Dag walked slowly toward Honeyside, looking at all the people she\u2019d come to recognize milling about in the marketplace. Balimund looked up in mid-hammer and gave her a smile as she passed. \u00a0One of the guards nodded at her and said, \u201cI hope you\u2019re well, Thane,\u201d a greeting that almost made her jump.\u00a0 Thane.\u00a0 That was still hard to wrap her head around.<\/p>\n
As she was inserting her key into the lock, Dag noticed something new.\u00a0 There was an odd symbol carved into the doorframe, low down where someone not constantly scanning the area for potential threats wouldn\u2019t be likely to look, an elongated diamond shape with a circle in the center. This was the same symbol that was on the outside of the Ragged Flagon\u2019s door, and the symbol in stained glass that adorned the cemetery entrance to the Cistern.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be damned, she thought.\u00a0 Someone just came over here and put the Guild shadowmark on my door.\u00a0 I guess that means I\u2019m back in their good graces.<\/p>\n
She vastly preferred that to the alternative.<\/p>\n
The tub felt wonderful, and so did the nap.<\/p>\n
Shadows were getting long by the time she headed back to the Temple\u2019s grounds.\u00a0 Instead of going into the Cistern, though, Dag used that cover to slip into the alleyway that ran behind Riften\u2019s row of larger homes.\u00a0 It was, as alleys go, a pretty one, well-kept, with iron fencing to keep the riffraff out.\u00a0 Dag could see one guard at the far end, walking back and forth between the mouth to the alley and the inside of Riften\u2019s north gate, but at this moment that was all she needed to worry about.\u00a0 She walked along, looking for the back entrance to Riftweald Manor.<\/p>\n
It was not a difficult place to find, the large home with all of its windows and its visible lower-level doors boarded up tight. There was a stairway from ground level up to a landing, but no apparent access to the upper-level door except a raised ramp. Dag tried the gate, not expecting anything other than what she found: it was locked. Then she ducked back down into the shadows as a figure emerged from the far corner of the back yard.\u00a0 Vald.\u00a0 It had to be.<\/p>\n
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Vald was big, the size of Maul or his brother Dirge. A Nord, dark-haired, blindingly handsome to Dag\u2019s eye.\u00a0 I can see why Vex was attracted, she thought, grinning.\u00a0 So now I know what type she likes. It\u2019s a wonder she\u2019s not with Brynjolf.\u00a0 Maybe she is, who knows. But no, she\u2019d seen nothing that would hint that Red was with anyone of any persuasion in spite of the tales of him sleeping with all the new recruits.<\/p>\n
Vald made a wide sweep through the yard and stopped just inside the gate, looking back up toward the house.\u00a0 Dag pondered.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t a great pickpocket, but this was a golden opportunity and she might as well try it.\u00a0 She slipped her fingers into the pouch on his belt and, to her wonder, pulled out a pair of keys.\u00a0 Vald looked around the yard, but not behind him, and then headed out to circuit the yard again.<\/p>\n
Dag picked the smaller of the two keys and opened the gate.\u00a0 To her dismay, it made a loud click.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey! You\u2019re not supposed to be here!\u201d Vald yelled, drawing a dagger and running at her.<\/p>\n
Dag sighed.\u00a0 It had seemed to be going so well for one brief moment.\u00a0 She pulled her swords and sprinted past Vald, rolling at the last moment to get under his swing.\u00a0 Popping up, she whirled and cut his throat with a quick scissors cut from behind.\u00a0 He dropped like a stone.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Vex,\u201d she murmured, looking down at him. \u201cI don\u2019t know what went wrong, but I\u2019m sorry.\u201d\u00a0 Dag struggled a bit with Vald\u2019s heavy body, but managed to pull him aside so as to be out of sight to a passing guard, then closed the gate.<\/p>\n
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As she had thought, all the lower level doors were barred from the inside.\u00a0 Her only way in was going to be via the ramp, and it was raised.\u00a0 She stared at it, thinking.\u00a0 Underneath, near the hinges, was an odd-looking mechanism.\u00a0 It would make sense that Vald, or any other guard, had to be able to get into the house somehow, what with all the doors locked; so how did they activate it from below?\u00a0 She scoured the walls near the stairs, but there were no chains, or levers, or buttons; nothing looked like an activator at all.<\/p>\n
