Hands bound in darkness chp 2
DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN SKYRIM OR ANY CONTENT THERE IN I DO OWN THE CONCEPT AND BACKGROUND OF TAMILIA.
Authors note: Well I know that I've been all over the place with this but I've made up my mind with it because inspiration struck me like a flaming meteor made of cheese.
P.S: I'm looking for a beta reader for this story so if anyone is interested please send me a P.M
"You want me to join the dark brotherhood?" she asked blinking as she digested the information.
"That's what I just asked wasn't it" the woman said glancing down at the blade pressed to her throat.
"Why me?" Tamilia growled wondering just how much trouble it would cause her to just kill this woman.
"Let's just say I was in Windhelm on, business when I saw someone falling from one of the widows of the jarls palace I was interested and when I arrived to where a smear on the cobble stone should be I find nothing so I looked around and found some very light tracks in the snow…" Astrid rambled on, she had been tracking her since WINDHELM well that was just grand so chances were that Astrid at least suspected her of being a child of night and blood, so this left her with only two possible outcomes to this, she could kill this woman and find a discreet place to hide the body, but she didn't want to tempt the wrath of the brotherhood, or she could accept her offer and use the brotherhoods resources' to her advantage she concluded before cutting Astrid off of her, self-congratulatory rant.
"I appreciate the offer but I'll be going my own way" she said even if she had to grit her teeth while saying it having the brotherhoods resources would be useful but she didn't want to be tied down.
Sighing the blond woman looked quite sad "Very well but if you ever reconsider, go to the inn in Falkreath, and ask for case of their finest wine and the basement room" she explained and Tamilia opened her mouth to reply but was cut short by a gruff voice coming from deeper in the ally.
"Yer coin or ya life" a robber in Riften, what a surprise Tamilia, thought when Astrid pulled her closer.
The words bought a smile to her face and she happily spun towards the man knocked the blade from his hands with a quick swipe before curling her other hand around his throat and squeezing until his legs quit kicking
The Daedric prince of madness was bored and that was a very dangerous thing because when the embodiment of insanity was bored he started doing strange things as stranger than normal, if anything Sheogorath, did could be seen as normal.
"HASKILL" He bellowed to his chamberlain who was standing not two meters away at the time.
"Yes my lord?"
"I'm bored" he said rapping his fingers on his throne.
"That is quite a conundrum my lord" relied dryly.
"I know I need soothing to do, tell me Haskill what can I do with all this time on my hands?" the prince of madness, and former champion of Cyrodiil pleaded grabbing the other man's shirt and hanging off it.
"Well my lord, you may choose to visit the mortal realm" Haskill suggested keeping stoic as ever even with his lord hanging off of him.
"That's INSANE" he shouted, before shooting up and standing on his feet" I LIKE IT!" Sheogorath declared, before a rubble revibrated around the room.
"But first PIE!, what do you think Haskill, how about a tongue pie, hmm now should it be a pie filled with tongue's or a tongue filled with pie" the madgod mused, walking off to the kitchen.
Tamilia, was walking through Riften's main gates, when someone brushed past her and for a brief moment she was wondering if she should, pull up the kid and throttle him for trying to pick her pockets, when she felt his hand leave something behind in her pouch.
Waiting until she had rented a cart ride to Ivarstead, she pulled the note from her pouch.
I have need of your services find the one named Hadvar we have reason to believe he is somewhere close to Shors stone kill him and you will be well paid.
The letter had Maven black briar's personnel seal on it how interesting, but she could hardly turn down a job from Maven if she wanted to get back into Riften for the next seventy years or so.
"You know Haskill, I love pie" the madgod mumbled happily, he always felt better after pie.
"Well you are quite fond of them my lord"
"Yes well best I be off I trust you can keep the place form falling apart while I'm away?" Sheogorath questioned his clothes shifting from his usual purple garb to a set of old leather armour under a dark hooded cloak, with a matching sword belt, it was the same set that he had worn back in his adventuring days.
"Now remember my liege, avoid letting your mortal shell destroyed, you don't want to have to reconstitute yourself again do you" Haskill drawled, one of the many wonderful perks of being a god is that you can't die but other gods could make you're existence a very painful one, so unless one of the other princes or one of the divines, decided to come after him, he didn't have much to worry about, however other Deadric artefacts would be a problem, if he ran into a mortal using them, but his body could still be destroyed not easily mind you but still it would take him a fair while to pull himself back together.
