Drake left before the others woke up. She left behind one of her books for Ria and Lytte and a note explaining where she'd gone off to. She decided to make it simple, rather than long and sad.
I'm headed for the College of Winterhold, to study magic. The more we travel, the more I've thought about this and I need to do it. I don't feel like saying goodbye, because I'll see all of you again some point in the future. –Drake
She patted Mara's neck and glanced back at their camp before turning around the corner. It would be a few more hours before they woke up, and that meant she'd have a good distance between them. That way they wouldn't think of going after her, and they'd find out where they wanted to go. She didn't want it to be this way, but magic was something she had to learn.
It was a yearning she hadn't felt before. She wanted to learn about the arcane arts, but at the same time she was worried, almost scared. Magic was dangerous if you threw yourself at it. She'd learned that when they encountered a mage on one of their quests; he'd gone insane and started trapping people in a Nordic ruin.
That's about when she decided to head off for the College. She'd heard they were very concerned with safety, and that they were the only people who taught magic inside Skyrim. Hopefully, it wasn't just some small shack full of shut-ins.
It was mid-afternoon when her friends finally did look for her, and realized that she was gone. They all agreed it was for the best, and then talked as a group. Ria and Lytte felt the need to go towards Riften and Windhelm with Irehl. Tarek and Alrek decided to go towards Whiterun and Solitude. They split up and said goodbye, all following Drake's leave. All of them agreed to it, and they weren't sad. To them, it was like the beginning of a new journey towards new friends and new places to call home.
After all, they would never forget each other. How could you forget the quest to defeat Alduin? Or becoming a dragonborn?
Drake arrived at Dawnstar the following evening. She hadn't stopped in Morthal, which was a bad idea. She ended up having to stop to keep warm, she hadn't expected there to be a blizzard. So she decided that the next time she'd stop in Dawnstar for the evening, and leave early the next morning.
She noticed the small barn near the inn and walked over, to be greeted by a man. He nodded at her and pointed to the last stall in the barn.
"You can leave her there for the night. You both look like you've been rattled. Did you get caught in the snow storm last night?" he asked.
She nodded. "I didn't stop in Morthal, so I got caught outside in it. Poor Mara's taken a beating from the cold. Are there rooms in the inn?"
"Yeah," he said. "I only tend to the horses though. Four gold pieces and I'll see about some food and water for her, as well as clean hay."
Drake gratefully handed over the coins and pulled her things off Mara, leaving the saddle inside on the edge of the stall. She threw her pack over her shoulder and trudged off for the door to the inn, only to hear a few people talking. She listened to the conversation for a while before she interrupted, only to learn that the town was plagued by some nightmares.
She felt sympathetic enough to leave her things in the Inn and head up to investigate what was going on. She ended up spending the night running through the halls of a daedric shrine, fearing for her life. She ended up sparing the priest's life and watched him destroy the damned thing that was causing all the trouble. She then trudged back to the inn, only to find out that it was a few hours until morning.
She grumbled and threw herself into her rented room, taking off her bloody clothes and curling up in the bed she'd rented for the night. After a few hours she rolled over and discovered it was well into morning, and got up. The innkeeper told her about Winterhold, and the collapse, and how about the whole town was pretty much empty.
"Sad," Drake said reaching for her ale.
"Yeah," the innkeeper shook her head. "Even sadder is there's nothing really anyone can do. Until the town is rebuilt, it's going to be like that forever. Only people who go there are the mages."
"That's why I'm going," Drake said, "To study magic at the College."
"It's a good place to learn. My uncle went up there to learn magic. He came back and surprised all of us with what he learned." The innkeeper chuckled.
Drake smiled. It was good to see everyone in a good mood for once. "I'll be heading out in a bit. Don't have a lot of time to get there."
"Ah, you'll make it. Only takes a few hours to get there from here."
She ushered Mara over the hill, hoping that she was close to Winterhold. She'd been traveling all day through the frozen Pale, and she was rather tired of it. She missed the green hills of Whiterun already. Mara snickered and she patted her neck.
"We should be there soon." She said. "I hope there's at least a warm fire in the inn."
