Chapter 37: Labyrinthian

In a way, Katie was glad to have Tolfdir by her side as she, Lydia and the alteration master headed for the dungeon of Labyrinthian. The wind whipped around them as they flew through the air, making it hard to hear each other speak, but Tolfdir was determined to be heard, so soon, he was almost shouting as he flew, even as Katie moved close enough to hear him.

"I think you last saw me when Ancano was trying to get me to speak with the psijic mage, and find out what he wanted. After my last encounter with a psijic, I was curious myself, so I hurried to meet with him. I was surprised to find him in the quarters of the archmage, who looked very eager to try to accomidate the psijic. I wasn't surprised by that, though. After all, it's well known that the psijics have many secrets of magic, which other mages don't possess."

"In any case, the moment I met him, he raised his hands, and a strange, magic force seemed to spread forth from him. Just like the last time I'd met with a psijic, I found that the whole world seemed to have frozen, except for the psijic and myself."

"Well, he told me that the psijic order didn't typically interfere in the affairs of other mortals, and that his contacting me would probably be seen as an insult to some members of his order. Still, he said, something drastic was already happening, and he wanted to give me a chance to deal with it. He said that the artifact that we'd discovered was called the 'Eye of Magnus,' and that its powers were far greater than I realized. In fact, he said, the power of the Eye was so great, that for anyone to make use of it would cause great harm."

"He told me that he couldn't give a very specific description of the real problem, but that if I went to speak with the Augur of Dunlain, I might get a more coherent answer."

"That idea honestly hadn't entered my mind until that point. I've spoken with the Augur of Dunlain before, but asking him about the artifact was a course of action that hadn't occurred to me. Indeed, I wouldn't have bothered to ask him if I'd thought there was another way to get the answers I wanted. You see, no one is sure what the Augur is, or where its knowledge comes from, and putting your trust in something that you don't understand has been the death of many mages. Still, I sought him out in the caverns beneath the college, and asked him about this."

"The Augur of Dunlain isn't omniscient, but it knows a great deal; especially about spirits and magic. No one can see the true form of the Augur, even if you're looking directly at it. Bright light surrounds it constantly, obscuring its true shape and appearance. Still, the voice of the Augur is perfectly clear, and it spoke to me about the Eye. He said that many others have tried to use the Eye, and that it's lead to their own destruction. However, he didn't tell me any specifics about what the Eye was created to do, or where it comes from. What he did say was that if I wanted to avert a horrible catastrophe, I needed something called the Staff of Magnus."

"I called a meeting with Mirabelle and the archmage to discuss the Staff of Magnus. Apparently, they'd heard of it, but didn't really know where it was. However, they did mention an expedition from Cyrodiil that had been searching for the staff, and that the expedition had stopped at the college for advice, before journeying to the dwemer ruins of Mzulft."

"That, I fear, was when I made a mistake. I left to investigate Mzulft. I knew that someone was going to try to make use of the Eye, and I should have stayed to guard it, or at least warned you to be on guard. The archmage and Mirabelle knew what I knew about the predictions of the psijics and the Augur, but I don't think they took them too seriously. I really should have made some sort of plan, to protect the Eye; perhaps asked you to investigate Mzulft for me. Yes, I think that would have been the best course. Still, I didn't do that, and now the archmage has paid the price for my lack of forethought."

"In my trip to Mzulft, I did succeed in learning that the Staff of Magnus was probably in the dungeons of Labyrinthian, but when I got back to the college, I discovered that I was too late. Ancano had already gained partial control of the Eye, and was using its powers to force everyone else away, while he performed more experiments on it. I tried to stop him, along with the archmage and Mirabelle, but that was when Ancano used the Eye to force us all back. I was able to put up a shield around myself just in time, to prevent myself from suffering any serious injuries, but Mirabelle was badly injured, and as for the archmage... Well, you saw what happened."

"I was able to talk with Mirabelle for a few moments after that, and she told me that the best thing I could do, at the moment, was locate the staff and bring it back as quickly as possible. Under the circumstances, I think she was right. Things are already bad enough that I can't accomplish much good by staying behind. I came to you for help because I knew that you also had a ring of levitation, and you'll be able to keep up with me. Also, you've been involved in this since the beginning. If there's anyone who should be helping to back me up in finding the staff, it's you."

