Cearbhail:

Second chapter is up. We have a cameo from someone from one of my oldest stories. You'll know it when you see it. Anyway, it's a history laden chapter with some humor on Neloth's ability to be so focused on his work and his inner thought process that he literally forgets what he's currently talking about and what he's about to do, and then goes in a loop of remembering what he wants to do and getting side-tracked again.

Oh...and enjoy. ^^


[Veselle Tenvanni]

Dear book of shadows,

Last night was ok, I guess. The sound of Master Neloth flipping through pages of his research papers and hearing him sip tea was actually more relaxing than sleeping in some boy's room. When I woke up, I could still hear him flipping through various papers. He hadn't even left his spot since I lied, down. At least I don't think he did. I don't know how long I can do this though; sleeping on the floor like this. It wouldn't be any different in Talvas's room though. I'd still be on the floor, and he probably snores. Well, anyway, Master Neloth tried to get me out of my mat up by nudging me with his foot, telling me to get up. He told me to write my daily journal entry, something about my thoughts and then something I learned the previous day. I don't know what he'll teach me today, but I guess he has something planned. Oh well, I don't really know what to expect right now.

Ok, so the spell I was working on yesterday is still fresh in my mind. The tome of flames was special, I think. I don't know who wrote it, but when they designed the spell tome, it crumbled to dust after I read it. Not that it mattered; the spell was inside my head now. I can manifest fire magicka now. However, I don't have much control over it. Last night I burned through my training robes. It will take a while until I can control that sort of magic. Today I was hoping to spend some time looking at the training circles Master set up for me to train in. If I can learn how to inscribe at least the Circle of Protection, I think that will be an important thing for the future, you know, in case I run into a Mehrunes Maven again. Oh, Master Neloth is calling me. I should go now.

Veselle Tenvanni.

I closed my book and looked up at Master Neloth. He nudged me to stand up. I readjusted my invented blanket toga and stood up from my mat. My body's muscles seemed a little sore and I fell to my knees. My breath was quick to hurt my chest and I felt really weak. What was going on with me? I forced myself to stand up and as I walked up to Master Neloth, I found my body both sluggish and twitchy as I moved. He noticed me wobbling on my feet and turned to face me. "Fear not, this is a natural occurrence to untrained apprentices. It's called 'burnout'; it is a natural reaction from your body when you run through your entire reserve of magicka. It's a good thing. It will increase your ethereal muscles, improving your ability to hold and control your magicka better, finer tuning your spell-crafting. The pain should pass after a few weeks of intense training. Until then, prepare to feel worse and worse as the week progresses. We shall take it easy today, however, we must not be too easy on you or your finer control of magicka will waiver and you'll only stagnate to the level of a human mage." He spat the word human at me.

I nodded to him, rubbing my sore arms. I think it helped the feeling of pain a little. "Ok, Master. As long as it's normal."

He looked down at my blanket toga and shook his head. "What are you wearing? Where are your training robes?" He said to me in a scornful manner.

I stood there for a few seconds, hoping I wouldn't have to say it. When he crossed his arms and started tapping is foot on the floor, I sighed as I shrugged. "I burnt through them last night. You said that you'd replace them and enchant them so that I wouldn't burn through them again. Also do the same with frost and lightning."

He said, "Hmmm.", rubbing his chin as he did so. "Funny…I don't recall that happening or saying that I'd do anything of the sort." He looked down at me. "Did I say that I was going to wipe my memory by any chance?"

I nodded. "Yes. Because you saw me naked."

He nodded. "Sounds like something I'd do. If that were the case…" He spun away from me and charged over to his arcane enchanter. He expressed his joy by saying, "Just as I thought." He grabbed the robes resting on top of the arcane enchanter. He paused, saying, "Wait a second, what is this?" He grabbed a silver necklace with some black and red stone embedded in it that was sitting next to the robes. "It seems to be enchanted to block emotional interference with spell control. Interesting. New fire-protection robes and an amulet designed to block emotions from unleashing outbursts of magicka." He turned to face me. "I think I understand what happened last night. Am I to guess that last night I introduced you to emotional draining? That would explain your lack of magicka, your sore muscles, your new clothes, and this amulet."

I nodded to him. "You drew me three circles to protect me while I casted my flames spell. You don't remember that either?"

He shrugged. "I remember bits and pieces, but the entire event seems to be erased from my memory." He shook it off, waving his own hand to dismiss it. "If I push the memory, it might return." He threw the robes and necklace at me. "Hurry and get dressed. Today's lesson is vital to…well…something I'm sure." He walked off to continue studying from his research.

