Victory or Sovngarde

Chapter Nine

I found the cabin exactly where Ralof told me I would: in the woods just northwest of the town. It looked like a hunter's cabin, complete with a set of deer antlers hung next to the door. No one would ever suspect that the former leader of the biggest rebellion Skyrim had ever seen was taking shelter inside.

I walked up to the door and knocked. I waited. No answer. I knocked again, this time a little louder. "Ulfric, I know you're in there. Let me in."

The door shot open, and a massive, rough hand shot out and grabbed me by my throat. I was jerked inside the shack, where the man holding my throat pulled my back against his chest and held the blade of a fine, steel war axe to my neck.

"How did you find me?" he asked a low and dangerous voice. "Who are you working for?"

I strained against his hold. It was like being restrained by a rod of steel. "I work for no one. I'm not here to harm you."

"Then why are you here? Who are you?"

"You do not recognize the Dragonborn?"

The grip on my arm and the axe at my throat fell away. I pushed the man off, turning to face him.

It was Ulfric, but he looked nothing like himself. He had cut his hair short and shaved his graying goatee. He looked so much older than when I last saw him. So worn and weary. Dark shadows circled under his eyes. His normally-regal robes were replaced by a simple red tunic and tan trousers. He wore scuffed and dirty boots on his feet. Part of me actually felt sorry for him.

"Ylva..." He placed the axe on a nearby table. "Had I known it was you..."

"'Ylva'? Not 'Dragonborn'? Not 'Sky-Shatterer'? Not, as your men liked to call me, 'false Nord'?"

"It has been a while, hasn't it?" He motioned to a rickety wooden chair by a small fireplace. "Have a seat. I would offer you something to drink, but..." He took his own seat in the other chair across from the one he had offered me, "I am afraid I no longer have what I used to."

I sat down, removing my sword and placing it across my lap. "Eight years. Helgen. Yes, it has been a while."

"I thought I recognized you when you were caught with us. It may have been many years before, but I remembered the farm girl who had supposedly died with her parents."

I forced my face to stay blank. "You remembered me?"

"I remember all those who were under my care." His face turned sour. "That is, before these Imperials dethroned me and my own commander forced me to run. I would have rather died in battle."

"Well, now you are a coward to the people. Perhaps it would have been better if you had died."

His gaze hardened as he glared at me. "It is easy for you to say. You are the hero Skyrim deserves. No one will ever look at you and hate you."

"Every former Stormcloak hates me. The Last Dragonborn, the true hero of Skyrim, fighting for a foreign Empire. I am not very popular right now either, Ulfric."

"Why are you here? To insult me? To gloat? It is no secret; you never wanted to support my cause."

"Because I saw a man who was playing the people he claimed to fight for. Perhaps my views were skewed; maybe you aren't like that, but all the same, I could not support your cause knowing full well what it would mean if we won."

"At least Skyrim would have had a true High King, and not—"

"Gods, you have strayed so far. You were supposed to become a Greybeard, to follow the Way of The Voice, and here you are. If you had stayed on your mountain, things may have been different."

"The Thalmor would have sunk their claws into Skyrim sooner." He glared at the crackling fire, the light from the flames casting deep shadows over his weathered face. "My rebellion kept them at bay, if only temporarily." Then he turned back to me, the same glare on his face. "No thanks to you, those elves have a foothold here."

"It was not by choice. I hate them as much as you do, perhaps even more. If there was a way I could have stayed out of the Battle for Whiterun, I would have. There wasn't, and you of all people should understand why I fought. It was my duty."

"The Empire betrayed Skyrim. They made all the deaths in the Great War amount to nothing."

I thought about what Vilkas told me about his adoptive father—and our son's namesake—Jergen. He had fought in the Great War, and he had died. The signing of the White-Gold Concordat made the war irrelevant.

Ulfric's gaze flickered with understanding. "Did you know someone who died in the Great War?"

I shook my head. "No, but my husband did. The man who saved his and his twin brother's lives from a group of necromancers. The man they came to call 'Father.' He died in the War."

"Yet another life snuffed out, for nothing."

I stared at my clasped hands for a moment. Ulfric was right: Jergen's sacrifice was for nothing. He died for nothing, leaving behind two boys who never knew if he was their father or not. No child deserves that.

"Then help me make his sacrifice mean something."

His gaze lifted, and his eyes filled with something like confusion. "What are you saying?"

"My children were born here. My parents were born here. I have never known any other homeland. Perhaps it's time for someone else to stand up and drive those elves away. Someone who doesn't need to kill a King to display her power."

"You would lead a rebellion? Against the entirety of the Thalmor? Do you even know how to command an army?"

"No."

"Didn't you just say you aren't popular right now?"

"Yes."

He sighed. "You would be a worse leader than I at this point. You must be insane if you think you can lead an army."

"I can learn. It has to start somewhere. Small skirmishes, raids, anything to show the elves that Skyrim means business."

"The elves mean business, too. You know that. They're already hunting down every Talos supporter and executing them in droves. Most of my own men have lost their lives to the headsman's axe. Would you be willing to face that should this idea of yours fail? Are you ready to lose your life for this land?"

"Yes. I will sacrifice myself for Skyrim, and I will die for my children, so that their children will know the true freedom, so that my descendants can enjoy a peace that you and I have never known."

"Ylva, you are submitting yourself to something so much bigger than you realize. You are abnegating all rights to peace until your war is won. From this point on, you belong to the cause. Are you sure that is what you want?"

"I don't want my family to fear. I don't want those Altmeri monsters to rip anymore mothers and fathers away from their children. I will not stand for the elves making this land's children orphans. It happened to me, and by Talos, if I can keep it from happening to anyone else, I will."

Ulfric smiled, apparently pleased with my answer. "Well, then, Sky-Shatterer, what is your next move?"

"Getting you out of this squalor so you can teach me how to lead an army."