User:Auri-El Reborn/Cover-up, Set-up

Foreword

This is the sequel to A Contract Amiss. Picking up directly after the storyline of its prequel, Cover-up, Set-up details Caius Luco's attempts to cover up his dark past on order from the Dark Brotherhood. To do this, he must kill many people, including his former master and mentor, Azzan, head of the Fighters' Guild Anvil Chapter. When a set-up in The Flowing Bowl, however causes Caius' capture, he must stay alive in the Imperial Prison while the Brotherhood sets up an escape plan. Or so he thinks...

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Part One

Caius Luco met the Courier reporter at the Newlands Lodge, in an upstairs private room, on teh Imperial's request. The Khajiit's name was Ra'jiradh. He seemed a good enough person, and Caius didn't want this to get bloody. But he soon realized that he was a bit too... nosy... and he began to change his oppinion about a breakout of violence. "You and Norbert worked closely together on the day of his death, did you not?"

"Yes, we did." Caius answered simply.

"And is it true that you were spotted leaving through the back door? Just after his death?"

"Yes, I panicked, and didn't want to look like the culprit. I told the guard what had happened, and my story is back up by evidence!" Caius shouted.

"And what was... or is your story." Ra'jiradh asked, knowing that this was a question that Caius had not wanted to be asked. But now that he had asked it, the Khajiit knew that he had no choice but to answer, lest he appear suspicious to the reporter and all readers in the Imperial City, which most likely also included the authorities.

And so Caius leaned back, took a breath, and began to tell the Khajiit his story.

"I waited for the thieves to show up, but Norbert returned at about 11:00 to give me the keys to get out -- he had locked the doors just in case. As he explained himself, the thieves arrived prematurely, but had cast an invisibility spell. One of them cut his throat, and then attacked me. I killed them all. I fled out the back, using the keys Norbert had given to me. I reported to the guards, and left town. I was done with the guild after that. Because of me, an innocent man had died." Caius finished, keeping his cool all the way through.

"And the missing items?" Ra'jiradh questioned.

"Ah, yes those. He had taken them and sold them to a merchant in Chorrol. Sent it away on a wagon three days before, he did."

The Khajiit eyed him suspiciously for a moment, looking his face over thoroughly for any signs of lying. Finally, "Alright I guess I was wrong about you," he said, and gathering up his notes and other things he added, "Have a wonderful day, Mr. Luco."

"Same to you, Khajiit." Caius answered. "Oh and one more thing before you go."

"Yes?" Ra'jiradh turned, only to find an elegant silver dagger plunged into his throat. He fell to the ground, blood gushing from his neck, his paw trying to stop the bleeding, and failing.

The Dunmer host ran for the door, only to find Caius behind her, and her throat slit. She gurgled, and desperately thrashed he hands and legs out. Caius held her up by her armpits. Looking at him, wide-eyed with terror, she silently begged for her life. He just smiled... and let her go. She fell on her back, looking up into the Imperial's smooth, inflection less face. And that was the last thing she ever saw.

Taking the Khajiit's notes, Caius -- using the shadows -- got past the guards and down the well to the Brotherhood Sanctuary. He had already thought of the story he would tell the listener: Nothing had happened, he left, heard screams, and hurried back.

Hopefully she would buy it.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

I don't think you are being entirely truthful with me, Caius," the Listener said to him. "You are lying to me, and I know it."

"Dearest Listener, I would never even dream of lying to you," Caius insisted.

She sighed. "Did you ever wonder what brought you into this kind of world, my friend?"

Caius tilted his head in thought. "No," he said. "No I suppose I haven't."

"Years ago, your father, Maxentius Luco, was the most notorious assassin in Tamriel. He murdered kings and peasants alike with absolute ease. He was merciless; brutal. But when the time came for him to leave this world... well, he wasn't willing to do so. And so using you, his only son, he bound himself to you, and to this world. Why this side of you didn't show until that day, only he knows. But inside of you is a crown jewel that we, the Brotherhood never managed to tame. That is why you are the way you are. That is why on that one fateful day... the simplest contract went amiss.

"Caius, at heart, you have always been a cold blooded murderer."

Part Two

Azzan paced anxiously around the Black Horse Courier office. "So he never came back, then?" he asked the Khajiit named Hassiri.

"Yes," he answered. "He went to interview someone in Cheydinhal for our newest edition Whodunit? The Cold Case of Norbert Lelle, but he never returned."

Azzan's eyes widened in realization. "Just exactly who was he interviewing?" he asked urgently. The Khajiit checked a parchment that he pulled out from a desk.

"Uhh... Some Imperial named Caius Luco. Mid-twenties, middle-class, working as a bookseller in Daggerfall. He came to all the way down to Cheydinhal for the interview." the Khajiit told him. "Not so sure why he would bother. Not like it was demanded by the law or anything..."

"Thank you," Azzan said. "You have been most helpful, and that is all the information that I need. Good day."

And with that, Azzan exited the building, and left for Cheydinhal to investigate the crime scene.

-- One Day Later; In Cheydinhal --

Azzan walked into the Newlands Lodge, forcing himself to look away from the grotesque mutilation of the innocent Dunmer hostess. He looked over at the Cheydinhal County Guard, headed by Garrus Darellium, which stood over the slain Khajiit by the name of Ra'jiradh. As he approached them, he heard them narrowing down the suspects. "Hold it, boys," he said to them. "There's absolutely no need to speculate any further. I know exactly who your culprit is."

"Realy?" Garrus said sarcastically.

"Really." Azzan said in a mock-serious-response tone. "Come here, and let me tell you a story. Three years ago, a twenty-one year old Imperial Spellsword came to us. He was tall, strong, and lean, and a put together lad at that. He flawlessly took care of an ironic and confusing Rat situation back in Anvil, followed up by a Goblin extermination with only three others. And they all got out alive. He returned to me promptly, and I gave him a contract... one that would put him at the rank of Journeyman. I gave him a contract... from Norbert Lelle.

"Now a year before this man's arrival, we had been told of him by a seer. A wise man living in High Rock. He had met this Spellsword in Daggerfall, and had advised him to join the Fighters' Guild. But in that moment, he saw that this man was no ordinary person. He saw something evil within him, and predicted that he would stop a band of thieves and murderers, only to become one himself. And with this contract, that prediction was proven right, and this man did kill Norbert Lelle.

"Three years passed with no sign of him in Cyrodiil, until now. He came down here for an interview in this inn... with this very man. This murderer's name? Caius. Caius Luco."

Garrus' eyes widened at this last part. "You mean, as in... of the Luco bloodline. As in, the son of Maxentius the Butcher?"

"Yes," Azzan said. "This man is Caius Attius Luco, son of Maxentius Derrilian Luco, the notorious assassin. Although he died 19 years ago, the Mages' Guild found signs of Soul Transferring on the scene, but that would require a vassal. He died in Bruma, in 3E 421, and his son was never found. As we now know he had been escorted to Sentinel, and 7 years later, in 424, to Daggerfall at the age of 23. He lived there since, but in 427 he completed a task for the wise man I mentioned earlier and a year later came to Anvil. It has been six years, but I am sure that the evil inside him is still there. And that evil has driven him to kill again, this time to cover up the events of three years ago. But doing this will mean that he has to exterminate his old Guildhall. I intend to set up a trap. If he falls for it, he will be taken to prison and perhaps someday soon we can rid him of the curse bestowed upon him by his father. Perhaps."

Part Three