//------------------------------//
// Brotherhood: The Second Fragment 
// Story: Skyrim: The Faces of Death 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Since it was around seven or eight in the morning, and everyone in Markarth was out and about going about their days like they usually did, Amaryllis found that leaving like she had done earlier was a no go, as there were a good number of guards leaving the tower they slept in and a good number of civilians wandering around the city, so the only thing she could do was walk through the main gate of the city and head outside. Of course the owner of the stables and the carriage driver were outside, one of them tending to the horses that they watched over, and any others that were brought in by visitors, while the other tended to his carriage and made sure it was ready to go, for when someone wanted to head to one of the other major cities that rested throughout Skyrim. Since both of them were out and about, and there were guards watching the road and the skies, that meant she couldn't just shift back into her true form and fly away, not until she was sure that no one could see her, but, at the same time, she understood that the guards being posted outside again meant that they had to be done working on the crime scene and had likely closed the case. She was still of the opinion that there had to be a reason for the man to go crazy and attack a visitor, when he could have easily snapped elsewhere and kill a native to Markarth, but, at the same time, she understood that the guards wanted to quickly label the man as the source of the disturbance and leave it at that, so she put it at the back of her mind and continued walking.

It took her fifteen to twenty minutes to get from Markarth's main gate and reach the part of the road that would make it impossible for the guards or the other people of the city to notice what she was doing, and she made sure that there was no one around that would be able to see this, before she shifted back into her original form and took off, this time heading back to Falkreath and the Sanctuary her Family called home.

There wasn't much for her to do on her way back to the Sanctuary, other than look at the scenery as she flew above the land, but one thing she did make sure to do was take a slightly different route so she could avoid the areas that the Forsworn camped in, because she knew that they would be onto her in no time and that she had gotten incredibly lucky when she was tracking down the first fragment of Mehrune's Razor. Just thinking about the artifact again made her recall that one of the remaining fragments she needed to find was located in Morthal, one that she could likely ask for and the man would hand it over, no doubt having grown tired of keeping that fragment hidden from the world, but, at the same time, the second fragment was somewhere in the Hold she was heading towards. Her knowledge of the land was terrible, which made sense considering that she had only been in Skyrim for about a week, so she would have to find a guard and see what they could tell her about the ruin she was looking for, because Drascua had been in a ruin and she was expecting Ghunzul, the orc guardian of the second fragment of the relic, to do the same thing. Of course she wouldn't do that right away, as she had to report to Astrid and tell her that the contract was done, along with getting some rest and something to eat before she did anything else, as she had been flying none stop and she was sure that she might fall asleep soon if she didn't get some rest, but all she was doing was blaming the excitement from a real contract on her decision to head out the moment she learned of her first major contract.

The other thing she thought about was Za'kera, the Khajiit she had seen several times so far, something that was odd when she considered how many times they had run into each other or happened to be in the same area, even if Za'kera had no idea that Amaryllis was even there at times, and wondered if they would bump into each other again, which would be strange and understandable at the same time, given what's happened so far. She had the feeling that the Khajiit was important in some manner, especially since she went from wearing the armor of an Imperial soldier, despite her not seeing Za'kera at Helgen before it's destruction, to wearing the armor of an adventurer, the leather armor to be exact, and had gained a female warrior that had accompanied her to Ivarstead. Part of her wondered if Za'kera was the Dragonborn that the Greybeards had called for, back when she was helping some guards from Morthal deal with some bandits, but the only way she would know the truth is if they encountered each other again, and if she was right in her thoughts, about the monks calling for the Khajiit to study with them, it would be a long time before such a thing happened. She also couldn't forget about the black dragon she had seen, a creature that had devastated Helgen, killed a number of soldiers, and then fled after doing whatever it was that it was trying to accomplish, but so far there hadn't been any dragon sightings in the entirety of Skyrim, so it was hard to even guess what the beast had been doing since it wiped out Helgen.

In the end it took her the same about of time that it took her to go from Falkreath to Markarth, where she landed in front of the black door and headed into the Sanctuary, though as she walked down the steps, and stretched a little as she did so, she found that Astrid was waiting in the first room that everyone went through when they entered this place, and it appeared that she was most eager to see if she returned from this contract, which was why a smile appeared on her face as Amaryllis came to a stop, as if she was proving Astrid's thoughts about her being a natural assassin right.

