(AN: Now, after that massive last chapter which set up some interesting story arcs for Eirik, I want something a bit smaller. Yes, it is once again cutting away to the villain, but part of me feels that I need to do this for the purpose of the narrative. While I won't go the way of Sam Raimi and have it that Thelgil's entire family had been murdered by Nords and therefore we should feel sorry for this ass-hole, I feel like he should have some narrative weight. Sauron works well as an element of fear precisely because we don't see him, but Thelgil is not Sauron and he doesn't have to be.)

(Also I heard some interesting thoughts on what the Thalmor are doing, and it's really just lame. Their excuse is that if they kill all of mankind and eradicate the worship of Talos, that will weaken his control over Mundus/the fabric of reality, allowing the Altmer to "unmake creation" and thereby return to Aetherius and be the god-beings that they feel they deserve to be. But this is literally them saying that Talos is a god and therefore has that much power, but that brings up the question...well, if Talos is holding together the fabric of Mundus/preventing the Altmer from ascending to Aetherius, then why don't we have more documented proof of this happening before Tiber Septim was born?)

Too Soon

Being under house arrest had certain advantages. One of them was that Elenwen was still permitted to have her servants attend on her, all of whom doubled as agents in and around Haafingar hold. Through them she gleaned a wealth of knowledge regarding the goings on around Skyrim during the past four months.

To say that the news angered her was an understatement. The apparent inaction of her Thalmor agents against the Empire's sweeping victory over the Stormcloaks in battle after battle was a great annoyance. Even more frustrating was the sudden appearance of the Dunmer's place in the execution of Ulfric Stormcloak. She had not entered them into her former calculations and if she had, they would have been watched carefully. In her mind, this was evidence of Thelgil's incompetence as High Justicar and acting ambassador.

To that end, she let her servants gather knowledge, hoping that Thelgil's agents would catch onto this and report it to him. She wanted him to find the trail of bread-crumbs leading back to her, and when he did...

"My lady!" a Bosmer man spoke up, disturbing Elenwen from her study.

"What is so important that you interrupt me?" she asked, rising from the chair in which she had been reading 'The Talos Mistake.'

"The High Justicar has arrived," he said. "He is at your door, and he wishes to speak to you."

Elenwen's scowl of disapproval and annoyance turned into a sly smile. "Let him in."

The tiny elf scurried like a skeever over to the door of her apartment. Elenwen looked upon her servant with thinly-veiled disgust. He was only a Bosmer, stunted, black-eyed, dark-skinned and ignorant. To him, a forest was the world: he could have gotten himself lost in Falkreath and die a happy mer. Elenwen inwardly despised such a small and narrow mind, but she said nothing regarding it, not yet at least. She was not as foolish as Ancarion, Ancano or, Auri-El forbid, Thelgil. The Alik'r, the Khajiit and the Bosmer were in her estimation naturally inferior, but they served the ultimate purpose of her people.

The door was opened and in walked Thelgil. She was reminded once again why so many on Alinor revered him and saw him as a paragon of beauty. His eyes were the glistening yellow his people, narrow and small. The cheekbones were so exquisitely angular that he bore the likeness of an ancient Ayleid sculpture. The high-domed forehead foretold his high-born nature and when he spoke, his deep voice could change from hypnotic to commanding on the turn of a drake. Yes, Elenwen saw what was beautiful in him, but she was in no way enamored of him as all the women in Summerset, Cyrodiil and Hammerfell had been.

"I see that you've been playing me for a fool, Elenwen," he said, crossing the floor to tower before her at his seven feet height. "Did you think I am so busy with the snow-backs of Skyrim that I wouldn't notice your attempt at regaining influence?"

"Busy?" Elenwen asked. "Do you call that being busy? You've taken a situation that I had perfectly under control and you fucked it up!"

"My dear Elenwen, your language!" Thelgil chided condescendingly. "That is hardly befitting one so high-born as yourself, to say nothing of an Altmer. As I recall, however, you did not have the situation under such control as you say. Hadn't this Eirik Bjornsson sacked Northwatch Keep and defeated you at the peace summit?"

"At least I didn't jeopardize our entire operation here," Elenwen retorted.

"What ever do you mean?" he asked, a smile of apparent ignorance crossing his face.

"I never sent our troops openly to the Reach," she began. "To help some half-elf thug in his petty war with the snow-backs. And I never sent our troops to help a deranged scale-back take a wife."

"You've heard of that, I see," said Thelgil, not in the least surprised or shocked at her revelation.

"Furthermore," she continued. "You let the Empire win! Now they will turn their eyes to Cyrodiil and see just how many of us there are in their own land."

