Cearbhail:

I loved writing this chapter. It has a little bit of everything I enjoy from my combative chapters. Well, it should be good, but I don't have much to say about it other than that I loved it.

Oh...and enjoy. ^^


Dear book of shadows, 4e 206 22nd Rain's Hand

Master Neloth just reprimanded me on not putting the current date on all my entries. 'How will anyone know during what period these entries were made in?' he said to me before throwing it in my face, demanding that I wake up and get ready for the field trip. According to Master Neloth, our history is only correctly stored if we keep account for the period for which the journal existed in. I don't understand it fully, but if I want to become a journal ghost like Master Davilia, I have to do this right. Not entirely sure I want to be imprinted on this book. What will I look like when someone opens the book open? Will I look like I do now, or will I look like some old woman? Davilia looked like a young woman but in her memory, she looked like my age. She probably was at the time. I watched the whole event through her eyes. And she taught me a lot about how things may look but how they truly are. She made friends where she was, it just took some time. I guess it will be the same for me. I just hope it doesn't take too long.

Ok, so I had to sit down to some heart stones and use the knowledge I learned from Master Davilia's book to fill them with energy. And…something happened. I don't know exactly what it was, but something happened. When I sat down to the heart stone and performed the same pushing feeling I gathered from Master Davilia's book, I felt some pit of fire in my chest expand. It was quiet, like a flame that lied in waiting for fresh air to feed off of. When I called forth my magicka, that fire exploded inside me and next thing I knew, it all flew from inside me and into the heart stone. It was overpowered that some of my energy exploded outside it, throwing me away from the table. And…the table caught on fire. Master Neloth was there to put out the flames with his frost magicka. Jeez…I'm just one giant fire hazard. Perhaps I should just stay outside for now on.

Anyway, we're preparing for a field trip now, so I have to get packed up.

Veselle Tenvanni.

"Are you done with your book entry, Apprentice?" Master Neloth asked me as he walked up with my newly enchanted boots. They were dark red boots that matched my equally dark red robes. I could see all the heart stones I had enchanted lining the top of the boots in a decorative pattern. When he handed me the boots, he nodded. "You did a decent job on the heart stones, Apprentice. I could feel the grand soul gem strength enchanting of each and every one of them. I used the energy of the heart stones to enchant the fire protection into your boots. Just like your robes, you should not have any problems from using fire now."

I nodded my thanks to him and took the boots from him. I slipped them on and turned to my backpack. "What should I bring with me?" I asked him.

He crossed his arms. "How about for starters, you don't bring anything other than your staff. You won't need it." He took the backpack from my hands, throwing it over his own shoulder. "If you carry this bag and you decide to let your fire explode like you did today…you won't have a backpack anymore. I will enchant it when we get back, but until then, I will make Talvas carry it." He walked past me and up to the 'levitator' as he called it. He nodded to me as he was lifted off his feet. "Do hurry, Veselle. I wish to begin." Begin what? What were we going to do on this field trip?

I stood up from my little mat, ran over to my staff leaning against the wall, grabbed it, and ran over to the levitator. I looked down at my staff, wondering how I managed to create this. It had heart stones lining near the top and bottom of the staff's frame, with one focusing quartz crystal resting on the top. The staff itself was some type of metal, painted red, much like my robes. In fact, the staff almost matched me perfectly (since my clothes seem to be covered in heart stones too). I had enchanted it to control fire, but I guess the staff worked a little differently. Master told me that the method he had taught me had actually made the staff feed off of my magicka and take the form I needed it to. This staff would do any magicka I wanted it to, but it would feed off of me. I thought the whole point of a staff was so that I didn't have to use my magicka if I didn't feel like it, or if I just ran out. Apparently, this is a training staff. It helps me control and focus my magicka when I want to use it. I don't know what that means, but if it means I don't explode the tower, then I'm ok with it.

I willed the levitator to let me go to the bottom floor and it lifted me off my feet. By now I was getting pretty comfortable with lifted into the air, but I was still grabbing my dress robes to make sure they didn't come up while I was going down. And just like every time, I was worried about nothing. It was like I was standing on the ground while flying downwards. I'm guessing the air in the invisible bubble I was floating in kept my robes just as flat. That's good because I get scared if I feel wind while I'm falling. It's a 30 foot drop. I don't like jumping more than 5 feet, why would I enjoy falling for 30?