I walked off to a smaller room where no one could see me and I replaced my blanket with my new robes. Once I slipped them on, I could feel the immediate protection against fire. I looked down, noticing I wasn't handed any boots. Oh great, I guess I would have to go through boots like I did my robes last night. When I walked out of the room, I looked at Master Neloth. "Master…you didn't give me any boots!"

He snapped his head around, glaring at me. Then he looked at my feet, nodding. "I guess I didn't." He walked from his table over to his arcane enchanter. He looked around it, shrugging. "Must have slipped my mind last night. Fear not, I have plenty in storage. I'll just grab a pair and enchant them with the same effect that I did your robes." He stopped, and then looked at me. "Wait a second. I did that on purpose. The robes, it makes sense. They're not enchanted with a soul gem…ah, I see." He walked up to me. When he got close enough, he bent down, grabbing my sleeve of my robes. "Ah, yes. I was right. But to hold this together there would have to be a…" He reached for my chest, grabbing something near my neck. He started running his hand across the seam of my collar. "Ah, yes. A complete series of heart stones have been placed around the collar of the robe. And they worked. Interesting. Did I take notes on this before I wiped my mind?" He stepped away from me returning to his table.

I was so confused that I just stood there. I looked down at my deep red robes, grabbing onto the sleeves and then messing around my neck area for whatever was there. I noticed a small black and red rock attached to the robe's collar as some sort of round decoration. I looked at the necklace. The round stone embedded inside the silver pendant was the same round stone as the ones around my neck. It must be a heart stone. I slipped the necklace back over my neck. I raced up to Master Neloth to see him flipping from page to page, trying to figure something out. "Master? What is it?"

"Yes, yes, I was right!" He was muttering to himself. "I figured it out." He looked down at me, cracking a smile that I hadn't seen yet. "You burning your robes gave me a valuable reason to attempt long lost magicka only practiced by my mother's side of the family." He nudged me forward to his table. Hundreds of papers littered the whole table. How he managed to stay organized was beyond me. And these notes were so complex that I couldn't make heads or tails of what I was reading. He gestured to a piece of paper with a drawn representation of a heart stone with descriptions of what the heart stones were made of and how they affected the temporal rifts and magicka containing properties. It sounded like something important. "This right here were the notes I took on heart stones and how their properties were similar to the properties of soul gems. They can hold and displace energy equal to that of petty soul gems. However, they cannot consume souls, just energy…plain elemental energy. For this reason, it would seem that they can be used to collect elemental energy and hold a charge similar to a soul gem, while also being used to create…yes…" He hissed as he looked at a different note. "We're taking a field trip today. Grab your boots." He said, looking down at my feet.

"Um…Master…" I pleaded with him as I pointed down to my feet. "I don't have any yet."

He smacked his head. "Oh, of course. I got side-tracked with my research again." He walked into the storage room, grabbed a set of boots, and walked back out to us. "These will do for now." He tossed them to me.

"What if I burn through them?" I asked him.

"You burn through your clothes?" He asked me like he had already forgotten.

"Yes!" I almost screamed to him. "That's why you had to replace my robes!"

"In that case, I can see why you'd be worried about roaming Solstiem with unenchanted boots." He rubbed his chin in thought. "I guess before we can go that I will need to enchant them. Oh wait…" He said again he smacked his head. "that's right. That was today's lesson." He grabbed me and dragged me over to another table, one that had a small collection of heart stones. "You can thank Talvas for bringing me these heart stones last night. He gathered a whole box of these heart stones. Without these, I doubt I would have developed a new method for enchanting your robes using ancient methods combined with the lasting effects of the newer methods. These heart stones are just…a perfect blend of the old and the new." He said to me.

"Wait…" I said, raising my hand to stop him before he went off on a rant and forgot what we were doing again. "This is a new method for you? Are you sure the enchantments even work?"

He glared down at me like I was an idiot. "Are you an idiot? You're talking to a master wizard. Of course I tested your robes after I enchanted them. I made sure the heart stone's enchantment affected every fiber connected to them. I, in short, tried to destroy your robes with every bit of my fire mastery. Even the heart stones were unbreakable. Simply amazing when you think of it. Soul gems may shatter, but not heart stones. And when a soul is extracted the soul gem crumbles. When energy is extracted from the heart stone, it does not crumble like the soul gem. It remains intact. I'm beginning to wonder what the downside to the heart stone really is. My research remains inconclusive on such a question. Which is why I'm glad you're assisting me with my research, as did my late wife."

