Diamond hurdles through the forest trails, discarding her cloak and heavier weapons as she goes, anything to give her additional speed, anything to get back to the Sanctuary before the Brotherhood . . . before Astrid –
A clock begins sounding somewhere in the capital, and a lifetime passes between each booming peal.
She had only been able to fast-travel to the outer reaches of Falkreath, as her Sanctuary was no longer located on the map. If Diamond remembers forcedly, if a place doesn't show on the map, it no longer exists.
Diamond had sprinted through the town, careless of the guards and citizens screams of horror at the blood that was not her own that drenched her clothes, her hands, her neck. She had taken down those Penitus agents before they even knew what had hit them. Dirtied slices to their throats, and stabs to their hearts that send blood splashing her and the stones.
All she can see is the door of the Sanctuary in her mind. Even as foliage and trees rush past her, scratching her cheeks and snatching at her cloak as if to hold her back from the Sanctuary.
It is late enough that everything is deserted, but there are still caravans and travelers who see her keep well out of her way as she sprints past, her lungs nearly shattering. She pushes that pain away, willing strength into her legs, praying to whatever gods still care to give her swiftness and strength. Oculatus agents and the Faceless.
Now, she doesn't care if it is the High King himself. She will destroy them all. And that proud Commander who'd tricked her – she'd sort that out, too.
The hill of the Sanctuary looms closer, its grass veering blooming with Nightshade flowers.
Be alive. Be alive, she tells herself with each step, each pound of her heart. Please.
There's no other entry but the front door. There will surely be Penitus agents around, but that will only cause the assassin to act faster.
She could've sworn she heard hooves thundering behind her, but there is nothing in the world except her and the distance to Astrid. She nears the clearing, her blood roaring in her hears as she sees the agents with their swords ready. Patches of flowers glow pink and purple in the moonlight and thunder claps harshly overhead.
There are no Faceless around, as far as she can see.
Diamond reaches for her belt and leaps up, hurling two daggers at the archers nearest to her. They go down, and she goes up – two more daggers thrown at two more archers.
The men are shouting, some fleeing for the safety of the trees while other rushed at her, weapons drawn.
Diamond snarls like an animal as she snatches two swords, one from each of the fallen agents, and unleashes herself upon them.
They didn't stand a chance.
In the fray of bodies, the remaining two archers didn't dare loose arrows that might hit one of their own – another intentional move on her part. Daggers pierce through their throats in seconds.
As Diamond charges for the door of the Sanctuary, she briefly sees a charred body pinned to a tree with arrows. Not just the arms or the legs, and not impaled by the cloth. But arrows all along the body, mimicking a pincushion of a seamstress. Arrows are marked through the hands, the head, the heart, the body, the legs. Nothing is untouched by an arrow. Yet Diamond still recognizes the clothing enough.
Festus.
Bile rises at the back of her throat as Diamond rams her shoulder into the door of the Sanctuary, nearly taking it off its hinges. But inside only holds more horror.
The moment she enters the Sanctuary, the smell of smoke and oil infects her senses. Diamond immediately starts coughing as the thick plumes blur her vision.
Everything is burning. Everything.
The Sanctuary itself groans and rumbles like the belly of a dragon as it gets weaker and weaker.
Inside she can hear the voices of the Oculatus agents. Diamond feels the animal inside of her snarl and beg for their blood. She can feel if pulling and yanking on its chain, roaring and ready to snap as she beholds what was her recognizable home.
She does her best to calm the beast as she charges forward.
Diamond is a whirlwind of steel and blood. She cuts through the men as though they are stalks of wheat in a field. And at last – after all these years – she has finally become the lethal predator Astrid had wanted her to be.
Astrid's room is ablaze and there are already a charred corpse of Veezara burned beyond recognition for those who didn't know him.
Diamond flies down the steps into the main chamber and finds a werewolf howling at the center of it. If it weren't for the fact that it had just bitten the head off an Oculatus agent, Diamond would've cut him down instantly.
