Chapter 12: Lucky Days
"I knew it!" Ice jumped and twirled at the same time. "I told you the Thieves Guild existed! I knewstaying with you would make them come! I knew it!"
Elyon bit her lip. "So they found out." Richu looked confused and growled at Ice when he almost jumped on her.
"What do I do with it?" Nightshade didn't seem very concerned, just a little surprised. "I'm not joining."
"Give it to me!" Ice attempted to grab it out of her hand, but Nightshade, being taller, held it high and out of his reach. "What will you do with it?"
"Please? I really want to join! You don't know how long I've waited! I'll go and join! I can finally become a proper thief!"
"Hold up," Elyon took a step closer to him. "You're going to leave? What about Martin? What about the fate of Tamriel, Oblivion, and Mehrunes Dagon?"
"You guys can handle it. Anyway, what do I care?"
At this Nightshade flushed with anger. "What do you care? You bloody live here! There won't be any thieves or anything to steal if Tamriel is sucked into Oblivion!"
"So, not my problem."
It took Ice several seconds to understand what happened next, for all he could see was a black blur coming strait at him, and then a sharp pain in his cheek, for Nightshade had slapped him so fast it would've been impossible to evade it.
"All you ever care about is yourself! There won't be you if we loose!"
"You guys have it under control," he was trying to get over the pain. Elyon had backed away slowly and joined Richu behind them, books still in her arms, knowing that was a stupid retort.
Nightshade punched him this time, on the same cheek, causing him to turn backwards. "You're just going to ditch us?" Tears started to swell up in her eyes. She was going to punch him again, but Elyon held her back. Richu had started to growl.
"Fine! FINE!" She yanked herself out of Elyon's grasp, anger flaring in her eyes, and stomped off, leaving the bosmer and dunmer bewildered. Elyon sighed. "Do what you want, Ice, I won't stop you." She followed after Nightshade with Richu behind her, glaring at him.
Nightshade stopped when she reached Green Emperor Way in the heart of the large city, barely noticing where she was going. Her thoughts were swirling around in her head, giving her a headache. Why did she even care if he left or not? This was the whole reason he stayed with them anyway. He got what he wanted and what he probably deserves—he'd get caught and thrown in jail and probably executed.
This thought seemed to soothe her as she sat on a marble bench. The sun was past its highest peak and slowly starting to make its journey down towards the western horizon.
Elyon ran, but slowed to a walk when she saw the Dark Elf sitting on the bench, hunched in thought, her brown leather armor glistening black. Her hands were on her head, practically pulling at her hair.
"Nightshade," she said softly, her experience in this showed in her voice, "we should start looking for Crow."
Nightshade looked up; Elyon's meek voice barely reached her. "Ok."
They walked together in silence, the laughter and talk of people blocked out their presence. Elyon looked down at Richu, who returned the look with puppy eyes.
They walked out of Green Emperor's Way and into the Market District, where Crow was admiring a book in a store called "The First Edition". He looked rather pleased until he saw the pair of them; Elyon was clearly worried and Nightshade looked ready to kill something. Carefully, he put the book back and noticed the missing member of the party. And he asked the stupid question: "Where's Ice?"
"THAT LOW-DOWN, BACK-STABBING BASTARD!" The outburst made everyone in the shop jump, even Richu, whom whimpered afterward. Nightshade didn't stop, "How could he just leave us like that? He's fucking selfish and deserves to fail in his bloody mission! I hope he gets caught and executed by hanging!"
Crow's bewildered face frowned and flinched with each exclamation. "Nightshade…"
"If he ever comes crawling back to us—"
"Nightshade…"
"—he'll be dead before he gets to finish a sentence—"
"Nightshade!" His short outburst caused Nightshade to shut up, but she still looked demonic. "Nightshade, you'd better come with me."
They resided in "Luther Broad's Boarding House", a small hotel in the Elven Gardens District. Richu wasn't allowed upstairs, so she waited down in the bar.
"Nightshade, take a while to calm down," Crow left her in the small room, where Elyon and he went outside into the hall. For a while she thought angry thoughts, until she heard Elyon's voice.
"You talk to her," she whispered.
"You're a girl, plus you're closer to her," Crow retorted. Elyon hissed under her breath something Nightshade couldn't hear from behind the door, so she went closer.
"How do you know?"
"It's fucking obvious," the bosmer was clearly frustrated.
