Sun's Height 1, 4E1
(Fights-up-close): Skingrad, Summitmist Manor
I could hear the basement door swing open and two sets of feet trotting frantically up the stairs behind me. A redguard, who I now gathered was Neville, and Matilde continued to stare, though I noticed Matilde had her hands over her mouth. Stunned silence. An easy action to mimic. Like them, I did not turn around to see who was behind me, though I was curious. I had to wonder what thoughts were going through their heads amid all the silence. Now doubt their minds couldn't have been more active, but I'd nearly forgotten what fear and repulsion towards violence felt like.
"I'm the trained investigator here." The redguard said, breaking the silence as abruptly as I had broken Nels' flesh. I was surprised to hear the voice of the Legionary come from him. It seemed almost unfitting; there wasn't a trace of Hammerfell in it Going into professional mode, he gestured everyone to stay back without moving his eyes. He unraveled his hand as if to put an invisible wall between himself and the crowd, and then slowly and cautiously approached the body. He crouched over it, studying it impartially. He studied it like an object as opposed to a person, but like a fragile and precious object as opposed to a common commodity. I couldn't help but wonder how this was going to play out, or what wide range of thoughts could be going on in his head. He maintained a perfectly neutral expression.
"Alright everyone." Neville said, again showing us his palms as if to put an invisible barrier up "I've got some thinking to do. I'll be upstairs. Either come up stairs with me or stay together." Neville began walking towards the stairs while I continued to stare in the same kind of stunned silence everyone else was at the body. I felt an odd twitching my leg. I almost forgot I had killed him. I wasn't repulsed, I wasn't afraid, but something wouldn't let me stop looking at the body.
Matilde broke the silence once again, though I was a bit more prepared this time "Oh this is horrible." she said, her emotion evident in her quivering voice "who would kill a defenseless person in cold blood?" her voice practically becoming a whimper with the last word "Greed truly brings out the worst in people." She turned around to face us.. "I'm going up with Neville." She announced, and proceeded. With two interruptions to my train of thought I made the decision to stop my pointless stunned silence. There was nothing but willpower stopping me.
I shot around to glance at the two younger guests. In me, there was a hardy intent to investigate the crime and take down the killer; or, correction, that's what I was trying to make it look like, but I was so deep into the "house guest" mindset by now that it felt genuine, I supposed.
"Are you alright?" Dovesi said,"This murder has us all on edge, I know." The danger seemed to bring out comradery more than paranoia. Even I could feel it, in addition to an odd pride simply in being alive.
"I'm fine. Thanks." I said. Then, simply out of reaction, looked towards the door upstairs to make sure neither Neville or Matilde could be listening. Then I spoke again, in a quieter voice "Matilde and Neville were on this floor when I got here." Allowing them to assess the implications themselves. Once again the house fell into silence. I waited as countless opportunities to break it passed. It was broken eventually, but not by Primo or Dovesi. It sounded like drawers opening and heavy objects being moved upstairs.
"Something tells me the death of one of the guests isn't going to stop Matilde from searching for that gold. She strikes me as the greedy type." Primo said in somewhat of a whisper. Already I could get sense of battle-lines forming. A new mood was encroaching on the house. Unlike I'd expected, though, it was a feeling of strength in unity, willingness endanger one's self, maybe even thoughts of honor that could come out of taking down the murder.
Right now, I felt as willing to engage in further bloodshed as if it were some kind of game, as long as it meant getting rid of the murder. That would be truly exhilarating. Except I was the murderer, but I was falling for my own illusion again.
"I don't trust that old hag!" Dovesi said through clenched teeth, more to Primo than to me, suppressing her own volume "She pretends to like you and then stabs you in the back! Who knows, maybe she'll really stab you in the back!" Already the three of us seemed to be uniting fast. But I had to remember, I wanted to pin this on Neville.
"Then there's Neville..." I started.
"He seems on edge, doesn't he?" Primo commented, not quite taking it the way I intended "I guess you can take the man out of the Legion, but you can't take the Legion out of the man." I was a bit annoyed with Primo's unquestioning attitude, aswell as his attempt to sound smart.
"I mean, he's a soldier..." I started once again.
"Does being a soldier make him a good person?" Dovesi cut me off angrily, again obviously not taking my comment the way I intended "Does it make him above murder? I hardly think so." I was a bit irritated she was so quick to get hostile, especially when she hadn't made a similar comment to Primo. Still, in this situation it was easy to give and take petty annoyances
"No, that's what I'm saying. He's used to killing. And did you hear that fight he had with Nels?" The two just stared in silence "C'mon. Let's discuss this at the table." I said, pointing towards the table with the beverages and sweet rolls, feeling a childish satisfaction at such a simple suggestion. All 3 of us eagerly grabbed at something that looked like strategy and might give us an advantage over the killer. I sat down first, keeping my vision locked on both of them until they sat down. Primo sat on my right, and Dovesi went behind me to make her way over to my left, though I didn't like having either of them out of my field of view for even a second.
