Resh POV

"Are you some kind of idiot?" Resh asked incredulously at the Thalmor in front of him, "You literally just heard two admit that we're Tsaesci, and you want to fight us?"

"That is where you are wrong," the Altmer explained with a smarmy voice, "I want to arrest one of you, the rest I have no quarrels with. Although it is worth noting before you immediately turn hostile that none of my soldiers here are too injured to fight, nor are any of them pregnant."

The Tsaesci glared at him for a few seconds before replying, "We would still kill you all, even if you do outnumber us, I have no doubts about that. So just turn around and this will all be fine."

"Don't make me laugh, I know you're not naive like most non-Altmer. We both know that you're not going to fight me so don't even try and threaten me. I think a Tsaesci of all people should know that regardless of how good a fighter you are it doesn't count for much when you're outnumbered three to one."

Resh hated to admit it, but he was right, even if they were able to win at least one of them would die, and considering where they were standing it would probably be Lydia, and he couldn't let that happen, "I swear, you lay a finger on any of us I'll kill you, I don't even care about the consequences, I'll go just for you, not for your pathetic guards, you. Is it really worth risking your life just to arrest someone?"

Ancano snorted at Resh's attempt to get out of this situation, "You have more to lose than I do. So I don't think you're in a position to tell me to leave when I hold all the cards."

Kayci butted in here and shouted, "Listen to Resh, he's the smart one, he'll make things better I promise!"

Resh glared at her outburst, he understood she wasn't the smartest when it came to diplomacy, but surely she must have known that she was only hindering the process. Fortunately the Thalmor took no notice and ignored her, focusing on Resh's words.

"Maybe so, but you still have something to lose, even if it is less than us, your life. It's not worth the trouble, I'm a reasonable man, we can come to an agreement. If we fight, which I'm sure we will if you try and take Kayce then I'm fairly sure most of us would die, and none of us want that. How about you put me in contact with whoever is running all this and I'll try to sort it all out," Resh tried to explain diplomatically, and it was true, even the Thalmor knew it, he would have losses as well.

And although Ancano was confident he could kill all of them and extract Kayci he didn't want to take the risk, nor lose valuable Thalmor lives, especially if it's just to arrest one person. "Elenwen won't be pleased, but I see your logic."

"She won't really be pleased when she hears that not only was the woman she was looking for killed in the crossfire of an attack, but also that most of a Thalmor contingent were slaughtered in an area the Thalmor shouldn't be taking the law into their own hands, the College won't like that at all," Resh explained further, it seemed to be working as well as Ancano got his soldiers to lower their weapons.

The Tsaesci had to hold back a sigh of relief so he didn't appear weak, but needless to say there was nothing he would rather do. Their must have been at least six Thalmor guards all fully armed, as well as Ancano, and although he was a better fighter and stronger they would most likely overwhelm him and run him through. If not that then they would get to one of the others first, and considering only Brelyna was also in a position to fight it wouldn't be good. And he couldn't live with himself if Lydia or Kayci got hurt.

"So when will I get in touch with Elenwen? the sooner I sort this out the better, I have places to be," Resh muttered impatiently, in the 15 minutes he'd been at the College none of it had turned out how he had wanted, it was meant to be peaceful, not an unorganised mess of fast paced events he could barely keep track of. First Brelyna trying to kill Kayci, and now the Thalmor, and Resh didn't know why but he could swear he smelled omelettes in the background of the room somewhere.

"By random coincidence Elenwen is having a party at the Thalmor embassy, I will arrange for you to have an invitation, and you will discuss things there with her, under the supervision of several armed guards that is," he explained, looking smug as ever, as if he wanted this to happen from the start. And Resh couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps this was exactly what the Elf wanted, he didn't understand why the Thalmor would want that, but it seemed that way.

"How quick you seem to have arranged things…" Resh growled, but remained as friendly as he could manage, he didn't want to ruin things now he had gotten so close to stopping a skirmish.

