Athene stopped at the Nightgate Inn on the way back to Windhelm. In her Stormcloak uniform she wasn't given a second glance, let alone considered long enough to remind the innkeeper about her evening with Balagog gro-Nolob. Hadring saw her over the bar and jerked a thumb in the direction of a table, and Athene saw Longs-for-Stars and another soldier sitting with their Honningbrew Mead.
"She's back," the Argonian hissed in a friendly manner. She leaned toward the Nord male she drank with. "I heard she had an important message for Jarl Balgruuf."
"How did you know that?" The man had tensed when Athene walked over. She didn't know what to make of it, but Stars didn't seem to care.
"Yes, how?" Athene said.
"Important things get around." Stars grinned, or as close to a grin as her wide flat lips would allow.
"Better get back to camp." The Nord stood up abruptly and stomped to the door.
Longs-for-Stars sighed.
"What was that about?"
"Burd isn't sure about being seen with me around other soldiers."
Athene sputtered. "He isn't… sure? About being seen with his fellow Stormcloak?"
The Argonian waved a clawed hand. "Let's not simplify things. You know what he means. We're fighting for Nords. It's incredible they even allow me to fight."
"I thought we were fighting for Skyrim. Everyone's Skyrim. Do you think it's incredible they allow me to fight?"
"Not, but you're Dragonborn, or so the others say. Whatever that means. But I am…" She shrugged. "They can squint at you and see a human. They squint at me and see a lizard. Or maybe a dragon." She guffawed, a very human sound.
"You told me you wanted to get the Empire out of Skyrim and then we'd worry about putting Skyrim back together. Is that really what drives you?" After the increased introspection of the evening before, Athene tried to fit Long-for-Stars within the conclusions she'd made. The Argonian wasn't like other Stormcloaks, choosing Ulfric as a stand-in for the perfect Skyrim resident. Or if she was, she was even more confused than Athene.
Stars considered, blue eyes on her cup. Her round nostrils twitched and Athene had time to admire the smooth black and grey scales that reached over her forehead. Then she said, "Have you heard of Umbriel?"
Athene nodded. "Floating island that made it through from Oblivion, and destroyed Lilmoth before heading to Vvardenfell. Ysolda told me that 'Sleeping Tree' the giants guard might have come from a seed that fell from Umbriel."
Stars nodded. "I've visited that tree. It has the hum of the Hist at its core, and so I think your friend Ysolda is right. There was a hero, an Argonian named Glim, who gave a part of himself to the island, and so it had a part of the Hist, and so it was ours. For a little while. This is what my mother told me when I was a hatchling and thought every story was true."
"Do you still think it's true?"
"I've heard the hum from the tree and felt it calling. I know it's true."
Athene nodded again. The relationship between Argonians and the Hist was something she respected and had no urge to mock, though she accepted her respect might have come from the stories her own mother had told her. It was easy to believe things you were told when the world was new and wonderful. And there was something else…
"Don't the Hist worship Sithis?" she blurted.
Stars didn't answer, but she gave a sort of shrug that might have meant anything.
Athene didn't pursue it further.
"What does Umbriel have to do with the Stormcloaks?"
"I came here for the Sleeping Tree, to see my mother's stories for myself. When the Empire gave up the Black Marsh after the Oblivion crisis my family settled into their routine, farming and selling and fighting and writing. I grew up not expecting to have to care what happened outside our borders. But then the Thalmor were everywhere, and I can't believe they'll stop just because they hate our swamps and our rootworms. Not after what we did to Morrowind."
"The Thalmor aren't known for their love of other elves."
"But certainly known for their love of conquest. Of taking away what people care for, to break them down. When I came here for the Hist, I had to stay for the Hist, because I know what will happen when Thalmor turn their eyes from Skyrim to the rest of Tamriel again."
"You aren't actually fighting for Skyrim? You're fighting for your own home and family?"
"Don't tell Burd." Long-for-Stars grinned again.
"Jarl Balgruuf has turned down Ulfric's offer," Athene said. "There will be war imminently."
"I will happily fight to keep that war here."
"I believe you. So I have a task for you."
One horned eyebrow shifted on the Argonian's face. "A task? Beg pardon, my Bosmer friend, but you're new here. You don't give out tasks."
"I know. But I think you'll accept this one." She outlined her plan into Stars' flat ear.
"Are you sure?" her conspirator said. "This is what you want? It's… an honour. And also I think a burden."
"Are you up for it?"
The lizard sat up straighter. "Of course I am. Are you?"
"Absolutely," Athene said.
Longs-for-Stars held out a scaled palm. "All right then. Give me the axe."