Northbound Pilgrimage III

Chapter VI - Prison Break

It was upsetting for multiple reasons.

Not only was Bishop excited to tell Aeyrin all about Ri'zhassa offering him that deal – to brighten her time here in the temple with the ultimate opportunity to make that asshole pay for everything he had ever done to her and anyone else. He was so excited for that, only to have the news be sidelined by Brunwulf's chilling revelations.

Now it just seemed like Aeyrin got even more worried about the developments. It was a lot. All of it. Especially with what needed to be done now.

Aeyrin was half tempted not to tell Bishop anything about Brunwulf's plan. And on the other hand, she couldn't wait until she would tell him, just for that reassurance that he would help. It was conflicting. It was tormenting. When Free-Winter told her his plan, she knew that Bishop was the perfect person to take care of it. She wasn't sure if she would ever trust anyone else to pull off an insane stunt like this.

But sending him into such danger was heart-wrenching. How could she justify saving one of two people she cared about the most in the world by risking the other one?

It was a Thalmor outpost. Brunwulf said that it was small and mostly inconspicuous. It wasn't an official Thalmor prison and it needed to operate covertly against the law. But it was still full of Thalmor. Full of dangerous and terrifying Thalmor.

She couldn't really keep it a secret though. Bishop knew at a first glance at her that something was wrong and when she told him, he instantly asked about the plans for getting her mentor out. And of course, just as she had known he would, he volunteered immediately to take care of things.

It was both a relief and a horrible boulder placed on her chest.

She had no idea what else to do though. How long could Master Therien hold on in that place? He was one of the strongest people she ever knew, spiritually, but he was an old man. She had no idea the physical tolls that a stay at a place like this could have on him.

It was already painful enough to think of him being there for days, to think of all the torments he must have endured. The only comfort was Brunwulf's man on the inside, confirming that Master Therien was still alive.

Things seemed out of her control. Out of her depth. Especially after all she had learnt. There were others from the chapel involved. Apparently Master Therien had been more busy than it appeared. And so was Brunwulf. It was just unfortunate that most of the people connected to this endeavor were priests. There was no one to handle situations like these.

Not until now, supposedly. Bishop was all ready to meet with Brunwulf and discuss the plan in more detail.

None of this eased Aeyrin's mind even a little bit, but she could do nothing else. Nothing to help, nothing to save Master Therien herself. This was beyond her.

She and Brunwulf agreed to deal with the issue the next day for good, but for that, she still had to spend an entire night tossing and turning in worry while Bishop kept trying to reassure her. At least the other clerics were understanding about that. Apparently, all three of them were very helpful with Master Therien's endeavors, but they had no idea where he went. Nobody did.

At first, Aeyrin took Bishop to the undercroft where only the ghosts might hear them talk. She certainly didn't imagine showing him around that place under these circumstances. She always thought fondly of learning to play the lute there and singing to the ghost. She wanted to do that with Bishop around too, but instead, it was only about distressed conversation and anxious plans.

And once they had discussed everything and returned to the living quarters and snuck into the clerics' room, her fellow clerics had realized that something was going on anyway. She wasn't very good at hiding her desperation about the situation. At least she already knew from Brunwulf that the three clerics were involved as well, but telling them where Master Therien was was too hard, even with Bishop's help. They were very distressed by the news as well and a large part of the eve was spent in commiseration.