"Ah, you're back. So, how went your first real contract?" Astrid asked, showing that she was interested in hearing what Amaryllis thought about the contract that she had just finished, though at the same time Amaryllis wasn't about to ask her how she knew the contract was finished, because Astrid was more experienced in this sort of field and she had the feeling that the guards that knew she was a member of the Dark Brotherhood sent reports to some location so Astrid would know if a contract was finished ahead of time, even despite the fact that Amaryllis could fly, "I'd wager that it was more exciting than what Nazir's been offering you."

"I have to admit, it was rather exciting, being asked to kill someone who was hiding inside a dwarven ruin," Amaryllis replied, as it had been far better than anything Nazir had asked her to do so far, even though she knew that part of it was to test her skill as an assassin, and despite herself she found that she was excited for what her next contract was, be it one of the lesser side contracts or another major one.

"That's good to hear... and, from what my little ravens tell me, you handled yourself well and taught Muiri a lesson at the same time," Astrid said, her tone revealing that she was pleased with what Amaryllis had done, meaning that she had been right about the fact that if a client wanted two people dead they needed to word it in such a way, instead of saying that one of them wasn't part of the contract, like Muiri had done, "Most assassins would jump at the chance to take a contract that has more than one target, without really thinking about it, but you, on the other hand, understood how she worded her desires and realized there was only one target to fulfill the contract. It seems I might have been right about you being a born assassin, even if you don't believe that yourself."

"We'll see. I'm still getting used to this sort of life." Amaryllis replied, and that was the truth, because while she was okay with taking out bandits, and sort of understood the townspeople she had been sent after, she was still getting used to the idea that she was using her skills for something other than infiltration and taking the place of someone in a town, village, or even the city, before she focused on the matter at hand, "So, what's next?"

"So eager to prove yourself, that's good." Astrid stated, though Amaryllis considered that to be the wrong thought at the moment, as she was more interested in seeing if there were any other contracts to do, but she said nothing as Astrid considered what had happened to the Sanctuary lately, before facing her again, "Unfortunately I don't think there are any additional contracts available at the moment, as Nazir left to go see if the Holds had anyone that might have performed the Black Sacrament and, if there is someone like that, who they want killed, so you're free to do as you wish for now, but once he returns he should have some work for everyone."

Amaryllis was pleased to hear that piece of information, that she was free to do as she wished, so she headed into the main chamber and made her way over to where the sleeping area was located, where the majority of the Family appeared to sleep, as there were more than enough beds for everyone, though as she did that she recalled the other two rooms she had seen, each with their own bed. The small room with the stone bed was likely Babette's room, who appeared to be out at the moment, since she didn't see the little ancient vampire anywhere, while the room with the collapsed wall, which was just passed Babette's room, was where Cicero was sleeping, who appeared to be quite tired from his journey and moving the crate into a more appropriate area, which would have happened after she left to speak with Muiri. That made her curious about something, as she headed towards the larger room that had the stained glass window and stopped when she opened the door, because near the circular stained glass window rested an iron coffin that seemed more refined than what she had seen in this province so far, granted that she hadn't actually invaded a tomb to see what the coffins were like, but even as she stared at it she knew that the Night Mother was inside the coffin, waiting to find the Listener. From what she was told the Listener was the only person that could hear the voice of the Night Mother, though given the age of the corpse she knew that there had been multiple Listeners over the years, just never two at the same time, and she was the only one that revealed who they were, by speaking into their minds.

In the end she turned away from the coffin, mostly due to how tired she was, and found a bed that wasn't occupied by one of the other Family members, where she climbed into it and started to let sleep claim her, though Meeko jumped up to join her, showing that he missed her while she was gone, before she closed her eyes to get some rest, as she knew food would come later, when she was refreshed and wasn't getting closer to collapsing where she was standing, which would have caused the Family to laugh at her.





