Maul POV

Usually Mavens right hand man would hassle anyone who came through the gates, but Maul decided better of himself when he watched a pissed of giant of a Nord angrily look through what the Courier had given him, evidently it hadn't been sent from someone he liked. The man growled in annoyance and threw the letter that was accompanying the package to the side, before seemingly looking to resend the books he had been given.

After he had left Maul leaned down to pick up the screwed up ball of paper, giving the letter a quick scan and smirking at it's contents, the man who received barely even read it before throwing it away so probably had no idea about what it entailed. He contemplated going over and telling him it was important, then making him pay money to read it, but seeing as Resh was one of the rare few he was shorter than he decided not to.

Deciding it was probably best to talk to Maven about it, Maul pocketed the piece of paper, and went to go and find the Black Briar matriarch. With any luck she would know what to do, especially as this was tied to Elenwen, and Maven had wanted an agreement of sorts with the Thalmor for ages now, seeing as they went to all those pointless Thalmor parties, perhaps this could help broker one.

Resh POV

It seemed he had arrived just in time, he spotted a large group of Thalmor marching through the streets, preparing to travel to the lower section of the city. Resh didn't know where exactly they were hoping to go, but he assumed it was the direction this 'Esbern' would be, so jogged to catch up with them.

"I didn't realise this Blade Esbern was such a threat to warrant this many of you," Resh muttered as he regarded the group. The Justicars all looked at him with surprise, not understanding why a Nord would willingly talk to them, or better put, would be stupid enough to talk to them.

"Why are you talking to us Nord? don't you have better things to do? like digging holes to live in? or bashing two stones together?" the Thalmor mocked, earning a laugh from his friends.

"First off, I think it's best for you not to insult people you don't know. And second, I have permission from Elenwen to do this," he explained to them, pulling out the letter she had written to him, showing them her seal.

"Huh, I guess you're right, why would she want a Nord to come help anyway, you'll only hold us back."

Resh hissed in annoyance at their words, having to keep himself from killing the Elf in front of him, he couldn't because it would be bad for diplomacy. "Just for that I'm taking you and your other Agents off this missi-"

"Are you out of your mind?!" the Thalmor snapped, "You don't have the authority to do tha-"

Glaring the Tsaesci grabbed him by the armour, prompting the other Agents to unsheathe their weapons, "If you could shut the fuck up and let me finish that would be great. And I actually do, you're welcome to talk to Elenwen about it, but I think you'll find I know have a lot of power when it comes to the Thalmor, diplomatic immunity included, so I could kill you and have no repercussions. So as I said, you're all off this mission, I'll take it from here, you can all contact Elenwen about it if you want, just mention 'Resh' and you'll get the answer I want. I hope you all had fun walking to Riften and back."

Lost for words the Justicar needed a few seconds to compose himself, "You don't have any proof! for all we know you could be making this up entirely, you probably are considering the Thalmor don't like to mix with you kind."

"How would I know we're going after a Blade called Esbern who happens to be in Riften if I wasn't given this much power? I also know where Delphine is hiding out if you want to know, but I actually have a better idea than just killing them," Resh explained, deciding that if they didn't believe his authority it was probably best to not try ordering them around, but negotiate.

"Fair point, you wouldn't really know if Elenwen hadn't told you… and what's this 'better idea'?" he asked, trying to keep the snideness out of his tone but not really managing it. Resh understood that, so far his experience with Nords hadn't been something that raised his opinion of them.

"Well, being a Nord who has actually encountered them before, I think it would make sense that I could infiltrate them better than you could, so I can pretend to join them, find out their base of operations and other members, then you can sort all of them out," the Tsaesci told them, he knew they would be doubtful, but had prepared for that too.

The Agent still didn't believe him, "This could just be an elaborate ruse so he can escape though."

Resh sighed, debating whether or not he should just tell them the truth about his true race, after all he had already let loose his secret so many times in the past several months and if he was to be affiliated with a faction fairly high up the ranks he didn't really 'need' to remain hidden as he wouldn't be hunted down for being different seeing as he now had immunity.

The Tsaesci decided it was probably best to wait for Elenwen's approval, there were a lot of plus sides to his Thalmor ties, so he reckoned she would no doubt help him spread who he really was in a professional way which wouldn't result in persecution.

