The sky bled with dusk quickly following suit. Dark clouds clustering and stirred over the night sky giving the city below's quiet streets a gloomy outlook. The vacant streets belonged to the sleepy city of Wayrest. There was still one though who wandered its streets. A young Imperial woman dressed in a black cloak, completed with a cowl that draped fully to the her shoulders, and did its job of concealing the wearer's identity. Slowing down she and came to a stop when she reached the entrance of a tavern, looking curiously at the sign hanging above the door. It was scratched out making it impossible to read.
Turning her attention back to the tavern itself, she opened the door and entered. The room was filled with the sounds of the bard who sat by the fire while casually grazing his fingers against his lute's strings, not doing any song in particular. Light discreet cautious murmurs of conversation hummed. The delicate slurping of the regular patrons as they absent-mindedly savoured the taste of warm ale, eyes focusing on nothing in particular. She approached a man who was seated, who seemed to be deep in his own thoughts to care or notice that she approached him.
"Are you Vicue, my contact?"
The short, older man with one eye turned his head and glanced at her, then returned to his drink taking another sip. "You know who I am. Wouldn't approach me if you didn't," He said without looking at her. She took another step closer and placed a small purse filled with coins on the table and sat across from him.
"I'm sure you know what I'm here for," she spoke softly.
He studied her closely as while picking up the coin purse and tugging on the small string keeping it close. He emptied its contents into his hand and Clenched them gold tightly and then shoved them into his pocket.
"What is it you want to know?"
She narrowed her eyes and sent a glare at a barmaid as she caught her curious stare. The maid just shrugged and just went back to washing mugs. "I'm not sure we should speak here," she said back while looking towards the man in front of her. Making him let out a slight chuckle at the sight of her uneasiness.
"Let me tell you something….uh," He said while motioning for her to tell her name.
"Anyarah."
"Anyarah, you could disrobe right now and dance around bare-breasted and no one would bat an eye. We mind our own business around here." He said taking another sip of ale. "So I ask you again, what do you want to know?"
"There's a party I need to get into, a royal party. I'm sure you can understand that it's also by invitation only." The man raised an eyebrow at her in curiosity and smiled.
"Oh I see. In order to get into any, uh, royal parties around here is quite simple. You gotta be somebody or the other option is somehow getting a letter of recommendation from the King's steward, with the King's royal seal, which just so happens to be in the steward's possession."
"Do you know any discreet ways in," she asked. The man let out another low chuckle again before taking another sip of ale.
"I'm sure the way I told you is discreet enough," She took out a second coin purse and placed it in the middle of the table. "You're serious about this I see then. If discretion is what you want then, there's a brothel not too far from here. Behind it is a well."
"A well?"
The man simply waved off her doubt and continued on.
"Yes, a well. It leads to a whole secret underground tunnel system the thieves guild themselves used in their prime."
"I've never known about that!"
The man snorted while he poured out the second purse.
"Course you didn't, secret is in the name. If it wasn't wouldn't be no point in calling it secret, now would it?"
"Shut up."
Taking another sip of ale before speaking again, "I like you. Don't speak much and I can tell you're smart. My brother was just like you, though the difference between you and him is that he knew what a secret was. Him and me, we were the thieves back in our younger days. Best ones the guild here in Highrock had to offer. We were doing our greatest heist yet, 'The Great Theft of Bruma', we called it. Fitting name too. We and one other person, Millie, I believe her name was, cleared out the throne room which housed the greatest ancient Akaviri collection you'd ever see."
"That's….impressive. Tell me, how did you get away?"
"We used those tunnels I told you about, and it took us all the way to Daggerfall. Cut the guild out of our profit, and me and my brother went our separate ways. I'm sure it could have taken us further but you get the idea."
"Where'd your brother go?"
The man shrugged in response. "I don't know. You have any siblings?" The man asked getting a nod out of Anyarah.
"A brother."
"Then you know how siblings are, they never write."
"What of Millie."
The man scoffed at her before taking another sip of ale."We cut the guild out, remember? Ditched her in the tunnels." He sighed before narrowing his one good eye at Anyarah. "So how is the guild?"
