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Mother Dearest - Cicero x Reader {chapter XXV}
[Reader's personality/story is loosely based off my Skyrim OC, Sithia]
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~ Chapter 25: Fight to Freedom ~
Heading through the door you unlocked and into the next room, you and Cicero find yourselves on the top of a shaded balcony overlooking a lower portion of what appears to be a dungeon. Not only are the several filthy and claustrophobia-inducing prison cells make this a dead giveaway to you, but also to the fact there are quite a few very unpleasant looking torture devices and dried splatters of blood scattered in various places amongst the lower interior of the room. This almost makes you feel like you're back home within the Dawnstar Sanctuary's torture chambers, yet at the same time it doesn't… Obviously your torture chambers are way cooler than this one.

"Oh, lookie here, Cicero, the Thalmor have their own torture chamber room… Why am I not surprised?" You mention to Cicero in a dry, joking manner as you glance over at him with some amusement.

Cicero chuckles under his breath and smiles at you, "Heheh… Oh, but Listener! How else would they conduct their interrogations to get what they want from others? Surely not by asking nicely over sweet rolls and tea! Though if Cicero is to be completely honest, Cicero can both appreciate and understand why they choose this particular method. It is, after all, SO much more fun this way! Don't you agree? Hm~?" Cicero leers dangerously close towards your face while crouched in front of you, his smile widening to a psychotic grin that practically reaches from ear to ear.

You try not to flinch from his abrupt and ridiculously close proximity to your face, but you still are not strong-minded enough to fight off the appearance of a blush that burns across your cheeks in a faint, rosy hue. You narrow your [light/dark] [e/c] eyes at him with a partially annoyed look of warning. Cicero only teases you further by copying your pouty puppy dog expression with an over-exaggerated and silly version of his own. He then laughs and suddenly jerks forward to press a quick peck on your forehead before making a mad dash to quickly slip past you while in a fit of poorly subdued giggles. Growling under your breath and blushing harder if physically possible, you rush quietly back over behind him and roughly yank the back of his shirt over to you. He yelps a bit but never ceases grinning at you like the complete and utter loon that he is.

"Hey, knock it off! You're going to get us caught if you keep doing stuff like that!" You hiss in a stage-whisper at him with a feeble glare which honestly is hard to keep situated on your face. Especially when the person in question you're trying to be mad at is deep down tickling your funny bone, which your stubbornness doesn't want to allow yourself to cave into.

"Eheheh, my apologies, Listener! Cicero simply cannot help himself sometimes. Cicero will remain on his best behavior from now on… promise!"

Rolling your eyes at him and his halfhearted apology and promise that you highly doubt he will be able to keep. You release him from your grip and lightheartedly push him away from yourself, before attempting to try and focus back on the task at hand. "Uh-huh, sure you will." You mutter sarcastically in response before moving past him and onward to the mission at hand.

Making your way down some more stairs at the end of balcony, which lead down to the torture chambers and cells, you startle Cicero when making a sudden and unexpected halt at the end of the stairs. You lean yourself back into the shadowy corner of the stairwell from where you are located, and Cicero follows suit even though he initially isn't sure why you reacted the way you had. However, his question is soon answered when he takes notice of a Thalmor soldier and another Altmer man dressed in Thalmor robes, approaching from the linear hallway of prison cells, on the other side of the torture chamber. The two of you peek off the stairwell's corner and stay silent as you watch the two Thalmor agents head towards the last prison cell at the end of the corridor, which you and Cicero fortunately could get a relatively decent view of.

The hooded Thalmor with the robes stands by and watches as the Thalmor solider steps ahead of him and takes out a ring of keys and starts to unlock the cell in front of him with it. The cell's door creaks and groans loudly in protest as he begins to force it open. A startled noise and dismayed moan is then heard from within the confines of the cell, from where you presume to be a male prisoner being held captive inside. The shrill sound of a sword being unsheathed is soon made from what could only be the Thalmor solider as he approaches the poor, unfortunate bastard chained up inside. It didn't take a genius to figure that Thalmor soldier has every intention of using that sword of his to get whatever he wanted from the prisoner.

"N-no! Stop! P-please! I… I don't know anything else! Don't you think I'd have told you already?" A hoarse and panic filled voice from the prisoner cries out pleadingly to the Thalmor soldier standing threateningly in front of him with his sword drawn out.

"Silence! You know the rules. Do not speak unless spoken to. Master Rulindil will ask the questions." The Thalmor soldier berates the man in a harsh tone before glancing back at his hooded Thalmor comrade, whom you conclude must be 'Rulindil' from what the soldier had just stated.

Rulindil smirks cruelly towards the captive and takes a few languid steps forward and towards the door frame of the cell with his hands placed casually behind his back. Somehow you are beginning to get the strong suspicion that this guy must be the one who's in charge of leading the interrogations around here. He does have the kind of air about him. Not to mention the way he had been addressed as 'master' was a dead giveaway to his status being higher up, as opposed to the lackey who unlocked the door for him.

"Let's begin again…" Rulindil brings up while leisurely pulling out a very sharp, bloodstained Elven dagger that he begins to examine admirably within his gloved hand.

"No! N-no… For pity's sake! I-I swear I've already told you everything! I swear, please!"

Rulindil chuckles under his breath and glances from his dagger and over to the prisoner with bright green eyes shimmering in amusement, "Now, now, you know the rules, Etienne."

"Nooo! No, please! Don't!" The prisoner now known to you as, Etienne, continues to blubber out pleadingly to Rulindil as he hysterically sobs and produces a torrent of haggard, wheezing gasps and breathes of air amidst all the hyperventilating he's doing.

