The air in the Strategy room was thick and heavy. It was evident that the King and officers, soldiers and other people of different professions had spent most of the day there. Aurora had been back for three or so hours, but spent the time sleeping in her chamber due to working straight through the previous night. She had left the letters and reports they had found in the cave with Jorleif, but had not found time to see Katia.

Just as she left her chamber, heading towards the nursing room, a teenage servant stopped her and told her that Ulfric wanted to see her, so there she now was – waiting and listening to long reports that had nothing to do with her. There were many of them, about twenty, and the current speaker was a short but wide and bald man dressed in a smith's clothes. It took some time before she recognised him as Beirand, the Solitude blacksmith.

"The blacksmiths are complaining about long working hours, my King," the man reported nervously as he stood up and looked at Ulfric.

The King seemed rather bored and had taken his usual position where he was almost laying down in the chair with one hand brought to his chin. He was tired, though. He had black circles under his eyes, and his ever so perfect braids were slightly messy. In a way, Aurora found it amusing to see him in that state. Even Ulfric could be overworked.

"This is nothing unusual. We are preparing for war, what do they expect?" he sighed and covered half of his face in his left hand.

"We need more men, my King," Beirand continued, lifting his hands to the sides. "We simply cannot keep up with the pace, we are already working 14-hour shifts."

Ulfric remained silent and let his hand glide over his face tiredly. Aurora looked around in the room to calculate for how long she would have to remain there. If there was something she hated about being an officer besides from leading imbeciles into battle, it would be the endless meetings and reports. The woman disliked bureaucracy and crowded places. There were a few other of her rank in the room, but most seemed to be people she had never seen before. It was interesting to see what kind of people war attracted.

"There is not a blacksmith left anywhere in the western Skyrim. If they need help, I will order the Jarls to send people from Whiterun and Riften," Ulfric stated after a while. Beirand smiled quickly and sat down as the King's gaze turned to a blond man. "Ralof?"

"Yes, my King," he answered and stood up. "The mission was to stop a Dunmer spy operation in Windhelm. We were successful and arrested four elves and two sacks of correspondence. Nothing indicates that they are collaborating with the Thalmor," he spoke oficially.

"Excellent, excellent," Ulfric smiled. "Elsgard?"

A short, red haired woman in her late thirties or early forties stood up with a serious expression. She had arrived at roughly the same time as Aurora, but from the other door. The woman cleared her throat and presented the King with a letter. Her face and hands were dirty, but her clothes even more so.

"The Redguard report that Thalmor soldiers have been transferred to Valenwood. About fifty ships have left the Summerset isles and arrived in Woodhearth," she spoke with a relatively low voice.

Aurora was hungry. What time was it already? Four or maybe five? she thought. She really wanted to sleep before dinner. The meeting could simply not be any more boring than it already was. The only interesting aspect of it was to observe all the new people.

"So they are preparing to strike Cyrodiil," the King suddenly exclaimed, straightened up and leaned over the table.

Aurora realised that she had been slightly mentally absent and that this would be considered a major turn of events. The other guests began to move their weight nervously from one leg to another, whisper and search other people's gazes. Even the King buried his face in his hands for a second before letting the fingers run through his hair.

"We have too few men, my King" And the Empire would not last a single battle," Kottir Red-Shoal exclaimed and jumped to his feet.

"Indeed, my King. We can not afford a head on attack on the main army," Frorkmar Banner-Torn added, reacting in the same manner as his fellow officer.

"Do we have a strategy, my King?" Yrsarald Thrice-Pierced asked, seeking leadership.

"I need to speak to the leaders of Hammerfell first," Ulfric answered calmly.

"They will be in Falkreath before we even..." Frorkmar began, cursing.

"They will not take Skyrim that quickly. Cyrodiil will be of much more interest," Yrsarald concluded.

"So we leave Cyrodiil to fall?" Frorkmar asked.

