Of Love and Death

A Dark Brotherhood Tale


Karine's plan was to start in Bruma then go to Chorrol, then to Anvil. If nothing panned out in those towns she'd then go to Skingrad, by that point enough time would probably passed that she could go back to the Imperial City then Leyawiin. Lucien had reluctantly agreed to her plan of action.

"I'll be sending updates to you through my little messenger," Karine said as she got ready to leave. A day and a half had passed now and she was restless to get out there and do something. She figured by now she had rested long enough to placate Lucien.

Lucien actually understood what she meant. She had a unique ability to call on a transparent wolf who would do just about anything she wanted it to do, within its ability that is. Lucien called it her ghost wolf because it was able to get into any room or building it wanted to even when doing so should be impossible. He claimed it just walked through walls.

"That's good. Then I hope to hear from you soon."

"Oh, you will, any time I travel to a new city that is," She turned to him and smiled. "Wish me luck!"

She turned and was gone through the gate to the main of the fort before Lucien could really say anything to her. "Good luck then," He muttered to himself. He would have preferred a more frequent plan for communication, but it was too late to argue with her now.

Karine's trips to Bruma and Chorrol were both pretty uneventful. She had actually run into J'gasta but he hadn't acted hostilely toward her. He seemed quite pleased to see her alive actually. From what she could tell nothing in either of the towns had been going amiss.

Most of her time in Anvil had gone as she expected, everything seemed normal. She was headed to the Count's Arms for the night when she ran into Mathieu Bellamont. She froze; he was staring straight at her as if he was just as surprised to see her as she was to see him. She looked around, they were mostly alone. She approached him. "Speaker!" She said.

"Ah Karine, Ungolim relayed that you had been safely rescued. It was Lachance who saved you was it not?"

Karine shrugged. "Yeah," She was trying to be as cautious as she could. "Not completely unscathed though huh?" She indicated her right arm at this.

He frowned at this, "Indeed, a pity isn't it?"

Karine shrugged, "A bit, but there's no adversity that I won't eventually overcome."

Karine was beginning to get a bad feeling now. Something about Bellamont wasn't right. Normally she wasn't very fond of the man, in fact, most of the other Speakers tended to give her the same feeling. But this was different from normal. She backed off a few steps as discretely as she could. "Well I'm going to go to my room now. May Sithis watch over you."

Bellamont didn't smile and bid her farewell though. Quite the contrary, he frowned and shook his head no. "You aren't going anywhere."

"Crap," she said softly every muscle in her body tightened at this, preparing for a fight. "You're the traitor."

Bellamont laughed softly. "You are just too smart aren't you? I intend to get my revenge on Lucien Lachance for my mother. He will die a traitor's death, I'll see to it."

"Like hell he will, I'll make sure he lives through this," Karine hissed.

A smile curled on Bellamont's lips at this. "Just as I thought, there is something between the two of you. Don't worry though, I've thought up a non-lethal way to make sure that you don't get in the way. I rather like you to be honest."

Karine unsheathed her sword and launched herself at Bellamont. His own weapon was out and he parried the attack. In the moment that Karine stumbled back from the force of her blow being deflected Bellamont charged a spell and touched her.

Karine collapsed immediately. Bellamont stumbled back a few steps himself, breathing heavily, feeling absolutely drained. "I- won't ever- do that again..."

Bellamont's eyes lingered on Karine for just a moment before he left. He was happy Lachance had been able to save Karine, he had never meant for her to get that contract. In fact, he had thought someone less experienced would have gotten it instead.

He pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he walked sluggishly back to his room in the basement of the Lighthouse to rest and keep track of the next phase of his plan.

XxXxXx

Lucien didn't want to acknowledge the bad feeling he had right now. It had been five days since he had last gotten word from Karine. Not that this was unusual, her updates weren't as frequent as he would prefer, but he couldn't complain. At least she was keeping him involved.

A young snow white wolf entered his room in Fort Farragut. It had the same tendency to get in silently and without any explanation as to how it managed to get in as one of Karine's ghost wolves. The only difference was that it wasn't transparent like the others, it seemed very real.

