"Any sign of Karth-Wasten, Second Archivist?"
"I can see chimney smoke."
"Halt, human. I mean, good-morning. We are the Thalmor, but on this occasion we are on a mission from Dibella." said Eldaline.
"How strange. This is an exact combination of two dreams I had last week." said the Reachman.
"What are you doing?"
"Using this broom to measure the side of my hall." said the Reachman. "Two..."
"But it is very important." said Aralina. "And I want to be finished soon so we can stop being Altruistic."
"The sybil of Dibella has been chosen from amongst the girls of your village." said Eldaline. "Find it and tell it to hurry up, and we're not carrying it."
"'From amongst the girls'?" said the man. "Oh dear. We only have one little girl. And she has been stolen by the Forsworn wild men."
"I thought the Forsworn had a mission to reclaim the Reach. They never seem to do anything besides stealing small, easily-replacable objects. Well, which way did they go?"
"Up to one of their holes in the hills. Are you really going to go after her?"
"Give us some of your breakfast, and we'll set off. You said you had dreams?"
"Yes, but... I often dream about women coming to visit me. I'm a widower. And after the Penitus Oculatus visited four days ago, I was half-expecting the Thalmor next. Damn it! They told me not to tell anybody. Especially not the Thalmor."
"What did they want?"
"Don't know. They were hiding in one of my mines. Three of them, all men. The youngest one threatened me. Oh, and gave me a hundred gold pieces to hold my tongue. Then one of my miners saw him again, riding off towards Haafingar, this time wearing a really silly wig."
"The Penitus Oculatus are very strange people. Here's another hundred." Eldaline said. "Just in case they ask for their hundred back."
"Good luck. You seem like a very nice person."
"I'm not."
"Oh well. But I'm sure the uniform makes up for your personality. Three..."
"You've already measured that part."
"Thank you."
"There isn't any news from Solitude, Cosori." said Luridius Amavo, veteran Penitus Oculatus commander. "I tell you, that wig wasn't good enough. The poor boy looked like a fancy dress clown. He's been compromised. I just know it."
Andalius Cosori, also veteran Penitus Oculatus commander, did not even look around. "No news is exactly what I told young Aureus to send. No news means Aureus is currently prowling into the affections and thus the inner circle of Eldaline Alkinour, just like you did with my wife, outside your regular duties, you rat, so if you don't have anything nice to say about the operation I've spent months planning, get your own Thalmor officer to spy on."
"Damn it, Cosori, I'll hate myself for the rest of my life for what I did."
"Don't bother, Amavo. I'll do it for you."
Amavo sighed and had a bread roll to cheer himself up. "Do the Synod even know what information they need? Do they just expect Aureus to ask 'How did you break the Imperial Orrery, Eldaline?' The Orrery suddenly stopped working? It can't just stop working. The mages must be doing something wrong."
the Orrery
"I'll have time to study the Orrery when I retire. For now, the Synod leave us to our craft, and I leave them to theirs. But I still have a grudging admiration for Eldaline's daylight sabotage of the contraption. I was there. We watched her repair it as part of the terms of the treaty. A damn token gesture, and she made the Synod thank her, after she was the one who dismantled it. Every single lens was replaced and then refocused by our mages. No single part was missing."
"So, what does it not do, that the Synod want it to do?"
"That's above our pay grade, Amavo." said Andalius Cosori, thankfully.
"Commander Cosori!" said the chapel's healer. "I thought that was you! How are you, and how is Vilona?"
"Vilona is wonderful! Why does everybody ask after that faithless shrew all of a sudden? Can't you tell that I am trying to bury myself in my work?"
"Ah, Vilona." said a hitherto unnoticed priest.
"What?" said Andalius Cosori.
"Nothing."
"Is someone there?"
"The sybil of Dibella!" cried Eldaline. "Deliver it to us immediately, or perish!"
"Good shooting, again, scout." said Eldaline. "And well done for drawing his fire using your ears as a distraction. Do they not get in the way of your bow string?"
"Really, I am quite used to them, Second Archivist." said Aralina.
"This must be it, Second Archivist."
"Well spotted, Flopsy, although this appears to be not a little girl, but an elderly man."
"Are you sure, Second Archivist?"
"Quite sure, although it is most definitely human."
"Who are you calling a little girl? Untie me!" said the old man.
"Did he say he was a priest of Boethiah?" said Eldaline. "I hate Boethiah."
"I think I can still get him with a fireball from here, Second Archivist." said Aralina.
Eldaline sighed. "No, dear Bunnyhead. Let him go. Since we are practicing kindness, I will allow him to damn himself by his foolishness."
continues