Artemis' fingers wrapped around the apple, enjoying the smoothness of its waxy skin against hers, refusing to take a bite of it as if to ruin the perfection of its form. She leant back against a stone wall, overlooking the marketplace of Solitude. Stands decorated the large courtyard, selling fruits and vegetables, tools and weapons and even such exotic items like spices and foreign alcohols shipped in by the East Empire Company. A year ago Artemis would have been walking in amongst the market and it's inhabitants, accompanied by a half a dozen other guild members, snatching coin purses or wares that were left unattended like the apple that Artemis now held in her hand. Over the past few years however, ever since she took control of the guild, business had prospered across Skyrim, especially in Solitude where the majority of goods and coin was. They had a good portion of the dock and warehouse workers in their pocket, as well as a few members of the administration who were more than willing to let a few crates go missing for a handsome bag of coin.

A bell sounded in the distance, it's twelve chimes signalling the midday. Artemis' smile grew and she threw she began to walk back into the crowded streets, throwing her apple into the lap of a nearby beggar who thanked her and shouted praises at her as she walked away. As she moved through the crowd, her crossbow receiving a few glances of curiosity, she quickly slipped into one of the many alleyways that wormed their way through the city. As she moved further into the shade and darkness of the side street the sounds and warmth of the city began to fade away, becoming little more than an echo in the back of Artemis' mind. After walking far enough into the alley where the light of the crowded city streets did not reach, she stood still for a moment closing her eyes and taking in all the sounds that reached her. The coughing of a nearby urchin, the tiny barks of feral pups in hiding, the caw of crows amongst the rooftops and the flapping of a cloaks as it descended from on high.

Artemis' eyes snapped open and leapt through the air, before landing into a roll, barely in time as her attacker landed with a thud where she had stood only seconds ago. She did not look back to look, looking back could mean death in most situations. Instead she ran, sprinting through the alley before bursting back out into the light and sounds of the streets. Though she stood back in the light she did not stop, her pace if anything quickened as she dodged bystanders left and right. Shouts, curses and even a few screams followed her. As she ran however, fear did not grip her heart, at least not in the normal sense. Many a beast in Skyrim could feel the thrill of the hunt, of stalking the prey, the excitement of the chase. There were very few who took delight in being chased, in the thrill of death nipping at their heels. A feeling that thieves felt often. A small cart full of cabbages rolled out in front of her, the owners eyes widening as he saw her approach. All he saw however was hooded figure running towards his cart, a smirk appearing from within the shadow of her hood. His eyes widened still as the hood performed a feat that he would have though impossible. He was made witness to the hood, running straight at his cart, and at the last moment spinning around to turn her back to it. With less than a few inches between the cart and her, she leapt over it, her back barely skimming the top of the cart as she flew over it. Artemis felt herself smiling mid air as her body flipped through the air on instinct. She landed on her feet facing the cabbage cart before spinning back around breaking into a run once more. She slid under rolled up carpets carried between two merchants, weaved between men and women, moving like a gust of wind through the trees of a forest. Every breath, every step, every thought were practised, practised and calculated to unbelievable efficiency. There once was a time where she would have crashed into half the marketplace whilst fleeing a guard. But she was not that girl anymore. She was like a snake, weaving and slithering her way through the crowd with pin point accuracy.

Her eyes snapped to the left, spotting an exit from the crowd, another alleyway, one of hundreds that all linked with each other like a maze within the darker side of the city. She dived and sidestepped the crowd before finally emerging from its thronged activity. As she stepped in the alleyway, she allowed herself to catch her breath as the shadows washed over her and as they did she felt herself becoming completely revitalised. She could hear them now, the whispers of the shadows, the whispers of her predecessors. Every Nightingale that had ever lived spoke to her now, offering advice, wisdom and encouragement. As she listened, she could hear the voice of a voice she knew all too well. It was Gallus, the former Guild Master that had been slain by Mercer Frey, a traitor to the guild. Though she had only "met" him once, she recognised his voice, and the message it carried.

'Behind you...' it spoke.

