NOVEL NEXT Chapter 40: The Assassin
Heh, I never really had to worry, did I?
No sooner has that thought passed through my mind, then I see a flash of metal in Astrid’s hands, as she uses a stiletto dagger, she had hidden somewhere in the remnants of her leather armor to finish cutting her binds. My eyes widen, as she begins to swing her arm around to stab Svanna, and I hastily cast a paralysis spell on the blonde Dark Brotherhood Assassin, freezing her in place before she can make contact.
… A moment later, I’m feeling a little silly, because even if the dagger was coated in some vicious poison, which I have no doubt that it was, the armor Svanna is still wearing, even in absence of her pants, is enchanted to hell and back and more than capable of keeping her alive through the worst that even someone like Astrid could throw at her.
Still, the deed is done and as Svanna blinks her eyes open at the sudden cessation of Astrid’s tongue against her snatch, she sees the blonde before her, frozen in mid stab, and then sees me, standing by the door. Completely uncaring of Astrid’s current predicament, as well as the fact that she’s pantsless, Svanna breaks away from the kneeling blonde and races over to me, tossing her arms around me in a big hug that I happily return.
“… Sorry for running away. I needed to check on something.”
Burying my face in her hair, I let out a sigh as I breathe in her scent.
“That’s quite alright. I found you quickly enough, didn’t I?”
Svanna nods back at that, before pulling away with a frown.
“Where did she take me?”
I can’t help but frown as well, because that’s one of multiple things that doesn’t add up about this. Maybe it was because I was an out of context problem, maybe it was because I didn’t belong here and also wasn’t the Dragonborn… but how the fuck did Astrid get Svanna all the way to the Abandoned Shack to the North of Morthal in such a short time?
It hadn’t even been half a day since Svanna, and I had parted ways. Several of those hours, I’d been running across The Rift! I’d only gotten HERE so fast because I halved the distance by Recalling the rest of the way to just outside of Morthal.
“… We’re North of Morthal, at the moment. It’s been less than half a day.”
Svanna furrows her brow at that, realizing something was up with those numbers just as I had. But hey, maybe I was just being paranoid. Maybe there was a perfectly reasonable explanation to all of this, like the Dark Brotherhood having teleporting magics or something. Luckily, there was an easy way to find out, wasn’t there? We had the leader of the Skyrim Chapter of the Dark Brotherhood right here!
With an arm around Svanna’s waist, I make my way over to the still paralyzed Astrid. The blonde glares up at both me and my Dragonborn rather balefully, straining with all her might against the paralysis spell, wanting nothing more than to bury her blade into one of us, that’s for sure.
“… What did she say to you, exactly?”
Svanna tells me, explaining what had happened since she woke up here. The bit about Astrid seeming to ignore what Svanna was actually saying, and instead holding an entirely different conversation that the Dragonborn didn’t seem privy to… that struck me as particularly odd. Almost like a glitch in the matrix so to speak, as if the world was stuttering, the narrative breaking at the seams.
… I hoped I was being over-dramatic with that last thought. The narrative breaking at the seams didn’t sound like it would be a fun time for us at all. And yet, it bore thinking about. It bore LOTS of thinking about.
Letting out a shuddering sigh, I shake my head as Svanna’s story comes to a close. Astrid had, as she did in the game, offered Svanna a choice between three helpless victims to assassinate for her. Svanna hadn’t killed any of them… nor had she chosen the hidden option in the game, which was to turn and kill Astrid herself instead.
If you did that in the game, you unlocked a special little questline. Rather than joining the Dark Brotherhood, you were tasked with destroying them. I’ll admit, I’d never played through that particular questline myself, not even for the novelty of it. The Dark Brotherhood Questline was one of the best in the entire game, not just for the moral ambiguity, but also objectively one of the best written, with all sorts of branching paths for how to complete the assassinations, and some really fun twists and turns. And it all culminates in you killing the Emperor of all people. What other questline could say THAT?!
Still, I’d also had no intention of either Svanna or I joining them in this world. Because they worshipped Sithis, a Daedric Prince, and I’d rather stay far away from those. Not to mention the Night Mother was freaky as fuck, and Cicero, while amusing in a game setting, wasn’t the kind of guy I wanted to hang out with in real life, thank you very fucking much.
Unfortunately, keeping Svanna away from Aventus in Windhelm hadn’t done the trick, apparently. Fortunately, Svanna had picked Option E. Rather than killing one of the three helpless targets Astrid set up for her, or Astrid herself, she’d gone with the fifth route… and dominated Astrid in a fight that had seen the blonde bound in her own rope and forced to service Svanna with her tongue after the lithe red head had let the three would-be victims all run off into the night.
