Sundas, 8:03 PM, 21st of Hearthfire, 4E 201

Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary

Gabriella wasn't even trying to sleep. Not that she could've if she'd wanted to. Wooden benches weren't the best for sleeping on anyway. But even though she was laying still on her back, with an arm draped over her face for good measure, it wasn't with the intent of getting any actual rest in.

Around the corner, some glass thing tipped over and clattered on the ground.

"Oh no!" Aventus' voice cried out. "I'm sorry!"

"It's fine, don't worry," said Babette's voice. "It was almost empty anyway. But be careful, all right? These things are dangerous. They're not toys. Even if they are fun."

These two had been at it for half an hour now. Gabriella was just waiting.

After a moment, Aventus' voice piped up again. "So, uh, I'm kind of curious. You're a vampire, so if you use these poisons on someone, does their blood, uh…"

Babette's voice cut in. "What? … You mean, is it poisonous to me? No, I was, uh, I was born with special powers."

Aventus cracked up.

Three weeks and three days. That was how long it'd been since the boy had shown up. Not that it mattered much to Gabriella. She was an assassin, and Aventus' situation was all politics. Unless someone put a contract on the boy's head, she didn't have much to do with it.

Supposedly, Aventus had already taken the step of ending another's life. No one special, just some old vile crone who'd been running the orphanage he was in. Gabriella was sure the act had been done in righteous anger. Aventus had yet to understand the beauty of sending another living being to the Void.

And yet this boy was the Listener. The chosen mouthpiece of the Night Mother. These were some very interesting weeks.

Babette's voice kept talking. "So I'm completely immune to all poison. That's actually how I became a vampire. If I'd kept growing up, I would've become too dangerous. Yes."

"So—so hold on, am I doing this right?"

"Yes! So far, so good! But even if you make a mistake, it'll probably come out usable. Deathbells give you a lot of leeway for making poisons. They're strong like that. You can make mistakes, as long as the mistake isn't… Isn't, you know, accidentally getting it on yourself. Which is why you didn't use those starting out. By the way, please don't knock anything over again."

When Cicero first arrived last month, Gabriella had thought of it as a turn for the better. And she still did. As a Dunmer herself, she was always keen to welcome members of non-Nord races—or she would've been, if they didn't have only a mere two Nords here anyway. The real reason she approved of Cicero so much was because he'd come with the Night Mother's body in tow. He was the Keeper, and they were due to have a Listener once again. All very good news. Astrid was competent, but she was no Sithis.

And then they'd gotten their Listener. Aventus Aretino, the boy from Riften. And at that point, everything had gone crazy. Astrid hated him, Cicero loved him, no one seemed to know what to do. Gabriella least of all. This boy was busily tearing the Brotherhood apart, and everyone knew it. Plus, his arrival brought their total number of Nords up to three.

"You're right, I didn't use these," Aventus said flatly. "I was just making stuff out of mushrooms."

"Out of mush-rooooms," Babette replied, in a dopey, comically low tone of voice.

"The mush-rooooms." The boy was using the same stupid tone now.

"Mush-roooooms!" Babette giggled audibly. Gabriella imagined her picking up a mushroom cap and waving it at Aventus.

"No, not the mushrooms! I'm—this is a mushroom attack! I'm under attack, help me—"

"You can't get away from the mushrooms, they're everywhere!—"

"No! I will resist! I am resisting your mushrooms!" Aventus picked up something creaky. Probably a basket. Gabriella could hear it swooshing around. "Ha! Haha! I'll catch them!"

"Wait, careful, don't step on the—"

"Oh, right, sorry."

Something made a very soft thudding sound. "Hah! Got you!"

"Hey, that's no fair! I wasn't looking!"

"Aventus. We're assassins. Why would we throw things at you when you're looking?"

There was a brief pause. "… So I can catch them in the basket liiiiiiike this!"

"Master. You're a master at this. I dunno why they called you the Listener, you should be the Mushroom Catcher."

"Excuse me, I think you mean Mush-roooooom Catcher."

"I think I mean you need to stir your mixture now."

The two of them went silent for half a minute or so. Something was bubbling quietly. It sounded distinctly unappetizing. Eventually, Aventus said, "Actually, I need the privy, hold on a minute."

