Walk with Shadows

Uncomfortable Silence

It was a weird, to be picked by Mercer for anything, let alone for something so important. She had saw the look in Brynjolf's eyes when the name Karliah was spoken from that Argonian's lips. He looked sick right there in Solitude. She wasn't sure if he would have been able to move, but the ginger man said their 'date' the night before had helped. She never knew getting a drink with the man would help, let alone that he had considered that a date. She was stressed seeing him like that, now descending into Snow Veil with a painful tug on her chest while thinking about him. A feeling that longed for her to stop being like this and confirm that their dalliances were, indeed, dates. She closed her eyes as she hit the landing before Mercer stared at her and in a somewhat harsh tone, groaned. "Look alive. I told you, Karliah is cunning. You can't space out in this. Now get the door."

He commanded and she nodded solemnly.  Something about his tone had pissed her off and her mind kept needling Nazir's words to trust her gut. She took in a deep breath and moved to the door, making sure to check for traps before opening it. A shiver ran down her spine as the silence they tread was not her usual happy place. That was the most unsettling part of this. Leave it to a Nord like him to ruin one of her favorite things. Had she just known why he was against her in the first place, she might have been more amenable to his attitude. She wasn't everyone's cup of tea, after all. That she understood. This was otherworldly to her. Even during the fighting her mouth did not open once. Spiraling down into the depths of this Sanctum with her rumbling gut.

She did her best to note things, like Mercer somehow opening a puzzle door without a claw key. Something she was aware from Festus, stating it would be impossible. He made sure to keep his back to her and crowd the door when he picked the lock. Perhaps a trade secret that Festus didn't know? That would make sense, seeing as how the man utterly disliked her. She was not trusted by him, yet was here due to Brynjolf and the skills she had to take out the woman. The dim light from the ever burning torches of the sanctum reflected in her eyes as she thought about him. His willingness to back out and not come along but the ping of sadness in his eyes. If they were to kill Karliah he didn't wish to witness it, which begged several questions within her. She had yet to get more of an answer than the woman betrayed them. She had gotten quite jealous thinking that Brynjolf and her might have at one point been lovers. After all, the man, like herself, had a type. Confronting him was hard but communication happened at their own pace. He was playful at first until he saw that look in her eye and explained away what he felt was the problem. The man hit the nail on the head. She killed someone else in the guild that he looked up to and he was her lover, not the then teenage Brynjolf.

In truth, his emotional investment is why she agreed to come. Brynjolf was more important to her than even she figured or allowed herself to feel. She had also figured Mercer felt much the same. Working with her was a necessary evil. "Go ahead, lass." His words pulled her from her thoughts of Brynjolf. She hated him for using that moniker. Never the less she walked through the next door.

There was a sharp pain and her eyes edged opened more. She hit the ground like a heavy sack. Her muscles stiffened, her eyes were left open and everything was muffled. Gwen was losing consciousness very quickly, however and what she was left with was Mercer leaving her for dead after stabbing her. His muffled words were dead upon leaving his lips. She felt a tug at her body just as she slipped into the finally comfortable blackness she longed for.

It was days later when her eyes opened, body buried in the snow of the mountain cliffs and her senses finally sharpening to the point where she felt normal. Everything seemed so far off, yet she was awoken with her entire body throbbing. Breaths felt ragged and painful, her eyes opening to a night sky. It was beautiful. She wondered for a moment if this was some sort of afterlife. Why her first thought was of Brynjolf and she tried to push him from her mind with where she was. He was always lurking in the back of her gray matter, however. Struggling to sit up she found it hard with the mound of snow surrounding her. There was a black gloved hand pushing the snow from her after a moment. "You're awake. Good. It was touch and go there for a while. I'm glad."