With my rush of adrenaline finally settling I found myself staring into the distance while chainsmoking without even noticing it at first. The day's events replayed in my mind even as a full hour passed and the troops were busying themselves dealing with the bodies and giving medical aid to the wounded.
The only times I would be distracted from my mental descent were when a dying legionary was brought before me, only to be removed just as quickly as I brute-forced them back to full health. At least it helped me from getting truly high with how many cigars I went through.
Either from the aforementioned dying soldiers or from the blood that was still slowly, and ever so reluctantly, seeping from my person, a small pool of blood now surrounded the small tree stump I was seated on, the surrounding smell of waste and viscera blessedly blocked out by a light wind I called forth with my blessings.
Aside from the mortally wounded, none save Anondor came close to me, the ancient Paladin holding a silent vigil while I accepted the fact that thousands of men and women died by my hand in mere hours. Not the degenerated Falmer or the reanimated Draugr, not even Forsworn barbarians... No, it was actual people, or at least what I considered to be people in any case.
"How endlessly noble of you pops." Scorch drawls with immense amusement.
I scoff lightly "Everyone is a hypocrite, at least I openly admit it."
"Uh huh." He somehow manages to maneuver his face into a perfect deadpan "You openly admit it in your sulky internal monologue."
"I do not sulk." I immediately bite back before pausing, my expression slowly shifting into one of disgusted horror "Oh God, I am sulking, aren't I?"
"Eh" Bird boi shrugs "Considering you just committed what those fuckers back then would probably consider a cardinal fucking sin I don't think mere sulking is the worst you could be doing right now."
"Jesus fucking Christ Scorch." I mutter "I could not have put it more repugnantly if I tried."
"I can probably do better if you let me think!" He informs me with too much happiness.
We stare at each other for a whole minute before I sigh in defeat "Dear gods we really are terrible people."
"Always have been." He bobs his head smugly.
As one we turn to Anondor, who was standing there and listening the entire time, we had forgotten he was even there by this point.
The old elf notices immediately and offers a sad smile "All of us cope with what we must do in different ways, my lord." He inclines his head slightly "Even back in our ancient conflict with the Atmorans such deeds weighed heavily on the magi and champions of our people, but I do admit it was to a much lesser degree, what with numbers on both sides being much lower than they are in this age."
I offer a thankful nod for his words and return to staring into the distance "Warfare, I have learned... Is unfortunately just one big calculation." I begin lightly "Our numbers versus theirs... Our losses versus theirs and so on and so forth." A pause "It is why I accepted Tullius' request so swiftly."
"You knew the consequences immediately and still chose to follow through?" Anondor asks, his voice lacking any judgment.
"I did." I confirm easily "I could have held back even further than I did today, allowed the battle to drag on for weeks if I so chose... But in the end, I did not see any benefit in more loyalists dying needlessly."
The Paladin looks at me with a mix of surprised and aghast "You... you were still holding back?" He mutters with a respectable amount of fear in his tone.
"Quite." I chuckle "Or did you think Ulfric escaped by chance?" I raise an eyebrow.
He stares at me for a while before finally managing a weak "...But why?"
"The rebellion is over." I restate firmly "They have lost far too many to death and surrender, their outside support is crushed so thoroughly they would have to remake those contacts from scratch. All that is left is securing Torygg's legitimacy so thoroughly no Nord would even think of questioning him until he is well and truly dead at the ripe old age of one fifty."
Realization starts to dawn in the ancient Paladin's eyes "You mean to have the young King do the deed himself?"
"Indeed." I nod "An assault on Windhelm will be more than easy now that their garrison has been so thoroughly depleted, and my own people already run the Grey Quarter. All that is left is to bring Torygg so that he may execute Ulfric like the cowardly dog he is, and then we can focus on the true enemy."
Anondor nods gravely "Auri-El's children who have strayed from his brilliant light."
"And the Thalmor." I raise a finger in lecture "Can't forget those deranged kinsmen of ours."
"I once held all our distant kin in high regard." He shakes his head in genuine sadness "To think all but the descendants of the Chimer would turn themselves to madness."
I scoff "Don't think the Dunmer are free of it either." I correct him immediately "House Dagoth is the way it is because of my own beliefs, until relatively recently the Dunmer of Morrowind were a bunch of religious extremist slavers, their so-called Almsivi, the living gods drawing their power from the betrayal they committed upon the chosen champion of our people and that they committed against my own ancestor when he learned of their deeds."
"You hold your own people in such disdain?" Anondor asks, taken aback.
"Oh please." I scoff even more loudly "To some of them even a Mer of my station would still be considered an n'wah simply because I was not born in Morrowind. And don't even get me started on the Great Houses."
I shake my head "The Redoran are alright I guess, their views of honor and martial prowess are respectable but a bit too far reaching for my tastes, the Indoril are opportunistic zealots who switched sides the moment their precious Tribunal Temple fell." I practically spit the words out, having no respect for Almalexia's house before continuing to the rest "The Telvanni are just a bunch of unprincipled lawless sorcerers, the Dres are filthy slavers, the Hlaalu got so greedy they were replaced by Sadras..."
"...And Dagoth." I sigh "What is now a beacon of progress and prosperity, as remade by my own hands, was once the tool of a maddened lich, for I have no better way to describe his state, who declared himself a god." A dry chuckle leaves me "A god who was so deluded with himself he outright created my father to be his inheritor, so that he may have a legacy on the earth as he ruled from the heavens."
