I do not own Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
So, uh, originally, the whole deal with the Sepulcher was going to be tied into this chapter.
And then I realized that it was already almost 6,000 words, and I changed my mind.
So, next week's chapter is going to be fairly short. Just a head's up.
Also, I'm posting this chapter a day early because I have a lot of shit to do tomorrow.
See you next week.
Reviewer Responses:
mia78: Thank you for reviewing! For now, I think, Ziris and Brynjolf are just at a place where they're on speaking terms. I don't foresee any deep conversations occurring between the two of them, at least not yet. As for Mercer... yeah, Ziris isn't taking it too well, but we'll see how it pans out after the events of this chapter.
Guest: You're very excited to see Mercer get his comeuppance. I guess I can't exactly blame you. Guess that means you'll enjoy this chapter, though.
Manu: Thank you for your kind words, friend! I actually took my first college quiz today, and I received a 90/100! It was in history, which is like... the main subject for me, but still, it's pretty exhilarating.
Chapter 17: The End of an Era
Irkngthand was the biggest ruin Ziris had ever seen. It wasn't exactly up against much competition, considering how few ruins Ziris had seen in her lifetime, but it was incredible. Karliah even seemed taken aback by its size, and the three thieves hesitated outside its giant doors, as though they were debating whether or not they actually wanted to go inside.
Karliah was the first to speak: "I believe it's safe to say that… the inside of this ruin is going to be very dangerous, even without Mercer lurking within its walls."
"What do you see us going up against?" Brynjolf asked her.
"Falmer, if nothing else," Karliah replied immediately.
"Falmer?" Ziris already didn't like the sound of it, even though they were going after Mercer to stop him from taking something called 'The Eyes of the Falmer'. She hadn't thought about it much until now, hearing Karliah say the name again. "What are those?"
"You've never heard of the Falmer?" Brynjolf looked surprised. "They used to be called 'snow elves', until they suffered from a war with the Dwemer." He gestured to the giant doors ahead of them. "The dwarves built this place, and other ruins like it all over Skyrim."
"So why would the Falmer be inhabiting it?" Ziris asked.
"The history between the Dwemer and the Falmer is a long one," Karliah replied, "and not something that is easily told in a short amount of time. The most important thing for you to know is that the Falmer are blind, but they are deadly. They were tortured by the Dwemer, so there's no doubt that they are rather angry as well." Karliah nodded towards the doors. "We'll need to be very careful, and trust the shadows to hide us when we need them too."
"The shadows." Ziris let out a breath. "Right." She faced the doors. "No sense in putting it off any longer, is there?"
"No," Karliah agreed, "there's not."
With that, the three thieves headed into the ruin, unsure of what they were walking into.
The inside of the ruin proved to be just a large as the outside, and it was also scattered with just as many dead bandits as the exterior had been. There was no doubt that Mercer was waiting for them deeper within, and Ziris frowned when she saw the cuts on the chest of one of the bandits, in almost the same exact pattern as the ones she'd seen covering Gallus in her vision.
"Ziris." She glanced up from the dead bandit, and found Brynjolf waving her forward. She moved away from the dead to join him and Karliah where they had stopped before another set of tall doors.
"What?" she asked, glancing between them.
"We just wanted to make sure that you're still… with us," Karliah said, her voice soft.
Ziris allowed her shoulders to slump. "I'm as with you as I can be," she assured. "I know what needs to happen, I just…" She winced a bit. "Don't let me be the one who has to do it."
"Of course not," Karliah assured, looking at Brynjolf.
"We wouldn't make you do that," he agreed.
"All right," Ziris said, "then let's keep moving."
"We should tread carefully," Karliah added, turning to the doors. She pushed them open, and they made a loud sound as they fell against the walls. "I wouldn't be surprised if Mercer's left behind a few surprises for us."
Me either, Ziris thought, following her and Brynjolf into the next room.
