Interlude I: Royally Swamped

(Kindly do read this) A/n: Right then, I have some mildly annoying news to share with y'all.

My writing and update speed was for the longest time something which could quite accurately be described as ridiculous. All such things must sadly come to an end or at least a reduction, lest I burn out completely and utterly and then produce absolutely nothing.

And so, for the sake of my peace of mind and my future writing I have decided that there shall now be four chapters a week instead of the previous five, with wednesday no longer getting a chapter.

Only my ego stopped me from doing this earlier but it had to be done. Enjoy the chapter!

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(General POV)

"-we can't possibly protect our cattle like this." A weathered Nord farmer complains with grief in his eyes "Every few nights a cow disappears and when I sent my old uncle to keep watch he disappeared as well my King! How are we supposed to protect ourselves from dragons of all things?"

Torygg stops his hand from moving to his face and pointedly does not sigh as he looks down on the farmer from his throne in the Blue Palace, instead he speaks gently but firmly "All the farmers in the hold's outskirts have been instructed to retreat if dragons were sighted. I understand that your family values their lives and prosperity but my people can't be everywhere at once."

Before he could continue, the farmer interrupts, much to Bolgeir's annoyance as the housecarl didn't bother hiding his anger, making the man stutter as he spoke "B-but what a-about our cattle? People still need to eat!"

This time Torygg fails to keep himself from lightly palming his forehead "And I agree with you wholeheartedly my good man but I cannot possibly protect you if you stubbornly refuse to move."

"My family has held the farm for three centuries!" The farmer barks, his anger at the very idea of moving invigorating him enough to ignore his fear "I will be damned if we flee in fear."

"And you will be dead if you do not." Torygg cuts him off "You can always rebuild a farm and raise new cattle but you can not revive your dead kin. Move your family to Dragon Bridge and remain there while the dragons are dealt with. You and every other farmer damaged by this will have their taxes waived until you are able to rebuild and the Legion will provide aid as well."

The man looks like he wants to complain further but realizing that all the nobles present were looking at him with annoyance he merely muttered a "Thank you for your time, my King." Slumped his shoulders and left the palace with defeat in his gait.

The moment the great doors are closed Torygg slumps back into his throne and sighs audibly "Stubborn fool."

Falk Firebeard looks at him with understanding "While I agree with your frustrations, the Hjekls are a very large family, moving them to Dragon Bridge would be a pricy affair."

"We have already been stocking up on food for years now." Torygg mutters loudly "The war has ended far quicker than expected and those supplies are better used on reducing casualties than rotting in our warehouses."

Before Falk can respond, Thane Erikur cuts in "And what about the economy, my King? If we offer refuge to every peasant and farmer out there we will soon find ourselves in debt, no matter the size of our war chest."

Torygg stops another sigh "And my decision will still be profitable in the long run. Finally being able to centralize our population will help protect them from banditry and ensure that they can prosper without the dangers of having to transport their goods over large distances."

Bryling, who was up and until then doing everything except participating immediately scoffs "Might as well call ourselves Imperials from now on with how things are going."

Her King gives her a blank look "Just because our kin are proud in their independence does not mean they will not see reason after being offered proper encouragement to follow my ideas. It isn't like I am going to stop anyone from returning to their lands when all this is done anyways."

She glowers and looks just about ready to explode but manages to control herself just in time "The people will not like this."

"They can not like it as much as they want." Torygg glowers back "They will thank me in the end."

"Still." Erikur cuts in a bit more insistently "If we were to follow your idea, which I do agree would be good in the long run, we would still see massive losses in the short term. The economy just can't su-"

"Damn it all Erikur!" Torygg curses "We won't have an economy if our people burn!"

The Thane winces at the volume but still presses "You can't move everyone suffering attacks no matter the danger, it is just not sustainable."

The High King glares at the man, his scathing response stopped only by his Steward's interjection "The Emperor has already offered to send aid in gold and supplies, the Dragonborn is hard at work on growing in power and slaying the World Eater. I find it highly unlikely that her Divines graced efforts will be so sluggish as to let the dragons ravage our lands for too long."

"And what if she fails?" Thane Bryling speaks up "The girl may be strong but she seemed almost childishly prone to frustrations when I met her, she could very well throw herself into Arkay's embrace and we would have nothing to show for it."

"Exactly." Erikur smirks "I find it ridiculous that we are relying on some 'Gods given champion' to deliver us from this mess."

"Oh?" Thane Helm gives him a hard look "Are you volunteering to face the World Eater yourself, Erikur?" His voice is pure mockery "I did not know you had the balls to even imply it."

"Shut up peasant!" Erikur stands up, scowling harshly "What does an upjumped gutter rat like you know of ruling?"

"Apparently more than you." Helm scowls back "Your King has made his orders known, all that is left is to honor his word."

"A thought occurs." Bryling cuts into their contest "Why not simply task Dagoth with finding a way to slay the creature instead of relying solely on the Dragonborn?"

A moment of silence ensues at her words but it is swiftly broken by Torygg's laughter, drawing some very incredulous looks from his subordinates "Oh that was good." Torygg shakes his head in amusement.

Bryling blinks, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward "Excuse me? My King." She quickly adds.

Torygg scoffs "You are excused." Enjoying the woman's eye twitch a bit too much his lip twitches upwards "I just found it ridiculous that you thought he isn't already doing everything in his power to counter the threat."

"With respect to the Court Mage." She begins hesitantly "We would be far less worried if we were made aware of his plans."

"And that is not something I am about to permit." Torygg cuts her off without hesitation "I have been assured that he knows what he is doing, and us attempting to interfere beyond ensuring our people's safety is just going to make things worse."

