Being an Officer had other negative aspects. The endless meetings were utterly boring and often resulted in nothing at all. After spending three hours debating over how to rebuild the badly damaged town, Aurora's head felt as if it was about to explode. The weather was unseasonably warm for the early summer, and most officers in the room were sweating, creating a rather unpleasant mix of odours.

What the men in the room wanted to hear was what would become of the Jarl, but instead, they spoke of meaningless matters. Even the Jarl seemed bored – deciding what buildings would be repaired first and how was nothing that interested him very much. The steward, on the other hand, seemed to have the time of his life.

Aurora sighed and looked out through the window. How had it come to this? She should be outside in the sunshine, wearing only her tunic and leather trousers, looking for a place to swim or relaxing in the shadow of a tree. Instead, she was surrounded with bureaucrats that brought nothing to the table, wearing the warm Stormcloak uniform.

The Jarl looked as if he was about to fall asleep. At times, Galmar pushed him on the shoulder as he had to put his signature on documents. What they were really waiting for was a man or woman who had been sent to eavesdrop on representatives of the Moot. Each hold in Skyrim sent their delegate to Solitude to officially discuss the subject, but the member's position on the case could of course be extracted beforehand.

A few days before the Moot would gather, all but two members' intentions had been mapped. With some persuasion and threats, most of them had been influenced to vote for the Jarl, all but one. The Reach was still under Thalmor authority to some extent, and their Moot delegate had publically condemned the Jarl's intentions. The other one was from Eastmarch, making them all confident of his support.

Once they all arrived in Solitude, they had locked themselves in on a floor in Castle Dour, letting no one in or out. The discussions were to take place with only the members, and outsiders were not allowed until they reached an agreement, something that could take days. An unusually good climber had been sent to eavesdrop on them from a window so that the Jarl could make last minute changes to his statement, which he would present to the Moot as the final candidates were to be interviewed.

This meant that what they all waited for was for the spy to arrive. If he brought bad news with him, it could undermine the entire war. The Reach delegate could show Elisif support, thus giving the rest of the Moot enough courage to vote for her. It would reduce the Jarl to a mere advisor, something he had no intentions to allow to happen. No one wished for the Moot to be divided as that would just cause legitimacy issues and perhaps even cast new turmoil over Skyrim.

At last, they heard fast steps. The Jarl jerked and got up, awaiting the eavesdropper with great anticipation. The rest of the officers awoke and sat up properly in their chairs. Only the steward seemed disappointed, being interrupted in his speech.

"My Jarl!" a voice was heard as a young man entered the door. "News from the Moot!"

"What did they say?!" the Jarl yelled. "Tell me now!" he ordered as he hit the table with his fists.

The poor young man had to catch his breath, but the Jarl's determined and angry eyes made him nervous. Aurora thought that she recognised the youngster, but could not put her finger on it. She had met a lot of people, making it difficult to remember all the faces and names.

"Well... they are not against it, but there are some technicalities..." the young man began, unknowing of how to present the Jarl with the news.

"What is it?!" he spitted.

The young man looked around it the room and caught Aurora's gaze. She could swear on that they had encountered before, but the blond teenager did not react any differently to her than to the rest of the officers.

The woman looked at the Jarl whose face was glowing red of anger and frustration. The rest of her colleagues leaned forwards in their chairs, waiting for the youngster to explain.

"There is the question of legitimacy, my Jarl..." he mumbled.

"Shit!"

The Jarl hit the table with such a force that it moved it slightly to the side. The poor Officer next to him jerked nervously, and Galmar got up to his feet.

"Can't be! We should have them executed..." he began.

He came with the least helpful advice as always, Aurora thought. The General always chose the path of violence, even when it could and should be avoided to all costs. In reality, there was only one thing the Jarl could do if the question of legitimacy was raised.

"My Jarl, what are we going to do?" a dark-haired man next to Aurora asked.

All the eyes in the room were staring at the tall, blonde leader, whose face was turning red of anger. The man gritted his teeth as he looked towards the ceiling and sighed loudly.

