"What the…" the Synod mage uttered, and his hands immediately lit up.

"W-wait!" Danielle cried, holding her fire. Onmund was unsure what to do, but he didn't retract his shock spell just yet.

The Synod mage just looked at both of them, arms poised to unleash his spell, as well. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Where's Gavros?"

Onmund and Danielle were unsure of what to say. The situation before them was unlike any they had handled before.

The Synod mage slowly came closer, hands still lit up. "What are you doing here?" he demanded further. "What've you done with Gavros?"

Gavros…wasn't that the name mentioned in the journal that Danielle had found on that dead man just inside these ruins? Onmund remembered. I think that was the man's name! ""G-Gavros…we found him dead."

The Synod mage lowered his arms a bit, but still did not retract his spell. His face was still hidden from them so they couldn't see his reaction. "It was the Falmer, wasn't it?" he spoke. "Curse them! They've ruined everything! If Gavros is gone, there's no hope. He was supposed to return with the crystal…Without that, all our efforts are wasted. And you. If you two are here for treasure, or wisdom, or anything, I'm afraid you've wasted your time."

"What's this about a crystal?" Danielle piped up.

"It didn't work the first time," the Synod mage replied. "I tried to tell Gavros, but he wouldn't listen. 'No, it won't be too cold,' he said. Well, I was right, wasn't I? Focused completely wrong by the time we got here! The cold had warped it! Gavros had to cart it all the way back to Cyrodiil. Left the rest of us here to fend off the damnable Falmer."

Onmund looked over at Danielle and they exchanged cryptic looks. I have no idea what this guy is talking about, he thought. But I wonder…if this is Paratus, the guy we are looking for. He had to make sure. "What's the crystal for?" he asked him.

"It was a brilliant idea, really," the mage replied. "Mostly mine, though Gavros took the credit. Secret, though. Official Synod business. Can't talk about it."

He must be Paratus, he thought. This is definitely the man we need to talk to about the Staff of Magnus. But how? Should I mention that we have the crystal just yet?

"Sir," Danielle piped up, breaking into his thoughts. "We did come here looking for something. Namely, something called the Staff of Magnus."

Once again, Onmund was amazed at Danielle's blunt approach with strangers.

"Did you?" Paratus replied. "Well, I'm afraid I can't help you with that. I need the crystal to do anything useful, and I don't have it."

Oh! I see what she's trying to do now…Onmund realized. Clever. He stifled a grin as Danielle continued, "We happen to have found a focusing crystal."

"What? You have?" Paratus questioned.

"I will produce it when I know that we will not be harmed," she declared. "Let us all retract our spells." She then turned to Onmund and nodded her head at him. Onmund obeyed and they both cancelled the spells from their hands and lowered them.

"Very well," Paratus agreed and lowered his hands, cancelling his spell as well. "This had better not be some trick, though!"

Onmund kept his eyes on the Synod mage as Danielle reached into her satchel to pull the crystal out. She held it up in front of her. "Is this what you were looking for?"

"You found…how in the world…" Paratus gasped. "That's it. That's it! I don't know who you are, but you may have just saved this little project…" He hesitated, and then continued with, "In fact, who are you guys, anyway?"

"We're with the College of Winterhold," Onmund responded.

"You are, are you?" Paratus asked. "Savos wouldn't even grant us an audience when we came to you, but now you come here expecting something from me?"

Onmund shot Danielle an uncertain glance, but she didn't have a response to that either.

"I don't much like this, I'll tell you," Paratus continued. "But you've saved my skin, so maybe I can overlook the past for now. Come on, I'll explain on the way." He then gestured for both of them to follow him so they did. They began walking down another long hallway with a door at the end. "No matter what Gavros said, this was my idea first," he explained. "The Council is going to know that when I get back. I was the one who thought of using this…this Oculory. I don't know what the dwarves called it. Something unpronounceable, I'm sure. From all our research, it seems they were intent on discerning the nature of the divine. This machinery, all of it, was designed to collect starlight, and then…I'm not sure. Split it, somehow? It was my idea to replace one of the key elements with our focusing crystal. Months of enchantments went into it. Let's just hope they got it right this time."

By now they had gone through the door and entered into some sort of observatory. They were in a great, circular room with a very high dome ceiling, and in the center of it was some giant spherical apparatus, with a single, large beam of light coming down from the very top of the ceiling. There was a ramp that wrapped around the outer edge of the room that led upward and they followed Paratus up it. At last, they reached the top of the apparatus and there were three golden pillars with a button on the top of each of them. Onmund momentarily tuned out the long-winded droning on of the Synod mage to admire the whole structure. He had to admit, it was really breathtaking what the Dwemers had built in the peak of their time.

