The ship was slowly disappearing beyond the horizon, sailing past the lighthouse and towards Morrowind.
Karnwyr was constantly running circles around Aeyrin and Bishop, getting underfoot or burying his face in the snow playfully. It was no wonder. He was not the only one grateful and relieved to finally be on dry land again.
"I told you that I used to be afraid of traveling on water, right?" Aeyrin shivered as they made their way through the deep snow towards the mountains to the south. "I think that fear just came back," she let out a deep sigh. She wasn't sure if it really had come back – she used to be terrified of even taking a ferry across Lake Rumare to the Waterfront. Hopefully it wouldn't be that bad. But she certainly didn't want to undergo any other long sea voyage again.
It was horrifying for so many reasons. Unstable ground, nowhere to run or even move and all that onslaught of the elements and the beast without a moment's respite. The ship could have been destroyed any time, although at least they were moderately close to the coast. But would that even matter in a storm? She'd rather not think back on any of it.
"Yeah, I'm not exactly eager to get back on another ship anytime soon," Bishop let out an exasperated sigh. "Fuck, what a shitstorm. Imagine meeting Alduin like that." He hated being tied up like that in a fight. He couldn't stop imagining all those times when it would have been his end if he couldn't move and dodge. That particular encounter, when they were at the mercy of the World-Eater's onslaught, really stood out.
"Please don't say that," Aeyrin groaned. That was something she didn't even want to imagine. That was just… no. She really didn't want to imagine it.
They waded through the snow in tired silence then, further and further. They didn't get much chance to catch up on sleep for the rest of the voyage either. Aeyrin got about two hours of shut eye and Bishop barely a half an hour since he had been allowed into their cabin only significantly later. The brief rest seemed to have made them even more tired, but they had to go on. There was nowhere to rest now anyway and Karliah's coordinates were only a short distance away.
Hopefully they really were there early and whatever Karliah had planned for them wasn't too time-sensitive. She would never rely on their assistance if it had been, right? She had no way of knowing on which end of Skyrim they currently were or what they were involved in. Their time wasn't easily predictable.
So… Karliah probably wouldn't mind if they rested a bit before they jumped into whatever she had for them, right?
They finally made it to the designated spot – a decrepit old farmhouse with no roof and practically half of the walls missing. It was only a foundation by now with a few planks on the side, completely empty.
"Ugh… guess we should look around," Bishop groaned tiredly. He really wasn't in the mood to go searching around the area for some secret hideout, tired as he was, but what else was there to do? Karliah must have been here somewhere.
"Noo," Aeyrin whined with palpable exhaustion in her voice. No more waiting. No more drifting through snow. These were the coordinates. Why wasn't she here?
"KARLIAH!"
Aeyrin's voice echoed through the area and Bishop instantly flinched at her shout. He gave her an alarmed and kind of a chastising look in an instant, but she only gave him a small wry smile in return. Nobody was around. Why waste time looking for some hidden entrances without even trying this first?
With a resigned sigh, Bishop began to look around the small structure regardless, but after he had only made a few steps, a creak of old hinges echoed through the place suddenly.
Their eyes followed the source of the noise – outside the structure, right by the edge of the former house, a familiar form emerged from a barely noticeable trapdoor.
"Mistress's mercy, Aeyrin. Really?" Karliah gave her an exasperated look the second their eyes met.
"Sorry," Aeyrin bit her lower lip in embarrassment. She still felt like it wasn't that big of a deal. They were in the middle of nowhere. But… it was probably not a behavior that Karliah wanted to encourage – yelling out her name of all things. Even in the wilderness, some enemy could overhear – the remnants of the bandit clans or smugglers under Mercer's thumb. They didn't need anyone investigating the hideout.
"Just get inside," Karliah let out a sigh before her head disappeared inside the trapdoor once more. They didn't hesitate before they followed, along with Karnwyr.
The hidden room was small and, predictably, filled with all manner of papers, books and drawings on the wall. It was what they had already expected from one of Karliah's secret nooks, but right then, none of that held their interest at all. There was only one thing in that room that drew their attention.
A bed.
It was small, old and rickety, but none of that mattered. It was a bed.