I touched gently on the main floor and rushed out the door. I was suddenly welcomed with the bright sunlight that I hadn't seen much since I'd been here. I looked around for Master Neloth. He and Talvas were standing by the triple training circles that Master drew for me. It was my special training area for me to practice my magicka in until I learned how to control it better. I heard a slight boom off to my left. I looked for the source of the noise and found myself staring at Red Mountain. More clouds of ash were flying out of the top. Great…more ash. Like we don't have enough as it was. And just as I thought it, the dark ash clouds rolled over to us. Almost just as quickly as the slowly moving clouds rolled in, the bright sunlight I loved so much vanished and tiny flakes of ash started falling from the sky like tiny clumps of snow.

I groaned, brushed the ash off my hair, and threw my hood up. I jogged to catch up to the two as they waited for me by the training circles. When I did approach them, Master Neloth was busy rubbing his chin in thought. "Hmm…it seems that I created a training circle for Veselle. Do you feel that pressure?" He looked at Talvas.

"You mean the amount of energy that lingers inside here?" I stopped and hid myself behind a bush. Were they talking about me? Would it be rude of me to just run up and bother them, or would me hiding behind a bush be even ruder? I didn't know, but it was the first time I heard Master and Talvas talk…and it was about me. I was a little curious. Talvas looked back at the training circles. "You can taste the fumes that burned inside here. It's thick, much thicker than anything I've ever felt."

"She is dangerous." Master Neloth said with a nod. "I do wish I could have remembered seeing this. The residual scaring of the wards go up 40 feet up the interior ward. For someone, some…mere apprentice, is astonishing." He looked over at Talvas. "I'm expecting you to take good care of her, Apprentice Talvas. She is your roommate until her room is grown."

Talvas only groaned. "But Master…a teenage boy and a teenage girl…" He gestured to Master Neloth. "You don't know what I'll do to her."

Neloth only smirked and gestured to the ground. "Just remember what she did here and I'm sure you don't try anything stupid."

Talvas swallowed hard and his eyes went wide. "You're…you're serious, aren't you? You're making her my roommate!"

Neloth nodded. "I'm not worried about the two of you sleeping in the same room, but she can't sleep up in the tower every night. The tower was not made to be someone's bedroom."

"My room is too small for both of us." Talvas retorted. "It's just big enough for me to sleep and study in. It can't hold two people."

Neloth nodded. "I suppose that is true. But then…where do we put her until her room is ready?"

I stood up from my bush. "Ok, I'm ready." I called out as I ran up to them. They both looked from each other to me. I stopped and looked at them. "What were you talking about?"

Neloth smirked. "We saw you coming hiding behind the bush, apprentice. Do not worry; you'll stay in the tower with me until your room is built. However, we were serious about the strength of your magicka. You have an overabundance of magicka reserve. It's almost impossible for you to run out of magicka. That is something only master wizards like myself have, and you have almost as much as magicka as I do, it seems, if not more. You are dangerous, in many ways. However, I feel that as you progress and become a full Telvanni mage that you'll only grow more powerful. What you will do with that power, I hope is responsible. When you fully develop your power, even I will not be able to stop you if you go bad." He glared at me. "Perhaps I should kill you now so that you will not pose a threat in the future." He looked so serious that I thought about running away. But, I knew it wouldn't do me any good. He'd still catch me and kill me.

So, instead, I tossed the staff out of my hands to his feet. "And if I just quit?" I couldn't believe I just said that to him. My face was burning red with both embarrassment, shame, and anticipated punishment. I couldn't take my eyes off his. Oh no…I was glaring at my Master. He was going to punish me so badly after this.

Instead of a lecture or a glare, I received a cold smile. Ok…I guess that's better than a sneer, or a smirk. He started chuckling as he picked up my staff, handing it back to me. "That's the spirit of a true Telvanni mage. Say you'll quit but that look in your eyes tells me differently. You have potential, Veselle…and if you leave now you'll only be more of a threat. Those robes won't exist forever, and with your abilities of enchanting, you'll only create robes that last a few weeks at most. You'll eventually lose your amulet and burn down an entire town. People will hunt the witch that only brings death and pain. That will be you someday, if you do not first learn to control it first. You will stay." He said as a finality as he turned to Talvas. "She is your underclassman, so it is your job to guide her through her studies until she is as good as you. Considering her ability to learn pretty quickly, I give it three days max."

Talvas only scoffed. "Always the kidder, Master." When Master Neloth just looked at him before turning to leave Talvas looked less certain. "Wait…Master. That was a joke, right? Master!" He cried to him as he chased to catch up to Master Neloth.

