Save for the sparse guards patrolling the cobbled streets, everything in Falkreath had fallen silent. She knew Jarl Siddgeir would be tucking himself into bed right at that moment. And that would be the perfect time to make her move.

Penumbra had no other choice. This was the contract as put forth in the Black Sacrament. The orders came from the Listener, sending word down the pipeline straight from the whispers of the Night Mother. She had never even seen the Listener, much less met them. But Penumbra did as the Dark Brotherhood asked of her. She was an assassin and this was her duty.

The highly trained, wily Redguard woman kept her eyes fixed on the longhouse the Jarl called home. She didn’t know who wanted him dead, likely the Stormcloaks, but such business did not matter to the Dark Brotherhood.

Her confidence had risen as she had become more and more successful as an assassin. So much so that she chose to forego wearing her cowl, showing her face with the frightening pale eyes, dark skin and shining, bobbed raven hair, the length of which only reached her neck.

Dressed in modified Brotherhood shrouded armour, Penumbra’s red and black outfit showed off perhaps more skin than usual. It was another part of her mounting confidence. The outfit bore her midriff, shoulders, and all of her upper thighs, the leggings only attached to her waist by a thin strap, buckled on to what looked like a pair of leather knickers showing off a great deal of her strong, pretty legs. She also had higher heels added on to her boots for a little something extra.

On this night, Penumbra could tell she was not alone. The Penitus Oculatus remained in Skyrim, of course, despite a battle where the Dark Brotherhood left them reeling. They had sent an agent from Dragon Bridge who had been following her for quite some time. The woman didn’t know Penumbra was onto her and Penumbra kept it that way. Better to catch her by surprise.

The woman had been so careless and desperate in her pursuit to protect a Jarl loyal to the Empire that Penumbra had time to ask around and figure out who she was.

She was very pretty, Penumbra remarked to herself. And had an equally pretty name. Celeste, and agent of the Penitus Oculatus, had a startling track record.

She had once been responsible for protecting Tamriel’s Emperor and no assassination attempt ever got close when she was on watch. And she had been absent when the Emperor visited Skyrim and the Listener had found him...

Fuming at her sudden reassignment, Celeste would do anything to strike back at the Brotherhood.

She had long, bright blonde hair, tied back, and shining, intelligent green eyes. She, too, seemed to be sporting a degree of confidence, to keep up appearances, as she wore a heavily modified set of Imperial light armour.

The leather cuirass was sleeveless, baring her well toned arms, and it covered a short, red tunic that stopped at her waist. There she wore a belt and a protective, very short leather battle skirt that did nothing to cover the leather knickers worn underneath, also showing off Celeste’s powerful and shapely legs.

She wore leather straps around her thighs, three on each, and that matched her strappy, knee high leather sandals perfectly. All in all, Penumbra quite liked the look of Celeste’s outfit.

The two women were now on a collision course as Celeste inched closer and closer to her target. Penumbra remained still, pretending to focus intently on the few guards patrolling the roads and the Jarl’s longhouse.

Letting Celeste sneak up on her, she let a smile curl her lips as she felt the tip of a blade held against her back.

“Hands where I can see them, assassin,” a woman whispered to her.

Penumbra did as she was told, holding her hands out to her sides.

“How did you find me?” Penumbra asked, her voice dripping with confidence.

“No talking, assassin. Come with me.”

...

Penumbra’s voice was muffled by a thick, leather panel that gagged her as she fought the heavy steel holding her captive. But it was no use now.

She was forced to kneel on the cold, stone floor of the Falkreath prison. Celeste had managed to sneak them both inside, past the barracks, and down to the large cell without alerting anyone. Penumbra did wonder why she was avoiding the guards but that didn’t matter to her now. For now, at least, she was Celeste’s captive and none of Falkreath’s guards knew she was even within their prison.





Forced to her knees, she knelt in front of a short, wooden pole. Heavy, iron shackles locked around her ankles, fixed in place on either side of the bottom of the pole by a heavy iron bar, keeping her legs spread out on either side of her and fixed firmly in place. Two iron shackles dangled from chains attached to another iron bar attached near the top of the pole. These held her wrists, also held together by another, shorter chain, and forced her arms slightly upward, pulled tight. Another chain was anchored to this bar, locking a heavy, iron collar around her neck, keeping her in an upright position. Penumbra had no hope of moving or escaping from this position and the leather panel strapped on over her mouth, filled with a thick cloth, prevented her from speaking.

“So, assassin,” Celeste whispered. “The guards will find you here, alone, and they will find you with this.” Celeste placed the contract written on parchment she had confiscated from Penumbra after capturing her. “And, believe me, the Empire is very eager to meet any members of the Dark Brotherhood after what you monsters did. You’ll be going away for a long time. I bet they’ll even send you the Imperial Prison in Cyrodiil to rot with all the other degenerates and traitors to the Empire.”

