Dragons, Dragons, and Dragons, oh my!

She’d completely forgotten about the staff in a moment of needing to get the fuck out of that prison. Telasie did her best to remember what all she had been wearing. 

“I believe my cloak is at my home, so I suppose it doesn’t matter for now.” She said, conjuring a spear and leaning on it like she would a staff. She was beyond tired now and in quite a bit of pain from the exertion. “The staff will fall into the wrong hands, no doubt, before returning to mine. Though… I suppose it was time I got rid of that cursed thing anyway.” She shrugged.

“Alright then, veteran outlaw. Figure out where we are.” She gestured with frustration to their surroundings. “I’m not even sure what province this is. All the lands of man look the same to me.”

“Not a hundred percent positive myself,” he admitted begrudgingly. “The seas are my territory. Usually, they’re not smart enough to bring me inland... oh, don’t give me that look, I’ll figure it out. Just stick with me and we’ll be out of this place in no time, aye?”

Crevan peeked around the bridge to get a better look at his surroundings. The river was flowing south, which meant there was likely a larger body of water - hopefully the sea - to the north. There was a mountain range on the other side of the town, and the sun was falling behind them. He had a general idea of where they were, but just how far from Solitude were they?

Just to their left was a slope that led down to the riverbed. It would be easy enough to get down assuming Telasie didn’t fall unconscious halfway through. Not that it mattered, he’d consider himself lucky if that happened. But until then, he had to pretend he actually intended on following through with his end of the deal.

Telasie listened with something of an eager expression that she didn’t smother since no one would see it. Though she didn’t want to expend the energy it would take to dispatch the guards, the idea of the violent conflict excited her.

“Don’t call me ‘lass’,” She, waiting for her own invisibility spell to lift. “Don’t tell me this is your first time being a wanted criminal on the run.” She scoffed at him.

He snorted at that. “Do I look like a first-timer to you?” All he ever did was run from the law, and he enjoyed every second of it. It meant that there was never a dull moment in life.

Crevan patted his sides and looked in the general direction of the jail. “No, the problem is that I didn’t see our things anywhere, and therefore, we don’t have them.”

Not that he needed any of it. He had plenty of other clothes and stolen goods on his ship. But he wanted his clothes and stolen goods. The ones he’d had on him before getting tossed in.

Telasie let out an amused huff, but was otherwise silent as she covered him with an invisibility spell, by gripping sternly onto his shoulder. The hand gripping him maintained an invisbility spell and her other glowed a faint green as she cast muffle over them. If he spoke, she wouldn’t be able to hear him entirely. 

Maintaining the spell was difficult but she hated running. More than most things. Plus, the Balmora Blues didn’t sound bad. She’d been too sober for way too long. An entire week, she thought. She made a mental note to head to Whiterun for more smokes.

The guards, sure enough, immediately ran around on opposite sides to check under the bridge.

“Wait, where’d they go?!”

Crevan held his breath despite the muffle spell.

“... Do you think they jumped?”

“Where else would they have gone?”

“Could be some magic trick.”

“Think we should wait around?”

“Do you care that much?”

“Hardly.”

“Let’s get out of here. We’ll tell people to keep an eye out for ‘em, but otherwise, we’ll just wait for ‘em. If they come back, we’ll kill ‘em.”

The captain didn’t dare breathe again until their footsteps had retreated to the other side of the bridge. Then, he waited until Telasie released the spell.

She was getting real tired of being dragged around. She eyed the cliff for  a moment, a single passing thought crossed her mind as she glanced back at Crevan. She shivered a bit, much to her disdain and prepared an invisibility spell. It took a moment, but with a slight hiss from the spell in her hands, she vanished from sight, save a slight but telling shimmer. 

“Most don’t like this sensation.” She warned in a whisper, charging another spell and waiting. While she, for the most part, didn’t care about people’s opinions, she wouldn’t cast a spell on an ally without their permission. “It’ll be easier to sneak away if they can’t see us.”

Crevan couldn’t help but wink the general direction of Telasie’s voice. “Good thing we have a safe word, aye?”

Telasie laughed a lot louder than she meant to. “Well, Crevan.” She said, finally calling him by his name. “How do you feel about becoming invisible?” She asked with a mischievous look. She held her wrists up. 

“Trust me?” She leaned down, face inches from his. “How about this? I get us out of here, and you give me a kiss?” She glanced towards the guards. “Time’s runnin’ out, sweetheart.” 