They found themselves standing on a walkway blocked off from the remainder of the room by solid bars, and Karliah hurried forward, pulling her bow off of her back. "Look, down there!" she hissed, nodding towards the bars. "It's Mercer."
"I'm on it," Brynjolf growled, and he hurried off to find a way down.
Ziris watched as the tiny shape down below them moved towards another shape, one that wasn't moving. In a work of blades that could have only been Mercer's, the first figure took down the second, and then kept moving.
"Damn it," Brynjolf cursed, coming back to them. "There's no easy way through."
"He's toying with us," Karliah decided, watching as Mercer moved away from them, no longer crouched. "He wants us to follow."
"Then we should," Ziris stated, turning and heading for the only opening leading off of the fenced in walkway.
The three of them worked their way down into the room they'd seen Mercer in, and Ziris froze when she spotted something she'd never seen before, hulking at the bottom of a set of stairs that they needed to traverse.
"Is that a Falmer?" she hissed to her companions, and Karliah nodded, silently pulling an arrow back in her bow's string. She let it fly, and it sank directly into the Falmer's neck. The creature fell to the floor without a sound.
Ziris led the way down the stairs, and she gazed down at the fallen snow elf. It did look like an elf, just one that hadn't seen the light of the sun in centuries. She almost felt sorry for it, seeing it's vacant eyes.
"I doubt they remember much," Brynjolf said, coming up beside her. "About what they were before."
"It's sad," Ziris said quietly, and Brynjolf nodded in agreement.
"Let's go, you two," Karliah urged from further ahead.
"Come on, Ziris," Brynjolf invited, and he led the way towards where Karliah waited for them.
As they moved ahead, they found more signs of Mercer, including dead spiders and Falmer, as well as something that had been laid out especially for the three of them.
"Damn him," Karliah cursed, picking up one of the three lockpicks that sitting before a closed door. "He's playing games."
"And unfortunately for you, I'm the only one who knows all the rules."
Ziris turned, looking around for the source of the snide comment, but Mercer was nowhere to be seen.
"How…?"
"The shadows," Karliah murmured, glancing sideways at her. "They're serving both sides, even now."
Shadows, Ziris thought bitterly, glaring at a rather large one that lurked nearby, cast by an urn. She glanced around the room once more, and then upwards, wondering where the sound had come from. She knew that it wouldn't have been wherever Mercer was, considering how easy it would be for sounds to echo in this cavernous area.
She spotted slight movement on a platform high above the three of them, and she frowned when she saw Mercer leaning against a pillar up on top of it. He nodded to her, pleased she'd found him, and then he disappeared.
"Blast," Brynjolf muttered under his breath, turning away from the door, which was sealed up tight. "Where to, now?"
"I don't know," Karliah said, "but there has to be a path somewhere…"
Before she could finish her thought, a rather loud crack filled the air around them, and Ziris glanced upwards again when more thunderous booms followed it. She blinked when she saw a large section of the ceiling come tumbling down towards them.
"Move!" Brynjolf shouted, shoving her backwards away from him and Karliah. Ziris collapsed to the ground a few feet away from where the rubble landed with a crash of dirt and debris.
Coughing, she made her way towards it, and pressed her hands against it, searching for a way through.
"Ziris!"
She heard Brynjolf call her name, and she realized that the fallen ceiling had put a barrier between her and the other two, blocking her from reaching them.
"I'm all right!" she called back. "There's no way through, or around it!"
There was silence for a moment, and then Karliah spoke: "There's always a main chamber of some sort that these halls connect to in order to reconvene. We should be able to come together again, further ahead."
Ziris inhaled shakily, and glanced over her shoulder. The last place she wanted to be on her lonesome was a Dwemer ruin filled with Falmer and a power-thirsty thief who'd already tried to kill her once before.
Still, she didn't see any other choice.
"All right," she managed, turning back to the barrier blocking her from her companions. "We'll meet further ahead, then. Be careful!"
"You do the same," Brynjolf advised.