"I'll be fine Haskill, and I'll try to check in every once in a while" the mad god said summoning a portal, to the mortal realm, trying desperately to recall what name he used before his ascension it had been two hundred years after all.
It had taken her three days to get Hadvars location from the inn keeper in Shor's stone he had been holed up in Red belly mine a nasty little place full of spider's, it seemed that she was in the right place, since the whole town had been praising the Imperial that had cleared out the mine and was now living off of their generosity he sure knew how to pick places to stay low, a town where the people wouldn't shut up about him, idiot.
At the bottom of the shaft sat a small bed which basked in the light given off by lantern and there he lay her target, Hadvar sound asleep it couldn't be easier, she descended into the red mist, he was only a hands breadth away all she needed to do was reach out and draw her blade across his neck, but that wouldn't be any fun picking up a rock from the ground and tossed it at her target.
Hadvar drew his blade the moment he felt something hitting his side, throwing himself to the side he saw the one responsible for awakening him, an elf she was just a bit shorter than himself, she had wild eyes that blazed in the dim light, it took him a few moments to place her face she was the prisoner the one from the exsiccation, she didn't give him the time to think any further by clearing the space between them with a single leap, her twin elven daggers clashing with his sword, with force that he would not have thought she possessed, and as he began to push back she rushed forward her shoulder hitting him in the solar plexus and driving the wind from his lungs and pushing him back, stumbling Hadvar, struck out with his fist, which she nimbly dodged around, and at that moment he felt the tip of her blade graze the flesh of his arm but it pulled back as fast as it came, and he realised that she was playing with him, she danced back, grinning wickedly she circled his steps waiting.
"I remember you from that day when the dragon attacked Helgen, vampire" he spat he recalled now that she had drained one of the guards in the confusion, she simply smiled wider fully, exposing her now erect fangs, and if that sight alone was not unholy enough her eyes were no longer normal but hellish black pits, her skin was no longer a majestic bronze but a pale snow white.
Her father, her true father the one that had brought her into the night, he would be so disappointed in her if he could see her now.
After all he had always told her not to play with her food, but she couldn't resist putting on a show, after all she rarely had the chance to do so, but soon play time would be over she thought happily as she moved again slowly, she wasn't sure what she found more distasteful , him thinking that he still stood a chance or the look of disgust in his eyes, again she set upon him locking one of her blades with his and pressing the other to his throat, she looked into his eyes and growled urging him to do better before pushing him back, she retreated yet again.
"Come on when you last raised a blade against me I almost lost my head, what happened lose your balls?" Tamilia goaded but of course that had been during the day and she had been busy dodging dragon fire, Hadvar ignored the barb and positioned his feet into a proper battle stance.
"A shame that my stroke fell short, I would have removed one more ungodly thing from these lands" he retorted, at this she failed to contain her laughter.
"If you had killed me then you would have been responsible for the death of the world's only hope against the dragons" she said at Hadvars confused expression the idiot actual lowered his guard she helped him learn this mistake by sliding around a clumsy slash and cutting into his abdomen, hissing in pain he stubbled back and raised his sword again.
Growing tired of his continued defiance she dashed forward and knocked the blade from his hands, before grabbing both his arms and throwing him into the opposite wall.
It was time to end this little game, as she closed in on her mark he was lying on the ground motionless this was no fun but a jobs a jobs, she thought bitterly as she used her foot to flip him over so that he was on his back before placing that same foot on his throat and pressed down until she felt his wind pipe crunch under the pressure.
Exiting the mine Tamilia mulled over her new relationship with the brotherhood she couldn't afford too much direct contact with them after all in the assassination business it paid off to be paranoid, but if she could work out a deal with them where she could use their resources, in return she could do some jobs for them, but for now she would head to Whiterun check on Lydia possibly ask around about this Dawnguard she kept hearing whispers about before heading to sky haven temple to talk to Esbern about the elder scroll since the grey beards were still having a fit about her being a vampire.
Ahhh Skyrim, where the air is fresh the grass is mostly green and the natives are oppressed.
Looking out upon the charred ruins of a town, and what a sight it was with the holes in the wall surrounding it, how interesting.
It took Sheogorath a while but the prince, found his way around politely asking one of the local bandits for directions he seemed much friendlier with a set of broken legs and seeing his comrades disembowelled, it seemed that the dragons had come back and some dragonborn had been running around slaying them, with that done he killed the man promising him a nice stay in oblivion.
