I appear within the Blue Palace's mage tower with Davos and Nightshade by my sides. A nostalgic smile forces its way onto my face as I feel the familiar aura of Solitude, already an entire year had passed since I worked here daily and the place was still as bustling as ever.
A shame that was all about to come to a crashing end...
Before my mind can continue on its downward spiral of dour cynicism I feel a familiar presence in a nearby room and signal for my servants to get on with their preparations while I go on on my own.
I patiently knock on an enchanted door and a moment later it opens with a click revealing my vampiric lover waiting behind, a light glare mixed with a pout on her face.
"Sybille!" I greet her with a wide smile and my arms spread invitingly "You haven't aged a day!"
She tries to glare at me further but suddenly lets out an undignified snort at my jape and rolls her eyes. She sighs and waves me in "Come on then, I see you still haven't learned what shame is."
"Some kind of food I bet." I snark before sneaking up behind her and enveloping her in a hug, completely ignoring the ensuing squeak of protest I ask "So, how have you been recently?"
She huffs and looks away "Maybe if someone deigned to visit more often they would not need to ask such a question."
This time it is my turn to sigh "Some rather important events occurred in the past couple of months that required my full focus."
She rolls her eyes "We heard about the 'bandit attack' on the excavation site, what I want to know is why you haven't visited even after that?"
I wince lightly and mumble "M'sorry got too engrossed in projects and the like."
A light chuckle leaves her but a moment later as she wiggles out of my grasp "Come on then, I prepared some coffee when I heard you were coming today."
'Definitely waifu material after all of this shit is done' I muse as I follow her inside "I just hope you managed to make it possible for consumption this time." I snark aloud.
I can practically feel her eyebrow twitch in the other room but she doesn't respond.
A moment later she places a cup of perfectly cooked coffee on the table in front of me with a smug look, practically radiating smugness while crossing her arms.
I raise an eyebrow, take a sniff of the cup, and smirk at her "You asked the servants to prepare it, didn't you?"
All the smugness holding her upright suddenly turns into a weight and her shoulders slump "Must you always be so insufferable?"
"Oh please, you know you love it." I jape "Besides, you look cute when annoyed."
She huffs and takes a seat "At least you have good taste."
"That I do." I smirk and take out a cigar of 'not magical marihuana' and begin enjoying it with some fairly decent coffee.
"What is that?" Sybille asks tentatively as the air in front of me is painted a magical blue.
"Master Hakan and I experimented a bit with some... recreational magic aides." I explain and then nod to myself "Yes, let us call them that. You want one?" I ask after a moment.
She looks into the smoke and shivers lightly at the ridiculous aura of magic it emits "Is that... safe?"
"Should be" I shrug "The worst thing that can happen is it disorients a weaker mage or knocks a mundane out from what I understand."
She stares at the cigar and shrugs "Fine."
I offer it to her and look away to hide my cheeky smirk.
A moment later the yell of "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" erupts from the poor vampire's throat followed by a fit of uncontrolled coughing.
I am so smug I do not even feel the cup smash against my face.
----
An hour after I finally managed to calm Sybille down by way of audacious snuggle we descended the tower and headed for the throne room.
Nightshade was constantly gawking at the sights surrounding us, I swear if we weren't going to an important meeting she would probably run off somewhere.
Then again "Davos."
"Yes boss?" He responds lazily.
I point my hand toward a nearby exit from the palace "Go and show Nightshade around but make sure the two of you are with me when the Jarls arrive... Also don't let her near the food stands, we don't have the entire day."
He grumbles something along the lines 'Since when am I a bloody babysitter' but I generously ignore him and continue on my way.
"Are you certain that you want them moving about?" Sybille asks after they disappear around a corner.
"Oh do not worry" I wave her off "Davos will use the opportunity to gather information and see if there are any suspicious characters about, he might grumble but he is frighteningly competent."
"I see..." She trails off for a while before asking "You believe that things will really escalate to that point today?"
"Yup." I pop the p "Absolutely certain in fact, Ulfric will rebel whether he wins or not. Many Nords are still very indignant about the ban on Talos worship and they will practically force Ulfric's hand even if he somehow changes his mind."
"How do you even explain that?" I she asks almost pleadingly "Maybe Torygg can convince him to calm down."
"Long term Thalmor plot." I state plainly, completely ignoring the far too curious servant 'coincidentally' passing next to us.
Letting Elenwen know I knew literally everything was always a pleasure after all.
"That..." Sybille raises a finger but soon lowers it with a sigh "Is completely right."
I grab her shoulder and bring her closer "Don't worry about it, our victory is practically assured and I will make sure to punish the Thalmor thoroughly after everything is done."
"And how can you be sure of that?" She rounds toward me "Did you not say you would have to focus on the more supernatural events you predicted happening during the rebellion?"
