(The main characters name, "Veristek" I made up out of the words Ver, meaning 'curse' in German, and Istek, meaning 'mind' in Hungarian. Just thought I should clear that up.)
Veri slowly awoke to a dimly lit room. More of a cave, actually. She was still regaining her senses, when she realized she was not alone in the room. She moved her eyes to her right side, and saw an Argonian man sitting and reading to himself. On her left was a young girl, about her age but older. Way older. Something about her... She looked like a ten year old, and yet, the way she looked and moved, she seemed hundreds of years older than her body. Veri noticed she wasn't laying on the ground or a pile of hay, but in a bed. Tucked under a blanket of skins. She was too hot under the blankets, but was too afraid to move.
The Argonian man looked up at her from his book. Nonchalantly, the young looking girl yelled out, "Astrid, she's awake". Veri was still terrifyed. Then she realized where she was. "By the Nines! This... This is the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary!", she blurted out. Veri frowned. Her voice was scratchy and her throat was sore. The woman she had seen before came in to the room, but without her cowl this time. She was attractive, and just as amused as she had been in the Gullfaust house, but now she had... kindness, of all things, in her eyes.
"Well, well. Look who's finally awake.", said the woman. Veri just stared. "I'm Astrid. This is Babette,"she said, pointing to the girl," and this is Veezara", she pointed to the Argonian. "Now, child, who are you?" Veri relaxed a little. If they were asking who she was, that probably meant they weren't going to kill her. At least, it means no one had a contract on her. But why would they? She's been living in a cellar and hiding in caves for the past few years. "My... My name is Veristek.", Veri croaked out, "Veri". "Well, Veri, do you know why you're here?", Astrid asked her, walking back and forth with her hands behind her back.
"Are... Are you going to kill me?", Veri croaked, terrified. Those in the room laughed. Astrid wiped tears from her eyes from laughing so hard. "On the contrary! You're here, because of what you did to my contract. As you already know, the Gullfausts were nasty old pinch pennies. Some people in the town didn't like their prices, or their attitudes, so they got us to deal with them, the whole family. It was a good deal too, they all scraped up quite a bit to compensate. And I was almost done, when you came in. The other four kids dropped, and neither of us even touched them."
Astrid leaned over and rested her hands on the bottom of the bed. "What exactly, did you do?" Veri searched for a way to explain. "I was born with it, I was cursed with it. I... I can kill and destroy by a whim. I... I never mean it to happen! It just gets so loud and I want it to stop, and it does!", Veri told her in tears. "It's brought me nothing but misery... It cost me my family... I don't want to be this!" Veri couldn't stop crying, and the words were just spilling out. Some of it was coherent, but most of it was almost impossible to understand. Veri tried to stop her tears. Astrid put her hand on Veri's arm.
Babette rolled her eyes. Emotions. Veri was even more afraid now. She had shown she was weak in the presence of trained killers. She must've had panic in her eyes, because then Astrid spoke softly, and a little too sweetly. "Veri, we aren't going to hurt you. Infact, i'm willing to strike a deal with you. You can stay with us, be part of the family, if you become one of us." "Become... One of you? What do you mean?", Veri asked. She scrunched up her face again. Her throat was really starting to burn. Astrid smiled. "Babette, could you go tell Festus to make something for Veristeks throat?", she asked.
"Anything to get out of here.", Babette said sarcastically. Astrid turned back to Veri. "What I mean, is become part of the Dark Brotherhood. We could use someone with your particular... talents. You can think about it, but you only have an hour to do so.", she said, standing up straight. She already knew that Veri would say yes. What else could she do, after all. Like she was going to go back to living in rat holes and eating just barely enough to keep herself alive. Astrid hadn't even gone two feet out the door, when she heard Veri croak, "I'll do it!"
(Skipping forward)
Veri's throat was getting better. For awhile it had hurt so badly that she couldn't drink anything, but now it just felt rough. In the meantime, Astrid and Festus began training her. Or, trying to train her to use her powers. Every day, they sent her in a secluded area of the sanctuary, sealed it off, and put a live rat tied to a board in the room with her. They told her to try and kill the rat without touching it. Every day she'd get a one hour break in the noon, in which she met everyone, and even managed to make friends with Nazir, and Gabriella. Even Babette was warming up to her.
But she couldn't do it. Every day she went in, and failed to kill the rat.
(Skipping forward)
Veri concentrated on the bound rat in front of her. You can do it Veri! C'mon! She cheered herself on in her mind. She held her breath and stared it hard until her head hurt, let her breath go, and sighed in defeat. And then she realized how she could kill it. She took a breath, and glared at the rat. She wished it to stop breathing. The rat shook, trying to turn over, and went limp. She jumped up and did a little victory dance, picked up the dead rat, and pried the door open. She almost slammed in to Arnbjorn.
"What's the rush?", he asked. "I did it! I killed it! YES!" ,she said running backwards. She ran in to the main cave. She held the rat high over her head. "I did it! I killed it!", she yelled. Veezara jumped. "That's great, Veri! This is wonderful!", Astrid said, running over to her. She took the rat and poked it, to make sure was good and dead. "Excellent. This is a great start. But right now, if you're going to truly be one of us, you need to start some physical training. You know, sneaking, fighting, lying. That sort of thing. We, uh, might want to get in you in better shape first. Skin and bones isn't exactly a healthy, or attractive, type of body."
"You probably couldn't even do a somersault without snapping a rib.", Astrid said bluntly, waving the dead rat as she gestured. Veri looked down at her body. True, the rags she was wearing were almost slipping off, she was so thin. "You should probably get some real clothes, too. I don't think Babette likes you enough to share. I can take you to a nearby town. Oh! Or better yet, we can go to the Gullfaust house and bring back some of their clothes! The ones that aren't blood spattered, of course.", Astrid said, lighting up.
(Skipping forward, though only a little bit)
Something was strangely different about Astrid. She was nicer to Veri than everyone else, even her own husband. Of course, Arnbjorn was pretty nice to her too, which was also weird. They weren't like that the first few days she was with them, but after a month... They seemed to like her a lot. They reminded her of parents. She felt warm and safe around them, especially Astrid. She wondered if Astrid and Arnbjorn loved her too. But she was too afraid of rejection, and didn't ask.
Then she remembered; Astrid had been telling her to stop being such a coward, to speak her mind. She sucked in a breath. "Do you and Arnbjorn have any children.?" Astrid stopped walking, and looked at Veri. She looked... sad. Something that wasn't normally in her eyes. It didn't belong there. "No. I... We weren't able." She snapped her head to look in front of her. She muttered something, and didn't think Veri heard it. But she did. And she became truly happy for the first time in years. "We have you, though. We have you."
