked Zayden. "That seems so alien to me."
"If you lived double the lifespan of your fellow men you might think otherwise. Besides, it's not as heartless as you put it. Yes, it fulfils a purpose and gives me a way to 'hide-in-plain-sight,' but…" She paused and sat back up, taking another long drink from her pitcher. "I am a woman, Zayden. You do realize this, right? Even elven women have their 'natural impulses.' We merely have them later in years than human women do."
Zayden shifted uncomfortably. "So it is a matter of desire as well?" Zayden asked. "You also want children, then? You want to be a mother?"
"Of course. Is that so hard to believe?"
"I suppose not…" Zayden said in a trailing voice. "You… You also made it sound as if there is no particular man you have in mind?"
"Correct…" said Zeela is a similarly trailing manner, the first tell tale signs of a blush creeping into her cheeks. "It shouldn't be too hard to find. For someone as beautiful as myself," she added, in good humor. "Would it matter to you if I had someone already in mind…?"
At this point Zayden felt sure that the unspoken had become clear between the both of them. It made no further sense to stall the point any further. "I think it would, actually," said Zayden. "If we are indeed no longer to be master and apprentice, then upon your return, I think I will take you as my wife."
Zayden, throughout his entire time knowing Zeela, could only for the first fleeting minutes he met her see her as a woman. In all other instances she was, in order, an emotional manipulator, a virtuous criminal and thief, and a master and teacher. All aforementioned things blinded him to the basic truth that, beneath all such exteriors, she was at her core still a woman with desires and an instinct. This very illusion, now in spite of her present efforts, shattered the moment he stated his intention to make Zela his wife.
The blush in Zeela's cheeks quickly flooded over her entire face. Her pupils dilated and her lips subtly parted. She then brought a hand over her mouth to fruitlessly prevent the smallest of whimpers from slipping past it. She then quickly tried to cover it up by forcing a hearty laugh. "Y-You cannot be serious!" she said through the spaces between her fingers. "And what makes you think you deserve me?"
"Nothing," Zayden replied. "At least nothing yet. But I make this promise to you: every day in your absence, with my every action, I will strive to make myself worthy to you. You have already given me so much that I must give back to you. I give you my word that, upon your return, I will have the foundations of a new life prepared for you. It will be impossible for you to refuse me."
"Is that so?" said Zeela, now stifling back a small bout of nervous chuckles. "Bold claim. Let me assume, then, that I take you at your word. You must promise me something while I'm away. I can start you on the path but this is something you must do for yourself, just as I did many years ago."
"And that would be?" Zayden asked.
"Learn to kill." In an instant the mood of the room flipped. Zayden wondered if, in part, this request was to take the subject off of marriage. If it was it worked flawlessly. "When I was young and I knew I wanted to become a thief," Zeela continued, "when I understood the potential dangers of such a life, I knew killing was an inevitability. I taught myself how to shoot a bow and hunted beasts in the wild. I grew up in the Bitter Coast where there were plenty of wild animals to hunt: rats, netches, nix-hounds, the occasional cliff racer in the northern part. Eventually though, before I joined the guild in Balmora, I spent a pair of years killing another type of beast infesting the area: pirates. The worst kind of pirates. That's how I learned to kill men…
How you go about learning to kill, Zayden, is up to you to figure out. Figure out what feels best. That is all I can really say…"
Zeela reached for Zayden's cup and noticed it was empty again. This time she put the ale aside and retrieved a small flask from her robe and poured from that into both their cups. "A toast," she suggested. "To a new beginning."
"And to success in your heist," Zayden added, taking back the cup and downing the drink in one gulp. He looked back at Zeela, his eyes now locked on to hers. He thought for a moment of how life might be upon her return, the life they would now share. He intended to make the most of these next few days with her; spend as much time with her as he could. His thoughts went so forth that he hadn't noticed Zeela never drank from her cup. By the time he did, though, it was too late. Strength slipped from his body and he collapsed back to sleep.
Zayden woke up the next morn and discovered Zeela's room completely empty.