\u201cYes, but I\u2019m not the one who\u2019s been complaining about her ever since we met her. I think she\u2019s starting to grow on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s not my type, Brynjolf. Don\u2019t give me a hard time,\u201d Andante said, laughing, leaning down to rifle through the headless Dawnguard\u2019s pockets. He pulled out a note, fine parchment that had once had an official-looking red wax seal, and stood to read it.\u00a0 Any semblance of humor he had been harboring fled.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/3-2-5-1.png\")
<\/p>\n
He scanned the thing, then looked at Brynjolf and grimaced.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess we can expect more of this. \u2018By order of the Dawnguard, the Imperial Andante is hereby condemned to death for the crime of vampirism. By our authority and with the Jarl\u2019s implicit consent, the bearer of this writ is hereby commissioned to exact justice upon the condemned wheresoever he may run.\u2019\u00a0 Well.\u00a0 They\u2019ll have to catch me first, and I can move very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brynjolf frowned. \u201cWhich Jarl? Not Maven.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes she know about you, loverboy? I mean, about those luscious fangs of yours?\u201d<\/p>\n
He heard Serana make a disgusted noise behind him, and grinned.<\/p>\n
Brynjolf shook his head. \u201cUm\u2026 no.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell then. The Jarl of the Rift is the nearest to Fort Dawnguard. It would make perfect sense for her to go along with this for the sake of appearances, and to keep the Dawnguard busy and out of her hair. And she doesn\u2019t know me at all. She may have seen me come and go from Honeyside but she\u2019s never really spoken to me and I\u2019d be willing to bet she doesn\u2019t know my name.\u201d<\/p>\n
Serana came up beside them, dusting herself off.\u00a0 \u201cIt won\u2019t matter which Jarl, if they manage to catch us.\u00a0 We really need to move along.\u00a0 We can talk about it on the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
And they did.\u00a0 They stopped at Mammoth Manor, rousing a yawning Roggi long enough to drop the Elder Scrolls off there. \u201cThey\u2019ll be safer here with you two,\u201d Brynjolf told him. \u201cNobody will expect them to be here, at least the two that aren\u2019t already Dardeh\u2019s.\u00a0 They\u2019ll be looking for them with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the damned things weigh too much to be carrying up into the mountains. I\u2019m sure Dardeh would agree, and he only had one of them,\u201d Andante grumbled.<\/p>\n
Roggi had agreed, and had shared a couple of careful glances with Andante while they carried the Scrolls inside and stowed them in a closed bookcase just outside his and Dardeh\u2019s bedroom.\u00a0 Yes, Roggi. I\u2019ve spoken to Delvin. Nothing\u2019s happening yet.<\/em> They didn\u2019t speak of it, but Andante had nodded, and was fairly certain that the message got across.\u00a0 He dropped the Dawnguard writ into the fireplace and watched it burn before they left and continued their run toward Markarth.<\/p>\n They were south of Old Hroldan, nearing the lake that served as headwaters of the river there in the Reach, when Andante held up a hand to stop the others. The road here ran between high banks on one side and steep rocks on the other, and before them a solitary figure was walking at a leisurely pace.\u00a0 Andante peered at him and saw that his skin was an odd, red hue.<\/p>\n \u201cAfflicted?\u201d Brynjolf whispered.<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get him.\u00a0 I\u2019m starting to get really hungry and it\u2019s going to be a problem really soon if I don\u2019t do something about it.\u00a0 Wait here.\u201d<\/p>\n He crept up behind the man, silently, and sank his fangs into his neck, draining him dry.\u00a0 As he dropped the body to the ground, he stood staring at it and suddenly felt the world swirling around him.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve done this before.<\/em><\/p>\n It was darker that day. It was darker, and his own clothing was darker, and it had been a different man, but the man had been one of the Afflicted.\u00a0 And he had stepped up to him, and he had\u2026<\/p>\n Andante looked around him. Yes, it was nearly the same spot.\u00a0 He had taken his sword. A wicked, black Bosmer shortblade.\u00a0 And he had swung it and opened the man\u2019s throat and had dropped him, right here, right in this spot.<\/p>\n Andante\u2019s head started to pound.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t take his blood. I wasn\u2019t a vampire. I was just\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cLad? Are you alright?\u201d<\/p>\n Andante wanted to answer but couldn\u2019t quite shake himself free of the overwhelming d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu he was experiencing.\u00a0 He heard Serana trot up beside him.