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<\/p>\nShe thought about it all the way to the Reach.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Shadowmere seemed to know where to go without any input from her, which was a good thing if not awfully surprising.\u00a0 He\u2019d belonged to Astrid, the previous leader of the Brotherhood \u2013 at least to the extent he \u201cbelonged\u201d to anyone.\u00a0 Astrid had introduced the horse to her as \u201cone of us,\u201d and Sayma had always had a feeling that he\u2019d been around much longer than any of them.\u00a0 He made for an excellent ride, though; intelligent, swift, strong, and as dark as the shadows with the exception of his glowing red eyes. Sayma was in no way paying attention to where they were; her mind wouldn\u2019t stop going in circles about the odd sensations she\u2019d had when the dragon\u2019s energy rushed up the hill toward Dardeh.\u00a0 He seemed to think she\u2019d absorbed some of it herself.<\/p>\n
It really doesn\u2019t make any sense.<\/em><\/p>\n Not much about the past several years had made sense, though, when she thought about it hard enough.\u00a0 She\u2019d been on her way to Cyrodiil and never made it. Meeting Roggi and then Brynjolf had changed her life forever.\u00a0 And so had the chance encounter with Aventus Aretino, the little boy whose distress regarding the horrible headmistress of Honorhall Orphanage had set her on the path to becoming the Listener. None of those things made a particle of sense to happen to a girl who\u2019d been just passing through.<\/p>\n Except for one thing.\u00a0 One thing had been consistent, and that was the voice.<\/p>\n That voice, that insistent, irritating, sarcastic and sometimes cruel voice that had spoken to her from the time she was on her own right down to the present. There had been times when she was sure that voice didn\u2019t really exist, that it was only part of her own mind, speaking to her. Sometimes the things that other voice had told her had <\/em>been just herself, usually berating herself for some imagined failing or other. But there had never been any reason for her to start hearing the voice tell her to kill things \u2013 the Forsworn man in Markarth, to begin with, and then more and more frequently after that.\u00a0 She\u2019d barely been able to tell where her thoughts began or ended while they had been chasing Mercer Frey and all of them, all of the thoughts, had said \u201ckill.\u00a0 Taste the blood.\u00a0 Kill.\u201d<\/p>\n The voice had told her to go to Falkreath.\u00a0 To join the Dark Brotherhood.\u00a0 That there were great things waiting for her there.<\/p>\n There had been. There at the Sanctuary had been another voice, the dry, deathless voice of the Night Mother giving her assignments, directives to pass out to the stable of assassins.\u00a0 She had asked for none of it, had not believed in the old tales until presented with the irrefutable evidence that the Night Mother, at least, was real and had chosen her.<\/p>\n Just as Dar didn\u2019t ask to be Dragonborn.\u00a0 Just as I didn\u2019t ask to have\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n No. I refuse to believe it.\u00a0 It makes no sense.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n They had talked about it for a long while, before she left Mammoth Manor.\u00a0 Dardeh was sympathetic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first time I felt anything like it at all was when Alduin attacked Helgen,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI knew he was Shouting when he landed on the tower, just a split second before that headsman\u2019s axe was about to come down on my neck.\u00a0 I heard words in the sound.\u00a0 My head felt like it was\u2026 on fire, from the inside out.\u00a0 And then the first word I learned. I swear it was like something was burning in my mind, like you would brand a cow.\u201d\u00a0 He patted her on the hand.\u00a0 \u201cI know how strange it is. That\u2019s why I\u2019m sure you absorbed some of that dragon soul. You wouldn\u2019t have heard the words, otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n Then he\u2019d told her about having Dadarh appear to him, in dreams.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first time I saw him he was out in the Reach. He didn\u2019t say anything, just looked at me, and I didn\u2019t know who it was. Twice he was at the Bannered Mare.\u00a0 The first time there, it just seemed like he was sizing me up. That\u2019s when I found out he was my \u2013 our \u2013 father. The second time, he was really angry that I hadn\u2019t killed Ulfric, and told me \u2018I\u2019ll have to use the girl.\u2019 That was when he showed up in Dark Brotherhood armor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u00a0 He was wearing our armor when he appeared to me, as well,\u201d Sayma told him.<\/p>\n That night when she had dreamed of him was when she\u2019d realized that the voice she\u2019d been hearing \u2013 even though it had sounded like her own \u2013 had really been his.\u00a0 She\u2019d put little Brynjolf to sleep in his cot in the Listener\u2019s quarters that night and had then gone to bed herself.\u00a0 It hadn\u2019t been long, or so it seemed at the time, until she\u2019d sat up in response to some sound or other and seen a figure seated at the table below the bed.