"Yes," the King said, making everyone look at him. "Enough of this. Ogneta, take this to Hammerfell as quickly as you can," he said and let his right hand search for something inside of his inner, left pocket.

He withdrew it a few seconds later and handed a letter to the short, dirty woman who had informed him about the situation. She nodded and quickly set off. The rest of the people in the room observed Ulfric carefully, looking for leads on how much trouble they were in.

"Gather all the men," he ordered Yrsarald. "Meet up at the southernmost Hammerfell-Skyrim border in three weeks. We are going to take the Thalmor by surprise."

As people began to move towards the exit, the whispers turned into loud concerns and "what ifs". In the midst of this, the King approached a man in his middle twenties and handed him a roll of paper.

"Send this to High Rock. Quickly!"

Assuming the meeting was over, Aurora stood up and headed towards the other door, leading into the castle. She was confused. It did not make any sense to her that the Thalmor would attack the Empire that had nothing to do with the conflict at all. The woman did not go far before she heard Ulfric calling for her.

"Dragonborn, report."

She turned around to see that most people had left the room, except for the ones standing in line by the vault on the other side. The King had his arms crossed and a very tired expression on his face. Puzzled, she remained silent for a while before opening her mouth.

"The mission was to interrupt spy activity. We walked through a cave and found the enemy's camp, hid and made a surprise attack. Thirty three people dead, none of which were ours."

"Great!" he said unenthusiastically.

"Also, I need to remark on the low discipline of your men," she spitted, challenging him with her gaze.

"I thought their morale was rather strong," he smiled semi-smugly.

"Oh yes, but so were their erections."

The King burst out into a short laughed before noticing Aurora's killing gaze. He threw his arms to the sides and raised his eyebrows as if to as "what?".

"They raped the female prisoners and killed the males!" Aurora complained.

"This is war, Dragonborn. Those who cannot defend themselves..."

"How can you defend...?" she asked, feeling how the anger brought a red tone to her face.

"They are young, let them have their fun," he laughed. "Besides, the elves would do the same to our civilians."

They stood about four yards from one another, staring into the other one's eyes. Upset with him like never before, the woman walked up to him. She was shorter than him, but almost as wide-shouldered. With her eyes burning with anger, she was not a woman to be tempered with.

"It's wrong," she stated.

"It's war," Ulfric answered.

"Have you raped, my King?"

He went quiet for a while, thinking of what to say to calm Aurora down. She could see that he did not have a satisfactory answer to that question and that he would stutter.

"Dragonborn... I..." he began, trying to laugh it off.

Aurora gave him a rather cold gaze, instantly wiping the stupid grin off his face. He sighed and looked at her with a tired gaze.

"Yes..."

"Did you enjoy it?" she quickly asked, disappointed and with tears burning behind her eyelids.

"Dragonborn..."

Aurora turned around and headed towards the door. Never had she had so little respect for him as in that moment. He was the King, a mentor she could always turn to. A friend. She could not imagine him being a brute, especially since he was and had always been popular with the ladies – both as a strong warrior and the son of a Jarl.

"My commander instructed me to!" he yelled after her, trying to cover up.

"You men disgust me," Aurora exclaimed and turned around in the doorway.

"Not that it matters, but remember the woman you killed in this room a year ago – Legate Rikke?" he asked as if he had come up with an idea of avoiding his officer's rage.

"Your old flame?" she asked judgmentally.

He was not prepared for that. He was not prepared for that, and it amused Aurora to see the King lose himself.

"How do you even...? Well... Either way, she was my commander. War is war, it's time for you to learn. It's not as if the men are much better off, in fact, I'd say the opposite."

"Don't think you'd say those words if you'd been raped by a battalion," the woman spitted.

"I've been though more than you think, Dragonborn," Ulfric answered calmly with what could only be interpreted as a wink.