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you going to move that body, Andante? Or are you going to just stand there ogling it?\u201d<\/p>\n Andante\u2019s mouth fell open just a bit.\u00a0 He raised his head and stared at Serana.<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t a vampire. I was just an assassin. And I was running down this road, in this spot, when another of the Afflicted got in my way.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2026 don\u2019t\u2026 ogle, Serana.\u201d\u00a0 He looked back at the body and shook himself into motion.\u00a0 \u201cBut yes, I will get this body off the road.\u201d<\/p>\n He took one arm, and Brynjolf, staring at him with a puzzled expression, took the other.\u00a0 They dragged the body down the road and to the left, down to the water\u2019s edge, and Andante washed his hands, remembering the revulsion he had felt cleaning off that black shortsword.<\/p>\n He rose slowly, and cleared his throat.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u00a0 We need to either make Markarth or find a cave somewhere. It\u2019s too hot out here.\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf squinted up at the sky, shielding his eyes even under his heavy black hood.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d be in favor of that.\u201d<\/p>\n They made for a cave Andante knew of, one he\u2019d hidden in while he was trying to recover himself all that time before.\u00a0 Once it had been filled with draugr, and had been a dangerous place.\u00a0 But he had cleared it out, long since, and it would serve as a decent resting place to spend a couple of hours in the heat of the day.<\/p>\n They each found a spot to rest. Brynjolf leaned back against one of the old sarcophagi and fell asleep almost immediately; Serana followed suit not much later. But Andante stared into the darkness, unable to rest.\u00a0 He reached deep into a pocket, running his fingers over a bottle of skooma, wondering if he should take advantage of this moment and decided that it would only make matters worse.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true. It must be. I was an assassin, before I ever met Nazir, or Babette, or Sayma.\u00a0 I had dark armor. And dark swords.\u00a0 And I was here, and I killed that man on the road, in that same spot. And I needed the skooma then. I didn\u2019t just want it as a diversion, I needed it to keep going.<\/em><\/p>\n He closed his eyes and felt a coldness rising from deep within him, his hands twitching as they remembered things they hadn\u2019t done for a very long time, his muscles remembering a different set of dance steps than the ones they\u2019d been performing since he\u2019d known Brynjolf.\u00a0 He knew, somehow, that the next time he needed to take out an enemy it would feel different, that he would move differently, and that it would be easier for him to do what he needed to do.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve done this for a long, long time, haven\u2019t I.\u00a0 A very long time. I can feel it. I can almost see it. But not quite.\u00a0 I can see my body, in the black armor. I can remember what it felt like to wear it. Light, supple, easy to move in. Silent.\u00a0 But I can\u2019t see my face.<\/em><\/p>\n He suddenly remembered the Keeper, the first one he had encountered in the Soul Cairn, the one that had startled him so badly with its blue eyes shining out from a bottomless, unfathomable mass of undulating black mist. A shudder rippled out from his core.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t see my face when I\u2019m in that black armor.\u00a0 I can\u2019t see. I can\u2019t see.<\/em><\/p>\n He opened his eyes and searched through the darkness for Brynjolf, remembering how his vision had gone white after reading the Elder Scrolls, how Brynjolf had held him for those few moments of sheer terror. He\u2019d felt comforted, and safe, and cared for in spite of being terrified; and a part of him longed to wake Brynjolf, to wrap himself around the man again, to take comfort from him once more.<\/p>\n I still can\u2019t see, Bryn.\u00a0 Do I want to see? If I remember who I am, really remember all of it, will I be different? Will you still want me? Will I be gone \u2013 Andante, the one who has been with you since that night in Honeyside?<\/em><\/p>\n Who did this to me? Who do I need to kill for doing this to me?<\/em><\/p>\n Who am I, really?<\/em><\/p>\n He closed his eyes again, and tried, in vain, to sleep.<\/p>\n —-<\/p>\n Andante frowned, watching Brynjolf sharpening his wicked sword and reinforcing his shield.\u00a0 Brynjolf was a decent smith, said he had been working for the past couple of years or so to build up what were fairly low-level skills, but done well.\u00a0 He himself was better, far better, and he would happily have done the work for Brynjolf, but his offer had been declined.\u00a0 \u201cI need the practice,\u201d Brynjolf had told him. Serana had gone to find the Hag\u2019s Cure, the apothecary in Markarth, and Andante was left waiting.<\/p>\n He paced back and forth, thinking about the shortblades he\u2019d seen in his memory.