Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter XV - Faith

Aeyrin rushed up the stairs to the attic rooms of the meadery.

Her mood had been sufficiently soured in Whiterun and she was eager to take her mind off things again. Even another dragon was probably preferable at that point, although she was really hoping for some different news on that front.

She opened the door to the familiar room and found Karliah sitting at the table, surrounded by parchments with foreign and ancient scripts. She was clearly still trying to make sense of Gallus's journal.

"Aeyrin. Good to see you here," Karliah gave her a small smile when she finally tore herself from the papers and motioned towards one of the chairs by the table.

"Karliah. Still working on... what was that? Phase eight-hundred-seventy-nine?" Aeyrin smirked at her. It was all too tempting to pick on her meticulousness.

"Aye, aye, of course," Karliah chuckled briefly. "It's phase sixty, by the way. And since Bishop procured another piece of the puzzle, I can finally make some progress." Karliah pointed to a stack of papers by her side – they looked clearly hastily copied. It must have been from the book that Bishop had stolen from the College.

"Yeah," Aeyrin sat herself down on the chair and slumped her pack on the floor. "I still can't believe that he pulled that off practically blind," she smirked again and shook her head in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, what?" Karliah's brows shot up in surprise.

Oh... was she not supposed to say that? Maybe Bishop didn't want Karliah to know how much his misjudgment jeopardized the mission. It was possible. Karliah had always seemed a bit sour when things didn't go perfectly according to her plan, but... she valued results above all else, right?

"I... uh... nothing? I mean..." Aeyrin stammered. There was hardly any way out of this, was there? She'd basically already revealed the whole thing.

"How exactly was he 'practically blind'?" Karliah peered at Aeyrin in bafflement.

"Uhm... a... a spell misfire?" she bit her lower lip uncertainly. There was no going back from this. At the very least, she could keep silent about Bishop's own culpability in this.

Karliah rolled her violet eyes with an exasperated sigh. "Well... I suppose I have the book I need. It is never a simple heist with either of you involved, is it?" she let out a little laugh and gave Aeyrin a mockingly chastising look.

Aeyrin gave her an innocent smile in return. It may have been true that, at times, there were... complications. But they always got results, didn't they? Well... not always. But that was why she was chasing after dragons now – to fix that mistake and get Maven back on their side.

"So... is Raven here?" Aeyrin changed the subject and looked around for any clues of Raven's presence.

"No. He's on a mission. I'm uncertain whether he will return anytime soon," Karliah smiled softly. "But I did get a word of you taking care of business near Morthal. Well done."

Aeyrin nodded. She just hoped that it was enough. She knew that technically the dragon souls should have made her stronger and that she could have just encountered those dragons by accident anyway if she was traveling around, but for some reason, looking for them, waiting for them, it felt horrible. She did help the merchants, but... she was just waiting around for people to get into trouble and played a hero then. Sometimes she came too late. If she let her presence be known sooner, some of the guards would have survived.

And as much as she hated it, she couldn't help but think of herself. She was actively seeking out the most painful moments for her. And she could not stop thinking about the pointlessness of it. Couldn't the dragons be resurrected again by Alduin? She still didn't know the answer to that. She should have asked Paarthurnax. But would he even know? He was never resurrected.