"I know this place is secluded, but please, don't make a habit of calling out my name like that. You never know," Karliah sighed as she situated herself behind the table in the middle of the room, waiting for them to approach. But they didn't. They had barely registered that she was even talking.
"Nevertheless," she continued. "It's good that you're here now. And so quickly."
"Yeah, you didn't expect us yet, right?" Bishop asked absentmindedly while Aeyrin had already been subtly moving towards the bed.
"Not this early, no," Karliah shook her head. "But the sooner we take care of…"
"Yeah, so you don't mind if we rest a bit, right?" Bishop interrupted her promptly. He didn't even want to think about any missions just yet. He wouldn't be able to process any plans right now anyway.
"W-what?" Karliah gave them a surprised look. She suddenly lost all trail of thought as they now both moved towards the bed without waiting for her permission while Karnwyr curled down on the ground comfortably.
"Please, we're so tired," Aeyrin shot her a wry smile before she dropped her pack heavily by the bed and sat down on it. She promptly bent down to remove her boots. She was so glad they hadn't bothered putting their armors on after debarking. Unfastening all those buckled wasn't a tempting prospect just then. She would have loved a bath and to clean her clothes too, but that clearly wasn't an option in this small room. Maybe Karliah had been bathing in the sea. But just the thought of that sent shivers down Aeyrin's spine.
"It's barely noon," Karliah still looked at them with an incredulous expression.
"Yeah, but there was a ship," Bishop grumbled and instead of sitting down on the bed as Aeyrin had, he instantly yanked his boots off and made his way towards the foot of the bed and crawled into it with his back to the wall. "And there was drinking. Then a storm. And a dragon."
"We just need a couple of hours," Aeyrin threw Karliah another pleading smile before she couldn't resist anymore and crawled under the blankets and into Bishop's arms. The minute she would close her eyes, she would fall asleep, she just knew it.
"I… what?" Karliah scoffed. "This is… dammit." She obviously had no idea what to do with them. And there was not much that she could do by now anyway.
They were practically asleep already.
…
A few consecutive, loud and very grating sounds woke Bishop up.
He opened his eyes groggily to locate the source. He had to reach out to brush some of Aeyrin's hair obstructing his view and tickling his face. He wouldn't have even noticed it by now if he didn't need to see properly. He was so used to it.
His eyes finally located the source of the noise. Karliah was sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, running a small grindstone over a shortsword with a black hilt and a bored expression on her face.
The second she felt his eyes on him, her gaze shifted from her blade towards the bed.
"Oh good, you're up," she smirked.
"Not voluntarily," Bishop grumbled. She probably did that on purpose to wake them up.
"Well now that you are…" she gave him a meaningful look and inclined her head towards Aeyrin's sleeping form. "You had four hours."
Ugh… fine!
He gently shook Aeyrin's shoulder and pressed a firm kiss on the top of her head. He knew that this wouldn't really wake her, but he liked to do that anyway before he shook her shoulder more firmly.
"Hmm… wha? Why?" she whined and buried her head firmly into the small pillow under her head.
Bishop chuckled at her reaction and planted another kiss in her hair. "Wake up, sweetness. Karliah's getting cranky," he smirked, earning an eye-roll from the Dunmer.
"Hmpf," Aeyrin huffed into the pillow, but she did stir a bit more properly now. They were relatively rested, at least enough to listen to Karliah's plan.
They could decide on how to proceed after they knew what they were in for.
…
"So, you came equipped well?" Karliah asked as they gathered around the large table in the middle of the room.
"Kinda, but it depends on what you have for us," Bishop smirked. They weren't sure what it involved when Karliah said 'equipped'. She said for 'adventure', but what did that entail for her? They weren't exactly ready for some huge heist if that was what she had meant. They were equipped for their usual travel and crawling through dungeons.
But Windhelm was close, if it came to that.
"Right," Karliah nodded as she shuffled a few of the papers around until she revealed a rough map. It looked like some kind of an elaborate dungeon. "I've been to Mercer's mansion and I managed to find his plans," she smiled a bit. "It appears that Mercer is after the treasure, as I have assumed. The famed Eyes of the Falmer. Have you heard of them?"
