Vanylis got the attention of his apprentice as he spotted her while descending the stairs, her eyes widened when she saw the court wizard walking beside him. When the wizard left, she rushed to him.

'What happened?' Olma demanded.

'I taught her how to enchant water-walking, she gave me the location of Castle Volkihar.' He shrugged.

'She's a vampire!' Olma exclaimed, Vanylis waved his hand, the people who had looked sharply at them turned away, forgetting why they had been suddenly interested.

'I know.' He stated.

'You knew?! Then she'll have told the other vampires!'

'I doubt it. From what I gather, she feeds on the prisoners, nobody else knows what she is, likely not the volkihar vampires either.'

'And you taught her a way to get to the island?' Olma continued.

'She'll never find it. Besides, the order can take care of themselves.' He disregarded her concern. As they left Solitude, Vanlyis pulled decorated robes over himself, donning the hood. 'Sybille Stentor isn't more powerful than the Psjic Order.'

Olma tied the boat onto the dock while Vanlyis approached the castle. He stopped, turning to inspect a statue.

'Why did we use a boat?' Olma called as she finished.

'We don't have many soul gems left, they're to be sparingly.' Vanlyis told her, still studying the statue closely. He tapped its head with two fingers, a green glow rushed over it, then faded. He then walked the gate once Olma had reached him.

'You kids, get lost, this ain't for sightseeing.' An elderly nord watchman behind the heavy grunted. Vanlyis looked at him disdainfully. He and his apprentice were unusually young to be travelling, and many people had regretted commenting on this, though he admitted that this Nord was very old, and likely a vampire anyway, so his use of 'kids' may be standard. Nevertheless, Vanlyis still melted a hole in the gate with a blinding burst of fire. Olma recognised this as careless and angry spell-casting, otherwise there wouldn't be so much light, it was inefficient and Vanlyis could've easily concentrated it into heat. The watchman quickly stepped into the gap and summoned the defences, three gargoyles stood and lumbered towards them, the fourth, that Vanlyis had been interested in, glowed green again, and struck a gargoyle that passed it, smashing the head. It leapt at the other two, managing to pull them off of the bridge where they sank into the water below. The watchman was trapped in a cage of scalding iron as the gate was twisted to block him from stopping them. Olma protested as Vanlyis strode inside.

'Uh, are you sure it's safe to- oh.' She stopped as the dozen vampires stood up as they noticed their presence, many more thralls and cattle did the same.

'Who is this, who intrudes on my home?' Lord Harkon demanded with a powerful voice.

'Vanlyis Erebpar. Psjic mage.' Vanlyis announced.

'The Psjic order dare to challenge castle volkihar? What of the Psjic monk?' Harkon grinned, finding this entertaining.

'It's a boring title, it doesn't illustrate exactly how fast I can destroy you.' The mage smiled in return, he enjoyed explaining this, Harkon's amusement faded fast.

'Out of tolerance for the Psjic order, I will allow you to leave alive.'

'Your gargoyles are gone.' Vanlyis stated bluntly.

'Then you may leave after donating your apprentice to us.' Harkon decided, this was accompanied by laughter. Olma gripped a staff hidden on her person as Vanlyis stepped in front of her.

'That's not going to happen.' He told Harkon.

'I suppose you'll both be joining us.' Harkon sighed. 'I had hoped to avoid being pestered by the order, but they won't bother me long about one monk.'

'Mage.' Vanlyis corrected, he dropped his hood, raising his hands. Lightning struck the thralls from every window, they were weak and instantly disintegrated. Then two daedra appeared on either side of the room, crowns on their heads and fiery swords in their hands marked their power. A third daedra donning patterned robes appeared from Olma, it threw fire at the vampires while the daedra lords landed powerful blows with their swords. Yet more fire cascaded from the candles, enveloping vampires. The fighting finally ceased as Harkon rose into the air on powerful wings, destroying the last daedra left, and the only thing left. Vanlyis jumped onto a table next to the vampire lord, gripping the clawed hand that slashed at him. He dropped to one knee as Harkon froze, he hadn't expected the vampire to be so powerful. Olma rushed to him, she swung a glass dagger, it glanced off of Harkon's chest, shattering. The two looked up at him in confusion, he grinned. Vanlyis held out his hand, Olma placed the staff in it. Harkon stared at the blue orb as it began to glow, the light of Magnus burnt an image into his eyes as he was driven through the ground. Fifty feet down, the staff was too far away to continue breaking the ground. In such a small space, his wings were useless, and it took a minutes just to move his hands to dig them into the ground. He roared in outrage as his opponents left in triumph.

