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// War: Council 
// Story: Skyrim: The Faces of Death 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Amaryllis discovered that things were as Abiru said, as once the two days passed them by he gathered those that would be joining him for the journey to Cyrodiil and the Imperial City, which included her, Kya, and Shadow, not to mention several others that were part of his security service. Of course those staying behind were under orders to continue what they were doing, keep Black Marsh safe and capture anyone who dared to invade the province, freeing them from the darkness that clouded their minds, and she found that they were eager to make their King proud. One thing she noticed was that some of the other members of their group glanced at Shadowmere, either due to the fact that they had never seen a steed like him before or they hadn't been expecting to see him in their lifetime, it was hard to tell sometimes, something Kya seemed very grateful for. Amaryllis also knew that Kya was torn by what had happened during their time in this province, she was glad to be back in control of her life, but the other side was ashamed of being driven to madness and slew most of her siblings, before fleeing Black Marsh for a long time.

She really had no idea if Abiru had lifted his daughter's banishment or if she was still banished from her home, neither of them had said anything about it in the time they had been in Black Marsh, but she wasn't about to pry into something that was personal for the pair, so she was waiting for one of them to say something first. While she thought about that she also noticed Shadow's continued silence, no doubt she was thinking about what needed to be done to keep her father safe, and that thinking about her sister's banishment was likely a sore subject for her. Everyone else, on the other hand, seemed to be happy to have the lost princess back, meaning most of their current group must have forgiven her for her crimes while she was under Sheogorath's madness, but of course there were those that desired punishment and kept quite, since they didn't want to anger their King. Amaryllis decided to just let it be and not worry about everyone's thoughts on the matter, as they would no doubt inform Abiru of their opinions at some point, if they hadn't already done so, so she focused on riding back to Cyrodiil and figuring out what sort of progress had been made.

There was one other thing she discovered, they were bringing a number of scrolls and tomes that had been taken out of an ancient Blades building before the Dominion had burned it during the Great War, no doubt the one Esbern had told her and her companions about, which he was going to be overjoyed to see again.

Other than that there was nothing else for her to focus on, so she focused on the journey out of Black Marsh and found that a few of the Lamia that were in Stormhold, plus some of the altered Altmer, were planning on joining them, no doubt as a sign to the other leaders so they understood what Abiru was about. It was an interesting idea, though she had no way of knowing if Tosh Raka and the leaders of Akavir would take the news, given that they had been attacked by several ships that belonged to the Dominion, so they might not agree with his suggestion to capture and liberate the people they were currently fighting. That conflict of interests worried her more than she was willing to admit, because she knew that all of their allies wanted a piece of the Dominion, based on what had been said so far, so taking prisoners might not sit well with most of them, but she had a feeling Za'kera would grow to like the idea, especially if they found a commander, making her wish she hadn't outright killed that one Altmer during the attack to liberate Cyrodiil. Her personal thoughts on the matter were that they could have Tosh Raka and his allies focus on the ocean between them and the Summerset Isles, keeping the Dominion from realizing what was going on, leaving Abiru and their land allies to liberate the provinces that were still under their control, and once that was done they could focus on the Summerset Isles.

It took some time for them to pierce the tree line and pass into the land of Cyrodiil once more, where Abiru and the rest of his group found that Amaryllis and Kya hadn't been joking, not that he thought they had been kidding about the size of the army Za'kera possessed. Of course the pair was also surprised when they discovered more than the banners of Skyrim and Cyrodiil resting among their forces, as she found a force of Dark Elves baring the banner of Morrowind, with five more baring the emblems of the Great Houses mixed into the mass, the banner of High Rock and those who lead the province, and even some from Hammerfell. Just like Abiru the other rulers had brought with them a force to keep themselves safe, in the event that the Empire shattered and total war broke out between the provinces, though while the Argonians had a smaller force Amaryllis knew that they could hold their own, especially since Kya would rush to her father's aid if the talks between nations fell apart. Of course Valenwood and Elsweyr were absent, as both provinces were under the control of the Dominion, so there was no reason to call on their enemies to join a war council, but Amaryllis hoped that, in time, the remaining provinces would be freed and would be able to join them in tearing down their enemies.

After taking a moment to think about the forces that were resting near Cyrodiil, and allowing Abiru to understand what he and the others were getting themselves into, Amaryllis made her way to the Imperial City and escorted him to the building the other readers were gathering in.

Sure enough she found that Za'kera was happy to see that they had returned and that the ruler of Black Marsh was willing to come and speak with them, as she wanted to figure out who was willing to join the war effort and who was going to sit back and watch this fight unfold. From what Amaryllis discovered Morrowind had a representative from each Great House, and Neloth, against all odds, was the one for Telvanni, the rulers of High Rock apparently elected a High King to stand in for them, so not all of them would have to leave their homes, and Hammerfell had a Queen present. In addition to them there was the King, or maybe Warchief, of Orsinium, three people standing for Skyrim, those being Balgruuf, Elisif, and Ulfric, and all of the rulers of Akavir, plus the Queen of the Maomer, Lady Seirhy she recalled, had joined them. Of course Black Marsh was now represented by Abiru, the forces of Oblivion had Ma'jera, and Cyrodiil had both several figures from the Elder Council and Za'kera to represent them in this meeting, which meant all of their allies had been assembled and were now waiting for the council to start. Such a thing caused Amaryllis to shift into the shadows once more, this time with her true armor on, allowing her to watch over the area and make sure no one tried anything funny, only to find that she wasn't the only one with that thought, as Shadow did the same and she found a shadowy figure standing for each of the provinces, meaning everyone was keeping themselves safe.