Without thinking, the Nightingale spun on her heel, drawing her crossbow as she spun, and pulled the trigger. The loud metallic click of her crossbow and the sound of the bolt flying through the air was something that Artemis was used to hearing, however this was either followed by a scream, the tearing of flesh or the sound of the bolt imbedding itself in stone or wood. Instead no sound followed, only a sigh of relief from Artemis as she saw her pursuer with her bolt in a gloved hand, inches from his head. They wore dark green hood and cloak, a mask pulled up over their face. Their armour was little more than a leather tunic over a beige shit, the only other pieces of armour being a pair of studded leather gauntlets and boots. Though the armour did not look like it could have stopped her bolt, it was clearly designed to ensure its wearer was fast enough to just as easily avoid or catch the bolt out of mid air.

'You're getting better,' they said examining the bolt in his hand. 'But your weapon is still far too predictable. Barely any resistance as it flies, and its path is easy to read.' He tossed the bolt back at Artemis who caught it with a smile.

'I'm getting closer every time,' she said as she replaced the bolt back in the quiver on her belt before hanging the crossbow back in its holster on her back. 'You on the other hand are getting slower. I was sure I lost you after the cabbage cart.'

'I had moved to the rooftops. A lesson I thought you had learned.' The cloaked man said as he stepped towards her. 'It's a lot easier to avoid crowds than run through them, and allows a better vantage on your prey.'

'I'm used to running from people that can barely run for more than a hundred yards, the crowds allow me to disappear quicker.'

'It won't always be some unfit guard chasing you. From what I've heard you've stepped up your game.' The man pulled back his hood and pulled down his mask, revealing a young Imperial man, his oak brown hair matching hers. 'The Brotherhood has received quite a few contracts on your life. If they can't have your blood through us they will turn to others, ones who could catch you, let alone keep up.'

Artemis shrugged, stepping towards him as well. 'I doubt it, I heard the last man who was tracking me ended up hanging from a tree.' Her arms reached out and wrapped around him, pulling him into an embrace. 'My big brother would never let them hurt me.' She said with a true smile, one of warmth and love.

Arren sighed, the only return of her embrace being a hand rising to her head, to tussle her hair. 'I won't always be there to protect you Artemis, someday I'll be gone, one way or another, and I won't be able to kill your enemies.'

Artemis groaned as she pulled out of the embrace to look at her brother. 'Not all my enemies need killing, Arren. There are other ways to ensure that some fools are silenced. One of the many services the guild provides. That aside though, let's get down to business, somehow I doubt this was a family visit.'

Arren nodded, reaching into his cloak and pulling out a small letter, the red wax seal upon its surface was broken. Arren always did have a tendency to read other peoples mail. 'Someone wants to meet you,' he said. 'I stole this from a courier who was sent to find you in Riften.'

'Please tell me you let the poor fool live,' Artemis asked as she took the letter from him.

'I made it look like a robbery on the road, even hired a couple of bandits to make it look real. We let the man run back to Falkreath.'

'And after that the usefulness of your hired help came to an end?'

'They won't be missed.' Arren added, smirking slightly, causing his sister to sigh. Arren's time as an Imperial Ranger may have ended, but his willingness to kill bandits had become a part of him. When Rangers were not sent on missions, they were expected to travel the Empire and enforce Imperial law where local governments may have been lacking. Bandits had been Arren's favourite prey as they not only acted against the law, but many of them also fought back. Arren may have been a proud Imperial man, but something about the way Rangers were trained made even the most civilised men and women turn into something more savage, more animal like.

Artemis unfolded the letter, reading it under her breath as she slowly walked away from her brother. At some point she stopped walking, and Arren could almost see the shock and surprise course through her body as she read the final parts of the letter, the part that pertained to the subject of payment. The young thief turned back to her brother.

'And this is all true? You've met him yourself?' she asked.

'After he approached us I had the feeling he would do the same with you. It is a clever strategy, recruiting the underworld for his own purposes. My only concern is the matter of finances. If what I've learned is true then he doesn't even own a tenth of the coin that he promises.' He stopped and frowned to himself for a moment. 'Alyce is too trusting I feel, she accepted without even delving into details about the financing.'