It sat down by the gate to the main part of the fort and stared at Lucien calmly. Its tail occasionally twitched and you could see it breathing; but it made no other movements otherwise. Lucien eventually walked over to it and kneeled down to examine it.

Her, even. The wolf didn't flinch as he approached, just calmly followed Lucien's movements with her eyes. Lucien patted her head gently since she didn't up and attack him. Her eyes were lightly colored the lightest grey in fact, but they seemed almost luminescent. It unnerved Lucien.

Angelic had completed her first two dead drop orders now. She had destroyed Celedaen and eliminated the entire Draconis family. Now though, this wolf shows up, clearly she was connected to Karine, it was her calling card per-say.

"Has something happened to her?" He asked softly though he knew there would be no answer for him.

The wolf whimpered softly in response. She laid down flat on the floor her eyes still on Lucien's. There was a certain amount of sadness there. Lucien grimaced now. "You weren't supposed to do that. Give me a break..." He muttered.

The wolf just stared at him now, looking sad. Lucien sighed and stood. "You have to be kidding me..." He muttered. "Why didn't she send a damn note or something?"

Part of him wanted to wait another day and see if anything had changed, the other half that was talking sense said not to. Something was seriously wrong. He needed to trust his intuition.

I know my name... She thought bleakly, But nothing more. I understand who I am... But I don't know who I am... This is all so confusing.

She was in Skingrad now after having left Anvil, and she was feeling defensive. Part of her knew she should feel defensive. But there was no explanation she could give herself to make the feelings make sense to her. Eventually, near the Chapel of Diabella, she gave up and sat down on the ground.

She was scowling at the ground considering the things that she was sure of. One, that her name was Karine, and two, she had awoken in Anvil near the Count's Arms. Other than that, who she knew before, where she lived, what she did before, she didn't remember. She could tell you almost every aspect of religion, and that she didn't worship the nine, but she couldn't tell you why. Or what it was she even believed. She could tell you every major city and their counts and countesses but none of these things really meant anything to her.

What does any of that matter though? she wondered.

"Excuse me," A man was standing over her now. "You seem lost."

Karine gazed up at the man. She shrugged with just her left shoulder since her right arm didn't really work like it should. Not that she knew what had caused such an injury... "You have no idea," She muttered.

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" He asked. He was an Imperial and he was tall, with light brown hair and smoky blue eyes. His voice was deep and calming to Karine, it almost made her want to smile.

Karine shook her head no. "I doubt it."

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Karine."

"Where are you from Karine?" He asked now.

"I don't remember," She muttered slowly. "I don't remember much about my past. And I don't understand why that is. It's not like I've been injured recently to warrant such a problem... I don't think. It doesn't seem like it at least..."

She was mostly talking to herself now. She could care less that the man was standing there listening to everything she was saying. "So, you're alone then?"

"So it would seem..." Karine said almost too quiet to be heard.

The man reached his hand out to her at this. "My name is Tirion, while you're trying to figure everything out, why not let me help take care of you?"

Karine looked at this Tirion skeptically. "What makes you think I need to be taken care of?" Naturally she was defensive.

"You could use some help I would wager," He corrected himself.

Tentatively she reached out and took his hand. "For now. Don't expect anything of me. I may not even stay the night."

Tirion smiled at her. "That's fine, as long as I can have helped you in some way."

He helped her to her feet and she looked away from him. "Why would you want to help me?"

"Who wouldn't want to help you?" He asked.

A good question. But there must be a reason for me to think like that...

Karine was almost surprised to find that Tirion lived alone. At the same time it only made her feel less at ease. Their existence together over the next few days would be most tense. She slowly began to settle down around him.

No matter how leery of him she was, he was right there trying to make her feel at home. She would try her hardest to avoid him, but he would go out of his way to talk to her. It was strange to Karine, but at the same time she knew that was just how some people were. They did inexplicable things to try to help others.

After about four days of Tirion and Karine coexisting together, Karine was becoming accustomed to the man's presence. One morning, when Karine had just gotten up and gone downstairs to the kitchen, Tirion asked her, "What's the matter?"

