Great Porch of Dragonsreach, Whiterun
The "Dragonborn" felt he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
The peace council had never been his idea, and he had absolutely no intention to attend one, let alone host one.
Yet here he was, chairing the meeting.
It was all because of that woman, Delphine.
That day at Whiterun, the day a man and a woman had been arguing, he had only wanted move passed them quickly.
Delphine was the one who had misunderstood his meaning and had taken the liberty to arrange this conference.
To be honest, the woman scared him a lot.
Delphine was always serious and ready for battle…Experienced and battle-hardened as well…
There were several times he had attempted to tell Delphine the truth that he was not the Dragonborn.
Every time, he wimped out.
He was quite certain if the truth came out, the woman would kill him herself for lying to her.
In the days living in Breezehome, he had spent every day plotting his escape – to run as far as Delphine as possible. But eventually, he realized if Delphine had been willing to travel across whole Skyrim to find the Dragonborn, there was no reason she would not find him again… She was doubtlessly a persistent woman.
No, there was absolutely nothing he could do about Delphine.
The same went for the council.
He would have to play along.
At the beginning of the meeting, when the first unexpected happened, namely when that Ulfric refused to sit down, he got so nervous that no word would come out. Fortunately, Delphine cut in and resolved the situation, and he did not let on any hint of his uneasiness.
Afterwards, he told himself repeatedly that he had to pull himself together and racked his brain to think of something highfalutin to say – mostly things he had read from fictions. Other than that, he prayed silently to whatever gods there were that this council would over soon.
Somehow, that worked rather well so far…
Even though he had no idea what he was talking about…
Taking a calming breath in discreet, the strongest man on Nirn tried hard to shake off the feeling that he was on the brink of meeting a violent end, and concentrated on following the course of the council.
It was indeed a matter of life and death, both for himself and for the people taking part in the civil war.
What had he gotten himself into?
The two side in the civil war – the Imperial Legion and the Stormcloak Rebellion – had both presented their terms for truce.
While the way they stated their conditions had been tortuous in a political manner, their actual intents could be summarized in several relatively simple points.
Simple, yet significant, as they would dramatically affect the land.
It was, after all, not a temporary truce, but for lasting peace.
In other words, it was not a conflict of territory, but a conflict of ideology.
Ulfric's statement consisted of two main goals. Firstly, they wanted the ban on Talos worship abolished. Secondly, they wanted the Empire authority out of Skyrim, the Thalmor along with them naturally.
Tullius' statement also consisted of two main goals. One was that they wanted the Stormcloaks army disbanded and charged with treason. The other was that they wanted Ulfric Stormcloak to pay for his crime dearly, including the murder of King Torygg.
Now the cards were all on the table, both parties waited for the final judgement passed down from the Dragonborn.
Ulfric Stormcloak knew his previous probing failed, for the Dragonborn had revealed neither his opinion nor his stance on whether during Ulfric's protest of the Thalmor's participation.
In all truth, Ulfric did not want to be here. He did not like the feeling of his fate being held in someone else's hand, and he did not yearn for a truce. What he yearn for was victory.
But there would be no chance of victory if he were to fight the Dragonborn, that much was clear to Ulfric.
So here, he waited for verdict of the Dragonborn, powerless.
He would never speak it out loud, but he feared the Dragonborn, just like almost everyone on scene.
That was why he was startled when the Dragonborn announced his observation.
"You do know that," the Dragonborn pointed out, "Your conditions are not mutually exclusive and can be realized at the same time."
What was the man implied? Ulfric shuddered at the thought – the Thalmor, the Empire, and the Stormcloaks would all be wiped out from Skyrim, Talos worship would resume, and Ulfric himself would be sentenced – to death probably.
That left the Skyrim headless… Perhaps that was the ambition of the Dragonborn?
Ulfric looked the man in the eyes but could not tell anything. All he could perceive was the death looming upon him, and even with his past experiences of facing mortality, he was unnerved – not by death itself, but by hopelessness.
"That is one option." The Dragonborn continued after the prior halt. "Or you can both make some concession."
The man was very good at this, Ulfric just realized. By giving out that dreadful solution first, making some compromise sounded appealing.
Even knowing this was a tact of the Dragonborn, Ulfric was willing to take the bait, since this was possibly the only better choice. It did not matter whether it was out of the goodness of the Dragonborn's heart or not.
Comptemplating his words, Ulfric's attention absently drifted towards the Thalmor representative. He noted that Thalmor bitch, Elenwen, was oddly quiet during the course of the meeting, likely frightened by the dominance of the Dragonborn. The Altmer did not even voice her objection when Ulfric mentioned about allowing the Talos worship, which apparently against the White-Gold Concordat.
When Ulfric was still considering his response, General Tullius brought up their proposition first.
Host the council was quite hard, and he had slipped a little when commenting on the terms of the two sides.
It just came to him that all the conditions could be actualized simultaneously without contradictory, and he busted on that.
Then immediately he realized his mistake as no one would possibly take that lousy settlement.
So he quickly diverted the conversation back to the right track, where the two parties negotiate their terms.
Luckily, no one seemed to notice his error…
Ulfric listened carefully as Tullius revealed their terms.
"The Dragonborn's remarks are reasonable." Tullius seemed eager to get the Dragonborn on his side and tried hard to show off his generosity. "If the Stormcloaks disassemble their army and surrender to the rule of the Empire, we can assure no action will be taken against them for their war effort. The things happened in the civil war will end with the war. That is the best we can offer."
