DF: I'm back! Originally, I was going to post all of Chapter 9 together. But after watching the word count progressively increase the longer I edited the chapter, I decided that it would be best to post it as separate chapters rather than having one 7-10,000 word chapter in the middle of the story after posting several shorter ones. Expect the latter half of this chapter to be posted next Saturday. Enjoy!
Chapter 9
The next morning brought the sound of chatter from traders and other travelers eating or leaving the inn. Many of the inns spread throughout Skyrim served as temporary rest stops for people on the move, and Candlehearth Hall was no exception.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Bran rolled over and covered his ears with his paws. As usual, Lyz woke up earlier than he did and was pacing around the room with a nervous energy. Bran wondered grouchily if everyone in Skyrim was this loud in the morning, or if he had lucked out with an especially noisy one. The only good news was that the noise had interrupted his nightmares before they could get into full swing. The bad news was that the lack of sleep left him feeling cranky and ill-tempered.
Not feeling like a morning wolf today, Bran rolled onto his back and growled grumpily.
"You're awake," Lyz said.
I am now, Bran grumbled in his head. He rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes with a paw while Lyz continued to pace.
"We are going to need to start early today if we want to get enough done by tonight. First, I want to confirm that the bounty is still active. Then, I would like to interview anyone who may have witnessed any of the murders. After that, …."
Lyz rattled on a list of tasks for the day. Bran wasn't feeling eager to get up. Lately, he found himself unable to get enough sleep. And what little sleep he managed to get was plagued with nightmares. In his dreams, dark hands stained with black magic clawed at his skin. They dug and tore the man from the wolf's skin and shackled the half-empty creature left behind as their slave. Leah's voice screamed in his mind as they fed on his life force.
It wasn't the first time Bran had experienced vivid nightmares, but that didn't mean he had ever gotten used to them.
Bran squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. The Beast in him wasn't present, yet Bran still struggled for control. Being away from his pack and his home for so long was beginning to take a toll on him. He focused on the sounds of Lyz's voice and the ambience of the inn as he tried to center himself. He breathed deeply for several counts before Lyz placed a bowl of food in front of him. His eyes peeled open as the rich scent of jerky filled his nostrils. The scent was familiar, and he realized that it was the same jerky she had fed him when he had first awoken inside her cabin.
"Horker loaf," Lyz explained. "Not my favorite meat, but it lasts a long time. Great for travel. We will be on our feet all day long, so we will be eating a light meal this morning and save the rest of our food for the end of the day."
Bran chewed the jerky slowly, letting the flavors of the meat push away the memory of his nightmare. If he wanted to get home, he would have to coax Lyz into cooperating. And the only way he could do that is if he approached this job with a level head. If he could demonstrate his usefulness for her work and eliminate her wariness of him, Lyz would be more inclined to keep him around and pay attention to what he tried to tell her. It wasn't as good as having a true pack member, one he could speak to mentally, but she would have to do.
Hopefully, he could accomplish this without revealing too much about himself. Bran's instincts told him that he needed to keep his identity a secret, and Bran had lived long enough to know not to ignore his gut feelings. He wasn't sure if it was something Lyz had said or done that had set it off, but he had a feeling that letting Lyz know too much about him now would be a very bad idea.
Bran took a deep breath, pretending to savor the scent of the jerky. Lyz's scent drifted into his nose. Not a witch.
When the pair finished eating, they packed up their belongings and headed out of the room. But before they could leave, they were stopped by the inn's owner.
"Wait," the woman said. "Are you the one who took the bounty for the Butcher?"
Several heads lifted and swiveled towards the three at the mention of the serial killer's nickname.
Lyz glanced around warily. "Um, yeah. You can have it if you want it back."
The older woman shook her head. "No. There is no need. You are not in trouble. Actually, I was hoping that you had decided to take the job. There was an incident involving one of my waitresses last night."
Lyz's eyes widened. "What? What happened?"
The innkeeper looked around nervously. "Not here. Follow me."
The innkeeper led the pair up to a small room hidden on the second floor. Based on the small bed in the corner that was saturated in the innkeeper's scent, Bran guessed that this was where the woman slept.
After closing the door, the innkeeper turned back to Lyz and Bran. "Call me Elda. I own Candlehearth Inn."
Lyz gave a short bow. "Call me Lyz. I appreciate you and your workers' hospitality."
