Chapter 19
“Seriously???”
Kyssandra woke bright and early and headed out. The rain from the day before had stopped, and it was nice and sunny again. After all the crazy events of the previous day, she could not forget that she had a mission, a contract for the Dark Brotherhood. A bandit named Alain, that was holed up in some ruins near Windhelm.
So Kyssandra headed out to the ruins of Raldbthar. It was about halfway between Whiterun and Windhelm, on the side of a mountain. She actually came to it from the back side, as she took a shortcut across the mountain. She realized that these ruins were actually huge. She found the entrance where Muiri had marked, where the bandits were, and called forth the atronarch. From then on, it was actually pretty straightforward. She methodically fought her way through the bandits, and Alain was right where he was reported to be. There was no real challenge to be secretive here, since it was a bandit hideout. Kyssandra made short work of Alain and his buddies, and then headed towards Windhelm. The ruins looked like they went way back into the mountain. Kyssandra had no desire to spend all of her time taking out every bandit in here for the fun of it.
Next on the list was Nilsine Shatter Shield, from Windhelm. Something about this one just did not feel right to Kyssandra. When she got to Windhelm, the guard at the gate informed her folks were being cautioned on going into the city. There was a mysterious disease that they were calling CTD, that was happening to some people. Kyssandra decided it just was not worth it. This one was optional, and she just did not feel right about this one. It was the daughter of a family whose other daughter had just been killed by some serial killer. Nope, she decided that it was a sign from the nine, and headed up to Winterhold instead.
The main reason she wanted to stop by Winterhold, since she was this close, was to store some stuff from her pack, in her room. Gold, in itself, was heavy, and she almost had the 5000 for her 3rd semester now. She had picked up several things along the way, and the pack was getting rather heavy, so being that she was this close, she went to her room, and lightened her pack.
While in the dorm area, Kyssandra remembered J’zargo, and poked her head in his room.
“Hey,” she said, “just wanted to mention that your fire cloak scrolls worked well, good job!”
J’zargo looked confused. “They…did?”
“Yeah…” Now Kyssandra looked confused. “You…doubted them?”
“They did not explode? you are ok?”
Kyssandra thought back. “Well, they may have exploded, I don’t really remember. didn’t hurt if they did. They did the job and killed the undead that was attacking, thats all that matters, right?” she said cheerfully.
J’zargo looked perplexed. “Thank you for testing them for J’zargo,” He said, and turned away.
That was weird, Kyssandra thought. She had not really thought much about the scrolls, thinking they had worked well. But J’zargo’s reaction…coupled with his earlier comments of wanting to be the best in the class, and her being his only competition…had he rigged the scrolls to explode, hoping to take her out of the picture? interesting…
At any rate, she needed to head back to Markarth, and collect her payment for Alain’s contract. She was dreading the long trip, and suddenly remembered the portal room.
Kyssandra checked, and sure enough, there was a portal orb to Markarth. This one cost a greater soul gem to use, she assumed it was either the distance, or the size of the city. But she had acquired a couple of them, and decided it was such a long trip, and since she didn’t feel like riding that far, it would be worth expending one of them right now. She cast the spell, the air shimmered…and she suddenly found herself in Markarth.
She recognized immediately where she was, she was at the top of the city, above the temple of Dibella, near the highest guard tower.
She didn’t intend to stay long, she just wanted to collect her money and get out. Before going to Muiri, she found a city courier. She told the courier to go find Eltrys, and tell him to meet her in the shrine of Talos, and to tell him she had the information that he had requested. Then she headed to The Hag’s Cure.
Muiri met Kyssandra at the door, as she walked in. She was not pleased that Kyssandra had not killed Nilsine. She said she would remember that. Kyssandra really didn’t care at this point. She got her gold and headed out, to go meet Eltrys. Along the way, she remembered that the guy that had been sent to teach her a lesson, had told her Nepos the Nose had sent him. She decided to go by and pay a visit to Nepos, and see if she could find out anything else. If she had just a bit more information, maybe Eltrys would pay her a little more.