"No it isn't. And don't swear to me."
"I'll swear all I like."
"You're still like a child."
"At least I'm not an uptight grumpy-ass like you!"
When Crow didn't answer, Elyon's voice went softer and Nightshade pressed her ear to the door. "You've dealt with stuff like this. I haven't."
"Fine." His voice was barely audible. He violently opened the door, hitting Nightshade square in the nose. Alarmed, he dashed to her side. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah…"
Elyon used a spell on her so the nose-bleeding stopped. "There."
The blow had seemed to knock some sense into Nightshade's mind; the events of the last hour seemed to come together into one simple conclusion: Ice didn't care. So why did she? The answer came with a swarm of pain: she needed him. No, she didn't love him, but over the days he had become sort of like a brother to her, or what she imagined having a brother would be like. He saved her, after all, more than once.
For the first time in a long time Nightshade wanted to cry. However, she forced it down with a lot of willpower. "I think—I think we should go back to Cloud Ruler."
They nodded, Crow's somewhat short. He stood up from his kneeling position. "We should start going back." His voice was darker; his hood covered his eyes in a dark shadow. Elyon didn't reply, but seemed perturbed. "Come on; let's hope we can reach it before dark."
Ice frowned, kicking at a piece of trash on the street.
Why the hell did Nightshade have to take it so hard? Had he not told her he wanted to find the Thieves Guild? He had made it plain; why were girls so weird?
Perhaps he should've stayed. Maybe he could do more good there. Nightshade had a point—there would be no one to steal from if Mehrunes Dagon won.
Wait, he's never thought like that before! He must be sick; he certainly felt like it. No, it was a different feeling he had felt only twice before. It made him sad and…regretful.
He shook the thoughts out of his head. Now he must concentrate on finding the Dreloth garden and wait till midnight.
The sun had gone down before Nightshade, Crow, Elyon, and Richu had made it to Cloud Ruler Temple, even Bruma, but Nightshade insisted they keep going. She no longer thought about Ice; she had engrossed herself in the Destruction book Lyze had given her. She now held a torch dangerously close to the book for light and would've crashed into the gate if Richu hadn't of started barking in Elyon's arms.
She looked up, blinking at the two guards asleep on top of the gate. She called out and they awoke.
"Intruders! Intruder—wait, never mind!" a young Imperial looked down, his short brown hair shrouding his face in shadow. "Is that you?"
"No, it's Sheogorath! Of course it's us!" Crow's sarcasm showed his anger from the cold. His arms were folded and his black-gloved hands under his armpits. Elyon waved a book. "We got it!"
The gates opened slowly, probably because of the tired guards. They entered, and Nightshade suddenly realized how tired she was. However, she continued onward into the Main Hall where Baurus greeted them.
"Hey, glad to see you're all alright!" He grinned. "I want to hear all the details of your adventure! Wait, where's Ice?"
"What about Jauffre and Martin?"
"Oh, I'll go get them." He left down a hall.
Nightshade didn't remember waiting very long. She remembered closing her eyes and then they were suddenly there, very happy.
"Wow, you're back!" Martin grinned at Nightshade and she noticed how tired he looked. His face looked sagged and his eyes were baggy. She grinned back.
Jauffre looked at Crow as Elyon introduced him. "This is an old friend, Crow. Nightshade and Ice met him at Cheydinhal. Crow, this is Jauffre, Baurus, and Martin."
"Nice to meet you," Jauffre shook his hand. Baurus nodded and said, "Same here." Martin waved. He asked, "Where's Ice?"
"Well—" Elyon started to say something before Nightshade interrupted. "He left us to go join the Thieves Guild."
She looked slightly surprised at Nightshade before nodding. "Yes, he left right after getting his new staff."
"Really?" Martin frowned. Jauffre looked like he expected it. Baurus had no expression.
After a pause, Elyon dropped the three books onto the table from her own backpack. They jumped, for they all looked like they would fall asleep.
"Well, I spent some time looking at them and they're nothing but gibberish about evil and Mehrunes Dagon. It does mention dawns and stuff, but nothing important. Crow, is something wrong?"
Crow had frowned at nothing in particular. "Yeah, I forgot to mention something."
"What?"
"Well, after I shopped for supplies, I asked around about potential liars of evil dwellers and questions that could be related to the Mythic Dawn. Some guy—a bosmer, I think—came up to me and told me to meet him in the sewers if I wanted to 'find the dawn.'"
