I do not own Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

This new style of Author's Notes is something I can get behind. Get job me, for thinking it up.

Talkin' to Reviewers!

Manu: I'm continuing it, like you asked! Hope you like this chapter, too!

NewBlood3275: I'm glad you're already thinking so highly of this story, only two chapters in! Let's see if this will stay great. I certainly hope it will.

Chapter 3: A Few Lessons

"Are you even listening to me?"

Ziris blinked and looked up from her lockpicking. Vex was standing over her, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. Ziris had completely forgotten that she was overseeing the lesson, since the blonde thief had been so quiet the last hour or so.

"No, sorry," Ziris said. "I'd thought you left the room. What?"

"You need to act like the pick is an extension of yourself," Vex repeated after releasing a breath. "It won't do anything unless you tell it to. Tell it to open the lock, and it will."

Ziris smiled at that. "Physically, or mentally?" she asked, chuckling.

Vex frowned at her. "Do you want to learn to be a master lockpicker, or do you look forward to disappointing Mercer?" she queried.

Ziris immediately lost her grin, and she returned her gaze to her pick, which was currently lodged in the lock of the master chest in the training room. "No, of course I don't," she mumbled.

"That's not what it seems like to me," Vex responded. She dropped her arms and gestured to the lock. "Get it open. We've been in here for almost an hour, and you've already wasted two picks."

Ziris exhaled through her nose and returned her attention to the lock. She washed all other thoughts from her mind and focused entirely on the pick and the dagger she was also using. She relaxed her grip on both, and watched as they began to move seemingly all on their own, controlled by her hands and her thoughts.

Within a minute, she'd popped the lock, and retrieved the satchel of gold from inside the chest. She looked from it to Vex, and Vex nodded.

"Good. You're learning." With that, she strolled from the training room.

Ziris grinned to herself and rose, tossing the bag of gold into the air. She caught it again, and slid it into one of her belt pouches, then slipped out of the training room as well.

In the cistern, she found basically no one. All probably in the Flagon eating and drinking, or out on the meager jobs that Delvin had been in charge of scraping together since the betrayal.

The year that had passed had brought many temporary thieves into the Guild. Most of them only stayed for a week or two, not long enough for Ziris to get attached to any of them. She would have been lying if she said she was glad none of them had stayed, however. She knew that the Guild was beginning to lose more money than it was making, although she wasn't sure how. The ledger didn't match up with the amount of money that Delvin reported existed in the vault, which meant someone was messing up somewhere.

She had a feeling that someone was Mercer, but she didn't want to say anything about it. Mercer's moods had grown darker and more easily invoked as time passed. He rarely spent time with Ziris anymore, and had passed most of her training onto Vex, and Delvin when he wasn't too busy.

At least she was finally learning how to sneak, and from the best. Or so Delvin told her.

She wanted to be learning from her mentor, however, and she was annoyed that she wasn't. Mercer was the best, and she wanted to learn what he knew. After all, he'd said he would be the one to teach her, hadn't he?

She needed to talk to him about it, no doubt. She just… didn't know how to approach him. With his gloomy moods, Mercer was practically unpredictable, and she didn't know when the best time to talk to him would be.

She glanced across the cistern to where Mercer was standing at his desk, bent over the ledger on top of it. She could see from his posture that he wasn't happy whatsoever, and she bit her lip.

It probably wasn't a good idea to go over and speak with him, but… maybe he needed to get away from his work for a bit? She supposed it wasn't a ridiculous notion, and she took a few steps in that direction. She hesitated, however, when she heard a low curse come from him.

She took a step backwards, then turned completely and went to her bed instead. She didn't need to deal with a furious lash-out from the Guild Master. That was the last thing she needed after she'd spent an hour crouched in front of a training chest with Vex looking over her shoulder the entire time.

She settled down on the edge of her bed, looking down at the satchel of gold she'd retrieved from the chest, and then glanced across the cistern towards Mercer's desk again. He had straightened up, and had a hand tangled in his hair, his gaze fixed on the ledger sitting before him.

Ziris inhaled and returned her gaze to the purse. So much for talking to him today.

"Hello, love."

She glanced up at Delvin's voice, and found him sauntering over with a grin on his face. She managed to return it. "Hi, Del."

