Chapter 36
It had been just over two years before Garen and Serana even began to consider beginning their teaching life at the College. In those two years, Garen found how much of a curse his children were as well as a blessing.
Luckily for him, both the Companions and the Guild told him (forced him really) to stay at home with his children.
Aela told him that if the Companions needed anything, they would send someone to his house. Brynjolf and Delvin carried him out to the streets of Riften and told him to "get the fuck back to your family". They both assured him that the Guild could handle itself without him and that they'd contact him if something came up that they needed him for.
As for the Brotherhood, the sanctuary was close enough that he could run there and back in only a few had received a stack of contracts, enough to keep them all busy for months at a time.
When Nazir, Babbette and even Cicero found out that Garen's children had been born, they all urged him to stay at home. Garen flat out refused, claiming that the trips out to the sanctuary were a breath of air from the chaos that was his house every week.
While Garen could complain about how he hated that his sex life with Serana had taken a backseat, he knew he would never take a single moment back. Every day to him was its own gift and everything that his newborns did warmed his heart.
In the first year, Sofie had shown to resent the twins somewhat as they took up time that her parents had that had once been all about her. Garen still found time in every day to teach Sofie in the ways of combat and Aela did her best to keep the girl happy as well. Thankfully, Sofie had grown out of the resentment quickly and had come to love her baby brother and sister as much, if not more than, her parents did.
During their first two years on Nirn, Lilith and Garen had taken their first steps. Not long after, Lilith began her first words. Though it pained him to know, Garen knew that his son would never be able to speak, but he did the next best thing he could.
Garen began teaching his son and both daughters how to sign. While he and Talmar had their own version of the language, there were some in the world that knew how to sign. Garen knew that the only way for his son to speak other than with paper and ink, was for him to learn to sign. Unfortunately, the language was known only to scholars and thieves, so little Garen would need to have someone with him at all times to translate.
When Talmar found out about his son's muteness, he began teaching his daughter how to sign as well. Garen was touched that his friend would do that for his son, but Garen knew that he would do the same if their situations were reversed.
So after two years of firsts for the newborns, Garen and Serana began to think about starting at the college. Sofie was now ten and had been a major help in taking care of the twins and could also somewhat care for herself. Aela had assured them that she wouldn't mind taking care of the twins while they were gone as she already looked after them as she would with two of her own.
With that in mind, Srana and Garen sent a letter to the Arch-Mage of the College, letting him know that they were ready to begin.
"I don't get it." Onmund complained for what seemed like the hundredth time. "Why the hell do we need to have a class in non-magical combat?"
"Because Onmund." Brelyna spoke rolling her eyes. "There will be times when we can't rely on our magic."
"J'zargo does not see the point either…." The Khajiit began but stopped when the three students entered the Hall of the Elements.
In the room, only a dozen feet from the hall door, was a man they had never seen before. It was a large, bear of a man Nord that stood easily at six and a half feet tall. He was well muscled and heavily scarred. The only clothes he had on were a pair of loose fitting pants cut off at the knees, a ring on one hand and an amulet of Mara around his neck.
All three of them gawked at seeing that he was upside down and pushing himself up and down with only one hand. They were even more amazed to see that he had yet to break a sweat doing this.
Standing next to the man was a raven haired woman in black mage robes. The woman seemed to be talking to the man with a smile on her face. The woman had a ring on her hand that matched the one on the man's hand marking them as a bonded pair.
The woman noticed the three students gawking in the doorway and seemed to mention it to the man. The man nodded and the woman left the room, giving the three students a smile as she left.
When they all looked back to the man he was standing and looking at them with a critical gaze. The man's hair was snow white, telling of age that his body did not show. His eyes held a look to them that made all of the students think of someone that had seen centuries of horrors.
"Well?" The man barked. "You just going to stand there? Or are you going to learn what I have to teach?"
All three of them hurried forward. A fear of them man already in them.
