Riften had a stench to it that made my eyes water. It was like an unbathed smoker with wet dog cologne. I found Philip at the stables and the carriage parked to the side. Shadr sat off to the side brushing the mane of one of the horses.
"Hmmm, should I help him?" His debt with Sapphire put him into good graces, but I didn't do much else for me. Viree interrupted my thoughts with a shout.
"This is obviously a shakedown! Bah! I know i was told the city had thieves, but i didn't expect it to be the guards." Viree huffed in clear anger. The poor guard that tried to make her pay to enter the city was pressed against the wall while his buddy was looking the other direction.
I patted Viree's shoulder, "No need to get riled up, it was to be expected that some guards are a little corrupt. Could you two open the gates for us? I have business with the black-briars."
The non-terrified guard's eyes went wide and rushed to the door. He jammed the key into the comically small lock and pushed the gates up. "Go on right ahead, be careful with your coin purse."
Viree clicked her tongue and went ahead of me. Illia whispered, "I'm glad I came with you two. I think I would've believed we had to pay to get in."
Right she had nearly no contact outside the tower. "Who did you trade and buy things from when you need supplies?"
Illia shrugged, "A smaller coven lived at Orphan's rock and they would trade with Helgen. They would then trade with us for more common ingredients that would be suspicious when bought in such large quantities."
That made sense Viree stopped before the Bee and Barb. "So what are we doing first?"
I raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that obvious? We find Canary and rent some rooms."
Entering the Bee and Barb I found it was surprisingly big. A staircase lead up and another went down. I spotted Canary talking to a priest of mara. It wasn't Maramal though, it was the mara quest giver Dinya Balu. The quest had a good reward, but was an active headache.
I walked over as Viree split toward the bar. Illia being left in a limbo followed me. "What's the whispers?"
Canary looked at me as I pulled open up a chair. Canary gave me a nod, "This is my associate, he will likely be doing most of the foot work."
Dinya gave me a nod, "and the woman?"
Canary also gave me a questioning gaze. "She's a reformed witch." I looked down and gave a slight frown. "We had to kill her mother the leader of the coven. Illia here will now be a future assistant in some of my personal businesses."
Canary rolled her eyes as Dinya gave a sorrowful look, "I'm so sorry! It must have been a tough choice to turn on your coven."
That was rather accepting, although I did kind of expect that. Dinya gave a slight nod to Illia, "We all have our demons."
Illia gave her thanks, and I went back to the matter at hand. As once I sat down at the table my quest chain that involved Canary updated. It wanted me to hear the priest's confession.
Dinya nodded, "As I was telling Miss Canary, many have seen the thieves guild become much more active. Which lead to the caretaker of the Orphanage being assassinated. Everyone is unsure of what is happening in the city as even the... Krhem, the Maven has been acting strangely."
Maven, right... I would need to talk with her. "How is Maven Black-briar acting strange?"
Dinya looked down slightly and whispered, "Talks of a black sacrament, and a few odd comments toward the Jarl."
That made me raise an eyebrow, "Tell me about the thieves guild. They have been active? Do you know any details?"
Dinya put her hands together, she sighed. "Yes, about... hmm, I'll say 9 months ago. A young man showed up in Riften and whipped up storm. At first he just acted as Brynjolf's thug. It wasn't long after that things started to change...."
So a player was in the thieves guild and was actively doing the quests. "I assume they broken into goldenglow estate."
Dinya nodded, "One of Riften's largest exports is the honey that comes from the estate. Though not much of that money makes it to the people of the rift. It still greatly effected the city."
Canary nodded, "The temple of Mara gets donations from the estate as well in exchange for additional care for the bee hives, am I right?"
Dinya nodded, "We visit every three months to use healing spells on the bees to make sure the hives aren't sick."
Likely to prevent parasites, I was pretty sure bees had a lot of those. I snapped back to the conversation. "Do you know if there was a problem with the leadership of the guild."
Canary looked at me, "Do you know the leader of the thieves guild?"
I shrugged, "I know his whole life story. He did a good job covering it up, however when your so far deep like I am you know when someone makes a deal with a daedric prince."
Dinya's eyes went wide, "The current leader has a deal with a daedric prince? I've heard rumors..."
I shook my head, "All of the thieves guild is connected to Nocturnal its a whole thing. Their leader though betrayed Nocturnal, so I have a good idea of exactly his life story."
Illia finally spoke, "Does that mean you know who they are?"
I nodded, "Yes, but for reasons I can't say." I had to know more about the thieves guild player before that. Also I wanted to leverage that information for money before it gets exposed.
"Thanks for answering my questions, Dinya Balu." I bowed to her and stepped away. Canary wasn't sharing information with me. Telling that she was talking to Dinya I could guess why. It was related to the Talos ban. I tapped Illia's shoulder, "Why don't you buy yourself a drink and relax."
I passed her a coin and she nodded. I moved toward Viree, crossing the bar I gave Keerava a smile. "Has my companion here acquired us rooms?"