They stood there, silently, looking at the other, trying to figure out who the other one really was. Aurora had heard those words before, but understood that there was more to them than he let her know. Ulfric must have wondered what in Nirn she had been up to for half a year and asking himself when she became as rude, arrogant and straight forward as him.

If she had not hated him there and then, she would have embraced him for being the stubborn, hot-tempered idiot he was. The icebrain even dared to smile! The woman sighed and shook her head before turning her heel to the sound of the King's laughter.

"The Companions are here, Officer!" she suddenly heard and turned around.

The sound had come from a young man called Jordgun who seemed to serve as a quartermaster. He had shown quite a few people to their chambers and met some important officials, but his entire face lit up as he proclaimed the arrival of the warriors. As a matter of fact, Aurora's did the same.

"I have letters to write, so I will meet them here in two hours," Ulfric told Aurora and walked past her.

Her heart jumped and a silly smile spread across the woman's face. She would see Vilkas again! How she had missed the man. Her man. It had only been a fortnight, but she had looked forward to sleep in the man's arms again. Well, not in his arms, but at least next to him. Aurora never felt as good as when she could feel his scent close to her and hear his heavy breathing. In this frustrating and confusing time, he was her rock. He was the one she fought the war for – a future with him. Excited, she leapt around the corner and towards the vault before stopping. Aela, Ria, Farkas and Njada, as well as three new ones she had not met before stood by the entrance door.

"Aela!" Aurora exclaimed and hugged her shield-sister. Her relationship with Ria had always been cold, but she quickly embraced her too. "Njada, Farkas!" she continued. "New ones."

"This is Argis, hailing form Markarth," Aela said and proudly presented a rather big and muscular man with some red war paint on his right cheek. "He came to us half a year ago. Iona is a fiery sister from the Rift. Calder came two months ago."

"Please, follow Jordgun," Aurora said after shaking hands. "He will take you to your chambers. The King will greet you tonight."

The young quartermaster, still red faced due to the excitement, jerked and asked the group to follow him through the castle. Aurora joined Aela at the back of the line as the rest of the Companions hurried after Jordgun. It was only then Aurora realised that Vilkas was not waiting outside or organised the horses, and she was left disappointed and perplexed. Aela did not have to even look at her shield-sister. She knew it hurt her not to find her companion amongst the crowd.

"He said the Companions haven't anything to do with the war," Aela began.

"I understand. It's fine. His father went to war and never returned," Aurora brushed it off.

"Someone has to keep the fire in Jorrvaskr," the older woman winked. It was a faint try to cheer her up, but Aurora appreciated it nevertheless. She just could not understand why he would not show up, even if it was only to be with his woman before the fighting began.

"Exactly..." Aurora lied. "Did he send me a letter or something?"

"How is the girl?" Aela quickly asked.

"She is fine. I arranged for a nurse," Aurora replied, sighing.

They walked through the endless corridors, the Companions laughing and rejoicing about the fact that they finally had a clean and warm bed, but Aurora could only think of the disappointment of not having Vilkas there. Regardless of the circumstances, if he planned to go to war or not, he should have come if only to be with her, she thought. She would have dropped everything herself and gone to him had they been in the other one's boots.

Jordgun opened a door and gestured for Aela and Njada to go inside. Aurora followed them, still deep in her own thoughts. She tried to push them away and focus on her companions, but the feeling of betrayal and hurt remained.

"Thank you, Aela. I hope that this will do for Njada and you. I'll check on the rest," she stated before leaving the chamber.

Ria and Iona lived next door to Aela and Njada. Their room looked exactly like the rest fancy chambers. Aurora quickly regretted knocking on their door and walking in as she saw Ria's gaze. They had a very rocky start to their relationship all that time ago when Aurora first laughed at Ria's crush on Vilkas, and it had not gotten better. She felt the cold gaze given by the other woman.

"I hope this isn't too uncomfortable to you..." Aurora began nervously.

"What do you mean?" Ria asked, unaffectedly.

