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Sorry for the long wait, OP. Hope you like!

Summary: The newest member of the Thieves Guild receives a lesson in humility from Vex.
Tags: char: f!pc, vex; relationship: femslash; race: breton, imperial; kinks: oral, bondage, knife_play, dub_con, voyeurism

Excerpt from Naliah’s journal, 19th of Last Seed, 4E 201:

“My first official job for the Thieves Guild was...interesting, to say the least. Even Brynjolf was taken aback at Mercer’s insistence that I go on the mission, and when I talked to some of the other members of the Guild, I discovered why. Even Vex, the Guild’s best infiltrator, hadn’t been able to get inside Goldenglow Estate.
I wasn’t feeling particularly confident about the whole thing, to be perfectly honest, but I went anyway – I didn’t want to let Brynjolf down – after all, he had vouched for me – and I really didn’t want to get Mercer angry with me. I’ll admit, the Guildmaster scared me a little. But somehow, despite all the odds, I managed it. I made it to Aringoth’s little island, got inside the house, looted the safe, got out, and headed back to the Guild. Not only was Bryn happy to see me back safely, most of the others began to look at me with more respect. The guys even bought me drinks in the Flagon. I was on cloud nine that night. Well, kind of drunk, but still really, genuinely happy. But I learned an important lesson that night – one that wasn’t taught to me in any conventional way...”

*

If I ever had to crawl through a sewer tunnel again, I vowed, I would wear some kind of full-body waterproofing. I had had enough of that while crawling through the Ratway for the first time, thank you very much. As it was, I was fairly sure that I was covered in muck and muddy water, if not worse. My armour was soaked from swimming away from the island, and I probably smelled awful on top of everything else. No wonder it’d been me Mercer had sent on this job.

It wasn’t as though it had been a failure, though. Not only had I managed to get into the house without anyone seeing, it had been so easy to sneak through it I could have sworn the mercenaries were all snoozing on the job. Granted, most of them were probably preoccupied with the fact that three of Aringoth’s beehives were on fire, but still. My pouch was full of stuff – gems, ingots, even a nice statue depicting a bee – not least of which was a sheet of paper confirming the sale of the estate. That, I knew, would interest Brynjolf, so I had taken great pains to ensure that it didn’t get wet. That would be all I needed to get Mercer riled up, and I really didn’t want that. Even on our first, brief meeting, he had immediately struck me as one of the very few people who I was genuinely scared of.

Grimacing at the squelching feeling of water in my boots, I trudged through the city towards the Guild’s secret entrance, round the back of the Temple of Mara. It was an ironic choice of location, but definitely useful; I really mistrusted the Ratway. Too many skeevers, weird noises and random thugs trying to gut me. No thank you.

I dropped into the cistern, conscious of how bad I probably smelled. My suspicions were confirmed when the first person I met opened the conversation with, ‘By all the gods, kid, where have you been playing?’

I sighed. ‘Thrynn, if you call me "kid" again, I swear I'll thump you. I'm nineteen, not a child.’

The ex-bandit gave me a wide, distinctly unapologetic grin.

I mock-glared at him. ‘Is that any way to greet the girl who’s just made it back from the Goldenglow job? Without being caught?’

The announcement had the desired effect: Thrynn’s jaw literally dropped. ‘You... You’re not serious? You gotta be joking, right?’

In answer, I fished out the statue I had lifted from under Aringoth’s nose.

I was rewarded with a huge grin. ‘You actually managed it?’ Then he raised his voice. ‘Hey, everyone! The new girl made it back from Goldenglow!’

I grimaced. ‘Yes, thank you, Thrynn. You’re not one for subtlety, are you?’

He nudged me, none too gently, I noted. ‘Hey, even Vex couldn't manage it. It’s big news.’ Then he wrinkled his nose. ‘Anyway, you still stink.’

I thumped him, but I had to admit he was right. I would have to change before I met up with Bryn.

Clad in some spare clothes – loose trousers, long-sleeved shirt, leather boots – I waltzed back into the Cistern, where I was greeted by Brynjolf.

‘Word on the street is Goldenglow’s been hit. Good work, lass.’ I couldn’t stop a proud smile from crossing my face.

‘You know, I almost didn’t think you’d make it back,’ he confessed.

I rolled my eyes. ‘Funny, that’s the most common reaction I’ve been getting.’

Brynjolf gave me that roguish grin of his. Damn him. ‘So, what did you find?’ In answer I fished the bit of paper – mercifully dry – out of my pouch.

