Rona's Story: An Epic Skyrim Romance

Chapter 71 Your Torturous Ways

(Trigger Warnings: Multiple Executions, Descriptions of Graphic Violence and Torture.)

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Early Morndas morning, Bishop took Karnwyr with him and met up with the six Specialists and the two Muscle that he'd be working with down in the dining area. He groaned inwardly at the sight of Joren. He really couldn't stand the dunmer man. He'd been trying to work his way up into the Whips and was nearly as depraved as the rest of them.

The other five he recognized but didn't really know too well since he tended to keep to himself most of the time and often worked alone. They consisted of three male nords, a female nord and one altmer man. He was also surprised and not very thrilled to see Slash and Lars with the group. But if they were Collecting from the Thieves Guild it was probably better to have more Muscle than not, not to mention magic and Lars specialized in that.

Slash gave him a nasty grin, showing off his pointed teeth as he came down, "Was wondering if you were still going to show. Thought you got scared and ran off."

Bishop just rolled his eyes, crossed his arms and said, "So what's the plan Slash?"

"Hold on, still waiting for our Thieves," he said.

Thorn had called the six Thieves into his lair first thing that morning. It seemed he wanted to personally vet them for the job, which Bishop knew was a cover for his real plans. He wanted to strike fear in them, make sure they knew he was watching. He probably wanted to see how they all reacted to his questioning and Bishop had no doubt that he was busy torturing some poor soul in front of them to show them just what he was capable of as well.

Bishop had warned Jules, told him to be ready for it and Jules in turn prepared the others. His brother was most worried for Elise though. She'd panicked the day before when he told her what was going on and Jules had to stop her from running. They spent a good two hours trying to calm her down up in their room and Bishop had to reiterate over and over again that if she ran, she was dead. He spent the entire day coaching her on keeping a straight face too for this exact situation.

Things were getting tense, but they just needed to get through the day. One day, just one day, he kept reminding himself, just hold your shit together for one god damned day.

Finally, after another twenty minutes of waiting the six Thieves arrived. With them were Jules and Elise as well as a breton woman, Rey, a dunmer man, Vilvik, a nord man Thogas and a young khajiit woman Anri. It was everyone from Jules' tight knit group of friends and they all looked incredibly shook up, though unharmed, thankfully.

Slash and Lars both had wicked grins on their faces as they watched the young Thieves come down. They all stood by and waited for orders. Slash stepped forward and said, "Alright, good, everyone's here. So as you already know, we're heading to Riften to shake down the Thieves Guild and put those cretins in their place. For too long we've been putting up with them beating us to every single job out there. Mercer Frey owes us plenty for all the jobs he's swiped out from under our noses. Make sure you're armed and ready. If they know what's good for them they'll start making regular payments."

He turned to Bishop then and said, "You'll be our messenger Bishop. Make sure you're clear on the terms," Slash gave him a sheet of paper outlining everything Thorn was demanding. He folded it neatly and put it away in his pocket. The group set out then taking the path towards Riften.

They stayed in their collective groups too, leading the way ahead were The Whips, behind them the two orc Muscle, Biggs and Wedge, then the Thieves, then Bishop and Karnwyr and the Specialists all behind them. Bishop noticed that his fellow Specialists would intentionally fall behind and slow their walking if any of the Thieves started walking slower or straying a little. Vilvik was the jumpiest of them all, probably, Bishop assumed, because he was the reason they were all there in the first place. It was his damn fault for leaking information on all their jobs.