I do not own Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
And this is probably one of the chapters I like the least, even though we introduce one of my favorite canon characters.
Oh well. I still love Thrynn deeply, even though writing him is difficult because of how little interaction there is with him during the game.
Reviewer Responses:
Lydia: Thank you for reviewing again, friend! This is another chapter that features Brynjolf, Ziris, and their relationship, although it's sort of the last one where they're actually a couple. Take it all in while you can.
Manu: I'm glad you remember, and liked the rewritten version! And I'm glad you love Ziris and Brynjolf, too. Please enjoy this chapter as well. :)
mia78: Here's the next one! Hope you like this one, too.
Chapter 6: Typical Day
"Ziris, this is Thrynn," Mercer told her, gesturing to the young man standing beside him. "I want you to show him around the cistern."
Ziris offered Thrynn a smile, and her hand. "It's good to meet you, Thrynn," she said. "Welcome to the Thieves Guild."
Thrynn took her hand and shook it. "Thanks."
"Go on," Mercer said, ushering them away from himself and his desk. "I have work to do."
Ziris shook her head and led Thrynn away from the desk. "Is he like that a lot?" Thrynn asked her, and she nodded.
"That's why we love him," she said, and then she gestured towards the closet thing, which was the master vault. "Here you see the reason why. Mercer's all about keeping the Guild on its feet, and this vault is where we keep the riches that do that." She frowned to herself. "Though, how much is left in there is beyond me."
Thrynn nodded in agreement. "Brynjolf mentioned that the Guild was going through a rough patch."
"More like a rough era," Ziris murmured.
She'd been with the guild for twenty three winters. Twenty three winters prior, the Guild had started its downward spiral. She was honestly amazed that they hadn't completely run flat after all this time, but she knew that Mercer was doing all he could to keep them going, so she'd never worried all that much.
In order to keep Thrynn from regretting he'd ever accepted Brynjolf's offer, she looked up at him. "We're holding ourselves together, though. Shows just how resilient we are, even when everything in the universe and their mother are working against us."
Thrynn finally cracked something that could have been a smile. "Fair enough."
She led him around the walkway to the kitchen next, and gestured to it. "We eat here, sometimes, but there's a tavern of sorts attached to the cistern through that door over there." She pointed to it. "You probably already passed through it."
"All right," Thrynn said, glancing around the kitchen. He nodded towards the ladder. "Secret entrance?"
"Exactly," Ziris said, pleased. "You'll fit in around here no problem." She waved her hand. "I'll show you the training room, and then we'll go to the Flagon."
Thrynn nodded his acceptance, and as they walked to the training room, Ziris queried about what he'd done prior to accepting Brynjolf's offer.
"I was part of a bandit clan."
She glanced up at him in surprise, and he nodded. "I joined up with them maybe ten years ago. Small clan... maybe twenty men. We'd raid villages, rob caravans... but it was always about the killing for them." When he saw Ziris's expression, he backtracked. "Don't get me wrong; the first few years with that clan were some of the best of my life. All the food I could eat, all the wine I could drink, all the women…"
He trailed off and glanced down at her again, then cleared his throat. "We raided a caravan one spring. I think it was a few wagons, with some farmers moving to a new village. They didn't put up much of a fight. When all that was left were the women and children, our leader, Garthek, ordered us to kill them, too."
"You… you didn't, though, right?" Ziris queried softly, and Thrynn quickly shook his head.
"I refused, and Garthek ordered the clan to kill me as well. Thankfully, I had a few friends, and the two sides tore each other to pieces." He exhaled. "After it was all over, we went our separate ways."
Ziris swallowed, not sure she wanted to know the answer to her next question. "And Garthek?"
Thrynn smiled thinly. "I left his head on a pike at the wreckage of the caravan."
"What happened to the rest of the clan?" Ziris asked him.
"Don't know, don't really care," Thrynn replied. "I suppose they moved on, just like I did."
They'd stopped just inside the training room, and Ziris turned away from him, gesturing around it. "Here it is," she said. "It's not much, but it suits our needs." She pointed to the training dummies and the targets. "Those are good for practicing archery and swordsmanship." She waved her hand at the chests on the opposite side of the room. "And if you ever want to lock pick something without the risk of getting arrested, those training chests are a good option."
