Chapter II: Imperial Summons
"Why good morning Minthara" My grin was one of rather disturbingly shiteating proportions as I gave her a wave of greeting "I do so hope you had a nice rest."
She looks up before looking away the moment she met my eyes, the quietest "Morning" stumbling out of her mouth.
"Why so distant?" I ask, channeling my inner Mephalan "You were quite... enthusiastic just a scant few hours ago, where did all that bluster go I wonder?"
She stills completely before letting out a long sigh and getting up "I blame the mead." And before I could point out she could no longer get drunk on the mortal stuff she walked across the lounge and plopped herself into my lap without the slightest bit of hesitation "And you pretended to die like a cunt." She adds with a huff, the physical contact calming her considerably as the thought of my potential death still unsettled her.
"That was quite cuntish, I will admit" I grin as begin lightly massaging her shoulders and channeling the slightest bit of my divinity, making her practically melt into me.
Thankfully she was just short enough for that to not be uncomfortable, which was more due to me being a very tall Dunmer and less about her being short in truth, she was quite tall for a Nord woman.
"It would seem though, that your little... punishment" My grin widens and she lets out an embarrassed whine "Got turned on its head." Mephala was indeed right, experience did trump physicality.
"Shut up" She mumbles and whacks my leg with a balled fist, getting absolutely no reaction in return "I heard people talking about it for years and I got curious."
Unable to contain it I let out a loud snort "Well you are quite lucky my tastes lean towards the more exciting experiences" I chuckle "Most other people are too... brittle I'd say."
"Their loss" She huffs before quietly adding "Besides, that lady of yours who keeps following you around... Mephis or something, said you'd like it that way..." Each word was quieter than the last as she gave in to the unreasonable need to explain herself.
"Fucking Mephala" I snort once more.
She stills again before leaning back into me "That makes too much sense."
"I wasn't even really trying to hide it." I shrug, lowering my hands from her shoulders and embracing her from behind "Refuge in audacity and all that."
"Well whatever you were doing seems to have worked." She spoke after a full minute of comfortable silence and brought up the scroll "A letter came from the Imperial City."
"Titus' congratulations no doubt?" I quirk an eyebrow.
"That and a summons" She nods, seemingly disappointed that she already had something new to do "He says he wishes to introduce me to the council, and heavily implies that he wants my help in at least ruining their influence if not outright disbanding them."
"A full disbandment may be foolish, I think" I mention after a moment's ponder "Having a representative body in an Empire as large as Tamriel is a must, especially with the different cultures and faiths. To have a purely Cyrodiilic government would quickly alienate everyone else."
"That..." She stops and takes a moment to consider "Is a very good point. Titus always raves on about them being useless career politicians that cared more for their own purses than actually serving the empire, I haven't even stopped to consider the reason for their existence in the first place."
"Oh they will still need a quite thorough purging, don't get me wrong" I chuckle darkly "Just have them replaced after the turbulence dies down and no one will make problems." With fanatical loyalists preferably "Trust me, you don't want to run the whole thing yourself, you will go insane faster than the mad god can make another incomprehensible pun about dairy products."
She blinks at that last bit, letting out a short chuckle at the absurdity of it "Cheese aside, thanks for the advice." She sighs "This whole 'ruling the Empire' idea has me worrying to death and I haven't even been announced as heir yet."
"Do not worry yourself overmuch" I say with dark amusement lacing my voice "It will only get worse."
"Oh noooo..." She pretends to whine while her face is stuck in a deadpan.
"You will survive I am sure." I hum "He say anything else?"
She tosses me the scroll and give it a quick skim "He summoned you as well, though worded more politely than that."
"And had my father's manor fixed up and all of his possessions returned." I raise an eyebrow "It will be nice to go home, even if I barely remember it now."
"I had forgotten you were from Cyordiil" She looks up at me with what she no doubt considered a coy smile "Think you could show me around once we get there?"
"Why my lady I would be honored" I bow my head as dramatically as I can.
She lets out a rather unladylike giggle at that before leaning back into me, staying silent for a while longer. Finally she sighed and spoke "Reyvin, what are we?"
"A pair of the most glorious godslayers Tamriel ever did see?" I grin, an expression she could not see but could definitely feel.
And there was the elbow, no mercy on this one I swear!
"Not that you arse" She huffs, and once more looks away in embarrassment "You know what I meant."
"Lovers, quite plainly" I point out bluntly as I knew the sheer brutal annoyance self doubt was in these kinds of situations "Or have you already grown bored of me?"
"What? of course not!" She rounds on me before seeing my amusement and huffing in exasperation "I just do not know how to proceed?" She asks more than states.
"By not trying to rush things" I answer, practically reading her mind "If we had an abundance of anything, that something would be time."
"Right, no rushing. Got it." She says more to herself "Probably wiser than anything I'd have come up with..." She admits sheepishly.
"As if anything else but pure wit could ever leave my lips." I nod smugly.
The look she gave me seemed to imply a lack of confidence but I could for the life of me not see the reason for such a travesty ever happening.
