A/N: Hello everyone! Thanks to all who have followed/fav/reviewed! It means a lot to me that you guys are enjoying my story! Well, here goes...on to chapter 19! It's another big turning point in my story! See you next time and have a great week!


Chapter 19: Shattered

Astrid grinned deviously, watching from afar as the last remnants of the thieves' guild disappeared off into the night. She had been formulating a plan - trying to find the right words to say to Reiner to remove herself from any suspicion. That was, until a howl - like that of a wolf, only much more powerful - echoed across the large expanse of land behind Reiner's farmhouse. Astrid's muscles tensed, as the cattle began to bellow and huddle together under the pale moonlight.

Astrid didn't find herself to be afraid of much, but this thing, whatever it was, seemed to shake her in a way she hadn't experienced before. There was something otherworldly about it, and the damage it was capable of inflicting. It was alluring, and yet terrifying at the same time. Another piercing howl, and Astrid found herself briskly walking to the farmhouse once more.

...

Astrid stood in the entrance of the farmhouse, letting herself become engulfed in the shadows of the night. She felt simply elated at the moment, despite the bit of uneasiness that the powerful creature had induced inside of her. She listened to the howls in the distance, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply. She smiled, taking in the outcome of her circumstances - taking in Reiner's silence and enjoying it to the fullest extent.

She calmly glided through the aftermath, soaking in the damaged state of his home as she proudly made her way to the upper floor. Perhaps she'd tell him they had held her captive, or that she had hidden herself from the thieves out of fear. Truthfully, any old excuse would do - Reiner was a complete moron, anyway. It wouldn't take much to convince him to believe her.

Astrid smirked to herself, shooting a knowing glance toward Reiner's room before entering her own, which had remained in a disheveled state ever since that bastard had nearly beaten her to death. Nothing new there.

Surprisingly, none of her things had been taken. Perhaps the guild didn't think removing her dresses would do much damage to her uncle. Astrid walked to her dresser, which remained in utter disarray, grabbing her deep green, velvety dress from out of the drawer. She then stepped up to her vanity, pressing the dress to her body and eyeing herself in the mirror. Her eyes moved to the old amulet she'd left laying there.

Nona...She thought, running her tongue over her smiling lips. Reiner thought she looked so much like her mother - and yet - seemed so very, very different. Now he would come to know just how different she was.


Astrid stood in front of her vanity, gliding her hands down the silky fabric of the deep emerald dress she was now wearing. She couldn't quite fathom why she had such a strong urge to wear the dress at the moment, but the whole circumstance practically begged her to don it, if not for the sheer irony of it all. Green was her mother's favorite, after all. Perhaps she simply wanted Reiner to be reminded of the ghosts of his consciousness, while simultaneously realizing his complete and utter downfall.

Astrid simply couldn't help herself - it was all just too pleasing to ignore. She eyed the tarnished amulet, sighing to herself.

"Mother, Mother, Mother...You never did enjoy violence, did you? Ah, but little did you know...that I did..." she grinned to herself, rubbing the old chains of the amulet between her thumb and forefinger. Lost in a hazy bliss, Astrid strolled away from the vanity and down the stairs, until her foot met with an unknown object laying in the floor.

"Ah..." Astrid purred, picking up what was, quite possibly, the last bottle of alchohol in his demolished house. One of the thieves must have dropped it - they were a sloppy bunch, weren't they? It happened to be wine, of all things. Perfect.


Astrid sat in a chair next to the fireplace, sipping gingerly from her bottle and watching the flames both caress and destroy the wood engulfed in them. The eerie silence that the unknown being had caused had continued well into the night, and though it had now ceased its unsettling calls, the haunting air of quiet had remained long after.

Like the burning heat of the fire before her, Astrid also felt a burning inside - a burning that lingered and grew hotter than anything she'd ever felt before. The waves of satisfaction and the undertow of euphoria began to tug at her insides, pulling her into its current. She'd never felt so alive and full of power in her whole life. The possibilities were truly endless.

She could quite literally do as she pleased forever. She could leave Reiner damaged and without a coin to his name, dig up her own funds, and travel all of Tamriel. She had always wanted to see if the Imperial City was truly as large as she'd heard it was. Then again, she could stay at the farmhouse and drive him completely mad first, and just the mere thought of it had set her very soul on fire. She could always travel later, she decided.

The moment that she had genuinely felt the most euphoric, powerful, and invincible, however, was the moment that her mind had completely left her at her most fragile, vulnerable, and open to being completely broken.

