Rath Sunvaar

Chapter 2: The death of my suffering - part 1

There was a rumour. A rumour that the Dragonborn had been in Windhelm and was on her way to the Rift. This was good news for orphans like us, as where ever the Dragonborn went, the public followed. And that brought opportunity to earn a few extra coin, through innocence or thievery.
It was a calm day, nobody would have guessed that the most famous hero was visiting in a matter of hours.
As expected there were a lot of hooded people, in tight leather black outfits. I presumed they were from the thieves guild, the group that Riften was notorious for. If there was a big event on, you could guarantee they would be there, over-seeing the event and making sure it didn't stir up too much trouble for them, pick up a few coin, or waiting for an opportunity to rob a manor or two.
Most orphans (those who were lucky enough to live till their 20s) often ended up in the guild, as they would welcome most who turned up, with the skills for thievery. The skills us orphans possessed.
To much of the Rift's dismay the Dragonborn was a no show. The towns people could be heard bickering, annoyed at a days waste, trying to get a glimpse of the one powerful enough to defeat the world eater himself.

Much to Grelods irritation, the courier had came with a letter. For me? Grelod didn't  allow letters, and if any did come, she used them for fuel for the fire, as some kind of cruel lesson. It was addressed Rath Sunvaar. I could see this from the split second that I had to get a glimpse of the letter, before she stashed it into her pocket. Too bad she had her hands in her pocket all the time, I could have easily pickpocketed her, but it seemed she had cottoned onto our tactics. Before she burned it, she would always inspect it, trying to find something that she could incriminate us with and get an excuse to beat us and tell us how worthless we were. I had just 20 minutes, to sneak into her sleeping quarters and look at the letter that I was due. I made a deal with Hroar, all the money I could make in a week, if he would make a diversion, that would allow me about 1-2 minutes to find the letter, that I longed to read.
Aaarghhh. A scream came from the other room. This was my chance. I sneaked into her room and to my delight it was opened up and thrown over her bed. I wandered over to the dimly lit bed, and picked up the letter.
I opened it. Red. The nickname Aventus had give me when we were planning our 'great escape'. A tear rolled down my face, and I grasped my mouth, as I dropped the letter. The soft whisper, as it fell to the ground, was like thunder rattling around my head. He was ok. Aventus was ok and alive.
The letter didn't tell me this directly however, but just 'red' and 'AA' was all I needed to know that he was ok. How ever I didn't know the intention of the letter, as it only contained 1 word. 7 letters. 'Tonight'. It held no significance for me then, but in a few hours, my perception of the word would have changed completely.

The sun had began to set and I was finishing the last of my chores, but all I could think of was that word. 'Tonight'. What could it mean?
The question occupied my head for most of the night, Anticipating what was to come. I had mixed emotions about it. Was it a good thing or a terrible thing, that was to happen  tonight. An attack? A rescue? The end of the world? What could Aventus have meant by 'tonight'? Was this one of his great plans he forgot to inform me about?
And then it came. A sudden nock at the door. Well this was it. What ever Aventus had informed me about, or warned me about, was at the door, waiting to come in and wreak havoc in my life, or make it the best ever.
The shrill voice, that could only belong to Grelod, yelled "GO AWAY! NO ADOPTIONS". For better or for worse this seemed to deter the guest, and silence fell upon the orphanage again.
I managed to get a glimpse of the guest, from the window, she always left open and chilled us all. She was wearing a tightly fitted leather Armor, similar to the ones the thieves wore, but something was different about this one, it looked as if it was made purely out of a shadow, as it's sleek, black leather, glistened in the moon light. It was hard to see her, but she definitely had ebony hair, that draped to her shoulders, freckles that splattered her face and cold grey eyes, that were highlighted in the moonlight.
She walked away and disappeared into the distance, and the orphanage was left untouched again, as if no one had stirred it.
A few moments later there she was again. But something was different. She had a deep purple mist clinging to her body, and she was being careful of her surroundings, like she was a wanted criminal. The first time she attempted entry, she seemed calm, and relaxed, but now she was careful, quiet. It almost seemed like she was one with her surroundings. She crept around and opened the door, careful not to make a sound, and give away her presence. She crept towards the dimly lit room, where all the children and Grelod were, as Grelod was giving her daily 'motivational' speech. No one seemed to notice her, was it the mist that was cloaking her? But how could I see her if she was invisible?
She seemed to usethe darkness to her advantage. It was almost like she was the darkness. She was perched in the corner. She with-drawed a small test tube like bottle, full of black, deep blue liquid, which to my younger self, was just a bottle of ink, and nothing suspicious at all. She dipped her arrow into the mixture, drew her bow and aimed it at her target. The stench of the mixture insulted my nose, and made me light-headed and weak. Before you could say Sheogorath an arrow was pshot straight through Grelod's neck. This was it. My opportunity. Tonight.