It was well into the evening when Amaryllis finally woke up from her slumber, more due to the fact that her hunger got the better of her and demanded that she wake up, but this time around, as she had discovered back when she first landed in this world, the hunger was more for actual food and not the love energies that she and the other changelings used to feed on, something she wasn't going to miss. It had been a pain in the rear to get enough love to fuel the entire Hive, especially with how the love energies were divided between the lower ranked changelings and the higher ones, like the Queen and her most trusted officers, but that was before Thorax rebelled and saved the rest of the Hive, even though she disagreed about how he went about things. She was sure there could have been a way for them to make things work, for all of them to never go hungry again, but, in the end, Queen Chrysalis had disappeared from the face of Equestria and none of the other changelings had heard anything, meaning they had no idea what her movements were or if she was seeking refuge with one of the other villains for a time. Of course she had been pulled to Canterlot because of a rumor, one that clearly hadn't been true and, as it turned out, whatever happened that night, when she entered that strange cave, must have been the reason she was suddenly brought to this world, unable to return, hence the reason she found herself a new calling... and, more importantly, no longer found herself burdened by the hunger of her old life.

Just thinking about all of that made her get off the bed and head down into the eating area, all while finding that Meeko had joined the rest of the Family downstairs, where it appeared that meat, cheese, and all the other food items that Skyrim had to offer had been placed on the table, to which she sat down next to Veezara and joined her Family for the evening meal, though even as that happened she knew that some of them were curious about her and might ask her some questions about her, the changelings, or even the contracts she had taken on so far, just like they did when she first entered the Sanctuary. As it turned out her Family was more interested in having her talk about the contract she had just completed, since it was her first major contract, and she wasted no time in telling them about how she flew to Markarth, avoiding the Forsworn camps as best she could, before arriving in Markarth to find Muiri. She could tell that they were interested in her and her abilities, meaning shapeshifting wasn't a common skill in this world and they were eager to hear what she did with it, where she detailed her visit to the stone city, her meeting with the scared client, who turned brave when Amaryllis revealed that the brotherhood had come to help her, and then her swift departure from the city. She then went to tell them about her meeting with the Windhelm guard and the discovery of where Raldbthar was located, since she was still learning the locations of all the ruins and whatnot, before revealing her decent skills as an assassin as she made her way through the ruin, killing the bandits before they knew she was there and even distracting those that had been in blocking parts of her path to her target, before killing Alain Dufont and claiming his warhammer as a prize.

When she went into the end of the contract, however, she also made sure to inform her Family that she had returned Aegisbane to the Shatter-Shields, not to gain access to Nilsine, like someone else would have done, rather to help the family move on from the loss of one of the daughters being killed, before revealing why she hadn't killed Nilsine, despite Muiri stating that she would have given her more gold if she did so, which actually impressed her Family, even though she knew that most of them, if they had been given the contract, would have done things differently.

"You said that you took some time to infiltrate a Forsworn camp and kill their leader," Veezara commented, as that was the one thing that bothered him the most, especially when he recalled the fact that Amaryllis went out of her way to avoid the camps in the first place, while at the same time finding that the others were looking at him for a moment, as if they were curious as to what he was going to say next, "What could have possessed you to do that, when there was no reason for you to endanger yourself in such a manner?"

"This." Amaryllis replied, where she reached into the pocket that she was keeping the Pommel Stone in and pulled it out, something that was followed by her setting the fragment of Mehrunes' Razor down on the table so the others could look at it for a few seconds, though she refrained from placing the red stone on the table as well, as she didn't want Astrid to think she had taken the one from her room, "While I was in Dawnstar, taking out Beitild, the owner of a small museum was having an argument with someone and that made me interested in what they were talking about, though the man has asked me to recover the fragments of the final relic he wants for his museum, a weapon he called Mehrunes' Razor, and this is the Pommel Stone that the leader of that camp was carrying on her."

"The artifact of Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Change and Destruction," Gabriella stated, as she knew about the relic in question, and it was possible that some of the other members of the Family did as well, though even as she thought about the relic it was clear that she was curious as to where the other fragments were located, hence the reason she focused on her new sister again, "Did this man say where the other pieces were located?"

