Perhaps I shouldn't have expected anything otherwise, but when I woke up, I was alone. It took me several moments to remember where I was and why I was there, naked especially. I probably either would have been walking on air or slightly enraged at the memories, possibly both, except the fact that I was alone ground either reaction to a screeching halt. All I could feel was the loneliness of the cool, long vacant spot on the bed next to me and worry as to why that spot would be empty. Needless to say, I dressed as quickly as I could, pulling on my, thankfully, mostly clean clothing from yesterday and throwing on my armor over that.
I half expected Astrid to have completely disappeared from the Sanctuary, but she hadn't. I wasn't sure whether or not to be relieved when she was merely leaning against the wall as she always was, her gaze cool and unreadable in a way that it normally was not.
"You're awake, good." She acknowledged my presence and her voice had no affection or tenderness in it. I hadn't exactly expected her to suddenly become sweet and loving towards me, but I had never heard her voice sound like that, at least not towards me. It was completely devoid of anything, fire or ice, all business with nothing else attached to it.
"Yeah, um..." I was going to bring up last night or say something about her lack of emotion, but I couldn't think of anything to continue with and after a moment passed without me being able to form some sort of statement or question she cut off any chance I had of addressing it first.
"I have a contract for you. You will find the contact in Solitude, an imperial guard by the name of Sigrid Servis. It will be a relatively easy target to complete, assissinate the captain, who has a known habit of taking strolls down and around the mountain alone, and she will be promoted to the postion, she believes. A simple push should suffice, if you should chose to not draw attention to yourself and make it obvious that it was murder, rather than simple clumsiness. The captain is scheduled to make a trip to Windhelm in a weeks time and will be scheduled to be there for several weeks, so unless you want to have to follow him and figure out how to deal with him there, you should head out immediately." It took me a second to register what exactly she was telling me and when it finally hit me, my jaw dropped.
"So... You're just going to send me away? Just like that?" Her stare never wavered from the sharp, uncaring gaze as I stared back increduclously.
"Of course. I meant to give you this assignment last night, but then there's was that incident with Cicero. As a professional, you understand your duty is to be ready for anything at any time despite any situation." The silence that followed had an air of devastating finality.
"So... That's it then? You're just going to use me like a whore and cast me out once you've had your fill of me?" I tried to be angry, tried to sound strong despite the situation, but my voice came out weak and small, broken and, strangely... resigned.
"There's little point in treating you as anything other than exactly what you have proven yourself to be." The words didn't sting, they burned. They curled into a spot in my chest and ached and cried and burned everything around them as I turned and fled from the sanctuary.
*Sigh*OhAstrid,WhyYouMakeThingsDifficult?
And that, my lovelies, is chapter 1 of Forever Better. Hope you all enjoyed this more than BTTNM:XO, I know I did, and I will, hopefully, see you in the next chapter.
