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Laaneth and Glyt now had a target in mind and it was none other than Alfe Fyr, the first Female Clone of the great wizard Divayth Fyr.
According to what Laaneth knows, Alfe Fyr lives not far from the Whispering Mines village, a mining town south of the city of Winterhold where a community of Dunr folks lives in the shadow of the great Shrine of Azura.
As for Alfe Fyr herself, she was living on a lone mountain not too far from the road but Laaneth made sure to make her presence known before walking into the den of the old sorceress. On the way up there, Laaneth made sure to instruct Glyt that he must address Alfe Fyr with absolute respect and show politeness in front of one of Tamriel's great sorceresses. This, however, would be best for her, rather than Glyt, to rember later on.
Up the small mountain, a small wooden cottage was seen with a strange atmosphere covering its surroundings as if it wasn't in Winterhold, the land of ice and snow. Rather, this house wasn't surrounded by any snow and had a warm aura lingering around it to condition the temperature according to the wishes of the owner.
And right at the front of the cottage, Alfe Fyr was just crouching over a plant pot while toiling the soil inside with her bare hands as if nothing was there to bother her.
While Laaneth and Glyt walked towards her, the two didn't speak and Alfe didn't even bother turning to face them. The awkward air looked only around Laaneth and Glyt as it seed that Alfe was quite enjoying herself by toiling the damp soil with her hands.
After a few more relaxed breaths of air, Alfe turned left and right as if looking for sothing and right then, Glyt reacted and grabbed a nearby tray placed on a table where so sprouts were grown on a piece of cloth stained with so spice.
He offered the tray to her and she started to grab the sprouts slowly and place them one by one in a plant pot each. After doing that, she fixed the pots in places she seed to have prepared earlier and calmly went ahead to whip her hand off the damp soil.
Glyt smiled and looked at the small vegetable garden.
"Gardening? Really? Woman of your talents?" He wondered.
"It's a simple life." The reply ca as Alfe's voice sounded calm and unbothered.
She kept on with her day not bothering a single bit about Laaneth or Glyt. Moreover, she was now feeding the goats in her small barn.
"We have a request, Lady Alfe." Laaneth spoke with so hesitation, "We t before, I work with Lady Nurina…"
"The girl?" Alfe slightly reacted but she returned to her nonchalant attitude imdiately, "What was going on in the city yesterday? I was hearing noises."
She was hearing noises? It is a fair 20 miles away from any form of civilization here and the weather can barely afford one to barely see the Shrine of Azura, let alone hearing Winterhold. And she was feeling it?
"An attack." Laaneth replied while suppressing her thoughts, "A Thalmor Agent tried to control a dangerous artifact called the Eye of Magnus and hard many people in the process. Lady Nurina and her second disciple Alina stopped it from escalating along with my friend here."
"Sounds like a shitty business." Replied Alfe in her cranky old woman attitude and kept feeding the goats.
"If we may take a mont of your ti, we want so advice regarding sothing quite dangerous." Laaneth asked without minding Alfe's attitude that was focused on her daily routine more than so worthless guests.
"Ah…" Alfe sighed with boredom, "You live on the most frozen, gods-forsaken mountain on Nirn, and you think people will leave you alone. But still, you co knocking and asking questions…"
And for the first ti, Alfe actually turned to them.
"Fine, I'll hear it." She said.
Laaneth and Glyt looked at one another with hope.
"We've been aning to travel to Clockwork City. We thought you would be our lead to it." Glyt spoke politely.
"And you ever thought about finding Barlizar's Mazed Band before coming to bother ? You know, the only artifact on the face of Tamriel that could get you into Clockwork City?" Alfe asked.
"I witnessed it being used so… it is not available to ." He replied.
"Ah… Azura's curses!" Alfe sighed with even greater annoyance than before.
But just now, she asked them to find a hidden artifact that is one of a kind and most likely hidden sowhere than to co and ask her for help, it caused Glyt and Laaneth to be a little bit weirded by Alfe.
And after a few seconds of consideration, Alfe gave her reply.
"Fine." She said, "Clockwork City, is it? Yes, I know the way. But it's not easy. I'll need the toe of a Frost Troll, a Dwer puzzle box, and the skull of a living Dragon. Find all that, and I'll help you."
