Chapter 3! *throws confetti everywhere* Moving right along, aren't we? ^^ In this chapter, the Dark Brotherhood questline finally is going to start. Woohoo!
Ultimately, I decided on taking a carriage to Windhelm to visit an old and dear friend, Voldsea Giryon. The ride there was uneventful enough. The real trouble started when I entered the city.
"You come here where you're not wanted, you eat our food, pollute our city with your stink, and yet you refuse to help the Stormcloaks!"
Oh, that's just great. I thought. More harassment. It's worse than when last I was here, too. I frowned, approaching the two men who were continuing to jeer at and accuse a Dunmer woman.
"We haven't taken a side because it's not our fight!" insisted the Dunmer woman
"Hey," said the second man "Maybe the reason these Grey-Skins don't help with the war is because they're Imperial spies!"
At that point, I decided to jump in. "Hey skeever-face, leave her alone!" I yelled.
Stomping up to me, the man narrowed his eyes at me "You've no part in this, Grey-Skin." He growled.
"Are you colorblind as well as stupid? My skin isn't grey."
"Well, well." He waved me off "But you're still a stinking elf, although I'm not entirely sure what kind. It doesn't matter, elves are elves, and elves are nothing but trouble."
"I think you need to shut your mouth." I spat.
The man raised an eyebrow "You wanna make me? Let's go! I can take you!" He raised his fists and began circling around me. He threw a punch, which I blocked.
We scuffled for a few minutes, the end resulting in the man writhing on the ground in pain—I had kicked him where the sun doesn't shine—and a large dark bruise gracing my left eye socket. Giving a small nod to the Dunmer woman, who had been watching this occurrence with avid interest, I headed to the inn that was nearby.
Inside the inn, I shivered and stomped the snow off my leather boots. Skyrim has such a different climate than Pyandonea. Too cold for my liking. I approached the bar and sat down on a stool. "How much for a room?"
"Ten septims."
I counted out ten of the gold coins and slid them across the counter. Curious as to what was going on, I asked the barkeeper if she had heard any rumors lately.
"Folk been hearing some strange stuff coming from the Aretino place. Chanting. Talk is, little Aventus is trying to contact the Dark Brotherhood... You don't believe that, do you?"
I thanked the barkeeper for her time and headed back outside again. It was getting dark, but not too dark yet. It was the perfect time for a walk around town before I settled in for the night. As I wandered, a conversation caught my ear.
"Then it's true, what everyone is saying, that Aventus Aretino is doing the Black Sacrament, trying to contact the Dark Brotherhood?" Asked a little boy.
"Oh, Grimvar, always with the nonsense. No, no, of course not." Came the reply.
"Then I'll just go ask him out to play. His house is right there, I'll go knock on his door!"
"No, child, wait! That house, it's cursed!"
Black Sacrament? Dark Brotherhood? Curse? It was all very confusing. In Pyandonea, no such thing exists. That is why, I believe, curiosity got the best of me. Sneaking around the Dunmer and the boy, I picked the lock on what was supposed to be Aventus' door and slipped inside.
Once inside, I stood there silently for a moment, listening to the slow, repetitive, monotonous chant of a child on the second level of the house.
"Sweet mother, sweet mother,
Send your child unto me,
For the sins of the unworthy
Must be baptized in blood and fear."
It was a haunting verse. Something about it both chilled me down to my very bones, and awoke a very strange feeling I never knew existed. Was it a sense of duty? Pride? Perhaps a mixture of the two? Slowly, I walked up the stairs, across the floor, and turned to see the source of the chant.
The boy was bent over a skeleton, surrounded by candles and some sprigs of nightshade. Taking a closer look, I also noticed there was some human flesh and a heart. "So… Tired…" The child, whom I presumed was Aventus, groaned before starting to chant again.
Taking a step closer, I inquired "…Are you alright?"
"It worked!" He exclaimed, pulling himself up. "I did the Black Sacrament, over and over, with the body and the… things… And it worked! You've finally come! An assassin from the Dark Brotherhood!"
