Skyrim: The Faces of Death

by Blackdrag-rose

Brotherhood: Unforgettable Wedding

Amaryllis slept for six hours, giving her plenty of rest so she could be energized for the day that was ahead of her, but the first thing she did was get up and head down to the area that the others were in, as it was time for breakfast and both she and Meeko were hungry, but even as she did that she noticed something as soon as she reached the area the dining table was in. Everyone in her Family, and that included Cicero, was excited about the contract that she had brought to them, the assassination of a few minor targets and then the Emperor of Tamriel, if she was reading the various smiles on their faces correctly, and she could tell that a few of them were slightly annoyed that Astrid was giving her that honor, even if she'd rather let someone else do it. However, since it was Astrid giving out the orders, none of them were going to complain and were ready to roll with it, hence the reason they were talking about the various assignments they had been given, as it seemed that Gabriella was keeping an eye out for a commander of some kind, Festus was reading a cookbook for some odd reason, and the others seemed to be more focused on gathering more information or doing whatever Astrid asked them to do in the future. Amaryllis was sure that some of them might have been given a target that followed the one she was going to kill, Vittoria Vici, but there was no way for her to know, not until she actually went to Solitude and killed her target, so she focused on getting breakfast and talking to her Family, as she was sure that some of them might have some bits of information for her, in regards to her current contract.

As it turned out Veezara was absent, no doubt having been sent out to do something for the contracts that they were going to be going in the near future, but Nazir did give her a warning about the fact that the crowd might get riled up once the bride was dead, so it might be in her best interest to avoid taking risks for this contract, as if he was saying that she should get in, kill the target, and then get out before the guards sought her out. Gabriella, interestingly enough, had left an elven bow in the area that the reception was going to be held in, just in the off chance that they had been given a contract to kill someone in this manner, and indicated that she was more than welcome to the bow, as it would be a good long ranged weapon to kill someone with, where Amaryllis considered the option. Babette, on the other hand, told her about the area that the reception was going to be in, describing it in great detail so she had an idea of what to expect, before she mentioned that there was a balcony that Vittoria Vici would address her guests from, which that just so happened to have an old stone statue resting right above it, and that old meant weak. Amaryllis knew what the small ancient vampire was suggesting, as she was sure that with some light tampering she could knock the statue over and crush the bride while she was addressing her guests, as Astrid wanted her to do, but now she had a decent number of ideas for when she arrived in Solitude to tackle the contract.

Once she was done talking with her Family members, and had finished her breakfast as well, she excused herself for a few moments and headed back to the area that the stone table the map of Skyrim was in, because she had the feeling that Astrid was still standing in that area, thinking about the contract and what orders she would give to the rest of the Family, and, sure enough, she found Astrid standing there, staring at the two pieces of parchment she had been given, the orders from Amaund and the letter of credit from Delvin.

"Ah, Amaryllis, you're up." Astrid said, showing that she noticed the changeling that was standing near her and quickly set the letters down on the table, as she had the feeling that they would be having a short conversation before either of them did anything else today, though as long as Amaryllis took out the target she didn't care what she did with the rest of her time, as this was their one chance to take out the target in the manner that would help them out, "I see that there is something you want to talk about."

"I'm mostly curious if there's anything else you can tell me about this contract, before I head out." Amaryllis replied, as while she was still weirded out by the fact that their target was just married to someone yesterday, and that these two days should be the best days of her life with her new husband, she was still a member of the Dark Brotherhood and that meant she had to be ready to kill whoever was on the list Amaund gave them.

"Well, as I said, this is a public kill, but how you do it is entirely up to you." Astrid stated, as she knew that Amaryllis was still a novice at this sort of thing and that she was still learning how to be an assassin, but she still felt that the changeling had the potential to be a good assassin, once she had some additional training to be exact, "Arrow to the throat? Knife in the belly? It's your choice, so long as it's loud and messy. Because of the current political climate, thanks to the war, people are going to assume the murder is related to the bad blood between the Legion and Stormcloaks. In any event, when Vici dies, it's going to be complete pandemonium, so it's best to have your escape route planned out in advance."