Elda dismissed Lyz's politeness with a wave of her hand. "There is no need for that. This is Windhelm. I deal with rude clientele all the time. Just don't break anything if you wish to thank me. But that is not what we're here for. I brought you here so that I could tell you that one of my waitresses was murdered last night."
Bran stiffened. They had only just decided to accept the bounty and already another victim had been found.
"Already?" Lyz breathed. "Where did this happen? How?"
Elda looked down at her hands. "It was right after she left work last night. She ends her shift after the night rush. I kept telling her that it wasn't safe for her to walk home alone at night, but she never listened. Not even when news of the butcher spread."
"I need more information. The bounty didn't include a sketch of the killer's face."
"That's because no one knows what the killer looks like. He got her in the cemetery. It's just down the road from the inn. I tried to take a look, but the guards wouldn't let me through. They should still be there right now."
Lyz nodded. "Thank you for the information. If they are still in the cemetery, we need to hurry. It won't be long before they move the body to the Hall of the Dead."
Lyz started for the door, only to be stopped when Elda grabbed her arm.
"Please." Elda nearly shouted, then took a deep breath. "Please find whoever did this and stop them. This city can't afford to be terrorized by a murderer. Not when things are already this bad."
Lyz gazed at her quietly. "I will. Let's go, pup."
With that, the pair left the inn.
The road passing the inn led straight to the cemetery. Unexpectedly, Windhelm buried its dead in the center of the city. Bran considered it unusual and somewhat unsanitary, though he imagined that only the wealthiest citizens were buried in the cemetery. With the war, Windhelm was bound to have so many dead bodies to deal with that the poorer residents would most likely be burned. The last victim had just been a waitress. That meant that they would need to hurry.
Fortunately, it appeared that the last victim hadn't been moved yet. The cemetery was packed full of people when they arrived. A crowd was gathered around one of the grave sites, people jostling against each other in an effort to get a look. Scared and angry voices chattered amongst themselves while the guards attempted to regain control of the situation.
A guard stopped Lyz and Bran when they attempted to approach the grave.
"Hold it there," the guard ordered menacingly. "Keep your distance."
"It's alright," Lyz said calmly. "We accepted the bounty to hunt down the Butcher. Can you tell us what happened here?"
The guard's eyes widened in shock. "You accepted the bounty? Do you know anything about the Butcher?" When Lyz just stared at him silently, the guard shook his head and continued. "Another girl was killed last night. It was Susanna, from Candlehearth Inn."
Lyz grunted. "So, I've heard. Do you know anything about her?"
"She served drinks to me at the inn, but I can't say I knew her. You would have to ask someone else."
"What about the other victims? What can you tell me about them?"
"Susanna's the third that we know of. The Butcher's victims are always the same: young woman, killed at night, body torn up."
Bran snorted. Three bodies and the guards still hadn't caught the killer? It was clear that the city either didn't care or didn't know how to deal with the killer. Either possibility suggested bad things about Windhelm.
Hearing his snort, Lyz shot a glare in Bran's direction. "If there have been so many deaths, why aren't the guards taking things more seriously? Why aren't they doing more patrols or holding a curfew?"
"We're stretched thin as it is with how awful the war is right now. As unpleasant as the murders are, we simply don't have the time to spend on this."
Lyz's eyes sparkled and she glanced down at Bran with a smile. "How about we help you investigate these murders? Then the guards won't have to stretch themselves so thin to protect everyone."
The guard rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Damn adventurers. Always looking for a quick buck," he muttered under his breath. "If you are so keen on putting yourself in danger, ask some of these gawkers if they saw anything useful. I have another body to go examine."
With that, the guard walked away, leaving the pair to start their investigation. They questioned the people gathered in the cemetery. Most of them offered little to no information on the murder, most of them showing up to gawk at the carnage. Though one of the gawkers mentioned that they noticed that Susanna's coin purse was still on the body. Whoever had attacked her wasn't interested in money.
They continue to sift through the crowd, looking for more witness testimony. They continued to turn up only useless information, if any information at all. Finally, they found a woman huddled at the edge of the crowd. The woman was dressed in torn rags and glanced side-to-side with a wild look in her eyes. Lyz approached the woman without greeting her.
"Did you see what happened to Susanna?"
"I heard her scream and came running," the woman rasped, apparently eager to talk. "But she was already… like this… when I got here. I tried to tell the guards what happened, but none of them listened to me."
The woman fidgeted nervously and didn't appear to be quite right. Bran could understand why the guards wouldn't take her word seriously.
"Is that all?" Lyz leaned in close.