"The notes Silus gave me indicated that one of the fragments is somewhere in Falkreath, in a ruin known as Cracked Tusk Keep," Amaryllis replied, though she was hopeful that one of her Family members could point her in the direction of the ruin in question, as it would be nice to have two of the fragments, so all she would have to do next is head back to Morthal, likely on one of her future contracts, and find the remaining fragment, "the other is being held by Jorgen, who lives in Morthal, and should be the easiest of the fragments to acquire."

"Cracked Tusk Keep, that's to the west of here." Veezara commented, as he had seen the ruin in question, during one of the times he was wandering the roads near their Sanctuary, to be sure there weren't any troublemakers around the area that the black door was in, and knew that it was fairly close to where they were positioned, "If you follow the road that our Sanctuary is under, and head in the direction of Falkreath, you'll find a small split in the path that heads to the west, which will eventually bring you to where the ruined keep is located, though those orcs are aggressive and will loose arrows at anything that gets near them, be it animals or people."

Amaryllis nodded her head, as she was happy that her Family knew the area that the keep rested in, where she was a little surprised that it was so close to where they were located, but, at the same time, they informed her that it would be dark in three hours, so now might be the best time for her to slip out and grab the fragment, which was a fact that she couldn't deny at all. Even so she had two options, the first was to impersonate an orc and pretend that she wanted to join the group of bandits, which would take her right to the leader, while the other was look for an opening that would allow her to infiltrate the keep, kill the leader with no one noticing, and then figure out where the fragment he was guarding was located, only to slip out before anyone realized what was going on. In order to figure out what she should do, however, she came to the decision that she needed to see the keep in question, to which she excused herself from the table and headed towards the entrance of the Sanctuary, where her new Family wished her well and said that they would be seeing her again in no time, showing that they had faith in her skills. Once she was back outside she opened her wings and took off, though she decided to approach the keep from the southern side, so the Orcs wouldn't be able to see her until she had determined what method she wanted to use to get inside, and even if they did see her she could always pull them into the trees and lose them, opening a way for her to get inside now that she thought about it.

It took her ten minutes to locate the keep in question, where she found that there were a few Orcs positioned outside the keep and happened to be staring at the area in front of their base, as it appeared that some wolves were fighting a lone bear and they were waiting for the fight to be over, so they could swoop in and kill whoever won, but that meant their attention was elsewhere. Another thing that worked in her favor was the fact that there was an opening at the very top of the keep, one that looked like it was a hatch and likely had a ladder attached to it, which seemed to be the best way for her to enter the ruined structure, to which she smiled for a moment as she quietly landed on top of the area the hatch was in and found that it wasn't locked at all, much to her surprise. As such she opened it as quietly as she possibly could, so none of the Orcs noticed what she was doing, and climbed down the ladder that was on the other side of the hatch, making sure to close it once she was inside, though what she discovered was the room she was heading down into had a fireplace and a bedroom, where an Orc was sleeping in the bed and didn't seem to notice that someone was invading the keep. She also discovered that he was sleeping in his armor, like he was expecting to be woken up by the other Orcs at some point in the near future and wanted to be ready for what the future held for him, but, instead of giving him the chance, Amaryllis lightly touched the floor and sneaked over to where the Orc was laying at the moment, where she suspected that this had to be Ghunzul, a dangerous criminal according to her notes.

Fortunately it appeared that her target slept without his helmet on, meaning that it was incredibly easy for her to pull her dagger out and slit his throat, just like she did to Drascua, killing him in a matter of seconds, something she was okay with since it appeared he was a bandit, but, as she searched the room, she found no signs of the blade fragments, which the Orc was supposed to be in possession of, though she did find a key and a rather large chest, where she took only the bag of septims before closing the lid, as the rest looked like a spare suit of armor, which was too heavy for her to lug around right now, which made out of steel and a few iron weapons.

"Boss, is something wrong?" a voice asked, no doubt hearing the lid of the chest hitting the bottom half, as Amaryllis was a little annoyed by the lack of the fragment that she was looking for, before an idea came to mind and she smiled, as the Orc that had spoken would help her locate the area that the blade fragments were in, to which she quickly took in Ghunzul's form and shifted into it, which included his steel armor, before heading towards the door.

