Chapter Thirty Four

Auroth turned to continue talking to Gaeolin, only to see the hem of his cloak vanishing amid the lowest branches of the pine. “Not much of a talker, that one.” He smirked. “Thank Akatosh for that.”

Inigo chuckled. “Do not be fooled. When he decides you are worth talking to, he can be just as bad as the next person.”

“You two have a lot of history?”

The khajiit let out a sigh of preparation. “More than most companions I’ve had. We have known each other for a few years now. Sadly, he has forgotten a decent amount of our prior deeds.” He grimaced. “It is a long story. You may want to make yourself comfortable. That is, if you even want to hear it.”

The altmer lowered himself onto the bedding in a crossed leg position. He reached into his pack, withdrawing a slender pipe. “All of the best tales are long in the telling. I like a good story before sleep. Please,” he packed some herbs into the pipe, lighting it with a spark of magic, “tell me how you two met.”

Inigo removed his boots, tail tapping against his knee as he thought back to it. “Let’s see… It was about four or five years ago now. I had recently quit a group of bandits. For a while I traveled with another man from that clan named Felix. Unfortunately, I killed him in a fit of addict’s paranoia. That however, is another story altogether.”

“Moonsugar?”

“Skooma, but yes…” A look of shame crossed Inigo’s midnight features. “Not exactly my proudest span of history. Anyway, it wasn’t long after that I came across Gaeolin in an Inn. It was in Bruma, and I was living on a permanent high. I had just gotten some good stuff from over the border. The finest quality from Elsweyr. I was feeling really good, drinking to my heart’s content, flirting with the ladies… “ He put an ear back. “I was making quite the fool of myself.”

“You seem like you would be good at that.” The High Elf actually smiled at this. A real one at that. His face seemed much less troll like when he wasn’t scowling.

“Indeed, though mainly when I am intoxicated. After the high began to wear down, I noticed him looking at me from across the room. He wore a grin, chuckling at my attempts to get down off of the bar while simultaneously failing at balancing myself. He walked up and offered me his hand. ‘I thought Khajiit were supposed to be good at climbing.’ He had said.

‘Maybe while in a tree, and sober.’ I replied. Once back on the floor proper, I asked his name. We had a few drinks and talked for a few hours. It had been the most I had spoken to anyone since I lost my brother.”

Auroth blew a smoke ring. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Inigo nodded his thanks. “In some ways he is like a new family member to me. Though, I will say that he certainly has a rough approach to High elves. Sorry about that…”

“Nothing I’m not used to.”

“After we ate, we decided to travel together for a time. The roads were not safe for a lone man, especially through the Jerrals. He was not altogether comfortable with the idea of joining me at first. He seemed like he had been on his own for a long time before then. It was then that we took a job with the local fighters guild. We helped them clear out a group of goblins on the road to the south.”

“A bosmeri and a Khajiit traveling the roads of Cyrodiil. Did you two expect not to be thought of as highwaymen?”

“It was troublesome at times. We were even offered gold to not bother people! Sometimes we would arrive to solve someone’s problem, but they were expecting Nords or Imperials and mistook us for bandits.” He watched the fire for a few moments. “It wasn’t really something we thought about too much.  It took several months of working together for him to start opening up to me. I wasn’t any better. I never told him about my addiction. I worried it would create more trouble than anything else. I had a bad enough experience with Felix.” He smirked. “We gained quite a reputation though. From Cheydinhal to the southern side of the Jerral mountains, we carved out a living as hunters and sellswords. As happens far too often though, fate had different plans for us than a settled life.”

Auroth knocked the spent herbs from the pipe. “People stopped coming to you for work?”

“No. There was no more need for us.” Inigo shrugged. “After a time, there wasn’t a bandit clan bold enough to stake out on the roads we patrolled. The goblins cleared the area, moving south towards Chorrol and the shores of the great lake. And we were politically asked to stop hunting the Count’s game to such a severe degree.” He kicked back against one of the tree trunks. “So we made our way into Skyrim, hoping the more wild country would have more need for our talents.”

“There’s no shortage of game. And if bounty hunting was your prefered line of work, you chose a great province for it.”