Like the last time this happened Amaryllis tuned out the conversation for the most part, enough so she could focus on the defense of the chamber while having a decent idea of what everyone wanted, and one of the first things Za'kera told them was what she told Ulfric, the ban on worship was no more. Such a thing earned her some points with the other rulers, as a fair number did, in some way, acknowledge Talos and worshiped him as a Divine, though after that they asked why there was a Khajiit on the throne and not an Imperial, given the nature of the Empire. Apparently many of them didn't approve of a mortal hero, the Dragonborn, taking the throne from whoever was next in line, despite the fact that all the successors had been slain before the Dark Brotherhood had been called in to deal the finishing blow, where Amaryllis noticed some of them glanced in her direction, blaming her for this event. She really didn't care how they felt about her, because Za'kera was the one she cared about helping right now, though at the same time she knew that Abiru approved of the change that had washed over the Empire, otherwise he wouldn't have come out to meet with her and the other rulers.

While several of the rulers were on the fence about the change in leadership, which was understandable, they moved onto what the next step of their plan was, since there were still two provinces standing between them and the Summerset Isles, as many understood that they needed to liberate Valenwood and Elsweyr first.

"Our next step is obvious, once you think about it: we attack the provinces and crush the Dominion." Tosh Raka stated, as he was, and would always be, a leader who would always be a warmonger and would respond to attacks by attacking his enemies in return, and given the scope of his army it made sense why he would think that way, not to mention his own power for that matter.

"Correction, we should capture their patrols and liberate them, as it will give us access to everything they know and might reveal some secrets to us," Abiru countered, causing some of the other leaders to turn towards him, before finding that he had some altered Altmer standing near the door, which Amaryllis could see that Neloth was interested in all of a sudden, a bad sign for sure given his personality and habits towards his apprentices, "We need to undermine the Dominion's hold over the remaining two provinces, and to do that we should first start by capturing their soldiers and liberating them from their hold. Not only will the Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajiit be grateful for being freed, but they'll also share with us what they know of our enemy's plans and where their bases are located, meaning we'll be able to attack their own strategy and tear it down, disrupt whatever alliances the Dominion have with the provinces in question, and find weaknesses to exploit so we don't have to lose soldiers before our big fight with whatever forces are waiting on the Summerset Isles."

"King Abiru's idea works, we've seen it in action back in Black Marsh," Kya said, showing them that she agreed with what her father was saying, even though none of them knew that she was one of his children, something they were keeping to themselves for the time being, "Some of the Dominion's forces marched in from Elsweyr, which we caught and liberated before they could do anything, so it is entirely possible that we can pull it off in the other provinces and turn whatever information we're given against our enemies."

"What's wrong? Are you afraid of the Dominion?" Tosh Raka asked, though it was clear that he thought of Abiru as more of a weakling for even considering tackling their enemies in a more stealthy manner, all while Amaryllis noticed that many of the leaders seemed to like Abiru's idea far more than his total war plan.

"No. In fact, I have a bone to pick with them as well... I'm just offering up an idea for what to do to the forces that are in Valenwood and Elsweyr," Abiru replied, where he turned his head a bit and noticed that Za'kera was thinking about what had been said so far, not to mention she had to be thinking about what the other leaders had to say on the matter, which showed him that she wasn't a warmonger, rather she liked to listen to what everyone else wanted to say before making her mind known.

Amaryllis discovered that the room was well and truly divided between the two ideas, as the rulers like Ulfric wanted to take the fight to their enemy, crush them under their might and take glory for their province, while the others, such as Elisif, felt that undermining the Dominion's hold was the best move. It was about what she expected, that some wanted to have all the glory and others wanted to go about this in a quite manner, though she remained silent as she listened to all of them listing why one option was better than the other, all while knowing that they were trying to influence Za'kera into making a decision on the matter. She was, in essence, the Grand Commander of their army, everyone looked to her for their orders, but they were also trying to figure out a way to bring her down, if she made the wrong decision and brought defeat to their army, especially after the success of reclaiming Cyrodiil from the Dominion's clutches. Based on the size of their forces, or at least what she had seen so far, Amaryllis felt that they could easily divide the army in half, the combat side going with Tosh Raka's fleet to take down the Dominion from the sea, preventing them from learning that they were losing the fight on the mainland, while the others would follow Abiru and liberate the remaining provinces.

In the end, after about ten or so minutes of talking, Za'kera let out the faintest of sighs and stood up, where she could see that everyone was glancing towards her, focusing on what she had to say about the matter, though Amaryllis, Zoravoir, Kya, and the others remained on alert as well, since they had no idea what she'd say.

"Both sides bring up good points, so Tosh Raka will be in charge of ensuring that none of the Dominion's ships reach any of the provinces, while also making an attempt to capture anyone of importance," Za'kera stated, something that caught a good number of the rulers by surprise, that she was agreeing on both points and not just one of them, confirming the idea that Amaryllis had come up with while she was listening to them talk about the methods they could use to bring down the Dominion's forces, "while at the same time the remainder of our forces, those who would prefer to disrupt the Dominion's plans, will fall under the banner of King Abiru and listen to his instructions on how to liberate Valenwood and Elsweyr."

Once more Za'kera didn't mention the Numidium, and Amaryllis couldn't blame her, as the knowledge that such a thing was real, and was going to be used against them, might drive their forces for the hills, but at the very least it looked like the others were pleased with her orders, making her curious as to what the next few days held for them and their forces.