BLUE PALACE, SOLITUDE, 20th of Last Seed
Aurora was studying two parchment rolls as she sat by her table. Candles were lighting up the cabinet even though the sun had yet to set, and Nilsine was irritated over the fact that the young women used her Jarl's office as some kind of sitting room. Olfina had spread out in the sofa in front of Aurora's table, and Idgrod had taken the armchair which stood perpendicularly between the table and the sofa. Ingun walked around the chamber and looked at the books in the shelves, which covered the entire wall space except from the far one – the wall with the windows. Nilsine sorted papers, standing next to Aurora.
Nilsine threw a gaze at her Jarl. Aurora looked dizzy. She had made a budget with her Thanes' help and was matching it against the true costs of the building work. The young woman spent almost every hour of the day working. As Nilsine had went to bed the previous night, Aurora was still reading through her papers. In the morning, as the Stewardess entered the cabinet, the Jarl was still sitting by the table.
Nilsine respected her and felt lucky having become the Jarl's right hand. Even though Aurora worked hard, and she was kind. Sometimes, she could have a bit of a temper, but the women were always on the same side. Nilsine was also impressed with her ability to learn new things. Aurora was, after all, a warrior by nature, even though she decided on being a fair Jarl.
The girls were chatting about something unimportant as Nilsine presented Aurora with a map of Solitude.
"Isn't the street going to be too narrow if we have the entrance on the eastern side?" Nilsine asked as she leaned over the table. "I would recommend you to place it on the northern, because then the queue, which will most certainly be an issue, not take up the main road."
Aurora listened as Nilsine presented her idea and thought for a while with a wrinkled forehead. "But then the entrance to the theatre café…"
"That could be moved… here," Nilsine said and pointed at the map.
"Hey, Ingun... Why are you so fascinated by alchemy?" Olfina asked, chewing an apple and with her feet at the armrest of the sofa.
The woman who stood by the book shelves quickly returned the wooden ship model that had been placed in a foot-long hole between two sets of tomes. She had been observing it closer before hearing her name.
"It's exhilarating to observe the effects of my potions on the body. Watching the heart stop... the eyes go blind," she said.
Olfina, Nilsine and Idgrod threw gazes at one another. Ingun sure sounded like a psychopath at times. Nilsine respected Aurora's opinion, but she found appointing Ingun as court apothecary to be a mistake.
"We're made up of thousands of parts with thousands of different functions all working in tandem to keep us alive. Yet if only a single part of our imperfect machine fails, life fails. It makes one realize how fragile... how flawed we are. You ask why I'm so fascinated? The irony... the irony that the same world that gave us life provides us the means to die," Ingun continued.
"Alright..." Olfina begun, looking at the woman before turning to Idgrod. "Are you sure you're going to ask her to brew potions for Joric?" she whispered. "She sounds like a bloody assassin."
Idgrod had known Olfina for years, and it was apparent when seeing the women together. Olfina was only two years older than Idgrod, and their families had often met at gatherings, and even spent a few summers together. Nilsine knew none of them though. Sometimes, it felt like her hometown was at the edge of Nirn, even though it was a regional capital, and after the war, the capital of Skyrim.
She looked at Aurora, who was sitting with her head covered by her hands, as if her head was aching. Soon thereafter, she twitched back, holding her nose. The Jarl got to her feet and hurried past the young women, through the door and towards her own chamber. Nilsine saw two drops of blood on the table by which Aurora had been working.
"What's with her?" Idgrod asked.
"Oh, she has been having those nose bleeds a lot lately. I think it's stress related," Olfina said. "Gods, I am so bored!" she exclaimed and leaned back in the sofa, spreading her arms.
Nilsine threw an angry gaze at Olfina. The young noble lady had no idea how hard her Jarl worked. Being bored was a luxury Aurora Stormblade could not afford. The Stewardess took a textile napkin from her inner pocket and removed the blood stains from the table.
"Are you going to Gisli's party?" Olfina asked Idgrod.
"Who is Gisli?"
"Oh, Erikur, the Thane's sister," Olfina answered.
"Are there going to be any bachelors there?"
Olfina mentioned a few noble names before Idgrod uttered:
"Then I guess my mother would want me to attend."
Nilsine placed the napkin back into the pocket of her skirt and rolled up the parchment before deciding to follow Aurora. She walked towards the Jarl's room and found her on the bed with a cloth in her right nostril.
"My Jarl," Nilsine said as she entered and bowed her head.
She walked to the fireplace and filled a small bowl with water, which she brought to Aurora. Nilsine took the cloth and soaked a corner of it in the water before returning it to the Jarl.
"Thank you," Aurora said.
"My Jarl should not work this hard," Nilsine spoke softly.
"It's not the workload, it's the sleep deprivation," Aurora sighed.
Nilsine dared not ask any questions. She assumed something could have occurred during the war that kept her up at night.