But, she thought, staring up at it, I might be able to hit that thing with an arrow.\u00a0 The worst that can happen is that it won\u2019t work.\u00a0 She pulled her bow and lined up a shot, then loosed it, the iron arrow hitting the mechanism and bouncing off.\u00a0 The ramp creaked, then dropped down. All right, she thought. Finally, something went well. \u00a0I guess Delvin\u2019s curse only goes so far. Dag ran up to the second floor door and used Vald\u2019s key to let herself into the small storage room just inside the door.<\/p>\n
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The interior of Riftweald Manor was lovely, with spacious rooms well-appointed with nice furniture, albeit a bit empty. Just the living area next to the storage room made Honeyside look like a shack, and it irritated her no end that Mercer Frey had owned a house like this and complained that the others spent too much while sleeping on threadbare, smelly cots in the Cistern. In fact, closed doors to her right opened up to a beautiful, airy bedroom a step above the one in Honeyside. Shelves along the walls of the living area were packed with silver mugs, plates and urns.\u00a0 Silver.\u00a0 Well that explains where some of the Guild\u2019s money went, she thought.\u00a0 Dag had begun shoveling some of the goblets into her pack when two of them clanked together.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello? Is anybody there?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re hearing things again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to go check anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well damn! she cursed internally.\u00a0 Nobody told me there would be people inside, too!\u00a0 A mercenary guard ran out from the room around the corner, sword drawn, looking around but at standing height, not seeing Dag huddled behind the edge of a cabinet.\u00a0 She poisoned an arrow, drew, and shot him directly in the chest.\u00a0 The arrow might not have reached his heart, she didn\u2019t know; but the poison was enough to stop it anyway.\u00a0 She crept around the corner, stepping over the dead mercenary\u2019s body.\u00a0 There was another man sitting at a table at the far side.<\/p>\n
This room had too much furniture in it for Dag to line up a clear arrow shot.\u00a0 She pulled one of her swords as quietly as she could.\u00a0 It seemed agonizingly slow.\u00a0 Then she inched forward.\u00a0 The man isn\u2019t much of a guard, is he, she thought as she stood and rammed the sword downward into his chest just as hard as she could manage.\u00a0 He grunted and fell over sideways in his chair, then drooped down onto the floor.<\/p>\n
There was a sweet roll on a platter just to the side of where the man had been sitting. \u201cOoh, yum,\u201d Dag murmured, grabbing it and taking a big bite.\u00a0 As she chewed, she looked down at the dead man, then poked him with her foot.\u00a0 This no-killing policy seemed more ephemeral by the day. It wasn\u2019t as though she\u2019d been a stranger to defending herself, over the years, but killing people just to get from one place to the next was getting to be a real annoyance. \u00a0She rolled him over with her foot and tskd.\u00a0 Some of this floor is going to need changing, she thought as she watched his blood drain into the boards.\u00a0 She sighed, licked the last of the sweet roll\u2019s icing off her fingers, then looted the coins from both mercenaries and continued her search.<\/p>\n
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There wasn\u2019t much on the lower level of the home, either.\u00a0 Food, mostly; she helped herself to a slice of cheese sitting atop a trestle table with one lone chair next to it, and munched it as she poked around. A larder area was packed solid with food, herbs, and casks of mead.\u00a0 It looked as though Mercer had been cleaning out the valuables for awhile, leaving the place to his hired thugs, and well-fed thugs they were judging from the evidence.<\/p>\n
Dag looked around, put her hands on her hips, and sighed. \u201cI\u2019m going to have to go through the whole place again. I\u2019ve missed something,\u201d she muttered.<\/p>\n