"Yes," he replied, before turning to leave, followed by his soldiers, "I'll see you there."

It took a few minutes before any of the four spoke up again, "Are you actually going to go to this thing?" Lydia asked, "Elenwen isn't exactly known for being the nicest of people."

"I know, I've met her, she didn't seem very 'warm'. Although then again Kayci liked her so much we didn't see her for a few months, so I'm sure she a reasonable person once you get to know her."

Brelyna looked horrified at what he said and went to interrupt with knowledge that was obvious about the ambassador and Kayci's 'relationship' but was stopped by a sharp elbow to the ribs by the latter woman in question, who didn't want 'lies' about what Brelyna perceived incorrectly her past relationship was like leaking into Resh's mind.

The Dunmers grunt of pain didn't go unnoticed, but as neither Kayci or Brelyna were going to say anything when he thought they were going to, the conversation grinded to a halt, with all four people wondering what to do after this strange turn of events.

"Can one of you please explain this Tsaesci thing again to me?" Brelyna gasped after another few moments of awkward silence, suddenly very inquisitive of him and Kayci, knowing what they were, "Especially as I know it's all true now."

Resh sighed, before giving Lydia a pointed look as he said his next statement. "At least you can pronounce it properly…"

The mage waited for Resh to start talking again, but just as he opened his mouth Lydia interrupted, "Seriously, you're still on me for that? you honestly can't go 10 minutes without calling me an idiot can you?"

Sighing Resh muttered out loud for her to hear, "I don't think now is the time Lydia. I didn't mean anything by it, now we're doing something impo-"

"How can you 'not have meant anything' by it? you could have easily just not left out that little bit of criticism," she snapped, making him shrink away from her, not wanting to mess with 'angry-pregnant-Lydia', who now started to explode with anger. "What is it? am I not smart enough for you?! I'm sure I could go fuck my way through Winterhold if you don't think I'm good enough for you!"

The Dunmer cleared her throat at the two halting their little spat, "Excuse me! You two can fight and fuck each other later, now seriously someone tell me what's going on."

"Who do you want explaining this then?" Resh muttered, "Kayci or Lydia could both do it, either of them know enough to tell you I guess. I suggest Lydia, you'd get considerably less mentions of 'snake fucking'."

Brelyna didn't like his response, "Why can't you do it? You're the smart one, it would make so much more sense if it was you."

That didn't bode well with him, as he now glared daggers at the irritated Dark Elf, "Well, for one it's not really my problem, I only came here to drop off Lydia and actually get things done with the whole Dragon stuff. I did not arrive to deal with this Thalmor crap because you were too ignorant to listen to anything Kayci tried to say in her defense, I'm sure she said more than enough you 'should' have released her for!"

"She tried to make me a slave to sell my eggs," the woman in question chimed in.

Brelyna almost couldn't bear to look at the man with the look of pure disgust he gave her, "You did what? please tell me she's joking about that."

"I didn't try to make her a slave, I 'asked' her if she wanted to," she argued for her defence.

"I'm assuming it was a 'if you want to live' kind of ask," Resh said silently, oddly calm. Brelyna shouldn't know if she should be scared or not if he was going to snap, and the other two women almost seemed to go silent for this, creating a very tense atmosphere.

"I didn't know it was actually Kayci though! I thought it was some monster pretending to be her," she stammered, not wanting to get on his bad side. Clearly he was very protective of his own.

"Really? a monster, of all people you're calling Kayce a monster? of all the people I know she's the furthest from one! Just cause she has a few golden scales and is a bit larger than you doesn't make her a monster! does that make all Argonians monsters? I don't think so!" he shouted at her, he would've thought of all people Brelyna would be against racism.