The woman's eyes widened in fear. "That's all I saw. I-I swear!"
The ragged woman scuttled off before Lyz could ask her anything else.
Lyz sighed and pinched her nose in frustration. "I'm not that scary."
Bran stared at her. Dark hood. Cold eyes. Monotone voice. Nope. Nothing scary here.
Lyz glanced down at Bran. "Did you see anything interesting?"
Bran shook his head. In all honesty, he had been hoping to see the body. Maybe he could catch a scent or spot something that the guards had missed.
Lyz sighed again in defeat and made her way back to the guard.
"I spoke to some of the bystanders. None of them really saw anything."
The guard cursed under his breath. "As usual, no one sees anything, and the bastard gets away."
"However," Lyz continued. "There might be more to this if you let me see the body. Questioning some of the guards would be nice too."
The guard gave her a sour look. "Look, friend." He spat out the word like a sour grape. "If you think that this is an opportunity to gawk at the body or show off to the locals, be my guest. But I'm not going to let you go around fiddling with guard business. You have to get the steward's permission first. If he says so, then we'll talk."
"So be it," Lyz murmured.
Lyz and Bran stepped away from the crowd and headed away from the cemetery. The steward, Lyz explained, served the jarl of Windhelm and would most likely be found inside the jarl's castle. The castle was conveniently just down the road from the cemetery.
They were halfway to the castle when a commotion broke out ahead of them. There was a shout followed by a woman's scream. Without glancing in Bran's direction, Lyz broke into a sprint in the direction of the scream. Bran caught up to her as she took a turn into one of the alleys.
Two armored men had a woman pinned against a wall. Tears streamed down the woman's dark face as the two men shouted in her face.
"Thought that we wouldn't notice you, elf?" The first man's mouth nearly frothed with his anger. "We're here to teach you a lesson!"
"Hey!"
The two men's heads swiveled at the sound of Lyz's voice. Lyz's arms were crossed against her chest. Her hood cast a shadow over her face. "Don't you two have something better to do than to rough up young ladies?"
"Who are you?" One of the men, the one wearing a horned helmet, spat at her. "Can't you see we are busy?"
The other man dug his fingers into the scared woman's hair with a laugh, causing the woman to let out a fearful cry.
"Enough," Lyz said calmly. "I have questions for you two. The woman will walk free."
The man holding the woman scoffed. "Or else what? You're going to defend this elf scum? Don't make me laugh." He nodded towards his friend. "Teach her a lesson."
The first man advanced towards Lyz with killer intent. He lunged at Lyz suddenly, hoping to catch her off guard. Lyz ducked away from his grasping hand and slashed at his arm with the dagger that appeared in her hand.
The helmeted thug stumbled away from her with a grin. He touched the shallow cut on his arm and whistled at the blood coating his fingers. "Not bad. Unfortunately, not enough to stop both of us."
"I'll give you one more chance," Lyz said softly. "Let the woman go, and we won't have to take this any further."
The man laughed and pulled out his mace. He swung at Lyz's head in a coordinated and powerful motion. Bran danced out of their way as Lyz stepped back to avoid the swing. It was clear that this man was an experienced fighter. Instead of relying purely on strength like Bran had seen bandits do, this one was careful and tried to exploit any openings. This man was a trained killer. But Lyz was Lyz.
Lyz let out an exasperated sigh after dodging another blow. She reached forward and grabbed the front side of the man's helmet. The thug smirked as if he was expecting the move and lowered his head, as if to ram her with the curved horns attached to his helmet.
Fire erupted from Lyz's hand and coated the surface of the helmet, turning it bright red. The man screamed and pulled away from Lyz. His hands reached towards the helmet, then pulled away when it only burned his palms.
The other thug shouted in surprise. He released the elf woman and took out his war axe. But before he could reach Lyz, Bran intercepted him by sinking his teeth into the man's leg. His teeth didn't manage to pierce the thick armor, but it did manage to distract the thug. The man shook his leg furiously while he tried to dislodge Bran. Eventually, Bran lost his grip after earning a well-placed kick to the nose. The thug snarled at Bran, then turned back to Lyz only to freeze in horror.
Lyz's magic swirled around her like a swarm of angry bees. Deep purple magic burst from her hands and engulfed her arms in its eerie light. At some point during the fight, her hood had fallen off her head to reveal her expressionless face and flickering irises. She looked demonic.
The thug Bran had been fighting dropped his weapon and stumbled away in terror. Even Bran took a step back. Lyz's magic spontaneously extinguished.
