A/N: Really not that happy with this chapter...but I don't know. Please tell me your thoughts!
The door shut behind her with a snap like a bone cleaved in two. Then all fell silent.
Every breath seemed to resonate from the oppressing stone walls, her footsteps sounding like cannon blasts against the hush.
Bookshelves were pushed haphazardly against the walls, their contents ruined and disintegrating. Dust crept up her nostrils from the thick blankets that lined every surface.
Something was wrong. This place was desolate. Empty.
Where was Astrid?
Had Shadowmere tricked her?
As she reached this conclusion, fear suffocated her and she ran back to the door, throwing her weight against it...but it wouldn't budge. It remained tantalizingly still. She was trapped.
"Karia!"
The voice rang out, seeming to come from her mind itself. She barely contained a scream, staggering back as it spoke again.
"Karia, help! He's here!"
She knew that voice. No...Astrid!
Her pulse raced as she took in her surroundings. Spatters of red were strewn across the floor, glinting maliciously at her.
Breaking free from the binds of terror that ensnared her, she ran. He could take her, but he would never, ever take her family!
As she leapt down the stairs two at a time, she heard a blood-curdling scream pierce the air. No! She wouldn't be too late!
Suddenly, the blood trail ended. Slowly, Karia raised her eyes. What she saw nearly made her heart stop.
Ulfric Stormcloak.
"Where is she? What have you done with Astrid?" Karia screeched, unsheathing her dagger like a bolt of lightning.
The Nord made to speak, but all that came out was a strange choking sound. His mouth hung open, the gagging noise still rumbling in his throat. His eyes seemed to glass over. Karia lowered her gaze to his stomach...where the blade of a dagger was inlaid.
As his body slumped to the floor, someone carelessly kicked it aside. Karia realised who it was a heartbeat before they raised their mask.
"Hello, Karia, dear." Astrid smiled.
"You!" She gasped, the weapon in her hand clattering to the floor as she stumbled backwards.
"Yes, me." Astrid plucked her dagger from Ulfric's back, wiping the shimmering blood from the blade. "Tell me, Karia...do you feel betrayed?"
"B-betrayed?" She stammered. "I don't understand!"
"Soon, you will know how I felt when I found out. Did you really think you could keep it a secret all this time?" The blonde woman advanced, keeping a tight clutch on the hilt of the Blade of Woe.
"Keep what a secret?" Karia felt herself slam against the wall, not able to retreat any further. Astrid pursued her like a bird of prey. The latter bent down and lifted something from the floor. Karia saw the familiar black spikes flecked with scarlet. She tried to move her arms as the blade neared her throat. She had to get it away from her...if it touched her...
"Hmm...Daedric." She sneered, raising her gloved finger and holding it dangerously close to one of the prongs. "Well, Karia? If I were to touch this...would anything happen to me?"
Karia swallowed, a lump constricting her throat. "I...I don't believe so."
"Oh, really? So it wouldn't send me into an enchanted sleep that would conveniently make me look like I was dead?"
The wall behind her gave way...or was it her legs? All Karia knew was she was slumped on the ground, her eyes wild. "How did you find out?"
"Our little family serves one person – me. And as such, they tell me everything. So, while you thought you were being sly and underhand, asking Babette for the recipe for a sleeping draught was perhaps not the best idea. She scurried back to me, like the little rodent she is, and told me all about it! From then on, I monitored you closely...and the answer presented itself. You should know by now not to trust anyone, Karia."
Karia shook her head slowly then lifted her gaze up to Astrid, fixing her with a burning glare. "You want to know why I did it? How can you kill, without feeling, without remorse? You're a monster!"
Something hot seared across her face as the Blade of Woe slashed down. Warm blood dribbled down over her cheek, but she ignored it. Astrid's face contorted with rage. "We welcomed you into our family." She spat.
"Welcomed me? Do you forget what you did?" Karia rose to her feet, shaking, not from fear, but from boiling rage. She wrenched her dagger from Astrid's grasp and clenched it in an unyielding grip. "You forced me! You would have killed me otherwise!"
