Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter XCVII - Someday

Bishop cursed loudly into the emptiness of the forest around.

Fuck, that really hurt! And it was like for the third time! He kind of hoped that his deftness would apply to building tools as well, but apparently there was a learning curve there. He bought some basic box of tools in Riften – hammer, lots of nails, saw, sander and some other shit he had never even seen before. It was bad enough that had to figure out how to do all this with no previous experience, he even ran into Sapphire in the market and she instantly got curious about the suspect shit he was buying. He had to swear her to secrecy, though he wasn't that worried about Sapphire blabbing about anything. She seemed to like him and Aeyrin well enough so there was no reason why she would ruin the surprise, hopefully.

The next thing he needed was material and furniture and he was sure as fuck not going to lug everything in that cottage alone. He had to pay some Riften workers to do it all. That cost him a lot and he could not really afford to have everything done in that place – not to have the walls sanded, not to have the roof fixed and not to have the place cleaned and furnished properly. He would have to pay a fortune for all of that and the materials and furniture were already expensive enough. He couldn't spare any more money. He had now barely a hundred septims left.

No, he had to do the work himself. And maybe it was better that way. It was more personal. More his.

More theirs.

Although there was really no reason not to ask for help when he actually had people willing to help him. And he was sure that Lydia and Saadia could use some respite from the gossipmongers in Whiterun. Another trip would do them good.

He wrote to them the very first day after he and Aeyrin parted ways and he finally made it to the cottage. It had been three days now and the work was going... slowly when he was doing it alone. But it was still progressing.

Right now, he was struggling with that fucking roof. He needed to replace that fucking thatching. It was all old and moldered. But getting the securing hooks open for him to replace the straw had been a struggle. He used some tool that looked a little like a crowbar to pry the hooks open, but he hit himself with the piece of metal more than once during some unexpected momentum.

It fucking hurt and he would have so many bruises after this. It was good that bruises were a daily occurrence for him and Aeyrin wouldn't even question the new ones if they wouldn't disappear before they saw each other. But it still pissed him off. Why were the hooks so fucking secure?

Well... presumably so that the straw wouldn't just blow away in the wind, but still... it was annoying.

But he was going to suffer through all of this for the sake of this place. For the sake of their safe haven.

Eventually.

Someday.

For now, he was still worried about too much. This cottage would never be safe if the Brotherhood knew that it was a place for them to retreat to and to escape their troubles. And he wanted shit in the Guild to settle a bit more too before they made a place so close to them their 'base'. Otherwise Brynjolf would get too used to abusing the proximity and he would constantly ask for favors and constantly count on Aeyrin's protection.

No, it wasn't the time yet. And besides, there was just the time when he thought it would be perfect to surprise her with this.

But there were a lot of steps he had to take towards that yet.

And he was excited for all of it. Funny. He didn't remember if he had ever in his life been this... optimistic about the future. It was certainly refreshing.