Master Neloth looked back at me and then at Talvas. "Come you two, we need to collect some ash."

"What are we doing today, sir?" Talvas asked.

"I just told you, we're collecting ash. Not just any ash, but ash from ash spawns. I need five different samples of ash spawn ash. I want to see if I can use the heart stones to create my own ash spawn. It would help to have my own guards protect my tower when more ash spawn come to attack it." He said to us. "And I have just the place to find them. Some old fort just to the west of us seems to have a vast collection of them."

We traveled in silence for a while. Master Neloth led us through the ankle deep ash to the fort. More ash fell down from the sky and it hated it. I wanted nothing more than to go back to Riften and lie down in the leaves outside town. I'm still not used to eating ash yams. It about all we can grow here in Solstiem, I hear. Even snowberries die off in the ash. In order to get more, we have to travel up north to the snowfields where snowberries grow. Good thing I know what they look like. They make some nice jam for us to eat on our bread. As for meat, I think we've been eating ash hoppers with our ash yams. Ash, ash, ash. I'm so sick of ash.

"Be on your guard now, children. We're here." Master Neloth called to us.

I paused before I crashed into Talvas, who only crossed his arms. "Sir, I'll be turning 16 in two months. I'm no child."

He smirked at the comment. "Live for 500 years and then talk to me about what constitutes as a child. Not saying I've lived so long, but some of our greatest masters have. I'm nearing 63 now, so even still you are a child." He reached for the four staves resting on a staff carrier on his back. "Ready your staves, children. I expect a war."

The ash below my legs started blowing across the silent wind as we stood at the entrance to the old fort. Somewhere in the ash, I could hear voices whispering to me. I couldn't tell what they were saying, it sounded like some foreign language I didn't understand, and I could just barely hear it over the silent wind. I looked down at the ash. It was rolling; collecting into a ball. I stepped back, almost crying out in surprise or horror as a head and two red glowing eyes poked out of the ash. Just as quickly a hand shot out of the ash, grabbing on the ground as the thing pulled itself onto the ground. It grabbed onto my leg, tightened its grip, and pulled on me as it pulled itself out of the ash. At that time…I did scream out loud.

I was enough to call Master Neloth's attention. He spun to face me, stuck out his hand, and there was a feeling of the hand flying of my leg into pure ash again. The hand started forming on the already collecting ash and the thing reached out for my leg again. I jogged back as much as I could and the hand missed my leg as it reached out to snatch me again. Talvas stepped up to blast the thing, but Master Neloth stopped him by throwing his arm in front of him before he could do something. "Let it form to enough to where I can see the heart stone. All my research depends on the heart stone."

As I jumped back, I heard more ash whirring around me. More heads and hands started forming in the ash, all circling around me. Red eyes glowed in the ash as the heads poked out, their hands clawing at the ground as they pulled themselves together. I looked up at Master Neloth, who only smiled as he looked around, nodding in appreciation. I counted more than ten ash spawn pulling themselves out of the ash all around me. We're under attack. All soldiers to the frontlines. Draw back the invaders. I heard someone calling through the air. I don't think Talvas or Master Neloth heard it. They didn't exactly respond to the voice.

But I heard all the explosions around them. Talvas cursed and dove for cover, while Master Neloth threw up a protective ward shield. He looked away from me to the entrance. "We have more ash spawn advancing. I was right; it's an army. We should exterminate them before they come to the tower. Now is our chance." He charged right into the courtyard, leaving Talvas and me alone with the forming ash spawn.

Talvas looked from me to Master Neloth. "Master!"

"Hurry, Talvas. We need to get to the bottom of this." Master called from the entrance to the fort. I could see the remnants of ash spawn he had trampled through.

"But…Veselle…" He started to say. The first ash spawn pulled itself out of the ground and stuck out its hand. I could see the glowing black and red stone lodged deep in its chest. A giant sword formed in its hand and it charged up to me, slashing at me. I brought my staff up to protect me and I felt the sigils on it glow with my power. Just as suddenly as the ash spawn attacked me, I saw a brilliant flame burst from the tip of my staff. The flames engulfed the ash spawn, melting the ash-formed monster. The heart stone fell from the chest, and the rest of the monster faded away with it.

"She can handle herself." Master called to Talvas. "I however need you to handle the prison. There are hundreds inside this main fort that require my immediate attention." Master turned to look at me. "Good luck, Veselle. Hopefully you're still alive when I return." With that he vanished inside the fort.

