Resh POV
Resh frowned as he watched the courier run past him, he was meant to send a reply back to the College, and the man knew that. He should've stuck around seeing as the paid him for a personal letter delivery service. It was his job to only leave when he sent him away.
Then again he had been a spent a very long time climbing to meet that monster, and then there was whole 'Thalmor Assassin' business, fortunately the stab wound was in a completely irrelevant area so he felt completely fine.
He wondered how he was going to explain it to Lydia as well, he wasn't sure how comfortable she would be at the thought of him eating an entire Altmer, in fact he doubted she would be okay with him eating any of the man, let alone all the organs and bone. It wasn't really her place to complain though, he was hungry.
With any luck she would have gone to sleep by now, it wasn't late, but with nothing to do it might be the only way for her to pass the time. Then in the morning he could catch her when she was half asleep and get her to agree to go back to the College. It would be weird travelling alone, but Resh had decided that he no longer wanted her around like this, it was too much.
Of course in reality luck wasn't on his side, not only was he met with the sight of a rather pissed off Lydia, who had obviously been wanting him back earlier, but also he now knew why the Courier had left. The sight of a quill and spilt ink next to where Lydia was sitting could not be a good thing as it had no doubt meant she had read whatever was to be sent to him.
Before he had a chance to make a preemptive excuse Lydia spoke first, "What have you been saying about me?" she enquired sweetly, although they both knew behind that tone was a very angry meaning.
"Nothing," he lied, he hated doing it, but in this situation he would make an exception for any honourable tradition he was breaking, "I'm sure whatever you have read has been taken out of context."
"Really?" she asked sarcastically, "From the sounds of it you're making me out to be a hormonal bitch who bosses you around all the time."
Resh snapped, but quietly as he didn't know the repercussions and didn't want to shout at his pregnant girlfriend, "Because that is exactly what you're really like," he muttered, and when she glared at him he spoke slightly louder and gathered up some of his dignity, "Can you really blame me for asking my friends on how to deal with you? I have no idea, and you've spent all your time acting insufferable."
"Yes I can blame you!" she yelled, "You're the idiot who knocked me up!"
The Tsaesci snorted in reply, "And you're the idiot who kept the damn thing, you're just as much in the wrong as I am. The only difference is that I've been busy looking after you regardless of the abuse you hurl my way."
"You didn't need to go running to Brelyna and Kayci crying like a milk drinker the moment you got upset though, you're lik-" Lydia didn't finish before a furious Resh cut her off.
"Fuck you," he hissed, "I have given you everything you could ever want in this damn temple! do you have any idea how much I've done for you?! the times I've looked after you like a slave, fetched things every five minutes when you were too lazy and fucked you with no regard for my own pleasure. Everything I have done is for you!"
"You're worse than the other two who were such good friends," Lydia snapped.
Resh growled at the insult to Brelyna and Kayci, who as long as he had known them had been nothing but some of the nicest people he had met, "I'm glad you like them so much, because that's who you're going to be staying with until you have this damn kid."
Lydia's expression suddenly shifted into a terrified look, "No! you can't do that, not aft-"
"Too bad," Resh bit, "It's that or the street. I am not having you around in this state, not just because you're pissing me off to no end but the danger to the child, you're in no position to fight alongside me."
All her anger had instantly drained away as she looked shamefully down at the floor, "That may be a problem," she mumbled, "I'm not even sure they'll let me stay there considering my letter…"
Lydia's Letter
Brelyna
First off I just want to say, why do you have to be such a bitch to me, what have I done to you, I haven't mocked you for being a Dunmer, although the last letter makes me almost wish I had. Sometimes I just wish I could tell you Grey skins to go home, but noooo, apparently that's racist to be a true Nord.
Speaking of 'true Nord', your little fucktoy Kayce is about the farthest thing from one you can get. She's this disgusting snake monster thing, (like my own dumbass of a boyfriend) from across the ocean. A Tsaesci, and you know what these 'Tsaesci' do? they eat people. Fucking cannibals, there, deal with that problem, I hope you two argue into Oblivion you cow.
You want to know the only thing worse than someone who tried to talk about me unprovoked behind my back is? it's a mage, you hear that, I tried to learn the damn craft myself and I now wish I never did, I don't want to be like you and the rest of your disgusting Elven kind, learning your Daedric heathen magic.
Fuck you two, I hope you break up you bitch, nobody talks about me behind my back, so have a nice argument you Grey skin - Lydia
Kayci's POV
Brelyna paced back and forth still wondering is this was the best idea or not, the monster she had captured was without a doubt not Kayci, they looked nothing alike and Kayci was no monster, but still, from what she had actually seen it hadn't done anything wrong.
