Sharee was in Leyawiin, at the [i]Blackwood Brew[/i] tavern. She had bought up about a month’s worth of time at the inn with the gold from her last job, and had about three more days left. Most of the rest of her gold had been spent on alcohol and other forms of instant gratification, so she would need to find some other employment soon. This, of course, meant that she was completely ignoring the issue and getting drunk with some of the locals. 

There were five people at the table: a female Khajiit, a male Argonian, a male Orc, a male Altmer, and Sharee. They were all in various states of inebriation, talking and laughing louder than any other table in the room. Sharee had just started with a few games of shells, and was collecting a tidy profit. A few rounds had gone to the others, and the Khajiit was even up about ten gold, but Sharee still very much had profit. 

After a loss at shells, the Argonian male sighed and shook his head. “By the Hist you can move those things fast. How in Oblivion are you making any money at this, Ahnasha?” He asked, giving the Khajiit a pat on the back, which wasn’t surprising considering that he had been using any excuse he could find all night to put his hands on her. 

“This one’s eyes are as sharp as her claws.” The Khajiit responded, looking at him with a prideful smirk. 

Sharee leaned in toward the Argonian with a grin. “Come now, you’re sittin’ here with the fastest blade to ever grace the Topal Sea and you think I can’t move around a few shells? You must be a real lightweight on your ale if you’re already losin’ your mind.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re the deadliest woman to ever live, we’re all at your mercy, I know the drill.” He responded sarcastically. “I guess you’re going to tell the story about how you took out that galleon again?” 

Sharee chuckled as she moved on to let the Orc have his turn betting on the shells. “Hmm…no, I’ll let you off the hook this time. I’m more than satisfied just takin’ all your gold.” She said, taking another swig of her ale. The Orc played a few rounds of shells, losing each round and thirty gold along with it. He was not part of Sharee’s usual circle of acquaintances, as he was simply a friend of the rather quiet Altmer at their table. The Orc was starting to get visibly upset, which, if the others weren’t too drunk to notice, would have probably killed their upbeat mood. 

“Come on, don’t look so down. How about another round, double or nothing?” Sharee offered encouragingly. 

The Ore grumbled for a few moments, glancing back and forth between Sharee and the shells before finally speaking up. “Fine, one more.” He said with a hint of anger. Sharee put a septim under one of the three shells, then rapidly swapped them around with surprising speed and precision for her level of intoxication. The Orc tried to keep his eye on the one with the septim as best as he could, then, once Sharee stopped, immediately selected what he thought was the right one. Unfortunately for him, when she lifted the shell, it was empty. “Another loss for you. I don’t think it would be smart to go for another one, might as well quit while you’re behind.” Sharee said with a satisfied grin. The Orc growled for a few moments, then suddenly jumped up out of his chair and swiped the shells off of the table. He slammed his hands down on the table and looked Sharee in the eyes as menacingly as he could. “I’m not paying you a septim swindler!” He yelled.

Sharee set down her ale, clasped her hands together, and looked up at the Orc with an expression that made her seem calm. “You lost the bet, you pay the coin. No exceptions.”

“I don’t pay cheats. What, you think just because you got some locals thinkin’ you’re some kind of legend that I’ll just believe it? All I see here is a drunk lizard cheating her way through a few games of shells with a bunch of idiots. Now, give me my coin!” He yelled. By this point, the eyes of everyone in the tavern were on them. The others at their table had already gotten up from their seats and backed away, though Sharee stayed right where she was. 

Sharee leaned forward and returned his stare. “Make me.” She said firmly. Sharee was far from pleased with the Orc at the moment and very much wanted to teach him a lesson. She was offended that he actually had the audacity to accuse her of cheating. She was cheating, but he had no way of knowing that. 

The Orc flew into a rage, throwing the table aside and charging right at her with his fist in full swing. However, even while intoxicated, Sharee was leagues more agile than an untrained, berserking Orc. She swung her entire upper body to the left while kicking at him with her right leg. His fist smashed harmlessly through the back of her chair, while her leg hit him full force in his stomach, though that was a bit higher than where she was aiming. Sharee was nearly thrown off balance and barely managed to right herself in time to strike the back of his head with her elbow. She stood up and looked down on the Orc on the ground beneath her. His hand was bleeding from splinters and he was certainly going to be bruised from that strike to the head, but nevertheless, he still started to bring himself up to his feet. 

Sharee saw that the stubborn Orc was still trying to fight, so, almost calmly, she reached down and picked up one of the half empty bottles of ale that had survived the fall to the ground, walked over to the Orc, and smashed it over his head before he could get up. The bottle shattered over his head, cutting up his face with shards of glass. He once again fell on his back, still conscious, but obviously unwilling to fight. While the Orc was incapacitated, Sharee reached down and grabbed his coinpurse from his belt to secure her earnings, plus whatever else he had.

For a few seconds, there was some cheering from the crowd of onlookers, not necessarily because they wanted Sharee to win, but simply because they enjoyed watching a good fight. It was cut short, however, when the front door to the tavern flew open, revealing one of the Leyawiin guard. He silently looked over the room for a moment, then sighed and shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t know what I expected. Sharee, this is the third time this week you’ve given the guard trouble…and it’s only Morndas. I don’t know what you said to the last two to get out of it, but I’m not going to be putting up with it anymore. You’re coming with me. You too Orc, we’ll figure out what happened in the castle dungeons.” 