Sure, I'll do my best, Ziris thought, pulling out her dagger and sword as she turned around to find a way out.
She worked her way up the side of the room, using platforms to her advantage, until she found a way forward. Taking it, she snuck down the corridor ahead of her, wondering just how long it would be before she could join the others.
Things creaked and groaned around her as she moved through the vacant corridors of the ruin, and she winced with every new sound. She didn't want to be alone any longer.
She reached the end of the corridor, and found that two different pathways waited for her, heading in two separate directions.
Cursing under her breath, she peered first down one, and then the other, then stopped, waiting to see if she could hear or feel a draft.
Instead, she heard a loud shriek of metal against metal come from the passage leading to the left, and she decided that she was going to go right.
Darting down the passage, she ducked behind a corner, and leaned back against the wall, eyes closed. She hadn't heard any more movement of metal, but she wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad sign.
Cautiously, she opened her eyes, and peeked around the wall, only to find herself face to face with what looked like a metal spider. It clicked angrily when it spotted her, and Ziris yelped, jumping backwards away from it. The spider moved towards her on its metal legs, and Ziris quickly brought up her sword and smashed it downwards onto the creature.
Immediately, a rather violent shock traveled up her arm and into the rest of her body, making her shudder.
"Divines!" Ziris exclaimed, dropping her sword and falling backwards onto her rump. She shook out her arm, which was buzzing, and she gaped at the metal spider, which, thankfully, had stopped moving when she struck it.
Trembling, Ziris crawled towards where her sword lay, and she gingerly picked it up, wary that it would shock her again. It didn't, thankfully, and she used it to haul herself to her feet, sliding it carefully back into its scabbard at her side.
As she did so, she heard a shriek come from the passageway behind her, and then an all too familiar shout.
Brynjolf.
"What a shame." Ziris whipped around, and found Mercer standing three steps away, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. He gave her a cool look as they listened to a Falmer screech, and Brynjolf's continued exclamations. "I have no interest in fighting Brynjolf, but I doubt you want to see him killed so easily."
"Why are you playing games with us?" Ziris demanded of him. "Isn't it enough that we're here, chasing you?"
"You're chasing me?" Mercer's mouth curved upwards in a smug smirk. "Are you sure it's not the other way around, little raven?"
"Don't call me that." Ziris reached for her dagger, and drew it from its sheath. Mercer followed immediately, pulling his sword free, and Ziris offered him a contemplative look. "Not here."
"You're right," Mercer agreed after a moment. "Not here." He slid his sword away again, and nodded in the direction of the noises. "Are you going to save him?"
Ziris tightened her grip around her dagger. "We're right behind you," she told him, turning and heading towards the sounds.
Mercer watched her go, smirking again, and then he turned and disappeared into the shadows.
Ziris emerged from the corridor into a large cavern, and found Brynjolf holding off three Falmer, all brandishing sharp swords. He was doing fairly well, but he gave her a grateful look when she leapt lightly in next to him and stuck one of the elves with her dagger.
"How'd you do?" he asked her as he finished off the second.
"Oh, you know me," Ziris replied, sticking her sword through the last one. "I do just fine no matter what my circumstances are."
Brynjolf snorted, and Ziris was going to tell him about her encounter in the passageway when they heard Karliah grunt from somewhere nearby.
Together, they hurried towards the dark elf, and found her backed against a wall, with nothing but her bow to defend her.
Without hesitating, Ziris and Brynjolf jumped in. Ziris took down one with a quick slash of her blades, and Brynjolf attracted another's attention long enough for Karliah to pull out an arrow and send it into the Falmer's back.
It didn't take long after that for the three of them to kill off the rest of the elves that had converged in the area. When they were all dead, Ziris exhaled, glancing around as she slid her weapons away.
"So much for stealth," she said after a moment, glancing at Brynjolf.
"Suppose so," he returned, and then he looked around. "Where to?"
"Forward," Karliah replied, and she gestured towards a passageway that lay ahead of them.
