Before Aeyrin could get her bearings at all, she felt hands on her neck again.
She tried. She tried so hard to react, to Shout, all before he could cast his spell again.
But she failed. When she felt the pressure in her throat again, no sound came out.
What happened? It suddenly got so chaotic. When she realized that she would be able to use her powers, she just reacted. She could barely see anything, barely hear anything. She just Shouted, hoping that it would kill Calixto and she would be free to wait until the paralysis passed too.
But that didn't happen. She wasn't sure why. Calixto was still there. He was breathing heavily and muttering something without a pause, but she couldn't really hear him properly.
Did he manage to get out of the way? Maybe he ducked? Or did he manage to put up a ward spell? She couldn't do much more than to wonder about her predicament until she got another chance. If she ever got another chance.
At the very least, it got Calixto away from her face. He left her neck alone too when the spell was recast and now she could see him under a very blurry layer of accumulated tears, fussing over the corpse on the wall.
"Don't worry, love, don't worry. I'll fix it, I'll fix it," Calixto continued to mutter.
Has she… damaged the corpse? He was practically beside himself, tending to that abomination.
Good, that thing needed to be wiped off the face of Nirn. Aeyrin had no idea if it was actually possible for him to resurrect his sister, she doubted that, but she certainly knew that the woman in question would not appreciate being assembled from the murdered girls around Windhelm.
If only she could talk, she could try to reason with Calixto. Surely this couldn't be what his sister would have wanted. Probably.
But then again, if she could talk, she would just Shout. Calixto was depraved and dangerous. Counting on his compassion and reason was just stupid.
Yet she could do neither of those things. Now she just had to wait again. Hopefully he would be so preoccupied with that corpse that he would just forget to renew the spells one more time. How many times could he do that anyway?! Paralysis and silence were very difficult spells, weren't they? He had to have some stash of magicka potions to be able to keep her in this state like this for Gods-knew-how-long.
It was a good question. How long had she been here? It couldn't have been that long though. She would be bled out beyond just wooziness after all. And Bishop would have found her by then.
Why hasn't he found her yet? Where was he? She really hoped that the brute Rolf didn't do anything to Bishop. She wasn't sure how he would find her, but he would, right? He would figure something out. He always did, just like she did whenever he was in danger.
She was really worried that something happened to him.
"This goes here. Don't you worry, we will get you all fixed up," Calixto only continued to talk to his 'sister' in a hushed and disturbingly soothing voice.
He was so focused on her. This was going to work! Aeyrin could feel it. He would forget about the spells and she would get a chance to act. Then she could find Bishop and see what Rolf had done to him. She needed to get out of this alone, in case he was in an even worse situation. That was an unsettling thought.
It was taking a long time while that creep continued muttering and fiddling with his 'creation'. Aeyrin's eyes were burning so painfully and she couldn't see anything but smudges. Her whole body felt like it was twitching, but she knew that she hadn't moved even a little bit.
Finally, her eyes closed with a painfully palpable scrape. But they did. The reflex could not be denied. She started blinking rapidly, but she had to concentrate on actually moving before Calixto noticed. She couldn't speak yet.
It all happened so fast.
"Oh no. None of that!"
She could only hear Calixto's exclamation. Her leg twitched involuntarily to rile up from the stiffness and he must have noticed. She couldn't see a thing. Her eyes were still blinking rapidly to re-hydrate, but as soon as she opened them properly to see, all she could perceive was the green light in front of her as her body stiffened again.
NO!
She saw everything now. The corpse had parts of it missing after the Shout and some of them were pinned back to the wall only haphazardly now. Calixto was standing there, right by the corpse with panic and anger in his eyes, but soon, he started to make his way towards her with his hand raised and lit up with white light.
She could feel the tingle in her throat. Almost. But he was already upon her and his hand grabbed her by the neck violently. The lack of emotion in his touch was all gone, replaced by pure hatred and anger.
"YOL TO-!"