"It's nice," Thrynn told her, and Ziris nodded.
"It does its job, that's for sure." She then turned and started out of the training room again, Thrynn following behind her. They passed Brynjolf as he was heading for the training room himself, and he winked at Ziris.
"Sword-work later?" he asked her, and she nodded, reaching over to grab his armor and pull him into a kiss before letting him go on.
Thrynn watched this interaction with furrowed brows, and when he looked at Ziris in confusion, she grinned and waved her hand in the direction Brynjolf had gone.
"We've been on again, off again for a few years now," she told him. "That's how relationships work in the Thieves Guild. You'll probably find that out soon enough."
Thrynn didn't lose his frown, however, and Ziris decided to drop the subject all together. Instead, she pushed her way through the door into the hidden hallway, and led the way through it and the storage closet into the Ragged Flagon. Thrynn nodded when she gestured around it.
"It's good," he said, eyeing the bar and the collection of drinks Vekel had hiding behind it.
"Come on," Ziris suggested, leading him up onto the deck, where both Delvin and Vex were seated. She gestured first to Delvin, and then to Vex, and introduced them to Thrynn. "He's our newest recruit."
"Good to meet ya," Delvin said, grinning at him, while Vex merely nodded.
"You too," Thrynn replied.
"Delvin and Vex will give you jobs if you ask for them," Ziris went on. "In fact, I have one that Vex gave me up on the surface that I really should take care of before the day's over…"
Vex frowned at her, and Ziris grinned sweetly back, before turning and gesturing to Tonilia, who was silently reading to herself at another table, not paying attention to any of them.
"That's Tonilia, and she's our fence," Ziris said. "She's very good at her job."
"Seems like everything functions well down here," Thrynn said as they started back towards the cistern.
"We're all one big happy Guild," Ziris told him.
"Not a family?" Thrynn asked, and Ziris shook her head.
"We leave that title for the Dark Brotherhood."
Thrynn nodded in understanding, and passed through the door into the cistern, which Ziris was holding open for him. She followed him in, and then gestured towards the beds. "I'm not really sure which ones have people sleeping in them at this point, but if someone kicks you out, just move onto the next one."
"Huh," Thrynn said, and he started for hers. Quickly, Ziris slipped between him and it, and shook her head.
"This one's mine."
"Oh," Thrynn said, and then he grinned again. It was a nice grin, and Ziris wondered why he didn't use it more often. "I'll try to remember that."
There was an underlying meaning to that, and Ziris decided not to comment on it, as she and Brynjolf were currently on again. Instead, she scooted away from him.
"You think you got everything?" she asked, and he nodded. "All right then. If you have any questions, we're all incredibly friendly, so don't worry about asking any of us."
"Thank you for showing me around," Thrynn said, and Ziris smiled at him.
"Don't worry about it. I'll see you later, probably."
"Sure," Thrynn agreed, and then Ziris turned and headed for the training room again.
She liked fighting with Brynjolf, because she always beat him, without fail. She also liked being there when he was training with another new addition to the Guild, a young man named Rune, whom Brynjolf had found several years prior, in a similar state as Ziris, when Mercer had found her.
Indeed, when she entered the training room, she found Rune already sparring with Brynjolf. Both men had removed their Guild armor, and wore nothing by their pants and the tunics that the thieves wore beneath the armor.
Ziris leaned against the doorway to watch them, smiling to herself as Rune danced around Brynjolf in the way she'd suggested. The younger thief easily made it behind Brynjolf and poked him in the back with his training sword.
Brynjolf cursed amiably as Rune bounded backwards away from him when he spun around to retaliate. "You taught him that, didn't you?" he asked, noticing Ziris in the doorway.
"Maybe," she replied. "You can't prove anything."
Brynjolf grunted as he tried to go after Rune again. The younger thief easily spun out of the way, and knocked Brynjolf's dagger from his hand in the process.
"Hah!" Rune said, grinning widely as Brynjolf reached down to grab for it. "You have no chance."
"Apparently not," Brynjolf agreed wearily, giving Ziris a look. She smiled back, and gestured for him to pass over the weapons he was holding. He did so without hesitation, and then went to lean against the wall and watch.
