"What happened then?" Leola asked. Aventus had moved to sit on the bed, and she and Erith now sat one on either side of him.
"The house was trapped like you wouldn't believe. Everything from bear traps on the grounds to an arrow trap on the door. He was waiting - I don't think he'd slept in a couple days - right behind the door. Minot went in first, though - she figured she'd be the safest because of her magic, so she had me creep around to see if I could find another way in. I couldn't, and when I made it back to the front door and came in, she was fighting with Samuel. She had an arrow sticking out of her thigh, I don't know how she was still standing, it was in pretty deep… Samuel was swinging his sword around, I don't think he'd been planning to fight a mage, so he really wasn't doing well…"
"So if the two of you had the upper hand, how did he capture Minot?" asked Erith.
"It happened when I came in. Honestly, it happened really fast - I think she was running out of mana, the wound on her leg was catching up to her, and when I came in, she turned her head….and he was able to come forward, hit her over the head with the pommel of the sword…"
"Oh, Aventus," Leola breathed. She knew him well enough to know that he was going to blame himself for this.
"She was out cold on the floor, and then it was just me and him…it must have been a lucky blow though, I'm not sure - nobody bests me in combat, but he managed to get a strike in and he knocked me out as well. When I woke up, I was at Boethiah's shrine, tied up on the ground…he had left a note-"
"We know about the note," Leola interjected. "He left it before you got to him."
"Well, he must have been watching you when you came, then. He must have really wanted to make sure I saw it, so that I knew I wouldn't find him again…but I will find him again, especially now that he has Minot," Aventus said.
"Do we have any other leads on where we can find him?" Erith asked, but Aventus shook his head.
"No," Aventus replied. "After supper tonight your father has agreed that those of us here - even if you didn't return in time for it - would meet in the war room to discuss. We have the locations of almost all the Daedric princes, so I think we need to organize the ones that we do and don't have and figure out what our plan is from here."
"What are we waiting for, then?" asked Erith. "Let's eat."
Aventus and Leola couldn't help but to laugh at her words. Erith rose to her feet and gestured for them to come, and so they rose to their feet and followed. They headed down to the war room, which was empty, and stood around the massive map that took up the entire surface of the war table.
"I don't want to say this to anyone else," Erith said, "but I have a contact in Markarth who has managed to secure us an opportunity to get Namira's piece of the soul gem."
"That's wonderful, why don't you want to tell anyone else?" asked Aventus, raising an eyebrow.
"Namira has a cult just near Markarth," Erith said, taking a dagger from near the edge of the table and using it to point. "Right about there. Her cultists…they eat human flesh."
"Human flesh?" echoed Leola, her eyes widening with disgust.
"Human flesh," said Erith again. "My contact in Markarth found one of her cultists and managed to secure an invitation for us to attend one of their - ahem - dinner parties."
"Ugh," said Leola. "Is that the only way to contact Namira?"
"It's the only way I've figured out," Erith said. "If we attend and we're civil and polite, though, her cultists might help us figure something else out. We shouldn't have to…er…eat anything…"
"This is barbaric," Aventus muttered.
"It's the only way," Erith said. "Anyhow, I'd been meaning to bring it up because the dinner party is coming up soon. I thought now was as good a time as any."
"That involves making our way right across Skyrim to Markarth," said Aventus. "Shouldn't we be stopping at all the shrines in between?"
"Look, here's what I propose," said Erith. She began to gather a few small daggers so that she could mark areas of importance. "The shrines we know we need to go to are here, here, here…" One by one, Erith poked daggers through the map into the wooden table, marking the shrines of Hircine, Molag, Dagon, Peryite, and Clavicus Vile, whose riddle had given them a rough idea of where to search.
"The ones we've already visited are here, here, and here…" Aventus followed suit, marking down shrines whose Daedric Princes they had already met with and already received the soul gem fragments from.
"And there are a few we've visited, but we need to get their pieces another way - Azura and Boethiah, namely," Erith finished.