"All right, let's get this thing up and running again," Paratus broke into Onmund's thoughts. "Place the crystal in the central apparatus, and we can start the process for focusing it."

With the crystal in hand, Danielle went back down to the bottom and stepped onto the central apparatus. She walked up to the great arching structure above the center of it and pointed. "Here?" she questioned, looking up at Paratus, who was standing next to Onmund.

"Yes, right in that Armillary," he replied.

I don't know what an "armillary" is but it seems that Danielle knows, Onmund thought. He watched her wedge the crystal into the empty space on the outer ring hanging at the top of the arch. Once it was in place, Danielle took a step back and Onmund watched in awe as the apparatus seemed to shudder to life. The ring rotated upwards until the crystal moved to the very top. As a result, the three glass discs attached to the center of the ring moved also, and they split the large beam of light into three separate beams of light that were projected in all directions. Danielle looked back up at them and Onmund turned to Paratus and asked, "Now what?"

"Now the crystal needs to be focused," Paratus answered. "It was created so far away, we knew that some adjustments would have to be made. Heating and cooling the crystal will cause it to expand or contract, which will change how the light passes through it. You'll need to use spells to do that. Being from the College, I assume you know them already."

"Spells that can heat and cool?" Onmund questioned. He gestured towards Danielle below. "Umm, she knows some fire spells. It's been years since I've used frost spells but I wonder if I can remember them."

"There should be a few basic tomes on that table there in case your training is even more sub-standard than I've heard," Paratus quipped.

At this snide remark, Onmund replied crossly, "I am a storm mage. But I'll take a look at those spells, thank you." And why aren't you helping us, yourself? he wanted to ask. Being a mage, you surely should know said spells. He turned away from him towards the table behind them and found Flames and Frostbite spell tomes. He picked up the Frostbite tome and opened it up. The incantations contained within appeared fairly familiar. Frostbite happened to be the very first spell that Onmund had learned when he was under the mentorship of Frodrig so he knew it at one point. He had since become more interested in shock spells so it had been several years since he had practiced any frost spells. But fortunately, the details of the spell came back to him and he put the book down. "Okay," he declared. "I'm ready."

"Go join your fellow mage at the bottom there and adjust the crystal," Paratus instructed. "I'll stay up here and operate the controls to move the bands."

Whatever that means, Onmund thought and descended down the ramp to where Danielle was. Onmund explained to her what Paratus had told him and together they stood side-by-side in front of the Armillary. "All right. You try heating it first," he instructed.

Danielle walked right up to the Armillary and blasted it with her Flames spell.

"Stop!" Paratus shouted from above and Danielle stopped her spell. He then pressed the button on one of the pillars and Onmund saw a section of the ceiling above them revolve. He pressed it again, and the section revolved again. As it moved, he noticed that there were three sections on the ceiling, as well, with one greenish-colored disc on each section. He supposed that they had to bounce the light off of these discs, as well. He finally got it into a position where one beam of light bounced off of the disc on the ceiling. "Now cool the crystal!" he shouted down to them.

Danielle stepped back and let Onmund get into position. He held his hand up towards the crystal and let forth his Frostbite spell. He felt rusty with it but the frost flowed true and cold, and the beams of light moved again. The beam that was in the correct position before now moved out of place so Paratus shouted down to them to heat it again.

They went on like this for several minutes, alternating between heating and cooling the crystal, and Paratus operating the buttons at the top of the ramp until they nearly got it into place. Onmund watched as Paratus pushed one of the buttons a few times and the last section of the ceiling was finally moved into place.

As Onmund and Danielle watched, the apparatus now reflected the beam of light towards the wall just below Paratus. And Onmund gazed in wonder at the image being revealed on the wall. It appeared to be a map.

"It worked!" Paratus exclaimed, and he ran down the ramp. He then ran down to the floor just below the wall. When he saw the image on it, he gasped, "But what's this? These results…They're not at all what they should be. This projection should be lit up like the night sky… "

As he said this, Onmund did notice that the map somehow looked…incomplete. He realized that it was supposed to be a map of Tamriel, but the bottom portion of it was very dim, with Summerset Isle being completely invisible.

"Something is creating an incredible amount of interference," Paratus said. "Something in Winterhold, it looks like." He then turned around and glared at both of the apprentices. "What are you playing at? Is this some attempt to stall my work?!"

Onmund was completely taken aback. What is he talking about?! he wondered, exchanging looks of confusion with Danielle.

Paratus folded his arms across his chest. "So, what is it?" he demanded. "What have you done? Did you know what we were attempting? Are you here to make sure your plan worked, that our efforts have been for nothing?"

Onmund was speechless. He didn't know what to say, and Danielle appeared to be just as at a loss.

"Well, explain yourself!" Paratus said sharply.