“As it turned out, we ended up catching the attention of some powerful people almost as soon as we arrived. We had only just begun working in Falkreath when we got the letter from Lord Dupan.”

“Doesn’t he rule over a part of the Reach for the Silver-bloods?” Auroth asked.

“He used to.” Inigo replied, grinning a bit. “He had wanted us to kill his brothers, to hurry along his inheritance. Had we known that his sister was plotting his death as well, things would have turned out very differently.”

“He was killed? You two didn’t ever get paid?”

Inigo’s ears laid back in shame. “By the time I knew of it, I had more meaningful losses to worry about. I was wishing for death after what I had done. We had set out for Windhelm to kill the first brother. It had been some time since we had been paid, and I had run out of my supply.” He looked up at Gaeolin, who watched the plains for any signs of movement. “He knew something was wrong after the first few days. I had gotten rather irritable with him on several occasions. Stupid things that I’m not proud to have argued about, more so after learning some of his past. He asked after my health, even trying to convince me to stop in the next settlement and ask for a healer. I of course knew that wasn’t the solution. As the days passed, my mind was harder and harder to make sense with. I refused, telling him we should push on to our target.”

Auroth listened in silence. He could tell by Inigo’s tone that this wasn’t going to be a happy tale. “Go on.”

“I don’t know if you have ever lived with an addiction. But if so, I’m sure you have thought things that have caused you regret. Unfortunately for me, I acted on mine. To this day, it is a source of the worst guilt I have ever known.I still suffer from it.” He looked to the ground. “Before we had left his manor, I overheard Dupan talking to his steward about the payout. He had said that if one of us were to die, the other would receive both portions of the reward. The knowledge burned in my head, stronger and stronger as my withdrawal worsened.” Auroth closed his eyes and exhaled, perhaps wishing there was still smoke in his lungs. The burning feeling of what he knew Inigo would say next made his chest feel as if it were on fire. Quiet filled the air for a time. Inigo’s voice began to tremble as he pushed on in the story. “It was just before dusk. The two of us were traveling along the river, just south of Cradlecrush Rock. Gaeolin had gone ahead a ways to scout for a place we could make camp for the night. He wasn’t on edge at all. He had come to trust me. It was then that I decided to strike. Before he ever knew what was happening, I had let my arrow fly.

“It only took a moment for me to realize what I had done.” Inigo looked sick. “I dropped my bow, running to him with the clearest head I had possessed in years. My mind ran like a stampede as I fell to his side. The blood that flowed between the paving stones was all I needed to think him dead.” He was now staring into the fire, no longer sitting in the stand of trees, but once more on that fated stretch of road. “I actually ran then. I ran as far as I could, as fast as I could, until I finally collapsed in a glade on the border of the Rift. When I woke, the guilt set in.” He looked to his new friend. “It was then that I decided to end my life. A task I thankfully failed to complete.”

The high elf stared into the fire. Though he seemed distracted, he could clearly see the events of this mistake playing out in his head. He could only guess the terror that had screamed in Inigo’s mind as he’d realized what he’d done for the promise of the coin, and by extension skooma. His eyes met Inigo’s. “So you thought your friend dead. You left, contemplating your death. It must have been quite a shock to learn he still lived. How much time did you spend tormenting yourself before you reunited? And for that matter, how?”

Inigo waved at the questions. “That, my friend, is a story for yet another time. But as to how long I was burdened by this? Months and months of it. I still feel the pain and guilt. I eventually settled for rotting in Riften jail. I had to pay to stay there, but it is where I belonged. I murdered my friend, or at least meant to do so. Occasionally, I would go out of town, trying to find something that would end me. Not so easy a mission as I thought, seeing as I always returned to the cell. It was lonely during that time. All I had for company was Mr. Dragonfly.” He grabbed the jar containing the insect. “He still won’t tell me whether he thinks any less of me for all of this. I think the subject makes him uncomfortable.”

The high elf stared at the dragonfly jar. Had the khajiit indeed gone mad during his agony? If so, he had certainly earned the right to be mad. He had steeped himself in misery and made himself pay for his crime. There would be no judgement from Auroth. 