"It is time to take a bride," the Jarl said, but then remained silent for a while and looked down on the table in front of him. The braids fell forwards, covering the sides of his face, but they did not manage to cover the fact that the Jarl was deeply disappointed and angry about his fate.

Some of the men sitting around the table exchanged confused looks with each other. They did not quite understand how the matter was relevant to what they discussed earlier, but Aurora knew – she only waited for the Jarl to say it out loud. She realised that from that moment, she would no longer be connected to him; she would no longer have any obligations towards the man. These were the last, tragic couple of moments of their relationship.

"Elisif," he then sighed.

"Are you insane?!" Galmar shouted in anger and left his chair.

The Jarl turned towards his General, raised a hand and gestured for him to sit down.

"I know that you might feel hesitant about..."

"Hesitant!? Hesitant?! We despise that milk drinker, that wimp..."

"That is what makes her a good wife of a High King. Hear me out!"

The General slowly obeyed the Jarl's orders and sat down, but his face showed no sign of calmness. The discussion may have been played out between Galmar and the Jarl, but the main focus of everyone else involved was on Aurora. For that, she felt very uncomfortable. The woman felt the burning, patronising gazes of the rest of the officers, and felt as if she wanted to fall through a hole in the floor. If there was something she could not stand, it was the condescending whispers and looks from others. It was not as if she would die of heartache for losing the Jarl. She had known that they would part at some point, and this was it.

"Elisif will not cause troubles, in fact she will be miserable, but the problem with my legitimacy will be solved if I take her as my spouse. There is still a strong support for the Empire in some of my subjects. Marrying Elisif will force them to recognise me as High King."

Suddenly, there was a silence. Galmar looked at Aurora, who did her best not to meet anyone's eyes. She uncomfortably gazed through the window, then at the table in front of her. Only after a while did she notice that even the Jarl was observing her. It hit her that they excepted for her to say something.

"I agree," she said whilst confusingly throwing gazes around the room.

As she did so, a gasp went through the meeting. Only the Steward seemed not to notice the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"As that is now taken cared of, we have questions regarding an heir," he said whilst opening a new container of quill.

"Yes, my Jarl," a man said. "There are rumours that Elisif in unable to bear children as her marriage to Torygg did not produce heirs..."

Suddenly, it was if the Jarl exploded. He looked up on the man who uttered the words with such an irritation and fury that it probably scared even the toughest of the officers. His face was glowing red and the veins on his temples were pulsating angrily.

"This meeting is over," he gritted through his teeth. "You are free to leave."

"But, my Jarl..."

"Leave!" he demanded.

The men around Aurora got up, and she followed suit. She saw Galmar approaching the Jarl, but he gestured for him to follow the others out. Therefore, the woman decided against staying and quickly gathered her papers and set foot towards the door. The Dragonborn was the last one to exit as the Jarl took a firm grip of her arm and pulled her closer to him. He waited for a moment before the rest of the group was far enough away and closed the door.

"Aurora, you may be angry, but you know that Skyrim needs stability right now," he said with a tone that oozed of sadness and regret. He stood right in front of her, but did not touch her, not even putting his hands around her shoulders. "This is not the time to question the role of a supporting Queen. Besides, imagine the catastrophe if you would die in battle. Elisif will never put herself in a dangerous situation."

"I know," was all she could say. The woman felt completely blank, there was no emotions at all, just acceptance.

The Jarl was even less keen on showing his feelings. He merely looked upon her patronisingly and bowed his head.

"Aurora, if I had a choice... I'm sorry."

She had accepted that a long time ago and held no sorrow in her heart for her own sake. It did, however, weigh her down to know that the Jarl would spend the rest of his life in a loveless union. That was the price to pay for a royal, regardless of gender or position. Royal marriages were nothing but politics, and even though it was a personal choice of his, the woman could not help but to feel sorry for him.

The very reason for her departure from Cyrodiil had been an imposed marriage, so she knew exactly how the man felt. The difference was that she had the possibility to escape – but Skyrim needed their King, meaning that the Jarl's fate was sealed.