Instead of running, she stood a bit taller, gripping Crevan’s shoulder as she burned through the rope with a flame spell. She knew she wouldn’t outrun anyone, and she’d much rather jeopardize the stranger than be left behind once again.

Ah, how he was a sucker for a woman who could play his game.

“Aye, ya get us both out of here, and ya got yourself a deal. But first...” Crevan grabbed her wrist and hauled her towards the cliff face. Then, using the rock’s edge, he scrambled under the bridge, effectively covering them from immediate view.

Telasie smirked down at him before focussing her attention ahead. She sighed. “I’m not going to lie. I have no clue where we are.” She admitted with a bit of a chuckle. She glanced back towards where the voices came from.

“Now that we’re outside, I could start a small fire.” Telasie offered jokingly, trying to identify where they were from any major landmarks, but nothing came to mind, which frightened her a bit.

She seemed to get lost easier and easier these days. “The only problem with that plan is they eventually learn. Hoag Stormcloak. He learned Dunmeri rather quickly.” She laughed.

“If I’m honest... neither do I.” He never went this far inland, and he had been too busy trying to pester the guards into freeing him on his way into the city that he hadn’t paid attention to where they’d taken him.

The town was small, barely large enough justify holding a jail if he had to reckon. Yet, the number of criminals that had been inside told him that the town was likely full of ex-criminals and other nasty company. The town would be rich by no means and was likely only supported thanks to money from the Hold.

Great. Getting out of there would be easier than he’d thought.

He led her away from the prison, once again picking up the pace so they could be out of sight by the time the guards realized what he’d done.

He headed for a large bridge with a dragon head over the top of it and began to walk across without stopping to look back. After they were both on the other side, he yanked the end of the rope and freed Telasie’s binds.

“Have to learn one way or another.” Crevan took the helm off so she could see his grin. “Well, muthsera, I do believe we’ve managed to escape, and I think I deserve a-”

“Hey! You! Criminal scum, get back here!”

She cackled hoarsely, tempted to burn the ropes from her wrists, just to show she could. “I’ll have to watch what I say about you in my native tongue.” She said, as if she ever filtered any of what she said to anyone. 

“Nothing yet, I imagine.” She said, bringing her hands up to her face and scratching at the scar that split her lips. “Never hurts to plan for the future though, does it?” She asked. 

“Anyway.” She said, diverting their conversation. “Where are we headed, pink skin? Did you plan this far ahead?” 

He shrugged a shoulder, an action that looked surprisingly boyish and innocent. “Business requires I be fluent in most languages. Dunmeri happens to be one of them, along with Orcish, Ta’aga, Jel, and a few others, though I’m most fluent in Pyandonean and Cyrodiilic... obviously.”

Crevan paused as the prison split off in two directions. He looked down both halls before grinning at Telasie from under the helm. “Never plan too far ahead, muthsera. Something always goes wrong along the way.”

Comedically on cue, people began shouting down the halls again. They’d found the unconscious guard.

He winked at her and then picked one of the halls to head down with a brisk pace. His luck held out, and he spied the exit. It was only then that his pace slowed again.

Telasie muffled a chuckle. This human was certainly fun, even if he was a bit too flirtatious for her tastes. 

“Os havae hadarashad oal, n’wah.” She leveled the guard with a menacing gaze as she could muster while being led by a human while she easily spoke dunmeri. She knew the guard wouldn’t know it, but she half heartedly wondered if Crevan knew what she had threatened him with.

Telasie waited until the guard was behind them to elbow him harshly.

Crevan refrained from showing a reaction to Telasie’s threat, but it was difficult. He did business all around Tamriel, which meant being fluent in several languages. Dunmeri happened to be one of them on the list.

Telasie grinned a bit, genuinely amused by this man’s antics. She wondered if he treated all the scarred old bats like this, or if he had a fetish for spite. It wouldn’t be the first of his kind she met. He quite reminded her of her second husband with that.

She turned a bit to the side, averting her eyes with a small glare. This wasn’t an ideal situation for her, but despite it all, she chuckled, holding her wrists up with a look of exaggerated expectation.

“Oh, this is new for me. Usually I’m the warden.” She sneered, though there was a bit of mirth in it. “My safeword is Vvardvark.” 

The mischevious twinkle in Crevan’s eyes probably said more than his words did. “Vvardvark it is. Next time, I’ll gladly let you play warden.”

He busied himself by hastily, but carefully, tying her wrists together. After he finished, he held up one of the ends. “Pull this if we end up in a fight. It’ll free your hands.”

