It was really late at night and Ulfric Stormcloak was heading to his chambers. He had spent most of the evening and into the night, planning the final battle of the war. They were ready to take Fort Snowhawk and march on Solitude. The Dragonborn was a guest in his palace, having been summoned from Whiterun about a week beforehand. The Jarl was gripped by a lingering sense of suspicion. When the Dragonborn had arrived, she looked like she hadn't been sleeping well and while she wasn't consciously aware of it, Ulfric noticed that she seemed to really be on edge when she was alone in a room with him even if for a moment, always easing up whenever someone else entered. Had he done something he wasn't aware of? He had thought to bring it up to her in private but she was making a point of avoiding him whenever her input in the war room wasn't needed. It worried Ulfric. They were close friends and he hated seeing his friends in distress, no matter how subtle.
He was passing Eriah's room when he heard her groaning in what was undoubtedly fear. Frowning, he carefully opened the door to see the Dragonborn in the grips of a dream. A really bad nightmare from the looks of things. She was gripping the blankets tightly and her face was twisted in terror, tossing her head from side to side periodically. Ulfric went to her bedside immediately when she gave out a small cry. "Dragonborn!" he said, taking her shoulders in his hands. Just like that, her eyes flew open and she stared wildly around. She saw Ulfric hovering above her and she shrieked. Surprise sent him reeling back and Eriah scooted to the other side of the bed so fast in her haste to get away that she fell off. "What in Talos's name...?" Ulfric said, as he came around. "Don't come any closer!" the Dragonborn pleaded, pinning herself in the corner of the room and making herself as small as possible.
Now the Jarl was confused. What was she so afraid of and why did he seem to be the reason? "Calm down. There's no one here but me. You'll not come to harm." he promised, slowly approaching with his hands up. Eriah's breathing was getting more erratic and her brown eyes were staring at him with a clouded over look, making him realize she hadn't separated fantasy from real life despite being awake. "By the gods...you stabbed me. You killed..." Eriah started muttering incoherently. "Who did I kill?" Ulfric asked, getting even closer. She squeaked in pure fright as she threw her arms around her head. "Don't kill me...Stay away!" she groaned. The Jarl was starting to fear the state she was in. If he didn't do something to snap her out of it, she was going to either kill herself or be rendered broken in mind. "I'm not going to kill you, Dragonborn. Why would I do such a thing?" he asked, finally getting close enough to kneel before her.
Eriah closed even further on herself. Some part of her deep down knew that she only had another repeat of the nightmare she had over a week ago in Breezehome. Still, a greater part of her mind was stuck in that place and with the one who stabbed her standing in front of her, her mind couldn't separate fact from fiction. She could sense Ulfric reaching out and reacting purely on adrenaline, she lashed out. Ulfric barely managed to see it coming but he succeeded in catching her wrist before she hit him. However, it served only to stir her up into a further frenzy as she started fighting against his grip, babbling nonsense about carnage on the plains of Whiterun and him demanding answers from her for...something. The Jarl needed to snap her out of this. "ERIAH!" he barked. Just like that, it seemed whatever spell she was under was broken. She ceased fighting and her wide eyes slowly looked up at him, such was her surprise. Ulfric made it a habit of referring to her only as Dragonborn or by her current Stormcloak title of Snow-Hammer. Not once since they met had he ever called her by name until now. It was his way of showing respect for her greater destiny to stop the Bane of Kings, Alduin the World-Eater.
He looked down at the woman whose wrist he still held fast and noticed that clarity had returned to her eyes but the unmistakable quiver of her lips and the sheen in her eyes told him she was broken and ashamed of her current position. It struck Ulfric for the first time that she was beautiful and he let his stern gaze soften as he took her upper arms in his hands. She jerked out of impulse but it was weak and she didn't phase him. "Tell me...what has troubled your sleep so badly that you'd be reduced to begging for your life at my feet?" he asked. Eriah just looked into his eyes, trying to see if this really was the waking world and the man before her wasn't about to plant a dagger in her...pregnant...wait a second. Her eyes shot down to look at her abdomen and that's when the tears started falling. "Not again..." she choked out. She started falling to the side but Ulfric gently and firmly kept her against the wall. He needed her to talk. "What did you see, Dragonborn? You must let it out or it will continue to torment you." he said. The Dragonborn swallowed hard against the lump in her throat.