"Guild?" Anyarah said in confusion before shaking her head. "No, I'm not with any guild."
"Could've fooled me. Let me ask you something, why do you want to get into this party so bad anyways?"
"Come with me and I'll show you." There was something in her voice that stroked his curiosity and made it seem like he'd have to do it. He downed the rest of his ale, wiped his mouth with back of his hand, and followed her out the tavern. The man frowned, visually showing his displeasure at the falling droplets of water, and then he sighed as he followed her into a nearby alleyway.
Once he stepped into the alleyway, whatever affect her voice had on him to make him lose reason and give into his curiosity wore off as he saw a dagger in her hand. The blade was single-edged, and slightly curved, with a serrated back. He turned to break into a sprint but it was already too late. The assassin was already upon him, slamming the butt of her blade into the back of his head causing him to stumble and fall. She dragged him back into the alley and lifted him by the collar and pressing him against the wall.
"Please let me go!" The man cried through his daze. Anyarah's response was switching from holding his collar to forcing her arm against his throat.
"Keep your voice down," Anyarah's low voice whispered in his ear with her warm breath trickling down his face. Which would of been sexy if she weren't going to stab him with a rather jagged blade. "I want to keep this a….secret." The man eyes widened as the blade was plunged in between his ribs, killing him instantly.
She removed her arm from his throat letting the corpse fall. She turned to leave but stopped just short of the entrance of the alleyway. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a nightshade, dropped it onto the pavement, and left as if nothing happened.
xxxx
Throughout the centuries the people of Tamriel have always known them. Though taboo to speak of in public, they always knew they were there both ignoring them yet acknowledging them. The secret organization shrouded in mystery, the ruthless assassins who would stop at nothing to see their target eliminated, or simply the followers of Sithis and the Night Mother. That's what they were known as once.
Since the Oblivion crisis, the once mighty organization had gone into a recession. The Shadowscale training had long since ended and the reach of the Brotherhood was no longer as extensive as it once was. They couldn't even maintain the illusion that they were everywhere and yet nowhere. Even Night Mother who once spoke directly through the listener had gone silent and the Brotherhood was left to fend for themselves.
The Brotherhood became hardly more than a band of cutthroats without their matron and the illusive idea that the Dark Brotherhood would ever regain its former glory became just that, an illusion. An impossibility that only the mad or stupid would dream of.
Though there was hope in one relatively prospering sanctuary: the Wayrest Sanctuary. Its chain of successful contracts followed with the letter, allowing them to get a new fairly important contract. The assassination of the prince of Wayrest. And so they clinged to their new hope in attempt to at least restore some value in the Dark Brotherhood name. And that's where Anyarah felt she came in. Helping her family in whatever ways she could in carefully planning this assassination. She'd been working tirelessly gathering as much intel as she could while simultaneously cutting off loose ends.
Even though she tried her hardest to make this contract a success, she couldn't shake the ominous suspicion that something was going to go terribly wrong. The thought that through their bad luck, someone would approach them with a contract that would put them back on top yet was too good to be true. The fact their leader of the Wayrest Sanctuary keep the identity of this employer secret was also quite unsettling.
She shook her head and sighed, getting rid of her plaguing thoughts. She continued on traversing through the dark sewers that the resided beneath the city. Anyarah grimaced as the smell of all kinds of waste became stronger.
"Out of all the locations in Highrock, they pick the sewers," Anyarah snarled as she saw a couple of rats skitter past her feet. Her face twisted into that of disgust as she turned another corner. Soon, she approached the Black Door of Wayrest. The assassin stopped just short of the door and removed her hood revealing her fair skin, long inky black hair that stopped at her shoulders, and her dark piercing eyes. The handleless black door had the depiction of one large skull carved in it with a black handprint placed in its forehead. Underneath the skull was beautiful dark elf woman holding a bloodied dagger in one hand and a much smaller skull in the other.
The door said nothing to her yet she could hear the question echo throughout her head. There it was standing begrudgingly locked, expectantly awaiting for her to recite the words unknown to all but the Brotherhood.
'What is man's greatest fear'
"That he cannot control, my brother"
'You are worthy'