I do not own Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
There is definitely something about not reading a thing you finished several months ago, and then having to go back and reread it in order to edit it and realizing that it's... kind of... not what you'd thought it'd be, but still okay.
Yeah, still okay.
(There's something special down in the bottom Author's Note. Check it out after you're done reading the chapter for a surprise!)
Review Responses:
Nina: Indeed she does. It comes from that 'play by all the rules' attitude that she has about everything. It also makes her my least favorite character, because her personality type is completely different from mine.
And, thank you for the bit about the other Guild members! I figured that, since they're part of the Guild, they might as well be part of the story. Obviously, there's some who appear more often than others, but I appreciate the fact that you've noticed I've tried to include them!
We interrupt these Review Responses to bring you a quick promotion about Wiggs's Tumblr page:
You can check out a post about the characters' personality types over on my Tumblr page, which is just my name here typed in front of tumblr typed in front of .com.
If you search for 'skyrim' or 'elder scrolls: v', it should be one of the results.
Now back to your regularly schedule programming.
Review Responses:
Yukymi008: I'm awfully sorry that I can't make that first 'y' a lowercase letter like your name has it.
Also, thank you for reviewing! I understood everything perfectly, so keep your reviews coming, if you like, because I really appreciate it!
Manu: Once again, thank you. Mercer is definitely the hardest character to write, because he's sort of an enigma. I'm so happy that you think I'm writing him well. I hope that Brynjolf and Ziris can fix things soon, too, but, as the author, I'm afraid to say that it might not happen for a while. Keep on coming back to see, though!
Guest: Even short reviews like these ones make my day. Thank you, anonymous friend!
WilSquare: Howdy, buddy! I think I can recall seeing you a long time ago! Glad you decided to pop in again, and thank you for the lengthy review filled with only good things! It was fun to read, and to know that you're enjoying the story after taking a break from it. Now you can spend an hour or so catching up on what you missed! Keep checking in every couple of weeks, because there'll always be more to come back too!
Chapter 10: Goldenglow
Several days later, Vex was back to her normal, thorny self, snapping at anyone who tried to help her when she stood to go relieve herself or get something to eat. Delvin, however, insisted that he remain nearby to catch her if she fell, and Ziris was surprised Vex had yet to cut his own leg to keep him from doing so.
Still, as she finished dressing on the day exactly a week from Vex's attempt to get onto the island, Ziris decided that she needed to find out anything useful Vex could share with her, to aid her in getting on the island.
She crossed the cistern to where Vex sat at the table, upright despite Delvin's protests. She sat down across from the lithe thief, who glared at her immediately.
"Here to tell me I should be laying down, too?" she demanded, and Ziris shook her head.
"I wanted to ask you if you could tell me anything about getting onto the island."
Vex's sour expression didn't fade in the slightest. "Mercer's pinning it on you now, is he?"
"I offered," Ziris replied.
"You would have," Vex muttered, reaching for the bottle of Black-Briar mead sitting in front of her on the table. She didn't speak as she took a drink from the bottle and then stared at it without blinking. Just when Ziris was going to give up and leave, Vex glanced at her.
"There's a sewage drain on the northwest side of the island," she said. "I made it through there and came up in front of the front door. I was picking my way in when I was discovered." She shook her head, either in disgust with herself or the mercenaries and Aringoth, and Ziris nodded.
"Thank you."
She stood up, ready to go, and Vex gazed at her for a moment before speaking again: "Be careful out there," she said, lowly. "Those mercenaries aren't looking to take prisoners. Trust me."
Ziris met her gaze, and dipped her head. "I'll be on my guard," she said, and then turned and started for the ladder. Before she could get a foot on a rung, however, Brynjolf called her to a halt. She turned to look at him, one hand on the ladder, and the thief exhaled.
"Mercer wanted me to ask you to send another message, from the Guild itself."
"Which is?" Ziris asked impatiently. She wanted to get a move on before her adrenaline failed her.
"We want you to burn three of the bee hives," Brynjolf explained. "Only three, though. Just enough to send a message, not enough to burn the whole estate to the ground."