"My name is Garen." The man spoke calmly, folding his hands behind his back. "To you I will be Master Garen or sir."
The man looked at them each in the eyes. "Am I clear?" He barked.
"Yes sir." They all replied instantly.
"Now you know my name. Introduce yourselves." The man spoke, relaxing his stance.
"Let's start with you." The man said and pointed to Onmund.
"My name's Onmund." The Nord spoke hesitantly and the man nodded.
"I'm Brelyna." The Dunmer spoke, more surely.
"J'zargo is surprised you have not heard of him yet." The Khajiit spoke smugly.
"I just got here this morning." The man spoke, glaring at J'zargo. "That and I don't care if you think you are some kind of hotshot in this school. In my class you are all equals until proven otherwise. If you come into my class with the mindset that you are better than everyone else, I WILL drop you into your place."
J'zargo seemed to shrink in size. The Khajiit was not one that was used to people telling him how things would go.
"As I heard you three talking as you came in, I can tell there is some hesitation to why you are here." The man spoke calmly, ignoring the glares that the cat sent his way.
"Arch-Mage Savos has asked me here because he thinks that you all need to be able to defend yourselves when magic is unreliable." The man spoke pacing in front of them, meeting each person's eyes in turn.
"He's right, but seeing you three pathetic excuses for mages in front of me, I don't think that you have what it takes." The man spoke coldly.
"You are all free to leave and not take this class. It's not mandatory that you do so. You'll just be proving me right." The man spoke calmly.
"Anyone that wishes to leave. Do so now. If you stay, there is no backing out." The man spoke calmly and looked at each of them in turn.
No one moved.
"Hmmp." The man grunted. "Well. Let's see what you can do."
The man motioned for them to follow him. He lead them to a large assortment of weapons, both one handed and two handed, of all types of metals.
"Try them out and get a feel for them. I'll be back in an hour, anyone hurts someone and I will beat your skull in." The man spoke calmly. All three of the students knew that he would follow through with the threat if he needed to.
The man left them and they all began to try to find the weapon that was for them.
"It's only been one day and I already hate him." Onmund groaned and flopped down on his bed.
Brelyna and J'zargo crashed into the chairs in his room, both nodding in agreement.
"We're mages for fucks sake! He's treating us like soldiers or something!" Onmund exclaimed in exasperation.
"Hopefully it'll get easier as we go." Brelyna replied and wiped the sweat off of her forehead.
"J'zargo hopes so too, but doubts it." The Khajiit replied panting.
"What about that woman we saw him with? Do you guys think she is our other new teacher?" Brelyna asked.
"Gods I hope not. If she's anything like him we'll be in for a rough time in two hours." Onmund replied with a groan.
"If she really is our other new teacher I'll be surprised." Brelyna chipped in.
"Why so?" J'zargo asked, looking at the Dunmer.
"She just doesn't seem like the type that would be a necromancer." Brelyna shrugged. "Master Garen is pretty much what I expected, but I expect there to be some crazy old man who is our Necromancy teacher."
"Let's hope you're right." Onmund said with a smirk. "I wouldn't be able to learn from someone like her."
"And why's that." Brelyna snapped.
"Because she's one of the most beautiful women I've ever laid eyes on?" Onmund replied with a raised eyebrow.
"J'zargo too would have difficulty learning from her. Onmund is right this once," The cat spoke with a small smile to the Nord.
Brelyna gave a huff of exasperation and left the room.
"Women." Onmund shook his head and flopped back down on his bed.
For the second time that day, the three students walked into the Hall of the Elements. In the same spot that they had met Garen, were three people. One was the woman that had been there earlier, one was Garen and the other was Arch-Mage Savos.
The three could not believe their eyes when they saw both Garen and Savos grinning ear to ear. When the three staff spotted the students, they all wore stony faces and looked at them intently.
"Students." Savos spoke calmly to them. "You have already met Master Garen. Allow me to introduce Mistress Serana. She Is to be your Necromancy teacher."