"Fine, you can monitor my progress then," Resh muttered, he would have to make sure everyone in future knew his authority, when people all knew his true race he would just go around in his Tsaesci form and there would be no confusion. "Just follow me in and stay hidden."

Maven POV

The head of the Black Briar company frowned at the letter before her, it was very… 'detailed' to say the least. And also really bad for Elenwen and the Thalmor diplomatically if her newest 'manipulated plaything', as the letter put it, found out. Maven wasn't really surprised at what the Thalmor did to this 'Kayci', their interrogation methods were known to be fairly brutal, so sexual abuse was likely to be expected.

There were also some other parts of the note which were very interesting, it seemed that 'Resh' being close with the Thalmor was a huge priority considering the magnitude of importance behind his race.

"What should we do Maven?" Maul asked, he had never been very good at this intellectual business, so his skills of roughing people up weren't very useful.

Maven smirked, thinking of a way to swing this in her favour. "Two things, ensure those dossiers the letter mentioned get back to Elenwen without anyone else reading them. But first, bring me a quill and paper, it seems I must remind Elenwen to be a bit more careful with her belongings, it would be a shame for him to find out, so much so it might be worth a steady sum of gold to keep me silent."

Resh POV

The Ratways were disgusting, that was the only way Resh could have described it. It was full of scum, both sewage and human, and every step further he took in made him sick to his very core. He and the other Thalmor had spent the last five minutes slaughtering all the cutthroat degenerates in the dank tunnels, and Resh still hated the place.

So far everyone they found was a maniac who attacked them immediately, so he wondered what this 'Esbern' must have been like to hide out near them, probably no better. Fortunately the muggers were not trained like he and the Thalmor so they died easily without causing much of a threat.

Coming to a small locked door Resh guessed this was probably where the Blade was hiding, it smelled slightly better than the rest of the place, so the Tsaesci predicted it had been almost untouched.

"Just wait around the corner, and hide, and I swear I can find out where their base of operations is, then you can kill him," he informed the agents, before knocking on the door to get whoever was insides attention.

Elenwen POV

"Ambassador," an agent greeted as he strode into her office, Elenwen relished the respect she received from those she had authority over, it was good to be in charge, and with all the power and promotions she would get if things went well with the Tsaesci, she would get the feeling again but tenfold.

"What do you want?" she snapped, the pleasure fading as soon as she carried on with her current task. Searching for the damn dossiers she must have misplaced because she needed to update Resh's. The Emissary always liked to be on top of things and keep record of all that happened around her, it made her feel more in control if she wrote it all down.

"Maven Black Briars plaything has a letter for you, he says it's urgent, and that you should keep better care of you books," he told her, although he tailed off at the end not really knowing why the Nord had told him to say that.

Elenwen froze, knowing immediately what had been implied, had Maven stolen her property at the party? she had her watched by guards at all times though, knowing the Black Briar would be most likely to steal things. "Give me the letter and fuck off, send the man in in a few minutes," she hissed, waving him away in annoyance.

"He also had a small sack of books so I'll leave that outside," he murmured as he scuttled outside, scared of the angry Thalmor, not before leaving an envelope on the Ambassador's desk.

Snatching up the item she tore open the paper, revealing not one letter, but two. One was clearly from Maven due to the stamp of the Black Briars on the back but the other was different, all scrunched up as if thrown away in anger.

Elenwens eyes widened in horror when she scanned through it, 'No no no no no no! Resh can't have read this! everything will be ruined! I'll lose my job, he'll kill me!'

Pacing to the door she grabbed the sack of books, and not even checking what they were because she already knew threw them one by one into the fire. She didn't really know what she was hoping to accomplish, but the less evidence the better.

Calming down the Altmer finally read the second letter, and almost moaned in relief. She decided to let loose a slightly more dignified sigh, but given the situation that wasn't close to being what was needed.

Almost as if on cue Maul entered the room, with a seemingly smug look on his face, he was about to say something, presumably more demands, but Elenwen quickly cut him off, thinking of how she could spin this so she was still in control rather than Maven.

"Before you run back to your mistress I think it's worth noting I could hire assassins from both my own command and the Dark Brotherhood to kill the both of you with absolutely no negative political repercussions even if it gets found out," she warned him, making sure he knew that she had the power. "As for the money Maven wants? I'm happy to grant her that, so long as you and her make sure no more letters like this come to my attention, or even more importantly, Resh's attention," she told him, holding up the letter form Brelyna and throwing that too into the fire like the dossiers.