"…" "…"
And as the two of them were already weirded once, Alfe didn't give them a chance to cool down and made a bizarre request.
"Excuse , why those ingredients exactly?" Laaneth asked suspiciously.
"An old woman living alone in a cottage with strange herbs, goats, and lots of magic. What am I?" Alfe asked.
"… a retired lady wizard?" Glyt answered while not so sure.
"A witch, sera." Alfe replied with an attitude, "I just gave you the ingredients a witch needs for your spell. Kids these days have no creativity whatsoever."
Glyt didn't want to argue with Alfe but Laaneth seed to be having so doubts.
"A spell that needs a Frost Troll Toe, a Dwer Puzzle Box, and a Skull of Living Dragon." She thought and asked, "I understand the Dwer Puzzle Box since it is Clockwork City and all but why the Frost Troll Toe?"
"Sa answer, a Witch's recipe." Alfe answered.
"And the Skull of a Living Dragon?" Glyt answered, "I heard there is a Dragonborn around so can we ask him…"
"Don't involve the girl's boy." Alfe said, "If he gets involved, the Dragon will be dead rather than alive."
The girl (Nurina), the boy (Jon).
Reluctantly, Laaneth and Glyt descended the mountain where the cottage of Alfre the Witch was and started their journey by heading to Saarthal. There, they would gather so provisions and information before heading out to gather Alfe's ingredients for her "witch spell".
Laaneth made sure to ask for a Frost Troll Toe in the alchemy shops and the Dare Labs but the harsh reality dictated that no one was even interested in Troll Toes, to begin with. Toes are the least magical thing about a Troll and were mostly discarded along with most of a troll's carcass.
As for the Dwarven Puzzle Box, this thing was too precious and no one would part with it since they are collector items that would fetch for a crazy amount of money. Laaneth asked Alina in the Dare Tower but according to her, Jon keeps all his Dwer Collection in his own storage Cube and Wulfur dismantles it for work and analysis so there was no way in that direction either.
As for the Skull of Living Dragon, Jon Dare had so Dragon Skeletons lying around in his Domain and they are materials of legendary quality and technically invaluable as magic ingredients but Alfe made sure to say a Living Dragon, this ans that the Dragon shouldn't be killed anywhere near the Dragonborn who is associated with Jon Dare.
As for Glyt, he went through the inns of Saarthal and ended up in the Companions outpost. Unlike Laaneth, Glyt's tour was fruitful and he got three much-needed things. A request to hunt a Frost Troll that was threatening the borders between Winterhold and the Pale, a location of a possible undiscovered Dwer Ruin, and a report about sighting a Dragon near Mount Anthor.
With those three leads, Laaneth and Glyt were closer to fulfilling their quest in no ti.
***
On the fourth day after the disappearance of Jon Dare and Swims-at-Night along with cinar and his rcenaries to Clockwork City, Laaneth and Glyt headed out to search for those three ingredients in the snow wastes of Winterhold.
Laaneth conjured two Fla Atronach Horses for the two of them and they traveled with ease during the day until they reached the location of a Sightless Pit.
According to the reports Glyt acquired, this Sightless Pit leads to a Dwarven Ruin that remained undiscovered due to its entrance being very unconventional and as its na goes, the entrance was a Sightless Pit.
Rumors also have it that the Dwarven Ruin beneath is probably infested with Falr which makes it twice as dangerous compared to any other Dwarven Ruin. Either way, the two of them went down there using levitation magic and remained undetected most of the ti other than the occupational tis where they had to kill so Falr Shamans to make sure they are not detected via any magical ans.
After a while, the two of them reached a Dwarven workshop and found the Dwer Puzzle Box they were after.
They imdiately left the Sightless Pit by levitating out and headed west in the barren frozen lands of Winterhold to the border with the Pale. At this point, the day was coming to its end and the two of them started to look for a nearby settlent to spend the night but as they did so, a snowstorm struck and the two lost their sense of direction.
And to make things even worse, the Frost Troll which they were after was tracking them down amidst the storm.
It was very hard for the two of them to fight a Troll in such weather since none of them was able to focus either on their footing or their magic. Glyt fought the Troll a few tis and sent it away each ti but the tenacious creature kept healing and coming.
A Troll's Regeneration is a nace and to the gorilla-like Frost Trolls that live in these lands, snow storms are their ideal climate so instead of being hunted, the Troll was now the hunter and it used attrition tactics against Glyt in order to wear him down.
