After I bought my house, Honeyside, in Riften from Jarl Laila Law-Giver and furnished it, I went there and my housecarl was not there. I was never given her and expected to find her at the house.

There continues to be a marker over the Jarl's head and my Journal (under Misc.) keeps telling me to 'Return to the Jarl of Riften'. When I go there and speak to the Jarl, I only get:
- What is the White-Gold Concordat?
- What's your stance on the war?
- What of Ulfric himself?
- Tell me about the Thieve's Guild

What could have happened to poor Iona, how can I ever get her back? I would like her to become a Blade.

The Thalmor got her.

try buying the house from the steward, and talk to the jarl immediately after that. you can decorate and visit the house later. this should get you the housecarl and clear the "return to jarl" quest

There's a bug associated with this. What one should do, after completing certain quests and getting the message to talk to the Jarl, would be to:
1. Talk to the Jarl, she asks you to speak to the steward and buy a house.
2. Speak to the Steward, buy said house.
3. DON'T VISIT THE HOUSE YET!! Speak to the Jarl first, this will let the quest proceed as intended.
If you visit the house, then talk o the Jarl, you won't be able to complete the quest, which is to...
If you're on PC you can console the correct ending of the quest and get Iona. If not, I hope you have an earlier save to revert back on.

Thanks Hayashi. Unfortunately I have gone way beyond the point where I would consider going back about 800 saves to correct this. I am on a PC but only slightly familiar with using console codes. Where can I help on this?

Please do not post Spoilers in General.

People come to General to learn about the game without learning about what happens in the game. If they want to know about what happens, that is what the Cheats, Hints and Spoilers section is for.

Do not use quest details or location specific details related to quests/puzzles/NPCs in your posts in this section. General is for discussing gameplay and mechanics and general topics about the the game including but not limited to races, items and their use, magic, enchanting, skills, character builds, criticism, praise, funny random things that happen, places from an esthetic standpoint and and other general topics.

Use the Spoilers Section if you have to post quest details or other spoilers or a thread about the same. I will move this now.

Isn't this forum called cheats, hints, and spoilers?

Use the


code in the console.

I had the same issue and that fixed it for me.

when you see the Mods post that generic post it means that the topic started in the genral section and was moved here to the spoilers section