'You think maybe he's got it stashed away somewhere?' Artemis asked, the thought of a hidden fortune piquing her interest. 'And even if he does have the money, why in the name of Nocturnal would we help him?'

Arren was about to speak when another voice, a woman's voice, cut him off. 'Why should you help him indeed,' the voice said, and the siblings both drew their weapons, Arren his bow and Artemis her crossbow, both aiming them into the shadows.

'Who's there?' Arren called out, 'reveal yourself!'

From within the shadows of the alley they heard a scoff, followed by movement as a figure appeared from out of the gloom. She was barely shorter than Artemis, though their differences were more than obvious. Looking more like a commoner, she wore a plain white shirt, only slightly covered in dirt, a dark brown underbust corset which looked as if it were made of hardened leather, studded leather trousers and heeled leather boots. Her face was smooth and beautiful with the sharp features of her elvish heritage, easily noted by her longer and pointed ears, the mark of a wood-elf. The most striking of her features, and the last to be revealed as she stepped out of the shadows was her hair. It had been dyed to the beautiful pinkish-purple of lavender, and cut short so as that it was only long enough to fall just past her chin.

The elf cast her eyes to Arren, smiling at him. 'Tell me handsome,' she said, 'how is it we can never meet without you pointing something at me?'

She giggled to herself as the siblings lowered their weapons, Arren being a lot slower than his sister, and if it weren't for the lack of light in the alley, the light blush that painted his cheeks. would be all the more obvious. Artemis meanwhile almost dropped her crossbow as she ran to embrace the elf, both of them laughing happily as she did.

'It's been too long Rin,' the Nightingale said as she savoured the embrace, one that was returned more warmly than that which her brother had done.

'Any amount of time away from you is too long Arty,' Rin said warmly in an almost sisterly tone. The two parted and the elf walked towards Arren, who had not said a word or moved an inch. 'Handsome,' she greeted with a smile.

Rinari Rosen-Thorn, a Bosmer adventurer and treasure hunter whose love for discovery and danger was only matched by her wit and flirtatious attitude. She had known Artemis and Arren for a few years now, having met Artemis when she first arrived in Skyrim and meeting Arren within the depths of an old crypt. He had been hunting a target given to him by the Brotherhood whilst she was after an amulet that the target just happened to have. The two had since found themselves in a form of partnership whenever their paths crossed. Whilst Rin was rather fond of Arren's company and loved to tease him, Arren found himself increasingly annoyed at the elf's constant chatting, especially when it lead to her trying to get him to open up. Though he would never admit it, he did however like having her around

'What do you know of Darion Octavius, Rinari? ' the assassin replied bluntly, using the elf's lengthened name.

'I know that he's Dragonborn, and that means most of Skyrim is behind him should he decide that he wants to play king and conqueror.' Rin said, sighing as Arren started with business 'And we all know just how dangerous a unified army of Nords would be in the wrong hands.'

'What makes you so certain that he'd have Skyrim on his side?' Artemis asked. 'He sent Ulfric's army packing back to the east at Whiterun, and I'm willing to bet quite a few of those Nords are more than willing to hold one of their famous era enduring grudges.'

'Nords may be famous for grudges Arty,' Rin continued. 'But if there's one thing that can get Nords to stop fighting amongst themselves for a second it's the presence of a Dragonborn. Since he defeated Alduin, dragon attacks are at an all time low, and most folk thank him for that. If this Darion plays his hand right, he could very well make himself look like a reincarnated Tiber Septim.'

'If he even gets that far.' Arren scoffed.

Rin only smiled and shrugged. 'You'd be surprised what you can do when you have a skilled assassin on your side. Just imagine what he could do with the entire Brotherhood under his command.' She turned to Artemis. 'Add the thieves guild into the picture and his pockets will be as untouchable as he is.'

'That's assuming he gets the Thieves Guild on his side,' Arren continued as he turned to his sister. 'Which is why I made sure I got to you before he did. You're not going to take the deal, I don't want you involved with whatever the Dragonborn has planned, it's too dangerous.'