Just as the words left her, they got silenced by the spell. But the fire made it out. She could see it spread in front of her eyes, everywhere she could see. And there was a deafening scream filling her ears.
She did it!
With sick fascination, she watched the man by her side scream and twist in on himself as his clothes got enveloped in flames. The heat was searing, so close to her, but it was… satisfying. Calixto was dying. His abomination was burning, along with the thick old wood of the room's walls.
In fact, the flames were spreading a little… fast.
Oh Gods.
Her eyes darted around the room. There was nothing but wood and equipment. Her gaze got caught for a while on a black glowing soul gem at the table by her side, but Calixto's plans were no longer her concern.
Now she was in a much more urgent danger of her own making.
She couldn't move and she couldn't Shout. It would take at least twenty minutes, by her own estimates, before she could do anything. How long until the flames spread? They were going so quickly, the whole place was made out of wood.
She was going to burn alive. Or choke to death. How would she even clear her lungs of the smoke if she couldn't move and cough? Gods, she could already feel it burning inside her chest!
This was what it was like… for them, in that house back in Chorrol. She did this to someone before. Maybe she deserved this end. Maybe she deserved to know what it was like.
She wanted to close her eyes so badly, but she couldn't. All she could do was stare at the flames as they enveloped the tiny room.
There were no more screams, no more sounds from Calixto. There was only the crackling of flames, filling her ears.
It was almost a relief when her eyes filled with tears again, much faster this time with the amount of smoke filling the place. Her lungs felt achy and she knew that her body was convulsing to cough, she could feel the rapid huffs of air leaving past her lips, but she could not heave, she could not hide herself from the smoke and heat.
There was nothing she could do.
…
"What do you want? I'm not joining your merry band of insane killers," Bishop hissed at Gabriella as they continued through the street at a very slow and clumsy pace. It was not easy to walk with her pressed up against him like that with that blade still threatening him. But that wasn't the only reason. He lingered whenever he could, allowing himself whatever time he thought would not make her too angry.
He couldn't do this! They either wanted him dead for refusing, and tried to avoid alerting anyone by doing it in some abandoned house, or they were still adamant about recruiting him, for whatever stupid fucking reason. But whatever awaited him at the destination, it was not good. He needed to get out of her grasp quickly before he had two assassins to deal with.
"Shut up," Gabriella growled almost silently. "Quiet and move."
Well… that led nowhere. Fuck, he needed to do something. Every step he took, he considered twisting out of her grasp, but she obviously knew what she was doing.
He walked a few uncertain steps ahead, before a new light source appeared behind the corner.
A few seconds later, another guard stepped onto the long street. He spotted Bishop instantly and he quickened his step a bit to approach.
Fuck! What now?
This was bad, wasn't it? The guard would see that something was wrong and Gabriella would kill Bishop for bringing attention to them.
"Hey, you, sir!" the guard's voice carried through the street. "What are you doing here? Are you… drunk?" The man must have noticed his unsteady movements.
What should he say? 'Yes'? The guard would probably not leave him alone then. He would insist on dragging him to the inn, or worse, to a cell, to remove him from the dangerous streets.
"No," Bishop answered when he felt Gabriella's blade press into her neck more firmly.
"No?" The guard stopped some distance away, watching Bishop with uncertain narrowed eyes. "Come over here. Now."
Fuck!
Fuck, what should he do? If he walked towards that guard as he had been until now, the man would definitely think that he was too drunk to even walk right. If he didn't move, that would be suspicious too. He was sure that if he did anything to signal the man about Gabriella's presence, she would slit his throat in a second. Whatever the Brotherhood wanted from him right now didn't seem to matter that much to her if he was too much trouble to be worth it.
How did he not see something like this coming? Everything about Gabriella's presence here was weird. Had she been following him? That other assassin near Morthal that had abducted him said that they've been watching. How long had she been watching him?
