For a while, Vex and the wood elf just stared each other down. The Imperial was trying to think of when the elf had taken her own coin purse; it had obviously been before the elf had crossed her arms, but why hadn't Vex sensed it?
Further, had she really been slower taking the elf's coin purse? Had the elf's mention of Bosmeri carnivores and cannibalism been her way of trying to shake Vex - by mentioning something just about everyone detested talking about?
Either way, the Imperial was equally impressed and infuriated. It was she who started toward the elf - and it was the elf who ran away from Vex.
The Imperial wasn't going to let the elf slip away, though; she gave chase, and tried to catch up to her... but dammit, she was fast. Just slightly faster than Vex, and seemingly content to flaunt that fact. Three times, she slowed down just enough to make Vex think she was tiring, and then she picked up her pace again, forcing the Imperial to push herself to the limit.
Eventually, though, the Imperial's stamina ran out, and she found her hands on her knees, all while gasping for breath. She glanced around; the elf had given her the run around Riften, but now she was...
"Vex?" The voice belonged to Brynjolf, and made the blonde thief realize the elf had left her in the dust - and in the marketplace, besides. "Is everything-"
"Bitch... stole my coin purse..." Vex managed, determined not to look at the red-haired Nord. "Got hers... in turn, but..."
He laughed quietly, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Now that's a fun-"
"Hands off," she snapped, a bit too sharply. She glanced at him a moment when he pulled his hand from her shoulder, and shook her head. "Sorry... just... irritated..."
"I can imagine so." He gestured to his stand - from which Vex knew he ran his scams. From the largely successful - and equally fraudulent - Wisp Essence, to his latest, the Falmerblood Elixir... she'd been privy to each one by now.
Still, the green-blue bottles adorning his stand now were obviously not Falmerblood Elixir. More out of curiosity, she gestured wordlessly to them.
"Hm? Ah." Brynjolf took on his most neutral expression yet, so as not to give away what was clearly a scam. "Dwarven Draught. One bottle, and you will learn all of the secrets of the ancient Dwemer in one night - even if you don't understand all of it immediately."
She allowed a small smile at this. "Well, at least you're halfway truthful with this one," she murmured so quietly, only he would hear.
"I doubt anyone will ever understand how they worked," he confessed in an undertone to her, accompanied with a wink, "but not everyone thinks as you and I." His expression turned somber. "So... how have things been since you...?"
"Left?" She sighed heavily, and shook her head dejectedly. "Not easy. Theft is all I know anymore, and without the Guild..." She stared up at the sky. "It's a joke for me to even try stealing anything. No one buys, and it just feels... strange."
Brynjolf frowned at these words. "Mercer doesn't miss you, but the rest of us do. Even the new girl, who you never actually spoke with, misses you. Can't say the same for her friend, but you know..." He gave a light shrug. "All told, we want you back-"
"As long as Mercer's in charge, the Guild can go to-" She held her tongue, and let the word 'Oblivion' transform into a heavy sigh. "I'm not going back, Bryn. I won't. As long as he's there, the Guild doesn't need me. If he's so much better than me, he can prove it," she said bitterly.
"The way he treated you was wrong, aye, but you endured-"
"Wait until he starts hitting you," she interrupted him. "Wait until he starts calling everything you do a failure, starts calling you 'obsolete' to the Guild. Then, and only then, will you understand why I decided to leave. I had enough, Bryn; I'm not a masochist. I refuse to return to the Cistern every evening, only to have him hit me, belittle me, and just otherwise make me feel..." She bit her lower lip for a moment. "...Like I'm a worthless, good-for-nothing... bitch, I don't know."
He regarded her with forlorn eyes. "You were one of the best damn thieves I've ever seen," he finally said. "It's a shame you'll be going down the straight and narrow, most likely; if the Guild ever picks up again, you'll be on our 'hit list', if you steal anything from-"
"I know how it used to work, Bryn, and I know how it'll work if the Guild does recover," she interrupted. "And I also know that my life as a thief is probably over, yeah. I just... don't know what else to do."
"I wish I could say with certainty that you'd be welcome back at the Guild, but that's Mercer's decision, not mine, and..." He looked away from her. "...So, I guess this is... farewell, eh lass?"
"Seems that way," she replied, voice cracking a little. Hearing it said so simply... it hurt more than she'd thought it would. Without thinking, she hugged Brynjolf, who seemed surprised at first, but gently returned it shortly after the shock wore off. "I'm going to miss everyone except Mercer, so... if you could tell everyone else 'farewell' for me..."
"Aye." He reached up and gave the top of her head a small pat, then let go of her. "You take care, Vex. We're all going to miss you. If you're ever in the area again, don't be afraid to visit us - even if it's just to talk, to share stories about whatever adventures you get up to."