"Right," Ziris stated, and she headed towards it with the others behind her.
They headed through more corridors, until they at last reached another large, cavernous room, where Ziris stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the giant thing looming over the group of Falmer that were roaming below.
"What… is that?" she finally managed.
"It's a Dwarven Centurion," Karliah replied. "Very tough, and very deadly."
"Aye," Brynjolf agreed, joining them, "which means we'll have to decide how we want to handle this." He looked at Ziris. "We can take it on, or we can sneak around it and head up those stairs." He nodded towards the ones in the distance. They seemed very far away. "It's your call, Ziris."
Of course it is, Ziris thought tiredly, and then she glanced around, determining the best way to get down off their ledge so that they could head for the stairs as quietly as possible.
"All right," she said at last, "we're going to jump off of here right over there." She nodded towards the edge of the ledge. "It's not a very far drop, and it'll be safer than going straight down into that mess." She indicated the Centurion and the Falmer.
"Whatever you say," Brynjolf agreed, and Ziris nodded gratefully to him before leading the way over to the edge of the ledge. Slowly, and quietly, she braced herself against the natural slope of the wall there, and slid down it to solid ground. When she'd made it without breaking anything, she let out a relieved breath, and looked up towards her companions.
"Exactly the same way I did it," she urged softly.
Karliah went first, slipping down the slope gracefully. She landed lightly next to where Ziris waited, and they both turned to watch Brynjolf.
He handled the slide with a bit less grace, but he did it as quietly as he could manage, and landed with a dull thud beside them.
"Good," Ziris whispered, and then she lowered herself into a crouch. "Come on."
The three of them kept to the corner of the room, stepping quietly over the small creeks of water that were running towards the stairs. Neither the Falmer or the Centurion reacted to them as they reached the stairs, and Ziris let out a relieved breath when they made it to the top without attracting any attention.
"Good job," Karliah praised, taking the lead again.
"Thanks," Ziris responded quietly, and Brynjolf offered her a quick look, his eyes filled with sympathy.
They all knew that the journey was almost over. Ziris debated going back to the mess of Falmer they'd left behind and starting a fight, just to hold it off a few minutes more.
She knew that it was pointless. The same outcome was going to emerge from this, no matter how long she stalled. No sense in waiting any longer than they needed to.
She reclaimed the lead as they neared the end of the passageway that they'd found themselves following for quite some time, and she pushed open the gate there. Another steep decline waited there for them, leading down to yet another large door.
"He's close," Karliah murmured from behind her as she hesitated before the door. "I'm certain of it. We must prepare ourselves."
Ziris paused and closed her eyes, inhaling. She'd been struggling to prepare herself the whole journey through Irkngthand. It wasn't getting any easier, now that she was fairly sure Mercer was just on the other side of the door.
Brynjolf exchanged a glance with Karliah, and then he took a step forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. Ziris flinched away from him, and Brynjolf dropped his hand.
"I know how hard this is going to be for you," he murmured, "but… this is for the Guild. Mercer deserves whatever comes to him." He shook his head. "The Mercer we thought we knew is not the one waiting on the other side of that door."
"Maybe not," Ziris said softly, "but it's the only Mercer that's left." She exhaled, slowly, and shook her head to herself. "Let's just get this over with."
With that, she turned away from him and started towards the door. She paused again, hand resting on it, and she gazed down at the ground for a moment, steeling herself against the odd feelings that were stirring within her. She then pushed the door open, softly, and the three of them slid through it to the ledge on the other side.
Brynjolf closed the door gently behind him, and Ziris watched as Mercer, dangling from the giant Falmer statue on the opposite side of the room, succeeded in removing the glimmering Eye from it.
"He's here, and he hasn't seen us yet," Karliah whispered. "Brynjolf, watch the door."
"Aye. Nothing's getting by me," Brynjolf responded.
