"Yweah..." she answers mid-yawn.

"My hair became undone though. Such a mess." Elra continus as she combs her hair to the side.

Elra makes her way over to the table to grab herself a loaf of bread. From the expression on Inigo's face, Elra can tell he does not agree. "Inigo thinks you should keep your hair down more often. It makes Inigo's fur jealous." He says with a lighter tone than usual.

"You really think I should huh?" Elra says, the conversation stopping at her contemplation. She takes a bite of the soft warm bread and tastes the texture of fluffy crumb glazed with garlic butter and goat cheese.

"..."

Grabbing her bow and quiver, Elra chases after the group. While behind them she can hear the female redguard shouting "May your daedric lords grant you the power to outrun us, because the second we catch you, you will know our's!"

Elra caught up with the Vigilants. "Need any help?" She asks. "Not really." The female vigilant responds. "Unless you can stop him without killing him." "Can do." Elra affirms as she heads off running to the right.

Elra takes the high ground allowing her to slip out of the fleeing man's range of sight. From here she sprints parallel to the running man going unnoticed.

As she finds her opportunity for a shot she gets closer. The running man begins to notice her presence. He pushes himself to run faster but is too late to do so.

With the high ground, Elra's accuracy for acquiring her target improves. She aims and fires her bow with precision.

The arrow hits its mark piercing the man's Achilles tendon. Unable to get a proper footing, he waits patiently for his imminent demise. The Vigilants catches up with the man surrounding him.

The female vigilant draws her mace and began to interrogate the man. "You have committed heresy to the divines by worshiping Boethiah. Do the right thing and receive Stendarr's mercy, do the wrong thing receive our wrath. What have you say?" The cultist chuckles "haha... kill me if you must. I am merely a courier of Boethiah. I have nothing to tell you. My life means little to the greater purpo-"

The vigilant strikes him across the face with no hesitation. The force flattens his skull like a gourd to a mallet. Elra out of astonishment asks the woman "He could have squealed if we applied the right pressure. Why kill him?" "Why else?" The woman was confident in her judgement. "He told us all we needed to know. He said that he was a messenger, and a messenger always holds more secrets then he knows. Search him for any notes or suspicious objects." The trio begin to shuffle around the carcass looking for clues.

As they search Elra notices a oddly shaped dagger. It resembled one but did not feel like any metal she has ever held. The blade gave off a green sheen, the embellishments looked organic as if it was grown and not crafted by human hands. "How about this?" Elra said holding up the blade.

"Now that's something you don't see every day." The woman said pausing her seizure on the corpse. "What you are holding is called a nettlebane. Not many known uses for the thing, but I hear there is a priestess in Whiterun looking to acquire it. You should pay her a visit." The male vigilant heavily searching the carcass and notices the man was concealing a note under his belt. "Found something" he said.

He pulls out a book hanging on his waist and begins flipping through the pages cross-referencing. He mutters the line written on the note as he searches for the meaning. "Deep beneath the black waters lies the key to making two souls- one again." After reading the passage he returns to the words "Black water" and repeats it over and over skimming through his references. He stops on a page and begins to brief the female vigilant of his findings. "There was a report of a sighting of suspicious activity not too long ago near Darkwater crossing. According to the man who stumbled upon the incident, he heard screaming coming from the ruins near the town. He went to find out why and was stopped by suspicious men who turned him away threatening him with weapons. This sounds like our place Aneza."

"So you're name is Aneza?" Elra says upon hearing the Vigilant. Aneza suddenly remembers her formality. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Aneza and that man over there is my husband and daedra hunting partner Basaan." "Nice to meet you." Basaan says pausing from his intensive searching. "Same." Elra responds. Aneza relaxes her posture resting her weight on one leg. "You seem quite capable in combat." Aneza compliments. Elra accepts the kind words and smiles. "Normally we would head back to the hall to prepare for any raids, but judging from this note it seems urgent whoever was to receive this were to retrieve the key today. We have a lead so we must take full advantage." Elra knew what Aneza was going to say from her wording. "I shall assist you on the raid then." Elra says jumping to the point. Aneza smiles. "Warriors do think alike then."

Night falls, darkness blanketed the terrain of Skyrim. A short man was walking along side a taller man as they talk. "Good thing my patrol is done, It's starting to get cold out. Time to get warm with some mead" One of them says. The other began to rant "I don't even know why we are guarding the key anyway. Just because one man got suspicious does not mean the location was compromised. He was not going to find the underwater entrance. Not in a million years." The smaller of the two responds "Whatever that key is, it must be really important for all of us to be on patrol tonight."

As the two walked off headed to the nearest town they pass by Aneza's raid group which remain hidden, covered by the foliage and the cast shadow of the night.

The two walk off disappearing over the hill. Aneza with caution speaks with very light breath. "Since they saved us the time by giving us the secret entrance, we won't have to take them out like we did to the others." Elra with rhetoric poses the question "Why would Boethiah associate his presence with such clumsy followers?" "Oblivion works in mysterious ways." Basaan answers. "It's time we move up" Aneza instructs as she began incher her way forward. The trio sneak their way to the bank of the river.

Moving forward, they stumble upon the last two guards on patrol. Elra readies her bow and gently draws it slowly inching the tension on the string. Without communication Basaan undersands what he needs to do. He slides a dagger out of its sheath and snuck behind the man on guard to the left.

Elra releases the tension of the bow. The arrow disappears among the night and reappears lodging itself in the skull of the guard on the right. He falls forward as the other guard became aware of the situation. "Wh-"

Before he could even build the breath to speak Basaan drives a blade deep between the guards rib cage rupturing his lung. The guard finishes his word drowned in the blood that he coughs up. "ackl." He falls over gasping for air trying to signal the other, but is only met with blood that has filled his lungs. The trio are now safe to proceed and made their way into the underwater cave.

Once inside the water opens to a clearing. The trio ascend from the water to find a door. Stepping through they find a dark empty underground cloister. They noticed a light at the other end of the hall and made their way over to investigate.

As they near the light they noticed that the hall way broke into a naturally formed cave-in forming a small dimly lit room. They approached with caution.

Inside, the group notices that it was a dungeon. A man within the prison cell approaches the bars. "Are you here to kill me?" "Why would I do that?" Aneza asks. "I'm a cultist of Sheogorath, kill me quickly for a more terrible fate awaits me." The man seemed urgent.

"If a more terrible fates await you, then I'm all for it. I'm just after the key." The cultist's pessimism suddenly had a change in heart. "You are here to retrieve the dagger? Then you must save my master. He is in danger." The cultist says.

"I don't save anyone who aligns themselves with any daedra. The key will be in the possession of the Vigilants in which will be destroyed for the just cause." "Not even the divines could destroy the key." the cultist says. "He has the dagger."

"Who has the dagger?" Elra says in reaction. "He has been here this whole time. You must stop him." Shouts the man as he ran to coward in a corner.

Suddenly realizing their danger, the group turns around. From the shadows of the room emerged a silhouette of a large figure. He was sitting there the entire time unnoticed. He slowly walks toward Elra and the vigilants. "Useless bandits." The figure says with a deep voice. "Look like it is my job to rid this place of pesky mice." He draws his sword.

"You may be able to stop those measly bandits outside, but let us see if you can defeat a champion of Oblivion."

To be continued...