Colin focused his eyes on the stars above, letting a small grin latch onto his face. He sat there, on a porch in the market district that seemed to be vacant - at least he'd never seen anyone actually be there. So, he sat there, eating his bread and whine he'd managed to get out of an old street merchant. Relaxed, deep in thought he began to drift into sleep. Then, not even a block away, a horrible shattering heard. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. Colin, jumping to his feet quickly clutched onto his blade, drawing it from his make-shift, leather woven sheath. When he caught his eye on the figure, he narrowed his eyes on him. The slender man donned dark leather clothing, one that was most commonly used by The Dark Brotherhood.
Colin hadn't known much of the the order that called themselves that. Only a few childhood stories and rumors. One that stood out in his head was the that they trained for their spectral (dead body and soul) being to disappear, this way there'd be no questioning of who they were, no one even from the highest ranking position in the Penitus Oculatus - not even a Specter could see them after death. Suddenly, he heard a grunt. Quickly, he shook his head and put his blade forth. He saw the figure again, his legs were hooked to the window ledge, hanging on with pure strength and skill. Colin could tell the man -the assassin- was obviously trained. Probably years, again, he didn't know much about them.
The man pulled himself in, tightening his stomach muscles so that he could. Colin looked around, investigating his surroundings. He saw some sort of wooden plank bridge, travelling across the rooftops. Conveniently enough, the path led straight to the rooftop of the house. So, quickly gathering his thoughts, he began to stride across the rooftops without being noticed by the assassin. Reaching the desired destination, he hopped off the bridge prematurely and settled onto the rooftop. He felt like an assassin himself.
A flute soaked the streets, almost calming the situation. Although, when Colin rubbed his hands on his oliver breeches, he could tell they were soaked with sweat. Disregarding this, he wiped all of the sweat off and continued to clutch his blade, with a better grip now. He started to creep now, no longer striding as fast as he was. Before he peaked inside of the window to see what was going on, he thought about it for a moment. "Why not just let the assassin do his job, leave him alone and get back to my whine and bread," he thought. Although he thought of who loved who ever was in the house, then he laughed. He was no agent of Stendarr, he worshiped no divine, no lord. But he questioned the thought, even protested it. Even if he isn't any of those, that doesn't mean he has no sense of wrong or right. So, naturally, he pecked his head inside.
Seeing some sort of man, a human. He was still wearing the brotherhood-branded armor, but this time he had a small knife sheathed. A girl lay in the corner, she was obviously petrified. A tear was dripping down her left cheek, it was almost evaporated by the heat on her face. Colin, staring at her saw the man catch her gaze. He turned around to see Colin, just staring at him. The moment was long, neither of them had expected this. Even the trained assassin was puzzled, but he was still trained for this situation. Colin pulled his head up, looking around. His heart was beating so fast, so fast it almost exploded. So, he eventually began to creep back, forgetting the paths he could have took earlier, and starting to move faster. After another swift movement in the air he saw the dark figure jump out of the window and begin to run away, obviously he was compromised. Colin went to check the room, he saw the girl there puzzled.
She was still bearing tears on her cheek, Colin approached her and wiped them off. He tried to comfort her as best he could, but he knew that nothing could really help at this moment. So, he began to question her.
"What-do you know what just happened?" he tried to keep his voice as soft as possible, trying not to scare her.
"No... I-I don't," she breathed out. This was the first time Colin actually heard her talk. Her voice didn't really fit her, at least Colin thought that way. She had silky black curls crawl down from her face, with large brown eyes. Her face was heart-shaped and smooth. He quickly inspected her, then trying not to seem creepy looked around.
He was no detective, and probably would never be. But this was the first big thing that happened to him in a while. So, respectively he nodded at the woman, "I'll leave you be by yourself. If you need me I'll be upstairs-on the roof." She nodded back, which took her almost five seconds to do. He could see the assassin leaping from roof-top to roof-top in the distance. He knew he couldn't chase him now, as he was almost out of sight by now. The assassin seemed to be perfectly positioned with Masser and Secunda, the two moons that loomed over Nirn, the world. Masser was almost like the bigger brother, as it was quite bigger to Secunda. It was like comparing a rabbit to a Frost Giant.
He gazed further into the distance, for about five minutes. Not realizing the time go by, something in the distance caught his eye. Some sort of note drifting with the wind. Colin approached the note, picking it up. It was sealed with a small black hand. It seems the wax the seal used was colored black. Most likely with ink. Colin not completely understanding the situation quickly went back inside the house, this time opening the hatch that he just now noticed. As he entered, he saw that another assassin was there. This time, the new assassin had his knife to her throat. He felt that same sensation again, the feeling where the hairs on the back of his neck crept up, and his heart began to pound.
Pt 2.