Bishop and Aeyrin both shook their heads and Karliah continued.
"They are gems. Enormous gems. Said to have been encased in a great statue of a Falmer wiseman. Mercer had been looking for them for ages and so had Gallus. They hit a dead end, apparently, but Mercer's research yielded results with Arniel Gane's books. He managed to locate the statue and he had been doing meticulous research on the ruins where it lies. He clearly intends to take the Eyes for himself. Something like this… it would cost an enormous fortune," she let out a forlorn sigh, letting them know just how bad it would be if Mercer got so rich that he could afford any means to get rid of their operations.
"Where is it?" Aeyrin looked at her curiously. If Mercer did so much research about the location, it must have been a very dangerous one.
"The Dwemer city of Irkngthand," Karliah's finger traveled across one of the maps on the table until she pointed towards a location west of Windhelm. There was a large red X there on her map.
"Dwemer ruins, huh?" Bishop scowled. She wasn't kidding about the 'adventure'. This was definitely gonna be a challenge again.
"Yes. I have everything that Mercer had uncovered about the ruins copied here. There are plans and even descriptions of some traps and challenges inside it. I don't know how reliable anything about an unexplored Dwemer city can be, but… Mercer tends to be a careful man when it comes to getting wealthy."
"Wait, so he has all of this already?" Aeyrin scowled at her. "How do you even know he didn't already get the Eyes? What would he be waiting for?"
"He doesn't have a very important thing," Karliah smirked. What could have been so important? He had the Skeleton Key and all these plans to boot.
"You," Karliah smirked at them. "Mercer is one man, a rouge, with limited abilities in large battles. And he would never risk any hireling stealing his treasure from him. He has no way to get through an entire Dwemer city. He would die."
"What makes you think we won't?" Bishop scoffed. They almost had in their first Dwemer ruins together. And the second was no laughing matter either, even after the Synod had taken care of the defenses there.
"I know you've done this before," Karliah smiled. "Enthir told me all about it. Two Dwemer cities fully explored? That's nothing to scoff at."
There was a moment of silence. Neither Aeyrin nor Bishop were planning to refuse her, not with stakes this high and not even to pass up this adventure. They knew how it went now. They knew how careful they needed to be and they knew that they couldn't shy away from retreating if they needed to. And with these plans, it could turn out to be more than doable. It was still quite the undertaking though.
"I know that I am asking a lot from you," Karliah sighed. "But we are so close. If we get the Eyes instead of Mercer, even his supporters at the Guild will rally to us when we promise them the treasure, when we promise to rebuild the Guild to its former glory. That's all that they want. Mercer feeds them empty promises of how he can achieve that, but we can actually achieve that. Mercer will be history. Victory is within our grasp."
"We'll go," Aeyrin reassured her. They would need to prepare a bit more. And definitely rest a bit more. But she was kind of looking forward to the adventure, even though it would be dangerous and the stakes were definitely high. They needed to take the Eyes before Mercer found a way to do it himself. And at least there would be no dragons down there. Unless the Dwemer had engineered one at some point.
Ooof, she shouldn't have thought of that.
"Thank you," Karliah smiled brightly. "And rest assured, you will be very well compensated for this," she winked. "I will make a covert camp near the ruin entrance and watch for your return with healing supplies, if need be. If you need to retreat at any point, do so and I promise I will make sure that you get out of this alive."
"You're not coming with us?" Bishop smirked, although he didn't really want her too. Usually it was more of a hindrance to have someone else with them. He and Aeyrin had a good battle rapport and more people usually required new tactics and a lot of catching up on their part. Karliah was certainly capable, but just like Mercer, she was likely not meant for Dwemer ruins.
"I'm not sure I would be of much help. I am not familiar with Dwemer traps and mechanisms and while I could provide support in battle, I don't know if my bow would be of use against the contraptions," Karliah scowled a bit.
"It wouldn't," Bishop smirked at her. He knew that first-hand.
"Precisely," she nodded. "I thought providing support in case you two were wounded would be best. I would even drag you two to Windhelm if need be, regardless of the welcome I would receive there," she nodded. "I have a horse at the stables there for emergencies. I could get it to transport you both back there quickly."
