A/N: So… here it is. I… will continue this A/N at the end of the chapter. Until then, read and review and may Sithis and the Night Mother keep you….

Chapter 25: Darker Pleasures

Uvelaes and Arnbjorn came back three hours after midnight, exhausted and a little bloody and singed – and in Arnbjorn's case, a little angry that he had been forced by the circumstances to carry a new, non-Astrid-supporting member on his back, and immediately snapped at everyone and stalked away to Astrid.

We heard from Uvelaes what had happened – apparently, Uvelaes had set fires in some places that burnt a little beyond control, especially when he got tangled with a mage, and that was why they were covered in soot and Arnbjorn's hair smelt awful and was uneven at the ends. Thankfully, the mage had been 'an inexperienced female Imperial who couldn't cast her way out of an open door' – most of her spells had backfired and spread Uvelaes's fires instead as she got more and more panicked. Fortunately it had played to their advantage and destroyed the camp in a matter of minutes, but the problem had been removing evidence of magefire and stopping the fire from spreading too far in the dry autumn air.
I sighed in relief when Uvelaes went on to explain that most of the agents had been killed in the initial fight, and only another ten or so were left behind at their camp. And now there are none left, I thought happily, glad that we were still half a step ahead of the Empire's wild goose chase. It was that half a step that made sure we were alive or dead, and I personally preferred alive. Festus ended up lecturing Uvelaes on the nuances of Destruction magic, and I left them at it for a few more hours of sleep.

When I woke up again, and passed through the alchemy lab, Gabriella stopped me just as Babette swore at a new formula she was furiously working on for a new potion. "Alysa, if you're ready to set out and kill little Maro, the letter you need to plant on his body will be ready by tonight," she said, looking up from several parchments, one of which had an ink drawing of Maro's insignia. "There's no need to ask what it's about – just some rambling about Stormcloak agents coming in to kill the Emperor and so on and so forth. This kill may prove to be challenging if only because they might suspect us before you can plant the letter, and it must be done inside a city in order to gain the bonus. Start in Dragonbridge, and see if you can get our little agent's travel schedule. It will make things much easier, but you knew that already," Gabriella offered me a rare smile – she usually reserved them for Festus. "Go with Sithis, Sister."
"Thank you; and you," I replied. I would need speed on my side for this one, and I was going to work on little sleep for a long time.

I headed back to my bed to start packing my things and get a map to start planning my route, and work out travel times and distances with my horse. Since it was only me, while Maro would be with an entourage of Oculatus agents, I would probably end up travelling faster and lighter than they would – which was a benefit for me…. I ignored Seri when I passed her, and Veezara seemed entirely unsure of what to make of her flamboyant mannerisms at times.

I took my map out and made my way to Cicero's chambers somewhat out of habit – it was a calm place where I could think without being disturbed by irritating idiots. I settled on the floor at the foot of the Night Mother's stone coffin, and spread the map in front of me. He would probably go south to Markarth first, and then down around the south of Skyrim before turning north and finally west to end in Solitude. He'd also travel by the roads, in all likelihood, which meant I could buy time by cutting across the country to get to the cities before him – once I knew where he was headed, I could go straight there and lie in wait. I grinned briefly – I just needed his travel schedule, and confirmation from someone close to him that it was the correct copy. The rest would be relatively easy. If I could plan it right, I'd wait for him in Riften and see if I could make it look like a vagrant thief or drunk had cut his throat for a few coins, then leave the letter on him, and disappear into the night.

