Chapter 63: Thane and outlaw

[17th – 18th of Evening Star4E 201]

We, that is Fiona, Janina, myself and our housecarls Rayya and Antonius, managed to climb down from the ledge we had found ourselves on after defeating Potema՚s ghost and leaving her sanctum through the back door. Thanks to the outline of the lighthouse not very far from our location we had a rough idea of where we were; we only needed to turn right on the road, and indeed, maybe an hour or so later we were under the arch and could enter the city of Solitude via the stairs leading up from there. We had all been injured at least once during the fights in the catacombs, and while we had been able to heal ourselves with restoration magic and potions, we were looking forward to some rest, preferably with a healthy dinner before. However, duty came first, and Janina asked accordingly:

"So, do we give the skull to the priest or to the steward?"

Fiona remembered: "I believe that the priest said something like 'bring it back to me to be sanctified by Arkay', so we should find the Hall of the Dead first, right?"

I nodded, and thus we passed the market area and turned right towards the mentioned building; the housecarls stayed outside, and Fiona, Janina and myself entered. Styrr was still in there and waiting anxiously, and when he saw us he called out:

"You've returned! I'm hoping successfully."

For a moment I was slightly disappointed as he did not even ask how we were doing and if we might have been injured, but that was just the way it was. I nodded, took out the skull from my backpack and handed it over. The priest looked happy, examined the skull for a few moments and then told us:

"Excellent! These things do have a way of working out when people take action. I'll sanctify the remains. You may want to find Falk, the steward, now; the city owes you a debt of gratitude, I should think."

I was too exhausted to point out that it had not been exactly child's play and that there had been a few tough fights, and none of the ladies felt like talking more either; but yes, the city did owe us. Thus we just nodded and left the building. Joining our housecarls we turned into the street to the palace, and when we passed the construction site we had seen before, the one which was going to be a museum according to Viarmo, I marveled again about the grandeur of the city. The stone arc this part of the city was built on was simply huge, and it seemed to be stable enough to allow big buildings. I found a small side street leading to a platform from where one could look down over the wall, and the bay below was easily half a kilometer wide; swimming across would probably take about half an hour rather than the couple of minutes in the game and would not be fun at all due to the low water temperature. Ships could easily get in and maneuver in the large stretch of water below, though. As I had noticed before, the row of houses on both sides of the street was quite long, and I assumed that many of the more affluent citizens of the city lived in one of them. Most likely the future museum was on a section where the rock already expanded from the more narrow bridge to the wider foundation on the southeastern side, as it seemed to occupy a deeper stretch than the houses next to it.

Despite the efforts of the day and my exhaustion, I would have loved to stop and watch the construction, observing how building a large house was done in Skyrim without modern means like a crane and such, preferably while seating on a comfortable bench and a nice and pretty female cuddling up to me. However, I could not imagine one of the ladies in our group to desire snuggling with me, and we still had some work to do. Thus, we walked on to enter the Blue Palace, where we found Falk Firebeard, the steward, still in the court room. When we entered, he turned towards us and raised his brows like a question. Fiona told him:

"We have taken care of Potema, and her skull is now back in Styrr՚s hands in the Hall of the Dead."

His face lightened, and he replied:

"Is that so? That's good news, indeed. You've done a great thing, today. It doesn't matter who you support in the war; Potema would have been a blight on the land for both sides. Without you, this would have been a disaster. I should have paid more heed to Varnius' warnings. I won't make that mistake again."

He grabbed a small coin purse and told us:

"I do not know to what extent all of you have contributed to the achievement, but I trust that you share the reward in a fair way. I would also like to mention that the Jarl would very much want to keep Potema՚s return quiet. There's no reason to get the citizens worried about nothing, she believes."

Just before we turned to leave, the steward added:

"And, by the way, you are all invited to court at 10:00 sharp tomorrow morning. I hope that you can come?"

We nodded politely and left the Blue Palace. While we walked back to the inn, Fiona asked:

"Why did we get invited to court? What does this imply? I hope nothing bad?"

"I am not sure" I replied, "but I should hope that Jarl Elisif might also want to thank us, even if they want to keep the entire affair quiet."

Fiona nodded, and I added:

"I don't know about you, but I am more than ready for dinner and bed, in this order."

"Is eating and sleeping all you think about?" Fiona asked with a visible smirk on her face.

"What? Why do you ask?"

"Got you – just teasing!"