"Start at the beginning, as usual. If you persist in this stubbornness I'll have—"

"—No! Wait! I was just… catching my breath… why wouldn't I tell you again? I don't even know anything! There's… There's an old man. He lives in Riften. He could be this Esbern you're looking for, but I-I don't know. He's old and seemed kind of crazy. That's all I know."

"And his name is?" Rulindil presses on impatiently.

"I don't know his name! Like I've told you already a hundred- AUGHH!" A sharp, pained cry spills out of Etienne's mouth as the Thalmor soldier slams his armored boot as hard as physically possible into the man's chest. Etienne doubles over and begins coughing and hacking uncontrollably from the harsh impact of it.

Rulindil simply stands there completely unfazed and shakes his head at the doubled over prisoner with a stern, insensitive frown. "You know the rules. Just answer the questions. And where can we find this nameless, old man?"

Etienne coughs up blood that dribbles slightly down the corner of his mouth before forcing himself to rasp out another reply to the Thalmor interrogator the best he could. "Like I said I don't know! I… I've seen him down in the Ratway. Maybe he lives down there, but I don't know for sure."

Rulindil purses his lips and makes a tired sigh that sounded either bored or just plain fed up with dealing with the man. "Hmph, that will be all for now. I must say I continue to be disappointed in your lack of cooperation. I do hope next time you will do better." He sheathes his dagger away and makes a tsking noise with his tongue, before sharply turning on his heel away from Etienne.

Hearing that he would be coming back to torture him some more for information that he apparently does not have, Etienne's eyes widen and rapidly he attempts to lunge forward and call out frantically to Rulindil in hopes to persuade him. "What else do you want from me?! I've already told you everything! Listen! If you let me go I can take you to Riften, show you where- GAAAHH! ACK!" Etienne was cut off again by the Thalmor soldier this time, driving a few heavy punches to him in the gut and face.

"Silence, prisoner!" The Thalmor soldier bellows out threateningly while also sounding rather pleased with himself from all the physical abuse he caused the already bloodied, bruised and battered man; chained from ever having any chance at fighting back. With one more violent jab across the face, silence ensues, and it is clear from that point on that must've had been the final finishing blow to finally throw Etienne into unconsciousness or potentially worse. However, you highly doubted it would be the latter, since they likely wouldn't want him dead just yet if they still planned on interrogating him further after this.

Rulindil hums a cheery song under his breath as he saunters away from the corridor of prison cells and into the interior of the torture chambers, where a polished wooden desk is located on the far side, furthest from you. He plops himself down behind the desk to do some kind of paperwork awhile continuing to hum that rather overly upbeat and cheerful melody, which somehow didn't feel very befitting for someone like himself to be singing out loud without seemingly a care in the world. The nameless Thalmor soldier, on the other hand, had stepped out of Etienne's tiny cell and locked it back up behind him, before leaving your line of sight when returning back to his routine patrol route, throughout the corridor of prison cells.

"Ooo, Listener! Cicero knows that song he's humming! Oh, yes, yes he does! It's Ragnar the Red! Although you know it is a bit funny really because it's a Nordic song? Heehee~ silly Thalmor! Suppose even they cannot resist the lure of a catchy tune whenever they hear one!" Cicero whispers to you and falls into a small fit of giggles at the irony behind it. Though you do have to admit it is a tad ironic, if not also a bit hypocritical of a Thalmor supremacist to also enjoy music of Nordic origin. But then again, when have the Thalmor ever not been a bunch of hypocrites?

You want to reply back with something witty to Cicero but you figure you better keep the bantering and jokes for a later time. You really need to come up with a plan of action to take now that you have a brand new pair of Thalmor nuisances to take care of. You didn't know much of what to think of the little interrogation session that had just taken place between Rulindil and Etienne. All you know is that Etienne could be of some use to you… Okay, well, maybe not necessarily 'him' just by himself, but rather whatever is inside that head of his. If you go on to dramatically play up the dashing and gallant role of 'hero,' the damsel in distress within this particular situation (aka Etienne) might be more inclined to bestow upon you some useful information that's not just being forced out of him like the Thalmor are trying to do. This approach might at least make him predisposed to being much more open and truthful with you about whatever he might have to offer you up, when it comes to potential intel for Delphine. Eh, it's worth a try… Besides, whoever said a Dark Brotherhood murderer can't be the good guy every once in a while? You're not THAT terrible of a person! … Right?

"Alright Cicero, so here's the game plan. I'm going to go and deal with Rulindil right away. Unfortunately, there's really no way to sneak our way past him from the looks of things. So, I want you to deal with the Thalmor soldier who should be alerted once I go and make my mark on Rulindil. I want you to sneak over and stay hidden beside the corner of the corridor, and give our unassuming Thalmor pal a real big surprise when he comes running up to try and help out his buddy over here. Sound good?"

"Of course, [Y/n]! Hmm, but Cicero wonders, what should we do about that Etienne fellow?"

"Don't worry about him right now, we'll get to him once we're finished sending those two stooges a quick one-way ticket down to the deepest depths of the Void. Besides, he won't be going anywhere, any time soon; not without our help at least. He might even prove to be of some use to us if we save him, like the 'oh so benevolent' assassins we're known for being." You tell him teasingly with a devilish smirk, which greatly contradicted any 'benevolent' qualities you scarcely had inside you to begin with.

Cicero chuckles at that and nods and informally salutes to you with his hand. "Cicero's ready when you are, Listener! They should be ever so lucky to get to see Mother in the Void before we do! Hmph, Cicero's almost feels the teensiest bit envious of them now that he thinks of it… Oh well…" He prattles on with a longing, pensive sigh. He is obviously missing the Night Mother at the moment. Of course this is no real shocking revelation. This is, after all, Cicero we're talking about.

