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~~~~~~~~~~
In Whiterun, there are two large clans known as the Grey-Manes and the Battle-Borns. In the game, both Clans lived in the Wind District and owned the largest houses in the city, they boast about their history and fame like all Nords and have some kind of feud.
In reality, things are a bit different. The feud hasn't started yet but it started to show signs after Ulfric's messenger spreading the word of resisting the Empire's laws and all. Instead of the feud, there is what one can call a rivalry.
The Battle-Borns own a large farm business on the White River which is not something to look down on in this part of the world. Owning farms make people very rich very fast and that's why I started the reclamation project to the roadside lands south to Winterhold. The Grey-Manes own a high quality yet small scale blacksmithing business as Eorlund Grey-Mane is the best in Skyrim and has the honor to forge in the famous Skyforge.
The other major difference from the game was that the families were much larger. Just like the Firemanes and the Moonblades, the Grey-Manes and the Battle-Borns do have a lot of people and more houses around their houses, more relatives that share the same last name and all else.
With the current friendship and rivalry between the two clans, it is possible to wrap make the marriage of Olfina and Jon become reality.
Announcing my identity in front of the Battle-Born house sure brought up a stir and soon the news of me being here will reach the Jarl but I was on a hurry. I stated the reason for my visit as coming to see Jon Battle-Born and we were led directly to the Clan's largest building. Not only did I see Jon but the other senior members of the Clan too including Olfrid Battle-Born the patriarch of the Clan and his son-in-law Idolaf.
Showing up my gifts which are expensive sure made the Battle-Borns happy. They are an ancient clan and all but they sure love money as much as Imperials do. I also tried to avoid talking with the senior members unless it was business and focused on Jon Battle-Born. This will surely prove that the Dare Dragon Company can be linked to them by Jon.
Not long after we opened the matter regarding Jon and Olfina and the air got electrified all of a sudden. It seems that the political views of the two families have already taken form and started clashing but I am sure that Ulfric hasn't brought up anything regarding an armed conflict so far but he heads of the clans are surely expecting one.
Still, the best thing Jon Battle-Born could take from his father was an unenthusiastic acceptance regarding his wish to marry the daughter of Eorlund Grey-Mane.
We couldn't stay long and moved to the Grey-Manes with Jon Battle-Born with us. The reason we had to do this fast was to not give anyone the chance of going back on their words.
Clan Grey-Mane was a bit different than Battle-Born. Eorlund Grey-Mane didn't come out to see us at the beginning (which made Wulfur's heart almost break from sadness) and the one who met us were Vignar Grey-Mane, Eorlund's brother and the one who oversees the public relations of the Grey-Manes as well as Olfina's brothers Avulstein and Thorald.
The atmosphere was a bit intense at first but I took care of 'breaking the ice' at first and made a good trade deal by luck. I knew that the Grey-Manes were expecting Jon Battle-Born to be asking for Olfina's hand but he had to have some merit he can show off with in front of them.
Luckily, Jon Battle-Born has a lot of those. He worked himself lately in Jorrvaskr and was accepted as a Companion, he won a tournament with me and Wulfur, he is a full-fledged warrior bard, and he works for me now… yep, I told him that he can take an important job and gave him a good position to manage the company's outpost in Whiterun. Having an outpost in Whiterun meant that we can sell to the whole Skyrim as it is the hold that shares borders with all the other holds except Haafingar and Winterhold which still doesn't pose a problem.
After a long while of talking, Eorlund Grey-Mane joined us and I barely managed to shut Wulfur up so that Jon can talk to Eorlund.
It took a while and we had to endure the glares of all the Grey-Mane senior members for an hour before the meeting came to a conclusion. Jon Battle-Born received the initial approval of Eorlund and we waited for the approval of Olfina herself and the rest of the family. Normally, Olfina's and Eorlund's words are what matters but the Battle-Borns and the Dare Dragon Company were involved in this matter so they Grey-Mane had to start giving it some thoughts too.
The marriage in this world is sure complicated even though the relationships are loose. Marriage as a sacred bond also depends on benefit, wealth and titles which made things hard for a lot of people.