Astrid had been so mesmerized and completely wrapped up in her enticing thoughts, that she had not heard the stifled breath in the dark, or the creaking of the old floorboards as they buckled under his weight. It was not until she felt a different heat - the searing heat of pain as an unknown object bashed the back of her skull - that she had felt completely and utterly weak.

Feeling suddenly as if her world had caved in, Astrid stumbled to her feet, staggering a few steps before turning to face him. She winced, as the sting of blood hit her eyes. She tried unsuccessfully to wipe it away, and just as unsuccessfully to focus her blurry vision.

Reiner was hunched over, holding his abdomen. His form was bloody and battered, and in his eyes were traces of something much like a feral beast. Astrid, left without anything to say, simply glared back into his eyes with a fire of her own.

"Have you gone mad, uncle?" she asked finally, attempting not to sway as she stood on wobbly legs. "If you didn't notice, it wasn't me who nearly killed you in there, you fool."

Reiner curled up his bloody lip, laughing wildy. "Ah, you really are a piece of work, niece! You really think me to be so foolish? I know damned well what you've done...Next time you try somethin' like this, you'd better tell your little friends to keep their bloody traps shut about it!"

"...What are you saying?" Astrid remarked, her voice sounding far more nervous than she'd hoped it would. As a matter of fact, she was feeling something she'd rather have not at the moment, and it was fear.

"That worthless bunch of thieves you call friends...One of 'em let it slip. I know it was you, Astrid." he grinned, before falling silent and glaring at her in such a manner that her whole body froze in place.

"You stay away from me..." Astrid warned, as Reiner began to stalk in her direction with a certain burning in his eyes she'd never witnessed before.

"I already told you, you're mine, Astrid. I can do as I wish with you, girl..." he growled, as she backed away with every step he took.

The front door. She needed to get out of that house, and fast.

Without warning, Astrid spinted toward the door, only to have Reiner grab her by the hair, yanking her forcefully back, before slamming the door shut and standing in front of it, ensuring there was no way out.

Astrid, now fearful and full of adrenaline, clammered up the stairs. Why had she been so weak? Why had she never explored the possibilities of her plan never working out? Why did she have any hope that things would all work out for her in the first place? Her life had never been anything but a disgusting mess - one big, disgusting, pathetic wasteland.

She ran inside her room, well aware of the fact that he could still get in, since he'd all but torn her door from its hinges from their previous encounter. Still, she tried pitifully to shut and hold it in place, before the raging man ran into it, knocking her down to the floor.

Astrid strumbled up to her feet, her gaze meeting his. "What are you gonna do to me, uncle? Are you going to finish what you started?" she spat, her fear now turning into rage-filled defiance. If he was going to murder her, she'd make sure to fight him until the bitter end.

"You're mad, girl...Completely mad..." Reiner growled, seeming to loom over her. "I told you, I own you now, you little bitch, whether you like it or not..."

"Like what? Like cattle, right? Just like Nona, right? I bet she did exactly what you wanted..." Astrid hissed, nearly foaming from the mouth.

"LEAVE NONA OUT OF THIS!" Reiner yelled, hitting Astrid with such force that she staggered back against the wall. Reiner walked up to her, each hand against the wall beside her, pinning her in. His face now inches from her own, his eyes blazed with pure hatred. "You come in here, and you think you know all about me and your mother, huh? You think you got me all figured out, don't you? I know what you're thinkin' - that I'm a sick bastard for what I did, eh? Well, it wasn't like that, you little bitch! She was all I had! UNDERSTAND?! My Ma' was dead and my father nearly beat me to death on a regular basis just cause he could! SHE WAS THE ONLY THING I HAD!" he screamed, his saliva hitting Astrid's face and causing her to shut her eyes tightly.

When she opened them, she stared straight into the eyes of the beast. They were raging, vengeful, and full of the deepest, most twisted hatred she'd ever seen. Reiner's whole body was trembling from rage, as a single tear trailed down the corner of his right eye.

"But you, my dear niece...You ain't even close to her..." he growled, his voice shaking with white, hot rage.

Astrid's whole body filled with a horrified, revolted feeling. That look in his eyes made her want to gouge them both out. He was a filthy, despicable stain on the plane of Nirn, and his existence was toxic, killing her with every breath. The burning fire of deep, all-encompassing anger began to flood through her veins. She understood the monster now, as he stood before her in his true form. Astrid realized what kind of evil he truly was, and what kind of power he truly wanted. The most terrifying part of it all was that she truly believed he would do anything, and take anything from her at this point, and she realized with deep regret that she was right.

