The Return of Sithis, Volume 1: Awakening

Another couple days passed, and Varren quickly fell into his routine; train, eat, research, sleep. Train, eat, research, sleep. All day, every day. Varren earned quite the reputation, perhaps not surprisingly, and before long, people began calling him the Enigma. He was the elf no one save the Guildmaster seemed to know, and an uncanny prodigy at that. Rumors surrounded the Enigma, how despite having never picked a lock in his life, he could pick Master Locks with ease. The Enigma could become invisible whenever he wanted. The Enigma could pickpocket your undergarments right off of you. And, most controversial of all, the Enigma and the Guildmaster were lovers. Most of these rumors were spread by Elena herself, and were greatly exaggerated, though some were true. While Nocturnal's blessing did make learning the shadowy arts easier, she didn't actually directly help him, and so training is... Difficult. Still, Varren's newfound reputation did help parting the crowd whenever he was in a hurry.

He was getting some extra training in at the Vaults, when he received word Elena needed him, from a surprising source. "The Guildmaster requests your presence at her desk," the Khajiit Nightingale hisses. "This is a formal summons, not a booty call. So I suggest you make haste."

Varren glares at the Khajiit, giving him a withering look he once used to make a Vampire flee. "Remember who you're speaking to cat," Varren says coldly. "In the Dominion, we have a reputation for cutting off the tails of rebellious cats."

With that, Varren brushes past him, and heads back inside the Guild. It takes him a few moments to wind his way through the crowd, but he soon finds himself standing in front of a very annoyed Elena. "You summoned me, Guildmaster?" He asks, his voice a blend of sarcasm and curiosity.

She looks up from her stack of papers, and instantly softens. "Sorry V. I didn't mean to be so formal, I'm just so slammed right now..."

Varren smiles, as he too softens. "I can see that. Anything I can do to help?"

She smiles, clearly relieved. "Actually, yes. That's why I asked you to come. One of our newer members, a young but capable rogue called Kya, has gone missing. She's been missing for over a week now, which is highly unusual, considering her unique... Talents. She was tasked with infiltrating Faldar's Tooth, an old bandit stronghold northwest of Riften, and procuring a very valuable artifact the bandits stole. Since all reports indicated these were just simple bandits, I didn't see the need to send backup. Now I'm regretting that decision."

"Let me guess," Varren finishes, his smile widening. "You want me to charge in there, like a King in Ebony armor, and rescue the princess. That about sum it up?"

Elena returns his grin twofold. "See? I knew there was a reason I asked you first. Oh, and V? No need for stealth. Slaughter anyone who gets in your way."

Now that's my kinda mission...

"Because, I said no. Now, let's hurry up and get back to the city already!" Lorelei said.

"There's no way that I'm going to tell you that."

Before long they were back inside the inn where they were staying. Lorelei asked Avenicci to bring her some bandages and other supplies, while she went back to her room and removed her gauntlets and boots.

"Good, I see you remembered everything."

Lorelei took the supplies from him, and put them on a table so that they were all within arm's reach of her bed. She then made sure she would have enough bandages, and she opened the potion, knowing she would need it for the pain just as soon as she finished bandaging the wound. She then started loosening the straps on the armor that covered her upper body.

All that's left before I can begin is for Avenicci to get out.

As it turned out, the spider made the first move and lunged, spreading its sharp and long legs.
"Brute strength won't do anything! Take out its legs." Siegemund yells, and delivers a swing that manages to cut off a small portion of the spiders many legs.
Red blood bursts from the wound and the spider spots out a gigantic glob of venom.

Everyone scatters, taking various positions behind boulders.
The spider clicks it's enormous leg on the ice and it breaks making cracks along every part of the ice.
"Smart dastard." Siegemund swears. "Move." Nephle screams and begins sprinting towards a piece of regular rock.
Parts of the ice shatters and the spider turns crystal colored.

"That is not a regular frostbite." Abheim yells. "Mutation." Adarya. Calls back, running her hand over her daggers, they ignite into flames and she jumps out.
The spiders leg heals and it hisses. Sounds of small clacking can be heard and baby frostbites appear.
"Children? Seriously?" Abheim half snarls half asks. Adarya and Nephle are the first to strike. Adarya stabs one of the small spiders and Neohle release volley after volley of arrows, impaling the spiders.

The parent frostbite hisses and sends out two legs in a valiant effort.
Siegemund and Abheim sprint out slaying spiders in tandem. The small spiders hiss and spit as much venom as they can.
Siegemud rolls and slices another in half. Abheim jumps over him with a hand stand and rips another apart with a axe smash.
For awhile the sounds of arrows and slashing can be ears unit te tired group of four finally kill most of the baby spiders.

"Alright, time to really end this bug."Siegemund pants. The frostbite lunged out with its pincers, seemingly enraged by the death of its children.
An arrow strikes it legs and it buckles and lashes out with a sharp leg that catches Siegemund in his side.
The youth kneels momentarily and is swatted away into the icy depths below.
"Siegemund." Nephle shouts briefly as she ducks under a wild leg swing.

Abheim is the next to be tossed into the water with a powerful leg smash.
Adarya clings onto the rising leg and stabs, catching it ablaze. The frostbite spider screeches and swings it's burning leg around wildly in an attempt to throw her off.

Since she was finally alone in the room, Lorelei finished removing her armor. She was wearing a pair of thin, loose pants that came down to just below the knee, and a thin, white shirt that had no sleeves, but went under her arms and tied in the middle of her upper back, that was also very loose. The shirt showed her lower back and was a little too revealing for her tastes, but it was the best thing to wear underneath her armor, since everything else was too heavy and too warm. That was why she didn't want to take off her armor in front of Avenicci.

She sat down on her bed and started carefully cleaning the wound. It was tedious work, but she knew she had to do it the right way, or else it would become infected. But eventually she zoned out, and started thinking about possibly visiting the market the next day to try making some money.

She was still off in her own little world as she finished bandaging her arm, and then started cleaning things off of the table. She accidentally dropped the bowl that was holding the leftover bandages, and it made a loud crashing noise as it fell to the floor. She gathered the bandages and put them back in the bowl, then silently sat it down as she heard Avenicci outside asking if she was okay.

"I'm fine," she said, although anyone on the other side of the door would just hear a muffled sound because of how softly she said it.

Lorelei then turned away from the door and picked up a long, sleeveless robe. She slid her good arm through one armhole up to her elbow, which helped hold the robe up high enough for her to start sliding her other arm into it. She only had the robe halfway on when she heard someone open the door.

Once she heard Avenicci, Lorelei scrambled to finish pulling on the robe. Once she had, she clutched it near her chest, trying to keep the robe together so he wouldn't see anything else. By the time she turned around, she was bright red, and too embarrassed to even insult or threaten him.

"A- Avenicci! Get up!" she yelled, still bright red and trying to figure out what she should do.

Lorelei picked up the empty bottle from the potion she used, and threw it at Avenicci, hitting him in the head.

"Why did you do that?!"