Oblivion and characters belong to Bethesda. Nisarri belongs to me. Enjoy!
The hooded assassin winced at the smell of rotting flesh and blood as she enter the cellar, forcing her to cover her pink nose with a gloved hand. With Blade of Woe in hand, Nisarri crept deeper down to the sound of buzzing flies and the staircase opened to a box-cluttered room with dead bodies of a two sheep and a dog. Once the lighthouse keeper finds out about this mess, he's not going to rent it out any time soon! She hissed in disgust as she pressed forward, opened a door, and blinked her ice-blue eyes. She slowly approached what seemed to be an alter of a decomposed head. "What in Sithis…." the white and black stripped khajiit whispered. No one was home, but there had to be some proof of treachery. Anything to prove that Lucien Lachance was innocent of the murders of the members of the Black Hand!
She turned around and found a thick, green book on a side table beside a chair. Carefully, she picked it up and opened it to the first page. It was a diary written in red ink. Now seeing the handwriting, she felt like an idiot. It was the same handwriting from the dead drops! Even as the dead drops went on, so was his sanity unlike Lucien's calm demeanor. She shook her head, trying to shove the stupidity away. She was just doing her job as an assassin and the rest of the Black Hand knew that. Ignoring the handwriting, she began to read the diary and her eyes widened. By the very end, she slowly turned around and stared at the head of the traitor's mother– Lucien's contract from so long ago. This person was going to get his revenge by destroying the Dark Brotherhood, the Night Mother, and murdering Lucien. She closed the diary and hurried out of the cellar.
It was late afternoon when the assassin arrived at the Applewatch farm outside of Bruma. She practically jumped off before the black and red-eyed horse, Shadowmere, came to a halt and hurried inside the farm. She threw the door open and gasped in horror. She slowly crept forward to the hanging, nude, and torn body of Lucien Lachance with pools of blood everywhere on the floorboards. He was hanging by his feet with flesh torn from his body and arms tied behind his back. White ribs were visible from his left ribcage as his lower jaw was almost torn off. She covered her mouth with tears pricking from her eyes and the diary nearly slipped from her other hand. She didn't even notice the four other robed figures round her.
"Dear Speaker!"
Nisarri slowly turned around to an altmer woman, who had a joyful smile on her narrow face. "We are grateful you arrived! My name is Arquen. We have stopped the traitor Lucien Lachance! He was using you as a puppet to kill off the rest of the–"
"Shut up," the cat hissed, curling her lip, fighting the urge of striking the smile off the woman's face.
Arquen blinked, frowning. "What?"
"He was not the traitor!" she screamed. "He was framed!" She shoved the dairy at the woman. "This was found in the real traitor's hideout at the lighthouse in Anvil and you were the next target! He is still amongst us!" She snapped her gaze around and whipped her dagger out, looking at the three, horrified men.
"But, the dead drops…."
She spun back at the elf with a burning heart, who didn't open the diary yer. "They were lies! Lucien never wrote those!" She slipped a hand into her pouch and thrusted the last contract to her. "Here is the writing in comparison!" She roughly closed the pouch and turned back to the men, refusing to turn her back on the murderer another time.
There was a moment of silence, until Arquen slowly said, "I… I can't believe it. This… Oh, Lucien. What have we done? If it wasn't Lucien," the book landed on the floor with a thud and pulled out a sword, "then who was it?"
"Me."
Nisarri turned to a small man on her right. He was pale with dark rings around his hood-shrouded eyes.
"Mathieu?" Arquen whispered as the other two members removed their own swords.
"Yes." He slowly unsheathed his own dagger. "I was hoping to find out where the Night Mother was first, but I'm convinced I can make one of you talk. You bastards took everything from me!" He ran to the closest member and tried to stabbed him, but he blocked him with his sword.
Nisarri was practically shoved aside by Arquen who rushed with the third member with swords brandishing. She couldn't even move as the traitor's agony-filled screams rang through the house as blood pooled below their feet. She wanted join in for revenge for the fallen family, but her feet were planted to the floorboards. Blood of the traitor and the innocent joined as screams were drowned with blood. Then, the three surviving members stepped away as his bloody body collapsed to the floor, gasping for air as blood ran down his mouth. Arquen knelt down and began to carve his eyes out with his own dagger. He was too weak to even try to fight back as his body jolted, then stopped.
