Skyrim: The Faces of Death

by Blackdrag-rose

Wanderings: Innocence Lost

As Amaryllis walked away from the Aretino Residence, where Aventus lived for the time being, she took a few moments to really consider what she had been asked to do, which was make her way to Riften, which happened to be to the southeast of where Windhelm was located, find her way to the Honorhall Orphanage, no doubt after asking for directions or taking a bit of time to figure it out on her own, and then kill Grelod the Kind, who, according to Aventus, was the evil headmistress that was in charge of the building. Part of her really wanted to forget about what she had just been told, to leave Aventus to his problems and find something else to do with her time, until she decided to head to the College of Winterhold and see what the mages there could tell her about heading to another world, to see if what Farengar had said was true or not, while the other part of her actually wanted to head to Riften and see just how bad Grelod was with her own eyes, due to the fact that there was a chance that Aventus was blowing things out of proportion. Basically that meant that the boy just hated the lady that had been watching over him and the other orphans, and was bringing her down due to his personal feelings on being displaced from his home, which would make Grelod innocent if he had been lying to her about the evil he had seen, but due to her abilities she could tell that he had been telling the truth, in part anyway, meaning he felt that Grelod needed to be punished for something, hence the ritual he performed. In order for her to get to Riften she would have to walk down the road that lead out of Windhelm, follow a certain path, and spending half the day to get to the city in question, which would mean that she would arrive at some point after most of the shops were closed, save for whatever inn might be inside Riften, though as that thought came to mind she remembered seeing something that could make her journey to the next city that much easier, and that was the fact that two of the Hold cities she had been to so far, since she arrived in Skyrim, had a carriage outside the city, with a driver tending to them, so she could ask the one outside the city if he could take her to Riften, which she was more than willing to pay for since she had walked all the way to Windhelm and wasn't eager to walk across a great distance again.

Based on the prices of what she purchased in the past, food for the most part, she had to assume that the prices for the carriages would be reasonable as well, and with the drivers having a predetermined path to follow, given all of the roads that connected the Holds, there was the possibility that she could reach the city even sooner than what she was thinking, which might make it a worthwhile investment. That was when she decided that she might as well head to Riften and see if she could figure out if Aventus was telling the truth about Grelod and her methods, if she was an evil lady who hated kids and treated them poorly, because she had the feeling that she could pick up another bandit bounty, or something else to do, after she checked out the orphanage and the headmistreess. Of course if she fulfilled Aventus' contract, and ended up killing Grelod the Kind like he wanted, there was the chance that the guards would be alerted by someone screaming, be it the orphans or whoever helped the old lady out, since she was sure Grelod had someone helping her, and if that were to happen she would have to flee the city before being discovered and caught by the Riften guards, to which she sighed and headed for the entrance of the city. One thing she wasn't worried about was the guards questioning her as to why she had entered the city and was now leaving it, after about ten to twenty minutes, because, based on what she could see, those who served as the guards didn't seem to care that much about visitors, unless they were bandits or were causing sort of commotion in the city, so since she wasn't either of those people she knew that she would be able to leave the city without the guards giving her a second glance, and even if they did come looking for her, for whatever reason, she could use her powers to change shape and lose them. While she was thinking about that she noticed that she was able to reach the main gate of Windhelm, to which she walked through it and started to cross over the long stone bridge, heading over to where the stable was located, on the other side of the bridge to be exact, and eventually found that the carriage driver was sitting at the front his carriage, waiting for someone to come along to hire him.

"Need a ride?" the carriage driver asked, showing that he was more observant than what Amaryllis was thinking, but at the same time she guessed that it made sense due to the type of profession that he was dedicating his life to, since he had to make sure whoever used his services arrived at their destination without delay or being harmed, and he even focused on her as she came to a stop near him.

"As a matter of fact, I do." Amaryllis replied, though she was happy to see that the carriage driver was friendly, which was better than some of the other people she had seen since she arrived in this land, especially when she thought about that pair of nords she had seen after just entering Windhelm, who might find themselves in jail if they went through with their plans to bother the dark elves of the city, before she opened her pouch and got ready to ask the important question that was on her mind, "How much are you charging per ride?"