Except trying to be an imposter of Kayci of course. That was more than enough of a reason to demand its death in her opinion, and although it may seem a little harsh she still knew it had to be done. Plus the research opportunities from vivisecting this thing would be phenomenal, which is also another vote in the 'killing the monster' pile.
A Courier had dropped off a letter earlier, she hadn't read it yet, but she reckoned she could leave Resh's letter for a while, this was important, and when it was done she could message him back about what had happened, and get him to come over and help look for his friend.
Once she had established there was no one around Brelyna opened her wardrobe one last time to try and 'peacefully' get the information she wanted from the creature before handing it over to the College. "I will give you one last chance, where is Kayci and I'll let you free right now. You lie, don't tell me anything, or claim you're my lover I'm dragging you kicking and screaming to the closest person with a dagger!"
"No! don't, I'm begging you, don't do anything to me!"
"Then tell me the truth," she pressed.
"That is the truth!" she argued, only to flinch away in fear when the Elf got irritated and went to grab at her, Kayci then pointed to the letter she was holding, hoping it was from who she thought it was, "Please open that, it could help me."
The Dunmer looked down at the letter and her face contorted in an extremely pissed off expression, what was written on that paper to get a reaction like that from the usually calm and collected Dark Elf?
Nevertheless Kayci tried to use it to her advantage. "Is that from Resh and Lydia, did it mention me, I can use it to prove I'm Kayci!"
"I respect that this was indeed a clever tactic to escape writing this, and I admit I almost thought it was legitimate for a moment, but Lydia would never write something like this," she snarled, thrusting out the letter at her to read.
Kayci was incredulous, was the Elf really in so much denial? how would she even have been able to write that letter let alone give it to the Courier in order for this 'imaginary plan' to work, and if she was able to break free long enough to do all that she could have just run away as well. "Brelyna you know I can't read very well, that doesn't mean anything to me, other than that is was really neat and probably spelled correctly. You know my handwriting!" she gasped, clutching at straws, "I'm shit, it can't be me. I can barely spell, Resh made that abundantly clear"
"But you're not Kayci though, so you might be good at writing," she countered, dragging the terrified woman out of the wooden prison.
Kayci tried fighting back and pulling away but her injuries made it too difficult, "No, please!" she begged, "That is from Lydia! please don't let people cut me up!"
Brelyna sighed, and against all judgement felt sorry for the monster in front of her, "I don't 'want' them to, but face it, you're obviously not Kayci. For one you're a giant snake, and I also think it's a little too convenient I find out a while after your burns miraculously disappear."
"What if I look like a Nord again? is that the problem?" she asked, quickly shifting back into the woman the Elf knew, "Look it's all back to normal. We can be happy again."
For a second the Tsaesci thought she had gotten through to her but after a moment the Elf just grabbed her, "Don't you dare mimic her!" she hissed, "Now you are going to change back right now, or you'll regret it."
Realising she had a slight advantage now Kayci replied, "No, you can't give them to me like this, they'll just think I'm a normal Nord. Please, just don't kill me and I'll find a way to prove who I am, we can find Resh, he'll tell you the truth. He actually is like me so he can prove it."
Brelyna growled, but never the less let go of her in a small act of defeat, "Fine, I'll write to him and ask, and only if he gives his 100% agreement that you are in fact who you say you are I'll believe you. For the moment you are not her, so you're staying in that wardrobe like the last few days."
Kayci's eyes went wide again in fear as she tried to stop the woman pushing her back in, "No! is there not somewhere more 'roomy' it's too small in there and I don't like it."
Sighing again Brelyna spoke, "Just carry on pretending to be Kayci then, but don't you dare get out of my sight. And if you even try to sleep in my bed with me I'll kill you right there and then."
Ancano POV
It was obvious now, the Altmer had been watching the Nord for weeks now under order of Elenwen for more information, but it finally made sense. Thanks to that idiot Nord 'Lydia' in that letter Ancano had some proper evidence to tell the Ambassador about, reading those letters had been worth it in the end…
Damn, looking back at it I made Lydia a bitch… please bear in mind that's a combination of hormones, and my own exaggerations and not a realistic interpretation.
Resh POV
"Are you actually able to keep walking or am I going to have to carry you?" Resh muttered, as he was followed slowly by a very reluctant Lydia, who was very content with the previous arrangement of staying in High Hrothgar.
"I'm fine," she growled back, clearly not as the vast amounts of walking they had done was already taking its toll on the usually durable Nord.
"Seriously, I don't mind, the faster we get to the College the better," he told her, taking a few steps over in case she agreed.
