Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter XXXIII - Secrets, Rumors and Slander

"I need to speak to Sabjorn."

Karliah got up from the table with a weary sigh. She gave an uncertain look towards Raven, who was back on the floor, sifting through his piles of papers, then another look at Bishop who had been sitting on Raven's bed while eating some of the remaining rations they had instead of a proper dinner. Karliah and Raven had eaten a long time ago and he was not exactly allowed into Sabjorn's living area to cook a proper meal. Besides, he was still so tired. He couldn't wait to finally clean himself off from the sweat and grime and just fall into the bed.

"Behave yourselves, please. I better not come back to two corpses," Karliah smirked before she walked out of the room. It was a... fair concern – Bishop and Raven have not been exactly left alone in a room ever since Falkreath. They would start arguing right away, especially if someone didn't rein them in – about Falkreath, about the caravan missions, about the past... and now about Aeyrin. Bishop wanted Raven to know that he knew about their kiss. He was not thrilled at the idea of having it thrown in his face as a taunt. No... he needed to be the one on the offensive. Raven had always spouted at him from his high horse, how he had endangered Aeyrin in Falkreath, how everything was his fault, even though Raven was the one risking her life consciously after that with those fucking caravans! But Raven still acted like he had some fucking moral high ground about everything. Well... not anymore he would. Now Bishop had the upper hand, and he made sure that Raven knew.

And with Aeyrin currently in the bathing room, another confrontation was definitely inevitable.

"What?" Bishop smirked at Raven when he noticed his covert looks.

Raven only averted his head with a detached scoff. It spoke volumes, but nothing that Bishop hadn't heard from him before. Whenever he was present when Bishop met with Karliah, he would let him know just how much better he thought himself to be for Aeyrin. Bishop would laugh at him, dismiss him, but the truth was, he did not know about anything that had been going on between them when he and Aeyrin were apart. He knew that she met with Raven a lot, that they talked a lot and... now he knew the extent of how far they have gone physically, but it still bothered him to think that there may have been something more to their relationship during that time. Some... feelings.

He would not let Raven know that it bothered him though. Ever.

"Go on then, Raven. Spew the same shit again if it'll make you feel any better," Bishop snorted contemptfully before he pointedly focused back on his food.

Raven looked as if he was not going to respond in any way for a while but, a moment later, he started scribbling something again.

.

What's the point? Not like it would change anything. You're not gonna leave her alone and sooner or later you're gonna betray her trust again and get her hurt like you do with everyone else.

.

Bishop scowled at him, but he didn't let his face show any sort of reaction for long. Raven was wrong anyway. He would not betray her trust again, he knew better now. And what did he mean 'everyone else'? Jules? Raven didn't know what happened when Jules died, he didn't know about the paladins and the ambush. He was only referring to that fucking mutiny at the Guild again. Like he always did.

"You're a fucking idiot, Raven," Bishop scoffed. "You think that Jules didn't know? You think he was oblivious to what I was doing with all the information he told me after you ran your mouth? He wanted Mercer taken down just like I did. Just like you did. So don't spew shit at me about 'betraying everyone's trust'," he gritted his teeth. He was silently kicking himself for even addressing this, for even mentioning Jules. He hated when he and Raven talked about him. They refrained from it whenever Karliah was there, fortunately, but Bishop knew that Raven had all too many questions and that he would be eager to take the opportunity to ask them. He had done so many times before, but he never got an answer.