Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter XXXI - Firestorm

Author's Note:

Happy New Year!

I hope you all enjoyed the celebrations and now are excited to nurse your hangover in bed with some stories :D Or no hangover, whichever it is, I hope you'll enjoy :) I wish you all good health and a lot of joy into the new year :)

And I hope you either enjoyed or at least survived all the fireworks. Here's a little firestorm to top it all off ;)

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Aeyrin hadn't felt that well rested in months.

Granted, her sleep was still troubled to some extent and she couldn't escape the occasional bad dreams, but it had definitely been an improvement.

Maybe it was because whenever she awoke in the middle of the night, she didn't try to fall asleep with the anxiety-inducing uncertainty of just how bad the following day would be. This time she woke up cradled in Bishop's warm, comforting arms, actually eager to go right back to sleep just so that she could spend her conscious hours with him already.

It also helped that his light sleep usually made him wake up along with her for a brief moment and he always pressed a soothing kiss on the top of her head.

After that night, she felt more confident than ever that her easy and undisturbed sleep was not merely a thing of the past.

It would get better. Gradually.

When they woke up, they indulged in a brief breakfast and packed up their camp right after.

After some deliberation, however, they determined that they, in fact, could not 'go anywhere'. So many places were still barred to them for various reasons, so eventually they agreed to return to the meadery to report back on all their missions properly and to suss out the current situation.

They needed to know which places were safe for them, what amount of influence Mercer held and where and who they needed to be careful around.

Hopefully their enemies weren't as numerous as they feared.

Karliah was making good progress.

...

"So, are you still on those caravans?" Bishop asked idly as they marched through the western edge of Eastmarch towards the Whiterun Hold border, along a familiar large waterfall.

"No, actually," Aeyrin shook her head in response. "After the last one, Maven has officially withdrawn her funds from Mercer. She's not exactly offering them to Karliah, but at least the immediate threat is taken care of. I hope..." she gulped inaudibly. The whole thing about involving the Dark Brotherhood still unsettled her. She really hoped that those were just unfounded theories and idle talk.

"Really? I haven't heard that," Bishop raised his brows. He wasn't sure why he expected to be in the know on this. He knew that Karliah rarely divulged all her operations. She wasn't exactly keeping them a secret from him, but she didn't really offer up the information right away.

"Yeah... it's a good thing too. Last time was... rough," Aeyrin sighed.

Bishop threw her a concerned look right away.

"The dragon..." she began to explain with another sigh. "You remember that Shout I learnt? I haven't really used it much yet. The one that created that strange... storm with lightning."

"The dragon did that?" Bishop's brows shot up. It probably shouldn't have been that surprising – theoretically the dragons could do every Shout that she could. Still, that one was disturbing on its own already without a dragon wielding it. He didn't even want to imagine one of them stopping the time and crushing them instantly while they couldn't even react.