"It depends on where you want to go." the carriage driver answered, his tone revealing that he always answered this sort of question when someone new approached him and asked to use his services, and, more importantly, that he wasn't annoyed by her asking him how much the ride would be, before he focused on revealing what his prices were and if she needed to pull out more to pay for using his services, "It's twenty coins for any of the major Holds, which are Windhelm, Whiterun, Solitude, Markarth, and Riften, while it's fifty gold for one of the smaller Holds, as in Falkreath, Dawnstar, Morthal, and Winterhold."

"Well, I'd like to go to Riften." Amaryllis stated, as she felt the prices were a little weird, due to the fact that she felt that the higher price should be for the main cities and the lower price should be for the minor cities, before coming to the decision that it might be due to the fact that many visited the main cities and none visited any of the others, so he needed more coins to go out of his way, to which she quickly pulled out the twenty coins and handed them over to the carriage driver, to show that she was willing to pay the price.

"Excellent choice." the carriage driver stated, where he took the coins and counted them for a few seconds, just to make sure Amaryllis wasn't trying to cheat him out of the price he had stated, before he nodded his head and slipped the coins into his own coin pouch that rested near his feet, where some boards rested to keep the sack from moving around too much or spilling while he was traveling, before he gestured to the area behind him for a few seconds, "Climb in back and we'll get underway."

Amaryllis nodded her head and climbed into the back of the carriage immediately, which was the moment the driver used his reins and the horse that was drawing the carriage started to move, where they turned to the left and she discovered a new path that she hadn't seen earlier, as in when she was walking to Windhem to be exact, which happened to be the one they would be taking, but it made her happy since it appeared that they would be taking a route she hadn't walked down before coming to Windhelm. As they started to travel along the road that would bring them to Riften, and Amaryllis could take in the sights without having to worry about the dangers of the land, one of the things she noticed was that there was an inn close to where the city was located, about five minutes from Windhelm by her estimates, and it looked like all of the other inns she had seen while he was exploring the provinces of Skyrim, which meant that the interior had to be the same as the other inns she had been inside. On her right she spotted another river, one that was just as large as the one she had seen while she was walking to Windhelm, which happened to merge up with the other one near the city they were leaving, but, at the same time, she did wonder what sort of fish called the rivers of Skyrim home, something she knew she could figure out if she asked one of the fishermen about it, if she found one and they were willing to spend a few seconds answering a few questions. Of course, since she had nothing to pass the time with, she decided that she could ask the carriage driver about the land and see what he knew, acting like she was a foreign visitor that didn't really know anything about Skyrim and the different Holds that made up this province, and once again she was happy to see that the driver wasn't annoyed by her questions and had answers to give her, because if he had been annoyed she was sure he would have kept quiet as they headed for Riften, leaving her in the dark about the rest of the land.

The first thing she learned was that the carriage driver's name was Alfarinn and that he was one of the five carriage drivers that worked for the whole of Skyrim, not counting those who served in the Legion or the Stormcloaks, meaning that only the major Hold cities had someone like him and his companions waiting just outside each city, which she found to be a tad bit odd, especially since she felt that the people of the smaller Holds would definitely use the carriages if they were there, waiting outside the cities in question. After that Alfarinn informed her that Windhelm was an old city, build by Ysgramor and his Five Hundred Companions a long time ago, which meant that the palace she had briefly seen, the Palace of the Kings, was one of the more ancient buildings in the entire city, even though she was sure the entire city was ancient, since she had no idea how long it's been since the time of Ysgramor and his group of warriors, and the carriage driver had next to no information on that to share with her. He also told her that the dark elves were forced to live in the slums of the city, the Grey Quarter, due to one or two of the laws that the Jarl, a man called Ulfric Stormcloak, had passed during his time as ruler of the city, while the arognians, the other race that called the city home, were forced to live outside the walls and had an area near the docks that served as a resting place for them, though instead of reacting to the name, since she knew the figure in question a little thanks to the Imperials, she acted like she didn't know him and let the carriage driver go on as he continued talking. After that Alfarinn went on to describe Eastmarch, which was the name for the Hold that Windhelm was the capital of, to her, revealing that there were sulfurous pools and rocky crags here and there, there was an area that had an ancient stone wall that was said to have the dragon language carved into it, if one believed the tales about such a thing anyway, two dwarven ruins if one looked close enough, and was home to a number of animals, such as deer, sabre cats, wolves, trolls, bears, and even the odd giant or two, complete with their mammoths.

