Darkness.
It's like a fog. Its tendrils are searching, spreading, winding, constricting.
Choking.
It's everywhere.
There's no sound, no thought.
A light flares. Red light, like the last breath of the embers of a dying fire, begins to seep into the fog. The fog steams, recoils.
There's a shape in the glow. A woman. Old. A hooked nose protrudes like a beak from her face and above it, cruel eyes glitter.
She has a switch.
Grelod.
The woman stalks forward with the switch gripped tightly in one hand.
"Issana..." she whispers. Her voice is cold. "I know you're in here. Come out!" Her eyes flash and she raps the switch gently across her palm. "Or you'll get double the thrashing."
She smiles. "There you are. Good girl."
SNAP
Pain makes white lightning flash through the sky.
SNAP
A cry. A whimper.
SNAP
SNAP
SNAP
Lightning tears the sky apart with each swing. Grelod's dark shape is illuminated like some kind of terrible angel, black against the light yet ringed with white fire. She stretches her arms wide.
But they aren't arms anymore. They're wings. Grelod is gone, replaced by a monstrous silhouette. The wings beat the air once, twice, three times and the beast rises into the lightning-filled sky.
It plunges. Fire roars from its jaws, boiling away the last of the darkness with a stream of orange light. The heat burns.
And it is gone. The darkness returns. Silence is unbroken.
Steel rasps from a sheath.
And suddenly Mercer lunges from the dark. His sword thrusts forward.
Pain.
Falling.
Falling.
Falling...
"Watch her! She's waking up!"
The room was blurry, filled with fog. Points of light blossomed into existence nearby, painfully bright, and the room seemed to shift and whirl with every second.
"Issana? Issana, can you hear me?"
Issana shut her eyes against the bright light.
She opened them again. The room was a little clearer.
"Issana?"
A few more times and the room cleared. Issana tilted her head slightly to look at the speaker.
"Kar... Karliah?"
The dark elf nodded.
"Where... Where am I?"
"In Windhelm," said a voice. It was a man's voice. "The White Phial. I owed Karliah a favor."
Issana looked the other way and saw a young man, maybe in his mid-thirties, sitting in a chair. A few empty vials sat on a table in front of him, along with several sprigs of dried plant.
"What's the White Phial?" Issana sat up slightly to get a better look at her surroundings and hissed with pain.
"What's the White Phial?" exclaimed an indignant voice. An elderly elf leaned around the doorframe, his green-brown skin well-worn with age. "You don't-"
The young man raised his hands placatingly. "It's all right, master. She was only asking about the shop."
The elf scowled and ducked out of sight.
"Shop?" Issana said
The man nodded. "The White Phial is an alchemy shop. Nurelion - who you just met - has owned it for decades. I came here to study under him. He's..." He have a little chuckle. "He's not the best teacher. My name is Quintus, by the way."
"How did I get here?"
Quintus glanced over at Karliah. "I think she can answer that better than I can."
Karliah nodded. "The poison on my arrow saved your life. It kept you from bleeding out while I dragged you back here."
"But... you shot me."
"I shot the first person who came through the door. It should have been Mercer. But that bastard is just as treacherous as ever."
Issana opened her mouth to speak but the pain in her chest made her stop. She saw Karliah and Quintus exchange meaningful stares.
"I should probably explain from the beginning," Karliah said. She leaned back against the wall with her arms crossed. "I smeared that arrowhead with a paralytic poison. It was supposed to incapacitate Mercer so I could drag him back to the Guild and expose him. But I hit you instead. At that point I knew I couldn't beat him; that first shot was what I'd counted on. So I fled. I hoped Mercer would think you were dead, but he wanted to be sure. Unfortunately."
"Put his blade through your heart, your right lung and you don't even want to know what else," said Quintus. "Karliah's poison kept you sedated so you didn't bleed to death. She got you back here in time for me to apply some healing salves. I have to admit, I didn't think you'd make it."
"She still might not," said Karliah.
Quintus shrugged. "She's awake. That's a start."
Issana shifted painfully in the bed and frowned. Something felt... odd. She peered under the sheets.
She was wearing three sets of bandages, and nothing else. "I'm not wearing any clothes..."
Quintus laughed loudly. "Kid, I've been staring at your guts for two weeks. The stuff on the outside doesn't really matter."
"Two weeks?" Issana exclaimed. She winced as the outburst sent pain lancing through her chest.
Quintus nodded. "It's been tough work keeping you alive. We've kept asleep so you wouldn't make it harder."
"But I'm recovering?"
"I think so. Karliah's not too sure, but then she's a thief and I'm an alchemist, so it is what it is."
Issana rolled slightly to look at Karliah. "Why did you bring me back here?"
"I need you alive."
"Why?"
Karliah glanced over at Quintus. The man rose and left the room. "Mercer escaped," said Karliah. "He'll tell everyone that I killed you, make you a martyr and turn everyone there against me. You can expose him."
Issana snorted and lay her head back on the pillow. "Right. I should have guessed. Mercer's using me to turn the Guild against you and you want to use me to turn the Guild against him. I'm just another piece in the game."
"Don't compare me to him," snapped Karliah. "I want justice. And yes, you're my way to get it. But don't think that I'm just like Mercer. That bastard killed Gallus and I mean to see him pay for it."
"So that's what really happened?" Issana said. "Mercer killed Gallus and blamed you? Why?"
"Mercer was stealing money from the Guild. A little here, a lot there. Gallus caught onto him. We... used to use Snow Veil Sanctum as a meeting place - Gallus, Mercer and I. Gallus had his guard down." Karliah closed her eyes for a moment. "But Mercer will pay. We'll expose everything he's done, and when the Guild sees what he's done, I'll put an arrow in his heart." She looked towards the door. "Quintus!"
Quintus reappeared in the room. "Make something stronger," said Karliah. "I want her ready to ride within a week."
Quintus raised an eyebrow. "A week?"
"Fine, two. Just make sure she's ready to go. I don't want her dying on me halfway to Riften."
Issana grimaced as pain pulsed through her body. "Yes, I'd hate to be a nuisance that way."
Karliah glared at her. "Look, kid. I didn't save you for some mysterious bout of altruism. I need you to expose Mercer. Deal with it."
Issana let her head fall back onto the pillow. I know. You don't need to keep reminding me.