A pair of young feet scampered off to some other part of the sanctuary. Finally, a reprieve. Gabriella might not get another chance at a moment in peace tonight. She swung her legs off the bench and stood up.

Babette was still in the laboratory, idly picking at the concoction Aventus had left on the alchemy table. She spared Gabriella little more than a glance. "Sister," she said primly.

As she surveyed the laboratory, Gabriella folded her arms and leaned a shoulder on the wall. Down below, at the far end of the room, Lis was happily picking through some bones or other. It was strange how much work Babette put into her poisons, when Gabriella had a tamed frostbite spider right there, ready to supply them with all the venom they needed. Then again, it went without saying that most of Babette's alchemy was simply for her own amusement.

After a moment, Babette glanced back up at her. "What?"

Gabriella let out a long sigh. "Why do you do it, Babette? This is getting absurd. You're practically older than everyone else in the sanctuary combined. I can't believe you're acting like—"

"Like I look? Please." Babette scoffed. "I've spent centuries refining my harmless-child act. I'm sure I'll survive using it for more than carrying out contracts."

"He must know it's an act. He's heard how old you are. I don't believe he's that stupid a child, even with the whole Black-Briar incident."

"Gabriella. Aventus is the Listener, and deserves the respect due to any Dark Brother or Sister. But all the same, he is a child. I've seen countless children forced to grow up before their time. The results are never pretty. If I can make use of my appearance to nurture our young Dark Brother—would you deny him that?"

"Oh, of course. You're just doing this out of the kindness of your heart." The Dunmer paused, then narrowed her eyes. "What are you trying to do here?"

Babette offered a meager shrug. "There's not much to say about it. He's the Listener. I thought you liked getting to serve the Night Mother again."

It had to be admitted, Babette wasn't bad at this whole manipulation thing. Questioning Gabriella's own motives, taking attention off of herself. Not exactly a surprise, given how her whole assassination technique was based on trickery. Gabriella was supposed to say that yes, of course she served the Night Mother, and then Babette would say that the Listener was the Night Mother's chosen, and they had to do right by him, and there wouldn't be anything left to say. But Gabriella was an assassin, not a politician. She wasn't going to play this game.

"Babette. What are you not telling us?"

Those light footsteps began to return. Babette looked up at Gabriella silently.

Aventus came running in from the dining hall, then came to a sudden stop as he saw his new company. "Oh, hi, Gabriella. What's going on?"

"Just catching up," Gabriella smiled as gently as she could manage. "Feel free to carry on with your work."

"Mushrooms," Babette mouthed silently at Aventus.

Aventus, for his part, ignored it and simply nodded politely at Gabriella. "If you say so. I hope we're not bothering you."

Babette pointed a casual finger at Gabriella. "Speaking of bothering, I think Astrid wants a word with you. Why don't you go find her?"

That was as good an excuse to leave as any. Gabriella excused herself in short order and started on her way for Astrid's quarters.

Most of the Dark Brotherhood members slept in a single, common space, for lack of a better arrangement. The three exceptions were Babette, who had her own room just by virtue of sheer seniority; Cicero, who had taken to sleeping in the spare supply room; and Astrid, who lived up by the main entrance, in something almost resembling an acceptable dwelling.

Frankly, Gabriella didn't care about any of it. In her line of work, she routinely went days without any proper rest, and still had to be focused enough to make a clean kill afterward. But it did mean that she had to go across half the sanctuary to have a word with her leader. She didn't talk to anyone on the way. She was in no mood.

There was a furnished foyer space in line with the corridor. It was unoccupied. The only thing of note out here was a great big map of Skyrim, devoid of labels, on a wide, flat stone table. Someone had jammed an iron dagger straight into Windhelm. Probably not the sort of thing Gabriella wanted to ask about.

The next step was to try the bedchamber door. It seemed kind of obvious. And sure enough, it swung open just as she raised a fist to knock on it. There stood Astrid, dressed in her uniform as always, looking calm and controlled as (mostly) always. She gave Gabriella a brief, upwards nod, then stepped back. "Please, come in."

Gabriella stepped inside with what she considered to be due wariness. Astrid closed the door behind her. The lock audibly clicked shut.

