Breakfast

As Brom walked back into the general store to meet up with Erin he immediately knew something was wrong. The store was trashed, there was supply's all over the floor, some shelves had been broken, and there were logs from the fire on the other side of the room. He walked farther in and saw a few blood stains on the counter, then one near the fire. There was also a discarded basket next to the back door. The door itself was open but didn't look tampered with.

Taking a step back Brom came up with a scenario. An unknown person came in and talked to the store owner. He got angry and attacked him, slamming his head into the counter to try and get him to talk. But he didn't kill him. Next, someone came from back to investigate the noise. A fight was initiated between the newcomer and the intruder. They must have dropped that basket near the door when they attacked the intruder. The person from the back rushed and threw the unknown intruder into shelves. Then they got thrown towards the fire, where they threw one of the flaming logs at the attacker before running outside.

Brom nodded to himself, this seemed likely enough. Now he only needed to identify who these people were. He walked towards the basket on the ground and looked inside it. There were some spices, common basic foods, and about 1000 septims. Brom stood up and muttered to himself.

"Erin. This was going to be our breakfast."

He then walked into the back of the shop to see if he could find anything else out. Turning right he saw the store owner slumped against the wall, blood was coming from his head and a splatter of it could be seen on the wall above him. Lying next to him there was an iron sword. The door leading to outside from the back was wide open, with two sets of footprints heading towards the coastline.

So, the store owner must have run while Erin, as Brom had figured out, attacked the intruder to the back. Then he grabbed his sword and tried attacking the intruder as he/she was chasing Erin outside. The intruder easily dealt with him, crushing his head into the stone.

Brom swore and kicked a bucket. The bright side is that he already finished his business here, but now he had to track down Erin's pursuer. As he started jogging after the tracks he wondered if her employer sent a henchman of sorts, or maybe even the torturer himself. Either way, he was going in the right direction to Winterhold, plus he needed to save her. She still owed him breakfast after all.

It took him half an hour to find another scene, the track led to the side of the road and the snow was all messed up. Brom saw a piece of cloth, he knelt down and studied it. It looked like a piece of the Dark Brotherhood's armor. Dusting off his knees as he stood he glanced around and saw a single set of deeper tracks leading off the road towards the coast still.

Brom sighed, she got caught by the brotherhood, or someone dressed up as the brotherhood. The Skyrim chapter of the Dark Brotherhood was located in Falkreath, although they had an abandoned sanctuary near here. Brom knew that the Dawnstar Sanctuary was the most likely destination.

He took a gamble and abandoned the tracks and started towards the sanctuary. If his guess was right, he should be able to catch up, if not beat the person there since they had to now carry Erin and were probably taking time to hide their tracks. If his guess was wrong, he may lose her forever. Pushing his doubts aside, Brom focused on getting there as soon as he could. He knew doubts and the indecisiveness that came with them were the cause of more failures than a bad choice.

It only took him twenty minutes at a rushed pace to reach the sanctuary door. Looking around he noticed that there no tracks, and the snow near the door was undisturbed. Brom let a smile creep across his face, he was not ready to face the brotherhood, or even a wannabe brotherhood, by himself. This gave him the opportunity to avoid this problem for now. The door to the sanctuary was built in in the side of a hill towards the coast. He quickly walked up to this hill, while using a branch to wipe his tracks. Once up top, he saw in the nearby brush that gave him a decent view of the door and the path leading towards it. He sat down in this brush to wait and see if his gamble paid off.

As he was sitting there waiting, it started snowing lightly. He looked up and sighed, if he was wrong there was no way of finding her now. That is when it hit him, he had changed again. When he first arrived in this world, he could barely muster the confidence to speak. Then he became confident and only wanted to grow in power. Yet, here he was now, caring about other people. About someone who had tried robbing him for goodness sake. Brom rolled his eyes at himself, he really needed to get his priorities straight and figure out what he truly wanted with this life.

All of that would have to wait, as there was a man heading to the door; with a small elf sized sack over his shoulder. Smiling to himself, Brom waited until the man reached the door. He wanted to see what the password was, if it was the same in game as here, before taking him out. The man wearily leaned the sack against the door and knocked, then Brom heard it.

"What is life's greatest illusion?" This was whispered eerily by the door.

"Innocence, my brother." The man replied.

This was all Brom needed to hear. As the man below him bent over to pick up the sack Brom jumped out of the bush with Iron Fist pre-casted. The man spun around and stabbed at Brom with a dagger as he heard the brush move. Brom was already in mid-leap and could not dodge this so he punched it instead. With the spell Iron Fist having been cast the blade and the bones in the man's arms shattered, while the man himself was thrown onto his back. Brom walked towards him and cast Sparks, then put both hands on the sides of the man's head and fried his brain.

Then he stood up and walked towards the sack, untying it he saw it had… vegetables. Erin wasn't here. Brom stood up and cursed. He had already killed his only lead in his confidence that he was right. He kicked the dead man's body out of frustration and berated himself for being so stupid as to not plan on this. He made sure to remember this event; he did not want to ever be put in this situation again.

He took the bag and headed back to Dawnstar. He would collect the money owed to him and Erin's bag she left. Then he would head to the one thing that might be able to find her.

A few hours later Brom was on another horse, riding towards Winterhold. If any bandit or creature decided to attack him, they would have regretted it. Brom was in a foul mood and only the exhaustion that came from his magica expulsion kept him from trying to go kill something.

As he was riding down the road, there were a pair of eyes watching him. The figure stood up when Brom passed its hiding spot and smiled.

"He really does care,"

And with that, the figure continued to stalk after Brom, all the way to Winterhold.