Mercer hopped down from the statue's face and picked up the Eye, tucking it away into the pack he wore on his shoulders. Karliah placed a gentle hand on Ziris's shoulder to gain her attention.
"Climb down that ledge, and see if you can -"
"So, you finally made it." Ziris's eyes turned back to Mercer as a dark ball of magic flew from his hand. The cavern shook, and Ziris struggled to steady herself as the part of the ledge she was standing on crumbled, and she dropped several feet, leaving Karliah and Brynjolf alone on the ledge above her.
She watched Mercer climb down the statue and come to a stop on the book the statue was holding, across a pool of water from her.
They gazed at one another for a moment, and then he spoke: "When I caught you stealing all those years ago, I felt a shift in the wind," he said stonily. "It wasn't a good feeling, and I knew that, at the end of it all, one of us would find our way to the end of the other's blade."
Ziris let out a breath. "Give me the Key, Mercer," she said, doing her best to keep her voice void of emotion. "The last thing I want to do is kill you. You must know that."
Mercer shook his head and crossed his arms. "Why are you asking for it? You know that Nocturnal doesn't care about you, the Key, or anything having to do with the Guild."
"And you know that this isn't about Nocturnal!" Ziris retorted hotly. "This is personal."
"Is that what you're here for, then? Revenge?" Mercer demanded. "I thought I taught you better than that." He spread out his hands. "When will you open your eyes and realize how little my actions differ from yours? Both of us lie, cheat, and steal to further our own end."
"The difference between us, Master Frey, is that I still have honor," Ziris informed him. "Not even you could rid me of that."
"And that is why I refused to tell you about this," Mercer concluded with a snort. "You would have never seen the Skeleton Key as I do… as an instrument of limitless wealth. Instead, you chose to fall over your own foolish code."
Ziris drew her dagger and sword. "If anyone falls…" She met Mercer's gaze. "... it will be you."
Mercer stared at her for a moment longer, and then his shoulders rose and fell. "Then the die is cast, and once again my blade will taste Nightingale blood," he finished, and then his hand flashed with magic again. This time, he shot it directly at Brynjolf, who let out a shout of pain, and then drew his weapons. Ziris watched in horror as he started after Karliah, who struggled to fight him off with her bow.
"What… what's happening?" Brynjolf exclaimed. "I can't stop myself!"
"Fight it, Brynjolf!" Karliah urged, dropping her bow in favor of pulling out her dagger. "He's taken control of you."
"I'm sorry… I can't," Brynjolf answered, slashing at her.
"Damn you, Mercer!" Karliah shouted.
Ziris turned away from them and peered around the cavern. Mercer was nowhere to be seen.
He's using the shadows. Damn.
"Come along, little raven," he called from nowhere. "Make good of your promise!"
He suddenly appeared directly in front of her, blades flashing as he swung at her. Ziris quickly raised her own weapons and metal clanged as they hit.
"You forget that you trained me to be just as good as you," Ziris growled, pushing forward and thrusting Mercer's blades downwards and away so that she could dart back a few paces.
"Then, if you actually learned anything, this should be an interesting fight," Mercer snarled in response, and rushed towards her.
The fight went on. More than once, the two thieves came together amidst their deadly dance, blades crossed and pressed against the other's two, and their eyes would meet, stormy gray against sea green. It would only remain that way for a moment, but in that moment, something was exchanged between the two of them, a silent plea from one, and an angry refusal from the other. Ziris saw no change in the man she called her mentor's eyes, and it disgusted her.
Who was this person she was fighting? Surely not the cloaked figure that had found a young, starving girl on the streets of Riften and taken her in. No, that had been someone completely different. She longed for that person to emerge from whatever dark recess Mercer had shoved him into, but he only seemed to be retreating further and further with each swing of Mercer's blades.
She managed to get Mercer across his arm, her sword's blade slicing easily through the leather armor covering it. Mercer grunted and quickly tried to cut at her with a backhanded swing. Ziris recognized this counter-attack and darted to the side to avoid it.
