“Baurus? Some help over here?” Arri called but a moment later, though she kept her voice down so the patrons upstairs would not come running. This here would be a nuisance to explain to Luther already, who would then have to alert the city guard once Baurus and Arri were in the clear. Enough of a mess as it was, Baurus supposed, without any additional witnesses. Not that the agent had left them with much of a choice.
Leaving his hiding spot, he walked over to the Imperial, who was doing her best to not get blood on her borrowed clothes, looking around for some fabric to wipe her dagger on and eventually settling on the agent’s trousers. Baurus still didn’t know where she’d hidden that blade, and decided he didn’t want to know anyway; best not to ask her about it.
“How did I hear him, but not you?” he wondered instead, because he was certain he had only heard one person coming down the stairs instead of two, and while he was not interested in finding out where she’d learned certain things, he did have an interest in how they were done. He was sure that this information would be of help to him in the future, and it was a lesson learned – his ears could betray him at any time.
“I move very quietly,” Arri shrugged, and the Blade raised an eyebrow at her, which was only met with a groan. “Fine. I matched my steps to his, copied his movements as far as I was able, drew my dagger at the same time he did his. And it helped that he wasn’t exactly an experienced assassin. One of those would have noticed me right away, would’ve known to look in the shadows.” She nodded at the would-be murderer’s blade now lying uselessly on the floor. “Biggest part is still moving quietly, and reading the other person’s movements, though. Not something you Blades are trained in, huh?”
“Not as such, no,” Baurus admitted. “The latter part, yes, that is something every fighter needs. The former, not as much. Some of us are, when there is a need for us to work undercover. I was … not meant for it. But desperate times call for desperate measures, right?”
“Fair. Just do me a favor and try not to apply what I tell you when you’re back in your clunky armor. Anyway, Breton bookworm here’s not going to tail anyone ever again.”
“He wasn’t much better at espionage than me, after all,” Baurus said, “or I would likely not have noticed him as quickly. But if I see a man sitting in a corner for three nights in a row, pretending to read a book but barely even turning any pages, even I get my suspicions.”
“Must’ve been one of their low-level men,” Arri sighed. “Bit worrying how he was so ready to murder someone when he’s just a nobody. Have you learned anything of note while you’ve been here? You’ve not left the city, I take it?”
Baurus shook his head. “No. The assassins who killed the Emperor were part of a Daedric cult called the Mythic Dawn. Apparently worship Mehrunes Dagon, but something tells me you already knew.”
“Hard not to, given your future Emperor made me run halfway across the Deadlands to close the gate the cult set up in Kvatch before he saw fit to let me drag his royal behind back to Jauffre. There’s only so much lava and brimstone you can walk past before you take a hint.”
