It was so cold. Dawnstar was always cold, the only place that was worse was Winterhold. That was the issue of living in northern Skyrim though, may as well have been Tamriel's ass. Tending the bar at Windpeak Inn was never difficult, in fact it was a dream, while there was the occasional drunken patron that had to be knocked around. There was always plenty of food and mead, plus it brought in a decent amount of Septims.
"Roseline!" The familiar voice brought her out of her thoughts, she looked up and saw her friend Irgnir.
"Irgnir, what are you doing out so late? You'll catch your death out here." Roseline pulled her shaw tighter at the thought.
"Things at the mine have been busy ever since Beitild met her fate, lot of late nights around here, at least we can sleep peacefully now though."
Roseline scoffed at the suggestion. "Honestly Irgnir, we may not be having nightmares anymore but there's still a killer on the loose. First Silas, then Beitild, and I'm still not completely sure on the circumstances surrounding Erandur."
Roseline lowered her head as Irgnir patted her shoulder, Erandur had been a regular at Windpeak Inn and over time he became a treasured friend to Roseline.
"He may be gone but if the stories are right then he died to protect all of us."
She sat there in thought as Irgnir continued on, recounting the story everyone had been told. A stranger had arrived in town shortly before the end of the nightmares, he had accompanied Erandur on a journey towards Nightcaller Temple and when he returned the nightmares were gone but Erandur was dead. Supposedly he had sacrificed himself for the good of the town. For some reason every person around clung onto the words of the stranger as the unbridled truth. She understood in a way he was a man to be marveled at, he was obviously well traveled and had seemingly been all over Skyrim. There were even rumors that he had released Solstheim from their trance-like state. There were rumors of all kinds, that this person had destroyed the world-eater, fought dragons and giants alike single handed, that no warrior, beast, or automaton could stand against him.
There was more though. It was rumored that this man was the leader of the fabled Thieves guild deep to the south in Riften that terrorized the whole country. Many tales had been spun that he was instrumental to the Dark Brotherhood and had gone through as a one man army and obliterated the Penitus Oculatus. Not only on the Katariah but the entire battalion that destroyed the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary near Falkreath. If those weren't impressive and terrifying enough this man had supposedly made history by assassinating the emperor. These were just the beginnings of the boons whispered in the dark about the mysterious and alluring stranger.
A sharp smack on the arm brought Roseline back to earth and she gave Irgnir a small smile of apology. "It's late Rose go home and get some sleep."
The two shared a quick hug and headed towards their own houses. Nights had been rather eerie ever since Roseline had moved into Silas's house. They had become friends and afterwards they had taken to the bed together a handful of times and for some reason Silas saw fit to bequeath her his house in the event of his death. It was odd but she decided just to thank the nine anyway. She may as well move on down to the shivering isles had she turned down a house of her own in place of sleeping in the back room of the inn.
She was heading towards the building when she suddenly decided that she just couldn't face the house yet. All of Silas's things were still up and acting as a museum and it all just seemed like one huge shrine to him and made her shiver. She decided to take a walk along the water, it was fairly cold but she was used to it by then.
The moons shone bright reflecting off of the sea and the snow like a fire in the sky. Roseline had never been this far from town by herself so late and suddenly all that she said to Irgnir about the killer came back to her. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she started to panic. She quickly turned around to run back to town when the sight of a shadow stopped her. Leaning against the rocks hidden in an enclave a large nord stepped out of the shadows. From the looks of him he was some sort of bandit or mercenary he stepped close to her as he spoke, "Well, well what do we have here? A pretty little thing to go with my mead and skooma, you're about to wish you never would have came here."
Everything was a blur she couldn't focus on any single particular thing it all just ran together. Why was this happening to her? She always considered herself a good person, sure she was a little quick to jump into bed with men she didn't know well and yes she occasionally pocketed a few septims for herself but none of that justified this.
He didn't hold back anything, her body felt so many different sensations. She looked a short distance away and saw her garments laying on the ground as she felt the snow mold around her exposed body, she could feel heat radiating from him his weight smothering her as he slammed her face into the ground again. She became numb, she just wanted to forget this was happening, maybe just maybe once he was done he would just let her go and move on. If he didn't it wouldn't be so bad though, yes her regulars would miss her as well as Irgnir but that was it, she had no family no real friends nothing. She closed her eyes as tight as they would go and felt tears running down her face practically freezing from the cold as he penetrated her over and over again, she felt ashamed and violated and all she wanted was to be back in her Inn pouring mead.
He finally started to remove himself from her, she was battered and bruised. He had thoroughly beaten her before violating her. She laid there still as could be hoping that maybe he would just leave. He stood over her staring at her before he started laughing at her. She looked up just in time to see his large boot swing at her landing a hard blow in her gut.
"They told me just to kill you, but hey what they don't know won't hurt them." He started pacing around her like a Sabercat about to strike, she didn't know what to say. Someone had ordered this? Who would do such a thing? She just laid there staring at him eyes wide in shock.
"Speechless huh? Fine." He knelt down towards her and whispered in her ear, "next life around don't go bedding every man you come across, maybe you'll live longer." She felt a knife plunge deep into her gut. She went into a state of shock, this is how it would end, a cruel death all because of an unfaithful man. She didn't even know any of them were betrothed. The knife twisted and wiggled as he toyed with her, prolonging her agony. She let out an anguished scream as he smiled at her, his eyes cold and dead. He hoisted up her naked body and carelessly through her into the sea. At least the sky would be a beautiful last sight to see.