Hey, it's me again, Destana.  At this point in my quest, I was pretty plugged in to the Thieves' Guild.  They had my back, and I was getting pretty damn proficient at lockpicking, sneaking and stealing.  And no slouch at stabbing and shooting.  As long as I got the drop on someone I usually didn't have much trouble with them. 

 

I felt like I took the long way around, and did a bunch before I even really got started with the guild.  And now this was going to be a test to go to Aringlow Estate.  They had an army of mercenaries, as I could see from across the river, so I would need to approach this with a bit of finesse.  Vex told me there was a grate to the sewers.  I looked for it during the day from across the waters, sure not to arouse suspicion.  I wait until night.  I could feel this coming together.  First, I made my way to the south end through the water, sneaking up behind the wooden fence and readying a basic Flames spell.  I threw down some quick fires and jumped back into the water, hoping that would keep their attention.  Indeed, most of them ran towards the fire to try and stop it, to no avail.  As I surfaced near the grate, I saw one of them whose eyes had been following me as I swam.  Good eye dude, but he was still looking for where I came out.  I gritted my teeth, this one would be trouble.  I bet at the time he was going to yell.  I took out my Hunting Bow silently and nocked one of my new Ebony Arrows, peeked my head over the rocks and fired an arrow.  It hit a vital and he gasped, nearly dropped with the first shot.  He was choking on his own blood now.  I let loose a second arrow and finished him.

 

Then I turned and opened the secret entrance.  I shot a few skeevers with my bow, then one of the foul creatures tripped a giant flame trap.  This killed half a dozen of them and saved me from having to avoid the trap.  Always play your enemies against each other, master strategy.  When I came out of the sewer I realized I probably could've just climbed up here, but it was worth it to see the massive Skeever blunders.  I picked the extremely hard lock on the back door, turned a corner and walked upstairs.  I considered not killing anyone in this job, but the guild did say they were lowlifes and fairgame.  One resting against a post with his back to me got a dagger in the side, and the one right outside Aringoth's room heard him getting eviscerated.  Great.  I took out my bow again.  I could hear him walking my way, as bloody normals didn't try to hide their sounds at all.  I got around behind him and let loose an arrow, sticking it in his side.  He came after me, boasting that he would gut me.  I drew sword and dagger and gave him a quick slash.  He thrusted toward me, but I backed just out of his reach, then I gave him another slash across the chest and a knife to the throat.  Finally I popped the lock on Aringoth's door and there he was, standing next to his bed.

 

"Damn mercenaries.  What do I even pay them for," he said sardonically.

"Nothing, seems like.  Give me your safe key.  Not that I need it, but it would make this a little easier," I smiled sweetly.

"A true professional.  But I'm not giving you my key.  You might as well kill me if I hand this over," he replied.

"What if I did kill you?  Then took the key off your body," I asked.

"I know that's not your way.  I'm too valuable to you alive," he replied.

"Well, I didn't want to resort to this," I smirked, pulling the Guild armor over my head.

"Oh, wow.  Well, damn.  I uh... an even trade then?"

"An even trade.  Whatever you want," I nodded.  Never been with a Bosmer.

"You can have the key," he grinned as I took my slacks off.

And of course, he fucked me in the ass.  Never say they can do what they want.  I mean, unless you like it that way.  I am okay with it, I guess.

At any rate, I dressed again.  I took the golden bee statue off his end table, not even hiding it, and the sack of coins off the table.  Then I went back downstairs.  By this time, I figured if he had an alarm, it would be sounding.  The key would make the safe faster.  I turned a corner to find a guard strolling my way, so I hung out in the middle room with a large table, pulling out my weapons.  After seconds I heard the footsteps getting farther away.  So I hopped across the hallway, popped the lock on iron barred door and went to the basement.  Slipping silently through the next room,  I approached the guard sitting alone at a chair looking towards the safe but with his back to the entrance.  Seriously, why do this?  I walked up to him and he jerked back, drawing a greataxe.

