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<\/p>\nSayma sighed, ran her hands through her hair, and plopped down into a chair next to the fire.\u00a0 Finally, it was finished. Everything was in the house, if not unpacked.\u00a0 At least she knew where to find it all.\u00a0 It had been a very long day and she was exhausted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She looked over at the slight figure coming up the stairs and smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Babette.\u00a0 I really appreciate it. \u00a0Moving house is never easy. \u00a0I\u2019m a bit embarrassed by the amount of clutter I managed to accumulate in the Sanctuary in such a short time.\u00a0 You have the new girl coming tomorrow morning, yes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, she\u2019ll be here as arranged.\u00a0 She\u2019s quite docile.\u00a0 I assure you she\u2019ll do whatever I ask her to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch great lengths you\u2019ll go to, Babette, making a thrall of her,\u201d came the voice from behind her, as the dark-haired Imperial man followed her up the stairs.\u00a0 \u201cYou might have just as easily hired some young woman from Solitude.\u00a0 There\u2019s always someone looking for work.\u00a0 I would have been happy to assist.\u00a0 I\u2019m fairly persuasive,\u201d he added, grinning.<\/p>\n
Sayma chuckled. \u201cYes, Andante, so you keep telling us. But the last thing I need is some lovely young thing swooning loudly every time you come to town.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s not easy for you but it\u2019s important to at least attempt to blend in.\u00a0 It\u2019s bad enough that you won\u2019t wear your shrouded armor, you won\u2019t wear your Thieves Guild armor\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
He smiled at her.\u00a0 \u201cNo, I won\u2019t.\u00a0 I have it on good authority that I look good in blue.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry about me; I can go unseen when I need to go unseen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know you can.\u201d\u00a0 Irritating man. The worst thing about his bragging was that it wasn\u2019t bragging.\u00a0 Everything he claimed about himself was absolutely true.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t quite sure how he did that.\u00a0 It reminded her altogether too much of\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you have to admit it, Listener.\u00a0 Everyone who is anyone knows the Thieves Guild armor when they see it.\u00a0 Particularly the variety I have, the nasty brown armor.\u00a0 Maybe they wouldn\u2019t recognize Brynjolf in his \u2013 excuse me, I mean the Guildmaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sayma frowned. \u201cYes, I know who you mean, and I\u2019m familiar with the black armor.\u00a0 And yet you have a point, as much as I hate to admit it.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to rethink ours.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never liked it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babette smiled.\u00a0 \u201cYou look better in black anyway, Listener.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andante nodded.\u00a0 \u201cThe current armor is absurd. Red and black.\u00a0 It\u2019s garish and even more recognizable than the Guild\u2019s armor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sayma nodded at him.\u00a0 As usual, he was perceptive and had a good point.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get on that first thing in the morning.\u00a0 Maybe we all should be in all black, not just me.<\/em><\/p>\n Babette snorted.\u00a0 \u201cAt any rate, we have the new girl arriving in the morning.\u00a0 She\u2019ll\u2026 do whatever I ask her to do, as our brother Andante suggested. You\u2019ll have her here for as long as you need, which will let you come to the Sanctuary as much as you like.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, yes,\u201d Andante murmured, reaching for one of the sweet rolls Sayma had placed on the table with his massive sweet tooth specifically in mind. \u00a0\u201cNobody wants to miss a moment with Cicero, I\u2019m sure.\u00a0 Tell me again why you kept him alive?\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma rolled her eyes. As far as anyone knew Andante had no prior experience as either a thief or an assassin and yet he was utterly brilliant at both jobs.\u00a0 It was the reason people put up with him at all.\u00a0 Still, there were times when she just wanted to throttle him.\u00a0 He was as bad as\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been over this, Andante.\u00a0 He may be a little unsettled but he\u2019s one of the best in the world and he knows more than most of the rest of us put together. \u00a0If you can get it out of him in a form that makes sense, anyway.\u201d Yes, I had an opportunity to kill Cicero.\u00a0 You might have thought I would have enjoyed doing that.\u00a0 But I read the journals he left behind in the old Sanctuary and\u2026 I felt sorry for him.<\/em> \u00a0\u201cBesides, he takes care of that wretched corpse.\u201d<\/p>\n Andante raised his eyebrow. \u201cWretched, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n She snorted.\u00a0 \u201cYou heard me.\u00a0 Wretched.\u00a0 I\u2019m honored that she speaks to me but she\u2019s\u2026 a corpse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I\u2019m a 300 year old vampire.\u00a0 Your point would be?\u201d Babette said sweetly.<\/p>\n \u201cI know, I know.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry. I\u2019m just tired.\u201d Sayma smiled at the two of them.\u00a0 \u201cThank you for helping me move in.\u00a0 It\u2019s a miserable job, I know, and I needed Nazir to stay behind with the recruits.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s doing well, finding them,\u201d Babette observed.\u00a0 \u201cThe new ones are, well, new.\u00a0 Still, they show a lot of potential.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI understand there are still some of the old guard running around out there,\u201d Andante said, nibbling on the sweet roll.<\/p>\n Sayma frowned. Yes, there had been a few of them, operatives away in Solstheim and Falskaar and across the border in Cyrodiil, and they had escaped the flames as well as Nazir\u2019s attempts to round them up.\u00a0 They were still doing whatever it was that Astrid had last given them to do, refusing to recognize her authority as Listener or Nazir\u2019s as the ranking remaining member of the Brotherhood.