Chapitre 18: Safia

A large ship floats anchored at the Solitude Docks, the waves rocking it gently. It's main mast lies in ruins after the Red Wave pirates encountered a group of Mage pirates. Fireballs had scorched the wood and burned down the mainsail. If their nimblest crewmates hadn't cut the fabric, it would have spread and burned down the entire ship with nothing to spare for them.

A pulley system sits in the middle of the bow, utilizing the foremast as a way to suspend planks of wood for the repairs of the main mast. A Redguard woman, Safia, leans against the doorway while overseeing the workers, making sure they're doing their job while also intimidating them into doing it correctly. Her darker toned skin and lightly colored hair shows that she spends a lot of time in the sun, and her stance lets others know that she's always prepared for a fight.

While she watches the workers a stranger walks onto the deck, headed straight for her. She wears dark leather armor with trims of red, a hood and mask covering her face. The entire getup is silly to look at when there's nothing but sun pouring down on everything. How can you even move? Safia laughs as the woman gets closer. Raising a hand just as she reaches her, she speaks up.

"Do we have business?" Her deep voice booms over the small framed woman in front of her.

"You face the Dread Lo-"

"Sithis? Wait, let me guess. 'In the Void!'" she grins and shifts herself to fully face the assassin. "You lot are so predictable. Here's how this is going to play out; you try to kill me, and I put you out of your misery." She pushes herself off of the doorframe and walks past the stranger to the open bow where she draws her scimitar. Peeking over her shoulder, she asks: "Shall we dance?"

The mask morphs to show that the wearer is smiling, and they join Safia on the front deck.

"Am I safe to assume that anything goes?"

"It wouldn't be fun if it were otherwise." Safia snickers.

The stranger raises a hand and casts a spell over herself then draws her shortsword. The two begin circling around the wide gap that separates them, looking for an opening and waiting for the other to strike first.

Workers on break watch them intensely, it isn't often that they get to see a fight so up close.

The stranger smashes a vial onto the boards, causing smoke to surround her and Safia. The sound of her footsteps echo across the wooden boards as she dashes towards Safia. Raising her sword to slice through her, the assassin finds Safia blocking it at the last possible second. Sparks fly as the scimitar slides across the shortsword, and the assassin is thrown back by Safia's push while also causing most of the smoke to disappear. The pirate presses forward after the assassin who stands as quickly as she fell. The two clash again and the assassin kicks out Safia's leg. As she swings her blade around to cut her a fist lands in her gut, knocking her back and giving Safia time to stand again.

Safia slashes her scimitar at the assassin who has begun to annoy her. Annoying her even more, she refuses to be hit by the blade and continues to dodge every attempt. Unbeknownst to the assassin, she was being backed into one of the masts.

When the wood hits her back, she looks down and then back up as the scimitar swings down from above her. She ducks and rolls, the scimitar imbedding itself into the mast. Before Safia can act, her leg is kicked out from under her again, and she watches as the assassin plunges their shortsword through her left hand and into the floorboards. The shock of pain keeps her still as the assassin wiggles the scimitar out of the mast and brings it over to one of the ropes holding up the planks. Bringing it to her left side, she then slams the sharpened blade into the rope, cutting it swiftly and causing heavy planks of wood to come crashing down on top of Safia.

Smoke encircles them both yet again and the assassin waves her hand in front of her face to blow it away. She listens for Safia who coughs and groans in pain. As the smoke clears, the assassin walks towards the wreckage. Safia lies under a heavy pile of planks, unable to move. The shortsword still pins her left hand to the floorboards, blood still leaking across it. They make eye contact.

"Was this as fun as you had hoped it to be?"

Safia glares at the woman that mocks her. The assassin steps over to her head and crouches down, placing the scimitar over Safia's throat. The blade runs across her flesh, leaving a trail of cut skin that blood oozes from. Safia's mouth opens as she gasps for air and the assassin places a Nightshade in it

"Well I thought it was fun."