The Sixth House Is Risen

[Iodela]

It was good to finally be free again.

Aerin Orantius had seen her share of the dungeons in Cyrodiil, and then some. The Wood Elf was a thief, and when it came to her skillset, she was a good one. The problem was that she took more risks than she should, and sometimes they didn't pay off. It was a trait that most born under the sign of the Thief shared; they were known for being lucky, to some degree, but that luck didn't always last. Though they had a knack for staying alive, they also had a knack for getting into trouble in the first place.

Though she had been sentenced to almost three years, Aerin spent barely ten months in confinement before she learned that she was being set free. She had been happy to hear that, until she discovered that she was being sent to Vvardenfell. From what the Bosmer had heard, the entire island was still behind the rest of the world. It had been less than fifteen years since it had been officially opened for settlement, and in the rumors indicated that it was a backwoods country with backwoods people. They still practiced slavery, for crying out loud.

What she saw, as she stood outside of the Census and Excise office in Seyda Neen with nothing but a few coins, some papers, and the clothes on her back (and everything she could carry out under her clothing without getting caught) didn't do much to change her impression. The little town was barely large enough to have a dock, and it looked as though it might sink into the muddy swamp it was located in at any moment. Even the buildings looked dingy, and the lighthouse on the edge of town leaned so far to one side that she thoguht it would topple over. It reminded her very much of Bravil, and it wasn't a flattering comparison. Thunder was audible in the distance, hinting at an approaching storm.

Of course, the woman's own appearance wasn't particularly pleasant, either. She looked very much like someone who had just been released from a dungeon. Her clothes were too loose (the pants held up by a length of rope), and she looked pale and dangerously thin. Her dark hair had been cut short, but it was uneven, as though she or someone else had done it in a hurry. She hoped that she didn't look too out of place here. There had been a few others on the boat, and they had been released at around the same time she was... so maybe the citizens of Seyda Neen wouldn't notice.

She might have been granted an official pardon, but Aerin had no intention of changing her ways just yet. The first thing she needed to do was unload everything she'd stolen from the census office, and find some decent armor. She frowned. That last was always difficult. At about four and a half feet tall, she was shorter than most - but not all - Bosmer. Stealing clothing or armor was never very productive. It was a better choice for anyone to have armor made, of course, but if she wanted anything that came close to fitting, she had to.

A raindrop hit her nose, and the thief looked up at the sky with a mutter of annoyance. The boat carrying the prisoners the Emperor had ordered released had arrived less than an hour ago, and already it was going to rain.

Lovely.

 

[Skylar23]

Aerie was one of the prisoners whom had been released. Another had been Sev'vesk, a mostly-black and dark colored Argonian.

Sev'vesk had originally been imprisoned for murder and thievery. Being an Assasin, he was trained well to hide in the shadows, as ironic as it was to the fact that he was born under the sign of The Shadow. Sev'vesk had taken many, many jobs; so many that he had lost count, and never gotten caught, dare be seen, either.

Yet that wasn't to stay true his entire life, and he realized he would be caught eventually. He knew when the day came, his judgement would as well. He assumed that he was to be executed for his crimes, which he would of accepted as worth to his sins. But Fate had others ideas for him.

One job was all it took. Being sloppy just once was all it had taken him to be caught and nearly killed from arrow wounds. The damned Khajiit he had bin after had noticed Sev'vesk all to quickly with his ability to see in the dark, which was something the Argonian had forgotten in a fleeting moment. When the guards had came, the Khajiit was gone, but Sev'vesk was on the ground, bleeding out. They threw him into a jail cell, assuming he would die. But they didn't know him. Sev'vesk had grown a resistance to the effects of blood loss after so many incidences. But never before had he been caught.

Sev'vesk looked up at the sky. He knew his day would come, some day soon. And on that day he would plea for his sins to be revoked. Until then, he would do everything he could to change his corrupted heart. The Argonian felt the gentle patter of a few drops of rain fall upon his scaly head, looking up to the sky.

Sev'vesk had once been a cold hearted Assasin.
Now, he looked up to the sky as the winds of change ebbed at his very heart and soul.

 

[Iodela]

The local tradehouse was easy to spot, at least: it was the biggest building in town after the Census and Excise office. The elf opened the tiny bag of coins she had been given. Not much, she noted with a frown. Of course, that had probably been intentional. She had orders to report to Balmora - wherever that was - and deliver the package she had been given to a man named Caius Cosades. An Imperial name, if she'd ever heard one, but then, Aerin know that names could be misleading. She also had an Imperial name, but she was no more Imperial than she was truly Bosmer.

She had grown up just outside of Anvil, her parents the victim of a shipwreck. Pirates, probably; it had been a common problem around the southwestern coast of Cyrodiil at the time... or so the old Imperial who had raised her had told her. He had always been evasive when she asked about it. She had never fit in well with other Bosmer. She didn't observe the Green Pact, and that close to Valenwood, most of the Bosmer she had met had. How they could eat each other, she would never know.

What she did know was that she was a little hungry. As she started walking toward the tradehouse, still counting her coins, she nearly walked into the back of the Argonian. The thief stopped short with a grumble. "Hey, out of the way." Never mind the fact that it had been her fault that she had nearly walked into him. She recognized him as one of the others who had been on the boat with her, but she didn't know his name or what he had been in the Imperial City prison for.

