Loki stood on the topmost point of the College of Winterhold, on the roof over the Archmage's quarters, staring out over the ice fields on the Sea of Ghosts.
"LOK VAH KOOR!"
As the thu'um rang out from the top of the college, the sleeting rains stopped and the clouds parted, revealing a mid-afternoon sun. Loki didn't usually like to mess with the weather, but the college had been enduring this drizzly ice and dark skies for over two weeks, and it was beginning to make everyone depressed, especially himself. The shout would give them at least a day or two of sunlight before the clouds could encroach upon Winterhold again.
In the weeks since he had been here he had made lots of advancements with his spell crafting and enchanting. He had made a point of speaking to Mirabelle and Arch-mage Savos when he arrived to let them know that he wasn't just some average student looking to learn mainstream magic, but that he was a researcher of ancient knowledge and wished to collaborate with the masters at the college to bring back the lost methods of writing your own spells and enchantments. Once they learned he actually had Altars of Spell crafting and enchanting and many ancient scrolls in his possession for them to study, Savos and Mirabelle had quickly accepted him as a colleague and not just an average student.
He had tagged along with Tolfdir to Saarthal, but when he found the amulet, he had pulled it out of the stone from outside the room using telekinesis. This way when the gate came down, it double sealed the entrance to the pathway leading to the Eye of Magnus. He knew he would have to deal with this one day, but now wasn't the time. He also wanted Savos around long enough for him to learn everything he could from the old elf, that was centuries of knowledge. He hid the amulet in his oblivion locker, and told everyone that he must have hit a trap trigger. No one suspected a thing.
His main concern these days was keeping the secret of the Altars and the ancient scrolls away from Ancano. He knew the Thalmor would likely either try to steal them or destroy them, as they had at the Arcane University in Cyrodil years ago. He considered assassinating Ancano, but figured the embassy would just send a replacement and the next one would be far more guarded; so he let Ancano live for now.
He took another look out across the sea towards the hideout of Septimus Signus, where he would be heading soon, and then began walking back down to the courtyard below, stopping in the Arcanaeum to see Urag on his way down.
"Come on Urag, I know there has to be a spell for it. In the Charwick-Koniinge Letters it refers to it as a 'Recall' spell. Surely there must be some record of teleportation spells somewhere in all these books."
"I know the one you're talking about, but I am afraid there is no record of the spells. Unless you can find an untouched library from the second era, there's no chance of recovering it." Urag said, rolling his eyes.
"Second era library you say? I may know just the place then." Loki responded, feeling hopeful that he may be able to find the spell he was looking for in his library back at Sky Haven Temple.
"You know, if anyone else said nonsense like that, I'd be certain they were full of horker dung, but with the things I've seen you come up with since you've been here, if you actually found an ancient library it would explain a lot. Just don't forget about me if you decide to make your findings public."
"Urag," Loki replied, "If there is anyone I would trust in my ancient library, it would be you. Talk to the Arch-Mage, he'll fill you in on the details of what I've found and let you see what I've already shared with him and Mirabelle. Just remember, this is not something just anyone can know about. The Thalmor in particular. They've destroyed too much ancient knowledge already. After this mess with Alduin is over, I'll invite you to come have a look."
The old orc didn't smile or even say anything in response, but you could see his eyes light up at the possibility of seeing all that knowledge and then he nodded his head in approval. Loki knew there was no chance of someone like him letting anything slip that might endanger such precious tomes.
From there he went to his room, grabbed his bag full of potions, and headed to Birna's to sell her some of his latest potion stock.
When he had arrived in Winterhold he had made his first stop with Birna at her store to do some trading, though it was less about him needing more trades than about knowing she needed the business. He also made sure to purchase a particularly odd coral dragon claw from her for his future tomb raiding adventures. Now that he had been here a little while, he sold her potions that he made for practice that were so potent her store was quickly becoming known for having the strongest potions in Skyrim. Sadly, her brother Ranmir was still managing to drink away all of her profits.
It was a little after noon when he arrived at the store. Birna was overjoyed to see him. She still couldn't understand why Loki sold her stock so cheap, basically at the cost of the ingredients, but she was extremely thankful for someone to help her try to make ends meet since her useless brother wasn't going to do it.
"How is everything today, Birna? I've got another fresh batch of health potions and resist cold elixirs for you today." Loki said with a smile as he sat the bag on the counter and started removing the vials.
"Well, Ranmir hasn't woke up yet, so the morning has been extremely peaceful. Goodness, have you been brewing all night?" Birna asked as she started counting the vials he was lining up.
"Nah, with a few simple spells, my distillery basically runs itself." Loki shrugged as he played off the complexity of his potion refining processes. Many at the college had tried to get him to teach them the secret to his super potent potions, but he was still secretive about his enchantment aids for fear of having the method militarized and used to destroy lives rather than aid them.
"Think you can enchant my store to run itself? I could use a vacation." She said playfully.
About that time Ranmir came stumbling down the stairs, obviously hung over from the night before, and Birna's smile quickly vanished into a look of dread.
