At first, the Breton shopkeeper was confused at Sabine's awkwardness, but not immediately alarmed. His first thoughts about the "private thing" she mentioned was that she perhaps needed her undergarments adjusted, given her anxiety, but that thought vanished when she mentioned his strongbox. It was a few seconds before he was able to take in what she was asking and come to a conclusion.

"My...strongbox? Is this...are you robbing me?" He questioned. He looked as if he was about to shout out for a moment, but as soon as he cast his gaze onto Kaleeth's sword, fear set into his expression and he raised up his hands slightly. His voice lowered to the point that Sabine would have had a hard time hearing him were it not for her enhanced senses. "I-I promise I won't give you any trouble madam, just please don't hurt me."

The shopkeeper was possibly trying to deny his identity as a Talos worshiper, though it was also perfectly reasonable that he would keep his coin in the same strongbox.

Sabine's eyes widened as her idea was flung into her face. She raised both her hands in turn and shook her head. "No! It-it is nothing like that. I do not want to steal. Please. I just..."

She felt as though she had failed. Sabine scrambled in her mind to try and recover, taking a deep breath after trailing off and leaning in to speak quietly. "You bought something yesterday. It is in your strongbox. You are in danger because of it. I do not want everyone to know." Sabine turned her eyes quickly to the other customers, hoping that they were not listening in. She turned back to the shopkeeper with a pleading look in her eyes. "We want to help," she whispered. "Please."

The shopkeeper was at least willing to accept that Sabine did not intend to rob him, as her response would have been quite strange against a man who had already surrendered. But, that did not cause him to calm down. It took only a few moments of thinking on what Sabine was saying for him to start shaking his head. "What I bought? No...no I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't buy anything yesterday, not anything worth talking about. I'm sure you have the wrong man. I shall help if I can, but you are in the wrong place."

Colors leaned forward onto the table, looking the man in the eyes. "The strongbox, in your room upstairs, built into the wall, hidden next to the bed. We know what we're talking about, and we've made no mistake. I implore you listen to this fair lady."

The man stared in silence for a good five seconds before letting out a sigh. "I can talk to you, but not here. Follow me upstairs."

Stepping out from behind the counter, the man addressed his other customers loudly. "I am dreadfully sorry, but I have something very pressing to tend to. But do not worry, I shall not be long." He said before hastily making his way up the stairs, motioning for the others to follow. Although, once they were in his room, he was petrified to speak.

Sabine was becoming flustered when the man denied what she asked. She was about to move on to being threatening with the information before Colours stepped in. That much gave her some measure of relief. She brushed away a lock of her frizzy hair from her face as an unconscious tick while she followed up the stairs.

The group stood opposite the man for several awkward seconds before Sabine spoke again. She wrung her fingers and broke eye contact. "I am sorry. We do not want to get you in trouble, but it is important." Sabine swallowed again. "We know you have a shrine to Talos. We do not want to threaten you. We are looking for people who have been hunting Talos worshippers. People who are not Thalmor. They are enemies of ours since before they began to hunt people like you. We want to stop them."

Sabine paused and her expression became strained all of a sudden. "There have been worshippers disappearing. The ones we believe were taken by these other hunters are...they are..." Sabine turned to Colours and Kaleeth. She had forgotten their names. Of course, she wasn't especially aware if she was speaking in the right order anymore. Things were not exactly progressing as planned in her mind.

There was hardly even a pause after Sabine stopped speaking before Colors picked up immediately afterwards. He had already had his hand on a parchment in his pouch, which he pulled out and began to read from quickly. "Guillome Danenne, Gaspard Monterick, Nalenne Frey, Hjorvand Ice-Eyes, and Ahran at-Faran. Four taken in the same group, one nabbed separately."

As much as he tried to hide it, the man recognized at least some of the names. Regardless, he was still being stubborn at any chance he could take. It was clear they would have to argue with him at every step. "What-, what reason do I have to trust you? You spy on my home, you come threaten me with information that could kill my entire family. Am I expected to believe that you just happen to be enemies with those that hunt us? You say you do not worship the mighty Talos yourself, so for what supposedly noble purpose do you supposedly seek to help us? I think you lie, like so many others. Take me, kill me, do what you will with me. It is clear I cannot stop you, but I will not betray anyone else to you."

Things were growing back into Sabine's comfort zone. She knew what to do from here.

"You do not have to believe us," she said. "If we were your enemy, we could have told the Thalmor and they would probably abduct you and your family. We do not want to know about other Talos worshippers." Sabine stopped to think about how much to say about themselves. She half-raised a hand and glanced up at the man's eyes for only a moment. "All that you must know is that the people who are now taking your friends have been fighting us for a long time. They have been taking people from us for a long time. We need to know why they are now hunting Talos worshippers and we want to stop them. If you answer us, you will not give answers that endanger your friends. You will not see us again."

