Always Lost, Always Hopeful (94) A Staff in His Eye

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SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is largely based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it's inevitably a spoiler.
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previous day






4-201-11-19 04:24
Severin Manor, Ravenrock, Solstheim, Morrowind


I awake flying towards the ceiling. I scream in terror as I fall back down and am caught by great many hands at the last moment. Then I realize my followers have grabbed me from my bed and are tossing me in the air. Today is my birthday. I told you I don't know my age, but strangely enough I can remember my birthday.

We have a quick bath and breakfast and head for the harbor. As was to be expected, Gjalund has nothing against another 2500 S. Dammit, five thousand septims just to get from Windhelm to Ravenrock and back... I hope I won't be doing this trip again any time soon.

I'm not trying to ask him to give me a birthday discount. In fact, I've ordered my girls not to let him know it's my birthday. Seamen are weird people and heaven knows what kind of sadistic birthday rituals they may have. Ship travel is unnerving enough as it is. I've never felt too comfortable in a big wooden bowl floating on water.

When we're at the boring open sea, I ask the girls if they did anything exciting last night. (I fell asleep before they returned.) No, they say, just sat on guys' laps and let themselves get fondled a little.

The first familiar part of Skyrim we get to see is Winterhold:

Note the rock ahead of us. The ship's pilot will have to be very careful.

Our destination Windhelm lies in this direction:

In the next picture, you can see a tent camp on the right bank. We're lucky there's nobody there. The last thing the ship's crew needs is to have to dodge arrows shot from the shore. Although this one doesn't look like a bandit camp. Rather fishers'.

The tower on the left is the Windhelm Lighthouse.

Here we have almost arrived in Windhelm's eastern harbor:

In Windhelm, we won't hang around. We don't even enter the city. I try to find a path to the north directly from the eastern harbor, along the western bank of the estuary. It turns out impossible without jumping into the water. But at least it saves us the long and tedious way through the gates and up and down the stairs.

Just outside the northeastern corner of Windhelm's city wall, we are quite surprised to find a camp with maybe a dozen tents inhabited mostly by elves.

They are kind of downcast and decidedly not in the mood for talking. Not hostile, just resigned. Some kind of refugees?

Some of them live in curious round tents called "yurt":
[series of 2 pictures you can click through; click on the first picture to make it big, then click again to see the next picture etc.; press  Esc to return to the text]

I also see a couple of Windhelm guards and there seems to be another entrance to the city proper.

We travel northwards over the hills. Having passed by a Shrine of Arkay, we run into a weird group. There are people shouting aggressively and a horse running back and forth. I can sense one man is clearly hostile towards us, so I shoot him dead. A bandit, he turns out to be. I can see another bandit at some distance shooting arrows at me. When I aim at him, the horse runs between us. It's really annoying! But for the damned beast, this would be a perfect shooting opportunity. I can't be bothered to start maneuvering just because of a silly horse. So I take the shot anyway, aiming at the bandit as well as I can. Unfortunately, it's the horse that gets hit. Then the girls and I finish off the bandit. Another man runs in my direction with obviously aggressive intentions and I kill him too.

I realize the last man was the owner of the horse and he got angry when I accidentally shot it. The two bandits had been attacking him. And now they're all dead. Well, shit happens, as ladies aren't supposed to say.

Soon we can see houses in the distance. Nearby is some kind of a ritual site with chest-high stone pillars.

The houses we saw belong to Amol City, a small town near a mine. To our surprise, they get attacked by imps whom the guards succeed in killing after a tough fight.

The Imperial Army should really do something about the discipline of their men. Why attack peaceful settlements like this? Stormcloak territory as this may be, town guards can certainly not be considered enemy combatants. But I'm not the one who's going to go and tell them that.

There are some shops and things in this town, and we ask the people a few generic questions, but I don't want to stay for long. We've got much to do in Winterhold.

The weather is still fine when we run along the road towards the College that is visible from far away.

Having arrived in Winterhold, I first give that sacred helm to the jarl who is in his own house for a change. He is so happy he appoints me a thane.

Then we go to the inn. The girls and I have in the meantime done a lot of pondering as to how Ranmir would react to his dead sweetheart's letter, and we've come to the conclusion that I'm not his nanny. Just give him the letter (it would be rather mean to withhold from him what I know, don't you agree?) and let him handle the news in his own way.

Ranmir is somewhat defensive, to not say offensive. After he has read the letter, he becomes downcast and starts thinking Isabelle's death was his fault. He thanks me and asks to be left alone. Well, be my guest. Um, I mean, I will gladly do as you ask and leave you alone.

