"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Faendal asked tersely as they set Joi on Karliah's bedroll.
"We can sit here and talk about what happened or we can save her," she answered curtly. "Now, help me get her armor off."
Faendal produced a dagger and quickly sliced through Joi's Guild armor. She would kill him for that when she came to her senses.
If, a small voice said. No. He crushed that rebellious thought. When she woke up. When.
Karliah trickled a healing potion onto the wound. Faendal stood nearby, waiting to see if he could help in any way. After several minutes, she stepped back, tucking a escaped strand of air into her hood.
"That's all I can do for now."
"Will it be enough?" Faendal asked anxiously.
Karliah cast a worried glance at the sleeping Dragonborn, her usually dark gray skin ashen. "It'll have to be."
"F—Faendal?" Joi asked sluggishly, breaking him from his trance.
"You're alright!" he exclaimed joyfully. "How do you feel?"
"Like I was shot with a poisoned arrow and stabbed," she said.
Faendal cracked a smile. "That seems about right." Then he grew serious. "You should have let me come with you," he reprimanded.
Joi closed her eyes and her lips quirked. "Where would the fun have been in that?" she remarked humorously.
"You wouldn't have almost died!" Faendal objected.
"Such is the life of the Dragonborn," she lamented with a smirk. "Destined to almost die daily. Makes for quite the adrenaline rush."
"This is serious!"
Joi sighed, and spotted Karliah. She moved to get up, stumbling over a wave of nausea before she could even take a step.
Karliah steadied her. "Easy, easy. Don't get up so quickly. How are you feeling?"
"How do you think I'm feeling? You shot me!" Joi accused heatedly.
"No," Karliah corrected. "I saved your life. My arrow was tipped with a unique paralytic poison. It slowed your heart and kept you from bleeding out. Had I intended to kill you, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"What? W-why?" Joi asked, stunned. "Why would you save me?"
"My original intention was to use that arrow on Mercer, but I never had a clear shot. I made a split second decision to get you out of the way and it prevented your death."
"Then . . . I'm in your debt," Joi replied.
"More than you'll ever realize," Karliah responded modestly. "The poison on that arrow took me a year to perfect. I only had enough for a single shot. All I had hoped to do was capture Mercer alive."