Ziris stepped up in front of Rune and grinned at him. "Think you can beat me?" she inquired, and Rune shook his head.
"Probably not, but I'll try my best."
The two thieves began to circle one another, moving in opposite directions. Ziris made sure to keep clear of things like the dummies so that she wouldn't get trapped from behind, all while watching Rune and waiting for him to slip up.
"I'm not trapping myself, either," Rune told her. "Don't bother waiting."
"Damn," Ziris said. "Maybe I gave you too many tips."
Before Rune could reply, she darted forward and ducked, poking one of the daggers she was holding into his stomach. Rune grunted on impact, and staggered back a few paces.
Brynjolf shook his head when Ziris looked at him for praise. "He said you would beat him," the thief stated. "Give him a chance."
Ziris rolled her eyes at him, and then spun away from Rune when he charged at her, tripping him neatly with the foot she wasn't spinning on. Rune fell heavily to the stone floor, his weapon sliding away from him, and Ziris turned to face him, shaking her head.
"Never assume the person you're fighting's distracted," she told him.
Rune sat up, rubbing at his elbow. "That hurt," he said, glancing down at the scratch he'd gotten from his fall.
"Sorry," Ziris said, and then she offered him her hand. "I should probably just stick to fighting someone who has a chance of beating me."
"Mercer hasn't stepped foot in the training room since Molgrom was released from prison last time," Brynjolf said. "You'll have to deal with us lesser fighters instead."
"How unfortunate for you," Ziris decided, and Brynjolf offered her an eyeroll. She grinned back, and then gave Rune a pat on the shoulder. "How about you let Brynjolf and I talk for a minute?"
Rune wasted no time in darting out of the training room, and Ziris immediately turned back to Brynjolf, and giggled when he put his arms around her waist and tugged her closer to him. She dropped her weapons to the floor and put her own around his neck.
"You've got to let the lad learn a thing or two, sometimes, rather than just continue to kick his ass during every bout," Brynjolf suggested, pressing a kiss against her forehead.
"Oh, but what's the fun in that?" she asked him. "I'd lose my winning streak, and people would stop betting on me."
"The others bet on you?" Brynjolf queried, frowning, and Ziris nodded.
"Just when I'm fighting you, or someone else who sort of matches my skill," she said. "Niruin's in charge of it. We split the winnings 70/30."
"Why does he get seventy percent?" Brynjolf inquired. "He doesn't do any of the fighting."
"No, but we both know I'd never lose, and that I make more doing jobs than he does," Ziris responded with a shrug. "It keeps him from being mad about that last bit."
"Yeah, well, we only send Niruin out on long range jobs for a reason," Brynjolf agreed after a moment. "Still. What does Mercer think about it?"
"What Mercer doesn't know won't hurt him," Ziris said. "Besides, if he knew about it, he'd probably want a piece of the winnings, too, and I don't think Niruin would appreciate that." She gave Brynjolf a look. "So don't you tell him."
Brynjolf didn't respond that he wouldn't, but Ziris trusted him, so she let it drop. She leaned up on her toes in order to place a kiss against his lips. "So, are we doing anything tomorrow? I can't tonight, since I'm supposed to be going to Ivarstead on a job for Vex."
"I could come with you," Brynjolf suggested, and Ziris tilted her head back and forth.
"I don't really think it's a two person job."
"Maybe not, but at least I could keep you company on the walk there." Ziris sighed, and Brynjolf spun her around. "C'mon, Ziris."
"I suppose you can come, but… won't Mercer notice you're gone?"
"What does it matter?" Brynjolf asked.
"It doesn't," Ziris replied after a moment, and Brynjolf grinned.
"Right. So let's go, before it gets dark." He winked. "We might have to spend the night there."
Ziris grinned as he let her waist go in order to take her hand instead, and she let him pull her out of the training room.
They paused before entering the cistern again, and Ziris peered around the corner of the hallway, glancing in the direction of Mercer's desk. He wasn't there.
"Perfect," she whispered to Brynjolf. "On the count of three, we run for the ladder. Ready?"
"Always," Brynjolf responded.