Women. Janina came to my aid, though, and added that dinner and bed was also what she was looking for. We had had enough adventure for the day, indeed, and after enjoying a good meal in the taproom we got back to our rooms in the inn. We had all kept our rooms for a few more days and paid in advance, so that we could all find a bed to rest. Now we had that appointment for tomorrow, and if everything went according to plan, my plan that is, we might be able to leave the city on the day after tomorrow. Yes, it would have been nice to spend a few more days and just explore and enjoy the city, but I wanted to get home again. Home! I actually considered Whiterun home, and I longed for my quiet attic room in Jorrvaskr; only rarely did I think back to my former life.

As before, Janina insisted to share a room with me, Fiona had a large room for herself and her two housecarls, and Antonius got a smaller room for just himself. Once again I mused on the different scale of things here compared to the game. Most of the inns in the game had like three guest rooms or so; barely enough to make a living. This one, the 'Winking Skeever', had certainly more than a dozen, and it was probably not even the only inn in the city.

I likely had one or two somewhat erotic dreams during the night, and once I woke up and was almost sure that a girl was cuddling up to me and partly on my chest. The only other person in the room was Janina, but she wouldn't do that, right? Not sure if I was still dreaming I opened my eyes, but of course it was just one of my saber cat girls who had climbed on my chest and now started to purr in her sleep when I rubbed her fur. Well, a man – pardon me, a male Khajiit – could dream, and at least I had Hanni and Nanni being quite affectionate with me.

We took our time in the next morning, after a good night's rest and a great breakfast. While the Skyrim inns did not offer anything like a breakfast buffet I had sometimes been able to enjoy in a good hotel during a business trip, at least the Winking Skeever had a nice selection of food and drinks and allowed second helpings, too.

At the designated time we, that is Fiona, Janina, and I, were walking up the stairs in the Blue Palace. I was wearing my noble clothes from the store again, and I had insisted to buy a nice fine looking dress for both ladies in my company as well; getting proper clothes for Janina had been slightly challenging due to her size, though, but the ladies at Radiant Raiment had delivered. Our housecarls were hitting the market, selling most of the spare loot we had collected on the day before and getting some supplies for our upcoming trip home.

Jarl Elisif was clearly expecting us, and her eyes were bright when she saw us coming up. The steward announced us, and the court awed when Fiona was introduced as being Dragonborn. Jarl Elisif began the conversation:

"My dear friends, my steward, Falk Firebeard has kept me up to date on your achievements. Please correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding correct that among the three of you, only the tall Khajiit, B'lushona, has had an active part in all of what you did in the last days and weeks; is that the truth?"

"That's too much honor, my Jarl; for most of the tasks I had other people working with me."

"But it is fully correct that Fiona and I only joined for the last task, my Jarl. Most of the hard work was done indeed by B'lushona, and his housecarl Antonius."

"Yes, that matches what Falk told me. Styrr sends his regards, by the way, and all is safe. Now, this court and this city has room for another Thane, and I am inclined to grant this title. You, B'lushona, have been helping many of my citizens when they needed it, and you dared to save us from big evil, too. Normally I'd expect a Thane to reside in the city and own property here, but I understand that your home is elsewhere, right?"

That was a question in my direction, and I decided to bend the truth a little:

"My Jarl, if I had not already sworn loyalty to Jarl Balgruuf the Greater in Whiterun, it would be an honor for me to take residence in this great city, at least as soon as I manage to get enough money to actually buy a house here. As it is, though, I do have obligations, and I regret that I cannot simply disregard them, specifically as I am also a member of the Companions of Whiterun. I plan to travel back to that city soon, maybe as early as tomorrow, but I do hope that I will be able to visit the great city of Solitude again soon."

"Nicely spoken. Would you be willing to do a last favor for me?"

"What is it, my Jarl?"

"I know by now that you are somebody I can trust. As you may know Talos worship is outlawed in the Empire. When we buried my husband I made offerings to all the gods... except Talos. I would like you to take an item of his, a warhorn handed down from his father, and place it at a specific Shrine of Talos. Not here in the hold, as the Thalmor might find out about it, but there is one east of Whiterun, and this would be the perfect place. Will you do this for me?"

"Do you worship Talos?"

"No, not really, of course not, but my husband Torygg would want a proper burial and this is the way Nords are buried in Skyrim, White-Gold Concordat or not."

"I would be honored to help, my Jarl."