'He isn't dead.' Olma commented.

'No.'

'He'll climb out eventually.'

'Yes. But his minions are dead.' They continued to explore to castle.

'What are we looking for?'

'The cattle.' Vanylis told her, stumbling, she caught him and helped him stand.

'Are you okay? I didn't think you would be able to hold Harkon in place.'

'I almost couldn't.' He admitted. 'It'll take awhile before I can do it again.' He continued forward, waving Olma away. He closed his eyes, turning to a doorway that lead into the library, other than the false impression that the vampires were civilised, the room held six glassy-eyed people who looked up at them fearfully when they approached. Vanylis swept his hands across them, a blue light flared across the group, as it faded they looked around in confusion.

'Where am I?' Was a question repeated, the answer didn't calm anyone down. Then someone stepped to the front of the group, a khajit who's fur was expectedly scruffy, but clearly had been well groomed.

'Thank you for this, strangers.' He addressed then with a thick accent.

'You should get out, Harkon will escape eventually.' Vanylis told them, as everyone ran to the boat, the khajit walked alongside the two mages.

'You live in Elswyr, your accent is too strong to have stayed here. How did you get captured?' Olma asked when everyone had parted on the main land.

'I insisted that I come here as part of a diplomacy mission, Elswyr thinks it is time to spread its influence.'

'You're a noble?' The khajit smiled, khajit had a very different smile to the other races.

'Yes, I am to become the Mane, after my father. I am Fa'tahe.' He introduced himself.

'This is like meeting the son of the emperor, then.'

'Ah, yes, you people are fond of this system. I am not the future Mane because my father is, I was chosen.' Fa'tahe explained. 'But it is good that you know of our culture, not many compare me as such.' He nodded gratefully.

'Should we take you to... a caravan? I'm sorry, I don't know how to get to Elswyr.' Olma, having never been, was unsure what was a racist suggestion.

'It is okay, young one.' Fa'tahe smiled, both of them faltered in their step slightly, but didn't mention it. 'I think I would benefit in diplomacy greatly by travelling with you for as long as you'll let me.' He decided.

'Oh. I suppose we wouldn't mind, is that alright?' She asked Vanylis, he nodded distractedly.

'You are strange, for sellswords.' Fa'tahe observed.

'We aren't sellswords.' Vanylis spoke unexpectedly, pocketing a soul gem he had been looking over.

'Then why were you in castle volkihar?' The khajit frowned confusedly.

'I am a psijic mage.' Vanylis told him.

'And you?' He picked up on the specification. Olma looked between them.

'I'm his apprentice, I've only been to Artaeum once, and just the shore, at that.'

'I read about the psijic order.' Fa'tahe said, recalling his studies. 'There's no record of training on the main land.'

'The order doesn't accept anyone who hasn't already made a name for themselves.' Vanylis explained.

'He was banished for taking me as his apprentice.' Olma added quietly.

'Why can she not join with the college, or the mages' guild?' Fa'tahe displayed his uncommon knowledge of the rest of Tamriel for a khajit.

'I will not abandon someone who asks for my help.' Vanylis said firmly.

'All the training's on-site.' Olma told Fa'tahe. Vanylis looked back at them.

'We'll train tonight, then. The inn's close now.'

'Are you sure you can?' Olma asked concernedly. 'You fought an entire castle of vampires, then broke a dozen mind-control charms in one go. You're probably concentrating just to walk.' Vanylis thought about this.

'You're getting better at this.' He commented. 'But I can do a little more today.' Olma looked unsure.

In the inn, Fa'tahe was already asleep somewhere. Olma lay her three staffs on Vanylis's bed, the eye of Magnus, staff of dremora summon, and staff of paralysis. All gave off a dim energy when Vanylis sensed them, instead of the healthy shine that a renewed staff had.

'They'll need to be refilled soon.' He commented. 'Now, are you ready to try clairvoyance?' Olma nodded confidently. Vanylis directed his palm to the ground, a dozen glowing blue strings flew from him, twisting through the door then separating.