I can't believe Bastaard's robe costs practically nothing.
To call it a unique collector's item would be a blasphemous understatement.
Considering where it's been brought from and how it's been obtained
and how utterly impossible it is to ever find anything comparable, it should cost 100 times more, if not 1000.
I mean, I have several pointless armors in my inventory that are 4000 S apiece.

Having told my followers they can go and amuse themselves, I hurry to the College. (I've noticed the mages there are not too fond of tourists even when they belong to a student's entourage.)

The first person I meet is Mirabelle. She congratulates me on my birthday. To my utter delight, she even hugs me. After a little chat, I go to the library and run into Master Sergius who is just leaving. I give him that ring the woman from Ravenrock wanted enchanted.

Halfway to Urag's desk, I'm having major difficulties tearing myself loose from Ertzebet's blue eyes.

When I look at Ertzebet's eyes more closely, I'm not really sure if they're blue, gray or green, or even brown.
For that matter, when I look into her eyes, I'm no longer sure of anything. My breathing stops and my knees go weak.
The way she looks at me, I have the feeling she likes me too. But I don't know for sure. And I'm scared to ask her.
She's so perfect.

A minute later, I'm looking into the librarian's face that looks almost as old as the world, and could well be. Urag is visibly happy in his somewhat insensitive way upon the sight of that small pile of precious books I've placed in front of him. He gives me a modest reward, assuming (not entirely without reason) that the pleasure from a job well done would significantly outweigh any material decoration. He confirms what I have already presumed – that one of those stolen books (which I've naturally read) could help Master Tolfdir ahead with solving the secret of that glowing blue-green thing which they have in the meantime transported into the main hall of the College and named Eye of Magnus . (Don't ask me who Magnus is.)

I rush down the stairs and briefly join a fellow girl student admiring the Eye of Magnus. I think it's rather amazing how well it matches with the color of the walls. Tolfdir is nearby. He too knows about my birthday. I feel flattered. Tolfdir starts telling me how the Eye of Magnus irradiates some kind of awesomely strong power. I must say his fascination is contagious. But we are interrupted by Ancano who demands that I accompany him. No congratulations. Tolfdir tells him we're in the midst of an important study.

Tolfdir is upset, but evidently realizes he's no match for Ancano when the latter is determined to get what he wants. So he heads for the library to have a look at that book I told him about. Ancano, in turn, takes me to the other door, the one that leads to the Arch-Mage's quarters.

What monk? Oh, never mind. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I quietly follow Ancano up the stairs. In the Arch-Mage's quarters, there's a man named Quaranir. He performs that trick I'm already familiar with when everything turns grayishblue-and-white and people around me freeze still (which means the time has stopped and they won't be able to follow our conversation). Quaranir says he'll be able to uphold this magic field for a short time only, so no long explanations. He informs me the Eye of Magnus is extremely dangerous and the world is not ready for it, but since it's already here it needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible. I ask him why can't the Psijic Order deal with it then, and he says they have a principle of not getting directly involved in such matters.

That's just about the lamest excuse one could think of. I could see through such "principles" when I was a child. Have you ever seen a boy punched and insulted by another boy, and instead of defending himself he turns around and walks away saying he refuses to fight on principle, because violence is despicable and he's above things that lowly? The truth is, he's afraid to fight, because he senses he's weaker.

That's how this Quaranir dude is. As I've told you before, if they were as powerful as they're trying to make themselves look like, the Psijic Order could thwart any threat a hundred times better than I ever could. And if they choose to stick to their high principles, then the matter can't be all that serious. All in all, this guy's behavior is pathetic. And he's not even handsome.

Come to think of it, I feel even less respect for the Psijic Order than I feel for the Dark Brotherhood. The latter were posers, I won't deny it, but they at least tried to get their job done. As much as their fierce reputation may have outweighed their actual abilities, it's an objective fact that several Dark Brotherhood assassins had the courage to actually ambush and attack me. They got killed, but at least they were men enough to come out and fight. They didn't try to make other people do the dirty work for them like those psijics have been doing.

I got carried away, sorry. Quaranir at least gives me one piece of useful information that shall help me ahead. He tells me I must seek out someone called Augur of Dunlain. Where he is, the almighty Psijic Order, unfortunately, doesn't know. Someone at the College might. I continue nodding and keeping my opinion to myself.

Then the light turns to normal. Ancano asks impatiently what's the meaning of this, and Quaranir says he has been mistaken.

