My Time in Hell: The Authorized Biography of Arch-Mage Sabastian Ashcroft
Recorded by Valin Elenil
Chapter Five – Joining the Guild
When I arrived at All Things Alchemical for the interview I was met by Arch-Mage Ashcroft at the door. He smiled and informed me that it was far too beautiful a day to be indoors. He led me further along the street to a three story stone building right next to the alchemy shop. The door opened into a cozy sitting room in front of a fireplace where I assumed we would stop but the Arch-Mage led me to the right and up a flight of stairs. As we passed by a large display case I noticed it held a nicked and battered staff.
Upstairs the Arch-Mage led me through a door flanked by two more display cases housing impressive looking tomes. The door led to a second story balcony which ran the width of the manor, a table and two chairs sat to right of the door. Dinnerware had been set out and in the center of the table a covered silver platter gave of an enticing aroma.
"Havea seat" the Arch-Mage offered as he indicated one of the chairs.
When I sat he uncovered the platter and using a spatula moved a cooked sandwich onto my plate, which already held three radishes on a leaf of lettuce. Smaller covered pots sat on a lazy-susan nearby with small serving spoons next to each.
"This is one of my favorite dishes. I came up with it during my travels because it keeps well on the road if you wrap it in waxed paper but it's really best when eaten right away."
The Arch-Mage indicated the small pots, "I put out some sauces if you want but if you'll take my advice it really doesn't need any condiments."
I took a tentative bite and could feel a burning sensation almost immediately in my mouth. It wasn't unpleasant but it was definitely hot. I took a bigger bite and smiled, it really was quite an interesting combination of flavors.
Arch-Mage Ashcroft smiled and bopped his finger at me, "See? Good right? The secret is Dragon's Tongue, gives it that fire you're tasting. Might give you a touch of indigestion however so I put out a tonic for you to take after you're done. Right there in the dram to your right."
The Arch-Mage took a sandwich for himself and bit into to it hungrily. He closed his eyes for a moment while chewing and let out a contented sigh. "Mmmmm"
We ate in silence, savoring the meal and the lovely spring morning, then the Arch-Mage cleared away our plates and brought out a pitcher of clear water with two glasses. He sat down and smiled, "Thank you for joining me for lunch. I really enjoy cooking for people. But I know this isn't a social call so if you're ready I'll begin." I nodded pulling out my notepad and quill.
"So…my shop burnt to the ground."
"You no doubt remember that I was in quite a state at the time, I felt as though I had been wasting my time on the road working for the Blades instead of attending to the business of Alchemy. And as such you can imagine how the sight of my alchemy shop lying in a charred heap would affect me. I was born in that shop. I spent my entire life there. And now it was gone. I was livid, to say the least. As I sifted through the burnt remains of my home only one culprit came to mind."
"The Mage's Guild."
"It had to be them I reasoned. Not the Guild itself obviously, but a member of the Guild surely. I could think of no other explanation for a mostly stone building catching fire randomly and burning to the ground. It couldn't be lightning, the building had been struck by lightning before. It was very unlikely to have been vandals or highwaymen, what would they gain from burning down the shop?"
"It had to be a Mage! He or she burnt down the shop to send a message. Join the Guild or else. Or maybe they burnt down the shop to get revenge on my father for some slight real or imagined. Or maybe some inept Battlemage tossed an errant bit of Destruction magic while hunting down the terrifying Killer Rabbit of the Heartlands and it hit the shop instead. Whatever the reason it had to be a Mage!"
"And this would not go unpunished."
"But of course I had no way of knowing which of the nearly two hundred Guild Mages it had been. But I knew a good place to start looking…Skingrad. Not only did the Guild in Skingrad specialize in Destruction Magic, they had a long standing feud with my late father. If anyone was the prime suspect it was one of the members of the Skingrad guild."