"Your…what?" I asked.

He looked down at me. "My apprentice before Talvas. She trained here with me. And we got pretty intimate. We were both younger at the time, and driven by such impulses. She is the mother of my daughter Brelyna. She assisted me in my research and when I asked if I could implant a heart stone into her body to replace her heart, she was overjoyed to assist me in manifesting a new way to connect us to potential energy. My experiment failed, unfortunately and my wife died, but not before losing her sanity. She stormed off and I didn't see her for a couple weeks until she returned half-crazed and paranoid of everything around her. I tried to remove the heart stone, but without a living heart to give her, there was nothing I could do. She passed away from ash poisoning. It was my fault, and I've been trying to find out what I did wrong. I won't be attempting that experiment again until I have an answer for what I did wrong. There aren't enough Telvanni mages left to risk it."

He waved it off and started picking up a few heart stones. "And…I'm helping you how?"

He gestured to the heart stones in his hand. "Your robes are enchanted with energy held by the heart stones. I will be able to see exactly how your body takes to having that energy lingering around your body. Will you go crazy like my deceased apprentice, or will you remain unaffected? And if you are driven crazy, will taking the stones away from your aura take away the negative effects? If the effects do fade, how quickly will they return? Will there be withdrawal symptoms to contend with? It's these things that we need to know about heart stones before using them in mass quantity. And I cannot test on myself. If the stones mess with my mind how will I be able to fix it? It's easier if a less experience apprentice handle such new and untested magic. Easy to break the pattern of new magical holds since your magicka is still young and malleable." Jeez, how many big words that I didn't understand did my Master know?

"I'm not sure if I'm your apprentice or test subject." I said to him as I crossed my arms.

He harrumphed at the comment and grabbed my hands. He slapped a couple heart stones in my hand. "Any good apprentice participates in experiments. It is the only way the apprentice learns how to think critically and analytically when testing out new spells. The art and science of spell-casting is ever changing. Just keeping the old and tested is dangerous and boring. If we are to keep up with the evolving planet, we need to evolve our methods of magic as well. That is why magicka-weaving was replaced with soul gems. And now, I have taken both of them to enchant heart stones." He looked at me, nodding. "Right, that is enough explanation for one day, I feel. Give you too much of it and you'll forget everything I've said." He grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the table he drinks his tea from every day. "Here's what I want from you today." He gestured to the stones in my hand. "I want to enchant your boots with fire protection using these stones; however, I feel that you are ready to fill these stones with the energy necessary to provide the base enchantment. So, here's your task today. Enchant these heart stones. Nothing more, nothing less. Then we can go on our field trip."

I nodded and looked down at the stones. "Um…so…how?"

He nodded at me to follow him. He dragged me to the giant collection of journals and books that I crashed into last night. He reached down and grabbed one of the more slender books, only 600 pages or so. He handed it to me, saying, "This is a book of shadows. And not just any book of shadows, but my grandmother's. She was the one in our family that rediscovered the art of magicka-weaving. Ever since, we've been relearning the forgotten method from her."

I looked down at the journal. "…Ok…So, what do I do with it?"

"Well, open it, of course." He walked away from me over to his tea kettle as it started whistling. "Varona! My water is ready for the vile you call tea. Varona? Varona!" He called down the tunnel to the exit. "Blast it all, where is that woman?" He practically growled as he turned to look at the whistling tea kettle. "I have to do everything around here." He started pouring the hot water into a cup, taking a second to look at me. "Well, don't just sit there and gawk at me. Open the blasted book already! Apprentices these days need their hands held for everything." He muttered to himself and he dipped a canis root into the tea.

I turned my attention back to the book. I glanced at the cover, seeing the engraved sigil of the name Davilia Modryn. When I popped open the book, I didn't see anything that glowed with sigils and the pages didn't start flipping their pages like with the flames tome. So, I opened up and flipped through the pages. "Um…ok. So, what am I looking for?" I looked at Master Neloth, but he didn't move or say anything. He just sat in his seat, looking down at his cup of tea. I called out to him again, but he didn't move from his spot or acknowledge me in any way. I was starting to get really tired of being ignored by him.

When I opened my mouth to call out to him again, I heard someone laughing from behind me. I turned to look who it was. It didn't sound like Varona. Standing there was a woman dressed in Telvanni robes. She looked semi-transparent, like she wasn't really there. When she looked at me, she nodded a welcome and gestured over to Neloth. "Don't mind my grandson; he's just not stuck in a time-lapse like you are."

