Honningbrew Meadery

"Are you Mallus?" Aila asked.

"Who wants to know?" replies the pale man.

Aila had lucked out. After she rented her room, she asked the innkeeper if she knew where she could find a man named Mallus Maccius. After a moment of thinking, she told for that he was here at the inn. And pointed to a room. Aila thanked her and entered the room. She saw a pale man with dark hair sitting in a chair quietly drinking some mead.

"Maven sent me," Aila said.

The man raised an eyebrow. "Maven, huh? In that case, take a seat."

Aila did as he asked and sat down across from him. She crossed her legs and said, "So you are Mallus."

"Aye," he answered. He went quiet for a moment. Aila felt his eyes on her and she got the feeling he was silently judging her. But whether it was on her skills as a thief or something else entirely, she wasn't sure. Beginning to feel uncomfortable, Aila cleared her throat. "Maven said that you would explain to me what I am to do."

"Yes, of course. I trust she told you the basics?"

Aila nodded. "Sabjorn is mass-producing his mead and hurting Maven's business."

Mallus grunted in agreement. "Good, that saves me some explaining. Now, I'm sure Maven would like for you to find out who exactly supplied Sabjorn with the gold to mass-produce, but more importantly than that, we need to put him out of business."

"Of course," Aila said. "How else would Maven deal with competition than to get rid of it entirely?"

Mallus laughed. "How, indeed?"

"So how are we going to do it?" Aila asked.

"We're going to poison the mead," Mallus said.

"Poison?"

"Don't worry, it's not lethal. Just enough to put someone out of action for a while. That someone being the captain of the guard."

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"It's quite simple, really. Sabjorn's holding a mead tasting for the captain later today. There's a tunnel under the meadery that leads to the boiler room. If you can get in there and poison the mead before the tasting, then when the captain drinks the mead Sabjorn will be arrested for, well, poisoning."

"Oh," Aila said. "Clever. I suppose you've got the poison?"

"No, and that's the beauty of the whole plan. Sabjorn is going to give it to you."

"Why would he do that?"

"It's no secret the meadery is infested with skeevers. If you were to happen by and offer him a hand..."

"He'll give me the poison to clear out the infestation," Aila finished.

"Exactly. And make sure you do poison the skeever nest. After Sabjorn's gone, Maven wants to turn the place over to the Black-Briars.

"Of course."

Mallus nodded in agreement. "Of course."

Aila stood from her chair and stretched out her arms. "Well, I's better get started then. Is there any thing else I need to know?"

"No, nothing."

"Then I'm off." Aila left the room. She headed up to her own room that she had rented. It was the same room as the one she spent that one night with Kathryn. Aila wished she was here.

She sighed and grabbed her bow off the bed, slinging it over her shoulder and strapping the quiver to her back. She left the room and headed out of the inn. As a bombardment of smells of fresh meat and ripe fruit from the market place hit her, she was overcome with a sudden craving. She headed over to the woman who was tending the stall with various fruits and vegetables. She pick a particularly ripe-looking apple and set it on the counter. "May I please buy this?" she asked.

"Just one?" the woman behind the counter said. "Most people buy in bunches."

"Well I'm not that hungry," Aila said.

The woman chuckled. "That'll be five gold."

Aila paid her and took the apple. "Thank you," she said as she left. She held the apple in her hands and looked at it a moment before biting into it. "Mmm, so good." Aila left the city through the goat and made her way to the meadery, munching on her apple all the while. When at last she came upon it, she one last bite and tossed the apple aside. She pulled her hood over her head and entered.

Inside, she saw a man violently pacing back and forth, muttering to himself. "Where is that good-for-nothing... Mallus!" he shouted when he noticed Aila enter. "Oh. What do you want?"

"It looks like you have a bit of a problem," Aila said, gesturing to the dead skeever on the ground.

"Yes, a problem that will soon be rectified. Just as soon as I find that sorry excuse for a servant Mallus," the man who could only be Sabjorn said.

"Maybe I could help," Aila suggested.

