The Equine Scrolls: SkyFiM

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 55: War

I returned to our quarters in Castle Dour the moment General Cuirass and Legate Winter finished their conversation. Now that I had some time to think, I realized leaving now would seem suspicious, both to General Cuirass and to Seclusion at large. I tossed and turned until morning, and told my friends what I’d overheard once they were awake.

I didn’t tell them I was the one who’d killed Golden Bullion. How could I? What would they think of me if they knew? Though there was a great commotion and investigation regarding her death, nopony seemed to suspect me, and nopony asked. For all they knew, I’d been asleep in Castle Dour.

We left Seclusion mid-morning, the guards preventing ponies from leaving until the murder was solved, even saluting me as Thane and allowing us to walk out the gates. We traveled through Dragon Bridge, where they’d begun construction of a new bridge, and crossed over the makeshift one they had up at the time. Then we traveled through Rearikstead until we made it to the fortress-city of Whitetrot.

“Are you certain of this?” Jarl Valor’s Blade asked as I told him the bad news.

“Very certain,” I told him, “I heard General Cuirass himself discussing it last night.”

“By the Equines,” he said, rubbing his face with his hooves, “I knew this day would come, but I hadn’t expected it so soon. War, I’d hoped to avoid it at all costs, but it seems that it has come to me.”

“My Jarl,” Protocus said the Valor’s Blade, “There may still be a chance to avoid this. If you spoke to the other Jarls, convinced them to come to your aid . . .”

“In this matter it would be pointless,” he waved off Protocus’s suggestion, “In this Civil War, everypony has taken a side but me. Imperial Jarls would refuse to stand against Silver Cuirass, and the Stormcloud ones would require me to commit to their cause.”

“Then the only other option is to take one of the sides, and choose fast,” the steward said.

“Nonsense!” Darkfeather spoke up, “There is another option, to stand and fight.”

“Against the Imperial Legion?” Protocus said, “Are you crazy? We’d be doomed from the start.”

“This city has weathered armies before,” the Jarl said, “Of course, that was a long time ago, but still. Whitetrot was built to be a fortress city, to stand up against anything that came against it. It will do so again.”

“But we will need more than just the city guard to deter the Legion,” Protocus pointed out, “A fortress is only as good as the ponies defending it.”

“Of course,” Valor’s Blade agreed, “We’ll need to recall all our guards in Rearikstead and Riverwood, but for a small few to announce the Legion’s approach. The same must be done at all the watchtowers.”

“That would leave the hold dangerously unprotected to attack from both dragons and Jarl Stormcloud,” the steward replied, “And even so, it might not be enough to even the odds with the Legion.”

“He is right about that,” Darkfeather pointed out, “Even with our entire guard force concentrated here, the Legion could still take the city. We need more soldiers.”

“So you will get more soldiers,” the Jarl said plainly, “Any able-bodied pony in the hold must bear arms and fight, else we are sure to fall. Sapphire, how long before this attack takes place?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “But General Cuirass seemed anxious to begin.”

“It will take time for him to ready his army,” Darkfeather said, “We have a day, maybe two, but no more.”

“Then we must hasten to make our own preparations,” Jarl Valor’s Blade said, “Dispatch messengers immediately to recall our troops, and round up any more we can. Protocus, get every pony in this city to work fixing up the wall and building barricades. If General Cuirass wants my city, he’s going to have to fight for it.”

General Cuirass gave us more time than we’d expected. The rest of that day passed swiftly as we shored up Whitetrot’s defenses, preparing it for the attack that could come at any moment. Ponies began pouring in late at night, both soldiers recalled from distant watches and townsponies searching for a safe place when the attack came. Whitetrot soon became packed with ponies, and the newly rebuilt Temple of Ponyreth became lodgings for the city’s temporary residents. When even it began to fill up, temporary housing was erected in the town square outside, surrounding the massive dead tree at the center.

The next day, we prepared even more and waited. Still there was no sign of Imperial movement. Could I have gotten things wrong, or had our sudden militarization scared the General off? Neither proved to be true, as scouts began to return to Whitetrot that evening with reports of Imperial Legion soldiers marching in from the west.

Surprisingly, Rearikstead had been completely bypassed, the Imperials using it only to pass through on their way. Whitetrot was the real prize, and nothing else mattered to General Cuirass. There was no sign of them before the sun set, and we kept an uneasy vigil through the night, waiting for the attack.

“Are you sure about this?” Mephalda asked me as I stood atop one of the guard outposts near Whitetrot’s gates.

