I clap my hands dramatically only for nothing to happen. My eye twitches and I clap more forcefully and hear a chuckle from the nearby wall.
"Coming boss, no need to get your robes in a twist." Davos literally walks vertically up the walls of the balcony and sits his ass down without a care about the now extrely confused Nords staring at him in bewildernt.
Fucker wants to pay back for my previous trolling, eh? Hehehe too bad you are playing against the master. "Allow to reintroduce to all of you Davos, forrly of Windhelm, now of house Dagoth."
Falk stares at him with narrowed eyes "And you are certain that this... Davos can infiltrate the sprawl and get into contact with our target?" He asks with great doubt in his voice.
Before I can answer Davos shrugs "I did literally just slink my way into one of the most guarded places in Skyrim."
Firebeard raises a finger, holds it up for a mont, and then lowers it to his chin realizing he was right.
Torygg speaks up "We cannot waste ti to confirm his skills in any case, and I doubt Reyvin would lie about his capabilities." After receiving nods of agreent from his stewards he goes on "We must first choose our target, just sending soone in would bring no results for weeks, weeks we do not have."
I nod "That is true, I am going to presu we all got our information from the sa source, but will reiterate just in case: There are three major organizations within the sprawl, followed by countless minor ones usually paying homage to the big three."
Falk hums in agreent and brings out a stack of parchnt "Indeed, the first is the so-called 'Massif' trading company, headed by a Louis le Massif, a fat Breton said to deal in all things immoral and lucrative."
His son frowns "How immoral are we talking?"
With a false smile, I say "Skooma, forced prostitution, slavery and even so Daedric degeneracy if rumors are to be believed."
Sybille sends an amused look the mont I ntion the degeneracy part but I shrug it off, which just seems to encourage her further... damn it.
Torygg imdiately shakes his head "If even one of these is true his head will fly."
I scratch my growing stubble "He is also believed to be sohow related to the Wayrest nobility so allying with him could potentially bring outside benefits." Before anyone can judge what I said I continue "Naturally I prefer we draw and quarter his fat ass, but I feel obligated to voice the options."
The King sends a look of disgust mixed with a tinge of understanding, before firmly saying "He dies."
"Understandable." I nod.
Falk clears his throat "Next up is the so called Freen, a bunch of lowlives pretending to be the local thieves guild, but are in truth just the local thugs. They are for the most part passably moral in the sense that they don't cross any unforgivable lines but the area they 'govern' is a chaotic ss where only the resourceful or strong have any say."
"The leader?" Torugg inquires.
Falk shakes his head "They are a loose union of gangs that agreed not to bother each other." "Big no on this one." I say imdiately.
The King turns to "Why?"
I stare off into the still lightly burning edge of the sprawl "They have no central ruling figure, organizing them into any kind of cohesive force would be an exercise in futility and we would just end up arming exactly the kind of people that stop the sprawl from being pacified. Quite frankly I would prefer the fat Breton over them."
Falk nods reluctantly "I am inclined to agree with Lord Dagoth."
I chuckle "Just Reyvin will still do Falk, there is no sudden need for formalities."
He sends a reserved smile and nods.
Torygg seems to be growing more and more anxious as he slowly asks "And the final group?"
Falk once again brings out a stack of papers and reads them quickly "The final group are the so-called Sprawl Tyrants, a militaristic group made up of great war veterans and their families, they call themselves the Brotherhood of Tsun and are led by the one known as the Silent Brother." his growing excitent is soon replaced by barely contained disdain as he reads on "They force others into working in the small mines they managed to discover within the scattered rock formations near the swamp... this also includes older children." Before Torygg can go ballistic I ask "And do they take good care of their... interns?"
Falk hesitantly nods.
"Then they are our most likely candidate." I say and everyone shifts their gaze at with mixed emotions, I continue staring at the sprawl while giving my explanation "Tsun is said to be he who tests the worthy in Sovengarde, is he not? So they are openly saying that they see this unfortunate situation as a test of their worthiness even if they are cruel I doubt they would dare dishonor the na they chose."
Torygg hmm's in agreent "That is true, but that alone cannot be your only reason for advocating them."
"You are right, of course. The primary reason I would choose them is that they are a group of war veterans, aning they would easily understand the need for law and order." I turn back to the rest "Also adding to that is the fact that they have a leader who is presumably a Nord veteran whom you could easily justify giving a Thanehood to if he decided to help you. And as a final bit of spice in that already delicious looking stew they could be excellent recruits for the coming war, aning good paying jobs for the residents and a way out of their constant
poverty."
