Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter XXVIII - Mutual Respect

Bishop inspected the small house to the best of his abilities with that distraction constantly on his mind.

It was a fairly regular safehouse. Two rooms – a bedroom with a small lavatory and an entry hall with some basic provisions. There were two guards playing cards in the entry hall idly, and nothing else to see.

Eager to leave already, he nodded at the guards and exited through the front door.

Only a day ago he had met up with Karliah to see if there was any other mission for him. He needed to take his mind off what happened with Aeyrin, if at least for a while. Much to his surprise, she had an actual mission for him – a jailbreak.

Sort of.

As it turned out, Thrynn managed to fuck up one of his missions so royally that Mercer found out about his secret cooperation with Karliah. So naturally, Mercer decided to retaliate. But since the Guild members aren't exactly thrilled with Mercer anymore and they wouldn't really enjoy seeing one of their comrades be dragged to the warrens, Mercer decided to kidnap Thrynn and keep him somewhere in the wilderness near Riften. Thrynn's time there was undoubtedly traumatic, but it was nothing that a man from Thorn's gang wasn't used to.

He just needed help breaking out. Easy.

Bishop was to get him out of wherever he was being held and to take him back to this safehouse near the Eastmarch border. Karliah picked this place specifically because Thrynn had already been familiar with it. She was worried that he may be suspicious and rattled after his ordeal and she wanted him in some place that would reassure him that he was safe.

It was... refreshing that she cared so much about Thrynn's well-being after he had fucked up on one of her jobs. Bishop hadn't really worked with anyone who would give a fuck about people's comforts before.

Bishop was merely supposed to check if everything was in order at the safehouse and then move on to wait in Shor's Stone – a small mining village near the cave where Thrynn was supposed to be held. They still didn't know where exactly the former bandit was, they only had vague inside information from the Guild. So Bishop was supposed to wait for a scout that was currently trying to find that place. The scout wasn't hired for the jailbreak – he wasn't nearly as good at actual infiltration as he was at scouting and tracking and if things went south, the man had no real combat skill to defend himself. But that was where Bishop came in.

He wondered why Karliah didn't send someone more battle-capable to scout the area outright. Not that he was volunteering, that sounded boring as fuck. But she said that the majority of her battle-ready men were preoccupied elsewhere. She didn't really specify where.

Well... no matter. He wasn't opposed to helping.

This jailbreak sounded kind of exciting. A perfect distraction.

But that was all before the courier caught up with Bishop this afternoon again with another letter.

Bishop fished it out of one of his belt pouches and looked at it once again. It seemed like he's done that a hundred times already.

.

Bishop,

I'm really sorry for how I treated you. I don't know if you are even interested in anything I have to say anymore, but, if you are, I'd like to see you and talk to you. I mean actually talk, not the other thing.

Please let me know if we can meet.

Aeyrin

.

He was probably never this relieved to receive a letter.

He knew that it was premature. She could have just wanted closure, to just end things for good calmly and without yelling. He noticed the distinct lack of the usual 'Love, Aeyrin' at the end and whenever he thought about that fact, it gave him an uncomfortable pit in his stomach.