Smoke burned her eyes and choked at lungs, sparks bounced off her skin with a painful nip and debris crumbled under the flames narrowly missing her. Sera was exhausted as she wandered through the ruins of her childhood home, not even sure what or whom she was searching for. She had fended off two of the reptilian creatures and helped the guards battle off the two legged creatures with sharp teeth and large, pointed ears as she journeyed through the city, the soldiers had called the beasts Daedra but Sera was unsure of the word.
Through the haze of smoke she spied the small group of guards led by Savilan and she gave chase. It was madness, she was not here for bitter memories, if anything she should be avoiding them lest someone notice her for who she really was, but she could not help it. Had that been Thomas? It was possible, too much of a coincidence and besides the river's current had been strong enough to drown a grown man never mind a young boy. Sera hurried on, determined to know.
They battled their way to the castle gates where Sera lost sight of them as three reptilian Daedra attacked her together. She screamed as they dragged her down with their beaked mouths and started slamming their fan shaped heads against her torso. She fought back with her remaining dagger, slashing and stabbing back with a snarl, successfully stabbing one in its open mouth and up into the roof of its mouth. It jerked back with a shriek of pain, spitting out a purple blood as it did, whilst the others kept up their violent attack.
She was aided by a guard and a terrified looking mage and together they fended back the Daedra and defeated them. By then the smoke had gotten thicker and Savilan and his party were lost to her view. She turned about in confusion, uncertain about where to go, to the castle? She was curious and yet terrified of going there, what if her grandfather was there, what if he needed help? The snarl of a Daedra prompted her to start running once more, dodging and zigzagging to avoid ruins, flames and further attacks. Seeing a small pack of the long tailed and big eared beasts prompted her to attempt to find shelter and she pushed open the heavy wooden door to a reasonably stable looking stone building. She was sweating and panting as she forced the door closed behind her with a grunt and pulled down the wooden bar in a feeble attempt to ensure security.
"Who are you?"
She turned at the sharp voice and barely managed to swallow down her gasp. Berich Inian, ten years older but still recognisable, stood before her with a glower. She was thankful for her hood, fresh cuts and bruises and the black marks of smoke and dust on her face as he narrowed his eyes in suspicion, hopefully her familiarity was faint at best. "There are monsters out there!" she shrieked with wide eyes of alarm. "It's terrible, the city is burning! We'll die!"
"Calm down," he said gruffly though his eyes widened too. "It's safe in here, we won't die."
"Oh we will," she choked out as she faked a whimper.
"No, look I'm a guard and there are plenty of us still fighting," he attempted to reassure her as he took a step towards her.
She loathed herself as he came closer, it was too easy and she wanted to drop the facade but she had come here for a reason, a sick, dark reason but a reason nonetheless. What if she did just leave now? Maybe Berich would die anyway, it was a battlefield out there after all but what if Lucien or one of his agents was watching? Would they really be out there with the Daedra and fire? She thought grimly that even if he wasn't out there right now somehow he would learn the truth.
"You look...familiar," Berich said as he paused with a look of suspicion.
She let out a feigned whimper. "Oh please, I'm so scared, it's horrible out there, horrible!" She forced herself to tremble, to distract him from his suspicions. 'I should have never come here!' she thought in a fury at herself. 'If I don't kill Berich Roland and the others are dead, if I'm recognised I'm dead, I wonder what Lucien would think if he knew that I was a survivor of his Brotherhood? But if I hadn't come here...was that Thomas? It couldn't be, he drowned, no one could survive that river's current!'
She whimpered again prompting Berich to reach out a hand and grip her shoulder consolingly. He was close enough now, Lucien had suggested poison but Lucien couldn't have everything he wanted, if it was the only way she could annoy the assassin it was still something. She whipped out her stained dagger and slashed hard and fast, it was cowardly and unworthy for Berich but it was quick, relatively painless and unexpected. His throat bloomed blood immediately as his eyes went wide and he fell awkwardly to his knees with a surprised groan. Sera watched with a guilty expression as the life faded from his eyes swiftly as he tried to lift his hands to the wound and failed. He was the first victim whose evil deeds she had not learned, could he even have any? She recalled him as a good and loyal soldier and he had remained here in Kvatch during the chaos when others had undoubtedly deserted, that had to count for something.
