Previously on The Legend of Varion…
Varion and Lydia travelled to Winterhold, seeking the college of Winterhold and the knowledge within. After a bit of an awkward initiation conversation, Faralda let him in as a student and as the dragonborn to help with his quest. However, the presence of a thalmor agent within the college has just sparked Varions interest greatly…
Now, back to the story…
"Bastard! What the hell is he doing here?" Varion thought angrily. He kept his expression carefully neutral and kept his hand off his sword as he walked closer to the pair. The woman, Mirabelle, seemed rather annoyed with the snooty Altmer, dismissing him with irritation. Thankfully, by the time Varion got within conversing distance of Mirabelle, the Thalmor had already stormed off with a dirty look thrown her way. She breathed deeply to calm herself, and Varion coughed to get her attention.
"Oh, hello there" she greeted politely. "Did Faralda send you my way?"
"Yeah. My name is Varion" he replied, offering a hand. She shook it, then tilted her head.
"Forgive me, but I find it odd that we have yet another nordic student. What made you want to study magic here?" she asked. There was no snark or double meaning behind her words, she was simply curious, so Varion answered her in truth.
"That's actually a complicated matter" he said honestly, causing her confused expression to become a little more guarded and even more curious. "I'm the dragonborn" he started, trying to read her reaction. It was more quiet surprise.
"Dragonborn?" she repeated softly. "So does that mean that all the rumours around Skyrim are true? Dragons returning?"
"Yeah, it's all true, and if I don't stop them it'll only get worse. We're talking about an apocalypse here" he said grimly. Mirabelle nodded, taking this far better than he expected. Then again, she was clearly a master wizard, she was used to dealing with magical things. "I guess that's why she's believing me" he thought to himself.
"So why are you here?" she asked.
"I need to find an Elder Scroll. It's the only lead I have to stopping the dragons" he explained and Mirabelle frowned.
"An Elder Scroll? Gods, this is serious if those are involved" she muttered before meeting Varions eyes again. "I'll take you to Urag, the wizard in charge of the arcaneum. He'll know more about this than anyone, maybe he can help" she offered, earning a nod in response. "Oh, and Varion? Do you actually intend to be here as a student?" she asked curiously. Varion took a moment to consider it.
"I intend to when I can, I need all the power I can get to stop the dragon crisis" he replied truthfully. "But then again, I'm not too sure about being here with a thalmor" he added with a bitter tone. Mirabelle gave a humourless chuckle.
"Believe me, there are many that share your view. That jumped up arrogant-" she began a small frustrated tirade, but cut herself off. "I really shouldn't say that, walls have ears in this place. But just know that we have little intention of allowing him to interfere with our college" she said reassuringly. Varion raised an eyebrow.
"So why is he here?" She sighed at that.
"He's Ancano, an 'advisor' to the Arch-Mage, sent here by the thalmor. We don't want him here, he's a nuisance, but we can't throw him out for reasons that I'm sure you already know". Varion nodded.
"Bastards think they can just do whatever they want" he growled, though he forced himself to take a lighter tone with his next words. "He's not important right now. So, want to take me to Urag now?"
"Of course. But I think a tour of the grounds would be warranted as well, seeing as you do intend to study here eventually" she offered instead and Varion shrugged.
"Sure. Sounds good" he replied, and with that the tour began. She took him to the hall where he and his fellow students could stay and gave him a set of enchanted robes for free, as well as introduced him to Enthir, a Bosmer elf who happened to be in the room at the time. She then led to the Hall of Countenance, the place where the teachers slept. She introduced him to a couple of them who were in there, Phinis the conjuration teacher and Drevis, the rather eccentric Illusion master. The meeting with the latter had been rather eventful, with the man believing that he was invisible and being comically disappointed when informed he wasn't. Varion had gotten a chuckle out of that, but Mirabelle seemed completely used to it. She also showed Varion the free-to-use alchemy lab and enchanting stations that were in there and encouraged him to experiment in those fields. "I do use potions a lot, making my own would save me gold and give me greater variety. Plus, having enchanted gear would be really useful" Varion thought to himself and gladly agreed to practice in these more craft-based areas of magic. She eventually led him to the hall of the elements, the main study hall for lectures and practicing. He saw another wizard conducting a lesson there with some other students, but he wasn't here to learn today. Mirabelle directed him through a door and up a staircase to the immediate right and he found himself walking into a very impressive library with a rather grumpy looking orc manning the main desk. "Urag?" he called out in greeting. The orc looked up.
