Chapter Eight: Learning curve
Balmora started feeling like home for Merlac very quickly, as it was the best home he had ever been in. Months passed and he gained experience while serving under Caius's command in Blades. Merlac's tasks were mostly about travelling back and forth between nearby villages and towns, meeting Caius's friends and Blades operatives, asking them about The Sixth House Cult and related stuff. After few weeks Merac got bored of asking Caius where he needed this information and accepted his master's daily answer; "I'm just curious so I'm doing some background research, that's all."
Always when Merlac was over night in Balmora, he spent hours and hours practising his combat skills in Fighter's guild with Hasphat and Fire-eye. After some uncertainty in using the sword, Merlac kept surprising his new friends with his ability to handle swords, staffs and even long-bladed claymores. With the money Caius had paid for him during his service, Merlac had finally been able to buy himself a decent sword of his own; a medium-lenght sword, made from achient elven metal-alloys. It shined light-blue like sky itself, as light reflected from its sharp blade. The sword had been just another rusty piece of crap Merlac had bought from local trader, but after days of hard work and grinding one could finally see his reflection from the blade.
From time to time Caius still kept wondering how lucky Merlac had been when he killed the two smugglers in Arkngthand fort. The other had crashed through ancient dwemer-made metal bridge, that had endured several centuries and the other died because a pot of strong magical acid had crashed into his head. Neither of them died because of Merlac's sword. The thing that made Merlac feel nervous, was the thing he had seen in the hills of Arkngthand; the woman in white clothing. That day, Merlac was sure he had seen just a vision, but he was quite sure he had seen the same woman appear again and again, always just before he met some kind of danger.
Last time was when Merlac was investigating a tomb near a big lake, east of Balmora. He had been just about to enter the tomb to search for certain skull for a Mage's guild's member's alchemy-purposes, as he saw the woman standing on the other side of the bay. As soon as Merlac blinked his eyes, the vision was gone again. Half an hour later Merlac ran out of the tomb, carrying a dusty skull, while fighting with his left shoe, which had been cursed by an ancestor-ghost, guarding the tomb. It took two days for Balmora's magicians to anti-curse the shoe again, so it stopped biting Merlac's foot. Merlac started feeling this woman-vision had to be some kind of omen for danger.
Though Merlac was an extremely devoted swordsman and he had already gained quite an amount of experience of tight situations during his Blades-tasks, there was still one thing troubling his mind daily. He was member of Balmora's Mage's guild, but complicate spells were taught only to high ranked members, and advancing in the guild did not occur by magic, it needed time and effort. Merlac was just an errand boy whose main job was to clean potion bottles and travel back and forth in swamps, collecting stupid mushrooms. All this tensed Merlac's patience, but his masters kept telling him that in time, his devotion would be rewarded.
One evening, Merlac had a night off. He was spending his time sitting and drinking in the South Wall Corner club, and then happened something that really made him fight against temptations. Merlac was sitting in his usual table in the corner, as a stranger sat the chair next to him. Merlac rose his look and stared at the stranger. He was an old dunmer male, dressed in blood-red robe.
"What do you want?", asked Merlac sounding tired.
"Greetings, young Merlac.", the stranger greeted.
"How do you know my name?", said Merlac sounding a bit more interested.
"I know much about you. Let me introduce myself, my name is Ahuma of Grandorl. I'm a highly trained Telvanni wizard."
"Telvanni? One of the three great houses in Morrowind?"
"The same, my young friend.", the wizard hissed sounding pleased. "The House Telvanni studies the arts of magic and ancient spells. We teach our apprentices strong spells and how to cast undead creatures from oblivion, while the moral fools in Mage's guild spend their time collecting plants, meditating and writing poems."
"Tell me about it, that is exactly what I've been doing last few months", Merlac said feeling bitter.
"I know. We have been following your journeys and noticed great potential in you. With right methods of teaching, what a great magician you would become."
"You would teach me how to cast spells?"
"I would teach you to do things you have never dreamed of, and that is just the beginning.", the dunmer chuckled.
"But… I believe I can't be member of both Mage's guild and Telvanni, can I?"
"Of course not, we Telvanni despise the Mage's guild. I have talked to my grandmaster about you and he agrees you should join us. This is an one-time-offer, so what do you decide, my young apprentice?"
This was it. This stranger was offering Merlac to become a real wizard, instead of doing crap jobs in the Mage's guild. Merlac imagined himself standing on a hill, holding the grandmaster's staff, exploding things with his bare thoughts. Merlac was just about to make his decision, as the bar's door was thrown open and an angry, long dunmer wizard rushed in. He was Ranis Athrys, the local master-wizard of Balmora's Mage's guild. As soon as his look turned to the table where Merlac and the Telvanni wizard were sitting, pure rage appeared on his face.
"YOU!", Ranis roared, and walked closer with his long dark-blue robe fluttering.
The Telvanni wizard stood up, facing Ranis with enormous amount of despise in his face.