Aerin took a step back, still frowning. Leave it to an Argonian to stand around in the rain. He probably felt right at home in the damned swamp. "If you stand there too long, they might change their minds and take you back to Cyrodiil."

 

[Skylar23]

Sev'vesk had no gold to spend, but he could easily work with that. Hunger was never a problem for him no matter how much he neglected to eat. Thirst? Thirst was nothing. He hardly ever had to drink. Argonians were known to be a very hardy race when it came right down to it. To be frank, Sev'vesk was an exact example of those characteristics.

Sev'vesk had ran away from home very early in life. He could've only been six or seven. Abusive parents were just the incentive he needed to keep his legs running no matter how sore they got. He had grown up on the streets of Bruma, idling and living with the beggars until he came of age. Already skilled in self defends from years of evading muggers and the occasional bandit when traveling, he took on assasinations as paying jobs, working within mostly the Imperial City. He had once lived in a nice, small home on the outskirts of the Imperial City, enjoying a mostly simple life, by day, before.

But now was different. He had made this mistake and couldn't take it back no matter how hard her tried. Sev'vesk suddenly became aware of a feminine voice behind him, looking out of the corner of his eye, using his pereforeal vision to get a rough look at her. He turned fully around to face her.
"I am sorry if I was in your way. If I may," he said, stepping aside for her.
"If they try and drag me back to prison, it will not end up prettily."

 

[Iodela]

His response wasn't what she expected. She had been anything but polite. When he stepped aside, she wasn't sure how to reply at first. Aerin chuckled at his assurance that he wouldn't be going back to prison. "Trust me, it's better to go quietly and escape when you can," she pointed out. Her presence in Seyda Neen was proof that it didn't always work, but if the elf realized that, she didn't seem to care.

Dark eyes studied the Argonian standing in front of her. He was larger than her, but that wasn't that strange. Almost everyone was, save for a few Bosmer and the smallest Khajiits, the Ohmes. He seemed capable enough, although sometimes it was hard to tell with Argonians. It was, she decided, better to have a friend than an enemy, and so she held out her hand. "I'm Aerin, by the way. Didn't I see you on the boat carrying the prisoners?"

"Did they tell you why they let us go?" The rain had held off, but as she spoke, thunder sounded again. The storm was getting closer. The thief looked at the sky warily. "I know you Argonians don't mind getting wet, but lightning is just as dangerous to you as it is to me, isn't it? I don't think we should stand out here talking."

 

[Skylar23]

Sev'vesk nodded softly in response to her.
"Yes. You did see me on the prison boat."
The Argonian pondered her next question carefully for a few moments before fathering an answer.
"I did not here mention of the cause, no. You are just as informed as I unto the subject. He looked up at the sky as the pace of the rain picked up a little, now steadily dripping onto his face.

Sev'vesk took the outstretched hand ad shook it. "Indeed," he said. "Lightning would not be safe for either of us." He ushered her behind him, leading her into what looked to be a rundown, make shift tavern. He opened the door and allowed her access inside, stepping in and closing the door behind her and himself. He looked around the sparsely populated Inn.
"I am Sev'vesk," he said finally.

 

[Iodela]

Sev'vesk was a natural-born meat shield, she decided. He took the lead without having to be asked to do so, and the elf didn't seem to mind very much. She looked over her shoulder at him as he introduced himself. "Well met, Sev'vesk," she said with a half nod, before she turned to scan the lower floor of the tradehouse. There was an Altmer - the shopkeeper, probably - standing behind a counter, and a set of stairs behind him leading to an upper floor. The tavern part of the tradehouse was above them, she assumed; the voices coming from that direction were what she expected to hear.

"They gave me some coins and some papers. Said something about meeting with this old Imperial in Balmora. I guess I will... I don't have much better to do," she continued the conversation as though they had never stopped talking. Besides, there had been the heavy implication that failure to deliver that package would result in being sent back to prison, and that was the last thing she wanted. Aerin had escaped from every dungeon in Cyrodiil, save the one in the Imperial City.

Nobody had escaped from that one in a very, very long time. She shuddered involuntarily at the memory, then led Sev'vesk up the staircase. She planned to join the local Thieves' guild, of course, but that might be hard to do since she didn't even know where to start looking. She paid for some kind of local jerky as well as a drink. Food was generally better to purchase; less chance of pissing off some innkeeper and getting poisoned that way. Aerin turned back to the Argonian she had just met. "What about you?"

 

[Skylar23]

Sev'vesk listened to her speak as he walked, following, thinking about himself. Now that he was here, what could he do? He tried to think of an answer for her, ending up failing to do so. Sev'vesk cleared his throat softly before speaking.

"I am not sure what I am doing. They gave me no coin of which to spend, most likely in fear I'd somehow buy a weapon. I am not sure why I was released or what they intend to do by releasing an Assasin. Not they're smartest idea," he said.

In his experience, he was trained NOT to speak out about what he was doing. He shrugged it off, not directly caring too much. The Argnoian shuttered.
"I suppose I will find job, seeing as I fit for Skyrim!