Which left us where we were now, with a paralyzed blonde Master Assassin in front of us, looking angry as fuck to say the least. Smiling down at her, I shake my head.
“Astrid, my dear… we don’t want to kill you. Honest. But we do have some questions for you. If you can answer them, we’ll let you be on your way, and all of this can be in the past.”
The look Svanna gives me positively screams ‘why aren’t you just Charming this bitch?’, but hey, sometimes mind control gets a little boring. It can be fun, trying new things like talking it out and negotiating like reasonable people for once. When Astrid gives the slightest nod of her head, I beam and let the paralysis drop.
She responds by immediately coming up and stabbing me in the chest. The stiletto dagger, as it turns out, is indeed poisoned. Of course, I level up multiple times just from being in combat with her and having the Light and Heavy Armor Perks working in conjunction, and that combined with my massive health pool means the poison does jack shit.
While Astrid is staring at me in shock and confusion as I just stand there, not even bleeding, I react, grabbing her by her wrist and squeezing hard enough to break it, right then and there. The blonde assassin HOWLS as the dagger drops from her hand and she falls to a knee. To her credit, however, she’s got a strong Will, and her unbroken hand comes up and catches the dagger, jamming it into my thigh next.
That was a fair bit closer to my junk than I would have preferred, and so I reach out and cover Astrid’s face with my entire palm, positively pumping Charm Magic into the blonde to finally shut her up. Shows what I know. I try and be nice and avoid the immediate mind control with ONE person, and this is how they repay me? Well, fuck that.
Astrid shudders beneath me, before relaxing entirely, despite the fact that her wrist is still broken. I heal that with an afterthought of Restoration Magic, while removing my hand shows the Dark Brotherhood’s leader to be staring up at us, her expression vacant and her eyes glazed over. Svanna is giving me a look still, so I just roll my eyes and grin.
“What? It’s not like she could actually hurt us.”
Reaching down, I pointedly pull her stiletto dagger out of my thigh and toss it away. In moments, I’m back at full health, even as I look down at our latest enthralled bitch. She’s definitely going to be our fuck toy, before we’re done here. But first… answers.
“How did you hear that Svanna killed Grelod the Kind, Astrid?”
“Half of Skyrim knows. Old hag gets butchered in her own orphanage? Things like that tend to get around.”
I shake my head.
“It’s been less than half a day! Word can’t have traveled that fast. Were you in the area or something?”
“The little Aretino boy was looking for the Dark Brotherhood. Grelod the Kind was, by all rights, a Dark Brotherhood contract.”
“Neither Svanna nor I ever even talked to Aventus Aretino. We never so much as entered his home in Windhelm. Svanna killed Grelod because the old bat deserved it, not for coin. No contract was taken, here.”
Astrid doesn’t answer, just stays on her knees, vacant eyes staring straight ahead. Gritting my teeth, I ask the next most important question on my mind.
“You found Svanna asleep and brought her here, yes?”
“Yes.”
“How? How did you bring her here?”
“… Traveled.”
“On foot?”
Astrid twitches, one eye lid flicking.
“… Yes.”
But that didn’t make any sense. That wasn’t possible. If Astrid were on foot, I should have been able to catch up to her. She couldn’t possibly have had a big enough lead on me, not when I even used Recall to get here! This was making less and less sense by the moment, but I could tell the blonde didn’t have the answers we sought.
“… Go back to eating out Svanna. This time, do the best damn job you can.”
Astrid crawls forward, and wraps her arms around Svanna’s waist, lowering her mouth to the lithe redhead’s pussy lips like she would kiss a lover. Svanna shivers, her hands coming down atop Astrid’s hair, even as she looks to me. I can’t deny it… it’s an arousing sight. One of the more badass femme fatales in all of Skyrim, reduced to this. She’s pretty much on the same level as Karliah, and in this version of Skyrim, Ulfrida Stormcloak. A gorgeous, kickass bitch who took no shit from anyone… forced to take our shit in particular and submit to our power.
Stepping up behind her, I free my cock from its confines and drop down to my knees, grabbing Astrid by her hips and yanking her ass backwards into my cock. I hot dog her ass cheeks for a moment, before slipping under and into her, splitting her cunt open on my dick as she moans into Svanna’s pussy lips. As I start to fuck her, I look up at Svanna and grimace.
