Contract 2-Married to Sithis

I closed the black horse mail journal. Apparently, a noble and ancient family had been found savagely and horribly killed in their home, the guards assume that the daughter of the family had committed the murder, and had committed suicide by piercing her heart with a dagger, her body was in a room of the *** tavern, on the floor, naked and without external injuries.

Antonneta, who was reading over my shoulder, laughed to herself.

- These guards are born detectives, don't you think, my very dear brother? Ocheeva is on a mission, so I solemnly give you the black headband, I hope it fits you.

The headband in question was a ring that, once I put it on, made me feel faster.

- Don't ask me why this ring is called the black headband, it's been like that for a while now...

The door of the sanctuary opened brutally, and a cloud of black bats penetrated there, and suddenly, they gathered before taking a human form, which spoke to me.

- Pleased, brother, my name is Vincente Valerai, you must be the one Ocheeva told me about who has no name? Magnificent, simply magnificent.

I couldn't take my eyes off Vincente's face, his eyes, his teeth... I had in front of me a vampire, and a fairly old one.

- My appearance surprises you, maybe? Don't worry my brother, I only use my "gifts" against those who harm me, but let's come to the reason for my coming, I have several contracts for you, the most recent is the following, you will have to be invited to a wedding in Chorrol, and kill the groom when he should give his answer in front of the pastor and the guests, of course, you must not be seen at the time of the murder, but present during the investigation and the rest of the ceremony, you will have a bonus if you do not have the slightest problem with the guards. For details, you should contact the bride, she is the one who prayed Sithis.

- It is a good contract for you, my beloved brother.

The basic rules of politeness are never to refuse an invitation to a wedding, especially when the party promises to be so excellent.

Before leaving, I had talked with Taleandril, she is a fairly old wood elf, but rather friendly, and expert in arrows and various poisons, she is the one who does the shopping, and deals with the purchase of the silence of the government of Cheydinhal.

- A way to kill a target so that his death is seen by hundreds of people, without you being seen? Come on my brother, you are not serious... Are you? Well I don't have much to offer you in this context... Maybe a delayed arrow of death? A superb arrow whose metal fragments in the body once the flesh is touched, causing an unexpected death a few minutes later... I also have the soft delayed death arrow, which inoculates a nightshade poison killing the target between five and ten minutes later.

Antonetta chooses this moment to come and give me her opinion.

- Start with the basics, gain the trust of the husband, so when the guards investigate, the witnesses can tell how close you and the victim were, my dear brother... and take that, too!

Antonetta gave me a vial containing a strange bluish gas.

- It´s nimroot gas, in contact with the eyes, it makes you cry with hot tears, it can be useful to you, now, my brother, don´t get killed! Finally, uh...

I thanked Taleandril and Marie Antoinetta and set off for Chorrol.

The bride-to-be was on time for the appointment that I had fixed for her in front of the abandoned house, she was an imperial, significantly older than me, she was perhaps in her twenties.

- Oh, you must be the... Well, delighted, my name is Clemence Rosaline Feroth, the man I have to marry is called Judek, a red guard, this marriage was arranged by my parents, I don't want to marry this man, at any cost.

A detail intrigued me, why did I have to kill him in front of all these people? And not just a well-placed blow to the back of the neck? I asked him the question.

- My parents, if he disappeared like that, they would find me another simpleton, but such a huge murder, before their eyes, that will probably dissuade them from wanting to look for someone again. That said, when the guards investigate, if they find you guilty, I couldn't do anything for you, feel free to send members of Judek's family to jail, I don't care.

She handed me a pink parchment, white with gold letters.

- This is your wedding invitation, you're cousin Elezar, your spitting image... you and Judek went to the same school eleven years ago, you like...

Clemence had told me enough for me to shape a new identity, she told me that Judek would spend the whole night drinking alone at the inn in Chorrol, where I went.

When Judek saw me, I pretended to be overjoyed and surprised, he hesitated, then howled with pleasure too.

- It´s cousin Elezar! I'm glad to see you too!! Damn, that doesn't make us any younger, does it? Sit down!

I yelled at the big dirty boss to serve a general round and that it was on me. Of course I had picked the pockets of one of the clients, that would cover my budget.

I started to tell laughing and with emotion what I had done after school, that I had married, that I was happy, that the bride was superb, I told funny anecdotes of the youth of Judek and me...

- Excellent! Hilarious, really! Do you remember when the teacher scolded us? He came up to us and said "what are you doing with that beer?" and you had...

Judek had more and more confidence in me, and chained bottles of mead at full speed. He was getting married tomorrow, it was normal for him to be stressed, poor man.

- And then my pants fell off!

he burst out laughing and I did the same, then we arm wrestled, he crushed me completely, then he spoke to me solemnly.