"She just looked different, I was scared…"

"You were scared of a woman you easily manhandled into imprisonment? you were scared of a woman who couldn't fight back and begged you to let her go? of the monster you tried to abuse to earn money? I feel so fucking bad for you!" Brelyna looked down at the floor now shame filling her eyes as she tried to look away from everyone else in the room.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, half out of fear, and half out of knowing everything she had done to Kayci recently, even if she didn't know it was her, was wrong.

"You're 'sorry'? well that just makes everything okay doesn't it? it doesn't matter that you've hurt her? that you've emotionally scarred her? all that's completely irrelevant if you're sorry. I would've thought of all people a Dunmer understands racism, we went to Windhelm, you know what it's like for people to treat you badly for what you are. And then you just go and call the woman you've been in love with for the last few months a 'monster'? who's the real monster?" he roared at her, Kayci was family to him, and he would not let her be treated how she was by someone she trusted so much it was as if someone had personally insulted him, just a thousand times worse.

"Me! I'm the monster. Now I'm sorry, please, I know I was wrong, and racist, and shouldn't have been, but you can't hurt me for this, I didn't know," she cried, at this point the other two women were getting worried now, the only times Kayci had seen Resh this angry was when he was about to kill someone. Grabbing his arm she tried to stop him, but unfortunately she didn't have enough strength.

"Really you say that now but who's to say you won't suddenly get 'scared' again, and hurt Kayce another time. How about me? am I scary?!" he snapped, shifting form into his more serpentine one. Unlike Kayci who just slightly shifted shape, Resh grew considerably larger, growing a good few feet upwards as well as the long tail. "And you think you should fear Kayci? she's half my size and would never think about hurting you! me on the other hand… that's another question entirely."

"Resh… stop it," Kayci asked in shock, knowing that he was close to snapping the Dunmer neck, shaking his arm before he got even more pissed off than he was now.

"Why? why should I fucking stop it?! what she's done to you is cruel and wrong, I should kill her for it!" he hissed, snaking even closer to the terrified Elf filling up almost the entire room. Kayci jumped in front of him to stop him though.

"I said 'no', I still like her and don't want her dead!" she told him, not letting him past.

"So be it!" he shouted, shifting into an Altmer form, "You're all delusional ungrateful pricks. I just saved all our lives and you know what I haven't heard yet from any one of you? 'Thank you'! would that really have been so hard? obviously it was, I get yelled at instead and then find out how badly mistreated my best friend was!"

"What are you doing Resh?" Lydia asked him when he turned to leave, still muttering to himself as he did so.

"I am going to this stupid fucking Thalmor party I don't even want to go to because you idiots all dragged me into it with your ignorance! and don't expect me to come back anytime soon or write to you, I don't need to take any of this shit any more!"

"I'm going with you Resh," Kayci announced, standing beside him. He was pleased seeing as she seemed to be the victim and he didn't want her around Brelyna any longer being the protective friend he was.

"In that case I'm going too, I'm not leaving her alone with… the other person who will be there," Brelyna explained, deciding not to mention Elenwen and what she had done lest Resh's temper get even worse.

"There is no way I'm waiting in this damn College by myself," Lydia muttered, "I'm coming as well."

"No! none of you are coming, well… maybe Kayci considering she's the only one of you that's actually likeable, but if you two think you're coming anywhere near me you're very wrong," he snapped, storming out.

Kayci gave the other two a fleeting look of apology and trailed after him, "I'll try and calm him down," she muttered.

Resh POV

"Are you okay Resh? you haven't spoken for a few hours," Kayci asked worriedly as they trudged through the snow, the Tsaesci had wasted no time trying to distance himself from the other women.

He huffed in annoyance, "No, I'm not fucking okay. Honestly, I went to the College to have the first enjoyable day in months, but instead I have to worm my way out of a confrontation, waste my time going to some Thalmor crap, get snapped at by my girlfriend, and then find out my best friend was being abused."

"I know, it must have been very bad for you I was the one locked in a wardrobe for days," Kayci chuckled, no malice in her words, but she was still wanting to make her point heard.