Even if she were to fall victim to his sick acts of revenge, she wouldn't go down without trying her best to murder him. She merely glared into his malevolent eyes, before spitting in his face in an act of bitter defiance. He was a sick man, and a vile soul who would never gain her approval or sympathy in an manner.

It was that single act of defiance that began his malicious acts of retaliation against her person. At first there was a struggle - he hit her, and she fought back as hard as her body would allow her.

Astrid screamed and writhed, digging into his skin until she felt his blood pool beneath her fingernails. She bit and kicked, realizing that she was fighting for not only her life, but for a part of her very soul as well. The ways that he began to harm her, much to her deepest, darkest horrors, were ways that she knew would damage her in too many ways to comprehend. The violation was far more than skin deep - it was to her very being. No amount of hitting, or clawing, or biting, or scratching was stopping this completely vicious and cruel act.

Time and all sense of being had slowed to a grinding halt. The world seemed hauntingly silent, and nothing made sense anymore. At one point, all Astrid could do was mentally leave her body. She could only look helplessly into the far corner of her room, desperately attempting to distract herself from the intense trauma. Her eyes fixated on a moth that fluttered frantically, caught hopelessly in a spider's web. She watched in horror, as the moth was wrapped up by the hungry spider, struggling less and less, until it was permanently silenced, never to flutter again.

She was that moth.


Dazed and feeling nauseas with pain, Astrid sat in her bed, hugging her arms around her knees. Time was still moving in slow motion, and her life seemed to have lost any semblance of reason or hope.

The monster had successfully trapped his prey and tormented her to the fullest extent without actually taking her life. Was this the same hopelessness that her mother had felt when the monster had destroyed her as well? Why did she wait so long to leave Reiner, if that was what he had been doing to her? Repeatedly. This was one time that Astrid truly regretted being right about something.

In a mere matter of moments, her life had been completely turned upside down. Astrid felt intensely ashamed, disgusted, and completely stupid for allowing herself to succumb to his vile acts. However, unlike her Mother, she wasn't about to let the situation repeat itself, as it was destined to do.

Astrid heard Reiner's delirious yelling from outside the farmhouse, where he decided to go after he'd found a bottle of Skooma that the thieves had failed to snatch. She hated him with every inch of her being. After what had happened, she hated herself nearly as much. Why did she insist on sticking around? Why was she such an idiot?

She cringed as she held her abdomen, stepping off her bed and sitting at the vanity, where she stared at her blank, hollow expression in the mirror. Astrid now firmly believed that she was never meant to be happy in this life, and that the fates were truly against her in every way possible. She was not meant for a life of peace and freedom to do as she pleased. She was not meant to live life in any way that did not lead to darkness. Her life, she realized, had been born into darkness, and now darkness was her only hope.

An eerie howl broke the silence once more, as Astrid grabbed Nona's old amulet, eyeing it in her hand. Her mother had let that monster take and take from her, and now he had taken from her own daughter as well. Delvin was no help either, and both of them had their precious false senses of morality and vain codes to live by.

Nobody once believed in Astrid's way, and even at her worst, she'd held back, if only for their sakes. They were both monsters hidden in priests' robes, Astrid firmly decided. They were monsters. Reiner was a monster. Maybe now it would finally be her turn.

Another piercing howl in the distance sent a shiver up Astrid's spine. That beast out there was merely surviving, even if it had to slaughter others to do so. Why was she any different. It was easy for others to sit upon their high horses and look at her as if she was a cruel, cold person, but who had truly caused the other pain?

Her mother had sacrificed her to the monster, and Delvin watched it all happen and did nothing to completely stop it. Who were the real monsters here? Astrid squeezed the amulet so hard that her hand began to throb from her anger. She glared into the mirror, tears now in her eyes. She hated everything and everyone in this moment. Only one act would bring her any semblance of happiness, and she knew good and well what it was.


Beautifully brilliant shards of shattered glass flickered about, as Astrid smashed the amulet into the mirror before her. The broken glass glittered in the faint moonlight, resembling the flecks of white snow that fell from the colder areas of Skyrim. She could feel the icy, sharp tickle of the shards against her skin, though she kept her eyes open, not fearing that she would be blinded by the sharp edges.

She breathed in deeply, her hoplessness overtaken by adrenaline, as she eyed the floor for a long, sharp piece to drive into Reiner's flesh.

