Fralia awoke, fully clothed, drenched in blood and with her arm wrapped firmly around Jenassa's waist on a bed in the Bee and Barb. When she noticed the blood she immediately panicked and looked over Jen to make sure it wasn't hers. After her panic subsided, the memories came through a haze of red.

Bandits.

After the child had brought up the dark brotherhood, Fralia dashed out of Riften and to Fort Greenwall to the north, viciously slaughtering every last one of the bandits there. Flashes of the event came back to her, one at a time. The screams of the bandits had mixed with those in her memories...

All she could hear was screaming...

All she could see was red...

She shook the thoughts away, holding Jen tighter to stay grounded. The screaming was always there but it was softer now and easier to ignore. Jenassa stirred a bit, signaling that she was awake. Fralia let her go, reluctantly, and got up to change out of her dirty robes and into her traveling dress. Armor was never really an issue for her, as she was far too good at sneaking and didn't need it. Jen mumbled something about wondering why Fralia was drenched in blood.

"Don't worry about it for now. Get up and get ready. We're going to Windhelm." Jen gave a groan of annoyance but got up anyway, hoping Fralia would talk when she was ready...

~X-x-X~

The Arentino boy was quite the sad character. Fralia had shamelessly looked through his meager belongings before making herself known in his house. She found a note from the steward of Windhelm extending his condolences to the boy about his mother passing away. When she did introduce herself, she saw him performing some sort of grotesque ritual involving human remains and nightshade petals. She also noticed a book next to his work area titled: A kiss, sweet mother. The title brought her thoughts back to the jester she had encountered just a day before. After presenting herself as a member of the brotherhood to this very confused but desperate child, and revealing to him that the contract he had been trying to make had already been carried out, he gave her some fancy looking silver dishware. It wasn't much but she decided she could always sell it later, despite it's value being mostly sentimental. However she did make it out of there with the book, wishing to read it later before adding it to her collection.

As it was her first time visiting the city, she decided she would have a look around. She wasn't impressed. She hated the cold and the streets looked barren and neglected. Especially in the area they called the "Gray Quarter". She quickly learned why it was called the Gray Quarter after encountering a couple of nords speaking with a dark elf near the front gate. Fralia was walking by them when she heard what the nords were saying to the dunmer woman, accusing her of being an imperial spy and a parasite to the city because she wouldn't help the stormcloaks in the war. One of the men referred to her and her people as grayskins and spoke in a disgusted tone.

Fralia stopped behind the men as she listened to their conversation, which ended in the two men threatening her in a rather slurred tone. At that point she drew her sword and grabbed one of the men, pulling him to her and stabbing him repeatedly in the chest. The other man, who seemed to be just a follower of the first one and perhaps not quite so cruel on his own, turned to run but didn't make it very far. Being a bosmer, Fralia was far too fast for him and slit his throat before he could take more than a few steps. The dunmer woman looked on in horror. Fralia, covered in blood with the nord corpses at her feet, licked a bit of blood off her wrist before turning to woman.

"I'm sorry you had to see that... are all the nords here so prejudiced against Dunmer?" the elf looked very conflicted. She was aware that this woman was sort of trying to help but she had also just witnessed a murder. She looked as if she didn't know whether to run or say thank you. In the end it didn't matter...

"HALT! IN THE NAME OF THE JARL!"

"Shit..." the guards had seen her little performance and they ran at her now, blades in hand, from the side of town that she had yet to explore. She supposed she would never see what it looked like now. "Fus roh DAH!" the guards all flew backwards at the power of Fralia's shout. From the direction of the Jarl's palace, Jenassa called out as she ran towards Fralia, seemingly summoned by the thu'um.

"FRALIA!" once she was close enough, she assessed the situation. Fralia, sword drawn and covered in blood, two corpses on the ground, a dunmer trying to sneak away without being noticed, and a group of three guards, breathless, scrambling to get up. She simply sighed in annoyance and drew her sword. "Again? Really? Can't you control yourself?"

"They were threatening that woman..." They didn't give the guards a chance to get back on their feet. Fralia unleashed another Unrelenting Force on them and the two made their escape through the front gate, ran out to their horses and rode out westbound for Whiterun. Fralia wasn't quite sure what she should do now that she had successfully taken what was, by all rights, a dark brotherhood contract. She decided the best she could do was wait... but she couldn't do it in Eastmarch anymore. Not with this huge bounty on her head.