I tilt my head "While I might not be able to participate personally for some time do keep in mind who I am and who my patron is." I twirl the Ebony Blade between the fingers of my left hand "Let us just say that most of the rebel Jarls are going to have all of their nasty secrets revealed the moment this thing starts out, and thus I have already slain ten thousand without lifting a finger." The dagger disappears with a dramatic *poof* of shadows.
She giggles cruelly "Oh you have just made my day! Why not just assassinate them politically if you can't afford to assassinate them the normal way!" Her fangs show as she grins at me "I have to admit, I am thoroughly impressed." A suggestive glint appears in her eyes.
"We can talk about how impressed you are later." I lightly shove her forward "We have a King to meet now."
She huffs "Spoilsport."
---------------------
The housecarl guards open the doors to the throne room after announcing us and I enter only to be greeted with the sight of Torygg slumping in his throne and looking like he hadn't slept in a good week.
Elisif was nowhere to be seen but considering the turbulence of current events and her late pregnancy I could understand if she was either not willing or not allowed to participate.
Whatever conversation was going on between the King and his noble subjects was obviously interrupted by our arrival and as Torygg's eyes met mine he managed to force an inviting smile "Reyvin, it is good that you could come in time."
I incline my head in greeting "I am but a single spell away at all times, you know this."
"Yes." He nods "But you being present is still reassuring.
My eyes trail over those present and as they do the Thanes Erikur, Bryling and Helm all give me their own greetings. The Steward and his son on the other hand are too busy going over what I presume are some legal documents so Falk merely nods in greeting while Ingvar doesn't even acknowledge my presence.
Fair enough I guess.
"So." I begin after I take a seat at the long table below the throne "What is our plan?"
Torygg sighs deeply "What can we even plan out at this junction? Ulfric will no doubt decide that challenging me is his only option no matter what we say or do."
"True" I nod "But have you considered that undermining his authority and reputation might be useful no matter how today ends?"
"Oh?"
"Yup." I smirk cunningly "If we manage to present your position as best as possible we may at the very least weaken the loyalty some of the holds have for him and with some clever blackmail *cough* negotiation, we might even make a hold or two either switch sides or declare neutrality."
Torygg hums into his hand with a far off look before turning to me again "Even if we managed to undermine his authority, there is the matter of the duel. If he defeats me he will still have the legal authority to assume the crown and I hold no delusions I can defeat him."
"Not if the majority of the Jarls are against him." I point out "And besides you are missing a very important point, Ulfric is a Greybeard deserter."
"That may be the case." He agrees "But even then it still isn't against the rules of a duel to use the voice."
"The way of the voice is that of peace and contemplation on the divine." I quote the Greybeards' own words "By using the voice, especially with Greybeard training, to win political power he would go against all of their teachings and thus against the most ancient of Nord traditions." My mouth twists into a smirk "He would be declaring himself a tyrant and usurper then and there."
Before Torygg can answer I continue "So all you need to do is smash him as hard as you possibly can, enough to force him to use a shout and then you will have immediate authority to order his arrest."
The eyes of all those present snap to me as I utter those words.
The first to speak is Falk Firebeard "You would have the King dishonor himself in such a manner?"
"Let me ask you something Steward." I look at him like he was an idiotic child "What is more dishonorable, justly arresting a tyrant or letting thousands of your people die due to petty pride?"
He grunts, practically radiating disgust, but doesn't offer a counterargument.
Torygg on the other hand just sighs even deeper than previously "You already knew this would happen so long ago... I am guessing that whatever magic gave you this information doesn't offer an alternative?"
"Well I mean unless you want to hire an illusion mage to make their party slaughter each other in an uncontrolled fit of rage before they enter your or your subjects' territory then no." I blurt with a shrug.
Ah, the sweet taste of indignant judgement in the air.
"Let us skip that particular idea..." Torygg says uneasily before seemingly making a decision and steeling his gaze "You are right, if I must sacrifice a shred of my honor to stop the war or at least make sure it is not as devastating as it can potentially become then I will do so without hesitation."
"That is great." I smirk "Now, how do you feel about elixirs?"
The High King of Skyrim groans and palms his face.
---------
Our discussions went on for hours, we planned on how to garner as much support as possible and how to undermine Ulfric to the best of our abilities. The topic of the Thalmor came up and we unfortunately had to accept their probable presence during the event. They had too many excuses to be banned after all.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Torygg didn't waste his time and had already invited his own Jarls long before Ulfric had even left Windhelm. They had already made their own plans on how to act and would join the moot as one as a nice little surprise for Stormcloak.
This left me a bit confused by the King's previous actions but I quickly realized that the poor boy lacked confidence to the point of forgetting he had actual competent allies. I will need to get him out of that mindset when this whole situation finally ends.
Just as I was finally able to convince the King to at least take a stamina potion so he doesn't look like he wasn't just ran over by a troll a frantic guard entered the throne room.
"Your majesty!" He bows "The Jarls, they are all here!"
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