To the one person who reviewed the story last time: Thankyou! And as a reward, the Bosmer kid is back. And he has a name.
Imperial City, Cyrodil, Heartfire 3E 432
The next day, Lettie woke up at a normal time. She had slept all the way through the night, had had no extraordinary dreams and had appetite enough for the fruit breakfast she normally had. She walked over the bridge as normal and asked Aelwin if he wanted her to freeze any fish, as normal. He didn't, so she walked back along the bridge and wandered around the Imperial city, waiting to get excited. She didn't.
It was all so Mara-mother-mild fetching normal! She should have not been able to sleep a wink. She should have fallen asleep just hours before dawn, and dreamed amazing dreams the whole time. She should have had butterflies in her stomach. She shouldn't have been able to contain her excitement. She should have had some excitement to contain.
She caught up with Erica just after midday, and together they bought some bread and apples at the Feed Bag. Walking back across Green Emperor Way, Lettie explained her plight.
"It's jus' not right!" she said agitatedly, "I should be really, really excited, but I'm just not."
Erica seemed to consider this. "Well," she said through a mouthful of bread, "Maybe it just means you're born to do this."
"What d'you mean?"
"Well, the people who've been doing it, like, forever, they just act like it's normal, and they're really good at what they do," she chose her words carefully, being deliberately vague in awareness of the Imperial guards nearby, "So perhaps...perhaps you're already there."
She paused. "That make sense to you?"
Lettie remained unconvinced. Erica abandoned cheering her up by logical argument, and went straight to cheering her up by lifting her up onto her shoulders and running with her.
"Hey! Put me down!" Lettie screeched, but she was laughing. Erica carried her all the way to Lake Rumare, at which point she announced that they were going to pick primrose leaves for Lettie to chew.
They ambled along, looking for signs of the pink and purple flowers. There were plenty among the rocks at the edge of the water. Lettie made a point of ripping the flowers to shreds, to make perfectly clear to any observers that she was picking them for purely practical reasons. Talos forbid anyone think she was doing anything even vaguely girly.
Erica was just recounting for the billionth time her disastrous first heist, clearly with the intentions of showing Lettie that no matter how badly she might mess up, it would never compare to what she did. She hadn't actually broken any of the rules, but it was only Armand's unwillingness to stray from them that meant she wasn't thrown out.
"So anyway," she said briskly, "I was really nervous before mine, honestly, so yours will probably..." She was interrupted by a cry of "BOO!", and a small brown figure shot out at them from behind a bush. It was Taelondir. He was 9 now, but since mer lifetimes differed from humans, he could still have been the 5 year old boy they used to play hide-and-go-away with.
"Oh go away, Taelondir," Erica said in exaggerated irritation.
"Whatcha doin'?" he inquired, gesturing to the leaves that Lettie was currently chewing.
"'S for luck." She said simply.
Taelondir giggled. "That's silly, that is! You can't get lucky from eating flowers!"
"You can," Lettie protested, "I know, 'cause I heard where this mage up at the university did an experiment, and he found out that it's true. So there!"
Taelondir turned to Erica for the final judgement. As the eldest present, she had Word of the Gods.
"Yeah, that's right." She decreed, and Taelondir shrugged and went back to playing with a couple of Dunmer children.
"Is that true?" Erica asked Lettie as they walked on.
"'Course it is, I know 'cause I heard some blokes from the University saying it. I was outside The Main Ingredient and I heard them say it." Lettie paused as if looking for more cement for her argument, "And I know they was from the University, 'cause they were wearing the robes and everything. They was blue!" This seemed to impress Erica.
The two of them walked along, alternatively mocking and admiring the mysterious blue-clad fellows. Erica spotted a mud-crab scuttling along the waters' edge, clicking its pincers. Lettie killed it with a fireball, and after much bashing it against rocks Erica managed to prise the shell open and expose the pink meat inside. It was already a little cooked from Lettie's spell.
The two of them headed off to the cluster of homes to find someone to suggest what to do with it. Oddly enough, they found Marc and Florrie in one of the shacks. Usually they would be out and about in the city, or over at the Bloated Float, teasing the Altmer proprietor. But today they were sat cross-legged, counting their lock-picks. Bundles of the curved, metal things lay between them.
"Hey Marc," Lettie said, sitting down next to them.
Erica sat down as well, the opened shell lying across her long legs, and said "Look what we got, boys."
"Hey!" Lettie said indignantly, "I was the one who got it! I got it with a fireball."
"Well I was the one who heard it," Erica retorted, "If I hadn't been there it would've chopped your toes off and you'd've never seen."
Lettie turned to her bemused looking brothers.
"Anyway, can we eat it?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.
"'Course not. You can't get a decent meal from one crab. Erica can go down to the Bloated Float and trade Ormil for a couple of loaves of bread."
Florrie laughed, "Yeah, Ormil's always looking for ways to get more customers. He'll be out there with a bell going 'Catch of the day, catch of the day'!" he jumped up, miming the bell-ringing. Lettie laughed, then realised what Marc had said.
"Why does Erica have to go?"
"'Cause," Marc reached over for a food bag, "You've gotta eat this and then sleep. It's almost dark, and I won't have you falling asleep on the job. Dovyn would love that."
"You mean... we'll be going right after I wake up..?" Lettie began. Both boys laughed at her shocked expression.
"Don't time fly when you're..." Florrie glanced at the scorched and dead crab, "...having fun."
At that moment, Lettie jumped up and yelled in delight, surprising both her brothers and Erica. Apparently aware of the need for an explanation, she said "Erica! Great news! I just got excited."
Then the ecstatic smile that was spreading across her face quickly subsided and he hands fell to her side as she said "Oh great. Now I have to sleep."