"Yes, that's me. Who are you? A new student?" he asked gruffly, though that just seemed to be a usual way of speaking for orcs.
"Sort of. I'm here looking for an Elder Scroll" he stated simply. To his chagrin, the orc started laughing. And laughing. And kept doing so for at least a solid 15 seconds before he calmed down, at which point his gaze hardened.
"Oh. You were serious."
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Varion rolled his eyes, this was already not going the way he wanted to. "Yes. I was serious" he repeated in the same tone as the orc had used.. Urag sighed.
"Do you even know what you're asking about? Do you really think that even if I had a scroll here, I'd let you see it? I don't even know who you are!" he ranted, raising his voice slightly as if to emphasise the apparent stupidity of Varions question.
"My name is Varion. I'm the dragonborn. I'm trying to save the world. Tell me what you know about the scrolls" Varion answered tiredly. He'd never had to pull the 'I'm the dragonborn' card so many times in such quick succession and he was quite tired of it. "Seems people only take you seriously if you're some kind of prophesied hero" he complained internally. It also seemed like the reaction to his little revelation lessened each time. Urag barely changed his expression.
"Tell me Varion, what do you know about the Elder Scrolls?" he asked.
"That they're very powerful and very mysterious. That's about it" he answered honestly. "If you're so knowledgeable, tell me more about them" he requested.
"I knew it. Everyone comes to me for help, but they don't even know the right questions to ask" Urag said with exasperation. "You're right about one thing, the Elder Scrolls are instruments of incredible power. To even read one, you need the most finely trained mind and an incredible will, or else risk madness. Even then, the scrolls often take the sight of their readers as a price" he said solemnly. Varion was slightly unnerved. How was he supposed to use it if it could do all this to him? Did he even want to take that chance?
"Who wrote these things?" he asked, figuring it was a simple question. Urag's reaction made him think differently.
"It would take a month to explain to you how that very question doesn't even make sense. The Scrolls exist here, with us, but also beyond and beneath. Before and after. They are bits of Divine made substance so we could know them" Urag rambled, only to be stopped by Varion.
"I asked a question expecting an answer. Not a poetry reading" he snarked. Urag gave a small chuckle.
"Sorry. Talking about the scrolls usually results in annoying metaphors like that. It's easier than trying to speak facts about something so incomprehensible" he apologised.
"I'm almost afraid to ask any more questions, but I've got another one. You said they could take the reader's sight as a price. A price for what?" Urag took a moment to consider how to answer.
"The simplest way to put it is knowledge. Then again, there's nothing simple about the Elder Scrolls. It's a reflection of all possible futures and all possible pasts. Each reader sees different reflections through different lenses, and may come away with a very different reading. But at the same time, all of it is true. Even the falsehoods. Especially the falsehoods" he finished explaining, and Varion swore to never become a scholar of the Elder Scrolls. It sounded far beyond anything he could ever understand.
"I'll just stick to understandable things. Like stealing souls, and dragons that can bring about an apocalypse" he snarked to himself. "So, thanks for the lecture. I'm gonna guess you don't have one based on what you said earlier. Where can I find one?" he asked bluntly. Urag sighed.
"I wish I could tell you. Having an Elder Scroll would be invaluable to the college, but they're not something you just stumble across in a dungeon. However, I might have a lead for you, seeing as you're here to save the world," he offered and Varion leant in closer, curious. "There's an old scholar, Septimus Signus. He was an expert on the Elder Scrolls back in the day, or as much of an expert as you could ever be. If anyone would know where to find one, it would be him" he finished.
"That's a start. Where can I find him?" Varion asked.
"He left a long time ago, years in fact. Went up north in the ice fields. Said he found some ancient dwemer artifact, but I haven't heard from him ever since, and we were close" Urag answered, worry in his tone as he finished.