That, for the most part, was the whole story that Tolfdir had to tell, although Katie asked him a couple more questions about specific points as they continued onward through the air. When she thought it over, though, she realized that she was only asking questions to distract herself from her worries. For one thing, Katie didn't like magic, and didn't trust it. Alchemy was one thing, but there was a certain element of sense to that. However, her experiences with the Glenmoril coven had effected her deeply, and although some magic-users, like Tolfdir, didn't seem evil, the presence of some new source of magic in the world was enough, by itself, to worry her; especially if it was powerful enough to overwhelm other types of magic, as the Eye seemed able to be.

However, what really worried Katie was that in spite of his words about wishing he'd been there to stop Ancano, Tolfdir seemed largely incapable of actually doing so. It wasn't that his magic was weak. He seemed powerful enough, in his own right. It was just that Tolfdir seemed to have a pretty weak personality. He was clever in some ways, but there was also an element of naivete to Tolfdir's approach to magic. On top of that, Katie had seen his response to Ancano before, and while he'd seemed pleased when Ancano was out of his depth, he'd ultimately been unable to stand up against the high elf's more forceful personality. In fact, Katie realized, she'd never seen Tolfdir stand up to anyone before; not really. That scared her more than anything else.

Soon, though, the three of them had arrived at the entrance of Labyrinthian, descending in front of the main door, and stepping inside.

Katie had already been in a lot of dungeons, and she'd seen a lot of things that were pretty terrifying, but no sight worried her quite so much as the sight she saw there. There, in the middle of the first large chamber of Labyrinthian, there were a collection of six glowing, translucent figures. They looked just like ghosts, and they brought to Katie's mind, thoughts of her last mission with the Companions, and how the ghosts had been invincible to every last one of their weapons. Still, Tolfdir wasn't running, so neither did she. The alteration master was creeping forward, watching the ghosts in concern, and when Katie and Lydia stepped up behind him, he motioned for them to stop where they were. Indeed, there was no reason to continue on any further, since they could already hear what the ghosts were saying from where they were, and oddly, it sounded more like a discussion between living beings.

The ghosts seemed to be talking about Labyrinthian, and the history that the dungeon was said to have. Two of them remarked that there were probably many valuable artifacts to be discovered there, and that there was no telling what they might find. Another asked what they'd do if there turned out to be something guarding Labyrinthian, sounding worried as he spoke, but a fourth ghost scoffed at the idea that anything could endanger all six of them, since, after all, they were all mages, trained by the college. They exchanged only a few more words with one another, before, all at once, all six ghosts just disappeared.

Lydia still had a worried look on her face when the ghosts disappeared, as if she expected them to reappear and attack at any moment, but Tolfdir and Katie were both thinking deeper thoughts than that, and in just a moment, the alteration master voiced some of his.

"I've seen this before; shades of the past. It's not very common, but sometimes, an event in history will be so troubling to those involved, that their spirits produce images like those, which re-enact past events forever. They're not real ghosts, but they resemble them. It's a very strange occurrence."

However, Katie had a different idea.

"How can we be sure that's what this is?" she asked, having pondered the strange apparitions for a few moments.

"What do you mean?" Tolfdir asked.

"Ghosts can be tricky like that." Katie explained, "I've seen a whole group of ghosts, which appeared and tried to trick me into helping them in some way. In fact, I once saw a ghost that tried to impersonate one of my good friends. Do we really know what ghosts are?"

"These spirits seemed to be re-enacting some former adventure." Tolfdir suggested, but Katie shook her head sadly.

"Sure, they -seemed- to be doing that, but why? Do we have any proof that they're really some kind of projection, like you said, or could it be that they're real ghosts, trying to trick us?"

Tolfdir thought about it for a few moments, and finally, he seemed to have caught on to what Katie had been suggesting.

"In other words, you're saying they might not be re-enacting some past event at all. In fact, they might even be making up a fabricated story, to try to mislead us."

"Maybe." Katie just replied with a shrug, "We don't have a whole lot of evidence either way, unfortunately. Still, I think it would probably be a bad idea to take what these ghosts say at face value."

Tolfdir just nodded silently, and at last, he said, "I think you're right. We should be cautious here, and not just believe everything we hear. I see my lessons about caution and safety in dealing with magic weren't needed, in your case."

As he said that, Tolfdir smiled just a little, but Katie didn't feel like smiling. She didn't think that Tolfdir would have expected deception on the part of the ghosts without her advice, and that only reinforced her impression that he was a bit naive.