'I have many tasks, and more you can cast this spell, this more you track.' He explained. Olma watched this, after a while she cast it herself, a single thread ended at Vanylis' feet.

'My goal is to train in magic, and to follow you.' She explained in turn. He nodded, smiling.

'Very good, you'll learn how to let other people see it soon. How's your detection spell practice going?'

'Good, I can see people up to fifty feet away.' She answered proudly, casting it and looking around. She saw a black void, several blue clouds of smoke clustered together outside their room on tables. She ran out of magika, and her surroundings reappeared.

'Great, soon we'll move from alteration to restoration and destruction, rookie destruction training gives many opportunities to get experience in healing.' Olma grinned.

'Then I can finally stop using staffs.' She sighed.

'Well our next tasks takes us to the College of Winterhold, you can ask for general training there, as they're actually trained to teach. I'll buy some soul gems while we're there too. Oh, right, Fa'tahe.' Vanlyis took Olma's cues. 'Since he wants to get an impression of skyrim's diplomacy, he talk to the people in the town, I remember they have rather strong opinions.' He recalled. After an hour of continued practise, Vanlyis sent Olma to bed before she passed out from excessive magika usage, she had a tendency to overwork herself.

The next day, the two mages were out of the inn before even the owner was awake, to their surprise, Fa'tahe was waiting for them.

'Where to first?' He asked cheerfully.

'The college of Winterhold.' Vanlyis answered, the khajit looked immediately excited.

'I am intrigued by how you teach magic to your own, I am to understand there is little to no spiritualism involved.'

'There's really no religion.' Olma agreed.

'We can take the coach.' Fa'tahe gestured to cart waiting outside of the inn. 'We do not have them in Elswyr, I would like to try it, I have the coin.' He offered.

'We can pay for ourselves.' Vanlyis insisted as the khajit payed.

'But you won't.'

The road to the college was a long one, they have almost the length of Skyrim to travel. The questions started again soon, the driver was clearly interested in the answers too.

'For a breton, you have strange name.' Fa'tahe began.

'My parents were dunmer.' Vanlyis explained, sensing he would have to do so many more times.

'How did you join the order?'

'I made a living healing people while the forsworn were growing in numbers, apparently I was good enough to be noticed.'

'And you?' Fa'tahe addressed Olma.

'Well, I'm not strictly speaking a member, but I wanted to join because I had tried to teach myself magic, I got kicked out of Honourhall when I burnt a bed to pieces, so I decided to apply for proper education, I got help from someone in college, they didn't think it was smart, but they knew where Artaeum was. I got a boat and made it just before they moved again, they wouldn't let me on the island because I could only do flames and sparks.' She openly divulged her life story, Vanylis clearly wouldn't be so quick.

'She's never read a spell tome in her life.' Vanylis told Fa'tahe, a hint of pride in his voice. 'Taught herself flames and sparks because she'd heard about it, and she learned the other spells just through hearing how to do them.'

'I have not heard of it being so easy.' The khajit marvelled. 'I have always admired mages.' Vanylis appeared pleased at that.

'You can probably get an audience with the Jarl if you tell them who you are.' He decided. 'There's a khajit in the college too, he's good.'

In Winterhold, Vanylis proudly wore his robes, they screamed magic to the citizens who passed, which kept them at a distance.

'To live next to a college of magic, these people do not think much of it.' Fa'tahe observed.

'There was a big wave.' Vanylis told him, from lack of another name. 'It destroyed a lot of the town, but the college survived almost unharmed, except for the bridge. These people don't understand that the college is a castle, it isn't going to be affected the same way that wooden houses will.' He sighed with exasperation, clearly having argued this point before. As they walked up the long bridge, Vanylis ran his hands along the sides, small stones were sucked into place and solidified. It made no difference to the overall destruction of the bridge though.

'People do that every time they cross it.' Olma told Fa'tahe. 'Overtime it might help.' When they reached the gates, they opened at their approach, the students and trainers of the college stopped to watch as they walked to the hall of the elements. The arch-mage walked to them, less surprised than expected.

'You're a psijic monk? What order do they think we have to follow now?'

'Psijic mage. There's no order, I come alone. At least alone from the other members.'

