[Sea of Ghosts, Eastmarch]

Lydia opened the door and walked onto the deck of the ship. She took a deep breath, the salty spray hitting her as the battleship sailed through the icy Sea of Ghosts. The sailors paid her no mind as they ran to and fro, making sure the ship ran well. The few soldiers that were on-board were either below deck away from the cold or huddled in small groups topside looking out for any dangers. As she looked towards the front of the ship, she spotted M'rasha standing near a railing, a heavy cloak wrapped around her. She was staring out into the foggy sea. Lydia walked over to Khajiit and gently bumped the older woman's shoulder. M'rasha said nothing but did move closer to the Nord.

"Just when I thought it couldn't get any colder in Skyrim," M'rasha stated and gripped the railing boat cut through the ice floe.

"I would think you worked be fine with all that fur."

M'rasha laughed, "I believe you have mistaken me for a sabre cat."

"Is there a difference?"

"I'm not going to answer that." M'rasha sniffled, still looking out at the water. "Ever think of joining up with a crew? Sail Tamriel's open oceans and whatnot?"

"Me? No." Lydia scrunched up her face and shook her head. "I'll take flat land, thank you. What about you?"

"Was stationed on a ship for a while during the war." M'rasha rested her head on Lydia's shoulder. "You learn to sleep standing and that the calm seas are always hiding something."

"That so?" Lydia felt the woman nod her head slightly. "And what do you feel about these waters?"

"Something bad is going to happen. Feel it in my whiskers."

Before Lydia could ask what she meant, there was a loud cough that cause them both to look over their shoulder. A woman dressed in high level Imperial armor was behind them. "Sorry to bother your alone time but this is as far as I can take you. You'll get to the island by dinghy."

M'rasha tsked but otherwise did not speak. The woman, Adelasia Vendicci, continued to speak, "Get in there and take out their leader, a battlemage name Haldyn. Once he's dead we can start the bombardment-"

Lydia knew it was an 'Eliminate the bandit leader' type of job but they didn't know they were the only one going in. "Wait. By ourselves? Why do we have to take care of them on our own?"

"Because my men are cowards, afraid of Halden's magic. And you," she pointed to the two, "Are mercenaries whom I've paid to do this."

Lydia sighed. At least the Imperial was truthful. M'rasha turned to face Vendicci, balled up the blanket that she was using and tossed it at her.

"Understandable. So after we get out of harm's way, Adelasia, you'll start the assault."

The blanket hit the supervisor in the chest and she looked stunned for a moment but then recovered. "Of course. Are you ready?"

"As we'll ever be. Come on Lydia." They walked over to where the small boat had already been lowered into the water, climbed down the rope ladder and into the dinghy. Lydia grabbed the oars and began rowing towards where the island supposedly was while M'rasha kept lookout. They soon made it to the shore and anchored the boat at the dilapidated docks. Once they were on land, the women moved as quietly as the could to a rock near the camp's entrance and hid out of view.

M'rasha looked over at Lydia as she pulled out her hatchet. "So how are we doing this? Quiet or loud?"

Lydia looked at her in mock disbelief. "You want me to decide?"

"I trust your judgement."

"Well then, tell me, how many targets do you see with your kitty eyes."

M'rasha flicked her fingers against Lydia's chin causing her to quietly yelp before looking back towards the crumbling fort and whispering 'Laas Yah Nir!' Lydia watched as M'rasha silently counted who she could find before the Shout wore off. "I count about ten outside. More inside."

The Nord chuckled and put her helmet back on. "Let's do this."

"Whatever you say loud girl." Lydia stared at her companion silently for a few seconds before she flicked M'rasha on the chin and rushed in, hearing M'rasha's fleeting yowls.

