The Dark Brotherhood [ON HOLD]

The introduction

The journey was not long. Astrid walked fast, easy on her feet. The mountains that had seemed far away wasn't. Astrid led the way into a mountain pass. A big climbing plant grew along the walls. The path was very narrow, sometimes they had to walk sideways to fit between the walls.

At the end of the pass the plant thickened to a wall, hiding the pass from the outside. Astrid stopped in front of the plant "You'll be able to recognize the area. We need to talk to Veezara, our dark brother in Falkearth." Rhila was surprised and confused. "Where are we?" she asked. Astrid discarded her question with "You'll see."

Astrid pushed the plant and the soft wall began to bend outwards. They got out quickly and the plant went back to its former position.  They walked along the edges of the marsh past Ustengrav and then through the Cold Rock Passes.  Past Swindler's Den, Broken Fang Cave and Half Moon Mill. They walked as the day passed and evening came.
They were in a pine forest and after a little while they came to a road.

A dragon peacefully flew over them as they walked along the road. Rhila wasn't used to see the dragons this peaceful, the only time she saw them was when they attacked near Solitude. Astrid smiled "I keep forgetting you're new at this, that's SkyShadow, one of our tamed dragons." Rhila thought they couldn't be tamed, but clearly they could.

Not long after that they arrived at Falkearth. Dragons lay resting or flew around the city. "A man they call the Dragonborn is the one taming the dragons, he is quite expensive to hire but cooperates with us for a lighter cost. We came to a deal a while back.
We wanted his services for free, and threatened to kill him, as we do when we want something. When he killed two of our members we agreed to pay him a little for his services and to deny any contact that wants us to kill him." Astrid explained.

They walked into the city and turned into a dark alley. There was a strange looking door at the left, Astrid knocked three times and a low voice could be heard from inside. "What is the music of life?" the voice asked. Astrid answered "Silence, my brother. But you don't need to ask every time." She said rather annoyed. The door was opened.  An older man was behind it, he smiled but his eyes were evil. "Welcome, darkest dearest sister. Is there a new task for me?" Astrid started discussing with the man. Rhila followed quietly, not knowing what to do.

An hour or two later they were on the way back to Brotherhood territory. Rhila asked herself, why not run? Now that she could get back. It was like Astrid had read her mind when she said "I'll introduce you to the dark brothers and sisters and give you your equipment, then you'll be free to return to your normal life. I'll contact you when we have a plan or task for you."

The plant weren't as stiff this time and bent easily at Astrid's touch. They went halfway through the pass and then Astrid turned onto another path that Rhila hadn't noticed earlier. At the end of the short path there was another strange looking door. Astrid knocked three times. This time no one asked any question, the door was immediately opened.

A child stood at the other side of the door. She said "Oh, hello there! My name is Babette and you must be our new member." Astrid glanced at Babette and said "Cut the courtesy Babette, call in the others for a meeting." He did as he'd been told. A staircase led down to a big room. There was four doors along one of the walls, on the opposite side of the room there was a long diningtable. Two uniformed men sat at the table eating.

Next to the table was an oven and a forge. At the forge stood a grindstone and a few iron ingots. A man with a big beard stood at the forge. As Astrid entered the room all attention was turned to her. "Hello dark brothers and sisters! The mission went as planned, meet our new member Rhila" Astrid announced.

Rhila wondered how much Astrid actually knew about her. Babette handed Rhila a drink that looked like tea. Rhila sipped carefully and almost choked at the strong taste. The taste lingered and became more pleasant, after a short while it actually tasted good.

Astrid adressed assignments, contracts and new victims to the other members. Rhila was left to talk to the others. She couldn't help but ask how old Babette was. The thought of a tenyearold assassin disturbed her. The man with the big beard answered "You won't believe how many times I've heard that question. No, she's not a child. Rather old actually, she got bitten by a vampire as a child."

Rhila smiled at the man with a new tingle of bravery and a thirst, thirst for blood.