Sabine tried to move onto the first question before the man had a chance to retort. "Those people on the list. Do you know if they purchased symbols of Talos from the same merchant? Did anyone out them or tell others about them in secret?"

"I will not tell you anything about those good people, but..." The man began, his voice trailing off as he continued to stare down Sabine. He was obviously conflicted, and very much on guard for anything that his unwelcome guests might try. "What you say makes no sense. Why would some group, who are not those vile Elves from the Dominion, suddenly want to hunt those faithful to Talos? You are lying to me, hiding something."

Briefly, the man turned his gaze to Sabine's Argonian companions, allowing it to rest on Kaleeth for a time. "But...if it will convince you to leave me alone, I suppose there is not harm in telling you about my enemies. If you are trying to trick me, then you likely already know this anyways. Those people, four of them at least, took information from the same man. Supposedly proven not to have associations with the Thalmor, but a snake regardless. He was to help them flee from trouble, but they never made it to...the person they were supposed to meet. I warned them to be cautious with him. He is...how to even describe him? He is like a prince of thieves. He does not do the smuggling and the stealing himself, but he commands others. He is apparently very well connected in the city, which is why he claimed to be able to help these people. He conducts business out of a brothel and skooma den on the south side of the city. A sinful place for corrupt people; no one should ever have trusted him."

It was disappointing that the man had no notion of why Talos worshippers were being hunted either. Though, it was wishful thinking that such knowledge would be common.

While she knew that the thin veneer of trust the man was displaying was tenuous, Sabine pushed on. She was looking at the man directly now. Her confidence was improving. "Do you know his name? What does he look like? How do Talos worshippers contact him."

She had to stop herself to make sure that she didn't overwhelm them man.

The Breton crossed his arms, still eyeing Sabine suspiciously. "He's not from here. He's a foreigner, an Imperial. I think Colovian. Never saw him myself, thank Talos, but there shouldn't be many people like that around. I don't know his name. He apparently liked to call himself 'Viper'. An appropriate moniker, I'd say. The people who told those faithful souls said he was just a businessman, and he'd honor his agreement if he was paid, but he's certainly a snake."

The pace of Sabine's questioning had caused the Breton to tense up further, but he had not yet decided to give up answering. "There's probably some way to arrange a meeting with him, but I don't know it. I think Hjorvand just waited around in the brothel for him to show up. Took him three days to actually contact him. The owners of that pit don't appreciate people loitering around their business without buying their skooma or hiring their women. He was a righteous enough man not to give into that filth, so he had to keep leaving. If you are honest about wanting to kill this man, do this whole city a favor and burn that place to the ground while you're at it."

Sabine gave a few tiny nods. This was good information. A part of her wanted to end the conversation there and tell Fendros about the lead, but she hesitated.

"So..." She swallowed again. She hated that she kept doing that. "Why did Hjorvand contact him? Was he in trouble? Did he need to escape?" She added after another second. "Is there anything else you know about the Viper?"

Whatever the answer was, Sabine was not sure that she could think of any more questions. She gave Kaleeth and Colours a glance in case they had any ideas themselves.

While he had been cautiously willing to share information about this "Viper," the man quite firmly shook his head once Sabine became more bold with her questions. "No, I'll not say a single word more about him. Do whatever you want to Viper, but if there is even a small possibility of Hjorvand, or any of the others still being alive, then I'm not going to risk them. If you want to know any more about Viper, then you'll just have to find him yourself. Not much more of worth I could say anyway."

Colors looked at Sabine and shrugged. "It's something to go on, at least."

Sabine looked at the shopkeeper, unsure. Then to Colours, then back to the shopkeeper. She could have tried to threaten him now, it would at least give him pause to remind him that his family could suffer if his Talos worship was revealed. However, Sabine did not see much worth in doing that. She looked down at her still tightly clasped hands and sighed.

"We will leave you alone now," Sabine mumbled. "We have not told anyone about your shrine. We will not tell anyone. You might want to move it."

Sabine glanced up once more and turned to leave. Fendros was meant to be waiting just outside of the door.

The Breton waited until all three of them had left his bedroom before he even started to follow them back down to the main shop area. He put on a pleasant face for the rest of his customers, but a quick look that he gave Sabine showed that he wanted them out of his shop sooner rather than later. Fortunately, there was nothing stopping the trio from complying right away.

Heading outside, Colors started to look around to spot Fendros. There were not many Dunmer in Evermore, so he would not be hard to spot. "About as good as we could have hoped, I think. We didn't make any friends, but we have an alias and a location. Already have some ideas in mind of how to use that information, but I guess we'll need to talk to Fendros for our plan. You have any thoughts?"