"Got it," Ziris said. "Burn the hives, get whatever documents are in the safe in the basement."
"And don't die," Brynjolf added.
"Right. Thanks." Ziris climbed up the ladder, rolling her eyes along the way, and pushed her way through the cover on the tunnel.
She strolled casually out of Riften and around to the eastern side of the city, where Goldenglow Estate waited in the middle of Lake Honrich. She crouched down and slipped a hand into the water to test its temperature. It was cold, but not as cold as it would be later that night. If she wanted to get through this without freezing to death, she'd need to do it quickly.
She let out a breath, and slid into the lake. She made her way through the water to the island, and around to the northwest side, where the sewage drain Vex had mentioned was supposed to be.
She hadn't been making it up. It waited patiently on a small patch of land beneath a dock for her, covered by wooden planks. Ziris removed the planks in order to slide into the drain, and then recovered it so that it wouldn't look disturbed. She then made her way down the first passage that waited, freezing when she heard the familiar sound of a skeever somewhere up ahead.
She sighed and pulled out her glass dagger, not necessarily in the mood to be dealing with skeevers. She rounded a corner, and two jumped out at her. One successfully landed a bite on her arm, and she cursed as she drove her dagger into the other, and then quickly yanked it out and shoved it into the one latched onto her arm.
When it was dead, she used her sword to pry it off of her, hissing as she examined the holes in her armor's sleeve. She'd felt the beast pierce her skin, but she couldn't say how bad the bite was.
Sighing to herself, she decided to ignore it for now and keep going. She started down the passage again, and paused when she noticed a thin line of rope along the floor. She followed it up the wall and to a pot filled with the warm glow of fire.
Ziris shook her head to herself and eyed the three skeevers that also awaited her. She needed to draw them towards her so that she could snap the rope and drop the fire onto them. How to do that, though?
She decided on the easiest option and pulled out an arrow and her bow. She shot the arrow into the passage, and it hit the wall with a noise loud enough to draw the attention of the skeevers. They screeched and started towards her. When they were close enough, Ziris quickly snapped the rope and slid backwards to avoid the flame and the smell of burning skeevers. They let out more screeches as they lit up, and quickly perished as the fire died out along the floor.
Ziris did her best to hold her breath as she dodged past the crispy bodies and further down the passage. It inclined slightly, and she was faced with another trap at the top, which she activated with a piece of rubble. A spiky ball fell across her path, and she thanked the Divines that she hadn't been in its way. Slipping past it, she continued on and found herself facing a ladder.
Not seeing any other way out, she climbed the ladder and pushed through the planks that lay across the top. Fresh air hit her senses as she did so, and she found herself directly outside of the estate. Climbing from the drain and quickly ducking into a crouch, she edged along the stone wall to the door, only to find it locked.
"Damn," she muttered under her breath, and then froze when she heard a voice that wasn't her own speak from nearby. Without hesitating, she hurried back over to the hole she'd emerged from and ducked into it again, just in time. A pair of mercenaries came strolling along around the corner of the estate, talking with one another.
"The elf hasn't paid in about a week," one commented.
"I know," the other agreed. "I wonder why; we took care of that thief, didn't we?"
"We didn't kill her."
"So?"
"We're hired killers," the first said. "He pays us to kill intruders, and we didn't kill that one."
"I guess you have a point," the second replied after a moment. "The least he could do is give us some mead. It's getting cold out here at night."
The other mumbled an agreement as they rounded the far corner. Ziris exhaled and was about to push her way out of the drain again when another voice reached her. She ducked back into the hole with silent curse.
This is going to be a long day.
Several hours later, she was still crouched at the top of the ladder, her belly rumbling. She hadn't seen or heard any mercenaries for at least thirty minutes. She figured it could be safe enough to try to lockpick the door, but she still needed to figure out a way to burn the beehives without being caught, and she hadn't even seen the blasted things.
The first step to either of those options, however, was to leave the damn hole.
