The Wolf Queen Awakens

Chapter 9

It was the early hours of the morning, but Delphine hadn't gone to bed. She'd only just got back from seeing Brynjolf off at the Solitude stables. A risk, going there in person, but she'd had little choice. So she'd handed him his party outfit, looked the other way as he got changed and told herself seeing Brynjolf all suited and booted and grinning at her and asking "well lass, will I do?" had definitely not had any sort of effect on her, nor was she worried about him. She just wanted this job to go well, and for her old friend Brynjolf to not get hurt, that was all.

A knock on her bedroom door and that could only be Orgnar. No one else would dare disturb her, other than Brynjolf, but she had a feeling he'd never have knocked.

"Who is it?" she called.

"Orgnar," Orgnar called back. "Delphine, you've got a visitor. Some Nord called Brynjolf."

Delphine practically leapt off the bed, wrenching the door open, barely nodding at Orgnar, who returned to the bar, hiding a knowing grin as Delphine just about stopped herself hugging Brynjolf.

"Well, you made it out alive at least," Delphine said, hiding her relief at seeing him. He shot her a smile back but it wasn't his usual cheery grin. He'd found something all right but it wasn't good news.

"I did, just about," Brynjolf said, glancing about the deserted inn. "Listen, is there somewhere we can talk...?"

Delphine let him into her room, closing the door before running to her wardrobe and unsealing the entrance to her secret room. Brynjolf followed her down, looking amazed at the supplies she'd stockpiled.

"You've got all this down here, lass? Colour me impressed, you've got a proper little headquarters!"

"It serves a purpose," was all Delphine felt like saying in answer to that. "But never mind that, what have you got for me? If it's coin you want first, I've got your money in that chest over there along with the stuff you left with me."

Brynjolf checked the chest and cleared its contents out, nodding in approval at the gold before reaching into his pocket for the Thalmor files he'd found.

"Well, I found their dragon files – turns out they don't know any more than we do."

"They don't?" Delphine took the paper marked Dragon Investigation: Status and cursed at the lack of information. "Well that's not good. But they mentioned a lead, a prisoner. Did you get the chance to talk to them?"

"Yeah, turned out to be one of our guildmates, young Etienne. I wondered where he'd got to. Found the lad shackled up in one of the cells, don't think he's ever been so pleased to see me. He's safe and sound, on his way back to Riften now, and I managed to slit the throat of the worthless scum who informed on him while I was there." Brynjolf looked rather pleased with himself at that.

"What did you find out?" Delphine asked, curious. Why would the Thalmor want to interrogate one of the Guild? They surely weren't likely to be worshipping Talos in the Ratway.

"Well, there were a couple of other files too," said Brynjolf, throwing one onto the table. "One on Ulfric Stormcloak – seems he was a Thalmor asset at one point. I imagine that would fetch a pretty penny or two – you know, Delphine, it's a good thing I'm a man of honour. A lesser thief would already be blackmailing Ulfric or negotiating a price with Tullius for that. Or negotiating a price with you, for that matter."

"Yes, and a lesser thief would be getting themselves killed over it," said Delphine, folding her arms. "It's not new information to me, Brynjolf. And it's not as valuable as you think – Ulfric would just paint it as another example of Elven lies, the Stormcloaks would believe him and we'd get nowhere. And if Tullius made it public, then that would cause an incident with the Thalmor and possibly another war if they thought the Empire were behind the break-in. But thank you, we might need it yet. Anything else?"