The thief scanned it, then exclaimed, ‘Aringoth sold Goldenglow? What’s that idiot thinking?’

I looked at him. ‘I’m guessing that’s a bad thing, right?’

The older man stared at me, green eyes wide. ‘You have no idea, lass. The extent of Maven’s fury when she’s been cut out of a deal... But I’m certain Aringoth will find out,’ he added. I shuddered.

‘If only we had the buyer’s name instead of this odd symbol...’ Brynjolf held out the paper so I could see. ‘Any idea what it might mean?’

I shrugged. ‘No clue.’

‘Blast.’

‘Sorry,’ I offered.

Bryn squeezed my shoulder to reassure me. ‘Not your fault, lass. Listen, I’ll check my sources and speak to Mercer. We'll figure this out somehow.'

'Anything I can do?' In truth, the last thing I wanted to do right then was go trawling for information, given that I was getting really tired after Goldenglow, but I would have done anything to take away the dejected look that Brynjolf's face bore just then.

He offered me a weary smile. 'Thanks, lass. But you've got more important things to be doing for now.' At my quizzical look, he elaborated. 'You’re off to speak to Maven Black-Briar. She's waiting in the Bee and Barb. She asked for you by name.’

I stared at him. ‘Uh, OK, but will I come back alive?’ I was trying not to sound nervous, but in reality I was almost wetting myself. Along with Mercer Frey, Maven Black-Briar was definitely on the list of people who properly scared me.

This time Bryn took hold of both of my shoulders, and despite myself, I found myself feeling a little warm and fuzzy. Damn it. ‘Don’t worry, lass. If Maven wanted you dead she’d be calling on the Dark Brotherhood. This is business.’

I took a deep breath. ‘You want me to go right now?’

‘Right now,’ the older thief confirmed.

Under my breath, I cursed violently. It’d be just my rotten luck to have to go out and confront Riften’s resident dragoness when all I really wanted to do was collapse on my bed and sleep, preferably getting some food in my stomach first. Out loud, though, I just gave a long-suffering sigh. ‘All right. I’ll go and see her. And if I don’t come back here in one piece,’ I added, ‘I’ll kick your thieving, manipulative arse right from here to Solitude. Got it?’

Bryn just chuckled at me as I left.

this is great so far, i would love to see more

When I finally returned to the Ragged Flagon it was early evening. I was exhausted from lack of sleep, my nerves were shredded, and I really needed a drink.

Fortunately, I was still in one piece. Unfortunately, Maven Black-Briar had all but implied that if I didn’t come back from the job she had assigned to me with results, I would be getting a visit from the Dark Brotherhood. That was enough to make me paranoid – or rather, even more paranoid than usual – and I had been looking over my shoulder all the way back to the Guild. Now all I wanted was something to drink, followed by a good night’s sleep, so I flopped down at a table, groaning.

‘That bloody Maven Black-Briar,’ was all I could say.

The table I had chosen to collapse at was right by Vex, who appraised me coolly. ‘You’d better not let her hear you say that, Naliah. It might upset her.’

I lifted my head off of my folded arms to shoot the Imperial woman a weary glare. ‘How daft d’ y’ think I am? That woman scares the living shit out of me.’ I dropped my head back to its previous resting place, but kept my face turned towards the older thief. ‘Who told her who I was anyway? Apparently she referred to me by name, and I've been real careful about keeping a low profile round here, I’ll have you know.’ Even though I'd met her before, at the Thalmor Embassy, I had made sure to use a false name that time. I was glad of the hood I had put on before going to meet her, because I really didn't want her to remember me from then. I didn't mention that to Vex, though.

Vex just shrugged. ‘Maybe Maul told her. You said you met him, didn't you?’

‘Bah, maybe. I don’t know.’ Then another thought struck me. ‘So how’d she know I’d hit Goldenglow?’

The thief gave me an odd look. ‘Great clouds of smoke billowing from the property owned by an important contact do tend to be a bit of a giveaway.’

I made an ‘ah’ noise. ‘That’ll be it.’ Wearily, I closed my eyes, savouring the soothing feeling it lent me. Now I really, really needed sleep. It was unusually quiet in here; maybe I could just rest for a moment... But something else was nagging to be said. ‘Um, Vex?’

‘Yeah? What is it now?’

