Chapter ten - Murder Witness
Middas, First Seed 22, 4E 0 -Midday
Theranis had stayed at the Merchants Inn in the Market District, over the past couple days, Theranis hard tried blending in and making some friends, talking to people while showing his friendly side.
His stomach started to clench and pain him with the urge to vomit, he had drank water in front of a friend, to disguise himself as human, and also hoping his blood thirst would ease off a little, but received no satisfaction from it.
Theranis met a few people on the streets in the Market District, speaking to them with rumors and other topics, eventually after awhile, he started asking questions of Fathis Ules and where he stay.
Some weren't able to give him any good news, but one did tell him what district they had remembered seeing him in as they passed through; The Elven Gardens District.
Leaving the Market, Theranis walked around and asked more of him. He hadn't been too lucky, though.
Strolling through the streets more, Theranis caught sight of a Dunmer male wearing a black and burgundy outfit entering a house. This immediately caught his eye, and was positively sure that hes found his target.
Theranis knew Fathis Ules had been a fence, but had never fenced with him when Theranis was in the Thieves Guild. The light of day had been bright, and started burning his face as he walked the streets of the Elven Gardens.
Theranis remembered his last dream, the last time he slept, when he woke up screaming from a nightmare of his parents' corpses burning on the wall.
Theranis could stay awake forever if he wanted to, but even sometimes he gets bored laying in bed with nothing but his thoughts to entertain him.
Now that he had known where Fathis stayed, he decided to wait until night to eliminate his target.
Turdas, First Seed 23, 4E 0 - Midnight
Theranis moved swiftly and quick around corners through the district after a city guard had turned away. Standing now at the front door of the home of Fathis Ules, he pulled out a lockpick and began picking.
Before, when Theranis was a low thief recruit in the Guild, he had not the skill to pick even an average lock, but now he had been an expert level lock-picker.
The door had been equipped with with a master lock, and it took more than a few broken picks to open the door, but once Theranis unlocked it, he opened the door slowly and shut it silently after entering.
He scanned around the living room, all had been motionless and still, graveyard silent with dimmed lights.
'Fathis must still be asleep.' He thought.
He moved around the room, moved near the staircase and went up where he found a door. He picklocked it then entered to find Fathis asleep on his bed, Theranis moved closer to the edge of his bed and stared down at him.
"Tonight, you die." He said darkly in a low voice.
Immediately, Fathis woke up and jumped out of bed. He casted some Alteration spell that lit up around his hand and formed into a circular cylinder with his body in the middle, the form of white light shielding him.
Then he conjured a scamp and pulled out a silver dagger, the scamp raced around the double bed, Theranis stood ready and gave a strong punch to the scamp's skull as it flew across the room to the wall.
While distracted, from behind, Fathis had striked with his dagger but in a split seconds time, Theranis caught the blade. Immediately, he released his hands as the silver blade burned his hand with an excruciating pain. Theranis cried out and held his hand as he backed away.
Fathis striked again, but Theranis dodged out of the way. Fathis kept striking, swinging his minor blade left and right, missing as Theranis moved out of the way.
Theranis caught his wrist when he striked again, twisted it and snapped his bone. Fathis cried out in pain and the blade fell out his hand, then Theranis punched him in his gut as Fathis bent over to hold his stomach.
Not a moment after, a flame hit Theranis as he threw his head back and cried out in an agonizing pain, the fire caught on him a little and burnt him, but the fire soon subsided.
He looked back and the scamp was beginning to throw another fireball at him, but jumped out of the way as it hit the wall.
The scamp came running and used it's claws to strike, but before it's attack can hit, Theranis quickly met the scamp's adrenaline with a kick to it's chest as it flew back to the ground.
Fathis had jumped on Theranis from behind and wrapped his arms around his neck, Theranis struggled a little to get him off but threw his weight back at the wall behind then two times then Fathis fell off.
The scamp was beginning to throw another fireball, but had served it's time-limited purpose and retired back to Oblivion.
The dagger that Fathis had dropped remained on the floor, and immediately he tried to grab it before Theranis kicked it away beyond his reach.
Fathis looked up and met the eyes of Theranis, then he straightened his back to the wall as Theranis took steps towards him.
"Now, you die here." Theranis said darkly as Fathis stared up into his eyes with fear.
'By the nine, what do I do, what do I do! Master ordered me to stay hidden, but Fathis, he's gonna die!' Amusei had said in his thoughts as he struggled to make a decision on how to act.
He watched the entire fight in the darkest shadow of the room, hidden and panicking, over his urge to help Fathis. The Gray Fox had warned him if he got involved, he would be dead too.
Amusei couldn't continue watching, after Theranis had kicked the silver dagger away, Fathis tried to give a final fight with hand-to-hand combat as a last resort, that didn't end well for him, especially since his wrist is broken.
Theranis bit him and Fathis had been screaming in pain, Amusei could do nothing but sit there helpless. Amusei ducked his head in his knees and covered his head after he sat on the floor.
