Part XV: The First Job
I’m officially a member of the Thieves Guild. They have a strange initiation process. Brynjolf gave me a job to pick up gold from the townsfolk.
He didn’t need to say it, but I knew the rules. Clean, quiet, and with no witnesses. The shop owners were a bunch of pussies. It didn’t take much to make them fold. They basically got bold because word got around about the guild falling apart.
After seeing it firsthand, I believed them. Too bad for them, I joined. I especially liked watching Keerava squirm. It was a shame her boyfriend, Talen, lacked any balls. He gave up the secret to make her talk so easily, but I didn’t even need to put any pressure on. The word had spread about my collections and she folded immediately.
Khash didn’t seem to mind. I was a little worried she would have a problem with stealing. Or maybe she was too used to doing it.
I was finally in the guild. I wanted to ask them about Sabine and Gunmar, but I needed to earn some favor with them first. If I started asking questions too soon, they might suspect something.
The leader Mercer—grade-A asshole, gave me an impossible job right out the gate. Luckily it wasn’t far. But if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he didn’t want me around.
The rest of the guild believed they were under the effect of some kind of curse. I’ve seen some outlandish things in the world, but a curse? That’s new.
Once I finished introducing myself, I managed to ask Vex about Isabelle. Turned out there was nothing going on between them. Isabelle had come to her for thieving advice. Vex saw right away the woman wasn’t cut out for it but she directed her to Hob’s Fall Cave and left it alone. Hob’s Fall wasn’t far from Winterhold. That Isabelle never came back told me everything I needed to hear.
Isabelle wasn’t getting any deader so my first priority should be dealing with these damn vampires. I never thought I would give a damn about something like this, but I felt bad for Serana, and those vampires were bad news. They needed to be dealt with.
But instead of doing something about it, I was wasting time with some stupid-ass business deal that suddenly went tits up. A deal that has next to nothing to do with me and yet I was being called upon to fix it.
Also, I needed to do something about Khash. She’s actually grown on me. I worried more and more about her well-being. Like I didn’t even want to take her with me on this job. If things go wrong, a quick death was the best-case scenario. The worst-case I’m not even going to think about.
Problem is I can’t ditch her. Not after what she’s told me about what she’s been through. I couldn’t do that to the kid.
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