A/N: While writing this, I found the beauty of planning on paper. Now, the future of this story isn't just messed up in my head any more! Yay!

ReaperRain: It may seem strange to you now but all will be revealed in later chapters!

Burgundy and Black

Chapter 14: The Fall of the Black Hand

Like I said earlier, I had a habit of falling asleep in odd places. I fell for that habit again after Alval kissed me. Okay, it was just that. There was a fair bit of touchy-feely going on but nothing like what you're hoping for. We did keep our clothes on during it. The next morning, I woke lying on the floor beside Alval's bed, curled up on the rug like a favourite pet. How I got in that position, I've no idea, and the explanation is probably not appropriate to be told here.

Alval was already up and eating breakfast. I didn't really eat much that morning. What Alval had told me still circled in my head and my thirst for vengence was still welling up inside me without control. Alval's careless attitude towards it could not hold it down. I couldn't wait to see Lachance next. I couldn't wait to put my hands around his neck and not let go until he stopped moving.

I never normally enjoyed doing my contracts. Not that I didn't like doing it, I was just indifferent, really. But, I knew that I would enjoy killing Lachance. If only it was for that damned Fifth Tenet, I often said to myself, I would have hunted him down myself by now.

Throughout the last few weeks, I became darker and more withdrawn. Everyone in the Sanctuary noticed. I was too full of surpressed rage and hatred that I couldn't engage myself in anything that would normally make me happy. Alval could tell me it was alright until he was black in the face but I wouldn't be pacified. Perhaps word had got around and Lachance had an inkling of what I wanted since he stayed away from the place. Or maybe that was because his Sanctuary had been chosen for Purification.

That had been decided in the last meeting the Black Hand held in the crisis. It had ended very badly with only that being established in the end. Or, so Alval said. I remember waiting for hours for him when he went to that meeting. Not just because of the fear of the traitor but for the fear of Lachance. Now I knew, I immediately thought he'd take any opportunity to repeat that crime which I hated him for. I paced up and down the living room until my feet hurt and all the while I wanted to go out and make sure he was alright. It didn't do for him to be out alone, after all.

When Alval returned, he looked rather dishevelled from the exertion, making me even more wound up than I was already. He got very angry about this, as he always did when I brought it up. Not that I blame him,

"For Sithis' sake, Banus!" He snarled, after putting up with five minutes of my fretting, "It was a long time ago and I wasn't even conscious when it happened! I don't care and this isn't worth you getting upset over! We've got bigger things on our plate, in case you haven't noticed!"
So, he told me about the Purification. The fact that Sanctuary Lachance was under suspicion only solidified my beliefs of Lachance's guilt even more than they were already. He wouldn't even care if his whole Sanctuary died, I told myself, so long as he is kept out of suspicion. I voiced this to Alval but he waved it away, "Any Speaker would give up his Sanctuary to stay safe."
This stung, "You mean...even you?"

"Ugh, I have warned you about this soppy streak of yours-"

"Would you give up me?"

"Oh, for-" He threw his hands in the air, "Stop acting like an underappretiated housewife, will you? I said Sanctuary, not Silencer!"

"Oh!" I blushed beetroot with embarrassment. Alval blushed a little to and turned away,

"You're so wound up, nowadays, Banus. You're never normally this annoying. What's the matter with you?"

"I just-I just can't stand the idea of Lachance going free after all he's done!" I cried, my emotion getting the better of me.

Alval shook his head and, remarkably, acted the voice of reason. He pushed me down into the cellar and placed my drawn dagger in my hand, "If there's nothing you can do about it, just take your anger out elsewhere instead of doing something you'd regret."

"By slashing a dummy?"

"Just picture the person you hate the most in place of it. It works for me. Now, do it."

So, I did. I imagined Lachance there, slipping out a shadow, with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. I slashed him. I got his neck, his face (I remember thinking, Not so handsome now, are you? while I did it) and every other part of his body until the imaginary Lachance was in little pieces. When I turned around, absolutely exhausted, Alval was staring at me with wide eyes,

"By the Night Mother, you are angry."

I was panting that much that I couldn't piece together a sentence. When I got enough breath back, I answered, "Is...that...how...you...learned...?"

"Destruction, yes." Alval nodded, sitting down next to me, "It was originally just stress release. My expertise was just a side effect, really. Still, it kept everyone away-Banus!"

His voice became very high-pitched because (now, I'm not too sure whether I did this because I was tired or something else) I suddenly slumped into his shoulder, startling him. Thankfully, he didn't push me off but left me there. Not that I minded and I don't think he minded too. After a while, I glanced up at him, disappointedly realising that his hair was flattened as usual,

"I liked your hair when it wasn't oiled."

"Would taking it off make you stop talking about it?"

"Yes."

So, Alval began a repetitive process of carefully freezing the oil and peeling it off in a frosty, semi-transparent film. The curls immediately bounced out, falling in his face and nearly concealing his pointed ears. Grinning, I immediately hauled myself up and immersed my hands in them. Oh, I love doing that, yes. The only thing I loved more than putting my hands through it was kissing it. Which I did then. A lot.

After a bit of loving, I went out to get some groceries with a spring in my step. Yes, I was unofficially living with my Speaker now. Alval did not want me out, taking 'unnecessary risks' (which translated to 'anywhere out of my sight', in his language), so all my contracts were suspended. I wasn't so much his Silencer back then as his wife. But, I liked it that way. I really loved doing the cooking and some chores. It was the least I could do to repay Alval's kindness, regardless of me being his lover.

