I: Counsel.
3E 426 Cyrodiil, Imperial City.
A tall Altmer woman in black robes sat in front of the towering statue of Merhunes Dagon lost in meditation. A few candles threw their shimmering light up against the statue of the Daedra Lord giving it an uncanny lively appearance. Amethysts burnt darkly in the pig's blood in the sacrificial bowl in front of the old woman. As she lifted her face an inch her eyes slowly opened, a sinister smile crept across her lips but her eyes betrayed no emotion. The past few days she had spent in deep meditation, counseling with the Daedra for guidance. Now standing before the statue she appeared regal and unbending. Grand, even while standing beneath the immense statue of the Daedric Prince for she was the Night Mother of the Dark Brotherhood. Rumoured to be older even than the statue in front of her, her Altmer features were hidden under a maze of lines and creases. But her eyes, black from centuries of dedicating herself to the Daedra Lords, exuded a fierce deliberation that belied her wrinkled face. Her name long forgotten by her followers she was now simply known as Night Mother, or Mother as those close enough to her might affectionately call her.
One such person was observing her from the shadows between the pillars in the hall. And all the closer he was to this old woman for it was she who had raised him after finding him, abandoned by his real mother, one night in the year 3E 348. The man ran his hand along the scar on his face thinking back, as he did, to the long and arduous years of training in the martial arts during which he had received the scar. 'To keep you on your toes at every moment,' his mother had told him. The memory turned into wondering. How would he fare in a battle against the old woman in front of the statue? It was decades since he had last crossed blades with her. Would he be able to kill her now, with all his experience? Not that he had any particular desire to kill the woman he had come to know as his mother and who had instilled upon him the secret inner workings of the Dark Brotherhood, who had taught him to not merely disappear into the shadows as rather to become part of them, but the question was simply too interesting a one to not ponder. Could he.....?
'Daydreaming about killing me again little whelp?'
The soft, sarcastic voice came from within an inch of his right ear and he felt the cold tip of the Night Mother's Daedric dagger tracing along his neck. Hulhra Doomflower smiled to himself.
'Perhaps,' he said as much in reply to his own musings as in reply to his mother's query. 'You'd make a good successor Hulhra, but unfortunately for you I'm not quite yet planning to depart from this world.'
'Nor do I think you should,' Hulhra replied with a wry smile, turning to face the taller woman behind him. 'I take it you have a mission for me.'
'Yes, but it's a troubling one.' The Night Mother closed her eyes and started speaking as in a trance. 'As you know our benevolent emperor Uriel Septim VII has provided us with ample work over the course of his reign. Whether it was eliminating the opponents of Jagar Tharn when he posed as the emperor or for the emperor himself, executing dissenting nobles.' Hulhra remained silent. 'As you also know, the emperor is ill, growing weaker by the day. As the emperor grows weaker so does the empire, there is unrest in Morrowind, and many nobles speak of revolution.'
Hulhra spoke, his voice sounding like soft gravel. 'Is this a bad thing? Revolution and chaos will only offer better opportunities for us.'
'But there are things you are not aware of,' the Night Mother continued. 'There is a child be the name of Myth who is destined to succeed Uriel Septim to the throne. If this happens I fear that our order may be in severe danger.'
'You would have me kill a child?' Hulhra queried in his peculiar voice.
'No,' replied the Night Mother, 'killing him is not for us. This child is marked by the Daedra Lords themselves to maintain the balance and even we cannot meddle in such things. However, the threat of his ascendance is troublesome. I have struck an agreement with the leading nobles to assassinate the emperor. If we succeed then they will use their influence at the court to protect us from any potential harm by this child Myth. You have three months to prepare for the assassination. Prepare well my child, the fourth era will be upon us soon and we may well be on the verge of determining its initial course.'
Hulhra turned about, nodded at the statue of the mighty Daedra Prince, and left the hall.
(c)2005 Deadyawn
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