“What did Lucien want?” – Asked Hauk at breakfast at Count’s Arms.

“He… I thought you were asleep!”

“I was, until he banged the door on his way out. Who else comes to visit you in your sleep?”

That was solid logic, and there was no point arguing.

“He wanted me to rejoin the Brotherhood” – Lena conceded.

“Rejoin?”

“Yes. I was suspended after I refused to kill everyone in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary.”

“And you lived?” – that was most unusual. The Dark Brotherhood wasn’t just another Guild, transgressions came with a death sentence.

“Oh, they were sending assassins after me for a time until it transpired that the traitor was much higher up than anyone in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary – he was a Black Hand, and he was out for revenge after Lucien personally. That’s a completely mad story” – Lena shook her head. “Then I was no longer the target and they let me be. Now they decided it was time I returned to the family.”

“And will you?”

“Already have.”

Hauk wasn’t surprised. After Lucien’s visit the night before, Lena disappeared for 24 hours. She returned during the night. Lucien’s ways were rubbing off on her.

“So, if you were given a contract on my life, would you kill me?”

“First of all” – Lena was getting cross – “they would not give me a contract on a friend unless this was a test or a Purification Ritual. And second of all, this would be against my principles, so I’d kill the contract giver instead, and they know it. So you’re quite safe from me” – Lena smiled.

“You put friends above your oath?”

“I do not serve Sithis. I have rejoined because Lucien did know my mother – he hadn’t lied. When I refused to purify Cheydinhal, he exclaimed ‘Just like her mother’, and I learned later that indeed their paths had crossed.”

That was as much as Lena was willing to tell, that was obvious. So Hauk dropped the topic.