(General POV)
The news of Reyvin's deed had spread quickly among the nobility and a small feast was swiftly prepared within the throne room of the Blue Palace.
The Dunr Thane spent an entire hour retelling how he hunted down each and every mber of the brotherhood, properly curated of course, while also making sure to keep insulting the intelligence of whover decided it was a good idea to send the 'pathetic amateurs' his way.
Sybille Stentor had a great ti watching the colors of Elenwen's face shift with each insult, whenever the 'poor' Ambassador would calm down the Court Mage would waste no ti in delivering a snide comnt her way, all the while pretending to be clueless about the situation.
A bard had already written the whole thing down, and the High King, who was as ecstatic as could be, instructed said honest and not at all bribed artist to make the song he wrote on the event as full of mockery as possible.
So ti later the King stood up, quickly drawing attention to himself as he cleared his throat thus stopping the music and rrint. "Sorry for interrupting such a happy ti but I fear I must steal so of my Thane's thunder as it were." He sent an amused glance to Reyvin who rely raised his cup in a supportive response.
"Noble ladies and gentlen" Torygg began his announcent "Dear Ambassador" He greeted her with only a hint of smugness "I am pleased to announce that my wife, the Queen is with child!"
There was a beat of silence before the entire throne room burst into cheers of praise.
"Falk" Torygg called his Steward "Please write to Harald and inform him of this most joyous developnt." the hint of smugness might as well have been a mountain as he gave that order.
The ever-stoic Steward imdiately got to work, himself sporting a satisfied grin.
The celebration went on long into the night.
And Elenwen was not permitted to leave until it was all over.
(Elenwen's POV)
The screams of the amalgam of flesh that was once the foolish apprentice that failed to inform of the threat of Fla-tongue did very little to assuage my fury. The damned creature had humiliated again and I had to accept it all with a smile!
The desecrated creature finally burst from getting overloaded with lightning Magicka, covering the entire room and myself in blood and gore.
"Are you well, my lady?" Drenil asks cautiously from behind .
I shiver as I barely hold back a lightning bolt in response. "No" I grit out.
I feel him put up a ward as he takes a deep breath and asks "Would it not be wise to inform the Master about this?"
The lightning bolt shattering his ward and slamming him into the wall is all the answer he gets from suggesting I humiliate myself further.
I swear if it is the last thing I do I will have that Dunr's head!
(Minor tiskip, Reyvin's POV)
So two months after I organized a surprise party for my favorite Ambassador I found myself sitting cross-legged atop the tower of destruction, dozens of soul gems and rubies surrounding in a complex ritual circle, the outline of which was filled up with fire salts. Initially I expected I would have to search for a specific location to perform this rite of advancent but realistically the only place that would potentially be better for performing it was Red Mountain and I am not spending half a year on that when I have more pressing matters to attend to.
I was left completely alone while the entire tower had been evacuated, just in case things turned... volatile. Naturally, the chances of making a mistake and blowing myself up were minimal but caution was the na of the ga when you were playing with forces of destruction so after wishing good luck one final ti even Faralda herself had left the tower.
Well then, I may as well get to it! What better way to celebrate one's birthday than potential incineration, right?
I take a deep breath and send out a pulse of Magicka, Scorch appearing imdiately and taking his place in the ritual. My massive reserves start seeping into the enchanted floor as the air around starts heating up.
If I was a human or any other kind of r for that matter I would have probably screaming in pain right about now, but the fires felt closer to a gentle wind instead of the ravenous crimson fla I saw them as.
As the energy picked up speed Scorch dissolved into the rapidly mounting firestorm, painting the previously red flas with flecks of gold, thus adding another layer of complexity and power to the ritual.
The final drop of Magicka left my body and everything stilled... only for every single bit of magic in my surroundings to surge toward . Not even a mont later I felt like I was about to explode, I saw that my skin was on fire in places and imdiately focused on controlling the rampaging energies.
Slowly and steadily the ritual cald down and I took deep breaths, unconsciously expelling so fire from my nose as I did so. I tried to stand but felt like I would imdiately fall over so instead of trying that I summoned a regeneration potion and a feast's worth of food. Finally I stood up, and as I did so Scorch appeared on my shoulder "You doing fine pops?"
I nod "Yes, self-immolation aside, I feel great!" I exclaim with false cheer. The glorious bird boy bobs his head "Indeed, my personal swimming pool feels far more comfortable now."
"Think you can use it to grow even stronger?" I ask him with a raised eyebrow.
He taps his wing below his beak before shrugging "Should work."
I point my left hand toward the open air "Might as well test what we just got" I say and decide
to try a basic firebolt... only for a literal laser beam of gold and crimson to explode out of my hand for exactly the sa effort.
"Oh yeah" I smirk "It's all coming together."
[Trait gained:]
[Fire attunent (True Destruction, Solar): You have reached the pinnacle of mortal power with the elent of fire, all fire spells are twice as strong while being half as demanding.]
[Mag: 800 => 850]
[Destruction Expert=> Master]
[Destruction mastery trait:]
[Elental malleability: Any destruction related runes are easier to create, and the elents of your spells combine with greater ease]
When I descended the tower I was imdiately dragged toward my inn where a bunch of my friends, servants, students and colleagues hosted a massive party for my mastery and birthday. The fact that they did so in my own establishnt without batting an eye was,
admittedly rather amusing.
