Chapter 573 - A Dark Scheme

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Things happened in rapid succession by the past three days.

In Whiterun, Wulfur worked with the Companions on restoring pieces of an Axe known as [Wuuthrad] which is considered as a cultural treasure in Skyrim and especially to the Companions. As they got a lead on the first fragment being buried somewhere north of Whiterun in Dustman's Cairn, Wulfur and Farkas embarked on the quest together and during their excavation, they were ambushed by a group called the "Silver Hand". This group is made of Werewolf Hunters who are aware of the secret that the Companions Inner Circle is a den of werebeasts. Even more, those Silver Hands were once Companions long ago before a failed attempt to end the Lycanthropy tradition of the Companions by hunting down the witches responsible for it. After being degraded to the level of common bandits, they didn't even give up and went after the Wuuthrad fragments in order to prove their legitimate claim as the ones worthy of the Legacy of the Companions Founder, Ysgramor.

In Riften, the Thieves Guild was slowly building up power on two divided fronts. The ones that sucked up to Maven were Mercer Frey and his lackeys. While the division was unclear to outsiders and kept behind closed doors, Mercer was slowly hoarding support from Maven Black-Briar and her associates. On the other hand, Delvin Malory was staying out of these businesses and kept close contact with Winterhold through Sparrow (Jullanar). Speaking of which, she was doing jobs for both Mercer and Delvin that varied from small-time burglaries to big-time heists. She even learned how to fake ledgers, attempt frauds, bribe people and reel in support from the wretched poor folks. After the Golden Glow estate incident, Jullanar was supposed to be summoned by Maven for another business opportunity but Maven was too busy with Riften's inner workings and scheduled the meeting for a week from now.

In Winterhold, the progress was simply unprecedented so there is no need to mention how Capitalism is the most perfect thing that ever happened to humanity over there. On the other hand, Alina was in the middle of handling the war situation brewing outside the Hold when she heard of some strange happenings. It seems that the two armies of the Imperials and the Stormcloaks have stopped their march in a bizarre situation of neither fighting nor retreating. As a holder of an official badge of office, Alina she went ahead with a team of elites made of Isha, Mirren, Miranda and Aela in order to investigate. There, they found the two armies drinking together. Yes… drinking and dancing and celebrating. Jon has mentioned that he will take care of any fight that happens around the hold but Alina always imagined something brutal to happen, not two armies completely submerged in liquor and drunkenness. Once she tried to look around, she found a very pleasing looking woman walking around the two armies half-naked and making sure everyone is more drunk than what they already are. This of course is Venus, the manifestation of [Lust]. Alina recognized the aura of [Lust] right away and ordered it to go back to Winterhold while she found the commanders of the two armies and attested them for breaking the peace agreement with Winterhold.

In the rest of Skyrim, the situation of the war was coming to a halt due to Winter but that didn't stop the influence of Winterhold from spreading. The Pale and Eastmarch were mostly DDC territory and what came next was the decision of whether to move to Whiterun or Hjaalmarch but Jon didn't want to take this step without consulting with Vittoria Vici.

***

Away from Jon and all the business shenanigans, New Saarthal was having a quiet winter night as Jonrad sat outside his manor against a bonfire as he read a message directed to him that arrived from Dawnstar.

"Father?"

"Alina, my child. What brings you in this hour?"

Appearing before Jonrad was his daughter-in-law, Alina. She seemed to be wearing a large fur cloak and still donning two swords on her left side. The look on her face showed both emptiness and a myriad of thoughts.

"You look like you need a drink." Jonrad joked around.

"Anything good?"

"Mead."

"Well… Jon no longer keeps drinks in the house so… Mead it is."

Alina joined Jonrad on the bonfire and chugged the mead from the bottle letting go of all her lady manners.

"You look worse than I am." Jonrad said.

"Father… you are retired."

"Indeed, I was an officer, a spy, an escapee and… a bandit at some point." Jonrad said and made a cold face, "But don't ever think that parenthood is something as easy. Between those two demons on legs, I'd rather be thrown back into the war."

Jonrad then laughed with Alina as he kept complaining about Thor and Idun.

"Father, both you and I know that raising Thor and Idun can't be compared to what I do."

"And that is?"

"Raising Jon."

"Oh… I wouldn't want to do that so… I'll shut up." Jonrad drank a bit then asked, "Where is that unhandsome son of mine?"

"Last time I saw him, he said he will mingle with the Dark Brotherhood or something…"

Just as she mentioned the Dark Brotherhood, Jonrad spat out the liquor he drank on the bone fire causing it to look like a dragon breath of some kind.