"You give the Empire too much credit," said Thelgil, nodding to the book still in her hand. "Public sentiment towards our people in the Imperial City, which your father sacked and turned red with the blood of her people not but twenty-one years ago, is one of friendship and brotherhood. They want to welcome us into their Empire with peace and fraternity, thinking that we only want to have that pox Talos removed from the pantheon of the Divines." He smiled.

"And when they return to Cyrodiil," said Elenwen. "General Tullius will see that they are wrong. He's not an idiot, that one."

"Leave it to me, Elenwen," Thelgil returned, his voice soothing and hypnotic. "I have the situation firmly under control."

"Why should I trust an overzealous daedra worshiper?" Elenwen asked. "Yes, I know full well about you and what you do in your chambers in the Blue Palace. Of all mer-kind in the Aldmeri Dominion, you are the most zealous in your endeavors. Do you not think that would be a sign to our enemies that we are up to something?"

There was a lengthy pause, during which Thelgil gazed about the room, then landed his eyes back onto Elenwen.

"I have spies and agents also," he began. "And they have learned much about the situation in Skyrim. The half-mer Reachmen, the Forsworn, were a means to an end. They wanted their land back and I gave it to them, under no obligation to allow them to keep it once they have outlived their use. As for the Argonian..." He chuckled.

"What's so amusing?" Elenwen asked.

"Auri-El has blessed my mission," he said. "Of all the simple-minded, easily-manipulated snow-back mongrels in this filthy country, Eirik Bjornsson is the greatest boon to my task. He has succeeded in dividing Skyrim for us by his own hand. Or have your spies not informed you of the fall of Falkreath and the Rift within two weeks of each other?"

"I was informed of him," she said. "Truly, I've been keeping an eye on him since he walked into this embassy Last Seed. I am also aware of the danger that he poses to our operation."

"What danger?" asked Thelgil. "I have let the Argonian take Eirik's b*tch, which shall keep him busy and out of our affairs for a good long while."

"What language, High Justicar!" Elenwen exclaimed exaggeratedly.

"There is no sufficient word," Thelgil said. "In High Altmeri or the Common Tongue to describe these filthy, abnormal, un-womanly brutes they call females!"

"Be that as it may," Elenwen retorted. "What you have planned will not work. Skyrim is neither Valenwood, Elsweyr nor Hammerfell. They will not..."

"They will have no choice," he interjected. "Thanks to the Dragonborn, there is no way the Imperial Navy, what is left of it anyhow, will be able to stop us. Arannelya informs me that her contacts within the Alik'r have blockaded Anvil, keeping the Western Navy from mobilizing. Any attack made by sea would have to come from Bravil, which would be of no effect due to the many leagues lying between Bravil and Solitude. No help will come from the Imperial City, not while Eirik Bjornsson controls Falkreath and the Rift and now, thanks to Arannelya, the Empire has more pressing concerns along their north-western borders to worry themselves about a quelled rebellion." He turned to Elenwen, a smile on his lips.

"Do you see now, Elenwen?" he asked. "I have everything exactly where they need to be."

"You will pardon me, of course," she returned. "If I do not immediately shower you with congratulations."

"You will, Elenwen, soon," he said. "Very soon. We will finally achieve our goal."

"But what about the rumors?" Elenwen asked. "My spies have reported that the Dark Brotherhood might have survived our little purge, and I saw with my own two eyes Esbern of the Blades at the peace summit. Now we hear that the Blades are reforming and searching for..."

"They will never find him," said Thelgil in return. "Even if the Akaviri rise up from the ashes of ages past and invade Tamriel once again, they will not stop us. The Dragonborn has given victory into the hands of the Aldmeri Dominion...into my hands. I intend to take it now while the iron is hot. I promise you, Elenwen, before this year is out, the Empire will fall."

(AN: I only gave that hint of what the Thalmor are up to because i don't want the whole story to be revealed until the end but still wanted some stakes to be known. For now we have enough to go on that Eirik's actions with the Sons of Skyrim might not have entirely been for the good of Skyrim as well as the idea that both he and the Penitus Oculatus are being used by the Thalmor to do their bidding ["our little purge" of course refers to the Dark Brotherhood quest-line])

(Also, like with The Dragonborn and the Lioness, I'm setting up things for The Dragon of the South. Arannelya was the Dominion leader of the forces in Hammerfell in the lore of the game, against whom one of our previously revealed [and soon to be returning] characters has a massive grudge. And yes, I've even dropped you all a line about what will happen in this story in the story itself. The Blades are making a comeback and they won't be able to hide from the eyes of the Thalmor for long.)