Nepos’ maid answered the door. She informed Kyssandra that Nepos was not available. When Kyssandra tried to press the issue, a voice came from inside the house, saying that it was ok, to let her in. Kyssandra was ushered through the fully staffed upper class house to Nepos, and elderly man sitting by the hearth, reading a book. He looked up at Kyssandra. “Well aren’t you the little bloodhound. you sniffed me out.”
Nepos then basically confessed to being behind most, if not all of the killings. He said he had been doing it for over 20 years. He was one of the forsworn, and had been working for Madanach, the king of the reach, or the forsworn, if you will. Madanach was inside the Cidhna mine, the prison that no one ever gets out of, but he was able to get messages in and out at will.
“So why are you telling me all of this now? so freely?” Kyssandra asked.
“My dear girl,” Nepos said, with a hint of a smile, “what makes you think you are getting out of here alive?”
Kyssandra looked around and saw the entire staff gathered in the room. She had about one second to react before the first one attacked her.
It was a long, drawn out fight. Unlike her usual fights, which were controlled and she methodically fought one or two, then regained magicka, this was an ambush, five on one. But she had managed to survive. Kyssandra sat on the edge of the table, looking around at the aftermath. The place was a mess. She had survived, barely.
She shrugged, hopped of the table, and proceeded to loot the place of anything valuable. May as well take what she could. They had attacked her, after all. One more stop, and she would head back to the sanctuary.
Kyssandra stepped into the shrine of Talos. She had all the information that Eltrys needed. Something did not seem right. There were more people in here than just Eltrys. As she exited the hall into the main room, she saw the guards. Two of them appeared from beside the doorway and grabbed her roughly by her arms. She then saw Eltrys, laying dead on the floor.
“Whats going on here?” she asked.
“What does it look like?” a guard said, “This guy is the latest forsworn murder, and we just caught you in the act!”
“Seriously?” Kyssandra struggled, but the guard’s hold was too tight. She couldn’t cast if she couldn’t get her hands free.
“We warned you, but you just wouldn’t stop nosing around,” the guard continued, “You’ve messed up a good thing we had going. So now, we are just going to pin all these recent murders on you. You got a problem? Take it up with Madanach.”
The cell door clicked shut. Kyssandra had been stripped of everything she had on her. “Welcome to the rest of your life,” a female orc guard laughed, as she slammed the gate and locked it.
Kyssandra wasted no time exploring her new “home”. She found the forsworn king, Madanach, and ‘persuaded’ her way around his bodyguard using her feminine wiles. Madanach, it seemed, actually had a plan of escaping the mine, with his fellow forsworn brethren. Was Kyssandra a friend, or foe, of the forsworn? Kyssandra told him she really did not care, she just wanted to escape. Madanach smugly told her, that if she wanted to prove herself to the forsworn, she would need to hear the stories of some of them. Kyssandra obliged, and after hearing the stories, she had to admit, they had been somewhat treated unfairly. She found herself actually sympathizing with them. Madanach then told her she would need to kill another prisoner named Grisvar. He acted like this would be a big thing. Apparently he did not know what Kyssandra’s main source of income at the moment was. She found Grisvar, looked around. Who needed these shiv things they kept talking about? There were pickaxes laying around everywhere, as the prisoners were supposed to be digging ore. She picked up the nearest one, and swung with all her might, embedding it in Grisvar’s head.
That was enough for Madanach, it seemed. He announced his escape plan to his fellow forsworn, and told Kyssandra she could come with them. She really did not have to do anything except follow. They had found a tunnel, that led to some ruins, and eventually out into the city. At the door to city, an agent on the outside waited with all of their possessions, including Kyssandra’s. She took her time gathering her things, and redressing. She calculated that she had been in an inescapable prison mine, where she had been sentenced for life, about 5 hours. heh. By the time she emerged into the city, fighting was everywhere. The escaped forsworn were fighting the guards, on their way out of the city. She did not fight, she just stood and watched.
And finally, all was quiet. The forsworn had exited the main gates, and all the guards were either dead, or in pursuit. In the eerie purple light of the aurora, and the silence, Kyssandra suddenly realized that she was the only living person out here in the streets.
She realized she would not have another opportunity like this. She wandered around freely, searching every single body for anything valuable. She even found Thonor’s body, took the key to the treasury house, and headed over there. The couple people working there were sound asleep in their rooms. Kyssandra helped herself to everything she could find. There were no guards at all, anywhere, tonight. Kyssandra took full advantage of this boon.
