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Keljarn

Bloody Mist

City of Whiterun

The walk back had been mostly silent. Aela had simply said she wanted to be left alone, to deal with what had happened, and asked not to take it personally. Keljarn hadn't.

They'd left Skjor there, on that hill, surrounded by the bodies of his enemies. They'd built a pyre and his remains had been burned with full honours. Those of his enemies had been left to rot. Krev the Skinner hadn't been among them, Aela said she was sure of it. That meant the Silver Hand was not necessarily exterminated. And they might try to kill more of the Companions.

Unless the Companions killed them first.

They'd gone through the city gates of Whiterun. It was evening, and the townspeople were all inside, eating warm meals or sitting by the fire on this cold day. They ascended the stairs to Jorrvaskr, the Gildergreen lit by lanterns above them. Before they went in, they heard the voices of Farkas and Vilkas above them, coming from the Skyforge. They had no idea what had happened.

"Let's... tell them later," Aela said, looking up at the Skyforge with misty eyes.

"Sure. Let them be for now." They both knew they didn't delay the telling for the brothers' sakes.

The mead hall looked different even though it wasn't. Keljarn didn't know how many Companions had fallen in the last years, but he didn't think it was that many.

"Stop... stop right there!"

Aela and Keljarn exchanged an alarmed look. It was a woman's voice, coming from the basement level.

"Ah... ah... assassin!" And right after the cry of alarm came a surprised and pained "AH!".

They both bolted for the stairs, rushing down as fast as they could, before throwing their weight against the door. But instead of flying open, the door stayed closed, not budging.

"What th..." Keljarn breathed, rubbing his aching shoulder.

From behind the door they heard a loud, gurgling, "AORGH!"

"It's barred from the other side!" Aela snarled, slamming her fist against the door in frustration. "Go around!"

They rushed back up the stairs, then crossed the mead hall, taking the stairs down on the other side, their boots thudding on the wood. Nine dammit what was going on?!

This time the door did fly open, and the first thing they saw in the hallway was a female body, dressed in a light tunic and trousers, prone, with its arms and legs sprawled, a large blood stain spreading underneath it. They rushed forward and fell to their knees beside the fallen Companion.

"Ria!" Aela shouted, "Ria!"

The girl lay on her back, with a dagger hilt protruding from between her small breasts, blood turning the light green of her tunic black. The dagger was stuck all the way to the hilt, her chest looking somehow flattened. Whoever had done this must have had superhuman strength.

"Ria!" Keljarn echoed his friend. "Ria, what happened?"

The girl's eyes rolled in their sockets and settled on Keljarn. "S... suh... sorry, I... couldn't..."

"Try not to talk," Aela rapped. "Keljarn, do something."

He couldn't pull the knife out, and as long as it was there, healing spells had no use, nevermind the fact that he would never be able to heal a massive wound like this one. "Aela, I can't... I can't heal this," he breathed, hearing the panic in his own voice. Ria was going to die and there was nothing they could do.

"Ria, who did this to you?" Aela asked.

"I was... g... going to do... great things," Ria said, blood coming up with every word, running down the side of her mouth as he lungs filled up. "It's n... not fair..." With the last of her strength, Ria brought up her arm, her fingers almost touching Keljarn's face before the arm fell away again. "I was... even... st... stupid e... enough to th... think you m... might..."

She didn't finish what she wanted to say, leaving it forever unsaid.

"Ria?" Aela asked quietly, sounding surprisingly calm. Keljarn, meanwhile, felt like all of this wasn't real. Like it wasn't really happening.

Resigning to the truth, Aela simply closed her eyes. "We... we should search the place. See if there's anything that can tell us who did this."

"We must have just missed him. If we hadn't run for that door, then..."

"We can still catch him," Aela shouted. "Come on!"

They left Ria behind and ran, back up the stairs and out the door on the other side they'd come in from, snatching a torch each from the wall. Keljarn paused to look around while Aela sprinted straight down into the town. Seeing nothing, Keljarn followed her. They ran down the stairs, past Heismkr's usual preaching place and into main street, where two men stood talking in front of the inn, one Imperial and one Dunmer.

Aela skidded to a halt and Keljarn stopped beside her. "Hey, you!" he shouted at the men, panting from the run. "Have you seen anyone come running past here?" They had better!

"Apart from you? No," the Dunmer replied, stupidly adding, "Should we have?"

"Obviously," Aela snapped at him, close to exploding with anger, grief and frustration. She apparently realized it herself and took a breath, closing her eyes, then asked, "You haven't seen anything?"

The Imperial said back, "No, we haven't. Maybe if you told us what we're supposed to look for?"

"Just... someone! Anyone!" Keljarn shouted. Were these guys being deliberately obstinate? Maybe lying? "Or was it you, maybe?" he asked, glaring at them and raising his axe. Maybe it was. Maybe these two were the killers and they were playing dumb.

"Was what me?" the Dunmer asked, still looking completely clueless. Damn this sabotaging liar!

"It can't be," Aela said. "They're not even out of breath." Despite his anger, Keljarn had to admit she was right. Aela sighed and looked at the city gates, a few hundred metres further. "We've lost him, whoever it was."

"I don't know what's going on, but we've got nothing to do with it. You can ask the innkeeper," the Imperial said. "We were in there all the time until now."

Keljarn stood glaring at them for a moment longer, somehow trying to bend his theory to conform to the facts, wanting these two to be the culprits, but it was no use. Feeling the frustration overtake him, he shouted, "Damn!" and threw his torch to the ground, just to let the anger out, the torch shooting sparks as it smacked into the dirt.