"What?" I asked her. "Wait…you're his grandmother?"

She nodded. "Yes, I am Davilia Ocato. Well, I was Davilia Modryn when I began my book of shadows. And technically, I am a shade of the real Davilia. I am a collection of her thoughts, personality, hopes, dreams, and heart. In a sense, I am a piece of the real Davilia's soul. If you are reading my book of shadows then…you must have a question that you need answered. My pages are welcome for you to browse through if you ever need guidance or just curious about whom I was. But…if you really want help, you can just call on me. I will answer your call and then we'll go into a time-lapse, much like his one." She gestured to the slightly blue room. "When we talk, time will be frozen. So, you called me out for a reason. What is it?" She caught me by surprise so badly that I was still frozen where I stood. She waved her hand in front of me. She finally shrugged and said, "I think I may have frozen her too. She is the one holding my book, right?" She looked at the book in my hands.

I found myself moving backwards as she leaned down to look at the book. "Yeah, I'm still here. I'm just surprised is all. Um…Master Neloth wanted me to learn the old way of storing energy. He called it magicka-weaving."

She nodded. "Ah, of course he would make you talk to me then. I guess I have no chance but to teach you then." She walked over to me, placing her hand on my head. "Relive my past, where I first learned it and see if you can learn it for yourself." Her voice reverberated inside me. I saw a white light overtake me and it felt like I was pulled out of my body.

[Davilia Modryn]

It was the first day of my Enchanting for Beginners class. The other kids around me were still talking to each other in wonder over J'skar spending half the Destruction class time invisible, as if they weren't able to perceive that he was there. I noticed him from the very start, but I thought it was part of the lesson, so I didn't say anything. And now, I'm sitting in a table surrounded by a Khajiit boy that kept looking at me, and an Altmer that kept trying to get a smile out of me. I was getting annoyed with both of them. I was burying my face in a book for a reason.

"I'm Erandur." The Altmer said, trying to look around my book. "What's your name?"

"Please leave me alone." I said to him, pulling my book closer to me. "I just want to learn about enchanting; I don't want any friends." Boy, that was a lie. I wanted to have some friends but I just didn't know how to be social to others, especially boys. Every time I tried to talk to a boy, I stutter over my words and it made me blush. I hated being so shy, but there was nothing I could do about it.

"How many of you are in the Battlemage Pre-Training Program?" A person who I believed to be our instructor asked as she walked into the room. She looked older and more experienced. I could feel the magicka aura thick around her body, like a protective shield. She had to be a battlemage. Since she asked who were pre-battlemages, I raised my hand. I saw Erandur and the Khajiit raise both of their hands with me at the same time. My stomach turned over. Oh no…these two were battlemages too. My arm started to lower down, but I held it halfway up while sliding down into my chair. I just wanted to disappear and hope these two didn't notice me any further.

The instructor started telling us about some after class evening training program she was going to start. I also learned that the Khajiit sitting next to me was Vatu. I avoided looking at him because it reminded me of the slave my mother used to have back in Morrowind, back when she worked on a Dres family plantation as an apprentice to her master, Mistress Dratha. When she was there with her master when a Khajiit slave broke free of her locks and overran the plantation with the help of some Dunmer and the other slaves. My mother later worked with more slaves, even owning one of her own. I grew up in Morrowind with mom, while dad lived in Chorrol in the Fighters Guild. I moved here to escape Telvanni politics and…well… my mom wanted me to have a slave too. I didn't want it so I came here instead to learn magic under the disguise of getting a degree in enchanting at the Mages Guild's Arcane University. That's why I didn't want to sit next to this Khajiit; he looks too much like the one my mom tried to buy for my fifteenth birthday two weeks days ago. And I just don't like Altmers. They treat Dunmer like we're the lowest class of elves. He probably only wanted to make me feel bad for being a this university while uplifting his own intelligence. Gods I hate them both.

Our instructor went on with the class, pulling out a knife and a soul gem. I kept my head put in my book, reading something about how the Mythic Dawn used forbidden magic to summon all the Daedra into our realm. I wanted to know why it happened, and how they did it. Just in case I ever needed to reverse the process. "What spell do we use to trap souls in gems?"

