The Dragonborn's Apprentice

Mourning Neh Bo

"Very nicely done," Nazir said, handing me a clanking satchel. I looked at him expectantly.

"You aren't going to put it back into the guild?"

"Not all of it. This is your cut. 1500 septims."

"1500 septims?!" I could almost faint. I don't think I'd ever seen so much coin, let alone held it in my hand. I jangled the pouch, appreciating its weight. If Nazir said these small tasks weren't very lucrative, I wondered exactly what lucrative meant in the brotherhood's book. Or should I say who? There certainly was an upside to murdering on command. Possibly a few.

"Don't spend it all in one place. Or do. I couldn't care less," Nazir shrugged and returned to his meal.

I skipped down the steps and into the main foyer, twisting Cicero's twin daggers between my pointer fingers. My body had felt lighter than it had in quite a while. I had a good amount of coin in my pocket and it almost felt like I hadn't been restless for days. When I closed my eyes, I didn't see the color of blood. I saw black. The simple, reliable black of the Void.

"But the night mother is mother to all! It is her voice we follow! Her will! Would you dare risk disobedience and surely punishment?" I heard Cicero's voice ring from the main corridor, he sounded frantic. I rushed down to find him. He stood in front of a large wooden box. The same box he was transporting when I first met him. The brotherhood surrounded the scene. Astrid and Arnbjorn stood around him stiffly, as if they may need to take action.

"Keep talking, little man," growled the werewolf. "And we'll see who gets punished."

"Oh, be quite you great, lumbering lapdog," argued Festus, "The man has had a long journey. You can at least be civil." He turned to Cicero. "Mister Cicero, I for one am delighted you and the Night Mother have arrived. Your presence here signals a welcome return to tradition."

"Oh, what a kind and wise wizard you are," Cicero said with a smile of gold. "Sure to earn our Lady's favor."

"You and the Night Mother are of course welcome here, Cicero. And you will be afforded the respect deserving as your position as Keeper." Astrid's voice was cool and collected, as usual.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" The fool literally jumped for joy.

"But make no mistake. I am the leader of this Sanctuary. My word is law. Are we clear on that point?"

"Oh, yes mistress! Perfectly! You're the boss!" Cicero giggled happily and began pushing the large crate to the stairs. I was about to offer him some help before Astrid's voice caught my attention.

"Ah, there you are. Good, I was done speaking with that muttering fool. We've got some business to discuss."

"Do you have a contract for me?"

"I do, indeed. You must go to the city of Markarth and speak to the apothecary's assistant. You'll probably find her in the Hag's Cure, when the shop is open. The girls been running her mouth. Wants an ex-lover killed. She apparently performed the Black Sacrament. Her name is Muiri. I need you to talk to her, set up a contract, and carry it out."

...

I found Cicero in a large room on the second floor. The sides of his crate were tossed in different directions and in the middle on the wall stood a tall stone cylinder.

"Is that her?" I asked. Cicero only stood there smiling. "Is that the Night Mother?"

"It is indeed, my dear Innocence." I was beginning to put the pieces together. The Black Sacrament. The Black-Hand. The Night Mother. They were all cogs for the deity Sithis. If Sanguine knew, he'd slaughter us all, that is assuming that the amount of unholiness didn't knock him unconscious on his way through the door first. Cicero and I stood in silence for a while before I broke it.