"Thank you. It would mean a lot to me. Now, let me get to the official part."

Jarl Elisif had made sure that the previous part of the conversation had been spoken in subdued voices, so that only few people could listen in. It was obvious that she did not want to risk too many people leaning about a task involving Talos. She probably fully trusted the few people around her – court wizard Sybille Stentor, housecarl Bolgeir Bearclaw and steward Falk Firebeard – but some or maybe even all of them had likely already served her husband and his father before and were worthy of her trust. Now the Jarl raised her voice, got the entire court's attention, and spoke:

"B'lushona of Whiterun, although it is unusual to award a title to a foreigner who does not at least own property in the city of Solitude, I recognize that you have been instrumental in keeping a big danger from our hold. In addition, you have helped many citizens not only here in the city, but also in Dragonbridge, and people recognize you and have reason to be grateful for your presence and your deeds. It is my honor and my pleasure to name you, B'lushona, Thane of Haafingar; I assign Jordis the Sword-Maiden as your housecarl."

I kind of high-fived myself internally when I learned that I indeed got Jordis as I had hoped. And this time it was actually me who became Thane! Sure, others had contributed a lot, but it had still been me taking the lead, of course well aided by my faithful housecarl. A housecarl could not gain such a title directly, but Antonius' reputation was at least likely to zoom up due to my new Thaneship. The Jarl continued to announce:

"All of you, Fiona, Janina, and B'lushona, are now respected citizens of Haafingar and you have the right to purchase property here in Solitude or another town in the hold anytime you want. To honor your new status, there will be a banquet tonight, and you and all of your housecarls are invited."

Had I heard correctly? Had she really not used the 'common rabble' phrase? Apparently she really had not, and we were dismissed now. Downstairs a blond haired warrior lady stepped out from behind a column and approached me:

"My Thane, I am Jordis, your housecarl."

"Jordis, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Is my assumption correct that you know what a housecarl is and what my duties are? I have been listening, and you mentioned that you already are Thane of Whiterun."

"Yes, this is correct. I already have Antoninus, my housecarl from Whiterun, and he educated me accordingly."

"All right, so what are our next plans?"

"Jordis, we are going to travel to Whiterun soon, maybe as early as tomorrow."

"May I learn who is in your group?"

"Certainly. We will meet the other housecarls later, but we have Fiona here, the Dragonborn; her two housecarls, Lydia and Rayya, are in the city. The tall Redguard lady next to me is Janina. That's it."

The Dragonborn being with us was obviously something Jordis had not expected or known; she admitted that she had not yet been present when she had been introduced earlier; the Nord housecarl looked duly impressed. I planned to make some introductions, but was interrupted by one of the city guards who approached and told us:

"Than B'lushona, I am Breya, one the guard commanders of Solitude. Legate Rikke at Castle Dour has requested your presence, and I believe that she wants to talk to you about the Thalmor attack a few days ago."

"Oh yes, that one. Right, how do we find her?"

"I will show the way; please follow me."

On our way to Castle Dour we met Antonius, and I left Hanni and Nanni, my two saber cat cubs, with him, as I was not sure if they were welcome in the castle. The guard led us up to the castle in the northwestern corner of the city; we entered Castle Dour after her. After climbing a set of stairs we were guided into a room where several soldiers were discussing something, and at the other side of the room I recognized General Tullius, who had also been at Helgen when Alduin had shown up. We – just Fiona, Janina, Jordis and me; our other housecarls had not yet joined us again – were introduced to the legate, a female Nord in standard Imperial officer armor, and she wanted to learn what we thought about the Thalmor attack:

"Did you give them any reason to attack, like a provocation or so?"

Naturally, Fiona could not talk about what she had done in the Thalmor Embassy, and I stated that we had not provoked them in any way, but that they seemed to be hunting the Dragonborn in particular, for a reason unknown to us. When this name was mentioned, General Tullius turned around and came over, and we were introduced to him as well. When he noticed me, I saw him thinking, and he said:

"Wait, at Helgen, when we had Ulfric and the dragon showed up to help him escape, we also had a big Khajiit as prisoner; that was you, right?"

I had no reason to deny this statement, and after all, this had been months ago, and the General surely had more important issues on his mind:

"Yes, general, that was me. You had me and this Bosmer, Fiona, the Dragonborn, captured without cause, and your captain had planned to get both of us executed without reason and without even a trial."