As Alfarinn told her about Eastmarch, however, Amaryllis spotted several of the things that he was talking about, as it took a few seconds to locate a lone hill off to their right, further along the road, which had to be the one that the dragon wall he had mentioned was located on, while off to their left she spotted an odd ruin that seemed to be constructed out of pipes, gears, doors and who knew what else, while everything seemed to be made out of brass or bronze and was built into the side of the mountain, just like the nordic ruins she had seen so far. She had to assume that the strange ruin had to be one of the two dwarven ruins that she had been told about, which looked like a place that would be noisy and filled with who knew what, but as soon as she saw it Alfarinn informed her of something interesting, the makers of those large ruins, the dwarves, were long gone at this point in time, though no one really knew what happened to the race, as if they had been there one day and gone the next, which was rather odd when she thought about it. Since it was clear that this was the extent of Alfarinn's knowledge on the dwarves, since he stopped talking after mentioning that, Amaryllis let it slide as he continued talking about something else, though for a moment she did wonder if the College of Winterhold would have some ideas as to what happened to the race, before deciding that her original goal was more important, even if one mage believed traveling to another plane of existence to be impossible. The other thing that interested her was that all the wild animals seemed to ignore them as they made their way to Riften, which was very odd when she considered it as well, but she didn't put much thought into it, as not being interrupted by the wildlife every now and then made things much better in her mind, especially since there weren't any bandits for her and Alfarinn to worry about, which even Alfarinn found to be weird, since he usually had to deal with one or two attacks from small bandit groups during his travels, even if most of the time he had a hero being carried between two locations to take them down.

Amaryllis wasn't sure what was going on, as this ride seemed to be the opposite of what happened when she was on her own, walking from Whiterun to Windhelm and stopping every time something or someone tried to stop her, despite the fact that she stopped to help Cicero out on her own, but she was happy to have some peace and quiet, instead of having to kill everything that wanted to kill her or rob her, allowing her to relax a little before they arrived at Riften and before she was forced to make a decision on what to do about Grelod.

---

It was well into the evening when they reached Riften, a walled city that had a few watchtowers lining the road that lead to the main gate, though it wasn't the strangest thing Amaryllis had seen since she had noticed the dwarven ruins her guide had pointed out to her, and she had spotted the second one higher up in the mountains, and the bandit run fortress that Alfarinn avoided, one that was done the road from the city and made her wonder why the guards didn't bother clearing it out to clear the roads once more. She was still surprised by the fact that no one had tried to stop them on their way to the city she wanted to visit, something that also shocked her companion at the same time, given what he was used to seeing during his travels, but in the end they were able to reach their destination, where Amaryllis spotted one of the other four carriage drivers, Sigaar she recalled, waiting on his carriage as he glanced at those who came near him, simply waiting for someone to hire him so he could leave Riften for a time. Since it was getting close to the time where the more dangerous beasts wandered the roads, and his horse was tired from the long journey, Alfarinn was planning on stopping here for the night and then head out after a few hours of sleep, however many that turned out to be she had no idea, but that meant he wasn't going to be available if she wanted to go somewhere else, once her business in the city was complete, meaning that it would be Sigaar's turn to have a customer, even though this city looked like one that would see many people every day and the carriage might be gone once she came back outside. In the end, however, Amaryllis thanked him for the ride and that he was willing to share so much information with her, before she climbed out of the back of the carriage and touched the ground, where she stretched her arms and legs, including her tail, and jumped a few times to make up for the fact she had been sitting for a few hours, only to stop when she was ready to go.

She paused for a few moments, as it appeared that the Riften guards didn't seem to care about khajiits as much as the guards in Eastmarch, though she guessed that whatever had changed her body had also given her the ability to maintain her disguises for a longer period of time, which was great since she didn't have to drop them all the time, but when she approached the front gate the guard on her right stepped forward to stop her, making her wonder if her thoughts about them were wrong and they were going to show her what they thought of khajiits.