"This nightmare...I had it for the first time in Whiterun. Not long before you summoned me here. I thought...praying at Talos's statue would've been enough to drive it away. But it kept coming back. Sometimes in pieces, sometimes in its entirety. Like now." she rasped. Her hands gripped her night shift over her torso, one of the sleeves slipping off her shoulder, as she struggled to breathe without breaking down. "Keep talking." he prompted. Resting a fist against her head, the Dragonborn swallowed hard. "I'm standing in Whiterun's plains. It's dark out. The stars and moons are nowhere to be seen but the area is bathed in an ethereal light. I see the city in the distance so I start walking towards it. Suddenly, fire erupts and I see...I see bodies. Dead ones. Stormcloaks. Imperials. Bodies of friends. It wasn't a battlefield. Something massacred them all. Then I saw...I saw..." she paused, as she started to breath heavily again. "Don't stop, Dragonborn. Stay with me." Ulfric urged, trying to keep her grounded. Her eyes dodged around before meeting his again. "You appear before me, bloodied sword in your hand. I don't know if you were behind the carnage around me but that doesn't matter. You ask me..." she paused again, swallowing hard. "You ask me whose child I was carrying." she let out.
Ulfric's mystified look met her words. "Child? Did you not tell me once that you can't have children?" he asked, carefully. That seemed to loosen her tongue quite a bit because it all came spilling out. "Yes! Even in the nightmare, I still remembered that it's impossible for me to carry someone's child but for some gods-damned reason, I was pregnant! You kept demanding the name of the father and you said...crazy things. You told me I belonged to you, that I was to be your wife when the war is over, and that I would be the one to give you an heir to further secure Skyrim's future away from the Empire. You then decide that if I couldn't give you the answers you sought, you were...you were going to cut the child out of me. You pin me to the ground and just as the dagger in your hand plunges into my gut, I wake up! Even now, I can still feeling your hand on my throat!" she let it all out. In spite of herself, her face flushed with embarrassment. She renewed her attempts to get him to let go but the Jarl was a strong man and he didn't let her get away.
"Look at me." he said, in a commanding tone. Because of her service as a soldier in his army, Eriah met his gaze with no small amount of effort to keep it. "It was the work of Vaermina, Dragonborn. She's trying to turn you against me." he said, pushing her against the wall again firmly. "If you were able to bear children, I would never demand such a thing of you nor would I ever threaten any child you carry. Your fate lies with whomever you choose to marry and I promise you that I will not let the allied Jarls trap us both into such an arrangement. I owe you my life many times over and I wouldn't be so callous as to throw our friendship away just because it would be a strategic move. You have my word." he swore. His honest words almost made Eriah blurt out a confession of her long hidden feelings. That she was in love with him and wanted nothing more than to stand at his side. What stopped her was how false that was. While her feelings were real, the fact remained that her path led elsewhere and demanded she remain free of political entanglements in order to best serve the peoples of Skyrim. No matter how much she wished she could tell him her feelings, Eriah was bound by the path she set herself on and being Ulfric's queen was never in the cards. It was a path she was never meant for. Her destiny to defeat Alduin was fulfilled. Miraak had been stopped. The Vampire Lord, Harkon, had been destroyed by the sacred bow of Auri-El, the Elven name of Akatosh himself. There were still others she was meant to help and becoming High Queen would see her bound to the Palace of the Kings, unable to fulfill her life's work.
So she swallowed her words and just let her eyes drop to her lap, tears falling quietly. "Why would Vaermina do such a thing to me?" she choked out. Ulfric gently drew her into his arms, seeking to comfort his dear friend and letting a small smile cross his face when she clung to him. "Because she's the Daedric Prince of Nightmares, Dragonborn. There's a reason she's considered evil by just about every race in Tamriel. Bringing down suffering through dreams is both her purpose and her way of toying with us. You mustn't let her defeat you for too long. Our success in Solitude depends on you but more importantly, I can't stand the thought of your fighting spirit getting put out over something like a nightmare, even one bearing the mark of Vaermina. None of it was real and you are still whole." he said. He gently pulled her away and held her face in his hands, locking eyes with her once more. "I swear to you that I will always raise a sword in your defense and that I will never let my ambition cloud my priorities. You mean a lot to me, Dragonborn, and I can no longer imagine my life without you in it. You've been a good soldier and a better friend. You've never once let me down. I protect my friends. Don't let this nightmare convince you what you saw was my true self. I swear before the Nine that you shall never come to harm by my own hand." he said.