Shaking your head at Cicero's random comment, you successfully bring him out of his habitual rambling session he's rather prone to having with himself by making your move. Unsheathing your blade at your side, you make light, brisk movements as you slink forward and manage to reach the foot of his desk without him noticing right away. Lifting up and steadying your weapon in one hand, you use your other free hand to conjure up flames before slamming it down on the desktop in front of him just to scare the shit out of him. Startled by this unexpected act of yours, he gasps and snaps his head up from his now burning paperwork to stare at you wide-eyed for half a second until making a move to spring off of his chair to defend himself. You attempted to reach over his desk and slice him directly across the face with the quick slash of your blade before he draws away, but he manages to lean back fast enough to evade your devastating attack by mere centimeters.

"You little witch! How did you get in here?! Tch, no matter. Time to die!" Rulindil shouts and extends out his hands at his sides which begin to crackle and hiss loudly with bright, flickering volts of electricity… Oh great, not this crap again.

"You first!" You retort back and rush forward, vaulting fluently over his desk and pouncing at him with your blade raised in the air to plunge straight through him. While you dive at him, he hesitates in standing still to electrocute you and instead hurries to back up and dodge your descent on him. The loud and reverberating sound of heavy, armored boots pounding across the stone floor in a hurry can suddenly be heard from within the corridor. Without a doubt, the Thalmor soldier is aware of your presence, and is now charging full speed through the hallway to your location. Briefly from the corner of your [e/c] eyes, you see that Cicero is dutifully carrying out exactly what you had instructed him to do. Standing silently in wait and concealed behind the corner of the hall of prison cells with his ebony dagger out, he jumps out of his hiding spot, and ambushes the soldier right as he's about to unknowingly pass by him. The surprise flanking seems to work out very successfully for him, because you can practically hear nothing else besides the shrill, blood-curling screams coming from the elf, the second after he jumps him. Cicero literally tackles him to the ground, and is now straddled on top of him and giggling to himself as he mercilessly stabs the soldier over and over again in rapid succession.

With Cicero keeping the Thalmor soldier under control for you, your attention could remain fully focused on the bearded Altmer wizard in front of you. Rulindil shoots a quick and fleeting glance at his comrade with some panic in his eyes. He obviously wasn't expecting the two of you to drop in so unexpectedly. It's worse for him considering his only comrade in the room is already being hacked to death before his very eyes. He's outnumbered. Gritting his teeth together, he snarls and extends out the palms of his hands towards you, blasting forth a barrage of lightning strikes from his fingertips. Fully predicting this attack of his by now, you immediately sidestep out of the way of the lightning bolts just in time, awhile continuing to rush straight at him with your blade poised and ready. His breath hitches and his eyes widen as you charge up to his face and slash at him with a mocking smirk spread across your [lip color] lips. Somehow he manages in this instant to pull out of his elven dagger from his side and deflect your blade off of his own. Sparkles fly, and the intense friction between the two opposing blades produces a loud, ear-grating screech to fill the air.

Feeling a small rise of annoyance by how he keeps successfully dodging and fending off your attacks, you growl under your breath in slight frustration, but you don't dare back off him and allow him a chance to continue using his magic. You can easily tell right away he's much weaker and less confident up close; many magic users often are. Good thing you keep your talents between spell casting and swordplay as closely balanced as possible, unlike this kook. Swinging at him a couple more times at breakneck speed, he still deflects every one of yours hits with his dagger, awhile continuously stepping away to try and put distance between you and himself. Little does he realize he is backing up closer and closer near Cicero and the other fallen solider, whom you happen to notice wasn't screaming his head off anymore.

With one more cautionary step away from your fast and dangerous approaching form, Rulindil accidentally bumps into the motionless corpse of his comrade on the ground, whom of which your stab-happy Keeper is still sitting on top of. Noticing how close he is to him, Cicero immediately takes advantage of the situation with a following deranged, high-pitched giggle escaping past his lips. In a frantic rush, he scoots forward on the top of the body while still in his straddled position, in attempt to get closer to the Thalmor Emissary. It's almost a comical sight to behold, as Cicero spontaneously lurches forward and literally sprawls himself out belly first across the bloodied soldier's body, just to stretch his arm out far enough to be able to grab ahold of the Rulindil's ankle. A short, startled gasp of surprise pours out of Rulindil's mouth. His horrified gaze flickers downward very briefly to make contact with glittering golden eyes, crinkled in psychotic glee. "Oopsy-daisy!" Cicero jests mock-innocently and barks out a laugh. With a toothy, lopsided grin full of mischief, Cicero gawks up at the High Elf and watches with great satisfaction as Rulindil clumsily flails his arms out to keep his balance. You can't help but come to an abrupt halt in your murderous pursuit to stare ahead at the elf, momentarily nonplussed by what is happening. "TIMBER~!" Cicero shouts out humorously and releases his python-like grip on his ankle, resulting with Rulindil losing his footing altogether.

