They arrived in Windhelm late and rented a room at the Inn. The plan was to go to the Temple as soon as it opened, explain Heimskr's mission to the priests, get the ritual finished and hopefully be on the road by noon. And so it came to pass that they woke up before sunrise and camped out at the entrance to the Temple in the cold, on high alert for any thugs or less than honorable guards. A priest by the name of Jora was shocked to see them there so early and automatically assumed that they were Thalmor spies but Heimskr's passionate prayer to Talos proved "their" devotion to the temple priest and they were let in. Jora gave them a short tour of the temple before excusing herself and leaving to run some errands. M'rasha and Lydia sat in the front row while Heimskr began the cleansing. The Khajiit stretched out her body out on the pew, resting her head on Lydia's lap. "At least nothing can go wrong here," she said before a yawn escaped her mouth.

"Aye. Maybe we'll have it easy for once." Lydia nodded as she rubbed M'rasha's twitching ears, listening to her purr. The women were on the verge of dozing off, still exhausted from the little sleep they got when a presence slithered into the row behind the two warriors and then Lydia felt someone grab her shoulder and whisper into the Nord's ear, "Well, lass that's where you're wrong..."

Lydia twisted around, ready to confront the eavesdropper but there was no one there. Concerned M'rasha, tapped her claws against her lover's chin getting her attention, and asked "Something wrong?"

The other woman slowly shook her head. "Thought I heard-"

Her comment was cut off when the doors to the temple swung open. In walked two Nord men, one dressed in fine robes and the other dressed in the furs, leathers and bear helmet of a Stormcloak commander.

"Ulfric, we really need to talk about Whiterun," Said the man in the bear helmet, halting the other in his tracks. M'rasha sat up, saw who had entered the temple and cursed all while grabbing the front of Lydia's shirt and rolling them both off the bench. Lydia yelped as she landed on top of M'rasha. M'rasha let out a grunt as she pushed the Nord off and scurried to end of the pew to quickly peek down the aisle. "Please tell me that's not Ulfric Stormcloak."

Lydia peeked over the back of the pew. Sure enough, there was Ulfric Stormcloak and Galmar Stone-Fist, arguing but slowly making their way to the shrine.

To where M'rasha and Lydia were hiding.

"Would you like me to lie?"

Lydia yelped when she was yanked back down to the ground and out of sight. She growled at the Khajiit, "Would you stop yanking on me!?"

The alchemist opened her mouth and then shook her head. There would many other times to tease the Nord about her bad word choices but right now they had other things to worry about.

"He can't see us. We need to hide. Now," said M'rasha.

"But where? There's no place to hide," Lydia whispered harshly. M'rasha eyes darted wildly around the front of the hall when her eyes fell upon a curtain to the right of the Talos statue. She moved towards it, keeping low, and when she got to it, pushed it out the way to reveal a small living space. The Khajiit turned back and motioned Lydia to come over. Lydia scurried right behind M'rasha and they both ducked behind the curtains just as they heard, "You there! You're not Jora. What are you doing to the shrine?"

Heimskr turned around ready to unleash his vitriol until he realized that it was his hero, Ulfric Stormcloak, calling out to him. He dropped his bag of ingredients and rushed to the Jarl of Windhelm. Galmar stood in front of his Jarl, hand on his sword.

"Ulfric Stormcloak. By the Nine, it really is you," Heimskr gushed, "Never did I ever think we would ever meet. My Jarl, let me say it is an honor, a great honor to meet you."

The priest knelt in front of the men in reverence. Ulfric raised an eyebrow. "You have me at a disadvantage, priest. You know of me but I do not know you or what your intentions are to the shrine."

Heimskr's eyes went wide. "A thousands pardons for my lack of manners Jarl Ulfric. I am Heimskr. High priest of Talos in Whiterun."

The new information only caused Galmar tense up even more, "And what are you doing to our shrine 'priest'?"

The priest rose to his feet. "I am here to cleanse it. The great Talos, himself, has charged me to set out on a pilgrimage to cleanse Shrines of Talos in Skyrim."

"Very convincing acting," replied the Stormcloak soldier.

"It is not an act," Heimskr replied, "He came to me in a vision saying that the war and the elves occupation of Skyrim has tainted his shrines and as the high priest of Talos, I must cleanse them! To help bring them and Skyrim back to their former glory!"

Galmar looked ready to shoot down Heimskr's quest as a fool's errand but Ulfric stopped him with a look before focusing on the priest. "That is a noble pilgrimage," Ulfric commented, "Are you alone in your task?"

He shook his head. "No my lord. I have hired two mercenaries to help me," He looked towards the back of the room to find it empty, "Though it seems they have left. I'm not surprised. But you, yes! I can... No, it would be my pleasure to let you witness the ritual!"

"I would love to observe this."

Heimskr could die happy. "Oh please, yes. Sit right here so you can witness it all." The priest had Ulfric and Galmar sit in the front most pew right across from where Lydia and M'rasha were hiding. Both women had their heads against the ground only able to see out from the small gap between where the curtain ended and the floor.

"I don't care if he's a man of the cloth, I'm going to kill him," M'rasha vowed.

"Ahem."

The two women froze and together turned to the owner of the voice. It was another priest and he looked very wary of them.

"What are you doing back here," he demanded, "No one is to be back here."

M'rasha brought Lydia close, "Follow my lead." Lydia nodded.

"What's your name," the Khajiit asked.

The man looked at them suspiciously. "Lortheim."

"Okay Lortheim. It is imperative that Ulfric not see us or know we are here."

He immediately tensed up. "Are you with the Legion?"

