18th of Heartfire, 4E201
I left the inn around the middle of the night in my regular clothes, with my robes and dagger hidden in a bag I was carrying. When I made it to the orphanage, I hid behind a tree and changed quickly, then left my bag buried under some leaves. I made sure that no guards were patrolling nearby and crept inside, amazed when I discovered that the door had been left unlocked. When I got inside, I saw Grelod and Constance still awake and sitting in the dining room. It was the middle of the night, why weren't they asleep? I sighed mentally and hid in the shadows, watching them to wait for them to go to bed. I didn't have to wait long, thankfully. I waited to make sure that Constance had fallen asleep in her room, then I quietly crept through the room of sleeping children to Grelod's room. I slowly and carefully shut the doors behind me, looking at the bed often to make sure she didn't wake up. I went around her bed quietly and looked down at her, my dagger in hand. Even in sleep, she looked wicked, her teeth bared in a cruel grin. Most likely she was dreaming about hurting the children again. I was about to cut her throat, then remembered that if I did, her blood would get all over me and it would be obvious that I had killed her. I crept back around the bed and carefully climbed onto it, then quickly slit her throat from behind. She screamed and gurgled, then died. Suddenly, I heard the children in the other room, and I quickly hid in the shadows near her wardrobe so they wouldn't see me. They ran into the room and stared at Grelod, and I got as close to the wall as I could, afraid that they would see me. When they realized that she was dead, they started cheering. Cheering! They danced around in excitement, and said "We love you Dark Brotherhood!" and "Aventus really did it!" I could hear Constance in the other room also, running around and screaming in fear. I waited until everyone went back to bed, then placed a nightshade flower on her pillow before sneaking back out into the night. Outside, I changed  back into my regular clothes, then went back to the inn to have another nap.

I studied my dagger as I got ready for bed in my room. It had managed to kill her so easily, so effortlessly. I didn't even realize that it had cut her until she screamed and gurgled. I polished it with a scrap of rag, amazed that it had only gotten a few small drops off blood on it. I wrapped it up in some leather, and placed it under my pillow for safekeeping, then laid down to have a nap. Hopefully I wouldn't be woken up in the early morning hours by a guard intent on arresting me.

Marcurio was still on his bench when  I went downstairs for breakfast, snoring a little loudly. I walked over and gently kicked the bench with my boot, causing  him to wake up in sudden confusion and he nearly fell off of the bench. I held out a coinpurse with five-hundred septims in it, and asked him if he wanted some breakfast. He took the gold, and counted it as we waited on our food at the table. Satisfied that it was the full amount, he smiled and said that he would come with me. I would see how long it would take him to regret his decision.

After breakfast, we went down to the alchemy shop so that I could make him some healing and magicka potions. I also made a few potions and poisons to sell for profit. I stopped by the general store, and got Marcurio some enchanted jewelry: a necklace to fortify his magicka, and a ring to help his magicka recharge faster. He thanked me, and put them on. I also gave him a few of the potions I had made.I also got myself a necklace that would help improve my smithing.  I was nearly out of septims again now, but I knew that I could make more. I stopped in the market to check my list of things to do. Near Riften, we could go and take Avrusa her jazbay grapes, go and get the moon amulet for Kharjo, or go to the Dwemer ruin and put the lexicon back. I didn't want to go into the Dwemer ruin, so I decided to deliver the grapes. Marcurio saw my list and asked me what it was. I told him that it was a list of all of the things I'd been asked to do since I came to Skyrim. I had started writing them in my journal to keep track of them all. He then asked how long I had been in Skyrim, and seemed surprised when I told him I'd been here a little over a month. He shook his head, and said that maybe I should start telling people that I was busy. When I told him that most of the things I had done so far paid rather well, he changed his mind. We left Riften and headed for the Sarethi farm. From there, we could go and get Kharjo's amulet, since it wasn't far.

I didn't talk much on the way to the Sarethi farm, and Marcurio only asked me a few questions. I did tell him about being the Dragonborn though , to warn him about having to fight dragons. He didn't seem too impressed though, but I suspected that was because he thought I was lying. Oh well, he would find out soon enough, based on my luck.

Avrusa was very happy when I brought her the grapes, and gave me a few potions in return for my help. She also invited us inside for lunch. When we left a little while later, she said that I could come back and visit anytime. I checked her off of my list, and we headed down the road towards Treva's Watch, and the stolen moon amulet.

