The Wolf Queen Awakens

Chapter 50

There is little to be told after that. The ceremony in the Temple of Divines was something of an anticlimax after the howling welcome the citizens of Solitude had given their new High Queen. But Elisif didn't mind. She liked the ritual, the swearing of the sacred vows to protect Skyrim and its people, the presentation of the ring, oh and the ritual crowning, involving the actual Jagged Crown, really hers now and let no one take it from her!

The obligatory speech, mercifully short, but she did announce that her first official act would be to ratify the Windhelm Accord that would formally establish the Reach as an independent Imperial Province... and that while this wasn't a treaty provision, discussions behind the scenes had convinced her the best way of ensuring ongoing friendly relations with the new kingdom would be for the High Queen to wed the new Reach-King and so she was taking Madanach of the Reach as her husband.

The Temple hadn't known how to react to that... until in the third row back, Kodlak Whitemane and the rest of the Companions, including Cicero and Eola, all up in Solitude to see their honorary Shield-Sister Mooted, had all risen to their feet and started applauding, and then Argis had joined them, grabbing Farkas and making him do the same and glaring at the rest of the Solitude Court until they did likewise, and then slowly the applause had spread out across the entire Temple.

And then it was all back to the Bards' College for a party, the rediscovered Tale of Olaf One-Eye and the first ever burning of his effigy where an actual dragon had leaned down from the roof and started the fire. And then Elisif found out what had happened to her discarded Amulet of Mara as Argis had quietly asked Lucia if she had those things he'd told her to look after, and Lucia had produced her little purple satchel with the flowers embroidered on it and retrieved from it one small box and a golden necklace, which she handed over to Argis. Argis had thanked her, donned the necklace and told her to go track her pa down.

Said father was enjoying a pint and a catch-up with Kodlak and Vilkas, who'd decided Farkas needed checking in on and the Moot wouldn't be a proper Moot without mead drunk and songs sung and Solitude was too formal a city to know how to do these things properly, so the whole of Jorrvaskr had turned up to help out.

A good thing indeed, because that meant they got to witness the Steward of Solitude coughing nervously, waiting for Farkas to notice the Amulet of Mara, then announcing that seeing as they had a child together, they couldn't keep on embarrassing the High Queen by openly living in sin in her palace, and Steward's Husband sounded a lot better a title than Steward's Bedwarmer. Then he'd gone down on one knee and presented the ring and quietly added that he loved Farkas dearly and could he possibly spend the rest of his life with him?

Farkas had stared for what felt like hours until Vilkas had nudged him in the side and told him to say something, idiot, your boyfriend just proposed.

"You mean it?" Farkas had whispered. "Really?"

Argis nodded. "Really."

Farkas had glanced at Lucia to see what she thought of all this, and saw his little girl gazing hopefully up at him, and that was what decided him in the end. Not that he wouldn't have said yes anyway, but knowing his daughter approved sealed the bargain.

"All right then," Farkas had said gruffly, wiping a tear away as he realised Argis really did love him and really did want him around, even if he was just a half-educated mercenary and not a courtier or political type or anything. Argis would later tell him that was the point, he had enough of politics from his father. But right now, Argis and Farkas were kissing, Lucia was squealing in delight and then it was congratulations all round from an emotional Kodlak and Vilkas congratulating one groom and then warning the other he'd better be a good husband, and then High Queen and Reach-King arriving to do the same thing for Argis, and Sofie and Lucia being promised they could be flower-girls, and Aventus being promised he would never be required to bear flowers at any wedding ever, not even his father's, and then Cicero and Eola arrived to offer their own best wishes, largely involving Eola patting her brother on the back and congratulating him while Cicero squealed and bounced and fawned over Farkas. Somehow Cicero and Farkas had managed to become quite good friends, with Cicero cuddling Farkas and cooing over him and Farkas not minding one bit. It was nice to have someone around who'd never called him ice-brain and would often trill that Farkas should not worry if he was not intellectually gifted, humble Cicero wasn't very bright either and it had never done him any harm. Farkas suspected Cicero was a lot smarter than he let on but he didn't object.