The attack on the outside camp was so abrupt that the Blood Horkers outside didn't know what hit them. If they weren't felled by the giant warhammer that Lydia swung around indiscriminately then they were burned to a crisp by the fireballs that M'rasha hurled. Once the outside 'courtyard' was cleared and M'rasha picked the front door, they stormed the building taking out even more pirates as they ascended. And, like a clichéd villain, they found their target at the top of the highest set of stairs hidden away at the end of a long corridor. The Redguard battlemage was dressed in heavy steel plate and was anything but happy to see Mrasha and Lydia break into the room.

"Surprised they sent in a cat," goaded Halyden, shock spell waiting in his hand.

"Surprised you thought your fog was foolproof," M'rasha replied, a fireball waiting in hers. Haldyn growled, his magic aura came off of him in waves. Lydia could tell that this wasn't going to be an easy-

He suddenly attacked. The shock spell in his hand quickly morphed into a fireball that he hurled at the women. It landed at the women's feet and exploded knocking the pair back out of the room and onto their sides. Haldyn approached the door and attacked once more with another fireball. M'rasha got to her knees first and conjured up a ward while Lydia rolled up behind the Khajiit. Haldyn continued his assault, this time sending lightning at M'rasha's shield. Every time Haldyn's spell hit the ward, it flickered slightly and pushed the women slightly back. Haldyn laughed manically and continued hurling spells, pushing the two towards the edge of the landing. Lydia threw aside her hammer and brought out her bow and readied an arrow.

"I'm going to push you forward. Use your Shout to stagger him so I can get a shot," she yelled over the crackling magic. M'rasha nodded and Lydia pushed the Khajiit forward a few steps, sending Haldyn back.

"Move now!"

As Lydia stepped from behind the woman, M'rasha began the Shout but she only got through the first two words before the Redguard sent a large shard of ice at M'rasha. It pierced through the ward, hit M'rasha in the shoulder with enough force to send her tumbling down the stairs. But before M'rasha went down her Shout went off. It hit Haldyn, sending him stumbling back into a wall and unfortunately messed with Lydia's aim. She let loose the arrow just as one of her arms was jostled by the Shout and it grazed the man's head making him curse out loud. His hand went to touch the wound and when he pulled it away Lydia could see blood on his fingers. With a snarl he turned his attention to the Nord, who was readying another arrow. Lighting appeared in his hand once more and he was just about to throw it when a sudden explosion jostled the tower putting them both off balance. The floor underneath them shook. The pirate mage stumbled back into the doorway, dodging some falling stones. He glowered at Lydia, conjuring up another fireball, "What did you-"

The second explosion was much closer to where they were fighting and knocked Lydia back. She rolled down the steps and only stopped once she made it to the first landing. Lydia started to get up but then immediately fell back when another explosion rocked the tower. All she could do was cover her head as stone and debris rained down. Lydia was able to stand once the building stopped shaking. She coughed and looked up to where Haldyn once stood. The ceiling had collapsed onto the upper staircase staircase had been completely blocked off by stone and rubble. But as she looked closer she could see a hand sticking out of the rocks. She nudged it with a finger and waited but there was no movement, no sound, nothing. If this was Halden, she was pretty sure that he was dead, crushed by the falling rocks.

"Lydia!" M'rasha sprinted up the remnants of the stairs, looking a little worn but okay. She pulled off the Nord's helmet and cupped her face. "Are you okay? Any injuries? Where's Haldyn?"

Lydia pulled M'rasha's hands away and held them. "I'm okay, my friend, I'm okay." The Nord looked back at destruction. "As for the mage, I think that's him?" She pointed to the hand. "Possibly?"

Another explosion. This one sent down rocks down on the two of them.

"Let's just say that that's him and get back to the boat before they bury us with him," M'rasha growled as she sprinted down the stairs pulling Lydia with her. The pair rushed by panicked pirates and made it to the front door just as the upper portion of the tower they were in came down. The scene outside was no better. The little sheds that were near the fort were either on fire or destroyed and impact craters dotted the area. Lydia looked at her shorter companion who scowled at the scene.

"Fucking Vendicci," M'rasha cursed. She looked and squinted towards the sky. Her ears perked up and started to move as if she was searching for something. And then her eyes went wide. She turned to Lydia and pushed her. "RUN!"