I had a good feeling about the attitude of both the Grey-Manes and the Battle-Borns. They were not harboring any bad feeling towards each other and as far as my knowledge goes, before Ulfric's words go around, the two clans were actually fixing their relationship and getting along.
Even though if they started their feud, things won't go that bad. In the game, Thorald Grey-Mane was captured by the Thalmor when he was fighting for Ulfric Stormcloak, to get the news about him, one must know it through the Battle-Borns. From my point of view, it seemed that the Battle-Borns were concerned about Thorald Grey-Mane and asked around for him even though they feigned ignorance in public to not hurt the Grey-Manes with the fact that the Thalmor were involved. The Thalmor are relentless after all.
Still, we all were walking on eggshells here and we had to be swift.
***
Three days later, trouble started to happen.
The members of [Team 0] were attacked last night by an unknown force when they were doing business for me around the city. It was a night attack and both sides were made of highly trained assassins and rangers. The fight alerted the Jarl and his men but I hid my men fast in the Cube and made sure that no trace link back to me.
When I questioned my men, it seemed that some people captured one of our own and interrogated him about me. The man was badly hurt and lost some finger in the process but Alina worked on his wounds and he soon recovered.
A lot of eyes and ears started to pop around us since then.
These were all 'Sleeper Agents'. People that the other forces planted in Whiterun to gather information and spread words. I was a bit inexperienced on how to deal with that kind of operatives. In Riften, there was only the Thieves Guild which I knew how they play and in Winterhold, all the 'Sleeper Agents' were weeded out periodically.
But to an established town like Whiterun, there were too many Sleeper Agents. Even the College of Winterhold had some of those around even though they don't do politics.
'Sleeper Agents' can sometimes serve more than one master as double agents or even triple agents.
Anyway, my priority right now was to point out the loose ends and tie it up. In Whiterun, the Dare Dragon Company has an outpost and I started from there. I picked up all the weird movements and talked to some of those eyes and ears to see where I can reach with them. Sadly, it was hard to pull them to my side.
During the night, I sent Jullanar and Nefertiti to capture the ones that attacked my men. Jullanar always comes with results and she captured a Breton man for me and we pulled him in a dark alleyway for interrogation. The man proved to be hard to crack and tried to run on multiple occasions but I soon found a better way to handle him. The [Skeleton Key]!
I just had to 'lock' a part of his awareness and the truth was revealed as soon as I asked to next question.
"The Empire!"
This was the answer I received. The Empire was targeting me or to be more specific, the [Penitus Oculatus].
They are the new Imperial Guards and the Intelligence Agency of the Empire, known to the public as the [Penitus Oculatus] and to the underground as the [Specters].
The reason they came after me was not clear even to them but they were tasked to keep an eye on the Empire's Loyalists and secure a foothold in Whiterun. Any presence that may affect the Empire's influence in Whiterun was to be dealt with.
As I appeared in the Battle-Born Clan and started bringing them closer to the Grey-Mane Clan, the Imperial Operatives started to feel threatened that their supporters may switch sides by my actions and so they started targeting me.
Just by trying to prevent a feud in Whiterun to lessen the severity of the future Civil War and help a friend marry the girl he loves, I attracted the attention of the largest shadow organization in the Empire.
What a thrill!
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A/n: Okay, guys. There won't be extras for the time being. I am super busy and I want to stock on chapters until '31st of March'. I will have some [Job Interview] on '12th of April' and I have to start studying on '1st of April'... and I will start stocking from now so that you can read while I am away.
All [New Patron Extras] will be saved and published when I return.
Enjoy~❤
~~~~~~~~~~
Things turned out to be more complicated than what I thought, the War seems to have already started.
I was a fool not to think of it that way.
The moment Ulfric Stormcloak started calling out the Nords to oppose the Empire and the White Gold Concordat, a cold war broke out between the shadow organizations of both sides. The Empire had the [Penitus Oculatus] while the Stormcloaks had some sort of intelligence gathering teams that are well trained.
According to the intel I gathered, Whiterun is a massive headache to both sides.