She is about to call Arnbjorn's name, but the Sanctuary rattles once more and an agent shouts, snatching Arnbjorn's attention long enough that he turns right into the blade of the waiting agent. A scream, raw and primal, erupts from Diamond. It has no words to it, no sounds of grief.
An icy, endless rage sweeps through her, wiping away everything except the plan that he can see with brutal clarity.
If they wanted an assassin of the Brotherhood, they've got her.
That animal inside of her, that thing that she had long since suppressed inside of her all those years, tugs hard on the chain; enough that a part of it cracks.
She continues deeper into the Sanctuary, up the steps towards the intersecting hallway. Blood is splattered across the wall. Liz, Gabriella's pet spider is dead and into bits on the floor near her pit, Gabriella's impaled body next to it. A sword has been stabbed through the small section under her chin and through the top of her skull. The blood reflects in the light of the flames.
Diamond can feel the ire and aggression rolling off of her, see how horrid she looks with her face and body coated in blood, as she clutches the hilts of her swords. She isn't ready for the bloodletting to end, either. She isn't ready to give in at all.
And then she hears it.
"If I am to die today, so be it. But you'll not soon forget the Dark Brotherhood!"
Nazir.
Nazir! He's alive!
Without realizing, Diamond's feet rush up the wooden steps of the mezzanine that connects to the bedrooms and finds Nazir fighting on three agents. Diamond hurls one dagger and it lands in one man's leg, but his head is already severed before he can register the pain.
She stands in front of Nazir, not sparing him a glance as she gives the agents a last grin.
They charged. She met their swords easily deflecting their blows and slicing at arteries in the reach of her blade. She would've made them suffer, if not for the rattling of the Sanctuary and the harsh coughing of Nazir behind her. Parrying both of the agents' swords in unison, Diamond rams her blade through their stomachs, twisting the blades and feeling righteous joy at the sound of sloshing flesh. She pants through her bare teeth as she yanks the blades out of his overseer's stomach. The men gurgle blood, clutching at their guts. She merely smiles down at the agents as she stabs the swords into their face. Their blood sprays Diamond's legs.
"So you are alive. I was starting to wonder –" Nazir goes silent, not even daring to cough. Even with his tan skin, and the smoke hazing their vision, Diamond can see his hue go pale.
Diamond knows it isn't the weapons in her hands or the blood on her body that made him stupid with panic, but rather her eyes – eyes that told him he, and the Brotherhood have been tricked these past few years, that cutting her hair and disrespecting her hadn't been enough, that she has been baiting them into forgetting that a deadly assassin is in their midst.
She doesn't say anything as her nostrils flare and she takes up one guard's warhammer, leaving the bloodied swords impaled in their heads.
"So, it seems someone has set us up." Nazir coughs. "Everything was a trap."
Diamond just stares at him, trying to let his existence calm her down, but that monster inside of her still howls for blood.
"And just so you know, I didn't think it was you who set us up." Diamond huffs through grit teeth. "But you saving my sorry ass just now sort of erased any doubts. So, thanks."
The Sanctuary rumbles and the roar of the flames grows louder.
"We need to get out of here." Diamond says, her voice filled with deadly calm.
"You've got that right. I'm sorry, but most of the others are dead." Nazir coughs.
"Go."
Nazir turns and runs through the doorway and Diamond follows as he turns and heads for another room. Everything is unrecognizable with the flames devouring everything they can.
A couple more figures emerge from the smoke and Diamond surges upwards, hacking and swinging. Two more agents go down.
"Listener!"
Diamond clutches her head and screams. She releases one hand from her warhammer to clutch her head as she hears the Night Mother's voice. Diamond hisses, baring her teeth as tears swell in her eyes.
"I am your only salvation!"
Nazir. She thinks she says his name, but he's already head taking on another Oculatus agent. Diamond tries to pursue forward, but the Sanctuary vibrate again, taking her to her knee. Rocks fall from above, creating a small dividing line between her and Nazir.