"You wanna practice some sneaking?" he queried. "I don't have anything else to do at the moment, and we haven't done anything like it yet this week."

Ziris didn't want to practice with Delvin, but she knew he was the best choice, if she couldn't work with Mercer himself.

So, she slid the purse under her pillow and nodded, standing up. "Where?" she asked him.

"I was thinkin' that we could just go up to the surface and see how that natural sense I talked about is comin' along," Delvin replied. "You've been workin' on it, right?"

Natural sense was apparently a thief's inborn ability to spot the best places to hide while sneaking, and to know the appropriate position to be in while sneaking. Ziris hadn't had either of these things the first time they'd discussed natural sense, and Delvin had told her to try sneaking whenever she could, and see if she could settle into the position.

And, yes, he did pronounce it natural sense every time, probably because it was incredibly important.

Still, Ziris had to struggle to keep in an exasperated sigh. "I guess so," she said without really meaning it.

Truthfully, she hadn't done any of the things Delvin suggested, mostly because she didn't want to learn anything from him, only to have Mercer tell her something completely different when he started to teach her. Apparently, that was not going to happen, so… she might as well actually try this time around.

Delvin led the way up to the surface, and they went around to the shadowy part of the back walkways behind the Temple of Mara, and the homes on the main street of Riften. Once they had reached the darkest area, Delvin turned to face her.

"So," he began, clapping his hands together. "Show me what you've been doin'."

Ziris refrained from rolling her eyes. Without much preamble, she sank into a low crouch close to the ground, and waddled in the direction of the shadows. Delvin watched her do this with a frown on his face, and when Ziris turned to look at him, he shook his head.

"That's the way you were doin' it last time," he told her.

"Well…" Ziris fell out of her crouch and sat down in the grass. "I guess I don't have natural sense."

Delvin shook his head again. "Mercer didn't seem to think that when he brought you into the Guild."

"Then why isn't Mercer the one teaching me?" Ziris grumbled under her breath.

Delvin gazed at her for a moment, and then he let out a sigh and settled down in the grass beside her. He rested his arms on top of his knees, and looked at her. "So, that's what this is about, is it?" he queried.

"He told me that he'd be the one to teach me," Ziris said sullenly. "But… over the past few months, it's like he's completely forgotten I exist, unless he decides that he wants to yell at me." She exhaled. "I just want to be the best, and I don't think I will be unless Mercer's the one to teach me."

"Mercer's been busy," Delvin reminded her.

"Too busy to work with me twice a week?" Ziris retorted. When Delvin gave her a look, she slumped her shoulders. "Sorry. It just makes me mad."

"And you haven't told me this why?"

Both she and Delvin looked up, and Mercer found contrasting expressions on their faces. Ziris first looked surprised, then guilty, while Delvin merely looked unconcerned, and then amused. It was a stark example of the difference in age and experience between the two of them.

Mercer crossed his arms and gestured back towards the hidden entrance with his head. Delvin nodded in understanding and rose, remaining behind to stretch languidly for a moment before heading in that direction. As he passed Mercer, he offered him a look of knowing, to which Mercer nodded back, once.

When Delvin had disappeared, Mercer returned his attention to Ziris, whose eyes had turned towards the ground.

"Ziris." She winced, and Mercer uncrossed his arms, not wanting to handle this the way she assumed he would, if what he'd heard her say was how she actually felt. "You could have talked to me."

"No," she said, and her voice was about two notches away from a yell. "I couldn't have, because you're always so frustrated, and you always look busy, and I know you probably are busy, but I can't believe that you're so busy that you can't train with me at least once a week. It's ridiculous, Mercer, and honestly I feel like you don't even care what happens to me because you only talk to me when you want to yell at something other than your ledger, and I don't want to be that thing that you yell at, because I don't deserve it, and because the only thing I want right now is for you to actually be my mentor like you said you would be, and, and…"

She slowly trailed off, and glanced upwards at him. "I just want to know whether or not you're actually going to help me."