"Hold there visitor." the guard stated, where Amaryllis stopped and stared at him, because she was curious as to why he was stopping people who were visiting the city, as the guards of Whiterun had the dragon to use as an excuse and she hadn't seen any dragons, as Farengar believed that more might be around Skyrim, since she spotted the black one when she was leaving the mine some time ago, while the guards of Windhelm just ignored her, "Before I let you enter Riften, and take in the splendor of the city, you need to pay the visitor's tax."

"Visitor's tax?" Amaryllis asked, as it was outrageous that someone would try and extort money from people that were going to be visiting the city, and potentially be spending money on things that were being sold, and she didn't need her natural senses to tell her that this guard was lying about something, because she felt this was ridiculous and wondered if there was a way for her to break the scam completely, without the guards calling her a liar and throwing her in jail for not playing by the rules, "What's the tax for?"

"For the privilege of entering the city of course." the guard replied, though his tone suggested that she should just bow her head and hand over whatever price he asked of her, which she imagined he would be informing her of soon, while it was also clear that if she didn't abide by his statement both he and his partner, as there was another guard to her left, would get up from where they were standing and then force her into submission so they could arrest her, while confiscating all of her goods as well, no doubt in the name of her breaking the law, "The tax is one hundred coins... ah, what's the matter? Can't pay the tax?"

"Oh, I'm sure I could pay this 'tax', but I won't." Amaryllis answered, though this time she kept her hands at her side and focused on the guard that was in front of her, as she was hoping that he would see reason and understand that this "tax" was ridiculous and that he should do away with it immediately, while noting that the other guard had paused, meaning she might be able to get away with this and not have to pay anything, "Clearly this is a shakedown, and I'm not going to fall for your little money making scheme."

"All right, keep your voice down... do you want everyone to hear you?" the guard said, his voice lowering so only she could hear him, as if he really wanted to keep this money making scheme a secret from the other visitors, of which there were none at the moment, but at the very least it appeared that he was willing to listen to what she was saying, even if it was to some degree, while his partner in crime returned to focusing on the road that lead to the gate, "I'll let you into the city, as long as you don't tell anyone about what you just learned, just let me unlock the gate first."

Based on that statement she had to assume that he would allow her to enter the city as long as she said nothing about his scheme, meaning that this form was locked to that promise and any other disguise she used would have to go through all of this in the future, though she nodded her head and watched as the guard walked up to the gate, where he slipped a key into the slot and seemed to unlock it, allowing her to approach as he backed away and returned to his post, which let her enter the city at last. Riften, as she soon discovered, was a town that must have been built near a lake, because she could tell that there was a canal of some sort near a building that looked like an inn, though she was incredibly lucky that there was no one around for the moment, which made sense when she considered the fact that it was nighttime and would be midnight at some point in time, giving her time to look around the city and discover what sort of buildings were where, so she could build a map of the city in her head for whenever she came back to Riften. In addition to the inn she also found a number of interesting houses, which really just looked the same, all of them had two stories, and had been arranged in a row, stopping at what appeared to be the temple, though one of the larger buildings in the area appeared to be the place where the Jarl lived, as they seemed to have the better homes out of everyone in their Hold, though there was a circular market not far from where it was resting. What really surprised her was that Honorhall Orphanage, the building she was currently looking for, rested to the right of where the stairs that lead to the building the Jarl lived in were located, though, at the same time, that made things easier for her as she approached the door and opened it, where she slipped inside the building and prepared herself for whatever she found inside, while noticing that there were no guards to notice this going on, allowing her to focus on her task.

The first thing she discovered when she entered the building was that the first room she entered happened to be a waiting room of sorts, something that had to work with how the adoption process of Skyrim worked, while beyond that rested a chamber that had a dining table that seemed large enough to sit a fair number of kids, six and possibly two adults, and she spotted two doors near the area the table rested in, but that was when she heard an elderly voice speak up and she came to a stop so she could determine who it belonged to.

"Those who shirk their duties will get an extra beating." the elderly voice said, one that sounded like it belonged to an old lady, which would fit what little Aventus said about Grelod the Kind, though at the same time Amaryllis felt that the owner of the voice was annoyed about something, something that caused her to crouch for a moment and sneak up to the wall that was in front of her, where she paused at the opening as she got ready to peak at the room it was connected to, as it had an opening that likely lead to the area the kids slept in, "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Grelod." a number of voices replied, where Amaryllis could tell that there were a few young boys and a young girl in the group that Aventus had been part of for some time, until he ran away and returned to Windhelm to perform the Black Sacrament, though it was easy for her to tell that all of the kids sounded like they were getting tired of their lives and what they were being subjected to, even if they didn't have the power to do anything about it, meaning it was possible that she had been told the truth when she spoke to Aventus.