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, not as many as there were before, as it happens.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had reports of two of them being found along the road between Ivarstead and Riften just recently.\u00a0 Neither one of them was someone I sent out, so they must have been Astrid\u2019s. I\u2019ll find out eventually.\u00a0 The other interesting thing is that one of them was\u2026 missing pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cReally.\u201d Andante\u2019s eyebrows rose.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s intriguing.\u00a0 What pieces?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAndante,\u201d Babette tsk’d. \u201cMust everything be about\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head. \u201cI\u2019m serious.\u201d He looked at her and grinned. \u201cI can<\/em> be serious, on occasion, Babette.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma yawned and stretched.\u00a0 It had been this way ever since she had gone to meet him at the inn on Nazir\u2019s recommendation.\u00a0 He was incorrigible and nothing anyone did seemed capable of changing him. As far as she knew, Brynjolf probably had just as much trouble keeping him under control as she did.\u00a0 It always felt odd, knowing that Andante worked for both of them and she was the only one who knew the full implications of that.\u00a0 She liked him, at any rate, as wild a card as he was. And he seemed to respect her.\u00a0 Nazir had whispered to her one day, \u201cAs far as I can tell, you\u2019re just about the only adult thing on two legs that he hasn\u2019t tried to sleep with. \u00a0Aside from Cicero. \u00a0Consider that the highest good fortune.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 She\u2019d not followed up on\u00a0 how he knew this to be the case.<\/p>\n I\u2019m exhausted. I need to get these two out of here soon.<\/em> \u201cA thumb, if you must know.\u00a0 He was missing a thumb. And a great deal of blood.\u00a0 His throat was cut.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy. \u00a0A thumb.\u00a0 Harsh.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u00a0 It almost sounded like the man was tortured. Briefly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHmm. Interesting.\u00a0 We were just talking about needing to keep those skills up, the other day.\u00a0 Our esteemed Guildmaster had a group of us at his house.\u00a0 My house. \u00a0THE house. I don\u2019t know, I always think of it as his house even though I\u2019m the one who lives there. At any rate.\u00a0 Shall I tell Delvin that you\u2019re working on the issue? And to send his men to start building the\u2026 playroom?\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYes, do.\u00a0 I\u2019ll, um, set the wheels rolling at this end, and as soon as I hear something I\u2019ll have you get it to him. If that\u2019s alright with you.\u201d<\/p>\n Andante bowed. \u201cYou\u2019re the Listener. I\u2019m here to do your bidding.\u201d<\/p>\n Babette sniffed. \u201cYou know, that act with the bow might have fit in nicely when I was a child.\u00a0 Originally.\u00a0 But I know you\u2019re not as old as I am.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you?\u201d he winked.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I do.\u00a0 You\u2019re twenty-eight if you\u2019re a day, within a year or two, and not a bit older regardless of anything else.\u00a0 Now get going, foolish man.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll talk the next time you\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n Andante smiled at Sayma.\u00a0 \u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u00a0 Shoo yourself back to Riften.\u00a0 I\u2019ll try to have something for you the next time you\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded and swept out the door, as he always did.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be going, as well,\u201d Babette said, in the sweet little-girl tones that would never change no matter how many centuries she lived.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t worry.\u00a0 This was a good decision.\u00a0 I don\u2019t blame you for wanting to move.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThanks, Babette,\u201d Sayma said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll come get him in a bit. I need a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Once she had the house to herself, Sayma went to the shelf and got herself a bottle of mead, then stepped out into the frigid air of Dawnstar to look around.\u00a0 This was a good choice.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t fancy, but it would do. It was close to the Sanctuary, but far enough away to lend a semblance of normalcy to her life. There was a stable for Shadowmere, a goat in the back yard, and smithing equipment.\u00a0 In the event that I ever again have a nice big Nord to smith in my home with his shirt off.<\/em><\/p>\n Her face fell.<\/p>\n I miss him. <\/em><\/p>\n It was exciting, being the Listener, but there was a huge hole in her life, one she had put there on her own. It left her with a gnawing ache that wouldn\u2019t go away, and she was constantly reminded of it these days. Today it had been particularly bad.\u00a0 But she had nobody to blame but herself.<\/p>\n She wanted that normalcy. But how could you pretend to be normal when you were an assassin and actually enjoyed killing people?\u00a0 The best she could hope for was this act, this veneer, going forward, so that things wouldn\u2019t get even worse.<\/p>\n She reentered the house and sat by the fire.\u00a0 It had been a long time since she\u2019d been there, but she could see every detail of the house in Riften in her mind. \u00a0And she could remember the sound of every breath he had taken, lying there in their bed, as she\u2019d gotten ready to leave.<\/p>\n His house, indeed.<\/em><\/p>\n My house<\/em>.<\/p>\n Our house<\/em>.<\/p>\n I miss him so very much.<\/em><\/p>\n Sayma sighed, ran her hands through her hair, and plopped down into a chair next to the fire.\u00a0 Finally, it was finished. Everything was in the house, if not unpacked.\u00a0 At least she knew where to find it all.\u00a0 It had been a very long day and she was exhausted. 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<\/p>\nPart II: Duality<\/a><\/div>\nPrevious<\/a> \/ Next<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"