\u00a0 She approached as silently as possible, fearing for little Brynjolf\u2019s life; but the man seated there had snorted.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, you really can\u2019t sneak up on me,\u201d he rumbled.\u00a0 \u201cAnd even if you did, it would matter not at all.\u00a0 You can\u2019t kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma had scanned the room, quickly, and realized that neither the cot nor little Bryn were there.\u00a0 The light seemed odd.\u00a0 And the man seated at the table before her was as familiar to her as any face she had ever known.\u00a0 Deeply lined, his eyes narrowed, bloodstain war paint on his face, his square jaw and heavy lips set into a perpetual frown, he was nonetheless a man she had once loved with every bit of her being.<\/p>\n \u201cPapa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDaughter.\u00a0 I see that you have come here, taken your place.\u00a0 This is good.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m dreaming.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n He had proceeded to talk to her, as he had been talking to her for her entire life.\u00a0 She finally recognized the voice. It was the words, the phrasing, and the cadence.\u00a0 The sarcasm.\u00a0 The insistence that she take her blade and kill with it.\u00a0 He had stood and walked about the room, finally standing before the banner of the Brotherhood, and peered down at her with his piercing eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cYou must kill him.\u00a0 Finish what I could not.\u00a0 The boy will not do it. You must.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma remembered asking, in that dream, what he meant by \u201cthe boy,\u201d but the dream had faded before she\u2019d gotten any sort of response from him.<\/p>\n She shook her head and looked at Dardeh.\u00a0 \u201cThat dream was when he mentioned you.\u00a0 \u2018The boy will not do it,\u2019 he said.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what he was talking about, and I didn\u2019t remember our conversation in Whiterun. \u00a0I\u2019m not going to do it, Dar.\u00a0 I won\u2019t even attempt to kill Ulfric.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh nodded. \u201cNo, and neither will I.\u00a0 I can\u2019t stand the man, but he\u2019s not worth risking my life over, and he really hasn\u2019t done anything to me personally except to be \u2026an ass.\u201d\u00a0 He frowned.\u00a0 \u201cI wonder\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt always has bothered me that the first time I saw Dadarh he was in the Reach.\u00a0 I wonder if there\u2019s something to that.\u00a0 Aside from the fact that that\u2019s where he met my ma.\u201d<\/p>\n That was how the conversation had gone, between her and her half-brother, and she thought about it now as she sat comfortably on Shadowmere\u2019s back.\u00a0 There was some significance to the Reach aside from it being Dardeh\u2019s home.\u00a0 She just didn\u2019t know what it was.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not the real problem, she thought, watching the muscles in Shadowmere\u2019s shoulders ripple beneath his perfectly black coat. The real problem is that I don\u2019t know who I am right now. I just don\u2019t. I\u2019m not Dag; Dag was a traveler, and a thief, and a survivor, and I haven\u2019t done any of those things in years. If I\u2019m not Dag anymore, I must be Sayma, right? Except that I\u2019m not, not really. Sayma is an assassin. When was the last time I even left the Sanctuary, or the house, much less performed that kind of duty?\u00a0 I could take one of the Night Mother\u2019s assignments for myself but I don\u2019t. I just\u2026 stay in Dawnstar, taking care of little Bryn. \u00a0Now life wants to tell me I\u2019m yet a different thing that I don\u2019t know and don\u2019t want.<\/p>\n Who in Oblivion am I?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Sayma looked around and realized that she had no idea where they were.<\/p>\n \u201cShadowmere?\u00a0 Where have you brought us?\u201d<\/p>\n Shadowmere had walked into a town, and toward a confrontation going on in the middle of it.\u00a0 Swiveling her head around she took stock of the surroundings, and the angle of the sun, and the size and shape of the mountains, and realized that they had to be in Karthwasten, a small mining village far north of where she had intended to take them.<\/p>\n How did I lose track for that long?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cShadowmere, what in the world\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n Shadowmere nickered and shook his head.<\/p>\n \u201cRight. I know. You\u2019re usually right about these things.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n She approached the group standing in the road just close enough to catch the gist of the issue, while staying well out of their sight.\u00a0 The owner of Karthwasten\u2019s mine was a Reach native; but a group of men who declared themselves to be working for the Silver-Bloods, the most powerful family in Markarth, were suggesting that he and his were Forsworn. He would just guard the mine until they were certain there were no Forsworn about, the chief of the group told them.