Mara reached the top of the hill and Drake sucked in her breath. Winterhold did look like a ghost town. She could see four buildings, and a few half-destroyed wooden ones. A guard looked up at her and turned away, heading for a nearby building. She ushered Mara down the hill. As they rounded the corner, she saw a stone building in the background.
She leaned forward in the saddle to see a magnificent building made of stone past the edge of what appeared to be a cliff. A sudden noise of approaching footsteps made her stop and look in front of Mara. A guard wearing light blue stood in front of her, his arms crossed. She could see the familiar shine on his bow, telling her it was enchanted. And it was probably from the college.
"Do you need help miss?" he asked.
Drake sat up straight in the saddle. "Just here for the college, thank you."
The guard snorted. "Of course you are. Only people that come here are coming here for the damn college. Damn mages."
Drake rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, damn the mages. They just make you enchanted weapons."
The guard looked at her, his eyes narrowed. "How did you know my weapon's enchanted?"
Drake smiled slyly before ushering Mara towards the College. She dismounted and walked her to a nearby post, where she tied her. She needed to know if there was a place for her here, or she'd have to take her back to Dawnstar, so she could live peacefully.
The test at the gate was simple enough. She did find out that Mara would need a new home, since the college didn't have a stable. Drake decided to take her to Dawnstar, where she gave her to the blacksmith, who was more than happy to take her. His wife, he explained, loved creatures. And he himself would need a horse to get him from a mine back home again. Drake felt happy to find a home for her horse, and offered her away for next to nothing. The blacksmith wouldn't hear it and offered to repair Drake's weapons and armor. Drake accepted and watched the smith work on them before heading back to Winterhold.
It took longer for her to get back to Winterhold, but when she got back, she threw herself into her work. She began to study with some of the apprentices, and then eventually attended a few lectures on restoration and other arcane arts. After that she decided to meet the others of the college, and found a few of the fellow apprentices needed help with some of their pet projects.
Then she headed to the dig site with the other apprentices. When she was separated from Tolfdir after the weird vision, she began to slowly panic. She had never gone into the Nordic ruins by herself before. And she absolutely despised undead. She ended up using her sword and several of her fellow apprentice's scrolls. When she met up with Tolfdir again she expected her dangerous ride to be over, but then found herself staring at a deathlord.
She hated deathlords. She and the others had fought them before, and they didn't fall easily to the six of them. She expected that they would probably die, but actually Tolfdir surprised her with his depth of destruction magic and his ability to use a blade. They finished him off rather quickly, and she discovered the eye.
She knew as soon as she saw it that it would be trouble. And as they continued to study it, it did. And it turned into a giant puzzle. They didn't know what it was, but when they did find out what it was, they didn't know what to do with it. It sat in the hall of elements while they all studied it. One night, Drake was the last one in the hall examining the amount of magicka that was coming off of it.
It gave off an eerie blue glow, one that reminded her of the glow from blackreach, and it made the hairs on her arms stand straight up. She held onto the Night of Tears, the book she'd found. She eventually gave up studying it and retreated to sit on the stairs, pulling her favorite book from her satchel. She had all night to re-read it, since Arch-Mage Aren decided that someone should watch the eye at all times. He forbade Ancano from being near it, after the elf's outburst against not informing the Thalmor.
She opened the Black Arrow, volume 1, and began to read it. She'd finished only the first book, having failed to find a copy of the second. She was deep into reading when there was a sudden noise from beside her. She looked up and discovered the blue robes of the Arch-Mage not too far from her. She dropped her book and stood up.
"Arch-Mage Aren-"she began.
The dark elf held up a hand. "Please, associate, relax. It is just Aren."
Drake relaxed, pulling her hood off to see the dark elf better. He was examining the eye, his arms crossed. "Amazing, isn't it."
Aren turned his head. "It's quite amazing. I've never seen an artifact that gives off magicka like this before. I agree with Tolfdir, something like this could be very dangerous."
"I've seen good men go evil for smaller trinkets before, but nothing like this." Drake rubbed at her neck. "It's terrifying to think about what this could do."
