Cearbhail:

Hey everyone. I have a new chapter, and I love it. Also, I have an important announcement that I will share down below. oh, by the way, this chapter was revised because the current year is 213, not 212. Not a massive change, just that. I missed the transition of the new year when it became Morningstar. Enjoy.

Oh...and enjoy =^.^=


[Cecilie, age 7] 4e 213, 13th Frostfall

Dear diary of shadows,

Today is the 13th of Frostfall, 4e 213. Training with Master Neloth has been fantastic. I've learned so much about magicka that the Elder Scrolls failed to teach me. Images and flashes of information, much like spell tomes, are great in theory and only in theory. That's all the Elder Scrolls provide… flashes of information. No practical training, no growth in my magicka talents, just flashes… images…illusions of truth. Master Neloth trained me. He prepared me. He guided me.

The past nine months have been something though. I can tell how Veselle was able to grow so strong so fast. Being exposed to this place is just perfect for magicka growth. The town of Tel Mithryn is a pretty big town, almost as big as Raven Rock. And everyone here is a mage, or training to be one anyway. Lord Neloth, Lord Teldryn, and Lady Ildari are the strongest here, although Lord Talvas and Lady Gwenlena are pretty strong too. Lady Gwenlena scares me. There's like this… other side to her, and the say she looks at me during dining hours, I'm afraid she's going to kill me or something. Nine months and that look hasn't faded in the least. I don't know why Lord Talvas married her. I like their daughter though. She's fun to play with. She's three years younger than me, 4 years old, and just beginning her training today. After all, today's her birthday. Her gift is being able to train with Lady Ildari. I wish I could have trained with her. She seems better at teaching than Master Neloth. Oh well.

My nine months here was great and all, but Ruby's coming by to pick me up. The war in Skyrim is contained and it's safe for me to come back. I almost denied the request, claiming that I wanted to stay here, but I have more training to go through. I need to learn how to battle bardly, so that I can fight my dad and kick his butt back into his body. Ok, um… kick his soul back into his body… by kicking his butt!

Princess Cecilie.

Solstheim was a pretty nice place. Cold, but nice. Eh, what do I care? I'm a Nord! It was cold, but I didn't see a lot of snow. Well, ok, there was a lot of snow, but it wasn't just snow. It was snow mixed in with ash. The ash came from Red Mountain, off in the distance. You could see it from the shoreline outside Tel Mithryn. Usually, after the sunset, and before the sunrise, you can see a light red glow coming from the top of the volcano, like it was still active. Sometimes you can see lava flowing down it too. Normally, everyone gathered outside Tel Mithryn to watch the more active nights where Red Mountain glowed with red lines of lava flowing down it. I thought it was nice to just sit back and enjoy these moments. I wonder why Veselle left this place. Everyone here was nice and very welcoming. It was almost like being back at Adularia Hall, only as a whole town.

"Let's review." Master Neloth said to me as he paced around the three training circles lining the middle of the town. The three training circles had begun as a way to contain Veselle's power when she first moved to Tel Mithryn, but they quickly became a common training place for new mages. And as more and more people moved to Tel Mithryn for training, the more the town expanded around the training circles. Pretty soon, these circles represented the center of the town, where mages came to train with Lord Neloth and Lady Ildari, the two strongest mages in Tamriel and the leaders of House Telvanni. It was still a small House, but it had its power again. Lord Teldryn and Lord Brandyl were the voice of the House and it was enough to keep the other Great Houses happy. That made me happy. I don't know why, but it did. Maybe it was because I liked these people.

I nodded to Master Neloth as he paced outside the circle. "I'm ready for anything."

Neloth sneered, which I understood as his way of smiling. He put on the cold act, but I knew he cared for his students. It was nice to be able to have the scrolls translate feelings for me. Otherwise, I'd think that Master Neloth was being an asshole to me, but I knew better. He believed that acting cold and tough would motivate me to train harder, and it did. Amazing, but his manner of approaching my enthusiasm made me work harder to hear him appreciate my efforts. I knew it was the same for his daughter, Veselle too. Reviewing her past told me a lot about what happened here. No wonder she became so strong. I hoped that I followed in her footsteps.