Ancano is the most pertinacious person I've ever met, but Quaranir holds his ground without any apparent difficulty. He keeps insisting he has erroneously assumed me to be someone else, and apologizes humbly for troubling us unnecessarily. In spite of Ancano's "You're not going anywhere until I find out what you're up to," Quaranir just walks away with Ancano on his heels, leaving me alone with the Arch-Mage Savos Aren.

I ask him if he knows anything about the Augur of Dunlain. He gets annoyed and says: "Tolfdir has been telling stories again, hasn't he?" He's so clearly rubbed the wrong way by this topic that I apologize and leave.

I return to the lecture hall which is completely empty now, and marvel at the Eye of Magnus's exhilarating beauty.

It occurs to me that this Augur of Dunlain affair is a welcome excuse to talk to Mirabelle. I mean, the Arch-Mage led me to Tolfdir, but Mirabelle doesn't know I've even spoken about it with the Arch-Mage, does she?

So I go and find Mirabelle. Turns out she knows at least something about the Augur of Dunlain, but says I shouldn't concern myself with such matters. I keep pleading until she gives in and tells me the Augur lives in a place called Midden. I've heard of it. It's underground and can be accessed by a trapdoor I believe I have seen somewhere, maybe on the ground floor in the teachers' dormitory. I thank Mirabelle and go to find the place right away. The evening is still young.

Yes, the trapdoor is just where I remember. Down below is a dungeon, part ice, part stone.

In the stone part, I find something that looks like a prison cell. Inside, there's a dead man named Fellaqui.

I've heard that name before. It was in a note or a diary I picked up a long time ago. There's a diary lying here too. I squat down (I can't sit, there's blood all over the floor) and read it. It's long and confused. Something about channeling someone's soul through himself in order to put it into someone else. Yuck. The only thing that seems relevant to me is that Fellaqui has magically imprisoned – securely and for all eternity, as he believes – a girl Tyllia "deep inside the caverns of Blackreach". I've never heard of the location, but it doesn't sound too hospitable.

Continuing my search for that Augur creature, I meet a few draugrs and very big white poison spiders. And a locked door.

As I fumble with the lock, an ethereal voice that sounds very dead tells me to leave. This must be the place. As I keep examining the seemingly impossible lock, the voice goes like: all right, if you're so insistent, you may come in. The lock opens.

The Augur deigns to appear as a bright greenish-blue glow. What he says to me is too depressing to repeat. He's like a dementor. Sorry... I've noticed the people in Skyrim don't understand the word. A dementor is an evil being who removes everything positive from your thoughts. All happiness, all hope – gone. I don't know where I've picked it up. Could be the idiom of my native region, or maybe a book I read in the past.

At the end of his lecture, the Augur tells me that in order to control the Eye of Magnus , I'll need the Staff of Magnus . The Arch-Mage may know where it is. And Ancano is up to no good.

Fine. May I leave now?

Yes, I may.

I explore the other passage I had given a miss when I came.

It leads me to a cave that ends up outdoors. I realize I'm northeast of the College where a small waterway separates an island from the mainland. I'll have to go counterclockwise around the mountain on which the College is and find a way uphill, like the girls and I did when we first came to Winterhold.

It's pitch dark. Now, I've been in many dark places, but right here right now I can see literally nothing. Lucky I have the Eye of the Coldharbour  ring. Of course, I could simply go back into the cave and return through the Midden, but I prefer fresh air.

Bardslayer, do you know where Blackreach is? I'd really love to save that Tyllia girl. I don't know who she is, but Fellaqui didn't assuredly have anything likeable about him. He even paid another guy to whip him. What kind of a man is that?

Blackreach is where Alftand is, Bardslayer informs me. Alftand I'll have to find by myself.

Fair enough. Thank you.

After a while, I find a place where I can walk uphill to Winterhold. It's past 1 at night. I return to the dormitory where my fellow students insist I sit with them because they are celebrating my birthday. But I'm too exhausted, physically and mentally. I excuse myself as gently as I can and go to sleep.



next awakening






return to the table of contents

Always Lost, Always Hopeful (82) Call Me, Restless Draugr

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SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is largely based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it's inevitably a spoiler.
———————————————




previous day






4-201-11-07 06:19
Hall of Attainment, Winterhold, Winterhold, Skyrim


It's a lovely if northerly harsh morning. After a nice warm bath at the inn with the girls, I feel awesome. I can see that so does Jenassa. She doesn't look like she's going to spill her heart, but Lydia and Jordis waste no time telling me all about it. Jenassa spent the night with the wizard Nelacar. I'm not surprised. When we were walking around in the College together yesterday, I could notice that she was really hitting it off with the female elven students. They seemed to have a lot to talk about. Small wonder she hit it off even better with a male High Elf wizard. And maybe he reminds her of Cyrelas. At any rate, I'm only happy for her. She might even have good influence on him.

