"Honestly, Jorleif, I'm fine. You worry too much." Ulfric dismissed his steward with a wave of the hand. It had been two days since Ulfric had been recovered from his short yet difficult imprisonment at Fort Hraggstad and he had recovered fully, he thought.

Jorleif eyed him warily as Ulfric settled back into his lazy slouch on his throne. "Forgive me, my lord. I've seen too many of the men I've gotten to know die recently. It's a bit unnerving not being able to do anything whilst they die out there and I'm left here to find out what's happened."

Ulfric grunted his agreement, seizing the goblet Jorleif offered.
"Just you wait until you see what the Palace has in store tonight, Jorleif." Ulfric chuckled. "If we're going to die in taking Solitude at least let it be after a good shindig."
"My lord...?" Jorleif looked positively terrified.
"Oh, don't look so scared. Have I ever let you down?" Ulfric said, taking a long swig from his goblet. Jorleif pinched the bridge of his nose anxiously.

"What news is there of the Andrel girl?" Ulfric asked, interrupting Jorleif's train of thought. Ulfric immediately recognized the look of confusion on his steward's face. They had housed three Andrel girls now, after all.
"Inna." Ulfric added.
"Oh," Jorleif said. "The men didn't take too kindly to bringing an Imperial Army soldier here, especially to the Palace of the Kings. They seem to think it's some complex plot to assassinate you from what I've heard."
Ulfric laughed. "The girl must be barely eighteen, hardly a grand threat in the stability of the Palace."
Jorleif nodded. "I shall see to it that the girl is catered for until the Storm-Blade arrives."

Sottë collided with someone as soon as she exited her old room at Candlehearth Hall. She had lodged there once more after Ulfric's revelation after their night spent together. She found something odd in that she trusted him to tell her the truth of her father's death. Her screamings would not help a man half-starved to death.

Her smaller, more personal belongings she had piled in her arms scattered to the ground after the collision.
"Stenvar!" Sottë gasped, winded. In the past few days' chaos she had completely forgotten of how she had left him at the altar. He looked grim; he no longer looked well-groomed or well-fed. He looked especially uncomfortable.
"Sottë." He replied, nodding at her. She quickly gathered her sparse personal belongings. Her mother's old burnt circlet, a barely-afforded tiny painted portrait of her mother, beautiful and olive-skinned in a pensive pose, long before she had children, the picture set in a rotting wooden frame. There was also her amulet of Talos and a bloated framed sketch of herself, courtesy of a six-year-old Inna.

Stenvar began to walk to the back of the inn.
"Wait!" Sottë called. "Wait, allow me to explain!"
She could discern the look of contempt for her on Stenvar's face as she neared him. At least this way they would be out of the earshot of the gossipy Elda Early-Dawn.
"You could have explained, perhaps better for me, the night before the...what would have been the wedding."

Sottë knew she deserved that.

"You would have thought that the decent thing to do would have been to allow me to know your real feelings instead of letting me worry for your safety for days, because Sottë wouldn't leave me at the altar, not that lass. But you left me to hearing pub gossip of your fling with the Jarl, of all people."
"It wasn't like that." She said through gritted teeth. "It wasn't like that at all."
Stenvar laughed bitterly. "Well, what should I expect you to do? Ask for another chance and slower this time? Claim your undying love for the Jarl of Eastmarch and me to go on as if nothing's changed, to give you my blessing?"
"As if nothing's happened..." Sottë added. She tried to ignore the bemused look he gave her.
"You're not quite what I thought you were." Stenvar said. "You're not eccentric, just strange and odd. That's not someone I would want to raise children with."
Sottë felt her mouth fall open. She hoped she planned on replying smartly, yet nothing came.

She occupied herself with the short walk to the Palace instead, turning on her heel against Stenvar's presence.

"I'm coming with you." Ulfric had spoke as soon as she entered and had attempted to cross the entrance hall upstairs to Inna. He almost bolted from his throne to join her in climbing the stone stairs.

"Stay and rest, my lord." Her words were kind but they lacked warmth. They sounded positively angry and sharp to him.
"Are you still angry with me?"
"Absolutely."
"At least let me explain how your father-"
"Please!" She interrupted, shooting a scared glance up the corridor at the study Inna was locked in. "Can this not wait until I've dealt with Inna?"
He conceded, nodded after a few seconds of thought. "Very well. I will accompany you."

As she pushed open the door to Inna's holding area, she knew it was pointless to argue with him now.

The girl was very different to how she remembered. She was identical to Heddvild in every physical respect except for the hair. Inna had her hair in the thick, wavy locks that Heddvild had possessed before she had sheared them off. Even though the twins had only just made eighteen years of age, Inna was a newlywed to a man Sottë had never heard of nor ever met.

She paced the room like a caged animal accustomed to murder. As soon as they entered she glowered at them in such a way that looked odd on her gentle face.
"Sottë." Inna growled. "I demand that you leave this movement at once. It is uncivilized and brutish in its attempt to reclaim some lost ideal of Skyrim."

Inna shot a thoroughly dirty look at Ulfric.

Sottë crossed her arms, laughing. She cast a disbelieving glance at Ulfric that he barely caught in time.
"Oh, please, child." Sottë scoffed. "If you can't behave and see truth you'll be locked in this study for the rest of your days."
"Or at least until you see sense." Ulfric added. Sottë tried not to scowl at him.
"That's fine by me." Inna huffed, always the petulant child. "When I leave this foolishness I'll be able to visit General Tullius directly to finish what was started at Hraggstad."
"Then you'll be here a very long time if that's your opinion."

"Do you not think if I planned on assassinating the Jarl I would have done it by now?" Inna snapped.
"She has a point," Ulfric said, turning to Sottë. "She has had ample opportunity to kill me, from the moment of my capture to tonight, with the ball."
Sottë glared at him, muttering something about him being a fool.

"Call for Jorleif when you require food. We'll have someone guard the door. Good day." Sottë said to her sister, nodding at her before they left, locking the door after them.

"I highly doubt your ball tonight is the best idea, not when we plan on taking Solitude so soon." Sottë said. "Perhaps a celebration would be better planned for afterwards, if there is such a time."
"And if there is no afterwards?" He said. "It would be a shame to die with no acknowledgement of our success this far."
She squinted up at him. "It is only a fool that celebrates a possible outcome as if it is set in stone."
"There is some truth to that." Ulfric nodded. She still squinted at him, as if his agreement preceded a joke. "I have something for you."
He beckoned for her to follow him. Her memory was particularly relentless in reminded her of the last time she had gone to his room with him.

"This," he handed her a piece of ink-covered parchment from his desk. Sottë read the parchment slowly, words not registering no matter how many times she read it through. He looked thoroughly pleased with the parchment, grinning at her as she read it.
"Is this true?" Sottë asked. "Is it not a joke?"
"No, it's quite true." Ulfric beamed. "That is why I needed such a front for tonight. Otherwise Windhelm would be too busy a place."

Sottë whooped, a rather startling thing it was to him, and threw her arms around his neck. He knew immediately that she regretted it, feeling her freeze almost instantly. He was suddenly very aware of her proximity to him. Ulfric was sure that she would allow, no want, him to kiss her. As soon as it crossed his mind, she withdrew herself, brushing down her hair as if she had just come in from a windy day.
"I shall see you tonight, then." She grinned, winking at him unexpectedly.