She looked up at him. There were deep dark circles around her eyes, she hadn't been sleeping well, that fact was obvious though. "What makes you ask this?"

"You're clearly exhausted, are you still unsure of my intentions?" He walked around the table so that he was standing in front of her now.

Karine shook her head slowly, "No, that's not it... it's nothing really..."

"Talk to me, I'm here to help you out, remember?"

Karine sat down in one of the chairs heavily. "You're right, I have been sleeping badly. It's just that-" She made a disgusted noise. "It's weird, I haven't dreamed at all."

Tirion looked now like he was amused. "I don't see the problem, I very rarely remember any of my dreams myself-"

Karine frowned now. "No, it's not that I can't remember my dreams. I haven't been dreaming. It's weird, but it's why I haven't slept well. I just... don't get why..."

Karine rested her forehead in her hands now. Tirion put a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know what to say."

"It's like walking around in perfect darkness, except you can't be sure you're moving at all. It is the essence of being lost. And- there's nothing to be done about it."

"Maybe it is a dream, that would explain why it bothers you so much. Maybe it's trying to tell you something that you can't remember which is why it's all black?"

Karine's head snapped up and she looked into Tirion's eyes. It seemed... almost logical. She laughed shakily. "I wish I could remember."

Tirion smiled warmly at her now, "Give yourself time, you're so impatient with yourself."

"You've given me much to ponder. The only question is if it will do me any good."

XxXxXx

The next night Karine had gone out to get some fresh air. She was walking around Skingrad trying to think, trying to remember. She constantly questioned what she must have been like if indeed no one would bother to ever look for her. Though it seemed the harder she tried to come up with the answers the further from her grasp they slipped.

She was passing between the two sides of the town, on her way back to Tirion's house when, in the shadows beneath the eastern bridge she saw someone. The feeling from seeing this figure was almost familiar. She froze in her tracks and stared at it.

It stepped out from the shadows staring right at her. It brought its hood down and revealed itself to be a man. She puzzled over him for a minute as they both stared at one another. At his heels was a white wolf.

Lucien was thrown off by how confused Karine seemed upon seeing him. She doesn't recognize me then.

After a rather awkward pause, for Karine at least, she made as if to take a step to the man. She stopped herself though. She needed to get back to Tirion, she did owe him still. A few guards walked past Karine which dragged her attention from the black robed man. When she looked back he was gone.

She cast a glance around, half hoping she would see where the stranger went. After another moment she started off for Tirion's house. When she entered the house she couldn't help but sigh. "I haven't seen you look quite like this since I first brought you to my home," Tirion said as he walked out of the kitchen.

I wonder, perhaps, if I was just imagining him. He seemed real though... What was with the dog though? "I'm fine, I think. I saw a man in black robes today. Does it mean anything to you?" Karine asked.

Tirion froze at this. He tried to stay objective as he next spoke. "Black robes? Sounds like it's someone from the Dark Brotherhood... that or a necromancer. Either or you should probably avoid them."

The Dark Brotherhood... Something about this struck her as strange. She understood what a necromancer was, it didn't seem quite like that was what she had seen. "Explain the Dark Brotherhood to me. Why would I want to avoid them?"

Tirion looked at her for the first time as if she had really lost her mind. "The Dark Brotherhood are assassins for hire. If you call on them and pay them enough they'll kill just about anyone. They worship the Night Mother and Sithis."

It seemed a rather tense subject. "Oh, I guess that was a facet of life that I forgot as well... strange." It was more than just strange, it was annoying.

"Don't push yourself, I'm sure you'll remember everything in due time." Tirion said.

"I really hope so... Look, I'm going to go to bed early." Karine muttered.

"I was going to make dinner, you should eat first."

Karine shook her head no now. "I'm not in the mood to eat anything, I'm sorry."

"Oh," Tirion said softly. "That's fine, I'll just see you in the morning then."

Karine nodded. She had a lot to think about now. The Dark Brotherhood, something about it seemed almost familiar. That man... She shook her head to clear it and headed off to her room. For most of the night she would lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. Why does his presence bother me so?