Today, I intend us to travel westwards, to a place called Hob's Fall Cave where we might find that valuable artifact, Helm of Winterhold  , for the jarl. It's located halfway between Winterhold and Dånstar. I don't know about roads, but surely we can reach it somehow.

Halfway between Winterhold and Hob's Fall Cave, in turn, will be Saarthal, the ruin Master Tolfdir said he wanted to explore with us the students. As it's so conveniently on our path, I'll have a look at it. Of course, I'll take my followers along unless Tolfdir should strictly forbid it. They can use a little excitement and I can use some extra protection.

Before we can leave, though, Winterhold is being attacked by a dragon (sorry about my bow being right in the middle of the picture):

He seems to be angry with someone. Just look at that face!
Coming out of his mouth is probably a shockwave.
From what I understand, there are three kinds of dragons: fire, frost and shock.
For some reason, the fire dragons are the ones most told about in the folklore.

It's so early in the morning that there are almost no people on the streets yet. Assisted by two or three town guards, we kill the dragon without much difficulty, except that he rises up into the air one more time when he's supposed to be already dead. That's really weird. Maybe there's some magical residue from the College's activities? He falls down again in a few seconds, though, and he's dead all right, and I get my dragonsoul.

Now we can finally get going. There's heavy snowfall further west.

We catch up with the other students and Tolfdir shortly before Saarthal. Where have you been all this time, guys? Why didn't I see you in the town last night? Partying without me, were you? That's not nice.

The Khajiit man J'zargo I told you about turns out to be a big-headed poser. The Nord Onmund seems quite likeable, although it's too cold for a lengthy conversation.

We descend the impressive system of wooden walkways they've built here, at the very bottom of which is the entrance to the Saarthal excavation site. If you look carefully, you can see a part of the door (behind the barrel and the table):

After last words of warning from Tolfdir, we hurry inside. If I'm understanding this correctly, Saarthal is the ruin of the oldest Nord settlement in history.

Unsurprisingly, they have no heating installed here, but at least there's no snowfall. Now Tolfdir assigns individual tasks to each of us.

I am to go to Tolfdir's helper Arniel Gane working nearby and ask if he needs any assistance. Arniel sends me to look around in nearby passages and bring him any magical artifacts I can find. I set to work. I find a few magic rings lying about here and there. Then I notice an amulet in a little hole in a wall (or possibly a massive door). I pick it up and suddenly there's loud clanking. I realize that several gratings have dropped down in nearby passages and I'm trapped here.

I'm not really afraid. I'm sure my followers will go and tell Tolfdir and he'll figure out something.

Sooner than I thought, our teacher appears on the other side of a grating and asks me what that racket was. I tell him I don't know – I took an amulet off a wall and now I can't get out. He suggests I try wearing the amulet. I put it on. I know now it's called Saarthal Amulet , but I can't sense what its effect would be. Tolfdir instructs me to use a spell on that wall I took it from. I choose Sparks – the simplest shock spell. After I've bombarded that wall or door with it for a couple of seconds, it opens, revealing a passage. It leads into a medium-sized chamber with metal things on three of the four walls that look like empty draugr cupboards.

Soon my followers come running, followed by Tolfdir who evidently found a way to remove those gratings.

Tolfdir keeps saying how it's all so exciting, yet the tone of his voice remains completely calm. He urges us to be on our guard all the time, as he has no idea what might await us here. While he examines the room, I stand there a little lost, because I already looked everywhere before Tolfdir arrived, and there's decidedly nothing here. Suddenly things go kind of foggy in front of my eyes. Colors disappear and everything turns bluishgray-and-white. A quite handsome man in a hooded robe that's a couple sizes too large for him appears. He tells me I have set something in motion and now the world may go under or not, depending on my future actions. He represents an organization called the Psijic Order which believes in me (his words, not mine) and will be watching me.

That's Jenassa. She is not seeing him.

He vanishes before I get a chance to say that lots of people are watching me every day. It's just as well, because he looked so awfully serious he might not have appreciated my witticism.