"And one more thing!" Grelod snapped, her tone revealing that this was something important that she wanted to tell the children that she was supposed to be watching over, though based on what Amaryllis had heard so far she knew that it couldn't be anything good, not if what she had been told in Windhelm was true, but she remained silent as she waited for the lady to finish her statement and hurt the kids even more, "I will hear no more talk of adoptions! None of you riff-raff is getting adopted. Ever! Nobody needs you, nobody wants you... that, my darlings, is why you're here... why you will always be here, until the day you come of age and get thrown into that wide, horrible world. Now, what do you all say?"

"We love you, Grelod. Thank you for your kindness." the orphans said, though even as they said that Amaryllis could easily tell that this statement was forced and none of the children meant it at all, showing that they disliked the lady that was in charge of the orphanage and were hoping for things to change, even though it also appeared that Grelod hadn't noticed it yet and felt that they were being truthful when they said it, meaning she was going to continue with her life and not care for the kids at all.

"That's better. Now scurry off, my little guttersnipes." Grelod said, her tone not changing at all, which indicated that she really didn't care for them and was waiting for the day when they came of age so she could close the orphanage and do something else with the rest of her life, though before Amaryllis could move she had the feeling that there was one more thing she could learn if she remained still, "Constance! Hroar's crying is keeping me up at night. I'll give you one chance to talk the tears out of him, or he's getting the belt."

"Please, just let me take care of it. It's not a problem." another voice said, one that was female and sounded like the owner was much kinder than Grelod was, and much younger at the same time, though it appeared that Grelod scared everyone to some degree, from what she had heard so far, and that Constance was terrified of her, but she also heard a whimper for a few seconds and determined that it had to be coming from Hroar, meaning the kids were still present and this was just another excuse to make sure they fell in line with her demands.

Amaryllis growled for a moment, as she couldn't believe what she was hearing right now, as before she had felt that what she had learned in Windhelm might have been the tales of a kid acting out against those who had been watching him and the others, but now, after listening to Grelod for a few minutes, she came to realize that the tales were true and Aventus was tyring to save his friends, to which she gripped the handle of her dagger and withdrew it from it's sheath, where she stared at the blade for a moment and came to a quick decision on what to do next. She might not be an actual assassin, or a member of the Dark Brotherhood, nor did she know the rules that were associated with such a role, but based on what Grelod had said, to both the orphans and her assistant, she was willing to take up that role for a few moments, because all of this seemed far too cruel for the children to go through, to which she moved forward and investigated the area of the orphanage she hadn't seen yet, the room the kids slept in. As she appeared in the opening between the rooms, however, she found that there were three young boys and a young girl resting on the beds, who had been the voices she had heard and who had responded to Grelod's first statement, but as they spotted what was in her hand, her dagger, none of them said anything as they got up from their beds and walked to the dining table, which did worry her for a moment, though she ignored what just happened and focused on the old lady. Fortunately it appeared that the lady hadn't noticed her yet, as Grelod was focused on staring at the door that likely lead to her room, as if she was tired or was thinking of retiring for the afternoon, but that just made things easier for her, especially since she really disliked this one person more than most of the individuals she had encountered in the past, and that was saying something when she thought about some of the more annoying ponies and those she had met since arriving in this world.

"Aretino, that little bastard! How dare he run away from me!" Grelod stated, this time appearing to speak to herself as she opened the door in front of her and entered her room, apparently without caring if the orphans overheard what she had to say, though Amaryllis could tell that whatever she had to say was going to be bad and that it would only make her want to kill the old lady even more, "I can't wait until I get my hands on him, because when I find him I'll give him a beating that will make him regret even running away... maybe I'll break one of his bones as well, to give him a lesson that will haunt him for the rest of his days!"

