Several men surrounded the large round table, Lucius among them. They were all differently dressed though it was clear many of them were of the merchant class.

Lucius sat in his wooden chair with a grin planted on his face and his fingers twiddling each other in anticipation. He cleared his throat and, with a strong sense of authority, asked, “I count nine of us, including myself. I take we’re all here then?”

The men all nodded or grumbled in agreement. Then, silence. Silence. Silence.

Finally, Lucius spoke up once more, this time with more tepidness, “Well, I’m sure each of you has at least guessed why this council has been called…” The eight others went white in the face. “…An assassination attempt on the emperor’s life has failed. Furthermore, it seems a member of the Elder Council is responsible.”

Sienna, chapter head of Res Publica in Bruma, spoke up with his usual intensity, “What does this have to do with us?”

With an eerie calmness, Lucius shifted his eyes across all the men at the table. “Because the time to move is now. The Legion is weakening, spread thin from the war in Skyrim; Riots are erupting every week somewhere in Cryodiil; our numbers are bigger than ever; and the emperor and Elder Council are in strife. To sweeten our odds, Mede as no doubt been lulled into a false sense of security after killing off the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim.” Everyone sunk back into their wooden chairs, knowing what Lucius was about to say.

Once again, it was Sienna who spoke up. “And what is it you propose?”

Lucius cleared his throat and produced a map of cyrodiil. He laid it on the table and announced, “We have two major impediments to our beautiful republic: the emperor and the counts. We must deal with all accordingly.”

Assisi of the Imperial City interrupted, “Surely, you're not suggesting we fight all the counts and the emperor!”

“Hush, Assisi, and listen. It is true that we do not have the numbers necessary for open warfare; however, we do have other resources to throw the odds in our favor.” He ran his fingers over Skingrad on the map. “Let me make Skingrad an example. We force a massive riot to take place. The count, being the damned coward he is, will certainly barricade himself in his little castle whilst his guards deal with the chaos. With a few coins here and there, I’m sure we could bribe a few of the castle’s guards or servants to let a trickle of our men inside…”

Sienna was to interrupt this time, “And then what? We kill a count and his family and then we sit back until the emperor comes after us!”

“This is the most beautiful part though! We do this with each city on a single day. Imagine the emperor sitting on this throne when he hears that each of his counts and countesses has been overthrown! He be completely overwhelmed and surprised at the same time with no sure way to react. Of course, we won’t do this with the Imperial City… no, we’ll have to take a more direct approach with that city.”

“Such as?”

Lucius laughed, “Once we take the eight major cities and towns, we’ll move all our forces – maybe a couple mercenaries as well – and surround the city. No doubt that we’ll have help from the people on the inside as well.”

Silence again.

“So we're all in agreement?”

More silence.

“Excellent! We’ll strike in three days.”

Though they all wanted to, none of the eight men dared to make an objection.

"Now let’s move on to our next matter: the distribution of [i]the[/i] book.”

Opus of Bravil raised his hand to speak, “As our last council agreed upon, we’ve been trying to smuggle the book into neighboring provinces with the help of our merchants.”

“Wonderful! Every man in Tamriel should have access to that book. Still, I think we should focus the spread of our propoganda in these provinces." He ran his fingers on the map over Skyrim, High Rock, and Hammerfell to which the men all nodded in approval.

Lucius took a deep breath and peaked out the window to see the sun rising upon them. A new day was approaching and it was going to be a bloody one.