Mercer gazed at her for a moment without speaking, considering what she'd said in her small rant. He knew that he hadn't been treating her fairly, especially when he had told her that he would be the one to train her. If he was being honest, however, he hadn't realized that she'd been the one getting most of his anger as of late. He hadn't intended her to be the one to receive it, at any rate. If anything, he should have been yelling at Molgrom, because the second was continuously getting caught and arrested, and Mercer was tired of it.

He finally let out a breath. "Show me what your crouch looks like," he said, hoping he didn't sound gruff, but that she understood it was an order.

Ziris looked at him, a confused expression on her face, but after a moment, she rose from her spot on the ground, and settled into a sorry excuse for a crouch, glancing up at him. She obviously knew it was bad, if the look on her face was any indication.

Mercer crouched down beside her in a fashion of his own, one more appropriate for sneaking. "I don't know what Delvin already told you, but the key to sneaking without being seen or heard is your crouch," he said. "You need to adjust your weight so that you're light on your feet, and able to move quickly and silently."

He demonstrated this, moving past her towards a shadow near the wall of the city. Ziris watched him, her eyebrows drawn, and she struggled to mirror his own crouch, adjusting so that her weight rested mostly on the balls of her feet, and so that her rear was higher in the air.

Carefully, she moved towards where Mercer had stopped, making sure to keep her rear up and her weight forward as much as possible.

Mercer nodded approvingly when she joined him. "That's already much better, but you could move just a bit quieter if you stepped more lightly."

"But all my weight is on the balls of my feet," Ziris said. "Where do I put it if I want to step lightly?"

"That's the trick," Mercer said. "You have to learn how to switch it while you move. Watch my feet this time, and see if you can spot what I'm doing."

Ziris focused all her attention on his feet, and watched as he took a few steps forward, moving slowly to give her more time to judge and comprehend what he was doing. She saw that he first rested most of his weight on the foot still on the ground while he stepped forward with the other, before settling onto that foot and moving the first. He was switching his weight between his feet, rather than relying on both to support him while he moved.

Mercer stopped and glanced back at her. "Did you see it?"

Ziris nodded, and attempted to join him further up the wall, trying to do what he had done. She kept her left foot firmly on the ground. When she lifted her right foot to move forward, she tried to move all her weight to her left foot alone.

Instead of having it settle while she stepped forward, however, she felt completely off balance, and toppled to the side. She cursed under her breath, and sat up, shaking a few leaves out of her hair as she did so.

Mercer was smiling in amusement. "You'll need to work on your balance," he said.

Ziris blew some of her hair out of her eyes. "Any suggestions?"

Mercer nodded, and stood up. Ziris followed his lead. "Every day, you need to stand on one leg for a half hour each," he told her.

"How's that supposed to help? I'm not going to be standing up straight while sneaking," Ziris said.

"No, but think about it for a moment," Mercer replied.

Ziris did, frowning. She then sighed. "It'll build up the muscles in my legs."

"Exactly," Mercer said. "When you've mastered standing up straight, you can lower your height a bit, and keep getting lower until you're standing on one foot while crouching."

"It'll help with my fighting, too," Ziris commented after a moment. "Help me be light on my feet."

"It will," Mercer agreed.

"So… that's it?" Ziris asked him when he didn't continue. "There's no… secret?"

"Why would there be a secret?" Mercer queried, frowning a bit.

"I just always assumed that you must do something that no one else does, to make you better," Ziris answered with a shrug. "It seems like this is a crouch that every thief uses, but if that's the case, why are you better at it than the others?"

Mercer gazed at her for a moment, and Ziris stared back unflinchingly. If only she understood the gravity of what she'd just asked him.

"I suppose I just have better balance," Mercer stated.

"I guess so," Ziris agreed after a moment.

There was more silence, and both struggled to keep from frowning uncomfortably as they stood in it.

Finally, Mercer thought of something to say: "How's your lock picking coming?"

"Fine," Ziris replied with a shrug. "Today, Vex suggested that I try to think of the pick and dagger as extensions of myself, and tell them what to do. I actually think it worked."

"Vex's lock picking skills are arguably better than my own," Mercer admitted. "It's no surprise that'd she's teaching you well."

"And Delvin says my pickpocketing is shameful at best," Ziris added, not wanting to seem like she was learning everything despite him not teaching her. "He says that if I were to try and pickpocket someone the way I do currently, I'd get my fingers cut off before I could even pull my hand back out."