"W-we haven't done anything!" Onmund cried.

Paratus' eyes narrowed. "But it must be something you're doing. There's no other explanation. You have something at your College, don't you? Something immensely powerful. Beyond anything I'd anticipated. What is it?"

Immediately, Onmund thought back to the Eye of Magnus. He stole an uncertain glance at Danielle and then said, "We…might have something, yes."

"Well, now. This I hadn't considered," Paratus remarked. "If that's taken into account, these results make more sense. What is it that you have there?"

Onmund wasn't sure if he should tell him but Danielle beat him to a response. "Something that we can control only with the Staff of Magnus," she answered. "Can you help us find it or not?"

Saved by the quick tongue of a tiny Breton mage again, Onmund thought with relief.

Paratus' brow became furrowed and he put his hand on his chin. "Yes, the staff," he replied slowly. "Interesting…I can't explain the details. That would be giving away many secrets the Synod have learned over the years. Also, I doubt you'd be able to comprehend the details."

"Then spare us the details and just tell us where it is," Danielle cut in.

Paratus grunted at her sharp tone and replied, "Of course. Have you ever seen the Orrery in the Imperial City?"

"No," she replied impatiently. Onmund responded in the negative, as well.

"It was the inspiration for this idea," Paratus went on. "Instead of projecting the sky, we project all of Tamriel, and then harness the latent energies to overlay the positions of…" He stopped as he noticed the impatient, bored looks on both of his listeners' faces. He sighed, and then conceded, "What's important is that all of this work was designed to reveal to us sources of great magical power. Purely to help safeguard the Empire, of course. And yet, in the end, only two locations have been revealed to us. One is your College. The other…well, that can only be Labyrinthian."

Labyrinthian! Onmund thought. That's the giant Nordic ruin just south of Morthal. What is the staff doing there?

"So, mages from Winterhold, despite your intentions I've beaten your little game," Paratus declared with a smug smile. "Even if all you've said here is lies, I know you have something in Winterhold the Synod Council will be very interested in. So fine, trudge off to Labyrinthian in search of your Staff. I shall return to Cyrodiil and deliver my full report to the Council. This is not over, I assure you."

Onmund sighed. This guy is nuts, he thought, and he turned to Danielle. "Well, are we done here?"

"We are," she replied, and together they left Paratus.

Back out in the hallway, Onmund quipped, "I think he's been in here too long. He's crazy."

"Unarguably," she agreed. As they made their way down the hallway, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

He saw her blink a few times and look to her left and right. "I…I just had a visit from the Psijic monk again!" she exclaimed.

"You did? How?" he questioned, looking around him, as well. He didn't see anyone in the hall with them.

"I-I don't know," she replied. "Like I said, he seems to be able to freeze time and then speak to me from across great distances."

"What did he say to you?" Onmund asked.

"He said to return to the College as soon as possible," she replied. "'A time of trial will occur within the next 24 hours,' he also said."

"24 hours!" Onmund cried. "We'd better get going now, then. We can catch some sleep back in Kynesgrove and head out before dawn."

"Yes, let's go. Is this a way out?" She pointed to the door to the side. "The Psijic monk was standing right there."

Onmund hadn't noticed it before, but they did pass it as they were following Paratus in here earlier. They went through it now. They then followed another short hallway to another door, which led outside.

Night had already fallen on the land, so it was dark and the air was filled with the songs of night insects and animals. Onmund reached into the quiver that he had also slung over his back and pulled out a torch. He was pretty good at archery, but he had no use for arrows when he had magic, and those were just as good at long range. He held the torch towards Danielle and asked, "Wanna do the honors?"

Danielle smiled and channeled her Flames spell. She then carefully aimed her hand towards the tip of the torch and lit it with the spell. Now with some light to guide them on the way, they hurried all the way back to Braidwood Inn in Kynesgrove.

To everyone who has submitted reviews, I thank you for the entertaining comments and questions! It makes me happy to see people getting into this story. To answer the question about Danielle being the Dragonborn, I realize that I probably shouldn't have even mentioned it in the first place, but the only reason I did was to put out there that Danielle was my OC, having been the Dragonborn in one of my playthroughs of Skyrim. I choose not to emphasize (or even mention) her Dragonborn aspects in this story because that would end up adding another layer to the plot that I didn't feel like was necessary. (If you want to see my treatment of the Dragonborn character and the main quest-line, see my other fanfic, Lover's Comfort, even though that one's not finished). I probably would've been better off introducing Danielle as just another Plain Jane wandering around Skyrim and while she's involved in College shenanigan's with Onmund and Co., meanwhile, the REAL Dragonborn is off somewhere absorbing dragon souls and Thu'um-ing his/her way to High Hrothgar!