"Clever," Mercer growled, chasing after her up the side of the statue. "You have a good memory."
"I needed to remember, especially once we started using real blades!" Ziris retorted, ducking as he swung at her again.
"You were good enough by that point that I didn't have to worry about hurting you," Mercer responded.
"Like you worried anyhow."
He paused, their daggers holding the other's at bay, and frowned at her. "I worried," he said lowly. "You were my responsibility, and you were the best thief in the Guild at that point."
Ziris shook her head and pushed him backwards long enough to allow her to get some distance between them. Mercer watched her go, and then he disappeared into the shadows again. Ziris exhaled and pressed herself against the statue so that he wouldn't be able to catch her from behind.
"He'd gut you as soon as look at you," the shadows whispered.
Oh, yes, Ziris thought sourly. Very helpful.
"Good," Mercer commented from wherever he was. "Making sure your enemy can only attack from a place you can see."
"One of the first lessons you taught me," Ziris responded, glancing around the space in front of her.
"One of the most important lessons," Mercer said, appearing again and taking a swing at her. Ziris stopped his blade with her own and pushed it downwards. The two of them leaned forward from the force of this, and met gazes. "If there's nothing else you can do, at least you can do that."
Ziris turned them so that Mercer was the one with his back to the statue, and she pushed him into it. He hit it with a grunt, and she exhaled.
"Getting slow," she said.
"Not slow enough," Mercer answered, rolling his shoulders and coming at her again.
Their fight continued as Karliah fended off Brynjolf above them. Mercer's blades continually missed Ziris by margins, but she managed to hit him twice more, once on the other arm, and again along his side.
He came to a halt near the foot of the statue on the right side of the cavern from the way Ziris had entered, holding his side and breathing heavily. She paused a few steps away from him, watching him carefully to see if he was going to pull another trick out of his sleeve.
Instead of doing something like that, however, he brushed back a strand of hair that was dangling in his eyes and looked at her. And, surprisingly, he let out a laugh.
"I'm proud of you," he said through his labored breathing. "You took everything I taught you to heart."
"Mercer… I really, really don't want to kill you," Ziris whispered, and he huffed, straightening up a bit. His dwarven sword, possibly the one she had stolen for him, had dropped from his hand and was lying on the stone beneath his feet. His dagger he still held in the hand not pressed to his side, but he dropped it after a moment.
"This is where we've been led," he told her. "The Guild's spoken, I imagine."
"They have, but… you don't necessarily have to come back to the Guild. You can…"
"Run? Without the Eyes or the Skeleton Key?" Mercer shook his head wearily. "I'd be dead in a week."
"No!" Ziris exclaimed. "You're better than that. You don't need the Key, and you don't need the Eyes. You're a thief, Mercer."
"Any skills I had before the Key and before I became a Nightingale are worthless," Mercer said. "I'm sorry, little raven, but… this is where we stand." Ziris shook her head in desperation as he lowered his hand from his side and held out his arms. "Do it."
"I can't." She shook her head again and used a wrist to wipe at her eyes just as tears started to spill over. "Mercer, please."
"If I'm going to be killed… I want it to be by you," Mercer said, his voice low. "Consider it your last order."
Ziris exhaled shakily and lowered her arm, allowing the tears to flow freely, because there was no stopping them. She gazed at her mentor for a long moment, and then she tossed her sword to the side and picked up his instead. Mercer nodded in agreement when she glanced at him.
"Good," he said quietly. "That's… that's good."
"I'm sorry it had to be like this," she said, struggling to keep her voice even. Mercer merely gazed at her, and she let out a breath. "Where?"
"Right here," he suggested, gesturing to the same spot he'd stabbed her. "It'll go through the armor easily enough, and it'll be quicker that way."
Ziris forced a nod, and she took a pace forward. She inhaled a shaky breath and closed her eyes. She then quickly wrapped one arm around his neck and drove the sword into his chest at the same time, before she could change her mind.