Mercer tilted his head as he considered this. "Pickpocketing requires a steady hand, and the ability to keep a calm head," he said after a moment. "You have the first, but the latter is what gives you problems." He looked at her, slightly amused. "Am I wrong?"

"No," Ziris mumbled, digging at the grass with the toe of her boot. "Spot on, actually. My thoughts don't shut up when I'm trying to pickpocket. It's like there's three different people in my head telling me how to do it, and before I can decide on any of the options, I'm getting caught."

"That's a problem for a lot of thieves," Mercer told her. "I had that problem, too, when I first started. Can you tell me why?"

"Why we have the problem?" Mercer nodded, and Ziris shrugged. "I don't know. Because when we're doing something like that, the adrenaline kicks in?"

"Sort of," Mercer said. "Think about stealing something from a house. You have time to plan, right? You have time to reason out the way you'll get in, how you'll get to the item you plan on stealing, and how you'll get back out?"

"Sure."

"With pickpocketing, you don't have time," Mercer informed her. "Sure, you can follow a target around for a few days, get a feel for what they do with their hands and how they hold themselves and what they have that you want to steal, but you can't plan how you're going to reach into their pocket."

"Sure you can," Ziris said.

"How?"

"Well…" Ziris considered it for a moment. "Most every pocket is the same, right? How hard can it be to get into the mindset you need to know that you're going to be picking one? The technique has to be similar for every pocket you reach your hand into."

"Not necessarily," Mercer told her. "If a person stands in such a way that they lean more to the side that you're trying to steal from, it's fair to say that you'll have a harder time getting into that pocket. Their body is pushing up against the clothing, making the space between pocket and thigh smaller, if it even exists."

"But if there's no way to get your hand into the pocket without them feeling you, then what's the point?" Ziris asked.

"That's what I'm trying to say," Mercer said. "You have to pick and choose when it comes to pickpocketing. You can't just go up to simply anyone and take whatever they have. You have to know who to steal from, and exactly what you're going to be stealing."

"That's what contracts are for, though," Ziris said.

"Exactly."

"But -"

"I know what you're saying," Mercer said. "You're wondering why it's so easy for some thieves to just take whatever they want, right?" Ziris nodded, and Mercer walked towards her. She frowned in confusion, which turned into a scowl when he backed away again, holding her necklace from Brynjolf between two fingers.

"That's not funny," she told him, holding out her hand to get it back.

"You didn't realize I did it, though, did you?" Mercer asked her.

"No," Ziris responded, not putting her hand down. "Give it back, please."

"Why didn't you notice?" Mercer questioned.

"Because I was distracted."

"By?"

"I don't know!" Ziris exclaimed. "Your proximity? What you've been saying?"

"Yes," Mercer said, pleased. "Exactly. While a thief's brain might be running when their going to pickpocket, they have to make sure that their target's brain is running, too."

Ziris seemed confused by this for a moment, but then her eyes lit up with understanding, and she grinned. "Fight fire with fire, essentially," she said, and Mercer nodded.

"Good," Mercer said, and then he reached out with the necklace. Ziris took it from him, and slid it back over her head, still smiling. "I think you're going to do just fine, little raven."

"And you'll…." Ziris hesitated for a moment, and then she swallowed and met his gaze. "You'll make time for me?"

"I'll do my best," Mercer replied, "but you can't always expect I'll be able to train with you. You have to be prepared to work on your own, or with someone else."

Ziris gave him a frustrated look, and Mercer offered her a shrug. "I'm sorry, but that's the way it'll have to be, sometimes. We have a lot to deal with lately, and I need to be on top of it."

Ziris let out a disappointed sigh, but she nodded nonetheless. "I know," she said. "I'm sorry. I'll train with whoever I can, now that I know the basics. That's all I really wanted."

That wasn't the truth. What she really wanted was for Mercer to help sharpen her skills like a blade, but since that apparently wasn't going to happen, she'd have to take what she could when she could and do it on her own.

And that was the way it was.

Also, will there always be these bottom ones?

I don't know yet.

Just depends on what I have to say. And today I have to say that... you guys are beautiful.