Go to the Tavern

 As you stroll down the crowded street, a distant wooden sign catches your eye ‘The Bannered Mare’ it reads; you turn down the street towards the tavern licking your dry lips unconsciously; the walk here had been long and dry, some lunch and a cool ale to wash away the road dust caking your throat sounded perfect to you right now.  Pushing open the door you step into the tavern; to your left a long wooden bar ran the length of the room, the place is sparsely populated with only a few customers seated around the open fire pit burning in the rooms center; you can see a staircase rising to the second floor on the other side of the fire. 

   Gesturing the barmaid over, you take a seat, placing your gauntlets and helm on the bench beside you; you glance around the taverns studying the patrons with your brilliant green eyes.  Behind the bard stands a stout, middle aged Nord woman; at the bar stood a tall, handsome red headed Nord man, he had a lute in his hands and his fine tenor voice was uplifted in song; he shoots you a wink as you enter the room, his dark blue eyes sparkling.  

   Across the fire pit from you sat the places two other customers, both have the look of mercenaries or sellswords, the first is a sneering male Nord in heavy armour fashioned of dark iron clutching a mug of mead in his hands, the other was an angry looking Nord female, covered from neck to toes in steel plate, she shoots you a dismissive sneer as you sit down.  The last person in the room was the barmaid heading towards you; she was a tall, handsome Redguard woman with short dark hair, her low cut dress clinging to her ample curves as she approached you.

   Doubting the foreign woman saw a great many visitors from her distant homeland you mention the two Redguard men you had seen at the town’s gate, her reaction to your idle comment takes you by surprise; face going pale she gestures for you to follow her, then hurries up the stairs to the inns second floor.  Uncertain at what you have just done, you follow her upstairs and into a small bedroom under the roofs eaves; you are even more surprised when she whirls around to face you, a fierce look on her face and a wicked looking knife clutched in one hand

“What do you know about those men? Are you working for them? Do they know where I am?”

Honestly baffled at what she was talking about you shake your head “I have no idea what you are talking about, I just mentioned them out of politeness since you are all Redguards”

She studies your face for a long moment, whatever it was that she saw there seemed to satisfy her and she lowered the knife, the fierce look on her face slowly fading “Those men you saw at the gates are assassins; they are working for the Aldmeri Dominion”

One hand still on your sword hilt, you raise a sceptical eyebrow “Why would the Thalmor hire assassins to kill a mere barmaid?”

   She shakes her head “my name is not Saadia and I am not really a barmaid.  My name is actually Iman of House Suda and I am a noblewoman in exile; I was **** to flee the province of Hammerfell when the Thalmor hired those Al’ikir assassins to come after me when I spoke out against them.”

“How do I know you are telling me the truth?”

   “You don’t” she admits flatly, her dark eyes cold “But it’s been three years now and I am tired of running from them; I will give you 500 gold pieces if you ...deal with these hunters for me, I don’t really care what you do as long as it gets rid of them”