"Oh? And I suppose you'd do this out of the kindness of your heart?" Sabjorn said sarcastically.

"Well," Aila said. "A little incentive wouldn't hurt."

Sabjorn let out a sigh. "Oh, very well. Sixty gold to get rid of the infestation.

Aila smiled at him. "Done."

"Good. Here..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial and a key. "Use this to get into the basement. The nest is somewhere down there. I was going to have Mallus do it, but her seems to have run off. Though, you'll likely do a better job than him anyway. The basement is through that door. And do hurry. I have a tasting in a few hours. I would like you to be finished before then."

"Of course," Aila said, and headed for the door. When she was on the other side, she pondered over her conversation. Sabjorn had accepted her help readily. He didn't even know who she was. She was just some random girl who wandered in. He must have been truly desperate for help.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a skeever. It jumped at her and she kicked it away, startled. Aila quickly grabbed her bow and shot it as it came at her again. Ugh. I hate skeevers.

Aila looked around the basement. It was a pretty basic cellar. There were numerous traps set up to catch the skeevers, most of which were set up near a large hole in the wall. There were also a few dead skeevers, caught between the teeth of the traps. Aila carefully stepped over the traps, holding her bow tightly in hand in case she encountered any more skeevers.

The tunnel was twice as wide as Aila and about a foot taller. Skeevers were constantly jumping out at Aila, but she was fast enough with her bow that none of them were able to get close.

Then the tunnel opened up to a large cavern. There were several skeevers all huddled together on the other side from were Aila was standing. They collectively turned to look at her and started to charge in her direction.

"Uh oh."

Aila was able to shoot down a number of them before they reached her, but once they were close, her bow was practically useless. She threw it to the side and pulled out her daggers; the rusted iron one in her left hand, and the new elven one in her right. The skeevers were snarling and biting at her legs and the vest tactic seemed to be to kick them away, though they could jump surprisingly high and Aila would try to stab at them. One by one, the snarling and the biting stopped until all the skeevers lay dead on the floor, and Aila stood in the middle of them. She looked around her and shivered in disgust. While stepping over the dead thing to get to the nest, Aila felt a small pain in her leg. When she knelt down to inspect it, she discovered that one of the skeevers had managed to tear through her armour. I hope I don't get some disease, Aila thought. She continued to the nest and grabbed the vial of poison. She uncorked and dripped it over the nest. She left about half of it in the vial. It was just after she replaced the cork when she saw a bright flash of light and her body erupted in pain. It passed quickly, leaving her on her knees. Then she heard a shout.

"You! You killed all my skeevers! You'll pay for that!"

Aila looked up and saw a half-naked man standing before her. The only clothing he was wearing was some sort of fur around his waist. His hands were out in front of him and were crackling with a blue light. Little bolts of electricity were jumping between his fingers. He raised one hand and Aila could guess what he was about to do. She dived out-of-the-way just as a bolt of lightning struck where she was a moment ago. Who is this guy? Aila thought. What's he doing here? She tried again to jump away as the man prepared another bolt, but this time she wasn't fast enough, and she cried out as pain shot through her arm. She staggered for a moment and, as the pain started to fade, she instinctively reached for her bow, but found nothing. Oh, right. She had dropped it when the skeevers attacked. She saw it on the ground just a little ways away from the man.

Aila pulled out her daggers and faced him. The man only laughed. "You think you can beat me? I'll show you. I'll show them all!"

What in Oblivion are you talking about? Aila didn't bother trying to figure it out. She charged forward, diving to one side when he fired another bolt, and cut him in the leg.

The man grunted in pain and yelled. "You little cunt!"

"Do you have to be so vulgar?" Aila was surprised at how her own voice sounded. It sounded calm, confident almost, and not at all how she felt. She could think of only two scenarios in which this could end, and both scared her equally.