"That looks like it's all of them," said Aventus. "Mephala's piece we can get by having Leola speak with her through the sword again, which won't be fun, but it's a necessary evil…"
"So here's the plan," Erith said, beginning to point. "We'll travel, the whole group of us, to Markarth. We'll visit Molag one last time, to see if we can get his piece, and we'll go to the dinner party."
"Then Ulfric will remain in Markarth - or he can travel to Solitude if he wishes, and stay with the Jarl there - while we travel to the last few shrines," Aventus cut in, a grin coming to his lips. Leola was smiling, too. The final plan was starting to come together.
"Along the way, we'll search for any information we can about Samuel and Minot," Leola said. She didn't often take charge when it came to these discussions, but she felt that her points were too important to be forgotten. "If we hear anything about them, Aventus and…maybe Bottar? Unless we take another Dark Brotherhood agent with us, but whoever it is, Aventus and them can go after Samuel and Minot," she continued.
"I'll go alone," said Aventus. "Taking Minot with me the last time has put her in danger and I won't allow anyone else to be hurt by my mistakes."
"Aventus-" Leola started to say, but he shook his head.
"No, Leola, drop it," he said firmly. "Killing Samuel will get us two pieces - Boethiah's and Azura's - so it's important that we get it done. Once you've talked to Mephala, we've killed Samuel, and we've visited those last six shrines, all of which seem to be mostly on that side of the map, we can go to Meridia and get the soul gem reforged."
"And then I shall call for Odahviing to come and deliver us to Sovngarde as he delivered your mother once before," came Ulfric's booming voice from behind the group, and they turned to see him there with a grin on his lips. "My apologies, I thought we'd planned to have this discussion after supper."
"We did," Aventus said. "Erith didn't want to wait."
Ulfric laughed, shaking his head. "Of course she didn't," he said. "Now, what did I miss?"
It took only a few minutes to reiterate the information they'd just put together. Much of their success, Ulfric pointed out, seemed to hinge on killing Samuel. It was a shame, since they'd once been close friends with him, but no longer. He seemed hesitant about staying in the palace in Solitude, instead deciding that he would remain in Markarth - where the Jarl was a close friend of his rather than a former enemy - and travel North when they called for him.
The group wordlessly decided not to mention to him that they were going to a dinner party with Namira's cult. Not because they thought he'd disapprove, but it seemed that they were all rather squicked about the idea of it, and none were bold enough to admit it to him. They were all ashamed.
Time for supper came, and as their group ate, they discussed the plans that had been made. Aventus was quiet during their meal, and Leola knew that Minot's capture and disappearance - and, perhaps, death - was weighing heavily on his mind. If Minot was dead, this would make two close friends that had been lost on Leola's account - first Sond, and then Minot.
To be fair, nobody seemed overly joyful as they ate. Aventus was quietly brooding over his missing friend while Erith and Leola both found themselves uncomfortably prodding the beef with their forks, finding themselves silently put off by the meat despite knowing fully well where it came from. Bottar was saddened by the empty seat beside him, that much the others could tell, and Shelur simply wasn't having an easy time figuring out their human utensils, having told them all shortly after arriving that the Orcs were more inclined towards using their hands. She had assured them that they weren't messy or rude eaters, they just didn't have any of the fancy little tools that the humans had.
Everyone agreed that the plan was a solid one, but a few proposals for change were made. Bottar and Shelur decided that instead of going to Markarth with the others, they would travel further South, to Falkreath. Bottar and the others knew somebody there who could help them, and they would spend their time trying to pinpoint the exact location of Clavicus Vile's shrine. That way, when the group was ready to head there, they would know where to look.
When their meal was finished, there was nothing more to discuss. One by one, everyone retired to their rooms until only Leola and Erith were left at the table. Wordlessly, they took one another by the hand and headed towards their room, the anxiety about their upcoming dinner party weighing heavily on the both of them.