"I'll find him, don't worry. Thanks" Varion replied, nodding in respect to the librarian. The orc returned the gesture, then turned back to his books. As Varion left the library, he saw the thalmor, Ancano, waiting for him at the stairway. Trying to avoid giving him a death glare, Varion attempted to walk past him, but was stopped by the elf standing in his path.
"I don't recognise you. I take it you're a new student?" he asked, a condescending tone coming from his voice already and he'd only said two sentences. Varion bit back an insulting reply.
"Something like that. What do you want?" he asked bluntly, wanting Ancano out of his way.
"Watch your tone boy" the elf replied sharply. Varion straightened his stance a little, standing slightly taller than Ancano and far, far more muscular. With his beast blood, dragonborn nature and natural strength, he had little doubt that he could break most of the bones in this man's body if they were to fight, assuming he didn't get shot to death with magic. "I am here to observe the college, and build a relationship between this institution and the thalmor. Any new additions to their ranks, naturally, require my attention" he explained. Varion raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I'm a student. Need anything else?" Ancano narrowed his eyes.
"For you to learn some respect" he snarked and Varion decided that giving this guy a death glare was no longer an unreasonable action. To his satisfaction, Ancano looked a tiny bit less sure of himself when confronted with Varions 'pissed off' face. However, he quickly regained his snooty expression. "I need nothing more from you at the current time" he stated.
"Good. Now get out of my way" Varion demanded, walking forward as he said it. This resulted in him practically shouldering Ancano aside and he could almost feel the glare that the elf must've been giving him behind his back. Even with the task that now was ahead of him, that mental image brought a small grin to his face.
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The journey across the ice fields wasn't an easy one. Varion and Lydia took their time carefully walking across it, fully aware that falling in this ice cold water was a very real threat. Thanks to Clear Skies, they didn't have to worry about the stormy weather of a snowstorm, but even Varions shout couldn't clear away the strong winds for more than half a minute at most. With luck, they ended up getting all the way to what looked like Septimus' outpost, or at least a large ice structure with a trapdoor at its base and a boat frozen in the ice near it. "Think this is it?" Lydia asked somewhat rhetorically.
"Unless there's some other nutjob living out in these fields" Varion replied sarcastically. He hauled open the trapdoor and dropped down, landing fairly loud. Lydia chose to take the ladder and the pair walked deeper into the icy cave. Varion heard a sound from inside, a man talking to himself. He held up a hand and crouched lower, signalling for Lydia that they needed to proceed quietly. As they crept into what looked more like an open room, they saw a large box of what looked like dwarven design half encased in rock and the man sitting at a table mixing some fire salts. As they approached, he glanced up at them and smiled.
"Ah, welcome to old Septimus' home!" he called out cheerfully. Varion and Lydia exchanged a glance of confusion. "Come on down, I mean you no harm!" he added and Varion cautiously moved down the rock ramp to stand near his table and as he did, the old man rose to greet him.
"Septimus Signus?" Lydia asked tentatively and the old man nodded. "We're here to ask about the Elder Scrolls," she continued.
"The Empire. They absconded with them. Or so they think. The ones they saw. The ones they thought they saw. I know of one. Forgotten. Sequestered. But I cannot go to it, not poor Septimus, for I... I have arisen beyond its grasp" the old man rambled, causing Varion to sigh.
"I guess Urag wasn't kidding about people going crazy after reading these things" he thought with frustration. "Ok, if we can dispense with the metaphors, do you know where a scroll is?" he asked bluntly, causing Septimus to chuckle annoyingly.
"Here" he replied. Before Varion could get his hopes up, the old man continued. "Well, here as in this plane. Mundus. Tamriel. Nearby, relatively speaking" he elaborated before madly chuckling. "In the grand scheme of things, it's all nearby!" he finished before laughing more. Varion had grown tired of this guy before he'd spoken a word and he was quickly getting more annoying by the second.
"Listen old man!" he said with annoyance. "Tell me where the scroll is!" he demanded, raising his voice. Of course, it barely phased the mad scholar.