"Okay, that makes sense." Amaryllis said, as she sort of figured part of that out on her own, especially when she took what the other members of their Family had told her a few moments ago, but that was when she asked the question that had been bothering her since she learned who her target was and what she did for a living, as she was sure that Astrid would have some sort of answer for her, "What's Vici's connection to the Emperor?"

"An excellent question." Astrid replied, though she wasn't surprised that Amaryllis was asking something like this, as she was different from the other assassins she had encountered over the years, and she was more than willing to share this piece of information with her, "Vittoria Vici, as it turns out, is the first cousin to our dear Emperor, Titus Mede II. Vici has obvious Imperial connections, thanks to her position and her relation to our target, while her husband has ties to the Stormcloaks. Their union is a step toward reconciliation, a way to end the war without bloodshed, but if there's a murder at the wedding... well, not only will such a thing stall the peace process, it will send shockwaves throughout the entire Empire. The Emperor's hand will be forced, meaning that he'll have to travel to Skyrim to deal with the aftermath... and he'll find the Dark Brotherhood waiting for him."

"Wait, she's the cousin of the Emperor?" Amaryllis inquired, to which Astrid nodded her head, confirming that what she had just been told was the truth, though that instantly raised several additional questions in her mind, though she settled for asking the one that was bugging her the most, even though she had the feeling that everyone in her Family would have a different answer if she asked them, "Why didn't the Emperor attending her wedding?"

"From what we can tell, he actually had a trip to Skyrim planned for months, no doubt for the wedding and to see the civil war come to an end with up, but he cancelled it at the last minute, much to his cousin's dismay." Astrid replied, which told Amaryllis that the people of Skyrim must have been told of the Emperor's arrival ahead of time, just to tell them that he was coming, so many of them were likely disappointed to hear he wasn't coming at all, especially since some might have made preparations for his visit, "Seems the Emperor realized his presence in this province would necessitate a more direct role in the ongoing hostilities, a role he was, obviously, unwilling to take... but all that will change with his cousin's murder. Everyone will think it was motivated by the conflict between the Imperial Legion and Stormcloaks... and the Emperor will be forced to come clean up the mess."

"I see." Amaryllis said, though at the same time she thought about what she had learned just now, because while she did understand that the Emperor might have cancelled the trip due to the ongoing war, a war that didn't seem to be taking place since both sides seemed to be waiting for something to happen, she also knew that he could have disguised himself as a noble and visited Skyrim in secret, to see his cousin get married, so from what she could gather there was something else that had stopped him from coming here, making her wonder if there was something else they had missed.

"Anyway, I think it's time you headed to Solitude." Astrid stated, as they knew there was a short window of opportunity for them to kill Vittoria Vici while she was in front of a crowd, allowing the blame to be passed to either the Imperials or the Stormcloaks, and that Amaryllis should leave now, to make sure the deed was done, "It's time to give the Emperor some real motivation to visit Skyrim."

Amaryllis nodded her head and departed from the Sanctuary, as she knew that it would take at least an hour to an hour and a half to reach Solitude, though since she wouldn't be flying at night this time she would have to fly a little higher to avoid being detected by whoever was on the roads, especially since she was going to have to find a location where she could land and change form once she reached the city, which was more time wasted. As soon as she was outside she took to the sky and headed to the northwest, because that was the direction that Solitude was in if she was correctly recalling what was on her map, and she made sure that she was high above the ground so no one would be able to see her, and even if they did they would think she was something else, like a bird. While she flew through the air, however, she thought back to the first part of people she had seen when she arrived in this province, the pair of imperial nobles that were on their way to a wedding, the one that had just happened based on what she remembered, so there was a chance that they might be at the reception, since the man had been wanting to talk to Vittoria about some sort of business deal. Part of her felt that it was rather odd for someone to arrive a week to a week and a half in advance, if they were only planning on staying in Skyrim for a day or two to attend the wedding, but this land was still strange to her and she decided that such a thing didn't need to be worried about, because even if the man and his wife were in Solitude they would never recognize her, since they hadn't spotted her before they continued on the road.

