<h4>Chapter 663: M for Evil</h4>


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    Mercer Frey was contacted by Maven ck-Briar one night and she summoned him to her estate outside of Riften. But once he arrived, there was no Maven meeting him. It was a Dunmer Wizard with a bald head along with a prosthetic arm and eye, Mecinar.


    Rumors had it that Maven employed that wizard couple of months ago and he seemed to be behind the chaos around Riften since he came for a certain Artifact that he turned the entire hold upside down for.


    Still, once Mercer asked about Maven, he was shown to a withered olddy whose body is beyond the limits of its natural life. She woke up, spoke a few words, and the look on her eyes was filled with hate and malice, all before she copsed again.


    These eyes were Maven''s alright.


    Mercer understood that something terrible had happened and now, his patron Maven is at open war with Jon Dare, a war she is losing.


    The Thieves Guild seemed to have slipped from Maven''s hand now that Mercer can''t affect the big picture with Delvin breathing down at his neck. That''s why he decided to use a branch of men he hired to empty the vault of the Thieves Guild that he was leeching on for years.


    Getting to that Vault was not a problem since the Guild had a big heist nned for one night and all members were participating. All Mercer needed to do was to use the secret entrance from the Graveyard to ess the Guild vault directly and open it using the artifact he managed to reacquire as ofte.


    The Skeleton Key.


    Now that he emptied the treasury, the Thieves Guild should be crippled and Jon Dare shouldn''t have much use of it. Next on the list is to hurt Jon Dare indirectly.


    Earlier, Mercer assigned Junar with an investigation that he thought would yield nothing. It was about a certain sabotaging operation that was targeting the ck-Briars and the Thieves Guild at the same time.


    At first, Jon Dare was the prime suspect in Mercer''s mind but knowing how much money Jon was pouring into the Guild, things didn''t add up. However, after some investigation, Junar returned with a name… Karliah.


    Mercer Frey, alu Karliah, and Gallus Desidenius were the legendary trio of thieves from around 20 to 30 years ago. They led the Thieves Guild through its best times and increased its poprity by leaps and bounds. Not only that, but those three were the Nightingales, a secret order within the Thieves Guild that serves the Lady of Luck and Shadows, Nocturnal.


    With the Twilight Sepulcher being the sacred temple of Nocturnal on Nirn, the Nightingales were its sworn protectors and from it, Nocturnal blessed the Thieves with luck and fortune.


    In the Sepulcher, there lies an item called the Ebonmere. While it is simply a portal to Noctornal''s realm, it is also some sort of a conduit that can pass the influence of Nocturnal into Mundus. This influence is what gives luck to the Thieves at night and shrouds them with mystery and shadow.


    To keep this portal open, the Skeleton Key must remain inserted within it and remain there or else the portal shall be closed and the thieves of Tamriel shall be left without Luck.


    This was the secret behind the Curse that haunted the Thieves Guild for long years.


    Mercer has been stealing from the Guild for years. He lived avish lifestyle and kept his actions without ever stopping. Gallus Desidenius found out and tried so hard to expose him but Mercer was craftier and forced Gallus into a trap near Winterhold where he slew Gallus by Karliah''s de. Once he reached Riften, he used her arrows to injure himself and pinned it all on her.


    Karliah escaped Riften and went back to the copsed House alu in Mournhold where she spent years nning her revenge. The moment she amassed enough fortune, she started going against Mercer from the shadows in order to bankrupt the Guild and make them all turn against him. There, she will be able to expose him as a betrayer to Nocturnal and the entire Guild.


    But Mercer caught onto that and realized who was the actual saboteur of his ongoing operations, and if it wasn''t his old friend Karliah, not Jon Dare. He was even able to find that out thanks to Jon Dare''s girlfriend who was hanging around with the other Thieves from Delvin''s circle.


    Still, once he wanted to seek help from Maven ck-Brair to eliminate Karliah, he found her in the sorry state she was in thanks to Jon Dare and realized that Jon''s involvement in the current affairs of the Guild is not as minor as he was led to believe. ording to Maven, he had to work with Arch-Wizard Mecinar to eliminate Jon Dare as well.