With a clipped and fearful cry, he reels backwards and takes a painful fall. The back of his head roughly smashes against the solid floor at full-force, causing him to momentarily see stars and almost slip into unconsciousness. There's no doubt he just gained a real nasty concussion. He looks incredibly dazed and disoriented. He isn't even making a single move to jump back up and try to fight for his life. You also notice that his head cracked open in the slightest, you can tell by the small puddle of blood forming from behind his head. "Got him, Listener!" Cicero happily exclaims, clearly proud of himself, as he pulls himself up and off of the dead soldier he was awkwardly flopped and stretched out over. You know you really need to go and finish off Rulindil while he's down, however, you cannot help but take a few seconds to gawk and blink a bit owlishly at Cicero's rather disheveled and grisly appearance as he goes to stand back up on his feet. There is probably more blood on him than the dead guy he just stabbed to death! Well, guess it should only be expected. He did, after all, just lay the whole front of his body over the corpse's wide open and bleeding stab wounds.

Eyeing his blood soaked clothing up and down warily in silence, you strain a slightly awkward smile back at him. So much for those nice and fancy clothes Delphine was actually considerate enough to buy him to wear for this mission. There's no chance of a snowy day in Oblivion any of those bloodstains will ever wash out. Oh well, Cicero probably would never wear these clothes again anyway. He's much too attached to his beloved jester getup, which you know he's only not wearing right now because you asked him not for the sake of the mission. "Yes, yes you did… Good job." You praise in response and nod at him, which appears to greatly please him.

Getting your head back in the game, you turn your gaze from Cicero and prowl up to stand in front of Rulindil's fallen form on the ground. Looming over him intimidatingly with your blade gripped firmly in your hand, you stare down silently at his pale yellow face with a cold and uncaring expression, perfectly fit for a sociopath. Even while looking like he's fighting hard with himself just to remain conscious, he manages to still frown deeply and narrow his green eyes at you with burning hatred. In a pathetic last-ditch effort to fight back, he tries to sneakily inch his hand out beside him to grab back onto his elven dagger he had dropped. However, you immediately notice what he's trying to pull. Snorting in amusement and smirking at his pitiful and desperate attempt, you lift a foot up and suddenly stomp on his hand as hard as possible. A sickening crack of bones can be heard from his now broken hand, which you continue to keep pinned down in place with your foot. Yowling out loud in agony, his face twists into a deep grimace. "UGH! Y-you… bitch!"

"How does it feel, hm? Sucks to be on the receiving end of torture, doesn't it?" You tease him cruelly, and put even more pressure down onto his broken hand, causing him to seethe through clenched teeth and groan out loudly in pain.

"You… You're here for… for him?" Rulindil chokes out weakly, his eyes glancing briefly in the general direction of the imprisoned Breton, Etienne.

You shrug your shoulders and pass a quick glance over at Etienne's cell. "Eh, yes and no… It's a long story. A story too long and boring to tell a soon-to-be dead man such as yourself… So, ready to embrace the Void?"

"Do your worst."

"Pft, really? How cliché," You chuckle at his corny choice of last words with a roll your eyes before crouching down and leaning towards his face with your blade close at hand. "Nighty night, Rulindil." Right after that with a wry smile, you press your blade to his throat and slice it. Out of instinct, he shakily reaches up to helplessly grasp at to his own bleeding neck with his hands. Choking and gurgling painfully on his own blood, it doesn't take long for the life to soon away fade from his eyes and glaze over to a dull and vacant, wide-eyed stare. His entire body falls limp—he's dead. Looking into his empty green eyes with a small frown, it makes you wish you had one of your pretty, signature nightshade flowers with you to place down for him like you usually do with most of your kills. With a gentle sigh, you stand back up straight and turn to look back at the Keeper, who had silently watched you put an end to Rulindil from the sidelines with great interest. There never was a dull moment to Cicero when it came to watching you at work. For him, it is always a beyond delightful and exhilarating sight to behold. He can't help but admire you for it.

He and you stare at each other for a second and both go to open your mouth at the same time to say something. However, before either of you get a word out, a voice unexpectedly calls out to you... It's Etienne. He must've regained consciousness while Cicero and you were busy taking out the two Thalmor elves. "Hey! You there! You… you killed them… good riddens." Etienne trails off in a murmur while staring at you through the gaps in the bars of his tiny, cramped prison cell. "Are you here to free me? You look slightly familiar. Did someone send you? Was it someone from the Guild?" He asks you with a hopeful look.

Walking over to stand in front of his cell door, you stare back at him and quirk an eyebrow. "I look familiar? Guild? What are you talking about?"

"Oh… So they didn't then… Never mind. I don't know why you two are here exactly, but can you free me please? Please don't leave me here. They'll kill me for sure if you don't."

"Hm, I'll consider it. Though I want you to answer my questions first. I get you're probably real sick of getting the third-degree by everyone, but it is what it is. So, we got a deal? Etienne was it?"

"Yes, I'm Etienne Rarnis, and fine… Just promise you'll free me afterwards. Ask me whatever you want. I'll try to answer the best I can."

"Good to hear… Okay, first off, you made me a bit curious. What guild were you taking about? You said I look familiar…"

"The Thieves' Guild… I'm a member of it. I had thought maybe one of the other guild members might've sent you to rescue me. Hmph, I suppose I should've known better though. Anyway, I know you're the one asking the questions here, but may I at least know your name? Maybe it will trigger my memory if I have seen you before."

"Thieves' Guild, huh? Well, then you might actually have seen me before. I've had a few personal dealings with them. As for your question, I'm [Y/n]."

"[Y/n]?" He repeats back, sounding slightly surprised. "You mean like [Y/n] of the Dark Brotherhood, [Y/n]? Brynjolf has spoken about you a lot. He always says how he thinks you'd make a good addition to the Thieves' Guild. And now that I think about it, I do believe I remember seeing you once at the Ragged Flagon. You were discussing something with old Mallory."