“Mmpph..” Penumbra grunted, still not bothered by her predicament. Celeste could only wonder what she was still so confident about.

“You’ll spend the rest of your miserable life in these chains, prisoner,” Celeste said. “I want you to live with that knowledge. And know that I will destroy every last one of the Dark Brotherhood until nothing but ash remains.”

Celeste turned away from her prisoner, eager to leave her here and get out of Falkreath. She wasn’t supposed to be here, after all. There was still a bounty on her head in this hold from years ago so she was always wary to be travelling in Falkreath.

With her distracted thoughts, she hardly noticed the strange sound behind her. Furrowing her brow, Celeste turned around again and saw... that her prisoner was now nothing more than a transparent shadow. And she was also now standing, completely free, beside her chained up doppelganger.

“What!?”

Penumbra clucked her tongue, swiftly raising her dagger to Celeste’s throat before the Imperial agent could reach for her blade.

“Silly girl,” Penumbra said. “To not recognize my creative little Illusion spell. Oh, the look on your face. It’s just wonderful.”

“Go on then, assassin. End it.”

“What? And scratch up that pretty neck? I think not. Unless you refuse to do as I say...”

Celeste sighed. “What do you want?”

“Get on the floor. On your stomach. There’s a good girl...”

...

“Mmmrrpph! Rrrgghh! Mmmmph!” Celeste raged into her gag, a white cloth tied on over her mouth, sealing in another cloth, over and over. She couldn’t believe she had been so badly fooled by this assassin.

Laying on her side, Celeste was now hogtied with rope, her wrists tied behind her back, ankles bound, and the two tied tightly together. Penumbra had made quick work of her bonds but it was effective. Celeste couldn’t escape, no matter how hard she tried, and was now helplessly bound and gagged beside Penumbra’s shade double.





“Don’t feel too bad, my dear. No one has ever got one over on the great Penumbra. There’s a reason I’m the Brotherhood’s most elite assassin. I’m sure one of these nice guards will let you out and untie you eventually.”

“Mmmphmmrrrpphhgghhmmmph!”

“Oh relax. You’ll be fine. Now, if you’ll excuse me...”

Leaving her captive behind, Penumbra snuck her way back through the barracks and out into the street of Falkreath once more. Finding her way back to the longhouse, she was stopped in her tracks again by another blade held to her back. This time, she hadn’t heard her pursuer coming.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

It wasn’t Celeste but it was another woman, that much Penumbra could guess. Could she have brought someone with her?

“What’s the problem? I’m not breaking any laws...”

“Yet,” the woman said. Her voice was thick, strong, and radiated power. In fact, her very presence radiated power. That much was obvious to Penumbra.

“How do you know what I plan to do?”

“You took a nullified contract,” the woman said. “It was decreed by the Night Mother.”

“You’re... with the Brotherhood? Are you...”

“Silence. The Night Mother wants no part of Skyrim’s war. She nullified the Black Sacrament. You chose to carry on the contract against her wishes.”

“Why would she want to stay out of it? That didn’t stop her from ordering the Emperor’s death...”

“That was to reclaim our status. To save us. This contract is only for the purposes of stoking the flames of war. And war is bad for business.”

“Is it? War means death. And death is our business.”

“People will have no need of us if they can just kill for themselves. Fanning those flames would spell doom for us.”

Penumbra sighed. “You’ve made your point then. So, what? You want me to just walk away?”

“I wish for you to atone. And I know just the way to do it.”

Penumbra felt a rush of power wash over her, The woman’s magic consumed her and she found herself flickering between realities. She could see Falkreath, the night sky above Skyrim... and the inside of Falkreath prison.

Before long, all she could see was the inside of the large cell. She was chained up as her shade double had been. And now she realized what the woman had done.

“Mmmppphh!” she grunted, rattling the chains that held her. The woman had fused the shade with Penumbra’s being and placed her where the shade once was. Now she really was trapped, chained gagged and helpless as her shade had been.

Celeste growled from beside her, still struggling on the floor, unable to free herself. She took some solace that some strange magic had sent Penumbra back to her rightful place in prison. She just wished that she didn’t have to be beside her...

Now with both women captured, awaiting their fates, there was nothing else for them to do but wait. They struggled with their bonds, grunting and mumbling into their gags but to no avail.

Celeste lamented being tricked so badly. Penumbra wondered the true identity of the powerful woman from the Dark Brotherhood. And, for now, they were both prisoners. Prisoners together. Left to their own devices, they wondered how in the world they were going to get out of this...