The people of Anvil, for the most part, see the Dominion as liberators rather than invaders. They were definitely not fond of Fortunata and her pirates and considered them to be a hostile occupation force. I wonder how long it would have been before she had a popular uprising on her hands. I make sure they’ve immediately started setting right the wrongs the pirates committed on them. We need their support and goodwill.


    I only regret that I can’t put Fortunata’s head on a pike. (Grishka retrieves the body and does it anyway, apparently not giving a fuck, though she puts it at Dra’bul rather than Anvil where people are more likely to appreciate heads on pikes.)


    I head into the Sanctuary shortly thereafter and walk into the middle of an argument. It’s reassuring that the Dark Brotherhood apparently has no problem with having yelling matches in the middle of the Sanctuary. Mirabelle is upset about being excluded from a mission, because they tortured her lover, and she insists that she needs to be a part of whatever is going on. Astara does an awful lot of demanding obedience and her Dark Siblings do an awful lot of ignoring it.


    Astara is sending me to meet with Count Carolus to get the information he promised the Dark Brotherhood. Fortunately, she doesn’t tell me to do anything that I’m going to immediately disobey. If she has a problem with how I’ve been handling things, she hasn’t said so yet. She’s far too serious. Some of the other Dark Siblings, Slim-Jah in particular, find the way I’ve been solving problems to be positively hilarious.


    Mirabelle is positively sulking. Something about doing all the work and I’m getting all the glory for it.


    “Why does an assassin want glory?” Ilara wonders.


    Mirabelle jumps. “Kisha! I didn’t see you there.”


    “Exactly,” Ilara hisses. “Do you know how many people this one has killed and no one has any idea? Don’t you think that’s thrilling?”


    Mirabelle sighs and doesn’t argue. She mentions that she’s tracked the Black Dragon, the infamous assassin of assassins, to the Enclave of the Hourglass, which I assume by the name is home to some Akatosh fanatics. (I’ll be honest. I’m not quite sure what’s going on with this Black Dragon business. I guess Ilara and Tanek must have run across something while I was busy saving Cimbar’s life, and people keep assuming I was filled in. I mean, I might have been and I wasn’t paying attention to the briefing.)


    I return to Kvatch and become Silencius the generic Imperial assassin, and head for the secret entrance to the castle. When I get there, I find a Dunmer woman loitering inconspicuously behind a bush next to the hidden door. She’s wearing a mask over her lower face and dressed in form-fitting leather armor that practically screams “assassin” just as much as mine.


    “Well, look at this,” I drawl. “You are no Dark Sister. And I do not believe you are here to simply rob the place.”


    She introduces herself as Naryu Virian. She’s a member of the Morag Tong here to assassinate a member of House Hlaalu. He reportedly stole from his own House and closed an orphanage to open a cornerclub or something. The “stealing from his own House” was probably what got the Morag Tong on his ass, but he probably didn’t consider the indoctrination potential of orphanages. House Hlaalu does know how to indoctrinate people and make them think they’re the best thing ever. What, you think they run orphanages for the sake of altruism? A House as obsessed with money and connections as Hlaalu? Hah.


    “He came here thinking he could escape the reach of the Morag Tong,” Naryu says. “I don’t want to step on your toes, though. I don’t need any of your Dark Brothers or Sisters coming after me in the night, or the middle of the day for that matter. There have been quite a few mysterious deaths around here.”


    She wants to avoid trouble with the Dark Brotherhood by letting me take credit for the kill. Naryu wants me to open the secret passage, which has been locked again since I was last here. She also doesn’t want to have to kill anyone without the proper paperwork. Ah, the Morag Tong. Paperwork is literally the worst thing in existence. I spend enough time keeping my own notes straight, never mind filling out forms in triplicate to appease a mer who probably isn’t actually reading it in detail anyway.


    “Of course,” I say smoothly. “And I am certain that you, in turn, would do me the favor of looking the other way should we encounter one another sometime in Morrowind. Not that I would show up there dressed like this. It would be… improper.”


    “One might think you’d look forward to such an encounter,” Naryu flirts shamelessly.


    I slip into the castle without much trouble, still perfectly remembering my way around from last time and trying to surround myself with silence again. Conveniently, the Hlaalu noble is currently residing in the dignitary suite with the secret passage. He’s sound asleep in the bed, probably not even realizing this is the room with the secret passage in it.


    I open the secret passage behind the wardrobe and make sure the way is unbarred. Muthsera Hlaalu continues snoring away obliviously. Naryu comes in and wakes him up to let him know that he’s about to die and give him a chance to yell for guards before killing him.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    “We’d best be moving before the guards show up,” Naryu says.


    “They won’t,” I say. “I have a muffle spell up. I apologize if you intended for him to make more noise.” I chuckle.


    “Oh,” Naryu says. “That works, too, I suppose.”


    I chuckle darkly. “You did not kill him in his sleep. He would have known nothing. Instead he goes to his ancestors full of fear, knowing why he died.”


    “You disapprove?”


    “Not at all,” I say. “But now I have to imagine his ancestors calling him a fool.”


    Naryu grins. “Yes, there’s that as well. Alright, I don’t suppose you’d go be spotted in the castle so people think you did this when this corpse is eventually discovered?”


    “Do you believe the Dark Brotherhood is never subtle?” I ask.