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking out from the city instead of turning toward her.

The sun had just risen, blood red, as if it knew what would surely happen today. By the time it set, the ground around, and possibly within, Whitetrot would be stained red with the blood of ponies. That is, unless General Silver Cuirass or Jarl Valor’s Blade backed down. Neither seemed likely to me.

Around Whitetrot were expansive Imperial camps set up rapidly in the night, the soldiers within them now lined up and ready to move on the city at the command. In the distance, massive trebuchets had been set up while we slept, ready to smash Whitetrot’s walls to rubble. Battlemages held up wards over the front lines, keeping us from picking them off with arrows shot from our high ground.

“Do you really want to be involved in this war?” Mephalda answered me, “After all, Foalkreath didn’t turn out so well.”

“I know,” I said, turning away from the terrifying sight before me to face me friends, “And I’m really sorry about that, you guys. If you don’t want to be part of this, I understand.”

“We’re not leaving you,” Steadfast reassured me, “You’re our friend. If you want to get mixed up in this war business, we’ll follow you.”

Mephalda and Mystic both nodded in agreement.

“But, do you really want to be involved in it?” Mystic asked, “Out of all of us, you took Foalkreath the hardest. We can’t help but notice you haven’t been sleeping since then. All we’re saying is that you should think about this before you get into the thick of things and can’t get out.”

“You’re right,” I sighed, “And the truth is, I’m not really sure where I should stand on this war anyway. For now, I think its best just to focus on protecting Whitetrot. That, at least, I know is the right thing to do.”

A flaming rock suddenly hurtled over me as I finished my speech. The trebuchets had begun firing, smashing Whitetrot’s walls apart and catching the buildings inside on fire. The Imperial soldiers began moving forward, but I only got to watch for a moment before one of the flaming stones struck the base of the tower I was standing in. As the tower collapsed, I jumped from the wreckage, rolling across the ground.

The Whitetrot soldiers clustered within the city’s walls had rushed out moments before, so nopony was seriously hurt in the fall. I rose to my hooves and galloped toward the city’s outer gate. I passed stables offering cheap lodgings for the poor traveler, and a small farm that seemed to grow nothing but cabbages before we met the Imperials.

The Legion battlemages had dropped their wards once the armies had met and were now sending blasts of magic wherever they could find an opening without hitting their own soldiers. A jagged front formed where Imperial and Whitetrot forces intermingled, hacking out at each other and staining the snow with each others’ blood.

I drew Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar as I met the front, swinging them both around at a Legion soldier with a pike. Using his overlong weapon, he blocked my strikes. Pulling my swords back, I spun them around, slashing down with my Draconequus weapon and upward with my ebony sword. The Imperial blocked again, but I had my weapons on opposite sides of his and managed to spin his pike around and out of his grasp. Dawnbreaker sliced through his Legion armor, parting the metal easily.

As he fell to the ground, I struck out with the Blade of Hoofingar at an earth pony wielding a mace. She blocked my first strike, but my second sliced through her armor, cutting a gash in her side. She had no time to down a healing potion as I struck at her again, and she was forced to block again. With a blast of fire, I cauterized her wound, but also caused her so much pain that she dropped her mace. With a slash of my ebony sword, I sliced open her neck.

I shot another Legion soldier with lightning before finishing her off with a strike from Dawnbreaker. I realized that I was now facing the entire Imperial force, having passed through the front. Or rather, the front had moved past me. I began to retreat along with the Whitetrot guards as they pulled back toward the city.

As I retreated, I was forced to stop to fend off a unicorn with a greatsword. As I struck at him with both my blades, he somehow managed to block, knocking my swords to the side. He staggered as an arrow shot through his throat, but still managed to advance toward me. As another of the deadly darts shot through his eye, he finally dropped his sword and fell to the ground.

I turned tail and vaulted the barricades I’d helped assemble the day before. Most of the Whitetrot guard had retreated through the outer gate and were now holed up behind the barricades. Archers shot down on the advancing Imperials from above, along with Mystic, who discharged blasts of magic instead of arrows.

Imperial soldiers attempted to climb over and around the barricades, only to be cut down by the blades of the Whitetrot guards behind them. As a unicorn mare tried to vault over my section, a war axe gripped in her magic, I shot ice spikes up into her chest. Most of them simply stuck in the metal and leather, but a few managed to make it through to her heart, and she fell over onto the barricade, impaling herself.

