Dark Waters

Sigrid

..::~^~::..

“Is she alive?”

“I’m not sure. Why don’t you poke her?”

“I’m not poking her. You poke her, if you think it’s such a good idea.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, that’s why I suggested that you do it.”

“I happen to like having all of my fingers, thank you.”

As I drifted into consciousness, I could tell the two voices were Babette and Nevarin. If I had been in the state of mind that I had been in before sleep, I would have put them both well under, but now that I was rested, I could feel my accomplishment from yesterday, and relish in it. My eyes fluttered open, and I could see two heads hovered over me. I should have been startled, but I didn’t scare easily.

“Do you mind?” I said, and they both smiled.

“She is alive!” Babette mused.

“Yes, Babette, I’m not dead like you are,” I said, and rolled over, ready to get up.

“You can point out all of the bad things about being a vampire, Siggy, but I love it,” she said, “so I don’t care what you say.” I’d also been kids with Babette, except now, I was well an adult, Babette was still a young child, but far older than any of the Brotherhood members.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t wake up. We need to leave for Helgen, soon,” Nev said, and I waved him off.

“I have a few days of rest,” I reminded him, not ready to start traveling again.

“And you’ve been asleep for a few days,” he told me, and my brow furrowed. Had I heard him right? I believe I did.

“That can’t be possible,” I disagreed, “people don’t just sleep for days.”

“You’re exactly right. We were starting to worry you wouldn’t wake up. But we need to leave soon before we lose track of the Chief,” he urged, and I sighed heavily. Despite my wants, I knew how important the contracts were, and that they needed to get done in a certain amount of time.

“Fine,” I said, “Since you keep on insisting. Just let me eat, first, and we can head to Helgen,” I promised, finally standing up from my cot, and walking down to the dining room. Around the room, I scavenged bread, some fruit, and cooked Sabrecat meat. I ate quickly so we could head out, and Nev left me alone. Going on this contract with Nev was bittersweet. He was a friend from my childhood. We’d known everything about one another, with a no secret policy. But sometimes I felt he wanted something more than friendship. That was something rare in the brotherhood, despite Arnbjorn and Astrid. In the Dark Brotherhood, somebody you care about is just somebody you can lose on a contract gone wrong. I tried not to think about it. I finished my food, and retrieved my bow and dagger, placing them conveniently on my body.

I met up with Nev near the exit, where Astrid stood. She had a worried look on her face, which struck my curiosity. She seemed to notice, so she started explaining to me, “I have a bad feeling. Like something unfortunate will happen,” I didn’t really believe her words. She was sometimes superstitious for reasons that were not there.

“We’ll be back soon, Astrid,” I assured her, “Don’t worry,” there wasn’t any more exchanging of words before Nev and I left, heading to Helgen. Even though we were on our horses, we slowly trotted, enjoying the sun. We didn’t see much of it in the sanctuary.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Nev said, not picking on me for once.

“Well you have all the way to Helgen,” I pointed out, and he laughed, “So, what is it?”

“You never told me about before the Brotherhood,” he said, and I knew exactly where he was going. I never talked much about life before being an assassin. There wasn’t much of a life, to begin with. I shrugged, not sure what to say.

“It’s just not something I’ve wanted to talk about,” I answered, “Not even now,” I made my point clear. He easily picked up on the hint, and dropped the question.

“Okay, something else,” he said, slowly talking. I was becoming anxious, only wanting to shut him out.

“Yes?” I said, not sure if I really wanted to hear what he had to ask.

“I’ve been trying to drop hints, and I’m not sure if either you’re not picking up on them, or you just don’t care,” he said, and I didn’t exactly understand what he was talking about.

“Hints?” I asked, “What hints?”

“That answers my question,” he said, and stopped talking after that. It left me confused and wondering, reminding me why you didn’t attach your heart to people that you know you shouldn’t. The silence didn’t quicken our pace, though. We still trotted along, even with the impulsive change in the weather, where the sun quickly changed to pouring rain, with cracking thunder and lightning. Most horses would go off of their way, but Shadowsmere and Grima – Nev’s horse – kept on.

