Wedding Bells and Drums of War 1

It was only two days away from his wedding day, and Nero was beginning to think he wasn't going to make it. Five days ago, the Emperors ship made port, and for the last four days, Nero has had to deal with the royal guard. All of which Nero was convinced had taken lessons on how to be the perfect bunch of ass holes.

Nero knew that they'd want to check on the plans that the General had put in place to ensure the safety of the Emperor. What he hadn't planned on was that they wanted to change practically everything that had already been put in place. Guard's routes were altered. Times when shifts were to end were changed.

Worse yet, anyone who was going to be in the same room as the Emperor during the ceremony, had to be interrogated. An orc by the name Uzul, had shown up at his house to interrogate Serana yesterday morning. To Serana's credit, she handled the situation much better than he did. That is until Uzul had hinted at his opinion that the wedding should be pushed back a few days. As it would be more convenient for the Emperor, and all the delegates coming. Serana had then promptly thrown the orc out the door.

Literally.

This lead to Uzul coming to the conclusion that Serana should not be allowed to attend the ceremony. Nero chose to remind the royal guard that Serana was the bride, and that she was going to be allowed to attend. Nero couldn't remember if he had said this before or after breaking the orc's nose.

This had of course lead to more screaming and threats. It took the rest of the day for the situation to finally be resolved.

It was now the morning of the fifth day. Nero had been summoned to attend a meeting to deal with one last issue before the wedding. Sitting in a large room, were the captain of the guard, an Imperial woman named Isa. She was a hard looking woman, with a long scare that went from her black hairline, to her jaw. And across from her sat General Tullius. Both the General and Captain seemed to be in very somber moods. Nero assumed that this was due to the incident yesterday and decided to at least try and offer an olive branch.

"I would like to apologize for my behavior yesterday. With all the last second changes that have taken place over the past few days, on top of the anxiety I've been feeling for my wedding, I'm afraid my judgment has been a little…off. So when I heard the royal guard threaten my wife as he did…I may have acted irrationally. For that I am truly sorry."

General Tullius raised an eye brown but said nothing. Captain Isa nodded slowly, "Uzul has already recovered from the incident, and while his actions may have been rash, and yours complexly uncalled for, the issue is resolved and it is not why General Tullius and I have asked you to meet with us."

"Oh? So why am I here then?"

Neither officer spoke right away. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, it was Tullius who finally spoke, "You may want to sit down for this Legate."

Nero frowned, but sat in the empty chair all the same, "Sir, what is this about?"

"Legate…," Tullius began, "Nero, over the past few days, I and several diplomats of the Empire have been dealing with the issue of your insistence of not allowing the Thalmor entry to your wedding ceremony. The issue has been resolved, but I'm afraid not in a way you will find agreeable."

Isa took over, "The Thalmor have the right to attend to make sure that the wedding follows White Gold Concordat. As such, the Thalmor will be in the city and some will be attending the wedding."

Before Nero could respond to this news, the doors behind him opened, and a tall altmer walked into the room. Nero recognized the black Thalmor robes the elf was wearing. The high elf bowed slightly towards the captain and general, "I am sorry for my tardiness, but I had some business I need to attend to."

Nero stood up to face the Thalmor agent while General Tullius moved to quickly defuse the situation before it could unravel, "We were not expecting you to even attend this meeting Emissary Rulindil."

Nero frowned at the name. While Elenwen was the highest Thalmor authority he had personal experience with, he was aware of a few of the other head officers in Skyrim. Rulindil was the third emissary, and answered directly to Elenwen. He was also known as an excellent interrogator, who took great pride in getting any information that he wanted. All in all, this was a man Nero did not want to be around.

Rulindil waved the General off, "Given the issue that was being discussed, I felt that I had an obligation to attend. I assume you've told the future husband that I and my fellow agents will be attending the nuptials."

Nero barely suppressed a growl from not only at having to hear the news again, but from a smug Thalmor to boot.