"Yes, me. You ran here tail between your legs to rescue your little apprentice from the evil wizards, did you? Let me tell you something. Telvanni is tired of standing aside and watching while you fools waste the talents of young wizards with great potential, like Merlac."
"Telvanni values are unethical and your methods insult the ways of Azura!"
"Yeah, and what are you going to do about it, you caricature of a wizard?"
Merlac stood up terrified, as he saw Ranis's palms begin to glow red. At the same time, the Telvanni wizard started muttering daedric words, as the wooden staff in his hand sparkled orange.
"Back off, you're not welcome to Balmora, filthy Telvanni!"
"Balmora was once under Telvanni rule, and so shall it become again, but you won't be here to see it!"
Other people in the bar quickly abandoned their drinks and rushed out of the room, and the barkeeper woman's face paled and the woman kneeled behind the bar-table. Merlac was left alone with the two raging wizards. Ahuma touched one of his nine rings and almost instantly the air was filled with cracking sounds. Six other Telvanni dunmer wizards appeared from thin air to his sides, all pointing their glowing hands and staffs at Ranis. But Ranis's face did not change at all.
"So this is the way you fight in Telvanni, seven versus one. You cowards!", he spat.
Merlac did nothing but admired the fearless way Ranis opposed Telvanni wizards against overwhelming odds. He had made his decision.
"Ahuma!", Merlac yelled and stood right between Ranis's hand and Ahuma's staff. "I've made my decision, and I stay in Balmora!"
Ahuma stared Merlac in disbelief and the look on his face turned even more raging.
"Then you are a fool like the ones you follow. And with them you shall be destroyed! You die alone!"
"He's not alone!", said a voice from the door. All three looked at the speaker. It was Caius.
Caius stood next to the doorway, smiling defiantly, as four Mage's guild's wizards walked in and stopped standing to both sides of Ranis and Merlac. One of them was Galbedir, the female elf who had rescued Merlac from the drunken orc months ago, and three other magicians. The rage in Ahuma's face went even deeper.
"You are still outnumbered and if my feelings are correct, your followers know hardly any lethal spells, even if they were allowed to use them.", he laughed.
"There are other kinds of spells you Telvanni seem to ignore.", Ranis said calmly.
Without further warning, the Telvanni wizards roared and huge flames of strong spells emerged from their hands and staffs. The underground room echoed from explosions the spells caused and tables and bottles exploded to pieces as several curses flew through the air. But the guild-wizards were faster. Ranis tore his robe open and touched a golden amulet hanging around his neck. All four other wizards did the same. Caius jumped behind a nearbly table and pulled Merlac with him.
As the fatal spells of the Telvanni struck the guild-wizards, a huge golden shield appeared between the spells and Ranis. It looked like an enormous sparkling air-wall which stopped all spells which struck it. The bright flames rebounded all over the room, breaking almost everything to pieces, as the Telvanni took cover in panic.
"Stunning spells, now!", screamed Ranis.
Instantly the shield vanished as fast as it had appeared and air was again full of spells, this time light blue stunning spells of the guild-wizards. Merlac and Caius watched behind the still smoking table, as the spells hit their targets and all seven Telvanni wizards fell unconscious to the floor. Silence surrounded everything and the guild-wizards put their hands back inside their robe's pockets.
Merlac looked around. The view was unbelievable. Everything inside the underground bar-room was destroyed. Wooden pieces of tables and chairs were scattered all over the room, some of them still burning or smoking quietly. The floor was almost covered in liquor and drinks, as hundreds of sujamma- and flin-bottles had exploded behind the bar-counter. One wooden boulder in the corner had also been destroyed and pile of mould and sand had collapsed to the floor. Smell of burning floated around the room.
Suddenly, one more loud crack flashed in the middle of the room and one more Telvanni wizard appeared. Clearly, this one was very very old, and he walked supported by his wooden staff. He looked around and sighed.
"Merlac", Ranis said. "I want you to meet the grandmaster of the Telvanni".
The old man sighed again.
"These idiots have brought disgrace to Telvanni house once again.", the old man said sounding tired. "Wake up you fools."
The old wizard pointed his finger at the unconscious Telvannis and suddenly they all opened their eyes, looking totally confused.
"Leave you idiots, I will take care of this.", the old man said. Merlac feared it would become another fight, but as the seven wizards had disappeared with cracking sounds, the grandmaster spoke again.
"This is very shameful, I thought my own son would be wiser. This one time, I apologise."
"An apology is not needed.", said Ranis. I just hope we could co-exist with better relations with each other."
"That is something which will probably never happen, my old rival."
Without more words, the old man disappeared in a crack.
The barkeeper appeared at the doorway.
"Oh no! My bar, oh my beautiful little bar! Look at what you did!"
Ranis wrapped his sleeves again rose his hands. Merlac watched in astonishment as the pieces of wood piled themselves in the middle of the room, the boulder literally grew back where it had been and the liquor dried itself from the floor.