You can't help but grimace a little at the mentioning of Brynjolf, especially at the both irritating and slightly creepy fact the redheaded thief apparently makes a habit out of talking about you to others behind your back. You barely know the guy, yet that didn't seem to deter him in the least. Honestly, you kind of regret having ever agreed to steal that stupid ring for him that one time, back when you first met him at the Riften marketplace. Maybe then he wouldn't act like such an annoying creep, obsessed with the idea of recruiting you as a new member to his shady, little gang full of kleptomaniacs.

After getting over that irksome thought, you nod your head at him. "Mhm, that's me. I have done some business with your Fence for the Dark Brotherhood. But anyway, I'm getting way off track here, so here's my second question…" You waver and cast a glance at Cicero from the corner of your eyes. Like he often does, he stays quiet out of respect for you while you're talking to others. He's standing close to your side and waiting patiently while watching and listening in on your conversation with Etienne. You happen to catch him in the act of looking all tense and agitated as he's balling up his fists at his sides and glaring darkly at Etienne for some inexplicable reason. However, he must've noticed your questionable gaze at him, because he immediately drops the act and switches back over to his original calm state, almost unnervingly fast… Jeez, what was all that about? What could've possibly provoked that out of him? You didn't think Etienne had said anything wrong or offensive.

Unknowingly to you, Cicero had only been unconsciously projecting his stirred up emotions of resentment at Etienne. In truth, he had been glaring straight through him as if he weren't even there. That deadly look had been intended for Brynjolf. Oh, how he hates that filthy, no-good thief, he reminds him so much of Heirth. Both of those shameless lechers desire you all for themselves to do with whatever they so please, both of them are wolves in sheep's clothing—pretenders, whose charm and decency is only skin deep. Cicero sees them for what they truly are. Neither one of them is any good, especially not for you. Heirth has already done more than prove that to him beyond all reasonable doubt. And he wouldn't bet not even a single Septim that Brynjolf wouldn't ever turn out to be just as despicable as Heirth Farseer. The only good thing about Brynjolf is that he is not a Dark Brother protected by the sanctity of the five tenets of the Dark Brotherhood, unlike Heirth unfortunately is. Cicero needn't worry about violating the fifth tenet and invoking the wrath of Sithis on himself if he were to rob the thief of his life. The only thing that has kept his blade at bay from going through with it is your word against his own to not kill him. Your word will always come before his own, for it is the will of the Night Mother, and you are the Listener, after all. He, the lowly, devoted Keeper lives to obey and obey he will! ... Even at the few rare times it feels almost painful for him to do so.

Focusing back on Etienne you ask him your second question. "Who's that Esbern guy Rulindil seemed to be so keen on hounding you for answers on? Let's just say I'm here looking for information. So whatever you can tell me that you do know would be appreciated."

"Um, well, for the information, you might want to check that chest next to Rulindil's desk. I imagine there could be something of use to you in there. And as for Esbern… he's an important affiliate of the Blades, another organization I am a part of. It's also the reason the Aldmeri Dominion send their goons out to capture and lock me up here in the first place to interrogate. The Thalmor are stopping at nothing to track down Esbern's location."

"I heard you say that there's an old man in Riften who could be him, right? Or were you lying when you said that?"

"No, I wasn't. He lives in Riften, underground somewhere in the Ratway Warrens… But I swear that's all I know." Rulindil informs you before grasping onto the iron bars in front of him and staring at you pleadingly with his eyes, "Now, will you let me out of here, please?"

"Yeah, I suppose you've been a good sport, so I will. Just give me a second." You nod to the Breton man and then turn to look back at Cicero. "Mind grabbing the keys for him? I'm gonna go look through the chest, hopefully there will be something definite in it that I can bring back as evidence to satisfy our dearest friend, Delphy."

"On it, Listener!" Cicero readily agrees and grins with a thumbs up. He then practically bounces off the spot next to you like a lively bunny rabbit, and makes his way back towards the lifeless corpse of the Thalmor soldier he had stabbed to death.

"Oh, thank you, thank you so much!" You hear Etienne say to you in a much happier and relived sounding voice, as you turn away from him and his cell door to walk back over towards the wooden desk, where the chest is located behind it against the wall. You happen to notice the desk is still slightly caught on fire in several places from your prior fiery contact with it, however, you doubt it would get bad enough to burn the whole place down or anything… Not that you can say you really cared if it did.

Stepping up to the chest and crouching down in front of it, you see that it is conveniently unlocked for you. Seems some of the security around here is much more lax than they let on. Lifting open the lid, you scan your eyes over the contents inside. Nothing much of interest to you seems to be inside, except a thin book, which you go to grab and flip open. Quickly skimming through the first few pages, you figure out the book is a Thalmor dossier. One page in particular labeled 'Esbern' causes you to pause and take a closer look to read over the written document. The first half of the report mainly states some background information they have on this old Esbern guy, whom seems to have played a pretty big role in the Blades as one of their supposed 'loremasters' at some point prior to the First War against the Empire. The second half of the report are operational notes, which you find to be much more relevant and useful to your whole purpose of being here. Reading over the whole thing, it proves your original suspicions correct. The Thalmor are as clueless about the sudden and unexpected reemergence of dragons in the world as everyone else. That is why they're searching so desperately for Esbern. He is their one and only best shot at being able to shed some light on the cause and meaning behind the dragons' return. So in conclusion, it would look like Delphine was wrong… What a shocker.