She managed a small smile, and reached up to wipe her eyes lightly. "Thanks. Though I don't foresee myself adventuring."
He picked up one of the green-blue bottles and winked at her. "Learn Dwemeri secrets?" he said with a joking tone.
She rolled her eyes with a half-grin at her lips now. "Nice try. I know how you work, Bryn." She turned away from him.
"It was worth a try," he said innocently.
"Was it?" She began to walk away, toward the northern gate; she waved over her shoulder. "Take care of them, Bryn. Don't let him do to the others what he did to me."
As she sat at the docks, a bottle of typical Nordic mead in her hands - with only a couple sips taken from it - Vex wondered, not for the first time, what she'd do now. Her best talents were infiltrating places, and theft. Could she make a living as a scout, or spy, then?
She gently swirled the mead in its bottle, eyes watching the waters; twice, her gaze flicked up to Goldenglow Estate, the place that had all but condemned her within the Guild. As much as she hated that fact, she felt... liberated, at the same time. Perhaps too much so. She no longer had to answer to Mercer, or anyone else. Did she want it to stay that way? Did she want to stay independent, or did she want someone to give her work, as the Guild had done?
She brought the bottle to her lips, but didn't take a sip. It was odd; she'd bought the mead so she could get drunk and forget her troubles, but now... now, she didn't want to.
Perhaps it was the fact that she'd bought mead in the first place that got to her the most. She was used to stealing it from everywhere else but the Ragged Flagon. Not only had she bought it, she'd bought it with the elf's money, not her own.
Her expression darkened, and rather than a sip, she took a few long moments to just drink from the bottle. The wood elf. She had taken Vex's coin purse without the Imperial knowing it, and had done so before Vex had even taken the elf's purse. And then there was the fact that she hadn't seemed all that troubled by it; in fact, she'd seemed... amused. Like it had been some sort of game to her, to both steal and be stolen from at the same time. She had also been faster, and had readily lost Vex when the Imperial had tired out.
She was probably long gone already. Vex would never see her own coin purse again. To Oblivion with the coin; it was the purse itself that had some sentimental value to the Imperial. She'd taken the opportunity to examine the elf's coin purse, and had found it to be nothing out of the ordinary; even so, she wondered if the elf also had an emotional attachment to her own. She didn't seem to, not the way she'd run away from Vex.
The elf had less coin than Vex's coin purse held, which meant that in effect, the Imperial had 'lost out'. The elf had, in essence, robbed Vex successfully. The feeling of being defeated at a 'game' she was so familiar with playing irked Vex, and she finished the bottle of mead without a second thought.
"Well now... someone's looking lonely." The voice was only very, very vaguely familiar, and sounded jovial and friendly. Hearing it, however, made Vex twitch, and she glanced over her shoulder.
It was the wood elf, standing behind the Imperial with a hand on her hip - resting just above Vex's coin purse. She wore a smile, as well as the same armor she'd worn when they'd first bumped into each other.
"Go away," Vex muttered.
"It's nice to see you again, too," the elf commented, sitting down next to Vex. She extended a bottle of... something toward the Imperial. "I got you something."
"With my coin?" Vex retorted.
"And how did you pay for yours?" the elf replied with a wink.
The Imperial had no retort to that, and took the bottle offered to her. She opened it, sniffed it cautiously - she wasn't putting it past this elf to try and drug her - then took a sip.
Water. Just plain old water, probably from a river or some such.
"So, imagine my surprise when I find out you're every bit the thief I am," the elf mused.
"No." Vex lowered the bottle of water from her lips, prompting the elf to quirk a brow. "You're..." She wanted to say 'better', and give the elf the truth... but she also wanted to say she was 'worse', and make herself feel better - and possibly delude herself into believing it, in the process. Rather than finish the statement either way, she simply gave a heavy sigh.
The Bosmer chuckled quietly. "In the end, it doesn't matter who took whose coin purse first; all that matters is that we took each other's." She reached for Vex' purse, and after unfastening it from her belt, extended it toward the Imperial. "Here."
Vex blinked. Was a thief really returning stolen property, and willingly? "Who put you up to this?" she finally asked.
"I did." She gestured to her own purse, tied to Vex' waist. "I want mine back, of course."
"You have less than I did-"
"True, but it's still mine, and this is still yours." She smiled softly. "Or is 'honor among thieves' just a figure of speech that has no truth behind it whatsoever?"
Vex reached out to snatch her coin purse back, and looked irritated when the elf pulled it away.
"Ah ah ah... we trade at the same time." She gestured to her own coin purse again. "Yours for mine."
The Imperial unfastened the coin purse at her own waist, and swapped it with the wood elf's prize simultaneously. "There, you've got yours back. Now leave me alone," she grumbled.