'You're here person, what are you expecting to take?' Savos Aren was clearly challenging him.

'I'm expecting to show you an artefact, and I'm expecting my apprentice to be able to talk to your trainers.' He stated firmly.

'What do you think would be of interest to-' the arch-mage stopped as Vanylis was passed the staff, he held out, moving it away when Savos went to take it. 'Is that the staff of Magnus?' He muttered. 'How did you get it?'

'A dragon priest in Labyrinthian. It took a long time to find it, let alone take it. It's going with us, but I'm offering time to study it in return for access to your college.'

'You already have access, the whole order goes wherever it wants.' Savos snapped irritably.

'I'm talking about the midden.' Vanylis interrupted. There was silence from the college members.

'For a few days with the staff, you can see the midden.' Savos decided.

'Alone.' Vanylis added, to both the arch-mage and his apprentice.

'Olma!' She turned to see the oldest trainer in the college.

'Toldfir!'

'You found someone to take you under their wing?' He smiled. 'I can say now that I wasn't sure it'd work.'

'Well thanks for your confidence in me.' Olma grinned, Toldfir watched Vanylis enter the hall of countenance.

'I was expecting someone... older.'

'He's my age, we aren't children.' Olma said defensively.

'You're young, but you're smart.' Toldfir told her. 'Keep training and, you could be the next arch-mage.'

'Thanks, but I'm not really aiming to be like him.' Olma looked across to where Savos Aren was staring at the staff of Magnus. Toldfir frowned.

'I've seen that staff before, in a book somewhere. Wait.'

Vanylis entered the midden. It was dark at first, and then it stayed that way. There were occasional lanterns, magical light flowed weakly inside, but it was an old spell, and did little to illuminate the underground. Vanylis found one the three things he was searching for, it was a gauntlet, a daedric symbol carved into the palm. Vanylis took four rings from his pocket that would later be found missing from a locked chest, and placed on the fingers. Nothing happens. He rearranged them. Nothing. After a few more tries, they wouldn't come off. He stood back, satisfied, and it slowly closed into a fist. There was a purple swirl of light and a dremora appeared. It wielded a scimitar and wore redguard clothes.

'The demon pirate king?' Vanylis humoured the dremora by using this title.

'Yes. Since you have summoned me, I shall give you the option the free me, and live. I shall even give the you the location of my treasure.' He offered. Vanylis smiled.

'Unfortunately, I know where those rings came from, and I knew one of the people who you killed. I watched them join the college, I was five.' He remembered.

'I didn't plan to kill those kids, they didn't choose to free me and survive.'

'They were one of my closest friends.' Vanylis told the dremora. 'And I'm not letting you near anybody else in this college.' The pirate king snarled, suddenly running at him. Vanylis threw up his hands, fire roared against his ward. He ducked as a sword swung over his head, he swung his fist. The dremora only stumbled back, and it broke two fingers, but Vanylis didn't regret doing it. His hands glowed orange and the rings flew from the glove, attaching to his fingers. They pulled the dremora to the wall, Vanylis walked to him, the costly spell was slowing him. 'I banish you, Velehk Sain.' He commanded, the dremora screeched in rage as purple light enveloped him again, and he was pulled into Oblivion.

Fa'tahe's experience was much less intense, he had found the khajit mage, and was discussing his time in Skyrim.

'I have not had contact with Elswyr in a long time, forgive me for not knowing of you.'

'It okay, J'zargo.' Fa'tahe was enjoying using khajit names, they were more sharp on the tongue, rather than the simple, dull names that nords use. 'I am interested in a khajit that has become more nordic. Do you use moon sugar?'

'No, khajit has not tasted moon sugar since I joined the college.' J'zargo admitted, Fa'tahe grinned, he passed across a coin purse, it was clearly not bulging with coins though.

'Oh, many thanks.' J'zargo nodded.

Olma was involved in a less violent and less drug-related practice, she was learning invisibility from the illusion trainer. Drevis Neloren was adamant that illusion come first.

'It's the only spell that doesn't affect people's minds. It's one of the easiest ones because of that, although it's draining.' Olma eventually managed to fade from view slightly, becoming more-or-less translucent.

'Okay, that's a start.' Drevis nodded. The rest of Olma's time was in the Arcaneum, ignoring Urag gro-Shub, the librarian, a title he didn't particularly enjoy, apparently 'book guarded' needed a more dramatic title.