Eriah let him bring her back to him. Though her feelings were doomed to remain unspoken, she still found safety and contentment in his arms. He was absolutely right about everything. She knew him too well for the nightmare to ever become a reality. Vaermina didn't have that power. She could only weave dreams that seemed very real but that's as far as it went. For all his faults, Ulfric was a honest man. Many said he coveted the High King's throne for its own sake but they didn't realize the impact the Great War had had on him, combined with the Markarth Incident. He was jaded in regards to the Empire and with his past, how could he not be? The Dragonborn had been closer to the discontent in the Imperial City than anyone else in Skyrim. She knew firsthand how weak the Empire had become. It all started with the White-Gold Concordat and snowballed into the loss of Hammerfell. The Redguards were strong warriors and they succeeded where the Empire failed: They pushed the Aldmeri Dominion back. The Stormcloaks hoped to repeat that success in Skyrim. It could open up an alliance with Hammerfell and if they made a strong, united front against the Thalmor, then the rest of the Empire could hopefully gain some of its spark back and join them in defeating the Dominion.
All that aside, Eriah would forever be grateful that Ulfric never tried to hinder her quests in anyway. Aside from Galmar and Jorlief, she probably knew him the best of anyone. He understood her role, both chosen and divinely ordained, and allowed her the freedom to do as she must. Helping him win Skyrim was the least she could do for him and another goal of hers was to open him up to friendships with the other races who called Skyrim home. It was to be a lifelong venture but worth it if she managed to soften him up even a little. He was fifty years old but she stubbornly believed no one was too old to change if they put the effort into it. For now, she was content to be held and protected for once since she always protecting others. She had a bad habit of taking her role as Dragonborn a little too seriously and thus hated showing weakness. There were few friends and acquaintances with whom she felt safe enough to show vulnerability to. Ulfric was one such man. Ralof was another she was able to let her guard down with and it was no surprise they were best friends now. Not even Ulfric Stormcloak could claim to be that. Hell, she and Ralof would openly flirt with each other for the express interest of humoring their comrades and completely fooling those who didn't know them very well. Even those who knew it was all in good fun still took wages on whether or not they were actually serious. It kept morale up and brought Eriah down to earth in their eyes. She was one of them despite being Dragonborn.
The thought of Ralof's antics made Eriah smile and she felt the last remnants of the nightmare were passing. She swore to Akatosh that she was going to the Temple of Talos in the morning so she could pray even harder for her patron god, the source of her courage, to intercede on her behalf and keep Vaermina's hands off her dreams. The Jarl was right. She couldn't afford to let the Daedric Prince of Nightmares derail her resolve when they were going to take Solitude in a few days' time. With Talos's help, she could overcome anything. One thing was for sure, however. Eriah would rather deal with Hermaeus Mora one last time. Better to deal with a Prince she hated than to suffer through a nightmare that showed such carnage and and tormented her by seeing the life of a child she could never have be threatened by the man in whose arms she had allowed herself to retreat into. She closed her eyes and just listened to Ulfric's heart. Like the heart of any Nord, it sounded strong and sure. It didn't take long for the soothing sound of it beating to lull her back to sleep.
Ulfric knew when the Dragonborn fell asleep in his arms when her body finally relaxed against him. That was a good sign. Hopefully, it meant that she would sleep soundly until morning. Slowly and carefully, he lifted her up and carried her back to her bed. Pulling the covers over her frame, Ulfric brushed a hand through her hair and stood back. He had never been starstruck (though rightfully impressed) by her heritage as Dragonborn but he never failed to marvel at the fact that the fate of Skyrim rested on the shoulders of a young woman. He had learned bits and pieces of the Prophecy in his youth, thanks to both the Greybeards and his own study. He'd be lying if he said he didn't assume the savior of Skyrim would be a man, a view most often shared by scholars. Part of him was understandably disappointed it wasn't so but it was overshadowed immensely by how right it felt that it was a woman instead. It made for a better story in his opinion.
She was proud to call herself a child of Akatosh and took to her path without any doubts. She was definitely stronger than most men he knew. She was more than equal to the task of casting off the chains Vaermina had set upon her and soon, that nightmare would pass into the recesses of her mind completely forgotten. This was a warrior who went to Sovngarde and back, bested a Dragon Priest in Hermaeus Mora's realm of Oblivion, and took down the head of an ancient clan of vampires. Those were just three of the countless tales she had. Eriah Quintence was not a woman to trifle with but once one earned her respect, she was a true friend. Ulfric turned towards the door and headed out to go to his own chambers. He really needed sleep himself so he could focus tomorrow on polishing the plan to take Solitude. Still, her describing the nightmare she had made him wonder if there was some underlying fear she was worried about that allowed Vaermina to hijack it and use in her weaving. He longed suspected the Dragonborn was hiding something from him but since it wasn't distracting her or interfering with her usefulness in the war, Ulfric was content to let her keep whatever secrets she was keeping.