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Iulius Rilectus liked the rain. The patter of water landing on skin calmed him, and the smell of wet dirt filled his sinuses in a way that not even his father’s vile gas could, seeping into every orifice and soothing his soul.
He sat underneath a tree at his father’s shrine, watching as the rain pounded the ground like an unknown rhythm, one he wanted to memorise. Kesh was sitting underneath the table they had hauled up the small mountain, glowering out at the rain. He hated the rain, and hated that his god Peryite’s shrine was in open air because of it.
But no amount of pleading would cause Iulius to move the shrine. It was the perfect place for the god of disease. The Khajiit just didn’t see that.
Someone sat down next to him, and he realised that he had been so absorbed into his musings of the rain that he hadn’t seen Kashaja climb up the mountain. She had her hood up, shielding her from the rain, the Staff of Magnus resting on the ground next to her.
“What’re you doing here?” Iulius asked, tipping his head back onto the bark of the tree to stare up at the grey clouds covering the normally blue sky.
“Am I not allowed to see my friend?” the Argonian asked, tugging at the edge of her hood.
“You only visit me when you want something.”
She shrugged. “Maybe so. But this time, no. I’m just doing a pitstop on my way to Markarth. Dibella’s daughter, Fjotld, wants to make a truce between the four guilds. Jamie and Borig are already there.”
“Trying to get out of the rain?” he asked, a smirk on his face. “This isn’t exactly the place for it. Besides, isn’t your mother’s cult situated nearby?”
She scowled. “I don’t like them. They worship me like they do my mother, and it makes me uncomfortable.”
“Is that why you’re always on the other side of the province?”
She nodded.
They sat talking as the rain poured around them, not relenting at any point. After a couple of hours, Kashaja stood up, and stared out at the rain.
“I need to get going.”
They said their goodbyes, and the Argonian left, pulling her college robes hood down over her head. Iulius watched as she descended the mountain, and stared up at the rain again.