Skyrim: The Faces of Death

by Blackdrag-rose

Brotherhood: A New Home

With the Emperor taken care of, and Amaund Motierre killed for his idiocy, Amaryllis walked outside the inn and headed for the main gate of Whiterun, where Meeko walked behind her as they departed from the city and began the short trek to the ruin she had met the client in, so she could find the urn that contained the payment and then head to Dawnstar, as it was time to put this madness behind her. The guards continued to pretty much ignore her, showing that they either didn't care all that much about the people that were visiting their city or, in the more likely scenario, it was close to the time that they switched with the next batch of guards and would inform them about what they had seen since they started the shift that was ending, though in the end that allowed her to slip outside without them trying to stop her. Once she was outside she headed to the right of the gate and walked down to the first archway that someone would walk under when they first visited the city, though once she reached that area in question she turned to the right and proceeded to walk around the outside of the city's border, in the wilderness to be exact, all while heading towards the farm that was near the ruin she had met Amaund in, as using the main road might involve coming into contact with someone and she wanted some time to herself before she spoke to anyone. One thing she knew was that most of the animals would be asleep at this point and that most of the various bandits would be doing the same thing, meaning that she might be able to walk all the way to Volunruud without anyone attacking her and Meeko along the way to her destination, which would allow her to calm down and think about all of the strange stuff she had learned before and after she killed the Emperor, as there were a few things she needed to think about before collecting the payment for the grand assassination.

Titus Mede II had been too calm, too resigned, when she entered his chamber with the intent to kill him, almost as if he had seen his death coming and had accepted his fate, but that didn't do anything to dispel the fact that she was of the opinion that he had been involved in the plot to end his life, especially since he had asked her to kill the one that had set the assassination plot in motion, due to the fact that the man had nearly paused when he mentioned 'he' when he asked her to end the one that hired her. That small near slip up on the Emperor's part, to a changeling, was more than enough to convince her that something odd was going on, because there was no way he could be so resigned in the face of his own death, even if he knew that an assassin was coming to end his life, meaning that something had told him he was destined to die and that there was nothing anyone could do to stop that from happening. The only thing that could have told him about that event, in her mind, were one of the Divines or one of the Daedric Princes, and if that was the case it made her wonder why the gods of this world didn't even try to protect him, regardless of which side of the moral spectrum that they happened to be on, something she had discovered after landing in this world and accepting that she wouldn't be able to go back to her home world. All of that really made her curious about everything that had happened during the meeting with the Emperor and her last meeting with Amaund, as she was almost positive that something was wrong with both of those events, even if she couldn't quite put her finger on what that something was right now, which only worried her the more she thought about it, especially since she, Nazir, and Babette had lost half of their family thanks to what happened after taking the contract in question.

It took her an hour to walk to Volunruud, since she was walking fast and she wasn't interrupted by any of the animals or bandits, which was rather odd considering the last couple of times she walked on the roads of Skyrim, but the moment she reached the ruin she headed down into the tunnel that took her to the first chamber, before heading to the immediate left and found the small area where the dead draugr were still resting, before heading into the room and found the urn in question, where a massive sack was resting, one that had a note on it that mentioned it contained twenty thousand coins inside it, something that shocked her a little since she wasn't expecting such an amount in the first place.

"I take it the reward is to your liking?" a familiar voice inquired, where Amaryllis froze for a moment and Meeko let out a soft growl as he faced the area that was behind them, though the voice made her wonder what in the world was going on right now, as she was positive that she had killed the person it belong to and left the body in Whiterun, to be discovered by some guards or bartenders in the near future, before she decided to turn around so she could see if her mind was playing tricks on her or not.

Amaryllis quickly found that she was staring at Amaund Motierre, who looked exactly like what she remembered from the first time she had met him in this ruin, as he wasn't anything like the version of him that had been inside the Bannered Mare a little over an hour ago, but she knew that it was impossible for something like this to be happening, due to the fact that she had ended his life earlier, hence the reason that she refused to believe that the same man was now standing right in front of her.