"There's got to be another way out of here!"
"Come. Embrace me."
Diamond's feet sprint in an unknown but familiar direction. The path she takes is clear of fire and she hurdles through the door to the worship chamber, and finds the Night Mother's coffin, open and unburned, not even the slightest bit of the coffin is touched by the flames.
She's just pushed off her toes and into the Night Mother's embrace when the giant shards of glass and dirt explode with enough force to drive her into the corpses chest. The coffin doors close behind her.
Diamond can feel the entire compound rattle and the coffin is shaking like she's on the inside of a walnut someone is shaking. The impact of the hard-packed earth knocks the wind out of nearly her. Diamond feels for the Night Mother's shoulder a second explosion splits the grass skin and sends several tons of debris crashing and avalanching down the forward side of the hill. The ground still shakes form the explosions. Diamond buries her head into the corpses warm chest as the sound of shattering bits of matter rain down around them; burying members and agents alike. An acrid smoke fills the air, burning Diamond's throat as she tries to regain his breathing.
After about a minute, the ground stops vibrating, and she suddenly feels a warm hand caress her head, petting her hair. "Sleep." The Mother whispers.
An overwhelming sense of calm overtakes Diamond, and she briefly pictures Libby before she closes her eyes and rests her head against the warm chest.
When she slowly, but finally swims back towards her consciousness, she can hear a familiar voice. "Hurry Nazir, I'm telling you she's in there!"
Babette?
She still alive? Of course, because she is immortal. Vampire can't be killed unless it's with a wooden stake. The sound of her voice should've calmed Diamond, or even send her reeling with joy, but it doesn't.
Then she hears him. "I'm going . . . as fast . . . as I can, you stupid she-devil!" His voice is closer, and the sound of him grunting is accompanied by tumbling rocks.
It's pointless, Diamond thinks. Let me die. Let me follow the others.
Most likely she's buried six feet underground, and by the time they get to her, she have run out of air. At last she hopes.
"I don't see you . . ." Another groan of a boulder being pushed. ". . . helping . . ."
"I'm no exactly built for manual labor." Babette defends, almost giving Diamond a smile. "Now come on, you've almost got it."
Nazir sighs and grunts once more and this time, the groan comes from the coffin. Diamond can feel it vibrating around her, rattling the inside of her skull. "One more . . . pull . . .!"
There's a deep thud that shudders the coffin, small wisps of dirt falling through the crevices and landing in Diamond's hair. She can smell that her ends had been incinerated while in the fire, and the blood has dried on her, leaving the sharp tang of cooper in her mouth.
"There." Nazir breathes with relief.
"Can you get it open?" Babette begs.
"I think so. Just hold on a moment."
There's a small poke in the back of Diamond's spine and she can picture Nazir wedging his sword or dagger in between the crevice of the coffin doors. Diamond doesn't stir.
Then the voice startles her enough to cause her to lift her head. "You must speak with Astrid. Here, in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary." She coos. Diamond is baffled at the sound of the Mother's voice. Normally it comes across as a hiss of hatred. Yet here, it's soft and urgent.
Then the doors to the coffin clatter and the warmth of the mother immediately evaporates, as if instantly sucked away, leaving her cold and shivering.
The doors open and Diamond falls back without as much as gasp, and she lands in Nazir's strong arms. The light of the surface makes her blink, but she is ready. Immediately Diamond starts to flail her arms, and she's about to scream when Nazir's voice pierces through her panic and confusion.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. It's all right."
She looks up to him and reaches her hands out to touch his dark toned face. His skin is oddly warm against her freezing, distant fingers. Her nails are dirty, bloody, cracked – so gruesome against the smooth auburn cheek of the Redguard. His clothes smell singed and sweaty.
"You've been through a lot. Maybe you should just sit down for a bit . . ."