"Mmm," Sabine looked at the ground as they walked. She did not have time to think for too long before Fendros approached. He waved down Malithus' pack to signal them to rally with them.

"How did things go?" Fendros asked as they walked down the street.

Sabine echoed Colours. "He was not happy. He told us about a man that some of the missing people saw and made a deal with before disappearing. A smuggler. They disappeared before they could meet the contact to escape, but...he didn't say anything else about them. The man is called the Viper. He delegates from a brothel and skooma den in the south city."

Fendros grinned and put an arm around Sabine's shoulder and squeezed her against his side. "Excellent! I knew you could do it." He let go and leaned to look at her still bowed face. "How are you feeling?"

Sabine hummed again. "Okay. Nervous."

"Well, you can relax now," Fendros assured before turning to the others. "Was there anything else we found out? I think I heard you mention you had some ideas, Colours?"

Colors nodded to Fendros. He kept his eyes on the crowds around them, making sure it was safe before he spoke. "Yes, a few. It's probably not going to do any good to interrogate this 'Viper' guy. If he's part of Vile's little cult, then he might be willing to die before saying anything. If he's just a contact they use, then he might not even know enough to make it worth it. Doubt the enemy tells criminal contacts where they're hiding. But, we do know that this guy probably turns over Talos worshipers to Vile's people, right? Why don't we just trick him into turning us over? We can act like Talos worshipers, then turn their inevitable ambush against them. All your call though, of course." He suggested.

Fendros held his hands behind his back as he walked and thought. It took him a moment to begin responding. "That's an option, but it is a dangerous one. We do not know if they hand over the worshippers dead or alive. Even if we could transform and overpower the Viper's men, that would ruin our chances of finding Vile's involvement through them, if the information is as controlled as you say it might be."

"Can we spy on them?" Sabine asked.

Fendros gave a small nod. "That is what I was just thinking. I do not know about spying, but we do need more information." He looked to Colours again. "Would any of your...contacts be able to advise us? Now that we have a lead?"

Colors shrugged. "It could be dangerous, yes, but it is worth pointing out that they probably wouldn't attack us in the city. Far less dangerous to get us out of the city and ambush us along the road. Could make it easier to turn the ambush around on them." He commented. Though, when asked about the possibility of spying, Colors scratched his head as he thought on what options came to mind.

"Um, well...I honestly don't know. Like I said, I don't actually know these people. They won't trust us, or have any real reason to work with us unless we pay them. If they know about Viper at all. Might be able to try one of his rivals, but with these people, that could be more of a risk than just doing an ambush. It's really honestly hard to say. A lot of unknowns." Colors answered.

Fendros remained optimistic. "It's really about finding out what he is capable of. We won't know if your contacts are going to be helpful unless we ask. There's a chance he'll hear about our investigation, but I would rather not go in blind. Why not try approaching from the angle of trying to move a smuggled supply of skooma at a good price? Something that detracts from his people-smuggling activities."

"That will take time," Sabine commented.

"Hopefully not too much time. Colours?" Fendros unclasped his hands and fingered his purse to check his own supply of coins. "Do you believe it possible to get some useful information in one and a half days from your contacts? We can use the meantime to look at this brothel and, if it seems viable, try to make contact with the Viper."

Colors was uncertain, but he gave a nod to Fendros regardless. "I can try to see what I can find, just...don't expect too much, okay? If Viper is just some criminal with a side deal with Vile's people, then even those that know him might not be aware of it. No guarantee that he's a part of their cult. I can talk to a few people in that time, see what I can figure out. You might want to go ahead and see if you can make contact with Viper, though. Otherwise, that day and a half might just be wasted. The shopkeeper said that he knew someone who just waited around in the place until they saw him. He's a Colovian Imperial, so I guess he stands out.

"If we do find him, how would we introduce ourselves?" Kaleeth asked. "If we say the wrong thing, it might cause us not to be able to use him at all."

"We have some options off the top of my head," Fendros turned his head back to Malithus' pack to speak to everyone. "Let's go into this alley here. If anyone has any other ideas, speak up."

Fendros lead them all to a spot between two tall stone buildings where they could speak as a group without others overhearing. "We can pose as Talos worshippers that need to escape Thalmor investigators, as criminals looking to fence something particularly valuable, like an heirloom of the local count or something. Perhaps we could otherwise be representative of a 'special' client looking for skooma, or...If the local guards turn a blind eye to his facilities, we might just bar the doors and scour the for him place. Personally, I'm much more fond of the Talos worshipper idea." He looked at the greyish blue back of his hand. "Although, I must admit that I don't think all of us look the part."