Sharee chuckled, responding to the guard’s command with a smile. She held her arms out wide and looked at him confidently. “Don’t worry my good sir, that won’t be necessary. Everyone here saw what happened. I can’t help it if the bigots in this city don’t like that I don’t submit to them. This Orc here just couldn’t stand the thought of an Argonian besting him in a game of chance. I assure you, I did everything I could to calm down the situation, but he just didn’t listen.”

“What, bigots? What are you-” The Orc began to say, but Sharee quickly spoke up to interrupt. 

“I’m sure the proprietor of this fine establishment will support me, won’t you Tonan?” Sharee asked, glancing over to the Imperial male behind the bar, locking eyes with him for a few moments. 

The innkeeper locked up for a second at Sharee’s gaze, then quickly regained his composure and turned his attention to the guard. “Yeah, of course, it was the Orc who started it, didn’t want to pay his gambling debts, so he got mad, attacked her.” The Imperial said, trying to sound as calm as possible. He had been on Sharee’s bad side before and had regretted it, so he was too afraid to do anything she would disapprove of. He knew well she was probably cheating, but he judged it would be a bad idea to rat her out for a crime that would only be punishable by a week or so in prison. 

The guard glanced back and forth between Sharee and the innkeeper suspiciously, then looked down to the Orc and sighed in resignation. “Fine, whatever. Come with me, you.” The guard said, reaching down and pulling the Orc to his feet. After the guard left with the Orc, Sharee walked over to the bar and took a seat on a stool, setting down the Orc’s coin purse on the counter in front of them. 

“Get me another round.” She said demandingly. She reached into the coin purse and dropped down quite a few more coins than was needed to buy another drink to smooth things over with the innkeeper. If he was lucky, she would forget to steal it back before leaving town. 
Sharee drank her ale in peace for a few minutes before a few of her acquaintances, the Khajiit and the Argonian, approached her once again. The Argonian had his arm around Ahnasha's waist, and she wasn't really intent on letting go of him either. The Khajiit seemed calm and a bit tipsy, while the Argonian was slightly less inebriated. 

"Celebrating your victory, are you?" The Argonian asked with a chuckle as they approached. Sharee took a large gulp of her ale, then slammed it down on the table as she looked at them.

"If by celebrating, you mean doin' the exact same thing as before, then yeah, I'm celebrating." She responded sarcastically. 

Ahnasha laughed awkwardly loudly at Sharee's response and leaned in closer to her. She likely would have fallen were it not for the Argonian holding her up. "Good, good. This one was afraid the assassin would get mad and kill everyone."

Sharee grunted. "Nonsense, if I killed everyone, then there wouldn't be anyone to give me a job. Besides, I snatched the Orc's coinpurse, and he got arrested. I call that a win. I suppose, though, I need to start thinkin' about finding more work. I mean, there was one thing I've been thinking about trying, but I need good people for it. I meant to start finding people for it last week, but then I got distracted and now...well never mind. Point is I need work."

"What is it, maybe we can help with it?" The Argonian asked. 

"I said [i]good[/i] people." Sharee quipped, looking at them judgingly. 

"Fine, whatever. I'll keep an eye out, but I'll expect a finder's fee if I do." He said.

"You'll get nothin' and like it." Sharee said, returning to her drink as the two went away to their own table. She finished her ale and thought for a few moments. As useless as those two were, they had made her think about something. She was fairly confident that she could get work if she wanted it, but frankly, she was tired of taking orders. Her years of experience as a professional assassin had taught her how to keep up an act with ease, so it wasn't hard, but she still wanted to be her own boss. Sure, she was an independent mercenary, but she still inevitably had to report to her employers. There was one idea she had in her mind that could eliminate that issue, but she had been putting off any serious planning on it for quite a while. If she did do it, it would be extremely risky in pretty much every way, but if she succeeded...

Sharee stood up suddnenly, glancing back and forth between the door and the bar. She was slightly inebriated at the moment, but she could still handle plenty more drinks. With the group before, she had been playing up her intoxication a bit to make the others more confident with their betting. After a few moments, she let out a sigh, then walked away from the bar and out of the tavern. Sharee ignored the suspicious glares of the guards as she left through the city's main gate and started heading east to the marshland just outside the city. Her mind was clouded and undecided, so she was heading for a nice secluded place to clear her head and think in peace. The blackwood forest just outside Leyawiin was rather marsh like, much like her own homeland. It was the perfect place for her to go just to...think. 

Sharee walked along the road for a while, then left the road behind and walked the short distance to the shoreline. After taking a seat on a fallen log, she looked out over the Topal bay, which gave her a clear line of sight on the Leyawiin docks. The sun was setting in the sky, leaving an orange glow over the water. From her position, she could see she the vessel the had been thinking about for the past few days. It was a medium sized frigate, one of the East Empire company escort vessels tasked with escorting trading ships, and a lot of its crew were currently on shore leave...

"You know, that's not a bad idea." Sharee muttered to herself as she stared out over the water, mezmerized by the vessel.