(AN: Yeah, creative title, I know. But here we are again, back in Tamriel, the Beauty of Dawn, to bring you the second part of the tale of Eirik Bjornsson the Dragonborn. Same cast as before - Eirik the Dragonborn, Mjoll the Lioness, Crixus the Imperial Legate [of course he won't die: everyone on FanFiction love the Empire, they don't want to see the Empire's paragon of virtue and tolerance to be slain!], Lydia the Huscarl, etc. We will see a few new characters as well as expansion of minor roles from the last story. Serana probably won't have that big a role, though she will make a cameo here and there.)

(While the last story, The Dragonborn and the Lioness, the story to which this is the sequel, was more or less guided by the established story of the game, this will explore an alternate end for the war as well as pushing the boundaries of how the Civil War in Skyrim might escalate. More boundaries will be pushed [though I doubt we'll be shooting for another 100+ chapter, 500,000+ word epic like the last one]. Some big stuff will be going on, and I do mean BIG. People will die, not just nameless and faceless bandits, but actually people with names.)


Prologue - The Rising Threat

Elenwen did not like to be kept waiting. There was precious little time for the accomplishment of her goals and so far, they had been all but thwarted. It was nothing short of a miracle - not of Auri-El, obviously - that that dragon had appeared in Helgen as it had. Whoever had called Ulfric Stormcloak out of Windhelm and towards the border was someone the Thalmor needed to find and eliminate, for they would threaten the entire operation.

Yes, the operation. It was for that reason that she was sitting in her own office in Solitude, waiting for her guest to arrive. The Stormcloaks wisely distrusted the Thalmor: they were foolish but useful puppets. The Empire, who had but twenty years ago opposed them, were sueing for peace with the Thalmor: they were working out their own destruction. She knew, as well as Ondolemar and Ancano, her agents in the East and the West, knew that Skyrim and the Empire of Cyrodiil rose and fall at the will of the Dominion. Soon it would be time for their people to know that truth as well.

Suddenly the door was thrown open. There stood High Justicar Thelgil, whose appearance in Solitude several months ago had caused a sensation, especially when that meddlesome Nord had escaped the headsman's block. Now he stood once more in her office, towering over her while gazing down his thin, boney nose at her with his squint, yellow eyes.

"High Justicar," Elenwen greeted with thinly veiled contempt. "It's an honor to have you back in Skyrim."

"What kind of an honor do you call that?" he asked in a deep, menacing, autocratic voice. "It's cold and the people sicken me. Snow-backs, barbarians, the lot of them! Wouldn't give a bucket of piss to one if they asked me."

"That certainly wasn't your tone when you were last here," Elenwen replied. "As I recall, you threatened to make Eirik Bjornsson's woman your own."

"What do I care of these fat, ugly, pasty little maggots?" Thelgil asked, his voice rising in anger as he paced around the room. "Their very presence is a mockery to the Dominion, especially that one."

"So what brings you back to Skyrim?" Elenwen asked. "Come to steal away fair maidens?"

"Watch your tone, Elenwen," Thelgil replied, turning to her with a menacing finger pointed in her direction. "Your father might have been the martyr Saint Naarifin, but your name holds no weight with my family."

"Which I will never join," Elenwen retorted. "You seem to have it in your head that I seek to give up all this just to move in to your ivory tower in Alinor and marry you."

"Think about it," Thelgil said, a lecherous grin on his face. "The heir to the Aldmeri Dominion and the champion of champions, head of the most influential family on Alinor. Who could ask for a more fitting match?"

"Is that why you came here, Thelgil?" she asked. "Well, you'll find that this damnable cold weather hasn't improved my opinion on you. No, Lord Thelgil, I will not accept your offer."

"Then you will accept my wrath," Thelgil said. "Why have you not gone ahead with our plans?"

Elenwen rolled her eyes. Sooner or later, she knew, it was bound to come to this. "If you had only read my letter..."

