The elusive and enigmatic Stormcloak will be making her way into this story in one of the next couple of chapters - I'll try to get them done as soon as. In the meantime, enjoy this one. Also, check out Anna Stormcloak by Jen12040 if you haven't already; it's a fantastic story with a really good feel to it.

I would also like to inform you that this is the last chapter that features Tenebraeus as a 17-year-old. There's going to be a few character development moments in the next one or two chapters, and I think you are going to like them...

Reviews...

Duesal10 - I know! He's finally growing up... Don't get too set on him becoming a fully fledged Nightingale yet... rest assured, complications will arise... or will they? Like I stated, said Stormcloak girl will be coming into the story very soon.

SirAC - Haha, I was really tired... I won't do that on this chapter though - I have a feeling I'll just wince everytime I write it...

There's no competition, both of you give really good feedback!

Panthar Hardraad - Not yet at least, but eventually my friend... eventually... we may have to wait and see ;) I've planned out a lot of the story already

Shoutout to the latest favourite/followers:

.167

Rollinator

notelppa

josh2jer

tobi-mentally insane

Thanks for following, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 14

We stood in the large sewer chamber that contained the Ragged Flaggon, where the only occupants were the usual rats scurrying along near the water. The pub was more or less the same, with the dim lights burning away slowly in the corners, but the main difference of the bar was the lack of the usual drunkards. Where were they? The thought of Mercer floated into my mind. Had he killed them all? No... surely he couldn't have; he's a great thief, and probably a good fighter, but there's limits to everyone - even him. Then again... if they had all been drunk, could they have been more vulnerable to him? Had some of the thieves turned along with Mercer, killing the others who would have opposed his betrayal of Gallus and Karliah?

"Calm down." Karliah spoke softly, seeing my thoughts from my un-hooded face. "There's no bodies." She informed me. No... there wasn't. There wasn't any blood either. I breathed easy, but still felt worry at Brynjolf. I hoped he was okay, him above everyone else. "Well... I suppose this is convenient." Karliah said positively. I turned towards her, unsure of what she meant. "Well, if there were people here, they might had suspected who I was." I faced away from her, not as positive as she was; I wanted to find Brynjolf and make sure he was alright.

I moved forwards through the empty bar, looking over the untouched chairs and tankards. This was too strange. Walking down the familiar tunnel, we came to the storage cabinet. I cursed lowly.

"I don't have a key." I murmured, but Karliah simply reached into her pocket, unlocked the cabinet, and then hit a strong hand into the back, forcing the wood to creak, dust sweeping out from it's opening. "How do you have a key?"

"What, you think Mercer was smart enough to put that in himself?" She scoffed. "It was Gallus' idea." I walked through the cabinet behind her, and we dawdled along the tunnel; I think she was as afraid as I was of what lay on the other side.

"What was he like?" I asked. "Gallus, I mean." She smiled at the thought of him.

"He was fantastic." She said quietly. "He built this guild up from scratch, recruited Mercer first, then Brynjolf, then me."

"So, Mercer was his... protege?" She scoffed again.

"Mercer never relished the role of being the student. He had an inability to learn."

"So, you were his student then?"

"We were all his students." She sighed. "His protege though? No, I was never his protege..." We reached the final door leading to the cistern. "Make your piece with your Gods Tenebraeus Magnus." She instructed to me. I shook my head.

"I don't believe in children's tales anymore."

"You don't believe in the Gods?" She asked, quite surprised.

"I've never seen one." I stated. Karliah chuckled.

"A pupil of Brynjolf and you don't believe in the Gods."

"How do you know I'm a..." She smiled once more. "Right - you just know..." I rolled my eyes, then opened the door to return home.

The cistern was just as I remembered it: dim, grimy, with the four stone bridges meeting at an intersection over the clear pond below. The small, dingy beds lined up against the circular wall. I took a few steps forwards, and saw a series of thieves all stood around Mercer's desk. I looked towards Karliah, grasping the hilt of my sword. She nodded and moved her right hand around to the back of her waist, where the hilt of what must have been a dagger (or very short knife) was barely visable.

One of the hoods looked up at us, and within the next few moments, we were being faced with three thieves - the central one being Vex, who bared her teeth and unsheathed her small knife at the sight of Karliah.

