It was a combination of shouting and pain that woke Frey from her sleep. She woke up on a bed of straw and judged she was in a cell, based on the barred door and windows. The pulsing ache in her head made it hard to really be terrified. Plus, she'd been in jail before so it wasn't really anything new.<br/><br/>"I demand that the prisoner be returned to my custody at once," an agitated woman was saying.<br/><br/>Frey picked herself up and stumbled to the grate in the door. In the dimly lighted room on the other side a guard sat behind his desk with a High Elf woman in Thalmor robes leaning over it, trying to intimidate him.<br/><br/>"And just why should I give a damn what you<span style="font-style: italic">demand</span>?" The guard asked. Irritation flashed across the woman's face.<br/><br/>"We have reason to believe that she found an artifact of interest for the Thalmor-"<br/><br/>"Not on Balfiera surely," the guard replied. "Even the Thalmor know the Isle is sacred."<br/><br/>Frey smirked as the Thalmor back-tracked.<br/><br/>"Let me question her," She said. The guard sighed, slowly got out of his chair, and unlocked the door to Frey's cell. She backed up, letting the High Elf enter. She looked around the cell and scoffed in disgust.<br/><br/>"What's your name, Breton?" She asked.<br/><br/>"Ysona Milven," Frey lied without hesitation. The Thalmor agent raised an eyebrow.<br/><br/>"What were you doing on Balfiera?"<br/><br/>Frey told them the story of how she was spear fishing from her boat in Iliac Bay when she heard the roar of an approaching dragon. With no-where to run, she pulled a blanket over her and lay still in the boat as the dragon flew past, stirring the waters. The waves it created jostled the boat and Frey lost her oars. After trying to get them back and failing, she waited for the boat to float to shore on the Isle. She found her oars, but had never been on the Isle of Balfiera before and decided to look around. She found a cave on the Isle and after hours of exploring she came upon a scroll. She couldn't read it, she admitted, but it was in pristine condition so she bagged it with the idea of making a few gold.<br/><br/>Once she got back to Wayrest, she'd sold it at the marketplace and the next thing she knew she was in prison.<br/><br/>The High Elf listened patiently but grew more and more annoyed as the story progressed.<br/><br/>"A Dragon," she laughed, but it was forced and controlled. "How absurd. There are no dragons."<br/><br/>"That's not what I heard," the guard said. "Refugees from Skyrim said they'd returned..."<br/><br/>"Be that as it may, I find it hard to believe this woman's story. Ysona Milven, was it?"<br/><br/>"Yes m'am," Frey replied.<br/><br/>"How do you spells that?" The Thalmor agent had produced a notebook. Frey tried to make herself look dumb and shrugged.<br/><br/>"Don't know. I can't read. That's why I sold the scroll," she said. The Thalmor's pencil snapped in half, though her face remained calm. Whatever that scroll had been, Frey could feel it was important.<br/><br/>"Why d'you want that scroll, miss Thalmor Agent?" She asked.<br/><br/>"It doesn't concern you," she replied.<br/><br/>"It concerns me," the guard replied. "Her majesty has forbidden entrance to the Isle. Did you have permission to go there?" He tried to block her path but the Thalmor reached the door before him and left without an explanation.<br/><br/>"So, am I free to go now?" Frey asked.<br/><br/>"Not a chance, 'Ysona Milven'. What a terrible name, by the way," he shooed her back into her cell and closed the door. "You did steal from a sacred island. You can sit there for a week."<br/><br/>"I didn't<span style="font-style: italic">mean</span>to steal it," Frey said through the bars. The guard didn't look like he believed her. Why should he? What thief accidentally steals? She did take the scroll, but something had urged her to do it. It was almost as if it had simply manifested in her hands. She didn't actually remember picking it up at all. But there was no way she'd tell him that. There was quite a bit she left out of her story in fact: seeing strange symbols... the false wall made of stone that she walked right through... She sat in the bed of straw and cursed her luck.<br/><br/>The end of the week saw Frey's release. The guard returned her spear and bag filled with gear but insisted on keeping 'anything she stole' which just so happened to be all her gold. Gold she'd earned from fishing, for that matter. But she had a feeling that arguing would just get more of her stuff taken away. She bid the guard a good day.<br/><br/>"Stay out of trouble, Frey," he said as he hefted her bag of coins to feel the weight. Frey slammed the door to the prison behind her as she emerged into the sunlight and the hustle and bustle of Wayrest opened to her.