The Tale of the Opal Assassins

7: Three New Silencers

               ~Ingrid~
          I picked up the note and stared at it carefully. I remember reading in one of the the books that Gudrun found that the Dark Brotherhood would contact people to become assassins. Could this have been the note that was used to contact our parents? I was amazed yet disturbed. Upon the moment that I thought this, a strange noise echoed in my head. It was a rather odd sound that came from nowhere. Trying to imitate it with words would sound right, but I'll attempt anyway. It sounded like, "Oh wa ah ah ah." Again, it was an entirely random occurrence that I'll never understand.
"What do you guys think about this," Gudrun asked.
"I don't know what I'm supposed to think," whispered a clearly disturbed Ireonna.
That noise echoed in my head once again. My entire life is now just a land of confusion.
"I have so many questions," I added, "For one, were we really outcasted? The Dark Brotherhood is really skilled. They wouldn't have gotten caught with anything. Something doesn't add up."
"You've got a point there," Gudrun responded, "Why do we have to move around so much? How can a blacksmith afford a house like this? I've got a sneaky suspicion that they're still very involved with the Dark Brotherhood."
"Well no shit, Gudrun. Ireonna saw them kill someone last night. I highly doubt they were just out on a leisurely killing spree."
That's when we heard a knock on our door.
"Girls," I heard my mother say, "We've definitely got a lot to talk about. We're coming in."
Both of our parents walked in to find me holding the note. My mother glanced at it for only a second before shifting her eyes to us.
          "Ireonna has witnessed some things that she was not supposed to see," my mother began, "I would assume that she's already spoken to the two of you about it. It would appear that-"
          "Gudrun already knew before I did," Ireonna blurted out.
          Our parents looked at Gudrun with the most curious facial expressions that I had seen in quite a while.
          "Well Gudrun," said my father, "What did you know? I'd also appreciate it if you told me where the three of you found that note."
          "I knew you were in the Dark Brotherhood before we left Skyrim. I-I saw you kill that man at the black door. It asked me about the music of life and I ran and-"
          "How did you find the black door?"
          "I followed you guys there..."
          "I presume that you're the one who stole that note," my mother stated, "How did you find it? Also, did you find anything else?"
          "I found the hidden room at the old house in King's Landing. Well, I actually searched for it because I wanted information on why we were outcasted. I thought it had something to do with your involvement in the Dark Brotherhood."
          "Gudrun," my mother began, "I'm proud of how resourceful you are. That's going to come in handy. Anyway, I think it's time that you three know the complete truth."
          "I'll say," Ireonna whispered.
          "It is true that we moved to Westeros due to our involvement in the Dark Brotherhood," Mother explained, "But we were never outcasted. As things got better and better for the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim, with us planning the assassination of the emperor and many successful important kills, our leader decided that we should try to branch out a bit. We weren't stupid enough to try to bring it back to Cyrodiil or anywhere else in Tamriel for that matter. We thought about taking somewhere such as Akavir, but when we discovered how much political unrest was in Westeros we knew that we had found the perfect place. Astrid, our leader, sent us with two other people to create a new branch of the Dark Brotherhood in a land that desperately needed it."
          "But I don't understand something," I began, "How would people in Westeros know anything about the Dark Brotherhood? They shouldn't know who to contact, or how to do the black sacrament, or even that it exists."
          "Rumor and books," Father stated, "We've planted hundreds of books and 'top secret notes' throughout Westeros for people to see. That should spark their interests a bit. Believe it or not, it's been working extremely well. We've made very many kills, and had new recruits come from Skyrim. We even contact some from Westeros. Our branch is like an empire. It has twenty people."
          "Does Ned know about this," Ireonna questioned.
          "Of course not! He believes that I was a soldier fighting for the Stormcloaks. I told him that we were outcasted by General Tullius who had planned to kill us. I said that Ulfric sent us here to keep us safe until he won."
          "Aside from the explanations," my mother added in, "The Skyrim Dark Brotherhood has hit some bad luck. Do you three remember the Dragonborn Josh? He's the listener. I don't know how much you researched the Dark Brotherhood, but that means that he listens to the Nightmother. She tells him who has requested a contract."
          "She's the one who killed her five children for Sithis," Gudrun stated, "The void."
          "You're correct. Anyway, the leader Astrid betrayed Josh. She told the guards of the emperor that she would help trap him if they left the Dark Brotherhood alone. Needless to say she failed miserably, but so did the guards. Josh killed them all. However, when he returned to the Falkreath Sanctuary it was under attack. The place was being burned to the ground. Most of our family died. Only Babette, a vampire unchild, and Nazir, another assassin, survived. They relocated from the Sanctuary in Falkreath to a new one in Dawnstar. They seem to be doing much better. There is one problem though. The emperor's guards, the Penitus Oculatus, found one of our letters during the attack. Despite Westeros being one of their business, they wanted to try and get rid of us. They sent a some agents to try and find us. They haven't discovered the location of our sanctuary here yet, but we've found many of them. Ireonna, the kill you witnessed was one of them. He was under cover, mascaraing as a nobleman."
          "Why do they even bother to waste the effort to come all the way to Westeros to stop you," Gudrun asked.