\u00a0 Ghorza gra-Bagol, the blacksmith, didn\u2019t have anything like them for sale. His mind chewed at the idea of them; his axe was a fantastic weapon, but he felt an almost visceral need to have those lightweight, deadly blades in his hands again, to see whether they really were as fine as he remembered.\u00a0 All he needed, to make them, was ebony. And Ghorza had no ebony for sale, either.\u00a0 Steel or Orcish weapons she could supply in abundance, but not ebony.<\/p>\n He waited, impatiently, until Brynjolf was done with his work, and then insisted that they go to the palace.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat for, lad? I thought we needed to get to this cave.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, we do,\u201d Andante said, frowning, \u201cbut I need to see if the Jarl\u2019s smith has any ebony. No, really,\u201d he held up his hand, interrupting Brynjolf as he was about to object. \u201cI just need to, Bryn.\u00a0 Humor me.\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf had frowned, and pulled his hood back up over his head. \u201cIf you say so.\u00a0 You seem awfully on edge, Andante. Should we do something else? Get a room here and relax?\u201d<\/p>\n Andante chuckled. \u201cThat does sound lovely, but no. I\u2019m going to go up and see the other smith. Meet me up there when you\u2019re ready.\u201d\u00a0 He started climbing the steps through Markarth\u2019s various levels, not waiting to find out whether Brynjolf was with him or not.<\/p>\n I need something else. If I can\u2019t have those, maybe a greatsword. An ebony greatsword. Maybe that would work. I don\u2019t know.<\/em><\/p>\n He nodded to the guards outside the doors of Understone Keep as he passed through.<\/p>\n Why on earth does this matter?\u00a0 <\/em>He thought about it as he walked deeper into the castle; he glanced to the left, down toward the excavation of the great Dwemer city that lay beneath what was once Markarth.\u00a0 The city\u2019s mage was bent over his enchanting table, as usual, lost in his work.\u00a0 He sighed.\u00a0 It matters because I\u2019m not who I thought I was. I don\u2019t know who I thought I was, exactly \u2013 whoever Andante is – \u00a0but I\u2019m different. I\u2019m something new. I need something else. Maybe Moth will have something.<\/em><\/p>\n Moth gro-Bagol, Ghorza\u2019s brother, had his smithy just ahead, up some steps, and to the right.\u00a0 Andante had been here before, had done business with Moth on a number of occasions while in town on various Thieves Guild assignments, and thus headed for the staircases without slowing. As he started up them, though, a loud argument stopped him in his tracks.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd just when do you suppose you will ever manage to complete this assignment?\u201d the Altmer said, angrily.<\/p>\n Andante instinctively ducked behind one of the large planters that served as railings of sorts along the edge of the upper platform.\u00a0 He leaned to his left, and saw the person who had just spoken: a tall, stately Altmer in Thalmor Justiciar robes. His eyes went wide.<\/p>\n \u201cDamn it to Oblivion, Ondolemar, I don\u2019t know where the man went.\u00a0 It\u2019s not my fault that your idiot interrogators let him slip out.\u201d<\/p>\n Andante had to fight not to gasp.\u00a0 Once more he felt the tingling of shock running through his body, his heart beginning to pound, a band tightening around his temples as memories started pouring into the spaces that had been dark just a moment before.<\/p>\n Ondolemar. <\/em>He slipped back down the steps, just a bit, and pulled his hood up over his head, hiding his face as much as he could.<\/p>\n The man who had just spoken was an older man: balding, graying, but vicious-looking, dressed in heavy armor and a thick fur cloak.\u00a0 His arms were crossed and he was pointedly staring away from the Thalmor, frowning angrily.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s just one man, and when he escaped he\u2019d been beaten and tortured. Just an ordinary assassin, not a Daedric prince. How hard could it possibly be to locate him?\u00a0 It\u2019s been years now, Haran, and I\u2019ve been paying you all this time. I expected more of you!\u201d<\/p>\n Haran, the bounty hunter, turned and glared at Ondolemar.\u00a0 \u201cWell then perhaps you should have been searching for him yourself, milord<\/em>. Vitus Perdeti was good enough to get close enough to you, and he almost got you. Not a single soul knows what he looked like aside from you and your goons and thanks to your short temper they\u2019re gone. If you think a man like that is going to be easy to find again, well, maybe you should have been the one puttin\u2019 in the legwork all this time.\u201d His voice dropped.\u00a0 \u201cWord on the street is that you even had some of his gear stolen right out from under your noses.\u00a0 Pretty fancy work on your team\u2019s part if some ordinary thief could grab that mask.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s not even a thief, Andante thought numbly.