"I will admit, when you first came here, I was disconcerted to the idea that you wanted me to train you in magicka." He stated as he paced around the circle. "But in nine months, you've been able to move from Frost up to Shock. Air you took to naturally, and Earth…well…not so much. Your flames burn purple, a color reserved for a passion for learning. And I enjoyed that part of our daily talks. Your exposure to the Elder Scrolls gave you a gift for knowledge… knowledge that I would kill for. But I doubt the Scrolls would show me as much as they showed you… and would take more for trivial information. But still, the ability to turn a seven year-old into a scholar… someone intelligent that can converse with me and hold an actual intellectual conversation. I must admit these nine months have been my highlight of the year." He paused as he glared at me. "And before we part, before we commence your final examination, I must share with you my theory as to why the Elder Scroll shared as much as it did."

What? He had a theory to why the Elder Scrolls gave me limitless information? I had consulted the Scroll wikia over and over again, but it never told me anything. I just got more flashes of information, useless images of portals and timelines. "Ok…" I said to him as I watched him sneer.

"You are the daughter of the Dragonborn. As such, you have dragon blood flowing in your veins. The Aedra Lord that created the Elder Scrolls was Akatosh, the first dragon… the original dragon. All Dragonborns are born of His blood. You share the blood of Akatosh, and so… when you gaze upon the Scrolls of his creation, you are able to connect with the Scrolls in a way that normal people cannot. People train for years to see pieces of what you've seen. People die from overexposure to fragments of what you've walked through. You survived because your dragon blood protected you. This is my theory. And as you grow stronger in your dragon blood… as you develop your dragon spirit … I believe you will begin to understand your gifts given to you. See more, experience more. Perhaps even… travel through time."

Travel through time? I couldn't stop myself from laughing. It was sudden too. I snorted to start with and it broke into a loud laugh that brought a smile to Master Neloth's face. "Time travel?" I couldn't stop myself from falling to my knees. "What do I look like, a Psijic monk?" I couldn't stop from cracking up over that too. The whole idea just seemed…impossible. No one knew how to do that. It took massive amounts of magicka, probably more than anyone alive was capable of producing. Not to mention the knowledge to create such a spell doesn't exist anymore. Such a concept was behind us. Just like levitation… that spell no longer existed either.

Master Neloth crossed his arms, smirking at me as he narrowed his eyes. "Laughing at my expense? Was it so much a stretch to anticipate where your abilities as a mage and one born with dragon blood will take you?"

I shook my head as I wrapped my arms around my busting gut. I couldn't stop laughing, even now. "No. It's not your fault. It's just… I can't even begin to think that time travel is real."

"It used to be a known spell." Master stated. He started pacing around me again. "And you've been exposed to pure knowledge… of the past, present, and as you've witnessed… the future." He continued pacing, rubbing his chin as he started what I knew to be a chained rant that was about to instruct me to accept my responsibility to acquire more knowledge, and become stronger so that the future of mages could benefit from my knowledge obtained and stored in my shadow book. Man… if anyone could tap into the knowledge I somehow will contain one day… they might as well read an Elder Scroll. Huh… I wonder. If someone did read my book one day and witnessed my memory of reading the Elder Scroll… would they lose their sight like I did? Would that be like that movie Inception? A blind fate within a memory of a blind fate? I almost couldn't hold the laugh as I doubled over onto my back, my legs kicking in the air.

"Apprentice Cecilie, I believe you should recover yourself and dust off your robes. I would like to attend to your ceremony before breakfast commences." His chiding voice called over my laughter. I squeezed my mouth shut, trying my best to hold my breath until I felt my lungs dry up any forms of laughter. It took a few moments, but I was finally able to sit up and dust off my red training robes off of the ash I'd collected rolling around on the ground. I looked up at the sky. I could still see the stars shining dimly as the morning sun started to rise. Twilight. Huh… until the past nine months, I'd never woken up until after the sun rose. Magicka training before the rising sun was becoming a nice habit of mine. I'd enjoyed the early sunrises, and I wondered if after I was done here… would I go back to sleeping in and missing my early mornings?