She trudged back up the stairs, starting in the bedroom, and opened every table, chest, stand and barrel she came across. She didn\u2019t find so much as a jewel, much less anything else aside from some pitiful-looking potatoes and wilted carrots in the entry room. \u00a0There certainly wasn\u2019t anything that looked like plans, or notes. There were copies of most of Skyrim\u2019s most popular book titles, but even taking the time to riffle their pages and shake them by their spines revealed nothing.\u00a0 She went back to the lower level and repeated the process, getting more and more frustrated by the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlast it, Mercer,\u201d she muttered as she opened the last cabinet.\u00a0 \u201cWhere have you gone?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was nothing in the cabinet but one pair of shoes, but it sounded funny.\u00a0 Or, rather, it \u2026sounded.\u00a0 Cabinets didn\u2019t make noises, they were solid, inert pieces of wood.\u00a0 Standing in front of this one, she heard, or felt, or sensed, the slightest of sounds coming from behind it.\u00a0 She tapped on the back of the cabinet and heard not the solid thump of wood against a wall, but a slight reverberation.\u00a0 Running her hands along the back of the wardrobe, she found a small lever, a catch, which clicked to open what had been a false back panel concealing stairs down to a basement level.<\/p>\n
Dag spent the next ten or fifteen minutes navigating an amazing warren of small rooms with pressure plate fire traps, tunnels that doubled back but headed ever lower, and in one spot a set of wicked blades swinging like pendulums from the ceiling.\u00a0 She got past them by timing her movements to the extremes of each blade\u2019s swing, her heart pounding furiously, knowing that if she missed by even the tiniest amount she was going to be bleeding worse than the men upstairs.<\/p>\n
It was clear now from the construction of the tunnels, and the slow downward direction of them, that she was somewhere near the Ratway.\u00a0 She rounded a corner to discover a study of sorts, a small room with a bookcase and a good-sized table on which was a bowl simply loaded with gems. \u201cMine,\u201d she said quietly, scooping them out.\u00a0 Garnets, sapphires, and even a couple of diamonds went into her pouches just as quickly as she could move them. This was hardly a significant portion of the Guild\u2019s stolen wealth, though; that vault had been full, according to Brynjolf and Delvin.\u00a0 He\u2019d either spent the money or stashed it elsewhere.<\/p>\n
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On the table was a note congratulating Mercer for having gotten past some difficult lock to retrieve a treasure.\u00a0 There it was again; somehow he had the means to bypass the most difficult security anywhere, and Dag wanted to know what that was.\u00a0 There were also a few coins and a couple of books, including The Lusty Argonian Maid<\/em>. Dag decided not to picture Mercer reading that particular title in a dark room by himself. More important to her eye, though, was a document laid out on the table.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t have much writing on it but was clearly a map.\u00a0 Brynjolf was going to want it.<\/p>\n Dag was slipping the map into her pack when a gray shape she hadn\u2019t noticed before caught her eye.\u00a0 It was the stone bust of a sinister-looking man wearing a hood, and was so cleverly placed on the back of the desk as to nearly blend into the gray of the stones behind it.\u00a0 It was a bit startling, actually, to suddenly see it after she\u2019d been looking at the desk for so long already.\u00a0 \u201cDelvin, I have another curiosity for you,\u201d she murmured, snatching it off the desk.<\/p>\n She turned to leave and saw a display case up against the wall.\u00a0 Inside it was an exquisite thing: a glass sword.\u00a0 She could feel that it was enchanted, even through the locked case.\u00a0 \u201cWell this is coming with me,\u201d she said, and began jimmying the lock.\u00a0 It took her a number of tries to get the case open, but at last she reached in and lifted the thing out.\u00a0 Cold.\u00a0 It gave off the aura of cold, not so much physically, because she could hold it well enough, but she was certain that a cut from this blade would do more than simply draw blood.\u00a0 There was a small plaque near the base of the display case:\u00a0 \u201cChillrend.\u201d \u00a0Perhaps Chillrend would bring her a bit of luck. It certainly would be a terrific backup in case one of her scimitars got knocked out of her hand or lost.<\/p>\n At the back of the room was one of the familiar square openings that dropped down into the Ratway.\u00a0 Dag found herself standing in what the Guild called the Vaults, just a few steps outside the back entrance to the Ragged Flagon.\u00a0 She looked up into the opening.\u00a0 How in the world, she thought, did I never notice that hole before?\u00a0 The man is a genius.\u00a0 That makes him even more frightening.<\/p>\n Dag made her way into the Flagon.\u00a0 Thrynn was the nearest to the door.<\/p>\n \u201cCome here for a second, Thrynn, I need to show you something.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOk,\u201d he said, \u201cwhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n She opened the door and pointed up.\u00a0 \u201cThat leads right into Mercer\u2019s house.