It didn't take her all that long to reach the area that Rorikstead was located in, as she wasn't flying fast like she was when she was heading to Volunruud or Riften earlier, rather she was flying at a decent speed that would allow her to reach her destination in no time, hence why she believed that it would be closer to the hour mark, since Solitude was so far away from where Falkreath and the Sanctuary were located. Not a few minutes later she found the bandit infested area that the Morthal guards had taken care of, which she figured would be empty of bandits and might have been torn down by some adventurers or something, but the reality was that there was a brand new group of thieves living in the camp, meaning that whoever the Jarl of Morthal was might be sending out the guards again, not unless a hero came by this area and took care of them first. Not long after that she spotted the shack that Meeko had been staying in, with his dead master, and she could see the bodies of several spiders resting around it, all dead from where she was, and maybe some black bugs that were hard to make out, but instead of wasting time on investigating what happened recently she continued on her way and put the shack behind her, happy that she had gotten Meeko out of there before whatever had happened had struck the area the structure was in. The other thing she noticed was the interesting looking stone bridge that connected two halves of the road together, on the way to Solitude to be exact, and while she was sure that it was an important landmark of some kind, maybe connected to the village near it, she paid little attention to it as she continued to the north, so she could arrive at her destination and look for the area her target was in.

As she soon discovered it was rather hard for her to miss Solitude, as it was built on a natural arch that overlooked the large body of water that happened to be directly below it, allowing her to understand why this was a nice area for ships and a trade company, and it appeared that all sorts of people were walking around the area, moving crates from one position to another, meaning no one would notice her. Of course, just to be sure, she flew under the arch and landed on the road that lead away from Solitude, no doubt wrapping around to another smaller location of some kind, and made sure that she was out of sight, before shifting her form to resemble the imperial lady she had seen earlier, the first form she had worn and modified to make her look different. She did pause for a moment, as out to the north she could have sworn that she spotted a large ship of some kind, resting in the water about thirty minutes from the docks, from where she was standing, but when she looked away and then glanced back towards it she saw nothing, meaning she had likely imagined the entire thing and shook her head, deciding that it was time to focus on why she was here and started to walk towards the docks so she could head to the main entrance of the city. Not even a minute later she stopped as she found a wooden door that was covering a short tunnel, one that ended in a circular stone staircase that seemed to spiral upwards, where a smile appeared on her face as she used it, as she had the feeling that it would allow her to enter the city without having to talk to the guards at the front gate.

A few minutes later she turned to her right as she spotted a second tunnel, one that brought her to an iron door that wasn't even locked and was easily opened, though just as she stepped outside she made sure that her attire wasn't the armor of the Dark Brotherhood and that she was in the guise of a noble, a female Imperial noble, though she could make some changes once she figured out where her target was located and determined how she was going to go about bringing an end to Vici's life. She found that all of the buildings in Solitude were made out of stone, though it was nothing like how Markarth had been crafted, and she was sure that there were a number of other things that were different between the two cities, though she did notice that there wasn't a river or waterfall inside Solitude, which made it different from some of the other major cities she had been in. Some of the residents of the city were already walking around, minding their own business as they either went shopping or were heading home to drop something off so they could do something else, to which she started walking as well, as she was looking for a place where a crowd was gathering, the sign that she had found the reception that her target was holding with her husband. Fortunately it seemed rather easy for her to locate the area in question, as she could hear some music being played from where she was standing, a lute and some other instruments based on what she listened to, and she followed the noise, only to find herself in a small courtyard that was in front of a rather large temple, completed with two rows of seats, guests talking and arguing about things, and some servers that had some drinks and food for everyone to enjoy.

"Typical Imperial rot." Amaryllis heard the elderly man state, where he stared at the old lady that he was arguing with, though she was more surprised that none of the other guests seemed bothered by what was going on, to which she made it look like she was a guest as well as she listened to the pair argue, "You speak of Skyrim like you know the land and its people. You're from Cyrodiil! You know nothing about us! Nothing!"