"Birna, Where's my ale?" he growled as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "I still had half a bottle last night and now it's gone. I've warned you to stop hiding my damned ale."
"You may have had half a bottle when your memory blacked out, but you finished it and demanded more before you passed out. I didn't hide anything." Birna tensed as Ranmir leveled a finger at her.
"Don't lie to me Sister, I know you stole my ale. Fine then, give me the money behind the counter and I'll go buy more." By this point Ranmir was up to the counter beside Loki.
"Ranmir, I need this money to buy stocks for the store, You can't just…"
"Shut up and give me the damn gold, woman!" Ranmir interrupted harshly, and Birna took a step back from the counter defensively.
"I believe the young lady told you 'No', I suggest you tone it down." Loki interjected, growing tired of the verbal abuse this alcoholic was hurling at his sister.
"And I suggest YOU keep your nose out of our family business, wizard-boy. Unless you've made one of those magic potions to cure hangovers or give me a good buzz, you can go straight to oblivion and leave me alone." Ranmir poked Loki in the chest as he tried to stand upright to appear more intimidating.
Loki laughed under his breath at the failed intimidation tactic, smiled, and replied:
"Actually, I happen to have just that. Brewed a couple of these up special just for the guys at the college who like to party hard." He reached into his bag and pulled out a clear vial that contained a strange looking pinkish-white liquid. "This right here can cure even the worst hangovers. Not only that, but I can guarantee you won't get a hangover again for months." A sly smirk came over Loki's face as he said that last sentence.
"I call bullshit, I've never heard of a potion that could do that." Ranmir looked at Loki like he had just claimed to be the High King of Skyrim.
"Ok, fine, keep your aching head for all I care. It's not hurting me in the slightest." Loki intentionally raised his voice a few decibels when he said this to inflict more pain on Ranmir's already aching head.
"Alright, fine. Whatta ya want for it?" Ranmir replied, flinching from Loki's louder words.
"Just lay off your sister and stay out of my sight for the rest of the day, how 'bout it?" Loki smirked again as he extended the vial towards Ranmir.
Ranmir took the vial, uncorked it, and smelled it.
"How do I know you aren't trying to poison me? You mages are always up to no good."
"Why would I try to poison you with that when I could just poison your ale and you'd drink it willingly? And why would I poison you at all when I could incinerate you to ash and not even leave a body to be found by the guards? Honestly, the only reason I don't fry you for being a total waste of human flesh is that, despite the fact you are drunken trash, your sister clearly loves you and cares for you and she doesn't deserve to have her heart broken by dealing with her brother getting killed. If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't waste my time poisoning you. I'd look you in the eyes as I lit you on fire." Loki said this without even making eye contact with Ranmir, as if it were just idol conversation you would have over dinner.
The fact that the thought of assassinating someone was so nonchalant to Loki made Ranmir all the more nervous about him. He looked down at the vial again, decided it wasn't going to hurt him, and downed the contents like a shot of liquor.
Ranmir felt a warm sensation run down his throat, then radiate throughout his body from his stomach. His headache was gone almost instantly, and he felt rejuvenated and awake.
"Wow, alright! And no hangovers for months, you said. Ohh, I can drink all night long now!" He started to demand the money from Birna again to go start drinking, but then remembered Loki had told him he had to lay off his sister, and he had to admit, Loki had him a bit intimidated with his creepy talk of death. So he decided to go run a tab, for now. He would come back later after Loki left and get money out of his sister. She couldn't stop him alone.
As Ranmir left, Birna looked at Loki, not sure if she should thank him for getting her out of the situation, or be mad with him for enabling her brother to start drinking all over again without paying the consequences for his previous drinking.
Loki saw the conflicting feelings in Birna's face and said: "Don't worry, I've got it all under control."
"I wish it were that simple," she replied, her voice beginning to crack with emotions, "but he's just going to hit the bottle twice as hard now that he knows it won't hurt the next day. You've bought me a few hours, but now he'll drain my business and everything we've got for sure." Tears began to run down her cheeks as she thought of this.
Loki reached out and touched her cheek, wiping away her tears as his palm began to glow. Birna stopped crying as the calming spell took effect, but she still looked at Loki sadly and said in almost a whisper, "I don't know what to do. I love my brother, but he's going to drink us both into the streets."
Again Loki's palm pulsed the glowing spell and he said, "Don't worry, I told you, I have it under control. Trust me."
"I don't understand," she said, looking at him puzzled. "Everyone in Skyrim is looking out for themselves, why do you go out of your way to help me? Why are you so nice to me? To everyone, really? What do you hope to gain for all the effort you put out to everyone else?"
"Well, you are a good person. Even with an alcoholic brother, you still persist to take care of him. You have a good heart, and that's something I want to see more of in Skyrim, so I will do whatever I can to help you and anyone else who is trying to make Skyrim a better place. That's what is in it for me, a better place for my adopted orphans to grow up and call home."
