Chapter 66: Big moot with big surprise

[20th – 26th of Frostfall 4E 202]

When we had arrived in Solitude, preparations for the big Moot were in full progress. There had not been a Moot for quite some time, and although the meeting itself would be held in the Blue Palace with invited participants only, all Jarls were expected to come with some entourage, and business for the various shops would be boosted for the duration of the Moot. In fact, some of the Jarls had already arrived, and there was lots of activity all around the city.

The news about the Empire willing to grant a partial autonomy to Skyrim was public knowledge by now, and the chances for peace were indeed quite good. Finding a proper person to be High King or High Queen might be difficult, though. Some Jarls clearly favored Ulfric, but others thought Elisif might be the better choice, as far as I knew, and maybe one or two had even different candidates in mind. Well, that was something the Jarls would have to discuss between themselves.

T'mara and I were designated guests of honor and asked to stay around. Fortunately, we had our own home now, 'Proudspire Manor', and Jordis took quite good care of us there. Of course, once we had talked it over, we also got the adoption going and signed the required papers prepared by the Jarl՚s steward. Yumi, the lone girl we had found hiding from bandits in a shipwreck, was very happy when she learned that we had officially adopted her, and we promised to get back to our home close to Whiterun as soon as our business here was completed, so that she could meet her new sister Lucia.

For the Moot՚s opening ceremony, T'mara and I were both requested to show up, and thus we entered the big meeting room in the Blue Palace to find most Jarls and other guests of honor already being there. A few minutes later Jarl Elisif, as local host, opened the session. After greeting everybody, she said:

"This Moot would not have happened without the restless efforts of our two friends here. Timotheus has already been a Thane of this hold for some years, and he has proven himself worthy again of that title. T'mara, the Dragonborn, has made current events possible by defeating Alduin, and she has made herself invaluable by talking with various Jarls together with her husband and by dedicating lots of her time for the benefit of this hold and even entire Skyrim. Even before that, her help was crucial when she saved the life of Vittoria Vicci and Asgeir Snow-Shod during their wedding, preventing them from being crushed by the stone gargoyle which was set lose by an assassin."

Everyone looked at us and nodded and applauded; T'mara looked somewhat embarrassed with all of that praise, and the Jarl continued:

"Before we start the Moot, it is my honor and my pleasure to name you, T'mara Dragonborn, Thane of Haafingar. I understand that you are a Thane of some other hold already and that I will not be able to bind you here. As your husband already has a housecarl here, I assume that it will be all right for you to accept Jordis as housecarl for both of you, correct?"

My wife had overcome her initial embarrassment by now; she beamed and nodded, and the Jarl moved on:

"Congratulations to your new title, T'mara Dragonborn, Thane of Haafingar, and may you never tire of being a valuable supporter of this hold and of Skyrim!"

More applause and shouting followed, and the others around us looked happy, too.

After this ceremony, everybody but the Jarls and General Tullius were asked to leave, and T'mara and I took advantage of the nice weather to sit down on a bench in the palace gardens, enjoying the colorful flowers all around us.

"Wow," my wife said, "another Thaneship."

"Yes, and you have certainly earned it, too."

"By the way, how long is that Moot going to take?"

"This is unsure, but most likely a few days at least, unless they find agreement early on."

It turned out, though, that I was mistaken, but for now we did not know about that yet, and thus we walked back to our home and picked up Yumi and Jordis for a lazy stroll through the city. Now, in late morning, the shops and stalls were all open for business, and some of the stalls even had lines of waiting customers. While we looked at what was offered and Yumi had quite big eyes seeing all of the wares and the activity, a young girl looked at her and asked:

"Hey, are you new here in the city? Want to play tag with us?"

I recognized Minette Vinius, daughter of the owner of the Winking Skeever, together with her friends Svari and Kayd; they were all in Yumi՚s age group and usually played together. After I had asked Minette to bring back Yumi to Proudspire Manor at noon, I nodded to my daughter, giving her permission, and she happily ran off to play.

T'mara, Jordis and I did some shopping and got some nice food for lunch, and after we had talked to some people, made our way back home. Today I was in the mood for cooking and shooed the two ladies out from the kitchen. When the meal was almost ready, Vinette delivered Yumi to our door, and I could hear her happy voice. After all of the running around she had done, she was hungry, and she came snooping into the kitchen, where I told her with a grin that lunch was going to be served in ten minutes and she needed to wash her hands before eating.

