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<\/p>\nIt had been a long, cold trip from Riften to the hillside north of Windhelm where Snow Veil Sanctum lay.\u00a0 Dagnell\u2019s funds had been almost completely drained in purchasing Honeyside, so she didn\u2019t want to splurge on a carriage.\u00a0 Instead, she had filled her pack, taken her bear cloak, and trudged north on foot, camping along the way. It had been difficult to pass Kynesgrove, even taking the branch of the road that ran below and around it.\u00a0 She had hurried, on that section, just in case anyone she knew was out and about.<\/p>\n
She had also made her way through Windhelm as quickly as possible.\u00a0 The easiest route to Snow Veil Sanctum was along the river\u2019s northern edge, but in order to get to that edge she either had to swim across its icy expanse or go through Windhelm and down to the docks.\u00a0 That had been an easy choice, even with the recollection of Ulfric\u2019s voice sending shudders up her spine as she scurried through the lower parts of the city to its easternmost gate.<\/p>\n
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The area north of Windhelm was solid with snow and ice, and the wildlife that lived there reflected that fact.\u00a0 Twice, Dag faced ice wolves.\u00a0 They were larger and more persistent than their darker cousins from the spruce forests, and took much more energy to defeat.\u00a0 Once she heard a bear; when she finally spotted it she realized that it was enormous and pure white.\u00a0 She slid behind boulders to break line of sight with the bear and waited silently, shivering in the cold, until it wandered away.<\/p>\n
Farther north, just as she turned to begin the upslope trek toward Snow Veil Sanctum, there was something she had never encountered before: a snow troll.\u00a0 She was thankful, then, to have learned early on that the best way to defeat an enemy with a bow was to take the high ground and shoot from above. She was able to climb high enough onto a rocky outcropping that it couldn\u2019t reach her, and peppered it with arrows for what felt like years until it finally dropped.\u00a0 Otherwise, she thought, examining its ugly head while she retrieved some of those arrows, its fangs would surely have been the end of her.<\/p>\n
The worst, though, was a creature she\u2019d never seen before.\u00a0 It was translucent, moved hissing through the air like a snake but well above the ground, and had wicked-looking teeth.\u00a0 Its rapid wriggling movement made it nearly impossible to hit with an arrow and not much easier to hit with a sword.\u00a0 She tried a flame spell on it, and while that did slow it down, she ran out of energy before stopping it. She was grazed by its teeth several times and could not keep herself from shrieking; contact with the creature was far worse than being splattered with frostbite spider\u2019s venom.\u00a0 She had needed to quaff a potion designed to help resist the effects of frost, and several healing potions, and to expend every bit of stamina she had slashing furiously with her swords to finally connect with the creature\u2019s weak spot.\u00a0 It exploded in a shower of ice crystals, leaving behind its teeth.\u00a0 She had taken those teeth as a souvenir, even while she panted and shivered and tried to recover her composure. That had been far too close to a cold end for her.<\/p>\n
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Just uphill from where she had killed the ice wraith, she arrived at what had to be Snow Veil Sanctum, its inverted bowl shape visible long before she reached the crest of the hill.\u00a0 There was a rough campsite set up, not far from it.\u00a0 Disturbingly, a dead horse lay next to the fire.\u00a0 Dag stood and stared at it for a moment.\u00a0 There was nothing in the campsite to tell whose it had been, or what might have killed the poor horse.<\/p>\n
Mercer Frey was waiting for her, standing just outside the barrow.\u00a0 Oh good, she thought, crunching toward him in the crystalline snow.\u00a0 He got here before me.\u00a0 Now I\u2019ll hear all about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood, you\u2019re finally here.\u00a0 I\u2019ve scouted the ruins and I\u2019m certain Karliah\u2019s still inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, that wasn\u2019t too bad, Dag thought.\u00a0 I was expecting a proper reaming-out for being late.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I found her horse. Don\u2019t worry, I took care of it.\u00a0 She won\u2019t be using it to escape. Now take the lead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dag had to work not to visibly shudder.\u00a0 You <\/em>killed the horse, Mercer?\u00a0 That\u2019s awful.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t you have just \u2026 scared it away, or something?\u00a0 Then the rest of what he had said filtered through.<\/p>\n \u201cWait, you want me to lead?\u201d\u00a0 That made no sense, and was frankly a bit frightening.\u00a0 Surely Mercer is a stronger fighter than I am, she thought.\u00a0 I thought I was just here for backup.<\/p>\n Mercer gave her an even deeper frown.\u00a0 She hadn\u2019t been convinced such a thing was even possible.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I was under the impression that I\u2019m in charge.