Daughter to Dragons- a Skyrim inspired fantasy

Chapter Two- Escape

“Why should I believe you?” I asked incredulously.  “You captured me in my sleep and you were in the process of carrying me to the Imperial City to hand me over to the Thalmor!  You only want the bounty on my head.”  I looked upon the former bandit leader with disgust.  He was dirty and bloodied from fighting.  His hands were bound behind his back and he sat upon his knees.

He shook his head.  “No, I was taking you into the Jerall Mountains so that we could escape from my band in secret.”  He sighed.  “I told you, I’m not your enemy.”

“Then what are you?” I asked through gritted teeth.  He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off.  “And don’t give me that nonsense about being a friend of my father.  I know my father’s friends and you are not one of them.”

“Your father was Listener of the Dark Brotherhood”, Rythe began, “a company he raised you to be a part of as well.  He single-handedly returned the Dark Brotherhood to a name to be feared instead of mocked.  He expanded the organization’s grasp back into Cyrodiil, building a new Sanctuary for our activities beneath the city of Kvatch.”

Our activities?  “You are a Brother?”  He had to be.  None other than a member could know these things.

He shrugged, wearing a cool smirk.  “I was.”  His insouciance was infuritating.  With a look, I urged him to elaborate.  “I was a Brother before the Thalmor laid siege to our Sanctuary and wiped out our Brothers and Sisters.”  A dark expression came over his face.  “I was forced to flee the Sanctuary and leaving my Family behind.  I tried to come to Dawnstar to join your father’s faction, but I never arrived.  I was taken prisoner by a group of bandits who worked in the northern reaches of Cyrodiil.  I do not know why the leader of their band saved me, but he did.  He spent the next five years grooming me to become his replacement, telling me, ‘I will not kill you today, but I may tomorrow.’  But he never did kill me.  I suppose he sensed something in me, a fierce leadership skill.  On the sixth year of my captivity, he died of old age and I was the new leader.

“For two years, I led this band using the skills I had learned as an assassin and skills I had learned from the old leader.  My band ruled the northern reaches of Cyrodiil thanks to me.  I would have continued to do so until I heard of your acts against the Thalmor and the bounty on your head.  I knew then what I had to do.  So I tracked you down and captured you, which was a difficult task, even for me.  Your father trained you well.”

I listened in awe at the story of Rhythe LaChance.  There was no way he could be lying.  The events he described perfectly matched with what her father had told her and what she had witnessed herself.  One last test to prove his innocence.  “What is life’s greatest illusion?”

He grinned a toothy grin at me.  “Innocence, my Sister.”

It took a little over a day, but we eventually made it to Falkreath.  Rhythe and his bandits had taken me closer to the border than I had originally thought.  The man was nothing if not impressive.  I would expect no less from an assassin of the Dark Brotherhood.

I rarely visited the often forgotten city of Falkreath, if one could call it a city.  The capital of the Hold was nothing more than a larger than average village.  But it did have a few things an average village did not have—a fine tavern and a shop.  Since Rhythe was kind enough to strip me of all my armor and weapons, I had no choice but to purchase something to get me by.  My enchanted Daedric dagger would not be enough to get me all the way to Windhelm in one piece.  I needed larger steel.

“Look, if I had known the Thalmor were following me I would not have confiscated your stuff.”  Rhythe seemed to have his own unique way of apologizing.