Colin crept back, looking back and forth. He noticed that the window had been opened, a perfect way to escape. Before he really had the chance to get out, the assassin dropped the woman, and strode towards Colin. His narrow eyes and straight lips soon turned into a grin, getting bigger each step he took towards Colin. Although for Colin, each step the man took closer his frown got bigger. The man didn't walk fast, Colin assumed he was just trying to pull out what ever sanity he had left, before he strikes. So, Colin spent the the rest of his life thinking-not a flashback, just thinking. He thought about the bread and wine he had earlier, he thought about all the risky thinks he had done... Which meant a lot of thinking. Although, before the assassin got to strike Colin, the woman had hit him over the head with a bottle of wine, only distracting him. Colin placed his hand over his blade, pulled it out and sliced across his back. The tight straps on his back let loose, revealing the upper part of his chest-where armor used to cover. The man quickly turned on his heels, changing his vision again. Colin could tell the man was confused, he'd just been hit over the back now sliced in the back, though the assassin was trained not to feel pain, only know where it came from. So, Colin came up and dipped his blade into the mans chest. The man coughed up one big lake of blood as he fell to the floor.
Colin eyed the woman again, he was sure they were both now safe, which they were. Well, at least while they were here.
"Who are you, why did they want you dead?"
The woman didn't react instantly, but she got up soon enough, "You should go, you're getting into something you don't wouldn't want to."
He raised his posture, "Right, and two assassins just tried to kill you, and we killed one. I might as well just go to the guards and tell them what-"
"No, you don't have to do that. L-let me explain," she interrupted.
He nodded once, and she began to explain why the two assassins just tried to kill her. Although something caught her eye before she started, Colin noticed it and found where she was looking. She was looking at the note that Colin had picked up, he looked back at her, and then she tried to snatch it out of his pocket. He grabbed onto it first, stood up and held it high so she couldn't reach it. What did she want with this note, how did she recognize it?
"Look... I guess there's no going back now. I'm Artese, I work for one of the ministers, Hiercim to be exact," she spoke eagerly. Colin knew of Hiercim, he was one of the ministers in the palace. Rumors in local taverns were that he was corrupt, stealing money from the empire and using it for skooma. Of course there was no evidence, but a rumor is a rumor. That doesn't keep the empire from acting. He nodded, and continued listening.
"You probably know of the rumors about him, well I myself am a witness of his actions. He knows this of course, and now he wants me dead... Really bad."
"Right, so that's why he sent these assassins after you?" Colin inquired.
"Yes. But what he does not realize is that I need real evidence, some sort of letter or contract confirming he's ordered skooma or abused the ministry's findings," she stated.
"So... What about this letter, why is it so important?" Colin asked.
"That's probably the contract that those men were given," she once again stated.
"Don't you need to use-preform some sort of ritual?" he asked, then adding, "the black sacrament?"
"Yes, but this isn't the Dark Brotherhood, even though the seal on the letter and their armor leads to it, you see if you look closer you can obviously tell these are probably part of the few that are left from the Morag Tong. They aren't as big as they used to be, so I can expect them to be using make-shift armors... Although disguising themselves with that seal is... interesting."
"Right, I guess it makes sense," he said with some hesitation.
They both nodded, "Come back tomorrow, I'll explain more. For now, you have to get to safety," that time Artese spoke. Colin could tell she was holding something back, but she followed her orders and headed back to his small home in the market district. He lived beneath the city, in the sewers. Down there it was generally vendors, illegal drug dealing, and everything alike. Colin doubted that his landlord dealing the houses down there was legal, but he just went with it. He wasn't one for law himself, anyways. A warm flute's music drowned the sewers, as did the smell of warm bread and ale. There was some sort of tavern that Colin usually went to on the way home, but this time he just went to his house. The house was composed of some sort of doorway carved into stone, then the insides were carved out to permit living quarters. That is where a small wooden bed, a desk, and a wooden stool lay. The house was lit by torches hung up around the ceiling.
As Colin entered, he locked his door upon entrance. Afterwards he had pulled off his cloak and set aside his blade sheathed inside the sheath. He took the note, then put it onto the desk. He inspected it for a moment before opening it. He noticed the Black hand which the Dark Brotherhood usually used, but then remembered that it was just the Morag Tong using a cover-up. So, he took his candle and carefully melted the wax off, making sure the flame didn't come into contact with the paper. As the wax melted off, he carefully unrolled it, stretching it out. Looking at it, it seemed to be some sort of contract. It read:
Dear Hier',
You realize that you still haven't payed us? After everything we've done for you, everything we've got for you, you just waltz into our territory and ask us to kill someone for you? You haven't even payed for anything we've done for you. I can't tell if you've been using more skooma then you should have lately. We accept this contract, although this will come down to this. You get out of the city, leave your office unlocked and we ransack it. We take everything you own, everything in it. We get a night to do this, then you can come back. If you're still in there, we kill you. We'll take it as you've challenged us to a fight. This note should be at your office after we've killed that woman... Artese.
Good day.
-Kuhon
Colin knew it wasn't long until Hiercim was killed, and if Hiercim was killed, that meant no questioning, no punishment, and most importantly, not figuring out what she was holding back. Although Colin had an advantage here. Those assassins were probably going to deliver the note after Artese was killed, then once they got back to... Where ever, then they would prepare and ransack the office. That meant Colin had a little time on his hands before they figured out they weren't coming back. Colin opened his door, locked it behind him and left the sewers. He got up to the top of the market district, looked over it and then saw the ministry. There was one window that was obviously lit, which was also obviously Hiercim. So, he began running. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
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