The Prophet 7: Motivation

• Posted by Clement Bilhorn September 28, 2013 - 851 views

  Damn it, I gave a speech.

  

  Well...extraordinary times. In the event the Favored didn't hear me, I'll just have to keep looking for him on my own. With help, of course.

  Paarthurnax doesn't seem too interested in helping, though. I sense a rift between us, and not the time wound that brought in Alduin. I'd hoped he'd be a bit more loyal after I turned on the Blades for his sake, but I think he hasn't gotten over the reality that I've killed more of his kind than anyone who's ever lived.

  "Not all that happens in the world," he says, "concerns the dov. You have allies of your own."

  Yes, point taken, but Paarthurnax isn't the only dragon I've got on my payroll, so-to-speak. But I'll get to them later.

  

  Besides, dragons aren't exactly subtle. If the Favored's gone to ground, or underground (an easy enough thing in this country), I'm not going to find him with a hundred leathery birds.

  I need something a bit more precise.

  

  Fai'mar's proven himself a good tracker, but he's one guy. And besides, I'm counting on the Ironline being more than half decent themselves, or I wouldn't have expected Fai'mar's following them to amount to anything. And if they're that good, they might be good enough to spot a tail. So-to-speak.

  "Okay, people, listen up."

  Some of the Thieves gather around; others just give me a drunken wave from across the room. No honor, indeed. "My wife's been captured and there's a lunatic hunting me." 

  Brynjolf shrugs. I fix him with a cold stare. "What?" he says. "Everyone already knows."

  "What?"

  "This morning. The whole city heard."

  "I didn't know you had a wife," Etienne cuts in. "Nice work."

  It's his turn for a stare. "I only had the wedding a dozen meters above you."

  

  "You haven't been the most involved," Brynjolf adds. 

  "Well, I'm involved now. The Favored's worth a lot of money to the Guild if we take him down."

  "We know, but that's beyond us. We're not the Brotherhood. Just ask Delvin."

  "No--I will kill the Favored myself. I just need you people to find him for me. I'm backing this with everything I have. I'll finance anything you need."

  Sapphire comes over. "What's his problem with you, anyways?"

  "I have no idea. He just came to my house, killed a friend, left her body there."

  "That doesn't sound right," Brynjolf says. "Why was your friend in the house?"

  

  "He brought her body there. To make a point."

  "Seems like a lot of work. There are many places you frequent--he could have done anything to get your attention, but he chose to go to your house."

  "What are you saying?"

  Sapphire rolls her eyes. "For the guild master, you don't much think like a thief. He went to your house because he wanted something."

  "So you're saying he came to my house just to rob me?"

  "It's possible."

  

  "Now that you're here, we can talk in private."

  

  "Hardly the response I expected," she says. "But then, I didn't know what to expect from you."

  "A swift death is what you ought to have expected, given my reputation, but you haven't met me yet. I hope we will get to know each other in the coming days."

  "You think we will take that long to kill you?"

  She is ignored. "The Dovahkiin's victims are almost unaffected by time, in this place. The air is still, devoid of life. Nothing to corrupt the flesh. In death, true permanence.

  

  ...and beyond that, life again.

  

  And so too shall it be for your Ironline."

  

  "Parlor tricks," says the captain's friend. "Elementary conjuring even a novice can learn. You cannot defeat all of us."

  "And yet your weapons still rest comfortably in their sheaths. I think, Zoya, that the possibility entertained in my mind is also in yours."

  "You cannot buy us off. You cannot match the Emperor's wealth."

  "Not unless you value the lives of your soldiers, in which case I believe your cooperation is worth far more than my head. It is not money you want, anyways. You want land. Title. Permanence. A place where your desultory band of outcasts can rest from their wandering."

  

  "You know much about us."

  "I do of most people, and your profile is anything but slight. Skyrim is weak and fractured and leaderless. Their only savior is also their greatest enemy. You could do great things here, in this land of ripe possibility. So much potential waiting only for a single spark to move it along."

  "What's in it for you, besides your life?"

  "My life is irrelevant. The Dovahkiin's, however, is not. What is your decision?"

  

  

  "Fine."