By the end of the day, they had made it to Whiterun and once again rented a room at the Bannered Mare. It was then that fralia decided to take a look at the book she had snagged from the Arentino boy. The book wasn't very long. It simply outlined what exactly one should do to contact the brotherhood in the event of wanting someone dead. It mentioned "Sithis" and the "Night Mother". This was the first she had ever heard of either of these beings and, curious, she decided to search high and low in her adventures for other writings that could tell her more. Perhaps she would go about it in an organized fashion and pay a visit to the college of Winterhold? She had heard that they had quite an expansive collection of books. It would be a good start, to say the least.

The next morning, Fralia and Jenassa stepped out of the Bannered Mare to make their way back to Lakeview Manor and were immediately met by a courier. He addressed Fralia.

"I've been looking for you. Got something i'm supposed to deliver. Your hands only. Let's see here... yup. Got this note." he pulled a piece of folded up parchment from his satchel and handed it to Fralia who eyed it suspiciously.

"Who is it from?"

"Don't know. Creepy fellow... kept a hood over his face. Paid a hefty sum to get that into your hands though. Well, that's it. Got to go." With that, he left to continue his mail-delivering duties. Fralia looked at the folded parchment, unsure of whether she really wanted to open it. Jen was looking over her shoulder.

"Well, are you going to open it?" Fralia looked around the market district for a moment and stepped into the shadows in front of Arcadia's Cauldron, wary of onlookers. She opened the letter and was slightly disturbed by what she say. The only thing on the paper was a black hand print and the words "We Know" written below it.

They knew.

She knew too... she knew exactly who had sent the letter. But she wasn't sure whether to be excited or frightened. Her companion just looked confused. Fralia hadn't said anything to her yet about the Brotherhood and what she was planning.

And she definitely hadn't mentioned why the brotherhood was important or what it meant to her...

"What is that supposed to mean? Fralia, who is this letter from?"

"Jen, keep your voice down. Don't draw attention..." she spoke in a low voice, closed up the letter, put it in her infinite bag of tricks and looked around to see if anyone had been watching them. "Come on. It's time for us to go. I'll tell you about the letter when we are outside of the city." Fralia put on an air of normality, grabbed Jenassa's hand, and led her out of the city gate and to the stables to fetch their horses.

It wasn't until the were past Riverwood that Fralia finally spoke.

"I may or may not have gotten myself into a bit of trouble..." Jen looked at her intently. She had been waiting patiently for Fralia to respond. "I sort of... meddled in the affairs of the Dark Brotherhood. I am certain that letter was from them." Jenassa went from curious to horrified.

"The Dark Brotherhood? What have you done? Fralia, what did you do?"

"When we were in Riften, something... like a divine intervention... pulled me into the orphanage and I killed the woman who was... watching over the children."

"You did what?" The dark elf pulled her horse up in front of Fralia's and looked her directly in the face. "What's going on with you? That isn't like you. I know you kill people. That, I understand, but you usually have a good reason. Like those men who were threatening that dark elf woman. Why in Oblivion would you kill a woman who takes care of orphan children?"

"You don't understand... she abused them. She was terrible to them... and besides, it isn't like i left them all alone. She had an assistant and that girl seemed nice enough... I mean, she ran screaming when I killed the old hag but she seemed nice..." Jen seemed a little suspicious but let Fralia continue riding forward. "After i killed the woman, the children were saying something about a boy who was trying to contact the brotherhood to kill the person that i had just killed. Apparently i wasn't the only one who wanted to see her dead, for obvious reasons. So i sought out this boy. I'll be honest, Jen... I wanted to see if perhaps I would feel... at home... with a group like that. Like i said, the Thieves Guild was lacking... maybe the Brotherhood will be different? But now i'm not sure if they want to accept me into their group, or kill me for taking their contract..." Jen looked a bit worried now, but her expression quickly turned to determination.