Eventually, she needed to sleep. It was around 3am. She made her way to the inn, but stopped short, just inside the door. The innkeeper’s son approached her. He pointed out some rough looking characters in a corner of the inn. “Those are some hired mercenaries, been asking about you, waiting for you to come back. I don’t think they want to reward you. There’s been a lot of fighting and destruction tonight. Please spare our inn of being ransacked.” Kyssandra thought for only a moment and obliged. She had no beef with the keepers of this inn.
Back out in the street, Kyssandra wondered where she could go? She was starting to get really sleepy. She thought of several places that she had “acquired” the keys to, but each had some drawback, or was not entirely empty. Then she remembered the temple of Dibella. Perhaps they would let her stay there and take a nap.
At first, Sister Senna would not let her go past the main room of the temple. But after Kyssandra gave her the donations that she had collected the other night, Senna folded.
“I suppose you have at least earned the right to hide…er…I mean sleep here for a night,” Senna said somewhat reluctantly. “Just…be tactful. The mother will probably not be pleased that an outsider has been allowed in.”
Just as she had predicted, the head mother, or whatever they called her, was not pleased. But, she decided Kyssandra could stay, if she would perform a task for them. It seemed that the temple of Dibella had what they called a Sybil, a young girl, that was brought up from an early age, to be either worshiped, or the next head mistress, or… Kyssandra really didn’t understand, nor did she care. She just wanted to sleep. She halfway listened, agreed to what sounded like to her to be a plot to kidnap some kid. As soon as they were happy with her answer, she went and found a bed and fell into it.
Kyssandra awoke early the next morning. She really had not had enough sleep, but the sisters in the temple were bustling about, and she felt that she was overstaying her short welcome. Time to head back to Falkreath. She made her way through the city, down to the carriages, just outside the gates.
By the nines, there were those hired thug guys, standing right beside the carriages keeping watch. Only this time they saw her. “There she is!”, one of them shouted, and the whole lot of them turned and came after her, steel drawn. After that last ambush at Nepos’ house, she wasn’t sure she could take these guys on, especially since there were people out on the streets now. Kyssandra ducked back into the gates, knowing the thugs would follow. She ran blindly for a few moments, heading back to the temple of Dibella, the only place of safety she could think of. Along the way, she suddenly remembered how she got here yesterday. She kept running up to the very top of the city, to the secret location of the teleport back to Winterhold. She knew she had a couple greater soul gems. With the thugs still in pursuit, she figured this would be another good use of one.
The air shimmered, and she was back in Winterhold. She did a quick check, and there was a portal orb to Falkreath, and it only needed a common soul gem. She was beginning to like this.
First, she decided to go see ol’ whats his name, the tuition guy. With what she had made from Markarth, and what she had stashed in her strongbox in her room, she now had a little over 5000 gold for the next semester’s tuition, if she was eligible.
Jordan Morham just looked at her and laughed.
“You only have about half of what you need,” he said. “Tuition for the third semester is 10,000 gold.”
“Seriously?!!” Kyssandra fumed and stormed off. There was really nothing she could do. She put her 5000 gold back in her room, and went to Falkreath, via the portal room, to see if she could get some more contracts from the brotherhood.
The Falkreath portal was very scenic, located behind a mill pond. She actually was rather enjoying finding these hidden portals.
She didn’t linger, she headed straight for the Sanctuary, not far away. Inside, Astrid waited. Kyssandra braced herself, preparing for a lecture on how to be professional. Astrid simply asked her how it went. Kyssandra remained silent, and Astrid accepted that, saying that it was her discretion if she wanted to reveal details about the jobs she did. Kyssandra was not sure if that was actually true, or if Astrid simply had not heard anything about what all happened in Markarth yet.
Kyssandra asked if there were any new contracts, and Astrid said that there were, she could talk to Nazir, but first she had a more pressing matter.
“Remember that little jester Cicero?” she asked, “He is definitely up to something. He has taken the Night Mother’s coffin into the shrine room, and he frequently goes in there. locks the door, and secretly meets with someone. We don’t know who, but we can here him talking. I need you to find out who he is meeting with.”