I sighed as I rolled up onto the balls of my feet and pushed myself back up. "Ok, I'm ready." I said to him. "So, what's this final exam?"

He smirked in his usual fashion as he looked down at me. "We will review the basics of every spell you've studied the past nine months. In the art of elemental warfare, you started with Frost. It took you a while before you opened up to Air… and then purple flames… and then Shock. Those are just the elemental forms your magicka can generate into. Destruction wise: you were able to manifest only your Shock as an attackable element. Your Frost became more of a defense you hid behind, your purple flames only manifesting while you read in the library. Your Air magicka you seemed to manifest only when you wanted to get around quickly. I must admit, your ability to adapt your magicka was astonishing, although your flames are practically useless. So, let us begin with your combative use of Destruction."

My Sight buzzed for a second and I saw myself getting shocked by Shock from behind. The strike was powerful enough to send me to the ground where I convulsed and puked. My body instantly reacted to my Sight's prediction. I felt a cold chill behind me as Frost formed around my back. Shock magicka slammed into my back, but the Frost Shell held and split the Shock magicka away. I watched as the Shock magicka flowed across my shelled back, flying into the walls of the protective circle.

I felt my Sight call to me as the ground underneath me exploded into a cyclone of Fire magicka. I would dodge and then fireballs would slam into my body, lighting me on fire and send me to the ground where I would writhe until I was burnt to a crisp. I would be sent to the healer's tent where Ildari would heal my body back to normal, but not without some new scars and hair loss on top of my head. Not to mention, it would hurt. As soon as my Sight warned me, my feet gathered Air underneath me and used it to push me away from where the magicka formed. I jumped away just seconds before the cyclone of fire formed underneath my feet. The fire roared up in the middle of the circle and I had barley seconds before I had another flash of information. Six fireballs, one from each direction…all coming straight for me. I had to move quickly, or fight back.

I had milliseconds to calculate where each fireball would come from, and how I would have to act to intercept them. I felt Shock pulse on my fingertips. I was still thinking about the fireballs when I heard/felt them vibrate through the air. My arms sped up with Air magicka as Shock flowed off my fingertips. I could see all around me… all the magicka in the circle. I could see them before they formed, how strong they would be, and how I needed to act to either evade them or destroy them. Knowing that, my Shock responded to my information. My arms and fingers directed my energy. My arms moved as a blur and before I knew it, I was surrounded by a torrent of fire. A field of Shock and Air surrounded me, keeping the fire from touching me.

As soon as the fire died down, I let my breath drop. My magicka dropped with it. And as soon as it did, I felt my legs shake. My legs folded underneath me and I fell into seiza, catching my breath. Man…that really took it out of me. Using my Sight with my magicka was a great strategy, but it really wore me out. "Ok…I'm tapped out." I said to Master Neloth.

He only groaned annoyingly as he rolled his eyes. "Ok, fine. I wish we had more time to improve your endurance. As you are right now… you're still just a seven year-old girl in terms of how much magicka you're able to generate in your body. Your manipulation is most impressive, better than my own daughters before their mid-teens. You're half their age and better at manipulation, just not generation. I suspect your magicka will spike later in life… either that or you will have to learn to use as little as possible."

I nodded. That made sense. I was still just a child, even though my mental capabilities were equal to that of an adult. My body wasn't any stronger than any other child's…excluding my mind anyway. My body's ability to create magical energy was very little, and I couldn't do much with it. Oh well. I wonder how long until I could fight Dad. The soul wasn't my magicka. It shouldn't need a time limit to grow stronger. Or… did it? I really didn't know. Either way, I needed to move onto my next stage of training. And I would need Ruby to get there in order to move onto it. In order to battle Dad in bardic battle, I had to learn bardic battle properly. Ruby was a bard. She might not be the best, but she could face Asger in a fight when she was younger. That was the next step: learning the ways of the bard.

