Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter LIV - The Dibellan Teachings

"Is he far enough now?"

Aeyrin looked back over her shoulders towards the stables to see where the driver of their carriage ended up.

"Stop it. Just go inside. Seriously, you and subtlety..." Bishop rolled his eyes at her and he pointed with one of his provisionary crutches towards the large Dwemer gate leading into Markarth.

After a brief wait in Rorikstead, the driver came back and they headed towards the City of Stone instantly. It didn't leave the two of them many opportunities to talk, now that they suspected that the driver was spying for Ulfric. They had to be wary of talking about... well almost anything. It was best to simply not give Ulfric any information – nothing about the dragons, nothing about the College and nothing about their plans and concerns about Markarth. The bounty on Aeyrin's head had nothing to do with Ulfric, but somehow, he would just think of a way to use that knowledge to his advantage. If nothing else, he would just spread more malicious rumors about her.

That left them with a somewhat boring journey. Not that they didn't have anything to talk about aside from touchy subjects, but they found themselves overthinking everything eventually. It was better not to delve into anything about their lives, really. Who knew what schemes Ulfric would come up with?

Luckily, the darkness fell soon and they could easily get away with snuggling back on the bench and trying to get some rest through the journey.

They needed to take a brief break while the driver had his rest and then, shortly after dawn, they reached Markarth at last.

Aeyrin quickly rushed towards the gates and waited rather impatiently for one of the guards to open it. But much to her dismay, Bishop was taking a bit longer to get up the small steps towards the gate with his crutches – they weren't really quality-made after all, they were only broken branches. She just wanted to get away from anyone that could overhear them already.

When Bishop finally made it past the gates and they closed behind them, Karnwyr ran off into the city and the two of them stopped by the ramparts to finally talk freely.

"Gods! Finally! You think that the driver was really some kind of informant for Ulfric? Or was Alec just paranoid?" Aeyrin's brows creased deeply. They didn't get much chance to discuss this back in Rorikstead – the driver had returned to them so soon.

"I don't think he was just paranoid. Every time that driver coughed he asked you about something else. They might have even discussed those questions before we left Morthal, you know, when the driver was 'shopping for supplies'. Our 'fancy man' didn't really look like he wanted to ask anything," Bishop nodded at her. Once the reason for Alec's odd behavior became clear, it was all too easy to notice the subtle signs of the spying attempts. Hopefully they left the driver none the wiser about their knowledge of it though.

"So... Ulfric is using Alec as a spy?" Aeyrin shook her head in disbelief. How did this happen? Was this because of their first meeting, when Ulfric got angry that Alec dedicated his performance to her? Or... was this Ulfric's plan all along? Did he invite Alec to the Palace of the Kings in the first place so that he could make him his spy?

"Hmm... a spy, maybe a recruiter too. You know, when I was in Windhelm, Free-Winter said that Ulfric needs the support of nobility outside of the city. The people there don't really appreciate having their workers cut off and starved at the docks so I guess he needs the money of someone who doesn't care what happens in Windhelm," Bishop nodded, pondering on the implications further. Brunwulf had insinuated that Ulfric was trying to find a way to do this. Alec probably wasn't the only such 'agent'.

"Do you think that this is why he invited Alec to Windhelm in the first place?" Aeyrin gave him a strangely hopeful expression. She did kind of hope that it was the case. She knew that it shouldn't have been her concern right then, but she needed to convince herself that this wasn't because of what happened during the performance. That this wasn't because of her.