"That's not mead." Alina pointed at Jonrad's tankard.

"*Cough* *Cough* Vodka!" He said as he cleared his throat, "You just said the brotherhood?"

Alina nodded as she found the vodka bottle nearby and started filling up her tankard from it.

"Why would he mingle with them?"

"He said that the brotherhood is one of the four factions he needs to take over in order to secure…" she made two quotation marks with her fingers, "Fate!"

"Bah!" Jonrad seemed upset about it but not too upset.

"Father?"

"No, just… I got reminded by the damn Brotherhood just from this letter and now you're telling me Jon wants to contact them. I can't figure him out." Jonrad said waving around the letter he has.

"What's with the letter?" Alina asked.

"Just an old friend…" Jonrad said dismissively.

"Father, I just came to ask you…"

"I know." Jonrad nodded, "You want to know about the Brotherhood."

"I trust Jon with a lot of things, father. It is just when he is driven like this, I don't seem to fathom him either." Alina said hanging down his head while observing the flow of the liquor she poured in the tankard.

"I know." Jonrad nodded, "You are right. This letter is from a friend who used to have to do with the Brotherhood. Well, before we betrayed them I guess…"

"We?" Alina narrowed her eyes.

"Yes, we… My friend and I were two stranded souls who fought wars in our wake and wars in our nightmares. I know him from the War, the Great War. He was a Hero… a forgotten one… or to be more accurate, he was someone whose name never came out to be forgotten in the first place. But he is a good friend. He just arrived at Skyrim over there in Dawnstar."

"He is not visiting?"

"No, he seems to be chasing some sort of treasure. Just like Jon, there is always a trophy that is driving him around." Jonrad said and laughed, "Tyr went to meet him though."

"I see. So what did the two of you do to the Brotherhood?"

Alina's question caused Jonrad's face to darken and his expressions to crumble. Painful… no. Hateful memories surfaced.

"Power always has a price… I hate those words but to acquire a power that you shouldn't have, you need to do things… things that you may not be proud of. I wanted to revive the Tradition of Dragonknights, I hit a dead-end and just like my son, I made a deal with a Daedric Prince. Do seven tasks, get what you want."

"Boethiah's Labours?"

"Right. I was in High Rock in those times, Jon and you were around 7 or 8. I couldn't come to Skyrim since I wasn't strong enough to go through our enemies and I promised… I promised Hilda to acquire that power that would keep her and Jon safe. Heh! Back then things used to be too simple. Get powerful, solve your problems, go home."

Jonrad gazed at the starry skies as he remembered the old days.

"Boethiah is not that bad at High Rock. In a land submerged by political schemes and assassinations every now and then, folks have gotten used to the Prince of Plots. The deal wasn't even half bad, I got to kill seven sinners who caused a great deal of pain to people. The first five… they were the easiest to kill. Then I met my old friend and our quests intertwined, he acted as the front, I acted as the shadow."

Jonrad kept telling Alina the story of his first five kills as Labours to Boethiah. He was silent, efficient and his actions saved hundreds of lives. He even got to save a kingdom and do some of the escapades like what his son is doing right now. When the story came to the part where he met with his old friend, he stopped it there.

"Cunning girl! You're getting me drunk to talk?"

"I didn't even give you any drink, father." She said with a faint smile.

"Heh! Alright." He stood up unshaken even with the amount he drank and removed the snow off his shoulder, "I'll tell you the rest of the story later."

"When?" Alina called.

"When Jon arrives. He'll need to know it at some point."

Jonrad left Alina on a cliffhanger making her a little dejected. A mischievous grin appeared on her face as she decided to give him a spoiler of her own.

"Jon found the Coffin of the Night Mother." She said.

Jonrad stopped his pace and turned to her.

"The Luck Old Lady?" He then raised the letter in his hand, "I already know."

"Tsk. That's not fair."

"Ahaha!"

***

*The Pale - Shearpoint*

Serana flew backward like a ragdoll and hit the wall of the mountain. Still lively as ever and barely injured, she sprung up again baring fangs and brandishing claws… literally.

"I'll never break!" She screamed as she charged forward once again.

"Good luck with that?"

Jon was sitting with the large Halberd resting on his shoulder watching Serana fight… or just blindly wave her arms and body around.

"She's a mess." Even Nefertiti was ashamed for her.

"A bookworm for her entire life, a powerful entity with powers she never harnessed before. What do you think about her level of power?" Jon asked.