Ingvar frowns "What do you an coming war?"
Falk sighs "Ulfric, boy."
"Oh."
Torygg is silent for so ti, now also staring down from the balcony, he quietly asks "And I am to just reward the n and won who forced children to work as you say?"
I sigh "Personally I would butcher them in any other situation, but in this kind of scenario they would be justified if they actually kept the kids alive and fed. The situation down there is a terrible one and no solution we have on hand will be perfect."
Torygg returns to his silence, and we all spend a tense minute waiting for him to co to a decision, he sighs tiredly "After your explanation I would be a fool not to listen, very well. The Brotherhood of Tsun will be offered royal pardon and patronage in return for their help." He turns to Davos "Is there anything you need from us?"
I choose this mont to interrupt and hand Davos a scroll that would send out a signal once activated "Once you arrive and if they are not completely useless, activate this and I will co to negotiate with them."
He nods and turns to Torygg "So kind of identification would be useful, to prove I am who
I say I am."
"Very well." Torygg nods, and signals Falk to give him a sealed scroll "Go with our blessing."
Before Davos can slink away I say "You are permitted to recruit agents from the locals and promise rewards to them in my na, just make sure they aren't a waste of space."
He almost stumbles at my whimsical de facto promotion, but quickly gathers himself, bows, and leaves the sa way he ca in.
"Before we all go about our business." I say after Davos leaves "What is the situation with the Reachn?"
Falk once again starts shifting through his stack of parchnt and pulls out a scout report "They have retreated into their western mountain caves to spend the winter, their lack of proper resistance to the harsh cold combined with their abject poverty makes them incapable of attacking with anything larger than skirmish groups."
I nod slowly "So they will not be a problem for so months at least?"
"Yes, we have approximately three months before the conditions allow them to make any big
moves." Falk explains.
Torygg sighs "If it isn't one thing then it is another."
Falk grunts in agreent "Yes, even when we deal with the Forsworn Ulfric remains a thorn in
our side."
"Let us not forget the Thalmor." I say gravely "They could easily be the ones behind most of our current predicants." before anyone can respond a thought occurs to "Speaking
of..."
I pull out a rolled up scroll and hand it to a confused Torygg, he reads through it and scowls before looking at with a mix of gratitude and annoyance "And you could not have given
this earlier?"
I shrug "Davos just finished breaking the little shit, and besides you could have done nothing
about it even if I gave it to you earlier."
Falk looks at Torygg cautiously "What is it?"
The King rely gives him the scroll and a couple of monts later he joins his liege in scowling at "This is why I hate mages..." I hear him mutter.
"Hey, I resent that!" Sybille half-yells.
As ballsy as always, Falk rely stares at her and smiles lightly "Did I stutter Stentor?"
She huffs but doesn't seem offended.
Falk turns back to "The agent revealed his superiors talked about so kind of operation in the west, do you think it could have sothing to do with the Reachn?"
I hum and nod "Quite frankly I would be surprised if they weren't sohow involved in it, the Reachn were always more interested in Markarth than Solitude. Forcing them North must have co with so hefty support, likely in the form of expensive gifts to the cabal of
Hagravens that lead them."
Torygg cuts in with his scowl deepening further "And you think they might have sothing to do with the current situation as well?"
"Less likely" I state "They made an attempt only recently and it is not in their nature to rush
things."
The King nods slowly and sighs "By Talos, I cannot wait for the day when I get to butcher that
elven bitch Elenwen."
"You sure you should be saying that out loud?" I smirk.
He rolls his eyes "As long as I am not openly against them they understand very well how
resented they are here."
I nod "Understandable, and there is no need to worry, I already blew up all their spy familiars before we started this conversation."
Falk gapes "They have spy familiars!?"
Sybille and I burst into laughter, realizing that we completely forgot to inform everyone about our little ga of whack-the-bird in the morning. Seriously, if they keep sending them over my familiar made up of literal fire will manage to get fat.
I am once again asking for your geological support.
If you want to support directly and get access to 30ish chapters (Just under 60k words) in
advance visit my patreon page patreon/Rastislav156
If you want to discuss the story or just about join my discord server: sdiscord.
gg/Q4vCUvntB
Reviews
All reviews (0)