He took this into account. He didn't want to be too forward in the idea of blackmail, but it was certainly what it was. So he simply kept this forwardness to himself as he watched her lean forward towards him, almost insinuating something romantic. But due to Alduin's blunt, and inept, nature at "reading the room," this clearly went over his head. He raised a brow to it as she exited the room.
And after she was gone, he set about to his study where he would spend a good part of the day reading and writing in silence But as he was dozing off in the middle of his writing, a fleeting memory came back to him:
He could see himself, standing there amongst a battered and destroyed battlefield; ground soaked with blood and steel. He could see, across the vast swathes of devastation, a city that was being laid siege by an invading army.. His army.. He could hear the shrilled screams of innocents being cut down like butter to a knife.. He didn't want to listen, but he had to for he was a soldier and soldiers follow orders... However as he stood there, cringing at the sounds of wanton death, he could feel his soul burn with a fire unlike any other. He felt himself slipping before he fell into primal desires.. He leapt into the fray thereafter, and slew anything that moved.. Even his own men...
He shuttered awake at the sound of a butler who informed him that dinner was ready. Alduin, who seemed a bit soaked in his own sweat, told the butler he'll be there in a moment and proceeded to clean himself and assure himself that he was not what people feared him as. After that he headed for the dining hall, continuously reminding himself of such a thing.
Bookmarks