Chapter 8 - Revenge and Rebuild
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My body ached. I'm sure I'd smacked my head on something as my vision was still blurry. But I felt a presence next to me. "When Brynjolf brought you before me, I could feel a sudden shift in the wind. And at that moment, I knew it would end with one of us at the end of a blade."
"Tell you what, Mercer. Just give me the Skeleton Key and I'll forget about everything else you've done. But you'll have to leave Skyrim. Can't have you hanging around here."
That made him laugh at me. I was hoping to distract him, but Karliah nor Brynjolf were not attacking. I wondered why. Then my vision finally cleared and I could see the blade he was holding, ready to strike. His eyes were only for mine though. I thought I'd seen hatred, but his? He thoroughly despised me. "What's Karliah been filling your head with? Tales of thieves with honour? Oaths rife with falsehoods and broken promises? Nocturnal doesn't care about you, the Key or anything having to do with the Guild."
"Okay, I'll answer each question. Karliah told me the truth about you, the fact you're a conniving cunt. I do believe in honour amongst thieves. And the oath I've taken in regards to Nocturnal will ensure the success of the Guild once we return the Skeleton Key. It is all your fault, Mercer. You caused the influence of the Guild to slowly but surely ebb away."
"t's clear you'll never see the Skeleton Key as I do. Don't you see, it's an instrument of limitless wealth. Instead you've chosen to fall over your own foolish code."
"Don't you read the stories, Mercer? The bad guy never wins! I'll take pleasure putting a sword into your gut."
Before he could react, I rolled out of the way, unsheathing my sword at the same time, so that by the time I was on my feet, I had sword and shield in hand. "Getting slow in your old age, Mercer. A young warrior wouldn't have wasted time talking. He would have put a sword in me immediately. That's your problem. You're full of hot air."
"Then the die is cast, and once again my blade will taste Nightingale blood! Karliah, I'll deal with you after I deal with your irksome companions. In the meantime, perhaps you and Brynjolf should get better acquainted."
I glanced to see the pair of them start to fight each other, so figured Mercer had used some sort of spell. I knew next to nothing about magic, so simply ignored them. My eyes were for Mercer. Remembering he wielded dual blades, and he was fast, I remained circumspect to begin with, confident in my own talents, and in the fact my new armour would protect me.
He was fast, I'll give him that, and I was on the back foot for quite a while, but I had plenty of experience myself despite my youth, and I had been the most trusted lieutenant of Guild Master Corvus of Cheydinhal. I knew how to fight, but sometimes a better defence was worth more than a good offense. So I let Mercer attack me, believing he was gaining the upper hand. Don't get me wrong. Constantly defending was tiring, but I was waiting for the first mistake, just a moment where he left an opening that would allow me to strike.
Most fighting is not only about how you swung a blade. It was about how you positioned your body, and perhaps the most important facet of swordplay was actually footwork. So I watched his blades while judging where he would place each foot. And what I always remember was that, in a fight to the death, things like honour are quite quickly forgotten. If you had to, use anything to your advantage, and don't worry about fighting dirty.
What didn't help us was the fact there was that the very ground started to shake, and one of the pipes high above us burst, pouring water down, and I knew that the chamber was slowly but surely going to flood. I moved backwards onto dry ground, and with the higher ground, I started to use that to my advantage. I managed to put a boot into Mercer's face, leaving blood pouring from his nose, and a minute later, finally managed to disarm him with a perfectly timed parry and swipe that sent his sword clattering into water.
Now with only one sword, I could finally get on the front foot, and with sword, shield, elbows and kicks, I wore down his defences. I wasn't going for a killing blow immediately, I wanted to disarm him, then give him the coup de grâce. Once I realised he was starting to tire, I pressed home my advantage, and when his second sword was sent flying, he was probably expecting an immediate killing blow. He wasn't going to get that just yet as I grabbed him by the hair and dragged him up the stairs to the top the statue. Pushing him onto the head, I kicked out his legs, forcing him to his knees. Looking past him, I could see Brynjolf and Karliah no longer fighting.
"Do it, Ragnar!" Karliah called.
"What about you?"
"As long as he dies."
I placed the blade to his neck. "Feel that, Mercer? That is death on your shoulder. You fucked with the wrong man."
"You're just another stooge for Nocturnal."
"No, I'm about to make all of us very rich, Mercer. I'm going to help rebuild the Guild and restore our reputation and influence. You will lie in this chamber, quickly and quietly forgotten by all."
There was no time to waste as I could see the water continuing to flood the chamber, and I took his head with one clean strike, his head simply falling to the ground. I searched his body, finding the Skeleton Key in one of his pockets, putting that in one of my own. Karliah and Brynjolf joined me, both carrying an Eye of the Falmer. Wondering how the hell we were going to get out, we were saved as the roof caved in, exposing a hidden cave. I liked to think it was Nocturnal looking after us, aware we'd retrieved the Key.
We walked towards the entrance of the cave without exchanging a word, realising we were going to have to walk back to find our horses. We'd been in the ruin for quite a while as it was now rather dark too. As it was warmer in the cave, we headed back inside and Karliah managed to get a small campfire going. We would go hungry as we had no supplies otherwise.
Sitting down, she finally said, "I can't believe it's over. After twenty-five years in exile and just like that, it's done. All that remains is to ensure the safe return of the Skeleton Key." She paused before adding, "I'm actually glad you killed him. I would have tortured him first, given him just a taste of what I'd been through for a quarter of a century."
"How do you feel?" Brynjolf wondered.
"Relieved that it's over. Justified at the measures taken. Sad because I think about what might have been otherwise..."
There wasn't a whole lot else to say and the three of us eventually just leaned back against the cave wall and slowly drifted off, Karliah ensuring she was close enough to have her head rested against me. I had no doubt she still had love in her heart for Gallus, so what would actually realistically happen between us was what she eventually decided.
We were further away from the entrance to Irkngthand than we realised, so the three of us were rather cold and miserable, in addition to very hungry, by the time we made it back to our horses. Karliah suggested we head back to Riften first before we discuss the next and hopefully last stage of what was required to complete the agreement with Nocturnal. I thought that was a sound idea, and we agreed that we would keep riding until we made Riften stables. It took longer than a day, but riding at night wasn't such a problem, one of us dozing as the other two kept a look out.
