Spellsword

A Summon

"You said you knew someone"

Teldryn closing his eyes in frustration was almost audible. "No sera... I said I knew of someone."

A low flying sea bird swooped by the window with a caw, causing a few more to begin wailing in the distance. The small hut on the Solitude dock was sheltered, but not far from the open sea, and so the scent of salt was still strong on the air, as if ground into the very wood itself.

The sharp, narrow gaze of the woman across the desk flickered between us both, before settling on Teldryn, whom she had clearly taken a disliking to during our short conversation since arriving here. "You could know Jarl Elisif herself... you aren't docking that boat here," she said.

"It's a ship," Teldryn hissed, directed more to me, adding quietly but still obviously "She must be new."

Vittoria clenched her jaw and whipped back; "I've been here since the second seed, I'll have you know." Without even looking down, her hand lifted to close the ledger on the desk with a dramatic slam that I almost respected. "And there is nothing further I can do for you. The docks are full, and without prior booking or even some show of documentation, Solitude won't harbour your ship."

Her last word was said with a slow emphasis that she aimed at Teldryn specifically, to which he rolled his eyes and - with a creak of his chair - brought his hands to his knees. "If you'll excuse me," he said, "I will need to get something from the ship."

Vittoria clearly wasn't done. Teldryn really had ruffled her fur collar by throwing around names he thought she'd know when we arrived, as if that was going to get up any sort of special permission. Perhaps his observations of her being 'new' were more accurate than just a witty retort.

"And you'll sail it while you're on it too! I don't want to see that thing still out there when I leave my post!"

There came a certain tensing about his shoulders that stayed Teldryn, along with a turn of his chin, as if trying to physically shake off a retaliation he so longed to unleash upon the stubborn woman. Uneasy from a night aboard the Mercy myself, I was uninterested in an argument or any further dramatics from either side - and with no where else for us to take the ship, I found myself reaching for my upper vest pocket, within which I felt the familiar weight of a certain stone.

With his movement, Teldryns eyes landed on my hand quite quickly. Though I had not assumed his irritation directed at me, it was still through gritted teeth that he said, "Eva, I have got this..."

"Perhaps this will change your mind," I already found myself saying, almost speaking over him.

And, with the faint green glimmer between my finger tips, the small bell above the door behind us rang just as it had when we had entered not long before, followed by the same exaggerated creak.

"Eva." 

It was the last voice I had expected to hear in that moment.

Emerald still somewhat concealed within my grasp, I span in my chair, to find Tamlen standing there, the bewildered surprise upon his face just visible behind the two crates he carried in his arms. 

The low evening light burst in behind him with soft golden rays, giving him an almost silhouetted entrance. Trying to readjust as if to get a better look at me, he tumbled the crates in his grip, almost dropping them as our eyes met. I did not need look at Teldryn to know his own expression, as he muttered something along the lines of, "I wouldn't be surprised if that stone summoned you bosmer, the way this one always manages to turn up..."

In what felt a whirl of many moments blending into one, I found myself lifting from the chair and Tamlen finally giving in and dropping the crates, as we met somewhere in the middle - and with intense, obvious relief - I wrapped my arms around my oldest friend.

"You're safe," I said into his shoulder as the bell rang once again with the door closing behind him. Only this time, he was on the right side of it. He was on the side that I was on. The sound of that seemed to send the sea birds into another chorus of cawing, and the next voice to break into our moment was Vittoria.

"You... You know the Dragonborn?"

With her words I felt the slight tightening of Tamlen's arms around my waist.

"She's my oldest friend," he said into my hair, and that was when I felt the sting of tears begin to fill my eyes. I was full of relief beyond words. The Thalmor did not have him, that was all I had needed to know these past few days. Every other detail for me in that moment just faded into obscurity. There was so much that had been through my mind, so much that had taken place in the days since we ran from the Embassy, and to see Tamlen here, to hold him in this embrace, was the best outcome of that situation. I didn't want to let him go, there was no thought of how I looked or sounded. I just held onto him.

"It's good to see you safe... old friend" I then heard Teldryn say, with emphasis on those last two words so full of charm, and the clear sound of him sitting back in his chair as he turned to Vittoria. "Now, about that docking..."

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