I do not own Elder Scrolls V: Skryim, just Hainin Marshal.

"Gods be good," Hainin gasped. "Where in the Void could this place possibly be?"

It was already starting to grow dark, and the two assassin had spent the last two hours trying to locate the entrance to Dayspring Canyon. They had no idea where it could be; they had been scanning the mountain it was found in to no avail. It seemed like it didn't exist.

"Sithis's blood!" Hainin exclaimed when he ran into Nazir. The two had decided to circle the mountain in opposite directions, and, apparently, the Redguard hadn't found anything, either. "This is getting out of hand."

"I agree," Nazir answered, giving the mountain side a glare. "This is absolutely atrocious. Where could it be?"

Hainin threw up his hands, and the Redguard glowered.

"Well, damn," he muttered. "Soon we won't be able to see anything at all, let alone an entrance to a canyon that doesn't exist!"

Hainin cursed under his breath. "We're going to have to make camp until we can look for it again," he said, annoyed. "We'll never be able to find it in the darkness."

Nazir merely dropped the pack he was wearing onto the ground. "It appears that's our only option, doesn't it?" he asked, beginning to sound more defeated that angry.

Hainin couldn't blame him for how he was acting. They were both exhausted, and, if Nazir was anything like Hainin, the Redguard also had a headache that was constantly stabbing the area above his left eyebrow. The Listener wanted nothing more than to curl up under his warm green blanket back at the Dawnstar Sanctuary and fall asleep, but since he was halfway across Skyrim from his warm green blanket and the Dawnstar Sanctuary, his only other option was to join Nazir in laying out the bedrolls.

He chose to do that rather than complain about having to pause the search, since setting up camp had been his idea. He pulled off his own pack with a sigh and crouched down to search inside of it. Nazir walked past him as he did so, a hand brushing through Hainin's hair as he strolled by.

Hainin gave him a look, curious.

"What was that?" he queried, watching the Redguard squat down and gather some stones together to make a fire pit.

Nazir smiled. "You ever think of cutting it off?" he teased, chuckling.

Hainin frowned, his brow furrowing instantly. "Hey," he warned, reaching up to protect his hair with his hand. "Don't you even go there; I need my hair."

He pulled out his bedroll and tossed it to the other assassin. Nazir caught it easily and unrolled beside his own next to the fire pit.

Hainin turned to gather some branches to get a fire going. He felt Nazir's eyes on him as he flashed a fire spell at the pile he formed after a moment. The branches and pine needles instantly caught the flames, and a fire was burning brightly before them a few seconds later.

"Where'd you learn that?" Nazir asked him as Hainin joined him on top of the bedrolls. When the Imperial lifted an eyebrow at him, the Redguard gestured to the fire, and then to Hainin's hand.

Hainin sighed sadly and clenched his fist. "Festus taught me a few spells."

Nazir shifted his gaze to the fire at the old wizard's name. Hainin bowed his head, biting his lip. "I miss them, y'know?" he asked quietly. Nazir nodded in understanding, and Hainin snorted. "Funny, thinking about it after all this time."

"You don't?" Nazir questioned, glancing in his direction.

Hainin shrugged. "Not if I can avoid it. Brings up too many memories. I've already cried enough over it; no reason to dwell on what happened."

Nazir nodded, though clearly he didn't agree with Hainin's view on the matter. The Imperial lifted his eyes to him, waiting. The Redguard indeed spoke up: "It doesn't mean we can't think about it, though. It wasn't our fault whatsoever."

"It was mine," Hainin said quietly.

"Hay -"

"It was, Nazir. Astrid wanted me dead because I'm the Listener. Her death wish on me set the whole chain of events in motion. My joining the Family caused everything." He laid down on his back, gazing up at the sky. "Do you know what that feels like? To carry around that sort of thing on your shoulders? It makes me wonder how I'm able to come back to the Sanctuary after I finish a job and look Babette in the eye, knowing I killed her Family."

He turned his head towards Nazir. "It's even worse with you."

"Hainin, it wasn't your fault," Nazir attempted. "Astrid let her need for power infest her mind. She went to desperate measures to make sure she didn't lose the control over the Brotherhood she had, and she lost it because of that. She lost everything, and everyone, because she was worried she would be kicked out of her position as queen."

He reached over and touched Hainin's knee. "You had nothing to do with Astrid's obsession. I promise you that neither I nor Babette blame you for the loss of the Family," he swore gently.