Aren turned to look at her. "That's right, I remember Mirabelle telling me you're not from Skyrim originally. That and you were a sell-swordsman before you changed your mind."
Drake snorted. "Sell-swordsman is a very light way to put it. I traveled with a group of people before I came here to learn the arcane arts. We traveled all over Skyrim and did a lot of good things. To others at the time, it didn't seem good, but it was good. A lot of people were helped by what we did." She realized she must have sounded like she was ranting. "I don't mean to rant-"
"No, please," Aren said. "Continue with your story."
Drake picked up her book and set it down next to her. "You won't believe me if I told you the whole story."
Aren chuckled. "You wouldn't believe a lot of what I've done either. That doesn't mean you can't try to explain it."
"Well, to put it simply; I'm a dragonborn." Drake explained, pulling her amulet of Akatosh out of her robes. Aren stared at her. "There are six of us; Alrek, Tarek, Irehl, Ria, Lytte and me. We met at the Greybeard's Temple when they called for us. We'd all managed to find a word and killed a dragon, somehow. Gods, I don't even know how."
"You've killed a dragon?" Aren asked, amazed.
Drake nodded and tucked her amulet away. "I've killed quite a few. I also know every shout a person could know."
"That's incredible," Aren walked over. "Can you show me one? I've always heard of the abilities, but no one's ever seen it."
Drake nodded and stood up, looking at a nearby pile of books. She straightened up and drew up the shout in the back of her throat. She exhaled it, shouting the word as her voice left her throat. "Fus-ro-dah!"
The books went flying to the other side of the room, hitting the column. Drake jumped. She hadn't meant to use the whole shout. "Oh dear," she hurried over and began to pick the books up.
"That was incredible!" Aren said, walking over to help her pick up the books. "You say you can do others?"
She looked up at the older dark elf. "Um, yes, I can do a lot more shouts. But it takes up a lot of energy. You have to rest a while before you can do it again." She pointed at her throat. "It hurts."
"I could imagine," Aren said as he stood up with a stack of books in his arms. "It's incredible though. I never thought a dragonborn would be here, training to be a mage!"
She laughed at his outburst. "I didn't want to say anything when I arrived. Better to be admitted as a mage, than a dragonborn."
"That's very honest of you."
Drake set the books down in their spot. "I was usually the only honest one, unless they really didn't need to know something; I was usually the voice of reason too."
"What were they like?" Aren asked. "The dragons, I mean."
Drake shook her head. "Incredible. They're terrifying and powerful. I remember once a dragon landed right when we left Riften. It landed right next to Ria; she and Lytte freaked out. They ended up causing the most damage with their swords before we all turned around and helped them. It ended up slashing Irehl's stomach open. That's when I learned healing hands. I had the spell book in my bag."
Aren smiled. "That's a pretty memorable day to learn Restoration."
"The funny thing is," Drake said casually, "Is when you see them circling you before they land. We were in Solitude once, and a shadow passed over the ground. We all jumped out of our skin, and it turned out to be a hawk."
The Arch-mage laughed for a while before stopping to wipe at his eyes, "By the eight, you must have all been scared out of your minds."
"You must have better stories than I do, don't dark elves live for hundreds of years?" she asked.
Aren sat down next to her. "You'd think I'd have hundreds of stories, but I don't. Most of them are quite boring and dull."
"Your life couldn't be that boring," Drake picked up her book. "I'm sure you have more memories than this book has letters."
Aren motioned for her to hand over the book, and she did without hesitation. He opened the cover and looked at the first page. "The black arrow volume one; yes, I do believe you're right. But most of my memories, I'm afraid, are still boring."
"You're the Arch-Mage," Drake took the book back. "You can't be all that boring, otherwise you wouldn't have made it to that position in the first place. Who would want a boring Arch-Mage?" she joked.
Aren laughed. "I think we're going to be good friends…But I'm afraid I don't really know your name."
"Drake. My name is Drake. Pleased to meet you-"she held out her hand.
"Aren," the dark elf shook her hand. "And the pleasure is all mine."