"I've got a letter to deliver. Your hands only. Let's see here. Ah, letter from a Jarl. My, don't you have friends in high places? That's it. Got to go." the Courier said casually before leaving the college and vanishing into the blizzard outside.
I stared at the sealed parchment with a dark expression. More specifically the wax seal itself. It was blue with the signet imprint shaped like a roaring bears head with swirls in the cheeks, the coat of arms of clan Stormcloak. This letter was either sent by Ulfric or for him by someone else, either way not good for me.-
This a groan of acceptance I broke the seal and unfolded the letter.
{Hail Alexan of Riften
Perhaps you have noticed or perhaps not. But I have sought commerce and cooperation with the great houses of Morrowwind as you suggested. As you predicted they were eager to form partnership and have readily agreed to ally with Skyrim and Hammerfell. I have regularly sent missives to the High king during this time with evidence and appeals for a formal agreement being struck. -
Things have hit a snag however in this regards as my agents within Solitude tell me there are many parties tying the High King to inaction. These parties all have strong ties to the Empire and I have sent this letter in hopes that you may provide a solution to this obstacle. I personally believe these tumors should be excised but perhaps you have a better answer. I await your swift reply.
Solemnly, Ulfric Stormcloak- Jarl of Windhelm.}
The letter wasn't long but it didn't need to be to convey the message it was meant to. Ulfric was all but telling me he wanted to drag me into the shitstorm that was the political landscape of skyrim.-
The letter was worded in such a way that I couldn't even decide to not send a reply. Not unless I wanted to thoroughly offend him that was. And considering I REALLY wanted him to follow my plan that was off the table. I could only groan and unwillingly think of a solution to this little snag of his. I can't even say I was surprised about it either as that was a problem any player could see in the game. A lot of those who supported the Empire in the game did so not out of loyalty but because their power and money was tied to it closely.-
Needless to say they REALLY didn't want to see Skyrim getting separated from the empire. The fact solitude's court was filled with such people made it hardly surprising at all that they were meddling and holding Torygg back from moving towards a three party alliance with Morrowwind and Hammerfell. The easiest if most brutal solution was to openly kill these people like Ulfric wanted to. This would be a grave mistake however. These people would go from nuisances to the sparks that kicked off civil war if they were killed like that.-
Killing someone because they stood in the way of your beliefs was exactly the problem that caused the discord to begin with. If Skyrim wanted a clean break from the empire these people needed to be dealt with quietly and without kicking up a fuss.
'Looks like I get to call in a favor with Delvin. I fucking hope you appreciate this Ulfric.' I thought slightly bitter as I got up from the courtyard bench and headed for my room to write up two letters.
In the thieves guild favors were worth more than gold and never cashed in without damned good reason. But whenever one was called in the one who owed it was bound by the unspoken rules to answer it. It was a strange sort of honor among thieves type deal but one I had a part in all the same. Delvin was on the older side and had moved from active thieving to being a sort of living job board in the guild. He had a vast web of contacts across the whole of skyrim that he used to get jobs and goods for the active thieves of the guild. -
During my years working as a healer at the guild Delvin came to owe me exactly two favors for services rendered. The first because Sapphire came back really injured and he panicked. He almost gave away the fact he was her uncle to her because of this. She didn't know and he wanted to keep it that way hence the first favor to cover it up. The second favor was actually because he was having a certain bit of trouble older gentlemen tended to have and needed a solution on the discrete side.-
As both a healer and decent enough alchemist I solved his problem and claimed a second favor. Now I was calling in one of these favors for a very specific purpose, summoning the dark brotherhood. Delvin once ran with the cult of killers and kept contact with them providing services if they needed them. Now I was using that connection to get the brotherhood to help make these obstacles go away. Ulfric would of course be footing the bill since he had the nerve to drag my ass into this mess and make me burn one of my favors. I said as much in my letter to him as well.-
I didn't have a signet of my own officially but did have one for my work with the guild. It was a coin with a crack in it. I pressed that signet to the letter for Delvin and set the letter to the side as I sealed the letter to Ulfric without a signet. With that done I stood up and walked out into the courtyard where a courier was already waiting quietly. I handed over the letters along with their intended recipients and a small pouch of coin for the delivery. -
The courier took everything and put it away before vanishing into the blizzard outside. As they dissappeared I returned to my room and began drawing up plans for how these obstacles in Solitude should be taken out. All of them had to look like accidents, coincidence or natural deaths. For some this would be easy as they were old and for others some careful work would be needed. I didn't have names but I could adapt plans based on that information after learning it. I knew there was a vampire in the brotherhood that I marked as one of the possible ways to kill some of these people and get away with it.-
A string of vampire attacks would draw serious heat to the culprit but wouldn't raise alarms in those targeted unless the victims were made too obvious. Throw in a couple of random extra victims and the pattern shatters. This would only work for three or four of the targets as once the body count starts to get near double digits the vigilant of Stendar would get called and that vampire would be hunted by professionals.