That was the final straw for Amaryllis, to which she started crouching and followed Grelod for a few seconds as she walked into her room, who still didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, especially since the children went quiet, as they seemed to be watching what she was doing, to see if what they were seeing was actually happening, before she reached up and sliced open Grelod's neck, killing her in seconds and dropping her body to the floor, allowing her to stand up and wipe her dagger clean. What she was expecting was for someone to call her a murderer, and she was in that moment, after seeing the old lady perish before their eyes, but what she wasn't expecting was for the children to start cheering as they rushed over to Grelod's body, proclaiming that they had been worried when Aventus fled, as it appeared that Aventus had told all of them that he would be contacting the Dark Brotherhood once he was back in Windhelm, so he could arrange for Grelod to be killed by an assassin, but now they were happy that Grelod was gone, as it meant that Constance could finally take over the orphanage. Some of them even thanked her personally, thinking that she was a member of the order of assassins that she was still learning about, but this time she didn't bother to correct any of them, rather she let them continue their cheering, which, oddly enough, didn't bring any guards to investigate the noise, before excusing herself so she could head back to Windhelm and tell Aventus the news, since he deserved to know that she had sided with him and did what he had asked her to do. As she walked outside, however, she still found that none of the nearby guards were willing to investigate the noise that was coming from the orphanage, though she had no idea why they were ignoring it and, at the same time, found that she really didn't care enough to figure it out, so she headed back through the main gate, found Sigaar tending to his horse, and purchased a ride back to Windhelm, where she figured she could get some rest on the way there, even if it would be a bumpy ride for part of the journey.

Sigaar, as it turned out, didn't seem to mind the fact that Amaryllis wanted to get some sleep on the ride to Windhelm, in fact he actually appeared to be expecting that sort of thing, given what time it was and the fact that everyone who hired his services in the past, at this time, usually did the same thing, and was more than willing to remain silent as she dozed off for a time, to which she nodded her head to show she understood what he was saying. Before she did that, however, she glanced back at Riften and thought about Grelod for a few more seconds, because she had originally felt that Aventus was blowing things out of proportion, in order to get someone to help him, but, as it turned out, he had been telling the truth about the old lady, that Grelod the Kind had been a tyrant in her own orphanage, treating the kids like they were nothing and making sure they felt like trash for even existing. Even if this land was different from Equus, and it was vastly different with everything she was learning as she explored the rest of the frozen land, she couldn't just leave those kids to their fate and force them to live their lives under Grelod's thumb, hence why she hoped that Constance could give them what they really needed, while also mending the wounds that the old lady left behind, something that would take time to heal, or not depending on how deep the scar ran. The main reason she wasn't sticking around Riften, even though she could disguise herself as someone else, was just in the off chance that one of the guards put the pieces together, that a khajiit entered the city, murdered the caretaker of the orphanage, and then disappeared, only for someone else to be leaving the same area she was last seen in, as there was a slim possibility that someone would figure it out, but if she left, however, they would soon forget about the deed and she would be free to explore the city on her own time, the next time she came back to Riften anyway.

In the end, after thinking about all of that, Amaryllis stretched for a moment and then dozed off, hoping to get a few hours of rest before Sigaar arrived outside Windhelm, though if that didn't work she could always check into the inn and see if they had a room available for a few hours, which would allow her to get some rest before she figured out what sort of task she wanted to do next, be it hunting down more bandits or whatever might reveal itself to her once she gave Aventus the news he was waiting for.

As it turned out the carriage came to a stop outside Windhelm about an hour or two before everyone would be getting up and starting their day, which was seven in the morning, meaning that Amaryllis got at least seven to eight hours of sleep, which really surprised her, meaning that it was around give in the morning and meant it would allow her to enter the city with ease, slip into Aventus' house, and gave him the news that he was waiting for. Once Sigaar announced that they had reached their destination, and made sure the horse came to a stop as well, Amaryllis thanked him for the ride and climbed out of the back of the carriage, where she stretched her arms and legs for a few seconds, since they were stiff from how she slept, before heading across the long stone bridge and walked towards the city's main gate. The guards, as she quickly discovered, did look at her as she walked towards the gate, much like they did the previous day when she came to the city, but none of them tried to stop her as she walked inside, where she was happy to see that the nords that were picking on the dark elf lady the last time she entered the city weren't doing it again this morning, even though it was too soon for her to really know that, before she headed to her right and made her way to the Aretino Residence, where Aventus would be waiting for her to come back. She was sure that, in time, he would hear of the fact that Grelod was dead and that someone had killed her, but, at the same time, she felt that he deserved to know that she had done what he had asked when she had came to check on him, before the news of Grelod's death spread to all of Skyrim, or at least the parts that happened to know that she was in charge of the Honorhall Orphanage, hence why she turned to the right of Windhelm's main gate and headed for her current destination.