"Do you mean kill the sender?" he asked dumbly, Elenwen had to suppress a sneer at the Nord. "Because I only do things like that for Maven."

"Then you had better talk to Maven about it then, haven't you? and tell her my terms are non-negotiable," the Thalmor snapped, knowing that Maven would have to concede. "When it comes to killing them, don't do anything like that. Just intercept any more letters, if I need Kayci or Brelyna dead, it may not be my first choice, but I can handle that easily on my own…"

Brelyna POV

It had been almost three weeks since the 'incident' where Kayci let everything out and she had sent the letter off to Resh, and suffice to say the Dunmer was getting worried. Not only had there been no response from Resh but Kayci was acting completely normal, and Brelyna was worried that she was in denial again.

The situation with Resh she decided she would leave a few more weeks, the worst possibility was that she he hadn't got it, and the best was that he had gone off to kill Elenwen, but at the moment she didn't know, so only time will tell. It was unlikely anything bad had happened to him making him unable to reply, so it was probably just a late letter.

As for Kayci she had no idea what to do, she was afraid that bringing it up again will just cause her to break down, Brelyna had never been in a situation like this before and wasn't sure if Kayci functioning like usual was good or bad.

In light of Kayci's torment Brelyna hadn't even tried to be intimate with her lover again, scared of causing painful memories, she had suspicions that she was treating Kayci like she was fragile, which she by all means was not, and being too careful, but she would rather be that than accidently hurt her.

Brelyna wanted to be around her all day to look after her, but unfortunately her tutorials and lessons took up a lot of time, occasionally J'Zargo would be around when she wasn't, and the Dark Elf hated to admit it, but the Khajiit was a good friend to Kayci, not overstepping any lines by asking questions yet still trying to comfort her and be good and interesting company.

But there was still a lot of time the Tsaesci was alone, Lydia was off 'galavanting' around Winterhold only to return smelling of mead, something that Brelyna has repeatedly urged her not to do. She guessed that was another reason she really needed to get back into contact with Resh again for, no doubt he would be annoyed at the mother of his childs latest actions. He claimed to no longer be interested in her, and even if that were true, which it clearly was not, he wouldn't want Lydia to continue endangering his offspring.

Viewing Kayci as a Tsaesci was also a hard thing to get over, of course the situation rapidly changing didn't allow her to really talk to her about it, but Brelyna was still uneasy about it. Although, she had also reached the conclusion that Kayci probably felt safer in her true form than as a Nord. And although being in the College it wasn't possible, Brelyna wished she could find a way to allow Kayci to be who she truly was.

Maybe the Midden would be a good place for her, but then again there were all those creatures down there which could be dangerous, Kayci was a good fighter though, and she was sure the Tsaesci would have no issues with them.

Resh POV

"How do I know that you're not just someone pretending to be on my side?" the old man asked again with suspicion, causing Resh to let out an aggravated sigh, the man was clearly smart and suspected something.

Sighing for a few moments Resh narrowed his eyes growling distaste, "I'm the Dragonborn so let me the fuck in. If you don't after making me say this I'll burn your hiding place to the ground."

Widening his eyes Esbern quickly opened the door, going on about how Delphine must have sent him, at that Resh saw one of the Thalmor edge around the the corner but quickly shot him a glance and waved him away frantically, thankfully the Altmer got the message and moved back before Esbern noticed him.

"Delphine didn't send me, but she will be more than pleased I am here," Resh muttered, before thinking of an appropriate lie that would make sense for when Delphine questioned his actions. "I'm only here because Delphine owes me some armour and a sword, which I'm assuming you'll have in base of operations."

Esbern frowned but decided it wasn't worth arguing with him, it was clear the larger Nord was not in a good mood, especially when on the subject of being the Dragonborn as that was what pissed him off in the first place. It was likely best to just take him to Delphine and avoiding questioning him about why the Blade leader would be obliged to give him equipment.

As the two left Resh glanced back at the Thalmor agents who were hidden in the shadows, and mouthed at them to follow. With any luck they would know not to blow their cover and stay out of site until the Blades base could be found.

