It's hard to believe it's been well over two months since Artemis woke up in Skyrim. during his time he's read enough books to better understand how things worked here. He read of the Divines and even the Daedra. While some of them didn't sound to bad, he had to agree with Evelyn on some of them being the greater evil. Like Molag Bal and Namira. He glances up, the pair were in Whiterun. She was still working on her Bend Will Shout. She had used it on one annoying fellow named Nazeem. As Evelyn had put it, the man had his head so far up his arse he can't help but talk crap. Which it was hard to argue. Artemis had almost stabbed the jerk a few times for his bragging. She was testing how far away she could be and still control her victims. They were standing near the well in the center of the town as she just watches poor Nazeem struggle. She had gotten him while he was outside of town and had been following him ever since. She learned so far if she uses the full Shout, she can control people for quiet a long time. She just wanted to see if she can convince him to do her bidding from far away and so far it seems to be working. She makes the poor man walk up to Carlotta. She was a hard working woman who took care of her young daughter. She never spoke of the girls father so no one had any idea who he was, or what happened to the man. Carlotta stops working and crosses her arms to glare at Nazeem. "If you're hear to put down my produce again...." He shakes his head, he was acting a bit strange as he pulls out a large bag of gold.
"I realize my antagonizing can be off putting. I shouldn't act so high and mighty when you're alone raising a child, please take this..." Of course his words weren't his own, Evelyn was making him say it. She can feel him dying inside from giving away all that gold, but he can't fight her. He's just not strong enough. Carlotta gives him a surprised look, but takes the bag. "Well....this is unexpecting, but thank you." Nazeem is steaming, but he can't fight Evelyn as she makes him walk away. She starts laughing, keeping her back to the whole things as Nazeem walks up to her, glaring at her. "Oh don't give me that look, you had this coming.." He scowls at her, wanting her to let him go. "Enough of your games, free me of your spell." She tilts her head as she looks at Artemis. "You have some nerve to give ME demands. I can convince you to go naked through the town you know. But lucky for you no one wants to see that.." He scowls even more at her. "Fine, did you learn your lesson?" He shuffles, but nods. "Good.." She lets the man go as he shakes off her Shout. "I should have you arrested." She rises her brow at him. "Whatever for, I didn't do anything. Nothing you can prove at least. Besides, who will the guards believe, you, or someone who actually DOES something around here." He huffs and storms off to go find his wife as she starts cracking up laughing.
She coughs a few times as she wipes away a stray tear. "Oh I'm going to have way to much fun with this..." Artemis doesn't want to admit that was entertaining. But it's also a constant reminder to not get on her bad side. Not that's an easy thing to do, but he keeps it in mind. After a minute or so they return to Jorrvaskr, she had some work to do there anyways which is why they came here. She just happened to get a little side tracked. She hadn't told anyone yet of what she learned. So far only Artemis knew, but he felt it was because not many people would really understand. When she walks through the door, Vilkas greets her. "I have something for you, a courier dropped this off awhile ago. I told him I'd hand it over when I saw you.." Evelyn blinks as she takes the letter. It looks fancy, gold ink decorated the outside of the letter. "Fancy..." She opens it, to see it was from Jarl Elisif. "It's an invitation to a party..." She blinks as she reads farther. "Oh Gods it's one of those fancy balls..." She lets out a low groan. She hates those kinds of parties. She was forced to go to a few before she started standing up for herself. She hates them, she sees them as pointless. A place to gossip about the poor and unfortunate. "They're celebrating the anniversary of when I helped fight against Ulfric...of course she would be thankful for that.." She lets out a low sigh as she runs her hand through her hair. "I hate these kinds of parties. It's all...pose and proper..." Vilkas takes a look. "Looks like it's in a few weeks. You can always write a letter back saying you can't make it.." Evelyn gives it some thought. A part of her does want to say no, but the cunning part of her brain sparks an idea.