“Get back!” I called as the crowd of Imperials suddenly parted to reveal a battlemage, a spell building to completion along his horn.

A huge blast of fire suddenly went flying forward, and the barricades combusted in a spectacular explosion. The guards that hadn’t heeded my warning fast enough were thrown back, flames eating away at their flesh. I pushed myself to my hooves as quick as I could as the Imperial soldiers began to pile through the gateway.

With Calcion’s Cleaver, I blocked a battleaxe that came down at me. Lightning arced from the tip of my blade as I pushed the larger weapon back. The Imperial wielding it was pushed back, forcing him to exit the block. I shot lightning at him, disorienting him before I brought Calcion’s Cleaver up through his chin, rending his face apart.

The battlemage strode through the fray, seemingly invincible behind his ward. I shot ice spikes at it, but they all bounced away without doing any damage. As he noticed me attacking him, he dropped the ward for a split second to shoot a blast of fire at me. I rolled out of the way as the flames came at me, though I ended up a bit closer to him than I had been before.

I pulled out Dawnbreaker as I rolled away from another blast of his magic. Leaping toward him, I stabbed the sword into his ward. Instantly, the magic dissipated, as if I had popped a bubble. He drew out a sword of his own and knocked Dawnbreaker to the side. A blast of magical ice shot past my ear as he tried to freeze me.

<<<FO~KRAH~DIIN!!!>>> I Shouted, freezing him solid.

I jumped out of the way as one of the rocks launched from the trebuchet came down within the walls. The frozen battlemage was shattered to bits, his icy chunks flying everywhere. I heard somepony call my name, and looked back to see most of the Whitetrot guards regrouping near the second gate within the walls. Firing ice spikes as I went, I retreated back to the gate. Once I was through, the ponies within began to crank up the drawbridge. A few Imperials got through before it closed, but they were quickly cut down.

I climbed a nearby set of steps to the wall that ran over the gate to get a better view of what was going on. The Imperials had taken the surrounding countryside and were now within Whitetrot’s outer wall. Archers over both the outer gate and the second one continued to rain down arrows onto the Imperials constantly, though the first group was beginning to retreat as the Legion’s own archers surrounded them.

Flaming stones from the trebuchets continued to rain down on the city, opening up new holes in the walls to be plugged. Behind us, there was a sizeable hole in the outer wall which Imperials kept trying to enter through, but the Whitetrot guards were holding them off for the moment. Still, those trebuchets were tearing the city apart and something had to be done about them.

<STRUN!> I Shouted, and my voice carried out across the battle plain.

Over the Legion hordes it went until it struck the central of the three trebuchets to Whitetrot’s west. Storm clouds began to boil overhead, pouring snow onto the trebuchet crews that I could barely see from this distance. The clouds grew progressively darker until lightning began to shoot out from the underside.

The trebuchets were suddenly struck by massive bolts of energy. As the lightning struck, it split the war machines down the center, charring their insides immediately. Rocks ceased coming from the west as all three of the trebuchets were taken out of action.

“We’re overrun!” Steadfast said, grabbing me as my attention came back to the fight going on around us, “We’ve got to move!”

Looking down, I could see that the Imperials had attached large hooks to the drawbridge and were hauling it down. The archers on the roof with me began to fall as a battlemage struck them with magic. I turned and followed Steadfast, retreating back to Whitetrot’s main gates.

As the last of the Whitetrot guards still living ducked inside the main city, the gates slammed shut. It took four ponies to lay the massive beam across the door that barred it, but once it was in place, the Imperials would have a hard time breaking through. They rammed against the gates, but the heavy wooden doors held. Archers atop the city’s main wall rained arrows down onto the advancing soldiers, making their job even harder.

The gates didn’t hold long enough, however. Magic began to glow between the cracks in the doors, and they suddenly burst apart, completely destroyed. Through the smoking gap stood a battlemage surrounded by Imperial soldiers that rushed through into the city.

I swung Calcion’s Cleaver at one as she tried to gallop past me. My blade caught her war axe, and we both fought to disarm the other. Eventually I gave up on disarming her and slid my sword out from under her blade. She swung at my neck with her war axe the moment it was free, but I ducked down and swung at her forelegs. The ancient earth pony sword sliced through her greaves, and she fell to the ground, impaled by my blade a moment later.

To my left, Warmare’s suddenly went up in flames, though not from a trebuchet strike. The battlemage stood nearby, dousing the street in flames. I galloped toward him, but he noticed me coming and began to turn his magic toward me.

