Last time on the story of Varion that is developing annoyingly slowly...

Varion found Esbern and learned about the bringer of the apocalypse, Alduin. With this shocking information, they now travel back to Delphine to try find out their next move…

Now, back to the story…

The reunion between Delphine and Esbern was a touching one, it was by far the most emotional Varion had ever seen the woman as she embraced her friend. However, seeing as Esbern was carrying news about the end of the world, that good mood quickly soured. A few minutes of explanation later and now the three were sitting around Delphine's secret room trying to figure out what to do next. "This is all a lot to take in Esbern. I guess you were right all those years ago" Delphine said softly. Esbern sighed.

"I wish I wasn't. But wishes will not save us. Only you can do that" he replied, gesturing over to Varion.

"Hmph. No pressure" he muttered. "So, do we have a game plan?" Esbern stood up and grabbed a book from his bag.

"Yes, I believe so. I have an idea as to how we can stop the end, now that we have a dragonborn! Have you two ever heard of Alduin's Wall?" he asked excitedly. Varion glanced at Delphine and shrugged at her, he'd never heard of such a thing.

"No, we haven't. Fill us in?" she replied. Esbern sighed in sadness.

"So much history and knowledge, all lost to time and ignorance" he muttered, though he quickly regained his excitement. "Alduin's wall, one of the ancient wonders of the world! It was the place where the ancient blades recorded all their knowledge of Alduin and the dragons, and even more importantly, the prophecy! Your prophecy, Varion!" he explained. At this, the dragonborn raised an eyebrow in interest.

"So this ancient wonder can tell us how to stop Alduin?"

"I'm not sure, but I believe it should have something useful. After all, they recorded all of this for a reason!" Esbern was looking far more alive than Varion had seen him before, and while it was a pleasant change to the depressed mess from back in the ratway, it was quite tiring.

"Alright. It's settled, this is our next move. We'll head to this Alduin's Wall. Where is it Esbern?" Delphine asked enthusiastically. Varion couldn't blame her, they finally had a plan instead of more guesswork.

"It's in a place called Sky Haven Temple, which lies in the Reach, near Karthspire. Here, I'll mark it on your map" Esbern offered, drawing a cross on a certain spot on Varions map.

"I know that area" Delphine said, deep in thought. "Crawling with forsworn. This won't be easy" she mused. Varion scoffed.

"Bunch of axe wielding savages. I've killed worse" he reassured her, not wanting her to think he was nervous. "Besides, now that my dragon nature seems to be rising again, I could use a couple good fights," he thought to himself, carefully controlling his facial muscles as to not grin. Of course he was worried about his dragon nature's resurgence and what it could mean, but it felt good to have burning anger towards a cause again, it helped to fuel him.

"Very well then. We'll travel to Sky Haven Temple. Will we go together? Or will you meet us there?" Delphine asked, raising an eyebrow at Varion. At this he did smirk.

"I've got my own travelling companions. I'll meet you at Sky Haven Temple, shouldn't take me more than a day. Just got to pick up a friend or two from Whiterun" he explained. "It'll be a regular old outing, just like the old days" he thought to himself, allowing a mental smile at the memories. Delphine nodded.

"I'll make sure Esbern gets there in one piece. We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning. Don't die on us" she said in farewell, offering Varion her hand. After an amused scoff, he shook it. He still had his doubts about her, he had doubts about most people, but she'd proven useful so far. He almost felt like he could trust her. He walked out of their secret room and out of the sleeping giant inn, gazing up at the evening sky. It was beautifully clear and a pretty shade of orange, just on the verge of sunset. He smiled at the view, but his facial expression grew hard.

"To think, if I fail, all this could be taken away" he thought angrily, clenching a fist instinctually. A couple deep breaths helped clear his anxiety. He knew that he now had the fate of the world on his shoulders, but he still couldn't fully wrap his head around it, it was such a big concept. He shook his head and walked down the main street of Riverwood. "I'll take things one step at a time, and that starts with getting to Sky Haven Temple. And to do that, I'll need a friend or two" he thought with a small smirk and approached a familiar house. After knocking on the door, he was greeted by a familiar wood elf soon after. "Hey. Want to go on a trip?" The elf's eyes widened in recognition and his face broke into a smile.

"Ah, good to see you again Varion!" Faendal said while grinning, offering a hand. Varion accepted it warmly. "Please, come in!" he offered, but Varion held up a hand to stop him.