"I think it's a good idea," Aeyrin smiled at her. She did provide all these plans and it was understandable that she was wary of entering the ruins with her limited experience with them.
"Alright," Bishop sighed. More mortal danger. But he didn't even want to imagine what Mercer would do with the money. He would hire a fucking army of bandits to go after them. No. This needed to be done. "We'll head out there in the morning after more rest."
"Very well," Karliah smiled at them. It seemed that she didn't mind them taking their time now that she had finally gotten to talk to them. Mercer wouldn't go to the ruins anytime soon anyway. "You can take the bed again, if you like. I'll rest in my bedroll through the night."
"Actually, we could probably rest somewhere else," Aeyrin shot a meaningful look at Bishop.
What? Did she want to go to Windhelm? That would likely not end up with them being more prepared for the ruins. Especially if they would go see the elves at the cornerclub.
It took a while before it clicked for him.
"Oh! Right," he smirked. "We have another place we wanted to raid," he turned to Karliah again. "Do you know anything about an Altmer bandit gang holed up in this cave?" he pointed haphazardly to the general area which Tibby had indicated before.
"Oh? The Summerset Shadows? What do you want with them?" Karliah looked at them in surprise.
'The Summerset Shadows'? The bandit gang had a name? And such a stupid one at that.
"Uhm… we just want…" Aeyrin racked her brain on how to answer that. It was surely odd to be going after a small inconsequential gang right before such a dangerous undertaking. She couldn't think of anything though, but Bishop interrupted her soon enough.
"Their blood and their soul," he grinned at Karliah meanly. He wasn't lying at all, but it definitely sounded like he was just making an odd joke.
Karliah snorted at him in mild amusement before she shrugged. "Well… if it's something you need to have," she rolled her eyes with a smile still etched on her face. "They're a small gang of thugs. They often harass Nord travelers along the road to Riften. They've been known to me from the rumors around Windhelm, but I have never concerned myself with them. They had no connections to Mercer or Thorn. And they are said to be a very small gang. The only reason they haven't been killed is probably their good hiding place. Which… I guess is no secret to you?" she raised her brow at them.
"We got our own contacts," Bishop chuckled at her.
"Well, they should hopefully pose no trouble for the two of you, but still, do be careful. There are larger things at stake than a small group of bandits," Karliah sighed. "Still, I suppose that they could have more supplies and a better place to rest than here."
That was a good point. They would surely have a nice setup in the cave where they lived.
The two of them could wipe their den out before nightfall, hopefully, and then they would have a nice place to rest for their adventure.
It was a solid plan. And hopefully all of it would go without a hitch.
Especially the grand treasure hunt.
…
"No one saw you?"
A whisper startled Aeyrin as she crouched behind a rock formation inside the cave. It came from out of nowhere and she didn't hear anyone approach, but that was to be expected.
Just to be safe, when they got into the cave inhabited by the Altmer gang, Bishop downed an invisibility potion and went to scout ahead. They even kept Karnwyr outside, to wait and kill anyone who might have escaped – they couldn't let him loose inside with all the bandits. They couldn't tell him to spare one of them after all. It was better if he took care of any runaways instead.
They needed to know the exact numbers, not only for their own safety before the difficult adventure ahead, but also to know when they really needed to keep someone alive.
Aeyrin stayed hidden by the entrance for a while before Bishop returned.
She turned around, but Bishop was still invisible. Probably from his second or even third potion by now. She felt his gloved hand touch her cheek briefly to show her where he was and she shook her head wryly in response. Did he even need to ask? He would have walked in on an entirely different scene had anyone seen her.
"There's seven of them. Three rooms right next to each other after the entrance hallway, then spiral stairs leading down to two more rooms. They're all armed and no one's asleep. Four in the first three rooms, we won't be able to keep them separated, sound carries here. The last three are downstairs and the rooms there are more isolated. It would be best to keep the last one there for the… thing," Bishop whispered his report to her. He was certainly meticulous.
The place didn't look like a cavern at all on the inside. Not even an old mine. It looked like some sort of old Imperial fortress had been built into the cave below the mountain. But that was by no means a bad thing. The place was warm, furnished and it would be perfect for their rest.