"Good morning, Cicero," I greeted without turning to look behind me. My grin spread – I could almost picture the indignant look on his face, so I turned to appreciate it completely. His hands were on his hips, one foot out to the side and his head was leaning to the other. I took the time to appreciate his features, and the definite contours of his face, his very straight, typically Imperial nose, the laugh lines around his mouth and grey eyes…. "Good morning to you too, Alysa," he said slowly, curiosity lighting his face when he saw the map in front of me.
"My next contract – Gaius Maro's inspecting all the cities and their security for when the Emperor comes, and I need to make it even more crucial that the Emperor comes by incriminating an agent of our favorite organization."
Cicero giggled and clapped his hands, leaping forwards and planting himself on the floor next to me with surprising speed. "Oooohh! Cicero thinks that would be awesome fun! What a stunt it will be! What is he being framed for? And why the map? Surely you know Skyrim inside out and outside in?"
I smirked at him. "He'll be a Stormcloak spy, and I need to see where I might go from here to Dragonbridge and from there to the major cities to catch Maro for my bonus. If it's anything like the first contract, I'll be rich enough to buy Falkreath from the Jarl!" I sniggered, and Cicero laughed with me.
"Cicero thinks that would be quite funny – a city of assassins! We'd need it after all the new members…."
"We would," I nodded. "Are there any other Sanctuaries out there somewhere that were closed and never found by the Oculatus agents?" I asked seriously, searching Cicero's face. He seemed torn between his desire to tell me and his duty to keep it secret. "There is another one you know about, isn't there?"
Cicero nodded slowly. "Yes, Cicero knows of another. Before he came here with our Mother, he paid it a visit. It's much bigger than this one, but full of ghost-guardians of assassins who died and went back to protect it," he admitted quietly, glancing at the closed door every so often. If Astrid found out where this place was, or what the passcode was… she'd move over as soon as she could and she would probably split me and my people in the Brotherhood, and that wouldn't be particularly good. "Astrid can't know about it," I whispered.
"I know; that's one of the reasons why I said nothing and stayed quiet. But Cicero is beginning to think we might need to open it again, sweet Alysa."

I grinned at his endearment when my stomach grumbled suddenly – I hadn't had breakfast yet, I realized. Cicero sniggered at me. "Cicero thinks a breakfast of sweetrolls and honey and mead and carrots is in order! And the Listener knows she agrees…." He stood and pulled me up with him, spinning me around the room in a wild, haphazard dance deeper into his chambers. We held onto each other's hands, spinning and leaping randomly. I laughed with Cicero, more out of amazement that we didn't slam into the shelves and tables and chairs at all.

I stopped suddenly when Cicero stopped and pulled me close, my back to his front, and he kissed my neck. I shivered, holding onto his hands a little tighter. My stomach felt strange – light and fluttery, and unlike anything I had felt before. My heart had never beat this fast before, either. The moment went as quickly as it came, and I was pulled back from timelessness into the present when Cicero's lips left my skin, and he stepped to my side and let me go to get plates and food. I poured mead, and sat down next to Cicero at the table. Now is as good a time as any to talk about my past, I decided, and started talking. Cicero was quiet the entire time while I told him about growing up in Helgen as rich middle class, and how my mother had disappeared – my father had never explained why – and how he had spiraled out of control, gambling and losing everything we had, until he finally had to sell our house, and me. I went to Riften with a nobleman of sorts, working as his personal servant until something snapped in me one day when I was twelve, and I had cut his throat. Cicero had smiled at me, then, when I tried to explain how confused I had been as a child about what I had done.
I finally made my way up to Shor's Stone, and lived with an older woman for another year or so, who rather enjoyed beating children who spoke up more often than they should have – I suppose she was much like Grelod, now that I thought of it – and I killed her out of revenge and her sister for the hell of it. I tried to kill her son, too, but he had survived. I fled back to Riften, roaming the streets until I was sixteen and heard about the Stormcloaks.

"It was a way out of everything for me – I had nothing, couldn't have anything and it was something I could be good at. I knew little of fighting but killing I could do," I explained to Cicero, tipping my tankard one way and then the other while I spoke.
"Cicero doesn't see you being a Stormcloak soldier – Cicero thinks it would have been too boring for you," he flashed me a grin.
"Sithis apparently agreed, because it was about then that Ulfric was captured by the Thalmor and I stayed on in Windhelm for three years – when I ran into Seri from time to time, asked for her help and killed her father's oxen," I sniggered when I thought of my revenge, and took another sip of mead. "And I killed every so often, and just as I was growing restless in Windhelm, I heard about Aventus Aretino and the Black Sacrament. So I paid him a visit, and he thought I was Dark Brotherhood, and I went back to Riften to kill old Grelod. I guess the rest is history, really. I never did collect my reward from Aventus," I suddenly realized. Cicero gave me a funny look when I laughed. "I was arrested and then kidnapped by Astrid and I never went to find Aventus after that. In fact, I only remembered him and his name because he was key to my joining the Dark Brotherhood…" I shook my head.
"And now he's an assassin like you and Cicero!" he giggled darkly, and I sniggered as well. "Cicero thinks it was the best payment for you to become an assassin, really," he raised his tankard and I clinked mine with his, and we drank to my good fortune since I joined.

