The Dark Brotherhood, Part 7 (Bound Until Death) (Katnys)

After reporting back to Nazir and collecting both praise and gold, Katnys learned that the time had come for her to report to Solitude for Vittoria Vici's wedding.  As she prepared to make her way north, Katnys realized that she had been so caught up in thinking about killing the Emperor's cousin that she had neglected to plan the details of the assassination.  Fortunately, her "family" had already been doing the planning for her.  Babette pointed out the loose statue above the balcony where the bride and groom would be addressing the crowd, while Nazir and Veezara both pointed out the difficulty Katnys might have in making her escape from such a public killing.  Gabriella had even found a way to leave an enchanted bow for her in a temple parapet with a sniper's-eye view of the wedding.

As she considered her options, Katnys took a moment to appreciate the Brotherhood's kindness.  Having just met Katnys a little while ago, this band of killers had not only entrusted her with the most important contract they'd had in years, but were also going out of their way to advise and provide for her -- even though they would not individually benefit from her success.  She was especially touched by Gabriella's gesture, which demonstrated her countrywoman's respect for Katnys's skill as an archer.  So, it was decided: Vittoria Vici would die by the bow. 

Katnys and Jenassa had little trouble infiltrating the wedding and finding Gabriella's "care package."  The hardest part was the waiting and listening to the smarmy cheers and well-wishing of the crowd of Imperial boot-lickers, entirely unconcerned that their beloved Emperor was both a coward and a tyrant.  Well, today, Katnys was going to show them how thin the walls of Solitude really were!

When Katnys grabbed the bow Gabriella had left for her, she felt the enchanted chill run up her arm.  While she appreciated the gift, Katnys selected her own fire-enchanted bow for the task; she thought that watching the Emperor's kin go down in the flames of Red Mountain might be sweeter.

She thought right.

As Vici's burning corpse slouched onto her horrified groom, Katnys suddenly realized what Nazir and Veezara had been worried about.  The crowd erupted in panic, and despite Katnys's best attempts at stealth, she and Jenassa had been spotted.  Thinking a direct escape might be best, they jumped down into the plaza, only to find Veezara himself clearing a path for them.  After a brief exchange of words, Katnys and Jenassa slipped out of the pandemonium while Veezara stayed behind to protect them.

Note that Astrid sends Veezara to provide assistance after the deed is complete.  Had she only cared about the target, Astrid could have left Katnys twisting in the wind.

As she closed the iron door behind her and looked out onto the Sea of Ghosts, Katnys paused for a moment to reflect on the Brotherhood's deeds that day.  Not only had she killed a member of the Emperor's own family, but a member of her own new family risked his own life to protect her.  Surely this was a sign that Katnys was on the right path.

Glowing from her flawless success, and from the love of the Brotherhood, Katnys and Jenassa journeyed back to the Sanctuary to bring the good news back to Astrid.

The Dark Brotherhood, Part 6 (Side Contracts:Kill Deekus/Ma'randru-jo/Anoriath) (Katnys)

The news of Motierre's scheme, combined with the new reality of living as a vampire, provided quite a full plate for Katnys.  Anxious as she was to get started on the road that would put her face-to-face with the embodiment of the Empire that killed her sister, Katnys had to admit to some relief when she learned that the wedding was still a few days away.  She decided to speak to Nazir to see if there were any side contracts available on which she could sharpen her skills for the momentous tasks ahead.

Nazir, for his part, was delighted to give Katnys three new targets: Deekus, Ma'randru-jo, and Anoriath.  Deekus, who was camping alone on an island north of Dawnstar, was the easiest kill of the three.  Ma'randru-jo proved to be a greater challenge; because his caravan had camped just outside of Whiterun's main gate, Katnys had to crouch in the brush for what seemed like hours before the Khajit moved out of the sight of the guards, the folks at the stable, and, of course, his companions.  Anoriath was by far the most difficult target.  While waiting for the Bosmer to go hunting would have been the ideal strategy, Katnys needed to move things along in time for her appointment in Solitude.  Therefore, she decided to sneak into the Drunken Huntsman and kill him in his sleep.  Complicating her plan was the fact that Elrindir never seemed to move from the counter.  Fortunately, Katnys had learned how to use her Embrace of Shadows in order to get past the watchful proprietor, so killing the slumbering Anoriath was just a matter a closing the bedroom door before firing a point-blank arrow into his back.