Diamond looks all around, silent as she takes in her surroundings. She robotically walks past him, her gait wooden like a puppet. Babette stands off to the side with a smile on her face and her black inkwells of eyes stare at Diamond. As Diamond walks past her, she runs her hand along the young vampire's head, feeling her hair between her fingers.
She can hear Nazir behind her. "I don't know Babette, I think she might've hit her head. We shouldn't let her out of our sight."
"She looks awful, yet strangely beautiful at the same time covered in that blood."
"It wasn't so beautiful when I saw her. Gods above . . ." Nazir breathes.
They've taken her out of the worship chamber and into the main area of the Sanctuary, where the fires are now gone, and the only sound is of the water running into the oasis. Everything seems dark and Diamond's clothes are soaked with the blood of the Oculatus agents.
Find Astrid.
Find her. Astrid! That means she must be alive! Or at least clinging to whatever life she has left. If Diamond can find her, maybe she can save her. Maybe –
Diamond's feet instantly burst into a sprint despite the sudden ache in her joints. She passes by both individual and grouped corpses. Behind her she can hear Nazir calling to her, but she doesn't stop. She bounds up the steps and sharply turns right into Astrid's room. She skids to a stop, the ashes clouding up beneath her feet. On her right, a secret door has been opened, a bookshelf shoved aside as if it was from a moment of desperation of seeking safety.
Inside is a small room. Diamond's eyes instantly find the light of candles placed in a circle. Her heart throws back against her ribs as she steps forward. The light is bright enough to illuminate . . .
Illuminate . . .
Each step brings her closer to the body on the floor. She doesn't know where to look first.
At the fingers that go the wrong way, at the burns and careful, deep slices in her flesh, at the face, the face Diamond still knows, even when so many things have been done to destroy it beyond recognition. The world sways beneath Diamond's feet, but she keeps upright as she finishes the walk to the floor and looks down at the naked, mutilated body. So artfully cut up that the floor is black with blood.
And though the face is in ruins, it betrays none of the pain she must have felt, none of the despair.
This is some dream, or she has gone to the Abyss after all, because she couldn't exist in the world where this had been done to her, where Diamond had stayed huddled in a coffin while she suffered all night, while the fires ate away at her flesh, while they burned out her eyes and –
Something coughs, and Diamond turns her head towards the charred corpse. "Alive . . ." it croaks. "You're alive . . ."
Astrid.
"Thanks Sithis . . ." she coughs again.
Diamond vomits on the floor.
Footsteps, then Nazir and Babette are behind her. Wiping her mouth and spitting out the dribble of saliva, Diamond swallows and takes a deep, shaking breath approaching the corpse once more.
"Astrid . . ." Diamond whimpers.
"Shhh . . ." she says with her blackened lips. "Please. There is much . . . I have to say. And . . . not much time . . ." She coughs again, and Diamond fears that with each cough she is losing another chance to speak.
There's a pain in Diamond's knees as she collapses next to the body. Nightshade flowers are sprinkled around the candles.
"I'm sorry. So very sorry." She starts. "The Penitus Oculatus . . . Maro . . . he said that by giving you to them, he would leave the Dark Brotherhood alone. Forever."
That ancient, ageless drum – her heartbeat – pulses through her ears, drowning out any sound.
"By Sithis, I was such a fool." Astrid whimpers. Diamond watches as thin tears escape from Astrid's roasted eyes, and streaming down her cheek, causing her skin to sizzle. "All of this . . . it's all my fault. You are the best of us and I nearly killed you . . . as I've killed everyone else."
Diamond remains silent as she reaches out a shaking hand and tentatively places it on Astrid's crusty feeling hand. Diamond doesn't dare grip it in fear that she might crush Astrid's delicate hand and thereby shattering her into ashes.
"It's the Faceless." Diamond mumbles, her voice sounding so distant she barely recognizes it herself. "He is working with the Faceless.
Astrid' fingers twitch, and Diamond can feel the brush of a burnt finger touch the back of her hand. "I was told, that you had chosen to go with them. And that's why I made the deal. Because I thought you had betrayed us."
