Brelyna

"What are you doing here?" asked Brelyna suspiciously.

The raven-haired vampire looked at her and sighed. "It's kind of a long story, but I need your help." She didn't seem bothered by the cold or ice on the bridge. Then again, she was undead so... "My father's gone absolutely insane."

An image flashed before Brelyna's eyes: a tall, gaunt vampire, looming over the group. The vampire transforming into a creature, a cross between a dog, a bat, and a man... The vampire grasping for Urag's neck before a crossbow bolt sank into his arm...

Serena must have seen the look on Brelyna's face. "I know what happened wasn't...good...to say the least. But this is an even bigger problem than that."

"Bigger than trying to turn people unwillingly?"

Serena nodded. "Much bigger." She sighed and sat on an uncrumbled part of the bridge's rail. "He was a good man once, I swear! But...he was afraid of death. Of dying. He became obsessed with immortality. That's..." She looked away from Brelyna. "That's why we all became vampires."

From the look on her face, Brelyna could tell that it hadn't been a pleasant experience. "After that, he instead became obsessed with power. Growing stronger. And eventually he uncovered this prophecy. 'The Tyranny of the Sun,'' it was called."

She looked back at Brelyna. "What's a vampire's biggest weakness?"

Brelyna thought a bit. "Holy water...silver...sunlight...sunlight is the answer, right?"

Serena nodded. "My father hates having a weakness. According to this prophecy, there's a way to blot out the sun, and therefore get rid of a vampire's biggest weakness."
Brelyna paled as the implications of that set in. "But blotting out the sun...that would be..."

"Disastrous," Serena finished, nodding. "That's why I was sealed away with this." She pointed to the scroll on her back. "My mother didn't want the prophecy to come to pass either. Luckily, it's split into three parts. I have one, and I think my mother has one...I'm not sure about the third. But I'll need help to keep the scroll out of my father's hands. That's why I'm here."

Brelyna sighed. Serena seemed genuine, at the very least. "Why not go to the Dawnguard? They're the vampire experts, right?"

Serena shook her head. "I tried. But the people with you weren't there, and a strange vampire coming up to the doorstep of a vampire-fighting guild was...well..." She pulled several arrows out of her bag. All of the arrowheads were bloody.

Brelyna swore under her breath for not thinking of that. "So that's out. Maybe if I go back they'll listen...but..."

"I don't know if we have time," Serena insisted.

"So what do you suggest?"

"Well, I'd suggest a Moth Priest," came a voice from behind the two women. Serena and Brelyna both jumped and spun around to find an unimpressed-looking Urag-Gro-Shub. "Of course, normally you'd have to go all the way to Cyrodiil to do that. Luckily, there just so happens to be one doing work in Dragon Bridge from what I've heard."

Looking at the two confused faces, he sighed. "Faralda came back in and told me who you were talking to. After the beating that fanged asshole gave me, I wasn't going to miss this."

He shook his head, turning to Serena. "So. Blotting out the sun, hm? He does know that doing that will kill all plants, animals, and eventually mortals, right?"

Serena rubbed her temples. "If he did know, I don't think he'd care."

Urag groaned. "Figures. Come on, we can talk more inside. I'm freezing my tusks off out here."

Onmund

The door in front of the two mages slid open. The man behind the door narrowed his eyes. "You're not Gavros," he noted.

Onmund shook his head. "We found him just outside. He's...he's dead. I'm sorry."
The man growled. "Curse those Falmer! They've ruined everything! Took the crystal...our experiment is impossible without it."

There was silence for a moment. Then Onmund elbowed J'zargo, who sighed and held out the crystal. "We found this on a dead Falmer."

The mage's eyes widened. "Are you serious?" He quickly opened the door wider. "In! In! Quickly! Maybe all isn't lost!"

Surprised, Onmund and J'zargo walked inside.

The room was gigantic, with a ceiling so tall that Onmund could barely see the top. The mage closed the door behind them and crossed his arms, looking Onmind and J'zargo up and down. "Well, you don't look to be from the Whispers. But you're definitely not from the Synod, either. Who are you?"

"We're from Winterhold," Onmund volunteered.

