Tirdas, 7:20 PM, 14th of Frostfall, 4E 201

Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary

These were great days for the Dark Brotherhood. Not in the sense that the Dark Brotherhood was in an age of prosperity—that remained to be seen. More in the sense that these days would decide the future of their whole organization. The future of Astrid's whole family. Nothing in life was greater than that.

It all came down to the Emperor. Their client was promising a truly vast payment for the contract, but the coin was secondary. The main point was to send a message. The Emperor was the single most renowned and recognized man in Tamriel. Legionnaires swore to him when they took their oath of service. Imperial citizens worshiped the ground he walked on. Free-spirited Nords resented how his shadow extended all the way through Skyrim. Aldmeri elves cursed his name for all he'd done to foil their plans. Everyone knew him. If he were murdered, every last one of them would notice.

Sanyon's strange little Sweetroll group had to keep its own existence secret to prevent war from reigniting between the Empire and the Dominion. That meant the Brotherhood could and would take sole credit for this kill. And that was crucial. With this one stroke, Tamriel would be reminded that the Dark Brotherhood was a force to be feared. But even so, there was more to it than that. Ever since that upstart of a child and his jester friend had shown up together, Astrid's family had been divided. This would remind them why it was best to trust her in the end.

Tonight, Astrid lay on her bed, her shoulders propped up, one leg hanging off the side, as she idly sharpened a steel dagger. The blade was polished to such a flawless shine that she could see her own face in it, amid all the flickering orange firelight. They were beautiful things, blades. Especially daggers. An assassin's weapon of choice. Small, concealable, and completely capable of ending a person's life. She could spend her whole night with her collection of them. The Dark Brotherhood might have been her family, but her blades were her faithful friends.

Some would probably find this interest of hers a little morbid. In her opinion, it wasn't really any more morbid than the typical Nord's obsession with honorable death. Besides, those judgmental individuals tended to be the kind of people Astrid used these blades on.

Besides, she was sort of short on things to pay attention to in here. Being a married woman, Astrid had a spacious double bed, but the other space had been empty for about two months. This happened sometimes. Being a werewolf, Arnbjorn got himself into strange situations now and then. It'd resolve itself sooner or later, like it always did, but all she had to keep herself company through the night for now was these blades of hers.

There was a short, sharp knock on Astrid's door. Three raps on the wood.

Astrid set down the dagger and whetstone on her nightstand, then hopped out of the bed and circled around to go open the door. Fortunately, she hadn't gotten out of her Brotherhood uniform yet. This was going to be interesting. She wondered if it was the person she hoped it was.

And, yes. It was Gabriella. The sight of her made Astrid's heart jump into her throat. She could tell, just by the look on the Dunmer's face, that it had all worked out. The exchange had been successfully made. It was all in the Sweetroll Initiative's capable hands now. This was interesting indeed.

"The elves appreciate our cooperation," Gabriella deadpanned.

Astrid put on a knowing smirk. "Everything went well, then?"

"I think so. They put on a pretty good show of being entirely incomprehensible. But I couldn't hold it against them. We'd do the same."

It was funny Gabriella said that. She hadn't been there for the first meeting between Astrid and Sanyon. They'd given up on the posturing after about thirty seconds. Real peers had no use for that sort of thing around each other.

"I don't suppose you saw Cicero while you were out there," Astrid said.

Gabriella squinted and turned her head by an inch. "No, of course not. Why would I?"

"He left the Sanctuary a couple days after you did. He said there was some business he needed to handle for the Night Mother." Astrid couldn't keep the annoyance out of her voice, try as she might. After a point, diplomacy gave way to stupid jesters. "Normally, I'd be thrilled to have him out of here, but I'd have preferred him to stay where I can keep an eye on him."

"Well, if you were worried he was following me, you can rest easy. I cover my tracks better than that." It didn't seem like Gabriella really understood the gravity of the situation. But that answer would just have to do. "Why didn't you just tell him it could wait?"

Astrid gave her an impatient look. "Your mission was a secret. I couldn't do that without alerting him that something was going on." Then she softened a little. "It doesn't matter now, in any case. You've successfully carried out your part in this contract. Go on and get settled in. We have some waiting ahead of us."

Gabriella started to move off. But then she hesitated. Something flickered across her face. Doubt. She raised a hand towards Astrid. "Listen…"

Not good. Astrid switched to a much gentler tone. She even smiled a little. "You did well, Gabriella. I know this hasn't been easy, but you did it. I'll remember that."