We all sat down, ready to let the strategical suggestions and detective work flow. There was an odd sort of funness about this. Was this some kind of game to me? Then I realized, yes. I had no reason to worry for my own safety. I was the killer, and things were going well. All this detective work was a game.
"Listen," I said, as Dovesi and Primo eyed me eagerly "We know it was Neville or Matilde. In fact, they may well be working together. I don't know, but we need to watch each other's backs. I'm going to try and eavesdrop upstairs. You two stay right here." Working toghether. That was a score.
I was satisfied with how quickly they accepted my suggestion. These situations really seemed to bring about something you could respect in everyone. Well, everyone you worked with, but right now, those of us in the dining area and those of us upstairs felt like warring nations. I would either be a war hero, or the first casualty. Perhaps both.
I looked around for any long, solid object that was light enough to lift. I could turn it into a defensive weapon. I removed myself from my chair to look around more thoroughly, scanning everything that wasn't attached to the walls.
I was very glad to see there was a gleaming shortsword on the bottom of one of the bookshelves. At first it seemed like luck, but then I realized our host might be more clever than I gave him credit for.
I picked up the weapon, enjoying the feeling of heavy, solid power. I was more than ready to engage in bloodshed, whoever's blood ended up being spilled. I began creeping towards the door with a new confidence, keeping my foot steps right, and making sure they met with the floor with near perfect harmony. I was satisfied with the fact that they were nearly inaudible. However, the stairs were the area that really mattered.
I put my feet on the opposite sides of the stairs. Stealth was a very rich art. Even in an area as small as this house, it could hold so much potential to succeed and fail in the arts of stealth.
When I made it to the top of the stairs, I decided it was time to see if I could get some readings on the top floor, to see where Matilde and Neville were roughly. I immediately made my mind go silent once again, the lines and barriers of everything fuzzing. My view became more like a painting of countless colored dots, and new contrasts were emerging. The "temporary insanity" payed off, as I soon saw two purple blobs. Both were located as far from the door as possible.
I decided I should push open the door so I could listen better. There wasn't much to fear by getting caught. Heck, it might make the next death come sooner.
I opened the door a minimal distance and then squeezed my way in, the side of the door brushing against me. Then, moving forward in a stealthy manner, intricately unique to normal walking, I inched closer to the door to one of the bedrooms, where both Matilde and Neville should have been.
"Please sweetie, stay close to me. The killer might strike again. Whoever he...or she, is." Matilde said, her voice high and unfirm with panic. Both of them were alive. It took me a second to remember that wasn't contrary to what I expected. This assignment was truly unique and much deeper than any I'd had before.
"Right now, my main concern is figuring out who the murder is. I've seen enough in my time to know anyone is capable of murder if they have the right motivation." Neville said, he seemed exasperated trying to keep Matilde calm, yet he did well not to let his emotions seep into his words, even when they were in his tone. "One less nord in the world is normally something I'd cheer about," Neville said with an unphased bluntness almost enough to make me cringe "but the fact that he was murdered by a fellow guest does put a damper on things. You mark my words. This whole party is a trap. Someone wants us dead and now they have their chance. Dovesi may be young, but she was..." It sounded like Neville was onto the idea, but I wasn't sure that was a bad thing. It probably added to his panic, maybe even a feeling of defeat.
The old woman cut him off. "That little tramp is as guilty as sin, you hear me! She's the killer and if we don't keep her eyes on her she'll do it again!" She said, her voice thick with a desperate panic.
"I don't want to jump to conclusions." Neville said, the reasonable and less emotional of the two by a long shot "Don't forget about the sixth guest. She showed up minutes ago, never even introduced herself to me, and now someone's been killed. I haven't quite put the pieces together, but I'm close." It was clear Neville was a dangerous mind. It was hard to feel safe with him alive. All the more reason to turn the rest of the house against him.
Matilde inhaled a deep and irregular breath, and soon enough I heard footsteps coming my way. I looked at the door. She would need to push it opened to get into the hallway, and the hinges were closer to me. I stood up straight, and pushed myself tightly against the wall. First I pressed the back of my head against it, then slowly inched my heels to touch it as best I could. At this moment I hated my tail. I had to hope Matilde would go into the room across from Neville, as opposed to lingering in the hallway.
The door opened. So far, the only thing I was picking up was disembodied noise. Then I saw the door moving back to its original location, as Matilde tightly closed it. It was quite clear to me that this was my last second before detection
She looked at me and gasped, holding her hand to her chest, but my sword soon cut through the fragile flesh around he neck.
