Vae Devinus walked down the street of Skingrad, a slight smile growing as she passed the mages guild and thought about her good friend and reliable companion Associate Mage Witt Merwin. Witt promised a cave delving adventure, and she had just completed a contract for the Dark Brotherhood. It was time for a break from work.

She accidentally bumped into a passing city guard. " Vae," She turned at the sound of her name and came face to face with another occasional companion. " I thought you were going to stay in the Imperial City for another couple of months," Massimus Lumuno smiled at her.

Blushing a little, Vae adjusted leather armor. " I was, but then I realized I didn't have business in the city anymore. I figured maybe Witt might want to get a breath of fresh air, make a little coin. You still the single man in a dangerous world?" She smiled at the fellow, handsome imperial.

Massimus bowed low, taking her gloved hand and planting a kiss on it. " That I am, my fair adventurer, that I am," Vae reluctantly pulled her hand away looking around for a reason to slip away. " But to this city I am always loyal, and a wanderlust heart of a beautiful fellow Imperial is not enough to sway me sadly,"

" Give it time," She winked at him and planted a kiss on his cheek, annoyed when his helmet got in the way. Leaning back, she placed one hand on his bracer covered forearm. " But sadly I must stock up supplies for cave delving." Stepping back from him, Vae now turned her eye on the Colovian Traders, directly across from the Mage's Guild.

Leaving her go, Massimus continued on his patrol route, glancing back at her when he knew she wasn't looking any longer. He sighed knowing that the one woman he desired would never be his. Vae entered the double doors and smiled as she heard the shopkeeper Gunder and his shop hand, Eyja arguing about how to arrange the shop's inventory and how to store the rest.

" Easy, easy now!" She announced her presence with a jovial smile and received an equally warm smile from the woman. " I came to restock. In a good mood?" She asked Gunder before holding up her coin purse.

Gunder cracked his usual smile that more than once persuaded her to buy more than she needed. " What do you need?" He beckoned to his inventory neatly arranged on shelves and displayed across tabletops including the one separating them.

Reaching across her body, Vae pulled a scroll from her satchel and unrolled it. She scanned the list of items needed. " Quills, inkwells, parchment to begin with. New arrows – twenty should be good." She thought to herself for a moment as Eyja helped gather the requested items. " I still need to get this armor repaired by Agnete." She sighed. Already she knew that if she didn't find anything good while cave delving, she might have to fulfill a few more contracts first.

Gunder totaled up the amount after inspecting the goods. He added up the sum on her list and put the total at the bottom. She eyed up the sum, mouth twisting in thought before sighing. There really was no way avoiding the costs of adventuring. Pulling out the coin purse again, she started counting out coins – 25 in total. Gunder recounted before Eyja handed everything over and helped pack it in the satchel.

Thanking them both, Vae made her way over to Hammer and Tongs. Agnete was once again not in the best of spirits. Vae shrugged it off and followed the older woman over to the table." I need this repaired," She told the armorer as she pulled out her badly damaged greaves and the helmet missing one ear flap that had been burned off.

Agnete picked up each piece and studied them for several minutes before giving her the final total. Vae nearly emptied her coin purse cursing the mage that burned off part of her helmet. What remained, a meager 10 gold, would barely cover her alchemical needs, if it did cover that. Now she definitely needed Witt to go cave delving with her.

Leaving behind her armor to be repaired, Vae made her way back to the mages guild. She found Witt Merwin, an ambitious but slightly scatterbrained Dunmer, in the alchemy area mixing ingredients to make potions. He looked up at the sound of her near silent approach and smiled. " I knew I'd be seeing you soon," He continued to work without interruption.

She seated herself next to him and watched him work. " We need to go cave delving." She said bluntly. " And you have been mentioning how you want to get recommendations from the other cities' guilds so you can actually enter the mage center,"

Witt clucked his tongue and shook his head. " For the last time, it is not-" His eyes narrowed on her as he realized she was only teasing him. He shook his finger at her. " You…"

Giving him that cheeky grin she was infamous for, she watched him intently.

" Why cave delving?"

" I was thinking about buying a house in Cheydinhal actually," She said. " It's going to need a lot of renovation. Maybe I can actually convince Massi to change cities,"

Bottling up the potion, Witt placed it to his right and started crushing an ingredient into a powder. " Does he know that you call him Massi?"

" No, and if you tell him I'll make sure you regret it,"

Witt started laughing at her. " I wasn't going to tell him. It's a relief to know that you're not all business at times," He stopped what he was doing and became serious. " If you want him that much, you could just live here,"

Vae shook her head. " I want to help out the order as much as I can, and renovating the house over it is something that will make everyone happy. The count can go on with his life, I can be happy with having a 'proper' home, and I won't have to waste money on inns,"

" Not that you really do to begin with,"

" Beside the point,"

" Then don't use it as a point," Witt argued in good spirits with her. " Besides I thought you liked cultivating contacts at inns and shops," He tipped the power into an empty bottle and started cutting up raw ingredients into more manageable sizes.

Chewing on her lip, Vae sighed. " It's not that I don't want more contacts. I just don't think I can always live off cave delving and contracts after my joints start to give way. After taking an arrow to the knee and almost losing an ear to a weak fireball, I'm starting to rethink a different occupation. Maybe open up shop somewhere – lure you away from the guild life and we could be partners," She looked to him hopefully.

He seemed to be thinking it over before shrugging. " It's a possibility,"

" That's the dunmer I know!" She hopped up and moved to hug him. He endured it, a sour expression twisting his narrow face. " The grumpy mage," She pinched his cheeks, earning herself an aggravated swat across that edged her away.

" The annoying-"

She put a finger to his lip. " Shh," She said in his ear. " It's not wise to say it out loud,"

" –little twit," He finished eyeing her up.

Backing away, Vae took her seat again and adjusted her shirt. " Not my fault we met up. You're the one who backed yourself into a corner and needed me to rescue you," She said smugly watching him resist the urge to catch her on fire.

Witt went back to work steadfastly ignoring her. She warned him she would return later that evening, but first she had to send out a letter by courier. After all, if it wasn't for the couriers, she'd probably be hard to reach a lot of the time. Leaving the mage's guild and finding one of her more well-to-do couriers at the local inn, Vae had no idea that across Cyrodil a lookalike with no memory appeared out of nowhere and had been ambushed while attempting to find civilization.