Shutting the dossier closed and putting it away on your person for safe keeping, you close the chest and stand back up. You are just about to turn and walk back to Etienne's cell, but before you can even fully turn away from the chest, you tense up in alarm at a sudden sound of a loud, masculine grunt and the clashing of metal. Is someone fighting?! Shaking yourself out of your stupor, you immediately break out into a sprint towards the noise. You notice the door to Etienne's prison cell is now open and left slightly ajar. The cell itself is also now completely empty. Cicero must've unlocked it for Etienne while you were busy going through the chest… Speaking of Cicero, where is he? You didn't have time to ponder over it, and you didn't really need to because you get your answer upon ascending back up the same stairwell that lead to the balcony you had first entered into the dungeons from.

The second you reach the top of the stairs, you take in the sight of Cicero in front of Malborn, fighting off two angry looking Thalmor soldiers with his dagger. By the looks of things, it seems like Cicero had stepped in to protect Malborn, to whom currently is cowering behind his back with a horrified expression. There was no sign of Etienne anywhere, but honestly he was the least of your concern right now. Running past Malborn in a speedy blur, you join in on the fight and lunge at the female soldier whom Cicero wasn't currently in the middle of fending off. With the fight becoming balanced, Cicero very quickly is able to gain an upper-hand over his opponent, now that he doesn't have to carefully juggle between battling both of them at the same time. Jumping back a bit from a heavy lunge of the soldier's sword, he skillfully parries it with his dagger and knocks the sword straight out of his hands. With a triumphant grin breaking out across his face, Cicero finishes him off in a matter of seconds after that.

Your side of the fight doesn't end up looking anywhere near as glamorous as his had been. Nevertheless, you succeed to also take out your opponent without much trouble shortly after him. Sheathing your blade back and glancing down at the pair of now dead Thalmor soldiers, you avert your gaze over to Cicero and Malborn. "Honestly, I'm kind of getting a little tired of killing these guys." You mention randomly with the shake of your head before raising your brow and eyeing Malborn down questionably. "So, um, would you please explain to me why you're here exactly? Had you really missed us that much, Mally, that you had to come and find us? That's sweet of you." You coo at him teasingly.

"Oh, stop with you and your jokes! It's not funny! None of this is!" He angrily snaps back and glares, bristling at your facetious behavior. However, his harsh glare on you doesn't last long as it gradually falters and turns to a look of despondence. Lowering his gaze from you, he rubs at his temples and takes a deep breath to calm himself before speaking up again in a much more subdued tone of voice. "They found out about me and forced me to come here to be locked up until they decide what to do with me…" He trails off and keeps his black eyes averted from you. "Although I suppose I should be grateful you bothered risking yourselves to free me from them. You didn't have to do it… So thanks." He murmurs quietly before eventually looking back at you with faint spark of determination in his eyes. "Let's find a way out of here."

"Agreed." You nod at him with a small smile before turning to look at Cicero. "Hey, do you happen to know where Etienne ran off to?"

"Yes indeed, Cicero does! While the Listener was busy, Cicero fetched the keys like you asked and released him. But then those pesky Thalmor guards showed up with our Bosmer friend. Before Cicero went off to lend our friend a hand, Etienne told Cicero there is a trapdoor at the end of the hall that he would wait for us at." He informs you.

"Wow, he actually didn't completely bail on us? That's surprising… Anyway, let's ditch this place before anymore Thalmor show up." After having said that, you begin making your way back down the stairwell with Malborn and Cicero following close behind. Approaching the corridor of prison cells again, you walk briskly to the end of it and catch sight of the dirty blond Breton, crouching down beside the trapdoor just like he said he would be waiting for you at.

"Oh good, you made it. Ready to go? Unfortunately the trapdoor here is locked, I tried picking the lock on it while I was waiting for you but I haven't had any success. However, maybe one of the keys he took from the guard will open it?" Etienne says and gestures to Cicero about the having the keys on him.

Making a thoughtful hum to himself, Cicero goes to stuff his hand into his pant pocket and pulls out the ring of keys Etienne was referring to. Slipping past Malborn and you, he crouches down next to Etienne, in front of the trapdoor. He tries out several of the keys to see if any of them might work. It takes him several tries, but soon enough he finally finds a key that clicks into place. "Aha! Got it!" Cicero exclaims happily with a grin before pulling the trapdoor wide open for everyone to enter through. Right after that, nobody wastes any time heading over to climb down a ladder that was revealed there as the only means of exit under the trapdoor. You are the last one to climb down the long rope ladder that appears to have led down into a cave. And it reeked… badly.

"Eugh! By the Divines above! What is that smell? It's awful!" Malborn starts complaining right away and makes a look of disgust as he proceeds to cover his nose with his hand.

"Smells like a mammoth's backside." Etienne half-jokes back in a dry tone, which succeeds to provoke a snicker from Cicero.

"Yeah, it's no perfume store. So let's not just stand around, whining about it. Let's go already." You retort and roll your eyes at them, or rather mainly at Malborn. However, even though you're trying to act like the stench didn't bother you that much, it was actually giving you the slightest of headaches. You are certainly no stranger to the smell of death, yet even this is a bit much for you. The air is dank and heavy with the overwhelming and distinct scent of decaying flesh. You'll be more than glad to get out of here.

The four of you begin your trek forward through the cavern's tight and craggy passageway which thankfully wasn't too long. Reaching the end of the path that stops at a stone ledge and opens up to a larger and more spacious portion of the cave, you feel a chill pass over and prickle your skin from the noticeable dip in temperature within the room. Above on the ceiling are a few holes, casting several shafts of sunlight into the cave, as well as snow which is blanketing every square inch of the floor below. Not only did it get a whole lot colder, but the putrid stench of rotten flesh had also gotten far worse. Grimacing at the smell, you are about to say something but Malborn suddenly interrupts you. Sputtering out with several loud coughs, he places both of his hands over his mouth and doubles over slightly as he begins retching a bit over dramatically... Dear mercy, he reminds you of a cat choking on a hairball.