"It took me a day and a half of traveling to make it to Skingrad. Along the way I came up with a plan to ferret out the arsonist. There was no way that anyone would let slip what happened to anyone outside the Guild, guildmates stuck together, so my only choice was to join the Mage's Guild myself." He looked over at me but I kept my expression neutral.
Looking slightly disappointed that his announcement didn't garner more of a reaction, Arch-Mage Ashcroft continued, "My first stop, as always, was to check in on my sister. By the time I arrived in Skingrad the shop was closed and Hal was out. She was dating Totius Sextius at the time, which was quite scandalous, so I assumed she was with him; but I had a key so Iet myself in."
"Why was it scandalous?" I asked, catching the Arch-Mage off guard.
"What?"
"Why was it scandalous for your sister to be dating Totius Sextius at the time?"
"Oh…" he said looking quite uncomfortable. "Well, when Hal first came to Cyrodiil she was a man. In fact she was a man for much of my childhood. It wasn't until my father died that she met with a Flesh Sculpture and became a woman. It was a very new discipline at the time and I understand it is still prohibitively expensive even now."
He paused for a moment and chose his words carefully, "Some people didn't adjust well to Hal's new appearance. There were a few that still thought of her as a man and when she started dating Totius Sextius that further complicated things. But in the end Hal was accepted for who she was and everyone moved on with their lives."
I considered pressing further but let the matter drop.
"So as I was saying, I let myself into the shop and waited for Hal to return. As it turned out she didn't return until the morning; which gave me a chance to pop out for some Skingrad Sweetrolls, which if you haven't tried them are exquisite. We caught up over breakfast and I broke the news to her about the old shop. She was just as outraged as I was but less convinced that members of the Mage's Guild were involved. We argued back and forth for a bit but my mind was made up. I knew it had to be a Mage who was responsible. So after I finished breakfast I marched across the street to the Mage's Guild and announced to Adrienne Berene that I was finally ready to join the Guild."
"Her lack of enthusiasm was…humbling." The Arch-Mage said with a chuckle.
"She took down my information in a matter-of-fact way and quickly ushered me out of her chambers so she could return to her reading. I was actually quite insulted at the time by the sheer bureaucracy of it all. I was under the impression that the Mage's Guild was highly selective of who could join their ranks, but at no time during my interview for admission did Adrienne even ask me to perform any magic. At the time I explained it away to myself that she already knew me and knew of my abilities, but the reality was she just didn't care who joined the guild and who didn't."
"I discovered over the two months that this was not an uncommon sentiment."
"To say that the Mage's Guild was decentralized under Arch-Mage Traven is putting it kindly. Each of the Guild halls in the major cities of Cyrodiil operated largely independently of the Arcane University. The Guildmaster assigned to each Hall by the Council of Mages at the University had near complete autonomy to run their guildhall however they like as long as they follow the basic tenants laid out by the Imperial Charter. This was hardly the tyrannical organization that my father had made it out to be; if anything each member of the Guild was so consumed by their own personal research that they hardly functioned as a cohesive unit."
"When a Guildmaster accepted your application you became an Associate of the Mage's Guild. To actually become a member of the Mage's Guild required the petitioner to receive a recommendation from the Guildmasters of each city; a feat that required a great deal of time and effort. Each Guildmaster would devise a trial to determine if the Associate was Guild material or not. I suppose in a way this policy did weed out those who were unable to fully dedicate themselves to the pursuit of magic; not just anyone has the time or resources to travel all over Cyrodiil seeking out recommendations from the various Guildmasters."
"Which is not to say that the every Guildmaster took this responsibility seriously. My tasks varied from locating a missing guild member who was just playing a prank on the Guildmaster and hiding in the hall invisibly, to hunting down and killing a rouge Battlemage who had become a bandit."
The Arch-Mages face went hard, "And then there was Falcar who tried to kill me."
Before I could speak he waved me off, "But that's getting ahead of ourselves. Trust me I will tell you all about Falcar in time, but for now I should really talk about the Skingrad Guild."
