Mortal (Book 3)

Chapter 27

As we get closer to Ivarstead, my stomach tightens. My baby kicks nervously, and I try to discreetly rub my stomach. My father must die, that much is clear, but I don't think I can just let Alessia kill him in his sleep.
"Alessia?"
"Yes, my Queen?" She asks.
"I've changed my mind." I tell her. She stops in the road and looks at me, her eyes terrifying in the darkness.
"You don't want him killed?" She asks.
"No, I do. It's just... I have some questions for him. I want my face to be the last thing he sees before he dies. Hold him up and slit his throat." I tell her. She raises an eyebrow, and I think she smiles viciously beneath her mask.
"As you wish, my Queen."
We take the long way around the outside of the village, careful not to alert the guards on the main road. His disintegrating home is the only one on the other side of the river, where there happen to be no patrols. I step onto his porch, and immediately smell decay. Has he already died? When we step into the house the floor is covered in rotting food, empty bottles, and what I can only assume is his own waste. He sleeps on the floor in the next room, a bottle in his hand as he grumbles and groans. I wish I could say I hardly recognize him, but he looks almost exactly the same. I wonder distantly how it came to this. Certainly many men lose their wives all the time, but not many of them become what he did. Alessia looks at me, and I nod.
She creeps over to him, then carefully puts a gloved hand over his mouth before kicking the bottle away. In an instant she pulls him upward by his hair, then drops onto him and wraps her long legs around his midsection when he begins to struggle. She masterfully locks his arms behind her elbows, then rolls him up into a sitting position. In the struggle she's lost her hood and her mask, revealing thick black lips that hide sharp, perfectly white teeth. As he continues to struggle she presses her mouth to his ear, shushing him as if he were a crying baby.
"Oh hush now, little man... It'll all be over soon." She croons, smiling wickedly. He stops screaming finally. "Listen now, my friend has some questions for you. If you answer them honestly, we'll let you go." She lies. She slowly removes her hand from his mouth.
"Please... Let me go... Narfi doesn't have nothin', promise!" He begs. I'd never known him to speak that way before, but I suppose so many years of drinking will do that to you. However, his eyes are completely glazed over and can't seem to focus on any one thing. I kneel before him and pull off my hood, leaning in close to his face despite the stench.
"Do you know who I am?" I ask him.
"Well... Narfi ain't ever seen you before..." He says.
"Look closer." I growl. Finally, his eyes focus.
"You look familiar... You look like..." He trails off, then finally he realizes. "Nova." He says. Tears stream down my face.
"You know what you did." I accuse him, gritting my teeth.
"Narfi didn't do nothin'—" He starts again.
"Why did you do it?" I ask him. His face contorts in sadness and confusion, and finally he begins to cry.
"She was just a little girl..." He sobs. "Narfi was so alone..."
"I was that little girl. You almost ruined me. You sold me like I was nothing." I growl at him.
"Please... Narfi doesn't remember... So so sorry..." he cries.
"Papa... Why?" I ask once more. Maybe there's hope for him. Maybe deep down, he's still there. He blinks at me, as if suddenly waking up from a trance.
"You're just as beautiful as your mother." He says.
His blood splatters across the floor and the wall, across Alessia's white face, on my shirt and my pants. In my hand is Alessia's dagger, covered in blood. I drop it and it clatters against the floor. She tosses his limp body off of her, then retrieves her dagger before standing up.
"You almost went all the way through his neck." She observes quietly.

~

"Shouldn't you eat something?" Alessia asks. I blink up at her from where I sit, slumped against the cave wall. "I don't really remember how often you're supposed to do that, but I think you should." She says awkwardly. I look back outside, watching the rain. Just like the day my mother died.
"I suppose you're right." I mumble.
"Do you need me to bring you anything?" She asks.
"My satchel." She grabs it from where it sits next to the fire and hands it to me. I take out a ripe green apple and take a bite. It tastes like dirt, but I need to eat for the baby. Alessia has cleaned herself up and wiped all the blood off of her armor, but still lacks her hood and mask; I believe it was lost in the garbage. I should probably clean myself up too, but I lack the energy.
"So... He was your father?" She asks. I nod. "And he... Hurt you?" She asks.
"He sold me to a brothel in Cyrodiil when I was sixteen." I tell her blankly.
"Ah... I have to say, I'm surprised you didn't kill him sooner." She says. "How old are you now?"
"Twenty-one. Do you remember how old you are?" I ask her.
"204, isn't it? Not that old, then. I was twenty-one when I turned, so I suppose I'd be about twenty-five now." She explains. I nod.
"How long have you been an assassin?" I ask. She smiles.
"What a question. My entire life, I suppose." She answers. When I look at her expectantly for a better answer, she smiles and continues. "My mother was a woman named Alisanne Dupre, and she was the last Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, the highest honor one can attain. My father was a Count of Cyrodiil. They weren't married, she was only his mistress, but he treated me as his child all the same. After her death he continued to raise me in his home, intending me to be his heir. Of course after his death his wife and son made absolutely sure that didn't happen, and they've been trying to kill me ever since." She explains with a smile on her face.
"Have they ever gotten close?" I ask.
"No, no." She laughs. "Never. They keep hiring the Dark Brotherhood to kill me, and I keep getting contracts for myself." She says, laughing hysterically. Somehow, I chuckle a bit too. While her story is far too astonishing to be real, it's at least entertaining.
"How did you become a vampire, then?" I ask.
"Ah, that'll have to be a story for another time, your majesty." She says, smiling.
"Really? Why draw the line there? You've already told me everything else." I ask her.
"Let's hear more about you, first." She proposes.
"Fine. What do you want to know?" I ask. She thinks long and hard.
"Will you be totally honest, my Queen?" She counters.
"Were you?" I ask, smiling. She smacks a hand to her chest, sarcastically offended.
"My Queen, of course. I'm sure it's some sort of crime to lie to royalty."
"As if you're unfamiliar with crime." I chide her. "Still, I'll be honest." She thinks again, looking out of the cave and into the rain.
"Who are you?" She asks.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you're the Queen of course, but barely. I've worked with royalty before, and you obviously weren't born for this. Who were you before, I guess is what I'm asking." She says.
"How did you know I was the Queen, anyway? When we met in Solitude."
"I suppose I'm just a bit more observant than the average citizen. Don't worry, I'm sure your disguise would fool anyone that wasn't looking out for you." She says. "You keep answering my questions with more questions, your majesty."
"Alright, Alright... Before I was the Queen I was a Stormblade in the rebellion. Before that, I was a Companion in Whiterun. Before that, I was a whore, and before that I was a little girl from Rorikstead. I suppose I've been a lot of things." I tell her.
"Hmm... But what about the Dragonborn? When did you become that?" She asks.
"I hadn't thought of it that way. I suppose I always was, but I didn't always know it. I didn't find out until just before I joined the rebellion." I explain.
"That's who you are then, I'd say. You were that before you were a little girl. You just pretended to be all of those other things." She says. For some reason, the thought is comforting but harrowing at the same time.
"I'm the only one, though. If you were the only vampire in the entire world, wouldn't you pretend to be something else?" I ask her.
"Oh of course, I don't blame you at all your majesty. I'm sure it's a very lonely thing to be the most powerful being in the world."