When the three of them rejoined, there were obvious problems.

'You're wearing the ring.' Olma said concernedly. 'And your hand.' She grabbed if before Vanylis could hide it, he he winced as she discovered it was broken. 'What did you do?!'

'My self-healing would be too unstable while my fingers are broken.' He stated.

'Your what?' Fa'tahe looked round sharply.

'Velehk Sain, remember?' Vanylis began. A few members of the college stopped to listen.

'I remember you telling me.' Olma nodded.

'I banished him.'

'By first summoning him?'

'How else?' He shrugged.

'You banished the dremora?' Savos Aren demanded incredulously.

'Yes.' Vanylis stated simply. 'I promised you a few days, so we'll be back soon for the staff.' The arch-mage forgot about the pirate king at this offer. 'Do you want to stay to train longer?' He asked Olma.

'No, I'll come. I only partially learned one spell anyway. Where are we going?'

'There's a guild of some sort set up around the Alftand lift, a telvanni wizard wants us to rescue his assistant, it's a new one.'

'The guild or the assistant?' Olma questioned.

'Both.'

'Are you paid when you do these jobs?' Fa'tahe asked curiously.

'Sometimes, but I think Vanylis gets paid in favours.' Olma answered. 'We've saved a few inns, so we eat for free in a lot of places.' She noticed that Vanylis was walking slower, unsteadily. She passed him and saw that his eyes eyes were unfocused and clouded. 'What do you see?' He blinked and was back.

'Some citizens of Windhelm took things too far, they kidnapped some dunmer, as far as I can tell, it's anti-magic.'

'This will be entertaining, then.' Fa'tahe summarised.

Approaching Alftand, they found the great lift deserted. There were abandoned tents around it, a fire still burning between them.

'Did they see us coming?' Olma frowned.

'Probably. The lift goes to Blackreach, they'll be lucky to survive down there.'

'Your job is done for you.' Fa'tahe concluded.

'Many of those people are working citizens of Windhelm, and the falmer won't kill them right away anyway. We'll save whoever we can.' Vanylis told Fa'tahe sternly. Olma nodded. The khajit was made to stay behind while they descended in the lift. The change was immediate as they cleared rocky walls, the windowed lift tunnel showed a dark yet impressive underground land, enough for an entire hold. It was populated with glowing mushrooms, and as they saw when the lift opened, large amounts of chauruses. Streams of fire scared away the giant insects that came too close, the ones that stayed were engulfed. Eventually what looked like a dwemer city came into view, but it was small, and lit by a large decorated orb that hung above it from the cave roof. Vanylis watched Olma attempt invisibility a few times, then cast it over both of them.

'Is this really going to do that much? Falmer don't rely on their eyes anyway.' She questioned. Vanylis paused. They now approached instead with a muffle spell, two detect life spells were started.

'There are falmer all over the place.'

'I can the people in one the buildings.'

'There are a few people hiding up on the walls.' With the knowledge of where everyone was, they moved stealthily into the city. Paralysis spells hit the falmer one by one while Olma searched for an entrance to the building that held the prisoners. One of the falmer found its immobile friend and raised the alarm by way of screeching as Olma entered the debate hall Vanylis was quickly surrounded, but every time a swarm of falmer descended, they dropped the floor with a mass-paralysis spell. Then suddenly Vanylis cried out, he bulled a bolt from his side. He stumbled as it took effect, the magika being leeched from him faster than it could regenerate. He pulled an elven dagger from his robes, resuming his defence against the mass of mutated snow-elves. Another bolt hit him, and as he fell against the wall from stamina loss, he decided that the archer was him primary concern. He kicked away a falmer and threw the dagger, it missed and only cut the nord's side, but his cry alerted the falmer of his presence. Now weaponless, Vanylis was being overwhelmed by the falmer, the magika poisoned stopping him from literally blowing them away, and the stamina poison stopping him from running. Then Olma reappeared, two dozens people following her into Blackreach. The falmer redirected their attack, Olma rushed to Vanylis. He pushed her hands away as the red glow of equilibrium grew, the nords were discovering that against blind opponents, they were actually losing. Olma restarted the spell, she fell onto her knees as magika flowed into Vanylis. Noticing this, he stopped her again, pulling her onto his back as the falmer subdued their distraction. They realised too late that their target was now fully restored, and decimating them. More and more kept coming, until enough was enough. Checking that Olma unconscious, Vanylis breathed in as long as he could, it came back out in the form of ice, the falmer fell down in crystals. The nords were pulled behind Vanylis as he walked, and orange glow surrounding them. With so many, he couldn't actually raise them off of the ground, and they were unceremoniously being dragged along the ground. By the time he reached the lift, he had to bring them in one by one, as his restored magika was already waning from the continued mass-telekinesis. Finally, he pulled the lever, ascending the to surface.