\u00a0 I just came from there.\u00a0 There\u2019s nobody left alive in there right at the moment, but who knows when he might sneak back in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, great,\u201d he said, frowning.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, exactly.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to board it up somehow but I didn\u2019t want you to be caught off-guard.\u00a0 Maybe two of you should watch this door, or something.\u201d<\/p>\n Thrynn nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, alright.\u00a0 I\u2019ll see if I can\u2019t get Vipir to be my backup over here.\u201d<\/p>\n She nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll tell Brynjolf, too; I\u2019m off to see him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHeh,\u201d Thrynn said, grinning in spite of the gravity of the situation. \u201cHe\u2019s got quite the thing for you, I hear.\u201d<\/p>\n She snorted. \u201cDon\u2019t be an idiot, Thrynn.\u00a0 He can barely tolerate me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not what I\u2019ve heard.\u00a0 I figured it must be true if even Vipir backed down. He\u2019s like a hunting dog when he sees a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n Dag rolled her eyes.\u00a0 \u201cIs that all you guys ever think about?\u201d<\/p>\n He chuckled. \u201cThat, mead, and money. Pretty much it.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, Red had predicted there would be tales about them, hadn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n She laughed and headed for Delvin, seated as usual near Vekel\u2019s bar.\u00a0 He looked up at her and grimaced.<\/p>\n \u201cStabbed in the back.\u00a0 It\u2019s just like the Dark Brotherhood all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n Dag stood, blinking, trying to sort out what she had just heard.\u00a0 Did Delvin just tell me that he used to be in the Dark Brotherhood? \u00a0<\/em>Her mind flashed back to him warning her that the mercenaries at Goldenglow Estate were trained killers.\u00a0 So it seemed that he would know, better than most. Best not to poke this particular hornet\u2019s nest with a stick, she thought.\u00a0 Instead, she collected her wits and offered him the bust.<\/p>\n \u201cThis must have come from Mercer\u2019s house.\u00a0 He always did admire the Grey Fox,\u201d Delvin said.\u00a0 \u201cWhat a find! It\u2019s worth quite a bit of coin.\u00a0 Here you go; I think you\u2019ll be pleased.\u201d\u00a0 He handed her a large purse, the heft of which told her that she would indeed be pleased, if she ever had a chance to count it out. He stood and left the Flagon, and by the time Dagnell reached Brynjolf he had already placed the bust on display, on the Guildmaster\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n Brynjolf was still standing behind that desk, deep in study.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re back,\u201d he said, before he\u2019d even looked up.\u00a0 Dag shook her head.\u00a0 Some day I\u2019m going to find out how he does that. \u00a0He raised his head to look at her and a ghost of a smile crossed his lips, briefly. \u00a0By Stendarr he looks tired, she thought. \u00a0I wish he\u2019d at least take a nap or something. \u00a0Maybe he could use Honeyside for awhile.<\/p>\n Then she blinked, realizing what she\u2019d thought. \u00a0Boy. \u00a0That would really give Thrynn something to gossip about, wouldn\u2019t it?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve scoured the town and I\u2019ve spoken with every contact we have left, and no one knows where he\u2019s gone.\u00a0 Any luck on your end?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt depends on your definition of luck.\u00a0 I managed to wade through his goons, and found this,\u201d Dag said, digging in her pack for the notes and the map.\u00a0 \u201cBy the way, he has a tunnel system that empties right outside the Flagon.\u00a0 We\u2019ll need to do something about that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI should say so.\u00a0 Good work, lass.\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf spread the map out on the desk and began looking it over.<\/p>\n He slammed his hand down on the desk, making her jump.<\/p>\n \u201cShor\u2019s beard, he\u2019s going after the Eyes of the Falmer! That was Gallus\u2019 pet project!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat in the world?\u201d<\/p>\n They were, he explained, the fabled enormous gems set into the eyes of an ancient statue, the only known likeness of a Snow Elf, the ancestors of the Falmer. Even one of them was worth more than the best thieves could make in an entire lifetime. People had been looking for that statue for eons and hadn\u2019t found it. Getting the Eyes would have been the biggest heist in history and would have made them all very rich.