That's Madness (a Skyrim fanfiction)

Chapter Nine - The Silence Has Been Broken

A week later, I stand outside the Volunruud with a pounding heart and sweaty palms. Astrid had allowed me to seek out whoever Amaund Motierre is after I had done two contracts for Nazir, but her attitude towards me has changed. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but she looks at me with a hint of suspicion whenever I'm in the room and her tone is different. Before she would always sound kind when she spoke to me but now there's a steel in her voice. It's the same with the other Family members. Arnbjorn and Nazir regard me warily, Veezara keeps our conversations short and Gabriella hardly speaks to me. I didn't understand why they had been acting so distance until Babette (whose attitude, thankfully, hasn't changed) offered some light on the situation. Babette explained that Nazir, Gabriella and Veezara are all relatively new to the Dark Brotherhood and never really got to experience The Old Ways when there was a Listener and Speakers of the Brotherhood.

Before Astrid's rule of the Brotherhood the Brotherhood was run by the Black Hand, which consisted of four Speakers and the Listener. The Listener would listen to the Night Mother's commands and delegate the commands to the Speakers, who would then dispatch a Dark Brother or Dark Sister to carry out the Contract. But then when the Great War broke out years and years ago, it led to many of the Sanctuaries being destroyed or Brothers deserting the Brotherhood. But then the Brotherhood had managed to regain their power and influence, until the invasion of the Thalmor across the Empire and the Thalmor had had help from the Morag Tong. The Thalmor had granted power to the Morag Tong (who are enemies with the Brotherhood) and members of the Morag Tong had gone and caused havoc for the Brotherood and the various Sanctuaries in Tamriel. The raids on the Brotherhood continued throughout the years. What gets creepy is that the Morag Tong had been granted the authority to destroy Dark Brotherhood Sanctuaries on the very day I was born.

Eventually, only four Sanctuaries remained: one in Cyrodiil, one in High Rock, one in Elsweyr and the one here in Skyrim. The members of the High Rock Sanctuary had fled to Cyrodiil but a power struggle had resulted in all of them dying out or fleeing...except for Cicero who had remained in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary. After a few years of isolation Cicero had packed up and moved to Skyrim. Cicero told me a few days ago that he was only about thirteen when he joined the Brotherhood and he was eighteen when the last member of the Cheydinhal died, leaving him in isolation for four years. He's now twenty-two, only six years older than me. With the High Rock Sanctuary and Cyrodiil Sanctuary gone, only Skyrim and Elsweyr remained as operating Dark Brotherhood provinces. But everyone assumes that the sanctuary in Corinthe (in Elsweyr) has also fallen because of how powerful the Thalmor are in Elsweyr. So that just left Skyrim...and because Astrid was the Speaker in Skyrim, she declared herself the leader of the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary four years ago.

So members of the Brotherhood who have been around for a long while, like Babette and Festus Krex, are more keen to accept me as the Listener than newer members like Veezara and Nazir and Gabriella. Nazir joined four years ago, right around the time that the Cheydinhal Sanctuary fell and the previous Listener was killed. Then three years ago, Gabriella arrived and people were suspicious of her because she's a Dunmer and the Morag Tong are a Dunmer organisation but she proved herself when she assassinated three Morag Tongs. Then a year ago Veezara turned eighteen and the Shadowscale organisation permitted him to move to Skyrim. Shadowscales are a branch under the Dark Brotherhood and Argonians born under the sign of The Shadow (which is creepily my sign) are sent to their training facilities. The very best are chosen to be the King of Black Marsh's personal assassin. But then that tradition has died out in the last few years and now it's just Veezara.

I shake away any fears I have about going into the tomb and I push open the iron doors. The interior of the tomb is filled with cobwebs and dust and I wrap my shrouded cowl over my nose, to stop myself from breathing too much dust in. I sneak through the tomb and stealthily kill a skeleton before it notices me. I hear voices up ahead and, keeping my hand firmly on my bow, I creep forward and stop when I see a small Breton man talking to a hulking Imperial. I pause for a second. Before I left, Babette had informed me that Motierre was an established family name in High Rock, which is the home of the Bretons. This man must be Amaund Motierre. I slip my bow in its hold, stand up straight and approach the two men. The Imperial notices me first and draws out his weapon, but I stand my ground.