"Oh, I know enough about you and this land." the old lady remarked, her tone revealing that she didn't much care for the old man and what he was talking about, even though it appeared that she might have some relation to the bride, even if she was focused on something that was less important at the moment, "I know those trouble-making Stormcloaks refuse to submit to Imperial authority. Such seditious behavior. Why it's treason!"

"And about what happened when the elves marched into your beloved Cyrodiil?" the man stated, almost as if he was trying to prove a point about something, where Amaryllis came to realize why the rest of the guests were ignoring the pair as they did this, mostly since it was slightly ruining the mood of the reception, "When everyone took up their weapons and challenged them, wasn't that treason? Against the Dominion? Huh?"

"Why that's not the same thing at all!" the lady stated in return, her tone revealing that she was getting annoyed with the man and that she had half a mind to attack him, regardless of what was going on at the moment, despite the fact that there were some guards, who weren't from the Legion or the city guard, watching the party, "The Dominion were invaders. Conquerors. We had to fight them, to preserve our own way of life."

"My point exactly." the old man replied, though as soon as he said that he walked away from the old lady, almost as if he had driven what he was trying to say home, like he was on the side of the Stormcloaks and that he was all for pushing out the Imperial Legion, just like what apparently happened when the Dominion invaded Cyrodiil, but both Amaryllis and the other guests were pleased to have the conversation come to a stop.

The next group of people that she saw were a man and a lady that were sitting at a pair of throne-like chairs that were at the head of the party, with the lady dressed in white clothing that seemed to be a wedding dress, indicating that she had found Vittoria Vici, meaning all she had to do was wait for her to move and start her speech, since that was what she was waiting for at the moment. Something that she found out was that Vittoria was humming a happy tune, showing that this was a good day for her and her husband, to which Amaryllis walked away from the area that the reception was being held in and explored the part of the city that was around it, knowing that she had some time before her target made her move and forced her hand. There were two other important buildings in the area, one that looked like the headquarters of the Imperial Legion, based on the flags, the pair of soldiers that were standing near the entrance, and the group of soldiers that were in the middle of training, and an even taller building that seemed to be connected to the circular tower the stairs she had walked up to get into the city was located, though she wasn't sure what the second building was for. Fortunately there was a set of stairs near the Legion Headquarters, which took her up to a walkway that covered a good bit of the area, including bringing her over to where the old statue that Babette had mentioned was located, but as she did that she did spot an elven bow laying in the area that Gabriella said it would be in, just out of reach for a normal person. Since she wasn't like everyone else in this land, however, Amaryllis made sure that everyone was too busy with the party, and it did seem like no one was glancing up on the walkway she was on, to which she used some of her magic and lifted the bow up to where she was standing, which she grabbed it and ducked behind some cover before she was spotted.

From what she could tell the bow was enchanted with a potent frost enchantment, as opposed to some of the weapons she had found so far, ones that had fire or shock enchantments, all designed to help the wielder weaken their foes, but, at the same time, she was also sure that it might also damage someone in another way, one that she wasn't familiar with, so Amaryllis slipped it into her pack and decided that she would have to ask Gabriella about it once she finished her task and returned to the Sanctuary.

After a few moments of waiting, however, she heard the sound of someone moving and glanced over the shorter part of the wall, where she found that Vittoria and her husband were on the move, to which she quickly headed over to where the old statue was located and crouched behind it, making sure that she was out of sight and that her armor was on, even if Astrid believed that the murder would be placed on either side, and waited for a few seconds. She guessed that all of the guests would be too drunk to notice an assassin from the Dark Brotherhood ending Vittoria's life, hence the reason they would pass the blame to the Imperials or the Stormcloaks, or at least that was how she was validating Astrid's thoughts on what would happen after the deed was done. Her thoughts were interrupted a few seconds later when she heard all of the guests, as in everyone from the local beggar to the pair that had been arguing with each other when she arrived, quiet down as they waited for what was to come, the speech that would be followed by the rest of the reception, meaning she would have to be ready to move quickly, because if she missed her chance she would have to rely on other methods to get the job done, even if it meant the bonus, which she didn't care for, would be lost.

