Northbound Pilgrimage - Second Book Extras

For All the Riches I - Old Friends and New Enemies

Author's Note:

They have money now, new associations and they are getting back up on their feet. But it's never enough for thieves, is it? This series of side stories portray the Guild and a couple of its members in the aftermath of Karliah's brief takeover. With Brynjolf as their new Guildmaster, they are trying to reclaim their past glory and rebuild their family after the tragic schism, one step at a time.

There will be four chapters total, each happening some time after the culmination of the Thieves Guild plotline in the main fic. I hope you'll enjoy the stories <3

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He examined the strange object in his hand one more time.

It was funny – it looked so special, maybe a little sinister too, but it was completely ordinary to the touch. He had always thought that it would feel strange, that he would feel power emanate from it or something. But that wasn't the case.

Still, there was power. Strange power. He tried to use it – when it slid inside a lock, he felt the metal move and shift and adjust to the bolts inside. An impressive artifact. Unlike any other on Nirn.

But at what cost?

The Skeleton Key could get inside anything in the world, whether there was a lock or not. It sounded impossible, yet that was the rumor. But all it symbolized for Brynjolf was everything it had cost him and his family. So many lives lost, so many enemies made out of old friends. His family was fractured, hurt and still bleeding.

But it was slowly getting back together.

The money helped. There was no doubt about it.

After Karliah's death and after Brynjolf took care of the most immediate precautions to ensure they didn't lose her biggest contacts, it was time to sell the spoils of this ordeal at last – the Eyes of the Falmer. It didn't take Brynjolf long at all to make sure he got the best price from a secure source – most of the fences were used to dealing with him instead of Mercer already anyway.

The Eyes earned him more gold than he had ever even seen in his life. It was a fortune larger than they had ever had in their vaults. He had to have a lot of members with him just to transport the money back to the Guild securely. But they made it.

First things first, he gave every single remaining member, as well as Karliah's people who were willing to stay, a very generous compensation for all this mess. The rest remained in the vault safely secured and only accessible by three keys – his, Delvin's and Vex's. Well... almost. There was still one key that could open it up in a matter of a single second.

And that was part of the issue.

This thing, it was powerful. It was tempting.

But it needed to go.

There were a lot of reasons for this decision.

First and foremost, he knew all too well that some of his people would want the Key for themselves. Brynjolf was not going to allow more in-fighting. They'd been through enough, all of them. It was time to unite again and work together.

Secondly, while he was all for taking advantage of any situation, he was quite curious to see how the Guild would finally do on its own. No scare tactics and alliances with bandits, no mystical 'luck', no Daedric artifacts. It was time to show everyone what they were made of.

And finally, he was a man of his word. He promised Karliah that he would return the Key to that 'Sepulcher'. And... Gallus was a good man. Wherever he was, he deserved to be with someone he loved, even if they had to serve some master for eternity. Brynjolf was still angry about everything that Karliah had been planning to do with his family – brainwashing and cultism. As if they hadn't been through enough under Mercer's bootheel. But he made a promise and he kind of understood people in desperate situations like her, even if he didn't approve.