(Insert mandatory whining about being sick here). Morrowind belongs to Bethesda. -D

Marayan didn't see Winterbell for the rest of the week, and he did his best not to think about her; he was preparing himself for the meeting with his brothers.

Few happy memories were associated with Ebonheart. Marayan spent most of his early years on the plantation and for two seasons he went to an exclusive school in Mournhold. Trips to Ebonheart were only made for official functions, and for discipline, should the elder Dren consider his sons required it. Orvas was always being summoned, and when Marayan was nineteen he came in for his share of unhappy trips across the Ascadian Isles.

Since that time he had done his best to avoid the towering stone walls and weathered crenellations of the Eboneart castle. Marayan thought no evil of the Imperials, but he found their architecture cold and uncomfortable. At least this year his visit would be made in spring.

Estirdalin was quite sympathetic, and gave him more time off; Marayan got the impression she felt vaguely guilty about the incident at the festival, but couldn't work out why. He had a brief chat with Ajira, and an even briefer one with Sharn, who merely said,
"What, not you as well?"

And so, the evening before the Great Council Meeting Marayan found himself stepping off the boat from Vivec onto Ebonheart's crowded dock. He picked up his bag and began to weave his way through the crates of merchandise awaiting transportation when he heard his name being called.

He turned and gave a genuine smile, "Ilmeni!" His niece scampered up and embraced him enthusiastically.
"You're a sight for sore eyes," she said.
"That bad huh?"
"It's not quite as bad as I thought it would be. I spend most of my time at the Argonian mission." She smiled secretively.
"I've heard good things about them," Marayan replied, carefully keeping his face blank.
"I'm sure Father would be casting about for a suitable husband for me if he wasn't so preoccupied with this feud with Orvas."
"Weren't you going out with one of those Buoyant Armigers?"
Ilmeni shrugged, "It didn't work out." Marayan questioned her no further on the subject.

"Is Orvas here yet?"
"Got here just before lunchtime."
"Any fights broken out?"
"Not yet. I think they're both too busy with Council stuff. But the family meeting will be held tomorrow night, after Council business is concluded for the day."
"Family meeting?"
"Well, I'm not invited," Ilmeni said with a trace of bitterness, "Presumably children aren't supposed to stay up that late. But don't worry," she turned and grinned at him, "I'll do my best to listen at the door."
"Then I'll do my best to make myself heard. Assuming they'll let me," he added under his breath.

Marayan was greeted formally by the Duke when he arrived at the castle proper. Since the meeting was in public their conversation did not extend beyond meaningless pleasantries. Marayan was keen to ask if Winterbell had been right about the Mage's Guild Monopoly, but kept his mouth shut.

A quick glance at the agenda for the meeting did indeed reveal it was up for discussion, but since House Telvanni put in on the agenda every year it told him nothing.

The next morning saw the councilors and their representatives filing in to the meeting hall. Since Marayan was merely an associate of Hlaalu he wasn't allowed inside, and instead contented himself with eyeing off the Telvanni contingent and wondering how many of them knew Winterbell. He knew she was a Mouth and since she was absent from the meeting he surmised that Master Aryon, who showed up with an appropriately impressive entourage, was her patron.

Ilmeni eventually joined him, and they whiled away the hours playing Conquest, a traditional strategy game of Vvardenfell. Orvas talked to them briefly around lunchtime, all but ignoring Ilmeni. The crime boss seemed to be trying to gauge which side of the family division Marayan was on, but the mage kept his answers brief and noncommittal. After he left Ilmeni glared after him and then turned to Marayan,
"Will you play as Redoran or something? I'm sick of watching Telvanni take over the island."
"You and me both," Marayan said wryly, "Let's get some lunch instead."

That evening saw the three brothers ensconced in the Duke's private dining room. Dinner had been a rather tense affair, and after the dishes had been cleared away Ilmeni left the room at the nod of her father and with a significant glance at Marayan.

Orvas wasted no time in commencing hostilities.
"I see you've finally instilled some sense into that girl."
"She was forced here because you were threatening her life!" Marayan butted in before the Duke could reply.
"Marayan's right Orvas, you took things too far that time. Now I agree, she needed reining in, but I'm her father and it's my responsibility."
"And it's the duty of the family to pick up any slack in fulfilling those obligations." Orvas grinned, gold glinting among his teeth.
"Are you implying I don't know how to raise my own daughter, brother?"
"All I'm saying is that she was endangering herself, and someone had to do something."
"The only danger she was in," Marayans fingers curled around the edge of the carved wood table, "was from your thugs."
"Marayn, please," Vedam held up his hand, "I appreciate your support, but you don't know the full story."
"And I suppose you do," he replied flatly, not missing the glance his brothers exchanged.
"I can hardly see," Orvas addressed Marayn for the first time, "how you could know anything about the internal affairs of the Cammona Tong."

Marayan frowned; did Orvas know about the rescue of his niece or not? "Well, someone must think I know something," he said carefully, "considering what happened at the festival."
"I heard about that," Vedam glanced over at Orvas, "and I would like an explanation."
"I thought it was funny," Orvas shrugged, "My little brother thinking himself a fighter. I was just gonna scare him. That Orc must have been crazy." Orvas did look genuinely puzzled about the whole thing. "Still, all's well that ends well; you won. Even though you didn't exactly follow the rules," he added.
"In a fight like that there are no rules," Marayan replied with a smile that was approaching a sneer.
"Huh, some of that training must have rubbed off after all."

Vedam watched the exchange with interest, and then put his hand up to bring it to a halt.
"It's obvious that it's been a rather strange year. I don't intend to spend the rest of the night dissecting it; I will just say that the Tong needs to be reined in, Orvas. I will not accept any arguments on this point."
"Of course, my Duke. The Tong are good citizens of Vvardenfell and will obey your command."
Marayan suppressed a snort of disbelief.

