A/N: Wow, I've been gone for a while, huh? Real life sucks. But I'm back! And I thought I'd stick in a random plug at this point. The Dark Brotherhood Chronicles mod - if you haven't heard of it, it will be awesome, go check it out. I'm part of the writing team, so whenever it's finally all rolled out you'll might just recognize some stuff. And maybe some patented crazy Amadaun dialogue. Also, potatoes.

I'd give you a link, but after six-plus years on this site, I still haven't figured out how to put them in. Just search for us on the official forums, or the Modcraft forums. We're fairly easy to find.

Anyway...New chapter!

---

---

– Chapter 14 –

The scene in the common room didn't calm me any. Antoinetta was backed up against the wall by the well, shaking like she had a fever, blade in a white-knuckled grip. Her cheeks were soaked with tears.

What? "An - ?"

Strong fingers gripped my arm. Telaendril yanked me back so quickly that I felt my muscles protest the movement. She pressed her other hand over my mouth. When I looked up at her in utter confusion, she shook her head and hissed, "Quiet."

Vicente was standing just in front of us, well outside the reach of Antoinetta's blade. His gaze flicked over to me and Telaendril – for a moment, I saw concern in his eyes – but other than that he appeared totally calm. Telaendril held me even tighter and nodded.

Reassured that her grip on me was secure, he began to walk towards Antoinetta with infinite care, his hands held out. Sort of how you'd approach a stray dog that was more likely to tear your throat out than lick your face.

What had happened? What was going on? Was this the effect of some kind of strange poison I'd never heard of before? Or had she gone completely insane?

All right, I doubted the poison possibility. If it hadn't been seen on the Waterfront or Vicente's private stash, it hadn't been seen anywhere. Except maybe for the Imperial Palace, but there was no way it would have obvious effects like this. (Part of my lessons on poisons. Don't ask. Really.) However, I was definitely not ruling out the 'completely insane' idea.

"Antoinetta. Antoinetta, you are not out on contract. You are back home. Sithis would be upset were you to attack your family." When she spun around with her dagger at the ready, he literally froze in mid step, one foot in the air. His voice took on a note of almost parental warning. "Antoinetta…?"

She let out a whining growl that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end – and lunged. Vicente dodged her strike with liquid grace, almost dancing around the blade. When she swung again, he moved behind her, wrapped one arm around her waist and caught the blade with his bare hand.

I'm serious. He grabbed the fetching blade. The shiny part. Yeah, my eyes were about that wide, too.

I gasped against Telaendril's palm. Her hand tightened. "Not yet."

Antoinetta wailed and tried to kick back at the vampire's shins. I winced – every single one of her movements had to be driving her blade deeper into his hand. When he spoke, though, his voice was as calm as it'd been while he was discussing Vvardenfell poetry with me.

"M'raaj-dar, if you please?"

The Khajiit appeared out from behind one of the pillars. I hadn't noticed him before. At all. I supposed that I could be forgiven for my oversight, considering the distraction in the middle of the room and the fact that I was rapidly running out of air. Still, part of my mind scolded me and made a note to keep my eyes open next time. Such was Vicente's training already.

M'raaj-dar raised his hand, his fingers glowing green. He reached out to Antoinetta – who snapped her teeth at him – and touched her forehead.

Antoinetta's body suddenly relaxed, going nearly boneless. She was still on her feet, but only barely. She slumped against Vicente's chest with a sigh, rubbing at her eyes with her free hand. Vague surprise showed on her face when she realized her fingers were wet. "Is it…raining?"

Vicente carefully unwrapped her fingers from the hilt of her dagger and gave M'raaj-dar a wordless nod, mouthing "Thank you."

The Khajiit nodded back and took Antoinetta by the shoulders, puling her away from the vampire. "Come along, Sister. It's time for bed."

"Bed?" She smiled widely up at him, her eyes happy and unfocused. Sweet Mother, that was creepy.

He smiled back and led her off. "Yes, bed. You must sleep."

"Okay…"

The door closed behind them and Telaendril let out a sigh of relief. And I started seeing little sparkly things at the edges of my vision.

I slapped at the Bosmer's hand frantically. "Airph!"

"Oh! Sorry!" She let me go and I wheezed thankfully. She sure knew how to restrain someone…Ow, my ribs.

"W-what…what was that…all about?" I asked between gasps.

