It was the morning after the night before. The residents of Markarth were recovering from their drunken antics. However, one resident lay dead and in a few hours a manhunt would commence.
Rain poured down on Markarth as Hroki made her through the market, rubbing the salty wet tears from her eyes. The pretty teenage girl had a lot on her mind. The noise of her boots on the hard ground dampened out the silence of the night. The hold was dead, and would be dead for some time. Most of the residents and guards were at the tavern for the celebrations of a new year. It was the last day of 201, an eventful year that saw the end of Alduin and the start of a civil war. It was a time for new beginnings...and endings.
The rain was resilient and battered the various homes and buildings of the dwarven hold. Dripping down from the slates on the roofs. The blonde swept hair from her face as she skipped up a few steps. She had a plan.
"We drink to our youth, for the days come and gone
For the age aggression is just about done.
We'll drive out the Stormcloaks and restore what we own.
With our blood and our steel we'll take back our home.
Down with Ulfric! The killer of kings!
On the day of your death we will drink and we'll sing.
We're the children of Skyrim, and we fight all our lives.
And when Sovngarde beckons, every one of us dies!"
"Again, AGAIN!" Degaine shouted before falling from his stool causing an eruption of laughter from the tavern's patrons.
"You're drunk Degaine! Go home!" Kleppr cussed angrily while serving Yngvar. "Drunk? No, no, NO! Not yet anyway. I haven't even started! Now get me a drink milk drinker!" Degaine burped and threw up onto Ogmund's shirt as he helped him up from the floor. "Ooops!" he threw back his head and cackled. "ENOUGH!" Kleppr slammed his fist down on the counter, bringing the noise in the tavern to an abrupt halt. He leaned in and grabbed Degaine hard by his rags. "You listen to me you worthless drunk, I'm not in the mood for your shenanigans tonight...not one fucking bit. You take your raggedy ass and get the hell out of my tavern!" he spat out the last word leaving Degaine open mouthed and speechless, for once.
"Good show! Good show!" Kerah applauded, clapping extravagantly. "Shut up woman you're making a fool of yourself!" Endon butted in, making things worse as usual. "You can't tell me what to do...No man is ever going to tell me what to do again. You can't tell me anything, got it?!" Kerah drunkenly splashed some ale onto Muiri.
"Unless you want everyone here to know your dirty little secret, hmm? Is that what you want Endon?" Kerah stumbled across the floor. "Look what you did! Muiri, I'm sorry. That's it we're going home now ". Endon grabbed Kerah by the arm and escorted her across the tavern towards the door. "Don't apologise to her. Everyone knows what that black widow had done to her lover! What, you think we'd believe he just vanished? You had him killed you little tart. And the Gods know!" Kerah howled, pushing and fidgeting against Endon's grip.
"Oh gods! Come Adara, we're leaving!" Endon pushed Kerah out the door first. "Again, Muiri, I apologise. Adara, now!" Endon called back to his daughter. "It's fine really. I've been called much worse" Muiri smiled brightly and Endon nodded before departing with Adara. Kleppr looked back at Degaine "Well what you waiting for? You next". Degaine spat at Kleppr as Cosnach pulled him away from the bar. "This isn't the last of this, I swear to you now! I will-" Degaine began but was cut short by Cosnach, "C'mon you drunken fool!" he said, shoving Degaine out the tavern door and following after.
As the commotion ended abruptly the tavern quickly descended back into anarchy. "Thank the heavens that's over" Kleppr sighed. "What in the name of Talos has gotten into you?" Frabbi scowled, hands on hip. "Just shut it and go back to cleaning the floor will you" Kleppr demanded wiping the bar from the mead and other excrements. "Not until I get an answer from you. What was that? And don't tell me it was all because of Degaine, he's always like that". Frabbi went silent, but the silence was deafening.
"Are...are you having an affair?" Frabbi questioned, causing Kleppr to scoff in shock. "W-what! Are you bloody serious?!". "Well, it wouldn't be your first time, would it?" Frabbi snapped, tossing the brush against the bar. "The last time I saw you act like that, the way you spoke to Degaine, was when you were with that little tramp Dibella girl".
Kleppr sighed heavily. "I don't have time for this" he hastened, avoiding eye contact with Frabbi, and throwing down the towel as he went to leave.
"Oh no, I don't think so. Not this time. I want an answer from you! What is wrong with you? Are you cheating on me? Admit it if you are, I can't bear the shame knowing a patron could know before me" Frabbi demanded, placing herself in front of Kleppr.
"Get out of my way" he ordered, pushing past her. "What, so you can run back to your mistress, huh? We've been married twenty years Kleppr. You can't hide anything from me. I know when you lie to me. You've been acting strange all day and I want an answer this instant!" Frabbi grabbed Kleppr by his collar and he shoved her to the ground, causing the tavern to, yet again, go silent.
He stood in shock looking at his wife. "Get out..." she said with hushed anger and tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "Frab, honey, I didn't mean -" he was cut short. "Leave now. Just…just go" she whispered and he nodded defiantly, "If that's what you want", and he stormed out the tavern door into the heavy rain, narrowly missing Hreinn, his son.
"Father. Father?...Oh Gods! Mother, are you alright?" Hreinn panicked, picking his mother up from the floor. "Yes…yes I'm...oh no...no Hreinn!…my dear boy...I'm not alright. I think...something is very, very wrong with your father" she cried into Hreinn's chest and the young man comforted her, worry painted across his face. "It's okay, don't worry, everything…everything will be okay. Tomorrow…tomorrow we'll begin again".
The following morning the New Year had arrived and the residents of Markarth were recovering from the events of the night before. Frabbi was wandering whose bed her husband had stayed in, Endon was worrying how long his wife would keep schtum about his secret, Muiri was pondering her uncertain future in Markarth and Degaine was not unusually suffering with another pounding hangover. He awoke in a pool of his own drool and he eventually got himself up from the bedroll. He staggered from his small room in the rat-infested hellhole they called the Warrens. "Fucking 'ell" he moaned, rubbing his temple. "Late night?" Garvey asked, walking past him with a cocky smile. "Mind your own business backbiter" Degaine cussed with a grimace, causing Garvey to chuckle aloud. Degaine never was a particularly nice person but ever since his mining accident several years back all he ever did was drink, cause problems, and shag the odd desperate old bint.
"Uh- I really need a drink". He dragged himself back into his room to collect the few coins he had collected from begging. No one in Markarth would dare give him septims unless they were a fool. Luckily for him, however, Markarth was always good for tourism and tourists were idiots.
As he fell against his bedroll, adjusted and fumbled with his crotch, and poked around his satchel, something caught his eye in the far corner of the room. "What in the name of Talos..." he at first taught it was a dead animal, a dog maybe. Then his vision adjusted and he immediately shot to his feet, screaming like a maniac possessed. He stumbled, falling every few steps, out from the room, practically throwing himself out the door and down onto the cold ground. "A body! There's a body! Help me! Gods, somebody help me! There's a body! There's a body! There's a body! There's a body!" he cried, waving his arms in the air, his face white and his stomach quickly emptying its contents onto the ground.
Yes, there was a body as all the residents in Markarth would soon find out. A young girl butchered in cold blood. Everyone would be mourning the sad loss. Well...almost everyone. You see one of these residents had committed a heinous crime. A crime that would shake the hold to the core. A crime that would change the small dwarven hold forever.