Oh? What have we here then?
Someone actually found out the Easter eggs!
I am freaking proud of you both. Therefore, HONORARY MENTIONS:
Rotciv557 was the first one to answer both chapter eight Easter eggs, meaning they will decide which magic schools out favourite little void mage will focus on. I might add a spell or two here or there, but overall the tone has been set.
The correct answer to the Heron Swords Easter egg: The wheel of Time, with protagonist Rand al'Thor, aka the Dragon Reborn.
The correct answer to the Fang and Claw Easter egg: the Beast master, though Rexxar would have been correct as well.
Also, someone else tracked down a chapter one Easter egg:
dreammag identified the opening: it is indeed from Louise Valliere and the Madboy, by Empirialtank. You should read it, it's AMAZING, if a little brutal sometimes.
With that out of the way, let us get going.
Chapter nine: Espionage and Education
Louise woke up with a start, with her bed shaking as if subject to an earthquake spell. She crawled out of it and stood up, looking around to find the source of the disturbance.
She did not have to look long.
Ysmir was sleeping soundly, in his Daedric armour, but during the night he must have moved about. One of the many shoulder spikes protruding from his pauldrons had caught her bedframe, and as he inhaled and exhaled the pauldrons, and by extension her bedframe, moved up and down.
Louise dismissed the strange sight before her and looked out through her window. It was just before sunrise, meaning Ysmir's little accident with her bedframe had actually awoken her just before the morning meal. She felt a strong urge to thank him, when she realized how badly the bedframe was going to be damaged by this.
She decided to wake him up, but keep the praise back. Walking over to his face, she repeated the process she had used to wake him up yesterday.
She grabbed his ear and pulled for queen and country.
The bed was lifted nearly three decimetres before it came loose as Ysmir sat up and yawned. It slammed down into the floor, and the sound it made caused the dragonborn to look around, seemingly startled. After a few moments he dismissed it, stood up and turned to Louise.
"Morning, summoner. It seems to be a bit early, how come you woke me up?"
As he scratched behind his ears, Ysmir followed her glare to the bed. A large hole, roughly spike-shaped, had appeared on the frame. He realized what must have occurred.
"Ah, sorry. I'll remove my pauldrons when I sleep from now on. Anyway, when are we going to begin your lessons in Magicka?"
Louise dropped any hint of anger, faced with the prospect of learning the insane magic her familiar had mentioned, and swiftly realized she had classes today.
"It will have to be in the late afternoon, when my classes are finished. Until then, why don't you familiarize yourself with the Academy grounds? You did say you hadn't seen the entirety of the area yesterday, and we need to find a good spot for training."
Ysmir nodded, seemingly content.
"That seems like a good idea. If nothing else, it will help me pass the time. Perhaps I'll find some more minor quests. Speaking of things to do, have you thought about which schools to choose?"
Louise hadn't, but now that she thought about the options Ysmir had described yesterday there was really only one option. Or, perhaps she should say two options.
"Yes, I have. You say Alteration is the most versatile, and that seems like a good starting point. However, I need to trick people into believing I have an elemental alignment, and just being able to transmute won't convince people I'm an Earth mage. Thus, I will pick up destruction so I can give the illusion of being a Fire mage, if only to give me some more offensive power."
Satisfied with the answer, Ysmir answered.
"I though as much. That combination is used by nearly all spellswords, who are magic-wielding mercenaries, for its versatility and survivability. I think you should learn a very basic Healing spell too, though, just in case."
Louise accepted the terms and took a look at the sun. Breakfast should open right about now, and so she bid her Familiar farewell for now, threw him the key to the room and headed toward nourishment and tastiness. Ysmir lingered a bit longer, looking at the beautiful sunrise, before he too left the room and locked the door behind him.
As he had nothing on the agenda but exploration, the dragonborn settled into an old routine he had developed whilst exploring nearly all of Tamriel.
He placed his hands behind his back and started walking at a slow, but entirely acceptable pace, making sure to catch every detail whilst he walked. He felt no need to make any maps this time around, as he was beginning to get accustomed to the area, and so he just trekked on peacefully, letting his mind wander.
He soon found himself walking across the green court surrounding the main tower, heading for the only one of the five smaller towers that did not have a walkway to it. This intrigued the dragonborn, and he set course for the door to the tower. He recalled Louise mentioning the five elements used in the strange magic they though here, and as there was five smaller towers, each with a differently coloured roof, he (correctly) assumed the towers were named after the elements. Seeing as Louise had mentioned there not having existed any Void mages for a long time, he also realised that the tower before him, with a black roof, must be the Tower of Void.
As Ysmir arrived at the door to the tower, he noted that the door, made from something that looked like grey wood but felt just like stone, was closed. Judging from the relatively high grass in front if the door, with no signs of having ever been trampled, the tower was not visited very often. So, what could be in there?
Ysmir tried to pull the door handle. It did not even budge. He checked the hinges. They were big and heavy, but not rusty, so the door was either locked or stuck so hard even the dragonborn couldn't move it.
A normal man might have given up. A normal man had not defeated every enemy and crushed every threat in his world to be beaten by A FREAKING DOOR.
Ysmir was very close to blasting the door to smithereens with Unrelenting Force. Yet, he caught himself before he did so. Brute force might be easy, but victory was so much sweeter when the threat was deceived, rather than just beaten.
He stood straight, but reminded himself to first make sure there was no one watching him, as he was almost certain that breaking and entering was illegal here. It was in Skyrim, and the people of Skyrim were more open-minded about certain things than people in other places.
He spoke a word in the dragon tongue, no louder than a whisper.
"Laas."