When the moon was at its highest, we rode into a small town called Riverwood, where we dismounted our horses, and walked into the Sleeping Giant Inn, where we bought a room with two small beds. Nev seemed to have become distant since his last question, and went to sleep immediately. I wasn’t sure if it had been something that I said, or because he was tired. For some reason, I’d really cared why. Not only that, but I wanted to make him feel better, but there wasn’t much that I could do when it was so late, and he was asleep. I decided to think more about it later, because I had to get a good night of sleep in before we headed over to Helgen to kill the Contract – the Bandit Chief and all of his employed bandits. I rolled onto my side in the cot I was in, and closed my eyes, falling asleep myself.

The next morning, Nev’s method of waking me up was by pulling off my covers, and hitting me with them. I awakened quickly, and grabbed the sheets from him, so he’d stop, “What is your problem?” I growled, irritated that he still wouldn’t talk to me.

“I don’t have one,” he mumbled, just leading me to believe that he did in fact have one.

“Nev,” I sighed as he sat down to pull on his boots. He grunted, at least, but didn’t look up at me, “Nev, why are you angry with me?”

“It isn’t obvious?” he said, using his fingers to comb through the blonde hair trailing down his shoulders. He didn’t believe in cutting it. He still didn’t look at me.

“No, not really. That’s why I’m asking you,” I said, and this time he met eyes with me. I’d gotten through a little bit, at least.

“I have feelings for you, Siggy, and either you’re too stupid to see it, or you just refuse to. Either way, I still have to….I still have to find out how I’m going to fight for you,” he said, and I cocked my head.

“Nev, there’s not room for feelings in the Brotherhood. We kill people for a living. If we all get soft, then the Brotherhood will fall apart,” I said, once again, pushing him away. I hated that I did, because every good memory we had together made me smile. This, however, was not a good memory.

“There you go again. Refusing to see it. You can’t keep pretending like you don’t feel the same,” he accused, causing me to laugh lightly.

“There’s no pretending going on, Nevaris,” I said shortly, standing up, “Now we need to leave.” We left the Inn, mounting our horses, and this time really rode to our destination. We didn’t get much debriefing before leaving the sanctuary. All we knew was that he’d be staying at the Steel Hammer, probably drinking heavily. If he was drunk, that’d only make the duty a whole lot easier. If he wasn’t, we’d have our wits about us. On our way into the city, we passed a wagon of prisoners. Why they’d be going to Helgen, I’m not sure. Most prisoners went to Cyrodiil. I didn’t ponder it as Nevaris and I finally came into Helgen, and in an alley behind a row of houses, we got off our horses, which fell back into the shadows.

“To the Steel Hammer?” Nev asked, and I firmly nodded. I followed him, crouching against a building. You couldn’t just walk around in the Dark Brotherhood armor, or people would suspect you. Nobody knew what it looked like, though, chances are if you saw the armor, it was right before you were slaughtered. In the Steel Hammer, the Bandit Chief was sitting at the bar, meaning I couldn’t just walk up to him and slit his throat. We’d have to stalk him, follow him until he was alone, snatch him up, and get as much information out of him as we could. This would be easy if he’d had enough Mead. Then I’d sever his life with my Ebony dagger. Nev and I sat at a concealed table, keeping our eye on the large Nord. We didn’t speak – we were on the job.

“You two want anything?” a wench came over. Neither of us said a word, or looked from the Chief. Our hoods were on, leaving our faces an abyss for any onlookers. She gathered her brains and quickly left our table, hopefully not to return. Not even an hour later, the ground started shaking around me, until I finally noticed the shaking was due to a deafening roar, surrounding the building. My first instinct was to stand, as the Chief did, and keep him as my target. I’d follow him, and get him alone. I’d look into the noise later. He drew two axes, and ran out along with the other Nords – also with battle ready weapons – out of the Steel Hammer. I followed closely behind, and as we ran through the alley, I stalked him, Nev right at my heels. My course was immediately changed when I exited the alley. What I saw was something I only something that was in childhood stories, stuff parents told their children to scare them into doing what they were told.

What was in front of me was a dragon. Oh yes, a large, scaly, black dragon, and it was blowing fire everywhere. Helgen was going up in smokes in a matter of minutes, and it was effecting me heavily.

“Sigrid,” Nev used my shoulders to make me face him, “I need you to get out of here,” he said, “I’ll stay back and fight this thing, but you need to leave, to get back to the Brotherhood. If I’m not back in a matter of days, I’m…” he wasn’t able to finish the sentence.

“No,” I quickly disagreed, “I’ll stay, too. You know how well I am with a bow and arrow,” I pushed, and he shook his head.

