9

Cleaning up after dinner took forever. By the time the last of the guards had finally were shooed away, we had a serious mess on our hands. The floor was covered in spilled mazte and the food bowls and mugs were everywhere. I wiped off all the tables while Tomas pushed around a mop and bucket to clean the floor, while Liman moved the barrels back into the kitchen and locked them in a large closet. An hour later, we were still cleaning up, but Liman said I didn't have to stay.

I got some food myself and sat down to eat. Liman offered me a mug of mazte as well but I politely turned it down.

"Really?" he asked. "You don't want any?"

"I don't like mazte very much," I said, munching on bread.

Liman shrugged. "Okay, more for me then," he said, and took a gulp from the mug.

When I was finished, I said goodnight to everyone and walked upstairs. I passed a few men in the hallway who were still pleasantly buzzed from the night's drinking. None of them were fully drunk, since Liman had been very careful to limit the amount of mazte a single man could have, but they were all very sloppy and lightheaded. They staggered a bit and talked too loud, and one of them even made a grab for my backside. If he had been sober, I'd have clobbered him, but I let it pass without too much fuss. The men laughed and praised Captain Carius for his generosity, and overall everyone was warm and happy.

I headed to my bunk room and changed clothes. I'd acquired some more new clothes since I'd arrived at the fort, and took the opportunity to change out my dirty outfit, which was spotted and stained with food from the kitchen, and smelled like stale beer. I switched into a loose fitting wool sweater and clean leather pants and felt much better.

I half-expected to find Gaea around, since she tended to spend her time off-duty in the bunk room, but she wasn't there. I had seen her briefly in the cafeteria, so maybe she had a few drinks herself and had snuck into a back room with a lucky guy.

Outside, snow was falling. There was no hint of a breeze, and the air was silent and cold, my breath frosting in front of my face. I wrapped my arms around myself, the wool sweater keeping me warm enough for now. I looked around the courtyard and spied a few guards standing around, and a few more patrolling the walls. I walked up a stairway to the upper ledge along the wall and stepped over to the top of the wall itself, looking out beyond the perimeter of the fort.

It was dark outside, the moon obscured by clouds, so there was not much for me to see except for the blurred shadows of trees and the shapeless gray nothingness behind them. Nothing moved, but I suspected that a legion of barbarians could have been assembled there and I would not have seen them. The light from the torches along the walls did not penetrate far.

Maybe in a few days, I would take some time to explore more of the island. For the moment, I was perfectly content to stay at the fort, but my immediate surroundings here were beginning to bore me. I had been away from the wonders of nature for too long. I wanted to walk deeper into the woods and spend some time reacquainting myself with the wilderness. Maybe I would bump into Reinhardt Red-Spear again and have another talk with him.

I shivered, the bitter cold finally getting the best of me. I shook snowflakes from my hair and descended the stairs, my arms crossed tightly across my chest. A few guards exited the main building and one of them called out to me.

"Hey there, honey. It's pretty cold outside, you know. Maybe you need a big, strong man to keep you warm tonight?"

"No thanks," I said sweetly.

"Come on, Garrett," one of the other soldiers said. "If she wanted a strong man, she wouldn't need your help with that anyway."

The group broke up laughing and they moved in my direction. There were five of them, all slightly tipsy. I smirked at the comment but did not walk away. I took a breath, watching it mist away, and carefully eyed them up, wondering what they were up to. Tonight's festivities had apparently bolstered their confidence as well. So far, I had managed to dissuade any of the guards from putting the moves on me, but now with some alcohol in them, they apparently decided the risk was worth the reward.

"You lonely, little girl?" the first one said. "I'll keep you company."

"Sorry, but I think I'm fine all by myself."

"No need to be antisocial, sweetheart. And you don't have to play games with me. You've been hanging around the fort for awhile now, so there must be something here that you want, right?"

One of the others chuckled at that. "You looking to spend some time with the Imperial Legion, honey? We got all you need, right here."

I held my position and tilted my head to the side as they closed around me. "The only thing I'm looking for is a place to sleep and a way to pay for my trip to Skyrim," I said.