"Yes…I've been informed."

Tullius could tell Nero was only a few chose words away from possible killing the elf in front of him, so he moved quickly to try and placate the Dragonborn.

"Legate, you should know that Emissary Elenwen will not be anywhere near Solitude for the duration of the wedding."

Nero paused upon hearing that, "Really?"

Isa nodded, "your concern over her interest in you is a feeling that is shared by the Empire and the Dominion."

Nero turned back to Rulindil, "What gave her away? I bet it was her bringing her whole army just to take me away?"

Rulindil was not amused by Nero's snarky attitude, "Watch your tone. While my superiors don't want to deal with the possible issues that will come with having the two of you near each other during such a prestigious event, don't pretend that her suspicions about you are unfounded."

Nero frowned, and took a step towards the elf, "what could you possibly be talking about?"

Before either Nero or Rulindil could further their argument, captain Isa stepped in, "We appreciate you're coming here Emissary, but I believe this meeting has taken enough of every ones time. I'm sure we all have tasks that we need to return to."

Neither Nero nor Rulindil spoke for a few seconds, before the elf turned to the captain, "I suppose you are right. I will take my leave then."

Once he had left, Nero let out a long sigh, "thank you General. This is exactly what I needed today."

"Legate," Tullius began, "I want to make this clear. You are not to confront any of the Thalmor. If you have a problem, you are to come to me and I will deal with it. Is that understood?"

Nero let out a long sigh that slowly turned into a growl, before glancing towards Tullius, "Keep them away from Serana."

Nero left the room, not bothering to ask to be dismissed. And General Tullius didn't want to risk ordering him back. Once the two soldiers were sure Nero was gone, Isa finally exhaled a breath she hadn't known she had been holding.

"That, that is not something I'd like to repeat General. Is it always like this? How do you keep him under control?"

Tullius shook his head, "Do you really think I have any control over Legate Nero? I'd have better luck trying to order a dragon around."

Tullius stopped for a second before letting out a humorless chuckle, "actually that's what I've been trying to do."

"Well I suppose once the wedding is over, he'll calm down. Having a man that on edge around our Thalmor guests is not making me feel very confortable."

"I doubt that'll be the case."

Isa frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Nero is not a perfect man. He's no saint. He's a hero to be sure, but he has several dangerous flaws. When he see's someone wronged, he will chase down the reason for their suffering like a mad beast."

Isa crossed her arms as she listened to Tullius speak, "That tenacity is probably the reason the civil war ended so quickly when he involved himself. I'd say that's also the reason why he's been able to keep the dragons at bay as well."

Tullius nodded, "True enough, but that tenacity is a double edged sword. I've only ever once seen Nero hold himself back from directly dealing with a cause of misfortune."

"When?"

"When he's dealing with the Thalmor."

A feeling of dread slithered through Isa as Tullius continued.

"Nero hates the Thalmor, Captain. I've only met one other man who hated them the same way he does."

"Who?"

"Ulfric Stormcloak." Tullius paused a moment to let that sink in. "I believe that the only reason Nero has yet to take direct action against the Thalmor is because he knows that such an action would have dire consequences. He may act out and deal with small group, but while he may not take direct action against the Thalmor leaders themselves, this doesn't mean he's ignoring what is being done. He sure as hell isn't forgetting either. Every action the Thalmor take only adds to his hatred. Sooner or later it will reach a point where he won't be able to hold himself back. And when that day comes, it'll be war."

"Between him and the Thalmor?"

"With Skyrim close behind. When Ulfric started his rebellion he had support from many of his fellow countrymen. If Nero were to follow Ulfric's example, I doubt there wouldn't be a man or woman that wouldn't follow him. All of Skyrim would follow that man into his war. He's their hero. Their savior."

"Gods. And how do you plan on preventing that?"

"By doing everything in my power to keep the Thalmor from enraging Nero any further."