"Sorry, don't have time for that. I'm going on a big hike tomorrow and I was wondering if you wanted to tag along with me and a couple others?" Faendal smirked in response.

"You have my bow anytime you need it. I'd be glad to come along" he replied. Varion grinned and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Glad to have you on my side. You can crash at my place tonight, Breezehome. We set out tomorrow" he explained, turning and walking away.

"It's been too long since our last death defying trip together" Faendal remarked as he quickly shouldered his bow and followed him out, the pair eager to begin their next adventure.

X-X-X-X-X

Amazingly enough, Skyrim's weather was kind on the next day. As Varion, Faendal, Lydia and Aela all walked along the road towards Markarth and the Reach, the gentle breeze helped counter the sun's heat as it beat down on them. Faendal took point, walking in front of their convoy to look from afar with his elven eyes, as well as ward off any stray beasts. Aela walked next to Varion and Lydia took up position behind him, essentially making their group into a diamond formation of death-dealing. Well, that was the idea. Aside from a handful of wolves and a frostbite spider, they had barely done any fighting in the hours they'd been on the road. Varions hands twitched with annoyance, he'd been promised a fight and he wanted one. Aela and Lydia seemed slightly less bored, probably because they got to spend more time with him, and Faendal had been the only one of them racking up a decent kill count, admittedly of animals. "So my thane, will what we're looking for help to stop the dragons?" Lydia spoke up. Varion shrugged.

"Esbern seems to think so. I'm not exactly sure what we might find there, but the old man seems trustworthy-ish so far" he replied with uncertainty. He just hoped it was something worthwhile.

"You seem to be doing an alright job at killing them so far" Aela pointed out, casually flexing her wrist to loosen it up. As they travelled off the road and began climbing up a small rocky hill, Varion sighed.

"Won't matter if they just keep coming. I told you about that bastard Alduin, bringing the dragons back to life. Until we put him down, it'll be never ending" he growled. Truly Alduin was the primary threat here, kill him and they turn the war from an inevitable loss into a difficult, yet winnable battle.

"Hold!" Faendal called out, holding a hand up. As the party stopped, Faendal gave them the signal to crouch. They did so, sneaking forward and they collectively groaned in annoyance. They'd arrived at the karthspire camp, yet the place was filled with Forsworn. Varion counted at least 14, meaning that they would be significantly outnumbered. They had a fair number of archers, meaning stealth would be paramount here if they didn't want to get turned into pincushions. As he tried to come up with a strategy, his wolf hearing picked up footsteps behind him and he whirled around, noticing Aela do the same. To his relief, it was simply Delphine and Esbern, having caught up to them.

"Well, nothing gets past you" she chuckled, crouching beside them.

"Good to see you, we could use the help," he replied, gesturing to the camp ahead of them. Delphine frowned.

"Well, there's a ridge that we could get to. Esbern and your archer friends could provide covering fire while you unleash hell with your voice. In the chaos, we attack and cut them down with our swords" she suggested, pointing to the ridge in question. Varion raised an eyebrow in surprise at her tactical mind.

"Sounds like a plan. Now, Ael-" Before he could even finish, they heard a loud, annoyingly familiar roar, the roar of a dragon. The beast flew out from behind the large mountain that Karthspire was built next to and dove down at the forsworn. Shouts of panic rose from the camp as they engaged in battle against the beast and Varion just stared at it with dumbfounded amusement. "First time I've ever been glad to see one" he stated in a deadpan tone.

"We'll get to the ridge, go get them!" Aela called out as she jumped up from her hiding spot and ran over to the vantage point in question. Faendal and Esbern followed behind, already drawing bows and preparing spells.