"Sometimes she gets like this." Telaendril's voice was tight with worry. She rubbed my back gently until my breathing slowed again. "I thought that she was fine this time, but after we got back…I only turned my back on her for a second, I swear to Sithis…" she trailed off. "Vicente, it's my fault. I should have realized…"

"No, Sister, it is not your fault." Vicente pulled the blade from his hand with a carelessness that made my stomach turn. "Do you know what set her off?"

Telaendril shook her head as she took the blade from him, sliding it into her belt. "I'll clean that off…Nothing precise. I followed her as usual, and she seemed fine, until this."

"Hmm. I thought that contract would have gone well for her, but I see that I was wrong. I shall have to reread it and see if I can discover the source of the problem."

"I can - " my voice caught in my throat. I coughed and tried again. "I can take a look at the – at your hand, if you'd like."

He glanced casually at the wound. "Thank you, Sister. I would like that. Now, I assume that she completed the contract?"

"Perfectly. Every bit," Telaendril said, a hint of pride in her voice. "And I really think she's getting better."

Vicente only nodded slowly, looking thoughtful.

M'raaj-Dar met us at the door. "She's asleep. I gave her a potion. She should stay asleep until morning."

"Thank you, Brother. Do tell Gogron that he can let the Dark Guardian out of the Training Room?"

The Khajiit gave a short nod. He looked worried, but not worried enough to not curl his lip at me. I was too shaken to care. He rolled his eyes. "She'll be fine. She just does this, all right? It's pretty rare. Or are you afraid that she'll slit your throat next time?" His ears suddenly pricked up. "Now there's an idea."

The fact that M-raaj-dar actually seemed to be trying to reassure me – in his own nasty way – only made me feel more out of my depth. I almost welcomed the familiar death threat he tacked on to the end. At least that was normal.

In the living quarters, Telaendril all but ran to Antoinetta's bedside. I could see that the girl was fast asleep, chest rising and falling peacefully. Schemer was curled up on the bed at her feet, flicking his scaly tail back and forth. It was almost cute – for a twenty pound rat. Telaendril scratched him behind the ears. He chattered happily at her and went to sleep.

With gentle fingers, the Bosmer unbuckled Antoinetta's scabbard and pulled the blanket up to her chin. "I'll keep an eye on her," she whispered to Vicente, before nodding at me. "You fix Vicente up, all right? It will take your mind off of things. Antoinetta will be fine. M'raaj-Dar's potions always work."

Vicente waited wordlessly as I gathered what I needed to heal his cut. Unfortunately, my small supply of herbs was starting to get pretty low. For that matter, I wasn't even sure that they would work on vampires. I guess I should just stick to spells, I thought, wetting a cloth. Magic is magic is magic, after all.

Pulling up a chair, I dabbed at his hand with the cloth. Luckily, the cut wasn't deep, and nothing important was severed. Still… Trying to cover my unease, I said, "I didn't know vampires could bleed."

"Oh, we have blood, the same as you. It simply does not flow." He wiggled his fingers, and I realized just what was disturbing me about the cut. It should have been bleeding freely. It wasn't. At best, it was…well, I suppose 'oozing thickly' is the best term. I stared shamelessly, reaching out a finger to touch the blood. It was thick – almost congealed. Vicente watched without a word.

Unable to think of anything more articulate, I asked, "Why?"

"A side effect of not having a beating heart," he explained wryly.

"Oh. That makes sense." I rubbed his blood between my fingers. A thought occurred to me. "Wait. I won't…I mean…not to be rude…"

"I doubt that you will catch anything from me. But I will not be insulted should you decide to cast a Cure Disease spell on yourself. It is better to be safe, and it would be cruel of me to force something that you fear onto you."

"A-all right." I went back to cleaning out the wound, an act that now seemed rather pointless. "You could have just grabbed her wrist, you know."

"No, I could not." When I raised my eyebrows at him, he lifted his other hand and made a fist. "I am far stronger than a regular human. Had she struggled, I could have injured her. In one of her fits, she does not always recognize pain."

"Surely you're not that strong," I protested.

He nodded at the metal goblets that were stacked above the wine rack. "Would you hand me one of those, Sister?" Curious, I did as he asked. He took the cup of the goblet between thumb and forefinger and, ever so gently, crushed it flat.

My jaw dropped.