Talvas only scoffed and turned to look at me. "Want me to help you?"

I looked from the melted one ash spawn to the nine others climbing out of the ground. "Yes?"

He nodded and walked up to me. He brought his fists up to defend his face. He placed his back to mine. "You defend your side, I'll defend mine. Ok? By the way, sorry about last night. I just hate sharing that small space with someone else."

"I get it. I didn't really want to be in there either. I thought it would be too uncomfortable with both of us." I said back to him, keeping my eyes on the rising ash spawn. "Did…did Master ever force you to do stuff like this before you were ready?"

"No." Talvas said. "He kept me inside the practice circle all my first week. I only needed one, though. The one that kept harmful things outside. But then again, we didn't really have ash spawn attacking us either. These just started up about five months ago. And the town has asked Master Neloth to find the source of the ash spawn and get rid of them. So, he's been doing everything he can do to find out who's summoning them, or how they're forming. That's why he's so busy with his research on ash and heart stones. He's stuck in a loop of information. The heart stones bring ash spawn to life, but they seem to have a collective thought, a hive mind. Master Neloth can't figure out what the hive mind is or what's controlling it."

The first three of the ash spawn near me had finally taken full form. I could see more heart stones sitting in their chests. Attack intruders. I heard one say as it reached into the ash and pulled out a long sword out of it. Kill all who interrupt experiment. Another said. Revenge! The third said. "I can hear voices in the ash." I said to him. "I think these heart stones have something to do with it."

"You should tell Master that. I'm sure he'd love you to death if you figured out what he's missing in his research." He responded. He started warming up his hands with what looked like frost magicka. "By the way, I know you're working with just flames right now, but…frost magic works a lot better than fire on these things. Fire does almost nothing to them, and for Master to leave you alone like this…he must really believe in you."

"Or just want me dead." I mumbled under my breath. The first ash spawn charged up to me, slashing at me. I raised my staff to catch the blow. The sword caught my staff with such force that I was thrown right off my feet and into the ash. When I looked down, I could see that arms had reached out and pulled me down. The ash on the ground actually started wrapping around my body, pulling me flat to the ground. My chest was wrapped under the ash and I could see the spawn raising is sword to kill me. "Um…Talvas?" I called to him. "Help!" Just as the ash spawn prepared to stab me a giant icicle slammed into the thing's chest. The icicle flew through the ash spawn and the body fell to pieces. I could see the heart stone encased in the icicle lodged in the ground not too far from us. The ash wrapping around me relinquished any hold it had on me and I jumped up to my feet as fast as I could. "Thanks." I turned to look at him.

"No problem." He called back. "By the way, the best way to kill an ash spawn is to just take the heart stone out of it. The thing just falls apart. Not sure what you can do with that knowledge, but good luck nonetheless." He turned back to his several ash spawn. I watched as he danced across them, his hands glowing with frost. He launched his hand out, touching the chest of an attacking spawn. Ice formed at the touch of the spawn and the heart stone froze on impact. The body fell to ashes as the block of ice heart stone fell to the ground. Ok, so that's how it works then. Ok, maybe I can do something then. Oh…I got it.

I turned to face the three spawn coming at me. I smiled because I knew martial arts. Karliah was nice to me and told me that a nice girl like myself growing up in Riften would eventually be raped or mugged. So she taught me to drop even the strongest opponents. Mjoll helped with the lessons. So, I'm pretty good at fighting, even without fighting. I'm not good with a sword or anything, but…a bo staff…that's different. And my staff was nothing more than an enchanted bo staff with a spear tip…well crystal tip. I just hope I didn't break it. Enchanted staffs aren't supposed to break so…I hope not.

As the first spawn attacked me, I spun my staff. I caught the attack with a counter-attack, which threw the spawn off balance. I back-spun the staff, slammed him in the arm, tore through it, and then backed off. The spawn's arm fell to ashes, but it started regenerating. I was quick as I jumped in, flicked my staff at the chest, contacted with the heart stone, and sent it flying through the air as it flew through the spawn's chest. I jumped back right as the spawn fell to its death. Well…that happened. Now, I only had six more to deal with. I ran up to the next one, but he wasn't coming at me with a sword. No, he just stuck out his hand and blasted some sort of ash magic at me. The ball of exploding ash hit me right in the stomach. It was enough to throw me back. At the same time I buckled over from the hit, a giant whip of ash came up flicking the staff from my hands.