Ziris climbed from it and ducked into a bush nearby. She peered out through the leaves, eyeing the side of the estate she could now see. It appeared that the island was actually a network of smaller islands. She was on the largest, with the house, but she could see a group of smaller ones connected to it by a set of wooden bridges. Across those bridges, on one of the bigger islands, was a group of beehives.
Guarding the bridges, and the beehives, were five different mercenaries, all seated around a fire that one of them had started.
Ziris eyed the fire, the mercenaries, and the beehives for a moment, before she turned and left the safety of the bush to go around to the other side of the estate. On this side was the wooden dock she had seen before, and next to it was a small wooden boat.
Ziris pursed her lips as an idea began to formulate, and she smiled to herself when it came together.
A few minutes later, the boat was drifting around to the side of the estate that had the beehives. Ziris, leaning against the building, listened as one of the mercenaries caught sight of it, and let out a shout, alerting his companions. Together, the five of them got up and jogged towards where the boat floated, getting dangerously close to drifting out to the open lake. She leaned around the building, waiting and watching.
Relief flooded through her when three of the mercenaries jumped into the water to chase after the boat, while the other two ran down the length of the island, trying to keep up with them.
Using this distraction, Ziris quickly darted across to where the fire glowed, caught some of the flame on the end of a stick, and carted the burning wood over to the beehives. Without hesitating, she lit up the three hives closest to her, and then stomped out the burning stick and raced back to the house.
She dove into the bush again just as the three mercenaries in the water managed get to boat secured and began to lead it back to the island. They hadn't noticed the three extra fires that were now burning.
Ziris didn't waste anymore time in withdrawing a lockpick from one of her pouches, hurrying to the front door, and getting to work.
The first pick snapped, and Ziris refrained from cursing in favor of getting out another one and replacing it. She struggled to work quickly without panicking, but she was having a hard time of doing so when she could hear the mercenaries shouting to one another, trying to get the boat back to the island.
Just when she thought the two on land were going to give up and turn around to see the burning hives, the lock opened, and Ziris quickly slipped into the estate, shutting the door quietly behind her.
The hours that had passed had left the inside dark. Ziris frowned to herself, doubting that there weren't any mercenaries inside. She began to take a pace forward, and froze when she heard movement from above her.
Aringoth?
She supposed that it was him, unaware of the intruder in his house. And, she thought, the darkness was a good thing. She could stay hidden for longer in the dark.
So, carefully and silently, she worked her way through the house, dispatching any mercenaries she found along the way, doing so only by thinking of what they had done to Vex. By the time she'd reached a set of stairs leading up to the second floor, she'd killed three.
She started up the stairs, wondering if she would be able to simply take the key to Aringoth's safe, or if she'd have to make him give it up.
When she found the door to his bedroom wide open, and glowing warmly with candles from within, she realized that they would definitely be having talks.
She drew her hood up to make her appear more menacing, and rose from her crouch. She then walked right into the room and found Aringoth sitting on the edge of his bed. He looked up at her entrance, and his eyes widened in fear. Quickly, he jumped to his feet, holding up his hands.
"Worthless mercenaries," he muttered. "I didn't think Maven or Mercer would allow me to get away with this, but I had little choice." He closed his eyes, wincing. "Don't kill me, please."
"I'll need the key to your safe, then," Ziris responded, walking over to him.
"Fine, take it!" Aringoth said, reaching into his pocket and producing a silver key. His hands were shaking as he handed it to Ziris. "I'm… I'm most likely good as dead anyway, aren't I?"
"Why is that? Do we have reason to want to kill you?" Ziris queried, and Aringoth stammered a moment before he frowned at her.
"I've said too much already. I gave you what you came for, now leave me in peace!"
Ziris gazed at him for a moment longer before she turned and left his room, going back down the stairs.
It didn't take long for her to get into the cellar, where she was forced to take out three more mercenaries before finally reaching the room that contained Aringoth's safe. She used the key he had given her on it, and it opened to reveal a single piece of parchment with a red seal, and a pile of gold.
Ziris slid the gold into an empty coin purse she'd brought along, and then pocketed the paper as well. She didn't bother looking at it; it wasn't her business.