A thought briefly popped into his head how their very first meeting at Dragon's Bridge could have had something to do with the Brotherhood's schemes, but that seemed impossible. It was just a coincidence. Maybe Gabriella thought it would be easier for him to trust her since they've had history, no matter how brief, and she volunteered to lure him to that house somehow.
That seemed plausible. But now he had other things to worry about.
He had no idea what to do about that guard, and the silence was getting suspicious. Gabriella clearly did not want to go on a killing spree in the middle of the street, which boded well for him. At the very least, this time, his enemies valued subtlety. If this was one of Thorn's bandits behind his back, both him and the guard would have already been massacred right there with their corpses desecrated or something.
He should probably consider himself lucky that it was skilled professional assassins after him instead of brutal thugs… maybe.
"Walk to him," a hiss echoed in his ears, and he had barely heard it. Gabriella was really trying to stay quiet.
"How?" Bishop growled back at her, but much to Gabriella's dismay, it was less silent than it should have been.
"What? I said come here!" The guard called out to him impatiently. He was definitely getting way too suspicious now.
Fuck. Fine.
He took another wavering step ahead and Gabriella tried to accommodate him, but it did still look weird.
She obviously realized that.
He wasn't sure why she was so cautious about keeping the guard out of it, despite her endless threats, but by some miracle, Gabriella actually loosened her grip on Bishop. Her blade was still near his neck, but she stepped away from his back to give him a chance to move properly towards the guard.
This was his chance and Bishop didn't hesitate.
He reacted instantly and grabbed Gabriella by the arm. He yanked it hard, away from his neck, but her reactions weren't much slower. He felt a searing heat at his throat, but he knew that it was only a shallow cut, fortunately.
Bishop twisted her arm as quickly as he could and a gasp of pain echoed from behind him. Gabriella began squirming in his grasp, but the blade left her fingers promptly and clattered onto the ground.
"The fuck was that?! What are you doing?!" the guard yelled out in confusion, but when Bishop turned his attention to him, Gabriella used the moment to finally twist her arm away from him to get away from his grip.
Bishop was shoved suddenly, sent toppling onto the ground. He fully expected the invisible woman to retaliate, but nothing happened. There was no sound, her movements had been muffled the entire time after all, but there was no attack either.
That made him uneasy. He had no idea where she was. She could attack at any second.
Before he could collect himself from the ground, he noticed a hand outstretched towards him. It was the guard. When the combat was over, the man finally made his way towards Bishop and he was watching him with suspicious eyes. Still, he did offer him help.
Bishop took his hand and helped himself up. There was no sign of Gabriella at all, but that didn't mean that she was gone.
"Will you finally explain yourself?!" the guard growled impatiently. This must have been so confusing to him. But what could Bishop say? That an invisible assassin had a knife to his throat? Who in their right mind would believe…
"What in the Void is this?" the guard suddenly gasped.
Bishop promptly followed his gaze towards the ground. A dagger was lying there, stained with blood. The spell must have dissipated and everything that Gabriella's body had been touching when it was cast was visible again. That was a bit comforting. That meant that Gabriella had to renew it on herself, but no telling gleam of magical light was visible anywhere. Although she could have just hidden herself somewhere for now.
The guard's gaze went instantly towards Bishop's neck, likely with a telling cut on it, and the man's eyes suddenly turned more… pliant.
"What happened? Where did this blade come from?" The man's tone was very calm all of the sudden, as if he had just decided that he was talking to a victim, rather than a suspect. Well… that was technically true. And the truth was the best way to go here. It would fill in all the gaps after all. Not everything needed to be said, but maybe some of it.
"There was a woman. She was invisible, had a knife to my throat," Bishop explained curtly, purposefully leaving out Gabriella's description, especially her race. That would only cause more problems for the elves in Windhelm. They had nothing to do with this.
The guard nodded. It looked like he believed that. Well, it did explain the strange movements and the blade.
"Why?" the man continued to question.
"I'm not sure. A hired thug maybe?" Bishop shrugged. He didn't want to divulge anything about the Brotherhood. What if they decided that for spilling the secret of their presence here warranted them spilling about the murder of Sibbi? Better safe than sorry.
