Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter LXIV - The Mean Streets of Valunstrad

Before Aeyrin could get her bearings at all, she felt hands on her neck again.

She tried. She tried so hard to react, to Shout, all before he could cast his spell again.

But she failed. When she felt the pressure in her throat again, no sound came out.

What happened? It suddenly got so chaotic. When she realized that she would be able to use her powers, she just reacted. She could barely see anything, barely hear anything. She just Shouted, hoping that it would kill Calixto and she would be free to wait until the paralysis passed too.

But that didn't happen. She wasn't sure why. Calixto was still there. He was breathing heavily and muttering something without a pause, but she couldn't really hear him properly.

Did he manage to get out of the way? Maybe he ducked? Or did he manage to put up a ward spell? She couldn't do much more than to wonder about her predicament until she got another chance. If she ever got another chance.

At the very least, it got Calixto away from her face. He left her neck alone too when the spell was recast and now she could see him under a very blurry layer of accumulated tears, fussing over the corpse on the wall.

"Don't worry, love, don't worry. I'll fix it, I'll fix it," Calixto continued to mutter.

Has she... damaged the corpse? He was practically beside himself, tending to that abomination.

Good, that thing needed to be wiped off the face of Nirn. Aeyrin had no idea if it was actually possible for him to resurrect his sister, she doubted that, but she certainly knew that the woman in question would not appreciate being assembled from the murdered girls around Windhelm.

If only she could talk, she could try to reason with Calixto. Surely this couldn't be what his sister would have wanted. Probably.

But then again, if she could talk, she would just Shout. Calixto was depraved and dangerous. Counting on his compassion and reason was just stupid.

Yet she could do neither of those things. Now she just had to wait again. Hopefully he would be so preoccupied with that corpse that he would just forget to renew the spells one more time. How many times could he do that anyway?! Paralysis and silence were very difficult spells, weren't they? He had to have some stash of magicka potions to be able to keep her in this state like this for Gods-knew-how-long.

It was a good question. How long had she been here? It couldn't have been that long though. She would be bled out beyond just wooziness after all. And Bishop would have found her by then.

Why hasn't he found her yet? Where was he? She really hoped that the brute Rolf didn't do anything to Bishop. She wasn't sure how he would find her, but he would, right? He would figure something out. He always did, just like she did whenever he was in danger.

She was really worried that something happened to him.

"This goes here. Don't you worry, we will get you all fixed up," Calixto only continued to talk to his 'sister' in a hushed and disturbingly soothing voice.

He was so focused on her. This was going to work! Aeyrin could feel it. He would forget about the spells and she would get a chance to act. Then she could find Bishop and see what Rolf had done to him. She needed to get out of this alone, in case he was in an even worse situation. That was an unsettling thought.

It was taking a long time while that creep continued muttering and fiddling with his 'creation'. Aeyrin's eyes were burning so painfully and she couldn't see anything but smudges. Her whole body felt like it was twitching, but she knew that she hadn't moved even a little bit.