<TIID!>

As time slowed to a crawl, his flames billowed from his horn in slow motion. I jumped over him, my ancient earth pony sword cutting through his neck and removing his head from his shoulders. As time shifted back to its usual speed, I slammed into the flaming wreck of Warmare’s, wiping the fire from my armor.

At the end of the street, I watched the Bannered Mare, one of Whitetrot’s finest inns, get torn in two as a trebuchet strike crashed through it, the boulder rolling through the marketplace, smashing all the vendors’ stands. I ran toward it and away from the fight, turning up the stairs to the town’s second level.

On a mission, I entered Whitetrot’s central square just as another of the flaming boulders smashed through the temporary housing set up there. I was thrown backwards as the entire place combusted, the rickety wooden homes going up in flames. Picking myself up, I dodged around the flaming wreckage and headed higher into the city.

Surprisingly, I heard the sound of clashing swords coming from back the way I’d come. I glanced back to see that the Whitetrot guards were retreating even more quickly than before as the Legion pushed against them. I continued my run, reaching Jorrvaskr. The roof nearly touched the ground at the corners of the building, so it wasn’t extraordinarily hard to climb to the top of the structure. From there, I had a good view of the three trebuchets set up to the east of the city.

<STRUN!>

Once again, the clouds obeyed by commands and pooled together over the trebuchets. Lightning lanced down from them, splitting and burning the war machines. One final stone was launched before its launcher was destroyed, but it was thrown off course and slammed into the stone base of the great fortress-city, doing no damage.

“Sapphire!” I heard Mephalda call from the distance.

I looked over to see that my friends and the Whitetrot soldiers were ascending the stairs to Dragonsreach, striking back at the Imperial soldiers pursuing them whenever they could. I slid down from the roof and ran across the Imperial filled square, intent on joining up with them. The first Imperial never saw me coming as I sliced the Blade of Hoofingar through her neck.

After that, they knew I was in their midst, but I had to keep moving to avoid being surrounded. I struck at an earth pony with a mace for a moment, but she blocked, and I blasted fire into her face to keep from being caught. With both Calcion’s Cleaver and Dawnbreaker, I hit the next Imperial in the side, knocking him off the stairs.

Up ahead, Steadfast was blazing a path to me, knocking the Imperial soldiers from the stairs with his warhammer. As I ran a unicorn through with Dawnbreaker, we met up. Together we galloped up the stairs like mad until we passed by the few Whitetrot archers outside the keep. Retreating, we passed into Dragonsreach, slamming the doors shut.

Within, Whitetrot guards were flipping over tables and benches to prop against the doors. We’d keep the Imperials out in any way. They began to slam against the doors, but the furniture and the guards holding it up kept them out for the moment.

The guard captain, his helmet askew, ran to the back of the great hall, and I followed.

“Jarl Valor’s Blade, they’ve taken the city!” he said anxiously, “What do we do?”

“So now it’s come to this,” the Jarl said, pulling on his armor, “I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.”

“Now what?” I asked.

“We must stand and face our end,” he said solemnly, drawing a sword.

“That’s it?” Darkfeather protested, “There must be something we can do to fight them off.”

“My city has fallen,” the Jarl said, “What else can I do?”

“Charge out and meet them,” I said brashly.

“Yes,” the Jarl said, considering my suggestion, then with more enthusiasm, “Yes!”

“Get every soldier we have to the great hall immediately!” he ordered.

More piled in as the Imperials continued to bang on the door, threatening to burst through at any second. The soldiers finally stopped coming, and we were all assembled in the great hall, waiting for the doors to open.

“Charge proudly! Fight with honor!” Jarl Valor’s Blade yelled from the front of the room, “If we make our end here today, may we make such an end that it shall be legend! Let this be the day we draw swords together! Now for wrath! Now for ruin! And the red dawn!”

At that moment, the doors burst open and the Imperial soldiers began to charge through. Giving a war cry, Jarl Valor’s Blade charged forward, swinging his sword through the first Imperial he saw. The rest of us charged after him, filled with the enthusiasm projected by our leader.

Imperials toppled from the stairway as we charged down it, the Jarl leading the way. Arrows struck around us as we charged, and took down more than a few, but we continued on anyway, soon galloping through the square and slashing through the archers.

<YOL!> I Shouted at a battlemage blocking our path, lightning him on fire before he could do the same to the Jarl.