"I know a way for you to make some extra money," one of the guards said, eliciting more laughs from the others.

The first guard, the one who had originally called to me, quieted the others and leered at me with a crooked grin. "Come on now, fellas. You know she's already got herself a man, right? She's the Captain's girl. Aren't you, sweetheart?"

"I'm nobody's girl at the moment."

"Yeah," another guard said, "She spends her time with the butch. She probably don't even like men at all."

"Is that right? You a butch or what? I know you hang out with the redhead."

I had never heard the term "butch" before, but it didn't take a genius to understand what the guard was implying. I wondered what would happen if I decided to break his nose, if the others would try to attack me or not. They were pretty tipsy, so their reaction time was sure to be slower than usual. But they had me effectively surrounded. I'd probably only get one or two shots in before one of them hit me back. And even though I'm sure they'd be reluctant to hit a woman, attacking an Imperial guard wasn't something they would let me get away with.

Thankfully, I didn't have to find out what would happen. From behind the group came another voice. "Gentlemen. Mind if I ask what's going on here?"

The guards fumbled to attention as Carius walked up to us, his hands folded behind his back and his red cape fluttering behind him. He nodded briefly to me and glanced up at the faces of the men. "May I join your little discussion? What were you talking about?"

"Nothing, sir," one of the guards said quickly. "We were just asking the girl here if she needed any help. She was just walking around without a coat on, and we were concerned."

"That's very commendable of you," Carius said as he looked over at me. "Is everything okay, then?"

I shrugged. "Everything is fine. I was just taking a look around."

"Well, I'm glad that you're okay," Carius said. "And how about you, men? I hope you had a good time this evening. You didn't over-indulge, did you?"

"We had a very good time, sir. And no, we didn't have too much to drink," the first guard said.

"Excellent," Carius said jovially, and slapped the guard on the shoulder. "Maybe morale around the fort will improve a bit now."

"I think it will, sir."

"Wonderful. Well, it's time to be getting on," he said, stepping away toward the command office building. "Have a good evening, men."

The five of them relaxed visibly, and one of them had the presence of mind to say, "Yes, sir. And a good evening to you as well."

"And to yourself, my lady," Carius said to me. "Do you have any plans tonight? Would you like to come to my office for a drink?"

I glanced back at the five guards and said, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I would love to." I smirked and took Carius' arm as we walked back to the office. He opened the door for me and I went inside, almost unable to keep a straight face. I managed to look back out the door at the group of guards, and I could almost hear their thoughts. Maybe I was the Captain's girl after all.

"So what was actually going on out there?" Carius asked when he closed the door.

"Nothing," I said. "Pretty much the same thing that always happens when you get a lot of men drunk and there aren't many women around."

Carius chuckled at that as we ascended one of the staircases up to the third floor, where his personal quarters were. "I guess I'm glad I showed up then."

"Yeah, you might have wound up with some of your men in the infirmary."

Carius laughed out loud, and I liked the sound of it. He wasn't laughing at me, he was just laughing at the thought of his men getting in over their head. It was pretty funny when I thought about it, and I laughed a bit as well. We made our way down the hall, and I relaxed as the warmth of the building seeped into my extremities.

Carius' office was illuminated by half a dozen candles, casting a warm, flickering glow, and making the sparse room almost seem like a comfortable place. I took a seat in a chair as Carius walked over to fetch some glasses. He poured me a glass of flin and one for himself as well.

"Why do I have the feeling you were out there specifically to look for me?" I asked as he handed me the drink.

Carius chuckled to himself and unlatched the hook for his cape. He draped it across the back of his chair and took a seat. "Whatever do you mean, Sasha?" He raised his glass and tipped it in my direction in a silent toast before taking a drink.

"I mean the candles, the drinks," I said with a gesture around the room. "It even looks like you cleaned the place up a bit. I think you might have been planning a romantic evening with just the two of us." I sipped my flin and felt the warmness burn down my throat, erasing any lingering cold from outside.

"And what if I was? Spending a romantic evening with me is preferable to a boring night fending off the advances of drunken soldiers, I would hope."