‘Your idea of going through the sewer really helped. Thanks.’ But I couldn’t stop myself adding, ‘Dunno why you had such trouble, though. Guards all looked half-asleep, y’know?’ I was just barely conscious of the irritated look that momentarily crossed the older woman’s face, and felt bad for a second. Yeah, Vex could be a bit of a bitch sometimes – I had learned that the first time I’d walked into the Flagon – but she was also smart and tough, and possessed the combination of a fiery temper and snarky disposition that I admired. From what I’d been told, she was also a brilliant infiltrator, able to break into almost anything and get away undetected; according to Vipir, she could almost literally vanish into the shadows at will. I’d have given anything to be able to do that.

Of all the Guild members I’d met so far, it was Vex who had made the biggest impression on me. Sure, we had already exchanged sharp words in the short time I’d been here, but I really did admire her. Tough, skilled, and perfectly capable of putting the guys in their place, there was a very good reason why she was a Guild Third. If not for the fact that I was unusually shy around her, I might have tried to become her friend. That actually annoyed me, because I was never shy, around anyone. Sure, Mercer scared me, but I’d quickly discovered I could handle that with a little snark. The tougher guys had intimidated me at first, but a bit of snark and a gout of fire blown across the Cistern had quickly remedied that. Vex, on the other hand, was an entirely different story; for some reason, I couldn’t talk to her without feeling butterflies swarm in my stomach. Between them, she and Brynjolf were turning me into a fuzzy girlish lump, and that was really annoying. Not to mention completely weird.

The glare that Vex shot me just then sent the aforementioned butterflies into a frenzy. Shame got the better of nerves, and I opened my mouth to apologise.

‘Hey, there she is!’

Irritated, I turned my head towards the disturbance. Who was that making such a racket, crowing across the room with a voice like a grumpy dragon’s and ruining my apology? I was seriously considering emulating such a creature and unleashing fury on the perpetrator, when my question was immediately answered by the thump of someone landing on the chair beside me. ‘Hey, don’t think you’re avoiding us this time, kid!’

Thrynn, of course. ‘Aw, wha’ d’ y’ want?’ I groaned.

The ex-bandit grinned at me, and I realised that some of the other guild members – Rune, Vipir the Fleet, Etienne and Cynric – were pulling up chairs as well. ‘What d’ya think? We’re celebrating!’ Then he caught sight of Vex, and he shot her his now-familiar broad grin. ‘Sorry, Vex, but I think little Naliah here might’ve pinched your position as top infiltrator!’

If anyone else caught the momentary flash of irritation that crossed Vex’s face, no one made any comment on it. Either way, I had no time to respond to it, since one of the other guys – Cynric Endell, I remembered; I had made a point of learning everyone’s name upon introduction to them – proceeded to plop a full tankard of mead on the table in front of me.

‘To Naliah,’ he announced, raising his own drink. ‘And to the bright future of the Guild!’

‘I’ll drink to that.’ Rune dropped in next to me and wrapped a strong arm around my shoulders.

‘You guys,’ I moaned, but I couldn’t stop a smile curving along my mouth. ‘I’m not going to be the one to change the Guild’s fortunes, you know. Not for the better, anyway.’

‘That’s rubbish, Naliah, and you know it.’ That was Vipir. ‘You broke into Goldenglow, girl. Not everyone can claim as much, especially those of us who’re still rookies, eh kid?’ He punctuated this last comment with a hearty slap to Etienne’s shoulder, who somehow managed to smile and scowl at the same time.

I had to give Vipir that one. ‘Yeah, I was good, wasn’t I?’

‘Damn good!’ he crowed. ‘You’re making waves in this place already, girl. This is your night. Live it!’

I knew when I was beaten. ‘All right.’ I sat up properly and, for appearances’ sake, made an attempt to shake off my weariness. ‘Let’s party.’

If I hadn’t been so washed-out, running on nothing but the enthusiasm of my fellow thieves, I might have registered the disgruntled ‘humph’ that came from Vex’s chest as she neatly dodged past the rabble, and I might have called a halt to the whole thing. Celebrating seemed a little too much like rubbing my success in her face. But on the other hand, Vipir was probably right. This was my mission, my night, and it was rare that I was genuinely praised for my efforts at something, so maybe I was entitled to a bit of gloating. Still... ‘Vex?’ I called. ‘You don’t have to go...’

She turned around to fix me with her cool gaze. ‘No, no. I wouldn’t want to spoil your party.’ The emphasis she placed on that last word momentarily made my insides shrivel up with guilt, but I squashed it. I wasn’t going to feel guilty about this job. I’d succeeded, she hadn’t; that was all there was to it, and if she wanted to make a big deal about it, that was her problem, not mine.

I blamed tiredness for leading me to make the unwise move of letting those thoughts escape the confines of my head and slip out from between my lips.

