The Dark Path: Story of a Dunmer – Part 15

  •      I always had a plan! I haven’t told you anything about the details, mom, because I was afraid you might object to some aspects of my planning, since it involves… well some dubious actions. But now is the time for decisive actions, and I’ve decided to tell you everything, because I remembered what you’ve always told me: ‘Comfort is given, Justice is taken’. You know very well this is not the time for comfort, but our people has been for so long hiding from Justice and seeking Comfort into compromises and accommodation, trying to buy acceptance by selling their heritage and souls! I’ve been waiting in vain for nords’ hate and despise to shake their meekness and wake their pride, but they are too lost in their own cowardice, and Ulfric is too smart a politician to let things get really out of control. They are just paralyzed, cornered and cowered by the nords, but still not pressured enough to leave doubt and fear behind, embrace faith, and raise hand and fire against oppression. They are angered and afraid, but they keep saying to themselves: ‘They’re just ignorant rough-necks. We only have to stand our ground, stay calm and they’ll stop.’ Well, they didn’t, and they won’t. So I’ve been trying to figure some way to help them in taking the right decision, and this idea came to my mind – just increase the pressure!

         You see, mom, those nord girls have been murdered and dismembered by my orders, and as a part of my plan! I couldn’t have done it personally, since I can’t be seen by our people in Windhelm as associated in any way to those heinous murders, but the Brotherhood’s hand may reach very far, and you can always find a helpful brother to take care of your problems. So, if Ulfric was showing no intention of giving our people the spark they needed to kindle their fire, then I would explore nords’ ignorance and prejudice to push his hand and force him take insufferable measures against our people, or risk losing the control of his city and his Rebellion. And it worked, mother! From the crucible of suffering, a renewed faith has been forged, and the dunmer of Windhelm are finally united and willing to fight under my command. Now I have what I’ve been looking for all this time! - the power to open Windhelm’s gates from inside, allowing Imperial troops to storm the city without a prolonged siege, the power to get to Ulfric himself, while his army is busy fighting for their lives, and the power to free our people, leading them in the path of glory and faith. And in exchange for the worthless lives of those nine nord girls, Tullius will have his triumph, the Emperor will keep his province, we will have our vengeance, and our people will win freedom – an advantageous outcome for everyone - well… except for those girls.

         I only need to convince Tullius to see things in that way too. The man is overbearing and ruthless – a careerist officer who has come all the way from the lower ranks to the top in the Imperial Legion - but he is also pretty competent and not immune to reason. I’m sure he has political ambitions far beyond his military career, and I have a proposition that could appeal to his craving for advancement and glory – I have the means to give him a great impossible victory. And the price for this victory will be nothing less than the right bank of White River, from Refugee’s Rest to Mzulft, always bordering the slopes of the Velothi Mountains, and including the Dunmeth Pass. That may seem like a lot of land to be given to the dunmers of Windhelm, but most of it is just barren mountain terrain, and other great part of it is formed of pestilent sulfur pools, so the objections would be only of a symbolical nature. We don’t need any land to sow, mother - that Pass is the key to our future - if we can control it we will always have our way clear to receive new refugees and, some time in future, to send an expedition to punish the scaly ones and expel them from Morrowind, retaking our country. The place where your bones have been thrown will be part of our kingdom, and someday I will build there a sanctuary for you, and then all my promises will have been fulfilled.

         He received me in his war room, surrounded by his staff. The place was designed to intimidate and oppress, and the unfriendly faces of his officers and bodyguards were not intended to put me at easy, but there was nothing I could do, except appealing to his despair and ambition. They discussed the proposal among them, but I could see they were distrustful of me and disdainful of my offer. The General finally decided it was worthy of some consideration, but he would have to take some corroboration of my words through his own spies. During the days it took to confirm the truth of my offer, I waited there bargaining for our people’s future with all my will and wits. I have won his acceptance but I was not feeling safe or victorious in anyway. It was incredibly and suspiciously easy to get what I asked for, and that really disturbed me, mother, because I had asked for the impossible – I had asked for Windhelm! There was no way in the world the Empire would give the most ancient and revered nord city to a bunch of dunmer refugees – not if they expected to keep nord’s allegiance to the Empire, not if they wished to avoid a still greater Civil War. You only agree on impossible terms when you are desperate enough and you have no intention to honor the agreement. I’ve glimpsed betrayal behind his promises, but the very assertiveness in which they were made precluded further negotiation. So, all I could do was to prepare myself and my people to meet his treason whenever we saw it coming – the path was traced, the journey had already begun and there would be no turning back.

Comments

1 Comment
  • ricardo maia
    ricardo maia   ·  May 3, 2012
    Ordering the killing of those women was a bold move for him. He knew dunmers would be the target of suspicions and acusations, being associated with necromancy in nords' mind, and that there would be reprisals and a general increase of the oppression. And...  more