She shook once more but this time it wasn't faked, there was no justice in this, no explaining it away, she had killed a probably innocent man in cold blood and why? Out of fear? To protect her love ones? Would they understand this, agree with it, or appreciate what she had done? She did not think so.
"Why did I do this?" she queried quietly.
"Because it is in your nature."
She clutched her head with both hands at the voice and shook it angrily. "It's not!" she snapped back.
"Yes it is child, you gave yourself to the Brotherhood and made a pact with Sithis and thus made it your nature to kill in his name."
"Leave me alone!" she snarled before dropping her hands and turning to the door. This was ludicrous; it was time to leave before someone found her with the body. She hastened back out to smoke and fire and wondered what she should do. Leave Kvatch was the sensible option but the thought of abandoning her former home without knowing the fate of her grandfather or the truth about Thomas was too much and so she turned in the direction of the count's castle.
From the shadows a pale and nervous Mathieu watched the woman burst from the doors, a vision of wild blonde hair and passionate emerald eyes framed by the amber sparks that danced about her. He was stunned at the sight, she looked scared, horrified even, it was not the expression most assassins left their prey with. He frowned and wondered if she had made the kill, surely she knew she was being watched. He waited until she was out of sight and then he dropped his guise briefly and crept towards the building. He pushed open the door and glanced within to the wide eyed, bloody corpse of a soldier, there was nothing subtle about it. Just one wound though and the fleeing blonde had appeared uninjured so Mathieu did not think anything had gone wrong. He gave a thin smile, Lucien had mentioned to expect the corpse slain discreetly so no one would suspect murder, either Sera had been banking on the chaos of Kvatch to hide the kill or she simply had not cared for details.
The pale faced Breton hastened back out, Lucien had ordered him to this lowly task of spying but it was not to demean the Breton, it was purely because he was available and in line for a promotion, Lucien was keeping quiet about it but Mathieu knew that the Speaker Alval Uvani was in need of a new Silencer. It was almost over, so much to do and yet he was so much closer than he had been in years, with the new position of Silencer he would have the power to do what he needed. It was why he had agreed to come to Kvatch even though it was a modest duty and he had little desire to spy on Sera. Had he known the city would be in turmoil he might have thought twice about it. First there was new of the emperor being assassinated, now this, the world was coming down around them and Mathieu feared it would happen before he could exact his revenge.
Well the deed had been done, he could abandon the fallen city now and scurry back to him, he loathed the idea of running like a dog to a faithful master, and it made him delay. Where else though? Back to Anvil, he glanced down at his palms and felt dizzy for a moment, back to her, why couldn't she handle the truth? Why couldn't she realize her "family" didn't really love her? 'Marie,' he thought numbly, 'why did you have to say those things about mother? We could have been a family.' He shuddered, feeling sick at the thought of Marie and banished the thought from his head, she had been his last hope, no a distraction, that was it, she was a temptation, she had to go! She had tried to derail him from his revenge, he had considered abandoning it all for her and starting anew, how foolish, how unfair to mother! Well that was done and out of the way, focus, get back, get the promotion and start tearing about the Brotherhood and make sure that Lucien Lachance was the one to pay for it all.
The courtyard was open and clear when Sera reached it, there were a few dying flames, the scorched corpses of servants and the freshly slain bodies of Daedra. She stiffened at the sight of mutilated and burned servants before hastening on, deliberately not looking at the faces in case any were familiar. She entered the castle through the ajar doors with a grim expression, tensing anew when several soldiers turned their wary gazes upon her.
