Song of the Dragon and the Bear

Chapter 44

A/N Here's another chapter for you, my lovely, lovely readers. Enjoy!

. . .

For the next week, Vara worked with the new recruits, slowly but surely turning them from farmers into soldiers. Every now and again Ulfric would stop by the courtyard between meetings, and she would leave the recruits for a few minutes to speak with him. They never had long to talk, but Ulfric always made sure that visited as often as he could, which Vara greatly appreciated. She knew that he was under an enormous amount of stress as he and his council prepared for the assault on Falkreath. Already, they had spies and scout parties moving into place, sending reports back to Windhelm of the weakest links in the hold.

Every evening after Vara had finished training the soldiers she would go down to the Grey Quarter and visit with Ninesea and Ambarys or help out some of the other residents. Once Ulfric was done with his meetings he would come and find her, and the two of them would spend a few hours together. It didn't really matter what they did, often they simply walked the streets or sat by the fire in the kitchen of the palace, Vara enjoyed the time she was able to spend with Ulfric.

Now, it was Sundas, and the two of them were sitting side by side in the war room in comfortable silence as Ulfric reviewed the deployment plans for a few different companies of soldiers and Vara read through a stack of letters that had been addressed to Ulfric that he hadn't had the time to look at. Jorleif had asked her to go through them in Ulfric's place, and Vara had gladly accepted the task as both she and her soldiers had the day off from training.

Most of the letters were from citizens across the hold who were expressing their concerns about various troubles. Vara made note of the most severe ones that were within Ulfric's power to fix and set the others to the side. A few, Ulfric would need to respond to personally, as they dealt with important matters of the war, and Vara set these in their own pile to one side of the table. A few of the letters were angry messages from people all over Skyrim who were angry at Ulfric for starting this war and disrupting their lives. The letters were nothing but hate and contained no pertinent information, so Vara summoned a careful flame to the tip of her finger and burnt those letters, sweeping the ashes into a neat pile on the edge of the table. Ulfric looked up from his plans at that, but Vara only shook her head. He gazed at her for a moment, shrugged, and went back to his work.

Finally, Vara reached the last two letters in the stack that Jorleif had handed her. The first was addressed to her from Whiterun, and she opened it with eagerness, knowing it contained Balgruuf's reply to the letter she had sent him several days ago. She scanned through it quickly before saying to Ulfric, "Jarl Balgruuf has responded to our proposal." Ulfric looked up from his papers, apprehension in his eyes.

"What did he say? Has he agreed to your terms?"

Vara nodded. "Let me read you what he wrote. He said 'I will give you one month, Varaduilwe, for this plan of yours. I won't lie, I'd much rather join with Ulfric Stormcloak than the Empire, and if you can show me that the Stormcloak army will be able to protect my people by taking Falkreath, you will have my support. I thank you for what was no doubt an intersession from you on my behalf when Ulfric was coming up with a plan of attack. I know how he feels about this war. Remind him that though I am not with him yet, I am not against him either. Talos guide you both.'"

Vara chuckled as she finished reading the letter aloud. "It seems Balgruuf knows you better than you might believe, Ulfric."

Ulfric nodded, a relieved smile on his face. "I'm glad that he decided to name you as Thane. I'm not sure if a letter from me or my council would have been received as well," Ulfric admitted. "Now that Balgruuf has promised to give us the time we need, I can order my generals to begin marching the soldiers down to Falkreath as soon as I finish these deployment plans." Ulfric nodded to himself, and his eyes took on a faraway look as his mind began to spin through the situation. Vara watched with a slight smile for a few moments—she loved the way his brows drew together as he thought—before turning back to the letter in her hand.