"Wait! I need to ask you some questions - and he's gone."
The thug had already disappeared back into the streets without a glance back in their direction. Bran looked at Lyz, wondering why she wasn't chasing him.
"What? You don't expect me, a mage of immense power, to chase an unarmed man through the streets of Windhelm and shoot fireballs at him. I wouldn't make it three steps before someone freaked out and called the guards on me. Why didn't you chase him?"
Bran would have slapped his forehead if he had hands. You didn't tell me to chase him, idiot. Was I supposed to read your mind?
"Don't give me that stink eye! Aren't you supposed to be some kind of dog creature? I thought dogs were supposed to be noble and obedient. You just couldn't be a good boy and follow simple directions. Instead, I get stuck with the sassy one. This is why I can't keep pets. Always so -"
Someone cleared their throat.
Lyz glanced back at the elf woman who still sat against the wall where the thugs had dumped her. Her red eyes stared at Lyz with deep concern as she glanced between the mage and Bran.
Oops, Bran thought. They probably should have picked a better time and place to have their argument.
Lyz looked away from the woman as she pulled her hood back up. But not before Bran caught the faint pink tinge spreading on her cheeks. Sane people didn't argue with their pets. Especially not in front of witnesses.
"Um, do you two need some privacy?" The dark elf asked. "This seems to be a bad time."
"No," Lyz said, her voice flat and not betraying a hint of embarrassment. "That was nothing. We just need to ask those two men some questions."
"Um…." The dark elf's eyes drifted to the side. Bran followed the woman's gaze to find the other thug lying on the ground unmoving.
Lyz stared at the body silently. "We need to ask you some questions. We're hunting the Butcher."
The dark elf's eyes widened, then she frowned. "Have you gone mad? Why would you want to put yourself in a mess like that? I know that they are offering a reward for the Butcher's capture, but no amount of money would convince me to go after someone that dangerous."
Lyz tilted her head and hummed. "So, the Butcher is targeting dark elves too?"
"Actually," the woman scratched her head. "No. So far, he has only gone after humans. It's rather strange, but none of my business."
"Do you know anything else about the Butcher?"
"Not really. Since he doesn't bother anyone in the Grey Quarter, I never paid much attention to the rumors. You'll have to ask that annoying old woman, Viola Giordano, for more information about the Butcher. She's been posting flyers everywhere."
Viola Giordano, Bran thought. He would have to remember that name in case it became useful in the future.
The dark elf stood up and started to leave, but Lyz grabbed her arm in a gentle, yet firm grip. "One last thing. Those men who approached you were not locals. They were hired thugs. People only pay for that type of muscle when someone really upsets them. Who did you anger and what did you do to warrant sending hitmen after you?"
The dark elf bit her lip and looked away. "I don't know what you mean. The nord men in Windhelm have always been nasty towards dark elves. I was just an easy target."
Bran growled lowly. She was lying.
Lyz smiled. "He's not too fond of liars. Why don't we skip the crap and go to the part where you start telling the truth?" Her grip on the woman's arm tightened.
"Okay! Okay! I may have acquired some goods from a wealthy noble without them knowing. It's not a big deal. She has plenty of other valuables left to flaunt. Now let me go please. You're hurting my arm."
Lyz considered the woman briefly, then released her. "Acquired some valuables, you say? Nice."
The dark elf gave Lyz a strange look, then recognition dawned on her. "Wait. That armor. You're from the Guild? I thought you looked familiar. I've heard so many things about you and the others."
Bran shot the pair a strange look.
"While I would love to share stories about our incredible exploits, I actually have places to be," Lyz said blandly. "Goodbye."
Lyz abruptly turned and started walking away, leaving Bran to trot after her.
"One last thing!"
Lyz glanced over her shoulder.
"My cousin, Revyn, runs Sadri's Used Wares in the Grey Quarter. He's been looking for new suppliers and would be interested in speaking to one of your guild's associates. Do you think you could speak to him later?"
Lyz thought carefully. "Perhaps. After my other work here is done."
The dark elf smiled and bowed her head. "Thank you very much. Hope to see you soon." The woman scurried more than walked out of the alley.
Bran would have found the woman's movements strange, except Lyz's hand ghosted over his back almost absentmindedly as Lyz watched the elf retreat. Bran made sure to hold very, very still until Lyz caught herself and pulled her hand away. A small step, but a step indeed.
Lyz shook her head as she left the alley with Bran at her side.