Aceriana looked the killer in the eye as she held him up by the fist full of his shirt. She was breathing heavily and had tears streaming down her cheeks. The murderer stared right back into her eyes with a glare that seemed to pierce her very soul. She shook him angrily and held her knife blade at his throat.
"Who sent you," she demanded through bared teeth.
A smirk crossed the dark elf's face. He tilted his head and looked at her face. "I'm not telling you, thief."
Aceriana raised her knife to his cheek and slowly cut a long line across his cheek. A deep red color of blood seeped from his dark skin. He winced and turned his face away.
"Let's try that again. Who sent you," she said again, placing the blade back on his neck. He felt the warmth of the blood on his neck.
He turned back to her and laughed weakly. "You must not have heard me. I'm not telling you."
Aceriana bared her teeth at him again as she threw him to the ground. He landed with a hard thud and she kneeled over him.
"Go ahead and kill me! That won't give you the answer either!" he taunted.
She raised the knife and hit him across the face with the hilt. "You call thieves lowlifes when you don't even value yours!" She drew back and hit him again. "We have a reason behind our profession unlike you, filth!" she yelled, hitting him. "At least we live our lives to the fullest! We smile, we laugh!" She stopped, her hand in the air, ready to strike again. "We love," she choked out.
For the first time, the dark elf's eyes widened in fear. Aceriana closed her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks. Her arm dropped back down to her side and she breathed in deeply. "And you ruined all of that." She lifted her arm again and opened her eyes, looking straight into his.
"Wait!" the elf yelled just before she was about to strike him with the blade. He sighed, closing his eyes. "Tarian Shadowsbane. He's in Markarth. He's...our leader. He had some sort of personal qualms with Kai'laj and wanted him disposed of."
Aceriana stared at him, her brain working to process what she just heard. She sat above the elf for several moments before picking him up by his robes again. She walked him to the door and pushed him out into the snow.
"Run," she said.
The elf wasted no time and scrambled in the snow to get to his feet, crawling several feet on his hands and knees before getting to his feet. He took off in the best run he could manage in the thick snow drifts.
Aceriana grabbed her bow and a single arrow from the quiver that was next to the door. She nocked the arrow and drew back, aiming between the elf's shoulder blades. She exhaled slowly, focusing on her target. The slight wind blew strands of her hair as she aimed. A final tear rolled down her cheek as she released the arrow. The elf dropped and disappeared into a puff snow.