After she sneaked back out into the crisp air of the Whiterun night and rejoined Jenassa (whom she has asked to stand watch outside the back door), Katnys readied herself to make the journey to Solitude...but something felt amiss.  She looked into Jenassa's face -- the face she had seen for the first time inside the Drunken Huntsman -- and realized how much they both had changed since the day they met.  Katnys had just murdered three people -- not out of fear or revenge, but as preparation for another murder.  And this last one, Anoriath...what would Elrindir do when he discovered his brother's body?  Elrindir -- in whose establishment Katnys had found not only the gear she depended on, but also the woman whose love and loyalty was vast enough to accept even assassination and vampirism -- would he now mourn his brother the way Katnys mourned her beloved Prym?  Would he seek vengeance?  Would it be justice if he did?  After all, Katnys murdered Anoriath with full malice of forethought; the Legionnaire who killed Prym wasn't even aiming at her.  Prym was collateral damage in a war the Evyrdene sisters had no part in.

And that was the thought that brought her back to Vittoria Vici's wedding: the Empire.  Yes, Katnys had become an assassin, but every drop of blood she spilled served a purpose.  First, each of these people was a target of a contract; in other words, someone wanted them dead badly enough to perform the Black Sacrament.  Katnys had no way of knowing why most of the time, but that was none of her concern anyway.  All that mattered was that the Brotherhood, her adopted family, needed these people dead.  Furthermore, if she had to kill a thousand "innocent" people to settle the score with an Empire so corrupt, incompetent, and arrogant that it could slaughter her sister without even knowing or caring what it had done, then so be it.  And if Elrindir found out that Katnys was responsible to his loss and wanted vengeance of his own, that was his business -- so long as he waited until Motierre's contract was done.  Otherwise...well, Katnys wasn't going to let a grieving fletcher stand between her and her date with Titus Mede II.

No -- the Emperor would know Prym's name.  It would be last word he'd hear.

The Dark Brotherhood, Part 5 (The Silence Has Been Broken) (Katnys)

By the time Katnys returned to the Sanctuary, Astrid had decided on a course of action.  While she still didn't trust Cicero, she could not deny that the Night Mother had indeed spoken to Katnys, and it would therefore be foolish to ignore the message. With Astrid's blessing, Katnys was now to travel to Volunruud in order to meet with Motierre and see why the Night Mother might be interested in him.

Before she could go, however, she needed to report her contract completions to Nazir. The news of Lurbuk's death brought the usual sarcasm with the gold, but when Katnys confirmed that she had killed Hern as well, Nazir dropped his sardonic veneer to offer his sincere respect for facing down a vampire.  He then suggested that she check for signs of vampirism herself, making reference to the Brotherhood's own resident vampire, Babette.

That's when it dawned on her: the ambush at Half-Moon Mill, the strange draining attack, that nagging thirst on the way home...Katnys had contracted Sanguinare Vampiris! She knew enough to understand that if she didn't act quickly, she would become a full-blown vampire before the week was out.  Katnys found the Cure Disease potion she had picked up somewhere along the way, opened the vial...and stopped.

Vampirism was bad, of course.  Katnys had encountered vampires before; she witnessed a vampire attack in Whiterun, and even though she didn't help the town guards and citizens put the monsters down, that one Dawnguard soldier took her aside and invited her to join his band of vampire hunters. At the time, she was too focused on avenging her sister and the whole "Dragonborn" business to get involved.  Now that she was infected, she was involved whether she liked it or not.