"And you didn't mention this before we left?"
"I forgot. I started reading a book, then Ice left, and Nightshade had her ordeal, it slipped to the back of my mind."
Elyon massaged her forehead in an irritated way. "Ok, tomorrow we'll head back."
"Why?" Martin looked confused.
"Because he will lead us to the Mythic Dawn somehow."
"Ok, let's get some sleep first," Jauffre yawned. "Let's figure this out in the morning."
Nightshade couldn't sleep. She could see the shadows of falling snowflakes from her window alight from the full moon. She blinked up at the ceiling. It must be the middle of the night. And yet she couldn't tell if there was light coming from her doorway or not.
She got out of bed, trailing the blankets behind her and holding them. She now had a pair of pajamas she decided she liked to wear when she was here. They were perfect with the beds—not like the beds in inns. She was always paranoid about strange people watching her.
She followed an increasing beam of light to the library where Jauffre had first told them about the books and saw an Imperial bent over an open book, sitting on a table, hair in his face.
"Martin?" Nightshade nudged his shoulder. The brunet jolted up. "Did they attack yet?"
"What?"
"Oh," Martin realized where he was and wiped his eyes. "Bad dreams, that's all. What brings you here?"
"Insomnia," she pulled up a chair and looked at what he was reading. "Are those the books Elyon brought back?"
"Yeah. I read the first one; it's utter nonsense. All of it's about evil, Mehrunes Dagon, and the Mythic Dawn. And it's only a few pages until they become nothing but crude sketches of torture and naked ladies. Honestly, it's disgusting."
She smiled a tired smile. "That's just great." She peered at the words. "What frilly capitals."
"Every first letter in each paragraph has large capitals like that. I hope you guys can find the last book; maybe that'll make more sense." He grinned at her. "I know you'll do well."
"Mmm." Nightshade seemed to have drifted off. "So, what have you been doing since we left?"
"Waiting, studying, and training. I'm learning a shock spell. Being a priest, I know a lot of restoration spells."
"Wish you were back at the chapel?"
He snorted. "Surprisingly, no. I like not having priestly duties. I feel more—important here."
"Yeah, I'm feeling more important too. But I never realized being somebody would be so… scary." Nightshade felt weak saying this, a feeling Owyn always discouraged. She hated it too; strength was the best thing. But she needed to tell someone, and Ice was no longer available.
The thought of the Dunmer seemed to startle her into awareness. Martin was looking at her oddly. "You ok?"
She frowned. "Yeah, I'm ok…."
She was? Then why didn't she feel like it? And before she knew it, she had burst into tears, burying her face in her white blanket and staining it.
Martin actually looked shocked and unsure of what to do. This was totally unexpected. Nightshade, the Hero of Kvatch, the girl who always sneered at Ice, fainted on the floor of the Chapel, and refused to be mocked about it. He always got the impression Nightshade despised Ice. He never got into their fights, but always listened. And Nightshade hardly ever gave up. Now, she was breaking down next to him, sobbing rather quietly into her blanket.
Cautiously, he patted her shoulder. The last time he tried to comfort someone he slapped him in the face and ran screaming out of the chapel. "It's ok…"
"God, why did he leave? This is too much to handle." Over a week she was suddenly a hero, enduring attacks no one else would ever experience, and meeting a friend and keeping him for the first time. Her friend—her best friend—was gone; the person she thought cared about her, even very slightly. She wept and leaned onto Martin's shoulder. He put his arm around her slowly and carefully, hoping no one would walk in on them, especially Baurus. He wouldn't hear the end of it from him.
Ice bit his lip. Lost in the Temple district, he was following that bosmer, Methredhel, hoping she'd lead him to a beggar.
He had found Dreloth Garden in the Water Front District, behind shacks poor people lived in. He had barely arrived in time when the Redguard, Christophe, started his speech about the assignment to get into the Thieves Guild. There were two others: Methredhel, and Amusei, an Argonian who looked like a beggar himself.
Christophe had told them to steal a diary of a man called Amantius Allectus. Methredhel was cocky and said she would get the diary before dawn. He challenged that and it caused an argument between the two until Christophe threatened them to leave or else they'd never join the Thieves Guild.
Now, he didn't know what to do. The beggars had given him a vague description of how to get there, but the directions confused him. So, he was doing his last resort plan: following Methredhel.