I drained my tankard, thinking of the promise I had made to myself that I kept on breaking every time I had some mead and brushed it off, standing to examine some of Cicero's oddments that he had collected over the years he had worked as an assassin – and a few odd trinkets he picked up afterwards. He had a large collection of daggers, enchanted, unenchanted, elvish, glass, iron, steel…. I'd never seen a collection like this before. "This is quite impressive," I said, picking up a rich amber-colored blade with green stones inlaid in the hilt of dagger and turning it over. "I've never seen a blade like this before – what is it made of?" I turned to see Cicero next to me, his hand outstretched for the fairly broad blade.
"Cicero won it in a bet against one of his brothers in Bruma – apparently the Listener in the previous age, the one who disappeared, had brought it with from the very foreign land she disappeared to. She said it was an amber dagger, and Cicero had it taken to a bladesmith and he told Cicero he'd never seen a weapon like this before, but his father had – they were elves, dear Alysa – and the older elf told Cicero that it was amber. I even took it to a jeweler who said the same."
I raised my brows at the blade, and lifted it to the light. It was slightly opaque, and if I looked hard enough, I could see the faint outlines of objects on the other side of the blade. "Why don't you use it?"
"No-one can fix it for Cicero if it breaks – no-one has amber or knows how to work with it. It's sad to Cicero, but very well. Cicero will admire the blade, then." I nodded, and put the blade back on the shelf. "But Cicero's Listener… he would admire her too."

I grinned at him, reading between the lines to what he wanted to add, and kissed him, the same desire I had felt for him after the battle yesterday and earlier back in full force, and Cicero knew it. He pulled me close to him as I wrapped my arms around his neck, his hands wandering over my back and settling on my hips, our lips only just forced apart by the need to breathe. I felt my lips twitch in a dark smile at Cicero, and he returned it with that strange mix of sanity and insanity in his eyes. His mouth attacked mine again, nipping and teasing in ways I had never imagined from Cicero, making a fierce warmth blossom in the pit of my stomach, and I gave in to him when his hands slipped under the tunic of my robes, nipping and sucking on his neck as he lifted me, wrapping my legs around his waist and carried me to his bed.

Cicero hadn't felt this normal, this sane in years – but especially, he hadn't felt so happy! Or in love! I was propped up on my elbow, my beloved Listener lying on her stomach, her hair wild and damp and so perfect and so very deliciously naked next to him in his bed, her ice-blue eyes staring at Cicero as if she couldn't see enough. He wondered if she would agree to trade seeing for doing again…. He reached for her hips, kissed her back and spine. Cicero felt her hum happily, and he looked up to grin at her when she turned over onto her back, her smirk answering what the Fool of Hearts had been thinking. Oh, sweet Mother, she would be the one to drive Cicero to the Void and back with insanity! If he wasn't crazy already, hehehe…. He grinned at her, his mighty Listener Alysa, then kissed and licked her stomach, and she wove her fingers in Cicero's hair, touched his face and anywhere she could reach. Oh, Cicero almost couldn't think about anything with the way she felt and smelt….

Cicero grinned, teasing her with his kisses and his touches until she scowled darkly, still refusing to beg and plead, and pulled Cicero closer, kissing him fiercely. Oh, he'd never say no to Alysa… not now, not ever.

I would be lying if I said we spent a lazy day in bed – because we certainly weren't lazy. If anything, I would say that between the two of us, our lust for each other was almost insatiable. I didn't know how many times we ended up making love, but by Sithis and the Night Mother, it was a pleasure and a high something entirely different to anything I had ever known.
We bathed and dressed only in time for dinner Festus-style, and Gabriella's knowing smirk greeted me as she held out a letter. "The letter I owe you for Gaius Maro's incrimination. Nothing all that interesting inside – just some blather about Stormcloaks and the likes. Send him my regards when you gut him, won't you?"
"I would normally suggest that," Babette interrupted, "but this time I would say kill him first, and leave the talk. It'll probably only serve to spook him, and that's quite unnecessary."
I nodded at the little vampire. "I'll keep it in mind, but I have no intention of letting him escape."
Babette nodded at me, ready to move on when she stopped to give me a strange look and a smile. "It's about time," I thought I heard her mutter, and I was still about to scowl when she was gone. I clenched my jaw instead, and headed to dinner with the rest of the Family. I'd set out in the morning, and then Gaius had an eternity of servitude ahead of him. How delicious.

A/N: So… I've left out the lemon for now – if you guys want it/would prefer me to do things a little differently here… Constructive criticism very much welcome! (And maybe really needed… O_O Probably, definitelyX3). Also, if you want it… won't someone who's written one before help me out with it? Much appreciated in advance! I kinda feel like I skimped this chapter, like I jumped into it too quickly… your thoughts, Brothers and Sisters!