It took her a few minutes to reach the door to Aventus' place, where she found that a few guards had been patrolling the streets of Windhelm and were ignoring the building, no doubt believing it to be cursed in some manner, though she waited for the guards to be looking somewhere else before she slipped inside... though when she climbed the stairs, and turned towards the main room of this small house, she found that Aventus was waiting near the doorway between the area she was in and the larger room.

"You're back!" Aventus said, his tone indicating that he was happy to see her again, especially since he had asked her to do something for him, which was when he focused on what he had asked her to do the last time she had been here, where it was clear that he was conflicted over wanting to know if she was successful or not, before he readied himself for whatever information she had to tell him as he focused on her with a determined look on his face, "So, about Grelod the Kind. Is she... you know?"

"Dead? Yes, I killed her last night, before taking the first carriage back here." Amaryllis replied, as she knew that this was what Aventus wanted to hear, that she had done to Riften, listened to the horrible things that Grelod had planned for the other children, and him if she got her hands on him, and had taken out the old lady for her crimes, before departing from the city before the guards could catch her so she could deliver this news to him, to which she remained silent after those words left her mouth.

"Aha! I knew you could do it! I knew the Dark Brotherhood would help me and the others!" Aventus exclaimed, something that told Amaryllis all she needed to hear, as it meant that Aventus hadn't been seeking out the group of assassins to save his own skin, given the threat that she heard Grelod mention earlier, rather he did it so he could save the friends that he had made during his time in Honorhall Orphanage, to eliminate the one that abused them, before he rushed over to one of the walls for a moment and searched through one of the sacks that he had laying around the room, only to rush back to where she was standing, "Here, I know the Dark Brotherhood usually expects some sort of payment from those that call upon them, in the form of piles of gold, but this is all I have to offer, and with it being a family heirloom it should fetch you a nice price to cover the contract."

Amaryllis found that Aventus was offering her a dinner plate, one that appeared to be made out of silver and happened to have a few elegant markings that made it look like something the rich families would have in their houses, though instead of telling him to keep it, which would have been an insult based on what he had said, she just took it and nodded her head, to indicate that she'd make sure she got a good price for it, which brought a smile to Aventus' face as he rushed to get his things together. Based on what she could figure out the boy was going to make his way back to Riften, so he could join his friends and celebrate Grelod's death, so she decided not to interrupt him and quickly left the house as he worked, leaving him to his own devices as she slipped the plate into her pack, something that she would think about selling at some point in the future, since she was sure he had been telling the truth about how expensive it might be. Once she was back outside the house, however, Amaryllis decided that it was time to visit the inn and get something to eat before doing anything else, as she had skipped dinner in favor of getting back here to tell Aventus the news, so she was definitely hungry, to which she set out for Candlehearth Hall, the inn of Windhelm, and hoped that they were willing to serve khajiits, otherwise she would have to go somewhere private and change into a more appropriate form that they would be willing to talk to. It didn't take her all that long to reach her destination, since it was close to the city's main gate, though what made her pleased was that the innkeeper, Elda Early-Dawn, was more than willing to sell things to her, even if she had been a little surprised by such a thing, due to the fact that most of the people in this city didn't like foreigners, but that didn't stop her from buying a few things, mostly some cooked chicken and some of the cheap wine, because they didn't have water, tea, or milk from Elda, which put a smile on the innkeeper's face as they exchanged coins and food.