"You want to take some out first?" Aeyrin whispered back at the seemingly empty space by her side.
"I don't think so. No good vantage points ahead. And they will instantly notice. You take point." She could practically feel him nod in determination, even though she couldn't see him. "And no Shouting. Best if we keep those downstairs un-alerted."
"Alright," Aeyrin nodded at him and she quickly tucked their packs into the corner by the front door more firmly as if to ensure that they were secure there. She rose to her feet the next moment and readied her mace.
She accidentally bumped into Bishop a bit as she turned on her heel, but luckily it wasn't hard enough to make any noise.
With a determined nod of her own, she rushed down the hall towards the next room. There was no point in subtlety – everyone would be able to hear her armored boots on the stone ground and it was best to make it fast not to give them a chance to get ready.
The clanking of metal echoed through the area as she ran forth until she reached the first room. The men there were already alert and gathered together – three of them. The second Aeyrin stepped closer, they charged at her with their weapons drawn and one of them with his hands lit with magic.
She reacted quickly.
Her own hand lit up with a ward and the ball of flame heading towards her only crashed into it harmlessly. It was powerful enough to have Aeyrin's ward dissipate upon the impact, but she hoped that she wouldn't need it anymore. She swung her mace in a wide circle against the two men with brandished weapons.
One of the elves slashed his sword against her, but he only clashed harshly with her breastplate. He received a blow in his midsection from her mace within a second. His leather armor got singed instantly with the enchantment and, as the man fell to the ground after the harsh blow, he screamed out in shocked pain. The leather must have burnt into his flesh. It certainly smelt like it.
The second man got hit by Aeyrin's mace as well but he didn't have to endure the blunt of the blow. He merely staggered and let out a gasp of pain, but he was in no way incapacitated. He had sidestepped her attack enough to avoid the flames too.
Aeyrin didn't hesitate though. Her next attack came swiftly and she smashed her mace into the man's head with force.
He was dead on the spot as blood splattered over her face and armor, but she didn't wait a second before she turned towards the mage. There was no need to, however. Just as she did, an arrow swished through the air and shot right through the mage's throat.
Aeyrin briefly looked over her shoulder, only to see Bishop there with his bow drawn and another man on the ground in front of him. Dead in a pool of blood under his limp body and a visibly torn armor and bloody stab wound on his back. That was the fourth man on this floor. He must have rushed to get Aeyrin from behind. She wondered if Bishop had been still invisible when that happened that he managed to stab him in the back. Or maybe Bishop had just been conveniently hidden by a wall by the door.
It didn't really matter.
The last man was still writhing on the ground, clutching his singed stomach and huffing out in pain.
There were three more men downstairs. But… would they get another opportunity like this?
Gods, she didn't want to do this again, but she knew that they needed to.
Instead of finishing the man off, she looked back towards Bishop with a pleading look in her eyes. Bishop seemed to understand. He nodded at her and disappeared again into the entrance hall within a second. At least she really hoped that he understood. She didn't only want him to go grab the contraption. She didn't like doing this. She knew that they would both have to hold him down again, but she didn't want to be the one taking the blood. She knew that it was selfish, that it couldn't have been very pleasant for Bishop either, not for anyone, but she couldn't help herself. Maybe she was taking a bit of an advantage of the fact that he never protested when she asked him to do something for her because she was anxious.
He was back with the contraption soon enough and without a word, he knelt by the squirming man and forced him on his back.
The bandit's eyes went wide in fear and confusion. It was an unpleasantly familiar sight now, but Bishop's stony expression didn't change at all as he straddled the man's singed stomach, making him wail out in pain again, while he moved the contraption closer.
"Get his arms and watch my back," Bishop instructed Aeyrin.
She quickly nodded and knelt down on the ground as well to restrain the man. At least there would be only two more left to go after this one.
She hated seeing their panicked expressions.
…
"This is a pretty nice setup."
Bishop chuckled as he checked the tripwire in the door for the last time.
Their soul and blood extraction went off without a hitch, despite the discomfort of doing it again. It was always worse when their target could talk, plead and freak out, but it was something that they had to simply get through.
