Board Thread:Skyrim/@comment-11276487-20130727171132/@comment-11444045-20131122061205

Pink Slim wrote: when is it suggested she thought it wasn't a worthwhile contract? and this is the dark brotherhood, they don't care if someone deserves to die, only that someone asked them to kill said person, everything else is irrelevant, the reason they have you kill someone is because you claimed you were one of them and stole a kill they were going to do.

that was a kill meant for them and you did it claiming to be them. she didn't avoid it, she just had yet to do it. "Trivia:   Aventus' comments before you initiate conversation imply that he has been doing the Black Sacrament for a long time. Later in the quest line, Astrid implies that she knew of his efforts, but it seems that she did not believe that the contract was worthwhile, being the only contract in the Dark Brotherhood Questline given by a child. "

Also I find this interesting too: " She will calmly inform you that your killing of Grelod the Kind has pleased the Dark Brotherhood, but that, in doing so, you stole a contract belonging to the Night Mother, the Brotherhood's disembodied spiritual leader. "

The irony is, as mentioned above she couldn't have known about the BS being performed unless through rumors. And to suggest that she knew of this before hand but thought it wasn't a good contract suggests that A she didn't want to do it or B she is more interested in finding more recruits and let this contract open for someone to kill grelod. I'm more willing to bet it's a combination of A and B because I find it hard to believe if he's been doing this for what appears to be days to months, which the DBH finds information insanely quick through channels without the Night Mother being present in telling the listener, or not having a listener, suggests that she just didn't care for the contract even if grelod did deserve the be killed. This is another one of those plot holes Bethesda chose in initiating the DBH questline as it makes no sense, it'd make more sense if you killed some highly profile characters in the game(that aren't essential) and the astrid finds out about your talents then recruits you, by having you kill those 3 in the shack or someone else. Same way Lucien Did it in oblivion was pretty good.