Hainin forced a grateful smile, though Nazir knew him well enough to know when he was faking. The Redguard ignored it, and Hainin scooted closer to him. Nazir grinned slightly and pulled Hainin's head down into his lap.

The two gazed silently at the red-orange flames before them for a long while.

After a bit, Hainin grinned and looked up at Nazir. The Redguard felt his eyes and glanced down.

"What are you smirking about?" he asked.

Hainin didn't stop grinning. Without a word, he drew his dagger from its scabbard and, in one quick motion, sliced off Nazir's beard just above the gold ring.

The Redguard cursed in surprise as Hainin held up the hair between his thumb and pointer finger, laughing.

"You look so much better already!" he said.

Nazir ripped the beard from his fingers, and then held it gingerly in his hand. "I can't believe you did that," he mumbled, too dumbfounded to be angry.

Hainin sat up, still laughing. "What did you expect to happen when I pulled out my dagger?" he asked, sliding the weapon back into its scabbard.

Nazir sighed sadly and slid the gold ring from the fallen beard before he tossed the dark hair into the fire. He reached up and scratched at the remaining facial hair, and glanced at Hainin.

The Listener sighed before pulling his dagger out once more. He pushed Nazir down onto his back and straddled him, reaching for one of the water skins he had taken from his pack. He splashed some water onto Nazir's face and then some onto the blade.

He held up the dagger, glancing down at Nazir. "Don't worry," he said. "I do this all the time. You're going to look very nice."

Slowly, carefully, he started to clean up the remainder of Nazir's facial hair. Nazir gazed up at him, brows drawn together unhappily.

"I'm annoyed with you," he informed the Imperial.

Hainin grinned, not looking up from his work. "I don't care. You're going to look better."

It didn't take long to shave him, and within a few minutes, Nazir's face was cleaned up. Hainin smiled at his success and nodded appreciatively.

"Yes, I knew it. You're definitely the most handsome man I've ever met now. Well, other than myself, of course."

He climbed off of the Redguard and wiped his dagger on a grass. Nazir sat up and touched his chin and cheeks. Hainin had left a thin layer of dark stubble that would grow out and need to be shaved again, but it gave Nazir a very attractive, dark look to him. Much better than that unneeded clump of hair that had originally dangled from his chin.

Nazir let out a breath and looked at him. "Are you sure?" he queried.

Hainin nodded reassuringly. "Of course. I wouldn't have done it otherwise. Don't you trust me?"

"Not anymore," the Redguard responded. He held up the gold ring, the only thing that remained of his original style. "If we get home and Babette laughs at me, I'm cutting off your hair."

"Good luck with that!" Hainin chortled. He put his dagger away and crawled back over to where his bedroll awaited.

Before he could reach it, however, Nazir grabbed the back of his armor and pulled him to a halt. Hainin glanced back at him. "What?"

"I'm not finished," Nazir responded. He tugged on Hainin's belt insistently, and the Imperial slid backwards toward him. He leaned his head back, and Nazir frowned at him. "You really don't deserve this, you know that?"

In answer, Hainin reached up and put a hand on the back of Nazir's neck to pull his lips down, leaning up on his opposite elbow to meet the Redguard halfway. Before their lips could touch, however, there was the click of something metal, and the sound of heavy boots on the foliage around them.

"Don't move," someone commanded gruffly. "There are four of us here, and all of us are holding machines that you won't even begin to understand. Each machine can easily kill you in one shot, and that's all you need to know. If you would like to stay alive, I would suggest staying still."

Hainin groaned against Nazir's lips, annoyed. "Of course," he sighed. "Someone always interrupts just when the fun part it about to begin."

After being yanked to their feet by two burly characters in leather armor, and having their wrists bound, Hainin was shoved along behind Nazir into a cave that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere in the side of the mountain. As soon as they had passed through it to the other side and into the darkened canyon, the Listener cursed rather loudly.

"Of course, we can't find it by ourselves," he said, "but when someone comes and takes us prisoner, we have no problem!"

"Quiet." The leader of the band of Dawnguard that had found them outside the canyon gave him a glare. "No talking."

Hainin returned the glare, still annoyed. "How about you let us explain what we're doing here, and then decide whether or not you want to keep us tied up like this." He held up his bound hands.

"Hainin," Nazir warned, glancing over his shoulder at him. "Please stop talking."

The Imperial frowned at him, but closed his mouth all the same. The troupe of Dawnguard marched them down the canyon in silence. Hainin gazed around, though he couldn't see much considering the moons were both thin claws in the sky overhead and there was barely any light leaking down into the canyon.