"You better have a damn good reason for standing there traitor." She growled. Karliah remained the statute - her left leg positioned forwards with her right hand creeping around behind her back.

"Please, lower your weapons so we may speak." Karliah spoke, softly but firmly, as if this was their only warning.

"We don't talk with murderers." The hooded thief beside her spat.

"I am no murderer." She stated.

"Of course not." Said the third thief, an arrow notched in his bow. I took a step in front of Karliah, letting go of the hilt of my sword.

"Vex, it's me." I said gently. "Tenebraeus." She looked at me coldly for a while, her eyes glazing over me unfamiliarly.

"You're dead." She said. "She killed you! Mercer told us so!" She turned her fiery orbs back to Karliah.

"I'm alive." I assured her. "Listen, you've all been deceived by a lie." I said to Vex, looking at the other two thieves as well. "Mercer has betrayed us all."

"What?"

"How?"

"What do you mean?" Vex furrowed her brow in complete confusion.

"Mercer was the one who killed Gallus." I told her, her eyes revealing her slow shock. "Gallus found out he was stealing from the Guild, so Mercer killed him. He blamed it on Karliah and assumed control of the Guild."

"But... she tried to kill-" Vex shook her head.

"It was Mercer." I said calmly, stepping towards her. "He stabbed me in Snow Veil Sanctum. Karliah saved me." Vex looked from myself to Karliah. I was about three foot from Vex. "Just let us explain."

"I don't think so." I looked towards the thief with a bow, who's mouth turned into a tight line, drawing the arrow back further and aiming to loose it...

"What in the name of Ysmir do you think you're doing?" The arrow was snatched from the bow, and the archer was thrown up against the wall. "You know who he is! Were you really going to shoot him?" The thief was now silent and quivering at the anger of his superior. "We do not kill our own." He instructed with an excessive amount of enunciation. The archer thief nodded, as the arrow was snapped in two and tossed to the floor. I beamed at the sight of our peacemaker, with his auburn hair knotted down his pale yet warm cheeks, his eyes dancing like fire, seemingly lighting up the entire cistern, and his voice oozed warm honey to my ears. "I knew you were alive lad."

I gripped him tightly as I hugged Brynjolf - I missed him so much. I closed my eyes in relief. He was unharmed. I was a child again - desperately wanting to be hugged by my father. Now it seemed that I had that. Brynjolf hugged me back, whispering a thank-you to the nine and Talos and Ysmir. He looked up from me to Karliah.

"She saved your life?" He asked lowly. I nodded my head. He sighed let out his warm grin. He didn't need to say thank-you - she understood. She had looked after me for Brynjolf, just like I was looking after her now for Enthir.

"I have proof that you have all been misled." Karliah said finally, and all thieves looked to Brynjolf, myself included. He contemplated listening for a moment - she had bought me back alive and safe; that was probably the only reason why he would let her explain. He finally let go of me, allowing my to stand between the two of them.

"No tricks Karliah." He said finally. "Or I'll cut you down where you stand."

All the thieves became more easy, sheathing their blades and gently relaxing their bows, but they all still kept an arrow notched and a hand on their hilts. Karliah and I moved through the cistern and into the centre of the room, where the intersection of the stone bridges met under the bright moonlight. Brynjolf stood ahead of us, at the head of the bridge. I remained behind Karliah, in the darkness as she stood in the harsh whiteness.

"Now, where's this so-called proof you speak of?" Brynjolf asked like a judge. Karliah was on trial, and the Guild were her peers. I felt strange standing beside her - was I too to be judged as a traitor? I was in a state of flux between the thieves and Karliah - dubbed as a betrayer. Karliah straightened up against the low hisses and spits and placed her hands behind her back, almost as if they were chained together... as if this really was a trial.

"I have Gallus' journal." She announced, evoking silence throughout the cistern, save the constant drippings into the pool beneath us, and the occasional scurry of a rat. "I think you'll find it's contents disturbing." I produced the journal and the translation, walking down the stone bridge and handing it to Brynjolf, who, hesitantly, took the journal, turning it over in his hands. He opened it up, examining the paper translation inside. He read it over once, then handed it over to Delvin, a gruff and blunt man, who read took the paper and set it down on Mercer's desk.

