She let herself into his room, closed the door behind her, and turned to find it wasn't him at all but his twin brother Vilkas. And Vilkas had opened his eyes.
"What's this? A present from the Emperor?"
She backed up into the door. "Wrong room."
"You were looking for Farkas? That's okay. We share everything."
She felt for her blade and kept it hidden but ready.
Vilkas stood, leered, then let out a laugh.
"Relax, elf. I'm kidding with you. Though I could do much more, after you've being sneaking around the place. Count yourself lucky. What do you want with my brother?"
"That's between him and me."
"Is it? We don't have secrets from each other, elf. Whatever you're planning with that knife, you can share with me, too."
He casually set his hand on the battleaxe leaning beside his bed.
Athene relaxed his grip on her blade and showed her empty hands.
"That's better," he said.
He took a step to the door. She took a breath and moved aside.
Then in a movement quicker than she'd have believed he grabbed her arms and shoved her to the wall.
"You're an assassin? Is that it?" he said. His breath hit her face.
She snarled. "Let me go."
"You think that's likely? Skulking around our home. Skulking around our country!"
Athene tried to squirm away but he was as strong as his brother and determined. There was no way.
"Farkas!" she yelled.
If nothing else, it made Vilkas' eyes wide with surprise. But it also had the right effect, and a heartbeat later his twin burst into the room.
"Athene," he said. "Vilkas? What..?"
"You know this elf?" Vilkas hadn't relaxed his grip on her arms but he stopped crushing her into the wall.
Athene gulped breath.
"I do." Farkas scuffed his foot against the floor. He was in his bedclothes and his hair stuck up from all sides of his head. Even identical to his brother he was ten times better to look at.
Oh Sithis, Athene thought. I do have a bloody crush.
The epiphany made her intensely grouchy.
"I just wanted to talk," she spat.
"Sure, that makes sense. Sneak in here with a dagger and you just wanted to talk."
"Brother," Farkas said. "Come on. Let her go."
Vilkas made a noise of distaste and dropped her arms. He shoved her towards the door.
"Next time knock," he said.
Athene sneered at him and strode out of the room.
"This way." Farkas showed her to his room, just across the hall, and sat on the edge of the bed.
She crossed her arms and looked at him. He was still sleepy, his eyes lidded. Found her in his brother's room, getting interrogated, and he wasn't totally awake. Stupid man.
He put up with her glare for a little while and then patted the bed beside him.
"What's up?"
There was no way she was sitting down.
"I have a dilemma."
"A… problem? You came to me with a problem?"
She shrugged.
"If it's bashing in a head, I can help."
"It's not. It's more complicated than that."
"A complicated dilemma, and you came to me?" He rolled his shoulders. "Wow. That's just… wow."
"I don't need you to calculate sums, I just need someone to… Oh, for Gods' sake. I just need a friendly ear."
Now she was blushing. She could feel it, and it made it happen faster. She felt as if her head would burst into flame.
"All right then. Tell me." So easy. As if he didn't even realize how difficult it had been to ask him for help.
How beautiful, that simplicity. It was what she'd come for, after all. The feeling of satisfaction she'd had during their run, when nothing else mattered but the ground and the sky. He exuded it, seemed to breathe it. She wanted it so much.
"I have a choice to make," she said. "I have a job I was supposed to do, and it's become very… Well, complicated. I don't know if I can do it, but I know if I do it'll be difficult and change everything. It's also following a path I'm not sure I can walk. I thought so, but lately I wonder if I made a bad choice. If I wasn't ever meant to be where I am now. That sounds pathetic, I know."
"Naw," said Farkas. "It sounds human. Sorry. I mean, it sounds normal."
She stared at him. Then she sat next to him on the bed.
"So that's one option. The other one is to go to High Hrothgar and see what the Greybeards want with me. Again, I'm not sure this is right. People tell me it is, you've told me it is, but I'm still not convinced. I was going to do it anyway, but then I found out I could finish this job, and… I'm not sure what to do."
"So, finish the job or walk the 7000 steps?"
"That's about it."
"Finish the job," Farkas said.
"What?" She looked at him. "Just like that?"
He leaned over and kissed her. She was so surprised by it that she didn't stop him. He smelled like dust and dog and heather, and he was warm. For a second her choices were blasted out of her mind.
Then he stopped kissing her and she saw it was his turn to blush.
"Sorry," he said. "I got carried away."
"Yeah." She didn't trust herself to say anything else.
"I say finish the job because that's how I was raised. You don't leave something undone if you can do it. I know I said go to High Hrothgar and you still should, but they've been waiting this long. What's a while longer? If you're going to do a thing, you should do it right. Eyes on the prey, not the horizon."
"Yeah." She didn't care that she sounded stupid. The man everyone said was stupid had just said something incredibly smart. She let that wash over her.
"So."
"So."
They sat for a while. Athene felt split into two people. One was angry. She'd been sure Farkas would tell her to go to High Hrothgar. Maybe if she'd told him the truth about her job, he would. He couldn't really support murdering the Emperor. But then, that was her job. Without knowing the details he'd told her the truth of it. She had to finish the job.
The other person she contained, the other aspect of herself, was satisfied. She had known she needed to finish the job. Now the guy who'd pushed her in another direction was telling her the same thing. And anyway, he had kissed her. So that was interesting. And… what was she thinking?
He was a distraction. A big, stupid, annoying, hard, delicious distraction.
Athene stood up.
"So what are you going to do?" Farkas said. He looked totally awake now.
Athene smiled.