<\/p>\n Or until its owner gave up and sold the mine for a pittance. That was the owner\u2019s other choice. Sayma watched his face grow red, even as he turned away from them in his frustration. The laughing mercenaries walked toward the mine and disappeared into it.<\/p>\n The idea that this group was stealing the mine made her fume. A thief, Sayma thought, steals things through intelligence, and stealth, and skill.\u00a0 A thief doesn\u2019t threaten her way into the acquisition of things that don\u2019t belong to her. \u00a0The mercenaries were nothing but common thugs. Her temper flared thinking about them; and she considered the small group of people who had faced them. The mine owner was no warrior, nor were his miners; and none of them was equipped to handle this invasion by hostile forces.<\/p>\n Well, now. I\u2019m a thief, as it happens; one of the best. And an assassin as well. \u00a0I suspect it wouldn\u2019t be the worst thing in the world if these Silver-Blood \u201cemployees\u201d were removed from the premises, would it? This, I can do.<\/em><\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take her very long.\u00a0 She knew it wouldn\u2019t. \u00a0She waited until the owner was well out of sight and then followed the mercenaries into the mine. The few random thugs wandering back and forth across the mine were no different than any bandit group she\u2019d ever encountered, and it was a quick bit of business to step up behind one, pull her blade across his throat, and drop him to the floor, then move on to the next.<\/p>\n Just like Andante and I told you, Red. Silent.<\/em><\/p>\n She wanted to laugh about it, because silence was not one of the things she\u2019d ever seen Brynjolf demonstrate.\u00a0 But he was a vampire since last I saw him. A Nightlord, even. <\/em>\u00a0She shuddered.\u00a0 How do I know what kinds of things Andante might have taught him?<\/em><\/p>\n The leader of the group, the one Sayma had heard threatening the mine\u2019s owner outside, presented a bit more of a challenge to take down. He had come down from the mine\u2019s upper levels when some sound or other caught his attention, and stood blocking the ramps up to the ore. He scanned back and forth warily, glaring at the entryway, having seen one of his men dead on the ground and not knowing who had done it or where that person was.<\/p>\n Sayma hid behind a support beam and considered him for a moment. There was no place available from which she could creep up behind him; and she\u2019d long ago learned that an assault from the front was not the best way for her \u2013 a slight woman in light armor – to do things. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t the best space in the world for bow work either, but she did have a weak paralysis potion tucked into her pouches, and that would do the trick.\u00a0 She applied some of it to her bow and took careful aim at the man, then released the bowstring and smiled as he toppled over like a log.\u00a0 It was a simple matter to open his throat as she had all the others; and as she crouched over his lifeless body and dipped her finger into his blood, tasting it as she always did, she smiled.<\/p>\n This. This is who I am. I haven\u2019t forgotten how to do this. Creep in like a thief; creep out with blood on my hands like an assassin. <\/em><\/p>\n Shadowmere knew what I needed, didn\u2019t he. He brought me here for a reason. <\/em><\/p>\n She left the mine, startling its owner when she spoke from behind him. He jumped, but wisely did not look at her.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t turn around. I wanted to let you know that you won\u2019t have trouble with that group of mercenaries any longer,\u201d she murmured.<\/p>\n \u201cTh\u2026 thank you \u2026 friend,\u201d the man said slowly.\u00a0 \u201cIt will only be a matter of time before someone is back, either the Nords who hate me because I\u2019m not a Nord or the Forsworn who hate me because I\u2019m not one of them. But for now, we can get back to work. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma slipped away before he could get a look at her.\u00a0 She found Shadowmere and turned him around, back toward the mountains where they needed to go.<\/p>\n \u201cYou bad horse,\u201d she told him. \u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n Shadowmere tossed his mane and nickered.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n The house was tucked back against the side of the mountain, just up the hill from the ancient Nordic ruin of Valthuume, just as Dardeh had suggested. It was cleverly placed so that if not for the thin tendril of smoke rising from its chimney, there would have been nothing from any angle to suggest to anyone that anything was here save bears and saber cats. Sayma rode Shadowmere up the path toward it and grumbled at him for what felt like the hundredth time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could have been here a day ago, you know, if not for your little jaunt up north.\u201d<\/p>\n She slipped down off his back and chuckled as he made an impatient little horse sound once more and pawed at the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cI know, I know. I should give you more credit. \u00a0You\u2019re smarter than I am, sometimes. You knew what I needed more than I did.