"You know... with Vilkas and all..." Aurora continued.

She only received a confused facial expression from the other woman who was unpacking her rucksack a few yards away from her. Wondering what could possibly be unclear, Aurora cleared her throat. Did Ria pretend not to know? Why?

"With us being together...?" Aurora continued.

"You're together?" she asked, unable to hide her surprise.

"You didn't know?"

"Well... Uh, congratulations," Ria said and crossed her arms.


Aurora had gone to the nursery and spent some time with Katia, who after eating her supper went to sleep. The girl did not want to let go of Aurora, so the woman stayed with her until the child had fallen asleep. After that, the woman took a quick walk back to Castle Dour after being promised that Ilva the nurse would bring Katia to her if she woke up and needed something.

Twenty minutes after leaving the Blue Palace and just as Aurora engaged in a conversation with the Companions, the young Nord hurried inside of the Strategy room with a sobbing toddler in her arms.

"I'm sorry, milady, but she keeps repeating your name!"

"It's fine, I'll take her," Aurora sighed tiredly.

She sat directly to the right of the main chair with Farkas next to her and Aela sitting on the other side of the table. Aurora took Katia and arranged her little poke bonnet, which covered her ears. Just as she did so, the King walked in. He seemed to be in a very good mood, but that also made him look tediously pompous and self absorbed. He entered the room with large, confident steps and greeted the Companions enthusiastically. The women tried to hide their laughter whilst Farkas and the new ones looked at Ulfric with a puzzled gaze. As he was about to sit down, the King suddenly noticed the child in Aurora's arms.

"Why are you holding a child, Aurora?" he asked with wrinkled brows and a slight sense of panic in his tone.

"Oh, so I'm Aurora now?" she asked sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes and brought his hands to the table, leaning over it-

"Honoured guests, warriors... People of Skyrim."

"Skip to why we are here," Aela demanded harshly.

The King lost himself, and it made Aurora smile. The man was short for words and did not know how to handle the group of full blood warriors. After a few moments of silence, he took a deep breath and continued:

"Teach recruits how to fight."

Katia began to sob even harder, and Aurora took her to her shoulder and rocked her up and down, hoping it would silence her. The groups eyes were turned towards her without her noticing, but to Ulfric, it became evident that it was not his leadership they sought.

"Hey, Aurora. Is it true? About the war?" Njada asked.

"I wouldn't call you to Solitude if it wasn't."

"What are the stakes?" Aela continued.

"If we don't do anything now, they will march on Skyrim sooner or later," she guessed.

"Are you sure?" Farkas asked with a slight sense of worry.

"Aright, Aurora. But this has nothing to do with the Companions. We are here as citizens of Skyrim," Aela stated. "Now, where's the canteen?"

She got up, prompting the others to do the same. Farkas smiled and stroke his belly. Their reaction was completely different to that of the jarls and officers, and it shocked Ulfric. Within minutes, the group had gotten up and left the room, heading for the courtyard, leaving Aurora, Katia and Ulfric on their own.

"What kind of people are these?" he exclaimed. "And don't you think it would be good to... I don't know... warn me about the child?!"

"And what should I tell you exactly? My King," she added sarcastically as she continued to rock Katia up and down whilst pinning her gaze to the table in front of her.

"Do I have a child, Aurora? I shouldn't have a child, we were always careful..." he said, sounding worried.

"If you are half-Khajiit then she might be yours," Aurora answered nonchalantly.

She put Katia in her lap and removed her bonnet, exposing the girl's ears. The man sighed and leaned back, laughing silently of relief.

"Who are her parents and why are you dragging her along? Where did you find her?!" he asked as he placed his arms behind his back.

"Her parents were murdered by bandits in Morrowind. I knew her father, and now the girl is my protégé. Well, mine and the Companions."

"You should have left her for dead."

"How fortunate that you weren't there to command me then."

"As if you'd ever listen," he said, laughing.