It didn't actually take long. The Wood Elf merely walked up to a door, looked around, unaware of Ice's presence, and stuck a lock-pick in the keyhole. Ice looked at this as a waste of time; he could unlock it with a spell and not waste an instrument like that. She was inside the house in less than a minute. Ice followed with haste and stealth.
The house was nothing worth marveling. He wouldn't be surprised if this man they were stealing from was part of the guild. It was just a small room for the downstairs with three tables and one bookshelf. Methredhel was nowhere to be seen, so he went upstairs, which was a hall and four doors. One was left ajar, so he snuck in to see her rummaging through a desk. She was moving papers carefully without noise. Ice didn't notice the man asleep on the other side of the room.
There it was a brown leather-back book. Methredhel grinned and pocketed it in her greaves. Ice smirked and his plan was coming on very well. He used the same spell he used the day he officially met Nightshade—his invisibility spell, and for a moment he hesitated, but the path was clear now—very clear.
The sun passed small, white clouds by the time Nightshade, Crow, and Elyon returned to the Imperial City. Actually, they had free time; they agreed to leave at noon to the sewers and it looked like ten o'clock.
"Well," Elyon, leading Silver by a bridle and Richu on the horse's back, said while entering the Talos Plaza, "I need to sell some stuff. All this traveling has given me more supplies and goods. I could get some more money."
Crow nodded. "Alright."
Nightshade felt scared to be back. She didn't tell them about her breakdown last night with Martin or about how she didn't get any sleep. She had practically been sleepwalking the whole time. But she felt scared because she didn't want to run into Ice (she prayed to the Nine silently earlier) or Owyn, but mostly Ice.
"I'll see if I can get my armor and stuff repaired. Want to come, Crow?"
Crow shook his head. "I'm going back to the First Edition. They had some good books." He grinned slightly and the three parted, Elyon with a small scowl.
Nightshade wandered, just thinking, more and more about Owyn and the Arena. She was wondering: would he recognize her? If he did, would he force her back, or leave her be? Owyn was hard to read, hard to tell. He was short tempered, but why would he make a big deal about a maid girl? And before she knew it, she stood before the Arena.
Frightened, she hid it and took out twenty-five pieces of gold. The only way in was betting. She knew they needed the money, and as long as she earned it, even with luck, Elyon would be ok. She got the feeling Crow wouldn't care.
Nightshade walked up to the Gambler. He smiled that plaster smile. "Hello, what you need is to bet on a match. Yes, I can feel it's your lucky day! Today, a yellow team gladiator is fighting a blue team warrior! Everyone is rooting for the yellow, but I can see you'll make a good decision. What do you say?"
Gods, what she needed was luck. Some would say she was lucky for being a hero and helping the world, but she honestly didn't want it. Luck for her was making a small earning, living in a small house and finding a nice guy that wouldn't treat her like shit, or being a small-time good-person with loyal and trustworthy friends by her side. She sheepishly smiled. "Twenty-five on the blue team."
"Ok, you're chances. If that's what you want." The Gambler put the gold in a large chest. She nodded and went in, and he could've sworn he's seen her somewhere before.
Nightshade sat in the balcony above the arena. All the poor people were cheering around her. Only four other people were up there, none who seemed pleasant. She peered down when someone spoke loudly out of nowhere. "Ladies and gentlemen, today's fight is between a strong, Altmer, yellow team gladiator whose been fighting for three years to reach his goal, and a blue team, Khajiit warrior who hasn't been here for one year! Who will survive? Let's find out! Let the battle begin!"
The two gates opposite of each other opened with the sound of chains. Nightshade watched the brutal battle between the High Elf and the Kajiit. The elf used magic, conjuring a ghost to help. His opponent used a mace, spiked at the end, swinging it with grace and ease. Enchanted, it hit the ghost in its head.
Nightshade watched the fight with disgust, questioning her about why she even came. When it finally ended, the Altmer had received a fireball to the face, ending his life. The Kajiit merely looked at him and spat on him. People were cheering like mad, surprised by the victory.
Nightshade left, feeling like throwing up. She had a different view of death now that she actually killed someone. She knew this vision would have to change if she planned on stopping a cult from destroying the world. She walked down the steps, remembered that the gambler said everyone had voted on the yellow team gladiator, and saw a person she especially didn't want to see.
"Well, well, well, look who came the fuck back," Owyn sneered at Nightshade.