The main hall had been liberated, it too was sullied with the bodies of servants, guards and Daedra, and turned to blackened furniture and rubble, it was a nightmarish version of what she remembered. Savlian raised a dark eyebrow as he glanced her way before waving a hand to his men, prompting them to lower their weapons. "Well you must be the more than meets the eye to brave the madness to come here," he addressed her.
Sera tugged her hood closer about her face before glancing about the hall for the man she was certain was Thomas but he was nowhere to be seen. "Where is the count?" she queried worriedly.
"We don't know," Savlian confessed, "our friend from earlier who closed the gate is searching for him while we secure the rest of the palace."
'Thomas!' Sera thought with a spark of alarm.
The captain frowned at her as he tried to take her in her features, the resemblance was uncanny. "Why do you care for the count?" he pried.
"I am concerned for all members of the city," she answered calmly, "Kvatch was home to my grandparents and uncles and they told many grand stories of it, to find it this way... Well I must help how I can; surely you would not turn away an extra pair of eyes?"
Savlian's frown deepened as he questioned her words. 'She's lying,' he thought to himself, 'and yet there is some sincerity to her, but why? What is she really after?' He let out a heavy sigh before nodding. "Go and look then if you want to take the risk but beware, Daedra still roam the palace and the building is unstable now. No one will be able to come searching for you if you get in trouble."
"I know," she retorted softy.
"Well take the door to the east then," he suggested with a gesture to one of the few stable looking doors, "that's the way our hero went."
Sera gave a nod of gratitude before hurrying off. She entered a corridor lit by patches of fire created by fallen candles, and hastened through it, already portraits, tapestries and tables were beginning to catch aflame, soon the corridor would be impossible to travel through. She entered a room full of smoke and immediately her eyes burned and she began to cough, bloodstains and corpses foretold of an earlier struggle between outnumbered servants and Daedra. The blonde moved quickly, following a path she knew well from her youth. She tensed as she recalled fleeing in her mother's clutches down a stone hall not far from this one, there had been a fire that night too. She froze up as the memory overwhelmed her and images of her brother wailing as the river carried him off filled her mind, for months after she had suffered screaming nightmares about it all, soothed back to sleep by a mysterious thief she hardly knew. Was it possible that against all the odds Thomas too had survived, or was it just wishful thinking?
She forced herself to keep moving, determined to learn the truth. It took twenty precious minutes before she found herself outside the door to the count's chambers and involved several detours thanks to rubble and debris and a couple of battles with the pointed eared Daedra who threw fireballs. Burned, tired and sore, she looked at the open doorway with a vain hope; he couldn't still be here, could he? Her grandfather had never been a coward; if the city was under attack he would have seized a sword and rushed to defend it. Yet, he had not been outside that she had seen and the guards seemed to think he was still in the castle.
The young blonde hastened into the room, raising her arm to muffle her coughs and block some of the smoke from her lungs. The room was askew, a chest of drawers was on fire, a table and chair were broken in a corner, a mirror was shattered on the floor and worst of all, the stone tiles were drenched in telltale spatters of blood. Sera looked ahead quickly, stiffening at the sight of a man kneeling over another. She let out a gasp of horror when she realised that the other was lying soaked in their own blood.
The man immediately stood and turned her way, blue eyes hostile and two swords ready in hand. "Who are you?" he queried warily.
Sera stared back at him in shock, he was almost the double of Sam, younger and better looking mind, but the likeness was unmistakable. "Tt...Thomas?" she croaked.
He frowned at her with a look that suggested he thought her mad. "My name is Fenrick, Fenrick Burd. Now who are you and what are you doing here?"
Sera was about to blurt out an answer but then she froze, there was a hooded man in the corner! She blinked and the man vanished from sight, replaced by flames flickering high against the wall. 'What if they're here, watching?' she wondered worriedly. 'They don't know I survived or Lucien would've killed me rather than inducted me, I can't give away Thomas. Is it why he's lying to me? Should I tell him my real name? Will he drop the guise then? Does he really not know me?'
