Farewell
I opened the door to the Applewatch farm, and I was greeted by a familiar scene. His corpse still hung from the rafters, and his blood still covered the floor. I felt the familiar catch in my throat, the same catch that surfaced when I first discovered him.
"It shouldn't have ended like this…" I whispered, "You shouldn't have died…"
It was my fault, I realised. It was my fault that he had died. I knew that those orders were fake, I knew it in my heart, but I kept following them, slowly murdering my fellow assassins. Until he stopped me. He sent me to find out who the traitor was, but I was too late. The remaining members of the Black Hand found him before I could return. He didn't stand a chance against them. I had lost my Speaker, my mentor, my friend? Maybe. He was gone because of me.
"I'm sorry…" I whispered
I looked over the scene once more before setting to my task.
It had been almost two years since I had been anywhere near the Inn of Ill Omen, the place where it all began. It seemed only fitting, for him to be seen off here. The logs were stacked high, waiting to be burnt. Three bodies lay at the bottom of the pyre. The three freshly murdered corpses of the innkeeper, his wife, and a legionnaire, their blood still flowing from their wounds.
"They will accompany you to the void…" I said to the body, resting, on the top of the pyre.
He had only ever given me three things, it was only right to return the ones I could. I placed the poisoned apple on the left side of his head, and my dagger, the Blade of Woe, on his right. I couldn't return his third gift, the lovely steed Shadowmere, which is why two dead horses, lay at the foot of the pyre.
I held my torch high and stepped up to the pyre. The dried twigs caught easily, and the flames climbed higher and higher up the spire.
I stepped back from the flames as the consumed his body, and carried his soul to the void. I hated the other Speakers for what they did to him, and I hated the Night Mother for allowing them, but he would want me to serve. Serve the Dread Father, and the Night Mother for the rest of my days. And I will, I will serve the Dark Brotherhood as Listener until my dying breath, for him, and only him.
"Goodbye. Lucien Lachance…" I said, as the flame consumed him.
Farewell, my Listener…