"We shall now move onto your review of Restoration." Master Neloth stated.

"Sir, I'm out of magicka." I called out to him. My hands still tingled with numb fingertips, my breath still short, my head still spinning lightly. Yeah, there was no way I was going to be able to summon up more magicka without passing out.

"The rest of the review will require no magicka efforts, only explanative summaries." Master reported. "You're on a battlefield. You notice four battlefield victims. One is suffering from a sword wound across his chest and arm. Another is writhing in pain from multiple burns. You can see exposed muscle tissue across the burnt areas, inflammation, and infection setting in the exposed tissue. A third victim has an arrow in the head, and the fourth an arrow in the knee. Who do you treat first, second, third, and then fourth? Explain your reasoning and the method/visualization behind your treatment. You are a battlefield medic and have the necessary items: blessed water, bandage wraps, and a bottle of instant plasma pills. Begin."

As Master spoke the situation the training circle started to hum with Illusion magicka. The four victims started to appear from nowhere, and in a few seconds I was able to see them. A pouch appeared on my waist and it had a Restoration emblem embezzled on the flap. Ok… this was a pretty elaborate test. I looked around at the four victims. What should I do? The burn victim looked like he was in intense pain, but the guy with the arrow in the head was probably in a worse condition than the burn victim. Unless he was dead. That was a test. Either he was still alive and slowly dripping away, or he was already dead.

"Tick tock, Apprentice Cecilie. From my estimates, enemy soldier are taking notice to you and are rushing to attack you. You must get at least one soldier back onto his feet… otherwise you'll be overrun." Master shrugged. "And don't forget to use your words. This is an assessment after all."

I sighed. "I cannot ignore the soldier with a head wound. Either he is dead or in critical condition. To ignore him would be stupid, but the soldier with multiple burns and infection would just as easily go into critical condition if not treated promptly. So, I will rush over to the head wound victim and inspect him." I ran up to the soldier with the head wound. I placed my hands on his forehead, saying, "I use my Restoration magicka to scan his head for activity."

"You detect electronic signals processing in his brain. Also, magicka is forming around the base of the arrow."

"Ok… so he's still alive. Shab!"

"No cursing, Cecilie. Where did you even learn that word?" He shouted to me. He smirked as he started tapping his finger on his other arm. "So…what are you going to do?"

I exhaled. "I will pour healing magicka into the wound around the brain. It will keep the brain clean and protected for a few seconds at least. As long as he doesn't shift his head, he would fair just fine. I blast his neck with a Paralyze magicka…"

"You don't know Illusion magicka."

"The heck I don't!" I screamed back to Master. "Every healer is taught some amount of Illusion magicka to keep their patients from freaking out or moving when they shouldn't."

He smirked and chuckled to himself. "Well done." He nodded. "Ok, you paralyzed his neck. What do you do next?"

I ran from the paralyzed soldier over to the burn victim. "I run Restoration magicka into the blessed water." I paused as I pulled out the bottle of blessed water and hugged it to my chest. "And when it converts to healing water, I sprinkle the water over the exposed burn areas, especially focusing more Restoration magicka into infected areas. Perhaps a little Shock magicka to kill the infection."

"You don't know Destruction magicka."

"I know at least Frost and Shock." I called back. I stuck out my tongue. "Need me to explain why?" He nodded. Right… test. "Some patients need Shock therapy to get their heart started or to help deal with the effects of shock… not the element. Frost is used to help cool bodies and to help kill poisoned body parts, not to mention infection as well. Frost may be barbaric when you're freezing a whole leg to snap off but… it's better than a soldier dying because you did nothing to save him. A limb or a life? That's the gamble."

"That is true." He stated. "You understand Restoration better than Veselle ever will. She could never commit herself to learning Restoration to this degree. She cringed at the idea of reaching into another's aura and sharing energy with them in such an intimate way. Healers are very intimate people. And you would make a nice one. Please proceed with your exam."