"Honored guests, and good people of Solitude." Vittoria said, where Amaryllis peered around the statue and found that both she and her husband were currently standing on the small balcony that was right below where she was hiding, meaning all she had to do was push the statue and the entire thing should fall down, if what Babette said had about it's age was to be believed, "I just wanted to take this time to thank all of you for being here today, to thank you for sharing this wonderfully happy day with myself, and my..."

In that moment Amaryllis pushed on the statue with all her might and the large part of it that happened to be hanging on the edge, right above the area the lovebirds were standing in, broke off from the rest of the stone and fell down on top of Vittoria and her husband, crushing Vittoria in the process while her husband remained unharmed, even though he had fallen to the side the moment it happened. She waited for a moment, to let the dust clear, before the guests started to shout over what had happened, some outraged and passed the blame onto either the Stormcloaks or the Empire, while the guards started to search the area for whoever had killed the bride, which was the sign for Amaryllis to shift back into her noble disguise and walk down the stairs, so she could be out of the area before the guards saw her. In fact she was in front of the Legion Headquarters when she heard the sound of someone fighting, where she glanced back, acting like a concerned citizen, and spotted Veezara fighting a few of the city guards, though it didn't take her long to figure out what was going on, since she had been wondering why he had been missing when she got up this morning. Astrid was likely a little worried that she wouldn't be able to escape once the guards got excited by Vittoria's death, since they would be looking for her killer, and had no doubt asked Veezara to be here ahead of time to make sure she got away without being seen, to which she briefly nodded her head when her brother was looking in her direction, even if he had no idea that she was over there, and removed herself from the area as quickly as she possibly could.

Her escape route, as it turned out, was the same way she had gotten into the city, where it didn't take her long to get back to the door that lead outside and she leaned against the wall for a moment, to be sure no guards were coming to see where she was going, where she shifted back into her true form and braced herself, as it was time for her to leave, only to be stopped when Veezara appeared by her side and closed the door behind him.

"We should get out of here, before they think to check the stairs." Veezara stated, where his tone indicated that while he was pleased with what Amaryllis had done so far, and was proving that Astrid's thoughts about her were correct, it also told her that he wanted to get out of here, before the guards found them and killed them for the death of Vittoria Vici, as she was sure that there was no chance for a prison sentence if they got caught.

"I was thinking the same thing." Amaryllis replied, where she opened her wings for a moment and caused her brother to look at her for a few seconds, where Veezara was no doubt thinking about what she was going to say next, as she had a good way to get out of here without the guards figuring out where they went, "Do you want to experience what it's like to fly through the air?"

Veezara quickly accepted the offer, just as Amaryllis expected he would, to which she walked behind him, grabbed onto his arms, and then took off, carrying him into the air as she headed in the direction of the Sanctuary, making sure to avoid being seen by the people at the dock while making sure that her grip on her brother was good, as she didn't want to drop him while she was flying through the air. One thing she discovered was that Veezara was really light, as she had originally thought he would be heavier if she tried something like this, but that was good news for her, as her strength would be able to hold up for a longer period of time, allowing her to focus on flying as her brother looked down at the land that they were soaring over.

---

Amaryllis spent an hour flying through the air, making sure not to go too fast so Veezara could enjoy the view while she focused on what she was doing, before she reached the area that the Sanctuary was in, where she carefully descended towards the ground and let her brother touch down first, where he stretched his arms for a moment as she landed beside him. She could tell that Veezara enjoyed the flight, even if it was something that no one in this land had experienced and would likely question the sanity of whoever said they had done such a thing, but instead of worrying about her brother, who was perfectly fine, she headed towards the black door and opened it, where the two of them descended into the Sanctuary so they could give Astrid the good news. As Amaryllis reached the bottom of the stairs, and reached the first chamber of the place she and her Family called home, when they weren't wandering the land for one of their contracts, she found that her thoughts were correct on where the leader of their organization was standing, as Astrid seemed to enjoy standing near the stone table, even sitting in the throne-like chair on the other side of it at one point, though Astrid did turn around as she and Veezara came to a stop near her.