"Babette told me you wanted to see me," Gabriella said without looking.

Astrid slowly circled around to her front once again. Talking to Babette had been so much simpler. Gabriella was standing stock still, doing absolutely nothing, and she could still feel Astrid picking her apart. There was a feeling there that Gabriella could only describe as 'predatory'.

"I'm going to be very up front with you, Gabriella," Astrid said, softly, precisely. "I'm running out of assassins I can trust. Veezara is out on business. So is my dear Arnbjorn. Nazir is busy keeping this place running. Festus is busy licking Cicero's boots. And Sithis only knows what's taken Babette these days. But… I can trust you. Can I not?"

Gabriella nodded impatiently. If only everyone could stop playing games like this. "Tell me what you need me to do."

Astrid smiled in satisfaction. "We've received word of a potential contract. It very nearly escaped our notice, but I did find out about in time."

It was truly rare that Dark Brothers and Sisters kept contracts secret from one another. Of course, Maven Black-Briar been handled with no secrecy at all, and that had turned out horribly. There was a very short list of potential targets worth the same sort of secrecy. Possibly one of the Jarls, or one of the officers in Solitude.

"We're going to kill the Emperor," Astrid said.

Oh.

"Oh," Gabriella said.

"If we complete this contract, we'll never have a care in the world again. We'll have all the gold we'll ever need, and the Empire will finally stop trying to root us out. It'll be the most challenging contract we've ever taken, of course. Emperor Mede has survived many an assassination attempt. But he's never survived the blades of the Dark Brotherhood. And he won't."

Gabriella had to wonder just how Astrid had learned of this contract. It hadn't been through the Black Sacrament, or Aventus would be doing everything in his power to sabotage it, just like he'd done with the contract from Maven. That was the whole point of all this secrecy, of course—Astrid didn't want anyone interfering with her plans.

It was true that Gabriella was an assassin. She wasn't just a killer, she was an agent of death. As far as she could tell, death defined and governed everyone's life—she just happened to have a more hands-on approach to it. Thankfully, the Dark Brotherhood was more than happy to accommodate her, so she was never forced to delve deep into her own beliefs. Until right now. At this very moment. Right as Astrid looked into her eyes, searching for a response.

It was true, she was an assassin. She should have been leaping upon this contract like a wolf upon a deer. But this felt wrong. Astrid was wrong to trust her. They were having this conversation only because Gabriella kept her head down and her mouth shut. In all reality, she thought this business of locking the Listener out was a terrible idea. It couldn't possibly go anywhere good in the end. But here Astrid was, posing her with the offer of a lifetime, and she had to answer.

"I hope you're not just sending me out there and hoping for the best," she replied. Her voice felt strangely numb. It was like she wasn't speaking with her own mouth.

"No. That's not what I'm doing. But allow me to explain." Astrid held up a hand. "This is a contract like no other. Our client originally proposed several contracts to us, as part of an overarching plan designed to lure the Emperor into vulnerability, before we strike him down once and for all. All very complex, all very elegant. Naturally, the very first thing I did was to throw his plans out. Complexity means room for error. This isn't a contract we can afford to make errors with."

Gabriella nodded. "Agreed. Out of curiosity, what exactly did our client's plan entail?"

"Oh, it was absurd. He wanted us to kill Vittoria Vici, of all people, and then torment the higher-ups in the Emperor's personal guard, and then kill and impersonate the Gourmet, and apparently he thought that would all add up well. Clearly, our client has been reading too many legends of intrigue."

Truth be told, Gabriella didn't know what to make of this. There were a few people in Skyrim who were probably harder to kill than the Emperor, but none who were more famous or influential. This was an opportunity beyond comprehending. But that didn't mean Gabriella liked it. All she could think was that Astrid was passing a point of no return. Disagreeing with the crazy jester was one thing. Leaving the Brotherhood's key players out of its own dealings was another thing entirely.

But Gabriella was still an assassin. She still had a job to do. And if it involved bringing people's lives to an end, she'd still get to do what she loved.

"So, you have a plan of your own," she said. "Which one of us is going to make this kill?"

A slow, sly smirk spread across Astrid's face. "That's the best part," she said. "None of us are."