With a pained gasp, a young woman quickly sits up in her bed. She finds it a little difficult to even her breathing out but after taking a few, shaky deep breaths she's able to relax a little more. It takes a while for her hands to stop shaking, and for the lingering pain from her nightmare to fade away but by then she knows sleep wouldn't return easily, and with reluctance, she lifts up the bundle of furs and steps out of her bed.
For as long as Brila could remember, her dreams have always been weird. Usually, they would involve a strange room made entirely out of stone and with little to no unique furniture. The only unique feature that she vaguely remembers seeing take the form of old tapestries bearing a single black hand print in the middle of them, and that's it. For reasons Brila couldn't understand, she couldn't find any record of the place, and anytime attempt to find out about the meaning of the symbol would usually result in a scolding from her mage she apprenticed under.
With a soft sigh, Brila runs a hand through her long and curly, honey colored hair. She couldn't remember the last time she began to think of home, and the life she ran away from. She knows that it's normal to feel homesickness, but she all she wants is to forget the life she used to have, and the misery that came with it.
After a moment of adjusting to the cold, unforgiving temperatures Brila puts on a fur lined set of robes over her nightgown and after slipping on some boots she steps out of her rented room to get something quick to eat. A quick bowl of tomato soup is enough to warm her up, and she takes a sweetroll before she goes for a walk around Windhelm.
As expected the icy wind blasts around her, catching the hood of her robes but barely managing to move it off of her head. Brila wonders why she's still in this wretched city as she passes by Rolff Stone-Fist. She can hear him bitterly muttering under his breath as she walks by him but gives the pathetic man no further thoughts. As infuriating as he is, his views weren't unique to the city; not to mention she didn't want to get into anymore trouble after beating him in a fight and breaking his arm.
As she walks, Brila hears the voices of two people; Curiosity gets the better of her, and Brila decides to listen in on the conversation, only briefly peeking around the corner to see who's talking. A young boy with medium length sandy brown hair, with a Dunmer woman stand in front of an abandoned home as the young boy tries to move closer to the door. The Dunmer woman tries to stop him, but the young boy persists.
"Then it's true, what everyone is saying? That Aventus Aretino is doing the Black Sacrament? Trying to summon the Dark Brotherhood?" The boy asks as his hand lingers near the worn out looking door.
"Oh, Grimvar... always with the nonsense. No, no, of course not. Those are just tales..." the Dunmer replies as she tries to dissuade the boy from entering a potentially dangerous situation. There's a small pause before the boy turns away from her, ready to disobey.
"Fine." He finally replies. "Then I'll invite him out to play. He lives right there. I'm going to knock on his door..." right as he's about to knock on the door the Dunmer woman yells at him to stop.
"No, child! Wait!" Her voice becomes panicked. "That boy, that house - they're cursed." Brila peeks around the corner again, and notices the Dunmer woman looks terrified and her red eyes widen as she tries to figure out a way to keep the child from going into the house.
"Ha! Then I'm right. I knew it. He's trying to have somebody killed!"
The woman lets out a sigh before finally answering. "All right. I won't deny it, child. What you heard is true. But Aventus Aretino walks a dark path. His actions can lead only to ruin. Now, enough. We will speak no more of this. I am the only friend you need" The boy is disappointed, that much Brila can tell, but he doesn't attempt to go into the house and soon the voices became more and more distant until Brila couldn't hear them anymore.
It takes a quick look to confirm that the boy and woman are no longer there, and after convincing herself that she needs to see if there really is a child in the abandoned house, she sneaks up to the door, crouches down, and picks the lock. When the door clicks open, she lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She looks around to make sure no guards are around and then slips into the residence.
When she slips into the house, a horrible stench hits her and she's forced to cover her mouth to keep from feeling sick. The house looks even worse on the inside with dust covering everything and thick cobwebs covering a few of the ceiling corners. A few steps creak as she puts weight on it, but other than that, it's not as bad as she expected. She would have avoided going further into the home, but the weak voice of a child is enough to force her to stay.
"Please... How long must I do this?" something in the voice breaks her heart. "I keep praying, Night Mother. Why won't you answer me?" she walks up the stairs and is soon met by the sight of something she didn't expect. A young boy kneels on the ground as he stabs into a skeleton, organs, and bits of skin. The only source of light, candles arranged in a circle, illuminate his figure, revealing how pale and sickly he looks.
"What are you doing?" Brila asks as she moves closer to the child. He stops in the midst of stabbing the floor and looks up at her, before his eyes widen in surprise. That surprise is soon replaced by a look of pure joy.
"You've come at last." His voice sounds a little raspy and worn out, but he manages to continue speaking. "I knew you would!"
"Are you alright?" She tries to approach this as cautiously as possible. Knowing the child wasn't taking care of himself, there wasn't a doubt that he wasn't in the best place physically or emotionally.
"It worked! I knew you'd come, I just knew it!" the boy gets up and dusts himself off before continuing. "I did the Black Sacrament, over and over. With the body, and the...the things. And then you came! An assassin from the Dark Brotherhood."
"I'm sorry boy, but I'm not who you think I am." Yes, Brila has heard of the Dark Brotherhood, but only brief whispers of it from the various people who worked for her family, back during her life as the daughter of a noble family.
"Or course you are!" he argues. "I prayed, and you came, and now you'll accept my contract!" A contract? This catches Brila's attention. She asks him about it and he answers. "My mother, she...she died. I...I'm all alone now. So they sent me to that terrible orphanage in Riften. Honorhall. The headmistress is an evil, cruel woman. They call her Grelod the Kind. But she's not kind. She's terrible. To all of us." tears start to form in the poor boy's eyes as he explains his situation to Brila. "So I ran away, and came home. And performed the Black Sacrament. Now you're here! And you can kill Grelod the kind!"
The tears of a child; that's all it took to convince Brila, the dragonborn, to go kill Grelod "the kind".