Her throat slit, she fell to the floor, unable to utter a scream, kicking and screaming against the overwhelming presence of pain and panic as her blood began to abandon her. This, all occurring in a second, had triggered Neville to get up. I could hear him running towards the door with ferocious force. I dropped the bloody sword, letting it fall to the floor with a shrill clattering.
I immediately pushed my Shadow energy to the surface of my skin, in time to hear a louder sound that resulted from the door swinging opened and hitting the nearby wall.
Then there was silence. My mind was rushing with his potential thoughts and actions.
In an attempt to gain surprise against his unseen enemy, he abruptly slammed the door closed again, and quickly got into the appropriate stance for unarmed combat, his face baring a stern anger. Dangerous mind or not, I was outsmarting him, despite his attempts to grasp at little bits of strategy. None the less, his expression remained confident. Yet all he could do was stare for a few seconds. I was totally invisible to him. Something most Shadows couldn't come close to accomplished. It wasn't long before he entered the room Matilde was heading too, his fists still clenched. It was quite satisfying to see him deceived. I did my best to keep my breaths shallow, until I figured he was far enough away. His footsteps allowed me to imagine how close to the door he was.
I slowly inched my way back to the stairs. I once again slipped through the door.
As I very slowly and lightly crept down the stairs I began imagining I'd just witnessed Neville murder Matilde. I tried to reimagine the scenario that way, trying to see, even if for a flash, what kind of focuses and mixes of emotions my mind would take on in that situation. I began to shake slightly, that was a good sign, but was I convincing enough? I continued to wrack my brain for an incident where I'd seen someone truly innocent struck down by someone I feared. I couldn't recall one. Still, I had a decent imagination.
When I finally made it down the stairs both Primo and Dovesi stared at me wide eyed and wide mouthed.
I beckoned them closer. All 3 of us huddled together in unhesitant unity before I began speaking in a quiet voice, between a whisper and normal volume. "Neville killed Matilde." I said, immediately embracing the same panicky voice Matilde had, making my eyes wide with vulnerable concern "He didn't see me, but he killed her." I said. The words felt like they weren't quite the right shape to be in my mouth. This was the first time I'd ever not taken credit for a kill
Dovesi's face was slowly sharpening. I could tell there was a fire burning inside her at Neville, with the same loathing Nels and I had for the Legion. It wasn't often you saw this kind of drive in people, but it was refreshing. Primo's face, however, didn't seem to change from that look of surprise.
"What if Matilde found the gold, and Neville killed her for it? Maybe that means the rest of us are safe." Dovesi's eyebrows shot up in unspoken pleading for Primo to continue. "If that's the case, then the killer got what he was after, and the rest of us needn't worry about our own safety." Was he genuinely unphased by anything other than danger to himself? Primo's pacifistic optimism irritated me, but I had to remember they were the same kind of phony cowards I'd dealt with so many times before. But I had to suppress my anger for now. It would be for the greater good in the end.
"It didn't look that way to me." I replied.
"I don't care about the gold anymore, I just want to get out of here!" Dovesi said, her voice thick with panic "I'm going to try all the windows and doors and see if I can't get one opened!"
"No," I shouted in reply, as that was the last thing I wanted to hear "We know who the killer is. He's no match for the three of us. I dropped the sword, but we need to get ready to defend ourselves. Pick up anything you can use as a weapon." I had already become a leader of sorts to them. Their moments before death would have a sense of significance to them, unlike was the case with most of my targets, who never even saw their assassin.
I began surveying the area for anything long and solid I could get a feeling of dominance from. How exhilarating it would be to outsmart and outmatch the killer, I thought. To prove our unified will to survive over his greed through our teamwork and finally release that fear and anger that had been building inside us. Then I remembered again, I was the killer. All this holding back, all this pretending. I was living safely cooped up into my own engineered, and very nice, reality, free of fear of getting caught, and fear of being the victim at the same time.
I looked on the shelf to my left and saw a ceramic pitcher. It looked like something that could be converted to a rudimentary weapon and at least give me the upper hand over someone who wasn't armed. I picked it up and held it upside-down. I could tell it could inflict some pain.
I got in combat stance, half hunched-over with the hand holding the pitcher back, my other hand well in sight. I could easily imagine swinging and hitting Neville painfully in the head before he had a chance to get his hands on me. It put a field of advantage between me and Neville. Feeling a bit more powerful, I slowly advanced towards the stairs. Dovesi and Primo were behind me and armed similarly, I presumed. I didn't bother to look back, however, as right now, fear wasn't even crossing my mind. Just the glorious image of us banding together, taking a little bit of the honor of defeating the killer for ourselves each. We'd already managed to accomplish some very fluent and efficient teamwork, I supposed, as there had been no arguments.
But I could hear something odd upstairs, a clanking like that which I'd heard so many times walking past Legion soldiers. Had Neville brought a suit of legion armor? That would provide a greater advantage to him than any weapon could provide me. All the sudden, there was a terrible sinking feeling inside of me.