Luciana Henriette: Dark Sister! Chapter 3: With Old Friends Like These...

  • Durz wanted to go straight to Whiterun to lay low in Breezeholme, but I insisted we divert to Windhelm first to talk to Aventus Aretino.  I wanted him to know, so that he could close this chapter of his life, and so that he could go back to Honorhall if he wanted.  And we couldn’t exactly send him a note, could we?  He paid me with a pewter plate, which he told me was an heirloom.  I don’t know about that, but I accepted it anyway, since it satisfied him.

    Then we went to Whiterun.  We don’t visit Breezeholme very often, but it’s amazing how satisfying it is to walk into a place and know it is ours, that there is a safe place to go where the problems of the world can not enter without invitation.  We lit the fire, I put a few new books on the shelf and got some potions started brewing, while Durz got started on a home-cooked meal.

    After the meal, we sat side by side, staring into the flames for a while until we realized just how exhausted we were, and climbed the steps to the second floor and went to bed.  Since my unfortunate drinking contest with a Daedric prince named Sam, I have had trouble falling asleep for fear of waking up in a strange place with no idea how I got there. I rarely sleep more than one or two hours at a stretch.  As I crashed down on the mattress, however, and the darkness behind my eyelids seemed to spiral down, down, down, I felt like I could have slept all night and all day.

     

    I probably did.  I woke up, groggy and confused, on the wooden floor of a place I did not recognize.  My gaze wobbled across the floor and up the wall as I tried to clear my vision.  A frostbite spider clinging to the roof spoke to me: “Sleep well?”

    “What?” I slurred.  “Where…? Who… Sam?” 

     “Does it matter?” asked the spider.  “You’re warm, dry, and still very much alive… which is more than we can say about old Grelod, hmmm?”

    Not a spider at all, but a human figure, sitting lazily on top of a bookshelf, dressed in dark leather armor with red detailing. I’m dreaming, I thought; the Dark Brotherhood has invaded my dreams.  I struggled to get my limbs under me, and the fuzzy out of my mind, while she continued, “Not that I’m criticizing.  It was a good kill. Old crone had it coming.  And you saved a group of urchins to boot.  But there is a slight… problem.”

    Where have I heard that voice?

    “You see, that little Aretino boy was looking for me and my associates.  Grelod the Kind was, by all rights, a Dark Brotherhood kill… a kill that you stole and must now repay.”

    I’m not dreaming, I realized; I’ve been kidnapped. 

    “You want me to kill someone?”

    “Funny you should ask.  If you turn around, you’ll notice my guests.” I turned.  Three hostages knelt on the ground in a row, bags over their heads, limbs tied behind their backs. “There’s a contract out on one of them, and that person can’t leave this room alive.  But which one?  Figure it out, and I’ll give you the key to that door and you are free to go.  I’ll just sit back and… admire.” Her voice was self-satisfied and silky.

    My heart rate steadied, and a familiar, comfortable anger settled over me. This was no mysterious Dark Force.  This woman was as mortal as I was, and I hate being manipulated.  Markarth, I thought; I know her voice from Markarth.  Keep her talking.  Shouldn’t be hard—she seems to like to talk.

    I glanced again at the intended victims.  “So you want me to kill on command, is that it?  And then you invite me to join the Dark Brotherhood?”

    She laughed musically.  “You’re smart, Lucy.  You always were.  We’ve been watching you for a long time.”

    “Were you watching me when we were in Youth Corps together, Astrid?”

    She beamed.  “Ahhh!  You remember me.  How sweet!”

    “Of course I remember you.  I trusted you back then.  How did you go from the Youth Corps to the Dark Brotherhood, Astrid?  The Youth Corps stood for something.  We were creating something new.”

    Astrid’s self-satisfied purr turned into a sneer.  “There was no ‘we’, Lucy.  I was undercover.  And let me tell you something: your silly ‘Code’ did nothing but limit you.  The Youth Corps was just another gang.”

     She was baiting me.  Two could play that game. “Got a question for you: that Aretino boy was praying for weeks before I found him, if not months.  Does the Night Mother even hear those prayers anymore?  And if not, can you really even call yourself the Dark Brotherhood anymore?  Or are you just another gang?”

    Her smile faded. Her voice dropped to a threatening pitch.  “You always were smart, Lucy, but that comment was dumb.”

    “Why should I pay back a kill you weren’t ever going to make?”

    She drew a dagger and tensed.  “One way or the other, you’ll pay us back with a kill!”

    “Yeah, I will!  FUS RO DAH!”  My shout pushed Astrid back into the corner between the walls and the roof, and then she tumbled off the cabinet onto the floor.  She regained her feet and came at me with her dagger.  I let the rage take me and flashed out with Chillrend and the Nightingale blade...  

Comments

3 Comments
  • Guy Corbett
    Guy Corbett   ·  March 1, 2012
    Excellent I havent killed the DB yet so I was quite shocked when you took astrid on. Moreeeee
  • Batman
    Batman   ·  February 29, 2012
    another riveting piece piper :) I'm reading it and its just bringing back all my memories of going through joining the DB, but I have a feeling you have a different plan in mind :D
    @ Julian wow I didn't know that about Lucien either, of course I lik...  more
  • Piper Jo
    Piper Jo   ·  February 28, 2012
    I never realized you could kill Lucien!  Julian, you are a fountain of ideas!  Did killing Lucien initiate a quest line?