"And where would you be without us? The truth would have gotten out about your murder eventually. Then where would you run?"
"You've ruined my life!" Tears of rage cascaded over her face, seeping into the gash and stinging excruciatingly, but she ignored it.
"Oh, but darling, that's what I meant to do." Astrid gave her simpering smile, stroking the side of Karia's face. "I had no use for you...but I thought Sithis might."
"You had no use for me..." Karia turned the words over in her head. Slowly, like pieces of a jigsaw, they fell into place. As she laid the last tile, she realised. "You made the Black Sacrament!"
"No, really? Did you think that Sithis would not see your actions? You might as well have made the Black Sacrament yourself!"
"So you gave me the contract to kill myself because I wouldn't murder innocent people?"
"The Black Sacrament isn't performed to make friends with your targets! What part of "the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear" suggests that we should invite them to tea parties? Anyway, you shouldn't be angry with me. I'm upholding your, er, methods – I never said you had to murder yourself. Just ruin yourself so much that it devours you – and the Void will take you as its own."
"You're sick!" Every second that passed was dragging out the time she had to claim revenge...she couldn't bear to move her eyes to the lifeless figure beside her. The dagger in her hand twitched, desperate to finally plunge itself into a heart and drown in blood.
"Not sick. You wrote your own destiny when you toyed with the will of Sithis. No one tricks the Dread Father."
"Just explain something to me. Why send me traipsing across Skyrim to join the Stormcloaks?"
"Killing two birds with one stone. I wasn't lying when I told you that Ulfric is, indeed, hunted by Sithis. I thought you may have liked the revenge...clearly, you liked something else."
Karia stifled a gasp. "How do you know about...that?"
"I know everything." Astrid caressed the blade of her dagger lovingly. "Although, you did rather complicate things with that buffoon, Ralof. I half thought you'd fallen in love with him...but no harm done. He was easy enough to...dispose of. The sea was rather useful."
"Dispose of?" Karia's hand flew to Astrid's throat. "You killed him?"
Astrid gasped for breath. "Yes, I killed him. Not before I ripped that cord of your life, though. You must have felt something when you found my little letter and realised he was 'betraying' the Stormcloaks. And that he 'knew' who you are. That was the first thread, plucked from beneath your eyes without you even realising. And you just grew weaker. Now, only one thread remains to be broken..." her eyes settled on the hulking form of Ulfric Stormcloak.
As Karia's gaze was diverted, Astrid sliced her hand, freeing her throat. Karia screamed as blood soaked her sleeve, gushing from the gaping hole where her index finger had once been. Pain roared through her, blinding her vision.
Clumsily, she fumbled for the hilt of her other dagger. It wobbled in her grip as she pulled it out, only being supported by three fingers and a thumb. She knew that the end was coming...but she couldn't, she wouldn't, let it be her end!
"Haven't you all ready broken that?" Karia winced against the throbbing, feeling utterly spent.
"No. I decided to take a leaf out of your book." Astrid rammed her toe against his body. Karia made to stop her, but what good would it have done? "And now, I will make you watch as I kill him once and for all. And then, I shall leave you here to rot."
Ulfric remained immobile, and Astrid slowly raised the Blade of Woe high above her head. Any second, it would come lashing down...
"FUS RO DAH!"
The thunderous Thu'um erupted from Karia, igniting a fire in her eyes that burned white-hot as she saw Astrid's body fly across the room, hitting the wall with a sickening crunch.
Raising her good hand, Karia stepped towards the Nord woman, who cowered at the sight of the Dunmer, blood-stained and battle-worn, advancing on her.
"You will pay for what you've done to me." Those were the last words Astrid ever heard, before Karia threw aside her Daedric dagger, forced the Blade of Woe from her grip and plunged it straight into its master's heart. Astrid's body convulsed, and then fell limply to the floor.