As he looked around now, red auras appeared, most within the main tower and a few in the other ones. None of them seemed to be in the Void tower, and thus he went through with his plan of breaking and entering. He spoke three other words, a little louder this time.
"Feim Zii Gron."
Ysmir prepared himself, and when the tug came he was ready for it. His spirit was seemingly stretched out to cover his entire body, which he had never quite grown accustomed to. That was one of the reasons he rarely used this Thu'um.
Recovering from the initial shock, Ysmir simply walked through the door. Once inside, he found himself in total darkness. He flexed his hand, and cast a certain spell that had proven useful to him many times.
Candlelight.
The ethereal effect diminished, and his spirit retreated into his body. A white and blue orb of light hovered above his head, providing enough light for him to take a real look at the place he was currently in.
He was standing in what appeared to be a storeroom, with chairs and desks stacked upon each other, as well as crates with books and bottles of ink. Ysmir concluded that they were using the empty tower as a storage facility, having no other practical use for it. However, a staircase on his left restored his curiosity.
As he walked up the stairs, Ysmir found something he had not hoped for.
More storage space, this time almost entirely filled with rolled up bedclothes and mats. The dust lay thick in this room, and only a few fluctuations in the dust layer indicated anyone had ever been here. Slightly disappointed with the find, Ysmir spotted another stair. Not expecting anything but more storage space and perhaps a window, he was pleasantly surprised.
The third floor was not just much less infested by dust, it also sported two doors, which upon inspection led out onto a walkway on the Academy walls, likely used by the academy guards when they patrolled the area at night. A few benches and tables stood around, but seemed to be used very rarely, if ever. The guards, if they were anything like any other guards, would likely walk their rounds as quickly as possible to get back to their warm beds, and thus would not dawdle here.
There was another stair on the left however, and now Ysmir had gotten happier. If nothing else, the area he had just found would be somewhat easy to remake into a makeshift training room, perfect to practice Louise's skills without alerting anyone to their presence. Sadly, they would have to stop training before the guards started their patrols, but that shouldn't be a very big problem.
As he came up the stairs to the final, fourth floor, Ysmir changed his mind. They wouldn't practice Louise's spell craft on the third floor.
Not when there existed an empty classroom on the fourth floor.
There were no chairs, but the area wasn't cluttered with furniture or particularly dusty, and half the room was raised periodically like a terrace, presumably for chairs so that all the students could see the teacher with little trouble. It would also make for excellent target placement once they got to simple projectile spells.
It was perfect.
Ysmir spent a few moments thanking the divines for the mighty gift he had received, and then used the walkways on the floor below to get to the main academy building via the tower of Fire.
Heads up, viewpoint change
Kirche was bored out of her mind, and that had nothing to do with the class she was currently attending. Well, it probably did, but she chose to focus on another annoyance. She had not skipped class, since she thought Louise's familiar might join her to class, like most familiars did unless they were too rambunctious. (Or too big, like in the case of Sylphid)
However, Louise had showed up without her familiar, and if one could be judged by their facial expression, pretty happy with herself. She had even greeted Kirche without any hostility, and that had never happened before. This was either really good or really bad, and right now it was leaning towards "Really bad".
When the class finally ended Kirche walked right up to Louise, who was picking up her books and notes whilst the others left the classroom in search of lunch. Louise looked up, and then continued to collect her things.
Not even a cold "Zerbst"? Things were indeed bad. Kirche wanted information, but she was going to have to disguise it.
"So, Louise, where has that familiar of yours run off to? I was looking to pay him a visit, but I couldn't find him…"
Louise looked up, a slight shade of irritation over her face for a moment, but then she just ignored the implications Kirche had made. Even stranger, she actually answered the question!
"He has been walking around the Academy, familiarizing himself with the grounds. We are to meet after classes today, you are welcome to join us if you want to."
Just as she said that, Louise realized what she was offering the germanian who had teased her for two years straight. If she actually insisted on coming along, then the training would have to be postponed another day! Now, however, it was too late. All she could do was wait and see what the redhead said.
Kirche saw the confidence behind the smug grin her rival was sporting, and decided against going along with her unknown plans.
"No thanks, I'll just grab him tomorrow. Or maybe tonight, we'll see. Bye for now, Louise!"
When Kirche walked out of the classroom, Louise breathed in. she had done it, she had actually tricked the germanian seducer to willingly deny coming along! This deserved celebration. She decided on a visit to the library, and reading a book purely for its stories, rather than any facts.
Kirche walked towards the refectory, silently planning. She wouldn't come with Louise just like that. This required a stealthy approach. She would shadow Louise in the evening, to see what she was getting up to with her maybe-dragon of a familiar. Of course, she had to bring someone who could cast a good Silence spell. Someone who was already involved, and who was as interested as she was about the strange familiar.
Tabitha would be thrilled.
Author's comments:
Wohooo! Lots of words! Whilst it might be a slight bit boring, at least this chapter, too, hit the 2000 word count.
Anyways, on to Easter eggs!
There is still one left from chapter one, guys. It is about a certain scene that is very similar to a beloved piece of Warhammer Fanfiction. I'll give you a hint, it involves an Assassin specializing in sniping. I want the title of the fanfiction and the name of the Sniper.
There are also one Easter egg in this chapter, as well as an easy challenge.
The Easter egg:
Ysmir mentions something before he enters the Tower of Void which is very similar to a line said by a beloved character in the elder scrolls universe. I want the name of the character, the name of the character's father, and the name of the character's grandfather.
The Challenge:
Ysmir uses two Thu'ums this chapter. What are their full names and the translation of the six words that make them up?
I want at least one of these answered when I upload the next chapter. Otherwise Louise might just burn something down…
