Brynjolf

Vex and Delivn waved as they headed into the trees on their steeds, I borrowed Frost from Shadow so I could search for her. The beautiful white Khajiit was last seen leaving the cistern during a storm a week ago, and nobody had seen her since.

Not only Shadow was missing, because Mercer and Karliah were discovered missing when Gallus wrote to me saying Mercer had captured Karliah and Gallus had been preparing to save her when he found out that both captor and captive had vanished only hours after the disappearance of Shadow.

I spurred Frost into a gallop, we rode like this nonstop for hours, heading to Whiterun and Shadow's home there before moving onto Windhelm, Dawnstar and Solitude to see if she was present in any of those locations.

Early in the morning, I saddled Frost again and rode to Windhelm, where Jarl Ulfric became very agitated at the news of his most skilled warrior vanishing without a trace. No leads were picked up in Windhelm, so I took a carriage to Dawnstar and cornered Nazir, asking if he had seen Shadow.

Now I sat with my head in my hands at the Winking Skeever, Solitude has provided me with a lead which turned cold when I found that Shadow had not been present in Proudspire Manor for two weeks prior to her vanishing.

I racked my brains desperately, trying to come up with a solution as to where Shadow might have gone... maybe she returned to Elswyer? She would have to cross through Cyrrodil if she wanted to get there though... she could have sailed to Alinor, though she would be more likely found in Bruma than Sunhold.

Calling for another drink, I attempted to reign in my scattered thoughts and gain focus. What if Shadow had never left the Rift? What if Jarl Ulfric was lying and he had hidden Shadow? What if she had run off with Mercer? Yes... that was it. Shadow had run off with Mercer and betrayed the guild by lying to us all about the guild being her home...

Her tears were fake.
Her heists were fake.
The kiss we shared together was fake.
Her love was fake.
She was fake.

My will to live was fake.