Mercer let out a quiet gasp, and Ziris withdrew the sword from his chest and lowered him to the ground before letting out a sob. Quickly, she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, and then reached out to close his.
She didn't even notice that the entire cavern was shaking, or that floods of water were beginning to pour into it, quickly making the water level rise. She faintly heard Karliah exclaim something, and Brynjolf's response brought her back to the present in time enough to realize that she needed to get the Key and the Eyes off of Mercer.
She carefully pulled his pack off of his shoulders, and then reached into the pouch on his belt that she knew he kept his lockpicks in. The Skeleton Key wasn't a lockpick at all, but a literal key, and Ziris stared at it for a moment. This was the thing that had caused all this? She couldn't believe it.
Shaking her head in disgust, she slid the Key into the bag with the Eyes and swung it over her shoulder. She grabbed hers, and then the dwarven sword, and offered Mercer one last glance before she quickly scaled the Falmer statue, Karliah and Brynjolf right behind her.
"What do we do?" she asked the Dunmer, who glanced around desperately, her eyes finally settling on the rising water level. She then glanced at Ziris.
"Pray."
The water rose up past the top of the statue, and Ziris spluttered as she desperately swam through it, trying to find something steady to stand on. All at once, the rocks at the very top of the cavern crumbled, opening up a hole that had been hidden behind them.
Ziris immediately clambered for it, and she hurried down the passage until she was safely away from the rising water level. She then stopped, a hand against the wall, and coughed up so much water she could have filled a pond.
Karliah and Brynjolf came up behind her a moment later, both coughing and soaking wet. There was silence as they all got their bearings, and then Ziris glanced at Karliah, who shook her head.
"I can't believe it's over," she whispered. "Twenty five years in exile, and just like that, it's done." She let out a breath and straightened up. "All that remains is to ensure the safe return of the Skeleton Key."
"Then take it," Ziris said coldly, tossing the pack down at her feet. "I'm done with all this. It should be a simple enough task, right?"
Karliah exhaled. "I'm afraid it's not. When the Skeleton Key was stolen from the Twilight Sepulcher, our access to the inner sanctum was removed. The only way to bring it back will be through the Pilgrim's Path."
"What in the Gods' names is the Pilgrim's Path?" Ziris demanded.
"It was created to test those that wished to serve Nocturnal in ways that the Nightingales didn't," Karliah explained. "It wasn't created for Nightingales, and, as a consequence, I have no idea what's in there."
"Well, I guess you'll be finding out, won't you?" Ziris asked her, and then she started to walk away from them.
"Ziris." Brynjolf spoke for the first time, and she stopped, but didn't turn around. She heard Brynjolf approach her, and then his hand was on his shoulder. She stiffened beneath it, but did not move away. "I know that… that was hard for you," he murmured, "but this whole business was hard for Karliah. She doesn't want to have to be the one to return the thing she was supposed to keep safe."
"And you think that I do?" Ziris retorted, whipping around to face him. "I didn't even want to become a Nightingale. I didn't want to have to be the one to kill Mercer. I don't want any more to do with this, Brynjolf!"
"I know," Brynjolf said softly. "And I understand. But… this is your duty. As Guild Master… and as a Nightingale."
"I didn't ask for either of those titles," Ziris growled. "I didn't ask for any of this."
"Ziris, please," Brynjolf said. "Just this. For the Guild."
Ziris stared at him for a long moment without blinking, aware of the fresh bout of tears building up behind her eyes. Then, without speaking, she turned and snatched the pack from the ground, swinging it over her shoulder.
"Where am I going?" she muttered, directing the question to Karliah.
"A cave built into the side of the mountain in western Skyrim," the dark elf murmured. "Ziris, I -"
"Don't," Ziris mumbled, turning away from her. "I don't want to hear it."
So, yeah. Ziris was the one to do the deed, which is poetic, in a sense. Obviously, she's not too happy about it.
We'll have to see what that does to her in the future.