I nodded. "So, I pour some Restoration into the exposed burn areas. Once I have that handled, I use some Frost as a mist to help cool the body so that it doesn't overheat. I have to be careful though, or I might put the patient into shock by exposing his body to drastic temperature changes. I rush back to the head wound and use more Restoration on the affected brain area. I can't really do much for him but use Restoration to keep his head healed." I checked the arrow to see that it wasn't a protruding wound. I would have to pull it out. "Unfortunately… the patient will most likely die from this wound. In order to get the arrow out, I would either have to push it all the way through or pull it out, which would cause even more trauma to the brain. He would already be brain-dead, but now it's a condition he will most likely never recover from. I will deal with him last, since his procedure is the most delicate."

"Soldiers are closing in, Apprentice. You need some movement." Master declared.

I ran over to the knee wound. "Well… his adventuring days are over but…" I picked up the illusionary bow and arrows, handing them to the soldier. "I used Paralyze on the guy's leg so that it stiffened up and didn't kick me. And when it's done I grab the arrow and pull it out without any hesitation. Once it's out, I wrap the wound up with my enchanted healing bandages after applying some Restoration directly to the wound. After all that, I pull him up and tell him to fire at the enemy while I get back to work."

Master nodded. "You bought yourself some time. Continue."

I rushed over to the sword wound. "Ok, this one's simple. I use Restoration on his chest wound and his arms." I put my arm out and the Illusion did it for me. The chest started closing on its own. "I hand him a sword and tell him to buy me more time." I rushed over to the arrowhead. "And now… the final act." I sighed as I sat down, putting his head in my lap. I ran my fingers over the head, visualizing magicka forming in the head. I got an image of the arrow. It seemed to hit something important but didn't cause too much damage. The guy would most likely lose some function in parts of his body and most of his memory as well as motor skills. But he would survive if I did this correctly. "I pour as much Restoration as I can into the tip of the arrow. I enrich the spell with Cellular Growth. And as I grab the arrow and slowly/gently pull it out, keeping the arrow as straight as possible as I do so. I will the energy to heal brain cells while I glide the arrow out of the head, focusing on rebuilding parts of the brain that had been lost."

Master nodded. And he waited as I pulled the arrow out. I finally got it out with a squirt of fluids, mostly blood though. There was some gray matter on the arrow tip but not too much. There was a small hole leading to the brain and I knew that I had to have it covered. I poured some of the remaining blessed healing water into the head and then did Cellular Growth on the scalp. The head covered itself in seconds and that was that. I scanned his head to see that his brain was still firing off energy like it was processing pain. Good… he was still alive. I did it! I saved all four men!

The Illusion froze and then started fading away. Master nodded to me. "Well done, Apprentice. I must say, nine months and you've impressed me. Too bad we didn't get onto the fun stuff: Alteration, Illusion… Conjuration. But oh well. Maybe next time you visit."

I nodded to him. "Definitely." I couldn't help but feel proud of myself. I did something kinda awesome. That was the first time he'd tested me like that, and I passed!


Cearbhail:

Ok, so the announcement. I bought Elder Scrolls Online. I know, I know... it's been out for a while now and I could have bought it like... forever ago. But I really want to play it now and I'm not too picky on the price (not to mention I don't really care for computer games, I really am a console brat). So, the news. I'm planning on playing a Khajiit character and I'm open for suggestions. If you want me to play as Vatu, Nisha, Ruby, Ahmbra, Ksaan, or any other Khajiit I've ever created then great! Or if you want to suggest a new Khajiit character, I'd be willing to consider that too. I really don't know who I'm going to play as so... that's why I'm taking suggestions. Also, if you wish to converse during gameplay, I'm ok with that too. You'll probably find me in Elsweyr to start with and then create an Argonian for the Black Marsh and whatever else I need to create in order to adventure in the last of the tree armies. See you online around Friday. Until then I will stay open for suggestions.