Chapter 1: Light and Shadow

 

 

The guards locked them up in the cells, but they knew it wouldn’t last long. And a few hours later…

 

Valeera: Okay, no one’s around….it’s time.

 

 

Valeera: This shouldn’t be hard to open…

 

 

Valeera opened the lock with ease, and entered in the underground tunnels. She walked for a short time, and heard an already familiar voice.

 

Eline: “You…again? This must be a joke…”

 

 

Valeera: “Hi there, besty =).”

 

 

Eline: “Seems that since yesterday you’re everywhere I go. Are you a stalker?”

 

 

Valeera: “What? You’re the one doing the stalking. If we hadn’t been arrested I would have gotten the axe first, and you know it.”

 

 

Eline: “Nevermind. We need to get out of here.”

 

 

Valeera: “C’mon, I’m seeing the exit.”

 

 

They gone up the stairs and passed through the trapdoor. They heard a lot of shouting, fast paced footsteps and a door closing.

 

Eline: “Ok, I think that we’re in the guard barracks. They already know that we escaped. We need to get out of here as fast as we can. And we can’t make any noise or we’ll be in trouble.”

 

 

They kept going, as fast and as quiet as they could. The barracks seemed almost empty, with the majority of the guards looking for them through the city. They approached the exit and saw one guard sitting on a chair, grumbling.

 

Guard: “If they want to chase them for nothing, so be it. I’m not going. Fuck that. My knee hurts.”

 

 

They were almost at the door when Eline stepped on a loose stone on the ground, making noise. She was spotted.

 

Guard: “Wait…I know you.”

 

 

Eline: “No, you don’t…”

 

 

Guard: “You tried to steal the weapons from the Jarl’s armory! Freeze right there or I’ll kill you right where you are!”

 

 

They heard more footsteps. Some of the guards that were in the other room were now coming for them. The barracks wasn’t empty as they thought, and now they would be surrounded in the blink of an eye.

 

If they were caught and arrested again, they would probably spend a good part of their life in jail. Valeera had been locked up in Riften’s orphanage practically all her life, and she still hadn't forgotten what Grelod The Kind had done to her and the other kids. She wouldn’t be able to live locked up again. She already had escaped once…this time they would tie and gag her for sure.

 

Valeera hadn’t the time to think twice. She grabbed the dagger on the table and used it to slit the guard’s throat.

 

 

Valeera : “I just killed a man. I actually did it. I can’t believe it. May the nine divines forgive me.”

 

 

Eline: “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? LET’S GO!”

 

 

They exited the barracks, climbed Whiterun’s walls and jumped, rolling down the hill.

 

 

They stole two horses from the stables and got away. When they reached a safe distance from the city, Valeera and Eline built a small campfire to keep their bodies warm and wait for the next morning. Travel during the night probably wouldn’t be the safest thing to do, and they already had enough problems.

 

Eline: “You shouldn’t have killed him. Now we can’t step on Whiterun ever again. Who are you? And why were you trying to steal that axe, anyway?”

 

 

Valeera: "My name is Valeera. My parents died long ago, soon after I was born. I was raised in Riften’s orphanage, together with the other orphans, by the old Grelod The Kind."

 

 

Valeera: "After Grelod was murdered by a mysterious assassin, we were all by ourselves. Not being able to live in Riften after all the things I had been through in the orphanage, I stole a horse from the stables and left that horrible place…without any skill or anything that could help me survive."

 

Valeera: "I discovered that life out of the orphanage would be as much as hard. Without food or water, I was soon starving to death. I tried to hunt, but three days had passed and I wasn’t able to catch anything to eat. I kept riding and riding, just because that was the only thing that could distract me from the thirst and hunger I was feeling."

 

 

Valeera: "One day, I passed out while riding. After that, I don’t know exactly what happened. The horse was gone, and I was found lying in the middle of the road by a Khajiit caravan. I could see Dragonsreach in the distance."

 

 

Valeera: “I asked for help, and they said that they could teach me to walk as silently as a cat, but in return I would have to use the skill to steal valuable goods for them to sell.“

 

 

Valeera: “That was my only chance to learn something that could help me survive, so I took it. After a while, I was pretty good at it. I could steal almost anything and no one would see me doing it. In fact, I made a lot of friends in Whiterun.”

 

Valeera: "The Khajiit caravan moved on, but I stayed in Whiterun. And I kept stealing, not only for survival, but for the experience. I even let someone see me stealing a thing or too once in a while, just because I have more fun this way. I enjoy the chase."

 

 

Valeera: "I was never really caught before what happened yesterday. And I definitely never had killed a man before."

 

 

Eline: “Interesting. I do have something that I want to show you.”

 

 

Valeera: “The Jarl Balgruff’s axe! How did you get it?!”

 

 

Eline: “That’s none of your business. We have to wait until the morning together, because there’s a bounty on our head. I guess that is safer this way. And you did save me there, but if you try to steal it I’ll know. And I’ll kill you.”

 

 

Valeera: “I won’t. You are more skilled than me, after all. You stole it, and I respect that, in some way. I won’t try to steal it from you.”

 

 

Eline: “Good.”

 

And they laid down to sleep, too tired to think of anything else.

 

 

Eline woke up feeling strange in the next morning. In a blur, she remembered what happened the day before.

 

 

She reached for the axe that Brynjolf told her to steal. Brynjolf told her that it would be a good lesson for the Jarl of Whiterun. Every contract needs to be paid, in one way or another.

 

The axe was gone. And so was Valeera.

 

Eline: “She stole it from me. I can’t believe it. I’m so going to kill her.”

 

 

Eline looked around. She saw a horse in the distance, and recognized it immediately.

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

-Thanks and congrats to Robton for providing Eline's screens.

-English is not my native language, so you may find a mistake or two.

-You can find all chapters released on my blog (there's a link on my sig).