Besides, he didn't have time for lengthy explanations. Now that he had Gabriella off his mind a bit, his thoughts steered back to Aeyrin. He heard her Shout, but then nothing. What happened? Why wasn't she out in the streets already if she had disposed of whatever danger she was in? He needed to go check out the house where the Shout had come from immediately.
But he needed to get rid of this man first.
"You know what, the streets are obviously not safe. Come back to the Palace with me and we'll get a report to the captain. You can explain yourself to him," the guard let out a light sigh of resignation. This was probably more excitement than he had expected tonight. But Bishop couldn't let him drag him back to the Palace!
"No! I…" Before he could come up with an excuse, another familiar sound disturbed the silent streets. Another Shout.
He couldn't be sure with how muffled the sound was, but it sounded like her fire Shout. Fuck, she was really in trouble.
"What in Oblivion…?!" The guard seemed desperately confused now, but Bishop had no time to waste on him anymore. He would deal with this shit later. Right now, he had to find Aeyrin.
He turned on his heel and began rushing instantly across the street. He could vaguely hear the panicked 'hey' from the guard behind his back, but he paid it no mind. He was pretty sure that he knew which house the Shouts had come from.
By the time he got to the large mansion, he noticed something by the side window.
Fuck, was that smoke? Was that fucking house on fire?!
He hurried towards the door quickly. Predictably, when he pulled on the handle, it was locked. The door looked sturdy, but he tried nonetheless. He quickly threw all his weight at the door, crushing into it elbow-first. But the door wouldn't budge.
Fuck, it was sturdy. He thought that breaking it down would be faster. But at least he did have his emergency lockpicks, as usual.
He dropped down to his knee and started to fiddle with the lock quickly. His fingers were shaking a bit, but he needed to concentrate. The smoke was already coming from the looser edges of the front windows too.
"Hey! What the fuck do you think you're…" a familiar voice echoed from behind him, but he paid it no mind. Besides, the protests were quickly silenced. "Is… is that smoke?!"
Bishop ignored the guard completely while he concentrated on the lock. He didn't have time to explain shit to that man. Hopefully he wouldn't hinder him, now that he knew about the fire.
Finally the lock clicked and Bishop barely managed to get up to his feet as he opened the door with the same motion. He stumbled inside and looked around the house.
The building was filled with smoke, but luckily it wasn't too thick yet. He could still see and dragging his shirt over his mouth and nose were enough to keep him from choking on it. The house was completely abandoned otherwise. There were only some leftover furniture pieces covered in cobwebs. The building was big, however, and time was of the essence.
"Aeyrin!" Bishop called out. Maybe she was tied up somewhere, or locked away. He hoped to hear an answer, a call for help, but none came.
Fuck, he needed to find her, quick.
"We need to get help! And the court wizard!" The guard's voice behind his back startled Bishop. He had almost forgotten that the man was still there. But he didn't care what he wanted to do about the fire. The whole neighborhood could burn down for all he cared. He just needed to find Aeyrin.
Bishop's eyes went instantly towards the place where the smoke was the thickest. He could see some flames flicker there behind the corner, right by the end of the large entryway. Aeyrin had likely caused the fire. She would be wherever the flames were spreading from.
He ran forward with his shirt still clutched to his face, straight towards the source of the flames. He reached an opened closet, but the back of it was gone, leading into another chamber.
Fucking people and their hiding closets. What the fuck was up with that?!
The entire wall there was covered in flames, steadily eating through the wooden construction. It didn't spread into any other room yet though. The smoke there was obscuring much, but his eyes still caught Aeyrin at last. She was lying on a stone slab limply, only in her undergarments. She didn't move at all, but there were no restraints. And her eyes were open.
Fuck! Shit! No! This can't be happening!
He rushed towards her in panic. She couldn't be dead. Not like this. There were no wounds, nothing to show…
Wait!