Isa shook her head, "you're doing such a great job. I swear Nero was ready to rip Rulindil apart."

Tullius sat down, massaging his temple, "if it had been Elenwen that walked through the door, it would have been a blood bath. At least the Dominion agrees with me that having those two anywhere near each other is possibly one of the worst things either of us could do. So for now, we'll just have to hope that nothing happens."

-A crowed bar in Solitude-

Iona quickly downed the pint of mead before waving the bartender over for another. Besides her Rayya and Lydia watched as the red head immediately began chugging her fresh drink.

Rayya put her bottle of ale down, "so is there a reason you've decided to drink all the mead in the hold?"

Iona finished the pint and waved for another, "I'm just getting ready is all."

Lydia bit back a snort, while Rayya looked between the two other housecarls, "ok what's the joke?"

Iona glanced over at Lydia, "you want to take this. I'm a little busy."

"Ok you only just recently became a housecarl for our Thane so you don't know about how this works."

Rayya blinked, "how what works?"

"Simple, whenever Nero is involved in some big event, there's bound to be problems. And the bigger the event, the bigger the problem."

"And…"Rayya began as she turned to Iona, "the way you handle this is by getting piss drunk?"

Iona smirked, "yep. It helps with the head aches."

"But this is our Thanes wedding. Who would be stupid enough to try anything?"

Both Iona and Lydia looked at each other with knowing looks. Before either could say anything else, a stool besides them was pulled out and a Nero practically fell into it. Reaching over Nero pulled Iona's freshly filled mead pint out of her hands and drank it himself. When he was done he leaned forward and covered his face with his hands. His elbows resting on the table. His three housecarls looked over the sight of their thane.

"Having a bad…" Lydia caught a glimpse of the look Nero shot at her and quickly shut up.

Iona and Rayya also held back, not wanting to suddenly find themselves dealing with their Thanes wrath.

Lydia could hear the barely contained fury threatening to boil over in Nero's voice, "The Thalmor are attending the wedding ceremony."

Lydia almost jumped from her stool when Nero spoke. However once his words had sunk in, she immediately understood why her Thane was in such a state. She had been with him the longest of any of his companions and had watched as her Thanes hatred for the Thalmor had grown.

"My Thane, you should have known that the chances of your request being carried out was slim."

"You would think that after everything I've done I could have this one thing. The idea that those Thalmor will be close to Serana…"

Iona frowned, "would you like us to go to the Blue Palace and join with Jordis in guarding Lady Serana?"

Nero shook his head, "no I don't think she'd appreciate more people around her right now."

"So," Lydia began, "What do you plan on doing the rest of the day?"

"I have no idea. I just want these next couple of days to go by and for nothing else to go wrong."

Fate as it would have it would not allow Nero this simple wish. A loud commotion caught the fours attention. Leaning back in his stool, Nero peered over to the other side of the bar. What ever was causing the commotion was beginning to get louder.

Soon a man stood up on a table, "People of Solitude I bring you hope. Soon we will never have to live in fear of the Thalmor taking our loved ones again. Preventing us from our right and duty of worshiping Talos. The Blades have returned to Skyrim! And I ask you, will you not join us as we rid our lands of the Thalmor!?"

Nero almost swallowed his tongue. Lydia and Rayya rubbed their eyes in disbelief while Iona, with a new drink in hand, tried desperately to drown herself into a drunken stupor.

Authors Notes:

Sorry for such a long delay, but I've had to focus on my schoolwork. I graduate this December and I want to make sure nothing comes up that could cause me not to graduate. So yeah here's the first chapter of the new arc. Kinda wanted to hint at the darker side of Nero's drive to help people. Nero's been restraining himself when it comes to the Thalmor, but sooner or later something is going to give.

And then there's this idiot proclaiming himself a Blade, and that the order has returned. While the city is full of Thalmor…oh boy. Nero's day just got worse.

I hope you enjoyed the new chapter. Please leave a review and if you see any grammar errors, let me know!