\u00a0 You\u2019re leading and I\u2019m following.\u00a0 Does that seem clear to you?\u201d<\/p>\n Dag swallowed.\u00a0 Ok, I do not want to get on Mercer\u2019s bad side.\u00a0 Not in a place like this.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, of course. I was just surprised.\u00a0 I have to ask though.\u00a0 About all of this \u2013 isn\u2019t murder kind of the Dark Brotherhood\u2019s area?\u201d<\/p>\n Mercer smirked.\u00a0 \u201cI have a long standing relationship with the Dark Brotherhood.\u00a0 If I need someone in the Guild taken care of, we do it ourselves,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve agreed that it\u2019s best to keep it within the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n Dag\u2019s brain struggled to tease out the strands of this statement.\u00a0 She was confused. He and Brynjolf had talked of turning someone who didn\u2019t want to be associated with them over to the Dark Brotherhood.\u00a0 Perhaps they\u2019d simply been referring to someone they\u2019d done business with, and not someone in the Guild itself.\u00a0 That had to be it.\u00a0 So it wasn\u2019t the Guild who had sent the assassin after her.<\/p>\n At least she hoped it hadn\u2019t been.\u00a0 She kept coming back to this thought in spite of all evidence to the contrary, and she wasn\u2019t sure why. She wasn\u2019t about to ask Mercer about it.<\/p>\n \u201cOk.\u00a0 Let me catch my breath for a second.\u00a0 I found an ice thing – wraith – just over that hill and it was tough. I need a few moments.\u201d\u00a0 She really did, too; so she said the first thing that came to mind that might distract him.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you tell me about Gallus?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know anything about him. How did he die?\u201d<\/p>\n Mercer sighed, looking around at the burial mound and the area.\u00a0 He took a deep breath, and started talking. When he spoke, his voice was without its usual harsh edge, and his eyes seemed somehow softer.<\/p>\n Gallus, he said, had been a fantastic Guildmaster. Everyone had loved him.\u00a0 He and Gallus and Karliah had been so close, such a good team. \u00a0They\u2019d done everything together.\u00a0 Gallus had been absolutely brilliant.<\/p>\n He looked sad to her.<\/p>\n Dag was astonished.\u00a0 Mercer had truly cared about Gallus.\u00a0 And about Karliah.\u00a0 That was as plain as it could possibly be.<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty five years ago I was standing outside this very same ruin. Gallus had told us to meet here, but he didn\u2019t say why.\u00a0 When I arrived, Gallus stepped out of the shadows.\u00a0 Before he uttered a sound an arrow pierced his throat.\u00a0 Before I could even draw my blade, her second arrow found its mark in my chest.\u201d<\/p>\n Ok, Karliah\u2019s a quick draw, and she managed to get to them both without being spotted first. And both of them master thieves.\u00a0 Interesting. \u201cSo she took you both on, alone?\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 \u201cKarliah is a master marksman, and her strength is the element of surprise.\u00a0 I was lucky.\u00a0 The arrow missed my heart by mere inches.\u00a0 As I stumbled away from the ruin my vision began to blur; it was then that I realized the bitch had poisoned her arrows.\u201d<\/p>\n Bitch, is it? Dag thought, surprised again by Mercer\u2019s drop from his usual stiff speech.\u00a0 Good to know, though; she uses poison and she\u2019s a fantastic shot. We\u2019ll need to be careful.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what happened to Gallus?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust before I blacked out I saw her dumping his body into an opening atop the ruin.\u00a0 An unceremonious end to a truly remarkable man.\u201d\u00a0 He shook his head, frowning.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the Guild was without its Guildmaster and one of its senior members, and you were wounded. \u00a0It had to have been nerve wracking at the very least to know that she was out there, knowing all she did about the operation. What happened?\u201d<\/p>\n Mercer snorted.\u00a0 \u201cThe Guild erupted into chaos, with several people trying to take power and fill Gallus\u2019 position.\u00a0 Factions formed behind each of them.\u00a0 It was a bloodbath.\u00a0 I wanted us to spend the Guild\u2019s resources tracking down Karliah, but nobody even seemed to care that Gallus was gone. I persevered long enough to come out on top.\u00a0 The other factions were either killed or left.\u00a0 But Karliah had used the confusion of the power struggle to her advantage.\u00a0 She simply disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n Dag frowned.\u00a0 This was a truly awful story, and it bothered her to think of the awkward man before her having been betrayed so cruelly.\u00a0 It was hard to picture Guild members killing each other, particularly based on what she had seen of it. They really tried, at least, to treat each other like some sort of a community; she\u2019d seen them following Brynjolf around and acting like a group of friends. But why would it have been so different twenty five years earlier, if everyone loved Gallus? Why would they have acted like they didn\u2019t care?