Sheogorath, was feeling adventurous and this Whiterun seemed like an okay place and if he looked closely the madgod could see the slight magical aura of another Deadric prince so pulling his hood over his head he gathered his Magicka and cast the spell, it took a moment for the spell to take effect, but when it did he felt his bones popping and snapping in and out of place along with all his organs rearranging themselves as his overall size became smaller, his mouth forming into a beak and his arms becoming feathered wings sending a prickling sensation through them.
When the transformation was complete a black crow stood in the Daedras place before taking to the sky and flying to Whiterun.
And he got pretty close to the outskirts, and by pretty close that meant falling out of the sky in the middle of a giant camp thankfully they were all dozing in the late afternoon sun, which was ideal since full body transformation really took it out of him, bloody divines and there shields limiting his power.
And while the thought of hopping on the back of one of the mammoths did cross his mind he restrained himself and snuck out of their camp and continued onto Whiterun reminding himself not to act too out of place when he got there.
It was dusk when the daedra arrived at Whiterun's, main gates and he had to admire the pathway to the gate house they had was a very effective if they were planning on repelling invaders, it forced you to through two kill zones and get past a draw bridge, very nice not that it would stop him.
"Halt stranger, state you're business here in Whiterun" the guard demanded doing his best to sound menacing, the madgod was unimpressed.
"I'm just a humble traveller looking for a place to rest his old bones" he responded lifting his face just enough so his neatly trimmed grey beard and slightly wrinkled face were visible, a bit of homage to his predecessor, but the other good thing about his visage is mortals just saw a harmless old man.
"Very well old timer but we live in uncertain times, it pays to be wary of new faces" the guard said before letting him pass, now time to look and see which of his fellow daedra were here.
Following the other daedra's signature, Sheogorath found himself outside of a tavern called the bannered mare, and a grin came to his lips only one of the princes would be inside of a tavern he thought as he proceeded through the door, spotting the other man instantly a Breton wearing a dark brown robe sitting in the corner nursing a mug of mead.
The prince of madness walked over to the table siting down on a chair opposite his fellow daedra, before giving him a slight nudge rousing the other prince from his alcohol induced slumber.
It took him a few minutes of squinting and head shaking for 'Sam' to make out the man sitting across from him but when he did, he suddenly felt wide awake.
"MY FRIEND" he shouted gaining the attention of everyone else in the room as he awkwardly embraced the mad god.
"It has been too long, what are you doing here?" he asked happily, causing Sheogorath to crack a grin that was just a little too wide to be human.
"I'm on holiday's thought I'd drop in meet the sight's and see the people" he replied settling back into his seat, out of all the other deadric princes he got along with Sanguine the best, they were known to throw grand party's involving large amounts of wine and cheese.
"Fair enough things can get boring back home, ya know I envy you're position sometimes you know why, because you can do just about anything and get away with it by blaming it on being mad" Sam rambled into his mug a slight slur in his words making all his words seem drawn out.
Sheogorath just shrugged in response, it was true he was in some ways far less limited then the other daedra In terms of what he was allowed to get away with, like being able to pass into the mortal realm with far more ease then his fellow princes, but that was because he started out mortal and ascended later but dwelling on such things was boring and dull.
"So what have you been up to my mead loving friend?" he asked not that Sanguine needed much reason to be in a tavern.
"Weelllll there's this girl" he started looking back up from his drink.
"When isn't there a girl involved with you" Sheogorath quipped with a grin.
"NOnonono not like that this time I swear, no ya see this one that come's in every so often ya see she's" he looked around quickly before leaning in closer "the dragonborn" Sam whispered, how interesting.
"You do know that staking a claim on her soul would be kicking one hell of a hornets' nest" the madgod muttered softly when his fellow prince suddenly looked up and at the door.
"Specking of which her she comes" sanguine murmured, turning his head Sheogorath, watched as a Bosmer, walked through the tavern's doors.
She was just under six feet tall, bronze skin and a slight frame athletic, very graceful with the way she moved, she was wearing a cowl that concealed most of her face from his gaze, but with the quick glace that he had managed to catch, he saw a pair of golden bronze eyes and a face that could almost pass for human if she moved her hair to cover her ears.
So that's the dragonborn shouldn't she be off saving the world he wondered absently as she sat down at the bar and ordered a drink.
Deciding to take a closer look at her Sheogorath called a trickle of his power from the isles, directing it to his eye's, which suddenly became cloudy white.
