Ulfric Stormcloak gazed at the moon from the roof of his Palace. The brilliant orb was beginning to sink and on the horizon, Ulfric could just barely see pink tinting the sky as the sun began to make its trip across the sky. Ulfric wished he could say that he had just woken up early with a desire to look at the sky, but the truth was that he had never gone to sleep. He had stayed up all night thinking about her and the words that she had spoken to him before leaving earlier that day.
Ulfric's eyes unfocused as he heard her soft voice again in his head. "I'm sorry, my Jarl." she was looking down at her feet, not meeting his eyes. "I cannot stay here any longer. Please forgive me." He blinked a few times, trying to process what she had said. She was leaving! Why? What had he done wrong?
"What did I do to make you leave, Kara?" he asked softly, tilting her head up so that she would meet his eyes. She looked at him briefly and he could see the anguish in them before she shook herself out of his grip and looked down again.
"It's what you didn't do, Ulfric. What you didn't do for them," she whispered so softly that he almost didn't hear her. She looked back up at him, her eyes and face showing a heartbreaking mixture of sadness, disappointment, resignation. "I can't stay, Ulfric. I'm sorry," she said again. Ulfric opened his mouth to protest, but she was gone.
After she had left he had tried to focus on the problems of the city, but he couldn't. Her face kept appearing every time he closed his eyes, even for a brief second. Eventually, he gave up and dismissed his court for the evening. Galmar had given him a strange look but didn't ask.
For awhile, Ulfric had sat in his room thinking and drinking. When he grew too restless he began to pace back and forth but stopped before he wore a trench in the stone. That had led to him roaming his Palace and the city. A few people tried to speak to him, but his answers were listless and disconnected. They gave up and Ulfric was left with only his thoughts of her.
Sometime in the night, he had made it to the roof of his Palace, a spot that was accessible by a passage that only he and Galmar knew about. He stood there, staring at the sky without seeing, for hours. Now he was coming back to his senses, slowly.
All at once, Ulfric realized what he hadn't done. His eyes snapped wide open and he gasped involuntarily. How had he been so stupid! He should have realized how it would affect her!
Setting his jaw determinedly, Ulfric turned to the steps and started down them, each step filled with purpose. He was going to set this right, and then he was going to find her and beg her to come back to him. He refused to lose her.