Judgement of the Black Hand

"How do you know that name?" Yuri asked her without scruples.

"...He's the man who killed the most important woman in my life, burned down my workplace, and made me seek Skyrim in the first place," Alera said into her glass with a hateful glare.

"Cicero is the one who did all that?" Yuri didn't ask why she never mentioned it, he wasn't entitled to that information.

'Hohoho, Dark Brotherhood, so you have chosen...death.'

"That's what he called himself. He dressed like a jester and talked like a madman, that Sheogorath was just like him in many ways."

"That sounds like the Cicero I know..."

"Who is he and how do you know him?" Alera wasn't playing around this time. The fun shit they did could be passed off as clairvoyant magic fuckery, but if this was association than things could turn sour and she wouldn't willingly stay.

"The same reason I know everything else. I'm a well-read man with a gift and many secrets, but Cicero and his gang of murderers are welcome to join my shit list with yours." Yuri set down his allegiance.

"Gang? What gang? Bandits?"

"No, worse. Assassins. They call themselves the Dark Brotherhood. Well, they used to be pretty central in Cyrodiil so you must recognize that name at least."

"Why would Assassins go after a blacksmith?!" She whispered harshly, getting riled up but not wanting to make a scene.

"Cicero must've been on the move and needed funds which blacksmiths are notorious for having, all the Dark Brotherhood locations in Cyrodiil recently went under and the cargo he was carrying needed to make it to Skyrim at any cost for them. Though, Cicero is also a total lunatic."

"Take me there! I'll kill every one of them! You can have every soul and valuable of theirs, just lead the way!"

"Relax, we can do that in due time but we'll want to be credited for such an achievement. Luckily, we're at the perfect venue for a discussion," Yuri added before taking the attention of Jarl Elisif. "Jarl, would you care for assistance in removing a certain pest?"

Playing the Dark Brotherhood questline and understanding there is a group of assassins that will try to kill the Emperor for the highest bidder in the world you live in are two different things. Despite his support of a just world, Yuri disliked the characters who found killing inherently wrong in every situation. Killing the career killers who followed the narrative of a selfish god was completely okay to him. That was his justice, he wasn't one of those foolish goodie two shoes. Alera gave him the only excuse he needed to take action.

───※ ·❆· ※───

Negotiating at the table of Solitude's finest garnered a vastly different result than earning 3,000 Septims from Maro's pocket after the deed. 15,000 would be waiting for them should they succeed without the help of any men, while Legate Rikke and a few more men would be present to observe from out of sight and confirm the details.

After purchasing Proudspire Manor and bunking there for the night, the gang was refreshed the next morning but steeped in silence. Toni and Yuri could feel Alera's mood emanate from her and decided to keep it sober.

Yuri opened a portal to Falkreath hold just a few hundred feet in front of the west entrance and led the girls out of it. Rikke was stupified for a moment before Yuri brought her back in the game.

"Alright, the Sanctuary should be up this Northwest road behind us. We'll take a right into the forest momentarily, at which point Rikke and you guys will hide back and watch for anyone who may leave. When we give the all-clear, you may come to confirm the deed. Clear?"

"Clear, Lightbringer."

"Good. Let's go."

While they were walking, Yuri noticed that Alera wasn't holding the sword he had given her along with her usual equipment, but a slightly familiar cutlass.

"You had that cutlass when we met at Helgen, right?"

"...Ah, yeah. It belonged to her, to Trisha."

"Can I see it?" Yuri said. Alera double-checked him before nodding and gingerly passing it.

Yuri pointed it up looked at it for a moment. "It's a good blade. I can feel enchantments that sap the victim's endurance and agility from it. I'm going to coat it in my own metal so it doesn't break today, and if you're keen then I can enchant it to last longer and be a lot tougher later."

"I would appreciate it. As long as I have the saber, we can discuss improvements later."

Yuri let the metal in his bones out to coat the blade and sharpened its form to a terrifying degree. He engraved soul traps runes on the surface and fueled them. The other enchantments would work straight through Yuri's life metal without issue.

"What was that stuff?" Alera asked, while Rikke was also curious.

"Ah, a gift I didn't ask for. I can make that metal for as much as my body can handle it." Yuri said. He had been sucking the life force from the ground or the people that tried to rob them for a while and saturated his new bones.

"How neat... I won't ask how that is possible." Alera knew she had touched upon yet another secret. Yuri wasn't liking the distance they were gaining all of a sudden.

"My bones, it grafted to my bones and changed them. Now I can reproduce the material and expel it from my body."

"...Holy shit," Alera had picked up a very American phrase already.

"Sadly, it didn't go to the bone I love the most," Toni joked to break the tension.

"Implying I needed it?! I'll teach you..." But Yuri had to stop suddenly when he felt the door to death just half a mile into the forest. He used his fist to motion a full stop and told Rikke to get her troop into the trees, while he brought Alera and Toni to the direct approach.