"Uh, Listener?" Cicero suddenly taps your shoulder to gain your attention away from being distracted by Malborn's gagging session. "Cicero thinks we're not alone." He informs you and points down at a certain spot below the ledge you're standing atop of. Glancing at him in confusion, you look over where he's pointing at. The sight you are met with makes all the puzzle pieces start clicking together. Within a small, open niche in the cave, there is a large clutter of rotting chucks of meat and skeletal remains from animals and people alike. Blood splatters stained the rock walls and floor surrounding the area, and right in the middle of it all is what Cicero was referring to… a giant fucking frost troll. Oh joy!

"Well, that would explain the smell." You grumble in annoyance.

"Shit… How in Oblivion are we going to get past that thing?" Etienne asks while staring a bit fearfully down at the large, white furred beast that's just sitting there in its little, blood-soaked den.

"What do you think? We kill it. Sneaking past it doesn't look possible." You tell him and draw out a sigh. "At least I have an advantage over it. Frost trolls and fire tend not to mix very well."

"Now, hold on before you go blindly racing head first into battle, [Y/n]. I don't have a weapon and neither does he. And frankly even if I did have one, I do not believe frost trolls and myself tend to mix very well either. I won't stand a chance…" Malborn points out to you while having also motioned to Etienne, who too is lacking in the weapons department.

Resisting the urge to roll your eyes again, you reply back to him, "Then just stay out of the way, and ugh, I don't know, cheerlead for us on the sidelines or something. Cicero and I can take care of it ourselves."

"Actually Listener, if Etienne wants to help us slay the nasty beast, Cicero has something he could use." Cicero chimes in before pulling out a big, sharp kitchen knife, seemingly out of nowhere from his person. Where in the world did he get that? Wait… Did he steal that back when you were in the embassy's kitchens? Is that the reason why he was acting so suspicious when trying to 'innocently' hide it behind his back from you? Honestly, you shouldn't even be surprised. It totally sounds like something he would do.

"That's what you stole from the kitchen and were hiding from me from before, isn't it?" You accuse Cicero, who only smiles sheepishly at you in response. This time you couldn't resist the temptation to roll your eyes. "Whatever, it doesn't matter… So you helping or not? I would like to get out of this cave some time today." You go on to question Etienne a bit impatiently.

"Uhm, uh… sure?" He agrees uncertainly and with some reluctance he reaches out to accept the knife Cicero is offering him.

"Good, now let's do this. Malborn, keep your distance. And you two, follow me. I'll take the lead." You say while beginning to focus on channeling your magic, which causes a red-hot blaze of fire to ignite from the palms of your hands. Stepping up to the end of the ledge, the fireballs in your hands grow and burn brighter as you prepare to rain them down on the frost troll. Extending your hands out in front of you, the swirling balls of flames spreads out widely and hails down an inferno onto the creature. A pained and infuriated roar escapes past its maw and thunderously echoes off of all the cavern walls surrounding it. It tries poorly shielding itself with its arm raised to cover its head from the rain of fire. Once the bombardment of fire runs out, it glares up at you with its three beady black eyes. It then beats its chest with its large fists like an angry gorilla, before suddenly charging from its spot to go after you.

Jumping down from the ledge, you land with grace before moving ahead quickly to hurl some more fireballs in the frost troll's direction. Cicero and Etienne follow close behind you, but instead of jumping from the ledge like you had, they take to racing down a short and snowy slope that curved down to the bottom. Malborn fidgets uncomfortably on the spot and looks like he's just about ready to have a nervous breakdown, however, eventually he forces himself to follow down the slope too, awhile still being very mindful to keep a safe distance from the action. The frost troll seems mainly focused on chasing you down, which is certainly keeping you quick on your feet, but at least it's giving Cicero and Etienne the time to make a tactical move of flanking it from both sides. Before it almost traps you into a corner to take a swipe at, the two men lunge at its sides with both of their weapons drawn. The hulking beast bares its large, sharp fangs and cries out with a furious roar as it is being attacked from nearly all angles. Being clearly outnumbered, it panics and starts swinging its long, muscular arms around aimlessly to hit one of you. Cicero and Etienne do their best to dodge its flailing arms, and continue slashing and hacking at it. You had to be a little more careful with casting your fire magic, now that they are so close to the troll, you didn't want to accidentally burn one of them to a crisp.

Keeping your fireballs smaller to be more precise and avoid any unwanted spread, you lob a few more that make direct hits on it. It wasn't until you noticed it starting to slow down when you begin to feel some relief this fight was almost over. The frost troll is strong but still wasn't strong enough to stand much of a chance against three people at once, especially against one who kept setting it on fire. Etienne suddenly pierces its side with his knife, distracting it just long enough for Cicero to take the opportunity to slide smoothly in front of it and stab his dagger straight through the center of its face. It wails out loudly in pain and attempts to reach up to cradle its blood soaked face with its clawed hands. But before it gets the chance, the beast goes limp and topples forward, smashing face-first into the icy ground with a resounding thud. Finally it's dead… Good riddens.

"Oh my, y-you actually did it. I can't believe you killed it and nobody is hurt." Malborn speaks up in both surprise and great relief as he rushes over closer to the three of you.

"Wow... I can't believe I actually just helped kill a frost troll with a kitchen knife of all things. Heh, the guys back at the Guild are never going to believe it when I tell 'em." Etienne says while sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck and chuckling a tiny bit to himself at the thought.

