CHAPTER 5: FIRST JOB
Nhedrys dreamed of her family. Of her brother and sister and father. She dreamed that she was home, that it was all a dream, and she was safe. Her brother Klalec wiped off the soot from the forges off his forehead and rubbed it on her arm, his tattoos shining through the sweat on his arms. Mlinvrin laughed about how stupid she was to think it was real, and pulled her to the surface for another day of soul gathering.
She woke up in a cold sweat, panting. Throwing her covers off her in an attempt to get cool, she looked over at Mercer's bed to see he was still snoring into his pillow. She wondered if he could breathe with his face pressed into the pillow like that.
She stood up from her bed, pulled on her Thieves Guild leathers, and made her way to the Cistern. There were two people up, an Orc man that was reading a book and a Bosmer woman practicing her archery, but they ignored her as she approached the ladder leading out of the Cistern and climbed it.
She stared up at the rapidly fading stars, realising she hadn't been asleep for long, maybe an hour at most. She crossed her arms against her chest, shivering in the cold, and decided to go and find a place she could warm up, and headed towards the market district.
She didn't want to go back into the Cistern. Not yet. A place that was supposed to be full of people being empty reminded her of her empty home, and that she'd never see her family again.
She wandered through the city, eyes cast to the road as the night life filtered out of the streets and into either their taverns or their homes and the people that thrived in the day came out to set up their stalls or go shopping or go to work.
After wandering about for an hour, she found herself in front of a tavern filled to the brim with people, the smells of pastries and meat and ale wafting out of the open windows and door. At the smell, her stomach rumbled, and she placed a hand on the coinpurse she had taken from the safe earlier that night, filled to the brim with coins, and entered.
The roaring of dozens of people talking over each other hit her in the face as soon as she stepped through the door, along with the heat from inside that instantly made her wish she wasn't wearing leather, and the smell of delicious food and drink intensified. All of the tables were full, people banging elbows with both friends and strangers. Two Orcs, a man and a woman, stood behind the counter, cooking food and pouring drinks. A Dunmer was taking orders at the counter, a pad of paper in his hand along with a quill, and a Bosmer, a Khajiit, and a Breton were rushing around with plates of food and tankards full of drink, placing them in front of customers and taking dirty plates away to get washed. Several mercenaries were sitting at tables or leaning against walls in full armour, obviously waiting for someone to hire them and get them out of the city. No one seemed to be obliging though.
Nhedrys made her way to the counter, squeezing herself between an Altmer in robes with a staff on his back and a Redguard mercenary, and waited for the Dunmer to see her and take her order—not that she knew what food there was, as she'd been in this time for less than twenty-four hours and no one had told her about the food yet, besides the bread and cheese Karliah had shared with her on their journey to Riften.
Taking a deep breath, she turned around and strained her ears to see if she could hear someone say a food item or something. She watched as the Khajiit placed a plate with a large pastry on it in front of a Nord, say what it was called, and head off to the next table. She turned back to the counter as the Dunmer moved in front of her.
"What can I get you?" he asked, his quill hovering about the paper.
"A, uh, strawberry crostata please. And some water."
He nodded, spouted a price, and she handed the gold over. He thanked her and placed it in a jar under the counter, and handed the paper to one of the Orcs.
She felt a tap on her shoulder, and she glanced over it to see a teenage Nord standing there, satchel in hand. His long red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his green eyes were scanning the customers of the tavern.
"Can I help you?" she asked, slightly annoyed, but curious.
He held up the satchel, pushing it into her arms. "Give this to the Guildmaster, tell him Brynjolf gave it to you."
She opened her mouth to speak, but he had disappeared by the time she managed to get out the first syllable. She looked down at the satchel, and opened it. Inside were several pieces of expensive-looking jewellery and a lot of gold, and she had the sneaking suspicion that it wasn't obtained legally.
She closed it and decided to just do as the kid said and let Gallus deal with it.
After her meal, which was delicious, she made her way back to the Cistern, which had a lot more people in it than when she woke up, and walked up to where Gallus, Mercer, and Karliah were talking at Gallus's desk. They stopped their hushed whispers as she approached, and looked at her as she placed the satchel on the desk.
"A kid gave this to me, telling me to give it to you. Said it was from Brynjolf."
Gallus took the satchel and opened it, grinning at what was inside. "Good. Next time you see him, thank him for me."
"What was that about?"
He opened one of his drawers in the desk and placed the satchel inside. "I don't allow children into the Guild, but I still use their services around the city. The orphans at Honorhall and the homeless kids gather information for us and sometimes pickpocket. Don't worry, they get paid for this so that when they come of age they can either join the guild or make their own way in the world. It's like being in the Guild, but they're not allowed in the Cistern."
She nodded. She would find it uncomfortable if there were children running around the Cistern, she thought.
"Okay, well, who do I need to talk to to get a job?"
"I'll show you," Mercer said, and led her out into the Ragged Flagon.
"So where were you? When I woke up you weren't here," he said on the way there.
"I couldn't sleep, so I walked around the city," she said. "Found myself in a tavern where that boy found me and gave me the satchel."