"I have read your letter," Thelgil said, his voice changing from anger to mocking jest. "An amusing apology, my hearth found it welcoming."

"What was I supposed to do?" Elenwen asked. "Those apes locked me out of their little peace summit. Even afterwards when I managed to weasel the truth out of Tullius, my hands were tied. Your actions at Solitude did not change the public opinion of the Thalmor."

"I do not care about public opinion," Thelgil replied, his voice returning once more to a sneer.

"Well, you'd be surprised, the Imperials do," Elenwen said, ending with a slight snicker. "They're actually publishing pamphlets defending our excommunication of their false god, encouraging their people to embrace us as friends."

Thelgil laughed. "Is this supposed to placate my anger? Don't you have agents?"

"After the attack at Northwatch," Elenwen began. "We've...lost quite a few."

"Then we take it back!" Thelgil insisted. "What about Ondolemar? Ancano? Hmm? They're still operating, aren't they? What have they to report?"

"Everyone in the Reach hold has forgotten about Talos," Elenwen replied. "Under pain of death. It will be nothing short of a signed order from me that will have Ondolemar convince that foolish Jarl Igmund to tear down that eye-sore of a temple in Markarth. As for Ancano..." She paused, visibly uncomfortable about what she was about to say.

"Yes? What about him?"

"I fear that he has...disappeared."

"What?" Thelgil retorted angrily.

"That fool was almost as bad as you are!" Elenwen retorted. "If someone with a bit more temperance had been sent, perhaps we could have secured for ourselves a bit of magicka to use for the..."

Thelgil shushed Elenwen with one hand raised to his lips. "Be careful not to let words slip."

"But if I have failed in the matter of Ancano," Elenwen continued. "What shall we say about your agents in Cyrodiil?"

"What shall we say about them?" he asked.

"Despite your 'best efforts' to do what we have been doing for the past twenty-seven years," Elenwen replied. "The Empire is amassing strength. New legions are amassing in the south, which, I hear, from a very reliable source, will be in Skyrim as soon as their pathetic little peace ends. With new forces, the war will end in their favor, a thing which we cannot allow to happen. Your failure is now my problem."

Thelgil laughed. "Did you not think that this was not already planned out? Their troops fighting in the north, a swift strike to the heart of the southern dragon will be its end. With the death of that petty potentate, I control half of the Elder Council. A unified Skyrim, whether under the control of the Empire or the rebels, will not be capable of defending against the inevitable for at least twenty years."

"Then we have no quarrel," Elenwen stated. "This land will once more be ours."

"I think not," Thelgil said, turning to Elenwen. He rose his hands and snapped his fingers. "Because of your failure to control the situation, I have taken your place as Head of the Thalmor operations in Skyrim."

Two Thalmor soldiers, clad in golden Elvish armor, approached Elenwen from behind, flanking her on both left and right. She looked at them with surprise, then back to Thelgil.

"This is madness!" she exploded. "Whose arse did you have to kiss for this insanity to take place? You will destroy everything I have worked so hard to achieve!"

"The loss of Northwatch Keep and the treaty you allowed to be passed without our involvement," Thelgil continued. "Have proven your incompetence at maintaining control of the situation. It is in the best interest of our operations that I take complete control over both the southern and the norther campaigns and to place you under house arrest until further notice." He turned to the soldiers and told them to take her away. As she was being removed, Thelgil turned to Elenwen's office in the embassy, which was now his office. He removed a folio from the table nearby and opened it up, smiling as he saw what was written inside.

"Soon," he said. "They will all see. The Empire, and all of its foolish serfs, only exist because we we allow it to exist. They will know the truth, starting with you...Eirik Bjornsson."


(AN: Already big things are happening. This rather radical Thalmor agent, and member of a wealthy family on Summerset Isles/Alinor arrives in Skyrim to stir shit up. Dark days are ahead for our characters, no doubts about that. Unlike the first story of the series, this begins with a prologue and will then hit the ground running. Very little time spent on flash-backs unless they're important.)