"FEIM!" Varion shouted and his body became ethereal. He ran and took a great leap, falling quite a distance down to the forsworn camp. He landed hard, but felt no pain from it, only a weird sensation. Shuddering a bit from the feeling, he willed himself to become physical again, then drew his sword, then drew breath. "WULD!" He shot forward like an arrow while holding his sword out in front of him, and it quickly met a forsworn mid-charge. The blade pierced straight through his stomach and Varion quickly thrust the sword down, pinning the unfortunate barbarian to the floor as he died. Varion tore the blade of Whiterun out and engaged others in combat. He was vaguely aware of the covering fire from his friends as well as Delphine and Lydia joining him side by side in battle, but the forsworn honestly went down really easily. Of course, that may have been thanks to the giant fire breathing distraction that they hadn't asked for. The dragon took out half of the reachmen on it's own, then turned its attention to them. Thankfully, it also went down pretty easily. The forsworn briarhearts, their strongest mages, had done quite a chunk of damage to the beast and Esbern's magic, storm atronachs and ice spears, had knocked it out of the sky when combined with Varions unrelenting force shouts. Once it was grounded, the melee fighters went to town on it, hacking and slashing with reckless abandon. At one point Varion had a near miss with its tail, barely ducking in time to avoid being flung into the rocks nearby. After a second or two to register his luck, he felt a fire burn inside his stomach and throat. "YOL!" A torrent of flame shot from his mouth and smacked into the dragons leg, charring the limb. The leg gave way and the dragon fell on that side. From the front, Lydia thrust her sword into the beasts throat and quickly tore it out, causing it to give one final pathetic wail before collapsing to the ground. Varion let out a sigh of relief. If this dragon hadn't shown up, or if the forsworn hadn't done so much damage to it, the fight to get into the temple may have been way harder. He smiled as he felt the familiar rush of a dragons soul entering him, feeling his injuries and exhaustion fade away. He glanced over and saw Esbern staring at him in awe and shock.

"Dragonborn… it's an amazing sight..." he trailed off. Varion nodded in acknowledgement and thanks.

"You'll be seeing it a lot more before this war is over. Come on, let's get into the temple. We've come this far" he reasoned, stepping around the dragon corpse (though not before instructing Lydia to break off a few dragon bones and scales to carry back to town. He thought of her as a friend, but she was still sworn to carry his burdens).

X-X-X-X-X

The traps that the group had to get through in order to enter Sky Haven Temple were more annoying than actually life threatening, despite their numbers. Thanks to Esbern's knowledge and the groups keen eyes, they made it through mostly unscathed, nothing that some quick healing wouldn't fix. Before too long, they stood in front of a large stone face in a room that looked suspiciously like an inner sanctum. The oddest feature of the room was the funky seal on the ground with all the dragon carvings. "Ah, the Akaviri blood seal, another lost art of their people" Esbern explained excitedly. "A powerful security measure, only able to be triggered by, well, blood. Your blood, dragonborn" he specified, gesturing to Varion who only groaned.

"More damn blood rituals" he muttered, making a small cut in the top of his hand after removing his gauntlet. After letting the blood drip onto the seal, he cast a healing spell, feeling the familiar comforting warmth wash over his injured hand as it healed. The door opened up as he replaced his gauntlet and he walked into the temple at Esbern's gesturing.

"After you Dragonborn. You should have the honour of being the first inside Sky Haven Temple" he reasoned and Varion saw no cause to disagree. He walked inside slowly, pushing open the doors in his way. It was a dark location, but the torch he'd lit up served as ample lighting. Despite its age and disuse, the temple was in remarkably good condition. There were tables with books, weapon racks with more katanas, an armour set on a mannequin, it would make for a great base of operations. The gasps of awe from Esbern only made Varions analysis seem more justified. The whole group just took a few moments to admire the room before the reason they came there presented itself. A large wall with massively intricate carvings lay on one side of the room.

"I'm guessing that's what we're looking for" Delphine spoke up to Esbern who enthusiastically nodded.

"Incredible! Amazing!" he said softly. "Alduin's wall, in such good condition! It's truly a thing of beauty" he continued absentmindedly. Varion glanced over at Aela who shrugged, clearly confused by Esbern's gushing.

"Hey Esbern, you'll have plenty of time to admire it later. Can we get to the part where it helps me first?" he asked. Sure, it may have been a little blunt, but Varion wasn't known for his great patience outside of the battlefield. Esbern blinked a few times, then chuckled to himself.

"Of course, of course. My apologies, I got overwhelmed" he explained and Varion shrugged as acceptance. Esbern's gaze then turned analytical as he examined the wall.

"See anything good?" Delphine asked, only for Esbern to hold up a hand for silence.

"Let's see here. We have the ancient dragons, ruling over Skyrim all those years ago, yes… Ah! Here he is, Alduin the World Eater!" he mentioned with anger/excitement, gesturing to a specific dragon carving. "It shows him and the dragon cult at war with the rebelling nords. Here is his defeat, the centerpiece of the wall. He falls from the sky at the hands of the ancient tongues, nordic masters of the voice, or at least that's what I'm gathering here" he explained. Varion frowned.