She bristles "Is it wise to trust him so blindly?"

Torygg narrows his eyes and simply states "Yes. Besides, you appear to be misunderstanding something here." His voice turns ice cold "If the Dragonborn falls we all die, it is indeed that simple. We are not facing a mere dragon, we are facing a god, one free to move and do as he wills and enforce his will upon mundus. Only a Dragonborn hero can reach a level of power great enough to defeat him, and even then it is not a sure thing."

The woman pales, suddenly bereft of her earlier bravado "Is there truly nothing else we can do."

Torygg sighs "I understand your fears but all we really can do at this point is make sure as many of us survive the ordeal as possible."

A silence descends upon the palace and realizing that they weren't about to get anything more out of him the Thanes relax somewhat and settle back into their seats, whispering amongst each other as if their King couldn't hear them.

'This enchanted throne sure is useful.' Torygg muses while hiding his wry smirk.

"A report just came in." Falk Firebeard speaks up after a few minutes, his son who had just given him a scroll leaving without looking back.

"What is it?" The King asks, already tensing at whatever horrific news of destruction were just about to be delivered to him.

The Steward hesitates briefly but soon speaks "A large number of our kinsmen have been seen moving eastwards, no one was able to discern their intent but they seem to be gathering to the southeast of Windhelm for whatever reason."

Torygg frowns "How many do you mean by 'a large number' exactly?"

"No real numbers are forthcoming but at the very least above a thousand." His Steward dutifully informs.

"Any settlements around that area Falk?" Torygg asks, his eyes narrowing.

The man hums for a moment, nodding to himself and opening up a map "The only place they could reasonably gather would be the mining settlement of Kynesgrove."

"Kynesgrove." Torygg mutters "Why would people gather around a mining settlement... there is no food to be found there."

While the King is deep in thought, Erikur looks at the high elf sat next to him, the golden hued Mer with the reedy mustache currently busy gazing into a glowing crystal orb of some kind "Maleran, you done looking at the damn thing?"

The elf blinks and looks at him "Pondering."

"What?" Erikur blinks back.

"The proper term is pondering." The elf 'explains'.

The Thane scoffs "You were just staring at it, no reason to make it sound fancy."

Maleran, the current stand-in for Reyvin who was too busy to do his more mundane job gives the Nord a very dry look "Lord Dagoth insisted that it be called such. If you want to correct him be my guest."

Erikur immediately wilts at that "Ah, you keep on doing your... pondering then."

"I will not." Maleran retorts bluntly and looks up to the King "King Torygg, news just arrived from Court Wizard Wuunferth of Windhelm. He reports that some two hundred men from the penal work gangs have escaped the city overnight through a series of crypts, they carried a large number of weapons with them with no clues as to their direction."

Torygg closes his eyes and holds back a shout of frustration "Is that it?" He asks clippedly.

The elf winces "I am afraid not."

"Well?" Torygg looks down at him with an annoyed glower "Out with it man!"

"The red dragon that participated in the battle above the city has been sighted flying to its south, no attacks happened but the people living there have mostly retreated to the city itself." He pauses "The rest... disappeared without a word."

Torygg gives the elf a nod, letting him return to his job, and mutters out a "Kynesgrove again..." He looks up to his Steward "Firebeard, find me something useful about the damned place as quickly as you can. I will go and see to my family." He really needed a break.

The older man bows "I will begin my search at once." And looks down at Melaran "Try contacting the College, they may have pertinent information."

Leaving his court to their research, the King made his way to his private wing of the palace, eager to take a well earned break after fourteen hours of sitting on the damnable chair.

It was not even ten minutes later that Maleran's orb lit up and he hissed in fear "Lord Dagoth has given a response."

(Torygg's POV)

I let out a long drawn out sigh as I sip on the lifesaving cup of immensely expensive coffee Reyvin had managed to procure from Hammerfell, Ellie's hands moving with purpose as she attempted to relieve some tension from my back.

A groan leaves my throat as she manages to push into a knot of tense muscles and I slump back "Thanks dear."

"Anything for my dashing hero king." She giggles and hugs me from behind "You really should stop working so hard."

I allow my frustrations to leave me with my breath "It isn't that simple, the people are looking up to me to guide them through this."

"You can't guide them if you are dead on your feet." She points out the obvious with a cross look on her face "I swear if you keep going like this I will tie you to the bed and then spend the whole day feeding you like the baby you are being."

I huff in amusement, the comparison doesn't offend me coming from her "I will have you know I can break any binding you may summon, foul conjurer!"

She giggles and whispers "I will get Beirand to make some chain then."

I look up at her and fail to contain a gulp of fear at her expression.

"So." She smiles widely "Are you going to be a good husband and stop worrying your wife? Little Trygve needs to see his father sometimes you know."

"Yes dear." I sigh, accepting my fate.

A rapid knocking comes from the doors, immediately ramming my head with even more tension as I look to the side "Enter."

The head of Falk Firebeard peaks through, soon followed by the rest of him as he made sure he was not intruding upon anything too private "Pardon me, my King, but we got our answer."

The cup in my hands begins to shake in anticipation "What is it."

"It is." He hesitates "And I quote 'Fucking Dragon Cultists'."

Elisif's sudden barrage of curses gave immediate voice to what I felt at that little tidbit of information.

And of course, little Trygve chose this exact moment to begin crying, drawing Ellie's attention from her rage as she tried calming him down.

I just let my head fall atop the table and began muttering curses of my own.

If my head was not covered in grey by the end of this I would thank the gods.

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The house has received reports of a great slackening in stone production.

We have sent a band of singers and their support staff to rectify this.

Where there is a whip there is a way begins to play in the background.

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