"I don't want to ever do this again," Gabriella said, abruptly. "I don't give the damn about the elves. But I just went behind my brothers' and sisters' backs to fulfill your contract. Do you know how that makes me feel?"

This was to be expected. Astrid felt for her Dark Sister, truly and totally. It wasn't right to have to go through such discord. But that was why she was doing all this scheming to begin with. At this point, sincerity seemed like the best option. "I'm sorry, Gabriella. I… I really am. I don't enjoy this any more than you do. And if it's any consolation, you're never going to need to do anything of the sort again."

"I hope you're right, Astrid." The Dunmer closed her eyes, took a deep breath in. Opened her eyes again. "I think I'll go on and 'get settled in' now. Enjoy your evening."

And with that, she was gone. Astrid closed the door with a sigh.

She couldn't expect everyone to be happy about this. She wasn't happy about it. But Gabriella's return was good news. Vital news. It meant that soon, they'd all be one family again, like they'd used to be. As far as Astrid was concerned, that was enough to get through anything.

Her dagger was waiting at her bedside. Truth be told, she wasn't in a sharpening mood anymore, but as she lay back down, she picked it back up and resumed anyway. She just had to do something with herself.

This was always the hard part about her plan against the Emperor. It was unheard of for the Dark Brotherhood to bring in other killers to handle their contracts for them. Yes, it made sense. Yes, the dissent in her family right now was an extenuating circumstance. But Astrid didn't like it when the Brotherhood's affairs were out of her control. Politics aside, she could trust her own to complete contracts as they were given. Presumably, these Thalmor soldiers had a plan of their own, but Astrid had no idea what kind of results it would yield.

The results were what this all hinged on. Just as she always trusted those loyal to her, Astrid trusted Gabriella to keep quiet for now, but the others would inevitably learn of the contract being done without their knowledge, and they wouldn't like it. She herself being the one to break the news would only do so much. The whole point here was that when she could just do her job as leader, the Brotherhood would get results. And it wasn't up to her anymore. She felt like she had just put a sword in a stranger's hand and asked them to hold it to her throat.

It was out of her hands now. There was no turning back. The Thalmor would proceed on their mission, and if it failed… Well, then Astrid's explanation to the others would have a much steeper challenge to it. Still, it was out of her hands. There was no sense in dwelling on what she couldn't control. At least that was what she liked to tell herself.

She supposed this dagger was sharp enough by now. It wouldn't do to wear down the blade pointlessly. She wasn't that obsessed with sharp edges.

There was a knock on the door again. Three raps on the wood, again. Astrid sighed. She didn't want to have to keep going with this conversation. But still, she put the dagger and whetstone down once more, and headed over to open the door.

"What is it—"

TCHUNK

There was a sharp stab of pain. Astrid had a strange, surreal moment, where she looked down at the feathered end of this wooden rod sticking off her belly, and didn't understand how it was intersecting with her body. It looked wrong. A moment later, she realized she'd been shot.

The crossbow lowered away. Babette looked up at her. "I'm sorry, Astrid," she said.

She'd been shot.

Then Astrid's limbs stopped answering her. The room spun backwards. The cold stone floor slammed into her back.

She couldn't see anything but the ceiling. But she could hear the door being gently closed. Babette. The innocuous little vampire girl. Astrid was being betrayed, and by, of all people, Babette? It didn't make any sense.

But it did.

It hit Astrid all at once, as she was laying there on the floor, her muscles frozen in place, blood leaking palpably from the wound in her middle. It hit her how this had all happened. She couldn't believe it, but there it was.

When Cicero arrived with Aventus Aretino in tow, not all of the Brotherhood members had been present. Two had been away. Arnbjorn had been one. Astrid had sent him after Cicero, to see what he was up to. Babette had been the other. Astrid hadn't asked what she'd left for.

Arnbjorn wasn't coming back to the Sanctuary.

He hadn't been told to confront Cicero, only to watch him. He was never supposed to be in any danger. Unless, when he'd gone out to track his target, someone else had been tracking him. Someone he never would've thought to defend himself against.

And somehow, Babette had known about Gabriella's mission. She'd been waiting just as Astrid had, to confirm that the plot to kill the Emperor was in motion. And the very minute she'd confirmed it, Astrid was no longer necessary. Now she was about to die.