With that done, she returned to the first level of the mansion and poked her head out the front door to make sure there were no mercenaries nearby before slipping back into the tunnel and returning the way she'd entered.
She paused on the other end, eyeing the lake, which was bound to be freezing, or close to it by now. She also had an important piece of parchment on her that she couldn't risk getting wet.
Sighing to herself, she removed the paper from her pocket, and, holding it high above her head, made her way into the lake and paddled back over to Riften.
When she climbed out of it, the cold air immediately mixed with the wetness of her armor and hair, making her shiver violently. She jogged to the Riften gates and avoided prying eyes by taking the back path to the hidden entrance, which she quickly climbed down. The drafty-ness of the cistern did nothing to help her freezing form, and she hit the ground hard, her fingers unable to hold onto the ladder. The paper was still gripped tightly in one hand.
"Ziris!" Someone approached her. She shoved the paper at whoever it was and immediately began stripping down, removing her wet armor as quickly as possible.
"Cl-clothes, bl-blanket, any-anything, now!" she said between teeth chatters as she peeled off her wet breeches and tossed them on top of her discarded cuirass, gloves, boots and hood, standing naked aside from her tunic, which clung to her wet skin like a hungry baby to its mother's breast.
A warm blanket was immediately tossed across her shoulders, and she closed it tightly around her, struggling to make sense of what was happening.
The person she'd handed the paper to was Thrynn, and he was studying her with a concerned expression that she hadn't thought him capable of. Brynjolf stood nearby, holding another blanket in case she needed it, looking at her with his typical 'worried Brynjolf' face.
Ziris took the paper from Thrynn and made her way over to the Guild Master's desk, where she dropped it on top of the ledger. She stiffened herself to keep from shivering as she looked up and met Mercer's gaze.
"That was all that was in the safe, along with some coin," she told him. She jerked her head towards her wet clothing, lying on the ground in front of the ladder. "That's over there."
Mercer tilted his head. "We saw the smoke pillars from here," he said, picking up the paper that Ziris had retrieved. "You only burned three of the hives?"
"That's all," she confirmed. "The mercenaries on the island had a bonfire of their own going. I borrowed some of it to do that part of the job."
Mercer wasn't listening to her anymore. He was scowling at the parchment, his expression dark with rage. Brynjolf, who'd followed her over to the desk, frowned.
"What is it?" he asked.
"The moronic elf sold Goldenglow," Mercer growled.
Brynjolf's eyes widened. "He must have no idea about the extent of Maven's power, then, if he would willingly do such a thing." He shook his head. "I'm sure he'll be finding out soon enough, however."
Mercer tossed the paper back down onto the desk with a disgruntled huff, and he looked at Ziris again. "Go sit in front of the fire pit in the Flagon and warm up," he ordered. "Take your armor and dry it out."
Ziris nodded and turned to do as he commanded, not expecting to receive any praise for a job well done. As she walked away, she heard Brynjolf pick up the paper.
"What's this odd symbol here?" he wondered aloud.
"No idea," Mercer grumbled in response, "but I imagine it will lead us to the buyer. Get in touch with your contacts, Brynjolf, and find out if anyone knows anything."
"Aye," Brynjolf replied.
Ziris picked up her pace, eager to get to the fire. Thrynn joined her, holding her dripping armor, and she gave him a grateful look as he held the door open for her. He then quickly put a chair in front of the fire pit behind the bar in the Flagon for her to sit down in.
Vekel gave her a curious look. "Odd time to go for a swim," he commented after a moment.
"Piss off," Ziris countered, gazing into the flames.
Thrynn set her armor down in front of the fire as well, laid out so that it would dry. Ziris struggled to shrug out of her tunic as well, the sopping fabric doing nothing to help warm her up. Thrynn watched as she succeeded in removing it beneath the blanket, and then kick it down past her thighs and off of her legs. It landed neatly on top of her cuirass, and he silently moved it off to the side.