"All right." Ziris took his hand again. "One… two… three!"
She quickly pulled him behind her and they raced for the ladder, skirting around where Rune was sitting with Cynric and Vipir at the table in the kitchen.
"Where are you two going?" Vipir asked with a grin, and Ziris waved him off with her free hand, ushering Brynjolf up the ladder in front of her.
"Don't worry about it, and don't say anything to Mercer."
"And what secrets are you keeping from me now?"
Ziris winced, and turned around to face Mercer, who had his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
"I'm bringing Brynjolf on a job with me," she stated, deciding lying would be the wrong thing to do, now that he'd caught her.
"To where?" Mercer questioned.
"... Ivarstead."
"Gods." Mercer rolled his eyes. "Be back by tomorrow afternoon, or I'm taking all your pay from this job, and all of whatever Brynjolf makes on the next one of his."
Ziris nodded, and grinned at him. "We'll be back, I promise."
Without waiting for him to say anything else, she darted up the ladder after Brynjolf, who was waiting for her outside of the tomb, looking worried.
"Everything good?"
"Fine," Ziris answered, taking his hand in hers. "Come on."
They headed out of the western gates, and started down the road towards Ivarstead. They had a two hour walk ahead of them, but they knew how to make time go by quickly, especially Brynjolf.
"That one looks like a tree."
Ziris frowned. "I don't see it."
"Are you looking at the right one?" Brynjolf asked, and he pointed towards the cloud he was talking about again. "That one, right there."
Ziris tilted her head first one way, and then the other. She didn't see anything that looked like a tree, but she did see an arrow. "I think it looks more like an arrow," she told him.
Brynjolf laughed. "Of course you do."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Ziris demanded, shoving him with her shoulder. Brynjolf shoved her right back, still chortling, and Ziris scowled at him. "What does it mean?" she said again.
"I mean that it just makes sense that you'd see an arrow," Brynjolf replied, taking a step sideways, away from her. "You shoot a lot of them." Ziris raised an eyebrow, and he shied away. "Gods, you really look like Mercer when you do that."
"Now you're just asking for it," Ziris exclaimed, jumping towards him.
Brynjolf easily warded her off just by holding out his hands, and catching hers in them before she could reach him. He held her away from him at a distance, grinning boyishly, and Ziris huffed.
"Why did I decide to bring you?" she asked no one in particular, but Brynjolf felt it necessary to give her an answer.
"Because I'm terribly fun."
"You're also the worst," she said, pulling away so that they could keep walking.
Brynjolf joined her, his attention back on the sky. He pointed again after a moment. "Sabre cat."
"I'm going to hit you," Ziris mumbled without looking up.
Brynjolf chuckled again. "All right," he said. "Do you want to talk about something else?"
Ziris thought about it for a moment. "How'd you convince Thrynn to join up?" she asked him.
Brynjolf frowned, and looked sideways at her. "You want to hear about that?"
"Sure," Ziris said with a shrug. "What else is there?"
"Well…" Brynjolf sighed. "I was in the Bee and Barb, and I found him just sitting at the counter. He didn't look too happy, and he only had enough coin to pay for one drink. I figured he'd like a way to make some money, so I talked to him for a bit. He told me about what he used to do, and I asked him if he'd have any problems with thieving."
"Straight out? Really?" Ziris queried in surprise, and it was Brynjolf's turn to shrug.
"People sometimes don't understand what I'm trying to say if I'm vague." Ziris nodded, and Brynjolf went on, "It didn't take long to convince him after that."
"He said that you told him about our "rough patch"," Ziris said, and Brynjolf nodded.
"Lying to recruits isn't the smartest way to go." He reached up and rubbed the scar on his cheek. "I learned that the hard way."
Ziris remembered that all too vividly. The recruit had been halfway through the Flagon when he realized what he was walking into, and he'd pulled his knife on Brynjolf. It'd taken Dirge and Delvin to pull him off. Afterwards, Brynjolf had kept bleeding until they'd poured a healing potion directly onto the cut, and still it'd been too deep to ever truly go away.
Now, instead of telling people that story when they asked, he simply told them he'd been attacked by a angry lover. Ziris didn't know why he thought that was better, but she imagined it was a man thing.
