Not Alone (A Skyrim Fanfiction)

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

"Stop getting yourself into these situations and I won't have to," Karliah pointed out, finally moving into view.

"How did you find me, anyway?" I asked. That had been some pretty incredible timing, and I hadn't even known about Babette. Surely Karliah hadn't known what was going on either.

"I wasn't looking for you, actually," the Dunmer archer said, fumbling around in a pocket. "A few days ago someone broke into Nightingale Hall and stole some of my paralysis poison, the kind I used on you to save you from Mercer. It's hard enough to make that I wasn't going to just let it go." She pulled a small vial out of the pocket. "Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was a little girl, and my even greater surprise when after watching said little girl for a few days you showed up and adopted her. I'd actually been following you both for several minutes before she turned on you. Here, I developed a cure to that poison. I imagine you'd prefer it to laying there for another few hours." She poured a small amount into my mouth and I swallowed, almost choking on the acidic and foul-tasting liquid.

"Little girl, my eye," I growled when I had finally gotten the stuff down. "That was Babette, a vampire and Dark Brotherhood assassin." I tried my fingers again and managed to move them about an inch.

Karliah's face assumed a serious expression. "The Dark Brotherhood? Are you sure?"

"Believe me, I wish it was someone else, but yes." That stuff might taste disgusting but it worked fast. I sat up, but decided to delay standing for another moment or so.

"What was Astrid thinking?" Karliah echoed my sentiments from earlier.

"Well, clearly you weren't supposed to be here to save me. Would the Guild have ever known who had killed me if Babette had succeeded?" I used my now fully functional limbs and stood up, glancing down at where Frea lay. For better or worse, this time she was truly dead, her amber eyes gazing up at the sky with a slightly confused expression.

Probably wondering why her All-Maker chose for her to die so close to killing me, I thought, a bitter taste that had nothing to do with the poison cure seeping into my mouth.

Karliah looked down. "Not a friend of yours, I hope?"

"No, not a friend." I didn't elaborate, and Karliah didn't press, so I continued, "Do you think the Dark Brotherhood will give up on the contract now that the person who ordered it is dead?"

She looked down at Frea's body. "I doubt it. Any group needs professional validity to be hired, and if it gets around that they were paid to kill someone and not only did that someone kill the person who hired them but then the Dark Brotherhood also refused to honor the contract afterward, it could severely injure their reputation."

"So they're still after me, then." Just what I needed, a group of master assassins on my tail. Just in case I didn't have enough reason to look over my shoulder every few minutes anyway.

Karliah pushed her hair back over her shoulders and said, "You should tell Brynjolf what happened here. It is clear we can no longer trust the Dark Brotherhood, and something will have to be done. Not to mention there is a chance they may target other members of the Guild to get to you."

"I'll talk to Astrid," I said a little distractedly. Karliah gave me a look and I hastened to add, "Not without backup, and not without speaking to Brynjolf first. I just have a few things to take care of first, and I'm not sure how long they'll take. Could you talk to Brynjolf? Tell him not to take any kind of action against the Dark Brotherhood without consulting me."