\u00a0 He\u2019s a former interrogator himself, but he\u2019s not a thief.<\/p>\n \u201cEnough of your pitiful excuses!\u201d the Altmer sneered.\u00a0 \u201cThe Thalmor Ambassador herself is expecting us to deliver and she is getting impatient.\u00a0 Find Perdeti. I don\u2019t care what it takes.\u00a0 Now get back to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Ondolemar swept around the corner and up a flight of stairs. Haran the bounty hunter stood and sneered, and headed across the platform toward the keep\u2019s kitchens.\u00a0 Andante rose, slowly, and fought to control the trembling that had threatened to take over his limbs.<\/p>\n He stood there for a few moments, until the sound of footsteps behind him made him turn. Brynjolf was staring at him, perplexed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was that all about, lad? Why are you standing here on the stairs?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2026 uh\u2026\u201d\u00a0 I can\u2019t believe it.<\/em> \u201cI don\u2019t like Thalmor,\u201d he said, seizing on the first idea that popped into his head, and pointing up in the direction Ondolemar had gone. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to take any chances, so I hid myself. What if they\u2019re working with the Dawnguard?\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf nodded, slowly. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have thought about that. Good call. Let\u2019s go do this business of yours and get under way.\u201d<\/p>\n Andante walked slowly up the rest of the stairs and around the corner into the smithy.\u00a0 He smiled, and greeted Moth.\u00a0 Moth didn\u2019t have any ebony, either, and neither did he have any shortblades.\u00a0 He did, however, have a truly interesting eleven greatsword, of a make Andante had never seen before.\u00a0 He bought that, and some moonstone ingots with which to improve it, and took a seat at Moth\u2019s grindstone to work at it.\u00a0 It would feel good to try a different weapon.<\/p>\n I \u2026 tried to kill that Altmer.\u00a0 A Thalmor Justiciar.\u00a0 Ondolemar.<\/em>\u00a0 He furrowed his brow, trying to remember, and slowly the vision of a room erupting in flames came to him.\u00a0 They took me. And they took my armor. My black armor. And the mask, the one that\u2019s in Riften, the one that Roggi stole right out from under their noses. And after that\u2026 I don\u2019t remember.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really remember what happened before that, either.\u00a0 But I remember Ondolemar.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n He stood, and thanked Moth, and smiled at Brynjolf, and made for the door so that they could go collect Serana and be on their way.\u00a0 As they reached the bottom of the steps, he grabbed Brynjolf and pulled him into a dark corner, and reached for him, and kissed him hard, and for a long time, until they both were a bit short of breath by the time they pulled apart from each other.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was that all about?\u201d Brynjolf was clearly puzzled, but his hands traced down Andante\u2019s back nonetheless. \u201cWe can\u2019t very well go at it right here. Although I can\u2019t say I\u2019d mind trying to get away with it, after that.\u201d<\/p>\n He shrugged, and tried to smile. \u00a0\u201cIt had been awhile.\u00a0 I just wanted to remind myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In case I forget.<\/em><\/p>\n And they left the Keep.\u00a0 Andante felt numb.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n They left Markarth and headed along the road that ran north, looking for the place where a small stream came in from the northwest.\u00a0 Darkfall Cave, according to the map the Scrolls had imprinted in Andante\u2019s mind, was up in that stream\u2019s valley, and he would recognize it when he saw it.\u00a0 He was certain of it.<\/p>\n He was certain of that; and he was certain as well, now, that the reason he\u2019d flipped the masked hood onto his head that night talking to Roggi, without even thinking about it, was that he\u2019d been doing that very thing for years before.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t remember those years, not yet; he couldn\u2019t remember everything that they held, or where exactly he might have come from, or who he might have been working for, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he had been taken down in a wall of flame during a botched attempt to kill Ondolemar. And he remembered the beginning of it: the beatings, the starvation, the sets of cruel implements laid out in neat rows for use on him or on the other prisoners kept alongside him.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t remember what happened, but I do remember that. We weren\u2019t much better than Harkon\u2019s cattle.\u00a0 Actually, we weren\u2019t as good as Harkon\u2019s cattle. They are better fed than we were.<\/em><\/p>\n The memories faded, and blurred, until they disappeared entirely.