The light turns back to normal. I learn that the others didn't see or hear our conversation. They just felt something strange. I tell Tolfdir what happened. He is very surprised and mildly skeptical. He knows very well what the Psijic Order is and informs me they disappeared more than 100 years ago along with the island on which they were residing. No one has heard of them since. He suggests we continue exploring this place.

While Tolfdir somehow finds a way forward, I'm busy discussing my recent experience with the girls. I must confess that mysterious man scared the wits out of me when he said I had done something to set in motion some extremely fatal events. After a little reflection, though, we come to the realization that it can't be that serious. If that Psijic Order were as powerful as they pretend to be, they could surely handle that disaster without me, or if they really needed my help (for example, because I'm born with the Dragonborn gift and they are not), they could force me to cooperate. And if they're really very mighty but prefer to watch from the sidelines, then the situation can't be too serious to begin with.

I think you know me well enough by now to know that I can't be impressed with cheap dramatics. That psijic emissary Nerien was so different from Tolfdir. Admittedly, our teacher is very old and probably not too compassionate. But he's all like: "All right, this is the situation. Not let's see what we can do." He looks like nothing could bring him out of balance. And near him, I feel like there's nothing in the world we couldn't handle.

That said, I wouldn't mind taking a closer look at Nerien someday and discuss some more mundane topics. For now, though, I'll have to settle for walking across the dungeons of Saarthal and fighting draugrs every now and then, while Tolfdir wanders off occasionally and then joins up with us again.

I'm glad at least one of us is having fun.

Some draugrs, as you may remember, cast something similar to dragon shouts at you. They make a sound like a very short low-pitched boom that feels like it could shatter your eardrums, and it makes you lose your balance for a few seconds or minutes, during which time you are defenseless. It's the scariest of all magic effects. The pain caused by magical flames doesn't come even close. That's why I take Resist Shock  potions when fighting draugrs, but they don't give you absolute protection. To cut the long story short: today one Draugr Deathlord succeeds in hurling me for several meters with my face against a wall. I can taste blood in my mouth and worry if my nose is broken. I know healing spells can cure even broken teeth, but still we women can't help being apprehensive of any damage to our faces. I'm sure you understand. If you have, say, a scar on your butt, very few people will ever see it, but your face is something of a completely different scope.

You'll be glad to hear I end up fine.

I don't know why one type of draugrs is referred to as "restless", but when I loot their corpses,
I often start singing to myself "Call me, restless draugr, to the end..." My followers find it amusing.
They say the tune is completely unknown to them. Must be an old song I heard in my childhood.
I have large bits of the melody in my head, but no more lyrics.
I wish I could remember the words, so I could sing it properly.

Further down the passages, I notice on the floor a somewhat unusual kind of a trap. It's not a rune, it's a net of very thin glowing purple lines. For some reason, I imagine that it would cause a sensation like being stuck by a thousand needles all over, making you shake in convulsions for a second or two. I feel curious to find out. I try to touch the trap and back off quickly. Naturally, it's hopeless. I feel exactly that kind of sharp stingy energy moving up my nerves and making me jump. I've instantly lost almost a half of my health. Fortunately, the trap has disappeared after one use. I heal myself and we walk on. A little later, I see another such trap. Unfortunately, it can't be evaded as it blocks the whole width of a narrow passage. So I have to take a deep breath and submit myself to that jolt of nerve shake again, in order to spare my followers the same.

Then we end up at a grating-door openable with a lever that has adjustable switches around it. Another puzzle.

We're greatly amused to notice that behind every switch-pillar, there's the solution on the wall. We're much less amused to learn that when you move one pillar, the one next to it moves as well. It's impossible to move the pillars so that all four would match the images on the walls behind them. Or, well, hardly impossible. One would have to experiment around and write down how each switch affects the others, and then eventually figure out the solution, but I'm decidedly not in the mood for that kind of brainrape right now, so I ask Bardslayer to just take us through the grating.

I always wonder in dungeons why are all those candles burning. I don't think draugrs need light.
Anyway, candles burn out, don't they? Who keeps bringing new candles to a place like this?
My girls are convinced no one does. There has to be some kind of magic that keeps a candle burning forever.

We end up in a very big cavern with something larger than human and basically round glowing in bluish-green or greenish-blue. (Upon in-depth examination, our final judgment is that its lower part is greenish blue and the upper part is bluish green.)

