JoS/Henriette/16th Journal - Espionage
Midyear, 29th, 4E 202
Dear diary, a lot has happened, and I've got a lot to share for you.
It all started at The Winking Skeever in Solitude, where I was meant to meet with a friend of Delphine, an insider who was going to be working at the party, a man who can smuggle my weapons and armor inside. His name is Malborn, and he could be trusted.
The problems started piling on very early on though. Malborn told me to give him the stuff quickly, but we were in the Inn, and I kind of had forgotten to bring an extra change of clothes with me. Delphine was supposed to loan me a dress to wear, but I haven't gotten it yet. Besides, she's waiting outside the city, and Malborn can't leave the city. There wasn't time for me to go buy anything either. I somehow had to make it through the city gates and to Delphine naked… Well okay, I can always just turn invisible, but that didn't erase the problem of having to strip in front of Malborn. He just clicked his tongue and told me to follow him so we could do that stuff outside. He's not sexually interested in me, he said so himself.
After that, I snuck to the farm where Delphine was waiting and got my clothes. Fast forward, I arrived at the Embassy just few hours later. So far so good.
There were a lot of familiar faces at the party, some of which I'm not too pleased to see, most of which probably share the sentiment. One man even took a glance at me and scoffed at me, asking what someone like me was doing there, and that he can't believe someone like me would ever be allowed inside. I needed to get someone to distract me, but only question in my mind was "how in Oblivion".
Oh Delphine, why did we have to go with this plan of yours? My idea was much better. Well, no matter, I had to go with what I was offered.
My first plan was getting Maven to help me, but she said it's not in my best interest to be talking to her at all. Well, duly noted. Then, I saw another friend I have her, a friend perhaps even more influential than Maven; Jarl Elisif the Fair, the woman many regard as the High Queen of Skyrim.
I don't want to speak badly of her, but she's easy to manipulate. Getting her to help me was pretty easy I must say. She had her eyes set on a Redguard named Razelan, and she accused of this guy giving her some lewd looks and whispering some inappropriate, sexist comments. It looked like it could work for a moment, but the distraction wasn't sufficient enough. Too bad, I just had to get a better distraction from somewhere else.
My next plan was actually Razelan. Let's just say, this guy clearly looks and acts like he doesn't belong here. He's with the East Empire company, and after we had talked with him for about a minute, he started suspecting me of being someone he knows from somewhere. I'm glad that he's a moron and didn't actually make connection between the "noble" little girl standing in front of him and a blindfolded slave who probably sucked his dick off with a punch of vibrators stuck into her holes… Well anyway, he complained about not being given the proper respect, that nobody was willing to even serve her a damned drink! I offered to give him one in return for his service. Too bad his distraction didn't end up being enough either. He damned near got kicked out from the party. Again. Poor guy, he hasn't even done anything wrong.
My next plan was helping a man named Erikur who I saw trying to flirt with a Bosmer maid called Brelas. Let me spoil the surprise, I managed to get away from the party with his assistance, but that's not to say my plan went on how I wanted it to.
So, since I was a young woman he asked me to talk to this maid, who in turn told me to convince Erikur to leave her alone. Did I do that? Pfft, no. I told Erikur that she wants to go somewhere private with him, and then I watched the glory unfold…
Except that I ended up doing more damage than help. This poor girl got dragged away from the party, and she was clearly terrified. She glared at me throughout the whole scene, and I just couldn't get away. She was so angry, she even spit on me. "This is on you", she said, and she wasn't the only one who was angry at me… So was Erikur.
He came to me asking what my problem is. That woman was going to be her conquest but now those Thalmor are going to be using her instead. He said that I've got to pay, and he was only willing to use me as a payment. I lost him his opportunity to get laid, so it's only fair that I offer him my body in return.
Malborn at this point was visibly embarrassed by me and shaking his head. The whole plan had gone to ruin, at least in his eyes… The Thalmor escorted me inside the embassy away from this reception area, and Erikur followed not far behind.
After that… Well, this old, chubby and smug nobleman proceeded to have his way with me. He mostly wanted to do me from behind, both standing up and on the bed, and also slapped my butt around. He was drunk, like really drunk, and he came inside me before I could even cum myself. By Sithis, I've never had a more unsatisfying lover in my entire life.