- I want to tell you, Elezar, that It's a great pleasure to meet you again, my friend.

I returned the compliment and invited him to go chat outside, he told me about his love for the bride, his excitement, his fear of not being up to par, I spent my time comforting him.

- Yes, you're right, Elezar, I worry for nothing, I'm sure our feelings are shared, look at me, I'm scared to death!

This kind of irony always amuses me a lot, but it was neither the place nor the place.

- Oh, Elezar, is that you?

A Redguard woman jumped into my arms, one detail escaped me.

- Why didn't you give us news all these years?

- Come on, Elezar, do you remember Kat? She was with us!

I end up recognizing said Kat after this brief "memory lapse".

They were there, evoking childhood memories, and I participated as much as possible.

- It's good that Judek is finally getting married, after our stormy relationship...

- Please, don't go back on it, Kat!

- How's your ex-wife, Elezar? You know well, daisy?... I feel different, Elezar, are you alright?

I pretended to be tired, and went back to the hostel to change and get ready, I still had no idea how to fulfill my contract properly.

I was able to put on more elegant clothes for the ceremony.

The next day, arriving at the church, I could notice that the number of guards deployed was enormous, and that there were everywhere, not the slightest opening.

I had the two arrows, the ninroot gas and my dagger on me, but I had no idea how to use them without being seen, and the groom seemed to want to stay in his dressing room until the last moment.

Then he left, he looked very nervous, the whole room applauded, and Kat, who was sitting next to me, told me how much she found the moment beautiful and was happy to see her two best friends married.

I got up and went to shake hands with Judek, who had tears in his eyes.

- Elezar, it's the new ones that blessed me to allow me to find my dearest friend, thank you, thank you for being there.

He hugged me and a wave of emotion crossed the room, I sat down again because the pastor beckoned me.

When she arrived, the bride threw me a look full of doubts, then stood next to her husband.

- They are beautiful, don't you think elezar?

The redguard laid her head on my shoulder, crying, and the pastor spoke.

- We are gathered today, in this sacred place...

The tension was palpable at the time of the final verdict.

- Clemence Rosaline Feroth, do you agree to take Judek Skylye as your husband?

- I accept, with all my heart.

Judek began to wipe his face with a handkerchief.

- Judek Skylye, do you agree to take Clemence Rosaline Feroth as wives?

- I... I...

The entire room began to scream as Judek collapsed. My stratagem had worked, slipping the poisoned tip of the arrow into the palm of my hand. He probably had to suffer, I admire him for not screaming, at his own wedding too.

The guards closed the doors and yelled at people to stay calm.

CALM, THIS IS MURDER, STAY SIT OR YOU WILL BE ARRESTED!

People sat protesting silently, Kat was crying, but in grief now, she would have turned against me as she looked shocked.

- What a horror... no... no... not him...

I comforted her, while the guards interrogated people.

- IT'S HIM, IT'S THAT DUMNER! I SAW HIM TOUCH THE VICTIM LAST!

- Me too! Stop it!

- He gave the bride a weird look!

I had drawn too much attention to myself, it was bad.

- Don't worry, I know you're innocent, you were a very precious friend to him, you know?

I took the bottle of ninroot gas and applied it to a handkerchief as if it were normal water, before giving it to Kat and telling her to dry her tears.

- You are so kind... I... I am happy to have found you Elezar, really...

Two guards approached me, ready to draw their weapons, and with a certain desire to kill me, probably.

- Get up, follow us to the castle, faster than that.

- He... *boo* He's innoooooceeeeeent *sniff*

Kat was now crying her heart out, like she'd seen a nine-month-old cut into pieces, or something.

- He was *yess* a very close friend *sniff* of the victim... VERY...

- Madam, I ask you to calm down.

Seeing that Kat wasn't calming down, the guards looked at each other, then spoke to me again.

- Has your friend done anything suspicious these days?

I told them about his affair with Judek in their youth, his permanent tears, his jealousy of the groom, and especially this arrowhead that I had discovered at his feet.

- Wh *sob* what are you talking about Elezar?

- Our apologies for having falsely accused you, sir.

The head guard shouted to the other soldiers.

- Take her and make her talk!

Kat screamed for help while struggling, crying and claiming her innocence, combined with her tears, it gave the scene a very interesting dramatic side.

The guests apologized for accusing me, and all told me that they knew that filthy redguard was crazy from the start, I replied that they were unfortunately right.

On leaving the church, I was questioned by a reporter from the black horse, who baptized his article: "We came close to a miscarriage of justice, racism against the dumners?"

As a parting shot, the look Kat gave me when she saw my black headband while I was talking to the reporter was superb.

Acting in the shadows can have some satisfying moments.