"Ha ha! The news is everywhere!" Astrid said, where both her tone and the look on her face revealed that she was very pleased with what had just happened, though at the same time Amaryllis tilted her head for a moment, because it was impossible for the leader of their Family to know the news when it happened only an hour ago, "Vittoria Vici, the Emperor's cousin, butchered at her own wedding! Well done! Let's see his eminence try to ignore this."

"Wait, how could you know about that already?" Amaryllis asked, because while it was good that Astrid, and possibly the other members of the Family, were happy about this turn of events she was confused by what was going on right now, and she could tell that both Astrid and Veezara were wondering what she was talking about, "I just killed Vittoria Vici an hour ago, and I can fly much faster than most people can run, which includes moving faster than the carriages, so how could you already know that she was killed at her own wedding?"

"I'm not sure if you've seen them, but there are couriers that deliver important news to the various Holds and can track down whoever they have to deliver a package to," Veezara answered, to which Amaryllis turned towards him for a couple of seconds, as she was curious as to what he was talking about, while he thought about what he was going to tell her, as in before Astrid told his new sister what the next objective was, as he knew that there was another target to be taken out so they could get to the Emperor, "I talked with Festus about this a few times in the past, as I was curious about something, and he told me that the couriers must have some sort of secret Alteration magic that allows them to move from place to place, like from Solitude to Falkreath for instance, and they also have a Clairvoyance spell that allows each of them to track who they're delivering letters to, regardless of where that individual is located. With Vittoria Vici's murder, and the uproar that we caused in Solitude, the couriers were likely sent out the moment things calmed down, to inform the other Jarls of the other Holds of what has transpired, hence the reason that the news got here before we could."

"Magical couriers... I guess that makes sense when you think about it." Amaryllis commented, though she really didn't buy the fact that the Jarls had magical people that could track someone, regardless of where they were, and deliver letters and packages to them, as well as quickly delivering important information to the rest of the land, but she wasn't about to argue with Veezara, because if Festus said it was that way she had to believe him, regardless of how ridiculous the explanation seemed to be.

"Anyway, with Vici's murder, you've started us down a path that the Dark Brotherhood hasn't traveled in centuries, the assassination of an Emperor." Astrid said, where she nodded her head and Veezara headed down into the next chamber of the Sanctuary, though as that happened she withdrew a pair of items, a piece of parchment that contained a spell that she was going to give Amaryllis and the more important thing, Amaryllis' reward for the contract, "And now, your rewards for a job well done. The first is a unique spell to summon a legend of the Dark Brotherhood, whose soul serves us now in death, as his body once did in life. The second, of course, is the bonus I mentioned earlier, for killing Vittoria Vici while she addressed her guests, as I instructed. Gold... simple and pure. Spend it as you will."

Amaryllis took the piece of paper and found that it contained the spell that Astrid had mentioned, meaning that she could learn it while she was resting, before the next assignment, as she knew another one was coming her way once her rewards had been claimed, and discovered that the bag had one thousand and five hundred coins inside it, which she was going to store in her chest later, though for now she focused on Astrid once more.

"Now then, it's time to proceed to the next stage of the plan." Astrid stated, where she still had the smile on her face, as this contract was definitely the best thing that she and the others could ask for, especially since everyone in Skyrim felt that they were fading away, and she knew this would put them back in the minds of everyone, before she focused on what she needed to tell Amaryllis, "Go and speak with Gabriella. She's been helping me arrange your next contract."

Amaryllis wasn't surprised to hear that the rest of her Family were working on the other parts of the set of contracts they had been given, especially after seeing that Veezara had been sent to help her when she came in to deal with Vittoria, to which she headed down into the Sanctuary and sought out Gabriella, as she was interested in hearing who she was going to be going after next and what sort of rules she would have to follow this time around.

Comments

[Night_Moon60606]

surprised she didnt take the True Shot potion that was also left on that balcony, those are not easy to come by...

[PrismStrike]

huh magical couriers... it would explain how they have managed to find me at the tops of mountains, in the depths of caves, at the bottom of barrows and once while i the middle of a forest fighting a dragon.