He nodded, and led her towards an Argonian woman, currently arm wrestling with an Imperial man. There were people surrounding them, taking bets on who would win, and cheering on their favourite. The Argonian pushed the Imperial's arm towards the wooden table, both of them straining with sweat dripping down the Imperial's forehead, until it hit the table, and half the crowd roared with cheers, and they started trading money.
As the crowd dispersed and the Imperial went off to sulk, Mercer sat down across from her, and motioned to Nhedrys.
"Steals, this is Nhedrys, out newest Guild member. Nhedrys, this is Steals-Many-Sweetrolls. She's in charge of all the breaking and entering jobs. Syner over there," he pointed to a Bosmer that was downing a bottle of mead, a crowd around him chanting "Drink, drink, drink!", "is in charge of the other jobs, but he's currently preoccupied. I'll introduce you two later. Steals, Nhedrys would like a job."
She hummed, eying Nhedrys up and down. "What do you think of Markarth?"
"What?"
She pulled a large book out of her bag on her waist and opened it, eyes scanning the pages as she flicked through them. She landed on one, and looked up at her again. "I have a job in Markarth you can do. Break into Wanan-Ze's house and steal anything valuable inside."
"Where's Markarth?" Nhedrys asked, looking over at Mercer.
"I believe on top of the ruins of Nchuand-Zel," he said. "I'm sure you know where that is."
A spike of dread filled her veins, and her mouth went dry. "Yeah, I do. I can do that."
"Great," Steals said, taking a quill and inkpot out of her bag and writing her name next to the job. "How do you spell your name?"
She told her, and the Argonian closed the book. "See you when you get back."
Nhedrys thanked her, and Mercer led her back to the Cistern.
"I want to go with her on the job," he told Gallus. "She doesn't know this time, and I can fix our problem on the way there."
Gallus thought for a moment. "Okay."
So ten minutes later, their things all packed, Mercer and Nhedrys were standing in the stables, waiting for the stablehand, a big Nord that didn't look more than twenty, to bring them Mercer's horse and one the Guild used for those that didn't have horses.
"I, uh, haven't ridden a horse before," Nhedrys muttered to Mercer as they were given the horses.
Mercer gave her a strange look, holding the reins of his chestnut mare. "How?"
"I grew up underground. I didn't go to the surface much, much less need a horse."
He nodded, understanding. "Right. I forget you're from four thousand years ago. Here let me show you."
He dropped his horse's reins and approached Nhedrys's horse, a pure white stallion, and stood next to Nhedrys, so close his shoulders were brushing hers. She didn't know why, but the closeness made her chest tighten, and her heart beat faster.
"You see this thing?" he asked, pointing at a piece of metal hanging from the saddle. She shook her head, and he continued. "This is a stirrup. You use it to get up onto the horse. Put you right foot in it, holding onto the saddle."
She did as he said, grabbing the sides of the to keep herself steady.
"Now push up, swinging your left leg over the horse's body."
She pushed up in the stirrup so that her feet weren't touching the ground, her leg wobbly as she did, and tried to get her leg over the horse, but she lost balance and tumbled backwards, Mercer catching her. Her face went red as he let her get her footing on the ground.
"Try again, and I'll help."
She nodded, sticking her foot back into the stirrup, and pushed herself up. She swung her left leg up, and Mercer pushed it so it would find its way to the other side of the horse, and she was sitting it the saddle of the palomino horse.
Mercer smiled at her, causing her stomach to flip, and Mercer left her up on the horse as he secured their packs to the back of the saddles, before climbing onto his own horse in one swift movement like he had did this for years. He probably had.
He grabbed the reins and kicked the sides of his horse, who started in a slow trot and stopped right next to Nhedrys, who was gripping onto the reins of her horse so hard her knuckles had turned white, and she was leaving grooves in her palms from her fingernails.
He let out a small chuckle. "Calm down. It's really not that hard."
"How do I get it to move?" she asked, eyes wide as she stared down at the beast between her legs.
"Kick his sides with the heels of your feet. To stop him pull back on the reins."
She kicked the horse lightly, and he started forward in a slow walk, and her heart skipped a beat as she was pulled forward, her grip somehow tightening on the reins. Mercer followed right next to her, watching as she slowly got used to the horse's movements.
"Are you okay?"
She was silent for a couple seconds before she answered, her heartbeat slowing from its fear. "Yeah. I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yes," she told him. "How long until we get to Nchuand-Zel?"
"Four days," he said, looking straight ahead as they passed the watchtowers that guarded the road up to Riften. "But that includes a stopover in Falkreath so I can fix a small problem with the Guild."
She stared at him, forgetting her fear of the horse for a second. "Five days for one job?"
He shrugged. "Usually Speaks and Syner send the jobs over to the thieves that live over there, but they're being investigated by the Markarth guards. So, you're getting sent over there. Besides, it's a good time to see this place, see how much it's changed in four thousand years."
"I really only came to the surface when I was in trouble."
"Why am I not surprised that you were a troublemaker?"
She swatted at him. "Shut up. You try living underground with nothing to do but bend metal for a hundred years. You'd get in trouble, too."
"I already get in trouble," he said, grinning at her.
She looked forward at the road to hide her blushing, and she wondered, not for the first time in the past five minutes, what was going on with her body.