Malachite opened his eyes slowly and looked and gazed at his surroundings. He was in a cave illuminated solely by blue-green moss growing on the walls. He looked to his left and saw… a frostbite spider!
Malachite rolled away from it and reached for his mace, but it wasn't there. He turned around and saw a ledge he could climb up. A clenched fist appeared on the ledge and the spider lunged at Malachite. He jumped up and grabbed the fist, but it pulled back at the last second and landed on top of the frostbite spider. It turned around and searched for him, confused, and then collapsed under Malachite's weight.
He walked back over to the ledge and hauled himself upwards. "Why did you pull your hand back? You could have hel-" Malachite stopped talking when he saw that the fist had belonged to a young teenager.
The girl scoffed. "It wouldn't have hurt you. It's my pet."
Malachite rolled his eyes and responded "What are you, a rare and potentially deadly animal collector?"
She laughed and said "No, I'm an assassin!"
Malachite rolled his eyes again and she said sharply "Stop rolling your eyes like that. It's annoying."
Malachite said "First: I wasn't rolling my eyes. I had to quickly look at the ceiling. Second: Don't tell me what to do. I'm 24 and you're only-"
"Thousands of years older?" She interrupted him and then bared her teeth.
When Malachite noticed her fangs, he nearly jumped back into the pit with the frostbite spider.
A cold laugh came from the corner of the room. "Stop it, Babette. You're scaring him. He's here on a personal favor."
Malachite looked at the source of the voice and saw a woman with long blonde hair wearing black and red armor. Malachite asked "Who are you people? Where am I? Are you Tiber's friends?"
"Yes, we are Tiber's friends. We might reveal to you your location in due time if you prove yourself strong enough. And who are we? Well, can you think of any other groups of assassins in Skyrim? We're the Dark Brotherhood."
Malachite stumbled backwards. "The Dark Brotherhood? Is Tiber a member? I knew I shouldn't have trusted him!"
The woman sighed and took a step towards him. "Just because the Dark Brotherhood kills people, that makes us evil? You killed guards on your way out of jail. Do you think of yourself as evil?"
Malachite looked at his moccasins. "Well…"
"And don't say that they're just guards. That amuses me because it is the same thing that I think, but they weren't guards to their families. They were family. So before you start judging, think about it and decide whether or not it's a good way to make money. The correct answer is yes, it is, so don't try and argue, and come with me. I'll show around your temporary home. By the way, the name is Astrid."
She walked out of the room briskly without another word, as if no other words needed to be said. Apparently, she was right, because Malachite followed her, eager to get away from the frightening vampire child.
Astrid brought him through a long hallway and into a huge room with a small pond in one corner, a forge along one wall, a training room along the other wall, and a steel spiral staircase leading to a hatch in the ceiling. Astrid pointed out the various things and the people at each station. A Redguard climbing down the staircase and wearing a Fez was Nozir, the Argonian training with a bow and arrow was Veezara, the Nord watching him was Arnbjorn, Astrid's husband, and the man using the alchemy station was Festus Krex.
She explained that they used to have a member named Gabriella, but Gunjar, the Dragonborn, pretended to be recruited and led the Penitus Oculatus on a raid of the old sanctuaries, one near Falkreath, one outside Dawnstar. They retreated and built the new headquarters, wherever they did. She wasn't telling Malachite yet.
"So, what am I supposed to be doing here? Do I just leave whenever you feel like I'm allowed to and go home?" Malachite asked.
"Well, that depends on whatever Tiber told you to do. Whad did he say?" Astrid said.
"He told me to discover new skills and learn more shouts so I could face Gunjar in battle, but I don't really think he was right. I just want to go home and ignore my powers, go back to the way things were. So can you get me to Ivarsted? Conscious or not, that's where I'm going."
Astrid looked up and down his body, as if sizing him up, and laughed. "That's the spirit! Tough and determined and persistent. That's what we were looking for. If you want to join, you're in."
Malachite shook his head. "No. I don't want to be in. I want to go home."
Astrid sighed. "Okay. Follow me."
They walked up the spiral staircase and arrived in long hallway cut into the rock leading upwards to a black, solid wall. Malachite turned to Astrid with a look of confusion on his face, but she was already sliding a rock on the ground from one side of the hallway to the other. When it touched the wall opposite the one it had been leaning on before, the wall swung outwards and upwards, creating a sort of awning in the forest.
Astrid gestured for him to leave and said "We're just outside Riverwood if you need us again. Oh, and take these. In case you change your mind." She held out black and red cloth that Malachite knew would be Dark Brotherhood armor if he unfolded it.
Malachite almost turned it down, but he figured it would be disrespectful and he might need their help later. Besides, he could always just throw it away at home. He took the armor, put it in his bag, thanked Astrid for saving him and for housing him, and started walking northeast for Ivarsted.
Iveri rolled through an open door, jumped over a raging fire, whipped a bow from her quiver, and loaded into her bow. She fired at the Dragon, but she wasn't even sure that it hit the beast. It let loose another round of scorching flames and Klatch's house was set on fire. You better thank me for this when you get home, Malachite! Iveri thought as she sprinted to the house, dodging a swipe of the dragon's spiky tail. She kicked down the flimsy wooden door and ran inside. "Anybody still in here?" She hollered over the noise of the blazing fire and acrid smoke.
"Help!" She heard Klatch's low voice from the second story.
There was a crack and the ceiling collapsed just in front of Iveri, and a body fell down with it. Make that first story Iveri thought sarcastically as she hopped over the debris and grabbed Klatch's shirt and started dragging him towards the entrance of his house. Halfway there, the dragon crashed through the side of the house and grabbed Iveri around the waist with its razor sharp claws.
Blood dripped from her waist, but it wasn't too deep. The dragon seemed to want to carry, not kill her, if that was possible. She held onto Klatch for as long as she could, but eventually, she passed out and dropped him from the sky.