"What? Is the amount too low for you? If that's the case I can quickly return to Cyrodiil and gather the amount of coins needed to pay you for your good deed." Amaund said, where Amaryllis found that he was acting the exact same as what she recalled from the very first time she met him, as he was calm, collected, and confident in whatever he was doing or whatever he was asking someone to do, and she detected no lies coming from him at the moment, meaning that he could fulfill that promise, if she felt the price for assassinating the Emperor was too low, even though it was far better than the other contracts she had completed so far.

"No, the reward will satisfy both myself and the rest of the Dark Brotherhood," Amaryllis replied, where she did nothing to reveal that the organization that she worked for had a new leader, not that such a thing mattered since one could assume that a new leader might have replaced the one who fell in the attack on their Sanctuary, even though Maro hadn't spread any tales about the assault on the Falkreath Sanctuary, though her guard was up, because she had no idea what was going on and she wanted to know the truth of who this man was before he disappeared from Skyrim, "Amaund Motierre... who are you really? Or what are you? There's no way you could still be alive, after I stabbed you in the skull and ended your life in the Bannered Mare..."

"Ah yes, that was a good show, silencing a seemingly idiotic client before he could spell doom for you and the rest of your Family, something I must applaud you for." Amaund stated, where he actually looked happy as he said that, almost as if he had been expecting something like that to happen and approved of her actions to safeguard herself and the remainder of her dwindling Family, though even as he said that Amaryllis continued to maintain her stance, just in cause the man had a trap for her, which was possible since she had thinking of other things when she entered this place, though that was when Amaund focused on his right hand, "As for who I am... well, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you who I was, because it's like that saying you mortals are fond of repeating, that 'seeing is believing', so allow me to reveal the truth to you and show you who I really am."

Amaryllis watched as Amaund's hands were covered with bronze scales, almost like those of a dragon, before all ten of his fingers sharpened to the point where they looked like claws, which was followed by the scales traveling up his arms and onto the rest of his body, something that he didn't seem bothered by as the changes washed over his body and revealed his true form to her and Meeko, something that told her the man was used to this happening. He didn't bother taking off his shoes as his feet started to change next, which were transforming into three dragons claws and adopted the stance a dragon would have if they walked on two legs, like a Nord did, meaning that he was in the process of becoming sort of like her, only he was changing into a dragon, but Amaryllis kept quiet as she watched, as she was trying to piece together what she was seeing at the moment. Once his legs stopped changing, and he walked around a tiny bit to make sure everything was in order, a bronze scaled dragon tail appeared behind him not a few seconds later, which was attached to his body like how Amaryllis' tail was attached to her, and that was only followed by his body being covered in the scales, before she watched as his clothing changed shape as well and became an elegant white robe that didn't touch the ground, since the bottom of the material stopped an inch or two above his ankles. That was swiftly followed by a pair of dragon wings, which were scaled down to fit a smaller body, grew out of his back and seemed to slip through some slits in the back of his robe, before she watched as Amaund's head shifted before her eyes, pushing out until it resembled a dragon's head, or how the heads of the dragons in Skyrim looked, even though she had only seen the one dragon during her time in this province, a fact that she wasn't looking to change anytime soon, before the changes stopped and the figure stood there with a regal like aura filling the area they were standing in.

In that moment, as the changes stopped and nothing else happened, Amaryllis realized something very important, that the being that was standing before her represented both man and dragons, which was evident by the new form that his body had transformed into, and she knew that there was only one being, in the entirety of this world, that was known to it's residents in such a way, and that was Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time, who mortals represented as a being that was a mixture of a man and a dragon, a fact that caused her to get over her initial shock over what she was seeing as she faced the being that was in front of her.

"No way... you mean to tell me that you were Akatosh the entire time, and that you were simply pretending to be Amaund Motierre?!" Amaryllis exclaimed, because that was something that she wasn't expecting, that the being that was regarded as the Chief of the Divines, the head of them to be exact, would take on a mortal form and actually arrange the death of the current Emperor, something she felt she would need to ask at some point, but even then she was focused on the fact that her Family's latest client had been one of the Divines.

