HIM!

With Hamelyn's pets unleashed and causing chaos around the College, the man himself quickly begins sprinting for the exit, probably hoping to escape with the help of the distraction he'd made.

Michael glances over at the skeevers to check if he'd be needed but notices his Familiar Darth using Derflinger to make skeever sheesh kebabs by skewering anything that got near.

"Haha! Take that! And that! Let's see you chew on my head again you long-faced runts" Derflinger laughs, "Keep swinging Darth!"

"Perish, rat-scum." the hand mumbles out, its voice awkward due to its 'mouth' being filled with Derflinger.

Michael nods to himself and turns to chase after Hamelyn, "Yeah, they've got this."

Five minutes later, Michael walks through the now-dead skeever-filled courtyard of the College with Hamelyn bound up and dragging behind him. The crazy bastards still attempting to yell or chew through the ropes gagging him.

He dumps the guy on the floor and nods to the Arch-Mage who'd summoned some fearful-looking Dremora to harvest the skeever corpses before burning them in a pyre. "I see you've caught our 'pest'. Good work." he says, leaning down to reach Hamelyn's eye level. "And you... Will be receiving my unabated attention for what you've done to our late Master Alchemist." he says with threat clear in his tone.

After this, the Arch-Mage looks up to say something to Michael by feezes as he focuses on something behind him. Michael follows his gaze but stills as well as he spots the person that'd just entered the College... It was... HIM!

"I've been looking for you. Got a letter from the Jarl in Falkreath, says it was urgent." the Courier states, handing over the letter with a neutral expression that relayed no emotion whatsoever.

"You shouldn't be here." The Arch-Mage says in a low tone, but the Courier ignores him.

Michael takes the letter, "Erm, hello?"

"No, sorry, that's all I have."

Michael shakes his head, "I meant, what's your name?"

"No, sorry, that's all I have."

...

He's about to pursue the Courier but the Arch-Mage drops a hand onto his shoulder, "Michael, there are some things that are best left alone. That. Thing, being one of them... I'll have to alter the Wards, to think it found a way around them. Savos mutters as he steps away with Hamelyn floating behind him.

"Weird..." Michael remarks as he opens the letter and goes through it. "Falkreath is requesting assistance to fight off the Forsworn invading the region... I don't remember this ever happening in the game." he shakes his head, whatever, he might as well help out. It wasn't a bother getting there with Tiffania's Teleportation Gates, plus, he'd feel somewhat responsible if any of his friends ended up getting hurt.

"Better go grab the others then."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elsewhere in Riften :

Eleril walks through the streets of the grimy city in common robes, her Dark Brotherhood attire hidden underneath it all. She and Babette had been sent to Windhelm in order to check out the rumours of a boy attempting the Black Sacrament. Obviously, without a Listener the Sanctuary was dearly behind schedule on this, but their contact had luckily picked it up before the boy had been captured for desecrating a corpse and using it to conduct a dark ritual.

Babette had volunteered and taken the boy to the Sanctuary after he'd expressed a wish to join them and become an Assassin, one neither were willing to reject due to how rare willing recruits were. Eleril had gone on ahead to Riften to complete the Black Sacrament in the meantime.

Babette said that she was treating this as a kind of 'test', it would be Eleril's first time doing an assignment alone after all. It shouldn't be too hard either, all she was doing was killing an abusive matron working in an orphanage.

The sun was already setting by the time she rapt the knuckles onto the door and a young-looking woman opens it with a forced smile. "Hello? Welcome-, Miss?" she asks, finding it difficult to distinguish the gender of the hooded person standing before her.

Eleril nods, "Hello. I'm Tallow Soe, I just moved into the area and was thinking about adopting a child to keep me company-... I'm. Unable to have my own children you see." she admits, sounding both awkward and saddened by the admission.

The woman's face softens at this, "That is unfortunate to hear... Please, come in, we've been waiting for someone to take some children out of her hands for a while now. There's only so many we can care for at once, after all." she says, leading Eleril into the orphanage, though, still finding it odd that she didn't lower her hood once inside.

Eleril is brought into a large room that had an elderly woman angrily lecturing a group of teary-looking kids. "And how dare you steal food from the pantry! Do it again and I'll let you milk-sops starve for a week! Mark my words!"

"Don't mind her. That's just the Matron Grelod. While it might seem harsh, we believe a firm hand is needed to groom these children into fine young adults."

Eleril nods, "I see. A shame if that were true." she remarks, confusing the woman as she steps forwards toward Grelod.

"And who might you be-Guhk!" the old woman chokes as a blue see-through conjured dagger thrusts into her throat, gouging a fatal wound that immediately starts streaming with blood. Eleril twists it for good measure while another dagger appears in her off-hand and stabs the woman in the heart to finish her off.

The woman who'd escorted Eleril into the building screams and flees, but the children give uncharacteristic cheers in response to the brutal killing.

Eleril ignores them, using Grelods blood to print a bloody handprint onto the woman's face. "The Void takes you, Hail Sithis." she recites, having heard Cicero tell stories describing Assassins of old. She then leaves the scene of the crime, easily evading the stream of guards that go hunting for her.