\u201d\u00a0 She patted his neck and smiled.\u00a0 \u201cWait around, would you? I don\u2019t know how long this will take but I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll be off again soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Shadowmere bobbed his head and wandered away to the first patch of grass he could find.\u00a0 Sayma turned to climb the steps up to the wooden deck of the small house and tested the door.\u00a0 It was unlocked, so she let herself in.<\/p>\n There were two people inside this humble cottage: a woman and a man both dressed in long green robes.\u00a0 The woman turned and snapped at her.<\/p>\n \u201cHey! Who are you? Speak quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh dear. I\u2019m sorry to have just come in like that. Your door was open,\u201d Sayma said. \u201cI\u2019m looking for someone.\u00a0 I was told there was a couple living in this area who knew the location of a place I\u2019m supposed to go in order to find a\u2026 thing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n I sound like an idiot.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry. I shouldn\u2019t have just assumed it was ok to come in.\u201d<\/p>\n The woman stared at her for a long while.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are searching for a\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA thing. A cowl. A very old cowl, kind of an historical artifact.\u201d\u00a0 Sayma shook her head. \u201cIt\u2019s a long story and probably sounds stupid, but I was sent here to learn about the entrance to \u2026 someplace else. Or at least I hope I was sent here, and not to someone else\u2019s house.\u201d\u00a0 She stopped, shook her head, and made a disgusted noise. \u201cIt sounds ridiculous, doesn\u2019t it? I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m even saying such a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n She was expecting the woman to look perplexed, confused, maybe even to shoo her out of the house in fear.\u00a0 Instead, she nodded her head slowly and gestured toward the chair opposite her.<\/p>\n \u201cSo. The Dragonborn has come.\u201d<\/p>\n Time stood still for Sayma, for just a moment. A shiver ran up her spine and the hair on her neck rose.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n The woman smiled.\u00a0 \u201cMy family has been waiting for generations, Dragonborn.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma put a hand on the back of the chair and lowered herself into it slowly, as her knees threatened to give out from under her.\u00a0 Just as she had in the moment when she realized that Brynjolf had maneuvered her into working with the Thieves Guild whether she liked it or not, she felt the reins of her future being wrestled away from her own hands and placed into someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m\u2026 I\u2019m not the Dragonborn\u2026\u201d she protested weakly.<\/p>\n But my brother is. And he told me that I absorbed some of the power from that dragon we all killed. And that there\u2019s something in our lineage. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOf course you are. You would not have found us, otherwise. We have been waiting for you for hundreds of years.\u00a0 I am Seviana Umbranox and this is my husband Luvien.\u00a0 We are the Keepers of the Arrow of Extrication.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKeepers?\u201d Sayma said faintly.<\/p>\n I know Keepers. Or at least one Keeper.\u00a0 This is beginning to feel uncomfortably familiar. <\/em><\/p>\n Why is it that the gods and the Daedra and the world in general can\u2019t leave all of us alone to lead normal lives?<\/em><\/p>\n Oh who am I fooling. It isn\u2019t this woman\u2019s fault, any more than it was Dardeh\u2019s fault that he was the Dragonborn, or mine that I\u2019m the Listener.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing normal about any of us or our lives, and there\u2019s no point in being upset by it.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cTell me.\u201d<\/p>\n Seviana wove a tale that would have rivaled anything Sayma had ever heard for strangeness, if not for the bizarre things she had lived through in the past several years herself.\u00a0 Seviana was the descendant of Corvus Umbranox, the Count of Anvil two hundred years previously, through his illegitimate son.\u00a0 What most people didn\u2019t know, she said, was that Corvus had also been the Gray Fox, leader of the Thieves Guild back in those days and before.<\/p>\n Sayma\u2019s mouth fell open.\u00a0 The Gray Fox was said to be immortal, and yet that was clearly not the case, as nobody had seen or heard of such a person in recent memory.\u00a0 The Guild remembered, though; Mercer Frey had kept a bust of the Gray Fox in his secret study.<\/p>\n \u201cSo where is he, then? If he\u2019s immortal\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Seviana shook her head.\u00a0 The person of the Gray Fox wasn\u2019t actually immortal, she explained; the secret was the Cowl of Nocturnal, which caused each wearer to look exactly like its previous owner.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Cowl! That\u2019s it, that\u2019s the thing I\u2019m supposed to retrieve.