<\/p>\n \u201cAh,\u201d Dag said. \u201cThus his need to learn the Falmer language.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAye,\u201d Brynjolf agreed, nodding.\u00a0 \u201cMercer must have finally figured out where it is. And if he gets them, you can be certain he\u2019ll be gone for good and set for life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell we need to stop him, then,\u201d Dag said. \u201cEven without that there are a hundred reasons to get him, but that would just be too much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAgreed. He\u2019s taken everything the Guild had left. But to go after our biggest heist is just an insult.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes it is, Dag thought.\u00a0 Mercer, I\u2019m going to help take you down if I can.<\/p>\n Brynjolf looked at her.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve apologized to Karliah for the way the Guild has treated her, and welcomed her back.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know whether that can ever make up for what she\u2019s gone through, but we can at least try. She wants to meet with both of us,\u201d he said, inclining his head toward the center of the Cistern.\u00a0 Karliah was standing there, waiting.<\/p>\n \u201cShe wants me there too?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAye. Let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n Dag followed Brynjolf.\u00a0 How is it, she wondered for what felt like the thousandth time, that I have ended up in the middle of all this?\u00a0 I\u2019m nobody special, why me?<\/p>\n Karliah nodded at them.\u00a0 \u201cThank you both for meeting me. Before we begin, though,\u201d she said, \u201cwe have to settle Mercer\u2019s fate.\u00a0 Brynjolf, until a new Guildmaster is selected, the decision falls to you.\u201d<\/p>\n What do you mean, Dag wondered. Brynjolf\u2019s already in charge, of course the decision is his.<\/p>\n \u201cAye, lass, and I\u2019ve thought about it. He tried to kill both of you. He murdered Gallus. He betrayed the Guild, and he made us question our future. He needs to die. Even if you had managed to kill him at Snow Veil Sanctum the decision would have been the same.\u201d<\/p>\n His voice was cold, unfeeling, flat.\u00a0 It made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Well, Dag thought.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never actually heard one of them pronounce the death sentence on one of our own before, only threaten to turn it over to the Dark Brotherhood.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t even hesitate.<\/p>\n Karliah nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to be very careful, Brynjolf. Mercer was a Nightingale, an agent of Nocturnal, and that makes him very dangerous. We\u2019re going to need to prepare ourselves and meet him on equal footing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s true, then, all the stories I heard.\u00a0 The Nightingales and their allegiance to the Sepulcher.\u00a0 But what do you mean about equal footing, lass?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a cavern, at the end of a path outside the southwest gate of Riften, near an old standing stone.\u00a0 I would ask you both to meet me there and I will explain more.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlright, lass.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be there,\u201d Brynjolf said.<\/p>\n Ok, Dag thought, I guess that decision has been made.\u00a0 Who am I to argue it, after all, aside from the third wheel?<\/p>\n Brynjolf turned to face Dag.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore we meet with Karliah, I have some preparations of my own to take care of. I\u2019ll meet you there.\u201d He smiled at her.<\/p>\n It was the first smile Dag had seen from him in what felt like forever.\u00a0 It was a small, sad smile, but it reached all the way to his emerald eyes.<\/p>\n Dag nodded, and walked into the Flagon.\u00a0 She had Mercer\u2019s jewels to sell to Tonilia, and she wanted to warn Vekel about Mercer\u2019s secret entrance. And she felt very, very unsettled about the entirety.<\/p>\n Vex was still on high alert when Dagnell approached her, and she didn\u2019t relax or sheathe her dagger. \u201cVex, it seems I\u2019m going to need to get into Mercer\u2019s house.\u00a0 I understand you might have some information on the man who\u2019s guarding it.\u00a0 Vald?\u201d Vex sneered.\u00a0 Vex always seemed to sneer, but this one was … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1-2-16-6.png\")
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