When we sat around the big table, Yumi was quiet for the first few minutes, as she indulged in eating. Later on, though, she started to tell us about her new friends, and she said:

"Vinette is a nice girl. I think she is a little envious of me, though, because my new mother is not only a Khajiit, but Dragonborn, too."

Yumi looked around, and when her eyes had been alternately focused on T'mara and me, she added:

"I have not seen another couple yet like you, with one being Khajiit and the other a Nord. This is not common, or is it?"

"Not, it is not common at all, at least not in this province" I agreed. "One reason is that Khajiit are not common here in Skyrim at all, but for us it just happened, and we fell in love with each other, and so far we have been very happy together. I could not imagine a better wife, not even in my dreams!"

"Same here" my wife agreed, and she jumped over onto my lap to hug me tightly. Yumi squealed and seemingly enjoyed observing that kind of affection, and eventually I waved her over to join into a nice family group hug.

After lunch, we thought about leaving the city for a few hours and going for a walk, maybe to the lighthouse and back, but a courier showed up, telling us that we and other guests of honor were asked back to the big hall in the palace right now. It appeared that Yumi would have to do with only Jordis for the walk.

This time, both Jarl Elisif and Jarl Ulfric stood close together, to our surprise holding hands. When everybody was assembled, Falk Firebeard, the steward, stepped forward and announced:

"Honored Jarls, General, dear guests, I have been asked to inform you about recent social developments, and it is my duty and my honor and my pleasure to do so. Jarl Elisif the Fair of Haafingar and Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak of Eastmarch have decided to marry, and we are celebrating their engagement today."

He probably wanted to say more, but the shouting and general noise level in the hall did not allow him to do that. I looked at my wife, and I saw that she was as surprised about that as I was. Thinking about it, I had seen the two close together quite a few times recently, but I had assumed that they were discussing political topics. On the other hand, maybe that was a political topic, too – with the two of them getting wed, they might be able to be elected to High King and High Queen together, probably with overwhelming majority.

Anyway, it appeared that most of the guests approved of the idea, and they looked quite happy to hear that. Of course, there were going to be many questions, and the steward knew that. As soon as the noise level calmed down, he continued his announcement:

"It is also my honor and pleasure to announce that the Moot has reached a decision to nominate Jarl Ulfric and Jarl Elisif together as High King and High Queen, and have them reign together. They will be authorized to negotiate terms with the Empire, with the goal to achieve a status of partial autonomy for Skyrim and to allow us to pursue our own way of live to the extent possible, without openly violating the White-Gold Concordat."

This was followed by even more shouting and applause, and the decision really made sense. Both of them united had followers both from the Imperials and the Stormcloaks behind them. Of course, in reality it would have to be seen if they could make soldiers from both sides work together in harmony and if they have supporters from both sides stop offending the others, but the chances were clearly there.

The steward further announced:

"Both candidates have already agreed to the proposal, and to honor that, there will be a great banquet this evening here in the Blue Palace. You are all expected to join us."

I was not particularly a fan of banquets and such, but of course we would need to attend. On the other hand, such an event always gave me an opportunity to see my wife in a beautiful dress, and I was not going to be disappointed this evening. Besides amazing food and drinks there were plenty of opportunities to talk and, fortunately, only few speeches, the most important one officially announcing Ulfric and Elisif to be engaged, with a wedding to follow in a few months. I do not recall most of the conversations I had with other people, but the evening was quite pleasant after all. Nonetheless I was happy when we could take our leave; it had been a long day, and I was looking forward to seeing my bed.

Jordis had already taken care of Yumi when he got home, and we just quickly looked into her room to see her sleep. When I finally got to join my wife in bed, I looked at her and said: "While I am a little bit tired, I need to vent some feelings, after looking at you for hours in this beautiful dress. I think that I need to have a go at you now, my love!"

"No objection here, not at all" was her answer, and as soon as we had shed our remaining clothes, we jumped on each other.

After the long banquet and the bed activities afterwards, my wife and I needed one day to rest, but we were not needed any longer and thus planned to travel back to Whiterun on the next day. Jarl Balgruuf also wanted to get back to his hold, and he asked us to make the trip together with him. Jordis was going to stay here in Solitude for now.

The Jarl would be on his horse, and T'mara and I also got horses for that trip. I was not very good in riding, and neither was T'mara, but we would manage. Yumi had never been on a horse and was a little bit scared, so that T'mara offered to take her in front of herself.

Traveling with the Jarl was fun and entertaining. Yumi seemed to be at least mostly comfortable riding with my wife, and I spent most of my time side by side with the Jarl. As the trip was too long for one day, we stopped for the night in Rorikstead, which was already in Whiterun hold, and Yumi got to sleep with T'mara and me in our room, which had a quite large bed.