The Bosmer frowned a little at the words, and fastened her coin purse at her side gently. "I didn't come here simply to exchange coin purses," she said after a time. "We're both thieves, after all. Neither of us has any affiliation with the Guild... true?"
Vex wondered, for but a moment, if the elf had heard the entire conversation she'd had with Brynjolf, to be saying such a thing with such confidence.
"So, that puts us both in very... tenuous positions. We are not with the Guild, but theft comes naturally to us. They would come down on our heads if we tried to lift anything alone, and without their permission..."
"Are you here to talk my ears off?" Vex grumbled.
"I'm here to make you an offer." The elf dangled her legs over the edge of the dock. "You see, there's something I need to retrieve... but I don't know if-"
"Not interested," Vex said flatly. "The Guild will come down on you hard if word reaches them that you're stealing outside of their authori-"
"Did you know that there exist fences outside of the Guild?" the Bosmer interrupted. "I might feel inclined to introduce you to a couple... but you'll have to help me with this first."
The thought of having a fence - two, at that - available to her stirred Vex's interest, but she didn't show it outwardly. "What's this offer, then? Be quick about it."
"No. If I tell you before you agree to help, there's a chance you'll pretend you aren't interested, but then you'll go after-"
"'Honor among thieves'," Vex echoed, glancing at the elf.
"Says the thief who tried to take her coin purse back without exchanging. Ironic." The elf gazed out over the water now. "Give me your word you'll help me with this, and I'll tell you more. I don't like weak-willed partners, or people who try to stiff their partners."
Vex found that somewhat funny, considering it was a thief talking about stiffing partners... and yet, at the same time, she also knew that it was that precise reason the elf was saying it. Even so, she wasn't sure about the elf yet. She knew she was a skilled pickpocket - possibly better than Vex, even - but did that necessarily make her trustworthy?
She didn't seem to have patience, that was for certain - for she was standing with a sigh now. "Perhaps I was wrong about you," she muttered. "I thought you lived and breathed theft."
"I do," Vex said defensively. "It's not a matter of being afraid of the job, it's a matter of 'can I trust you?'."
"Of course you can. The real question is, do you want to?" The Bosmer looked down at the Imperial, who turned her gaze up to the elf in turn.
"...I want to, yes, but I'm going to be honest... you didn't do much to instill the greatest of trust."
"I could say the same of you, and yet here I am making you an offer."
This was true, and Vex knew it. She broke the elf's gaze, and looked out at Goldenglow again. "...Alright, you have my word I'll help you with... whatever this task of yours is."
"Glad to hear it." The elf extended a hand toward Vex. "Before I continue, perhaps we ought to introduce ourselves." She smiled lightly. "Call me Vess."
The Imperial blinked at the name, and chuckled quietly. "Odd. I go by Vex."
Vess' smile turned into a grin. "Very odd. Perhaps it's fate of some sort?"
Vex reached out and took the elf's hand, shaking it gently. "So, what's this job of yours that you need help with?"
A.N. - Short chapter is short. The first one was kind of short, too. This, of course, is in comparison to the chapters in Flames.
I'm suffering a stint of writer's block with All In. I've started writing the third chapter, but for now, I'm not completely sure how to advance it. Not that it's impossible, I'm just not sure how to do it in a convincing manner. I'll figure something out, though.
Have you ever woken up and had the most random thought ever give way to what could be a fun mod idea for Skyrim? Happened to me yesterday afternoon, after I'd dozed off. I woke up and, for whatever reason, was thinking of auction houses. The very next thought I had was 'auction houses in Skyrim'. And then, as I tend to do with such random thoughts, I analyzed it... and thought 'if that was done right, I think that could be a badass mod'. I'm not sure if it would be script intensive or not - and I'm reasonably sure such a mod is far beyond my capabilities at present - but it is something I'd like to pursue. It would go something like this...
You would be allowed to participate in auctions for a wide variety of items, to be determined by an RNG of sorts. This could range from clutter, like cups/plates/jugs, to higher-end equipment, like Daedric/Glass armor. NPCs would take part as well, giving the feel of competition for these items. You could also put things up for auction, and possibly get more than their actual value back as profit! Don't want to pay for them? Thieves may rejoice! You could take the items from a storage facility (a warehouse) or from the auction house itself if you feel particularly daring! REALLY want the item you lost to that lucky bastard that outbid you? You might be able to find it in their home... ;)
And of course, it wouldn't be a SKyrim mod if it didn't sell rare items that, upon receiving (whether by purchase or theft), triggered quests...
That said, the premise of the mod means there's a LOT of work to be put into it. I don't really even know where to START, but this is something I wouldn't mind pursuing, because I do think there's potential for something here.
I'll see, I guess.
-Spiritslayer