As the three of them pressed on through the tunnels, they soon came to a spot where one wall, off to the side, seemed to be covered in ice. Lydia was the first to approach it, by her own request, drawing her sword, but as she reached out to poke the clearly-magical ice with her blade, a booming voice, and waves of some kind of visible energy began to spread out from the doorway. Lydia jumped back, but it continued for several seconds. The voice was certainly loud enough that all of them could hear it just fine, but it was speaking in a language that none of them; not even Tolfdir had heard before.

However, just then, Tolfdir gasped aloud, shrinking back away from the door with a horrified and pained look on his face. It looked almost as though he was about to fall over, and Katie reached out for him on impulse, trying to keep him steady, but he seemed to have recovered a little and waved her offer off, as the energy and voice faded away.

"I... appreciate your concern." Tolfdir almost gasped out, as though trying to catch his breath, "I'm not injured, but something happened just now. I felt all the magic leave my body while that voice was speaking. It's coming back now, but I don't think I'll be much use here. It's a good thing that you two came along."

"The problem is that we still don't know what'll happen if..." Katie began, but then, another sight emerged from the icy wall in front of her, and it sent a chill through her. It looked a lot like a ghost, with a large axe in its hands.

Quickly, Katie swept her spear through the apparition, and Lydia slashed at it with her sword, but aside from leaving a thin coating of frost on their weapons, their attacks did nothing, and the creature reacted with a swipe of its axe, hitting Katie hard in the side, and producing a resounding clang from her armor. It hurt a lot, but she knew she could still continue, and soon, had drawn her own sword with her other hand, trying it as well.

The sword didn't kill it, but it did seem to throw the creature off-balance and disorient it, so Katie tried it again, and that swipe seemed to actually knock it back. When she drove the sword into in a third time, she could almost see a wound beginning to form in the spectral creature, even as frost spread across the blade of the black sword. The creature seemed to realize its peril and wrenched itself away, but by then, Tolfdir had regained much of his strength, because soon, a visible shield of energy had surrounded him, and he was advancing towards the enemy.

"Stand back." Tolfdir said to the other two, who obediently retreated, as the icy foe's axe rebounded off the wizard's shield. In just a second, however, the shield seemed to burst into flames, and the apparition shrieked in pain, dissipating into the air, until it was nothing more than a cloud of steam.

Katie and Lydia just watched in amazement. The flaming shield around the wizard made him look strange, but not like the image of living fire, which Katie remembered from having fought Glenmoril. He looked more as though he were standing in the middle of a dimmer sun, forcing it to follow him, as he moved over to the door.

As soon as the flaming field that surrounded Tolfdir made contact with the ice, it began to retreat away from him, melting away before their very eyes, and leaving behind steam and moist air, and the flame, in turn, had left several scorch-marks on the walls, when it too finally faded, and Tolfdir pushed against the wall that the ice had been covering with his bare hands, and watched it slide open, revealing a passageway beyond.

Lydia had seen many kinds of magic up to that point, but generally, it had been in the hands of evildoers when she'd seen it used. To find a man like Tolfdir demonstrating such powerful spells for the sake of the mission seemed to strike her as very odd; even insensible, as though it were totally alien to the universe in which she'd previously lived.

The tunnels seemed to go on and on without end, and it was starting to take longer and longer to continue down them. Undead were beginning to appear, and although Katie and Lydia were practiced hands at defeating them, it was becoming obvious that Tolfdir had been right. He wasn't weak by any means, and if his magic had been reliable, he might have lead the charge against the enemy, but every so often, they'd pass by more ghosts, or would hear the voice again, and see the energy flowing up through the tunnels, and often, Tolfdir would recoil when it happened, retreating behind Katie and unable to use magic. Generally, they would just continue on at those points, with Katie reminding them that it was just the ghosts, trying to play more tricks on them, but deep down inside, she wasn't completely sure. After all, she'd never seen a ghost drain someone's magic away before, much less through walls, and from such a large distance away.

Still, Katie wasn't prepared for what she saw, as the tunnel they'd been walking through opened up into an enormous cavern with a huge crater in the center; with a dozen skeletons aiming bows in their direction, and also armed with swords. Still, the creature behind them was worse than all of them combined. It towered over them, its head almost brushing the cavern ceiling; the skeleton of a dragon.