As she held the Cure Disease potion to her lips, she thought about those vampires; they were powerful, they could enthrall people, drain health from afar, even become invisible. But most of all, they didn't grow old and die.  Nazir mentioned Babette; look at what she had accomplished through this "disease."  What if Katnys needed more power, more time to exact her vengeance on the Empire? Wouldn't becoming a vampire actually help?  What did she have to lose?  She would talk it over with Jenassa on the way to Volunruud; Katnys had grown to really love and trust Jenassa during their travels together and her opinion meant more than anyone else's.

Once outside the Sanctuary, Katnys told her companion everything.  Jenassa, for her part, had little to say, but the little she did say decided the issue for Katnys: "We're one of the same kind, you and I. I'm glad to have met you. I am a lethal instrument, yours to command. Blade and shadow, silence and death - these are my arts. I'll make great art for you.  I am the shadow at your back.  Let's get going."  Jenassa would be beside her, no matter what.

Glowing from Jenassa's expression of acceptance and loyalty, Katnys led the way to Volunruud.  Once inside the tomb, she found a tattered journal next to what was, presumably, the author's skeleton.  Katnys opened the journal, fearing that she had failed to reach Motierre in time, only to discover that the journal belonged to some foolish explorer named Heddic; she pocketed the journal (there would be time to follow up on that later) and followed a noise to her left that sounded increasingly like muffled conversation.  In front of a large closed door lay the bodies of several vanquished draugr.  If Motierre was behind that door, he was someone to be reckoned with.

As it turned out, Motierre was indeed in the chamber beyond, but it was most likely his hulking bodyguard, Rexus, who had dispatched the draugr.  Katnys startled and raised her bow upon first laying eyes on Rexus in his Imperial armor -- was this some sort of Imperial trap?  Motierre, however, rushed forward to put her at ease.  He was obviously still shaken from performing the Black Sacrament, and was eager to get down to business.  Katnys, however, was not prepared for the target he was to offer: the Emperor!

It was all Katnys could do to keep the cold, silent demeanor she had begun to adopt as an assassin.  In an instant, in that stinking Nord crypt, listening to veiled insults of a Breton fop and his Imperial pet -- everything suddenly made sense.  How did Motierre put it?  The stars had aligned.  The dragon attack at Helgen, the Aretino boy, the Brotherhood contracts that tugged at her conscience, the Night Mother's revelation: it had all led to this.  With this contract, Katnys would finally avenge her sister.  The Emperor himself would pay for Prym's blood!

Quickly remembering herself, Katnys took some items from Rexus (she hadn't really been paying attention -- Motierre said something about an amulet, a letter, and killing some other people) and made straight for the Sanctuary.  Astrid was, of course, taken aback by the news, but then gave Katnys a quick history lesson and embraced the challenge Motierre had put before the Brotherhood:

She said the magic word.

The next step for Katnys was to get the amulet appraised.  For that, she'd have to make her way to Riften and connect with another shadowy group: the Thieves Guild.  Finding the Guild wasn't too hard -- it was a bit of an open secret -- but before she and Jenassa could enter the Ragged Flagon and speak with the fence, Delvin Mallory, they did have to kill a few thugs in the Ratway.  While the skirmishes in the Ratway were of little consequence in and of themselves, Katnys noticed that a few things had changed for her.  First, she could smell blood much more strongly, and it was now an appetizing aroma.  Second, she realized that, if she concentrated, she could see in the dark much better than before.  She even dared to try to make a thrall, and succeeded...even if it only lasted a few minutes.  But, there were more important matter to attend to.

Once inside the Ragged Flagon, Mallory confirmed that the amulet belonged to a member of the Emperor's Elder Council, and gave Katnys the letter of credit Astrid had mentioned. Upon her return, Katnys delivered the letter, and in exchange, Astrid revealed that to her that Katnys would carry out the first assassination herself: Vittoria Vici, manager of the East Empire Company's holdings in Solitude, was to be killed at her own wedding.  Slaughtering an Empire lackey in front of a crowd of Imperial dandies-- what a lovely opening act!