“Something’s going on, Svanna. Something’s not right about this world.”
Face flushed, the lithe Dragonborn clearly somewhat distracted by Astrid’s enthusiastic tongue driving deep, DEEP into her quim, Svanna frowns at my words.
“What… w-what do you mean?”
I shake my head, trying to put my thoughts in order, trying to find the best way to articulate what I’m trying to say.
Svanna’s jaw tenses as I bring up that subject, showing that it’s still a relatively sore one for her. To be fair, she’d spent much of the last half day asleep and unconscious, somehow being transported across the province by a Master Assassin. So, it would be a fresh wound for her still. Nevertheless, she shows her strength of character as she just nods silently, accepting my point.
“But then… what is this world? If the Dragonborn and her Companion don’t belong to it, why does it exist? Why are we here? In the game, the Dragonborn is a no-name with no past to speak of, a blank slate for the player to put their own thoughts and morals onto. But you have a name and a mind of your own, and you even have memories. And yet… your past doesn’t exist here.”
I see Svanna’s eyes widen, as I lay out my points as succinctly and concisely as possible. It’s terrifying, I know it is. I’d thought I understood this world. Everything seemed like it was operating on narrative, and that had seemed highly manipulatable. But admittedly, there had been warning signs before now. Maybe… maybe we’d fucked something up, by not following the narrative precisely. Maybe I’d fucked something up, when I’d killed Ancano the way I did.
The Psijic Order had never shown up in Skyrim to police the Eye of Magnus. From what I knew, that particular magical artifact was still sitting in the College of Winterhold. Mirabelle Ervine was fated to die, but she’d lived and was watching over the College for me, as my loyal slave.
Something was wrong with this world. And I… I felt like it was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t put a name to it. However, I figured there was one way of getting some answers. This world might be fucked, but there were those who should know more.
“… What do we do?”
Still fucking Astrid from behind, I look up at Svanna, my face etched with seriousness.
“… I think we need to consult with someone higher up the food chain. I think we need to have a chat with a Daedric Prince.”
Svanna blinks at that, not too horrified or shocked, but definitely a little surprised. To be fair, I’d never told her how afraid of the Daedric Princes I was. It was just sort of implied. You didn’t fuck around with Daedra. Not unless you were Dragonborn and could just no-sell promising your soul to the Princes, allowing you to pledge yourself to all of them, while actually being beholden to none of them.
That was the game though, and Svanna was the Dragonborn. I might have some Quasi-Gamer existence thing going on, but that didn’t necessarily mean I was safe. Still, if we wanted answers, a Daedric Prince might be our best bet.
“Where can we find one of those?”
Smiling ruefully, not in the least bit surprised that Svanna was already on board, I chuckle.
“Well, if we took this bitch up on her offer, we’d be able to get a line to Sithis rather easily… but I’m pretty sure that’s decidedly the greater of two evils. On the other hand… if we continue infiltrating the Thieves Guild, we’ll eventually reach a point where Nocturnal herself will talk to us directly.”
Out of all the Daedric Princes, did I think Nocturnal was the most reasonable? Ehhh, it was a toss-up. But still, she was probably our best bet without having to handle something crazy. Besides, we’d already started the Thieves Guild Questline… would be a shame not to finish it now, right?
Svanna blinks slowly at that, before letting out a sudden wanton moan as she cums all over Astrid’s face. I don’t last much longer inside of the blonde Master Assassin either, before painting her womb white with my seed. As I pull out of her and Svanna lets go of her head, Astrid falls forward, gasping and panting, still fully relaxed, her eyes still glazed over. That wouldn’t do, of course. We couldn’t send her back to the Dark Brotherhood like this.
“What do you say, Svanna? Back to Riften?”
“… Okay.”
Smiling, I give the Dragonborn an encouraging nod, before reaching down and pulling Astrid up to begin rearranging her mind into something more… subservient to our cause. You never knew when you might need a Master Assassin in charge of a bunch of other assassins to do your bidding, after all. As Astrid’s eyes clear up, she looks to us both with a wanton smile on her face, licking her lips suggestively.
“Mm, Master… Mistress… who needs killing?”
“No one, for now. Go back to your people and continue as you were. We’ll call for you when we need you, understood?”
“Yes, Master~”
As Astrid prepares to leave, I pull Svanna in close and Recall us both back to outside of Riften. Even if it’s not the Riften Svanna grew up in… it’s the Riften we’re stuck with. It was time to make the best of a bad situation, and hopefully, get to the bottom of this all as soon as possible.
-x-X-x-
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