They walked on for quite a bit of time in silence, until Hainin caught sight of a giant, dark form in the distance. His eyes widened. "Is that -?"

"Fort Dawnguard," one of the Dawnguard confirmed. "Isran has been fixing it up and making it suitable to our needs for a few months now."

"Shut up!" his leader ordered, whacking him over the head with the back of his hand. "What did I tell you before?"

The Dawnguard bowed his head. "We're not supposed to say anything to anyone outside the canyon," he said quietly.

"That's the thing, though!" Hainin exclaimed. He pulled against the rope around his wrists. "We're here to help you with the vampires!"

Immediately, the leader grabbed the front of his armor and pulled him abruptly to a halt. "What do you know about vampires?" he hissed, leering into Hainin's face.

The Imperial pushed the Breton away half-heartedly and, again, held up his hands. "Take these off and then we'll talk," he muttered.

The Breton growled deep in his throat and pushed him back in line. "If you won't talk to me, perhaps you'll talk to Isran," he threatened.

"Oh, I'm quaking in my boots!" Hainin responded before he spat at the Breton's feet.

"You -" The Breton began, but a female Bosmer reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Celann, he's not worth it," she told him softly.

Celann glared at Hainin a moment longer before he merely snorted and tightened his grip on the machine he was holding. "Let's keep going," he said to the others.

The Bosmer glanced at Hainin, and he lowered his gaze to the ground, annoyed. He would've gladly taken whatever Celann had thrown at him, just so he would have been able to return it.

Nazir turned to look at him as Hainin picked up his pace, and the Redguard narrowed his eyes.

"What is your problem?" he demanded quietly but angrily. "You're going to make these people hate us before we even have a chance to explain what we're doing here!"

"They're not giving us a chance!" Hainin retorted in a sharp whisper. "How are we supposed to explain we want to help them when they aren't letting us?"

"Just keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking from here on, all right?" Nazir questioned, facing forward. "Do what you do best: sit back and listen."

"Excuse you?" Hainin asked, taken back.

"You heard me," Nazir replied. "Shut up and don't say anything else."

Hainin inhaled sharply and was about to retort when Celann called for the party to halt. He almost ran into the Nord who had been saying too much, but he stopped just before he did so.

"What now?" he said to the Breton.

Celann didn't look at him, but merely gestured forward with his weapon. Hainin turned his gaze to where he was pointing and let out a low whistle. They were standing in front of Fort Dawnguard. The giant gray stone building loomed up above the walls of the canyon, its many towers giving it the look of a castle more than that of a fort.

"By the Sands," Nazir said from beside him.

"Pretty nice, huh?" the Nord in front of Hainin asked, grinning.

"It's huge."

"Yes, it is," Celann agreed, "similar to the size of the problem you're going to be facing as soon as we go inside. Come on."

Hainin couldn't resist an eye roll as the Breton walked up the stone stairs and tugged on the handle of one of the big double doors. It opened towards them with a subtle screeching sound. Hainin flinched.

"Welcome to Fort Dawnguard," the Bosmer said, giving both assassins a small smile as she pushed them up the stairs.

Hainin and Nazir stepped into the fort at the same time, and Hainin's eyes went wide. "By the Eight," he said quietly in awe.

The room they had stepped into was giant and domed. Weak moonlight filtered in from the giant window on the ceiling, and several halls were cut into the walls and marked with tall columns. Hainin literally had to spin around in a circle before he could speak again.

"This place is… enormous."

"Yes, it is," someone agreed from behind him. Hainin turned to see a Redguard walk out from one of the side halls with stairs at the end. He approached the group in the center of the room slowly, eyeing the assassins all the while.

When he reached them, he stopped and glanced from Nazir to Hainin and back again before looking at Celann. "I see you were right, and I was wrong."

"You owe me some ale, old friend," Celann replied. He shoved Hainin forward towards the Redguard. "This one has been giving me some trouble."

"Isran, I assume?" Hainin asked, straightening. When the Redguard merely stared at him, he nodded to his hands. "I would shake, but I'm a bit tied up."

Isran wasn't amused by the joke. He ignored Hainin and turned to Nazir. "What are you doing in Fort Dawnguard?" he questioned.

Nazir shrugged his shoulders. "Why don't you ask your friends? They're the ones that brought us here."

Isran's eyes narrowed. "I had hoped that you'd be smarter than your friend here, seeing as how you are also Redguard, but it seems my thought was wrong," he muttered darkly. "I want to know why you were outside the canyon."