He luckily passed out on the bed, probably from all the alcohol. He was properly drunk before. He was probably planning on using me after that as well, but now, I was able to sneak away. I still didn't have my armor, but I suspected that Malborn could've smuggled them somewhere near the kitchen, as it's directly accessible from behind the counter where he was working.
Well, I was right on the money…
I'll cut through the boring parts like stealing a bunch of valuable stuff and sneaking up to few Thalmor to suck them dry to progress further and skip right to the climax. I thought that I would be safe considering that I had left the party with Erikur. I thought nobody would suspect me of doing anything unwanted…
I found a dungeon - rather, a torture chamber - under an office building on the other side of the Embassy. Thalmor were down there together with two prisoners, one man and one woman. Well, that woman was Brelas, and after saving her, I apologized to her saying that I never intended to get her in trouble. She didn't take my apology lightly, she was still mad at me, but I'm happy to see that she at least doesn't hate me, considering that I did end up saving her from these bastards in the end. The man on the other hand thought at first that I was a torturer, but then he and I realized, we've met somewhere. His name is Etienne Rarnis. He's a Breton man, with the Thieves Guild. I asked what in Oblivion is he doing here, and he said that the Thalmor had kidnapped him. They're looking for someone in the Ratway and they wanted to torture the answer out of him. I obviously thought this was horrible, and would've saved him even if he wasn't with the guild, just like I saved Brelas.
That's when trouble arrived. More Thalmor came, and Malborn was with them. They were interrogating him about aiding a shady person and a dangerous criminal infiltrate this party, obviously referring to me. Erikur had apparently woken up when I left the room and after that, things escalated at the party quickly. I was able to kill the Thalmor, but even though I probably saved Malborn, I still got an earful from him. He was pissed at me, and he was scared too. Thalmor were going to hunt him for the rest of his life, he said, to which I simply replied, "well you're not the only one". He did put my mind to rest by saying that Elenwen took him away from the party without really causing a scene and that what I did here will definetily not impact my reputation outside this Embassy, except maybe with the Thalmor.
It was time to start searching. A lot of important papers were being held here, including studies and few extensive dossiers on people the Thalmor have a keen interest on. This included the return of dragons, Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak, Delphine herself and some other people. I tried to hold on to as many papers as I could though, but I'm not sure if most of them are going to be helpful to us in any way.
Then, it was finally time for us to escape. There was an escape tunnel we could use to escape, all four of us. From there, we found a snowy and quiet forest ahead of us. With night fast approaching, we hurried forward.
Malborn and Brelas decided to go their own way. They're both afraid of Thalmor coming after them, so they will be hiding somewhere. They didn't go where they'd go, but my hunch is as far away from the Aldmeri Dominion as possible. Me and Etienne decided to walk together for a while longer. He was so thankful of me, he didn't even know how to express his thanks properly. He asked if I was going to return to the Thieves Guild with him and was even suspecting that I was on Guild business to steal papers from there. I couldn't help him, but I at least gave him some weapons and money I looted from the Thalmor so he could at very least be able to defend himself on his long way back to Riften.
As for me? I've already made it to Riverwood. Delphine is still fast asleep, but she'll have a surprise waiting for her when she eventually wakes up. She can go through the papers herself and figure out if there's anything important in them.
Midyear, 29th, 4E 202
Delphine actually woke me up after I had only slept for four hours. She said that it's no time to be sleeping, that there's no time to waste. Esbern is alive and Thalmor know where he is! He's in the Ratway! We need to find him before they do!
And I was all like, who the fuck is Esbern?
It's one of the names that was on the Thalmor dossiers. Esbern, like Delphine, is with the Blades, and they're not just colleagues, but also old friends. Dots kind of started connecting from that point on… Esbern, Ratway, the way Thalmor were torturing my pal Etienne… Well, I see now. That explains something. That was about the only thing she learned from the papers though. Apparently the Thalmor are just as baffled by the return of the Dragons as everyone else is, and they don't know anything about the Dragon that is going around resurrecting other dragons.
Delphine suspects that Esbern could know something. He was an archivist with the Blades, a very smart man who had probably read a library's worth of books in his life, a real history buff. She once again tasked me with the honors of going to see him, as she still doesn't want people to raise suspicions about her true identity. After seeing what the Thalmor are capable of, I can definetily see why she's a little scared of them and why she wants me to do all of this…
So, despite not being able to get enough sleep, I'll head to Riften… I'll save this Esbern guy and bring him to Delphine.