It has been a week since Vicente went missing. Since he only went to the Imperial City and his target was still alive two days later, his disappearance was soon noticed. He was declared as missing three days after the expected time of his return to the Sanctuary.

It was no disaster, only another puzzle that baffled the Black Hand. The traitor has been more daring lately. In the beginning, the assassins simply disappeared. Then, the pattern altered; the bodies were left where they could easily be found. It was as though their enemy within wanted his or her presence to be acknowledged. So, why the sudden change of tactic again?

The search party found nothing except Vicente's horse in the Chestnut Handy Stables. No trace of the vampire was to be found. It could have been treated as yet another casualty that the Brotherhood suffered. Only, the timing seemed to be rather too convenient. Was it a mere co-incidence that Vicente went missing a week before the scheduled Purification when he survived two hundred years as a professional assassin? No Hand members related it to his person, but Lucien knew the question in everyone's mind.

Did you warn him, Brother?

It was merely another example of the painful fact that his colleagues had little faith in him. He was a Speaker of a treacherous Sanctuary, and that made his position nearly as precarious as his doomed subordinates. A Brother, he still was to his robed kin. For how much longer, he didn't know.

Lucien refused to dignify the unspoken accusation with an attempt to clear his name. It was no use, anyway. The Black Hand was not renowned for their fair and levelheaded judgements. Besides, what could he say? He suspected that Vicente's evaporation had been caused by … a kiss? Apart from the pleasure of seeing the stunned expressions of his colleagues, it would not have done him any favours.

It was during a fierce debate about the nature of Vicente's disappearance that their informant in the Imperial City finally came back with crucial information. A beggar had been trying to find a vendor for an Ebony Claymore. The story was that he had found the pricey weapon in the back alley near Elven Garden Sewers, next to a body that slowly melted away as the sun rose. There were two other witnesses, too. And all of them agreed that the deceased man in question looked like a vampire of Breton origin. The ruling council was rather happy to conclude that Vicente was dead. They had more pressing matters to concern themselves with, such as dealing with the rest of the potential traitors in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary. They could not afford another drawback like that.

And so, Lucien waits for the arrival of his future Silencer in a shadowy fort, which he made something closest to home. Somehow, he feels Vicente is still alive, and yet his failure to voice his misgivings to the Hand does not strike him as inexcusable omission. His duties compel him to see to it that the Purification must be performed, since a Speaker must be bound by the decisions of the ruling council. It isn't his fault that the Hand declared Vicente already dead and removed him from the list of the soon-to-be sacrificed. He will not apologize for the sense of relief that he does not have to order Vicente Valtieri's death.

The vampire assassin has been often in Lucien's thoughts. It isn't, however, till his eyes land on the blood-soaked blade of the intruder that he realises just how much he has valued Vicente. Perhaps, it isn't fair to call the Bosmer an Intruder since she is there because of his invitation. Nevertheless, Lucien cannot help but muse that Vicente would have left every single dark guardian of his intact. And when her excited, enthusiastic face turns pale with horror at the disclosure of what she is about to do, Lucien, somewhat bitterly, thinks how differently his vampire would have reacted to such news.

It isn't of course that difficult to persuade her to carry out his order. She is young, naïve, but ambitious. Most of all, she is eager to please Lucien. A scroll, a poisoned apple and a chaste kiss on her forehead are all that she needs to overcome her anxiety at the enormity of her task. The kiss is gentle and brief. Her heart swells with warmth and pride at the touch. She believes the gesture as an assurance of his affection.

Lucien, however, feels nothing of the sort. The kiss is blank and only magnifies the sense of loss that has come over him. He remembers another kiss, one that made him nearly lose his control. The one kiss that bore the mark of eternity. It annoys him that her presence only reminds him of what could have been and yet never will be. So, he tells her that she has no time to waste. When he is left again in the silence of his own company, he decides that he will not keep her close. He will send her away as soon as she comes back.

Weeks pass as flawlessly as they can. The Purification is complete. His Silencer has not disappointed him so far. She has proven herself as a cunning and ruthless killer, faithfully completing contract after contract without the support of a family. The Night Mother's keen interest in her seems to have been justified. The hollow feeling inside him, however, shows no sign of subsiding. A part of him is missing, and has been missing for a while. Unfortunately, it is the part that is only allowed to live when separated from him. Lucien therefore makes no effort to reclaim what is his.

Then, one morning, he wakes up to a faint whimper and finds his Silencer writhing next to him, tied and gagged. The sight should have been alarming, but it only brings a smile on his lips. There is only one person apart from himself who could outsmart the Bosmer like that. And Vicente's present is certainly very suggestive, if nothing else.

The smile dies quickly as Lucien scans through the parchment artfully placed between his Silencer's thighs. His Dead Drop Order has been compromised. How far did she go? She didn't. She couldn't have. She could not have been stupid enough not to recognise his handwriting?

It turns out that she was. Fortunately for Lucien, she didn't have the opportunity to play a puppet for the traitor; she was attacked while trying to break into J'Ghasta's house. The Imperial finally breathes a sigh of relief. If he only suspected it before, Lucien now knows just what his kiss meant to Vicente.