Silence reigned in the Flagon for several seconds as the others stared from me to Vex nervously. I reflected abstractly that snapping at one of the highest-ranking members of the Guild was definitely not one of my better ideas, but stubborn pride kept my eyes fixed on hers, challenging her to respond.

Grr, character limit

Vex glared daggers at me, a dark look briefly flashing through her brown eyes. However, instead of blowing up at me, as I’d expected, she remained almost perfectly calm. ‘You should probably watch that mouth of yours, Naliah,’ was all she said, her voice quiet. ‘You might be new here, and you might be Brynjolf’s favourite, but that kind of...insubordination could get you into trouble.’ With that, she neatly swerved around the guys and slipped through the doorway, out of sight.

Rune broke the silence first, blowing out a long breath. ‘By the gods, Naliah. You’ve got stones, taking on Vex like that.’

‘I didn’t mean to,’ I admitted, suddenly shamefaced. ‘It just came out.’ Looking from one man to the other, I sighed, ‘She’s going to be pissed, isn’t she?’

‘Ah, she’ll get over it,’ Vipir said flippantly.

‘She never stays in a mood for too long,’ Thrynn assured me when I didn’t look appeased. ‘Come on, cheer up. It’s your night, kid. Remember?’

I sighed. ‘Yeah, sure.’ I took a sip of mead and tried to ignore the nagging voice in my head telling me to watch my back. I hadn’t meant to antagonise Vex. I’d apologise to her the next day, before I headed off to Whiterun, and things would go back to the way they were before. She’d understand, wouldn’t she?

But, in the back of my mind: Apologise, and thing’s ‘ll go back to normal. Right, my instincts were sneering.

I ignored them. It was another bad idea.

‘...so I got upstairs, right, and I got into Aringoth’s bedroom.’ Three hours had passed by in a whirl of drink and raucous conversation. We had all drunk more mead than was probably good for us, and the combination of exhaustion and alcohol had conspired to send me into a rather loud-mouthed giggly stupor. Both Vekel and Dirge were becoming rather annoyed with us, and Tonilia had resorted to hurling a bread roll across the room and yelling at us to ‘Shut the fuck up!’. None of us took much notice, though, or at least I didn’t; I was too busy recounting the job to my equally sloshed colleagues for what turned out to be the third time, with added embellishments.

‘He didn’t even wake up, even when I took the key from his pocket! He was totally out of it! Snoring like a horker!’ I attempted to demonstrate what such a noise might sound like, provoking guffaws from the guys. ‘And his mercenaries weren’t any better. Guards like that, a blind troll could do their job better!’

‘“Got into Aringoth’s bedroom”,’ Vipir snickered. ‘Might want to say that different – unless you actually—’

‘No! Oh, gods, no!’ Trust Vipir to try to make this into something it wasn’t. ‘Ugh, Vipir, that is just sick and wrong!’

Of course, the others just couldn’t leave it there. ‘You sure? It’d explain how you got out with all that loot,’ Cynric slurred.

Offended, I pouted, ‘I’ll have you know that my success was based purely on skill, and not through any...uh...’ Damn it, I really had drunk far too much; I was usually much more coherent than this.

‘Whatever you say, kid.’ Thrynn was probably more inebriated than the rest of us, which seemed to be making him moody and surprisingly taciturn. I couldn’t help noticing, however, that he had one arm thrown around my shoulders. But then, alcohol tended to do funny things to people. I had already had the thought that he wasn’t bad-looking at all.

‘I’m serious!’ I protested. ‘It’s skill. I ain’t that type. Although,’ I remembered, perking up, ‘there was that time I filched a key off of a bloke like that. You see, what happened was—’

‘I’m sure this is a fascinating story,’ a harsher, gravelly voice cut in, ‘but it is past midnight, and I believe you all have jobs to be getting on with come the morning. So I highly suggest you quiet down, clean up this mess and get yourselves sobered up, because I do not want to be bailing any of you out of jail because you were too hung over to perform adequately. Is that understood?’

Oh, blast. Mercer. That was the last thing I needed.

‘I said is that understood?’ Mercer snapped at us.

My tablemates responded with mutters that included variations of ‘Yes, boss’, ‘Got it’, and a very grumpy ‘Yeah, whatever’ from Thrynn. I added my voice to the general moaning and groaning, but secretly, a part of me was grateful for the Guildmaster’s appearance; exhaustion and alcohol was making me feel a bit woozy, and I really wanted to go to bed. But another part of me wanted to stay in the Flagon, because I couldn’t help remembering the dark look Vex had shot me earlier. In my mead-addled state, I had about as much luck deciphering it as I would have had finding my way through a Dwemer ruin while blindfolded, but there was something about it that was making my paranoia rise to the surface again.