“It was actually he who found me. I had left letters behind at a few Inn’s along my road to Riften. I never guessed that he might find them. I mainly wrote them to try and apologize to my dead friend. I guess he got lucky. Found one of them before the innkeeper cleaned it up. Anyway, you can imagine my reaction when I saw him outside my cell. I had been talking to Mr. Dragonfly when I saw him.” Inigo smiled to himself. “He was just as youthful looking as I had remembered. His tatoo gave him away instantly. I’d never known another wood elf with that design on their cheek. He had looked behind himself, picking the lock on the cell door before rushing in to me. I asked if he had finally come to kill me.”

“Clearly, that was a no.”

“I am not sure if he even remembers what happened. He claims to have forgiven me, but if he cannot even recall the events of that day… I’m not sure he would be so willing to leave it behind if he knew.”

Auroth exhaled sharply in thought. “Forgiveness is not easy, but if he were angry about being shot, perhaps he would have simply left you in that cell. The fact that he took a chance and brought you with him on his adventures means that he was willing to step down the road to forgiveness. A step in the right direction is better than no steps at all.”

Inigo had no response for this. It made sense when Auroth put it that way. “Perhaps, but neither you nor he will ever change the fact that I have yet to forgive myself.”

“And I won’t try to convince you that you should or will. That’s all up to you.” Auroth looked up at the sky as he lay back on his bedroll. “But if he hasn’t forgiven you, he’s gone to a lot of trouble trying to make you believe he has.” He turned to look at the khajiit. “You two are so young…”

“It does not feel like it at times.” Inigo laughed. 

“Maybe, but it’s true. You are lucky to have met one another.” He turned back to the clouds. “I wish I had friends like the two of you.”

Inigo smiled and chuckled, opening his mouth to speak, but paused. “…What will you do when this is all over and Gaeolin has regained his Voice?”

Auroth frowned, his gaze returning to the fire. That was actually an excellent question. Having lived as a bandit for many years now, almost fifteen in fact, it would be very easy to slip back into the routines. Rounding up  men and women for the cause, finding a new hideout, and causing panic and fear through Skyrim. With these two men, though…Gaeolin was a Dragonborn, the one the Greybeards had been preparing for, for a very long time. Inigo seemed to be vastly important as well. The both of them shone with a bright light, even if Gaeolin was currently engulfed in bitter vampirism. No, there was no point in parting ways with them now. 

“I’m not sure, Inigo, to be honest. I’ve been a bandit for quite some time, and you two seem to find yourselves at odds with people like them. I’d hate to be on the receiving end of one of your bandit spats.”

“I would not enjoy that either, Auroth.”

The elf sighed and brought a hand to his chin, idly scratching at his stubble. “For the first time in a long while, my future seems…uncertain. You two are making me question my place in life.”

“I have never been a bandit leader, but I know that the bandit’s life is less than glorious. In addition, I do prefer not to smell like pee and drink all the time.”

Auroth let out a laugh. “I suppose it’s the aristocrat in me, but I never did get the appeal in smelling like cow dung. My men often said it was because I was a snobby elf, but I’ve known smelly elves, too.”

Inigo practically giggled with mirth. “Well, here’s to not smelling like pee!”

Auroth tipped his pipe to Inigo. “And being able to read a good book.”

“And to enter a city without the guard stopping you and saying, ‘You’ve got some nerve to step foot in here again!’”

Auroth snickered. “Yes, I’ve heard that one many times. Might be nice not to deal with that again.”

Again, Inigo looked like he had something to add, but he held his tongue. “Well,” he finally said, “let us get some rest. The morning is coming, and we will need all the strength we can get.” 

Auroth nodded as Inigo laid on his back before the fire, arms resting behind his head. ‘Hmph. Must be nice with all that fur,’ the elf thought with a bit of jealousy as he covered himself with the fur blanket he’d packed. He stared up at the sky, wondering what life might be like after this ordeal. Indeed, where did his future lie? Was it with these two, wandering Skyrim, battling monsters? Or was he going to return to the bandit life, terrorizing the countryside and risk running into these two? He soon fell into a deep and thankfully dreamless sleep.