Half a mile later, the land dipped into a crevice with a pond at one side and a concave rock wall at the other. Rikke and co. were above the crevice on a ledge to the side overlooking the pond to their right and the door to the left. Yuri and co. jumped down in front of the door.

"Ooooh, they certainly picked the right decorator." Toni teased.

"How do we get in?" Alera asked.

"Dealer's choice. I can break it down or I can use a password."

"Let's go loud. We aren't like them."

"Your wish is my command," Yuri took on a sly grin and raised his hands.

A pulling force grasped the door and the overhanging stone wall it was embedded, sending rock dust into their direction and displacing pebbles. A tremor shook the entire underground, rousing its occupants. Yuri wasn't done.

───※ ·❆· ※───

*BOOM* A shudder passed through the cavern that the Brotherhood stood or sat in. Dust and pebbles started raining from the ceiling.

"What the hell was that?" Astrid, the de facto leader, asked.

"I sense powerful magic being cast above. We are under attack." Festus Krex, an old man said while a child-shaped vampire nodded her affirmation.

"Oooooh, this is all too familiar! Enemies come knocking once more! We must protect the Night Mother!" Shouted a jester before pulling out a dagger and hiding right beside the doorway leading to the cavern.

"Arm yourselves," Astrid directed to the rest of the Brotherhood. Their discussion of company politics would have to wait.

*BOOOOOM* *CRRRRRRKKKKKKKRRRKKKRKRKRKRK*

"Whoever is doing this is stronger than anything I'd imagined a mage could be."

"What are they doing, trying to bury us?!"

"It feels like the whole door is being ripped off, the force is cracking a lot of stone from its mount. Going up there would be suicide right now."

"Stay hidden. They're targeting the door, meaning they'll infiltrate. We strike in ambush." The Brothers were not built for defense, this was their best bet.

"Shouldn't we retreat?" Asked Astrid's lover, Arnbjorn the Werewolf.

"NO! The Night Mother is still with us! We fight to the last man!" Cicero crazily interrupted.

"Whoever is coming will be able to sense us immediately, this level of telekinesis can't be done by a man who wouldn't be capable of-"

The shaking abruptly stopped, and natural sunlight poured into the stair-laden corridor twining up from the cavern they were watching.

"Shit"

The clicking of boots told the assassins that only three people had come in so far, but that didn't mean more weren't waiting outside. An emergency exit would have been nice.

A few of the members only saw the feet of the assailants when Cicero was thrown from his post into the water with a recognizable screech. Alera knew that sound. She rushed ahead of Yuri and came around the bend. Two arrows came for her immediately, which were deflected and dodged. Yuri followed through the doorway, no sword or magic in hand. Toni right behind with blades akimbo on her back but still sheathed. Yuri pulled Cicero out of the water and held him up like a thrashing puppet.

"Let's clear out the rest before we get your revenge!" Yuri said, and Alera listened. Save the best for last, he was the main course.

A Dunmer assassin and a spider attempted to lunge at Yuri from above completely silently. Yuri felt it anyway, he raised turned around and three short blades drew themselves from the segments between his knuckles on each hand. In a single swipe, the master and pet were turned into five parts each. He retracted Wolverine's claws and was glad they worked perfectly, while a blue soul traveled to his hip to the horror of the rest of the Brothers.

"You bastard!"

Toni had stood there grinning, letting Alera do the heavy lifting and watching to support if necessary.

Alera had stepped forward to take the rest. Arnbjorn had no patience, turning into his Werewolf form and charging Alera. Festus and Babette were looking for a magical opening or occasionally firing to the couple behind her to no effect.

Arnbjorn had taken a diagonal swing overhead from Alera's left, while Alera leaned the same direction and intercepted his arm with her coated blade. Arnbjorn lopped off his own arm. He howled in pain, but before he could regain himself she fluidly continued the overhead swing into a downward one and took the leg from the same side with her greater strength.

It was too fast for him. He fell over to the side that lacked and his head was caught by Alera's shield-bearing hand. All the brothers saw in a single moment was the hairy arm and leg taken, then a cutlass exiting the back through his heart. Another soul joined the Black Star.

"ARNBJOOOORN!!!!"

Astrid went mad, and started taking a charge while the two mages tried to fire at the also approaching Alera. Her shield came in handy for those.

"Astrid, wait!" Shouted a turbaned Redguard who grunted and charged with her. She had no chance in a head-on conflict, but he could help.

Astrid pulled out the Blade of Woe, and Nazir pulled two scimitars. Yuri made a mental note to visit the Katariah if it ever ported in Skyrim.

Astrid regained herself and let the man with the bigger swords start the offensive. Nazir took note of the shield and tried to make her use it so Astrid could get to her undefended side, but Alera didn't need the shield for him.

"IHR!" And a blast of fire erupted to Nazir, forcing him to guard and falter back.

