Chapter 85: The citizens of Windhelm
[14th of Morning Star 4E 202]
I had spent most of the previous day talking to Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak, and I had to admit that I was positively surprised. He had some severe weaknesses, such as his lack of tact and diplomatic skills when writing letters to potential allies, but in general, working with him would be nice. Of course, as I was a Thane of Whiterun, I owed my allegiance to Jarl Balgruuf, and working with Jarl Ulfric would only be possible if the two Jarls decided to ally with each other. If they opted to disagree, I'd probably get into a situation which would force me to fight against Ulfric and the Stormcloaks, and based on what I had heard and seen so far, I would rather try to avoid that kind of situation. However, if I had to, I'd help to defend my home city, of course; my allegiance and loyalty was with Jarl Balgruuf the Greater, his city and his hold.
Once I woke up briefly during the night, or maybe in very early morning, and I thought about what I had vaguely suggested to Jarl Ulfric, about Argonians having a potential use attacking Solitude at some time. Rather than hinting at something like this, a race having some kind of 'usefulness', wouldn't it have been better and fairer to make a general claim towards all races being equal and demand more in that direction? But no, I was in no position to demand anything here, and a move like this should better be done by somebody like Brunwulf, the new Thane; maybe I'd want to talk to him about this at some later time. With that thought I managed to get back to sleep.
When I finally woke up in the next morning my first thoughts were about the nightly visit I had had from Lady Lana Stormcloak. Well, the intention of her visit had not been very ladylike; despite the temptation her attractive young body provided, I had refused her wish to share my bed for the night or at least for an hour or two, and she had not come back; I hoped that she had understood my view and position, but maybe she had had better luck with somebody else. Once I was up, I decided that I needed to talk to my housecarl Antonius about that, and I found him in the room next to mine. He was still asleep when I entered his room, but he woke up quickly. When I told him about my encounter, he grinned and said:
"No, she is not offended, don't worry."
"How do you know?"
"She came to my room next and told me."
"What?"
"Sure. I had no problem with such a visit, and it turned out that you really missed out; she is quite something in bed."
"Is this for real? Was she just looking for sex?"
Antonius started to pet one of my saber cats and replied:
"Well, not just, I guess, but mainly. And she was curious if your private body parts matched your body size, but could not find out. Turned out that she was quite happy about my body, after all, and I saw no reason to deny her that pleasure."
I still wasn't quite sure if I was supposed to believe him, and I asked:
"Are all Skyrim ladies like that?"
"Oh no, not all, but some."
"And you know most of those?"
"Quite a few of them I guess, yes. I don't want to boast about that, but I do have a reputation for making ladies very happy when they get into my bed."
I wasn't really surprised to hear that, maybe with a little touch of envy, but I had to ask:
"So, aren't they concerned about an unwanted baby or so?"
"No, not really. See, master alchemists know how to brew a potion to prevent that, and according to what I heard this is almost 100% reliable and widely used, too. There are also some other potions available for purchase for those with enough septims, to make people have a more active and more intense time together, if you get my meaning. Not saying that I actually need something like this, of course."
Something like viagra, maybe? I probably did not want to know, but it was really good that I had a person I could openly discuss those topics with. Not for the first time, and it likely wouldn't be the last time either, I was thankful to Jarl Balgruuf that he had selected Antonius as my housecarl, and I really appreciated his open and frank way of talking; he clearly was a man with any talents. I looked directly at the smirking Imperial and asked:
"So, do you think that I am weird when I want to first get to know a woman and spend time with her before I even think about sharing a bed with her?"
"No, not weird, but hard to understand for me. See, life in Skyrim is short and dangerous. Most people believe in enjoying it while they can. Extended courtship is something some nobles believe in, but not so many others, really."
"So, don't you think that I, being a Thane of two holds, should also be a little cautious about whom I bond with?"
"Maybe so, sure."
"And don't you think that she might have tried to extract a few secrets from me I'd better not share at this time?"
"You got secrets? Really? But seriously, I had not thought about that part. We are supposed to report back to Jarl Balgruuf in a neutral and objective way as much as possible, and if people learn that you bedded Ulfric՚s adopted daughter, you'd lose a lot of credibility. This is a point I had not even thought about, but a very valid one, my Thane."