During this predicant, Glyt had a strange sensation and registered a few presences coming his way. Laaneth was terrified by the fact that the two of them were now surrounded by a pack of Snow Wolves.
In normal circumstances, Laaneth would throw her spells left and right but the storm completely shattered her concentration so she can only do small spells and cantrips. All she can do is cast so self-enhancent spells to fight the wolves at close range.
But from what things seed to be, the wolves weren't eyeing them as prey but they were actually being watched over by the Wolves.
"What is going on?" Laaneth asked, knowing the nature of the infamous wolves of Winterhold, "They should be tearing anyone they see to shreds by now."
Glyt had no answer for Laaneth, no answer that would an anything to her anyway. However, he seed to have felt sothing and kept watching the wolves as they watched him.
After a minute, the Troll appeared from the storm once again and seed to be aiming for Glyt with full montum. But once the wolves saw the Troll coming their way, they jumped at him in the most feral way possible.
A fight broke out between the Wolves and the Troll and they managed to overpower it with sheer numbers and usual wolf tactics. Once they distracted the Troll from the front, they started attacking its legs and pushed it down. As it was completely under their rcy, they ripped it apart limb from limb until there was nothing left for him to regenerate and dragged the carcass away.
And as if they were aning for it, they left behind one foot of the Troll and disappeared with the storm that didn't last long after.
In this strange situation, Glyt understood that he once had done a good deed to a follower of the Lord of the Hunt. A few days ago in Riften, he returned the Beast Ring to the old man whose son was cursed with Lycanthropy and this seed to be a form of returning the favor.
And with the Troll Toe in their possession, Glyt and Laaneth left this frozen wasteland in order to find a way to get the last item on the list, the Skull of a Living Dragon.
***
And they got it!
Three days after fighting the Troll in the Snow Storm, Laaneth and Glyt managed to defeat the dragon at Mount Anthor with much difficulty. It wasn't impossible to defeat a Dragon without being a Dragonborn. After all, Glyt had the skills needed for the job but this beast was nothing like anything he ever t before.
In terms of combat power, cunning, and danger, the Dragon topped all gas he hunt so for but Laaneth seed to have brought a bunch of Master-level spell scrolls with her that leveled the ground with that Dragon, allowing Glyt to land so strong hits with his sword, Goldbrand.
Speaking of which, the legendary Goldbrand was known to be a sword forged on Akavir by the Dragons and it was ant to protect them. Never did it occur to Glyt that such a sword would be this lethal against the Dragons. In fact, it was the key contributor in this fight as it sliced against the Dragon's Scales like nothing else.
If Jon was to discover that, he would offer a fortune to get his hand on this Dragonslaying weapon.
And with that, Alfe's three ingredients were gathered and it was ti to head back to the old witch in her cottage on top of the mountain south of Winterhold.
However, once Alfe saw the three items put in front of her, her expression was that of pure awe.
"You got all those things? Oblivion, take !" Alfe said and arbitrarily waved around, "Well… leave them out back… I guess."
"Wait! Hold on, hold on, hold on!" Laaneth suddenly interrupted Alfe, the one whom she told Glyt to be absolutely polite with, "You don't need them to get us into the city?"
To Laaneth's question, Alfe turned to her with a face void of expressions.
"What? No!" Alfe denied it right away as if it was way beneath her level to use such materials, "I just assud the Troll, the Falr, or the Dragon would kill you like they did the other three, and I wouldn't have to bother with whatever you wanted. But ah well, a deal's a deal…"
And just without any effort at all, Alfe flicked her fingers for a portal to appear.
One flick, one portal to Clockwork City, easy as that.
"You damn woman!"
On the other hand, Laaneth was staring at Alfe with a head fuming with unspeakable things.
"Laaneth, let's go." On the other hand, Glyt held to Laaneth's arm and held her from doing anything stupid.
"You and I, old woman, we are not done!"
Laaneth kept staring at Alfe with an expression of rage but just before she said anything more, Alfe waved her hand and moved the portal at Glyt and Laaneth in a second. The two of them disappeared as the portal was dispelled, sending them to Clockwork City… just like that.
"Now, where was I… Ah! The pastafrola recipe, here it is…"
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