My hand darted up from the book and I answered before I could stop myself. "Soul Trap. It's a Mysticism spell." I snapped my eyes shut and pulled my arm back down as quickly as I could. I silently cursed at myself for speaking out of turn like that. Of course, everyone knew that! The answer was in the question. Now everyone is going to think I'm some opportunist idiot that is looking to hog all the spotlight!

"Very good….Davilia, right?" She said to me, looking at her name roster. Oh great, now everyone knows my name. How can this day get any worse?

"So, your name is Davilia?" Erandur directed his whispered question to me, making me smack my head into my book. Oh great, now he knows my name!

I sat there as quietly as I could while the instructor started explaining the process for using normal soul gems. I knew all about this subject. My mother always forced me into becoming an enchanter. It was because of enchanters that mages get paid for their services. Mom wanted me to learn enchanting so that I could profit from it later in life, so that I could afford more slaves for our Dres family partners back in Morrowind. I never wanted to go home. I sat there and listened to the teacher while she talked about sealing souls into soul gems. And then she told us that…we weren't going to do that at all, but an older method only used by battlemages nowadays. And then my heart sank. I was so familiar with enchanting by using soul gems that I didn't know any other ways. And…hearing that we were using a different method scared me. I wasn't ready for this! I needed to read a couple books about it; get familiar with it first!

"But ma'am…" Erandur said from my right. "if we're not using soul gems…the only source for enchanting weapons…what are we using?"

Our instructor smirked and placed her hands on her hips. "Good question. The knife that was given to you is your passing grade for this course. For the non-battlemages; soul trapping creatures that I summon and using the soul gem to enchant their knife is their passing grade for the course. All you battlemage trainees are magicka-weaving your weapons to make them enchanted. Once you do that, you pass my course and you don't have to step foot in this class room ever again. Of course, the spell that you're weaving is up to me."

"Not using soul gems?" I found myself saying as I collapsed my head into my arms and let out a quiet sob. I placed my book down, trying to think of any other way possible to enchant weapons without soul gems. My mom never told me anything. So, it was true then. This was a technique knew only by the Imperial battlemages. I quickly pulled out my book about enchanting and started flipping through all the pages I could, trying to find this term 'magicka-weaving'. I didn't find it anywhere in my book at all. "My book of enchanting says nothing about magicka-weaving. All it talks about is using soul gems."

I looked up at my instructor. She was smiling as she nodded to us. That's when I heard the Khajiit open his mouth. "Actually, I know about energy-weaving." What? He knows about this? How could that be? He was just a Khajiit! And…no…I couldn't think like that. I was about to say that he belonged in the field pulling ash yams for the harvest. This was Cyrodiil, and this was a Cyrodiilian Khajiit, not one of the slaves in Morrowind. I just had to remember that when he talked to me, if he ever talked to me. We shared a smile last class, but that was the extent of the social contact I wanted with him.

"We may be special because of our program we're in, but shouldn't we learn how to use soul gems too?" Erandur asked our teacher.

Before she could answer, I muttered something out that I shouldn't have. "Anyone can use a soul gem." I stated sarcastically to the elf, but when he and the Khajiit turned to look at me, I sunk even further into my seat. And instead of shutting up, like I wanted it, I started stress-talking. "It is a simple process of manipulating the energy within the soul gem into the actual weapon. From there, you will the soul to take a certain form of magicka and according to the strength of the soul; it takes the form of the enchanted weapon." I couldn't shut my mouth but I knew that stepping on my foot would at least take my attention off their gazes. And it worked…and it shut my mouth too.

The Khajiit's face broke into a smile. "You sure do know a lot. I don't think you pulled that from you book." He said it in a knowing way. Oh no…he knew something about me. Was he a slave after all? Did he know my mother? Oh no…I couldn't handle that. But, I couldn't hide from it either.

I tried to sit up as much as I could. "My mother is an enchanter. I've soul-trapped and enchanted weapons before…as her apprentice." Mostly slave bracelets. Please don't hate me for it! I thought to myself as the Khajiit continued to stare into my eyes. I looked away. I couldn't face them. He knew who I was. He knew what I was.

"So…how does it work?" Erandur asked from the other side of me.

It was such a welcome distraction from the Khajiit that I sat up straighter and turned to answer him. "The Mysticism spell for soul trapping requires that you can feel the creature's soul. Once you can feel and see it, you have to be able to grab onto it. You can only do this for so long before you break your hold on it. So, you have to separate it from the body first. You do that by killing it. From there, you snatch the soul away and put it into the soul gem. If the soul is weak enough to be held in it; it fits and will stay in there. If it is too strong; it will slip away. Part of a soul does nothing."

