It had been early when Nelthas had knocked on the door to wake us up. We dressed quietly so as not to wake up any of the other patrons that might still be sleeping. My armor being so much simpler than Signar's, I was dressed and armed, before he even got into his under-armor, his gambeson more complicated than all of my armor put together. I laced up the sides of the pants as he laced the chest piece. Then handed him each armor piece in the order that he liked to put them on.
"Now I understand why you have two set's of under-armor and sleep in one set, good grief, it would take you forever to get dressed if we were attacked," I said as I handed him the last piece of plate steel.
"Huh, I can fight in my gambeson as well as the plate, it just isn't as protective. My trainer made us sleep in full armor, to get used to it, said in war unless you have your own squire it's never taken off." I shook my head, but I knew for the average soldier that was true. I had been around enough men in heavy armor to know, how a smart warrior behaves.
"But yes My Lady, I prefer sleeping in my under-armor, so that I might quickly put on what I need, in case of attack. If you need more protection than what that chain-mail and leather will provide, you simply cast a mage armor spell. What I have is all I have, it works for me." I put my hand on his cheek and rubbed my thumb over his lips.
" Oh sweetie, I only tease. You would still be you in little bit's of leather and fur or the cloth of a mage, but I like 'my knight in shining armor'. It suits you well". With that, I smacked him on the chest with a closed fist twice, and then picked up my pack, slinging it over my shoulder.
When we got to the main floor, Nelthas was sitting at a table with platters of food. I think my mouth actually started watering at the sight of some sweet rolls and apple and glaze topped confections. When I looked into the clay jug with beads of water running down and realized it was cold milk, I looked over my shoulder at Signar and winked, then plopped down on Nelthas's lap and gave him a great big kiss on the lips.
" I think I'm in love, you see sweetie, this is how you feed me in the morning". I looked over at Signar who had just sat down in the chair next to us and picked up an apple pastie. He waved the pastry in front of my face and then stopped right at my lips.
"Oh, fickle is the tummy when cooked apples and sugar are presented." I grabbed his wrist and held his hand still as I took a bite out of the pastry. Then I got up and sat in the third chair. Laughing he dropped the pastry on my plate and started piling his with meat, eggs, and bread. "So Mr. Doom and Gloom, what bad news's do you have for us this morning?" I was only half teasing, as I had seen the look on his face when we first came down the steps.
"Nelthas", I snapped my fingers in front of his face, " He isn't going to try slicing you up with that great big bloody axe, you're an assassin, threaten to kill him in his sleep if he tries anything...of course you could always throw daggers at him." Signar gwaufed and Nelthas looked at me like I was insane.
"Muthsera, how old are you? 12?" I stuck my tongue out at him and crossed my eyes, which he shook his head at.
"Well, my ancient Dunmer friend, that depends on the way you figure my age."
"I am not ancient, I'm only 121 years old, nothing to my people" Signar laughed and muttered something about his great Grannie would have been that old had she still lived. " So really how old are you? Sometimes you have a maturity that Elders would envy and other times, you act the child."
"Day's lived? I suppose if you added them all up I would be slightly older than you, some 150 to 200 years old. All those Oblivion gates took more than a day to close you know. But that was only one part of my life. I spent 10 yr's as an advisor to an Emperor, but was assassinated when I proved un-corruptible. Among other things. Now, as I come back exactly the same age each time I am resurrected, I was two months shy of my seventeenth birthday the first time I died." Signar dropped his fork on the table and looked hard at me.
"Love that is the one thing you never asked, so I thought it really didn't matter how old I appear to be." He picked up his fork and looked down at his food. My heart dropped for a moment until he looked back up.
"No, My Lady, your age matters not, you have lived more than anyone that I know, have more life than most. I was just surprised that, Uh.. physically, you are so young." I searched his face and as he didn't at all look conflicted, I dropped that subject and went back to what I wanted to know.
"Nelthas, the bad new's that you are avoiding, I'm pretty sure we need to know." He took a drink of his mead and then set the mug down with a preciseness that it really didn't need.
" I talked to a contact last night, about Esbern, so I know where he is, exactly where he is. He has food taken to his...umm cell? That is the way the rooms were explained to me like Riften was built on an old sunken prison. Anyway, that's not the bad news, obviously. The bad news is that the Thalmor are down in the Ratway, they have not found him, but it is only a matter of time." As I stood up ready to go, "Sit, Akemmi, their is no point in running off not prepared." he looked over at Signar and narrowed his eyes, Signar starred back at him passively.