"Definitely more powerful than Alina but still weaker than you, Hooman."

"Indeed, but Alina would defeat her in five seconds… maybe less."

"She's all over the place."

"I CAN HEAR YOU!"

In a fit of rage, Serana carried a boulder and threw it at the opponent she was facing. It evaded around quite easily and even struck the boulder with a bolt of lightning shattering it to pieces.

Serana took the chance and used the dust of the broken boulder as coverage to rush towards her enemy and destroy him with her claws but.

"She missed."

"She's learning little by little though."

Both Jon and Nefertiti were lazing around where they were as they watched Serana fight a Dragon Priest. This was the dragon priest buried above the mountain of Shearpoint, Krosis.

"CURSE YOU!"

She unleashed her rage and was about to turn into a Vampire Lord but Jon used [Pride] immediately and disturbed her transformation.

"No Beast Mode, these are the rules." He said.

"To Oblivion with your rules!" She cursed at him angrily but Krosis hit her face with a fireball causing her to fly backward again.

"Eyes on the prize, cute little fangs." Jon said and returned back to patting Nefertiti.

Serana was in a tough spot since she was kidnapped for the second time by Jon. For the first time, she was helping him get away from her father in order to halt the Prophecy but this time, Jon took her by force and trickery and forced her to separate from [Gluttony].

Serana didn't fully understand what [Gluttony] is but she knew that it possessed power and if she combined this power with hers as a Daughter of Coldharbour, she would be more powerful than her father and maybe force him to stop.

That was her simple estimation but she knew deep down that she can't confront her father alone. She is way too inexperienced. A mere bookworm princess won't ever be a match for the man who led armies and won wars while becoming so hungry for power to the point where he sacrificed his daughter and wife to a Daedric Prince.

Such unfairness was a thing she was willing to face in the stupidest of ways but now that she is in the hands of Jon, her plans have derailed massively.

The madman even put her in a fight against a Dragon Priest, the pinnacle of Undeath in the Ancient Nordic Magic. She wouldn't normally be able to fight something like that on her own even with her speed and power, she is just way too inexperienced.

But there is where Jon comes in. He sees potential, he starts cultivating it.

In an hour, Krosis was no longer able to face her as she got accustomed to his attacks and defeated him by the skin of her teeth.

"Good job!" Jon applauded while not moving from his place.

"…"

Serana was so pissed at him that she didn't even bother looking at his face. Still, looking at the foe he defeated, she realized that she had wronged that man so much by underestimating what he was truly capable of.

As she started fighting the Dragon Priest, Jon started fighting the Dragon of Shearpoint all by himself. No [Gluttony], no [Greed], no [Pride], no [Wrath], no [Lust]. He simply grabbed his Dragon Slaying Halberd and went against the Dragon with Attacks, Spells and Shouts until the Dragon lied dead way before she finished the fight with Dragon Priest.

All that time, Jon was sitting on the Dragon Skull and just watching her get beaten and humiliated.

"For a Mortal, how did you acquire all that power on your own?"

She finally asked the question and scratched her brain. This human, his power, his strength, a Dragonborn, a man of many mysteries, a monster among his kind. What is he? What does he want with her? How is he so powerful?

"There are two ways to acquire power." Jon stood off the Dragon Skull and jumped down walking towards her, "The first is to look for it. You can find it with a Daedric Prince, an Entity, a Master. Whenever you find it, you have to pay for its price and it is yours. You can live your regrets afterward or in a fairy tale of how almighty you have become."

Jon bluntly rubbed the salt on all her wounds. After all, she was offered to Molag Bal that way.

"The second method is to make power, to take it away by force and be its master, its owner." He said while flexing.

"And you mean that you are from the latter type?" She looked at him unamused.

"Yeah, kinda. That doesn't mean I didn't get powers from the Daedra before. But Cute Little Fangs, there is a big difference between something you have to pay for, a debt, a loan; and between something you deserve, a reward, a prize." Jon said, "We make due with what we get but the most important thing is, we don't get ourselves in shitty waters."

"And what is it you want from me?" She asked.

"Simply, I want to get you out of the shitty water. I am sort of a charitable soul." Jon said complimenting himself, "That doesn't mean you are not going to do something in return though."

Serana joined her arms together waiting for him to say it.

"In exchange for curing you of a strange case of addiction, putting you in shape and seeing through your family affair…" Jon took a step closer to Serana and met her face to face on the same level, "You are going to become the Speaker to the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood."

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