But alas, the stubborn Nord did not, "Why do I even have to stay there? they're not going to want me."
"Well I don't want you either," he snapped at her, "You've pushed me too far. You spent all your time complaining and bitching when I got back you didn't even care about where I was, or the fact I have a knife wound in my side!"
Lydia shouted her retort, but quietened down by the end, "It's not my fault if y- wait… did you say someone stabbed you?"
The Tsaesci snorted, showing her the bloodied materiel by his abdomen, "Yes, it's not hard to notice either. I killed the Thalmor who did it though so you shouldn't worry too much."
"Shit… I'm sorry for not noticing earlier, I must've been a bit of a bitch…" Lydia whispered, suddenly thinking back on all she'd put Resh through, only now realising quite how bad she had been.
"Yeah, you have. But I know it's all those 'hormone' things, so I can't really blame you that much. I'm just glad you're already a week into your third month, with any luck you might only be in the College for a few weeks before we go adventuring again," Resh smiled, happy that Lydia at least knew she was doing something wrong.
"About that," Lydia replied sheepishly, "Human pregnancy is nine months…"
Resh blinked in irritation, but shook it off before she could notice, "I guess it's good I'm dropping you off at the College then. Now if you want to get there quickly we'll need to speed up, we might get there late tomorrow if we have no distractions."
"But you're walking so quickly, it's hard to keep up," she moaned, clearly not in the state to be doing this in such snow.
"Then let me carry you," Resh insisted, before thinking for a moment, "I might even be able to get us there early if you let me shift forms and slither all the way there."
Lydia smirked, "I'm just going to say, but the word 'slither' doesn't sound very fast."
"Well it's not my fault your language doesn't have a word for moving quickly without legs, honestly, the best other word I could think of was 'sprint' but that also implies legs are involved," Resh replied in mock annoyance, he could have spent five minutes with all the knowledge in the world at his fingertips and still not have found a better word to use.
"It's not my fault my language is so rubbish," she laughed holding up her arms in surrender, happy the two of them were relatively okay in each others company, for now.
"Technically it's not 'your' language, wasn't the common language made common by the Imperials?" he said, suppressing an arrogant smile, chuckling when she lightly slapped his arm in a joke-like way.
She turned serious again as she thought it over, "I guess no one would see because of the snow storms, but are you sure you have the energy to pace through all of this? getting through snow can be difficult," Lydia worried, but was now convinced it was probably the best option to get there quickly and safely.
"I'll be fine, I had a pretty decent meal," he grinned, finding the shocked look on her face when she pieced it together amusing, "Now hop on," he instructed, almost bursting with laughter when she flinched away, but also gave him a quick look over.
Knowing he could use this as an opportunity for some playful revenge, Resh held out his large scaly arms after shifting, it was going to be fun scaring her on this journey. He wondered how many times he could pretend to start eating her before it stopped being funny.
Kayci POV
"J'Zargo has been wondering where you have been for the last few days, he has smelt you, but you have never been around," the Khajiit asked when he first saw her back, he had been missing one of the few people he was able to have an easy conversation with.
"Me and Brelyna haven't been getting along very well recently, so we haven't been seeing eye to eye so much. Hence my lack of being in the halls," Kayce told him, it wasn't really a lie either, just the reworded truth.
He frowned at her for a few moments, not quite believing her, "If you need to talk J'Zargo has moon sugar to share. J'Zargo needs to study now though, so he will talk tomorrow."
Kayci watched him leave for a few seconds before sighing, she wanted that moon sugar so much, but she knew that even with Brelyna not believing that she is who she said she was,the Elf would never let her touch the stuff, and most likely yell at her friend.
The Tsaesci caught Brelyna glaring at her from across the room, it was probably what scared off J'Zargo considering how dirty her look was. It was as if she was disgusted by her very presence, was this how Resh though when she first found out about his… issue. If so, she was very sorry, but then again, that was a cultural thing so couldn't really be blamed on her. Although with that logic Brelyna's reaction probably wasn't her fault either, she wasn't purposely trying to be cruel to her, she was just mislead, which she guessed was the same as her.
"I've sent the letter off," Brelyna told her, her tone still not very upbeat, almost as if she thought it a waste of time, "If I don't get one back by tomorrow, or the day after yo-"
"Yeah yeah, I get it, 'blah blah, I'll regret it, blah blah', we've been through this a few times," Kayci replied, finding it hilarious as the Dunmer had to restrain herself from tackling her, obviously she had annoyed the Elf quite a lot.
"Do you want to go back in the wardrobe?" she threatened, not liking the monster mocking her.
"Kinky," the woman lewdly whispered, causing the Elf to throw the closest object at her, before getting pissed and storming off.