Northbound Pilgrimage III

Chapter XXV - Superior

Author's Note:

TRIGGER WARNING!

Another trigger warning in this plotline. There will be numerous throughout – some just mentions of triggering content, some more explicit. To avoid spoilers, again the specifics are only at the bottom of the chapter.

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In the next two days, Aeyrin was fortunately left alone.

Bishop worried incessantly when he was on his hunt – about his sisters coming back to the inn, or waiting for her in the streets again, for whatever reason. But it seemed like they gave it a rest. Maybe Aeyrin was right, maybe they really did offer her the concoction just because they thought they were being helpful.

It was a comforting thought. He had his head full already with Ost and Duful, spending each afternoon with them in the tavern and trying to find out enough about them to gouge their skills or at least learn more about their general daily schedule so that he could find an opportunity to strike.

He learned sweet fuck-all.

All that those afternoons brought him was more loathing for his brothers as they reiterated some stories from their fun ambushes and kidnappings or how which sibling fucked up which job and what punishments they got for that. Not to mention constantly having to think of excuses not to go 'find some whores' with Duful. That guy was relentless. Ost sometimes went off to find some willing girl too, but more often than that, he was more interested in running off to some random people and probably talking business.

Sometimes the brothers were more passable to be around than Bishop had expected, but at other times, they were exactly what he had expected. And worst of all, he had to always be on edge, always watch out for both his opportunities and their potential betrayals or schemes. He was kind of glad they met only in public so far, but that also meant that Bishop had no way of killing either of them yet.

From time to time, when Bishop knew that Ost and Duful were still at the tavern or with some girls they found, and when Bishop could force himself not to rush back to Aeyrin right away, he visited the cave where the other siblings and Rina were. It was mostly to make sure that nothing was going wrong so far, that the brothers didn't expect anything, or that none of them were being their usual traitorous selves, although that was hard to tell.

Today was another of those days. He did kind of yell at Kari and Liesl again last night for bothering Aeyrin and now that he calmed down a little, he was intent on talking to them more about the usual shit – mainly Ost and Duful.

The caverns were oddly empty though. As he often had noticed before whenever he approached the complex, one of the children was around in some hiding place and they rushed off inside promptly. He didn't know which kid it was, but it was obvious that the clan had them as a lookout. Fortunately Bishop was no longer considered a threat when he came by.

But once inside in the main chamber, he didn't see Kari or Liesl and not even Galric anywhere. The children were there, huddled by one of the walls, playing some game again, and Rina was sitting at the other side of the chamber, reading a book and mumbling some phrases from it out loud. She did that often. She read weird religious books, often written by the worst zealots or some philosophers that tried to dissect Maran faith, and she thought that saying the words she found striking out loud would make them mean more. Idiotic.

Nobody really paid him any mind as he entered, though the young half-Altmer did watch him for a while before he concentrated on that game again.

"Where are the others?" He asked into the ether. Maybe someone would stop ignoring him.