A slow smirk crosses her face. "I could, but I think I'll go to this party. Give me a chance to...plan a few things.." Vilkas rises his brow at her. But he knows better to ask what she's planning. When it comes to her it's normally nothing good. "Just don't get into trouble whatever you're planning." She lets out a fake gasp, placing her hand over her heart. "What me? Trouble, I wouldn't dream of it~" His eyes narrow at her as she chuckles slightly. "Don't worry, at worst it'll give me an idea on what's been going on lately. If and when the Moot will gather. But if I die from boredom, find a nice place to stick me." Vilkas shakes his head at her, but wonders off. She turns to Artemis, her smile still painting her face. "Come on, I got a few ideas..." He's not sure what he's up to, but he joins her as she teleports them to her room in the Collage. He's used to this by now, her using magic out of no where. She takes a few minutes to get some nice looking paper and a nice ink pen. She gets busy on writing her own letter back to the lady Jarl. "I'm going to 'kindly' suggest she invite Elenwen." Artemis tilts his head at the name. "She's the First Emissary of the Thalmor. Lets just say she's responsible for a lot of s**t that's gone down." His brows move down slightly at this before it dawns on him. "You plan to do something to her at this party?" She smiles brightly as she carefully writes her letter. "Oh I have something planed alright." Once she was done with her letter she finds someone to hand it to a courier. Once she was sure the letter was on it's way to Solitude she makes her way to her chest.
She opens it up, looking for something she needed. "Lets see..." She finds a jar and carefully takes it out. A strange glowing liquid was inside. "This is Netch Jelly. If I mix this and Canis Root, it'll make a strong paralysis potion." Artemis is no closer to understanding how potion making works. So he normally just leaves it to her to know what she's doing. As she talks about making a paralyzing potion, it slowly starts to make more since. "I see, you plan to slip the potion to Elenwen." She nods as she carefully makes the potion. "No one will notice her slip away for a second. Then I can use my Shout on her. We'll just go from there." She has no idea the layout will be. No doubt Elisif has a ballroom she uses that's in the back of the palace. The place is huge and not even Evelyn has seen all of it. "Now I'm aware fancy parties aren't going to be your thing so you don't have to tag along. Hell if nothing else you can just wait at my home in Solitude if you like." He gives it some thought, but shakes his head slowly. "As long as I don't have to wear anything to...fancy." He will if he has to, but he won't make promises he won't kill someone later for it. "I don't blame you. I never felt comfortable in dresses. Not that I didn't try it just never felt right." She rubs the back of her head slightly. "That sounds odd doesn't it?" He offers her a slight shrug. "We all have our limits." She finishes the potion then blinks, realizing she just left Jorrvaskr without telling anyone where she just went.
Good thing no one will really take notice, she can quickly teleport herself back to Whiterun. She had since bought more soul gems in order to do so. She shows him the small bottle she made. "This should do it, we should get back to Whiterun before anyone takes notice.." She chuckles slightly as she heads off. They even make it back to Jorrvaskr within the hour. Vilkas rises his brow, wondering where she just ran off to but she just smiles at him. "What are you up to?" "Nothing, I just forgot to pick up something is all." She's still smiling at him as she makes her way to her room. She has a stack of papers to go through. But she can get through them quickly enough. No matter how far behind she gets she always catches up. So Vilkas never complains. In fact he's still trying to figure out how she even does it as quickly as she does. But she's used to this sort of work by now. It all goes over Artemis' head so he just leaves her to it. He tried once and it gave him a headache. So many numbers, it was insane. So he remains upstairs while she works. It's been long enough for Vilkas to get a better idea of the type of person Artemis was. But he's no closer to figuring it out. He's quiet and keeps to himself most of the time. Even stranger is how long he's been traveling with Evelyn. Even he didn't travel with her for long. She has a habit of just doing things on her own. But whatever her reasons are her own and she's free to travel with whoever she wants. At least someone is looking out for her.
If nothing else it just gives Artemis time to sort out his thoughts. It's been a lot easier now then before. He's not as angry as before. Doesn't mean he's any closer to ever forgiving Jarlaxle for his hand in this, but it's a step in the right direction. Still he finds himself unsure of one thing. How to figure out how he feels is real. Even though it's been five years he's not sure if using the flute left side effects. Between Charon's Claw and him becoming part shade it was confusing. Still is at times, but it's no where near as bad as it once was. At least he has a better idea of what he's capable of. Rather it was real or not he did care for Calihye. Even though she tried to kill him. He can maybe over look it since he had thrown her out a window. The only reason he survived at all was due to Kimmuriel and his psionicist powers. "You look troubled." He shakes his head, he must have been staring off somewhere. His eyes felt dry from not blinking. He glances up from his chair to Vilkas. Artemis has gotten used to the Companions. They're always sharing stories. Much like the Brotherhood does so it helps pass time. It takes him a minute to realize he hasn't said anything. "Just...thinking." Vilkas pulls up a chair, as well as a bottle of mead. Artemis lets out a low breath. Now he's not used to really talking to that many people. He has his limits on what he tells people. Hell he still hasn't even told Evelyn everything about himself. Mostly because there's just some things better left to the past. Artemis isn't even really sure what to say. "I find myself thinking of my home. The desert, I spent so many years there. I had a friend...Dwahvel. It's strange to think how much I trusted her. But in the years I've known her she was one of the few that never betrayed me. She was killed...the entire city was in flames. I didn't think twice on getting into a ship and ended up here..."
