"—no, not about that. It's about the Valtheim Towers."

"That's the... fort, right? At the border? What of it?"

Ahh he is not assertive enough to navigate this conversation.

What would Ruby say.

"The fort was abandoned and taken over by bandits who have been preying on merchants and the smallfolk. Now if you're not willing to pay five hundred septim for passage—"

"I'm sorry, did you say five hundred septim?"

"Yeah."

"I... see. Go on."

"If you're not willing to or can't pay that much to cross then you have to either go west through the Pale or south through the mountains..." Ruby would say something pointed here. "...using the road that passes through Helgen." Where the dragon attacked, left unsaid.

"And what's wrong with going through the Pale?"

...great question! What is wrong with that?

"The roads are much more badly maintained," Ruby puts in to rescue him, "and although there isn't a single chokepoint like the Towers the road is still peppered with bandit camps."

Huh. That makes sense, actually.

"And actually the very fact that there isn't such a chokepoint is a problem because it makes the roads that much harder to police. There aren't any forts, abandoned or otherwise, until Whitewatch Tower which is at the border between the Pale and Whiterun Hold, and the constant snow and bad terrain make it easy for bandits to hit and run and avoid capture. The whole reason for the Valtheim Towers is to keep that road safe so that travel and trade can continue unimpeded between the two holds, and that can't happen anymore."

"And you want Ulfric to send men to retake the Towers? I'm afraid he—"

"We've already taken it," Onmund interrupts, surprising Jorleif and himself. "We just need men to defend it. And it's a very defensible position, a dozen men should be enough," as that was how many were there, "so if Windhelm and Whiterun send half a dozen each..."

"I see. That does seem like something I should bring up with the jarl."

"That is all we can ask for."

No it's fucking not.

He asked Onmund to take point so he will have to deal with it.

Yeah yeah yeah.

Jorleif... is not unaware that there was a moment of nonverbal communication here between the two of them but since it seems like they're not after anything else he asks them to wait where they are and excuses himself to go speak with the jarl.

He returns shortly after, though, looking forlorn. "The jarl will not be able to give you the men you need."

Onmund and Ruby look at each other then back at Jorleif. "Why not?"

"We cannot spare any men; we are short-staffed as-is. The war with the Empire is consuming all of our resources."

"So are the bandits! Ulfric says that he's fighting for the smallfolk? It's not just the Empire and the Dominion sucking the country dry and killing our people! These forts all over everywhere lie abandoned because of Ulfric's war, and now bandits and necromancers and vampires and who knows what else are using this moment of Skyrim's weakness to prey on Skyrim's people, and Ulfric is doing jack shit about it! And so is the Empire! It's really easy to say that Skyrim needs independence and whatever the hells else but what's important is the people and the people care about safety and health and prosperity and whether it's the Empire or the Dominion or the bandits they're not gonna care when they're dead."

...uh, whoops.

That.

May not have been very strategic.