Then, he dragged the guard’s unconscious body behind the crates and returned to place a hand on her upper arm in order to guide her. “If we bump into anyone, pretend you don’t want to be near me. Shouldn’t be hard for you. But please avoid the family jewels for my sake.” He rather liked his family jewels in one piece.

Sure enough, halfway down the hall, they ran into a guard standing watch attentively. A hawk waiting for prey to walk by.

Crevan saluted him and tightened his grip on Telasie. The guard saluted him and return, and she smiled upon seeing Telasie at his side.

“Caught one of them, did you?” She asked, eyeing up Telasie.

When Crevan responded, gone was the thick accent of a pirate from the seas. Rather, it was the voice of Nordic descent. “Caught her trying to hide in some crates. Not quite sure where the other one went, but this one won’t say a damn thing about it. Believe me, I already tried and her response was to break my nose with her forehead.” He lifted up his helm just enough to prove his point, avoiding revealing his whole face.

The guard nodded and then paused. “So why are you taking her away from the cells?”

Crevan’s answer was fluid and without hesitation. “Was told she’s to be moved elsewhere. Dawnstar, probably. Colder there, they’re hoping she’ll freeze to death or something.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I say good riddance. One less crazy, magic-weilding escapee we have to deal with.”

Telasie was admittedly about nervous about the situation. Less about the close quarters, more about the guards. She rose a brow, staring down at her ‘companion’ for a moment before shifting so that her palm was next to her face. She cast a very dim detect life spell and frowned as the guards drew closer.

She gave a slightly questioning look, but did as she was implacably gestured to. Jail really didn’t suit her, despite the books supplying her with books to pass the time. The guards muffled screaming was almost comedic.

“Less and less with every word that comes out of your mouth.” She grinned mirthfully, tilting her head towards him. “For the sake of leaving, yes.”

“Smart, muthsera,” Crevan said as activity in the hall began to pick up upon the alert of escaped prisoners. “Now, I’m about to strip, and unless ya truly have a desire to watch - which I certainly won’t complain about - I’d recommend ya turn around.”

Without wasting another second, he yanked down the rugged trousers they’d put him in and began to put on the guard’s clothing. He spent a few minutes throwing it on, working his way through the complicated latches, buttons, hooks, and whatever else the stupid guard uniforms consisted of.

Telasie weighed the decision until it was nearly too late, though she cast a muffle spell over herself and slipped behind the crates with him just in time. Her footsteps were completely silent, as was her breathing, thanks to the spell. Honestly, it wouldn’t be difficult to kill the two, but then you had bodies and more people to worry about, and at some point it honestly wasn’t worth it.

The intimate quarters didn’t bother her, but the nickname caused her to raise a brow at her new partner crime. She used a detect life spell to try and locate the guards. If it came to it, she could always fell them with a few ice spikes. She spotted a red mass of light move a bit near them and damn near flattened herself against Crevan.

Crevan did his best to allow as much space to Telasie as he could, flattening his arms between the crate and the wall so they were half-wrapped around her in the close quarters. She was eerily silent and he wondered just what kind of spell she had cast to make her so quiet. It was one he would have to learn eventually.

The guards joked around a bit, and thankfully, the rest of the prisoners kept their escaped-status on the down-low. Not that it was helpful in any way- the empty cell was discovered even quicker than he’d been able to breeze through picking the lock.

“They’ve escaped! How?!”

“They couldn’t have gotten far! Look around!”

“I’ll head down the hall and make sure they can’t escape!”

Footsteps receded out the door, and the other guard began to circle around and look for them.

Crevan stayed silent and unmoving, only to lift a finger up to his lips to ensure Telasie remained as still as she was. The only sound he made himself was resituating his position, but just why he was doing so hadn’t been explained.

It wasn’t until the guard came around to check their crates that it made sense. Without warning, Crevan sprang up and slid his hand under the guard’s helm to clap it over their mouth, throwing his other arm around their neck as he slid behind them.

The guard made muffled screaming sounds as he tried to free himself from Crevan’s grasp, but eventually, he, too, fell quiet.

Telasie eyed his expression before deciding not to pry. She was admittedly a bit impressed with the human’s resourcefulness and clever disguise of the lockpick, though she doubted she’d say that aloud. 

Knowing restoration magic as she did, she should have offered to help, but she did not. Instead she watched his backside as she followed behind him, standing at her full height now that she was able to without hitting her head. Slouching for so long had put a knot in her back.