Oops. The mage in front of them frowned. "Winterhold, hmm? Your so-called Archmage wouldn't even let us in when we asked for an audience. I don't much like this, I can tell you." He stuck his nose in the air as he said this, and Onmund heard J'zargo groan next to him. "Ah well, you did bring the crystal, so I suppose I can acquiesce just this once."

"Much obliged," said J'zargo. Onmund could hear the faint undercurrent of sarcasm in his words, but the mage apparently couldn't. He simply turned and began walking up the steps that circled the walls of the dome.

As he walked, he began to lecture the two. "Well, I don't know what Gavros told you, but this was my idea, not his. The Dwemer seemed to want to use this Oculatry to discern the nature of the divine. They were using this place to capture starlight and...split it I believe. It was I who suggested we replace a part with the focusing crystal. Months of enchanting went into it, so they'd better have gotten it right this time..."

"That one loves to hear himself talk, yes?" muttered J'zargo.

"It took so much work to get this running again. Once we place the focusing crystal in the central apparatus, we can get started."

They had nearly reached the top now, and the Synod mage gestured off to the side. There were several concentric brass rings on the floor, with a slightly raised pillar in the middle. Surrounding the rings were several glass lenses on rods. J'zargo hauled the large crystal to the center of the room, placing it on top of the short pillar. "Now what?" he asked.

The mage crossed his arms again. "Now we need to focus the crystal by heating and cooling it. We also need to move the lenses into place."

J'zargo and Onmund stared at the mage for a bit, but the mage didn't move to do anything. He shrugged. "Go on. Chop chop!"

Ah. He was one of those. Well, nothing for it. Onmund looked at J'zargo and sighed. J'zargo rolled his eyes and readied ice in one hand and fire in the other.

Onmund, meanwhile, climbed the last set of steps to a platform with a podium on it. On the podium were several buttons. "Well, here goes nothing."

It took a bit of trial and error, but eventually Onmund managed to position the lenses so that they reflected the light from the ceiling onto the crystal. Meanwhile, J'zargo shot blasts of fire and ice at the crystal, growing and shrinking it until the light was sharp and clear.

Once that was done, Onmund heard someone running up the steps behind him. "Finally! Finally!"

It was the Synod mage. He basically shoved Onmund out of the way to get a better look at something on the back wall that Onmund hadn't noticed before. It looked like a map of Skyrim, carved into the stone. All the hold borders were glowing with a white light. Within the borders, there were two large white dots. "What is this?" the mage yelped. He rounded on Onmund. "What have you done? You've ruined everything!"

Onmund shrunk back. "I...I didn't do anything! I don't think..."

"He didn't do anything you didn't tell him to do!" yelped J'zargo, running up the stairs.

The mage gestured wildly to the map. "Well then, explain this!"

"What is there to explain?" yelped Onmund. "We don't even know what you're doing!"

The mage pulled at his hair. "Oh, I'm sure! You show up just as we near completion on this, and it goes wrong because of something at your college!" He pointed tot he larger bright spot on the map, which was, in fact, in Winterhold. "Do you really think I'm stupid? Whatever you have at your so-called college is blotting out everything except Labyrinthian!" He pointed to the other dot.

Labyrinthian? Onmund shivered. He'd heard stories of the place. Built back before the Dragon War, a haven for trolls and full of strange magic. In hindsight, it made sense that a powerful artifact would be there.

"Well, I've beaten your little game, Winterhold mages! Even if most of this was a failure, I know your little secret now!" He pointed at the two, his eye twitching. "You have something at your college that the council will be very interested in! So don't you worry! This isn't the last you'll see of me!"

The mage then ran down the stairs, out the door, and was gone.

Onmund breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank the gods. I thought he was going to curse me or something."

J'zargo's expression was hard to read, but he didn't say anything for a minute. Then he sighed. "So I suppose we are heading to Labyrinthian, hm?"

Onmund rubbed the back of his head. "Seems so. We should probably head back to the college first though. I've heard there are trolls there, so we probably want to get some more people."

J'zargo cocked his head, but then nodded in understanding. "Yes, trolls are tough. And if that's what is outside, then who knows what is inside, yes?"

"Right."

The two mages descended the stairs and went to find the exit.

Everyone talks about Delphine being obnoxious, but I've never heard anyone mention the Oculatry guy. I guess he doesn't show up for as long, but still.

#stupidstuckupsynod