The walls of Solitude rose high against the blue sky of early afternoon, its great watchtowers cutting upwards like giant stone spears. Normally, Uhther would have walked straight up the road up to the city gatehouse, been greeted warmly by the guards and gone right in. Today was different, however.

Today he turned off the main road down towards Katla's Farm, past the watchtower where Storn the Simple, even after all these years, was pushing his face into the stone tower as if he meant to walk through it. The gods alone knew why Captain Aldis let the man continue wearing the armour of the Solitude guard, it had been a long time since the man had been any use as a soldier. Still he was out here, Uhther supposed, keeping one eye on those who approached the city. Perhaps Aldis knew something he didn't. Uhther went on.

Past the farm to the shore of the Bay of Ghosts and Uhther found it. The sea of tents that he had last seen pitched beside the Karthspire, now bigger with the combined numbers of Ralof's Stormcloaks and the Blades. The camp was a hive of activity, the smell of cooking filled the air along with the ringing of blacksmiths hammers on anvils.

There seemed to be few men and women intoxicated, impressive in a predominantly Nord army, Uhther thought. The weapons were neatly in order on racks, swords and axes ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice, to say nothing of the weapons each man and woman in the camp carried with them.

There seemed to have been a lowering of boundaries since Uhther had left them. When he had last seen the lot of them, Blades, Stormcloaks and the rest had kept themselves to their own groups. Now, he saw Blades and Stormcloaks together in groups, talking by the cook fires, laughing together, training at arms and unarmed combat. There was no sign of his Sworn-Swords but perhaps they were elsewhere in the camp.

A cheer went up from the Blades when they caught sight of Uhther, which was then echoed by many of the Stormcloaks. Even those that didn't cheer smiled to see him enter the camp. The sentries snapped to attention. Neither were men he'd seen before but one carried a battle-axe and had the look of a Stormcloak warrior while the other was clad in the armour of a Blade.

'Lord Dragonborn,' the Blade was the first to speak, 'we saw the dragon. We were readying to attack but the Grandmaster stood us down. Apparently, she recognised it as one of those under your protection.'

Uhther smiled, glad to hear Delphine was keeping her word. He did not mind the Blades moving to attack dragons that attacked first, but those that now followed Paarthurnax and the Way of the Voice he had ordered left in peace. And Delphine had seen him upon Odahviing in the past.

'Is Delphine about?' Uhther asked.

'She is in the command tent with Ralof, Lord,' the Stormcloak put in, 'they are awaiting you. I shall take you to them.'

Uhther nodded in response and followed the burly man through the camp.

As they passed through the line of tents, many of the soldiers paused in their activities to stand, offer salutes or cheers. Uhther raised a hand in response whenever this happened, all the while trying to guess how many soldiers were here. They numbered in the hundreds. Not only Stormcloaks and Blades, he saw now there were bands of mercenaries and sellswords with their tents mixed in among the others. His Sworn-Swords had apparently been busy.

All the tents were gathered, as they had been on Karthspire, around a large central pavilion which rose a little higher than the sleeping tents that were clustered around it.

The Stormcloak he'd been following stopped beside the tent and pushed aside the flap to allow him inside. Uhther thanked him and stepped in.

He was greeted by a positive throng of people. Delphine and Ralof were there, of course, talking with Lydia who was flanked by Argis the Bulwark, his dragonbone axe, Forsvare, hanging from his hip. He must have come up from Markarth when he'd heard the news, Uhther thought. On Lydia's other side was Jordis the Sword-Maiden. The three housecarls seemed in deep discussion with Delphine and Ralof.

On the other side of the tent, looking rather irate with his tail swishing from side to side, stood Kharjo. He was also standing with an arrival from Markarth, another of Uhther's Sworn-Swords, Cosnach. The former tavernfly now stood steady as a rock, clad in Nordic carved armour, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. A woman, a wood elf by the look of her, that Uhther did not recognise stood on Kharjo's other side.

Jordis was the first to notice Uhther had entered and the muttered conversation ceased immediately.

'Lord Uhther!' she exclaimed as she crossed to him, closely followed by Lydia and Argis.

'Your mission was a success?' Lydia said, peering over Uhther's shoulder. He knew she must be looking to see if Quaranir was still with him.

'In a way,' said Uhther, 'we found out what was ailing Jarl Balgruuf.'