" Signar, how well do you swim?" That got a reaction, Signar started and then rolled a shoulder.
" I can't, not in armor, I'd sink". Even Tex snorted at that,
"The Sky is blue sweetie, we kinda know that". He looked at me with tight lips.
" I can't swim, not at all. I grew up in Windhelm, the water is too cold most of the year, even the Argonians have problems in the middle of winter and can't stay in the water to long. So basically I never learned. Why?"
Nelthas looked down at the table with a troubled look in his face and then drew the knife he kept in his boot, running in through his fingers in an exercise that could easily cut a finger off. Something he only did when he was extremely agitated and couldn't pace. Then he sighed and stuck the knife in the table. He looked straight at Signar and started to explain.
" My contact said that there are so many Thalmor rummaging around in the ratway, that even if we can sneak in, we would never be able to get him out the same way. Their is another way, but according to my contact, at least half the path is full of water and would require some swimming. Some of the tunnels might even be submerged." He paused and waited to see if Signar was going to say anything, then continued when he just looked down at his plate. " That is only if we couldn't fight our way back out, but fighting might not be the best way. And just to make our life even harder, I couldn't buy a horse for Esbern, and the Thalmor mage that was there wanted to know who the other horses belonged to. I doubt they will allow us to just walk out with Esbern." I thought fast and came up with a couple alternatives, but the best one would be just Nelthas and I going into the Ratway.
"So we ride away, Signar and Tex stay with the horses, you and I sneak back in and get Esbern?" I looked over at Signar, who was still looking down at his plate, his hand's both in his lap. I could see the tension in his neck muscles that he was trying very hard to hide.
"I would go by myself if I thought for a second that I could get the old man out by myself. No one would see me if I did not wish to be seen." I nodded at his words, I knew he was good. I was still looking at Signar, who finally heaved a sigh and looked up at me. His jaw was rock hard and his eye's like ice blue chips. His voice when he finally talked was gruff with tension, but I didn't see any anger, just resolution.
"If it is the best way, then that is what we will do. I do not like it, my Lady, I am sworn to protect you, but more than that, you are my life, I do not like the idea of you out of my sight, doing something so dangerous. I cannot protect you if you are not with me." He turned to Nelthas and if his face and voice were gruff before, now they were hard as steel and the look in his eyes would turn a dragon on its tail. "Guard her with your life." Nelthas nodded at those words, his face passive.. I sighed, men.....like I couldn't take care of myself.
That is how I found myself in the Ratway, behind a ghost. The only reason I knew he was there at times, was the spell I used to track him, it was a passive spell that effected my sight and that was it, once caste no one would be able to trace it back to me or sense the power it took to create it. A whispered hsst and I would stop, hugging the shadow's, he would be gone for a few minutes and then he would touch my arm and off we would go again.
Sometimes I would catch the metallic smell of blood and knew he had killed someone. I even saw the glint of gold that meant a Thamor soldier in eleven armor. Once when we ran into a room of Thalmor soldiers, I drank a potion that made me invisible, Nelthas may have done the same or he might just have turned into a ghost, assassins have their own tricks. It was a tense few minutes, because while the potion made me invisible and my boots had a muffle enchant, someone could still walk into me, which would make both moot.
When we got to the door that Nelthas's map said belonged to Esbern, it took repeating something that Delphine had said to get him to open the door. Nelthas closed and locked it behind us. Esbern started and gave him a searching look, but then turned back to me.
"Esbern, we don't have much time, the Thalmor are looking for you and know you are down here. We need to get going fast." I was looking around his room and trying to figure out how much of this stuff he would want to take and what was to dangerous to leave behind intact.
"What's the point, Alduin is on the loose, the end of the world draws near, the God's have forsaken us. Their is nothing man can do against him". I looked at the old man and decided it was either my humor or a frying pan.
"Well, it's a good thing I am no man, Esbern, cause I will defeat Alduin. Akatosh gave me the Dragonblood for a reason and I figure it wasn't to gossip with dragon bones."
"You... your Dragonborn, well that changes everything. I need, well, their are things that I need, let me get them together." I watched him flit from one side of the room to the other, stuffing things in waterproof pouches. That was good. All the pouches were put in a leather backpack and then he stood in the middle of the room with a frown on his face.
"What's wrong Esbern, we really need to get going before they find us".
"There is still information here that should not get into the Thalmors hands, but we can't take it all."
I looked around the room and saw some bottles of oil, which I spread over the room, while Esbern and Nelthas stood near the door.