And then all Lydia felt was pain.

There was pain and heat and cold and pain. Everything hurt. Opening her eyes hurt. Closing them hurt. Breathing really hurt. She wanted to just sleep the pain away but there was something in her head that was screaming at her to stay awake, to move, move, move. So Lydia opened them to see the gray skies and snow and smoke and another giant fireball flying over head. She needed to get up, she needed to get away. She attempted to move and then screamed because all there was was PAINPAINPAINPAIN. She collapsed. That was a bad idea. Moving was out of the question. Lydia turned her head to see burning corpses of pirates on the ground and wood bits and rocks and fabric on fire. She turned to the other side and saw more fires. But there was M'rasha nowhere in sight. And the pain was getting worse and her vision was getting fuzzier. Breathing was getting harder to do.

And she knew. She knew this was it. This is where she would die. On the coast of a nearly forgotten icy island, killed by her supposed allies.

She cursed them as the sound of the firebombs hitting stone became muffled. The sky suddenly became dark and someone was calling her name. Lydia blinked once, twice, trying to get rid of the darkness that lined her failing vision. And then realized that the sky wasn't dark. There was someone standing over her.

"Wha-" Something was shoved into her mouth. It tasted like burnt wood. Startled, Lydia attempted to spit out because if they were going to kill her, she was going to go kicking and-

PAINPAINPAINPAINPAIN

Lydia screamed through the makeshift wooden gag as she thrashed about. This had to be the worst pain she had ever felt. Her whole body was on fire, even though she was still laying snow. The stranger pressed their hand to her torso and she whimpered. She expected to feel more pain but instead little by little it disappeared and Lydia's thrashing died down. She blinked once more, this time seeing a familiar face looking down at her.

"M'ra...sha," she croaked out. There was a large cut above the Khajiit's eye and she was covered in soot and dirt and snow but she seemed to be okay. M'rasha brushed the hair out of Lydia's face and had a small smile on her own. "How do you feel?"

"Pain."

"A lot?"

Lydia shook her head the best she could. M'rasha pressed down on the Nord's stomach and Lydia squeezed her eyes shut and winced loudly. When she opened her eyes again there was a small bottle in her face. "Drink."

Lydia drank the healing poultice and felt even more of the pain retreating. Her Thane said something but Lydia was suddenly overcome with a wave of tiredness. She closed her eyes just for a moment. She would take a break just for 5 minutes and then she would push through the pain and she and M'rasha would drag themselves back to the small dinghy and go back to the ship and then possibly kill Vendicci for her brash stupidity. Or just punch her.

But when Lydia did wake up, she noticed that she was no longer outside. She sat up with a start and felt a flair up of pain that had her holding on to her left side. She blinked, getting her eyes accustomed to the darkness and recognized that she was in the same room on the ship that they had given her and M'rasha. Relieved, Lydia let herself fall back onto the bed. That's when she realized that someone's arm was draped over her waist. She slowly turned her head to see a sleeping M'rasha. She turned over to face the slightly snoring Khajiit and pulled her close. She was warm and Lydia was cold, that was the only reason why she was snuggling with her. And soon enough both women were snoring, lulled to sleep by the rocking boat.

"Rise and shine, loud girl."

Lydia opened one eye and looked at the window next to the bed. "It's still dark. Let me sleep," she croaked.

"We're in Windhelm. Come on," M'rasha said poking the other woman's head, "You can sleep in at the inn."

Lydia groaned and threw the blanket onto the floor. She sat up, pushed herself out of bed only for her legs to give out under her. She fell to the floor cursing while M'rasha chuckled.

"C'mon" M'rasha pulled her up and let Lydia lean on her. "We're going to find you a proper bed to sleep in."

"You better. Or else I'm gonna sleep on you."