Fa'tahe had apparently made friends, all of a passing khajit caravan stopped to watch as the lift arrived, carrying twenty nords with varying levels of injury, and Vanylis, who was in turn carrying Olma.

'What happened?!' He exclaimed. Vanylis lay Olma down, then pretty much collapsed. Slowly, the nords woke, and were promptly shooed by Fa'tahe, they were too confused to notice that their original targets were on the floor next to them. Olma woke up next, when a healing potion had been mixed and given to her, she healed Vanylis.

'Oh, we're alive.' He commented. 'Than went better than expected.'

'Do you... carry me out?' Olma asked hesitantly.

'Yes, you're welcome.' He replied dismissively. 'I completely forgot that we were meant to rescue someone.'

'He is over there. I thought he was most likely who you were looking for.' Fa'tahe pointed to where a dunmer was idly waiting.

'It's been half an hour, why didn't you tell me?' Olma sighed.

'I thought you had noticed, I am surprised that you did not.' He shrugged.

'Well, to Solesthiem.' Vanylis stood up.

'Why do we have to go with him?' Olma frowned.

'Because of the racism in Windhelm, I'm surprised he got this far. And also I was promised something for rescuing him by Neloth.' Vanylis admitted.

In Windhelm, Vanylis was proven right, as when he told the ship captain the names of his passengers, the captain looked up at him with clear distaste.

'Two of those dark elves?' He asked as if for clarification.

'Vanylis is me.' Vanylis told him.

'Ah. The other one?'

'Will be a passenger on this ship.' He replied. When everyone boarded, they set out for Solesthiem. Only two of them having been before, Olma and Fa'tahe were at the bow for the entire journey.

'It's good to meet someone so well-versed in our culture, a nice change from the primitives that I usually meet in Skyrim.' Drovas Relvi said with clear hostility towards the crew.

'I was raised by dunmer, they knew Neloth.' Vanylis nodded. 'I'm surprised he'd replace his steward, hadn't she been with him for over a century?'

'Ah, yes, that was a rather unfortunate mess. To make a long story short, she was found dead.' He said bluntly.

'Oh. I knew her.' Vanylis looked down for a moment. 'I'll talk to Neloth when we're at Tel Mithryn.'

On Raven Rock, Olma and Fa'tahe were slightly cautious at everything, while Vanylis was in his element.

'Ash yams!' He bought five, they were gone when the giant mushroom tower came into sight.

'Is that Red Mountain?' Olma shielded her eyes against sun and ash.

'It's a volcano- Well, yes. Nobody in Tamriel has seen another one, so there's no name for them in general. This one's Red Mountain.'

'There are other Red Mountains?' Fa'tahe was concerned, this one alone had been an environmental catastrophe.

'In Akavir, the psijic order tried to explore it once, the natives didn't want us there though. From what we saw, there are a few volcanoes just in Ka'Po'Tum'.' The others didn't bother to ask about this

Inside Tel Mithryn tower, Neloth was pleased to see his steward back, although it was just because he wanted to have an assistant.

'Vanlas!'

'Vanylis.'

'Vanylis!' Neloth exclaimed again. 'You're taller, and you made it into the psijic order. Good for you, you even managed to bring back my steward. The door's unlocked.' He gestured to the door that lead to his staff enchanter. Within an hour, they were leaving with two new staffs, and a lot more soul gems. He passed them to Olma.

'Until you learn more destruction than flames and sparks, you'll need these.' He told her. 'Speaking of which, we'll train again tonight.'

'Raven Rock has no inns.' Drovas pointed out helpfully.

'Then we'll go back to Windhelm.'