I walked back in, and there stood Brynjolf, looking ready. "Are you ready?" I asked him. "Yep." He responded. Mercer walked us over to his table, where he told us where we were supposed to go. I saluted him, then walked out. We climbed out, and walked out of the city walls. We walked there in complete silence, until we got to Goldenglow. We snuck, and I drew a bow, and he drew his daggers.
I climbed up into a tree a little ways off the island to scope the area. The place was crawling with mercenaries. I looked all the way around, and there were about two on each of the four little lookout posts they had. I felt a strange presence in the back of my mind as I said "I could easily pick them all off from here." Immediately after that, I heard Brynjolf's voice in the back of my mind. "How did I hear that? She's too far away."
My eyes grew as big as quarters, and I thought "How did I hear you?" I was talking directly to him now. I felt his mind go haywire, as I'm sure mine was as well. "I… Can hear your thoughts?" He said to me. "And I can hear yours." I said with the same level of shock. We sat for a moment in stunned silence, and I could feel him deducting, as was I. "Wait, maybe we could use this to our advantage." I thought to him in a tactical tone. "Exactly what I was thinking." He thought back to me.
"Alright, listen." I started. "How about this: There are a bunch of them out on little lookout posts. I could pick them off, and keep us quiet. Then, I'll send you in. Since I have such a good view of the whole place, I'll be able to see others long before they see you, and could warn you before they get too close. You'd be in there in no time. Once you're in front of the door, I'll come up, then follow you in and watch your back. Sound like a good plan?"
I could practically feel him grin. "Oh, this is gonna be fun." He thought enthusiastically. I laughed in my head, and said "Alright, give me about thirty seconds to pick these bastards off." He immediately retorted "Thirty seconds? There's no way in Oblivion." – "Are you willing to make a wager?" I thought to him warningly. He laughed and thought "Damn right I am. I'll put 50 Septims on it." – "You're on. Starting… Now!" I thought aloud.
` I immediately drew an arrow, and shot the first in the chest. I had an arrow in the other's head too fast for him to even turn to his partner. I followed the same pattern, never missing a mark. I came to the last one, and thought "Done." As I looked around to see if I'd caught anyone's attention. Not one person seemed to notice. I grinned to myself, and thought "How long was that?" Knowing he counted. "Thirty-two seconds." He thought with a snarky tone. "You're pulling my leg right now." I thought. "Nope." He thought shortly. "Son of a bitch! I thought I had it…" I thought dramatically.
He laughed aloud, and I could've sworn in may've been out loud too. "I wa-has kidding! You ma-hade it! Ha, ha, ha!" I chuckled, and said "Oh, you're a funny little bastard, you know that?" He laughed even harder at my snarky comment. "Alright, you start making your way to the estate, and I'll keep a bird's-eye view." I said shortly. "Alright. See you on the other side, lass." He said as he went around the building.
He was making his way to a tree, and I saw someone turn in his direction. "Don't move, lad. Don't move." I drew back my bow, and watched the person. There was no one nearby, and he hadn't caught the attention of anyone else. He started walking in Brynjolf's direction, and I shot him down in a split second. "Threat eliminated. You may proceed." – "Yes sir, Commander Sir." He thought in a snarky tone. No matter how hard I tried to hold my thoughts back, I let my thoughts reveal I thought it was funny.
He chuckled, and thought in a teasing tone: "Now lass, it's not smart to try and hide things from someone in your head." – "Shut up." As soon as he said that, I came to the realization that it was a weakness as well as a useful trick. He was inside my head. He could hear my every thought, even the ones I kept locked up tight. I was vulnerable to him, and that was something I sure as hell was not used to. On instinct, I began to panic.
"He knows… He knows… Oh, Father Sithis, he knows…" I just kept repeating in my head. He can hear my thoughts. He knows my deepest, darkest thoughts. He knows… What happened. But, no one is supposed to know about that. I locked that up a long time ago, never to bring it back up. The images of that night went through my head, of the bandits coming into my home and robbing us blind. I was awoken by the sound of my father's battle cry…