Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-25828117-20191211213915/@comment-5583506-20191211234727

"Figured you'd be lurking about here", a raspy voice said from right to next where she had fallen asleep. "Thought the sea would have claimed you first."

Kashya sat up. If there ever was such an unpleasant sight to wake up as Daro's grinning face, she had yet to hear of it. The only surprise here was how fast the guild had located her. Though they had eyes and ears everywhere, she couldn't for the life of her imagine how they knew about that she was alive, yet alone where she had been landing after her shipwreck. The few times she had asked she had always been met with the same vague response that the "Dread Father kept watch over all of his children". If there was anything that could have made her sceptical about his supposed inexistence, it was the guild's strange sense of omniscience. They must have known from days before that she would be in Anvil, and so sent Daro here to confront her. The predictions of the Dark Brotherhood was uncanny at best, no one could truly hide from them.

"What do you want?" she asked. A hand discreetly found its way to one of the kukris on her back.

Daro smiled cruelly. "Stop it. We both know that you are no match for this one in a fight with short blades. It was Daro and Vashirr who taught you, after all."

His words would not sway her hand, and she gripped the handle harder.

Daro leaned in closer. "Celtian told this one that he would find you here in Anvil, and that you were no longer located in Senchal. Indeed, you performed your assignment there well, but you never came back to the Corinthe Sanctuary to report. It's all rather strange. Not to mention that some of our most entrusted have come forth with reports of you wandering about with some rag-tag team of adventurers. What's all that about?"

Kashya blinked. "It is not of your concern what this one does with her own spare time. This one has performed her assignment. And no other has been given to her, so she took some time off. And that is all there is to it."

Daro smacked with his lips, eyeing her with a hungry stare. He couldn't get her out of his head and had been unable to do so from the moment he first set eyes upon her. The idea had at one point crossed her mind to just let him have his way with her and be done with it. He was not in love with her after all, he just wanted to bed her. To him she was a prize to be claimed, and she knew from looking at those eyes that he would never stop until he got what he wanted, one way or another. She was dead certain that he would get nothing from her this day though. Not today ...

"What do you want?" she repeated.

"This one is here to deliver an assignment from a client who made business with the guild not so long ago right here in Anvil. Unlike your typical tasks, this one will be one of mere ... observation."

Kashya blinked. "Observation?"

"Yes", Daro grinned. "This one trusts that you are familiar with a certain Nyasia al Din, the Queen of Taneth, in Hammerfell?"

The Khajiit female had a feeling of where this was going. "This one is familiar with her, yes."

"Good. Then our sources were not mistaken. The client wishes for her to be put under strict watch."

Kashya blinked again and tilted her head sideways. "Watch?"

"Who she sees. Who she talks to. What she does during the days. Everything. The client wants you to get close to her, get to know her personally, get under her skin. Every little detail about her daily routines, and then ... report back."

Kashya found the request strange, but it wasn't completely out of the ordinary for the Dark Brotherhood to receive assignments that did not directly result in the death of the target, but still ... she had her suspicions.

"Just watch her? That is all?"

Daro nodded. "Yes, just watch her and report back. For now."

For now. Those were the words she had been waiting for. Her assignment was all but a preparation for something the client had in store, she reckoned. And when the time had come, the client would send her the signal. Still, she did not know how to feel about it. She had been travelling with Nyasia for quite some time now. Although death treated everyone equally, whether they be highborne or of peasant birth, she felt a slight reluctance with carrying out the potential assassination of her former travelling companion.

Kashya blinked. "Who wants her dead?"

Daro shrugged and rose back up. "That is not of your concern, is it? This one expected better of you, Kashya. A client asks and we deliver. It is as simple as that. Leave the hows and the whys out of it. Just keep Nyasia al Din under surveillance, and report back to us about her status."

"Sorry", she said. "This one spoke to hasty."

Daro smirked. "There is a way you could make up for that slight, you know." He leaned over her yet again, as imposing as a dark cloud ready to drop thunder upon her. "You should consider yourself thankful. No other man would ever want you, but this one ... Daro wants you."

He steadily lowered his head to meet up with hers, but the moment he closed in on her, he gave out a sudden curse as her arm had swung forth and slit open a shallow wound just under his left jawbone.

He hissed and spat, clutching to the wound as he backed away and regarded her with contempt. Kashya's arm was as steady as steel and her gastly eyes gazed at him with the prickling sensation of dagger tips. The kukri behind her back had been drawn before Daro even had a chance to retaliate.

"Fucking hell, Kashya", he growled, licking his bleeding cheek from the blood. "With Kiro out of your life, you should at least consider the alternative. No one but Daro would ever even think of having you for a wife or a mistress. Not even as a friend."

Kashya remained unmoving. "This one has no friends."

Daro scoffed and turned away, heading out of the cemetery, his task here completed. "Then there should be no trouble in snuffing out the queen when the client gives us the signal then, will it?"

Kashya lowered her blade. For a moment she considered drawing her bow and shooting Daro in the back from behind, watching his life slip away before her eyes, but she recalled her ideals. She did not kill out of sheer enjoyment or frustration. There had been quite enough of that since she murdered her father and Tsavirra, along with their unborn child, her half-sibling. The times she would kill was if she deemed her life to be in direct danger, or if the culprits somehow interfered with her current priorities. Daro was neither of those, and so she quenched her desire.

It would seem that she reluctantly had to find her group again, even though she had thought that her involvement with them was done and over with. Maybe this was fate? But then she recalled that she hated every notion of there being a predestined path. If there was such a thing, she would curse and spit at the Gods for having decided that this would be her sole purpose in existence. That this was her life.