I didn't even think of visiting the Sanctuary. They all knew what the danger was and why their Speaker did not give them any orders. All Dark Brotherhood activity had pretty much ground to a halt in Leyawiin. No one would even leave the city. I suppose they must have been scared, sitting in the Sanctuary without any orders but I didn't think to go and check on them. Well, I didn't really think of anyone but Alval at that point.

Well, I didn't think much of the trouble outside. I was in my own happy little world and I felt nothing could bring me down. When I had finished buying everything and I was checking the shopping list over again, I spotted a hunched shadow in the alley. I stopped and glared at it, doubly wary of anything skulking about these days. The shadow then straightened up and held up his hands,

"I'm sorry, Silencer Alor." That voice once more sent such a chill down my spine. Mathieu Bellamont's eyes were not visible in the dark, since they were so black already and did not seem to shine with life as everyone else's did. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen his eyes reflect light. They just sucked it in like black holes, like they sucked in the sight of me freezing as he came out of the shadows, "I don't like crowds."

I entertained the idea of him being an incredibly youthful vampire for a moment because it seemed more like he just didn't like going out in sunlight, "Mathieu," I struggled to keep a steady tone under his gaze. It was so frustrating to not be able to read him and to still be frightened of him after all this time, "I thought the Cheydinhal Sanctuary had been purified."
"Oh, no. I'm no longer of that Sanctuary. I became a Silencer a few months ago."
"Is that right?" I nodded, wishing, as I always did, to be away from him as soon as possible,

"I am much aggrieved by the loss of my Sanctuary. I knew every one of them and I held them dear to me." His voice was a total monotone and there was no real feeling in his words. He said them like he was reciting them from paper and he didn't mean a single word. Uneasily, I nodded,

"I'm sure you did. Whose Silencer are you?"

"Speaker Arius'."

"The Chorrol Sanctuary? What's it like there?"

"Everyone's panicking. The Sanctuary is empty. No one wants to be in a place where there's potentially a traitor. Speaker Arius is trying to track them down and round them up again."

"That can't be good."

"I know. It makes them all the more easier to pick off if the traitor sees fit."

"But, surely, that is what the Purification was meant for, killing the traitor."

"No one thinks that the Purification got rid of him." Mathieu shook his head, "It's the general agreement in the Sanctuary before everyone left that the Purification was simply something to make it seem like Ungolim had a grip on the situation."
"And, he doesn't?"

"No." Mathieu shook his head, making his hood fall back a little. I had expected his hair to be jet black to match his eyes but, instead, it was the colour of dried leaves, dry and wirey, "The idea that the traitor had a link with the Sanctuary was but a rumour. The Listener is grabbing at straws while the Black Hand falls apart around him."

My stomach dropped, "So it's coming to this." I shook my head, sighing, "The Chorrol Sanctuary's dispersed, the Cheydinhal Sanctuary's gone, Sithis knows how the Bruma Sanctuary's faring and our Sanctuary has pretty much ground to a halt. This traitor situation is really starting to get out of hand."
"Ah, yes." He took a few steps closer and I had to seriously resist taking a step back, "So it is. That is the reason I have come here. A Speaker has been killed."

I felt like I'd got on the wrong side of one of Alval's frost spells. My insides were cold and I froze in place. I strained to remember the names and a varying amount of emotions went through me. First, hoping that it was Lachance. Second, worry that it was the Bruma Speaker, J'Ghasta or the Chorrol Speaker, Belisarius. Then, finally, cold dread that it was Alval,

"Which one?"

"I would like to give that message to both Speaker Uvani and yourself, if you don't mind."

"Alright." I nodded and began to hurry back to Alval's house with Mathieu at my tail, relieved at least that Alval had not been the one. It had been J'Ghasta, the Bruma Speaker, after all. Alval listened to Mathieu's updates about the other Speakers and Ungolim (who had apparently locked himself in his house and refused to come out except to visit the Night Mother). When he had gone, Alval rubbed his temples in disgust,

"Those idiots. Everyone's just running around like headless rats."

"It's getting really out of hand." I nodded, again,

"Nothing like this has ever happened before." Alval reasoned, "Still, that's no excuse to act like total morons in the face of a crisis."

"Do you think we should go and check on our Sanctuary. Just to let them know we're alright."
"I'll do it later." He never got round to it in reality, "Ah, Ungolim is such an idiot. If only he'd acted like he was meant to. I always thought he was just a weak little Bosmer that doesn't have enough sense to lie the right way in his bed."

"It really must be a blow to the Bruma Sanctuary." I said, on a whim, "I mean, losing an Executioner and even a Silencer is one thing but losing their leader!"

"You're right. Especially somone like J'Ghasta, who liked to stay close to them."

"So, who'll take over? Who's his Silencer?"

"A Nord. Can't remember his name. Something Hoar-Blood. He lives half-wild up in the mountains. It'll probably take days to reach him."

"He doesn't sound like someone who could be a Speaker."

"That's what I thought. Still, he's the only thing they have and desperate times call for desperate measures."

As we were talking, I ended up cuddling closer to him. I never wanted to be away from him. Not now the traitor was becoming so bold and attacking Speakers. For the rest of the evening, we bandied around ideas of what the traitor might be up to next. We had ideas that there was more than one of them, that panic was what he wanted so he didn't have to finish the job and that he was tricking someone else into working for him. Not that we were really interested. The fear wore off after a while and was quickly replaced by more romantic talk.

Yes, I suppose this traitor situation was good for our relationship. It certainly made it go a lot faster. While the Dark Brotherhood was being torn apart around us, we were coming together.

A/N: Aww, cute ending!