The Stormcloak Queen - A skyrim Fanfiction

[7] I side with Whiterun.

"I told you!" I said walking into the Palace of the Kings waving a letter above my head smugly. "It's officially a civil war."

The crack of my boots echoed around the slate of the hall and I shook my hair out like a wet dog, grinning. The snow was relentless in Windhelm, it soaked everything as it melted, the gods dammed stuff, but nothing could damped the grin on my face.

Perhaps the cloying feeling in my stomach at what an all out war in Skyrim could mean for its people could dampen my grin slightly, but I wouldn't let that on to Ulfric.

"Is nothing sacred any more woman?." Ulfric laughed. "Not even my letters?"
"Evidently so." I sighed as I halted in front of the throne where Ulfric sat, head on hand. "What do you want to do?"

There was silence for a brief moment as I sank onto one of the wooden benches in the stone hall and pulled a bottle of wine towards me. I really wanted something warm, but dinner in the Palace of the Kings had long passed now and there wasn't a cook in sight. My timing had been awkward and my bumping int the courier fortunate,

"Go to Whiterun for me Freya, find out where you cousin stands in all this." He commanded easily. I turned to stare at him icy eyed and took a swill of wine to calm myself before saying anything I'd regret. He was asking me to back my own family into a corner, declare war on my city if it refused to cooperate. This was war however, and I was a solider.

"He won't like that." I said, in a measured tone. Calm. "I could dorobabky tell you where his allegiances lie already."

"Just leave in the morning." He sighs, rubbing his temples. "We'll deal with whatever outcome."

He looks tired, I could calm him perhaps. Try and soothe him, hold him close even. I don't want to just now. If Ulfric wants me to declare war on the only family I have left then it seems I do it now. I won't sleep till I have and probably not for some time after.

"I'll just leave now." I said getting up and passing him the missive, the wine abandoned. The journey through the night was one I'd need my wits for. He doesn't seem pleased as he takes the parchment from me with snatching fingers and glaring eyes.
"Do you have to be like that?" He snaps and my eyes turn to meet his for perhaps the first time since he requested that of me.
"I'd rather get declaring war on my home and family out of the way my lord, it is your wish after all." I simper, falling into a mockery of a bow at the foot of his throne. "Unless there's anything else you require my lord?"

He's silent in his contempt and the only noise I make with mine is the clack of my boots on the stone as I leave.

I can try to find all the warmth I want in my steel armour but it's not there. There's never warmth in Windhelm.

"Can you get me to Whiterun early tomorrow?" I ask the carriage driver, my hand slapping the side of his cart snapping him to reality from the brink of sleep. No one sensible has business at this hour.
"I can get you there as quick as I can friend?"
"No stops." I reply, and push coins into his hand, quickly hunkering down into the back of his cart.

The furs are damp and smelly but they are perhaps the only chance I have at sleep tonight.

I slept fitfully, but the ride was swift and uneventful, life I wanted it. It was before noon as we arrived in Whiterun, stiff and sore from a nights party costs t travel. Perhaps I had time to change my clothes before bothering my cousin. Perhaps I could just sleep properly after I got that out of the way. A bath at dragonsreach would do I supposed.

There was no cold, no echoing stone in Dragonsreach. Home was warm and smelled of wood fire and sweet rolls. Home was also filled with screaming brats.

"Papa! Freya's here!"
"I've been practicing with my sword Freya! You don't stand a chance!"
"Do I not?" I muttered as I strode past the children up to their father.
"No because you're a girl! You're not meant to fight." Delightful.

"A real sword now Balgaruuf? Is that smart?"I asked with an eye roll, shrugging my travelling cloak off and handing it to a maid. "Please can someone run me a bath for when I'm done here with the Jarl?"
"The boy has to learn somehow Freya. We all start somewhere."
"He'll take someone's eye out in the playgrounds and you'll be caught with the fine."
"You look tired." He smiled. "Long trip?"
"You'll be just as weary in a minute, I promise you."
"Gods, out with it."
"Wars been declared. Ulfric wants to know where your allegiances li Balgruuf."

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, looking as weary as I'd promised him. The mantle of Jarl must hang heavy sometimes.

"Follow me, I need Proventus for this one."

I nodded curtly and we walked in silence up the stairs, stoping at the table with a amp of skyrim spread out over it. It was darker up here, the light was no longer streaming in through the many windows lining the hall, instead it was flickering with torch fire. More somber perhaps.

"What is it my jarl?" Proventus questioned setting down his book. "And my Thane, what a surprise!"

As Balgruuf explained to him the situation I stopped playing much attention, it was entirely predictable. Of course he would side with the empire. They were the safe bet, and he loved a safe bet.

"Why though? You worship Talos as I do? Why not stand and defend a belief for once?" I hissed over the table at my cousin.
"I side with Whiterun, we do not need a war. The hold will remain neutral, tell Ulfric that." He snapped back walking away. It was like a dog with its hackles up, because Balgaruuf was no wolf.
"You know next time he'll send me back with an axe cousin?" I asked, stopping him in his tracks and he stopped and looked at me sadly.
"I know."

I found my way to the Gildergleam after my bath, the tension in Dragonsreach too much to stay any longer and myself to jumpy to settle down at breezehome just yet.

The dammed tree was getting worse every time I saw it. Sure, Danica was trying to do something about it but I have no idea what she could do. She was no fighter, no particular scholar. Just a priest.

"Sad isn't it?" A sad voice murmured, not to far from my ear and I jumped out of my skin.
"You scared me" I snapped as I turned to glare at Farkas's smirking face.
"I know, for a warrior you're for too easy to scare." he laughed.
"Well, fuck you" I laughed, sitting in one of the small benches that dotted the wind district. "For a warrior you're far too sneaky."

"You look like a draugr" he commented sitting down next to me, forcing me to move up.
"That's what every girl wants to hear" I sighed. "I've actually just had a bath."
"Did you clean behind your ears?"
"Throughly."
"Fancy telling me why you look so tired?"
"Och." I grumbled, brushing him off. "It's a long story..."
"Tell me over a mug of mead?" He grinned. "Nothing better for sore bones."

I smiled at that and he pulled me up and towards the mead hall.

I almost wish I hadn't went with the commotion my announcement caused among the companions. A pseudo civil war as I sipped my cup of warmed mead and watched the verbal volley go on.

"It's about time someone preserved the Nord way!" Vignar shouted, almost throwing himself from his chair at one of the newer companions. Am eleven man. I can see why.
"Let's not be to hasty with this" Aela tried to soothe but it had the opposite. We weren't being hasty. This was something thought through intensely by unified and something dreamed of by every oppressed nord.
"Why not? It's about time someone stood up to that gods forsaken empire." I snapped at the woman.
"Not everything Ulfric says is true Freya." Vilkas seethed at me.

Vilkas had always hated me, since he was a child, as far back as I can remember.I was never sure why though, he had never presented me with a reason.

"Look I'm going home, no one is asking you to fight." I sighed getting up and heading for breezehome. "But when you pray to Talos in the dark and in fear, remember why you're doing so."