"Oh ho! A brutish one you are! Septimus has no fear of you!" he replied confidently. "But, as one block lifts another, perhaps you and I, could help each other!" he continued, rhyming his words in a way that made Varion want to put his teeth out. He'd been running all over Skyrim for this destiny of his, climbed the tallest mountain in Skyrim three separate times, dealt with 100 times more Thalmor than he would have liked, and this man was testing his damn patience.
"What do you want?" Lydia spoke, noticing Varions clenched fists.
"You see this Dwemer masterpiece?" he asked, gesturing behind him. "Deep inside their greatest knowings. Septimus is clever among men, but he is but an idiot child compared to the dullest of the Dwemer. Lucky then they left behind their own way of reading the Elder Scrolls. In the depths of Blackreach one yet lies. Have you heard of Blackreach?"
"Never" Varion answered bluntly. He was knowledgeable about the world, he was reasonably educated, but he wasn't one for ancient dwarven history.
"Deep down. Below the dark. The hidden keep. Tower Mzark. The ruin of Alftand" Septimus rambled spookily, as if he was describing some ancient secret treasure rather than just a location. "Delve to its limits, and Blackreach shall be just beyond" he finished cryptically. Varion sighed, this man was exhausting. He then gave them two objects, a sphere that would get them into Blackreach (somehow), and a cube called a lexicon. Apparently it would let them see knowledge from the Elder Scroll without being blinded or driven mad, both of which weren't really desirable outcomes for Varion, so he was grateful for this device. They bode farewell to Septimus and began to leave in a hurry, eager to get out of the madman's house. Lydia was the first out of the cave, Varion letting her climb the ladder first in case Septimus tried to stick a dagger in their backs or something. However, while he gazed down the short ice tunnel, he saw something strange. An odd green portal seemed to faintly be visible at the entrance to the room, and he could've sworn he saw an ethereal tentacle wave around from that portal. He then heard a deep, demonic voice speak slowly.
"Dragonborn" it said, faintly and full of indiscernible emotion. Varion blinked, but the portal remained and more tentacles seemingly emerged from the portal, becoming more visible now and less ethereal. He tensed up and put a hand on his sword.
"Lydia!" he called out, turning up to look at the trap door, wanting her help down here for this fight. However, when he turned his gaze back to the wretched abyss he'd seen, it was completely done, without a single trace of it ever being there.
"My thane?" Lydia called out, concerned for his well being. He shook his head and blinked more, but the strange sight didn't reappear. He climbed out of the outpost at speed, greeting his worried companion.
"Nothing. I'm fine" he lied. Well, half lied. Physically he was perfectly well, but that strange sight had spooked him. He shouted at the sky again to clear the storm that had begun to brew and began the walk over the ice fields, Lydia behind him.
"So, that Septimus man…" Lydia began, trying to make conversation.
"The guy's insane. Those scrolls are dangerous" Varion muttered loud enough for her to hear.
"That about sums it up" she replied.
"I'm not feeling confident about reading one of these now" he continued in honesty, could anyone really be prepared to do that to themselves? Varion thought he had a strong will, but this was something beyond gods.
"If anyone can handle it, it's you," Lydia said reassuringly, placing a hand on his shoulder. Varion took some comfort in that contact before she removed it to help brace against the wind again.
"So, where now?" she asked curiously.
"We're going back to Whiterun. I've got a feeling we'll need our group at full strength to take on this ruin" Varion replied, a smile on his face as he did. Sure, maybe four very powerful adventurers (one being the dragonborn) to take on one ruin was a little overkill, but what could he say? He missed his friends, and what better bonding activity than going hunting for an Elder Scroll?
A/N:HOLY HECC! An update actually on schedule! What are the odds? I'll try get a new chapter out every Sunday, establish a proper schedule that I can actually end up sticking to.
Yeah, getting back into the flow of writing this story again, got my speed up and I'm actually enjoying it more. Spoiler warning though, don't expect a large detailed run through of Alftand, I hate that ruin…
I hope you guys are enjoying the characterisation of Varion. I feel he sorta got a bit away from my intention for him, lost a bit too much of his bluntness and temper. Given the fact that he's got friends and stuff now, that could be justified, but be assured, these newest developments are really trying his patience. Stay tuned to see how he deals with everything else that's coming his way!
Thank you all for reading! Review, favourite, follow and I'll see you in the next chapter!
