Chapter 8

The following days and nights were spent much more comfortably. Nirano was making way more progress now that he had a horse. He named it Sari, a name he had picked up during his childhood. It was the name of a good friend of his, who was taken one day and she was never seen again.

On the eighth week of traveling he began to see the buildings of Cheydinhal looming in the distance. Nirano hurried Sari up, anxious to get into a populated city once more. Two months had passed and he longed for a comfortable Inn to sleep at after all the nights on the hard, rocky surface of the earth.

He almost cried out of excitement when he walked through the great oak doors into the city. It smelt nice, and there was a beautiful looking pond somewhere in the center of the town. The people were friendly and he proceeded immediately to a nearby Inn, and was about to enter it when he remembered his primary mission. He must find the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary.

He backed up from the Inn, saddened by the thought of not enjoying an ale or two, but he knew his duty and respected it. He dared not ask a passerby for instructions to a boarded up house, for fear they would follow him, thinking him suspicious. He soon found it however, and shivered slightly at its ominous aura emanating for it. He tried to pry open the door, but found it locked. It was perhaps another test.

He whipped out a lock pick he had plucked from a Goblin on his travels and waited for the street to clear before attempting to break in. It was a fairly easy lock, but Nirano rubbed his face for a while, feeling the splinters of the wooden boards in his face, and ripping them out, wincing painfully.

Nirano juggled the handle once more and it opened this time. He walked inside and closed it behind him. He inspected his surroundings for a while, but finding only cobwebs and broken boxes, he proceeded downstairs. He began to see a red light coming closer to him, and he stopped momentarily thinking about his fate.

When he walked inside this sanctuary, nothing would be the same. He would be an official Assassin. He would wear the dark clothing whenever he had to kill, and he figured it would be pretty often. Maybe he would never have a normal life after this moment. Yet, Nirano felt deep down, that he was not meant for a normal life. Perhaps he was destined to take the lives of the condemned. It seemed so at least. So taking a deep breath, Nirano walked up to the door, which was carved with the symbol of the Brotherhood.

A black hand stared at him, and surrounded were paintings of murders and depicted an old women. He assumed it must be the Night Mother, yet he did not know who she was. The leader of the Dark Brotherhood perhaps? He would soon find out.

He felt that he needed to do something. He placed matched his palm to the Black Hand carved in the door and felt a tingling sensation pass through him as he heard the words,

"What is the color of night?"

Nirano shivered and remembered the answer that Lucien told him so many days ago…

"Sanguine my brother…"