           "They hate us more than anything, and we hate them too. You'll learn to hate them so much that every drop of their blood that you spill will make you laugh."
          "What you you mean by that," I asked, "What do you mean by 'you'll?'"
          "We finally think the three of you are ready to become silencers," my mother happily stated, "You all have wonderful skills that can be used very well for this sort of thing. You're very well suited to be assassins. You're Nocturnraths!"
          None of us could breath. Sometimes it's as if my sisters and I can communicate telepathically. It was as if I could hear what they were thinking. Gudrun was excited. She didn't know exactly how it would work, but even though she never wanted to admit it, she loved the idea of being an assassin. Ireonna was nervous. She didn't know if she would be able to go through with killing anyone, especially if they had never personally wronged her. I didn't know what to think. I honestly don't think I thought anything at all. I spaced out into the world of my dreams. I knew that my astral ghost friend would help me. By the time I had zoned back in, my parents were leaving the room and saying that we'll have more to discuss tomorrow.
                    ~Gudrun~
          I could always see myself as an assassin, but somehow I felt like I'd be missing out on something. The secretive lifestyle of a silencer sounded great for the longest time, but now I feel that being hidden from the normal world would cause me to lose something. I just don't know what it is.
          My sisters and I spent the day walking through the woods and trying to be children again. We all swam in a little pond that Ingrid and I had discovered when we first moved to Winterfell. I wondered if we'd still be able to live here. I assumed so, but didn't know for sure. I really hoped so, and that's when it hit me. What about Theon?
          I waited until the middle of the night to sneak out. I made my way past any and every guard of the castle of Winterfell. Finally I had made it into Theon's room. He was asleep, so I sat beside him on his bed. I debated if I should gently wake him up or if I should do something obnoxious. Pouring water on his head would've been entertaining, but I felt like this was not a good time for entertainment. I gently shook him awake.
          "What the," he began to groggily speak, "What are you doing here?"
          "Theon," I answered, "It's not exactly rare of me to sneak in here."
          "I know that," he smiled, "So why are you here tonight?"
"I've got to tell you something and you've got to swear on everything you hold dear that you won't tell anyone."
His look of extreme concern sparked my intelligence back to life. I can't tell him that I have to go be an assassin. That would just put us both in danger.
"What is it, Gudrun? You know you can trust me."
I choked down my words to the best of my ability.
"Nevermind," I whispered as I started to stand up, "It's not my secret to tell."
"You can't just leave after that," he said as he pulled me back down, "I won't tell anyone."
"I know you won't, because I'm not going to tell you. Believe me, I really want to. It's just that I can't. Maybe someday..."
"Just spit it out!"
"Theon, I'll tell you as much as I can. I may have to disappear for a while."
"Why?"
"Because... I don't know how to explain it. Hopefully I won't have to go anywhere, but if I do I want you to know I'll be back soon."
"Where will you go?"
"That's complicated."
"I want to know why you're acting so strange. Why can't you tell me anything? You're being confusing as fuck and you know how much I hate that."
"I-I..."
I started uncontrollably sobbing at that moment. Perhaps I should've just said nothing to him. It seemed like a good idea to warn him that I might be going away, but now I see that it was a horrible idea. I wish I had never come here at all.
"Gudrun," he whispered with extreme concern, "What's going on?"
"Ingrid was horribly wrong," I said through tears, "You aren't a bad guy. You aren't only after one thing. You never were."
"I always want you to trust me with things, so I feel that I should trust you with something. I'm very sorry about it."
"What is it?"
"When we first met, at the celebration that night, I was entirely after one thing. In fact, I was planning on sneaking to the brothel that night. When we ended up sneaking out together, I thought that maybe you'd be... willing, but it didn't take long for me to find out that you were far from it. I saw you as a challenge for the first few months. However as I spent more time with you, I started to actually care for you. I knew you'd never feel the same for me, but then you tried to slit Ros' throat out of jealousy. You know how it went from there."
"Theon, deep down I knew that I was just a challenge to you at first. A challenge that you'd be unable to complete, but a challenge nonetheless. I still saw you as a friend, and later on I started to care for you and I knew you were constantly fucking whores like Ros and I had lots of knives so the obvious solution was to-"
He stopped me from completing my sentence with a kiss. It was a sweet kiss. It was a kiss that said "I don't care that you tried to murder the whore that I was fucking before you admitted to caring for me." That's when it hit me. Theon knew that I almost killed Ros and he never told a soul. Maybe I could tell him the truth. What little bit of sanity I had left still kept me from telling him. It was far to dangerous for him to know anything about it. I could get him tortured and or killed for knowing anything about the Dark Brotherhood. Worse yet, he might would accidentally say something to Robb or Jon. It would all be over then. Keeping my mouth shut was the best thing that I could do.
"Theon," I said as I pulled away from the kiss and stood up, "I love you, dumbass."
"Love you too," said a smiling Theon as I snuck out the window, "You crazy bitch."
I returned to my home in the darkness of the night. Luckily Ingrid was able to understand the pulling the rope on her window meant for her to drop the rope latter. She helped me back inside, and we went to sleep. Neither of us had any idea that the next day would be pure madness.