The altmer carefully rose to her feet and dropped a single eye onto the ground. "We need to go to the Night Mother tonight and begin the ritual of awakening," she lowly stated. "We need her help with our next step and… ask for forgiveness for our dear friend and brother, Lucien Lachance." She turned around and approached the kahjiit with heavy, green eyes. "Thank you, Speaker, for stopping this as soon as you can. If you did not have the diary, I fear more of us would have been lost. Meet us at Bravil at the Luck Old Lady. We…." she looked at Lucien's body, "must fix our wrongs and after the meeting with the Night Mother, a proper burial shall be served."
The assassin dipped her head. "I shall take off to Brail now." Before she took a step, she looked at the traitor's body with numerous stab wounds with the right eye hanging out of the socket and other on the floor. She turned her head and walked out of the farmhouse.
It was at a little after midnight when Nisarri stepped out of the Lonely Suitor Lodge just as her fellow companions entered the city's gates with Arquen at the lead. The four surviving members silently walked through the buildings to the Lucky Old Lady statue where Nisarri's heart sank as she looked to the left at one of the top floors of a house nearby where she pulled back her bow; striking and unknowingly killing the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood. She looked away in shame at the thought of being a pawn.
"Behold the Night Mother," Arquen quietly announced as the other members gathered around the front of the statue of a young woman. "Bellamont believed the Night Mother to be a living woman, but he was wrong. This statue masks the entrance to the Dark Brotherhood's most unholy site– the crypt of the Night Mother herself." She faced the statue and raised her head high. "Unholy Matron, we of the Black Hand beseech you! Reveal yourself now, most magnificent Night Mother, so that we may seek your guidance!"
Nisarri was in awe as the statue moved, turning into a hunched woman with boney hands and slid back, revealing a hole.
They all entered one by one with the kajiit last to follow. She carefully lowered herself into the depths of the crypt where it opened to a ring of several sarcophaguses and an alter of a skeleton carefully laid over it where a blue ghost in a dress was standing in front as if waiting.
"What is the meaning of this desecration?" the ghost hissed, folding her arms. "Who has disturbed my ancient slumber?"
"Dearest Night Mother!" Arquen cried. "Most Unholy Maiden! Please, we beg your mercy in this our time of need! The Black Hand seeks your guidance!"
"Ah, yes, I have been expecting you. The Listener now kneels by Sithis, as does his successor."
"Yes, we also ask for forgiveness. We did not know Lucien Lachance was not the traitor until it was too late, but Mathieu Bellamont has been slain! Anoint one of us as the Listener to restore the Black Hand!"
"Her!" She sternly pointed at the khajiit without breaking her gaze from the elf. "You stupid girl, it was about time that you believed that Lucien Lachance was loyal! If it wasn't for her, the rest of you would have died because of your naivety!" Her arm dropped. "She has done all she could to stop more betrayal from happening! I have been following Bellamont's path since the fateful day of the contract and I have been following her path." She released a breathless sigh. "Unfortunately, this was meant to happen." She turned her empty gaze to her. "Child, step forward."
Nisarri silently obeyed.
"I knew this day will come. I could've warned Ungolim of this day, but he was weak. Sithis has followed you since you were born and it is your destiny to lead this family." It seemed she was smiling like a proud mother. "I know a lot as happened, but you stopped Bellamont. Walk in the shadows and may Sithis guide you, child. Oh, one more thing. The Blade of Woe. May I see it?"
She silently removed the dagger from her hip and presented it on open palms.
The Night Mother placed a boney hand on the dagger and a red glow laminated onto the blade for a moment, then removed her hand. "This blade's power is now at its full potential, Listener." She softly smiled, looking her in the eyes. "Use it well."
The Cheydinhal Sanctuary was silent as the Dark Guardian's heavy steps wondered through the halls alone since the Purification of the previous family. Now wearing black robes, the Listener held her head high with the Blade of Woe at her hip. She refused to be soft as Ocheeva was, but will not rule this new family with an iron fist. She was going to look out for this family as the Night Mother does. Like a mother does. She will make sure the story of Mathieu Bellamont's betrayal will not be forgotten and how Lucien Lachance was loyal to Sithis till his dying breath. Her ice-blue eyes were cold as her heart, but when it came to her family, no one could not love them more as she did.