M'rasha rushed at the man and covered his mouth. "No. Quite the opposite. We are spies for the Stormcloaks. And we are deep undercover in the Legion. We find out their troop movements, get captured by the Stormcloaks and relay this information to Galmar. Do you understand?"

Lortheim nodded and M'rasha sighed, "I'm going to move my hand now. Please do not scream. I really don't want to have to kill a man of the cloth."

She moved her hand away and but stayed closed, fully expecting the man to scream either way but was surprised when he instead asked, "But why can't Ulfric see you."

"We have been caught before and taken to Ulfric where he has sentenced us to death," Lydia answered, "So technically we are dead. And Ulfric never forgets a face."

Lortheim nodded. "That is true. But tell me this," he looked at M'rasha and asked, "Why would a Khajiit fight for Ulfric?"

M'rasha took mock offense to that. "Hey! I may be a Khajiit but I was born and raised in Skyrim. My birth parents were killed by bandits and my adopted parents found me and raised me. And like a lot of Skyrim's people, I'm tired of the Legion and the Dominion taking whatever they want because of some stupid peace treaty the rest of us had no say in. I live out in the Reach and there isn't a week that goes they're not confiscating my crops, leaving me and my family with nothing."

The scrutinizing look on the priest's face disappeared with M'rasha's passionate speech. His eyes found something on the ground more interesting. "I...I see."

Lydia placed her hands on the man's shoulders. "Lortheim, I want to see the Empire gone as badly as you do. If we are caught though, 7 months of work will be gone and they will have no one as good as us on the inside. And then this war will go on even longer! Can you live with yourself knowing that it was you who delayed the removal of the Empire?"

Lortheim didn't make eye contact for several seconds. When he looked up his lips were pressed into a tight line and asked, "How can I help?"

It took everything for Lydia not to grin. "Is there an exit we can use from here?"

"No." Lortheim clapped his hands. "But I can give you some hooded robes and you can sneak out while Ulfric is praying!"

"Then go get the robes!"

Lortheim walked over to a chest, opened it and pulled out two yellow robes and tossed it at them. They were a little big but they didn't have any other choice. Robes on and hoods up to hide their faces, they turned to leave but before they left Lydia turned and said, "We were never here. The Stormcloaks thank you sir."

"May Talos guide you to glory," Lortheim replied with a small bow.

The robed women walked out into the temple, heads bowed low to hide their faces, and walked right passed the head Stormcloaks and Heimskr as he was cleansing the shrine. Once the were outside they sprinted to the Grey Quarter where they ducked into an alley and pulled off the robes out of view of the public.

M'rasha laughed as she rolled up the robe. "Lydia if you ever decide to give up the warrior lifestyle, you would make a magnificent bard."

Lydia looked over at her smaller companion as they walked back to Candlehearth Inn. "I wonder why? I don't possess the same level of wordplay that you have. And though you say otherwise, I am not that beautiful of the face."

Lydia then grabbed hold of M'rasha shoulder stopping the Thane. "Oh I know why you think I would make a good bard!"

She leaned over until their faces were only mere inches apart and said, "Because according to you, I have such a wicked tongue."

M'rasha opened her mouth to say something and then immediately shut it. And then opened it again and then closed it without making a sound. All the while Lydia watched a tinge of red appearing on her Thane's face.

"Looking a little red there M'rasha. Was it something I said?"

M'rasha huffed, a smiled on her face and punched the Nord in the shoulder. "Fuck you Lydia."

Lydia laughed as she took a step back from the flustered Khajiit. "Maybe on a bed that's a little softer than the one at the inn."

Two seconds later she had to duck out the way of the giant fireball M'rasha shot at her. Lydia landed in a snow pile but was still laughing. "Hey you were the one who wanted to!"

"Stay still so I can fry you!"

Hours later, Heimskr returned to the rented room in a very good mood. He saw M'rasha and Lydia both asleep on one of the bed's, a large fur on top of them. The Khajiit was still sleeping but his arrival woke up the other Nord.

"Ahh there you are," He loudly exclaimed. M'rasha groaned and tried to bury her head further into Lydia's chest. Heimskr straightened his robes. "I just wanted to let you know that you really shouldn't have left so soon. Because you won't believe who I met."

"Who," was Lydia's sarcastic reply, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"The Ulfric Stormcloak!"

"We know!" They both groaned.

"And I've been invited to dinner!"

"We- wait what?" The women balked.

"He asked me to join him for supper," Heimskr said proudly. M'rasha hurled herself out of bed and started putting on her clothes and armor and tossed a shirt to her lover still in bed.

"Well Windhelm was lovely but I think it's best that we get going. Got a lot of traveling to do. C'mon Lydia! Time to go!"

Lydia let out a groaned but pulled the shirt on, "And I was comfortable too."

Heimskr nodded while rummaging through his pack. "Ah! Good to see that you'll be joining me for dinner!"

The Khajiit walked over to the priest and knelt down to his eye level. "No Heimskr. We're leaving. And you are too."

He waved M'rasha off. "Yes, yes, but after supper."

M'rasha hands started going for Heimskr's neck but pulled back at the last second. She looked over to Lydia as if to non-verbally say 'You deal with this nitwit before I choke him.'

Lydia quickly finished getting dressed and then took M'rasha's place next to Heimskr.

"Heimskr. You're going to have to tell the Jarl you won't be able to join him. We have so many shrines to get to..."

"No!" He threw down his pack and turned to Lydia, sticking his finger in her face, "This is my one chance to impress Ulfric. The shrines are important but so is this and-"

Suddenly, Heimskr stumbled forward and then slumped to the floor with a groan. Behind him stood M'rasha holding one of Lydia's heavy gauntlets.

"Now then shall we finish getting dressed?"

A/N: So I thought I had already posted this. I was wrong. Sorry.