"What about yourself?"
"I am not worried about my person, really. I already have a reputation for knowing many females, and one more will not make a difference."
"Is Jordis also like that?"
"Jordis? I have not known her for that long, but usually I am a pretty good judge of character. Unless I am mistaken, she is probably more like you, and I haven't seen any signs of her being attracted to anybody in the city so far. On the other hand, it's her first time here, as she mentioned, whereas I have been here in Windhelm a few times before. It's also possible that she deliberately stays celibate as part of her job; some housecarls do that during training and after, to avoid any distractions, but this is not imposed."
That made sense, of course. I shook my head, and Antonius seemed to notice that I found this topic slightly embarrassing; he quickly changed the topic and asked:
"So, today we are exploring the city some more, right?"
"Yes, I would like to walk around the city again and talk to various people. I'd better learn if what Jarl Ulfric claims is really true and how citizens think about it. Remember, he even encouraged me yesterday to do this. So, do you know where we could start? Getting shown around by Ralof was nice, but I am not fully sure that we get honest opinions and feelings from people with a Stormcloak officer around. You mentioned that you know somebody?"
"Of course I do, and I have made arrangements accordingly."
Of course he did and he had; no surprise here.
After breakfast my housecarl Antonius led Jordis and me to a young Dunmer lady who waited just outside of the palace; he introduced her as Dinaria Hlaalu, and she was going to be our local guide. After she had learned our names and had been introduced to Hanni and Nanni she told us:
"It's a pleasure to meet you all, and it certainly does not happen every day that I can show a Khajiit around, and such a big one, too. About myself, I am the youngest daughter of the Hlaalu family who runs one of the farms outside of the city. There is not enough work for all of us at the farm, and since Heneri came back, the mood at home has changed somewhat, so that I started to find work here in the city. Sometimes I help out serving at the New Gnisis Cornerclub, sometimes I help cleaning houses for some of the nobles, and sometimes I help Helgird with some work in the Hall of the Dead. I have known Antonius for some time, and he always comes to see me when he is around. I have a small and cozy apartment in the Grey Quarter…"
She did not need to continue to make me understand. Antonius had connections everywhere, it seemed; apparently, he had been getting around a lot before or during his housecarl training. I had to assume that all of his connections knew quite well that there were others, too, but this was not my business as long as it did not interfere with his housecarl՚s duties, and I replied:
"Lady, you are welcome to join us today, and I will be gladly taking you as our guide for the day. I am looking forward to seeing whatever you can show us."
She was actually quite young and pretty, probably in her early twenties, although I could not be sure with elves. Naturally, as she was a Dunmer, we started to tour the Grey Quarter first, and again I was happy to see that it looked much less shabby than it had looked in the game. There was still a lot of difference to the rest of the city, but that was mostly caused by building materials and architecture, and less lack of maintenance or so. Most of the larger buildings were made of stone here, too, but in many places there were wooden walkways and secondary walls added, enclosing additional space and thus, apparently, providing additional quarters and places to live. Some very worn and torn tapestries were hanging down in multiple locations to add a minimum level of heat insulation, but I expected proper heating to be an issue. Also, in the Grey Quarter, houses stood closer together, so that the streets were narrower than in the west part of the city. Dinaria told us while we slowly walked on:
"You should have seen this place ten years or even five years ago. There was no chance to get anything repaired properly, roofs were leaking, we did not have enough firewood, and many of us were unemployed. There have been changes, quite a few changes indeed, and nowadays most of us do have some job at least, we can afford to have the most critical repairs done, and we get enough wood to not freeze in our homes. It could still be better, but it's a huge progress. To be honest, my parents had not expected Ulfric to make that many concessions. It seems to pay off, though; my oldest brother has joined the Stormcloaks already."
"I have to admit that this is indeed different and certainly better compared to what older reports on Windhelm used to say."
"Oh, it is certainly better. Ten years ago we were barely tolerated, and now we have almost equal rights. You see, for a Dunmer like me this is really astonishing progress, and many of us who had eventually decided to move on from here would not have expected such a change. But, yet, it happened, and we have to thank even Nords like Brunwulf for it; it has been about time for him to be rewarded for his efforts, and he fully deserves to be a Thane; after all what he has done, most Dunmer accept and respect him. I actually hope that Jarl Ulfric can either win the civil war or at least convince the other Jarls to treat us in a similar way. Don't think that the Imperials are much better."