 

Damn!  I pulled out sword and dagger.  After a few moments of difficult combat (but really these great weapon guys are just too slow) I looted the room including the deed the guild wanted.  I dropped down to the sewer from the basement entrance and traveled back to the guild via the lake via the sewer.  Not too bad.

 

"Great job lass," Brynjolf said, "Maven Black-Briar wants to talk to you.  A special job."

I smirked.  I was making a name for myself.  I took my pay and decided I would forego sleep after having stayed up all night and go see Maven immediately.  To the Bee and Barb!  I played the Lute for a few minutes while Shaed sung (the resident bard, also, hot in her blue robes that show off everything).  Then I went upstairs to meet her, the queenpin.  

 

An aged woman sat at the table upstairs, "So you're the one.  You don't look like much."

"That's part of my charm.  I lull them into a false sense of security," I smirked a crooked smile.

She unamusedly raised an eyebrow, "Very well.  I need you to go to Whiterun and get in contact with Mallus Maccius at the Bannered Mare.  He'll have more details for you."

I nodded, "I'll get it done."  Though, I'd never been to Whiterun.  I came out of the grate near the stables, only to find the guards with weapons drawn, rushing towards the wilderness.  Intrigued, I drew my bow and followed.  Once I crested the hill, I realized, bandits were attacking the stables.  The guards handled them without too much trouble.  The most interesting part though was when all the male bandits had fallen, and once of the guards pulled a female bandit into the bushes and started to have his way with her.  Strangely, I hadn't really thought about that as an option.  If I was in a different mood I might've done something about it, but I didn't.  I bought a horse from the stables (now that I had some money to burn) and was off down the road.

 

I traveled until the afternoon and came upon a hunter's camp off in the wilderness.  I figured it might be a good place to rest next to, so I got off my horse.  Immediately, the sounds of shouting.  I drew my bow and aimed.  The hunters were being attacked by two bears.  I kept low and flung some Ebony and Elven Arrows at the beasts.  One of them went down (and one of the hunters).  The other one came charging after me, so I drew sword and dagger again.  The first thing I remember is the bear swiping at my horse, who charged off.  I got low again and slashed him up in the backside.  Thankfully the hunter (and my arrows) made a solid dent in the thing, because he went down only giving me one good hit.  But damn, it hurt.  I potioned up and scanned the area for my horse.  Sigh.  Gone.  There's a thousand gold in the trash.  I sheathed my weapons and walked over to the camp to find one hunter dead at the camp, and another dead next to the bear.  I shook my head.  

"Well, no use letting this go to waste," I said as I packed up their camp and took their arrows, an Elven Bow and some food.  I skinned the bears and hoofed it towards Whiterun, determined to reach it before night fell.  

 

I entered the gate without any trouble as it started to get dark.  I walked down the main drag, passing an Imperial soldier asking for more weapons production from the local blacksmith woman.  Some 'Dawnguard' guy accosted me, but I have no interest in killing vampires.  Sounds messy.  I stepped into the Bannered Mare, which was fairly packed (with four barmaids, and a woman named Vilja in the corner) and I went to each of them and talked until I found the innkeeper and busted out a song from Morrowind I'd learned from a songbook.  Two men were brawling when I started, and by the end they were cheering.  People danced, people clapped, people liked my playing.  Maybe that could be my retirement plan - be a bard.  Anyway, I found Mallus sitting at the table in an adjacent firepit room.

 

"You the contact?  You're not very inconspicuous," he said, "Let's make this quick, we have a lot to do."

"What's the job?" I asked.

"You're going to poison Honningbrew Meadery's mead.  Sabjorn is going to give the poison to you."

"Clever."

"Right.  You're the exterminator.  He'll give you the poison to take care of a rats' nest.  You put some in the meadery too."

"Why do this?"

"I made the mistake of borrowing money from Sabjorn.  Now he's working my fingers to the bone to pay it off.  After all this is over, I get to have my debt cleared, and be the new man in charge at Honningbrew."

 

I walked over to Honningbrew.  Surprisingly, there were still a few patrons even though a dead Skeever laid between me and Sabjorn as I entered the door.