\u00a0 It didn\u2019t add up. On the other hand, people had been known to pretend concern and compassion while waiting for personal gain.<\/p>\n \u201cAlright. Tell me about Karliah.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe was such a stubborn Dunmer.\u00a0 Always had to do things her way.\u00a0 Gallus was too trusting.\u00a0 He allowed her to get too close.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u201d Dag said.\u00a0 \u201cI get it. They had a relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n Dag couldn\u2019t decide whether the look on Mercer\u2019s face was a sneer, or a grimace.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to call it that, yes. He was absolutely smitten by her.\u00a0 Called her his \u2018little nightingale.\u2019\u00a0 If you ask me, she was softening him up for the kill.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut why? Why would she kill him?\u201d<\/p>\n Something went wrong with the relationship and Karliah retaliated, perhaps? Dunmer lived for a very long time.\u00a0 Could Gallus have been getting too old for her?\u00a0 No, that didn\u2019t make sense either; this had happened twenty-five years ago. Gallus was an Imperial name.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t have been all that old then.\u00a0 Mercer was only in his mid-fifties or so right now.<\/p>\n He shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cGreed? Jealousy? Spite?\u00a0 Who can say what drove her to such an iniquitous act.\u201d<\/p>\n Dag was overwhelmed.\u00a0 Not so much by the facts of the story itself, gruesome though they were, but by how genuinely sorrowful Mercer was, still, after so many years, at having lost a man he obviously cared for.<\/p>\n Mercer was such an odd person.\u00a0 He seemed so uncomfortable around people, and they around him.\u00a0 But he had a close relationship with friends at least once in his life, only to have it torn away and to nearly lose his own life, all at the hands of one of those friends.\u00a0 What a betrayal.\u00a0 Dag swallowed hard.\u00a0 She\u2019d never expected to feel sympathetic toward Mercer Frey, but she did.\u00a0 She knew how hard it was to have your best friends turn on you. Karliah had to die.<\/p>\n He straightened and shook his head, as if clearing it.<\/p>\n \u201cNow.\u00a0 We need to get in there.\u00a0 Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut.\u00a0 Karliah is as sharp as a blade. The last thing I need is you blundering into a trap and warning her we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n Dag nodded, and led the way down the stairs into the interior of the open dome that constituted Snow Veil\u2019s entryway.\u00a0 But when she reached the door, she was completely stymied.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t of a design she\u2019d ever seen and she could find no keyhole.\u00a0 She tried pushing at the curved plates on its surface, which looked movable, but nothing happened.\u00a0 She turned as she heard Mercer approaching.<\/p>\n He sneered.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes these old Nordic ruins are nearly impenetrable. Hmm. This one doesn\u2019t look too difficult.\u201d He knelt and began working on the door, looking directly at Dag as he did so. \u201cI don\u2019t understand what all the fuss is with these doors.\u00a0 They\u2019re easy to pick if you know how. All it takes is skill, and a lot of practice. Very simple, really.\u00a0 There. That should do it.\u00a0 After you.\u201d<\/p>\n Dag stared at him, fuming. That was a flat-out insult. I didn\u2019t fail to pick the lock, there is no damnable keyhole!\u00a0 The arrogant son of a horker. I can\u2019t believe I was feeling sympathetic toward him just a few minutes ago. But he\u2019s the boss.\u00a0 And I\u2019m, what? Expendable?\u00a0 It\u2019s not as though anyone will miss me if I\u2019m gone, but they\u2019ll all miss him. They need him to be alive.<\/p>\n Suddenly she was reliving the uncomfortable staring match with Brynjolf across the Cistern.\u00a0 Would he notice she was gone, if she was killed in here?\u00a0 And if so, would he feel bad, or just relieved? She wished she knew what he\u2019d been thinking then.<\/p>\n Mercer stood as the curved plates clicked open, and gestured for her to lead the way. She sighed. Well, sadly enough, if you really think about it having me go first is a good choice, Dag realized.\u00a0 He\u2019s far more important to the Guild than I am and if I can buy him a moment to get out of danger, well, I\u2019ll have more than done my job.\u00a0 Mercer may be obnoxious, but he\u2019s surely no fool.<\/p>\n She nodded and stepped inside.<\/p>\n It had been a long, cold trip from Riften to the hillside north of Windhelm where Snow Veil Sanctum lay.\u00a0 Dagnell\u2019s funds had been almost completely drained in purchasing Honeyside, so she didn\u2019t want to splurge on a carriage.\u00a0 Instead, she had filled her pack, taken her bear cloak, and trudged north on foot, camping … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1-2-7-3.png\")
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<\/p>\nPart II: Shadows<\/a><\/div>\nPrevious<\/a> \/ Next<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"