"No. Nothing is wrong." Amaryllis replied, speaking in what she hoped Ghunzul's voice was, since all she had heard was the moan that had escaped the Orc's mouth as she ended his life, before she opened the door that separated the room she was in from the rest of the keep, where she found an Orc hunter standing at the table in front of her, "Tell me, did I tell you where the fragments to a special blade are located?"

"Y... Yeah. They're through that door, down the stairs, and located at the end of the hall," the Orc answered, where his tone suggested that he believed that this was a test of some kind and that he was hope that he had gotten the answer right, to which Amaryllis nodded her head, showing the Orc that he had gotten the question right, even though she had no idea if that information was correct or not.

Amaryllis closed the door behind her, hopeful that the Orc didn't go into Ghunzul's room, before she headed down the stairs and found the door in question, where she opened it and followed the short hallway that brought her to a room that had a second entrance, one she hadn't seen from the outside, and some metal rods that blocked the way to the door the orc had mentioned. As it turned out there was a locked box of sorts near the blockage and she found that there was a keyhole on top of it, where she pulled out the key she had taken from the Orc she had killed and slipped it into the hole, though when she turned it she found that it was what unlocked the box, revealing a button that she pressed, which caused the blockage to lower into the ground and allowed her to walk down to the door. On the other side of the door she found a passage that took her to a gated off area, while passing two more small rooms that were blocked off, but she ignored them as she stopped in front of the blockage that stood between her and the area the blade fragments were located in, only to find that there were two levers, one on the left and one on the right, that, when she pulled them, lowered the two sections of iron bars and allowed her to enter the area the fragments were in. She remained still for a few seconds, finding that there were a few tripwires in the area in front of her, no doubt rigged to traps of some kind, so instead of walking over to the fragments she engaged her magic and lifted them into the air, before pulling them over to her and deposited them into the small sack that the septims she had taken from Ghunzul's chest had been located in, before slipping the sack into her pack and locked the gate before heading back to the door to this area.

It took her a few moments to get back to the box, where she tapped the button to seal the door and then used the key to lock it, before making her way to Ghunzul's room, pausing to tell the Orc that she had spoken to that she didn't want to be disturbed unless it was absolutely necessary, before closing the door behind her, where she switched back to her original form and climbed the stairs, before departing from the keep without the Orcs even knowing what she had done to them and their leader.

With her business with Ghunzul and his group complete, and the second fragment was in her possession, Amaryllis landed some distance nearby and quickly put on the appearance of a female Bosmer, mostly due to the fact that she spotted a female Argonian resting in front of a tree with an ebony handle resting on her back, meaning that the head of the weapon was currently hidden by the brush that was near her, and she seemed to be wearing leather armor, though the main reason she did this was because some Thalmor were walking down the road, heading to where she and the Argonian were standing. She could have continued flying and head back to the Sanctuary, to wait and see how long it would take for Nazir to return with contracts for her and the others to take on, like any sane individual would do, but there was one question she wanted to get off her chest before she did that, and the only ones that could answer it were the Thamlor, who were rather hard to find at times. The Thalmor in question were all males, all walking like they were superior to all the people that called Skyrim home, and the looks on their faces didn't make her like them at all, so she was hoping that she could get her answers and leave without drawing them to her, but given how aggressive some of the people in this land had been towards her, when she walked on the roads between the cities, she had the feeling that they would lash out at her anyway, due to the nature of her question. That was why she landed behind some trees, instead of anywhere near the road that they were walking on, before emerging from her hiding place so she could get some answers before heading back to the Sanctuary, even though she was sure that her arrival had caused the Argonian to shift her gaze, meaning she might have a watcher in case things turned south.

"Listen here, 'citizen', you had best move along, before we arrest you for interrupting official Thalmor business," the elf said, though at the same time his two companions rested their hands on their weapons, indicating that it would be a bad move to attack them and that they were ready to strike at anyone that annoyed the leader of their group, though it wasn't hard to tell who that was.