"You want something warm?" Vekel asked, and Ziris nodded eagerly. Within a minute, he'd produced a tin mug filled with a steaming drink, and she took a small swallow of it. Tasteless, but hot. It settled happily into her belly, and she slid down in the chair, eyes drifting shut.
She was beginning to doze off when someone took hold of her right wrist and drew her arm out of the warm confines of the blanket. Ziris cursed in annoyance, her eyes opening, but had cause to pause when she saw the skeever bite she'd received earlier. The space between the two teeth marks was an ugly yellow color, and it was slowly beginning to work past the wound and up the remainder of her arm.
"What's this?" Thrynn asked, holding up her wrist.
"Skeever," Ziris mumbled. "Probably contracted a disease of some kind." She sighed to herself. "I should take a potion."
"I'll go find one," Thrynn promised, dropping her arm. As he jogged off, Vex approached, holding a ball of linen and a wet rag. She settled down onto the floor next to Ziris's chair and silently began to clean off her arm.
"Thanks," Ziris said, and Vex grunted in response.
"Delvin told me you took care of my leg," she explained. "Just trying to return the favor." She looked up from the wound and met Ziris's gaze. "Don't think I'm going to make a habit out of this, though."
Ziris smiled in response and closed her eyes again. "Course not."
"How'd you get past them?" Vex asked, and Ziris chuckled.
"Distracted them with a boat. I cut the ties on it and let it drift out to the lake. They chased after it, giving me enough time to burn the hives and pick the lock on the door."
Surprisingly, Vex let out a soft snort of amusement as well. "Nice," she said. "Good job. But…"
"But you're still the best, Vex," Ziris finished, smirking.
"Right, and don't you forget it." Vex finished cleaning off the bite and went to work wrapping it. She tied the bandage off with a knot, and then stood again, just as Thrynn returned with a bottle of potion. He offered it to Ziris, who exchanged it for the mug and swallowed the potion down. She then handed the empty bottle to him, and Thrynn set both the mug and bottle down on the bar.
"Get her some food," Vex advised. "She needs to eat, or that potion isn't going to stay down."
A plate of bread and cheese was immediately given to her, and Ziris willingly swallowed some of it down. The potion reacted violently to the food, and she had to take a minute when she was done to keep herself from retching. Her hand clamped over her mouth and she leaned forward, eyes squeezed shut.
"Ziris?" Thrynn asked nervously, and she exhaled through her nose, straightening back up.
"I'm fine," she said, and then to prove it, she grabbed the mug and took a sip of the hot drink. "I'm tired, though."
"Give yourself a couple more minute to dry off," Vekel said. "Your hair is still dripping."
Ziris did as he suggested, and while she was wringing her hair out, the door to the cistern opened and Mercer walked into the Ragged Flagon. She glanced over her shoulder at him, watching as he walked over to where she sat. He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms.
"What happened?"
She told him from the beginning, including her skeever bite and her trick with the boat. She also told him about Aringoth's comment about being dead, and Mercer frowned when he heard this.
"Why would he think that?" he asked, and Ziris shrugged.
"I asked him the same thing, but he wouldn't tell me. I figured I couldn't waste any more time, and I went down to the cellar to get the things from the safe. He's still alive, though, at least by my hand. Maven could have already sent someone else in there to kill him, for all I know."
Mercer considered her tale for a moment, and then he straightened up from the wall. "We'll let Maven know that Aringoth sold Goldenglow," he said. "What she wants to do with the elf is her decision."
Ziris nodded, and Mercer gazed at her for another second. "You did well," he finally said. He turned and left the Flagon without saying anything else, however, and Ziris watched him go before facing the fire again, smiling a bit to herself.
Chapters that have very little amounts of italicized phrases or words are my favorite because then I don't have to keep looking back and forth between the Google Doc and the FanFiction editing screen.
Bless.
(Also there's a reference to The Incredibles in here somewhere that you guys should try to find. If you find it, I'll give you a virtual cookie, and I'll write a one-shot of characters of your choice! Just give me a single word and two characters, and I'll write up a 3000-4000 short story about it! First one to find the reference wins!)