"Wait, so on top of all of this charity, you adopt orphans too?! Guys like that only exist in fairy tales," she said, now looking at Loki as if he were too perfect to be real.
"Who's to say I'm not writing one, every day, right here in Skyrim. If you want something to be true, you have to make it reality yourself." Loki walked to the door to be on his way back to the college before evening meals in the cafeteria, so Birna came around the counter and followed him out on the front porch as they were chatting.
From the porch they had a perfect view of the front of the inn, just a few buildings down on the opposite side of the street. All of a sudden they saw Ranmir leaning over the edge of the railing in front of the inn, puking violently into the bushes below. After several heaves he managed to stand back up, wipe his mouth, then he put a bottle of ale to his lips again.
The ale barely had time to hit the back of his mouth before he doubled over and heaved again. After he recovered from it this time he spotted Loki and Birna on the front porch of the store and went running towards them.
"You! What did you do to me? What kind of potion was that? You promised me no hangovers, but I can't even drink without puking! What have you done?" Ranmir was yelling across the street and turning the attention of everyone who happened to be out this afternoon. Some even peeked outside from other buildings to see what all the fuss was about.
Birna had a scared look on her face as Ranmir ran at them, but Loki held up a hand and stopped him in his tracks with a telekinesis spell that lifted him off the ground a few inches, just enough to make him feel helpless and lose his threatening attitude.
"I promised you no hangovers for months and I didn't lie. You can't get a hangover if you can't drink. The potion will ensure you don't suffer from withdrawal, but it will not allow you to drink anymore. I'm tired of seeing you throw away everything your sister is working so hard for and then treating her like dirt for caring about you at all. From this point on you will be sober, and you will either help your sister be productive, or you will go somewhere else, take care of yourself, and stop being a burden to her. You act like there is nothing worth living for because your town is dying, yet it's been dying for over 80 years since the great collapse, so really you're just using it as an excuse to be a lazy drunk. There are vampires to fight and the Dawnguard is recruiting near Riften. There are daedric forces to fight and the Vigilants of Stendar are recruiting near Dawnstar. There are dragons to fight and the Blades are recruiting in Whiterun. There are plenty of things to do with your life other than sit in a frozen, dying town and drink yourself to death while destroying the life of the only person who actually cares about you right now."
Loki walked out in the street to meet Ranmir and pulled him to eye level with himself before lighting his other palm up with a different spell and tapping Ranmir in the chest. Ranmir felt a surge go all through his body like an electrical charge was priming, but the final zap never came.
"That's a special spell I wrote just for you, along with the special brew I made for you earlier. If you dare make an aggressive act towards your sister again, this spell will zap you off of your feet, every single time. It won't kill you, but it's really going to hurt. So you better be nice to her from now on, else it's going to be a very bad time for you. Understand what I'm saying?!"
Loki waited for him to nod an acknowledgement that he understood what he had been told, then flicked his wrist and sent Ranmir flying down the street, skidding to a stop in the middle; then he turned on his heels and walked the other way, back to the college as everyone stood and watched in awkward silence.
The guards didn't care for the mages from the college much, and were generally rather harsh with the ones who drew attention in town, but none wanted to tangle with a mage who threw people around like ragdolls and they could all agree that Ranmir deserved it. None of them could stand the way he treated his sister, but no one had the courage to get involved in a 'family matter'.
Ranmir didn't dare try to chase him or challenge him now. As he passed back by the store, Loki glanced over to see Birna staring in awe at the level of confidence and dominant control this young man was displaying, and when he made eye contact she silently mouthed the words "Thank you" to him.
He stopped, simply smiled, and said, "I'll see you tomorrow, I have to start getting ready soon. I have another quest coming up and it's going to require a lot of preparation." Then he continued on to the bridge without waiting for a reply.
Back in his room, Loki was busy preparing for his trek across the icy sea to find Septimus. The door to his tiny dorm room was barred so no one could walk in on him while he had a door open to his oblivion locker on the opposite wall. He carefully inventoried his potion stocks and food supplies, checked over his armor and weapons, and browsed over the maps he had in his small travel library. Then something donned on him he hadn't realized until now. This was where he was supposed to meet Hermaeus Mora, immediately after receiving the key to Blackreach from Septimus.
This made Loki more than a bit nervous. What if Mora wanted the knowledge of where he was from? Or what if he wanted his scientific knowledge? This was a Daedric prince who had a reputation for destroying even his most loyal servants once they were no longer of use to him. The only real relief was that there was nowhere in the Elder Scrolls lore where Mora turned on the Dragonborn. At least he knew he would be safe on this first visit. Mora needed him to open the box. This helped Loki to calm his anxiety enough to concentrate on his task at hand.
Once everything was accounted for and his heavy cold weather gear was laid out for the journey, it was getting late. Loki closed the locker, then crawled into the furs that covered his bed. He knew this might be the last time he got to sleep all warm and cozy for a while. He dozed off to sleep, wondering where tomorrow would take him, and still worried if he was really up to the task.