We moved on after breakfast on the next morning, and the day started cloudy with a little drizzle, so that we also did not talk very much. When we passed a group of rocks around 'Gjukar's Monument' to our left, a few arrows were shot into our group, injuring a couple of the Jarl՚s bodyguards, and a large group of bandits, who had apparently been hiding behind the rocks, attacked us, wildly swinging their axes and swords and shouting a lot. Although Jarl Balgruuf had a group of guards with him, the bandits' number was overwhelming, and the fight would have been difficult to impossible if my wife and I had not been here with them. T'mara reacted quickly, and when a group of enemies was getting close, she shouted 'YOL TOOR SHUL' right into them, so that at least six or seven of them were on fire and ran away screaming. This got us a break, and both my wife and I used it to conjure our familiars. I was off my horse already, climbed onto a rock, and operated my crossbow, aiming at bandits getting close to the Jarl. Pammy supported me from below, T'mara now blasted fireballs, and the Jarl՚s guards had recovered from the shock and had their swords out; a few of them had stepped back and used their bows to support their comrades. For now, the attack was stalled, but the enemy numbers were still much higher than ours. T'mara used a different shout now: 'HUN'. That was the 'Call of Valor', and it made the ancient hero Gormlaith Gold-Hilt appear at her side. Gormlaith was one of the three heroes who had helped us to defeat Alduin, and she noticed immediately that we were under attack. She did not hesitate, but turned against the bandits right away and hacked through their ranks like they were all rookie fighters. A few of them tried to hit her with arrows, but they were all deflected by her heavy steel plate armor.

While even more bandits poured out from a nearby fortification – they must have planned and coordinated this attack in advance – T'mara was ready for another shout: 'OD AH VIING'. That made sense, and I hoped that our dragon ally was not too far from here. We fought on and barely managed to keep the bandits at some distance, and when we were getting tired and exhausted from all of the effort, a big rush was in the air and Odahviing showed up. His appearance was noted by everybody, specifically as he shouted out: "Dovahkiin, here I am!", and T'mara managed to call towards the guards that he was on our side. Indeed, the big dragon understood the situation, and he blasted fire at larger groups of bandits right away, so that they had to shift their focus away from us. This allowed me to use my crossbow more efficiently. Edric, T'mara՚s familiar, attacked isolated bandits from above, and Pammy did not hesitate to jump right into the heat of battle. She was big enough and fierce looking to succeed with that, and most of the bandits were almost as scared by her as they were by our dragon ally.

Mostly thanks to Odahviing՚s appearance, the attack had finally been broken, and now it was us attacking the bandits rather than vice versa. Whenever they tried to gather and fight back, the big dragon was there and blasted fire, and when one or two were trying to find a position to operate their bows, Edric would dive down and drive them away. Eventually the enemy numbers were decimated enough to allow us to relax a little, and while dragon, griffin and pahmer, together with a small group of guards, continued to pursue the remaining bandits, my wife and I started to attend to the injured guards. Almost like a miracle, we did not have a single person dead in our ranks, but a significant number of them were severely injured. We handed out potions of healing and applied our restoration magic where needed, and a couple of times we replenished our magicka supply with potions as well. After about half an hour, we had been able to stabilize all wounded and at least make them able to travel on. A courier was sent ahead to Whiterun asking for some support, and I got time to look around, also wondering how Yumi had fared.

I found the young girl leaning against a rock, and Bran, our husky, had his head in her lap, licking her hand and comforting her. She had obviously experienced some kind of shock, and I also sent a little bit of restoration magic into the small body and added a minor spell of calm.

Jarl Balgruuf the Greater, who had only received a couple of minor injuries and bruises, decided that we were going to have a long rest and lunch right before moving on, and I suggested to have this in the small fortification the bandits had used before. The place had been cleared by the other guards by now, and it was not far from the road at all. A large campfire was already lighted in there, and the bandits had left plenty of supplies; some of the guards used those and our own to prepare a big and healthy lunch right away, including a big cauldron with broth for those who were too weak for a full meal. The others were happy to find rest and dropped down on the ground, but of course the Jarl did not forget to post two outlooks on the towers as well.

While we ate, the Jarl asked around:

"I wonder how it was possible for such a large group of bandits to assemble. Somebody should have noticed!"

"Not so many people live out here, my Jarl" I responded. "Above and beyond that, they must have heard about you traveling here, and they probably hoped to be able to collect a large sum of ransom for you."