" I will cast a Fire rune in the doorway, if anyone opens the door, it all goes up in flames. We should be long gone by then." Nelthas opened the door at that and to all our surprise, there stood a Thalmor mage with his hand up like he was getting ready to knock on the door. Nelthas was not slow, a dagger went into the man's throat before he could even open his mouth. I cast a spell for a Frost Atronach and Esbern must have had the same thought. He walked out the door and started throwing ice-spikes at one of the two soldiers, Nelthas was shooting arrows at the other, both Atronach's closing in quickly.
I turned and closed the door most of the way and spoke the words to the spell and held them in my hand till I placed it on the other side of the door facing down, caste it, pulling my hand out and closing the door. The soldiers dead, all in this cell was quiet, but we could hear booted feet coming in our direction.
Nelthas motioned for us to follow him and I put down a rune trap on every doorway, sometimes on the door itself, sometimes on the knob or the ground. We went quietly through the passageways, Nelthas sometimes stopping to consult his map.
We started hearing the explosions that said my runes were being set off. Nelthas would not be hurried and we made it to one point and he dropped a torch off a drop-off, then jumped down himself, looking back up at the two of us. It wasn't far, but too far for an old man to jump, so he climbed down and Nelthas helped him the last bit. Nelthas then looked up at me and I jumped down, he caught me and set me down and off into the dark he went.
When we hit another drop off I cast a small mage light, it was barely more than candlelight and showed water, but not how deep. I told Nelthas to lower me down, as it would be easier. He did but had to drop me the last little bit. The water was hip-deep on me, but the men had no trouble wading through it.
Ahead there was a dim light, Esbern and I walked very slowly as Nelthas went ahead to check it out. He was halfway there when he was swept off his feet and we saw him disappear over the edge. I cast a stronger mage light and saw the second tunnel and how the water speed had picked up, where the two met.
I thought quickly, as I would prefer not to go over the edge in the same fashion, and did the one thing I could think of. I pulled some power through my focus stone and cast an ice storm spell. While it had the desired effect, the ice wasn't thick enough to walk on. Esbern cast another ice storm spell on top of mine and the ice thickened. Once more for each of us and we could walk over the ice with no problems. It wouldn't last long but didn't need to.
When we got to the end, I held on to the grate and looked down. The drop wasn't as far as I feared it would be and I could see Nelthas swimming below. Esbern looked at me and I asked how well he could swim, he said like a fish and we jumped as we heard voices back down the tunnel.
Thankfully the water was deep and we swam to shore in the same direction that Nelthas had taken.
"Now I understand why you have two set's of under-armor and sleep in one set, good grief, it would take you forever to get dressed if we were attacked," I said as I handed him the last piece of plate steel.
"Huh, I can fight in my gambeson as well as the plate, it just isn't as protective. My trainer made us sleep in full armor, to get used to it, said in war unless you have your own squire it's never taken off." I shook my head, but I knew for the average soldier that was true. I had been around enough men in heavy armor to know, how a smart warrior behaves.
"But yes My Lady, I prefer sleeping in my under-armor, so that I might quickly put on what I need, in case of attack. If you need more protection than what that chain-mail and leather will provide, you simply cast a mage armor spell. What I have is all I have, it works for me." I put my hand on his cheek and rubbed my thumb over his lips.
" Oh sweetie, I only tease. You would still be you in little bit's of leather and fur or the cloth of a mage, but I like 'my knight in shining armor'. It suits you well". With that, I smacked him on the chest with a closed fist twice, and then picked up my pack, slinging it over my shoulder.
When we got to the main floor, Nelthas was sitting at a table with platters of food. I think my mouth actually started watering at the sight of some sweet rolls and apple and glaze topped confections. When I looked into the clay jug with beads of water running down and realized it was cold milk, I looked over my shoulder at Signar and winked, then plopped down on Nelthas's lap and gave him a great big kiss on the lips.
" I think I'm in love, you see sweetie, this is how you feed me in the morning". I looked over at Signar who had just sat down in the chair next to us and picked up an apple pastie. He waved the pastry in front of my face and then stopped right at my lips.
"Oh, fickle is the tummy when cooked apples and sugar are presented." I grabbed his wrist and held his hand still as I took a bite out of the pastry. Then I got up and sat in the third chair. Laughing he dropped the pastry on my plate and started piling his with meat, eggs, and bread. "So Mr. Doom and Gloom, what bad news's do you have for us this morning?" I was only half teasing, as I had seen the look on his face when we first came down the steps.