My swords spun through the air, taking on a life of their own as they dismembered the Imperial soldiers that were attempting to take this city – my city. We passed through the housing distract, clearing out the Imperials as soon as they appeared. Soon they were retreating as we pushed them from the main gate and down through the outworks of the city.

Before I knew it, we were through the outworks and past the outer gate, driving the Imperials down the road and away from the farms and meaderies. Soon the Imperials were beating a hasty retreat back to Seclusion, and a hearty cheer went up from our little army. We’d really done it! We’d driven back the Imperials and saved Whitetrot.

The taste of victory was sweet, and all of Whitetrot celebrated that night. Well, all except for the few guards that kept a lookout for any kind of Imperial counterattack. Of course, everypony was in such high spirits that they didn’t mind swapping out the guard every few minutes so that everypony could enjoy the festivities.

Fire crews had put out the blazes, and the most alarming of the destruction had been temporarily patched. True repairs would come later. For that night, Jarl Valor’s Blade opened up his kitchens to the whole city, and the square had been cleared of debris to allow everypony to celebrate.

I was at the party, and enjoying myself quite a bit. I hadn’t felt this good for days. I finally had a reason to be out of the dumps and feel good about myself. I’d stopped an attack from taking the peaceful ponies of Whitetrot unaware, and then had helped repel the attack when it’d come.

Of course, things couldn’t stay perfect. I was debating whether or not I should take another sweetroll when a gray earth pony with an oddly donkeyish mane approached me urgently.

“I need to speak to you immediately, if it’s not too much trouble,” the pony spoke in a voice I instantly recognized.

I complied and followed the pony as he headed down the hallways of Dragonsreach. Eventually he stopped in a little-used wing of the palace, the same place my friends and I had appeared on our crazy ride back from the Shivering Isles.

“Okay Discord, what do you want?” I asked impatiently, crossing my forelegs.

“Oh, don’t act so put out,” he said, transforming back to his natural form in a flash, “At least I had the common courtesy to let you enjoy your little celebration before I broke the news to you.”

“What news?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Well, I couldn’t help but notice you taking an interest in this little war you equines have going on, and I thought to myself, maybe she’d be able to help, Discord.”

“Help?” I asked, “How?”

“Well, it’s no secret this land’s in turmoil, now is it?” Discord asked, pulling a map of the Northlands down over the wall behind him and using a baton to point to parts of it, “War, death, constant fighting between the pony races.”

“Yes?” I answered tentatively.

“Well, I’m afraid all this fighting and chaos is having a bit of a negative side effect.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, it’d be easier if I just showed you,” the Draconequus said, suddenly beside me and wrapping an arm around me.

I suddenly found myself whisked away, the landscape flying past as we headed northeast. However, it seemed the land moved under us more than we moved over it. It was a strange sensation, but apparently not disorienting to the Draconequus of Chaos.

“Recognize these?” Discord asked once we reached our destination, the far northern tip of Unicornica.

A storm was billowing around us, and eerie whinnies cut through it. All of a sudden, a swarm of windigos came stampeding out of the clouds. They dived into the water, causing ice to coat the surface.

“Yeah, these are windigos,” I told Discord, “We ran into them on our trip to Unicornica.”

“Well, these windigos feed off of anger, fighting, and general disunity,” Discord explained, “And I’m afraid this war has been feeding them quite a bit indeed.”

Suddenly, we pulled back so I could see the storm from above. I gasped at the enormity of it. The entire northern horizon was dominated by the strangely churning clouds. The Ear of Unicornica and most of the Horn were covered as well, frozen under a layer of perpetual ice.

“Unless all this fighting between the pony races ends, and ends soon, this is what will happen,” Discord said.

With a wave of his claw, I watched time pass rapidly. In less than a year, the windigo storm swept over all the Northlands, coating them in ice.

“As you can see,” Discord explained, “The storm will overtake the Northlands so rapidly that there will be no time to discover a new land to settle. Every pony on the face of Equus will be wiped out. Your entire kind will die unless this war comes to an end.”

With a snap of Discord’s claws, we were suddenly back in Dragonsreach.

“How can this be stopped?” I asked, still shocked by what I’d seen.

“Oh, it can’t,” the Draconequus said nonchalantly.

“Then what was the point of showing me this?” I asked angrily.

“It can’t be stopped,” Discord explained, “But it can be postponed, long enough for ponies to find a new land and sort out their differences, at least.”

“How?” I asked, becoming tired of the Draconequus’s antics.