"Hehe, you know if you stuck around long enough with [Y/n], you might also be able to say you helped kill a dragon, too! Cicero can say he has! Mmm, well maybe not with a kitchen knife, of course! But Cicero bets the Listener could take down a dragon with just a butter knife alone if she wanted to!" Cicero exclaims jokingly before holding his stomach and cackling at his own words. You snort in amusement at his silly comment about you and shake your head at him with a faint smirk. He's such a suck-up sometimes. Not that you really mind it or anything.

"W-what? A dragon? You two have killed a dragon before? That's crazy… Um, I think I'm content with just being able to say I killed a frost troll. Dragons might be overdoing it for me." Etienne replies an uneasy smile.

"It is for most people. However, I'm a bit of what you could call a special case… Anyway, let's get out of this stinking cave already." You say with a small smile before moving ahead towards the only remaining path left to take. You can tell it's the exit once you got close enough to see the tunnel brightening up considerably from the light outside shining into the mouth of the cave. The second you reach the opening, you rush outside with a grin and feel for once relived to find yourself in a freezing, cold forest. At least this time there isn't a blizzard and you aren't all alone, even though you still have not a single idea where you are exactly. You assume you can't possibly be too far away from the Thalmor Embassy you had escaped through the cave from. You'll figure it out.

"We're free…" Etienne says breathlessly and looks up to smile at the slightly overcast sky above. Turning to look back at you, he continues to smile as a look of gratitude fills his eyes. "Thank you so much, [Y/n] and Cicero. I thought I was going to die in there for sure. Glad that didn't end up being the case." He says to you two with a grin before glancing away thoughtfully. "Well, I'm gonna head back to Riften now and let the Guild know I'm not dead. Maybe we'll run into each other again whenever you decide to visit the city… You know, I think Brynjolf was right about you. The Thieves' Guild certainly needs people like you, specially with the way things are going right now. But that's totally up to you… All I know is that I owe you two more than a drink." He states with a hearty chuckle.

"Don't mention it, Etienne. Just try not to get caught again. Though I think I'm gonna have to pass you up on the whole Thieves' Guild thing. The Dark Brotherhood is all I need. However, I'm not opposed to you buying us a drink sometime." You reply with a teasing smirk and wink at him. "Take care."

"Heh, yeah. You too, my friend." He replies back before bidding you all a farewell and running off.

"I ought to get going as well. It's… It's been a long day. I've got a lot to think about now that the Thalmor are aware of my treachery. I don't know what I will do exactly, but… I'll figure out something." Malborn says while shaking his head with a sigh. "Anyway, I must say that I honestly wasn't too sure about you two at first, but you both came through in the end… even for me specifically when you could've just as easily left me. So, again you have my thanks. Now, I'm certain Delphine will want to see whatever you found in there. You should meet back up with her as soon as you get the chance."

"I meant what I said when I told you not to doubt us. And if I were you I would start with hunkering down somewhere and keeping a low profile for a while. The Thalmor can't look for you forever. As for Delphine, don't worry about it. I'll get back to her when I'm ready to see her. She's just going to have to try real hard to be patient and wait a little bit, because right now all I want to do is head back home and get some rest… Now, before we part ways would you, um, by any chance know where the nearest road is from here? 'Cause I have absolutely no idea where we are right now." You ask him with a slightly embarrassed smile.

Malborn snorts and actually makes the faintest of amused smiles at you before pointing off in a certain direction. "There's one not that far away. You can't miss it. Anyway, we most likely will not cross paths again after this… So farewell, [Y/n] and Cicero. And good luck."

"We'll miss ya, Mally. It's been fun." You reply back with a small smile and glance at Cicero, who starts energetically waving goodbye at Malborn with a giant, goofy grin plastered across his face.

"Hehehe! Toodle-loo~! Good luck to you as well, and try not to die a horrible death!"

"Um, right… thanks." Malborn murmurs back dully, while still looking greatly perturbed by Cicero and his usual zany antics.

With one final wave goodbye to the Bosmer, you turn away from him and start walking in the direction he had pointed you to go. Immediately after you begin walking off, Cicero dashes over close to your side to walk next to you. "So Listener! Are we heading back home now? Cicero thinks he needs to check on Mother…" He trails off in thought as he brings up the Night Mother.

"Yeah, I'm honestly a bit tired after going through all that we did. It'll be late by the time we get back to the sanctuary. Not to mention, I can't say I'm in any big hurry to race back over to Delphine. She might not like what I have to tell her, considering she was wrong about the Thalmor's involvement in the sudden return of dragons. I found a dossier that had a page on that Esbern guy, Etienne had mentioned. The Thalmor are trying to track him down for information, because apparently he's the only one who might possibly have some answers to this whole dragon dilemma. I can only assume Delphine is probably going to want me to find him before the Thalmor do."

"Ooo, and so the plot thickens~! Heheh! Cicero simply cannot wait to see where this all goes! As for the Lady of Blades, if she does call for you to go on the hunt for this Esbern fellow, shall Cicero and the Listener return to Riften?"

You nod at him and reply, "Sounds like that will be the case. I do believe Etienne said he's living somewhere within the Ratway Warrens in Riften…" You trail off and glance down as you start smiling wryly to yourself. "Heh, seems like trips to Riften is becoming something of a routine for the two of us. I sure wonder how many times the Thieves' Guild will try recruiting me this time?" You state sarcastically and roll your eyes, internally grimacing as Brynjolf's face comes to mind. Ugh, hopefully you can avoid him if possible… That is, of course, to say Delphine will even want you to go find Esbern in the first place.

Guess you'll cross that road when you get there... But for now, it's time to go home.