“I’m putting my foot down, Siggy. You’re amazingly accurate, I know, but I can’t risk it,” he said, “Just return quickly and safely, and if everything goes well enough, I’ll see you soon,” he said, and I shook my head.

“You don’t have to fight this thing, Nev. We’re assassins, not dragon-slayers,” I said, urgency starting to seep into my voice.

“I do. Siggy,” he said, his voice now filled with sorrow. He pushed me away, and I couldn’t help but look back at him, standing there.

“Nev, I-“ I what? I wasn’t sure what to say, but all I wanted was for him to come with me, for him to be safe. I wasn’t sure he would if he stayed. Suddenly, I knew exactly what I felt, “I love you.” I didn’t know where the words had come from, maybe somewhere deep down. But he’d been right about my feelings, except I wasn’t pretending because I didn’t want anyone to know, I was pretending because I refused to know. He quickly closed the gap between us, and pulled me into a deep kiss. It didn’t last long, though, and he pushed me slightly again.

“You need to get out of here,” he repeated, and I grunted before I finally turned and ran to Helgen’s gates. I would go somewhere in the woods and shoot arrows, if I needed. I could still help, and when it was dead, I could go and find Nev. As I ran out of the gates, a large shadow passed overhead, and I crouched down. Once it was gone, I started running again, until it passed – I crouched. When I found a spot good enough for aiming, I crouched, and started spilling bows towards it. It came back towards me, and I laid on my stomach, blending in with the darker part of the forest. There was a large thump on the ground before me, and I quickly looked, and a headless body was before me.

I quickly covered my mouth when I noticed it was wearing the Dark Brotherhood armor. My eyes blurred as they filled with tears. That monster had gotten Nev. I wouldn’t even have to worry back at the sanctuary – I already knew he was dead, and I hadn’t even gotten the chance to leave the city yet. I’d forgotten completely about the dragon, and I ran back to Riverwood, through the shadows. I went back to the Sleeping Giant Inn, where I sat down on a bench, and cried my eyes out. Hours later, I calmed down, enough to stare at the table in front of me. There wasn’t many people in the Inn, just a pipe player, and a drunk townsmen, passed out on the floor.

“Dear girl, might I ask what’s wrong?” a woman with blonde hair asked, sitting down next to me. She looked concerned, and I knew she’d be more concerned about my mental state once I had told her what had happened at Helgen. I was starting to think whether I should tell her or not.

“You’d never believe me,” I said. Somehow all of toughness, all of the walls I built up, had shattered. I doubted everything, and I feared this woman, most of all.

“Stranger things have happened,” she raised a brow, and it was if she’d already known. I took a chance.

“Dragons,” I said, “There was a dragon, and, and he killed Nevaris,” I said, and she didn’t look the least bit surprised.

“And Nevaris is?” She asked, not asking about the dragon.

“My brother,” I half-lied. Nev was like a brother to me. Or he had been, until recently.

“And the dragon, what did it look like?” she finally asked.

“Black. Scaly. Scary,” I said, looking down at the table. A quick list of all of the things I’ve had to describe; deaths, scenes, contracts, but not dragons, “I would do anything to be able to kill it,” I said. She seemed think for a moment, then she looked up at me.

“Come with me,” she said urgently. I followed her into a room next to the reception counter, and she closed the door, locking it. She walked over to her wardrobe, and opened it. After pushing all of her clothes aside, I could see that instead of a back, it lead down steps into a dark room. I followed the woman, and she lit a few candles. There were many scrolls, books, and weapons around the room. In the middle of the room, there was a table with a map of Skyrim, “If you want to learn about Dragons, and how to kill them, the Embassy would be the best place to find that stuff out.”

“You seem to know some stuff,” I said, gesturing around the room, “In fact, I don’t even know who you are,” I pointed out.

“I’m Delphine,” she informed, “I used to be with a dragon-slaying group called the Blades. Unfortunately, not many of us are left, and neither is the knowledge.” I took this in, knowing that this would have to be done the hard way. Getting to the sanctuary would take longer than I thought it would.

“Where’s the Embassy?” I asked, and she pointed it out on the map. It was just west of Solitude, “You’ll have to sneak in. There’s a sewer near the south end,” she explained.

“Great thing I’m good at sneaking,” I said.

©Shannon.