My favourite questline in all of Skyrim just has to be the Thieves Guild one, especially the surprise I got during Speaking With Silence. Call me credulous,but I honestly never saw it coming. After I thought about it for a while, I realised what an intriguing character Karliah is and how little we actually know about her. How did she come to join the Guild? How did her relationship with Gallus begin? How did she survive after she was forced to leave the Guild?

Since nobody was about to answer those questions for me, I decided to answer them myself. Here is her life- from innocent child to Thieves Guild member, from Nightingale to runaway, from exile to hero. This is Karliah's story, from the very beginning, to the very end.

Please note- not all in-game dialogue will be accurate, and nor will all in-game events. Also, I've had to make up a large chunk of Karliah's past, for fairly obvious reasons. However, I've done as much research as possible. I will say at the start of each chapter how much is made up and how much is accurate.

I don't own anything here that was made by the game. But I stake my claim on the story itself.

I really hope you like it!

-Sky

Indigo Nightingale

Though lovers be lost, love shall not;

And death shall have no dominion.

- From And Death Shall Have No Dominion by Dylan Thomas

PROLOGUE

My name is Karliah.

But that tells you nothing about who I am.

Nobody knows who I am. Not really. Not even myself. Sometimes, I try to find a way of knowing myself, a name to go with me that says who I am in a way nothing else does. Nightingale. Thieves Guild member. Agent of Nocturnal. Gallus's lover. Outcast. Exile. Runaway. All of them are true, but none of them say who I am. Because the truth is- I don't know who I am. My life has been so harsh and difficult that I have had to change so many times in order to survive.

There was only ever one person who saw me for who I truly am. And he is long since gone.

I never know whether it makes me happy or sad to remember him. I think of his smile, his laugh, the roguish grin he always gave me before we went running into danger. I think of how, despite his scholarly face and manner, there was always a boyish twinkle in his eyes, a look of mischief that made you feel like anything was possible. I think of how we fell in love, how we swore allegiance to each other no matter what should happen to us. But as soon as I think of the good times, the bad times come back to me. Or rather, the single bad time. Down in that musty, dark tomb, over and over again in my mind, I see Mercer strike, see Gallus fall; hear his final cry echo through the darkness. 'Karliah!'

And I hear it suddenly cut short as Mercer plunges his sword into his back.

How many times I have hated myself for letting it happen. I should have realised; I should have done something to prevent it. I still remember the words Mercer and I shared as we faced each other after all those years:

'You always were a quick study.'

'Not quick enough, otherwise Gallus might still be alive.'

And it was true, horribly true. I should have known. I should have known.

But I didn't. And that changed everything.

Now, I start to hear Evergloam calling me. I know that it will not be long before I answer Nocturnal's summons. I do not fear to go. In fact, I welcome it. Some nights I dream of leaving this world behind, moving on to the next one. I am not afraid to do so, knowing that Gallus will be waiting for me there.

When I look back over my life, I often wonder what I could have done to change it. What could I have done better or worse? How could I have made a difference to what happened? Would I be happier now if I had? And most of all… would Gallus still be alive?

So many questions and so few answers.

I don't know if I am happy now. To be sure, Mercer is dead, the Nightingales are restored, and the Guild is flourishing under its new leadership. But can I ever truly be happy, without Gallus?

I doubt it. I gave my soul to Gallus, and part of it died along with him.

That is why I have to tell my story. Sometimes it seems that it almost happened to someone else, I feel so different now to who I was at first. But if I don't tell it, tell it all, every moment, leaving out nothing and saying everything- it will all be forgotten. And it mustn't be forgotten.

And maybe it'll help me, help me to work out who I am. Because I don't know. Even after all these years, after everything that's happened… I still don't know.

That is why I tell this story. Because then maybe, years after I have joined my beloved Gallus in Evergloam, you will chance upon it, on the altar where I left in in Nightingale Hall. You will wipe the dust from its cover, open it to this first page, and begin reading. You will read of how I made my journey, from the naïve young rogue who set out to join the Guild all that time ago, to the woman I am now, bent over this table, writing these words. You will read it, you will remember it. And once you have finished, you will set the book down and decide for yourself who I am.

I am Karliah. Granddaughter of Queen Barenziah and Drayven Indoril. Daughter of Dralsi Indoril. Thief. Archer. Nightingale.

Or am I?

That is for you to decide.