Nazir looked at Hainin. The Imperial lifted an eyebrow. "He's asking you, Red."

"We're here to learn more about the vampire problem," Nazir said to Isran.

The Redguard cocked his head. "What do you know of the vampires?"

"Not much," Nazir responded. "Hainin was in Morthal when a vampire attacked his horse in a clearing outside the city."

Celann glanced at Isran. "They're getting bolder," he murmured.

"So I'm hearing," Isran replied. The Redguard turned and walked off a few paces, hands behind his back. "A while ago, when I was still a Vigilant of Stendarr, my family was murdered by vampire cultists. Celann lost his family as well. We tried to get the others to see vampires were a problem, but the Vigil thought my methods were slightly extreme."

"We left the order to form our own partnership, but it didn't last," Celann went on. "I didn't agree with some of what Isran was doing, either."

Isran turned back around to face them. "A few months ago, a group of vampires attacked the Nightgate Inn in the Pale. I was staying there at the time. They came out in daylight, something I had never seen vampires do before. It was as if they didn't fear the sun in the same way they had."

"What happened?" Hainin asked.

"I managed to kill two, but the others ran off before I could do anything about them. A few days later, I heard about another attack in the Rift, near Ivarstead. A pair of hunters were found slaughtered on the side of the road, teeth marks and claw marks marring their bodies," Isran said.

"Isran contacted me about the attacks. I had already heard about them myself," Celann added. "We decided it was high time to do something about the demons, and so we aimed to start the Dawnguard." He held out his hands, odd mechanical weapon in one. "This is what we've accomplished so far."

Hainin glanced at Nazir. The Redguard was gazing at Isran. "What do you plan on doing about them?" he queried.

"We plan on finding out where they're hiding and killing them at the source," Isran answered. "Unfortunately, we haven't heard anything new in a while. At least, until you arrived with news of another attack."

"So close to a city," the Bosmer said quietly. She glanced at her commanders. "Do you think it's near Morthal?"

Isran shook his head. "They may attack close to a city, but vampires wouldn't set up near humans unless necessary."

"So you think they're far from civilization?" Hainin frowned. "Where could that be?"

"Probably on some undiscovered island somewhere," Celann said.

"Isran, don't forget about Brother Tolan," the Nord said. They all turned to look at him, and he lifted his shoulders. "Vampires attacked the Hall of the Vigilant, too. He spoke with you this morning."

"Ah yes," Isran agreed. "I meant to send someone to Dimhollow Crypt to find out just what the vampires are after, but I was busy after speaking with Tolan."

"Why don't you send these two?" Celann offered. He nodded to Hainin and Nazir. "The Imperial said they wanted to help."

"Ahah, I didn't mean that we were going to go sneaking through caves after vampires," Hainin interrupted. "I thought we could maybe go to wherever they were hiding and kill 'em all."

"Well, perhaps you'll find out where they are in Dimhollow," Isran replied.

He nodded to the Nord, who moved forward and undid the bindings on Hainin and Nazir's wrists. Isran folded his arms over his chest and watched as Hainin rubbed his wrists.

"You and your friend will go to Dimhollow Crypt and figure out whatever it was the vampires were after," he told him. "If you find anything, you are to bring the information to me at once. Do you understand?"

Hainin wanted to disagree, but Nazir stepped in front of him with a nod.

"Just give us a route and we'll be on our way." He passed Isran their map, and the Redguard walked off to mark it.

Hainin stepped around Nazir and glared at him. "What did I say before about tromping across Skyrim?" he hissed quietly.

"You said in search of potions," Nazir reminded him. "This is to figure out where the vampires are. We'll figure that out first, and then we'll deal with them with the help of our new friends.."

Before Hainin could argue further, Isran came back, map in hand. He handed it to Nazir, saying, "You can set off in the morning. For now, get some sleep. I have a feeling that the vampires aren't going to just let you stroll right into the cave."

The Redguard turned and walked away down the main hall, the other Dawnguard members following behind him. Hainin grabbed Nazir's robes before he could as well, and pulled him to a halt. "We're not going to get friendly with them," he warned.

"I don't want to," Nazir replied, "but they're offering us a place to sleep that's much warmer than outside, and I aim to see what it is."

He pulled his robes from Hainin's grasp and went after the Dawnguard. Hainin cursed under his breath in annoyance before following with a huff.

The fuckin' Dawnguard. They're okay sometimes, but I feel like they only like the people who are actually a part of their squad. They need to learn to be friendlier to outsiders.