“Why thank you, outlander.” She hummed almost sarcastically, half wondering if that term could even be applied to him. She honestly wasn’t sure where she was.

Crevan gave a bow at the waist. “You are very welcome, m’lady.”

The sound of two guards’ voices came from down the hall, and he cursed under his breath in Pyandonean. Why did they have to show up now? They’d literally just escaped and had nothing to fight with...

Well, actually, he was with a mage, so that wasn’t true.

“Yeah, you seem like the type.” She said with a wry grin.

“Oh, no, I’ll pass.” Telasie glared at the lock. “That’s what other people are for. A little illusion magic on the right person is all it takes.” She shrugged and looked at what he was doing anyway.

“I’ve never been too good at picking locks.” She admitted, narrowing her eyes and leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. The chill of the air had only gotten worse and when she had made a small fire to keep warm, the guards had thrown a bucket of water on her and her fire. She was tempted to make a not-so-small fire in someone else’s cell out of sheer spite. 

“Never a bad skill to have,” he argued. Had he known how to pick a lock as a child, he might not have been trapped as a slave by a bunch of Orcs who thought they were top dogs.

He could’ve saved his sister.

Crevan ground his teeth at the memory, and with one final click of a pin, the door opened. The other people in the cells began to whisper and try to catch his attention - something about him letting them out, but he simply bent the hairpin back into shape and returned it to his hair, then did the same with his earring all while ignoring them.

“Tip number one,” he said, tapping his earring, “always keep a pick on you. You never know when you’re going to need it.”

Her cellmate’s half nudity didn’t bother her, but it did amuse her that she actually managed to do some damage. As a mage, she didn’t have much upper body strength and certainly not in her arms. 

“Oh, I’ve broken out a few times, but let’s swap our escape stories when we aren’t prisoners.” She suggested, eyeing the lock. “It can’t be that hard for a scumbag, can it?” She asked genuinely. She had no clue how to pick locks, but this man seemed like the type of person to know how to do it with his eyes closed.

Crevan snorted. “I prefer the term ‘gentleman in disguise’ thank you. Either way, no, these locks are nothing compared to some of the chests I’ve gotten my hands on over the years. They think they’re smart enough to confiscate everything to keep prisoners from breaking them.”

Telasie cackled scratchily, voice sounding as though it came from the middle of her throat. “Right, of course.” Now that she had a bit of blood on her knuckles, her mood improved quite a bit. “I suppose we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it, wont we?” She asked, wiping her hand on the tunic she had been forced to wear instead of her robes. 

“We’re getting my things on the way out.” She told him. “Also those ‘stolen goods’ they stole from me.” She mentioned quietly as an orange light encased the makeshift lock pick. 

The two items gently floated through the air and waited in front of him to take them. Telekinetic magic was never a problem for her. “Just hurry up.” She said. “It’s rude to make a lady wait.” She drawled, as if she had plans that day.

Crevan had at this point carelessly taken off his tunic top to hold it to his nose as it continued to bleed. With one hand, he caught the tools and then moved back to the lock.

He pulled the cloth away from his face and set it aside long enough for him to start trying to pick the lock again. “As the lady commands,” he said as he got back to work.

“You are aggressively suicidal,” Telasie said with an almost concerned tone. She rose her brow at his mention of intercourse with a vampire. She looked away, staring at the wall across from her before speaking up. “So you’re a necrophiliac, then.” She cackled, standing up silently.

His words were more than surprising to her than offensive. He was bold, and a distant part of her admired that. Had she been high, she might have even considered his words, but she was far too sober to deal with that.

“Handsome,” She purred, as she stepped to his side, facing him. She looked over his face almost appreciatively before drawing her fist back and swinging as hard as she could(that not being very hard), aimed dead at his nose.

“So they tell me.”

Crevan had just barely begun to fiddle with the lock when she caught his attention with a tone of voice that beckoned every ounce of his will. He turned to see what she could want, and she looked him over with something he would almost define as seductive... before decking him right in the face.

He dropped both the pick and the tension wrench as his hands flew up to his nose and he staggered away, backing up into the wall.

Blood slipped out from between his fingers. Oh yeah, his nose was undoubtedly broken now.

Yet, despite it all, he laughed. “Alright, lass, that one’s free. Next one, I’ll have to charge you. Usually, I charge a kiss per punch, but we might be able to negotiate something different.” He wiped the back of his hand against his lip, smearing blood across his face. 

Gods, his headache was going to be hell in a few minutes. But he probably deserved it for being the piece of shit he was.