Fortunately, none of the bandits downstairs heard the commotion and Bishop and Aeyrin managed to dispose of them easily afterwards.
The three rooms on the lower floor included a spacious bedroom combined with a provisionary kitchen, a bathing room and a 'treasury'. There wasn't much loot in the treasury, mostly a lot of booze, but they still got some septims out of it. Bishop outfitted the entrance to the whole lower area with one of his dart traps in the archway below the stairs, after they had brought Karnwyr inside as well. They made good use of the bathing room then, finally cleaning off days of sweat and grime from their bodies and their clothes, before they had a proper meal when they moved to the bedroom. Bishop set up their remaining two traps there while Aeyrin huddled herself comfortably in the largest of the beds.
Bishop only took a few more seconds checking the trap before he approached the bed and pulled off his boots and shirt to join her under the furs.
They nestled themselves into each other's arms with almost simultaneous sighs. It's been a long couple of days since leaving Solitude.
Bishop slowly ran his hand through Aeyrin's hair and tucked it behind her ear with a gentle expression.
"Only two more to go," he smirked. They were making progress with that weird contraption. Soon they would have a way to retrieve the key and access Blackreach. Maybe they would even find another entrance in Irkngthand.
Not that he was looking forward to any of that. Especially not for anything that would follow. They had no idea what they would need to do to defeat Alduin, to read the Elder Scroll. No idea what she would have to do. But he didn't want to think about that too much. From what they've seen, leaving Alduin alive would be much more suicidal than anything.
"Yeah," Aeyrin sighed absentmindedly. She couldn't help herself. All this still felt so… wrong. "You think we're really doing the right thing?" she looked at him uncertainly. "This all feels… I don't know. What does that man even want from behind the ice if not the key? What would the Dwemer seal away in there? Especially since it requires doing… this."
"They didn't need to do this," Bishop gave her a reassuring smile. "This is to simulate Dwemer blood and soul. At least that's what I took from that hermit's blabbering. It's probably not that dangerous. Just a normal… vault. It has the key to their crossroads. They probably didn't want it to be unobtainable."
Aeyrin gave him a small smile. That was a good point. Still… where did this madman get the idea that mixing blood and souls would help him simulate the Dwemer? Where would one even get that knowledge?
But maybe she was overthinking this. There was no point in speculating. Paarthurnax sent them after a Scroll. Esbern did the same. There were no other avenues for them to pursue. Not unless they somehow found another Scroll. That wasn't going to happen.
She should probably concentrate on other things. They had a long day ahead of themselves.
"Did you look at the plans?" she asked idly to change the subject.
"I probably know them by heart by now," Bishop chuckled. He had been staring at Karliah's notes for what felt like ages. "Hopefully Mercer didn't slack off on the research."
"I don't think he would. Not for something like… this," Aeyrin shook her head. Karliah made it sound like the Eyes would cost enough to buy an entire Province. Mercer didn't trust anyone with that information. It was surprising that Karliah did. "So… you're not thinking of… snatching one? Or chipping off a piece?" she chuckled at Bishop.
Bishop laughed in return. "Surprisingly enough, no. It's gonna be worth a fucking fortune, but… nothing is worth as much as getting rid of Mercer for good. Not after what he's done. Not with what he's still doing," his smile turned into a scowl in a second. No matter what, this shit with the bounty on Aeyrin's head would end once and for all. He would make fucking sure of it. She had suffered enough because of it and he would not allow anything else to happen as a fallout. That fucking bounty was the whole reason why they had to deal with Thorn the way they did. Why they had to deal with the Silver-Bloods and Aeyrin's wretch of a father. And the Brotherhood. If it wasn't for that bounty, Sibbi would never get his bright idea and Bishop wouldn't have to kill him.
"Do you really think it's almost over? That this is it?" she gave him an almost pleading look. It was clear how much she was hoping that it would be.
"I do," Bishop gave her another reassuring smile. "If there's anything that can steal his loyal thieves away, it's a shit-ton of money. And then nothing will prevent us from ending him."
Aeyrin smiled at him briefly before she buried her face into his chest with a comforted sigh.
She really wanted to believe that.