"They are not?"
"Dunmer live in most cities in Skyrim. Most of our families originally arrived in the province when they had to flee from Morrowind after the big eruption of the Red Mountain on the island of Vvardenfell, about two hundred years ago. Coming from the East via Dunmeth Pass, Windhelm was the first large city they encountered, and many were tired and just wanted to rest. Over the decades, many of them stayed, but others moved on further west. Sadly, we have learned that our race is also treated with disrespect in most Imperial controlled holds."
"Not in Whiterun, right? After all, a Dunmer lady is the Jarl՚s housecarl there."
"No, you are right, Whiterun is probably an exception, although there are not many Dunmer there as far as I know. But further west, we have heard from friends that General Tullius is getting increasingly worried about potential Stormcloak spies in the legion, and of course he first suspects anybody who is not an Imperial."
The weather was unusually warm today, so that I decided that we'd just buy some food in the market and find a place outside to eat. On the way there we stopped at the Temple of Talos, and inside we met the two priests, Jora and Lortheim, who had been introduced to me at the banquet. The inside of the temple was on the dark side, and only few and small windows allowed some daylight to get in. A large status of Talos dominated the interior, and a row of benches provided opportunities to sit. A number of lit candles and lanterns, mostly close to the statue, gave additional illumination. On the opposite wall there were some shelves with books and a few decorations. Both priests nodded at us, and when we had looked around for some time, Jora mentioned:
"We're the only Temple in Skyrim that can openly worship Talos, you know."
"But at least here you can do this, without being afraid of Thalmor, right?"
"Those awful Thalmor can't touch us, thanks to Ulfric. Our Jarl would never let Thalmor into Windhelm without a fight."
I nodded, and this made sense. Surely, Thalmor would not dare to get even close to this city, and Windhelm՚s citizens could freely worship here. Lortheim, the male priest and Jora՚s husband, added, though:
"Sadly, Jarl Ulfric՚s protection does not fully keep us out of trouble. The city's citizens have always respected the temple and everything inside, but recently we had a case of burglary. Just a few days ago my wife and I noticed that a few of our most valuable goblets and plates were missing; at first we thought that we might have misplaced them, but after we had searched everything we had to admit that they had been stolen. There hasn't been anything like this for years!"
My housecarls and I promised to keep our ears open if we heard anything related, and when we were ready to leave again, Lortheim said:
"Someday all of Skyrim will worship Talos openly, as we do here."
Well, maybe this was going to happen, and based on what I had been requested to support, in my initial vision, it was one my tasks to work in this direction: 'I expect that you help to restore worship to the Nine again.'
Slowly we moved on and headed into the southwestern corner of the city, where the market vendors had a large selection of food available for purchase; one Hillevi Cruel-Sea seemed to offer the best variety:
"Fruits and vegetables, all ripe and ready for your table! Take home Windhelm՚s finest and freshest produce today!"
I started to browse her wares, and she told us that her family owned a farm outside of the city:
"Everything you see is grown at my family's own Hollyfrost Farm. Fresh and filling. I also do a little herb growing."
"It must be tough to grow anything out here, in the cold climate and all."
"There's an old saying that only a Nord can work the soil in Skyrim. I don't think anyone else would have the patience for it. It takes half a day just to dig a planting row in the cold, stony earth here. But what else can we do, eat rocks and ice? Besides, most farmers out there have some tricks."
Hollyfrost Farm was the last one I had looked at a few days ago, the one where the conversation I had listened to for a few moments had discouraged me from talking to the people on the farm; that did of course not imply that the food from the farm was bad or so. We bought some food from the vendor and moved onto the next stall, run by a Dunmer named Aval Atheron. He was currently serving another customer, and Dinaria greeted him warmly. When he had completed his purchase he turned around to us and I recognized Brunwulf Free-Winter, the Nord who had been promoted to Thane just a couple of days ago. He seemed to be in a hurry, but encouraged us to stop by in his home when we could find some time.