Ulfric sneered at the self-righteous Imperial general internally, but chose to let it slide. It was not time for rebuttal.
Instead, Ulfric pondered those sentences cautiously, in particular, about the part 'under the rule of the Empire'. That was rather vague description and could take the meaning between 'it was only a formality' to 'every order from the Empire needed to be followed to the letter'. Or perhaps, Tullius said this so the Dragonborn could make final judgement. Ulfric suspected that was probably it, and decided not to question that statement, at least not now. Now he had to show his own goodwill towards the Dragonborn, lest he should lose the man's favor.
Ulfric made his decision on their demand, counting on the fact that the Dragonborn was unquestionably an enemy of the Dominion. "While details on that offer required further discussion, we will accept it upfront under two conditions – the Talos worship should be permitted in Skyrim, and the Dominion force should leave our land."
These two conditions actually differentiate Skyrim from the rest of the Empire, making the more rigorous govern from Empire nigh impossible. At least, that was what Ulfric hoped.
However, these two demands were not only directed at the Empire, but more towards the Dominion. And after finishing his statement, Ulfric stared at the Thalmor ambassador, Elenwen, defiantly. Through the corner of his eyes, Ulfric could see the Dragonborn also turned his head towards that direction.
To Ulfric's satisfaction, the Altmer's expression changed under the gaze of the Dragonborn, worse than before. The Thalmor agent looked towards General Tullius, as if asking for support. But the hinted request was ignored by Imperial General, who put his full attention on the negotiating table, intentionally or not.
Forlorn, the elven female paled with trepidation, but voiced out her protest nevertheless.
"This is outrageous." The elf exclaimed, yet the tremor in her voice betrayed her fear. "You can't expect us to make such a large concession with nothing in return. This completely violates the White-Gold Concordat, which is not part of the negotiation today."
Although the words of the Altmer were unyielding, Ulfric could see her body language told otherwise. With a proper nudge, the elf would give in at any moment.
Ulfric decided it was crucial that the Dragonborn should be the one to make that nudge.
Therefore, Ulfric did not answer the Atlmer straightforwardly, but shifted the responsibility to the Dragonborn.
"I believe we all agree Dragonborn would be the judge of that." Ulfric said before turning towards the Dragonborn. "What do you say?"
The scene fell silent as the crowd awaited the answer of the Dragonborn, who was glaring at them coldly.
He had thought not to take side in this negotiation to be his best option.
There was no need to anger any of those influential people, in case that someone should send assassins after him and such.
But that Ulfric had to pass the buck to him…
Crap… What should he say in a situation like this?
Nope, he could not think of a thing, since his mind just went blank without any good reason…
The sound of Ingenium rose, coming from the chest of the Dragonborn, flowing through the air, and shaking everyone present.
All they could hear was the oppressive thumping, like the thunder before the storm.
And they all understood what it represented – the Dragonborn was not pleased and was ready to strike.
No one here could take his strike.
Strike who? Everyone knew the Thalmor were the Dragonborn's foes…
"W-wait." Swallowing hard, Elenwen spoke again, this time her dread showing undisguisedly. "Dragonborn, if this is what you desire, we will comply. As a representative of the Dominion, I wish to express our hope of burying the hatchet with you. Please consider this as a peace offering."
As Ulfric expected, Elenwen could not take the heat and succumbed.
He could hardly stifle a laugh when he saw all Elenwen received from her compromise was a stiff nod from the Dragonborn.
No gratitude. No promise of peace. Nothing was truly given by the Dragonborn except for maybe acknowledgement.
Yet the Altmer seemed finally relieved, slumping in her chair limply as the Dragonborn did not pursued the matter.
Oh good. It all worked out by itself.
He managed to contain his sigh of relief so no one noticed it.
Hold on. He just realized something – something quite obvious from the start.
The Thalmor recognized him as some sort of mortal enemy, did they not?
Crap... This was bad. He recalled the Thalmor were keen on arranging assassination and such.
Why did he always encounter troubles like this?
Witnessing the Thalmor bitch took a hammering was oddly rewarding experience for Ulfric.
And that settled the civil war.
The Stormcloaks disbanded, but would not be penalized. The Thalmor expelled, and Talos could be again openly worshipped in Skyrim.
Not something Ulfric would regard as a perfect result, but it was far from bad, especially when someone as powerful as the Dragonborn was involved.
However, this was only half of the battle.
The other half would be deciding who would be the next High King of Skyrim.
That was a position that Ulfric set his mind on.
Ulfric considered himself the most suitable candidate in a time like this.
The peace was brokered.
That was only half way through the conference.
Why did it take so long?
He was not interested in politics at all. And while he had no fondness for the Thalmor, he did not want to fight them.
He simply wish the council could end right now.
He blamed Delphine inwardly – she was the one calling the Moot along with the truce council, thinking that was the Dragonborn's intention…
Who was the Dragonborn anyway?
Curse his luck…
Wait, he just got an idea.
The Moot was supposed to a meeting where the Jarls of Skyrim chose the High King among themselves… So it was all right if he found a reason to depart first, right?
Yeah, that could work.
AN: So actually no one wants to be in this council… except Delphine maybe?
I'll do an unimportant disclaimer here:
There are some negative comments on some characters in these chapter, but they by no means represent my (author's) opinions. They are only in the perspectives of their respective commenter.