'Were you able to do anything for him?' Lydia sounded worried. As a citizen of Whiterun, Balgruuf was still her jarl, even if her loyalty was foremost to Uhther.

Uhther shook his head.

'I'm not sure anything can be done,' he said, bleakly. That was not entirely true. There were sometimes ways to appease or even defeat a daedric prince. Though this was Sheogorath. By his very nature he would be unpredictable. There was no sense getting hopes up.

'Problems that will have to wait,' Delphine cut in, 'things have been happening while you've been away Dragonborn. It might not be prudent to speak to the queen as you'd intended.'

That dragged Uhther's mind away from thoughts of Sheogorath.

'What do you mean?' he demanded. If he could not talk to Elisif, how was he to mobilise Skyrim?

By way of answer, Delphine looked at Argis, who looked at Uhther apologetically, like a man who knew his news would not be well received.

'Jarl Igmund is here, lord,' the big man explained, 'and a lot of the other jarls will be coming too by now. Queen Elisif has called a moot.'

'A moot?' Uhther was confused, 'for what?'

'For you, lad,' Cosnach piped up from behind them, 'didn't you hear? Elisif's put a price on your capture. You're to be dragged to Solitude by whoever finds you, it was announced in the marketplace in Markarth just two days ago. That's when I knew your man would be heading here quick smart so I thought I'd better join him.'

'What he says is true,' Argis said, though he glowered at the other man for interrupting. He had not removed his dragonbone helmet so the glower looked all the more fearsome.

'And that is why I believe it would be wise to hold our position,' said Delphine, 'more warriors swell our ranks every day. We can wait here and allow them to come to us. No sense walking into a trap.'

'This one agrees,' said Kharjo, 'but I say you have no need of these squabbling jarls. These warriors are here to follow you and there are more across the land. Leave this queen and her court to their arguments. We can deal with the Thalmor alone.'

Yes, and set myself up as another Ulfric Stormcloak, Uhther thought. He glanced at Ralof. He was strangely quiet and his face gave no clue to what he might be thinking. He turned to his housecarls.

'What are your thoughts?'

'We go with you,' Lydia said, 'whatever you decide.'

'Though, of course, we'd prefer not to get caught in a trap if we didn't have to,' said Argis.

Uhther chuckled.

'Sadly, I think we may have to,' he said, 'true more warriors may be arriving but the jarls will be bringing their own forces. If they're going to try and stop me, I'd prefer not to wait for them to grow in strength. I think now is the right time. Delphine, can you assemble an honour guard of Blades? Around thirty should be enough.'

'It will be done, Dragonborn,' Delphine said, turning immediately to get the job done.

'Lydia, Jordis, Argis, I assume you'll be at my back?'

Lydia and Argis nodded. Jordis lifted her hand to grip the hilt of the dragonbone greatsword, Frost, that stuck up behind her shoulder.

'None shall do you harm while we live,' she said, solemnly. Uhther gave her a smile before turning to the khajiit.

'Kharjo, can you gather a group of fighters? As many of the Sworn-Swords as you can find plus another twenty or so? I want Elisif to know that it's the men and women of Skyrim I fight for. That'll be best shown if she sees them following me alongside those who have sworn to me.'

'I agree, Dragonborn,' Kharjo said, his teeth showing in a grin as his tail moved lazily from side to side, 'this one will find the right soldiers.' He left, followed by Cosnach and the elf.

Uhther turned to Ralof. He had still said nothing, but a small smile showed his approval.

'I would also like thirty of your Stormcloaks to accompany me, Ralof,' Uhther said.

'I will see to it,' Ralof said, his voice warm. He began striding for the tent flap but then turned back. 'Though you should know we now no longer call ourselves the Stormcloaks. I was told they are ready to leave Ulfric in the past. They followed him because he promised to rid us of the Thalmor and Imperial injustice. But now they have you. So, we are the Stormfists now.'

Uhther was so taken aback he had no words to offer in reply, which seemed to be just what Ralof had expected for he laughed, gave a bow that seemed only half mocking, and left the tent.

Well he hadn't expected that. What would Elisif say when he presented that name before the throne? He tried not to think about it. Instead he too left the tent, followed by his housecarls. The sky was clear and he looked up to the Blue Palace where, he was sure, Elisif would be discussing him with Jarl Igmund. Would they be planning his arrest? To sell him out to the Thalmor?

Soon enough, he thought, we'll know soon enough.