She pulled down her hood and in a brave move tugged free her hair letting the blonde curls spill about her shoulders. Fenrick just looked perplexed as he stared back at her, no hint of recognition in his icy blue eyes. "I...I came to help," she said lamely, "I have..." She paused again and her gaze fell upon the corpse, it was facing upwards and though it had been ten years she knew the face well. 'Grandfather,' she thought with a pang as she took in his open, horror filled eyes and his ripped throat and bloody chest, he had not died well. 'Oh gods you died without ever knowing that I lived...I'm so sorry grandfather.'
"I had relatives here," Sera corrected herself coolly.
Fenrick followed her gaze to the count and then looked back to her curiously. "Did you know him?" he questioned.
Sera looked at him hopefully, wondering if he was trying to guess at the truth about her. "Did you?" she questioned softly.
Fenrick shook his head. "No," he answered bluntly, no hint of a lie in his voice. "Count Goldwine," he murmured, "it's a pity."
Sera nodded as she felt tears burn at her eyes. "Yes..."
The fire crackled loudly in the corner and there was a loud snap as the chest of drawers gave way to it. "We need to go," Fenrick said sternly, "before this whole place goes up in smoke. Come on, you can tell me your name later." He urged her to the door and she went, pausing briefly to rebind her hair and throw her hood back up. Together they moved swiftly back to the main hall where Captain Matius waited anxiously.
"Well?" the captain snapped as the pair arrived, their cheeks black with smoke and ash.
Fenrick shook his head apologetically. "I'm very sorry," he said sincerely, "the count is dead."
Savilan's face tightened in grief. "We... we were too late?" he queried quietly in disbelief before his eyes filled with anger. "If only we'd gotten here sooner! This is indeed a dark day for all of us left. But I thank you for risking your own life to help us. Did you find the Count's ring, by any chance?"
Fenrick nodded and produced a large, gold ring with a prominent diamond on it from his pocket, the wolf of Kvatch engraved on the band. Sera recognised it instantly as the Colovian Signet Ring, her grandfather had never taken it off all the years she had known him; it was the symbol of the ruler of the city. She looked to Fenrick with mild disgust, how could he have just taken it off his finger? 'Our own grandfather,' she thought with fresh grief. 'Did he just pluck it off without a care? And the way he hurried us from the room, we just abandoned his body...' She suppressed a shudder. 'It's not right.'
Savilan accepted the ring eagerly and gave Fenrick a sad smile. "At least this is safe. Thank you; I shall make sure it is protected, for the time when a new Count is crowned." He turned his stare upon Sera, curious once more. "Thank you as well...Seraphina, wasn't it?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"Well, you're both best getting out of the city," the captain suggested, "our supplies are low and our numbers are down, it will take us a long time to rebuild but thanks to you," he turned a grateful stare upon Fenrick, "we can rebuild."
Fenrick looked a little embarrassed as he nodded. "I just did what anyone should have," he retorted humbly. "Anyway, I need to go."
"Yes, the priest, he should be in the chapel," Savilan waved him off.
Without hesitation or a backward glance at Sera the dark haired man hurried off out the man doors. She raised a hand slightly as if in protest before dropping it just as quickly. So he did recognise her then and priest, he was here for a priest? Not for his family? 'Is he Thomas?' she wondered doubtfully. 'How cruel if he's not, but how can I know? If I chase after him it will only arouse suspicion, especially here, and endanger us both. Yet to just go, I might never find him again.'
She turned to Savilan and queried, "what priest?"
"Brother Martin," Savilan admitted, "it's why he came here, to find Brother Martin."
Sera nodded in gratitude even as she filled with fresh sorrow. 'Is it a ruse? No, it can't be, he darted off so quickly there, no look to me, no hesitation for grandfather.' She felt herself starting to shake and tried to quell it as Savilan's suspicious stare was back upon her. There were hooded men standing up ahead, one with a blood stained scythe and one armed with a bow and an arrow shining with red at its tip. "Not again," she muttered fearfully as she took a step back.