"Nelthas", I snapped my fingers in front of his face, " He isn't going to try slicing you up with that great big bloody axe, you're an assassin, threaten to kill him in his sleep if he tries anything...of course you could always throw daggers at him." Signar gwaufed and Nelthas looked at me like I was insane.
"Muthsera, how old are you? 12?" I stuck my tongue out at him and crossed my eyes, which he shook his head at.
"Well, my ancient Dunmer friend, that depends on the way you figure my age."
"I am not ancient, I'm only 121 years old, nothing to my people" Signar laughed and muttered something about his great Grannie would have been that old had she still lived. " So really how old are you? Sometimes you have a maturity that Elders would envy and other times, you act the child."
"Day's lived? I suppose if you added them all up I would be slightly older than you, some 150 to 200 years old. All those Oblivion gates took more than a day to close you know. But that was only one part of my life. I spent 10 yr's as an advisor to an Emperor, but was assassinated when I proved un-corruptible. Among other things. Now, as I come back exactly the same age each time I am resurrected, I was two months shy of my seventeenth birthday the first time I died." Signar dropped his fork on the table and looked hard at me.
"Love that is the one thing you never asked, so I thought it really didn't matter how old I appear to be." He picked up his fork and looked down at his food. My heart dropped for a moment until he looked back up.
"No, My Lady, your age matters not, you have lived more than anyone that I know, have more life than most. I was just surprised that, Uh.. physically, you are so young." I searched his face and as he didn't at all look conflicted, I dropped that subject and went back to what I wanted to know.
"Nelthas, the bad new's that you are avoiding, I'm pretty sure we need to know." He took a drink of his mead and then set the mug down with a preciseness that it really didn't need.
" I talked to a contact last night, about Esbern, so I know where he is, exactly where he is. He has food taken to his...umm cell? That is the way the rooms were explained to me like Riften was built on an old sunken prison. Anyway, that's not the bad news, obviously. The bad news is that the Thalmor are down in the Ratway, they have not found him, but it is only a matter of time." As I stood up ready to go, "Sit, Akemmi, their is no point in running off not prepared." he looked over at Signar and narrowed his eyes, Signar starred back at him passively.
" Signar, how well do you swim?" That got a reaction, Signar started and then rolled a shoulder.
" I can't, not in armor, I'd sink". Even Tex snorted at that,
"The Sky is blue sweetie, we kinda know that". He looked at me with tight lips.
" I can't swim, not at all. I grew up in Windhelm, the water is too cold most of the year, even the Argonians have problems in the middle of winter and can't stay in the water to long. So basically I never learned. Why?"
Nelthas looked down at the table with a troubled look in his face and then drew the knife he kept in his boot, running in through his fingers in an exercise that could easily cut a finger off. Something he only did when he was extremely agitated and couldn't pace. Then he sighed and stuck the knife in the table. He looked straight at Signar and started to explain.
" My contact said that there are so many Thalmor rummaging around in the ratway, that even if we can sneak in, we would never be able to get him out the same way. Their is another way, but according to my contact, at least half the path is full of water and would require some swimming. Some of the tunnels might even be submerged." He paused and waited to see if Signar was going to say anything, then continued when he just looked down at his plate. " That is only if we couldn't fight our way back out, but fighting might not be the best way. And just to make our life even harder, I couldn't buy a horse for Esbern, and the Thalmor mage that was there wanted to know who the other horses belonged to. I doubt they will allow us to just walk out with Esbern." I thought fast and came up with a couple alternatives, but the best one would be just Nelthas and I going into the Ratway.
"So we ride away, Signar and Tex stay with the horses, you and I sneak back in and get Esbern?" I looked over at Signar, who was still looking down at his plate, his hand's both in his lap. I could see the tension in his neck muscles that he was trying very hard to hide.
"I would go by myself if I thought for a second that I could get the old man out by myself. No one would see me if I did not wish to be seen." I nodded at his words, I knew he was good. I was still looking at Signar, who finally heaved a sigh and looked up at me. His jaw was rock hard and his eye's like ice blue chips. His voice when he finally talked was gruff with tension, but I didn't see any anger, just resolution.
"If it is the best way, then that is what we will do. I do not like it, my Lady, I am sworn to protect you, but more than that, you are my life, I do not like the idea of you out of my sight, doing something so dangerous. I cannot protect you if you are not with me." He turned to Nelthas and if his face and voice were gruff before, now they were hard as steel and the look in his eyes would turn a dragon on its tail. "Guard her with your life." Nelthas nodded at those words, his face passive.. I sighed, men.....like I couldn't take care of myself.