The mage pulled out his own dagger and tried to attack Aila with it, though it was clear he had never used it before, the way he was flailing around with it. But then again, Aila wasn't too much further ahead of him. She blocked every swing of his blade, but she couldn't manage to land any of her own. Then she heard a crackling noise, and she saw another bright flash of light, The bolt hit her square in the chest. She fell to the floor, her body convulsing with pain. She struggled to her feet, but her whole body ached. She felt like she was going to vomit. She felt something force its way out her throat, but when she opened her mouth nothing came out. Instead, she did something she wasn't expecting.

"SU!"

She jumped to her feet with a new-found energy and resumed her attack on the mage. She found herself able to move much faster than before, and it seemed easier to predict the mage's movements. He just barely managed to block her first two attacks, and on the third Aila again heard the crackling of electricity. She grabbed the mage's harm and shoved it aside just as a lightning bolt shot from his palm, and that's when she saw her chance. She took it.

Aila thrust her hand forward, imbedding the dagger in his chest. The mage's eyes widened and he tried to speak, but the only thing that came out was a small cry. Aila was forced to watch as he fell to the ground a died at her feet.

Oh Gods, not again, Aila thought. No, I had to. It was him or me, I didn't have a choice. The thought didn't make her feel much better. She took a deep breath an steadied herself. She had just killed a man. Again. But if she hadn't, he would've killed her. Aila looked down at him. Who was he, anyway? Why was he down here? She briefly considered pulling her dagger out of his chest, but quickly decided against it.

It took a moment for her to remember what she was here for. Mead, right. Poison the mead. She looked around the cavern. There was one tunnel, which was he on she came from, and another, which she assumed lead to the boilery. She had already poisoned the nest, so she headed through the tunnel.

Just a few steps into it, she stopped. There was something else. Something she missed. Aila ran back to the cavern. She looked around and face-palmed when she saw it. She picked her bow up off the ground and slung it on across her back. She started toward the tunnel once more, but stopped again. There was more still. Part of her just wanted to leave, to get as far away from the corpse as she could, but another part wouldn't let her. Not until she had gotten it. But gotten what? She had her bow, her elven dagger was tucked away in her armour. What was it?

She felt it calling to her. She closed her eyes and focused on the feeling. The more she focused on it, the more she realized what it was. Her eyes snapped open and she turned her head to the cavern wall and saw it. Those strange marking that burned into her eyes, blinding her, just like the ones on the tree back at Goldenglow. This time, she didn't freak out as the word filled her mind.

Feim. Fade.

As the word faded from her mind, Aila wondered how it got here. That strange man had put it here, she knew, but when? Before she entered the meadery? If so, how did he know she would be her? He's probably watching me right now. Aila shook her head of those thoughts. She didn't want to think about that.

At last, Aila went through the tunnel and continued to make her way to the boilery. Her were no more skeever to bother her, and when she finally reached the room, she let out a sigh of relief. She went to the nearest storage vat and popped open the lid. She poured the remainder of the poison in it and slammed the lid shut. That should not have been as difficult as it was, Aila complained as she left the boiler room. She exited through the outside door rather than going back through the tunnel. Then she simply walked back to the main entrance.

Sabjorn was sweeping the floor when she entered. "Ah, you're back," he said. "I trust you've done what I asked?"

"Yes, yes," Aila said.

"Good." He grabbed a coinpurse off the counter and handed it to Aila. "Your payment."

"Yeah. Thanks." Aila pocketed the purse and left. She went back into Whiterun and to the Bannered Mare. Luckily, Mallus was still there. Aila stood in front of him, crossing her arms.

Mallus looked at her. "I take it you have completed your mission."

"You seem to have neglected to mention the maniac living in those tunnels." Aila said.

Mallus smirked. "Details like that are bad for business. You took care of him, I presume?"

"I... Yes. But you could've warned me. Do you have any idea what I feels like to be electrocuted? My arm is still numb!"

"You'll be fine, I'm sure. Now, come see me again in a few hours. I'm going to try and find everything I can about Sabjorn's supplier. I'll give you what I find then.

"Fine." Aila left and headed to her own room. She shut the door behind her and fell onto the bed. Gods, she missed Kathryn.