Her eyes. They focused on him. He could always tell when she looked at him, despite the utter darkness of her pupils and sclera alike.
She was alive.
But why wasn't she moving?! She wasn't even blinking and her eyes were filled with tears.
She was paralyzed.
Fuck, that explained a lot. There must have been a reason why she wasn't responding either. Probably another spell or enchantment. But the important thing was getting her out of there until she inhaled too much smoke.
He dropped his hand from his shirt and, in an instant, the smoke tickled his throat and nostrils, making him cough. Trying to ignore the discomfort as much as he could, he gathered Aeyrin's limp and uncomfortably stiff body in his arms. Out of the corner of his eyes, a strange sight caught his attention. There was a weirdly cut up burning corpse fastened to the wall with various chains. And another burned corpse-shaped lump at the floor in front of it.
Whatever that was, he would find out later. Now he just needed to get Aeyrin out.
"Fuck, by Talos, stop it!" a panicked voice echoed from behind Bishop's back, reminding him again of the guard's presence. It was soon accompanied by a loud heaving cough.
'Stop it'?! What the fuck did that idiot mean?! As if he was going to leave Aeyrin here!
He continued to try and gather her in his arms, dragging her from the stone slab, but the guard's voice interrupted him again.
"Fucking Void, stop it! You're hurting her!" Another bout of cough followed, but this time, Bishop stopped. What did he mean, 'hurting her'?
The guard was soon by Bishop's side and he quickly crouched down to Aeyrin's level. Only now Bishop noticed the strange tube with a glass point, embedded in her arm. The tube was filled with blood, leading into a small bowl, dripping the liquid down slowly.
Shit, what the fuck was that about?
He did notice that the tube was fastened to the slab, and Aeyrin's arm was torn a bit from when he tried to drag her away, leaving blood gushing from the wound.
Fuck, he should have noticed that. Fortunately, the guard was already removing the tube from her very carefully while he held the hem of his cloak to his face to get a respite from the smoke. The second that the tube was out of her arm, Bishop dragged her into his embrace and made a quick exit from that small chamber.
He was coughing constantly while his lungs burned from the smoke, but he was almost out.
He barely even noticed that there was another person already standing in the exit door when he rushed over there – another guard. His shock was obvious as his eyes went wide at the sight in front of him.
"Hey! Go! Get the others! Get the wizard! The house is on fire!" A familiar voice rang from behind Bishop again. And when the guard in front of him turned on his heel in panic to do as he was told, the other one promptly rushed to Bishop's side. His cloak was no longer covering his face, now it was bundled in his hands and he threw it over the elf in Bishop's arms with a curt nod.
A decent and helpful Stormcloak. Who knew that those existed?
At least now she wouldn't freeze outside. Well… not much. And the imminent scores of guards coming to save the house wouldn't get to gawk at her.
"Come on, let's get out of here. You'll explain yourself outside."
…
Bishop was sitting in the snow by one of the mansions with Aeyrin still clutched in his arms. She still wasn't moving or speaking, but it had only been a little while. He had her tucked into the guard's cloak snugly, stroking over her hair, while he watched the guards scurry around the burning house with buckets of snow and water.
The guard who had helped him inside the house was still hovering around, throwing him curious and concerned looks, but at least he wasn't questioning him yet.
That man really saved his life tonight. Both of their lives. If he hadn't accosted him on the streets, Gabriella would have dragged him into their Brotherhood hideout, or whatever it was, and he would either get killed, or he would refuse their recruitment offers again and… he would get killed. And he wouldn't be there to get Aeyrin out of that house in time.
She looked so strange like that, completely immobile. He really kind of missed her pressing up to him in his embrace. But hopefully it would pass soon. It was just a spell, right? Or an enchantment. Those couldn't last that long.
He watched more guards rush towards the house. There were scores of them now. If that Butcher needed a night to strike when the guards were distracted, this looked like a perfect opportunity, but Bishop suspected that the culprit was already dead. It would make sense. Victims with missing body parts, a weird cut-up corpse. And he always just knew that any deprived serial killer would be interested in Aeyrin. If not for her looks, it would be way too tempting for any murderer to get rid of a busybody like her.
