The Stormcloak Queen - A skyrim Fanfiction

[25] Failure.

Ulfric

"My jarl?" A runner appeared at the door of the war room.
"What is it?" I snapped, leaning off of the maps I had been pouring over.
"General Stone-fist told me to tell you that Jarl Freya was in the city." He said nervously.
"Thank you, you can leave now. Now." I snapped when he didn't go.

Freya was leaning over the bridge when I found her, her golden locks dancing in the wind and glimmering in the dying light.

"I thought you'd be capturing a dragon." I said, leaning over and resting my forearms on the wall next to her.
"Well, It's a bit more complicated that it turns out."
"I didn't doubt it, what's troubling you?"
"I actually have to go to sovengarde to defeat him. Is it even possible to leave after that? Will I be dead? Will I even manage to defeat him?" She sighs slightly panicked and tries to run her hand through the mess of waves her hair has become.

"I don't want to add to your burden Freya, but failure isn't really an option." I start and she lets out a laugh. It's not her usual musical one, not the one that makes the birds sing and the flowers bloom. It's a harsh laugh of a woman that has the literal weight of the world on her shoulders.

She turns to me, eyes as blue as the waves that crash below us and lips as red as the mountain flowers that Freya grows everywhere she can. Her cheeks are flushed pink from the cold.

"You don't think I know that? I'm scared Ulfric."
"But that's not going to stop you. You're brave and strong and you're going to pick up your war hammer and tell the dragon what's what, and then you're going to come back to me."
"You greatly overestimate me." She laughed, the pealing bells laughter I loved so much.
"I've seen you and that war-hammer take down squadrons of elfs during the war." I laughed slightly.
"I got old." She shrugged and shivered slightly.
"Didn't we all?" I retorted unclipping my cloak and placing it around her armoured shoulders.
"Oh you don't have to..."
"I want too, I mean it must be like Cyrodill in Whiterun compared to here." I joked and presented my arm to her which she took gently, a grip probably refined through countless balls and feasts.

Placing my finger to my lips we crept through the palace to my quarters. If I alerted anyone I was here I would probably have hours of logistics and strategising forced upon me.

Freya was deadly silent, even in her armour and I put my sneaking to shame.

"That didn't fool anyone 'fric." She laughed, flopping onto the bed and pulling off her boots.

"'Fric?" I laughed. "Is that the best you could think of 'ya?"
"Mm, not as good."
"Okay, not as good."
"Straps?" She asked, half her armour already off.

Brushing her hair away, I tentatively undid the remaining armour straps and she shrugged the plate off.

Freya stood before me in a pair of leather leggings and a loose tunic top, the ever famous war-hammer leaning against the wall. The thing that caught my eye was the amulet of Talos that hung from her neck, a parting gift exchanged as children and a half thought out promise I hadn't expected her to honour.

"You kept it?"
"I made a promise. I keep my promises." She said solemnly before turning around and gathering up her armour, shoving it in my trunk before moving to the bed.

"Sit." She smiled and I realised I was standing, staring at her.

Moving over to the bed I sat and she clambered behind me.

"You look more like a lion." she commented.
"Lions couldn't withstand the cold, a bear however..."
"I see your point. The bear and the dragon against all the evils in the world."

At some point we fell asleep, and when I woke up in pace of Freya was a note and a mountain flower.

"Blessed are they who stand before
The corrupt and the wicked and do not falter.
Blessed are the peacekeepers, the champions of the just.
Though all before me is shadow,
Yet shall Akatosh be my guide.
I shall not be left to wander the drifting roads of oblivion.
For there is no darkness in his light
And nothing that He has wrought shall be lost."