The dragon stayed back for a moment as Katie charged forward, taking three arrows as she ran, and smashing two skeletons together. Lydia had already defeated a third without any wounds to show for it, and Tolfdir had begun to glow slightly. Arrows had been glancing off him harmlessly as he advanced on the enemy, brushing one hand against the skeleton closest to him. In a flash, the thing seemed to collapse to the ground, as though crushed by some horrible burden, and he began moving on, towards the next one. Indeed, his power was truly fearsome when it worked, and Katie found herself wishing that she could perform similar acts, but as she plowed through two more skeletons, she could see that the dragon was heading towards her; its featureless skull looking all the more menacing for its lack of any expression.

As fast as possible, Katie jammed her spear in between the arm bones of the dragon, making it pause for a moment, and drew her sword, but she wasn't exactly sure where, if anywhere to hit. The dragon skeleton didn't seem to have any especially weak spots or vital organs of any sort, and dragon bones were notoriously hard to pierce. Katie tried to jab her sword into the monster's claws, but it took three strikes before she could even begin chipping away at it, and by that point, it had reacted; its head swinging around to snap at her.

Katie had to swing her sword back around to stop herself from being bitten in two, driving her blade halfway into the creature's mouth, and using her other hand to try to hold its upper jaw at bay. The beast hissed and struggled, and she fought back with all her strength, gasping and puffing as her arms felt like they were about to burst. Then, the dragon's head gave a sudden jerk downward, and explosions of pain erupted from Katie's knees.

A while ago, pain of that kind would have made her scream, but at the time it only drew a slight hiss from her lips, forcing her to the ground with a crash. She could feel the huge, skeletal beast bearing down on her from above, and knew, then and there, that it was stronger than she was; stronger, in fact, than either of the other dragons she'd fought up to that point. There was, she realized, no choice anymore.

Of the first ten potions that Katie had designed, there was one that had required more ingredients than any of her others. It had been very complicated and difficult to prepare, and had taken time. It was a potion that she'd tried to use against Ancano, though it hadn't worked. Still, the potion, which had looked like a bottle of shining gold when it was finished, had promised to do great things, with only minor side-effects, and fortunately, she'd thought to keep it in the one place where, even with her hands occupied, she could still reach it.

Quickly, Katie's teeth clamped down over one bottle, near her shoulder, pulling it from the loop that had held it. Then, in a practiced way, she removed the cork with her tongue, spitting it out with one side of her mouth, while drinking the potion with the other.

It was strange, however. All her life, Katie had been the sort of person who was always trying to get something that she really wanted, but was never too concerned about finding out her actual purpose in life. However, as the drink slid down her throat, and she saw a series of bright flashes begin to shoot out from her skin at various points, she had an odd feeling; as though she were somehow closer to her destiny, and yet, further from her wishes.

Her knees still hurt like mad, but a fresh vigor had filled them, and in a moment more, Katie had braced one wrist against the dragon's exposed jaw, and then pulled on the beast's mouth suddenly. It seemed disoriented by the sudden motion until, as if with no effort at all, she pushed back against it, without changing the position of her feet at all; leaning into the monster as though it was nothing. Again and again, she did that, whipping its head back and forth, until its neck wrattled, and its feet began to shake. That was when Katie of Hammerfell twisted the beast's head a hundred and eighty degrees, and Tolfdir paused to stare in wide-eyed amazement, as the whole, skeletal beast rose into the air, and came crashing down, splintering to pieces against the stone floor and the cavern walls.

If they'd been living opponents, that might have been enough for the skeletons, and they would have fled from that place in terror, but they were undead, and no one knew what drove those horrible things. Four of them still remained, and Lydia was pinned down behind a pillar by two of them. That only left Tolfdir, and Katie was convinced that his shield would protect him when, a moment later, she made her next move.

Quickly, balling both hands up into fists and raising them high into the air, Katie spread her legs far apart, and in one swift blow, she slammed her fists into the ground with a sound like a thunderclap.

Dust filled the air in seconds, and debris and small stones flew in all directions like arrows fired from a hundred huge bows. Three of the remaining skeletons were smashed to bits by the flying stones, though Tolfdir seemed to be struggling to keep any from hitting him. At last, when all the stones had done their work, and the last skeleton seemed to be having difficulty with the dust, the old mage walked up and touched it on the shoulder, causing it to fall to pieces too.

At last, the dust settled, and Tolfdir ran up to Katie, whose aura was starting to disappear. The old wizard had a smile on his face, as Lydia rushed to join the two of them, but all that Lydia could do for a few moments was gaze in amazement at the huge, shattered bones of the dragon skeleton.