"I have been a member of the Motierre line for a long time now, since the days of the Oblivion Crisis," Akatosh said, as if he wasn't afraid to tell her anything, because he seemed confident in the fact that no one would believe her, if she decided to tell someone what she was learning, though he did stretch his arms, legs, wings, and tail for a moment, just to make sure everything was in order, before focusing on her, "and by that I mean that a mere fragment of my power was brought to this world and allowed me to interact with the residents of Cyrodiil. The Motierre line has been sworn to keep my secret from the rest of the nobles and authority figures, and the death of 'Amaund' will let them know that they are free to move on with their lives with the blessing of the Divines, for allowing me to help the residents of this world, more than what I did in the past. When I set this plot in motion I divided the power of this fragment in half, meaning that what you killed back in the Bannered Mare was a very small fragment of my power, which has been returned to my real form, and soon this one will disappear from this world as well, now that the first crucial stage of my plan has been completed with such a degree of success... which is all thanks to you and your Family."

"I see... its good to know that the Divines is looking out for us." Amaryllis said, though at the same time she was still caught off guard by the fact that one of the godly beings that watched over this world would do something like this, even though it was to aid this world and make things better for everyone who called it home, before she registered exactly what he had said, which caused her to remember the real shocking bit of everything she was learning right now, hence why she came to the decision to ask him something, "Tell me, why did you go through all of this trouble, to order the assassination of an Emperor, even one that wasn't as well liked as Titus Mede II, when you could have just ordered one of your followers, or asked one of the followers of the other Divines, to carry out the deed?"

"If I did that, and one of Mede's sons inherited the throne, they would inherit the sins of their father," Akatosh replied, his tone showing Amaryllis that he must have considered this long and hard, before setting his plans in motion, but based on what she knew there were no heirs to the throne anymore, meaning that they must have been killed by someone before this plot had been set in motion, before the god turned his head and looked at the urn, "but, if the Emperor was killed by a well known group of assassins, such as the Dark Brotherhood for example, all of those sins would disappear and whoever replaced Titus Mede II wouldn't have to worry about all of that... that's honestly all I can tell you right now, since telling you the rest of my plan might accidentally change things for the worse. Oh, before I leave you to head back to your Family, with your well deserved reward for this great dead, I have something important to tell you: three days from tomorrow morning, in the hours between morning and noon, you will have a run-in with fate... you'll see what I mean soon enough."

Amaryllis raised her eyebrow for a moment, as she wasn't sure what to make of what she had just been told, which was when the Dragon God of Time bowed his head a little, to show that he was done here, before being consumed in a glowing light that caused him to dissipate before her very eyes, preventing Amaryllis from asking any other questions and leaving her with a number of answers that still confused her. Meeko stood there for a moment, since he was a dog and had no idea what was really going on, before Amaryllis sighed and rubbed his head for a couple of seconds, mostly allowing her to take her mind off of what she had just learned, even though there was one thing about this that made some sense, that if she tried to tell anyone that Akatosh had ordered the assassination of the Emperor, even her own Family, no one would believe her and might call her a liar, so all she could do was keep quiet. Once she came to that decision she collected the reward for the assassination and stored it inside the chest she could summon whenever she wanted, since carrying all of this gold on her might cause someone to come and attempt to rob her, though once she banished the chest she beckoned to her companion for a moment and Meeko followed her as she headed for the entrance of the ruins, as it was time they returned to their Family and give Nazir the good news. The moment they were outside, and made sure that no one was in the surrounding area, Amaryllis switched to her true form and spread her wings without delay, where she quickly picked up Meeko and left the ground without delay, where she turned towards the north and headed for Dawnstar at last, as she wanted to get to her new home and see what the others were doing in her absence, even though she suspected that none of them will have shown up by the time she got back, since only a couple of hours had passed since her departure from the ruined Sanctuary and it wasn't enough time for Nazir to arrange for the Night Mother to be transported to Dawnstar, but at the very least Babette might be there, waiting for everyone else to arrive.