With M'rasha's help, the two walked out of the cabin, up the stairs, and onto the deck and into the cold air. There were a few sailors still checking the boat over while the soldiers were congregating on deck. There was no sign of Vendicci. The pair walked down the ramp off the ship and headed for the doors that led into the city. They were almost inside when a voice called out to them. "Leaving so soon?"

Lydia could feel M'rasha's body tense up under her. They turned around to Adelasia Vendicci walking towards them, a grin on her face.

"I've got business to attend to," said M'rasha briskly.

Adelasia nodded. "Understandable. But you almost left without taking your payment."

"One moment." M'rasha moved Lydia over to the wall, "Lean on that. I'll be two seconds."

M'rasha walked back to the Imperial and took the hefty pouch of gold and attached it to her waist. And then she did something that Lydia did not expect: She held out her hand to Vendicci. The Imperial looked at it and went to shake it. As soon as they gripped hands, M'rasha moved closer and using her free hand, raked her claws across the other woman's face. Vendicci screamed and grabbed her bleeding face. But M'rasha wasn't done. She grabbed onto one of the woman's arms and pulled her forward and then punched Vendicci right in the nose. The Imperial went down in a heap in front of her men who were too shocked to move. As Vendicci groaned weakly, clutching her face in pain, M'rasha knelt down next to her.

"If I ever see you again, a few tiny scars and a bloody nose will be the least of your worries." The Khajiit stood back up, went back to Lydia and helped her walk through the dockside doors. They headed straight to the inn after that and, after giving the innkeep a modest bit of coin in exchange for not being bothered at all, they stumbled into their rented room and collapsed on the bed. They laid there in silence, on their backs, side by side and for a brief moment Lydia assumed that the Khajiit fell asleep. But then she heard M'rasha let out a sigh and put a hand to her head.

"Gonna tell me what the punch was about," Lydia asked. M'rasha sat up and looked down at her.

"One of the firebombs landed near the entrance of the tower when we got out. Sent us both flying. I fell onto a shed, broke it. When I was able to get up, I didn't see you so I went looking. Found you on the other side of the camp with a wooden beam sticking out of your stomach."

Lydia pushed herself up and lifted her shirt to see the red angry patch of still healing skin to the left of her bellybutton. "Thought you had died for a second. But then I heard you moan and knew I had to act fast." M'rasha took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Took out the beam. Heard you scream. Healed you as best as I could and then dragged you back. Once we were back on-board I called for a healer and we got to work patching you up. And then..."

M'rasha hissed and her face started to twitch in anger. Lydia placed a hand on the older woman's leg, "And then what M'rasha?"

The Khajiit let out a snarl. "As I was tending your wounds, Adelasia came over and told me not to worry. Every Nord was the same so if you died it would be easy to replace you."

Hearing that Lydia became beyond furious and was half tempted to go back to the docks and give Adelasia a piece of her mind. And her fist. And her foot. Instead she just patted M'rasha's leg and said, "I'm glad you messed up her face."

"I wanted to do worse to her," M'rasha confessed, "But I was afraid with her men nearby and you injured. I...didn't want to see you hurt more."

Lydia felt a warm feeling in her chest hearing that. She grabbed M'rasha in a hug said playfully, "My hero! Thank you for defending my honor. "

M'rasha pulled away from the hug laughing and returned the jest, "It is my sworn duty my fair lady. I need no thanks."

"Shame. Because I had a reward for you. Though in order to give it to you I would need two bowls of troll fat, a container of void salts, leather straps and a horker tusk."

The look on M'rasha's face was priceless to Lydia who couldn't help but laugh.

"I...I have nothing to say," M'rasha conceded.

"Good!" Lydia wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled her back so her back was flush against Lydia's chest before flopping back onto the bed. "Sleep then. And before you say it, you need sleep as well. Can't go defending my honor half awake."

"Fine. Fine." M'rasha dragged the blanket over them. "Good night loud girl."

"Good night kitty eyes."

"Don't call me that."

"Can't stop me!"

A/N: I have literally 30 stories working on. See you next year. (Hopefully sooner!)