"No!" Diamond screams, tears running down her cheeks and her body shaking as if she's been caught in a snowstorm with nothing on but her undertunic. "Astrid I would never . . ." Diamond hiccups as she curls into herself, curling into a ball and ready to scream in a wallow of pain.
"I have betrayed you, and now Maro has betrayed me." she coldly laughs. At least it sounds like a laugh, hidden within her next cough. "Fitting." She takes a deep, shaking inhale. "I just wanted things to stay the way they were. Before Cicero, before the Night Mother. Before you."
A sob hitches in Diamond's throat.
"I thought I could save us. But I was wrong."
Astrid's hand grips Diamond, and she fights the urge to vomit again as she watches pieces of Astrid's charred skin crackle and land on her knuckles. "But you're alive! So there's still a chance. A chance to start over, rebuild. That's why I did . . . this."
Diamond sniffles, wiping her nose sloppily with her bloodied sleeve. The body still smells faintly like Astrid. And the cheap soap she'd always used, because she didn't like the smell of lavender soap.
"Don't you see, I prayed to the Night Mother. I am the Black Sacrament." Her voice sounds just as burned as her body. It used to always sound so smooth and calm. In control. Now, now it scrapes against Diamond's own throat, and each word Astrid speaks, she can feel them sharing the pain of having to use her vocal chords.
"What are you saying?" Diamond whimpers.
"The old ways . . . they guided the Dark Brotherhood for centuries. I was a fool to oppose them. The Night Mother was right." Astrid's chest sinks as if she's ready to say her final words. "And to prove my . . . sincerity," Astrid hitches a breath. "I prayed for a contract. You lead this family now.
"No, Astrid." Diamond sobs. "Please, don't do this."
The corpse smiles at her. "I give you the Blade of Woe, so that you can see it through."
A strange whine, like one of an injured animal, escapes Diamond's lips.
"You must kill . . . me."
"No!" Diamond screams. "You can't! Astrid, I don't know what to do! I can't do this without you."
"You must, for the Mother demands it." Astrid croaks, her voice sounding like gravel. "Listen to her, obey her. Now do it, Listener. Kill me."
A long, agonizing moan escapes Diamond, but she still reaches her empty, shaking hand towards the Blade of Woe. As her hand nears it, the enchanted blade glows brighter than it did. She grasps the hilt and feels it morph to fit her hand.
She shifts to one knee and holds the dagger in her hands. Her left hand overlapping her right, and the blade pulsates. Diamond spins the blade out and raises it above her head. She averts her eyes from the body as she slides the dagger home, jamming it down into Astrid's heart.
Astrid sags, but her lips say her final words as blood bubbles out of her lips. "Thank you . . ."
Her body goes still.
Diamond watches the blood as she lets Astrid slump to the stone floor.
Diamond stares down at the body, Astrid's final words hovering in the air, running claws over Diamond's already chilled skin. She closes her eyes, tilting her head back as she takes a long breath – as if she is embracing the death before her, and the stain it leaves as payment for her vengeance.
She yanks the dagger out. The remnants of Astrid's blood spread across the dark stones, and Diamond opens her eyes as she slowly turns to Nazir. The blood soaks the ends of her hair, turning that pink a brilliant red. And her eyes . . . there is nothing there, as though she's been hollowed out. For a heartbeat, he wonders if she will kill him, too – just for being there, for seeing the dark truth of her.
Wordlessly, Diamond unfastens her cloak and spreads it over Astrid, covering the damage that has been so carefully inflicted.
She blinks and the deadly calm in her eyes vanishes, replaced only by bone-deep weariness and sorrow. An invisible burden that no one can begin to imagine makes her shoulders slump.
Diamond slides the Blade of Woe onto her belt and pushes to her feet.
When she turns to exit, Nazir and Babette step out of her way. She exits the room and turns left heading back into the main chamber with wooden steps. She keeps her eyes on the dirt and her feet until she looks up and finds the Night Mother's coffin.