On the way to Treva's Watch, another assassin came after me. I hadn't even seen her coming, since I had been stopped to pick some flowers for my potions. Thankfully Marcurio had seen her, and fried her with a powerful lightning spell. I found the contract in a pocket, only a little burnt from the lightning. It said the same thing that the others had. I remembered Aventus then, and told Marcurio that we'd need to go to Windhelm soon. He asked why an assassin from the Dark Brotherhood had wanted to kill me, and seemed surprised when I told him that she wasn't the first one to try. I also thanked him for saving me, and gave him a ruby that  I had found in her pocket.

We made it to Treva's Watch not long after that, and found three people camped a ways from the fort. One, a man named Stalleo, asked me if I was there to help. I asked him what he was talking about, and he seemed to think that Marcurio and I were reinforcements, and said that he hoped we were good. I sarcastically said that we were the best, and he seemed pleased, and said that they had lost some good men trying to take the fort earlier in the day. Apparently sarcasm was something he didn't catch onto. He went on to say that he suspected someone named Brurid of taking over the fort, since they had had bad blood between them since the High King's death. His family had been kidnapped, and his home had been taken away while he and his guards were off fighting somewhere. Marcurio asked what we would get in return for our help, and Stalleo said that in addition to the posted reward, we could take whatever we wanted. Since we had no idea what the posted reward was since we weren't really mercenaries, I had no idea what to expect. We were going to take a secret entrance and sneak in, but one of the bandits spotted us from the walls and started shooting arrows at us. Stalleo and his guards helped, but one of the guards was killed. I summoned an atronach through the locked front gate, and Marcurio used his lightning to blast them from the walls. After all of the ones outside were dead, Marcurio gave me a boost up the side of one of the walls, and  I went in to find a way to unlock the gate and let him in. I found a lever in  a small gatehouse outside, and pulled it. It opened the gate, and Marcurio ran in with his spells ready. I told Stalleo and his remaining guard to wait back at their camp, and we went inside to take care of the rest of the bandits.

We managed to find Kharjo's amulet not far into the fort, in a chest guarded by a bandit chief and a few bandits. They didn't last long at all. I admit, I had been skeptical about Marcurio being a "master of the arcane", but he did do quite a bit of damage with his spells. And, thankfully, he didn't hit me with any of them. I put the amulet around my neck so I wouldn't lose it, and let Marcurio take what he wanted from the room. Then we stopped and had a quick meal before going to rid the rest of the fort of bandits.

Marcurio and I got separated in a fight against at least twenty bandits. I'm hiding in a room I found, and sending atronachs after them. I ran away from the fight to get some of them to follow me so we'd have a better chance of survival. I don't know if he's still alive or not, but I hope he is. I finally managed to kill all of the bandits that had followed me, and went to find Marcurio.

I found him alive, and rifling through the pockets of the bandits he had killed. I didn't know how he had managed it, since he was wearing only mage robes. Nearby, I found the body of what seemed to be another bandit chief, and took his steel plate armor. I cleaned it up a bit, then took it to Marcurio. He looked like he didn't want to wear it, but I insisted. I had to help him put it on though, since he'd never worn armor before.

A few hours and many fights later, Treva's Watch was at last free of bandits. I went to tell Stalleo the good news, and told him that I hadn't seen him family while we were in there. He thanked me, and said that they would go and find them after they got more supplies. Hopefully they had left before the bandits came. As a reward, he gave me something I valued: a spell book that I didn't have yet. Marcurio didn't ask for a reward for himself, I suspect  since his pockets were already lined with gold and trinkets that he'd gotten from the bandits. It was late, so we found a couple of bedrolls outside and shook them to get some of the bandit smell out. One of  the bandits' camp fires was still burning, so we moved the bedrolls and their little wooden lean to's that had been over them closer to the fire. Marcurio thanked me for bringing him here, since he'd gotten so much treasure. I went over my notes again, and noticed that I'd never gone back to tell Klimmek that I'd taken the food to the Greybeards. They may have been rude, but he seemed like a nice enough man. We were near Ivarstead, so I decided that we'd stop by and tell him tomorrow. But, for now, it was time to sleep.