Erandur smiled and shook his head. Did he think I was wrong? It would figure; his corrective superior attitude was already showing itself. He baited me into a trap, just so that he could push me down and demean me! I swear, this was the last time I fall for one of his traps! "You sure do know your craft." He said with a chuckle. Oh… perhaps he was just astounded that I knew something he didn't. Could that be considered narcissistic too?

"as it makes using soul gems easy." I caught Erandur saying to our instructor as she looked down at our table. I had missed the whole part of the conversation. What happened?

Jurard turned back to look at us. She had just come from one of the nearby tables, explaining to them how to use the already filled soul gems. She nodded to our little table of three and pointed to the knife. Ok, time for her explanation. Just let me get this done with so I can leave these two and never talk to them ever again. "For right now, I want you to focus on your bare energy." Bare energy? What is…bare energy? "The stuff that makes your magicka turn into spells." Oh…ok… "It's the warm flowing feeling in your limbs. I want you to try to refocus that energy into electricity and let it flow into your daggers. I want you to attach your magicka to your weapon. This is an age-old method kept alive by battlemages. This method was used long before we discovered that soul gems could be used for enchanting. We keep it alive because we never know when soul gems are going to disappear again."

I couldn't believe how simple she made it sound. Ok, so I was basically throwing my magicka into the weapon itself, but using mysticism in a way to attach the magicka to the weapon itself. So…how would I do that? I glanced at the other two. The Khajiit and Altmer looked lost so I grabbed the knife first. I wanted out of here, and away from these two. So, I willed my magicka to turn into electricity and I just…slowly and carefully launched it into the knife, willing it to grab onto the knife and hold onto it. And I could feel the magicka grab onto it, and hold on too. I could feel my own energy collect into the knife. It was slowly leaking out; it wouldn't hold for long, but it was inside it. I wonder if I pressed this knife up to someone if the energy would surge out and attack that person. In theory it should, so why not? I waved for our instructor to come over to us, "I think I did it." I called out to her.

It drew her back to our table. She looked impressed at how quickly I did it, but she carefully grabbed onto the knife. Now, hold on." She looked at the weapon and said, "You are close. As it is right now, you have about three uses out of this." She placed the dagger on the table and looked up at me with a wide smile. "That's a great start. I'll rephrase my earlier statement: in order to pass the first part of my class, you need to spell-weave a Lesser Soul Gem's strength soul into your dagger. This is not even petty level. Keep it up."

[Veselle]

The light scene faded from my eyes as Davilia took her hand off my head. I was still lost in thought as she smiled at me. "You know, that Altmer…I married him after the Aedra Wars. He thought I died in Kvatch. But I survived…because my friend Primrose healed me. We got separated from our group and I couldn't find Erandur until the war was already over. You may think you don't have any friends right now…but they're around the corner. Just give your master and your new partner time…they'll warm up to you soon enough."

I wanted to call out to her to explain the magicka-weaving process more, but she was already stepping back. "Wait, I need more answers."

She smiled at me just as warmly as her instructor smiled at her. "You know enough. Now…make me proud." She faded away, and I could hear Master Neloth blowing on his tea.

"Blasted tea, I think I scorched my canis root." He grumbled to himself as he picked up the cup. He looked over at me, glaring as usual. "Did you figure it out yet?"

I nodded. "I…I really need to take a nap."

He nodded a reply. "Go ahead, I won't stop you. I'll give you six hours. That will make it…what 11:00 a.m.? Then we'll go on our field trip after you fill your heart stones and I enchant your boots." Oh yeah…I forgot about those boots.

I didn't care. After going through all that, I really needed to just lie down for a couple hours. So, I walked back to my sleeping mat and lied my head back down. Almost as fast as I lied down, I fell asleep. Poor Davilia; to have to grow up in a time where she couldn't look at someone like a Khajiit and not think of them in a way that resembled a slave.


Cearbhail:

I know a long time ago, back in the Khajiit Battlemage, I covered this very subject. I also know that I stated later on in the Khajiit Battlemage that Davilia possibly had some experience with Khajiit slaves. Remember that chapter? The one where she met her father and Vatu asked her about her opinion about slavery, where she totally avoided the subject and it obviously made her uncomfortable to discuss? Yeah, this is why. I finally shared Davilia's past...five books later (and about 400 years later too). Oh, and next chapter will be out in like six days or something. I just wanted to give you guys a second chapter to enjoy.