“Well, for one the war must end, and end for all time,” Discord said, pulling out a checklist, “Of course, that is completely impossible with the Northlands in its current state. No, the organization you have now is quite disorderly and will always lead to war. The only way peace, albeit a shaky peace, can be accomplished is by granting each of your races control of their own destiny.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“Every one of your races must have its own country,” he explained, looking irked to have to explain things to me, “Only then can a lasting peace be established.”

“So, Jarl Stormcloud must win the war,” I said.

“Hmm, that’s one way of doing it I suppose,” Discord said, “And perhaps the best option you have. Well, I think you know everything you’ll need, so I’ll just skedaddle and let you get back to your extremely important party.”

“Wait,” I said as he prepared to snap his fingers and return to the Shivering Isles, “Why would you have me make the world less chaotic? Why are you telling me all this?”

“I’m just a good member of the community looking out for its well-being,” he said, a halo appearing over his head.

“Right,” I said skeptically, “What’s the real reason?”

“Very well,” Discord said, waving the halo away, “When it comes to chaos, there’s nothing more fun to do it to than ponies. To put it simply, you’re my favorite playthings, and I don’t want you to disappear.”

“That’s terrible!” I exclaimed, annoyed (though not really surprised) that Discord considered ponies to be no more than “playthings.”

“I tried to give you the nice answer,” he said with a shrug, “But you wouldn’t have it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some chaos to cause in the Shivering Isles.”

With a snap of his fingers, I was suddenly alone in the bowels of Dragonsreach, left mulling over what the Draconequus had told me.

That night I finally managed to sleep mostly soundly, though my thoughts were preoccupied with what Discord had told me over regret about ponies I’d killed. The next morning I approached Jarl Valor’s Blade. The Battle for Whitetrot may have been over, but this war was only just beginning to heat up.

“Jarl Valor’s Blade, may I speak to you a moment?” I asked as he finished a discussion with Protocus about fixing up Whitetrot’s walls.

“Of course Sapphire,” he said, lounging back in his throne, “What did you want to talk about?”

“Well,” I said, “It’s just that I doubt that attack on us was the last.”

“I know what you mean,” the Jarl said solemnly, “I too have been worried that General Cuirass may strike again. Then again, it could be Jarl Stormcloud next time. It’s not easy being a neutral hold during a time of war.”

“That’s what I came to discuss,” I said.

“It appears that I can no longer remain neutral in this war,” the Jarl said, “General Cuirass has forced my hoof. He has made an enemy of me and forced me to seek out allies elsewhere. I may not agree with Jarl Stormcloud, but we earth ponies have an old saying: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I need you to bring word to Jarl Stormcloud and let him know I intend to join him.”

“Of course, my Jarl,” I said, happy that he’d chosen the Stormcloud side, making my job of restoring balance to the Northlands much easier.

With my friends, I left for Windhorn at once. Of course, I figured now that I’d be joining the Stormcloud cause, I’d have to start calling the city Earthhaven. Not that I’d ever get the name Windhorn out of my mind, but I could at least try to address it by the Stormcloud name in the Jarl’s presence.

Nopony stopped us as we entered the Palace of Kings, for which I was grateful. I went directly to Jarl Stormcloud, though the guards near his throne jumped into action to defend him if necessary.

“Ah, Sapphire,” the Jarl said nonchalantly, “I haven’t seen you since Foalkreath. What have you been up to?”

“Not much, just stopping an Imperial attack on Whitetrot,” I replied sarcastically.

“What?” the Jarl said, bolting upright in his throne, “Why was I not told of this?”
Nopony seemed to want to be the recipient of Stormcloud’s wrath, and nopony offered an explanation.

“I come with word from Jarl Valor’s Blade,” I said, removing the ceremonial axe he’d given me from my saddlebags, “He pledges Whitetrot, its hold, and its troops to the Stormcloud cause.”

“Very well,” Stormcloud said, taking the axe from me, “I, Jarl Stormcloud of Earthhaven and Easttrot, accept Jarl Valor’s Blade’s service.”

“And, I also pledge myself to serve in the Stormcloud cause,” I continued, kneeling before the Jarl, “On one condition. No more massacres of towns.”

“I also accept your service,” the Jarl said, looking a bit surprised, “And your condition. Foalkreath was a one-time occurrence. Now that the example has been set, it need not be demonstrated again.”

“In fact,” he said as I rose, “I think I have just the job for you.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s time to remedy the action you took when you first entered this war,” Jarl Stormcloud said, “It’s time to take back Dawnstar.”