    “Well, I wouldn’t mean to imply that your people are sloppy, of course… But if people saw you, they’d think this was a Dark Brotherhood hit and not a Morag Tong hit.”


    “Naryu,” I say. “It does not matter what the common people see. They will assume it was the Dark Brotherhood unless there’s evidence to the contrary. They have no reason to believe the Morag Tong might come here, assuming they even know you exist. It is the Dark Brotherhood who you would wish to believe was involved, not them. And the Dark Brotherhood will assume I murdered this mer to avoid witnesses on my way by to see Count Carolus and report that I murdered Fortunata like he asked me to.”


    This is the quickest way of letting the Ebonheart Pact know that the Aldmeri Dominion isn’t assassinating its political rivals. Not that I honestly think they care. I mean, Morag Tong and everything, but the Morag Tong is about the Great Houses having one another assassinated, and not foreign powers.


    “That’s what happened?” Naryu says. “Well. You have a point. In that case, if you would kindly not let your Dark Siblings know that this wasn’t your hit, I will certainly return the favor.”


    “You might be more conspicuous than me,” I say. “I, after all, do not exist.”


    “Well, after you’ve spoken to the Count, why don’t you meet me back at the Eight Blessings inn and we can share a drink?”


    “It would be my pleasure,” I say.


    After all that, Count Carolus isn’t even in his office. Or his throne room, for that matter, as I did check there quite deliberately in the midst of getting lost. He did, however, leave a scrap of paper in the spot where he’d performed the Black Sacrament marking a ruin to the south of Kvatch. I assume he left that for me to find him there intentionally.


    On the way out of the city, I meet up with Naryu at the Eight Blessings inn for that drink. Of course, when I agreed, I wasn’t thinking about the part where this mask covers most of my face, including my mouth, and does not include a mouth hole. She’s removed her mask.


    I shouldn’t let her know that I’m a Chimer pretending to be an Altmer pretending to be an Orc pretending to be a Khajiit pretending to be an Imperial. There are so many levels of misdirection here that it would probably hurt her brain and make her wonder how I keep it all straight.


    Naryu looks at the drink in my hand, at the face mask with only eyes visible, at the nonplussed expression in those eyes, and starts laughing.


    “Too secretive to let little old me know what your mouth looks like?” Naryu teases. “I suppose a kiss is right out, then.”


    It’s probably just as well that I’m not drinking something at this moment.


    “It somewhat ruins the mystique,” I say. “I would be delighted if you would see my face, but we are not in entirely private surroundings at the moment. In any case, I have a meeting to make still, since it turns out the man I came to meet with relocated to a different location. But by all means, next time we meet, I will buy you a sujamma. Or bring my own sujamma if the place we happen to be does not serve it. Assuming that you would be willing to drink sujamma that the likes of me would be carrying around in their pocket.”


    Naryu just laughs. “Go on, then. Don’t keep the man waiting. I’ll be expecting that sujamma.”


    …


    I finally locate Count Carolus. As it turns out, he’s the sort of person who stands around in ruins wearing his golden crown of laurels with his fancy warhorse. You’d think he’d at least take it off and try not to look like such an obvious target. Although I suppose all things considered, it’s not like he’s less safe here than in the middle of his fortress. If we wanted him dead, he’d be dead regardless.


    Carolus Aquilarios is Varen’s nephew. If the correspondence I glanced at on his desk is any indication, he was quite fond of his uncle. He kept writing letters to him and not sending them, like some sort of diary. Considering they were strewn across his desk while he was summoning assassins, he didn’t seem terribly concerned about said assassins reading his diary. Not that he knows I was able to read it at a glance, but I had plenty of time to read it when I went to report back to him if I wanted.


    He tells me about how the Order of the Hour is amassing an army. They’re building siege equipment at the Enclave of the Hourglass and heavily recruiting. He’s out in this ruin spying on them himself and is apparently short on people he can trust.


    “At least the Dominion will be better neighbors than the damned pirates, but now that the Pirate Queen has been toppled, the Order of the Hour offered her former crew amnesty if they’d join up,” Carolus says.


    “They are preparing to attempt to take Anvil?” I ask.


    He doesn’t seem even the slightest bit surprised or suspicious that the Dominion swooped in almost before Fortunata’s body hit the rocks. I suppose it might have been more suspicious had they not. If they didn’t, the Daggerfall Covenant or another pirate might think it a great idea to take over.


    “It seems likely,” Carolus says. “I don’t know why they think they stand a chance against the Dominion, even with bolstering their ranks with former pirates. But they might be planning to assault the Dark Brotherhood’s headquarters instead, wherever that is.”


    “And they believe siege equipment would help with that?” I say with a snort. “If they attack Anvil, it will implicate Kvatch and paint a target on your back for the Dominion. It is to your benefit that I stop them. You offered information, but your information comes with another benefit to you.”


    “Will I have no end of favors with you people?” Carolus groans.


    I chuckle darkly. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. We have a common enemy here. I do not begrudge you giving me information that may also work to your benefit. But if you do not seek trouble from the Dominion… you may wish to pledge yourself to them before it escalates to that point.”


    Carolus sighs. “I’m definitely going to need to talk to them. Hopefully no assassins will need to get involved on either side.”


    “By the way,” I add. “I do hope you weren’t terribly attached to that visiting Hlaalu noble.”


    Carolus sighs. “No, not especially. I suppose it should not surprise me that someone wanted him dead. You people work quickly.”