Without another word, Savos and Garen left the hall. They headed for the Arcanium. The three noticed that Garen only had a small pack slung over his back and not a weapon from earlier was in sight.
The three looked back to the woman in the black robes, Serana, and noticed that she was smiling at them.
"Well you three all know my name, how about you all introduce yourselves." Serana requested with a smile. "Tell me a little bit about yourselves, maybe why you're taking my class."
"J'zargo seeks to be the best mage in all of Nirn. J'zargo must master all forms of magic to do so." J'zargo spoke with a slightly puffed out chest.
"Fair enough." Serana chuckled, rolling her eyes slightly.
"I'm Brelyna. I wanted to learn something of Necromancy should I ever need it." Brelyna Smiled to Serana.
"A good idea to be prepared for anything." Serana replied to the Dunmer.
"I'm Onmund. I just wanted to find out if Necromancy is truly evil or not and if not I wanted to learn some of it." Onmund shrugged.
"Well." Serana chuckled. "I'll say this, no form of magic is evil nor good. It is only an aspect of nature. It's up to the user of the magic to determine what it will be used for."
All three students looked a bit relieved at hearing this bit of wisdom. Serana looked at all of them, studying them.
"You've already met Master Garen and while I won't be as hard on you as he will be, my rules are the same as his." Serana spoke, her tone deceptively warm.
"You hurt anyone and you will suffer the consequences. Everyone here is equal until proven otherwise. Use your brain and we'll have no problems." Serana smiled to them.
"We'll gather here once a week for a few hours each week. In that time I will teach you everything you will need to know about how to control the necromantic magics and how to control what you've brought back to life."
"When you are alone, you are free to practice what I teach you so long as it doesn't harm someone else. We don't need a death on our hands to cover up." Serana spoke calmly.
"Now, let's begin." Serana smiled and motioned for the three to follow her.
When Garen entered the Arcanium, he took in a deep breath. A smile came to his face while he inhaled the smell of old tomes and scrolls. He looked around and saw that there were a few other people in the library reading various texts.
Garen strode up to the desk on one side of the library, smiling at the Orc sitting behind it. The Orc had his head down and was reading something that Garen couldn't see.
"What you reading there Urag?" Garen whispered when he was in front of the desk.
The Orc looked up and a massive grin spread over his face.
"Garen! It's good to see you again!" Urag shouted and then gave an apologetic look to the others in the Arcanium.
Garen chuckled. The Orc was certainly more friendly to him now. Back after he had killed Alduin, Garen had come to the College to help out Urag. The Orc had been searching for a few rare books and Garen had managed to get a hold of a couple of them. Ever since the Orc had warmed up every time Garen had brought one or two of the books Urag was looking for.
"Have you heard that we've had a couple new staff members? From what I overheard the students saying, one of them is a real brute." Urag whispered.
"Glad I made the impression that I wanted." Garen grinned and Urag's jaw slackened.
"You-you're one of the new teachers?" Urag asked, not believing it.
"Yes, me and my wife are." Garen nodded and set his pack on the Orc's desk.
"I've got a few things that you might like." Garen smiled and opened up the pack.
"What do you have for me today?" Urag asked eagerly, standing up.
From his pack, Garen pulled forth the four books he had from Mora. One was the Oghma Infinium and the three were the black books. Garen handed them to the Orc and held in his laughter as the man looked at them in awe.
"Are-are these what I think they are?" Urag asked in awe.
"They are my friend. But that's not all I have." Garen grinned at the other man.
"I don't know what could poss…." Urag began but was at a loss for words when he looked back to Garen.
Garen held up one of his three Elder Scrolls for the Orc to take. With trembling hands, Urag took it in reverence.
"I-I don't believe my eyes." Urag spoke in shock and awe.
When Urag looked back up to Garen to see him holding two more, the Orc fainted.
"I should've seen that coming." Garen sighed.