Strangely, she wasn't all that upset. It didn't seem like being upset would matter now. No fear, no anger, no sadness. This was her time. She got that. But if this was to be her end, she would've at least wished it to be less… Well, strange.

"It's bad form to talk to people you're about to kill," Babette said, as she came around into Astrid's view. She still held the crossbow in her arms. "It's even worse form to tell them anything of importance. But just this once, I'm going to allow myself the indulgence. You've led the Brotherhood for many years. You've been wise, and fair, in your own way. You deserve the explanation."

Astrid would have swallowed, but she couldn't. Her mouth had gone dry and numb. The poison was still working through her. She could feel the thin, pointed bolt where it was inside her body. It felt so uncomfortable. Yes, that was the word she thought. Uncomfortable.

As Babette spoke, she was slowly, laboriously reloading her crossbow. She had a child's frame. Pulling back the lever took her entire body's strength. The next bolt was going to deliver Astrid her fate. She didn't even know what to think of that. Bolts worked as well as blades, maybe. It was still strange to think that now it was her turn to have those used on her.

"It was a few months ago," Babette said. "I've been alive for a long time, Astrid. I've seen things that most people have only read about. But a few months ago, this life of mine… Well. I had a dream. A very vivid dream. I realized that I was being spoken to by a presence outside my own mind. At first, I thought it was the Night Mother, and that I was being chosen for the new Listener. But it wasn't the Night Mother. It was Sithis himself. Speaking to me, personally, from the far reaches of the Void."

No. Astrid couldn't believe it. She was getting betrayed over that same slow-minded spiritual dogma she'd been trying to protect her family from. She'd expected so much more from someone like Babette. These were the last minutes of her life, and she was just disappointed.

Babette went on. "He told me that the time had come for the Dark Brotherhood to change. The Dark Brotherhood is his hand in the world as it is now, and it's how he's been judged by those in it. Throughout history, it's pleased him to make himself known by fear. But he told me… Something was about to change. That judgment would be passed on every force in the Aurbis, and even the Void wouldn't be beyond the judgment's reach. It sounded like if… Well, whoever will be doing the judging now, if they don't like what Sithis is doing in this world, they'll do something to him. And the threat of that was enough to scare him."

This poison was astonishing. Most paralysis poisons' effects lasted no more than a few seconds, but it'd been almost a minute and Astrid still couldn't move. There must have been a hundred doses of the stuff waiting to seep into her veins. Even Babette wasn't this good of an alchemist.

"It's a terrifying thing, to have your god come to you pleading in fear. But that's exactly what happened. I wasn't being asked to do much. I just had to find a boy named Aventus Aretino, destined to be the next Listener, and set him free from his shackles. And ensure that the Keeper would watch over him. It's terrifying to have a god come pleading to you, but it's even worse to knowingly alter the fate of whole realms of being by putting a dagger under a boy's pillow.

"At the time, I was obeying simply out of that sense of terror, if nothing else. But now I think I understand why I was asked to do as I did. Aventus Aretino is reinventing the Dark Brotherhood. The days of us killing anyone for the right price are behind us. Now, when we're approached for a contract, the client is putting their own life on the line, the same as their target. And depending on the judgment of the Night Mother and her Listener, one of them, client or target, will die. Beautiful, isn't it? This is the future of the Brotherhood. This is how we'll last through the ages."

What Astrid was hearing didn't sound like the Brotherhood she knew at all. Her family was made of purveyors of death, not of judgment. Babette's entire story sounded insane. But Babette was standing strong, and Astrid was flat on her back in a pool of her own blood.

Babette sighed. "I suppose I've indulged myself long enough. That poison in you right now isn't going to last forever. You may be wondering if I'm violating the Five Tenets by killing a Dark Sister, but by Aventus Aretino's word, you were removed from the Brotherhood's protection earlier this evening. I have to appreciate how well he's taken to the word of our law."

With that, she drew another bolt from some pocket in her dress, and slotted it into place on her crossbow. "I'm sorry about this, Astrid. I really am. I wish I could go on answering to you. But we can't always get what we wish for. Not even me, and not even you."

Astrid had never spent much time thinking about her own death. But now it was here, right before her. It was unstoppable. And really, she understood. The Brotherhood had to change, and she had no place in what it was going to become.

Babette took aim. The crossbow was right in front of Astrid's face. The last thing she would ever see, she thought. Until she looked past it, and saw the pain in the young girl's eyes.

"… Hail Sithis."

TCHUNK