"Human bones are not half so pliable as metal," he curled the stem around one finger, staring at it with a bemused detachment. "And it is reflexive to tighten one's grip on something that is trying to escape. The result could have been…unpleasant."

"I…er…ow." I winced, the image shooting through my mind. It reminded me of the time I'd watched some sailors unload their cargo. I never found out what was in the crates, but it was heavy, and unwieldy. And eventually, someone's hand slipped. Someone's leg was caught. Someone was beyond what healing magic could repair.

And the Bloated Float gained a new regular – a bitter, broken sailor who could no longer climb the rigging and took his anger out on girls who didn't deserve it.

We sat in silence for a while as I finished cleaning the gash. Luckily, the edges were nice and clean. Antoinetta's dagger must have been really sharp. Healing it, however, was another story entirely. The vampire's flesh seemed to just drink up my spell. After a few minutes, I had to stop, gasping.

"Are you well, Sister?"

"Fine." I rested my head in my palm, fighting back the wooziness that came with casting too much, too fast. "I'm just a little dizzy."

"You have never healed a vampire before, I assume?"

"Oh yes, they dropped by the – I mean, they stopped by all the time," I grumbled. "Of course not. You're the first one I've ever seen."

"Is that so? Curious." I frowned at him, but he didn't seem inclined to elaborate on the statement. "It is more difficult to coax undead flesh to knit, Sister. Might I suggest, in the future, that you use many small spells, rather than one large one? At any rate, I shall finish up the healing myself, if you would like."

"No," I said stubbornly. "I said I would, and I will. Let me just get something to drink." I stood, wobbling a little, and walked over to the wine rack. A thought struck me, and I paused with a bottle in hand. "Um…would you like one too?"

"Please. If you do not mind." He nodded at the crumpled, former goblet that lay on the table and said wryly, "I may as well indulge – Ocheeva may ban me from the wine once she sees what I have done with her tableware."

I poured a couple glasses of wine and sipped at mine thankfully. It probably wouldn't help the dizziness, but with any luck, the shakes that I still had would go away. I glanced over to where Telaendril still sat at Antoinetta's bedside. Her expression was one of deep worry and guilt.

I made a mental note to bring her some wine when I was done with the healing. She looked like she needed it far more than I did. When Antoinetta woke up…

"Why does…" I swallowed nervously, not sure if I should be asking. "Why did Antoinetta do that? She usually seems so different."

"I believe I told you that she had a difficult life before she came to us. Such a life tends to leave scars." He gave me one of his penetrating looks. "Do you not agree?"

Urk. Did he know? I'd almost slipped earlier. More importantly, did he care? He was a man – I knew what men thought about whores. What they wanted them to do. But he wouldn't want that from me, right? Ugh…not that I'd give it to him if he did. Technically, that would be necrophilia, wouldn't it?

His hands were cold enough. I didn't even want to imagine…ugh. I mean, he didn't have any sort of bloodflow, so how would…?

Okay, really bad line of thought. My mind could shut up now. Please.

After deciding that it was best to stop thinking entirely, I decided that I was being far too paranoid. But I adlibbed frantically, just in case. "Well, living on the Waterfront, I saw things, yes, but…nothing like that."

"I see. Well, in Antoinetta's case, I believe it has something to do with the death of her uncle."

"What happened to him?"

"She killed him," he said simply.

"But why would that…?" Shows how much I'd gone over the edge since coming here. I didn't want to know why she'd killed her own uncle. I wanted to know why it would screw with her head. Looking back at it, I suppose you have to laugh.

Or don't. Fine – I thought it was funny.

"She went against the orders of her gang to do so. They took exception. Lucien rescued her."

"I should stop asking about this, shouldn't I?"

He smiled mirthlessly.

Right. I could only guess what had happened to her when her gang "took exception" to something she had done. She probably belonged to one, either bandit or street, that wasn't part of the Thieves Guild. I was always told that the Gray Fox believed in honor. Not everyone else did. Some leaders took their positions a little too seriously, and came down hard on any disobedience.

There were stories, you see. There were always stories. People on the Waterfront always talked about the "trash." Groups stuck between the peculiar honor of the Thieves Guild and the terrible shadow that was the Dark Brotherhood (which had its own, even more peculiar honor, I was learning). Not good enough, or perhaps not bad enough, for either of them.