"Your legacy may have come from darkness, but Auri-El himself has decreed you to be a bringer of light for all to see." Anondor declares immediately as I pause.
"Oh don't think I am all that hung up on the madman." I wave him off with a chuckle "I was merely pointing out just how low all Mer seem to have sunk throughout history, not just those we don't like."
"Much like the snow elves, in our own way." Anondor mutters darkly before the mood leaves him in the blink of an eye and he offers me a supportive smile "It is good that you are not weighed down by such things, my lord, but it may be time to address our... visitor." He pointedly looks behind me.
"Enjoyed your little spying session, Rikke?" I ask without turning around, I had noticed her the moment she approached but it wasn't like I had anything to hide and going by her expression she wasn't all that interested in my words either.
The veteran Legate merely gives me a dirty look at that before focusing back on her target, after a brief moment of silence she finally catches herself and hoarsely asks "Is that?"
Giving a brief look at the absolutely ruined corpse of Ulfric's right-hand man I nod "Galmar Stone-Fist himself. Died like he lived, a complete and utter beast of a man."
A small smile appears on her face at those words, before she approaches the pile of shredded meat and bone and looks down at it somberly, completely uncaring for the blood now soaking her boots.
"We were comrades once." She mutters in remembrance "Fought against the Thalmor with all we had... To think we would end up like this."
"He made his choice." I cut in sharply but not harshly "He knew damn well what his support would do to his own people, and for all his courage he was as easily blinded by the short term as Ulfric still no doubt is."
Rikke gives the corpse a sad nod "That he did..." She agrees hesitatingly "At least he feasts with Talos now."
The moment she realizes what she had just said, her eyes snap to me, looking almost startled.
Naturally that crumbles immediately as she sees me giving her the most deadpan look I could manage at the moment "Woe, I must now inform the Ambassador of your great sin." My voice could have probably dried the oceans at that moment.
Her eye twitches before a very unexpected snort, sounding hilariously close to that of a pig, comes out against her control. She immediately clamps her hand over her nose but it was already too late.
I completely ignored her glare as I laughed my ass off and allowed my self-judgment to slowly slide off my back. I would probably get a couple of nightmares before my mind settled, but at least those were thematic around these parts.
-------
The mood in the legionary camps was both solemn and celebratory, thousands on our side had died in the great battle but at the same time we utterly crushed the rebels with a good four-to-one ratio in our favor, and that was not counting the prisoners.
Still, it took us a whole two days to reposition and deal with all the corpses. No one wanted to deal with a damn plague of all things now that we were on the cusp of victory.
Most of the legionaries and hold warriors still treated me with their usual respect but those who had fought at my side were thoroughly scarred by what happened. The men and women of Morthal were scared shitless and outright demanded they be placed into a camp away from the one I was staying at due to a newly developed superstition, a rather funny little story of people dying if I stared at them for a moment too long.
The 54th and Tiberius were much milder in their reactions, I did have a reputation in Solitude and all of them saw me go wild before. They were still frightened by me but it was more of a 'better do whatever he says' kind of fear than the 'run the fuck away' kind.
As for my own people... well I guess that the mentality difference between men and elves was on a level both cultural and genetic because all I could see in their eyes was pure unfiltered admiration.
By Dagoth, some of the lesser pyromancers finally managed to cast fireballs just because of what they saw me do!
'Bunch of fucking lunatics.' Scorch evidently approved.
In any case, we had a two-day break before Tullius started planning on assaulting the city, but I found myself with a much better idea all of a sudden as I felt a sentry almost shit himself with fear once I stepped a tad too close to the city walls.
And so I found myself approaching the gates of Dawnstar, Anondor, Thorfinn and Tiberius at my flanks. I did make sure to tell Tullius to summon the twins from Solitude before I did so however.
I could practically taste the fear of the guards rising as I approached the city, the only thing stopping them from either attacking or running was the ornate white flag held by my Paladin.
Just to fuck with them further I stood there silently for a good ten minutes, this evidently caused a good fifth of the city to slowly approach a panic, so much so that the cunt Skald found it within himself to climb atop the gatehouse, albeit reluctantly.
"What in oblivion do you want?" He yelled, not as scared as his men to his credit.
"Is that any way to greet your King's Court Mage, Skald?" I ask cheerfully, but sadly he did not have the sheer gall to correct me on this, they had spyglasses and minor seers in the city, they knew damn well what happened outside their walls.
He sighs as his hand twitches toward his axe on instinct "Just say what you will, Dagoth."
"Much better" I clap my hands, a couple of the gate guards almost jumping away at the action "My offer is simple." I smile as my crown covers my face "Get your fat behind outside this fucking gate right fucking now or I will make what happened to Ulfric's little posse look like a fucking picnic." My words struck true but the good Jarl was still a bit reluctant "Don't make me come up there Skald or by all the Divines I will fulfill my promise of gelding your bald ass!"
The Jarl pales as his eyes dilate in pure fear, it did not take him a minute to have the gate open and he practically sprinted outside to present his weapon to me.
'That is what I fucking thought bitch.'
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You too may avoid getting gelded
all I ask in return is a mere pittance of stones.
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