As such, when she arrived outside Dawnstar, she landed a short distance up the path that lead to the port city and used a Breton mage disguise this time around, a thin female who would be overlooked by many based on what she had seen over the course of her time in Skyrim, and sure enough the innkeeper of the Windpeak Inn was more than willing to let her rent out the guest room for a day, which was still one of the strangest customs she had seen, and she got some sleep since she hadn't actually slept since the invasion on the Sanctuary.

When morning arrived, and the residents of the inn seemed jealous of the fact that she had gotten a goodnight sleep while they suffered due to nightmares, which, according to the priest, only affected the residents of the city and not visitors, but he did have someone coming to aid him in taking care of whatever the source happened to be, where she determined that the priest had to know something and was keeping it a secret, before deciding not to bother with him and purchased a bit of food for breakfast. Meeko was more than happy to have something to eat, either due to him starving himself when the Penitus Oculatus offered him something to eat, showing his loyalty to her and the Dark Brotherhood, or no one had given him anything while he was inside that cage and this was the first decent meal he had been given in some time, though she smiled as she pushed aside what she did to the Commander and petted him for a few seconds, since it was nice to have a companion while she waited for her Family to arrive, before eating her own food. Once they were done with breakfast, and had a chance to rest in the inn, Amaryllis headed outside and passed a few guards that happened to be switching with the next group, which meant this was the night group that was getting some food before bed, though she smiled as she found that the sun was up and that, for the most part, the citizens seemed eager to get started with their own work, which made it look like no one was suffering from nightmares and were getting a decent night's sleep, or at least they were trying to do that based on what she could see. Of course Amaryllis had to wonder who the priest was calling upon to help him take out the source of the nightmares, since it seemed like an odd thing for someone to specialize in, before figuring that the ones who might help him had to be the Vigilants of Stendarr, who seemed to specialize in hunting daedra down and stopping their plans, but for now it seemed like it would be some time before they arrived and gave her a chance to get out of the area before their arrival.

Once she was done looking around Dawnstar, where she found that Silus' house was closed and might be for sale, which was hard for her to say since it would require her to head to the Jarl's place and speak to the Steward, she made her way over to the new Sanctuary, where she had found Cicero earlier and spared his life, where she found that the door was a tad bit open and made her wonder who might be down in the depths, to which she made sure Meeko remained silent as she pulled out her daggers and headed inside... though when she reached the part that had a stand for the Night Mother, whose coffin was present, she found Nazir standing nearby, with four dead bandits around him.

"Nazir? What are you and the Night Mother doing here?" Amaryllis asked, though she emerged from her crouch, which at this point in time had become second nature to her thanks to how often she sneaked around the various areas of Skyrim, and sheathed her weapons without delay, because it looked like there were no more enemies for her to worry about, even though she did recall seeing a wagon on the other side of the hill that the Black Door for this Sanctuary was resting in and it explained how the coffin got here, "I thought it would take you some time to move the Night Mother."

"I managed to 'convince' some bandits to help me transport the Night Mother to Dawnstar in a single night," Nazir said, to which he gestured to the bodies for a moment, not that he really needed to do so since he could tell that she had noticed them, though she had to admit that his plan had worked quite well, especially since the wagon gave him a way to move all of the bodies and make it look like an accident of some kind, like some mages had assaulted the bandits or they had been attacked by guards, before he focused on her for a moment, "however, that doesn't matter right now... what happened to the contract and the Emperor?"

"Emperor Titus Mede II is... well, he's lying dead in the main cabin of his ship, slain by my hand." Amaryllis replied, though while one might expect her to be overjoyed to have completed the contract with flying colors, and she was happy with the contract ending, she was still taken aback by the strangeness of everything that happened earlier, when she collected the payment that had been left for her and the Dark Brotherhood, which was when she waved her hand for a moment and summoned her chest once more, since it was time for her to pull out the reward and show Nazir how much they had been given for their deed.