"Are you alright?" Savilan asked as he followed her stare but saw only the main doors.
The blonde looked at him sharply and he glimpsed the horror in her emerald eyes before she hid it. She turned back to the doors and the shadows were gone. This place just held nightmares and bad memories for her now, her grandfather had gone to join her mother, her home was in ruination and trying to claim back anything would surely only make the shadowy figures of her past real again. "I'm fine," she muttered, "I have to go." With those words she hastened to the door, escaping out to a late afternoon, the sun hidden by clouds of black smoke. She needed air, she needed away from all this fire and death, her chest was burning, her lungs were suffocating and her eyes were stinging. If she just got away she could clear her thoughts.
'I killed Berich so quickly,' she thought in horror, 'it was too easy, too effortless, I should have waited! I should have asked him, tried to find out what he had done was so terrible! No, I shouldn't have done it at all damnit! Why am I only thinking about it now? Does his life matter so little to me? Gods, I'm starting to become like them!'
She shuddered once more as a mocking woman's laugh filled her head. "So the web keeps spinning, another death, another string. It's getting easier now and the trap is getting bigger."
"It's not easier!" Sera protested aloud as she shook her head.
"You did not hesitate with the guard and you barely thought on it after," the voice mocked her. "You can pretend it was fear of consequence but you know part of you enjoyed it and better still, so much of you simply did not care. Apathy, it is an assassin's greatest asset but also their worst enemy, beware young killer, not caring can get you in trouble. Your dear mentor may learn that soon!" The laughter repeated itself in her head until she clutched her skull tightly with both hands and screamed.
Her screams were lost to the roar of the fire and the wails of the townsfolk grieving outside, no one heard her and no one was bothered by her sudden mad moment of grief. The tears were streaming down her stained cheeks now and she could feel a sob in her chest. She moved to the collapsed wall of a building and let her cries out there, unaware of the nervous Matthieu Bellamont who watched in her secret from the shadows of a broken tower.
The pale faced assassin was as troubled by the blonde's sudden outburst as he was made curious about it. 'Why is she so upset? Such beautiful, black tears, does she cry for the guard? Can she truly feel the guilt that I do?' He watched on in wonderment, silent and fascinated as Sera cried for her grandfather and her own guilt. 'Maybe I have mistaken her, maybe she won't be like the others. Oh mother help me, I can't do this again, no, Maria...beloved Maria was supposed to be like me, she was meant to be our family...No, not again, can't trust anyone except you mother.'
Spent from tears, Sera rubbed her face dry with her right arm until it was reddened with the effort and then she finally departed from the fallen Kvatch. She moved in a daze, unsure where to go or what to do now. It was in her state of weary apathy that Matthieu finally abandoned her to slink back to Cheydinhal to report. Sera thought of returning to the Imperial City but she feared a run in with the Gray Fox and knew she would not be able to contain her guilt from her. 'He'll turn from me,' she thought sorrowfully, 'and cast me from the thieves. My hands are so bloody now and Berich may not even have had any guilt, no man is perfect mind but he couldn't have been like Rufio and Dorian, he was a good soldier. Oh what have I done? I killed him without judgement, I just moved so quickly without knowing anything! It's not right, it's not! I'm not a judge or executioner, how could I decide his fate? How could I just end his life like that?'
She walked without taking heed of her surroundings, travelling off the path and heading in a northerly direction. It did not matter, in the Imperial City her friends and family would surely learn of her guilt and her life there would be tainted. She could not hide him from all of them, Methredhel would pick up on her moods, Armand would know something was wrong from the way she had fled him despite promising to stay for the Gray Fox, and the Gray Fox would certainly pry until he got the truth. She did not think any of them would forgive her, how could they when she could not forgive herself? So she moved, one step after the other, uncertain about where she was going or where she should go.