Hi, everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic week!
Here's the next chapter!
"Bryn." Iris's smile widens as she greets him in the Flagon.
"Iris," he smirks, giving her a nod. He watches as she crosses the cavern to speak with Vex. Probably about her Dawnstar job.
He leans against the wall, drinking his mead as he watches the beautiful Breton lass. As if she can feel his eyes, Iris turns and gestures him to join her and Vex. Confused, he places his tankard on a table and makes his way over to them.
"Brynjolf," Vex starts, looking between the Nord and the Breton. "I'm sending you two on a job. A sweep in Solitude."
He looks to Iris and finds her face mirroring his surprise.
"Seriously?" Iris asks Vex.
The blonde nods curtly. "There's one catch."
"I knew it," Brynjolf mutters.
"You have to sweep the Blue Palace."
Silence.
"The Blue Palace," Iris repeats incredulously.
"I expect it to go well. You're two of our best thieves, which is why we've decided to lift the ban for this job." Vex crosses her arms after handing Iris a piece of parchment. "That's the list of items you need to take."
"Who are these for?" Brynjolf asks, reading the list over Iris's shoulder.
"I don't know. They asked to remain anonymous. But it's through Maven, so it's legitimate."
Iris nods, tucking the parchment into her bag. "Alright." She turns to him. "Let's go," she says, a smile tugging at her lips.
"Okay, who did you bribe?" Iris's eyebrows arch in suspicion as she walks alongside him.
"I thought that was you." He lets out a low laugh as she shakes her head.
"No, I didn't say anything!"
He hums thoughtfully, pushing the gate open. "I did almost get Vex to lift our ban last night."
Iris frowns as she makes her way to the stables. "Last night?"
He nods, climbing onto his horse. "Aye. We went to your house so I could show her that you were really missing. She said that she had hoped keeping us apart would make us refocus but it hasn't worked. She was going to say something else, but then you came in."
"Maybe this is a start, though," Iris comments, mounting her horse and joining him on the road. "Gods, but robbing the Blue Palace?" She shakes her head, smirking. "This is going to be fun."
"What all do we need to grab?"
She pulls the list from her pocket. "One flawless emerald, one ornate drinking horn, one enchanted Elven dagger, and one…Stone of Barenziah? What's that?"
Brynjolf pulls his horse to a halt. "A Stone of Barenziah?" He swipes the list from her hands. "By the Nine…she actually found one."
Iris huffs, crossing her arms. "What is a Stone of Barenziah?"
"I thought it was just a legend, though I did think the same of the Nightingales, didn't I? A long time ago, a thief stole Queen Barenziah's crown. It was an incredible heist, and to cover his tracks, he pried all the stones from the crown and sold them off all over Tamriel. One stone alone is completely worthless, but it's said there are twenty-four stones in all. If we found all of them, the collection would be worth thousands. Vex must have found out that Elisif has one." He chuckles softly. "I'm going to start believing every legend I hear from now on." He hands the list back to her, and she tucks it back in her pocket.
They nudge their horses onward and continue on in silence.
But Iris's mind still whirls at her blatant lies to her best friend. She looks to him, finding him studying the road ahead, apparently oblivious to her gaze. Biting her lip, she tears her eyes from him, trying to quiet the rattling accusations in her head. He thought you were dead, and this is how you repay him. With lies, lies, and more lies. You almost died together, confessed your love to each other, and survived. And, now, you're lying to him. A soft growl leaves her lips on accident as she reaches up to rub her temple.
"You alright, lass?"
"Yeah. Just a slight headache." Another lie. She screams at herself in her head to stop.
"So, remember when we were speaking outside the Flagon, just before the courier came?" Bryn brings up.
Her insides turn to stone. "Yeah…"
"You were asking me if I've ever done something I regret."
She sees him watch her in her peripheral vision. But she doesn't reply.
"I have." He sighs when she doesn't speak. Iris watches him rub the back of his neck, shifting the horse's bridle to one hand. "About two or three months ago, I met someone," he starts.
Iris finally turns her head to look at him in confusion.
"She was beautiful, mysterious, looked like the type entangled in illegal affairs. I gave her a little test, which she passed effortlessly."
She huffs in frustration. "Bryn—" she begins to protest. He's talking about her.
But he talks over her. "I convinced her to join the Guild. She did because I had given her a taste of what we did." He swallows. "A month passed, and we had grown close. Mercer decided to recruit her for a job and left. Headed to somewhere called Snow Veil Sanctum."
Iris clenches her jaw, knowing where this is going.
"She didn't come back. Because she was dead. Killed by a traitor." Bryn shakes his head. "I regretted recruiting her, then. I wished that I could turn back time and let her peruse the market without interruption. I wished that I could stop her from catching my attention. I–I wanted to trade. I wished that it was me who was killed instead of her. And it was my fault because I convinced her to join. I even prayed to the Gods, said 'Take me instead.' I wished I had never met her, because I had led her to her death." He finally looks at her. "That was my biggest regret, love."
"That wasn't your fault, Bryn," she mutters.
"In a roundabout way it was. If you hadn't joined the Guild, you never would have gone with Mercer."
"But then I never would have met you." She looks away, shaking her head. "I'd be worse off, I know it." Maybe she'd be in the Dark Brotherhood.
"In any case, I felt responsible. And I replayed that moment in the market over and over, wishing I could travel back and stop myself. But…you're here now. You're still here." He sighs, rubbing his eyes.
She knows he's waiting for her to reciprocate. For her to tell him about what she did. She knows she should, but she can't get herself to open her mouth. "I–I don't want to talk about it, Bryn," she finally says, her shoulder sagging. "Maybe another time, but I just…I don't want to get into it right now."
He frowns but nods, unknowingly breaking her heart with his understanding. "Alright, lass."
What would Bryn do if he found out about all Iris's lies?
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