The moon was at the height of its arc through the sky and the Council had still not gotten around to what should be done about the lynching. For fifteen hours, the Council had debated where to launch their invasion armies, and there was still no decision in sight.

Even after an earnest plea by three Jarls to address the underlying problems on display with the lynching, the Council had voted down the motion to postpone discussion on the war. They had even vetoed discussing the issue at the end of the Council.

Following the failed attempt to combat racism, Gunther forwarded a motion for any forthcoming votes on the issue of war to pass by a two-thirds margin, a motion Balgruuf seconded. This turned into a long debate, Barca fiercely arguing that a change in the vote requirement would require a revote on the decision to go to war, which passed with five votes in favor, four against. Ultimately, even after a long filibuster, Barca lost again, and the council moved on to the voting mechanism. After a two-and-a-half hours, a four-four stalemate had been firmly established. The two-thirds vote faction appealed to Barca, agreeing to add on a discussion of the lynching to the end of the council meeting in exchange for his support. Thus, the idea that all votes dealing with the war should require a two-thirds vote was ironically passed five-four.

Then, the group started discussing targets. Gunther, Ulfric, Rikke, Hamilcar, and Assengar each had their own idea of where they should launch their targets. Gunther wanted to strike the Dunmer hard and fast. March on Blacklight, storm the city, and then march south along the coast. They could isolate the Dunmer on the island from the Dunmer on the mainland. Then, they could launch an amphibious assault on Vivec. However, Hamilcar, the best strategist among those assembled, immediately pointed out the storming a citadel was always a risky business. A single man on the wall is worth twelve below it, and if Blacklight had a force as small as four thousand garrisoned, the expedition could lose as many as one man in two. And even if the Nords successfully managed to storm Blacklight, they would be heavily outnumbered by the Dunmer army, and if the Nords were stuck defending a fort on the canal, a fort they would need to defend if they wanted to construct the ships to cross the channel, they would be caught between a hammer and an anvil. They would be destroyed.

Ulfric wanted to run a torch and burn operation. He wanted the army to head through southern Morrowind, hitting Narsis, Fear, and Mounhold. Ulfric favored as few pitched battles as possible. Surround the city, burn the crops, plug the wells, and move on. But Hamilcar argued against a prolonged expedition against the Dunmer, claiming eventually the elves would figure out the Nords wouldn't hit any cities, and simply send their armies into Skyrim, forcing the Nords to retreat.

No, Hamilcar argued, the best plan was to launch a scorched earth campaign, hitting Narsis, Fear, and then moving south into the Black Swamp. They would torch a few Argonian settlements, and then move back into Morrowind, hitting Mournhold and Blacklight, before retreating back to Windhelm or Riften. Hamilcar speculated that if they can draw the Dunmer into Skyrim, and tie them up with a lengthy siege, then a smaller force could storm the cities of the Dark Elves, seeing as how the elven armies would be tied up elsewhere. Barca questioned the wisdom of antagonizing a massive army of elves before drawing them onto native soil, but if they could subdue the elves' civil governments, the generals would have to surrender. It could work, but it was an incredibly risky gambit.

Rikke and Assengar each had more original plans. The plans they proposed were unique because they called for a naval expedition. Rikke wanted to land on an island Northeast of Morrowind, and slowly and discreetly island hop, until they could strike the towns of the dark elves unexpectedly. Assengar wanted to take the fight to the Altmer.

The council had quickly tossed out Assengar's plan to invade the Sommerset Isles. But, by quickly, it was only quick by war council or Parliamentary standards. Gunther's plan was the next to go, but it was near evening before it did. The sun had set before the council had voted out Ulfric's plan. Had they not passed the Two-Thirds resolution, earlier that morning, Jarl Rikke would have won a long time ago. However, as it was, Hamilcar, Ulfric, and Gunther stood against her. Because Hamilcar voted for both Malkarth and Marthal, it was stuck at five-to-four.

"Your plan takes too long" argued Gunther. "It would take years for us to build the ships we would need to carry us to Morrowind. Meanwhile the Dunmer only grow stronger."

"We could have it done in nine months" argued Rikke.

"How?"

"We rebuild and expand sawmills destroyed during the war."

"With what money?" Gunther chimed in. "I don't know about Dawnstar, but I'm already spending money I don't have to rebuild the walls around the city. I can't tax the peasants because they have nothing, and if I order a tithe on crops I don't have anywhere to sell it. I know Ulfric has a little money, but not enough to fund your expedition and all the other holds are in as bad a shape as mine, or worse.

"We could sell the mills" proposed Barca. Each hold should have enough credit to build five sawmills. You could then loan the mills to peasant families. The families make money on the wood, it stimulates the economy of the hold, and the loan payments will pay back the builders, and the interest can pay for craftsman the ships, and maybe even some other things."

"There is another option", inserted Balgruuf. "If Rikke here is willing to take it." All heads turned to Balgruuf. Rikke looked at him suspiciously. "Our young Jarl here is young, quite beautiful, the head of arguably the least depleted hold in Skyrim, and unmarried. Meanwhile, in High Rock, the Lord of Jehanna, Dunlain, is has five sons. He has also alienated three of the neighboring provinces. His three oldest sons will certainly marry inside of High Rock, but if we could arrange a marriage, he certainly wouldn't pass it up. And we would have the money we need for the fleet."

"If we are going to arrange a marriage to one of the Breton houses, why would we not marry into Daggerfall or Camlorn? Wayrest would also be better than Jehanna" Assengar argued.

"The lord of Daggerfall is remarkably old. In fact, he has seen one hundred and four winters. He was also incredibly bad at forging alliances. His eldest son, sixty-nine, never married. His two daughters are both barren and past child-bearing age at sixty-six and sixty-four. There are also two more boys, sixty-two and fifty-eight. The lord of Camlorn is also well beyond his prime, at eighty-seven. His eldest daughter is past child-bearing age. His second is nearing that mark, and anyway is betrothed to the eldest son of the lord of Jehanna. The son is forty-three and betrothed to the daughter of the lord of Wayrest. Wayrest's lord by the way isn't much older than his soon-to-be son-in-law, at eight-and-fifty. He has twins, a boy and a girl, twenty-three, and a younger son, eighteen. I already told you, the girl is betrothed to the heir of Camlorn. The elder son is married to a daughter of Northpoint, the younger to the only daughter of Shornhelm. Any more questions?"

"Just one more" said Hamilcar. "How many daughters does this Lord of Northpoint have?"

"Seven" answered Balgruuf.

"If you'll indulge me one more time, how many of them are spoken for?"

"Five. And the two that aren't are fourteen and nine respectively."

"Then, if an alliance is the way to go, I think you've chosen the best one" conceded Hamilcar.

From there, it was clear Rikke's plan had won out. Now the debate shifted to which plan they would institute to pay for the ships. For an hour the Jarls argued back and forth, until Barca argued they do both. The group quickly settled on both.

Finally, Barca urged to adjourn the meeting until the next morning. It was after midnight, after only four hours of sleep the night before, and no one in the council had eaten since they broke their fast that morning.

And so it was in the morning the group would discuss the murder of Nimriel's parents.