"This is exactly the reason I care," Resh countered, "You're laughing about it, you barely have a problem with how bad this is. I didn't even know about that, and I still wanted to kill her for what she's done to you, and then you the victim made me stop. I just can't bear it any more."

"She's not the worst lover I've had, we both know that Resh," Kayci giggled, some of the stuff they had been through had been quite adventurous to say the least. "Need I remind you of the man who tried to kill me with a pickaxe because I fucked his brother? and his husband… and his sister…"

Resh snorted, admittedly those were funny memories, "That's completely different and you know it, when you did all those things you effectively ended that relationship, and it was kind of your fault. This time it's not, it's only her fault, and you are still in were still in a relationship when she did this to you. I'm just tired of these ridiculous races ignorance, of their stupidity and cruelty," Resh sighed, "I'm just tired…"

"Is Lydia's pregnancy really that bad?" she asked sympathetically, sighing as she did, she never would have imagined someone like Resh could be driven over the edge like he seemed to have been, and by someone he liked so much too, it was kind of depressing.

"Honestly it really is, I don't know why I ever took an interest in her to begin with, let alone allowed her to follow me. Letting her keep the child was one of the worst decisions of my life, and now it's too late. You've seen how she acts, don't tell me she is acting 'pleasant'," he muttered, each of his words sincere, which brought down Kayci's mood even more.

Trying to cheer him up Kayci patted him on the back laughing, "If you leave her at the College like planned I'll travel with you to keep you company, the way you've described her I want to keep my distance."

Resh smiled in reply, it was a weak smile, but a smile nonetheless, "I hope you're not joking, I need a friend around, it's been so long. It's been quite a long time and talking via letters isn't enough."

"I'll try to see if I can work something out, where one month I travel with you and the next I stay at the College. It's really boring there, but I do still love Brelyna, even with all that stuff she did," Kayci explained, before seeing Resh's scowl and adding, "Not knowing it was me!"

"That doesn't change much, she was still racist and only attacking you because she was ignorant and aggressive to our kind," the larger Tsaesci retorted, extremely annoyed that Kayci still 'loved' this woman. Kayci hadn't ever 'loved' someone before, why did it have to be this miserable excuse for a Dunmer?

"Are you really that much different?" she asked, one eyebrow raised, "I've heard you refer to the other races as 'inferior' more than you've actually said their real name. And I can just see in your eyes at the moment that you're already judging someone by their race, I'm going to guess Brelyna as that's who we're talking about, but you have the same look every time you do it. For you of all people to call someone racist is a bit hypocritical."

He thought about it for a while and couldn't be bothered to counter her, mostly seeing as she was right, "Fair enough. You know what we need to do? get drunk. I know it's not good, but I need to cope with all this happening at once, it's all just too much for me."

"Now you're speaking my language!" Kayci cheered, this was something she needed too. Getting wasted wasn't a usual occurrence anymore, in fairness most of the Tsaesci friends she took on the scouting trip with her were dead, but her best friend wasn't and that was enough.

"We probably don't need to get to the Embassy for a while so I have some of that Nordic mead we can use to waste away out evening," he laughed, reaching into his pack before Kayci grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"First off, you want to forget the last month or so and all it's hardships you do it properly. Nordic mead, it tastes good, but it would take that entire bag to be full of the stuff to even half get us intoxicated," she explained, "You know what this calls for?"

Resh let out an exasperated exhale, "Is it you getting set on fire by a pissed of flame atrona-"

"It will involve me getting my lovely Atronach friend to get us some fire whisky, while avoiding her magic of course," she smirked, pulling out the scroll she pretty much knew off by heart.

"So, as I said, being set on fire?" Resh said again, smiling now that she had successfully completed her goal of cheering her up.

A few seconds of silence passed, before she started to summon the portal to Oblivion, "Pretty much…"