Tolfdir is with us again, and makes no secret of being utterly fascinated by that object which, you guessed it, is unlike anything he's ever seen in his life. Me and my followers walk along the balcony-like edge which is 3–4 meters above the floor and 2–3 meters wide, slowly taking it all in and trying to find some useful loot. Then I see a dark humanoid shape running to a wooden staircase that leads to the balcony on the opposite side of the hall. (Meaning, once it's ascended the stairs, it will be able to run along the balcony and reach me.) I begin shooting arrows into it, but it's taking no damage at all. Tolfdir shouts me to keep it busy while he tries to weaken it. So I keep shooting. Sooner than I would like, the monstrosity is hitting at me with a small axe which doesn't look like much but still hurts. The creature resembles a draugr, is clearly taller than me, and has glowing blue eyes.

I see I'm not taking too heavy damage, so I don't worry. I switch from my bow to the Blade of Woe  in my right hand and the Healing  spell in my left. My magical skills are high enough by now so that I can uphold the Healing  spell quite long like this, and I'm sure Tolfdir will solve the situation in the meantime.

Indeed, after a number of effectless hits from my dagger, I'm relieved to see the creature beginning to take damage very quickly – mainly from my followers nearby – and then it's dead. Its name was Jyrik Gauldurson (son of Gauldur, so by today's standard his patronym would be Gauldursson).

I pick up a Gauldur Amulet Fragment  from him, as well as a note from someone stating that Jyrik was magically imprisoned here for his heinous crimes. I hurry to heal myself and we rush down to join Tolfdir admiring the thing  that has now taken a regular round shape and is floating over a glowing platform. From up close, I'd say the thing is definitely more blue than green, although of course I respect your right to stuff your own opinion. Tolfdir wants to say something, but I beg him to wait until the girls and I have taken some pictures of ourselves in front of it.

From left, in case you need your memory refreshed: Lydia, Laura, Jordis, Jenassa.

Yours truly, stunned by this magnificent play of light and color.

When we're done, Tolfdir tells us that the Arch-Mage needs to be informed about our find without delay. He doesn't dare leave it unattended, so would I and my followers please hurry back to Winterhold and inform Savos Aren?

Of course. It'll be our pleasure.

On our way out, we pass by a word wall. I get a shout that's supposed to freeze my opponent solid. Ice Form. Sounds cool. I'm curious to try it on someone.

However, when we've gotten outside, I'm disappointed to see that it's pitch dark and snowing heavily. I had actually planned on traveling to the west and getting that ritual helm before returning to Winterhold. Under the current circumstances, I think we might be able to find a way back to the town if we're very careful, but to go looking for an unknown location in a rather mountainous area is decidedly not a good idea, not even with my lighting ring.

I wonder if there's a place here where we can sleep... No, it's half past eight in the evening, so after 7 hours of sleep we'd still be in complete darkness. Guess we'll have to travel eastwards after all. That'll give us an opportunity to sleep in warm soft beds and coincidentally do a good deed to the College. Not to mention that in my current state I would really appreciate a bath in the morning.

The distance is relatively small and the terrain is more or less familiar, so I think I can even do without the lighting ring. Halfway to Winterhold, I realize I can't.

When we arrive in Winterhold, it's not all that awfully late yet, so I decide I'll report to the Arch-Mage right away. I was headed for the College anyway. After a hasty wash, I wish my followers a jolly evening at the inn and advise them mockingly to watch out for Nelacar's experiments.

The Arch-Mage has already retired to his living quarters, but when I say I have an urgent message from Tolfdir, I'm allowed in. The place looks most impressive, but I'll describe it to you some other time.

The Arch-Mage is not very excited about Tolfdir's discovery, but he promises sighingly to go and take a look. He also instructs me to ask the librarian Urag if he has any literature on floating green-blue shining spheres in old Nordic ruins. I'll be only too glad to oblige. I might see Ertzebet in the library.

Indeed, she is there and she's as breathtaking as ever. I wonder if she's aware how I feel about her. I'm sure she's bound to sense it sooner or later. As for Urag, he informs me he used to have a book that might contain something about what I'm looking for, but unfortunately it's been stolen by a rogue mage Orthorn who left the College not empty-handed. Urag gives me the directions to the place where the man was probably headed.

Now it's past 11 in the evening and I've more than earned a good night's sleep. Well, not quite. As I'm about to leave the library, the thalmor Ancano stops me and asks me if we found something in Saarthal. He is civil enough and I say we did, adding innocently that I've already reported to the Arch-Mage. Fortunately, Ancano leaves it at that for the time being.

Now I can go to my dorm room and retire for the night.



next awakening