"Truly? Could you have brought us more wondrous news?" Nazir inquired, his tone revealing that he was pleased with her actions and that she had slain the Emperor, fulfilling one of the greatest contracts in the history of their Family, or one of the recent contracts anyway, and had given them a level of infamy that would earn the respect and fear of the residents of Skyrim, maybe even the rest of the provinces once enough time had passed, even though his face remained the same, a fact that she knew was never going to change, "Recent events notwithstanding, this is a happy day for you, Babette, and myself... and Cicero, since he's still alive... despite your misfortunes, both in this world and what happened in your home world, you stayed true to the Dark Brotherhood and our principles. You've saved us all, especially after what happened to our last Sanctuary, and for this you will have my eternal thanks. Now, out of curiosity, I must ask you something... killing the Emperor... how much did Motierre pay for such a thing?"

"Twenty thousand coins," Amaryllis answered, though while she had been thinking of trying to pull a fast one and joke for a few seconds, which would have been rather funny depending on how Nazir took her statement, the strangeness of what happened back in Volunruud had caused her to ditch the idea altogether and she decided to just be straight with Nazir, as this was no time for her to be joking around, not when she was still shocked by the idea that a Divine had hired the Family to take out the Emperor, especially in a weird manner.

"Remarkable! Well, the old bastard certainly made it worth our while, didn't he?" Nazir said, though he actually laughed for a few seconds, showing that he liked what was going on and knew that Babette would no doubt appreciate the price that came with the contract, even if they were missing the rest of their Family, before he glanced around the area that he was standing in and Amaryllis could tell that he was thinking about something, no doubt refitting the Sanctuary and making it a true home for their Family, "Now, might I offer you some advice? You should head to Riften and find Delvin Mallory again... I believe Astrid had you visit him when you delivered Motierre's letter to her. Mallory is, as you no doubt know, an expert 'obtainer of goods', and we can use the money from this contract to repair and refit this Sanctuary... make a true home for us, hmm? While you do that, and we wait for Babette and Cicero to show up, I'll see what I can do about recruiting some new additions to our Family..."

"Sounds like a plan," Amaryllis replied, though she made sure that Meeko would stay behind with Nazir, since it would be better for her to do this on her own and not have a passenger, even though nothing bad had happened when she carried the dog the last couple of times, before she banished her chest once more and smiled, as it sounded like her brother had either noticed that Cicero was alive or had been confronted by the jester when he and the Night Mother arrived, "So, you noticed Cicero earlier... has he calmed down?"

"I don't know what you did, but he seems to have calmed down... though it will take me some time to trust him again, after what he did, regardless of your decision," Nazir replied, showing that he knew the reason why she had spared Cicero's life, as he was a member of their Family and killing one of the members of her new Family didn't sit well with her, even though she had gone though with ending Astrid's life due to it being a contract and the fact that she betrayed everyone with her actions, but at the very least he was willing to put up with Cicero and that was all she was asking for, "though he said that he needed to get some new supplies for his duties as Keeper, so it will take some time before he returns to our new home and resumes his duties."

Amaryllis nodded and started to turn around, so she could leave through the entrance and see what sort of things Delvin might have to offer the Family, though before getting too far she came to a stop and stared at the metallic coffin that was resting nearby, to which she walked over to it and knelt for a few seconds, showing Nazir that she was going to check with the Night Mother and see if anyone had performed the Black Sacrament lately, since there had to be more people who wanted someone dead.

It is done. Emperor Titus Mede II lies dead, and the Dark Brotherhood yet lives, but our work is just beginning, Listener, as more have prayed to their mother. the Night Mother said, speaking not a few seconds after Amaryllis came to a stop and knelt before her coffin, where she revealed that she knew the contract was done, that the Emperor was dead and she didn't seem disappointed in her killing the man inside the Bannered Mare, while at the same time revealing that she had a new contract for Amaryllis to do, hence why she remained silent as she listened to what the Night Mother had to tell her this time around, You are to speak with the Wary Outlaw, who currently resides in the Bee and Barb, in Riften. Accept his gold, and then eliminate the target... so begins a contract, bound in blood.