He could defiantly see what his fellow daedra meant about being able to see her coming, like any other daedra or experienced magic user, he could 'see' the souls of the living, and the colour's that hers gave off were astounding, a mass of energies calmly swirling around her dipping twisting and dancing around her in a breath taking dance of colour, it was almost a shame that the rest of these mortal's couldn't appreciate it.
Then he spotted something off a blotch in the colour it was hard to make out but when he did it was unmistakeable, turning back to sanguine with a raised brow.
"She's been touched by one of our brother's?" he asked to which the prince of debauchery mouthed out the word 'Vampire' well that was news and he was about to ask how this may affect her world saving capabilities when a thundering roar boomed through the city followed by a yell.
"DRAGONS" wait did they just say dragons as in more than one, as a grin spread over the mad god's face the dragonborn cursed softly and disappeared, he didn't care it had been two centuries since he'd been able to fight like a mortal and slaying dragons seemed like a good place to start off on again.
"Excuse me brother, but I've got an itch that's been in need of a good scratch for the last two hundred years" he said before rushing out the door.
Dragon's great just fucking perfect, Tamilia had been in Whiterun barely half an hour when something happens and if just one fire spitting reptile wasn't enough she could hear two very distinct roars.
Scowling she slipped into the area just above the kitchen and summoned, her mask and her elven long bow, and bounding back down the stairs and bursting out of the door to see, a pair of dragons circling overhead, sling the bow off her back, notching one of her elven arrows, she sighted down the arrow taking the wind and where the dragon should be when the arrow reaches it, when the oversized reptile suddenly jolted on account of a massive fire ball exploding next to its wings.
"What in oblivion" she muttered watching as the dragon radically changed course to focus on the one that had thrown the spell at it.
Scanning the streets she quickly spotted a man In a dark cloak near the main gate, in one hand he held what she assumed was a steel blade, and while that in itself was not remarkable the faint glow emanating from it was clearly indicating it was enchanted, as for his other hand it was held away from his body with flames crackling wildly in his palm, no doubt about it he was spell sword, if the studded leather was any indication, all in all an odd mix, but she shook her head and aimed at the other dragon, it's blue white scales painting an easy target against the black night sky, Tamilia stilled her breathing and focused on her target blocking everything else out, before loosening the arrow and watching as it fly and struck the dragon's wing causing it to roar in pain and fury, before circling around and diving straight at her.
Sheogorath was having so much fun, tormenting the flying lizard that only now did he notice that the other one had peeled off and souring towards some woman in front of the tavern the same woman from earlier the dragonborn, well she could take care of herself if her reputation was anything to go by.
Dismissing the woman from his mind he looked back up at the dragon that was coming back for another pass to try and burn him to death, you'd think that after the fifth time it would try to change tactics since his ward spells were more than strong enough to hold that nasty fire breath at bay.
Sighing the mad god threw another fireball at it this one scoring the scales around its head, growing a little peeved at its reluctance to die Sheogorath quickly shook his hand dismissing the flame before it began to crackle with lightning waiting as the beast came swooping down in an attempt to swallow him, the key word being attempt, as he swiftly moved out of the way before swiping at it with his blade which hit a spot between the scales and nicked the flesh underneath, grinning the madgod watched as the dragon suddenly froze up and crashed into the ground paralysed, grinning he took his chance and leapt upon it head and thrust his free hand down feeding lightning directly into the dragons brain, watching as the creature jerked and twitched as it's brain melted within its skull, while its eyes began to smoke he finely stopped and looked around to see a pile of dragon bones up near the inn and a very surprised dragonborn looking up at him, yes this would be an interesting trip.
"WHAT IN OBLIVION DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHO?!" roared Galmar throwing an axe across the table at the unlucky guard who barely dodged the flying blade, and repeated what he just said.
"I mean that we have no leads as to who killed your brother sir" preparing to move if the man threw something else at him, before Galmar could respond Ulfric, came in drawn by the sound of crashing steel.
"Galmar what is this?" he asked seemingly unfazed by his right hand being absolutely livid, he had been this way for days which had been understandable with his brothers murder, but his blind rage was becoming a problem.
"Guard tell me what the examination turned up?" Ulfric barked hoping that the priestess autopsy could shed some light on these events.
"No other marks were found besides the ones on his neck there's no question we're dealing with a vampire milord" he said bowing his head as saying so brought him shame.
"Then we have a clear goal, send word to all our allies, we need a vampire hunter"
A/N: for those of you wondering Tamilia is NOT in any of the guilds associated yes part of no she looks out for herself mostly and the mad god is looking for something to alleviate the boredom kay on the other hand cheers for the support folks.