\u00a0 There was a gap; how long a gap, he didn\u2019t know, but the memories began again on a hillside, in rags, starving, thin, and trembling with fear. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Ondolemar did this to me. The Thalmor did this to me.\u00a0 No wonder I hate them so much.\u00a0 No wonder I almost left Brynjolf to fight them on his own, at Northwatch.\u00a0 They did this to me. They stole my life.<\/em><\/p>\n The stream in question had steep banks to each side, and not much more than animal trails along either of those banks.\u00a0 The three of them had to take out two angry bears, as they headed northwest from the road, and were listening to a group of wolves howling and snarling not far away when he heard them. Serana did, too; she froze, and held a finger up to her lips, then shrank into the cover of a sizeable juniper tree.<\/p>\n \u201cI swear I saw them headin\u2019 this way, boss, three of \u2018em,\u201d a faint voice drifted toward them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re only looking for one guy, you idiot,\u201d another one snarled, closer this time.<\/p>\n There was a pause, but Andante thought he heard the clinking of weapons against armor, a sound that drew closer by the moment.\u00a0 He drew his new sword and stepped back into the shadow of the nearby hillside, crouched, and waited.\u00a0 Brynjolf stepped in behind him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking for one guy in particular,\u201d Haran\u2019s voice floated up toward them. \u201cWe don\u2019t know who he might be travelling with these days. It\u2019s been a couple of years, after all.\u00a0 He probably has a whole new setup now.\u201d<\/p>\n As Andante knelt, ready to move at the slightest need, he saw the three figures stop near the mouth of the stream they were following.\u00a0 They stood at the ridgeline, silent, peering down into the valley, for what felt to Andante like a lifetime.<\/p>\n \u201cNah,\u201d Haran said, shaking his head.\u00a0 \u201cThey didn\u2019t go that way.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing down there but bears and vampires.\u00a0 I\u2019m betting on Solitude.\u00a0 He\u2019s a greedy bastard and that\u2019s where the money is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the skooma, according to what I\u2019ve heard,\u201d one of the other voices added.<\/p>\n The three men laughed, turned, and went on their way.<\/p>\n Andante waited a long time, still frozen in place, until he was certain that he could safely sheathe his sword without being heard.\u00a0 He did so, and straightened, staring back at the spot where the bounty hunters who were looking for Vitus Perdeti had been. A cold anger, at once unfamiliar and yet something he recognized, bubbled up from somewhere inside him, and he snarled, silently.<\/p>\n My name is Vitus Perdeti. But I\u2019m not the same man you were looking for. I\u2019m a Vampire lord.\u00a0 I\u2019m immortal. And I\u2019m soon to be the Lord of Volkihar Castle.\u00a0 And you will never take me.\u00a0 Never. And for what you did to me, I will have my revenge.<\/em><\/p>\n He turned and nearly ran into Brynjolf.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I\u2019m sorry. I wasn\u2019t watching where I was going. I\u2019m a little distracted about being hunted.\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf smiled out from under his hood.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand. We\u2019re all being hunted, lad.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get going.\u201d<\/p>\n Andante blinked in surprise.\u00a0 \u201cYes. Yes we are. I\u2019m sorry, Brynjolf, this isn\u2019t just about me, is it.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf motioned for Serana, and started picking his way back toward the stream, in to the northwest.\u00a0 Andante watched him moving away, the broad back that had become so familiar to him, and suddenly was nearly overcome by a feeling he didn\u2019t know how to interpret rising up into his throat. He closed his eyes for a moment and found himself fighting back a stinging sensation behind their closed lids.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t cry. I never cry. Is this what crying feels like?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n They took me. They nearly erased me.\u00a0 And now they\u2019re taking Andante too. <\/em><\/p>\n They hadn\u2019t even made it back as far as Falkreath when the next attack came. Andante heard a commotion ahead of them.\u00a0 There was an elevated bridge across the roadway, a perch from which bandits frequently ambushed travelers, particularly merchant caravans.\u00a0 Those who attempted escape had rock fall traps dumped on them.\u00a0 Eventually, usually, the … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/3-2-5-2.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/3-2-5-3.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/3-2-5-4.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/3-2-5-5.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/3-2-5-6.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/3-2-5-7.png\")
<\/p>\n