"Oh, sorry, I was just heading to Falkreath, when a question popped into my mind," Amaryllis stated, coming off like a traveler that wasn't trying to cause trouble for anyone, though at the same time this would likely be the only chance she had to ask a question like this, hence the reason she was going to get this off her chest now and then move on to where her Family was waiting for her to return, "What's wrong with worshiping Talos?"

"It's immoral to worship a man, and, thanks to the White-Gold Concordat, it's also very illegal. Any citizens that are faithful Imperial Empire would know that." the elf stated, though at the same time he beckoned with his hands and both of the elves behind him drew their swords, almost as if he felt that there was more to Amaryllis than what she was telling them at the moment, but she made no motion to draw her own weapon, making it look like she was too scared to draw it, just to defuse the situation, "Perhaps there's something you wish to confess?"

"No, I asked that wrong." Amaryllis replied, because there was a reason why this matter bugged her so much and she really wanted to get rid of it before she did anything else, because it would also help her understand the point of this war, even if the two sides seemed to be doing nothing major at the moment, "I know that worshiping Talos, as a Divine, is illegal and that anyone who does so should be arrested for going against the laws the Emperor creates, but I'm more interested in why it's apparently illegal to worship the hero of Skyrim that Talos used to be."

"The worship of anything but the Eight Divines is immoral, regardless if they're a hero or a made up god," the elf stated, revealing that it didn't matter what someone worshiped, because if they were to worship Sithis, for example, the Thalmor apparently saw that as going against their own religions and the rules of the Empire, meaning these elves would have no problems attacking anyone that worshiped someone that wasn't one of the Eight Divines, before he glanced over to the tree that was resting nearby, "You there, Argonian, do you believe what this Bosmer is saying? Would you openly admit to worshiping someone, even though it's against the law to do such a thing?"

"Belief is a strong thing in this world, and I do believe in Talos," the Argonian answered, which surprised Amaryllis for a moment, as she wasn't expecting the Argonian to say something like that, but it seemed to annoy the Thalmor enough that they charged at her and forgot about Amaryllis, who slipped into the shadows and waited for an opening to reveal itself, as she wasn't about to let the lady die like this, all because she wanted to answer this question and move on with the rest of her life.

As it turned out, much to Amaryllis' surprise, the Argonian didn't need help, as she burst into action the moment the first of the Thalmor were close to her and pulled her weapon with her, revealing that the head of her weapon wasn't the head of a battleaxe, like Amaryllis thought it would be, rather it was curved, more like a scythe, and while the handle was black the head seemed to be stained a crimson color, almost like blood, and there was a thin eye near the top of the handle, one that looked like it might actually be staring at the area it was in. In no time at all the lady jumped into the air and avoided the pair of fireballs that were coming her way, which actually told Amaryllis something very important, that being that the robe wearing members of this group of elves were mages, before the Argonian landed behind the mage and swung her weapon, allowing the curved head to slice through her target with ease, which was understandable given the cloth nature of the robe he had been wearing when the attack happened, and in no time the figure was laying dead on the ground, all while the other two came at her. From there she blocked the incoming attacks that the two warriors were throwing at her, showing Amaryllis that she had to be a skilled fighter of some sort, before one of the elves lost their head, due to the edge of the scythe cutting through where their neck was located, though at the same time the Argonian, where Amaryllis could see all of the dark gray scales her body had, just so happened to have a grin on her face that showed her that was she had to love fighting to the death and enjoyed killing those that opposed her. The second warrior didn't fare much better than the first one did, especially since he was fighting the Argonian alone, as she dodged his attacks and then, when a hole in his defenses was spotted, his foe swung her scythe and cut right through his chest piece like it was made out of paper, all while showing Amaryllis that ebony was one of the toughest metals in this land, before she pulled the scythe out of her foe's chest and let the elf fall to the ground in a pool of his own blood.

The Argonian, with the deed done, returned the scythe to her back and walked down the road, heading away from the city of Falkreath while leaving Amaryllis to wonder what in the world had just happened, before deciding that she would think about this later, once she returned to the Sanctuary, went on a job or two, and then returned to report the good news to the rest of her Family, even though she was curious what the return of the Night Mother really meant and what it might mean for everyone.