The clean-up was haphazard to say the least, drunk as we all were, but eventually I somehow made it from the Flagon to the Cistern. Such a short journey under normal circumstances, it felt to me like a trek up to High Hrothgar, fraught with hazards such as Vipir attempting to aim a clumsy kiss at my mouth, or falling into the water, two fates I narrowly avoided. With so much alcohol in my system, I was uncoordinated and stumbled around like a newborn deer, so unsteady on my feet that I had a brief moment of panic before I reached my destination. Then I finally collapsed face down on the bed, not even bothering to remove my boots before finally, finally drifting into blessed sleep.

At least, that had been my intention. The reality, as it turned out, consisted of me shrieking and attempting to jump into a defensive position while both drunk and lying flat on my face, which predictably resulted in me almost falling straight onto the floor. The reason: one word, spoken close by my ear: my name, spoken by the lithe figure slipping out of the shadows.

When I’d managed to struggle into what could technically be called an upright position, I recognised the culprit immediately; she was standing right by me bed, holding something in one hand. ‘Shit, Vex,’ I complained, ‘are you trying to give me a heart attack?’

‘I brought you this,’ she replied simply.

I squinted; she appeared to be holding a cup, which seemed odd. Wasn’t Vex mad at me? Why was she bringing me a drink? Unless it was poisoned, which I wouldn’t put past her.

I must have looked suspicious, or otherwise she could guess where my thoughts were dwelling, because Vex held the cup out so I could see its contents. ‘Milk, with lavender and juniper. It might help you deal with the monumental hangover you’re going to have in the morning.’

I blinked blearily at her. ‘Uh, thanks.’ Levering myself into a more stable position, I took the cup from her and sniffed suspiciously. Despite my instinctive paranoia, however – still in force even while the rest of my head was foggy – it seemed to be just Vex had said it was: creamy milk, with the sweet smell of lavender contrasting with the sharp scent of the juniper berries. I took a sip; nothing seemed out of place, so I took a long gulp. She had even warmed the drink for me, I noted with detached surprise. ‘Thanks, Vex,’ I smiled, with genuine gratitude this time.

Silent again, the older woman nodded in response. She wasn’t still cross, was she? Not if she was giving me warm milk, helping me. Something in the back of my mind was fluttering insistently at me, like something was wrong, but the pleasant-but-not-unpleasant buzz left by the mead I’d consumed had the feeling smothered. Ugh, my head was starting to hurt. Maybe I was dehydrated, didn’t alcohol do that? I took another gulp of the scented drink, the creamy liquid slipping easily down my throat.

‘Hey, Vex...’ I had no idea what I was saying, only that I had to say something to her. What was it? Something about a party. No, wait, I was going to say sorry, wasn’t I? Yeah, that was it. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you... I just wanted to have some time to be happy about...’ About what?

I was starting to feel dizzy. That had to be the exhaustion. I wanted to go to sleep, but I had to talk to Vex first. Vex was mad at me about something, and I had to make it right. Or was it me who was mad about her? No, no, not about her, at her. Or was it the other way round, was I mad at or about? Around and about, around and around, like a carriage’s wheels going bumpy-bumpy-bumpy over the road... Wait, what was I on about? Was this milk making me more sleepy or what? Either that or I really had had too much to drink. Yes, that must be it...another gulp of milk.

‘And, I really like you an’ everything...’ The Cistern, what I could see of it, had begun to lurch alarmingly; I blinked hard to try and clear my vision. ‘An’ I didn’t want t’... I mean, I really like y’, Vex...’

Everything was swimming in front of my eyes, making me nauseous. I tried to put a hand to my forehead, a futile attempt to ease the pain there, but I couldn’t quite manage it. I barely noticed the cup falling from my slack fingers and dropping to the floor, shattering on the stone. The sound was almost inaudible over the strange roaring that was now filling my ears: like a tangle of garbled voices, and the clash of steel on steel, and the screams of a dragon’s fire rushing past me...

Through the fog slowly descending at the edges of my vision, I struggled to focus on Vex’s face, and it looked blank, emotionless – like she was expecting this to happen.

I think I managed to articulate a strangled ‘Vex...’ before I was swallowed by the fog.

Do continue...please?

On it's way!

*its. Can't spell.

Is this forgotten? I hope not

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