"Yes, I think so, too" the Jarl replied. "But still...".

There was something else I needed to mention, and it seemed to be a good opportunity: "Maybe it would also help to spend a little more effort in manning outlying forts. I understand that you could not afford the guards while the dragon crisis was there and the civil war raged, but now, as both dangers are gone, what about occupying places like Valtheim Towers in the east and Fort Greymoor in the west? From those outposts, guards could patrol more and have a chance to find out about potential dangers early on."

The Jarl pondered that and eventually nodded: "Yes, I think that this is a good idea. Maybe, if the support guards from Whiterun arrive early enough, we can clear Fort Greymoor right away today, as we were going to pass close to it anyway."

Before we moved on again, we carefully searched the place for any hidden stash the bandits might have kept here, and we actually we found not only a large supply of septims – maybe that had been supposed to be 'salary' for the other bandits to join – but also a few specific items, including something like a badge which looked familiar to me. I had never looked very closely at the valuables my parents kept at home, but this one looked like one of the items in my family's belongings, and it had a small inscription which seemed to have the Kvatch city symbol engraved next to it. I told the Jarl that I was going to keep that one, and he agreed.

In early afternoon we were finally ready to move on again, and as we moved slowly, due to the many wounded we had with us, we met the support group from Whiterun just close to Fort Greymoor. The detachment has a small number of Whiterun guards plus about ten men and women from the Imperial Legion. The officer who lead them, a blond haired Imperial with a short beard, approached us and introduced himself to Jarl Balgruuf the Greater:

"Jarl Balgruuf, my name is Brutus. My soldiers and I just happened to pass through Whiterun when your messenger came in, and I volunteered to join the guards who were detached by your housecarl Irileth. We are at your service."

"Thank you, Captain Brutus. I appreciate your help, and the timing is perfect to take this fort back from bandits. Are you wiling to assist with that task?"

He was, and his soldiers together with a few guards and me went inside right away, while T'mara stayed with Yumi and the group of wounded. It turned out the fort was almost deserted, so that there was not much fighting to do, and a few of the remaining bandits told us that most of their comrades had been part of the earlier attack on us.

Jarl Balgruuf left a large detachment to occupy and hold the fort, and the rest of us trotted on towards Whiterun. Captain Brutus joined us with his Imperials, and while we slowly walked towards the city, he offered a few pieces of information about himself:

"I was with the legion in Cyrodiil for many years, and eventually I reached legate rank. Life was all right, until I joined some of my soldiers on a training exercise and we encountered a larger group of Thalmor just east of Bruma. They should not have been there, and they knew it, and for some reason they attacked us. Most of my men and women got slaughtered by them, and I was captured alive. I guess they recognized me as a high ranking officer, maybe by my special helmet. I was questioned and tortured, until I eventually managed to escape."

"But the Thalmor are supposed to be kind of allied with the Imperial Legion!" my wife interjected.

"Allied?" Brutus snorted. "Not really. At best we have some kind of truce, and according to them, we'd best follow their lead and bow to all of their requests, even in our own empire. Even Tullius did not believe me at first, and I do not really have any proof; the Thalmor would simply deny everything if we accused them."

"You have talked to General Tullius about that?" Jarl Balgruuf wanted to know.

"Yes, I have. He happens to be a good friend and comrade of my father, who served under him for many years, and at least he knows me for being truthful. Let me get back to my escape for now – I managed to flee, but did not know where I was, and rather than finding my way back to Bruma and further south, I crossed into Skyrim without realizing. The legion found me and escorted me to Solitude, where Tullius recognized me. Eventually did believe my story, at least later on, when he received other similar reports. He was not happy about my getting captured, and at least partially he blamed me for it. For the time being I have to serve as captain rather than legate; but at least I am a soldier again."

I scratched my head and said: "Your story may have helped General Tullius understand that the Stormcloaks are not the real enemy. You may actually have contributed to the peace in Skyrim we have recently achieved, without knowing it."

Captain Brutus seemed to like that and smiled. Due to our slow speed daylight was almost gone when we reached the city. The injured guards were delivered to the Temple of Kynareth, where Daniela and the other healers took care of them, and my wife and daughter joined me in retiring to Breezehome, happy to drop into our beds after this exciting day.

[Author's Notes: Let's see if our two heroes get some time to rest now. Feel free to guess what they are going to do next – I do have more plans for them!

BTW: The character of Captain Brutus and some of his background was suggested by sithlord16, one of my readers, and I was happy to add him to the story. I am not sure yet if we will meet him again; let's see.]