"My Jarl, I am fine..." she began.

The Jarl took her hand and held it in his for a few moments with his head bowed and avoiding eye contact.

"Forgive me."

The cup was filled to the edge, but not for too long. As the woman brought it to her lips, half of its substance poured into her mouth. She swallowed and made a grimace. The ale was a lot bitterer than she was used to, but it was the only thing available in town at the moment. The trade wagons had not been able to complete their journey due to the risks involved, and the other towns of Skyrim were too far away for anyone to transport drinks into the capital.

The Jarl had ordered for the Emperor's chamber to be temporarily converted into a drinking hall for the Stormcloak officers, but it was seldomly used. The soldiers generally preferred the local inn, making the hall a perfect spot for being alone. However, that night, Aurora was not alone. In fact, it happened to be so that most of her colleagues were gathered there with her, drinking, conversing and singing.

Being the only female officer, Aurora got the attention she neither desired nor searched for. A big, brown-haired Nord came up to her with yet another bottle of ale. She did not pay much attention to him, but he did not seem to get the wink. Instead, he sat down next to her.

"Hey. I'm Istar Cairn-Breaker, head of the Haafingar camp."

"I'm..." Aurora began and turned to face the man, but jerked as she did so. "Stormblade..."

Aurora had never truly been shocked when she saw scars on faces before. Neither had she ever cared about missing limbs or strange illnesses, but this time, she could not help herself. The man had a very strange right eye. He had a scar across it, and not across as over the eyelid, but right in the middle of the damn thing.

The man did not seem offended by Aurora's rude stare, but smiled instead and pointed at it.

"I got in a fight whilst out drinking once. A big guy with a knife. Scarred me so badly, that I ended up like this."

"That's lovely," she answered, slightly disgusted.

It was way too late for her to see the horrors of violence. Besides, she had no intention of letting the man believe that he had any chance on her. It would only cause rumours, the last thing she needed at that given moment.

"So..." the man began. "I heard things with you and the Jarl... I thought I might..."

"Great. Now I'll just go..." she began whilst looking for the nearest exit with a confused look.

Many young women threw himself over the Jarl, and he did indeed bed a few of them. Aurora did not mind it at all as she saw it as a clear indication of their... relationship to be over. It had been since that fateful meeting, but taking other women to his chamber would break any ties he had with Aurora, and the Jarl probably felt that too. The atmosphere between them was tense, and they did not speak much.

Aurora was thinking of what to do with her life as she descended the stairs. Those meetings were not her cup of tea at all, and being forced to handle the budget for the restoration of the city's walls was beyond any boredom she had ever experienced before. It was not just boring, but also challenging. Being a girl from a poor family meant that she never got a higher education, which would be helpful when leading larger projects like this. She had the potential, but learning everything so quickly and not being allowed to make any mistakes was stressful to her.

She had adapted slightly when it came to her tasks in battle, though. Even if it was only for about four or five minutes, she had managed to lead a smaller division in the army. Aurora was growing into her role, but still felt that being an Officer was not for her. She did not like to tell the soldiers what to do, but instead preferred when they all knew what to do themselves. This was not what was required to lead the Companions. The systems were completely different. She needed not stand in front and cheer them on or yell out orders in a hectic battle. She could be a leader, but not in the way the Jarl advocated.

Thinking of the trolls. As she left the building, she noticed the familiar silhouette of the Jarl. He walked towards her rather quickly, but she could not see his face in the darkness.

"Met any athletic young men?" he asked directly.

"Em, no..." she answered with a wrinkled forehead.

"There are loads of young soldiers who would do everything to please you in bed."

She was not up to it at all, and frankly, she found his cold tone rather strange and unpleasant.

"Thank you, my Jarl," the woman answered and made a curtsey. Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly felt a warm hand on hers.

"I've arranged for you and Galmar to meet Elisif."

"I'll inform her," Aurora nodded.

"Oh, and don't tell her about our... history."

"I had no intention to, my Jarl, even if it feels like it couldn't have escaped anyone by now."