Artemis' eyes widened in surprise before it slowly transformed into a scowl. 'You don't decide what happens to the guild, I do. If this Octavius wants to talk over terms I don't see what the harm is in listening to him.'

'Except you're not going to,' Arren repeated, his voice rising slightly. 'He isn't Maven Black-Briar, he's not looking for money or to bribe his way into politics. If he gets what he wants he's going to wage war, people are going to die.'

Artemis laughed bitterly to herself at this. 'So he's exactly like Maven, only on a slightly grander scale.'

'I don't care what he is, I don't want you getting involved! It's too dangerous!'

'As dangerous as running a guild of thieves who make enemies of the Jarls and their courts? Face it, brother, I'm not a child anymore. I'm not the same girl who needed her big brother to flash his Ranger crest and throw a couple of coins at the city guard to make them forget about me stealing a few trinkets.' She stepped closer to him now, looking him in the eye. 'I'm the leader of some of the most successful and dangerous thieves in Tamriel. My decisions decide where the gold flows in Skyrim, I decide who is rich and who is poor. If I want to consider some new horizons for Guild, I need the advice of my Guild, not some Ranger turned Assassin who thinks he knows what's best for me.'

She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, allowing silence to settle over the three of them. Rin merely stared in silence at the two of them. Though both siblings seemed unfazed, Rin knew that both were angry enough that if it were not for their shared blood they would have struck out against the other. Thankfully this did not come to pass. The young thief then sighed before turning to Rin.

'It was nice seeing you again Rin, but I've got some business to take care of.'

Rin nodded, 'Just be careful Artemis,' she asked, almost sounding as if she were begging.

Artemis smiled briefly before throwing her hood back over her head. 'I always am.' She turned back to her brother. 'Farewell Arren,' she said simply before walking past him and back out into the streets, pulling her hood back up as she went.

Arren slowly exhaled letting his anger seep out with it, and for a moment Rin thought he would be fine. As always he surprised her when he threw one of his fists at the wall, cracking the brick and leaving a small crater on its surface.

'You'll break your hand if you keep doing that,' Rin said, though she did not thread humour within her words.

'She claims that she is a woman, yet she continues to act like a child,' Arren spat pulling his fist away from the wall. 'She thinks she knows how the world works, it's dangers but she has barely scratched the surface of the kind of dangers that wait for someone like her. She-' The assassin was cut off as he felt Rin's hand on his shoulder, and it was not until he turned to face her that he saw that she was smiling.

'Sometimes you just have to let people find things out for themselves,' she said, 'you have trust her to roll the dice and make do with what happens to her. It's like you were telling her before, someday you won't be there to look out for her.'

Arren frowned slightly. 'How long had you been listening?' he asked.

Rin just smirked and said 'Long enough. But you know it's true. She has to learn how to take care of herself, and the only way for her to do that is to face the world alone.' She stepped a little closer to him. 'Despite what you might think, your sister is a very capable young woman. There's a lot more to her than meets the eye.'

Arren sighed, his eyes cast to the ground before looking back to the elf, and he too could not help but smile. 'Reminds me of someone else.' The two of them shared a brief smile before turning away from one another, each hiding a frown from the other, a frown that served almost as a scar for a time that had long passed.

'So,' Rin began to ask, 'what're you going to do about Octavius? You told me once that you were going to kill him if you ever got the chance.'

'The opportunity will present itself in time,' Arren replied. 'For now I follow Alyce, and she says that we take our commands from the Dragonborn.'


Darion's cup gently tapped that of Artemis, as the two of them drank to their new partnership. The two of them sat across from each other on opposite sides of a small table. The two of them sat within the Bee and Barb inn, one of the more popular ones in Riften. The inn keepers, a friendly Argonian couple, had been more than happy to allow them to use one of their upstairs rooms as a meeting place. Whilst Lydia waited outside, the two Imperials had discussed the terms of the contract that Darion had outlined in his letter to her, and she had since signed it. The Dragonborn dressed in clothes that were of good quality, yet not that of nobles, wearing a black tunic with red trimming along with matching trousers and a pair of boots. Artemis however continued to wear her black Guild Armour, having received little more than a glance from the inns patrons as she entered. Whether it was fear or respect, Darion could not tell.

