ARETINO BOY
I lay my head in my arms and stared at the grooves of the wooden table. We had saved a town from a daedric lord and made an ally but I still felt disappointed. There was a woman singing Ragnar the Red with a horrible voice. Erandur was talking with the owner of the tavern. He felt that if anyone had heard whispers of the Dark Brotherhood it’d be him. Lydia sat a plate of hot food next to me. “You should eat.” She said.
I pushed the plate away. “Food tastes like ash to me.” I mumbled.
“You need to eat. Where is the energy you had when we were in the temple?” She asked me. I glanced at the plate of food. There was a slab of meat, some potatoes, and grilled leeks. It did look good and my stomach was growling but I just couldn’t get myself to eat.
“I think the adventure with the temple helped keep my mind occupied.” I said with a sigh. It’s been over a week since Faendal disappeared, I thought sadly.
“Maybe we could search for others to help?” She suggested.
I tilted my head towards Lydia and watched her for a moment before burying my head in my arms again. “We can’t just forget about him.” I muttered. “But I understand what you’re suggesting. Thank you, Lydia for caring.” I added glancing back at her.
Erandur sat next to us at the table. “You will not believe what I just learned.” He said both excited and alarmed.
“What is it?”
“There is a little boy in WIndhelm who has done the Black Sacrament. He’s searching for the Dark Brotherhood.” he explained, “The poor boy. What could cause a child to want to do such a vile thing?”
“What is the Black Sacrament?” I asked them.
Lydia looked disgusted. “It’s some ritual you perform when you want the Dark Brotherhood to kill someone for you.” She wrinkled her nose. “You have to gather body parts to do it.”
“And a little boy is doing this sacrament?” I asked alarmed.
“Apparently so,” Erandur replied.
My brows furrowed in thought. “Well,” I started, “We should go talk to him.”
“Talk to him?” Lydia asked shocked.
“Yes, if someone from the Dark Brotherhood has already spoken to him then maybe we can figure out where they are going.” I quickly stood up from the table and slammed my hands onto it in excitement. Lydia and Erandur jumped in surprise from my sudden movement. “It’s our best lead yet!” I ran to our room and grabbed our supplies and weapons. In the main room I handed Lydia some of the satchels to hold.
“Wait. We’re going now?” Erandur asked as Lydia and I started out the door. “We’re going now!?” He repeated as he ran after us.
“I don’t think you can understand just how much those two elves care for each other.” Lydia told Erandur as we started up the snowy path away from the town.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked her.
She shrugged, “I just never ever expected to see the two of you separate. I guess I was right when I told Delphine only Oblivion could keep you two apart.”
I smirked, “Yes, I guess you were right.” I said sarcastically.
“I didn’t mean….. I’m sorry.”
We continued following the snowy path towards Windhelm. I pulled my cloak around my shoulders as a harsh wind blew by us. Ahead of us was a man dressed in black and red leather and a black hood walking towards us. “Darkness is coming from this one. Let’s keep away from him.” Erandur said to us. I nodded. The man indeed gave off an uncomfortable aura but he walked by us. The hood hid his face but he never looked at us.
I didn’t think much about the stranger until I heard my name. That almost sounded like….. My heart beat against my chest. I whipped around not knowing what to expect but the stranger continued to walk towards Dawnstar. He never turned. His pace never slowed. I must be hearing things. I shook my head and ran to catch up with Lydia and Erandur. “What’s wrong?” Lydia asked me.
“I- no. Nothing is wrong. Must be my imagination.”
Windhelm was the same cold stone city I remembered last time I was here. I didn’t really like it here. It wasn’t welcoming like Whiterun was. We arrived late in the night cold, tired, and hungry. I ate a few bites of food before my stomach rebelled against me. I sighed and pushed the plate away. I hated this feeling. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him soon,” Lydia assured me.
I nodded. “I think I’m just going to go to bed,” I told them. I stood up and left Erandur and Lydia to finish their meals.
The next morning I woke up with butterflies in my stomach. Something was going to happen. I just knew it. I ran to the tavern owner and asked about the child calling the Dark Brotherhood. “The Aretino boy? Why would you want to know about him?” the owner asked.
“I thought maybe I could help him,” I told her. She watched me suspiciously. Oh, that does sound suspicious! “I mean, you know, help the child from the dark path he’s following and into….” Into what? What would Erandur say? “The loving embrace of Mara.”
I could tell she wasn’t buying my story. “Uh huh. Well, it’s not my business why you want to see the child. There are strange sounds coming from his family’s house.” We stared at each other. “I’m taking a guess that you’re not from here so I’ll draw up a quick map to his home.”
With the quickly drawn up map I set out to find the kid’s house. I wasn’t sure if Lydia or Erandur was awake yet but I didn’t want to wait. I was too excited. I became lost in the twisting streets of the city. Everything looked the same here! I ran into a strange shaped house. I looked at the drawing the tavern owner gave me. It looked like the house in front of me. This is it! I thought excitedly.
I walked up to the door and turned the door knob. The door opened slowly. It’s unlocked? I slowly made my way into the house and up a small flight of stairs. I could hear the boy’s voice echoing through the abandoned house. "Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear." A sound of a knife stabbing the ground repeatedly echoed through the house as well. I shivered. What a horrible incantation.
I gasped as I rounded the corner. The boy was on his hands and knees next to a skeleton, unknown meat, and a heart. The items laid in the middle of a circle of candles. The boy was stabbing the ground with a small dagger. He looked up when he heard my gasp. “Finally! You’re here!” He said excitedly. “I’ve been praying so long!” I tried to say something but my voice caught in my throat. “Don’t worry! You don’t have to say anything! I know how it works. I gathered all the things needed for the sacrament. The candles, the flowers, the knife, the… the…. body and you finally came!”
“W-why did you do all this?” I finally asked. So, the Dark Brotherhood didn’t come yet after all, I realized.
“To make a contract of course!”
“What contract?” I asked afraid to know the answer.
“I want you to kill Grelod the Kind!” he answered. My eyes opened in surprise. “She’s in charge of the orphanage I’m from. But she’s not kind! She’s terrible to all of us! She does horrible things to us and says terrible things to us! She won’t even let us find new families!”
“I…. That does sound horrible. But does she really deserve to die?”
“Yes!” he yelled, “Why are you questioning this? I thought your kind of people liked doing this.”
Right, right, he thinks I’m part of this group, I remembered. “Alright…. where is this Grelod?”
“At the orphanage in Riften. I refuse to go back while she’s still there. But hurry please, I’m actually getting lonely here. I miss my friends.”
I glanced around uncomfortably. “I, well, alright, I’ll help you. Just….. I don’t want you staying here near…. a dead body.”
“Thank you! Thank you!” He said excitedly. “Oh, and don’t worry about me! I can take care of myself!” I’m sure you can, I thought. I slowly left the house unsure if I should find someone to take care of the boy. I made my way back to the tavern where Lydia and Erandur both looked worried.
“Rhew! Where did you go!?” Lydia asked when she saw me.
“Sorry. I talked to the boy.”
“Really! And what is the news?” Erandur asked.
“We have to go back to Riften. That’s where the kill will take place and where we will find a member of the Dark Brotherhood.”