Skyrim Thief Fic

Disclaimer: All familiar characters belong to Bethesda Studios. I own F'arrasha.

Chapter 12: Buried Secrets Part 2

I do not know what happened, but, I felt my body returning to normal. I was also cold. I shivered a little and my sight returned to me. At first, it was blurry, but then, I saw her. I saw the face of Karliah. She was a Dark Elf woman, and, as I uneasily stood up, she said that Mercer was the traitor, not her. I was still disoriented from the drug, and I asked what she hit me with. Karliah said it was a paralyzing poison. She said she was saving it for Mercer, but, since she did not have a clear shot at him, I was her next target. Karliah also said that, if she had not fired, I would have gotten a knife in my back. I was supposed to act grateful, but I was not in the least. I shook my head and tried to regain my footing. It was more solid than before, but I was still a little weak from the poison.

Karliah then explained that Mercer murdered Gallus. Gallus had a journal written in a bizarre language she could not decipher, but she knew who could. A man named Enthir. Enthir worked out of the college of Winterhold and was a frequent contact for the Thieves Guild. He could be the one to translate this journal.

Winterhold was not far, but, I was tired, and in the middle of nowhere. Wearing my heavy cloak, I watched Karliah disappear into the snow drifts and trudged back to Windhelm and caught a coach to Winterhold. I would rest in Winterhold. I was not going to fall asleep and the risk of my possessions stolen by an opportunistic thief. That was my job.

I arrived in Winterhold after dark. I rented a room and slept, exhausted. My appetite was voracious after I woke up. The nightmares I had, the fears that plagued me, were that Mercer right now was on his way back to the Thieves Guild, explaining I was a traitor to the Guild, working in league with Karliah. I sighed as I finished my food and found Enthir.

Enthir sat next to me, noticing the look on his face said it all. He knew who I was, seemingly. I asked if he was the authority on deciphering languages. He said he was, and I pulled out the weather-beaten journal. As he looked through it, he shook his head, saying that the text was written in ancient Falmar, and that the only source of the language was to get Calcelmo to give it to me. He was a stubborn fool, proud of his work and of his findings. H was in Markarth, and the palace was built on ancient Dwarven ruins. It was possible that Calcelmo found some sort of book or way of translating the language. I had to get him to tell me what it was.

After I finished my food, I journeyed to Markarth, on the other side of the continent. Markarth was more of a mountain trail than a city, with winding roads and passages around the city. There seemed to be no consistency with the construction, at least until I got to the palace. The palace was built into the mountain, and it was impressive to say the least. The palace was partially ruined, probably due to the ruin itself. I approached the wheezing Calcelmo and asked about his research. I tried everything, but he would not budge on it. But, as he turned, I saw a museum key on a table. As soon as he was fully turned away from me, I snatched the key. Maybe what I was looking for was in the museum. I slipped by the guard near the museum, and went inside.

The place was crawling with guards. I noted all the dwarven artifacts in the room and, as much as I wanted to purloin these, they would be too hot to steal, and that was not what I was here for. I shook my head, remaining focused. I slipped by and continued through the ruins, attempting to evade as many of the guards as I could. I would rather than I did not kill anyone, but, there was a section that I got to that it would look like I had to. But, as I looked around, listening to these metallic things make unearthly sounds, I found a lever. I slipped silently to the lever, noticing that the two people did not see me below. I touched the cold handle and pulled it. In the next few seconds, I heard a horrifying scream as some sort of instrument appeared out of the floor and sliced him in two. The other person that was there ran away, screaming that the thing was activated. As soon as both of them were gone, I deactivated the trap and dashed for the exit into Calcelmo's tower. I climbed the stairs and found the tablet with the same handwriting as in the journal, but it was a tablet embedded into the floor. I sighed, knowing there would be no way I could move this thing even if I wanted to.

I looked inside the inner sanctum of the tower and saw some charcoal and paper. An idea clicked in my head. I did not necessarily need to steal the tablet, just the information on it. Snatching some paper and coal, I placed the paper on the tablet and rubbed the paper with the charcoal, leaving a shadow of the language on the paper itself. This would be much easier to smuggle out than the tablet.

I must have worked ten, fifteen minutes before I as finished. As I put the paper away and stowed the charcoal, the heavy doors to the tower opened and I heard voices. Four of them, to be exact. I peered around the tablet, and one of them was saying that there could be a thief in the building, attempting to steal the research. I watched as they slowly made their way up the stairs. I slipped out the other side, jumping down and sticking to the shadows. It was my objective not to get caught and not to cause any more bloodshed than necessarily. I made a near narrow escape out of Markarth and returned to Winterhold.

It was an exciting adventure to say the least and, as I returned to the Frozen Hearth in Winterhold, Karliah and Enthir were in the basement. My guess was this was where he worked out of when he was not in the college. Enthir spent a few minutes reading over the journal with the language before he said that Gallus was getting suspicious of Mercer, that Mercer betrayed the Nightengales, and that he desecrated the Twilight Sepulcher.

Karilah shook her head. This was even worse than she imagined…

Next Chapter:

Come Running