"I showed him around," she said, "and he seemed… relaxed. Do you remember when Rune first came down into the cistern?"
Brynjolf grinned at the reminder. "Lad looked ready to piss himself the first time he met Mercer," he said, and Ziris giggled.
"Then he was worried that he'd made Mercer mad afterwards, even though he hadn't done anything, and you had to tell him that Mercer alway looks angry, and to just ignore it!"
"Poor Rune," Brynjolf said with a final chuckle.
"I think he managed to settle in, with your help," Ziris replied, kicking a stray rock off the road. It went tumbling into the trees.
"He still has a lot to learn," Brynjolf commented, "but yes, I think he's finding his place."
Ziris studied the ground as they went on walking. "How much further?"
"Another half-hour, maybe," Brynjolf said. "Not so bad, considering all the times you had to stop in order to attack me."
"Sorry," she started, "but sometimes you ask for it."
Brynjolf shook his head, but didn't say anything more.
They did make it to Ivarstead within the half-hour, and Ziris examined the small town for a moment, before leaning up to speak to him, quietly, "We're looking for some fancy jeweled vase that one of the farmers got as an inheritance."
"Which one?" Brynjolf asked.
"Well, I don't know that, but it's inside the farmhouse somewhere, probably," Ziris said. She glanced at him. "Do you think you can keep them distracted outside while I sneak inside and take it?"
Brynjolf grinned. "Of course I can," he said. "You're actually making me do something, when you could easily get inside without a distraction?"
"Why else would I have brought you along, if not to make this easier?" Ziris queried, and then she started towards the Fellstar Farm, Brynjolf taking a different route so that he could intercept the homeowners in their field.
Ziris sidled around to the front of the house as Brynjolf started speaking with one of the farmers, asking them if they needed any help. The farmer responded that they could always use some help.
Ziris glanced over her shoulder to make sure there wasn't anyone passing by, and then she faced the door, reaching out to test it.
Surprisingly, the door was unlocked, and Ziris blinked before pushing her way inside, quietly.
After the door had closed behind her, she took a glance around. It was a typical farmhouse, she saw, one room. The vase couldn't be hiding anywhere she couldn't easily find.
She started to poke around, in shelves and in chests. No vase made an appearance, however, and Ziris started to panic. She needed to find it, quick, before Brynjolf ran out of farm tasks to do.
She turned around, trying to think of where a farmer might hide something expensive, if not out in the open.
Then she spotted the board.
Ziris walked over to it. The wooden board on the floor was sticking up, slightly, as though someone had removed it, and put something beneath it before putting it back. Crouching down next to it, Ziris was easily able to pry it back up, and she grinned when she spotted the jeweled vase sitting beneath it.
She quickly grabbed it, and shoved the board back into place. Without looking back, she scurried out of the house and snuck off into the bushes on the side. Using them as cover, she moved around to the back of the house, and glanced around the field for Brynjolf.
He was busy at work, hoeing away at the ground while a woman followed behind him, sprinkling seeds. Ziris laughed to herself at the sight of Brynjolf doing manual labor, and she settled in to watch.
He kept working for a while longer, until he'd satisfied the farmer's wishes. They parted with her handing out a few coins, and Brynjolf grinning at her before walking away.
Ziris slid out of the bushes and went around the opposite way so that she would meet him in front of the house.
Brynjolf spotted her before she could scare him, unfortunately, and he said, "Ten septims for a half-hour of work!" he said, pleased. "Maybe I should leave thievery behind and start a homestead."
"Yes, because manual labor suits you so well," Ziris said, reaching up to mop off some of the sweat on his forehead. "It's late; do you think we can make it back to Riften before nightfall?"
Brynjolf didn't even bother looking up at the sky before he responded: "No, I think we should stay here," he told her, taking the vase. "Ugh, this isn't very pretty, is it?"
"No, but apparently it's worth a lot of money," Ziris responded, taking it back. "Come on, let's head to the inn."
Y'know, I wrote the last half after I'd thought I'd finished the chapter, because I realized the way I'd written it didn't flow well.
So this last half, and the first half of next week's chapter, are both really poorly written.
Forgive me.