    Maven had power over him and quite frankly, she had him by the balls for a long time. She knew about his whole situation with Gallus and Karliah and convinced him that she could offer him protection if he was at her service in the underground world.


    Still, Mercer was reluctant to go against Jon Dare. Despite Jon being a junior to him and previously a member of the guild, he is now a giant and with a lot of power backing him up. Mercer researched Jon for the past two years before the appearance of the Dragons and tried toe up with a single-man heist in the Dare Tower but that was an impossible n without the Skeleton Key.


    At some point, Mercer actually lost the Skeleton Key for at least 3 years, and recently did he recover it. ording to what was told to him, Aedric and Daedric Artifacts have wills of their own and sometimes can choose to appear and disappear. Mercer really panicked when the Skeleton Key disappeared but a year ago, it emerged from the shadows right in front of his eyes.


    He knew it.


    The Key calls to him, it wants to be with him.


    They have a connection.


    Nocturnal is thedy of shadows and two of her Artifacts are simply the most incredible tools any thief can have. One is the Skeleton Key which can unlock anything in the physical and mental aspects and the second is the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, a mask which its wearer can be forgotten from the memories of all those who know them.


    If he was after anything now, it is the Cowl that would make him disappear without anyone knowing who he ever was.


    But the Cowl is currently lost and if he wanted safe passage away from Jon Dare''s influence, he would need to rely on Maven, or better, rely on the Arch-Wizard by her side, Mecinar.


    Mecinar and Mercer met on a few asions and they managed to strike a good deal together to solve each other''s problems. Mecinar seemed interested in and terrified by Jon Dare and for some reason, he refused to speak about that thing that terrifies him but at the same time, he wanted to get rid of him almost as much as Maven, and thus the two of them got to work together.


    First, Mecinar asked Mercer to lead a small band of thugs and capture a living Vampire. A dangerous task but with the Vampire situation happening around Riften, Mercer managed to ambush a Dawnguard caravan that was transporting a captured Vampire from a fortified carriage and brought him to Mecinar.


    As for the next step of their n, it was to capture or kill two figures that would lead Jon Dare to fly in rage and go to a ce where they willy a trap for him. Those two figures they are after were Junar and Karliah.


    Junar is known to be one of Jon Dare''s women and a very close person to him. The reason why she could hang around anywhere around Riften is that she is something of a monster herself. All the Dares are monsters by normal people''s standards and that''s why it had to be done where they least expect. That''s why Mercer led Junar to the Snow Veil Sanctum where Karliah was hiding in order to assassinate the two.


    Jon knew Mercer would try to assassinate Junar and warned her of the possibility. He also gave her enough items to kill Mercer and blow him to dust along with Karliah whom she met once before in Morrowind. (When Jon was returning to Skyrim, Junar traveled to the Morrowind to aid the Old Woman of Mournhold as a Dare Mercenary.)


    What Jon didn''t expect was the involvement of Arch-Wizard Mecinar and Maven in this affair with Mercer. It was as if all the scum whose names start with the letter M decided to work against him all at once.


    Mecinar and the Maven''s Mercenaries attacked Junar in the Snow Veil Sanctum and tried to capture her. Even with all the preparation she had on her, Junar was cornered badly and couldn''t defend against an Arch-Wizard for too long.


    The attacks all came from behind as Mecinar, Mercer, and Maven''s Mercenaries were following her with all sorts of tactics. She managed to easily drop a score of them but whenever she kills one, two woulde at her.


    There, she ran into Karliah who found out that the back exit of the Snow Veil Sanctum was also surrounded by Mercenaries. With the Evil M gang closing on them from all directions and Mecinar almost about toy his hand on them, Junar dejectedly used herst card that she never imagined she would need.


    An Escape Scroll.


    She could take Karliah with her before the two got captured and the moment they emerged, they were in Honeyside Manor in Riften. With her terrible injuries, Junar refused to go anywhere other than the Thieves Guild.


    She needed to tell Jon.


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