Mere moments passed, although with the tension of the thieves, it felt like eras. Every moment was so full - every stench heightened to become so foul as it violated my nose, every drop into the pool loudly intruding into my ear like I was standing next to a waterfall.

"Brynjolf." Delvin said, calling him over and conversing with him quietly.

"Let me see..." Bryjolf moved the translation along the desk, examining it thoroughly. "No..." He finally said, taking an astounded step back from the desk, all attention of the Guild on him. "It... it can't be." He shook his head, which he grabbed with both hands. "This can't be true!" He closed his eyes and held his forehead lightly with his fingers. "I've known Mercer too long..."

"It's true, Brynjolf." Karliah said solemnly. Brynjolf looked up to her, his once warm and shimmering eyes now shattered, glimmering from the water tearing up inside the pained orbs. "Every word." Karliah took a deep breath to avoid her voice trembling any more than it already was - I couldn't have imagined how it felt. Nobody could have anticipated the emotion that would overwhelm her when she finally came back her, having to tell everyone about the crimes of her once-best friend. "Mercer's been stealing from the Guild for years!" She announced to the cistern, sparking murmurs and a few growls. "Right under your noses!" The growls followed by the tensing of bows as I saw an arrow fling towards Karliah. I brought my arm in front of it, sending it spiralling off into the wall of the cistern. The thief was then restrained by others, but the crowds grew angry, the action of one thief invoking chaos and panic amongst the rest. I raised my right hand up beside my face, a ball of blinding fire flitting around my palm, my fingers enclosed around it like a cage while my other hand held my sword backwards, with the pommel snugly tucked beside my thumb.

Every thief dropped their sword or arrow at the quaking voice of Brynjolf, who's once honey-trickling tones had now turned into a fiery chasm of rage and anguish. He looked out amongst the crowds, walking slowly towards Karliah and I.

"You call yourselves members of the Guild?" He asked, anger seething out from his restrained voice. I knew he wasn't talking about myself of Karliah. "We have someone brave enough to risk her own life to help us and you all thank her valiance by attempted murder?" He shouted the last few words across the chamber, his voice rumbling throughout the entirety of the Ratway.

"She would dishonour us!" Said a faceless voice from the darkened crowd.

"You would dishonour yourself!" Brynjolf shouted back at the source of the voice. "Loosing an arrow at someone for making noises that do not please your ears?" He shook his head again, disgusted by the thief. He glanced around, trying to decide what to do. "There is one way to find out if what the lass says is true." He stated, turning back to the desk. "Delvin, I'll need you to open the vault."

"Wait just a blessed moment Bryn," Delvin trailed after Brynjolf, who lead us both through the following crowd towards the pair of heavy and thick steel doors, "I read that book too, but it didn't actually say-"

"It said Mercer's been stealing from our vaults for years. Gallus was looking into it before he was murdered." Brynjolf said quietly, his voice cutting through Delvin's cautious tones like paper.

"Yes, yes I know, but how could Mercer have opened up a vault that needs to keys? It's impossible. Could he pick his way in?" He looked past Brynjolf, towards the other thief that stood beside the door.

"That door has the best puzzle locks money can buy. There's no way it could be picked open." Vex stated, still dazed faintly from the revelations that had just taken place.

"He didn't need to pick the lock." Karliah explained quietly, more to Brynjolf than anyone else - this all must have made perfect sense to her.

"What's she on about?" Delvin asked in his crass voice.

"Use your key on the vault Delvin." Brynjolf commanded. "We'll open it up and find out the truth."

Delvin stood staring at Brynjolf for a few seconds, until he finally grumbled and stomped his way towards the steel doors to the vault, mumbling to himself as he did so. He took out the key and jammed it into the door with loud clunks, turning it around twice, then counterclockwise once.

"There, I've used my key and the vault's still locked up tighter than a drum between a priest's legs." He grouchily made his way back to us. "Now yours." He said to the taller thief, who marched towards the doors, sliding his own key into the door and repeating Delvin's actions.

We all held our breath, my hand stood ready on my sword, ready to cut down anyone who attacked myself or Karliah, should the vault be full. It couldn't be... I was sure of it - I was positive. It was only logical...

But I didn't feel like I was right.