So, Antoinetta used to be one of them, huh? No wonder she wanted so badly to be innocent. I'd tried that for a while at the brothel. Smile, giggle, act like a child. Pretend that it isn't you. I couldn't do it, so I got grumpy, stole from the customers, and learned to heal.

I guess that Antoinetta can't always do it either. Is that how I'd have ended up if I'd tried? Breaking like that? Poor little thing.

"Seems sort of…um…" I waved my hand around, unable to think of a word that described the scene. 'Crazy' didn't quite cover it. Neither did 'shocking.' And 'Gods. Seriously. What the hell?' seemed a little insulting. I managed to get the idea across, though.

"Normally, we are able to talk her down, but your presence complicated things. You are not as familiar yet, you see, and we did not want to risk you."

"And that was why you tried to get your fingers cut off?"

Vicente chuckled dryly. "That was foolish of me to handle things the way that I did. Oh, don't look so surprised, Sister – I am willing to admit fault. Grabbing her from behind was extremely foolish. I panicked her instead of calming her. That is why I was forced to resort to magical means. It would have been easier had you remained behind."

"Mathieu told me I might be needed. And no one told me to stay," I pointed out.

"Again – my error. I doubt that I shall have to tell you to stay away in case this happens again. You seemed more than a little unsettled by it."

Actually, by now, I was more than a little ashamed at my fear. And I knew that I really should just drop the subject and get back to healing Vicente. But for some reason, I wanted to know. I wanted to help the little, wide-eyed girl. She seemed to feel that I was her friend, after all. So I kept asking.

"Not to sound rude…"

"Oh, Sithis forfend, Sister."

I resisted the urge to hit him. He'd probably dodge it anyway. "Why is she here?"

He didn't look at all surprised at my question. "Lucien recruited her, she has broken no Tenets, and she fulfils her contracts. She is quite talented, but – shall we say – slightly unstable."

"Only slightly?" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. I blushed.

"Indeed. But, one could argue that we are all unbalanced in our own ways."

"But isn't that dangerous? Letting her go out like that?"

"That is why one of us follows her. Usually it is Telaendril – she is the motherly type, and she cares deeply for Antoinetta."

"No, I mean – wouldn't it be easier to just keep her here?"

"Perhaps. It would be easier to keep you here as well, don't you think? To keep you from using your talents?" He smiled at the look on my face. "You disagree, Sister?"

Why did he always have to be right? "But…one of you followed me on my first contract, didn't you?"

"Perhaps."

"Perhaps?"

"Perhaps."

Yeah, and my knife walked home. I gave up. "Fine. All right. Perhaps. Will I perhaps be followed for every single one afterwards, like Antoinetta?"

"I doubt it. You are not as…wild as Antoinetta is. Most of the time, she fulfills her contracts without issue. However, sometimes…" he trailed off significantly. "You, on the other hand, are much more cautious and controlled than she is. You are more likely to fail a contract because you hesitate to act. I'm hoping that I will be able to break you of that habit."

Something bumped against my chair and Vicente's gaze flicked up over my head. "Mathieu."

I immediately tensed up. If he so much as breathes near me, I swear I'll… Dammit! Why couldn't I be good enough to make him go away?

Luckily, he didn't seem interested in me at the moment. "So, how's the loony doing?"

"Our Sister is well. I must thank you for coming to fetch me."

"Yes, well…" he chuckled, "it looked like the safest choice. Worse than usual, wasn't it?"

"It was, unfortunately." Vicente held up his palm and Mathieu let out a low whistle.

"She got you? The great Vicente? Sithis – imagine if we could harness that. What a weapon she would be."

"Don't even suggest that!" Both men stared at me after my sudden, indignant yelp. Normally, under their combined gazes – monster and murderer – I'd have tried to sink into the floor. But my sudden anger helped me ignore it. What Mathieu was suggesting… "How could you want to do that to her?"

"Well, what is that you always say, Vicente? Use every weapon at your disposal? It would be a shame to let her…go to waste."

"Go to - ! What you're saying…using her…tearing into her mind like that…Mathieu, that's rape!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vicente nod slightly. Was he smiling, too? "She has a point."

"She has a bad analogy."

"I have a sick Sister. Leave her alone."

Mathieu's eyes narrowed slightly before his smirk returned. For the second time that day I saw past his mask, and I wasn't liking what I saw. "So it's like that, is it? Far be it from me to keep you from salving your conscience. Whatever helps you sleep at night, healer."