The Day after we captured the Imperial Spy, someone attempted to make a move against Jon Battle-Born. We fought the group and captured one of them. They were Stormcloaks and their aim was to kidnap Jon Battle-Born to create any feud between the Grey-Manes and the Battle-Borns. Of course, the [Skeleton Key] was very handy in the interrogation.
I found out that the Stormcloak Intelligence Organization calls itself a childish name which is [Storm Fangs].
I was having a massive headache from how active the [Penitus Oculatus] and the [Storm Fangs] were. The two organization already had an army of operatives around and can as well go murder each other for all that I care about.
I only had nine 'Dare Agents' from [Team 0] as well as myself, Nefertiti and Jull. What gave us the edge was how easy we can hide using the [Haven Cube] and I also started to recruit the best Sleeper Agents in town, the cats.
I can use my bloodline ability [Titanborn: Beast Master] to tame a number of cats to help me around but Nefertiti was already handling it on her own much better than I ever could, she befriended most of the street cats and they all whisper to her. Cats are smart after all and know humans very well even though they don't care most of the time.
With all the street cats in Whiterun to support me, I knew where all the operatives hide and how many are on each team. I even detected a [Morag Tong] hideout in Whiterun. I was taken aback at first but I didn't think too much about them anyway.
[A/n: The Morag Tong are an 'Official' and a 'Legal' guild of Assassins that operate in Morrowind and are protected by the Law and Religion. You can put a hit on anyone there and I mean anyone including the Emperor of Tamriel. Cool, right?]
After gathering the intel I needed, I started analyzing them and came up with some good theories.
The Empire and the Stormcloaks are both expecting War and each are stalking on supplies and weapons. The Grey-Manes practice blacksmithing and beside Skyforge, they have other forges. The Battle-Borns, on the other hand, own a ridiculous amount of farmlands and can support and will make a difference depending on which side they pick. The Grey-Manes are showing sympathy towards the Stormcloak rebellion and the Battle-Borns are loyalists to the Empire.
Of course, both sides of the conflict don't see a benefit in both families coming together and here where my benefit comes in. I want to make business in Whiterun and those are the best trading partners I can pick in the entire hold.
My problem in trading with both the east and the west of Skyrim is that I have Maven Black-Briar defaming me in the east while Thane Erikur defaming me from the west. I control the north and the south and the sea with the help of the East Empire Company so the south is my only land trading route left.
Politics and Economy are entwined around the marriage of a Nord boy and a Nord girl. It is vexing but I am on the side of love.
Two days passed and I moved my base of operation to the Wind District and to be specific, between the Battle-Born and the Grey-Mane clans. I set up a few magic spells to hide and used the Haven Cube as the place to run everything through.
My nine agents were not familiar with the Cube so they always thought that I teleport them each time we hide.
During those two days, the [Penitus Oculatus] and the [Storm Fangs] never ceased to stop moving, they couldn't pinpoint our location and the only thing they could do is to patrol the Wind District every night and fight amongst each other. I am safe to say that Jull and the nine Dare Agents I brought with me became masters spying from all the work we had to do.
Today was the final day for this suffering, the Battle-Borns and the Grey-Manes were having a meeting between their heads and I had to smoothen everything to the max even though I was merely a guest of honor. I sent out Jullanar, and the nine Agents to keep an eye on everything out there, Nefertiti was keeping her cat gang monitor everyone around and Alina was with me. Also, Ysolda and Akara were in the Haven Cube serving lord Lukthur, the picky gryphon.
Alina's rule was important, if there was anyone that managed to bypass the people I left outside, Alina can take them down with a glare.
Jon Battle-Born and Olfina Grey-Mane didn't hesitate to express their will and the families agreed on the marriage.
The problem now is the wedding. Both Olfina and Jon were 17 which is actually good as a wedding age in Skyrim, people marry at 16 in early cases. And as the families sealed the vows in the presence of a Temple Priest and were formally registered, my job finally came to an end.
"It was a fucking nightmare!" I said as I stretched my body on the bed in the inn.
"It is because of you! You overstressed us the past five days." Jull complained.
"The important thing is that Olfina and Jon Battle-Born are getting married, this is a win situation for us." Alina said.
