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“Here we are, elf. Welcome to my castle,” Ysgeir beamed, stretching his arms wide to introduce his Altmeri guest to the ‘glorious’ room that was the private chamber of his ship.
“So, now that we’ve had the chance to meet yesterday, allow me to elaborate on why I’ve contacted some of your ‘friends’ about these maormer.” He gestured to a chair by a table that had a bowl of fruit on it. “Go on an’ take a seat, this may be long.”
The mer accepted his offer and sat down with his legs closed and his back straight. Very formal. Very stiff. Like the last time they’d spoken. Ysgeir knew he’d have a lot of fun messing with this one.
Ysgeir shot his best smile at the mer. “Go ahead, take some fruit. I’d be a terrible host if I didn’t feed you.”
“No, thank you,” the mer declined with a polite bow. “I am here to know more of your reasons for coming to Auridon and this ‘deal’ you spoke of, nothing more.”
A bit of a boring answer, but the Nord couldn’t really argue. “Alright. Well, I hear these maormer an’ their pirates keep messin' with people. The ones I sent word of bother your people too, right?”
“They do, but why is it of concern to you?” the mer inquired.
“They bother us as well. You… Telen- Can I call you Telen instead of Telendil?” He briefly rubbed his fingers together in thought, then continued before the mer could voice his disapproval on the matter. “It’s shorter. I’ll call you Telen. You know the concept of the enemy of my enemy is my friend, yeah? We’re here to try an’ strike a deal with the people in this part of–”
In the middle of the Nord’s sentence, the mer suddenly pulled his legs up and started crouching on his seat.
Ysgeir furrowed his brows and tilted his head slightly as he gave the mer a puzzled look. Slowly, his eyes turned to the floor where he saw nothing. Once he noticed something move by the dresser however, he was pretty sure that he knew what the issue was.
A small grin tugged at corner of the pirate’s mouth and delighted eyes shot back up at his visitor’s slightly concerned, yet calm, face. Such a tall and supposedly graceful thing behaving like this? Amazing.
“Goldie, you afraid of mice?”
“I am not afraid of anything,” the mer replied, eyes still fixed to the ground in an attempt to find out where the little pest that bothered him was.
“Don’t worry, I can carry you, bridal style, whenever you decide to get off that chair,” Ysgeir teased, which earned him an annoyed glare from the mer that only made the Nord smile wider. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”
There was a silence from the mer. Was he actually considering accepting his offer? Honestly, Ysgeir wasn’t sure if he’d like that, seeing as he wasn’t much of a weight lifting man and this mer was probably quite heavy, going on his height alone.
Still, it was worth a try, and getting close with a member of the Aldmeri Dominion might lead to interesting elven gossip. Not to mention that him leaving a decent enough impression would increase the chances of his little plan succeeding.
“Do you want me to get rid of it?” Ysgeir asked, feigning concern in his voice and face.
The mer glanced at Ysgeir and then back to the ground. “No, I’m fine. This is fine.”
Even while trying not to embarrass this mer, Ysgeir couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle. “You know, it is bothering me. It might chew holes in my clothes.”
With that, the Nord got up, and sauntered over to his cat to direct it to do its damned job and get rid of the rats and mice on the ship. It didn’t take long for the feline to dispose of the vermin, after which the mer slowly lowered his legs and awkwardly straightened his clothes and hair.
“Good thing you’re not afraid of cats,” Ysgeir japed. He got a chair and turned it in such a way that he sat on it backwards, his legs spread with the backrest between them, facing Telen. “Anyway, back to business. You want to be rid of this group of pirates. We want to be rid of them, too. We have information on them. You want some things they have, an’ we want some things we had before they took it from us. We also would like something extra.”
Ysgeir made a dismissive wave of the hand and sighed to take a short break from explaining this mess. “Of course, you already have a team on it and all that mess, but here’s the thing: I already have what you need to know, while you don’t. It’s not much we’re asking in return for this. You can read it all on paper.” With one hand, Ysgeir reached for a rolled up piece of parchment that he had in his pocket and placed it on the table, in front of Telen.
“Read it, somewhere nice with no rodents," he suggested, biting back the urge to grin when he saw the look on the mer's face. "Write down what you think or want to change or what have you, an’ then let me know tomorrow what you pointy eared folk think of this deal of ours. Sound good to you?”
The mer made a slow nod. “It will do, for now.” Telen took the parchment and got up from his seat.
“Thank you,” he said with a bow, “I shall take my leave then.”
Before Telen turned to open the door, Ysgeir smiled at him with his arms resting on the backrest of his seat and his chin resting on those. He winked. “Have a nice day, friend.”