She found it to be extremely odd that they didn't serve normal drinks in this inn, as she would have purchased some milk if they had any since she wasn't much of a wine drinker, even when she was back in Equus she didn't touch the stuff, but, since there didn't appear to be that much inside the bottle she had purchased, she knew that this would be over quickly and then she could think about what she was going to do next, since she hadn't considered what her next objective might be, after figuring out what Aventus wanted. Once she had her food and drink she headed upstairs and found some seats, away from the bard that was currently singing about how the Stormcloaks would defeat the Empire and drive them from Skyrim, making it a war song to inspire others into action or something, where she sat down at one of the empty tables and relaxed a little, allowing her to eat the cooked chicken she had bought, before pouring some of the wine into one of the cups near her and drank it, though she could tell it was cheap because it didn't impact her ability to think about things, like other wines did. Once that was done she turned and glanced at the area that the bard was currently singing in, though as she did so she noticed a female nord with blond hair sitting off in one of the corners, seemingly ignoring everyone that was around her, so she decided not to pay attention to that particular area and tried to relax as she thought about what she was going to do now that Aventus had been helped out. There really wasn't much for her to do, other than ask one of the innkeepers for work or if they heard any new rumors lately, which had lead her to Aventus, and she could always undo her disguise outside the city and fly to Bleak Falls Barrow, to see if Za'kera was still in the area and if she needed help with Farengar's task, before she sighed and reached for her cup again, even though that was around the time that she noticed that the blond haired lady had walked over to her table and seemed to pass by her, causing her to raise an eyebrow as she wondered why the stranger had come this way in the first place.

Once she was sure that the stranger was sitting down, and not standing nearby, she noticed that there was someone else in the inn as well, a male nord who looked much buffer than everyone else, wore a set of leather armor over his body, and nothing on his arms, hands, feet, or head, which showed that he might be arrogant in believing that nothing could do any damage to him, while his weapon appeared to be a battleaxe, a steel one anyway. What was interesting was that he made his way over to where the lady was sitting, where it appeared that they were together and must have met up after the odd warrior had gone out to slay some bandits or something, but she decided not to let that distract her as she poured some more of her cheap wine and drank it like she had done with the last cup, where she recalled that the entire meal had only cost her about fifteen to twenty pieces of gold, but that was when her world started to tip, as if part of her wine had been watered down and the rest was designed to get someone drunk, which seemed impossible. She staggered for a moment as she tried to get up, as the one thing that was wrong with this situation was that being drunk would affect her natural abilities and she'd drop her disguise at the worst possible moment, as that was what she learned from her studies, but ended up falling down a bit, hitting her knee on the floor as she felt a hand touch her. It was getting hard for her to really focus on anything, but from what she could see the nord lady she had spotted had rushed to her aid, making some rather bold claims about knowing her and that she was going to take her back home, so she didn't make a fool out of herself in the drunken state that she seemed to be falling into at the moment, while the male assured everyone else, as in the bard and those who were downstairs, that everything was fine.

That was the last thing Amaryllis remembered as she seemed to pass out, in the arms of a total stranger no less, and the one thought that she had, before her mind went blank, was that she knew that when she woke up again she was going to be in trouble, given that this was going to cause her disguise to fall at the worst possible moment and allow everyone that was around her to see her true form, though time would tell if she was right or if she was wrong.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

As the title says the Bug has truly lost her innocence now as that is her first, out of combat, kill. A true murder in every sense of the word no matter how deserving the recipient is. Looking forward to the next chapter

[Night_Moon60606]

10913780
not really a murder, ask anyone in Riften and they all say the same thing about Grelod...if anything, killing the old bitch was a civil service, one that even Maven Blackbriar would approve of...

[Night_Moon60606]

10913780
also, the name of the chapter probably came from the name of the quest, given by the Arentino boy, 'Innocence Lost'

[PrismStrike]

10913947
regardless of how it is seen by other, morally it is still a murder as Grelod was both unarmed and non hostile to the bug. Any court on earth would judge it as such and i bet it would be the same for tamriel

[Night_Moon60606]

10915038
sadly no, the 'court' u speak of would be the Jarls court, and they rule their holds largely by decree, which is more or less based around their whims...and Lawgiver is one of the worst in that department as shes not really in control of her own Hold. Riften and the rest of the Rift belongs to Maven, and nobody else. i cant see her giving a damn about an orphanage coming under new management due to someone offing the previous one in charge since it wont impact her business in the slightest, and shes done far worse for less provocation...

[Fetch]

So, instead of sending the 'We Know' note, Astrid decided to just grab the one who stole her contract herself.

Next stop: Abandoned Shack in the swamp between Solitude and Morthal.