"By the Nine!" I snapped my head up towards the vault, both doors open and Brynjolf standing inside. "It's gone!" He shouted back to us. "Everything's gone! Get in here, all of you!" We all dashed inside, a few thieves having to stand in the doorway to see the vaults now.

The chests were turned upside down, the baskets and barrels strewn across the floor, with not even a single coin left. He had taken everything. I picked up one of the baskets, checking to see if he had left anything - nothing. I dropped the basket and looked over to Brynjolf. He shook his head, eyes closed and lips trembling. I couldn't tell if he was angry or sad, but I felt anger. I hated Mercer. I hated him for using me, I hated him for killing Gallus, I hated him for betraying Karliah, I hated him for stabbing me, but most of all, I detested him for betraying Brynjolf - the best being alive. I clenched my fists, and felt my hands begin to burn brightly. I felt them being to crackle at the thought of Mercer, spending all the money we had ever spent - the coins we would never recover. I clenched my jaw as I felt my palms beginning to sweat. The corners of my view began to blur and merge into the surroundings, a yellow haze encroaching. He must be so smug now, thinking he had gotten away with it...

I felt a hand rest heavily upon my shoulder, and looked up to see Delvin standing there.

"Hold your thoughts 'til after we untangle this mess." He muttered into my ear. Right... I needed to stay calm - control my emotions, and my magic. I took a few deep breaths, closing my eyes and focusing and nothing but the blackness... my hands relaxed and I opened my eyes, everything returning to their normal colours again. I nodded my thanks to Delvin, and tried not to think about... him.

It seemed no one had noticed my almost-outburst, and were still infuriated with the robbery.

"The gold... the jewels... it's all gone!"

"He's taken it all!"

"He betrayed us!"

"She was right..."

"He stole it all!"

"He did kill Gallus!"

"If I ever see him again..."

"That son of a bitch." Growled Vex. "I'm going to kill him!"

"Vex." Brynjolf spoke, now calm and firm, composed again. "Put it away - right now." Vex complied and leant against the wall, trying to exhale her rage. "We can't afford to lose our heads." He informed the rest of us. "We need to calm down and focus." Vex looked down at the floor, glaring in defiance.

"Do what he says Vex." Said Delvin softly (or as softly as he could speak with his accent). "This isn't helping right now." Vex turned around and thundered out of the vault and into the cistern, leaving only myself, Brynjolf, Devlin, Karliah and a handful of the other thieves. I made to follow her, but Brynjolf stopped me.

"Let her be lad. She needs to be alone." He looked back to Delvin. "Delvin, take some of the others and watch the Flagon. If you see Mercer, come tell me right away." He then turned back to me. "I'm going to need to sort this out. I'll talk to you later." He then walked away with Karliah, Delvin walking away with the thieves, leaving me standing on my own once more.

I looked around the room silently, trying to control my fury at the thought of Mercer taking everything. I couldn't be in here anymore... I felt like Mercer's dirt would catch onto me at any moment. I walked out of the room and stood for a moment, trying to focus. I needed to distract myself...

I followed the thieves out into the Flagon, took a large reserve of Mead from behind the bar and continued to drink myself to an early sleep in my bed back in the cistern, the thoughts of Mercer clouding my mind, only to be later replaced with thoughts and dreams of my inevitable revenge.

Pretty dark right? I found a lot of faults with this part of the game, and thought that the return of someone like Karliah would be a lot more intense than just a simple "no tricks Karliah." I mean... really? Anyway, I hope I made it more dramatic and tense, since I've written several pages already. You know what? I'm actually quite pleased with that - about five minutes of gameplay turned into seven pages...

Anyway, if you've endured this chapter to here, you've reached the first ever instance of...

APPLICATION TIME

Hello, hello there, and welcome to APPLICATION TIME!

So, what with my story writing, and making you wait for the young Ms. Stormcloak, I've decided to put in another OC into this story - and that OC can be created by you.

Just PM me, or leave a review, giving me the age, name, looks, clothes, weapons, magic, background, personality yadayadayada and I will choose at least a few lucky people who will have their characters incorporated into the story. Whether they're a thief, or a bar patron, or even a sailor or blacksmith or whatever, they will make it into the story... somehow. It might just be in one scene, and it might even turn out that they're a main character - you never know. Anyway, I look forward to reading your applications - I want you guys to be invested in this story as much as possible!