"Since the Skingrad Guild had no Alchemist I thought I would ingratiate myself with the members by filling that role. I would not say that Alchemist and Mages who favor the College of Destruction are anathema of each other but; Alchemy is a tool of the patient, it requires precision and perseverance whereas Destruction magic is much more…immediate. All that to say very few of my guildmates were interested in learning what I had to teach."
"Still I was surprised at how well I was received by the Skingrad Guild. It was a little tense at first, but after a week or so the availability of cheap potions to restore their magicka reserves overcame any lasting animosity they might have felt towards me. When my father died Hal had started allowing guild members to purchase potions at the shop but she still had to make a profit and I was able to sell to my guildmates at cost. I felt a little bad about undercutting my own sister but I needed to earn their trust if I was ever going to uncover the identity of the arsonist."
"Unfortunately all I uncovered was exactly how bad Adrienne Berene was at her job. After a few days of getting to know everyone I learned that one guild member, a Bosmer named Erthor, had not been seen for several weeks around the guildhall. Naturally I grew excited at the news; that put him as the only member whose whereabouts were unknown at the time of the fire. When I spoke to Adrienne his whereabouts she became annoyed and tried to dismiss me. Certain now that I was on the right track I pushed back, almost demanding that she tell me where he was."
"Adrienne's demeanor grew icy and she informed me quite succinctly that if I was so concerned about Erthor's wellbeing I should find him myself. Adding that it was now my responsibility to see him safely back to the guildhall if I wished to remain a member of the Mage's Guild. But before I went she insisted on teaching me a technique to produce a small ball of fire that would explode on impact."
"And before you begin to think this was some sort of kindness on her part and she was concerned for my safety please remember that I was very outspoken about my disdain for the College of Destruction. It took me hours of very public practice, outside behind the Hall, before I could cast the spell to her satisfaction and any time I did not she was there with a withering critique of my performance. No this was not an act of kindness, she was reminding me who was in charge of her Guildhall."
"After I was released from my lessons I spoke with my guildmates and learned that Erthor was likely in a nearby cave working on his research. He had been forbidden from working in the guildhall by Adrienne after what was only referred to as 'the Scamp incident'. So either Adrienne knew where he was the entire time, or as my guildmates suspected, she had banished him from the guildhall and didn't even remember doing so. Either way I confirmed the location of the cave and set out to confront Erthor, who I was now certain must have been responsible for the destruction of my Alchemy shop."
"Of course he wasn't…" the Arch-Mage confessed with a sigh. "When I finally found him he was under siege by undead that were attracted to his new underground home, likely due to his attempts to learn Conjuration magic without a proper tutor."
"Wait undead traveled to the cave? I didn't think they were intelligent, how did that happen?"
"You're right, most undead aren't intelligent. But they are all drawn to areas where Conjuration magic is used regularly. There are several theories as to why; I suspect that repeated Conjuration in an area weakens the Barrier between Mundus and the other Planes and the restless dead can sense that. Of course to understand why they would be interested in such things we would need to understand the mechanics of making lasting undead instead of just summoning an undead from Oblivion. And as you know Necromancy is banned by the Mage's Guild."
"But there is no Mage's Guild anymore."
"True, and I hear whispers that there are mages out there who are growing interested in researching Necromancy again. But none of that is pertinent to the story I am telling is it?"
"No I suppose not."
"So, Erthor was obviously not the arsonist. In fact no one in the Skingrad Guild was the arsonist. Which meant I was right back where I started. Except now I was an Associate of the Mage's Guild which gave me the perfect cover to investigate the remaining Guildhalls and find my arsonist! And so I set out on a two month tour of Cyrodiil, visiting each Guild Hall in the hopes of finding the mage responsible for the destruction of my Alchemy shop. And in the end I did find the person responsible, and repaid him."
He smiled, "But that is a story for another day."
We said our goodbyes and I made my way back to the Inn with only a hint of indigestion.