The Wolf Queen Awakens

Chapter 12

Three days later, and Elisif was starting to go stir-crazy. Yes, there'd been the excitement on the first morning when the second dragon had attacked the courtyard, but the six of them had made short work of it. But that was two days ago now, and Elisif was bored.

Brynjolf had left for Riften on day two to see about running a few jobs, get some coin pulled together to fit the place out properly. Delphine and Aela had gone to see if the remains of Karthspire camp had anything worth having, but it appeared the Forsworn had returned in the night to clear the place up, because the entire place had been uprooted and cleared. Even the bodies had been claimed. Aela had sworn she'd seen a few in the undergrowth, but they'd fled at the sight of them.

"We've got them on the run, Delphine," Aela had said, sounding rather proud of herself. Delphine hadn't been so sure.

"Those are just scouting parties, I think," Delphine said, brooding. "They know we're here, they know what we did to that camp. They're a lot more unified than people think, I think they're just biding their time until they know more. We'll have to be careful."

Elisif wished there was some way of negotiating with them. She didn't want to hurt them, she might even be able to agree to them having their land back, or at least having a Reachman Jarl. But Igmund's family had been in charge of the Reach for years. She had to be fair to him as well.

Well, all this was academic anyway. Not like she'd ever end up having to negotiate with whoever led the Forsworn. Did they even have a leader? Delphine seemed to think so, but who knew.

Aela had left on day three to go back to Jorrvaskr, see how Kodlak was doing and see how the city in general was managing. And if rumours of Dark Brotherhood activity could be gleaned too, Elisif was fine with that. Brynjolf had already promised to talk to his own sources in the Guild, but Elisif wasn't sure how far she could trust the thief. Sure, he was friendly and charming and seemed genuinely fond of her, but the fact remained he was still Thieves Guild and who knew how intertwined they really were with the Dark Brotherhood.

So it was just the four of them, Esbern exploring the library, Delphine exploring the rest of the Temple and clearing out various rooms, unearthing bits and pieces that could be useful. She'd already got one of the bathrooms – an indoor bathroom! That pumped running water from the Karth! - up and running, and the kitchen was good to go too. Cicero had been surprisingly helpful, scampering after Delphine and helping with the heavy lifting and fetching and carrying and chopping firewood and going hunting, returning with lots of fresh meat, pelts and some almost certainly stolen potatoes. She just hoped he'd not stabbed anyone in the process. Easy to forget the man murdered for money and indeed his own enjoyment sometimes. But most of the time, he was perfectly sweet and friendly, cooing and fussing over his pretty Dragonborn and lovely Grand Mistress.

"It's Grand Master," Delphine sighed. "Acting Grand Master. The Akaviri language used the same word for both male and female leaders, so we do the same."

Cicero just giggled, biting his thumb and looking coyly at her.

"Cicero thinks Grand Mistress suits pretty Delphine," he purred. Delphine just put her head in her hands, exasperated.

"Still not interested, Cicero," Delphine sighed. "Go and bother someone else. Does Esbern need anything?"

"Esbern is more interested in books than people," Cicero muttered. Then he shrugged and got up. "But he is still nicer than any of Astrid's people were." Whistling to himself, he skipped off, presumably to bother Esbern.

Elisif took advantage of the quiet and went to sit next to Delphine.

"Delphine," she said quietly. "Delphine, what are we doing next? I mean, we got this far, and believe me, I'm very thankful for the help... but I can't stay here forever and there's only six of us, four of us with Aela and Brynjolf gone. What next?"