He had no idea who it was, the corpse on the ground was beyond recognition and he didn't bother studying it with how urgent their escape was, but that was not important. The important thing was that Aeyrin was safe and in his arms again.
Finally he could feel her flinch in his embrace. She could move again. He looked down at her as she instantly started blinking rapidly and her body heaved in a few silent coughs. That looked disturbing. But she seemed unharmed otherwise. When her panicked response to her regained mobility finally subsided, she began staring at him intently. Her eyes roamed all over his face and neck and, without wasting a second, she moved her hand towards the shallow cut across his neck.
Bishop let out a light chuckle. He completely forgot about that. And his face probably didn't look all too good either after the beating he had gotten from Rolf. But he couldn't care less just then. He grabbed her by the wrist instead and moved her hand towards her other arm. There was still that gash there from that tube thing. He would much rather that she took care of that first.
"Oh, she's moving!" the familiar guard nearby perked up when he noticed Aeyrin shifting. "What happened in that house? That… thing… the parts. Was that the work of the Butcher?" He started with the curious questions instantly, but Aeyrin only gave him a tired nod. She must have lost quite a lot of blood.
"Ease up. She can't even talk yet," Bishop growled at the man. "It will pass soon. It is just a spell, right?" he turned his eyes towards Aeyrin. He couldn't even imagine what else it could have been, but he had the urge to ask nonetheless. Predictably, she nodded at him in accord.
"Yes. Right. I think it will be best if you explain everything to the captain anyway," the guard sighed dejectedly. His curiosity was obviously killing him.
"Hey," Bishop nodded at the man briefly to get his attention. "Thanks."
"Don't thank me yet," the guard scoffed a bit. "You're both gonna get arrested until you explain yourselves."
Well… that was to be expected. Bishop didn't really want to think about what Ulfric would do to them. It was enough to keep wondering about where Gabriella had disappeared to and about what twisted shit that killer had planned for Aeyrin. Ulfric was just one more person that would make this whole night even shittier without a doubt.
"Oh… speaking of…" the guard nodded his head towards the street.
Surely enough, none other than Ulfric, dressed in his full armor, was marching down the street already with an old Nord man in robes by his side.
Why the fuck did he wear his armor to a house fire? Was he that desperate to look intimidating?
But right then, he was kind of intimidating. Who knew what the man would do?
The Nord mage rushed right inside the house, likely to cull the flames, but Ulfric made his way straight towards Bishop and Aeyrin who were still sitting by the house on the ground.
"Why am I not even a little surprised?" Ulfric growled angrily when he reached them. He kind of towered above them in this position, and he folded his heavily armored arms across his chest as if to accentuate the point even further.
Aeyrin only threw the man a disgruntled look. It wasn't her fault.
"Did you start the fire?" Ulfric asked with a hint of exasperation in his voice. Strange that he wasn't seething more at her disobeying the orders, but she wasn't exactly complaining about that. He seemed awfully… resigned. It was always hard to tell what he was thinking under that stony expression though.
She nodded slowly. There was no point in denying it, but it still wasn't her fault. She needed to defend herself! The flames around her were still an… unpleasant memory though. She couldn't get them out of her head.
"That's it?" Ulfric scowled. He likely expected excuses, her trying to justify herself, but it would still probably take a bit longer. The silence spell definitely lasted longer than she would have liked.
"She can't talk. Spell," Bishop grunted at Ulfric instead.
"Well… thank Talos for small miracles then," Ulfric smirked maliciously in response, earning a sneer from Aeyrin, but he paid it no mind as he continued. "When the spell's passed, make yourself useful at least and help my mage with the damage. The guards will bring you in after the fire is taken care of."
That was an unpleasant prospect. But there was not much else that she could do.
Hopefully he wouldn't banish her for this once again.