Amaryllis found that it was odd that she had to go to Riften to speak with Delvin about the Sanctuary and find a client at the same time, which made her wonder if Akatosh had a hand in this happening or something, before she took a moment to nod her head and showed Nazir that a new contract had to be in the works, where she informed him of what was going on and then departed from the Sanctuary, leaving him and Meeko to tend to the bandit bodies that were resting near the entrance and have everything cleaned up for when Babette and Cicero returned. Once she was outside the Sanctuary, and took a few seconds to make sure no one else was around the area, she shifted into her true form once more and took off without delay, where she headed to the southeast as she aligned herself with where Riften was located, though at the very least she wouldn't have to worry about the Forsworn this time around, since they were in the Markarth region and she was far away from that area, meaning this was more of a peaceful flight for her, even if she kept her guard up as she kept an eye out for dragons. Sure, she had only seen the one so far and one of the guards in Dawnstar had mentioned that there had been a second located just outside Whiterun, attacking one of the watchtowers that had been built by the ancients in the distant past, though other than that there were no other mentions of dragons, so all she knew was that one was just resting somewhere and the second had been slain by the Dragonborn, or at least that was what the tales claimed based on what the guards had mentioned when they talked with each other earlier, before she sighed and continued to adjust her course as she headed to Riften. One thing that caused her to pause for a moment, or at least shift her glance off to her left, was a roar that sounded like a dragon's roar, meaning it was either the black one that she had seen, as she didn't see that terrifying beast dying to a simple group of guards and a hero who had no idea what they happened to be doing, or it was a lesser dragon, before she refocused on the path she was following from the air and continued to head towards the city that was her destination.

It took her some time to reach the outside of Riften, where she landed and took on the form she had used during her last visit to this place, the Khajiit disguise that was quickly becoming her favorite one out of everything she could turn into, and once that was done she made sure her armor looked like leather armor before heading inside the city once more, where she noticed that the few guards didn't seem to care much for her, either due to her race choice or they were thinking that some trouble was about to go down due to her being there... though she found that it was easy for her to make her way to the Ragged Flagon, as the path was still cleared and she was able to find out where Delvin was sitting, allowing her to take a seat across from the one she had to speak to.

"Ah, if it isn't my friend from the Dark Brotherhood... what can I do for you?" Delvin asked, showing that he remembered her disguise, even though he had only seen her the one time and didn't really ask her anything about who she was, other than her revealing she was a member of the order of assassins, and that he seemed interested in what sort of job or item she wanted to talk about, since she brought him a necklace belonging to a member of the Elder Council earlier, before anyone in the Family knew what the item was.

"I'm here for a simple reason: can you repair and refit the Dawnstar Sanctuary?" Amaryllis inquired, though at the same time she readied a bit of her magic, so she could summon her chest and pull out the sack of coins that had been inside the urn the previous day, when she went to collect the payment for the assassination, but at the same time she knew that if Delvin told her that he couldn't help her she was planning on leaving and figuring out who might be able to assist her in repairing the new Sanctuary.

"The Dawnstar Sanctuary? That where you lot are holing up in now?" Delvin said, his tone revealing that he was interested in what she had to say, though at the same time he held up his hand to stop her from answering the question, not that she was planning on doing such a thing since he had done this the last time she had spoken to him, where she watched as he seemed to think about what she was asking him and his team to do, before he refocused on her once more, "Hm, tell you what, I can help you with your problem, but it will cost you... quite a lot, if I'm being honest. Are you looking for the whole package, which includes a set of banners that have the emblem of your organization, a poisoner's nook so someone can make poisons and grow herbs, a torture chamber for extracting information, a brand new secret entrance, and furnished chambers for the leader and those who serve under them? If so, that will come out to be nineteen thousand coins... if not, tell me what you want and I'll tell you how much it will cost you."