In the end, Tolfdir was the first one to speak.

"I've never seen anything like this before."

Katie looked a little sheepish as she tried to explain herself, a moment later.

"It's a potion for boosting my strength."

"Yes, I can see that," Tolfdir said, "and the history books say that such potions once existed, but there's been no sign of them for over a century. We'd thought the secrets were lost, and even when they were in use, I've never heard of anyone using such a potion to... to do what you just did. You may well be the most powerful alchemist in the entire world."

Katie, however, was starting to look a little concerned, and in a moment, she remarked, "I shouldn't be. There's still lots of ways that I can improve this potion. For one thing, this is only one of a set, which are designed to be mixed together with an ingredient called 'the star gem.' Have you ever heard of that?"

Tolfdir was still looking at her in amazement, but there was also a curious, incredulous look in his eyes, as if he was troubled by her questions.

"You speak like a figure out of legend." Tolfdir said, sounding a bit suspicious, "Everything you've just described is entirely unknown and unmastered at the college. I have never been a master of alchemy myself, and I know nothing of any 'star gem.' You might try the arcaneum for information if we ever make it out of this alive, but in the meantime, let's press on."

However, when Tolfdir had suggested that, something inside Katie pulled her back, and as she picked up her sword again to sheath it, she knew what she had to do.

"No." Katie said, "Not yet."

"What?!" Tolfdir asked, sounding confused, "But there's no time to lose!"

"We definitely need to make a move," Whiterun's thane admitted, "Still, it would be a bad idea to move on unless we're prepared. If it weren't for my potion, we might have all died in this room today, and now I've run out. It's becoming obvious that there's something horrible in here; maybe even something worse than what we just fought. If that's true, we need to take our time preparing, and not rush into things. Yes, we need to get back to the college quickly, but we won't be able to do that if we're all dead."

Almost at once, Tolfdir's expression changed. He wasn't smiling, but he did appear to have grown a bit irritated; just a bit less calm than normal, which Katie actually thought was an improvement. Soon, she was laying out her alchemy equipment, and Tolfdir got a firsthand chance to examine her book and bottle for himself, though they betrayed no secrets in his hands, except that each was strong and sturdy, and clearly magical. With his frustration forgotten, Tolfdir watched in amazement as Katie removed piles of distinct ingredients from her pack, sorting them and combining each separately in different bottles, until she had another golden potion, then a potion that looked like it was made of iron, then one of brass, then a pitch black potion, then a gleaming white one. At last, eleven potions of distinctly different appearances were arranged in front of her, and she spoke as she began to pour them each into her enchanted bottle in turn.

"I tried making some of these other potions before, but they failed. Only the gold one came out right. Now, only one's failed, and I don't have enough ingredients to try again yet, but eleven out of twelve is a start, I'd say. I can work on the last one later."

However, what Tolfdir saw as she was speaking nearly took his breath away, because when Katie had poured each potion into her glowing bottle in turn, he'd expected them to descend to the bottom and form into a puddle there. Instead, the glowing liquids had each slid down one side, on the inside of the bottle, coating it like paint; until at last, the bottle looked like a gemstone, with each facet painted a different color, or like a ball with many-colored stripes painted on it. Then, Katie looked inside, and held the bottle up to Tolfdir, to let him look as well. The inside contained a slightly greyish, but mostly white liquid, resembling milk, yet the paint-like colors inside the bottle remained along the edges of the glass.

"But..." Tolfdir almost stammered in amazement as Katie corked the potion and slid it into a loop, "What do you think it means? What do you think the potion is going to do?"

"I don't really know." Katie replied with a shrug, "Still, I suspect that something about this bottle was designed for just this purpose, and maybe once it has a twelfth side and a star gem... Maybe it will have fulfilled that purpose."

Beyond the mods addendum; Things you can't do in-game

1. Again, as Tolfdir is the central figure in this arc, he's the one who's gone through the last few quests unaided, and he leads the expedition to Labyrinthian.

2. The ice warrior who attacks Katie and her friends is immune to physical weapons in this story, but not in the game.

3. Katie's potion is indeed only one of a set, which she's still working on, and as Tolfdir points out, the fortifying of strength used to be possible in the TES series through alchemy, but not anymore.

4. The Master Potion that Katie is working on can't be made in Skyrim, and you can't combine many potions into one.