I was a step away from trying to dig deep gouges out of the table with my fingernails, leather gloves or no. Vicente leaned towards me, pointing towards the other half of the room. "Why don't you bring Telaendril a glass of wine, Sister? She looks as though she could use one right now."

Screw the glass of wine. I wanted to go back to my Waterfront roots and try to claw Mathieu's eyes out, but I would have to be deaf to miss the inflection on 'now,' and stupid to not realize that Vicente was trying to get me to leave before there was any more bleeding today. Because it would definitely be on my part. Though I sort of hoped I'd be able to break Mathieu's nose before he ran me through and ate my eyeballs or something.

After all, the man practiced even more than me, and he didn't even have a vampire hanging over him. (Not literally, of course…you know what I mean.) There was no denying he was good at what he did, though. He'd be up all hours of the night, practicing. Maybe 'good' isn't really the right word. 'Obsessive' fit him better. It was though something drove him – something even deeper than the usual desire to kill.

I had no such desire of my own to find out what that driving force could be. Mathieu's madness was the quiet, twitchy type. I'd known people like him. I didn't let them into the brothel. Not after that one time.

You know something? Bringing a glass of wine to Telaendril sounded like a really good idea after all.

Somehow, I managed to not either spill the wine everywhere or accidentally pour the whole bottle over Mathieu's armor. Yes. Accidentally. I swear.

I wished he would stop looking at me like that. Ugh.

Even in her current state, Telaendril seemed to sense me walking towards her. She took the wine gratefully and drained the glass in one go. I wished that I'd thought to bring the bottle with me, but there was no way I was going back to get it until Mathieu left.

Gods. That man was rapidly climbing up my list of 'Scary Stuff.' In case you're wondering, the list has bread at the very bottom, and the Speaker at the very top. Mathieu was currently hovering somewhere below vampires and above going out and doing another contract.

"How is she doing?"

"Not too badly. I wish I knew what set her off, though…" Telaendril trailed off and shook her head. "I hope she didn't scare you, sweetie."

I shrugged, and sat down next to her. "I've seen worse…on the Waterfront, you know."

"I see…" she rolled the empty goblet back and forth between her palms. "I've been there a few times, but probably not since you were born. At least not since I joined the Brotherhood. Most of my contracts send me to places that my skills in stealth are needed. I hate to say it, but the guards don't care as much for the people in the poorer places. Like dear Antoinetta."

She looked like she wanted to cry, so I hastily changed the subject. "Um…if you don't mind me asking, how did you get recruited? Everyone seems to know my story, but I don't know yours. That is – if you don't mind telling me."

"How I joined?" Her eyes hardened a little. "It's a short story. My own father hired the Brotherhood – Lucien, to be precise – to kill me. I escaped, and paid my father back."

"You escaped the Speaker?" I stared at her, awed. Even though I'd only met the man twice – enough to leave a serious impact on my probably not-too-stable brain – the idea that someone had actually gotten away from him… "That's incredible!"

She blushed, shaking her head. "Hardly. Sometimes I think I was just lucky to get to my father before Lucien got to me. Most of what people mistake for skill is actually luck anyway."

"No, you must be really good!" I protested.

With a wry smile, she reached out and mussed my hair. "Vicente's got you practicing that silver tongue, I see."

"A little." I blushed. "Hopefully I'm better at it than archer – " I slapped my hand over my mouth when Antoinetta whimpered in her sleep. Telaendril and I held our breath until she settled again, curling up like a child. Relaxing, I muttered, half to myself, "Never thought I'd be this worried over a killer."

"No, sweetie. You're worried about your Sister. Your Family. That's quite different." She smiled again, this time at the look of confusion on my face. Setting her goblet on the floor, she reached out to straighten Antoinetta's blanket around her shoulders. "We're more than just a guild. The entire world wishes that we were dead. The Legion? Want us dead. The nobility? Want us dead. The common folk? Want us dead. The temples? Want us dead. The Morag Tong? Really want us dead. Even our clients secretly want us dead. That's why our Family is so important. Family. Capitalize it, underline it, always carry that in the front of your mind. We're the only ones who want us to keep breathing." She nodded her head towards Antoinetta's sleeping form. "And for most of us, it's all we have left."

Telaendril picked her goblet back up. "Come along, Sister. Let's get some more wine."