"Are you the guy?"

I nodded.

"I suppose you want to get paid some upfront.  I'll pay you when the job's done."

"Give me half or I yell Skeever," I growled.

"Alright, here's some gold.  And the poison.  Just make them go away," he replied.  I'm surprised that worked.  There was a Skeever in the middle of the floor.

Knowing he wasn't going to pay me at all when he found out what I was doing, I said, "C'mon, couldn't you pay me the whole thing now?"

"No.  What's to stop you from running off after I pay you?"

I thought for a second, and then decided on picking a weapon from my persuasion arsenal.

"I'd let you have sex with me if you pay me the whole sum now."

"The Captain is coming to taste test the mead really soon!  I don't have time for that!" 

"We can make it quick," I smiled, "Just go as hard and fast as you want.  Ten minutes, tops."

"Arrgh, fine," he handed over the rest of the gold, and I strolled into the meadery, shutting the door behind us.

I went down and sucked a little, getting it wet, then he fucked me.  The wench that I'd not noticed standing in the opposite corner of the meadery between the barrels started to masturbate as she watched us.  I gave her a wink as I got up and went into the rat caves.  

 

Bow at the ready, I shot the first skeever and found he was stronger and poison!  I took out my sword and dagger and slashed through the first three within seconds.  I blasted myself with basic healing, waiting for the poison to subside.  This pattern went on for a few caves.  I shot skeevers and spiders with the power of sneak, their fellows would charge at me and I would waste them in melee.  Until finally a slightly larger cave opened up to me, with a giant statue on the far end.  I shot the skeever in the room and walked over to it.

 

"Well hello, who is this fellow?" I said out loud.  A daedra sitting on a throne holding an overflowing mug with three naked women performing various carnal acts upon him.  I reached up and touched the statue.  

"Wow, this is really life-like," I said to myself.  What I hadn't noticed - there was a small bed sprawled out in front of the statue.  I blinked, looking at the statue.  I WAS tired.  I'd stayed up on my last job and just powered through and I was feeling pretty rough.  

 

"I'll kill you!" A man shouted from the next tunnel and started aiming Flames in my general direction, though missing me wildly because of the statue.

I took out my bow and shot him a couple times, "Dude.  Are you even hitting me?  Why are you attacking me?"  He rushed at me like a half-naked madman and I impaled him on my sword.  I shook my head.  Living amongst the rats made him crazy, I guess.  Next to me was the nest, which I covered in poison, then I looted what goods he had, and a random chest nearby.  Mostly garbage. 

 

Then I looked back over to the statue.  I squinted, "No... not right now.  This place still has baddies in it.  And I gotta finish the job first."  At once I realized I was explaining myself to a statue.  I thought to myself I could probably finish the job and come back for a nap later.

 

Then I realized... why am I planning this out?  I could sleep in an actual bed if I left here, did the job and just went to the Bannered Mare!  I shook my head, continuing up the tunnel.  I reached a cellar, got clipped (but not trapped) by a bear trap and set off the other one manually.  I threw some Healing on myself again.  Then I emerged into the boilery, poisoning all the mead.  From there I just unlocked the door with the hanging key and walked back over to the meadery proper to see the fruits of my labor, sitting at the bar.  It was a few minutes before the barmaid came back after having tapped one of the poisoned mead barrels, at which point the commander showed up to taste the mead.

"Now that your pest problem is cleared up, I'm going to sample this," he said, taking a big drink.  Immediately, he spat it in Sabjorn's face.  

"This tastes like garbage.  I'm going to see you're clapped in irons for the rest of your days!"

"I...I don't understand," Sabjorn muttered.  He didn't have time to suspect anything.  The Commander drew his sword and threatened the guy, and he was slapped in irons by the commander's men right outside the door.  He turned to Mallus, "You work here, right?  Take charge of the meadery until we can sort this out."

"With pleasure," Mallus said.  He waited until they were gone, saying to me, "Good work.  The guild is definitely on it's way back up with people like you in it."