"I'm sorry about your bar", said Ranis to the barkeeper woman. "Two of mage's guild's wizards will help you to repair the room this night."
Suddenly, Merlac noticed something weird. How had the barkeeper appeared at the doorway? Last time Merlac saw her, she had been covering herself under the bar table.
"That Almsivi for this.", said the barkeeper to Merlac, as she noticed the look on his face. I always keep a recall-amulet with me in case of this kind of troubles. It teleported me straight to nearest temple, which is luckily here in Balmora, and from there I ran to seek help from the mage's guild."
As Galbedir and one other female wizard started helping the barkeeper repairing things, and the others left the room, Ranis turned to Merlac.
"I think I owe you an explanation. Please, walk with me to the river."
As they stepped outside the cornerclub, Ranis continued.
"In mage's guild, every wizard must serve as an apprentice as long as his devotion to the guild is uncertain. Some require more time than others, some don't prove their devotion at all. You did this by choosing to stay in the guild, while tempted by the Telvanni recruiter. You have been a diligent student, young Merlac.", Ranis said. "I think it's time for you to hold the rank of young conjurer."
Merlac stopped walking.
"Really?", asked Merlac in astonishment.
"I'm absolutely certain about it. But tell me, are you tired?"
"Err… no, I'm not. Why?"
Ranis looked up. The red big moon had just started rising to the night sky of Vvardenfell. Except few torches, the town was rather dark.
"I think it's a good time to start your real training, my young conjurer. I will teach you myself. Please, follow me."
Merlac's mind rejoiced. This was it, Ranis was going to teach him real magic, not just how to collect mushrooms. He followed the wizard outside the town walls and down to the river. Ranis stopped at the bank of the river, where water was shallow, hardly to Merlac's knees. Ranis turned to Merlac and spoke.
"Before you are ready for spells of destruction, you must first learn to alter the nature itself. You already master the skills of alchemy quite well, and unlike some people think, it is one of the major disciplines of magic. The others are for example; destruction, which includes harming living creatures and non-living objects and restoration, which includes magical travelling, moving objects, telekinesis, and that sort of things. The thing you must learn first, is alteration of nature and yourself."
"What sort of alteration?", asked Merlac, sounding worried.
"I will show you, but first, we need some light."
Ranis waved his hand, and some rocks at both sides of the river started glowing, spreading light all over them.
"Now Merlac, observe me."
He walked to the water line, said two words in daedric language, waved his hand again, and walked to the water. Or that was what Merlac first thought, but as he looked at Ranis's legs, he notices that Ranis was actually walking above the water. Ranis slowly walked to the middle of the river, his shoes hardly touching the water, and then turned facing Merlac again and smiled.
"Now, if you have any items that you don't want to get wet, take them off and then come here, but be warned; nobody succeeds the first time, so be patient."
Merlac walked to the water line and took a deep breath. As he started pronouncing the ancient words, he noticed that his voice was hissing and it echoed around him much louder than he had said it. Merlac was a bit scared, as he hadn't heard any hissing or echoing while Ranis had spoke. He felt even more terrified as he noticed Ranis's face; he stared Merlac like he had just seen something terrible, which was worrying Merlac as Ranis was a very experienced wizard and almost two hundred years older than Merlac.
Merlac stepped carefully foward, expecting his shoe to go under water, but he was mistaken. Ranis stared in disbelief as Merlac took two more steps and then with a bit more courage, walked to Ranis, without touching the water even once. It felt like if he had been walking on a path of pillows, but as Merlac looked down, he saw himself standing in the air about one inch above the water, twice as high as Ranis. Ranis kept staring as Merlac stopped in front of him.
"I… I don't believe it.", Ranis was able to say. "I have taught young wizards in the arts of magic for one and a half centuries, and I have never, never seen anyone walking on water on their first try. It took me two whole weeks to learn it myself!"
Merlac did not know what to say, he couldn't understand what he had done. There had to be some kind of trick, he had never done any real magic, it had to be a trick.
"What now?", asked Merlac, sounding a bit nervous.
"Now we must quickly try what else you can do, because if you can… this is very unexpected. Quick, follow me back to the steady ground."
Once back off water, Ranis spoke daedric again.
"Now, say that after me and then imagine an invisible staircase leading to that three, and then walk there."
"Err… walk to the three?"
"Yes, do it now please."
Merlac opened his mouth to start speaking, but before he could say even the first daedric word, his feet rose from the ground, and he slowly floated upwards, then towards the three, and landed softly to the biggest branch. Normally Merlac would have been terrified when rising above the ground, but this time he some how felt more than knew, that he was actually levitating himself, and he had a total control over his body.
Ranis stood in the ground and stared with his mouth open, and then began to smile widely.
"It is great you chose to stay in the mage's guild, my friend. If my feelings are correct, you will have a glorious future ahead of you as a wizard."
Merlac grinned to Ranis from the three.