Everyone wanted to take the ti to congratulate so I mingled with the guests and chatted with the other Masters for a while before a silent pop was heard next to just when I
decided to sit down and take a breather.
"So kid" Savos says as a greeting "I hear you did sothing ridiculous again?"
I give him a dubious look "Are you sure you should be the one to call ridiculous?"
He 'flinches' and grasps at his heart "I am shocked and appalled by such insinuations." Before
he straightens up and asks "So young and already approaching the big three, eh?"
Not a familiar term... "Big three?"
His eyes widen as he suppresses a chuckle "You an to tell you do not know?"
My lips thin "Get on with it Aren."
He huffs "Fine, fine!" Before raising a finger "For you see Reyvin, when one is a master of three schools of magic one may already be considered an Archmage!"
"Oh... that." I say, unimpressed. Archmage was sothing I have touched upon already, my power combined with my artifacts would allow to stand against anyone holding the title even though I might still have less experience than any of them.
"Oh co on, at least give a better reaction than that!" The centuries old man pouts.
I stare at him, my eyes drier than the tower was after the ritual, before both of us burst into a
fit of chuckles "How may I be of assistance, Archmage?" I finally ask.
"Must you be so stiff?" He huffs playfully.
"Of course, it annoys you after all." I answer without any hesitation. Aren once again pouts like a child before crossing his fingers conspiratorially "I need you to
pay a visit in my quarters in three days, I think it was high ti we talked about so
things." "Oh?" I go to ask but he has already disappeared... though this ti I saw the outline of Magicka as he activated the spell and twisted the space around himself.
Just you wait you old fart, soon I will finally have my revenge!
(General POV)
On that sa day all of the new college students were gathered in the Alteration tower.
They have gotten mostly used to their new life at the college and have entered a comfortable routine with their studies and constant magical exercise. To say so of them were surprised by the amount of effort and focus it took to build ones self into a proper mage would have
been an understatent.
There were of course accidents and incidents, mostly with Brelyna playing around with so very unadvisable summoning or J'zargo using so very poorly crafted scrolls, the cat man wouldn't wait for a second after learning a new rune and kept experinting like a complete
loon.
Both events nearly ended up murdering a certain Dragonborn but that was neither here nor there...
Fishy, as most have taken to calling him much to his constant frustration, had cald down considerably since his arrival. He was still aggressive and sadistic but considering how many tis he had his bones broken by either of his combat teachers he learned to llow out. He did form sothing of a friendship with Minthara due to their constant practice dueling
however.
Speaking of the 'big boned' Argonian he was currently tapping his foot impatiently as they waited for their alteration teacher to finally make his appearance "Where is the old man?" Sleeps-with-fishes asked irritably.
His Nord friend shook her head before saying "I do not think you should disrespect Master Tolfdir, the man punched a dragon in the neck and made it flinch."
A pair of golden yellow eyes focused down on her as Fishy gave her an incredulous look,
seeing as she doesn't correct herself his incredulity turns into terrified awe as he gulps "Noted." Before they can continue with their conversation the kindly old Nordic war machine walks
into the classroom and greets them with a smile. He looks over everyone and after confirming that they were all present begins speaking "Apologies for not holding this class earlier, there have been so unfortunate developnts in Deepholm and I had to go below ground for a
while." "Nothing too bad I hope?" Minthara asks without thinking, she was very invested in that specific 'settlent' so her tongue outpaced her mind. Instead of getting annoyed at the interruption Tolfdir shakes his head "Nothing unsolvable,
young Minthara." and turns to the rest of them "Now, last ti we went over so of the more basic applications of alteration so today I will be teaching you sothing completely different, but still vital for any mage's arsenal." Excitent sparks in so of the students' eyes as the old man declares "Today we will be learning about wards."
"Give J'zargo back his excitent" The resident Khajiit mutters. Marco raises a hand and after getting a nod from the Master asks "What if we already know
about wards and how to use them?"
Tolfdir rely smiles "Then you will help your fellow students." He already knew that the duo that descended into Blackreach was strong and skilled but so extra practice wouldn't hurt. The Dragonborn dying to a stray spell would be a terrible way for the world to end after
all.
There was so whining from most of the students, most of them felt that wards were unimportant of just plain unworthy of an entire class being spent on them or having to waste ti practicing sothing they were already skilled at. Sothing that greatly disappointed
the old Nord mage.
But among the newbies, one had learned the lesson of a strong defense well, so Fishy made
not a single peep as he volunteered to help Tolfdir with the demonstration. The old man happily instructed him on how to best use the spell and how to control it properly and then started blasting at him with firebolts.
Soon the entire room was filled with a cacophony of spells, the sounds of broken glass, and huffs of pain, all the while Tolfdir Ebon-frost watched with a patient smile.
An hour or so later the 'serene' instance of scholarly learning was interrupted by the
classroom doors abruptly opening and an excited Reyvin walking in. Before Tolfdir could question what all the fuss was about the Dunr exclaid "Saarthal has been opened!"
Now that I think about it there is a surprising amount of digging in this story...
...Speaking of digging, get to work!
If you want to support directly and get access to 30ish chapters (Just under 60k words) in
advance visit my patreon page patreon/Rastislav156
If you want to discuss the story or just about join my discord server:
sdiscord.gg/v6NG7JS7aY (link has been refreshed)
Reviews
All reviews (0)