"No, the package sounds good to me," Amaryllis replied, even though she didn't really approve of the torture chamber, as it seemed like the strangest thing to have installed inside their new home, something that made her wonder if she could use her magic to enchant the stones and keep the screams contained inside that area, instead of hearing it anywhere else inside the Sanctuary, though once she came to that decision she summoned her chest and pulled out the reward she had collected, making sure to take out one thousand coins and handing over the remaining nineteen thousand to Delvin, who seemed pleased with her, "How long will it take for you to get all of that done?"

"Three days, four tops." Delvin answered, where two of the other thieves, both female based on what she was seeing right now, walked over to where they were sitting and quickly picked up the sack that she had left for Delvin to take, meaning he was accepting the payment and would no doubt begin having his team transport the items in question to Dawnstar, so they could begin work on repairing the Sanctuary, before he focused on something, "At least the place will be livable once my team is done with their work... but, other than that, good luck with your... murders."

Amaryllis nodded her head, even though she wasn't expecting Delvin to actually wish her and the Brotherhood good luck, before she banished the chest she had summoned and got up from the table they had been sitting at, where she headed back towards the entrance of the Ratway and quickly returned to the upper part of Riften, something that allowed her to see that the merchants were busy offering deals to visitors, guards were making sure no thieves were trying anything as the day went on, and the rest of the citizens went about their day as if nothing big had happened. Of course she could feel a sense of dread as she walked towards the inn, where she heard one of the guards talking to another about the Emperor and the fact that he was assassinated on his own ship, something that informed everyone that the Dark Brotherhood was still at large and that nothing had changed when their Sanctuary had been assaulted, though she maintained a face that suggested she was mourning the loss of the Emperor as she entered the Bee and Barb. She quickly found that there were a decent amount of people scattered around the first floor of the inn, be they customers or workers, though she could feel the presence of someone who seemed nervous, more than anyone else at the moment, and determined that the emotion was coming from a male Nord warrior that was wearing leather armor as he sat at a table for two, without someone else to talk to, and he seemed to be glancing around the inn every now and then. As such she had to assume that the warrior was the client for the next contract, the 'Wary Outlaw' based on what the Night Mother told her earlier, to which she made sure to have a hood of some kind over her head, to prevent the majority of the customers that were in here from seeing most of her disguise's facial features, before she walked over to where her target was sitting and took the empty chair, where it looked like they would have some time to speak since the workers hadn't noticed her yet.

"Were you the one who performed the ritual?" Amaryllis asked, keeping her voice low so that only the warrior could hear her words, not that it mattered since everyone else was producing enough sound to mask what she was saying and what the warrior would be saying in the next couple of seconds, though while the warrior seemed surprised to see that he had a guest sitting in front of him, something that he would normally argue with, he understood what she was talking about and made a slight motion with his head that suggested he was nodding.

"Yes, I did... I'm glad you're here." the warrior replied, his tone revealing that, might he might be an outlaw and was wanted by the law of one of the nine provinces of Skyrim, there was someone he wanted to take out and was more than willing to call upon the Dark Brotherhood to get his revenge or justice, since that wasn't something she needed to ask, and the bit of emotion she could feel from him confirmed that he was overjoyed to see that the brotherhood had finally arrived to take up his contract, something that was followed by him putting a bag of gold on the table, "What I need you to do is find and kill a female Nord warrior that I used to work with, before she turned on my group and took up a being a gravedigger, who digs up the dead and steals from them to make their fortune... I've tracked her to Windhelm, where she's likely working in the Hall of the Dead, though due to reasons I cannot enter that city and need someone like you to carry out justice on her, before she escapes. This is all the gold I have right now... I hope it is enough for the contract."