"Come on," Aela said, putting a hand on his arm, the feeling of another human being bringing him some measure of calm. "There have to be traces. We'll find him."

Keljarn didn't even bother to pick up the torch and they trudged back to Jorrvaskr, hoping against hope to find traces of the murderer.

"The door was ajar," Keljarn said hoarsely when they came back in. "This one. Killer went up these stairs just when we realized the door on the other side was barred. Got out before we got a glimpse of him. If we'd reacted sooner..."

"No," Aela said. "Don't. We can't beat ourselves up over this. We owe it to Ria to find who did this."

She was right. "Yeah, that's true. Look, partial boot print." The print was very partial indeed, just the bloody edge of a sole, and worthless except to determine where the killer had left Jorrvaskr. They wouldn't be able to follow the traces since it was all dirt just outside the mead hall, and then stone. One would erase the blood, the other would hide the footprints.

"Let's search the basement," Aela said. "Then find the others."

They were back in the hallway under the mead hall, Ria's body still lying there, as if to remind Keljarn that this had really ha ppened. "Murder weapon might have some clues." They kneeled by her body, inspecting the hilt of the dagger.

Aela shook her head. "Not an Avenicci, and not one of Eorlund's. Killer wasn't local, or at least the knife wasn't, but that's all it tells us." She was right. It was a generic, unadorned hilt, like you'd find at any amateur blacksmith's shop.

Without a word, Aela took the hilt and pulled. "Hold her down," she grunted, Keljarn obeying like a mindless atronach. Aela had to wrench the knife a few times, with such force had it been embedded into Ria's chest. With a series of wet cracks, the blade came free. It told them nothing, but at least the thing that had murdered poor Ria was out of her chest.

It was then that Keljarn saw the blood coming from under the door next to them, a dark red rivulet running into the veins of the wooden boards. "Aela."

Aela followed his gaze, promptly went to her feet, and pulled the door open. "Ah, Nine, no!"

Talos, not another one!

Standing next to Aela, Keljarn saw Njada lying on her bed, already in her sleeping clothes, her throat torn open, the white of the bed sheets, her loincloth and her top red with blood. A red pool stood in the dimple of her navel.

"She's gone," Aela said hoarsely. "Has been for a while. Oh, Njada."

"Whoever did this," Keljarn heard himself croak, "it wasn't an amateur."

"But why kill two apprentices? It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe the killer thought he'd find us all here."

"No," Aela said, sounding positive. "He must have known Farkas and Vilkas were up there. And killing Ria definitely looked like it wasn't planned."

"Because Ria walked in on him when he tried to get out?"

"Maybe. Could have been a personal grudge against Njada," Aela said, her face ashen gray, "but doesn't sound likely. She must have been... in the way." She sighed. "Poor girls."

"In the way of what?" Keljarn said, but as he said it, he knew what the answer to his question was, and from the looks of her, so did Aela.

"Kodlak," she breathed, storming off to the Harbinger's room and throwing the door open. As Keljarn ran after her, he heard her scream a heart-rending "No!"

The Harbinger, too, had met his end by the killer's hands, although from the state his quarters were in, they could tell he had put up a serious fight. It looked like a whirlwind had swept across his room, plates were broken, candlesticks knocked over. Chairs were overturned and a cupboard had its door smashed in. Kodlak Whitemane lay face-down, his mace on the ground a ways further. He had been stabbed repeatedly in the back, neck, and back of the head.

Aela fell on her knees next to him. "This... this can't be true. Without Kodlak, the Companions..."

Keljarn hadn't known the man all that well, so at least in the face of this murder, he was able to stay somewhat rational. "We're still here, Aela. So are Farkas and Vilkas. Athis too, when he recovers." At least the wounded elf had been convalescing in the house of his friend, a hunter and bowyer.

"You're... you're right," Aela said, sniffing but not letting a single tear fall. "We have to find out who did this. Though I have a suspicion already."

"It can't have been...?"

"Who else? They were clearly after Kodlak. Ria and Njada, they were just... in the way. It's the Silver Hand alright."

"Something doesn't make sense," Keljarn said, surveying the scene. The fight had clearly gone on for a while, and Kodlak had lost it. But surely, there was something he could have done? "Kodlak was part of the Circle, right?"

"Yes," Aela said, standing up without taking her eyes off their Harbinger. "I'm wondering the same thing you are. Why didn't he turn into a werewolf? He considered our gift a curse, but he would have used it if it had saved him."

"Maybe he was surprised?"

"By over twenty stab wounds?" Aela asked. "No. But wait... let me see that murder weapon again."

She stomped back out and came in holding the knife. "Thought so. I missed it the first time, but look at that blade."

"It's... very shiny?" Keljarn said. Then it dawned on him. "Silver?"

Aela nodded. "Silver is anathema to us. Poisons us and makes us unable to shapeshift." She looked down at the murdered Harbinger again. "All the killer needed was one stab. Kodlak would have been able to fight back for a while, but the silver would have killed him regardless." She looked small, standing there and dropping the dagger to the floor. "Killer must have stabbed him over and over again to speed up the process, but that's why he couldn't shapeshift." She sighed and closed her eyes. "Three members dead. I don't know if the Companions will recover."

Carefully, Keljarn put his arm over her shoulder. She didn't resist. "We will. Just have to find some new people."

"It's all moot until we deal with these murderers anyway."

"Let's get Farkas and Vilkas. Tell them the news. They have a right to know."

As they left the room, they saw a paper on the floorboards, punctured by a narrow, sharp object. Aela picked it up and held it out to Keljarn. On the paper was a silver, stylized hand.