The Blades 'technically' descend from his race, so not only would he be getting some decent weapons and armour be he also wondered what kind of architecture they would have, and if it was anything like his own kinds. With any luck it would be, and perhaps he could liberate it into a house for himself, or an embassy of sorts for his kind.

Resh POV

Somehow, and Resh couldn't believe how it had happened, the Thalmor had actually listened to him, and instead of announcing their presence the moment the tailed him to Delphines location actually remained hidden for the rest of the journey.

It had been weeks of travelling and Resh was honestly surprised Delphine and Esbern hadn't caught on to the patrol of Thalmor. They had thinned out to just two or three in number, probably to remain concealed, but still, Resh could sense they were around, it may have something to do with his Tsaesci senses though.

By now they had also likely messaged Elenwen and gotten a reply telling them to trust him and that he really did have diplomatic status and immunity, as well as being officially an honourary high rank in the Thalmor. So that was likely why they hadn't jumped out to kill the Blades rather than continuing to hide for long periods of time.

Conversation between him and the Blades had been scarce at best, Resh didn't really care seeing as the only information he wanted was where their base was which was their journey, but he was afraid they were suspicious of him and avoiding talking to him because they knew about his Thalmor affiliation.

Resh dismissed the paranoia almost immediately after reasoning that it was more likely just to do with the awkwardness between him and Delphine because of the last encounter. She hadn't made a particularly good impression when she almost killed his friend, so things were still very tense.

There had been brief exchanges when mentioning sleeping arrangements or food consumption, but other than those short one word answers he had ignored both of them. Finally, after getting sick of the lonely silence of a month of no talking Resh muttered. "You still owe me loads of equipment."

Delphine sighed. "Fine, anything you want, we're almost there. Just help us get to the temple and you can have as much as you need."

"Good," he growled, slightly annoyed still that the conversation had gone absolutely nowhere, it was times like this where he missed the company of his friends. He'd do anything to have Kayci with him giggling at everything that happens, or even Lydia with her somewhat interesting discussions and questions… and the fucking too, of course.

But of course they were all too busy in the College, getting to sit around doing nothing but talk to each other, rather than trekking through this primitive hold of the Reach, full of disgusting barbarians even worse than the Nords. He couldn't let himself get angry at them though, it may have been almost entirely Lydia's fault that she was more than five months pregnant with his child, but he still had to take some of the responsibility. And Kayci physically couldn't fight with him anymore so all chances of that opportunity was gone.

There was of course still Brelyna, but he didn't want anything to do with her for obvious reasons, the way she treated Kayci, and then is managing to manipulate Kayci into still loving her despite it all made him sick. He just hated her so much, were it up to him he would've gutted her immediately, but Kayci had to stop him. It was awful seeing people he loved being so misled and controlled by those more intelligent without them knowing, she was being taken advantage of because of her naivety and it pissed him off to no end.

The Tsaesci decided to try and block that thought out of his mind for the moment, knowing that the less he thought about the Dunmeri bitch the better, there was nothing he could do at the moment about the despicable woman, so worrying about it was just unnecessary stress. It didn't work though, the more he tried not to think about the mage the more he did, and now he was afraid what danger he had left Lydia and Kayci in, what if she tried to hurt them again?

Distraught started to spread across his face as the hours went on and he came up with all the possibilities Brelyna could have taken to kill or hurt his two friends. Resh, who was only now coming to terms with how terrible a father he had been to leave them with that monster, was desperately trying to devise a way to get back as quickly as possible while still completing the Blades situation.

Resh had no idea what to do now, not just with the situation at hand and the repulsive Elf he had left with the people closest to him, but everything. Lydia, the child, however much he wanted to stay as far away from her as possible Resh couldn't help but want to be there for his offspring regardless, besides, no matter how much he hated to admitted a tiny part of him knew that he still loved her and that the deplorable actions and new personality were not her fault, but rather her species pathetic design with chemicals and pregnancy.

Elenwen was still going to be a problem though, seeing as she was by far the logical choice, and was offering him everything Lydia was not. Power, money, a diplomacy bonus, likely a promotion within his kind, land to rule, a partner who was intelligent, who had her own plans and radiated power and authority. Those were just a few among the many other factors, clearly the Ambassador was near perfect.

"The Forsworn camp, that's where we're going," Delphine exclaimed to the group, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Prepare yourself, the natives here are more dangerous than their fur armour makes them look."