That is how I found myself in the Ratway, behind a ghost. The only reason I knew he was there at times, was the spell I used to track him, it was a passive spell that effected my sight and that was it, once caste no one would be able to trace it back to me or sense the power it took to create it. A whispered hsst and I would stop, hugging the shadow's, he would be gone for a few minutes and then he would touch my arm and off we would go again.
Sometimes I would catch the metallic smell of blood and knew he had killed someone. I even saw the glint of gold that meant a Thamor soldier in eleven armor. Once when we ran into a room of Thalmor soldiers, I drank a potion that made me invisible, Nelthas may have done the same or he might just have turned into a ghost, assassins have their own tricks. It was a tense few minutes, because while the potion made me invisible and my boots had a muffle enchant, someone could still walk into me, which would make both moot.
When we got to the door that Nelthas's map said belonged to Esbern, it took repeating something that Delphine had said to get him to open the door. Nelthas closed and locked it behind us. Esbern started and gave him a searching look, but then turned back to me.
"Esbern, we don't have much time, the Thalmor are looking for you and know you are down here. We need to get going fast." I was looking around his room and trying to figure out how much of this stuff he would want to take and what was to dangerous to leave behind intact.
"What's the point, Alduin is on the loose, the end of the world draws near, the God's have forsaken us. Their is nothing man can do against him". I looked at the old man and decided it was either my humor or a frying pan.
"Well, it's a good thing I am no man, Esbern, cause I will defeat Alduin. Akatosh gave me the Dragonblood for a reason and I figure it wasn't to gossip with dragon bones."
"You... your Dragonborn, well that changes everything. I need, well, their are things that I need, let me get them together." I watched him flit from one side of the room to the other, stuffing things in waterproof pouches. That was good. All the pouches were put in a leather backpack and then he stood in the middle of the room with a frown on his face.
"What's wrong Esbern, we really need to get going before they find us".
"There is still information here that should not get into the Thalmors hands, but we can't take it all."
I looked around the room and saw some bottles of oil, which I spread over the room, while Esbern and Nelthas stood near the door.
" I will cast a Fire rune in the doorway, if anyone opens the door, it all goes up in flames. We should be long gone by then." Nelthas opened the door at that and to all our surprise, there stood a Thalmor mage with his hand up like he was getting ready to knock on the door. Nelthas was not slow, a dagger went into the man's throat before he could even open his mouth. I cast a spell for a Frost Atronach and Esbern must have had the same thought. He walked out the door and started throwing ice-spikes at one of the two soldiers, Nelthas was shooting arrows at the other, both Atronach's closing in quickly.
I turned and closed the door most of the way and spoke the words to the spell and held them in my hand till I placed it on the other side of the door facing down, caste it, pulling my hand out and closing the door. The soldiers dead, all in this cell was quiet, but we could hear booted feet coming in our direction.
Nelthas motioned for us to follow him and I put down a rune trap on every doorway, sometimes on the door itself, sometimes on the knob or the ground. We went quietly through the passageways, Nelthas sometimes stopping to consult his map.
We started hearing the explosions that said my runes were being set off. Nelthas would not be hurried and we made it to one point and he dropped a torch off a drop-off, then jumped down himself, looking back up at the two of us. It wasn't far, but too far for an old man to jump, so he climbed down and Nelthas helped him the last bit. Nelthas then looked up at me and I jumped down, he caught me and set me down and off into the dark he went.
When we hit another drop off I cast a small mage light, it was barely more than candlelight and showed water, but not how deep. I told Nelthas to lower me down, as it would be easier. He did but had to drop me the last little bit. The water was hip-deep on me, but the men had no trouble wading through it.
Ahead there was a dim light, Esbern and I walked very slowly as Nelthas went ahead to check it out. He was halfway there when he was swept off his feet and we saw him disappear over the edge. I cast a stronger mage light and saw the second tunnel and how the water speed had picked up, where the two met.
I thought quickly, as I would prefer not to go over the edge in the same fashion, and did the one thing I could think of. I pulled some power through my focus stone and cast an ice storm spell. While it had the desired effect, the ice wasn't thick enough to walk on. Esbern cast another ice storm spell on top of mine and the ice thickened. Once more for each of us and we could walk over the ice with no problems. It wouldn't last long but didn't need to.
When we got to the end, I held on to the grate and looked down. The drop wasn't as far as I feared it would be and I could see Nelthas swimming below. Esbern looked at me and I asked how well he could swim, he said like a fish and we jumped as we heard voices back down the tunnel.
Thankfully the water was deep and we swam to shore in the same direction that Nelthas had taken.
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