“ok…I can do that I guess,” Kyssandra said. “Any ideas on how?”
“Glad you asked,” Astrid replied. “You’ll have to get in there first, before he gets in there and hide, and then just wait for him.”
“That room is empty though…” Kyssandra pursed her lips as she thought out loud. “There’s nowhere in there to hide, except…”
Astrid nodded.
“NO” Kyssandra said shaking her head emphatically.
“Yes,” Astrid said sternly.
“SERIOUSLY???!!!” Kyssandra said for the third time in three days
“Yes,” its the only way. Go get in the Night Mother’s coffin, and hide in there until Cicero comes in, and see which of the other brotherhood that he is meeting with."
"you want me to… with the… with her in there?! the dead woman? " Kyssandra couldn’t even form a complete sentence she was so shaken at the thought of this hairbrained scheme.
“Yes. No go! Hurry, he will be going in there soon! This is an order!”
Kyssandra went to the shrine room. She questioned whether the dark brotherhood was really really worth it. She opened up the upright standing casket. Kyssandra cringed. Yup, sure enough, there was a shriveled up old dead woman in it…
She could hear Cicero coming down the hall.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this…”
Kyssandra took a deep breath and stepped into the casket and closed the doors.
Wait, was it her imagination, or did those doors close a bit too easily? Did she close them, or did they close on their own? She started to try one, but heard Cicero come into the room.
It wasn’t long before he started talking. She strained, but she could not hear who he was talking to. He was prattling on and on, about some nonsense, but no one was actually talking back, that Kyssandra could here. Eventually, as she listened more closely to what he was saying, she realized that he was talking to the Night Mother herself, he was talking to the coffin.
“He cannot hear me, because he is not the listener,” the voice came from just beside Kyssandra’s head, from INSIDE THE COFFIN.
“GAAAAHHHHH!!!” Kyssandra squealed, as the body beside her began to glow.
“He cannot hear you either, at the moment, this coffin is protected by my magic,” the Night Mother said.
Kyssandra was beating on the door, trying desperately to get it to open, to get out of the cramped quarters.
She could hear Cicero outside, still talking, “ooooooh, did we see a movement? Night mother, are you finally awake?”
“He cannot hear us,” she said again, “he is not the listener. You are my new listener.”
“Wait- what?” Kyssandra stopped beating the door for a second, not sure she had heard that right.
“You. You have come in to warm the bones of this old woman, and I chose you as my new listener. You are the one!”
“No- wait- I-”
“Travel to Volunruud,” The Night Mother continued. “Find Amaund Mortierre. Speak to him.”
“But…”
“Tell Cicero that darkness rises when silence dies. Go!”
Suddenly the doors released, and Kyssandra fell out of the coffin, almost knocking Cicero over as she ran into him.
“Gah!!!” It was Cicero’s turn to squeal in horror. “What have you done?!! You have defiled the Night Mother!! What were you doing in there?!!”
Astrid burst into the room. “Who was he talking to?!”
Kyssandra just tried to get away from the coffin. “Her!” She pointed at the now non-glowing corpse. “He was talking to her.”
Astrid looked at Cicero and smirked, then back at Kyssandra. “Ok, so he IS crazy then. But you, pull yourself together. it couldn’t have been that bad. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“SHE TALKED TO ME!” Kyssandra yelled, still shaken. “The dead body just talked to me, while I was in there with her!”
Both Astrid and Cicero stared at Kyssandra in disbelief, then immediately started shaking their heads, smirking at HER, now.
“She told me to tell you, ‘darkness rises when silence dies’, or something like that,” Kyssandra said to Cicero.
“What!!!” Cicero looked at Astrid. “Thats the code phrase! The secret phrase, that only I know! The one that signifies the listener! There is no way she could have known that! She is the one!! We have a listener!!!” Cicero started doing one of his patented stupid little jigs.
Kyssandra looked at Astrid. “So what do I do now?” she asked. “She told me to go to Volunruud. Do you know where that is?”
Astrid looked peeved. “I’m still leader of this family… I know where it is, but… let me process this a bit. Just go find Nazir, and see what contracts he has for you.”
Kyssandra gladly exited the room.