Orvas and Vedam began a discussion about voting on the council that Marayan wasn't particularly interested in. It appeared that the Duke was getting a little worried about the number of Hlaalu councilors that voted with Orvas on every decision. Orvas argued that this was merely because is policies were popular.
"And just what exactly are your policies, brother?" Vedam asked, and Marayan started paying attention again.
"You know my policies, Vedam. I want what's best for the people of Vvardenfell, not what's best for the Empire."
"The Empire is what's best for the people of Vvardenfell. I don't know if you've looked around lately, but this island of ours isn't in the best shape. Redoran is in decay, Telvanni seems to be gearing up for an expansionist push and Dagoth Ur has been tormenting the interior towns."
"Perhaps if all our wealth wasn't being siphoned off into Imperial coffers we might stand a chance. What do we get in exchange for our ebony and gems? Imperial troops who do little else but collect our taxes and flirt with our women! Where's your sense of pride as a Dunmer? Of tradition?"
"And that's where you lose me, Orvas," Marayan interrupted quietly. "I know what your sense of tradition entails; servitude of all Dunmer except those of good breeding, slavery-"
"Slavery is legal, Marayan," Orvas reminded him.
"It might be legal but it's immoral. These are people Orvas, not trade goods, not animals, people."
"Our economy is-"
"Our ecomomy is changing. You could kill every last Imperial on the island, but they will still be here – people will still dream of owning their own farm, or shop, and not being indebted to the local nobles. You can't go back."
"Thank you, Marayan, well put." The Duke nodded approvingly.
"I want to know when you suddenly became such an expert in what the people want. Both of you, you have no idea what the people think, you don't live with them, you don't work with them."
"Neither do you, you just order them around."
"That's enough Marayan," Vedam held up his hand, "Your input is appreciated, but as mage you can't expect to know everything. Orvas, I understand your position, and know that I have fought long and hard to win the Dunmer the freedoms they now enjoy under the Empire, and I shall continue-"
"What freedoms? You're just happy you got some fancy title!"
"We have the title, Orvas, our family. Or have your forgotten?"
"Oh yes, our vaunted family, and our father's great dream of a dynasty. Look around you, Vedam, this is it. I know you're not going to leave the title to me, or Marayan; you'd better get busy this spring, because I don't see Ilmeni exactly falling into line with your grand plans either."
"Leave Ilmeni out of this!"
"Yes," Marayan said bitterly, "Leave her out of this. Leave me out of this. It's not as if we count. We're here to follow orders, and if we don't we're excluded, hell, we're excluded anyway. You two fight like children! You pull out fancy arguments and grand ideals but your both just bitter because you aren't Father!" he spat.

His two brothers looked at him, stunned for a moment by the outburst into silence.

"Look at you. You never got away, you spent your entire lives doing just what he wanted, and he's been ash for twenty years! You'll never be him. The world will never be the way you want it to be, for either of you. All you do is hurt people, hurt your own flesh and blood to try and…and do the impossible, do something that doesn't matter, because he's dead! Get over it!" He finished with a yell, his gaze furious and electric.

"Marayan, I didn't-" Vedam started to say something but was interrupted by Orvas's laugh.
"Lovely," he said, still laughing, "I had no idea you had it in you." Marayn did not look amused. "You know what your problem is?"
"I'm sure you'll tell me." Now that his outburst was over, Marayan just looked resigned.
"You've been spending too much time with that Telvanni girlfriend of yours."
"Girlfriend?" Vedam looked quickly at the youngest brother.
"She's not my girlfriend."
"Telvanni?"
"Oh yes, Vedam, she's the Mouth for our current Telvanni guest I believe."
"I don't believe this." Marayan threw up his hands.
"Oh, I've met her," the Duke said thoughtfully.
"You have?" Marayan asked curiously.
"She wanted permission to build one of those tree houses. Very polite, for a Telvanni. I knew she was Guild, but I didn't know you were that close."
"We're not."
"Did you give her permission?" Orvas was now talking quite politely to his elder brother.
"Well of course I did. If a Telvanni asks permission you give it to them. If you don't they'll just go ahead anyway. I still don't know if this is wise, Marayan."
"You want to ignore what I have to say? Fine. Tear each other apart for all I care, but you are not," he raised his hand, "dragging Vvardnefell down with you. Goodnight!" His robe swished behind him and he stalked out.

"Uncle Marayan, you were amazing!" Ilmeni was waiting for him when he came out, her eyes shining.
Marayan gave an embarrassed grin, "Yeah, well, I don't think I did much good. They're not going to talk to me at all now."

The pair made their way outside and Ilmeni perched on the edge of the stone parapet and looked out over the moonlit countryside. The guards recognized them and left them to talk in peace.
"What do we do now?" Marayan asked morosely.
"Uncle, you remember what I said about something bad at the plantation?"
Marayan nodded for her to continue.
"We got a lead. There's an Argonian slave there with information, but he's not going to say anything until we get him out of there."
"And?"
"And no one wants to go. The last time we tried to get slaves from the Dren plantation there were…casualties. The place is a fortress."
Marayan gave a defiant smile, "Then we need help."
"You're going to help me?"
"I really think that things might be shaken up a bit soon. And the help I was thinking of is going to be rather busy."
Ilmeni gave a delighted grin and threw her arms around her uncle.
"Be careful, I don't want you to fall."

"Did you know?" Ilmeni hopped along the crenellations as Marayan walked beside her, a levitation spell ready in case she fell.
"About Winterbell? Only recently. I figure she owes me one. I still don't know if I should trust her though."
"But you do."
"Yeah."