Dear reader,
Despite their best efforts, the Dragonborn and the Master Thief were unable to surprise the Guild Master, Mercer. Instead, he turned the tables on them and left his former Guild Comrades to die in a fire attack that he had prepared for them.
Now the only thing on the Dragonborn's mind is survival and saving her paralysed allies from their demise...
Stolen Heart
By: Anonymous
- Chapter 12: Ashes to Ashes -
"This is bad! I need to stop these flames!" Cathryne's mind raced as she looked around the burning guild for inspiration. She stood up and moved away from Brynjolf's paralysed form, the flames were starting to rage higher, climbing up towards the boarded up well overhead. Smoke billowed around her, grasping her throat in a smoggy choke hold.
Despite the urgency of the situation that the guild was facing, her mind went blank. She was no mage, she couldn't magic her way out of this disaster and she didn't have enough time for figuring out an antidote to Mercer's paralysis poison.
The flames swirled and smoke filled the air, she could feel her skin aching from the intense heat that filled the guild hall. "This heat is almost as bad as dragon fire!" she thought absently. The thought triggered a brief moment of inspiration inside her: the only thing she could try was shouting her way out of this. With shouts in mind, she began trying to recall each of the words of power that she knew.
"Foh…" she murmured softly, recalling the word for 'frost'. In her mind she could picture the icy thu'um halting the rapid progression of the flames, enough to buy her and the rest of the guild members some time.
"FOH KRAH DIIN!" she shouted with all of her might, sinking to her knees in a choking fit afterwards as smoke filled her lungs. With the words spoken, a great roaring blizzard of ice was expelled from her and swept around the room in a furious flurry.
The ice rose up high, freezing the stone walls and the oil-slicked sewer water. The room was encased in a glittering, frosty glaze and for once in her Nord life she was delighted to see ice around her. The flames trembled under the intense, cold air. Smaller flames were instantly quashed by the force of the thu'um and more powerful ones were choked under the ice and the watery residue as it thawed.
She looked around, there were a few, persistent fires but most had been quelled. She grabbed some frost ridden sheets and staggered towards the smouldering blazes, covering them and then promptly stomping them out.
As she worked to stop the fires, the members of the guild were gradually overcoming their paralysis. Some of them were bewildered by the smell of burning and the frost that covered the walls, others got up and ran over to assist Cathryne in putting out remnant fires.
Finally, the flames were doused and everyone had recovered from the paralysis, including Brynjolf and Delvin.
They gathered in the centre of the war torn Cistern and listened to Brynjolf as he brought them all up to speed on the events that had transpired. Cathryne chipped in with some further details regarding the Black Briar Mannor job and what Mercer had told her before he left them all to die in flames.
The collective reaction was a mix of confusion, betrayal and anger. Each and every person wanted to settle the score with Mercer, and painfully too. Delvin looked around at the charred remains of the guild hall and shook his head.
"Damn Mercer. This is gonna take a miracle to restore."
"Not a miracle, just a lot of hard graft and we can do it." Brynjolf replied, firmly "I have every confidence that the guild will thrive again but let's get our priorities straight. I don't know where Mercer's heading but we need to know and fast."
"Agreed, Bryn." Delvin nodded "I think we should try lookin' in that posh little mansion he got given. It's our best bet."
"Aye." Brynjolf looked around at his comrades, the family that he had grown up with. Much to his chagrin, he was something of a father figure to most of these whelps and he could see them all hanging to his every word. He despised the leader role but for now he would undertake it so that the guild could settle things with Mercer.
"Listen up." He said, and everyone looked at him eagerly, "I think we're best to split up on this one. Delvin, Vex, get out on the streets and see if anyone has seen Mercer and what direction he was heading in. Bribe If you have to, I'll pay you back from the coffers later."
Delvin and Vex nodded and quickly left to gather information whilst it was fresh.
"You three, Sapphire, Rune, Vipir, do what you can to get us some furniture. It's depressing to see the Cistern looking this downtrodden."
"Yes sir!" Rune looked determined, and delighted that he had been chosen to help.
Sapphire and Vipir exchanged glances at Rune and each other before nodding to Brynjolf. They walked away from the gathering with Rune following eagerly.
"Thrynn, Niruin, Cynric… I need people to stay here in case Mercer is sadistic enough to return, I know each of you can handle yourselves in a fight and are pretty good at running, too. So you should be able to slip out and get word to one of us if that does happen. Also, you can get on with cleaning up down here."
"Clean up, huh? … Geez. Alright. I'll go ask Vekel for some brooms or somethin'." Thrynn looked less than impressed with the task, but he grudgingly accepted the role and headed towards the Flagon.
"We'll keep watch here." Cynric said as he walked after Thrynn and Niruin nodded to Brynjolf before following behind them.
Brynjolf turned to Cathryne "And as for you, lass. You're coming with me."
"Oh? What's the plan, Guild Master?" she grinned at him.
He huffed at her "Look. Just because you're gorgeous, doesn't mean you can tease me like that. I'm not cut out for this role but desperate times and all…" he folded his arms and frowned "These really are desperate times… anyway. We're going to Riftweald Manor to see if Mercer left any clues. My gut instinct is that anything we find is going to be another trap, but… there's no choice. We have to spring it in order to get at him."
Cathryne nodded, she knew that Brynjolf was right; any pursuit of Mercer was going to be on Mercer's terms with him fully aware of their every move. He'd been keen enough to foresee her survival at the manor and the subtle changes in attitudes towards him – it was no exaggeration to think that he might have anticipated their survival and set further traps in the event of anyone pursuing him.
"Well. What're we waiting for?" she offered him a bold smile "Let's go get Mercer's head."
"Aye! It'll look great on a spike outside the door." Brynjolf grinned.
They left the Cistern and walked out in to Riften cemetery. The night air was filled with the heady scent of Nightshade and the distinct aroma of burnt wood. Brynjolf motioned for Cathryne to follow him and they crept down a small side street towards a row of houses. He gestured towards one and whispered "Riftweald Manor…"
"Let's get inside." Cathryne crouched before the locked garden gate, and was bemused by the simple novice lock which took very little teasing before it gave way. The gate opened and they stealthily trespassed in to Mercer's backyard.
Brynjolf pulled a dagger from a sheath on his hip, a simple iron dagger, which he then threw at a section of the first floor balcony. A rope snapped under the balcony causing a platform to unfold which then offered a way in to the tightly sealed manor. They climbed up the outside staircase and on to the platform, the door before them had another simple lock which was easily picked.
"Ready lass?" Brynjolf looked at her.
"Ready!" Cathryne replied as she pushed the door open.
~ End of Chapter 12 ~
^^ Now that I'm starting to feel better it's getting easier to write! I'm also filled with inspiration for some other stories I want to do once this one is concluded~!
I've really got the Skyrim bug bad...! Can't... stop... writing and.. playing! :D
(As always; thank you so much to everyone for favouriting / reviewing / commenting on this story. It really does inspire me and I'm grateful for all the interest you've shown! You're all amazing!)