She smiled when she caught sight of a perfect shard, picking it off the floor and caressing it lovingly. She walked over to her window, watching her uncle stagger about the property in his drunken state.

With purpose, Astrid held her head high as she calmly left her room, pacing down the stairs and out the front door. Another long, haunting howl, and Reiner began yelling again. She finally understood that he'd been daring the hidden beast to show itself. She promptly decided that he'd been focused on the wrong beast.

The night had grown calm and the air was slightly chilled and heavy. The moonlight was splendid, giving her a perfect view of the true monster before her. Astrid could see by his mannerisms that he was completely out of his head from intoxication.

Astrid creeped behind him, drinking in the moment that would somehow satisfy her existence, though she knew it would never have the same effect now that he'd violated her in the worst of ways. However, with each careful step, she knew that this was what the fates had wanted from her all along. Only she wanted to see his blood on her hands more than they did.

She began to smile, stepping only inches from him, undetected. Her only regret was that she wasn't strong enough to subdue and torture him for hours first. Another howl, and some unknown movement at he edge of the woods, had caused Reiner to become hysterical, cursing and yelling at the beast. This was her chance - she couldn't risk losing it.

She stood from her position crouching behind him, gripping the sharp mirror piece so tightly that her palm began to bleed. This was the moment, and there was no going back. Astrid inhaled deeply, and with the natural precision of the most accomplished killer, she grabbed him from behind, and quickly and deeply slid the sharp edge over his throat.

Astrid backed away, dropping the shard to the ground as Reiner coughed and sputtered up blood, falling to his knees. He fell to his back, desperately writhing and gasping for air. Astrid felt her heart pounding in her head as she became exhilerated from the thrill of his demise. She stood over him, as his dying eyes focused on her. "N-nona?" he choked, more than likely delirious from severe blood loss.

Astrid grinned deviously, glaring into his dying eyes. "I'm not Nona. Remember that."

She watched as the last traces of life drained from his body, soaking in the sight of his death and reveling in every moment of it. However, the moment was cut short by a tall, ominous shadow standing not far from Astrid, apparently watching her from a distance. She gasped, as the gigantic beast she'd been so allured by, bolted back into the woods as it realized she'd caught sight of it.

For what reason she'd been so strongly drawn to it, she wasn't certain, but she found herself bounding after the wild form before she realized it.

"Wait! PLEASE! TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!" Astrid yelled, watching the large silhouette disappear deeper into the forest as she trailed behind. She didn't give up, however, for she wanted to see the face of whoever had the ability to kill and slaugher so freely. She couldn't help but feel a deep connection, and a deep impulse to seek that beast out. She may have been out of her mind for doing so, but she didn't care. She'd just slit Reiner's throat, for gods' sakes! Nothing after that act would ever seem normal again. Nothing about her life had been normal from the very beginning, for that matter.

Astrid hunkered down, watching and waiting, as she crept through the thick brush. In what seemed like a lifetime later, she heard a rustle in the forest not far from her. Astrid crept closer, watching in awe as a large, silver-maned Nord stood, pulling his shrouded armor into place. It was him - the assassin from the Ratway. Astrid held her breath, boldly stepping out where he could see her.

"I-I know you..." Astrid spoke, as the large Nord's steely blue eyes met with hers, glistening in the faint moonlight falling from between the treetops.

The large man took a couple of steps forward. "Is he dead?" he asked, his voice firm, but not threatening.

Astrid simply nodded, feeling entranced by the man's presence.

"Good. 'Bout time someone put that bastard out of his misery." he smirked, before turning away.

"W-where are you going?!" Astrid inquired worriedly, somehow fearing she'd never see the man again.

"Can't say." he answered bluntly, folding his arms.

"Will I see you again?" Astrid asked, hoping his presence wouldn't be lost forever. She couldn't understand why, but she felt so in tune with this man. He felt so right. He was a murderer like her. He wasn't weak or didn't look at her like she was some sort of deviant. He was actually congratulating her for killing her uncle.

"Don't worry," he smirked. "You'll be seein' me again real soon. Just clean that mess up, okay? Don't want those asshole guards throwing you in jail if they catch wind of this." he stated matter-of-factly, before disappearing into the dense brush.

Despite all of her inner pain, Astrid faintly smiled to herself, standing alone and drenched in blood. Even if a huge part of her felt shaken to the core with trauma, there was another twisted part of her that felt a bit relieved when she met eyes with the mysterious man. Perhaps not everything was hopeless. Maybe this wasn't the end, after all. Maybe this was just the beginning.