Keerava smiled while Viree answered me. "Yeah, they only had two open. One in the bottom floor and one on the top floor. The witch can have the bottom floor." Viree took a sip of her drink and looked away from me.
Keerava asked the common question. "So with a room rented, anything else I can do for you?"
I nodded, "What's the word on the street? I know the thieves guild is stationed down in the rat ways. Have you heard of any new members? They owe a debt..."
Keerava went silent and looked around. "He came in here about 7 months ago and forced us to pay the protection fees. I just gave him the gold after he beat Haelga half to death and destroyed half of Bersi's merchandise. He was just seen leaving the city earlier this week, headed to Whiterun."
So that's where he was for the quest line. "Has he been seen else where?"
Keerava nodded, "Windhelm, word has it he stole half the gold in the city." I thought for a moment and thought about what he could've done.
I needed to separate him from the dark brotherhood quest line. "Did a detective? or some kind of mercenary come to Riften from Windhelm before that?"
Keerava was about to shake her head. However she was interrupted by her lover Talen-Jei. "Yes, though he didn't stay here. I saw him exist the Honorhall Orphanage after the incident there. They were an Argonians like us... A shadowscale."
A shadowscale? it couldn't be... That did separate the two questlines. A player was in the dark brotherhood and they traveled from Windhelm to Riften while the Thief traveled from Riften to Windhelm. The two just missed each other likely.
I nodded, "Thanks for the information. Anything you would like to know yourself?"
Talen-Jei paused, "I could use some flawless amethysts."
Keerava looked at him, "Amethysts? What do you need those for?"
I smiled at her, "Isn't common for personal projects."
I dug through my bag I hadn't acquired anything extra, but I did have one flawless amethysts. "I can spare one for you, but I don't have anymore." He nodded, "One is fine with me, I can buy the rest I need from Madesi. Anyway I need to get back to work."
I turned back to Keerava paused and asked, "I don't suppose anyone has seen a manic Argonian down at the docks?"
Keerava nodded, "From-Deepest-Fathoms, she's an explorer who's been mumbling ever since she returned from some ruins."
I nodded, "Thanks, Viree... Don't drink too much."
She clicked her tongue as she drank her third ale. I moved up the staircase, Keerava called out, "It's the third room! It's marked with a sign."
I gave a thumbs up as I passed by Sapphire. She was wearing some normal none thieves guild clothes. She had a dagger in her palm and she followed me up the stairs. Before she ever got the chance to point it at me I turned and grabbed her by the throat.
Her eyes went wide as she choked on her breath. I dragged her toward the room, I hadn't planned on this. However it seems she overheard my questions on the thieves guild. I got a side eye from Maven Black-Briar who was sitting in a chair with a rather luxurious dinner plate.
That might make the conversation I needed to have with her later a little more difficult. I closed the door behind me as I held Sapphire tightly. I pushed her toward the bed. She turned instantly back toward me and pulled out a second knife.
I pulled out Sable Wave and smiled, "I think my weapon is more threatening just saying. So how about you set that poor excuse of a dagger down."
She hesitated however she lowered the dagger. "Why were you asking questions about thieves guild."
I smiled, "Like I said, your newest friend owes a debt."
Sapphire scoffed, "He's no friend, and I'm not curious about whatever debt he has toward you. I want to know more about what you have on Mercer."
I raised an eyebrow thinking about it and Sapphire's background. "You want to follow in Delvin's footsteps, you think outing mercer will get you more respect in the guild. Sorry to say unless your able to break into Mercer's house kill several mercenaries and disarm a series of traps to find a hidden ledger of him siphoning guild funds. Well, you get the idea."
She stared at me, "How do you know all that? and you aren't telling me everything."
I nodded, maybe this was a business opportunity. "Well, I'm Vek Frostwane. However I am also the guild master of the new information guild in Solitude. Some of my information is acquired naturally through investigation and some guess work. However, everything else..." I trailed off, my smile returning.
Sapphire still was on guard, I didn't blame her. Her story was a sad one, though one I couldn't really care about. I drew my smile back a little, "So would you like to buy information or would you like to sell it."
Sapphire paused, "Do you have a mole in the guild?"
I smirked, "500 gold for that."
She clicked her tongue, "I'll think about it, now let me out. I confirmed what I wanted to know."
I stepped to the side and gave one last remark. "That I am not a mark you should go after? Mind you I am in the business to sell shadow marks. It's easy cash after all, now go on back to sulking."
She stormed out the room and I let out a breath. I had to make sure I seemed friendly, but not to be messed with. The Thieves guild did overlap slightly with my own business, so I wanted to create allies. Brynjolf or the Thieves Guild Player would be ideal. However Sapphire is a good ally since she is a Mallory. She will likely come to me for that information, once I provide it I'll have a guarantee.
I sat down in on the bed. I had no level ups or perk points, but I could put some work into some new spells. Perhaps I'll just sleep though, I needed some sleep.