"So what? They shouted him out of the sky? Is that what happened with these ancient tongues?" he guessed in confusion.

"Patience my boy. The akaviri were not a straightforward people, there is much symbolism and mystery to unravel here" he replied, much to the dragonborns annoyance.

"It wouldn't be one of your adventures if it was simple Varion" Faendal spoke up from across the room, causing the man in question to roll his eyes good-naturedly.

"The word coming from the mouths of these figures, the warriors, it is the Akaviri word for shout. You were right about that Dragonborn, but it says nothing about which shout was used" Esbern noted in annoyance.

"Well, we're looking for a shout" Varion stated. "That's something, but I don't think we'll find it on a word wall around here" he added. Esbern chuckled humourlessly.

"Unfortunately not. I'm afraid the rest of the wall is little help in this regard either. My apologies" he replied. Varion shrugged, then turned to Delphine.

"Any ideas?" he asked.

"Not a clue. I'm no expert on the voice. I don't suppose you know any shouts that can knock dragons out of the sky?" she asked hopefully. Varion frowned and shook his head.

"Nothing I know has that kind of power. Even a full strength unrelenting force will only knock them off course, not out of the sky altogether" he explained and Delphine sighed.
"Damn it. Was worth a shot" she mumbled. Varion realised that there was only one other option for them, but also knew that Delphine may be opposed to it, given her past words.

"The greybeards might know about it" he offered, remembering their supposed mastery of all thu'um. Unsurprisingly, Delphine sighed again.

"You're probably right. I'd hoped to avoid involving them, but it seems we have little choice" she muttered, causing Varion to frown.

"I've been meaning to ask, what's your problem with them exactly?" he said bluntly, wasting no time beating around the bush. To this question, she scoffed.

"If they had their way, you'd sit up on their mountain all day talking to the sky, or whatever it is they do. They're so afraid of power that they won't dare to use it" she complained.

"There's a danger that comes with power" Varion noted, his dragon nature being the primary example in his mind. This did little to calm the woman.

"There are villains that misuse their power, that's always a risk. But not using power out of fear isn't exactly any better. Think about it, have they done anything to stop the civil war?" Varion rolled his eyes at this.

"That has nothing to do with them," he retorted, but she wasn't done.

"Have they done anything to stop Alduin?" At this, he had no response. "My point exactly. They're afraid of his power, and especially your power. Trust me, there's no reason to be afraid. If Tiber Septim listened to the greybeards, spent all his time afraid, he'd have never founded the empire. He wasn't afraid. Are you?" she questioned somewhat challengingly, inviting Varion to frown.

"So much for our improved relationship" he thought bitterly. "In some cases, yes, I am worried about it". Delphine raised an eyebrow, prompting him to continue. "I have the power to blast apart stone with my voice. I have the power to shoot flames from my mouth at any time. All that power, it's a rush, and it worries me". He saw her mouth open to protest and he held up a hand to silence her. "Let me be clear, I'm not afraid to use my power. I was given this gift for a reason. I just don't think I've learnt all I need to about this power to properly control it. If I can't control this amazing gift, it could cause devestation" he reasoned. Delphine sighed, but didn't challenge him.

"I suppose that's fair, but just remember your destiny. The greybeards can teach you a lot, caution, control, but you're still the only one who can stop Alduin. Don't forget that. You are the greatest dragonslayer," she stated, sounding more like an order than a reassurance. Varions face barely changed.

"I could never forget that. I'm not going to let the world end" he said with determination. "I'll go to the greybeards and find out what they know. I'll stop Alduin somehow" he promised, turning and walking out, but not before something caught his eye in the armoury.

"Something caught your fancy?" Delphine asked, raising an eyebrow. Varion smirked and drew his katana, laying it on the table.

"You could say that" he called over his shoulder, strolling over to a weapon rack where a new, glowing katana sat. He picked it up and gave it a few practice swings, feeling the power of the enchantment resonate through his gauntlet. He smirked in excitement. "Now that's a katana!"

A/N:Ah, I love throwing in references to other things in my work, especially when it makes some modicum of sense.

So, sorry for the late update once again, but as I said, we're in a very slow part of the story that I just can't be bothered with a lot of the time. However! Next chapter we should be speeding up, hopefully with a quicker update. As a warning, in about a week I'll be back at school full time, so that will slow me down as well. It's a bit complicated, but rest assured, the Legend of Varion will live on!

Thank you all for reading, see you in the next chapter!