When the Nord was gone, we bought some more food from Atheron, including raw meat for my saber cats, and also looked at the other stalls briefly. One of them was run by a female Altmer who looked like something was troubling her, another one had a young Nord lad who sold fish, and there were a few more.
The city itself was mostly stone and lumber and little grass, and we soon found ourselves outside, close to the stables. While we ate, we looked around, and with today's sunshine the area looked less dull than it normally did. I told my companions about my visit to the farms two days ago, and we discussed cold weather farming for some time.
Our thoughts and discussions were rudely interrupted when a deep rumbling mix of voices penetrated the air, and the noise seemed to come from far away and high above; the low frequency made locating the source almost impossible. The thundering voices boomed for several minutes, but I was not able to understand what they were saying; this somewhat reminded me of the loud voice which had called the Dragonborn to High Hrothgar after she had shouted for the first time. Wait a second! The Greybeards were indeed able to make their dragon shouts heard over long distances, and wasn't it about time that Fiona was up there again? Wasn't there a scene, after she had returned the horn and maybe learned another shout, when all four Greybeards together shouted at her to formally recognize her? If so, their loud shouting made most people in Skyrim aware that something important was happening. Coincidentally I wondered how Fiona's two housecarls could survive the loud shouting; they were likely up there, too; how could they protect themselves?
Naturally, my companions did not know and understand the background, and I told them about what I suspected. Antonius had heard the loud 'DOVAHKIIN!' shout months earlier, after Mirmulnir had been defeated, and today's shouting was indeed somewhat similar, but much longer; it lasted for minutes rather than seconds.
After lunch we walked down to the docks, taking the shortcut from just outside the main city gate. As expected, the docks were populated mostly by Argonians, and our party got many odd looks from them. I was not really surprised, as we were quite a mixed team, with one Nord, one Imperial, one Dunmer, and one Khajiit. I did not assume that any people visited the dock area just for fun, and we were too mixed to look like having a business here.
The first one of them who dared to talk us turned out to be a female called Shavee. She seemed to have a quick break and mentioned to nobody in particular:
"Shahvee knows the dock doesn't look nice, but fresh air is good for the gills."
She actually seemed to be smiling, and I asked:
"Are you always so happy?"
"Oh yes. After all, what's the point in being miserable all the time? I know life on the docks isn't easy. Sometimes life puts you in difficult circumstances you didn't choose. Skyrim in general is not the best environment for an Argonian; even down here, close to the water, conditions are not the best, mostly because it is not warm enough; but here we are. Being happy or unhappy is a choice you make, and I've chosen to make the best of things that I can."
"I see, and I like your attitude. So, how have the Nords been treating you lately?"
"Actually, the last few years have been better than the ones before. We still feel like second class citizens, but we mostly get fare wages and enough food, and there has been much less violence recently. Well, I believe that applies for those not working for Torbjorn at least; Torbjorn is still very difficult. Overall, though, the mood has changed, and I heard that Jarl Ulfric is behind that. I would not have expected that, I have to admit. If there hadn't been that streak of bad luck recently, life could even be good here."
"What kind of bad luck are you talking about?"
"We have not fared well outside of our native Black Marsh, but we're determined to make the best of things. I began praying to Zenithar, the god of wealth, to bring us some fortune but thieves made off with my sacred amulet almost as soon as I'd bought it. This makes me very sad, and I feel that bad luck has been with me since then."
So, she first claimed that she tried to always be happy, but now she said that she was actually sad? Maybe the sadness only overcame her when she thought about her amulet, and otherwise she was happy? I was not sure how to understand this, but I replied:
"I am sorry to hear that. Do you know where the thieves could be hiding? We could try to find your amulet for you."
"Shahvee would be in your debt, kind one. And yes, I have heard rumors that there are evil bandits at a place called 'Uttering Hills Camp', which is even not very far from the city. Of course, dockworkers like me could not never dare to go there, but a few capable warriors like you could, I guess."
'Uttering Hills Camp'? That name did not ring a bell in my head, but I would certainly find it on my map later, or at least somebody, like the steward, should be able to mark it there for me, it it was not shown yet. I hoped that the place was not too far from the city.
[Author's Notes: The event where we can hear the Greybeards shouting again was inspired by chapter 35 of the story 'Stendarr՚s Dragon' by 'Midnight Coffee 64'.]