"Not to worry. They will have to get past me if they want to kill you." Fralia smiled at her companion as they were just coming up to the house on Lakeview. Fralia dismounted near the stables and let her horse rest while she headed around to the back of the house, up the stairs onto her porch, and leaned over the wooden railing to look out over the lake. The sun was beginning to set now and the rays of light set the water ablaze with sparkles. She stood there for gods knew how long, just staring at the water, relaxing after all the traveling the two had done. It felt good for her to be home. Jenassa had joined her by the balcony at some point but she didn't notice until she turned around to go into the house.

Upon entering, she placed A Kiss, Sweet Mother in her bookshelf of important pieces. She then walked through her bedroom, looking briefly at her bed, her bedside table, wardrobes, the small bowl on her table that held a few emeralds and an amethyst, then downstairs through the dining room and into the entryway. Here, she placed her Nightingale Bow and Dawnbreaker on their respective stands then stepped over to the large display case with various gems scattered in it and dropped a few amethyst, a ruby, and a couple of emeralds inside. All spoils of victory from Mzinchaleft. The case was still far from being even close to half full. To help fill the space, she had placed a couple of skulls at the corners for aesthetic value.

Pleased with her work, she left the entryway and stepped into her greenhouse, which was attached to the dining room. She spent the next few hours tending to her vegetables and various herbs, weeding them, watering them and harvesting whatever was ready to be harvested. Whatever she harvested was stored around the dining room so she could get to it later while cooking. It wasn't very often that she and Jen had a homecooked meal, but however sparse, they were always lovely. The rafters of the greenhouse had acquired a few bee hives and their many inhabitants were buzzing around, collecting pollen from the blooms that came from the vegetables.

Fralia gathered her ingredients and put what she would need for the night on the table, storing the rest in barrels. She then collected her bow from the entryway and stepped out into the night air. It wouldn't be very practical to fish at this time of night, and especially with a bow, but not for a bosmer who also happened to be dragonborn. Using aura whisper, she easily scoped out some salmon in the lake and unleashed arrows upon them. Not long after, the two elves were seated across from one another at the table dining on grilled salmon cooked with salt, frost mirriam, and garlic, with a side of baked potato and two large mugs of Blackbriar mead.

"So what do you have planned for us now?" Jen asked, slurring just a little.

"Honestly... I think we should wait here for the brotherhood to make their move." Fralia's cheeks were a little red as she leaned on top of the table and traced her finger over the rim of her glass before taking another drink. "It might be days before... before we hear anything or... I don't know. I don't know how they would contact us... but we have... aaaall the time in the world... all to ourselves, eh?" she smiled mischeivously and picked up the mug and was now making clumsy gestures toward Jenassa. "What say you... my dark skinned friend?" she laughed to herself. "Remem... member that time you tried on that um... that forsworn armor?" Jenassa sighed and put a hand over her face.

"Yes, Fralia, i remember..." Jenassa was always better at holding her drink than Fralia was. For one who was rarely vocal, she made for an obnoxious and ungraceful drunk. She grinned behind her messy red hair before looking at Jen seriously and pulling herself up on the table, looking directly into her eyes.

"You... you looked so beautiful in that..." she looked very dazed.

"I think it's time we went to bed, dearest." but Fralia shook her head, leaning a little.

"No no... no we should... come here" she moved her mug out of the way and climbed over the table. Jen looked a little surprised, but then readied herself in case Fralia were to fall over. "Let me just..." the wood elf ran her hand through her friend's hair and pulled her into a gentle kiss. When she pulled away she looked directly into Jenassa's eyes, whom was, herself, feeling a little dizzy now. "I love you... ok?" Jen nodded, "Don't... don't listen to me... no matter what i say... or don't say... I really care about you, Jen." she rested her forehead against Jen's. "I'll tell you... why... do- do you wanna know why I left Valenwood?" Jen took Fralia's face in her hands and pulled her back to look at her before nodding. Fralia seemed to think for a moment, then her eyes filled with tears. "Blood... there was so much blood... I couldn't... save..." her voice tapered off and she fell, passing out, taking Jenassa, a few plates, and half of the tablecloth to the floor with her.

The dark elf held her friend for a moment then looked at the stairs, sighed, and picked them both up, trekked up the stairs, and laid Fralia gently on the bed, boots and all. For lack of any amount of energy to even begin to undress either of them, she pulled the blanket up, laid down next to her and drifted off to sleep...