He takes a moment to run his fingers through his short dark hair. "I've never seen such chaos. I wonder if I missed something. But there was no time to linger. The air felt heavy. My weapons weak, I wasn't about to leave myself open..." He pauses, taking in a deep breath. "Given the chance, I wouldn't go back. Not much to really go back to after everything that's happened." This is the most he's ever said to anyone here. But it gives Vilkas a better idea of what he's gone through and it sounds horrible. He can't imagine how hard it is to go through all that hell alone. "I know the feeling, Jorrvaskr has been my home since me and my brother were young. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if this place was lost." Kodlak is gone, but he still has family here. Artemis turns his head. "No parents?" He's not sure why he asks. "No, we were found by a Companion named Jergen. He's dead, so we'll never really know the full story on what happened to our mother. Not even Kodlak was sure of what became of her." He shakes his head slightly. "But it's a story you hear often, Skyrim is full of orphans. Mostly thanks to the war. Given the chance I think Evelyn would have brought in every single child she could." "Hey!" He jolts a bit, to see she was standing behind him. She's just tapping her foot, but smiles. "I mean, you're not wrong.." He chuckles slightly as he moves back. She hadn't really been standing there for long, but she likes to sneak up on Vilkas. Now that he's no longer a werewolf it's a lot easier. "Every dragon needs an army." She pulls up her own chair as she sits down.
"Though I know me I wouldn't be organized..." She shrugs slightly. It's rather easy for her to either forget things or move onto something else. She does it a lot at times when she has to much on her mind. So it's been a prosses of working her way through it. She's gotten better, kind of. "But it's no where near as bad as it used to be but I still find myself scattered. Hell at least I stopped going places, stopping, and forgetting why I was in said place. I used to have to write down everything in order to remember what I had to do for the day." She still has a stack of journals of things she did back when she was in the fighters guild. The start of those journals are a complete mess and it was some weird miracle she was even able to figure it out in the first place. How she became in charge she still had to wonder at times. "I still kind of do it at times, but now that I'm older I'm a better at keeping track of what I'm doing. Sometimes, not all the times. I make no promises." Vilkas is slowly shaking his head at her. But he can never fault her for being honest. She sinks into her chair as she helps herself to some mead. "But at least I do my job." She can think of a few places that seem to ignore their responsibility. After awhile Vilkas has to leave to go find his brother. "Making yourself at home?" She likes seeing him relaxed. It's so rare he always seems to be on edge. "It's not so bad here." She smiles slightly at this. "I'm glad, you need to relax more."
She pats his shoulder lightly. "Not that I blame you for being wry of people." He turns his head, but looks down at the table. She lets him go after a minute or so. "Vilkas is a good man, he means well. He used to have a problem with his anger when I first met him. Farkas is the opposite of that. He's always the warm, friendly person. But quiet, it takes him a few minutes to think of an answer sometimes but you kind of get used to it." It's never bothered her, which is why Farkas was so quick to like her. She never rushed the poor man into thinking of an answer. She always let him figure things out on his own. "I often wonder how you handle all of this.." Her head tilts slightly. "I guess I got used to it. I like to keep busy. I get weirdly jittery if I'm not doing something." She found herself pacing once trying to take a day off. So she got herself into reading but that only works for so long. "You should see me try, it's awful...it's why I know so many different things." Artemis is shaking his head slowly, but he shouldn't be surprised. "Oh hush, come on, we got a party to plan for." She smirks a bit as she gets up, Artemis rising and following after her. The only plan she has for the moment is to wear something nice but simple. All she really has to do is find him something nice to wear. And the only place that has nice clothes is Solitude itself. Which means she has to deal with Endarie and her sister Taarie. She can't hold back a groan at the idea, she's not a huge fan of them. They're always come off rude and snobby. But it's the only place she can think of.