Amaryllis opened the bag for a moment and noticed the mass of coins that were inside it, which seemed to be around the thousand mark based on her best guess, though instead of saying anything she sealed the bag and nodded her head, as it seemed like the warrior was telling the truth that this was all the gold he could offer her, before she got up and walked out with the bag in her hand, though once she was outside she made her way to a private area and quickly counted the coins, allowing her to see that it was twelve hundred coins in total, which was more than what she got for the contracts that she had done when Astrid was leading the Family. Once that was done, and she stashed the bag inside her own pack for now, the next thing she decided to do was leave Riften and made it look like she was getting ready to go on a quest, to take out a bandit camp or something, which was her totally acting for the guards that had seen her come and go, hence the reason why she headed down the road and put some distance between her and the city, though when she was sure she was safe and sound she switched back to her true form without delay. After that she took to the air and headed to the north, to see if she could find the target of this contract and take her out, even though the warrior hadn't given her a great description of who he wanted her to take out and would have to wing it for the most part, but at the very least she had a location to check out and it was a good place to start, since it might have a clue for her to find or, if she was incredibly lucky, the Nord she was looking for might be inside the Hall of the Dead and wouldn't know she was there until it was too late. The only thing she had to look out for while she flew through the air was making sure not to be anywhere near where the dragon roar had been earlier, allowing her to focus on what she needed to do when she reached Windhelm and started to look for her target, despite the fact that she would need to change into a Nord disguise so the guards and residents of the city would ignore her for the most part, something that would give her time to figure out where her target was resting and put an end to the contract before the guards or someone else figured her out.

It took her a while to reach the outskirts of Windhelm and landed before someone noticed her arrival, where she took on the form of a simple Nord farmer and walked all the way to the main gate, finding that none of the guards cared about her and let her inside without asking her any questions, though she did take a moment to ask one for directions to the Hall of the Dead, acting as a visitor wishing to pay respects to a dead relative, and found that it was near the building that Nilsine and the Shatter-shields lived in. Once she found her destination Amaryllis opened the door and headed inside, finding that it was a tunnel that lead to a lower level, with a rest area off to her left and a path to her right that seemed to lead down to where all of the coffins were stored, though there were two Nords down here at the moment, one a priestess based on the orange robe she was wearing and the other being a farmer, though it appeared that neither of them had noticed her and it allowed her to hide in the shadows as the pair conversed. She assumed that the farmer was her target, as it made sense to converse with someone and cause them to leave for a time, something she noticed a few seconds later as the priestess started to leave the area she had been standing in and headed outside the Hall of the Dead, to which she silently watched the other lady for a few more seconds, just to be sure this was the one she was looking for before she assassinated her and moved on to Dawnstar once more. Sure enough she found that the Nord farmer was definitely the one she was here to kill, as she walked over to one of the nearby coffins, a wooden one to be exact, and opened it not a few seconds later, to which it took her a few seconds to pull out a necklace that belonged to whoever was inside the coffin and had a smile on her face, suggesting that it had to be a expensive piece and would fetch her a good price when she got around to selling it to the Thieves Guild. Of course that would never come to pass as Amaryllis reverted to her true form for a moment, and that included her armor as well, before she crouched and approached her target as the Nord lady continued to raid the coffin, something that was followed by her pulling one of her daggers out and sliced open her target's neck, killing her in a matter of seconds and let her drop the body to the ground, though before she left Amaryllis returned the necklace to the coffin it had come from and took her target's coins before putting on her disguise again.

With that done, and she was sure that everything looked identical to when she first discovered this area, Amaryllis turned around and walked out through the main door once more, to which she headed for the city's main door without delay and prepared to depart for Dawnstar once more, because she wanted to give Nazir the good news, chat with Babette if her sister was there, and maybe hang out with Cicero before worrying about another contract, or training new recruits since that was what Nazir was up to, to which she smiled as she waited to see what the future had in store for her and the rest of her new Family.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

well then that was definitely something. Amaund being Akatosh that is quite interesting. I have always thought there was something fishy about that quest in the brotherhood.