"I am just happy things went my way. The wedding will take a while but you saw the patriarchs of both clans today. I think we can rely on them for a while. I even had to hear them talking about their farms and forges for hours until they finished bragging."
"Good for you. Is there anything else you need us to do? I have a sweet little boy who misses me every day and I have to stay with him. Give him to me." Alina said.
"Yeah, take that unfilial bastard."
I pointed the Haven Ring at her and took out a creature from the space. It was the white-feathered dog-sized mind-numbing dumbass gryphon.
"Lokthur!" Alina came closer and took the idiot bird.
Lokthur shrieked and jumped towards Alina hugging her, he even cowered in her arms and let her carry him.
"What a hateful creature!" I cussed in a low tone.
"Hey, watch it! He understands you." Alina glared at me.
"Yeah yeah… tell him to be quiet and sleep like normal baby birds do."
"Humph!" Alina snorted and walked away with Lukthur.
If I knew gryphons are this annoying, I would have never unsealed the egg.
Anyway, my mood was ruined by that cheeky bird, I started to call it 'Emergency Rations' lately but Alina always looked at me as if I am some sort of a monster or something.
Anyway, the annoying bird grew up fast and all its hair came out. It was a truly marvelous white feather that only Alina and Nefertiti had the privilege to touch. It became what is known as a Fledgling Gryphon.
[A/n: Google 'fledgling gryphon'... the pics are so cool.]
"Sigh! I am heading out."
"Can we invite Svidi?" Jull asked.
"Yeah, have fun… I'll go talk with Wulfur."
"Wulf and Jorna are doing it tonight. She said to not let you go anywhere near him." She stopped me.
It seemed that we won't be drinking then. I have to have fun on my own.
I put on a cloak and walked out of the inn down the road with no aim in mind. Still, I was being followed.
'Sigh! Those idiots want another go again?'
I walked into an alleyway and stood there waiting for whoever following me to come up. The presence paused for a while then kept watching me. A second later, it started climbing on a house and it was actually fast.
An assassin in the end? How disappointing!
I waited for the assassin to arrive and finally, it showed up.
"You should have attacked me when you had the chance… oh!"
I realized that I was completely mistaken.
The figure who appeared in front of me was someone I totally forgot about due to the stress in the past few days.
"Remember me, Jon Dare?" Her tone was a bit angry.
"Aela… what's up?"
She seemed to be upset. I had to meet her five days ago but the [Penitus Oculatus] and the [Storm Fangs] appeared out of nowhere and made me busy.
"Sorry, for not seeing you the past few days, I was…"
"Busy, right? Fighting off those people in black?"
"Aha… so you noticed?"
"Don't underestimate me, I can smell you from a mile away."
"Oh!"
My pride was hurt right away! I smelled myself but I was clean.
"... I meant your distinctive scent."
"Ah, I see! Because you are a werewolf." I was really dumb.
Aela seemed to be annoyed by my misunderstanding and kept glaring at me.
"Follow me." She said.
"Where?"
"To finish what we started."
"... You want to fight me? Again?"
"Follow me!"
She seemed headstrong about her demand.
"Not interested in beating you again." I said and walked the other direction.
Aela turned around and glared at me.
"I advise you to do this the easy way. You will pay for the humiliation you inflicted on me… with your limbs! If you don't follow me right now…" Aela started threatening me.
"You'll do what?" I found myself teleporting behind her in a second with my eyes giving off bloodlust.
I hate threats.
Aela seemed to have gone pale for a while but she regained her composer.
"... If you don't come, I will report to the Harbinger that you know our secret and the Companions will hunt you down." She threatened.
"Ohoho! Really? Does that make me really a threat? I am a Firemane, girl. My Clan taught me about that thing you call 'Circle' and all. There is no way you can use such a silly bluff."
"So you're afraid then? I dare you to face me."
"..."
My head stopped from functioning. The crazy girl used the 'D' word!
"Sigh! Fine, lead the way. It is not going to end well for you though."
-Will take a break on 1st of April.
-No Extras for now cuz I am stocking chapters till 31st of March.
-Will return on 12th of April.
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