\u201d\u00a0 She leaned forward and gave Seviana what she hoped was her most earnest look.\u00a0 \u201cI was asked to retrieve it by Nocturnal herself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI see,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cWell, you see, the last person to have the Cowl was the Champion of Cyrodiil, two hundred years ago, when he helped banish Mehrunes Dagon and end the Oblivion Crisis. He was given the Cowl and the title of Guildmaster when it was time for Corvus to step down as the Grey Fox and go back to being the Count.\u00a0 Then, when the Champion was ready to retire there was nobody in the Thieves Guild at the time deemed appropriate to take over the role from him. And so, my ancestors were tasked to keep the Cowl under protection, waiting for the next Dragonborn to arrive \u2013 because only the Dragonborn was sure to be worthy of it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s like she didn\u2019t even hear me.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t you have thought the name Nocturnal might have had some reaction from her?<\/em><\/p>\n Sayma frowned. \u201cBut I\u2019m not the Dragonborn.\u00a0 My\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course you are,\u201d Seviana interrupted her.\u00a0 \u201cOtherwise you would not be here.\u00a0 It\u2019s the call of the Gray Fox. He is waiting for you in a place where only a Dragonborn can enter.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is it, then?\u201d\u00a0 Sayma\u2019s head was spinning.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not the Dragonborn, my brother is! If this is something the Dragonborn is supposed to do, how in the world am I supposed to do it? <\/em><\/p>\n The Cowl was, Sayma learned, in the Champion of Cyrodiil\u2019s mausoleum.\u00a0 The place everyone knew as the Champion\u2019s grave \u2013 in the city of Anvil, in Cyrodiil \u2013 held only an empty grave.\u00a0 The Mausoleum was built in a secret location by Seviana\u2019s ancestors.<\/p>\n \u201cTo reach it, you must think as a member of the Guild.\u00a0 As a thief,\u201d the woman told her.<\/p>\n \u201cI can do that,\u201d Sayma said with a grin.\u00a0 I\u2019d better be able to do that. I was the Guildmaster until just a few days ago.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNow my family\u2019s mission is complete.\u00a0 Here. I must give you the Arrow of Extrication and this key.\u00a0 You will know what to do with the Arrow when the time comes. It will allow you to retrieve the Cowl and escape the Mausoleum.\u201d<\/p>\n She showed Sayma the place she needed to go to next, the place for which she would need the key.\u00a0 Then she made sure Sayma was looking directly at her.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is just one more thing.\u00a0 Nobody can go with you.\u00a0 You must do this alone. Anyone you might take along could not move over the threshold of the place I\u2019ve showed you.\u201d\u00a0 She stood and smiled.\u00a0 \u201cGood luck. And may Nocturnal guide you.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma nodded, and exited the home.\u00a0 She stood on the porch, feeling more than a bit numb.<\/p>\n So much for the idea of bringing Dardeh along, she thought. Or anyone else.<\/p>\n She watched Shadowmere graze for a moment, considering all of the possibilities.\u00a0 Dardeh had said there was some significance to their father having appeared in the Reach.\u00a0 Seviana had said she could not have found this place if she was not Dragonborn.<\/p>\n Maybe there is something in us, in our blood, that is connected to all of this.\u00a0 Maybe there\u2019s no coincidence that Dardeh is the Dragonborn.\u00a0 Maybe he\u2019s right, and there\u2019s just enough of it in me that I \u2013 the thief in the family \u2013 will be able to do this thing.<\/em><\/p>\n She approached Shadowmere and patted his neck.<\/p>\n \u201cCome on, buddy.\u00a0 We have to go all the way south again.\u00a0 Up into the mountains near Bloodlet Throne.\u00a0 You\u2019d think they could have lived a little closer to the target, wouldn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n Shadowmere tossed his mane as she jumped up into the saddle.\u00a0 He turned and started picking his way down the mountainside, sure-footed as one of the many goats along the way.<\/p>\n Maybe I can pull this off and get that Cowl back for Nocturnal, and give Dynjyl and Brynjolf a little peace.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n She grinned.<\/p>\n If I can\u2019t do it, it\u2019ll be a sad day indeed.\u00a0 I consider it a challenge.\u00a0 You\u2019re on, Nocturnal.<\/em><\/p>\n She thought about it all the way to the Reach. Shadowmere seemed to know where to go without any input from her, which was a good thing if not awfully surprising.\u00a0 He\u2019d belonged to Astrid, the previous leader of the Brotherhood \u2013 at least to the extent he \u201cbelonged\u201d to anyone.\u00a0 Astrid had introduced the … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/4-1-5-2.png\")
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<\/p>\nPart I: Sayma Sendu<\/a><\/div>\nPrevious<\/a> \/ Next<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"