She snarls again and grabs her warhammer, wedging the bladed end up under the bottom of the coffin, ready to tip it into the oasis and hope the dead body disperses into little tiny bits.
Then the Night Mother speaks, "Astrid is dead. It is as it should be. May she find redemption in the Void."
Diamond immediately abandons her objective to clasp her hands over her ears, even though it's useless. She quickly tries to regain grip on her warhammer to tip the coffin.
"But while you live, the Dark Brotherhood lives. We must fulfill out contract. Emperor Titus Mede II must be eliminated."
Diamond pauses and looks to the Mother. Her body pulsates a soft light and it takes a moment for the words to sink in. The contact is still on.
What's the point? Everyone else is dead. What will she gain? There's Nazir and Babette, but they hold so little of what she remembers as the Brotherhood.
They can recruit. Reuild. The Dawnstar – she'll worry about that later.
And Libby –
Yes! She still has Libby, she hasn't lost everything.
Closing her eyes, Diamond pictures what words would be exchanged if Libby was here to witness all of this. If Libby were here, she would encourage Diamond to go on, no matter how great the loss. Diamond would argue how she has nothing. But Libby would counter that she still has members, and she can rebuild.
"You can do it, because you are strong." She can hear Libby say.
Pulling her hammer free, Diamond refastens it to her back as the Night Mother continues. "Speak with Amaund Motierre at the Bannered Mare in Whiterun. He will know the true Emperor's location."
Diamond silently nods. Submissive, obeying.
"But first, inform Nazir of your plans. For you are the Listener, and must bind this family together."
Once she watches the light inside the Mother slowly dim, Diamond takes a deep breath and carefully closes the doors to the coffin.
She makes her way up the steps once more and finds Babette standing outside of Astrid's room. She lifts her head to Diamond and pouts. "I'll admit, I'm having trouble coming to terms with all of this. I'll just follow your lead."
Diamond doesn't say anything until Nazi rappers in the doorway, rubbing his head and pinching the bridge between his eyes. "By Sithis," he sighs. "what a mess. I guess this is the end."
"No. Not exactly." Diamond says. Her voice still sounds distant and alien to her, but she keeps speaking despite the pressure on her chest. "The Night Mother has spoken to me again.
"What? Well – what did she say?"
"I must speak with Amaund Motierre once more." She sighs.
"Amaund Motierre? But that would mean . . ."
"The contract is still on." Diamond finishes. "And the true Emperor must be assassinated."
"You mean . . . there's still a chance? But how? Out plan has gone to ruin, everyone is dead, the Family . . ."
Diamond cringes but forces herself to breathe and straighten her spine. "Our Family lives on, Nazir. You have to trust me."
Nair grunts as he places on hand on his hip, the other rubbing his chin. "All right, then. Go. Go, my Listener. Find out what that slimy bastard Motierre has to say, then send the Emperor to Sithis."
Diamond can only sighs through her nose and give a small nod of her head.
"But when you're done, there's no use returning here, is there? I was thinking –"
"The Dawnstar Sanctuary. We can make a proper home there."
Nazir nods in contempt. "I'll find a way to move the Night Mother. Don't worry. Now go!" he urges. "And come back with a barrel full of gold, hm?"
Forcing her best smile as she can, Diamond leads them out of the room and starts to rummage through Astrid's old dresser for extra clothes. Outside the room, he can hear Nazir, "Babette, my girl – pack your things. We're moving!" he claps.
"I was hoping you'd say that."
Yes, they can rebuild.
And the Faceless. Maro had said that they would be fighting alongside the Penitus Oculatus agents while at the Sanctuary, but none were even on sight.
The Faceless.
They had tricked Astrid. Tricked the Commander. And now it would seem that they're the only assassination faction in Skyrim.
But not for long. Diamond is the Listener. She is the Dark Brotherhood's lead assassin.
And when she finds them, Divines help them when she arrived.