He didn't want to see any more, so he shut his eyelids tight. Amusei had to sit and wait for Theranis to leave, and after, he will leave to tell the Gray Fox. There was one thing Amusei did know, Theranis had been a previous Thieves Guild member.
After Theranis bit and fed off of Fathis sucking out his blood till he became cold and dry, Amusei approached the body, tears started running down hard skin, then he ran back to the Guild Hall.
Amusei barged through the Guildmaster's door without knocking.
"Master!" He called out.
A man stood in the room, a stranger to Amusei he had not known, but was wearing the Guild's shrouded amrour.
Amusei stood still and stared at the stranger as he looked back at him, then the stranger turned around, picked something up with both hands from the table, and placed it on his head.
He turned around again, it was the Gray Fox. Amusei didn't think, didn't move, he had just seen who the man under the mask is.
An Imperial man with short black hair, and a face that had served it's years, starting to grow old. He had been before his middle age, but still appeared to be quite young.
"This is why you knock, Amusei." He said, Amusei looked down and felt guilty.
"Forgive me, Master. I won't tell a living soul of what I had just witnessed."
"Good. I trust your word. Now, why did you just barge in? Why aren't you at your station?" He asked, but hadn't connected the dots.
He ordered Amusei not to come back unless he found out who the traitor in the Guild was, and now that he was here, The Gray Fox still hadn't know why.
"Master, Fathis is dead." Amusei said mournfully.
"What! No, this cannot be!" He slammed his hands down on a table and kicked a chair off it's legs to the floor.
"I'm sorry, Master. Fathis had been another important member in the Guild we lost. I really wanted to step in and help, but this vampire, he had such strong strength."
After a moment's time, the Gray Fox had calmed down a bit. "You followed orders, good. Did you see who this traitor is?"
"Yes. He's...well, he's supposed to be dead."
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"Months ago, before my second attempt joining the Thieves Guild, I had been a prisoner in Skingrad for petty thievery on my own. In that dungeon, there were two other inmates in their own cells, a Nord, and a Breton man named Theranis."
'As he explained, this had rang a bell. I had been the one to free Amusei from being killed that day.' The Gray Fox said in his thoughts.
"Theranis had been part of the Thieves Guild before, and he had been arrested for stealing a book he was ordered to retrieve from a wizard in Skingrad. The book was called Lost Histories of Tamriel, he bragged about it in a tavern as he was drinking, and a guard overheard him. In the dungeon, we were being taken from the Pale Lady, who was a vampire used us for advantage and fed off of us. She'd feed on us, then return us weak and frail, by the time she took Theranis a third time, he had not returned. I was next, she came for me, and I was bleeding and put up a struggle. I left blood all over the floor as she dragged me to a room where another cell had been and I was thrown in there. I seen the body of Theranis on the floor, he had bled out, and I was sure he was dead cause he didn't breathe or even move. An hour later, a good friend of mine that served with Thieves Guild came to free me and also came looking for the book. Theranis had told me where it was before he was arrested, so the Pale Lady had been killed when he came to rescue me. That was it, I was sure Theranis had been dead, but he must have been turned into a vampire." Amusei finished.
"This makes perfect sense now, Theranis is killing members in the Thieves Guild because he felt that we betrayed him, abandoned him. He must have found out by the prisoner Nord that someone came for the book, and not him, and also freed you."
"Exactly, Master. One thing still bothers me though..." He said in thought.
"What is it, Amusei?" He wondered for a moment.
"I wonder what happened to that person that freed me. He's freed me more than once from being behind bars. After the Gray Fox, you, had needed him to break into the Imperial Palace and steal that elder scroll, he disappeared. Did he leave the Guild? It's been months since I've seen him."
'Amusei really seemed to have grown a real friendship with him. What he didn't know is that person is me. He can't recognize my face with my cowl off because of it's curse.' The Gray Fox thought.
Corvus Umbranox had revealed his identity to his wife, after 10 years of his face being stripped from recognition. He decided if he should reveal to Amusei who he really is behind the mask.
"Amusei."
He picked his head up from staring at the floor. "Yes, Master?"
After Amusei asked, the Gray Fox removed his gray cowl and set it in the table, and looked into Amusei's eyes.
"That man, who freed you multiple times from prison, who stood beside you and Methredhel as we all raced to steal the diary of Amantius Allectus, is me. The gray cowl of Nocturnal has a curse, to strip the identity from ones face."
Amusei gasped and widen his eyes as he had finally remembered.
"By the nine, how-.. but you were serving the Gray Fox."
"Yes, I was. The last Gray Fox stepped down, gave his leadership title to me. I took it improperly without deciding, and look now, our fences, our Guild, is in danger."
Amusei stepped forward. "Master, you have done so much for all of us. You have made this Guild into what I now consider my home, filled with members I consider family. We owe you so much in return, and we will all take that to our graves to repay it." Amusei said, as he felt the hand of the Gray Fox placed on his shoulder.
"I know, but before that happens, we will need to dispose of this threat, before it gets any worse." He said.
"How will you do that?"
"Did you forget we have friends? I'm gonna send the Dark Brotherhood to Theranis, they will take him out." He promised. Amusei smiled.