'I must admit Artemis,' Darion said as he placed his cup back on the table, 'When you told me that you were Arren's sister I had thought for a moment that you were going to slit my throat. I mean no offence to you of course.'

'None taken,' Artemis shrugged. 'My brother has that effect on people, and unfortunately his reputation has rubbed off on me. The few times that someone discovers my relation to him they seem to think that I've killed just as many people as he has.'

'And have you?' Darion asked with a smile.

'Nowhere near as many,' the young thief replied with that smile of hers. 'But Arren and I are family, and if that should tell you anything it is that neither of us will have a second thought about taking a life when we need to.'

'An admirable quality,' Darion noted. 'I must apologise once again for how late I was, I was meeting with another associate of mine.'

'How are The Knight-Brothers these days?' Artemis asked, trying to hide a smile as Darion almost choked on his drink.

After he had cleared his throat, Darion could not help but smile back at her.

'Your contacts are quick to inform you, I'm glad to have them on my side now.'

'The moment this meeting ends, our services are your disposal.' Artemis said with a smile. 'So how are they? Still running with the Dawnguard?' she asked.

'I wouldn't have spoken to him if it were otherwise,'

'I would have thought that if someone was trying to bring the Dawnguard into their sphere of influence they would have contacted their leader, Isran.'

'Isran is too narrow minded to be part of my plans, and he's far too stubborn to assist in them. Mordred however is just as experienced, intelligent, a natural leader and he's of noble birth. Whilst I'm not a great supporter of aristocracy, people have an instinctive drive to follow people who they believe were born better than them.'

'And was he as accepting of your offer as I am?' Artemis asked.

'As I said, Isran is far too narrow minded to look beyond Skyrim as the domain of the Dawnguard. Mordred understands the wider picture, he's more than willing to look beyond the borders of Skyrim if the Dawnguard are to succeed in their mission, even if it means aligning himself with me' The two of them shared a small chuckle. 'What of the rest of your guild? Are they as happy with accepting this deal as you are?'

'They will follow me,' Artemis said plainly, and silence settled between the two of them.

Darion sighed, rubbing his eyes before looking back at the young thief. 'You have not told them, have you Artemis?' he asked, but was met only with silence. The Dragonborn reached for the contract that sat on the table between them. 'This contract states that I will have the full cooperation of the Thieves Guild of Skyrim, am I to assume you can control all of them to work with me.'

'They will follow me,' Artemis snapped, her anger looking for a split second like that of her assassin brother. The continued to sit in silence for a while before Artemis sighed, taking another drink from her cup. 'Things were different back in Cyrodiil,' she began, 'Arren and I grew up with our father telling us stories of the original Grey Fox, how his Thieves Guild protected the beggars and the poor in exchange for information and assistance. They were a guild that stole because they could do it, and many thieves gave their riches to the masses, helping the poor to rise out of the gutter, to help balance the scales between the rich and poor.' Her grip around her cup tightened, and Darion could see anger take its hold on her once more. 'But when I left Cyrodiil, when I came to Skyrim looking for the noble thieves, for the men and women from my fathers stories, all I found was disappointment. I found nothing more than hired thugs, slaving away under the Black-Briars. They stole from rich and the poor. Nobles and beggars alike were not safe from them, even if they were a shadow of what they once were.' Her eyes met with Darion's once more. 'I swear to you, the thieves guild of Skyrim will be ready to serve as you, so long as you keep up your end of the bargain.'

Darion smiled at that. 'Trust me, you're not the only one who wants Maven Black-Briar dead.'

Hey guys, just thought I'd get this second part up now, so yay, you get two chapters in two days, that hasn't happened since I posted the first couple of chapters, feels like ages ago now. Might take a while for the next one now, as I'm in the middle of writing a few assignments for Uni and have written absolutely for the next chapter, so it might take me a while. But rest assured, I know just what's going to happen, and I will ensure that those ideas get down on paper as fast as they can.

Catch ya next time.

-xcaliber234