"I need to see who the deed got signed over to," I said, remembering what Brynjolf said.  I charged up to his office on the second floor with key in hand and looked through his papers, grabbing what the guild needed.  While I was here... I smiled, getting to work on his personal room and lockbox.

"Hey!" A voice shouted as I was pulling the loot into my bag.  Had somebody followed me up to the room?  As I ran out of there, I found one of the barmaids, gawking.  Rather than kill her (she seemed innocent and this would probably damper my relationship with the meadery) I hopped over the rail back into the barrel room again and ran down to the rat caves again.  This time it was an easy jog to get through - I'd already killed anything that could threaten me.  And no normal person would chase me down here, even the guards if they were alerted.  That's why they hire people like me to do the dirty work.  Before I knew it, I was back at the damned statue. 

 

I shrugged.  I was definitely even more exhausted now than I had been before, so I laid down.  What the heck.  Sometimes you gotta tempt fate.  

 

When I awoke, as I half-expected, I was somewhere else.  Some form of glade, but... strange.  The plants were purple, the light strange and alien.  I looked down to find my naked, scarred body.  

"How in the hell did you get my symbol?" A voice said from behind me.

I whipped around to find a red-skinned man in a toga.

"Who are you?  Where am I?" I asked, not bothered by my nakedness at all now.

"You are Destana.  I am in my realm of Oblivion," he smirked, speaking in soft tones, "Oh, I'm sorry.  I am Sanguine."

"Did you say Oblivion?" I was well-traveled, but I'd never been to another dimension before.

"Don't be so surprised.  I have complete control over this realm.  It can be as nice or not-nice as I feel like.  Right now I've got the setting turned to about medium," Sanguine said, starting to walk.  I followed.

"What... do you mean by your symbol?" 

"Look at your ass you trollop," he chuckled.

I tried, but couldn't.  So I bent down over the strangely colored river flowing through his realm.  On my left buttcheek, a Sanguine Rose.

I laughed out loud as I rushed to catch up with him, "You're quite the trickster aren't you?  What if I didn't want this tattoo?"

"Be my adherent and it'll stay.  Choose to go on your own path and it'll fade away.  Simple as that.  Maybe... three days, tops," he sat down on a throne not unlike the one in the cave.  I also realized he was a great deal more attractive than the cave statue.  Less daedric, but still horny.  I mean... with horns.

"So you're horny then?  Or that supposed to be me?" He smiled.

As I walked up to him I noticed several people in chains, one in a cage, one on a kind of rack.

I raised an eyebrow, "You're torturing these people?"

"Oh please, they can leave anytime," Sanguine smirked, "They're here of their own volition.  Want to taste a little?  I know you may be a little scared because of your past experiences."

I looked around at the chains and was silent for a moment.  There was something enticing about the experience.

"I can stop anytime?"

Sanguine nodded, "The safeword is kumquat."

"Okay."

He smiled a large, devilish grin.

I remember it being several hours before I wanted to stop.  He locked me up, moved me around as he needed and applied gentle tortures to me.  He fucked me over and over again.  It was amazing.  Eventually, he locked me in a cage with a soft, feather bed.  I was still tired, and he seemed to know that.  As I laid down I said to him, "So what does being your adherent mean, anyway?"

"Just keep doing the things you're doing.  So many people are afraid of pleasure.  They call it debauchery.  Well, I've reclaimed the term.  It is now mine.  You are to spread it around the world.  When you wake up, I'll send you on your merry way."

"So it wasn't your plan to keep me here?  Trap me in your daedric realm."

"Gods, no.  I need you out there, fucking the daylights out of people," Sanguine chuckled.  I fell asleep soundly.

In the morning, I woke in a field and he was there, standing over me.  He helped me up and wrapped me in his arms, then I hugged him from the back.  He handed me my pack, and he was gone.

For now.  I silently swore to myself I would find him again.  I dressed and looked at my map, and realized I wasn't that far from Riften.  Talos' bones, Sanguine knew me already.  I smiled, heading for the guild.