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We spent a while longer atop my tower before we both decided it was high time to get moving and start our preparations, neither of us actually considered not going to Cyrodiil but when you are as famous and or influential as we are things naturally needed to take more time than us simply flying over the mountains atop a pair of dragons.
Speaking of dragons, those wise enough to swear their fealty to Minthara after Alduin's quite deserved death had decided to inhabit the mountains around Silruhn Fell whenever they were not talking to their brothers on the clearing behind my tower.
Even if they were still very much so beasts of conquest and destruction, they seemed a lot calmer now, more willing to talk things out and far too afraid of the duo who killed their eldest brother to act out, or at least be the first ones to do so among their number.
They inevitably would, so all we could do to reduce the number that ultimately had their souls nommed was send the most belligerent of them to Hammerfell, where they would bring all manner of suffering upon the Thalmor.
Having my potential enemies and current enemies butcher each other aside, Paarthurnax had also turned quite active recently, visiting any dragon who would give him the time of day he tried imparting a somewhat modified version of his Way of The Voice on them.
He had at first intended to do so without any changes but one long conversation with Minthara and myself convinced him quite thoroughly of just how terrible an idea that would be. Pacifism was a personal choice, and never worked for a whole civilization, or community in the vaguest sense for the Dov.
A day after we had received the summons I went to Solitude to participate in my final court meeting in the Blue Palace. My resignation from my post as Court Mage was an already long established fact and now that most of the closest threats had been dealt with it was time for me to move on and the stringy-ass Altmer they had chosen as my replacement to take the post in full.
I almost pitied him for the expectations he was no doubt about to be drowned in but the riches he would gain would no doubt make up for it in time.
We spent a full twelve hours debating and deciding on things, with Torygg doing his absolute best to get as many ideas out of me as he could before the timer was up. Many things were decided on and many others delayed for a time where resources weren't quite as scarce.
Notably the reconstruction of Falkreath would be done in a more planned manner, with better walls and roads being the priority as the people reestablished the once quiet city. Said roads would then branch out into the rest of the holds and forever connect the lands of Skyrim.
Another big decision was the centralization effort Torygg would implement, ensuring that the big settlements would use the opportunity given by the large refugee crisis to grow instead of getting bogged down with another Solitude Sprawl situation.
There were some more minor decisions being made but all of it had to do with infrastructure and disaster relief which I was so thoroughly bored with during the meeting I'd feel ill repeating it within my own mind.
The goodbye ceremony/feast they prepared for me, and of course the vaunted Dragonborn who just happened to be visiting at the same time, quickly turned into a city-wide celebration as we were practically dragged through the whole thing while the people went into multiple brawls with each other in an attempt to be the swiftest to present us with thanks, congratulations, blessings, gifts, or all of the above.
Needless to say after three hours of this I just noped out and teleported the both of us away, with Minthara taking the moment to visit all of her siblings and emerging from the experience a fair bit more satisfied than the last time.
Her little sister Bella had officially joined us and I would leave her at Tel Dagoth to be trained as a healer, just as she had been promised months ago. I naturally pretended to grumble about it but would never actually stop a person with magical ambitions from throwing themselves into my clutches.
Just had to make sure that future requests took some consideration of course.
Next came Davos' and Nightshade's big day, which was visited by the near entirety of my growing city's population. The two of them were quite loved by those they had under their wings and the gifts they received were quite lavish indeed, though I will admit I may have gone juuust a tad too far by giving them a whole-ass mansion near my tower.
Just kidding, I gave no shits about their gapes and merely took pleasure in knowing I had an immensely powerful family loyal to me for centuries.
The ceremony was, naturally, performed by my most beatific self. I was qualified for being a high priest of a good half dozen religions at this point so in the name of Auri-El, the Ancestors, and the Good Daedra I bound the two in sacred matrimony and the people cheered, the fact that both Aedra and Daedra were invoked in the ritual failing to create a singular problem within my at this point quite syncretic population.
The guests were far less enthused but knew when to speak, and more importantly when to not.
Yet more days passed after the wedding, and our preparations were nearly finished. Minthara's followers, who had named themselves the Dragon Banner, had mostly chosen to follow us down south, with recruits flocking to their ranks in great number but only a few being accepted into the new mostly Nordic brother/sisterhood
It would seem the Varangian Guard would be a thing even in this world, and I was all for it!
My own entourage would consist of a hundred of my most elite soldiers, most of them armed with the by now customary halberd or crossbow as the main weapon with only a few of the veterans taking on a more personalized choice.
Most of my retainers would remain here however, things needed to be kept orderly and I was taking more than enough people of note to aid me if I ever needed it.
Notably those that would follow me would be Anondor the Paladin, Alor of the Falmer, Jackal who was Davos' right hand Mer, Eldor the now budding merchant, and Edrassa because fuck letting her have a moments' peace.
Jesus I was a smug asshole sometimes...
And so, after a full week after Titus Mede II sent his invitation we set out from Silruhn Fell, appearing near the Pale Pass through one of my wayshrines and beginning our march south.
It was time to make yet another court my bitch, only this time I would have to deal with actual intrigue instead of Nord bluster.
I couldn't bloody wait.
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Powerstone fever is spreading all around
Powerstone fever has gone and got me down~
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