"Shit! She has the Voice!"

"Dragonborn!"

With Nazir suffering burns, Alera swung her shield wide to take care of the dagger girl, which she couldn't defend or even dodge against. Astrid was disarmed and thrown backward by a shot to her upper body. Alera got inside her guard in a split second and gave the wife the same fatal wound as the husband.

While the sword was still lodged in a choking Astrid, Festus and Babette decided to launch fire at the threat before she had time to turn her attention towards them.

"ARN!" She shouted force and the fire spells were either blocked or exploded too early.

Nazir had lost his turban and top, the blades he held had melted to his hands and third-degree burns had welted across his skin, but he charged once more in rage anyway.

Alera unsheathed Astrid's heart and another soul entered the Star, enraging Nazir further.

He swung from two sides to decapitate, but the scimitar rebounded off the edge of her shield and she pressed in for a bash with that same shield. Nazir simply turned his blades around and tried to gouge her from behind the shield that was nearly in his face. Alera ducked and stopped her bash, striking his abdomen with the front edge of the shield and rising again to cleave his head laterally while he doubled over.

Nazir sensed danger and rolled out of the way to Alera's right, when the two mages took advantage and tried blasting her again. If Alera tried the same thing as last time, Nazir could approach from her back. So she simply...teleported.

Appearing suddenly behind the mages, Veezara who was also with them tried to stab her by reflex. His dagger was deflected out of the way and Alera stabbed him from the chin out from the top of his scale-covered skull.

Festus went for a strike while her back was turned, not a dagger but with a fist. His ring seemed to glow while his fist safely caught fire and turned into a melee spell. Babette was also trying to Vampirically suck the life from Alera at once.

Alera leaned and the fist passed her head, then she caught the hand and suplexed him over her shoulder.

"Why isn't it doing anything?!" Babette was getting no response from her Vampiric Drain. Lesser vampires couldn't bypass the Vulcan armor she was wearing.

Festus received a heavy stomp to the head and it was flattened before Alera turned around to face the...Child?!

"I can assure you she is much older than she-" Yuri was interrupted by Nazir who had started yelling and charging, forgetting his assassin training. Alera got the message, though.

Toni flicked her hand in a blur and a metal object found its way into the neck of Nazir before he could blink.

"You're getting good with those kunai." "Thank you! They're handy in a pinch."

Nazir keeled over, and Babette was bisected at the same time. The spells she threw while backpedaling couldn't go past her shield and Alera was too fast for Babette to do anything but lose ground and die quickly.

"Congratulations on your first Vampire kill!" "That still felt icky..."

Alera directed her gaze to the man who ruined her idyllic life.

"I remember you! If it isn't the girl with the scary voice! Come here to take revenge on poor poor Cicero?!" He was hysterical but you could tell me was still calm somehow and trying to find a weakness to exploit in the man who had been holding him.

"Wait, I know how to make him crack." Yuri TP'd while managing to keep him in place, then with a crash, a coffin came flying through a stained glass window and hovered in front of the dirty pond. Yuri opened it and revealed a woman who was literally skin and bones.

"What is-"

"The Night Mother will survive you, she always survives! A listener will find her! We will be reborn in due time!" Cicero cut in.

"You would think so, wouldn't you," Yuri manifested a super-condensed star with the intent of purification and the disintegration of vile and unnatural things, before tossing right in front of her face and closing the coffin shut. "She's not surviving that."

With a snap, a dull percussive burst and a flash of white light broke through the seams of the coffin and stopped just over a second later. Yuri opened the coffin like a microwave and steam came out of it for a second before it revealed... absolutely nothing.

"No...no no no no NO NO NOOOOOOO! THE NIGHT MOTHER CANNOT BE GONE! THE NIGHT MOTHER WILL LEAD US FOR ETERNITY! THE NIGHT MOTHER-"

"Alright," And Yuri brought him down to the cavern before using stone to completely seal his feet in the earth and made posts that rose to bind his hands and make him T-Pose. He was still screaming. "He's the last one, and he's all yours."

"Can you take your coating off," She asked. "I want her sword to kill him and not your coating."

"Sure, I can grab his soul on the way out too but I can't trap it in the star if you don't use the coating."

"Can you destroy it?"

"With pleasure."

Yuri and Toni watched in boredom at the rather tame display of torture. She was unpracticed and emotional, so it ended in less than ten minutes. He burned alive as a limbless thing, and Yuri caught his soul with soul magic and made sure it didn't return to Sithis. The gang left quietly afterward.

"I'm not going to ask because I know you don't feel better, but-"

"No, I do feel a bit better. It's what Trisha would have wanted."

"I think we deserve, what was it called honey? A hot springs episode?"

"Yes, yes, a Hotsprings episode would be good."

"Are you guys speaking in code again?"

{Next time on GSO!: Dawnguard Begins}