I had to give him that. He certainly had a way with words. I finished off my drink quickly and handed it out for him to fill again. He grinned, that same wolfish grin I was getting so used to, and dutifully refilled my glass.

"Besides," he added, "you didn't have any other plans this evening, did you?"

"Not really, no."

"Well, now you do. And you should consider yourself lucky. There are women all across Vvardenfell who would be more than happy to spend a romantic evening with me," he said jokingly.

"Oh, I bet there are," I said, taking another drink.

"And I can't help but notice that you didn't leave with the supply ship this afternoon, so you must have decided you like it here." Carius raised an eyebrow and grinned again as he downed his drink as well. He poured another, and then poured me another as well when I was finished with mine.

I hadn't been drunk since before my time in prison, and rarely even before that, so the flin hit me a little harder than I expected. I soon felt lightheaded and found myself giggling uncontrollably at even the slightest joke from Carius. I forced myself to slow down, but before I knew it, the two of us had drained an entire bottle, and I'm pretty sure most of it had been me. I wondered if I was even able to stand up straight, much less walk back to my bunk in the guard's quarters.

Carius took out another bottle but I shook my head firmly. "No, I'm done, thank you very much," I said, holding up my hands. "No more for me, thanks."

"You sure?" he asked, pouring himself another glass.

"Yes, I'm sure. I think I'm drunk."

"I think we both are," he said, and we both began laughing again. I laughed until I was gasping for breath and red in the face, and nearly fell out of my chair. Carius leaned across his desk to take my hand, to help me regain my balance, and accidentally knocked over the bottle of flin. It tipped over and spilled across the desk, and splashed all over my pants.

"Oh, damn," Carius laughed, and I cracked up again as he picked up the bottle. He took some rags from behind the desk and tried to clean up the mess and I tried to stifle my giggles. I used my sleeves to try to soak up some of the spilled flin on my pants, but I realized how dumb that was, and quickly gave up. I laughed so much that my sides were beginning to hurt, the thought of which made me laugh even more.

"You did that on purpose," I said in between gasps for breath.

"Did what? Spill the drinks?" Carius asked.

"Yeah, you spilled it on me on purpose."

"And why would I do that?"

"To get me out of my clothes."

"Is it going to work?"

I leaned back in my chair and burst out laughing again. Carius came around the side of the desk and helped me to me feet, but I was really in no condition to stand. I had tears on my cheeks from laughing so hard. The warmth from the alcohol, combined with the warm light from the candles, suddenly made me feel overheated. Carius held my hand and slipped his other arm around me, pretending that he was just helping me keep my balance. His hand slipped under my sweater and up my back as he closed the space between us.

I managed to stick my other hand out to hold him back. "You're a very bad man, Falx," I said softly. "You got me drunk so you could have your way with me."

"Maybe I did," he admitted. "What are you going to do about it? You're free to leave, you know."

As if to demonstrate that, he stepped back a bit and held out his arm toward the door, as if I'd forgotten it was there and he was just pointing it out. I was pretty drunk and would need help making it back to my bunk, but I could still leave if I wanted to. Carius might have been a cunning womanizer, but he wasn't going to hold me here against my will. And to be honest, I had to give him credit for that. I was in no position to resist, after all.

Why had I agreed to come up to his room, anyway? Did I really think he wanted to have just one drink and then wish me a good night? Deep down, I had known what he had in mind, so why pretend otherwise?

Maybe I was just trying to convince myself that I wasn't attracted to him. I hadn't been with a man in years, since before my incarceration. Not of my own free will, at any rate. Carius had been one of the most friendly and respectful men I'd met since my release, and none of the other men at the fort really held my interest anyway. For a man with a reputation like his, he was certainly letting me take control of the situation, giving me every opportunity to leave. And I had to admit to myself that I didn't really want to leave at all.

When I didn't move, he slid closer to me again, slipping his arms around me. At some point, I didn't even notice when, he had removed his armor, and now just wore his slacks and red shirt. "So what do you say?" he asked gently. "Come to bed with me?"

"Okay," I breathed. "But just this once, okay?"

He smiled and then leaned forward to kiss me. He scooped me into his arms and picked me up effortlessly, then carried me through the side door and into his bedroom.