The statement 'captured without cause' was partially speculation on my side. After all, I only recalled what had happened after I had woken up in the cart, and I did and could not know what my body might have done before. The general snorted:

"Well, that can be amended, and I believe that we should find out about that as you are here already. You and the so-called Dragonborn will be sent to prison and we will get you a trial, nice and quickly. Guards!"

Before Jordis could object, the city guard who had lead us here, Breya, shouted:

"General Tullius, you may want to reconsider. B'lushona was just made Thane of Haafingar, and he has done our city and our hold a great service. Jarl Elisif will not see him in prison without a very good reason!"

"But he was in our custody in Helgen and escaped, and so was this so-called Dragonborn!"

"That is not cause enough, general. Did you just have them imprisoned without good cause?"

"Above and beyond that, the Khajiit and the Bosmer also provoked the Thalmor multiple times, thus even causing a soldier's death! We just heard about it!"

"It seems to be unclear who provoked whom, general; after all, we all know that the Thalmor frequently overstep their bounds. So, what are the specific accusations?"

"We will discuss this in the trial."

"No, this is not good enough. I insist that you outline the accusations right now and here, or I will take the Jarl՚s special guests back with me."

Legate Rikke opened her mouth, but whatever she may have had on her mind, she did not speak, and she closed her mouth again. Either she disagreed with her superior officer and decided that it might be better not to speak her opinion in the general's presence, unless said general asked for it, or she agreed but did not find it appropriate to add her own comments; I was not sure. The general clearly did not like what he had heard, but he knew that he needed the Jarl՚s goodwill here in the city. I was quite happy about seeing the guard being on our side. I had hoped that the general might see some reason, but I was disappointed by his reaction and attitude. Jordis also chimed in now:

"If we are not allowed to leave together, there will be consequences for sure. I know that my Jarl does not tolerate such unjustified actions against one of her citizens, and even less for a Thane! If you do have serious and well-founded accusations against my Thane and his friends, I do suggest that you write them down and deliver the letter to Jarl Elisif the Fair, General. The Jarl does not have her name for nothing, and if the accusations seem to be justified, there will be a trial, but a fair one, and she will certainly want to attend and make sure that her citizens and specifically my Thane are treated properly."

General Tullius hesitated, and reluctantly he admitted:

"All right, leave again. But let it be known that my soldiers will be looking for the two of you."

"We intend to leave this city tomorrow morning anyway."

"Fine. In order to please the Jarl, I will give you 24 hours of truce, until tomorrow noon. But now I understand why the Thalmor attacked your group; they had representatives at Helgen and knew that at least Fiona and B'lushona are enemies."

Why did General Tullius insist on viewing us as enemies? Maybe he was just a Thalmor puppet? The argument with Helgen was a fake one, as neither Fiona nor me, as far as I knew, had done anything to warrant being arrested. If I had understood Ralof correctly, we had not even been caught together with the Stormcloaks near Darkwater Crossing, but at a later time, like 'trying to cross the border', so that there should have not been any reason to assume us to be Stormcloak followers. There was, however, the possibility that I, or my body at least, had done something bad before I had woken up in the cart; after all Ralof had mentioned me being clubbed by another Khajiit, and I had not had a chance to ask for more details. Even then, though, the general should have been specific and at least tell us why he considered us enemies. For now, we'd better leave the castle, and we gladly followed our guard outside. Once we had left the vicinity of the castle, Breya asked:

"You really were at Helgen when Ulfric was about to be executed and Alduin showed up?"

Fiona took that one:

"Yes, we were there, but we do not have a clue why the Imperials arrested us."

"By the way, thank you for intervening on our behalf in there" I needed to add.

"Don't mention it" Breya responded. "With all of the recognition Elisif had for you, she would have been very upset to find you in a prison at Castle Dour, and she would have blamed me for not preventing that."

"Will we be safe until we leave?"

"I will inform the city guard, and they will have an eye on you; rest assured that the general will not dare to have you arrested here or in Dragon Bridge; however, you may be in trouble once you leave the hold."

Well, that was reassuring at least. It was time to find our other housecarls again and discuss our options. I had really hoped that General Tullius had reacted in a different way; in the game one could join the legion right after the initial events at Helgen, right? But no, this world's general was different and nursing a grudge against Fiona and me at least, and to a certain extent, this was maybe even more logical?

[Author's Notes: What do you think about Tullius treating our heroes like this?]