I looked over my shoulder to find my staff, but instead of finding it, I only felt a massive hot pain overflow my body. It felt like burning sand slamming me in the face. I stuck my hand out to protect me. I couldn't see what was going on, but I felt for any heart stone I could find. And I found it. I grabbed it and pulled as hard as I could at it. The hot burning sand feeling faded away, and I only felt soft ash fall down on top of me. I fought to push myself out of the ash, coughing up some as I did so. Talvas was in front of me, two hands freezing two spawn getting ready to kill me. Both bodies and weapons fell to pieces on top of me, just adding the amount of ash covering me. Did I mention that I'm sick of all the ash? Yeah, this is not helping.

Talvas scanned the area and then nodded. He turned around and stuck his hand for me to take. "We're clear. That was the last of them." I took his hand and he pulled me out of the ash. "You look horrible."

"I need a bath." I said to him. He helped me brush off all the ash as we waited for Master Neloth to come out of the main fort.

"I should go clear out the prison before Master yells at me for staying out here to protect you." He nodded to me and took off for the prison. I looked for my staff and found it lying near a pile of ash with a frozen heart stone inside it. When I reached down to take the staff, I heard a loud wail in the wind. Full charge, attack. Defend the main tower! It scared me to hear that in my ear so far from the fort. When I grabbed the staff, it fed off my fear, I think. The ice covering the heart stone started melting to the heat my staff was producing. When I looked down at the melting ice, the heart stone started glowing. The ash started collecting and I thought that my life was over. The ash stated spinning around and it wasn't forming into some spawn, but as something else. The ash flew into the air, forming big rocks. A face formed in the ash with a body that seemed to be made out of ash that spun around the air. The heart stone spun around the middle of the ash. I reached for the stone to get rid of whatever this was before it became any worse. Ash collected around the heart stone, collecting it inside a rock made of ash. Oh great…now what?

And that's when a bunch of flying ash hardened into a fist that smashed me in the face. It hit me so hard that my vision blacked out. Next thing I knew, I was lying several feet away and dazed. I tried to stand up, but as I looked at the monster, it raised its whirlwind arms and then launched them at me. I could see all the ash in front of it lift off the ground and fly at me. I quickly scrambled to roll to my feet and away from it. I got away just in time to feel the ground behind me explode into a wave of ash. When I rolled to my knees, I looked back at the hole I was lying in. It was covered in shards of rocks that were dissolving into ash. Ok…not going to lie. I'm scared to death of this thing.

I reached for my staff. My trembling fingers found the staff just fine, and picked it up. But standing up was something else. My stomach, my throat, my head were all spinning and scrunching up on me. I felt like I was going to vomit out of pure fear. I never thought I'd see something as horrible as this thing ever since Mehrunes Maven. But… that's the thing, isn't it? These things exist and people have to fight them every day. And Master Neloth voluntarily fought this stuff all the time. And he did it with a nonchalant look on his face. Just what had he fought in the past that made him so indifferent to this stuff? I don't think I could ever face something like this.

Make a contract with me! I heard in the back of my head. "What?" I actually called out loud. The ash thingy was warming up another blast so I pushed off the ground right as a wave of ash spines flew around me. I brought my hands up as the ash thingy sprayed more and more ash stuff at me. I felt a couple spines tear through my robes, hitting me a few times. Crap! I just got these robes and they were already falling apart on me. You heard me! Make a contract with me! I can't help you from Aetherius without your permission!

"Um…ok." I called to the sky. "Whatever you say."

Here are the terms and conditions. I'm a kyuubi; a fox spirit with nine tails. I'm not that strong of a spirit but I'm eager to be bound to your service and to grow off of your magicka, as all bound spiritual creatures do. The Aedra seem to think I can help you so…there it is. I'm available whenever you need me, and I can use every element designed by the gods. Ok? I could hear the voice in my head. "Ok, whatever. I accept the terms and conditions. Just come here and help me." There was a long pause before I heard some squeaking. Um…I can't summon myself, you know. You have to do it. "How?" I called to the wind. I jumped out of the way as another round of sharp ash flew past me. You know…Conjuration magic, duh… "I don't know Conjuration magic." I screamed to the sky. Oh… I could hear the disappointment from the sky. Good luck then.

I was so distracted that the ash storm slammed into me and I was thrown off my feet. I cried out in pain as I felt several spines lodged in my arms and legs. My robes were almost completely torn to shreds. I struggled to keep the robes attached to my body as I struggled to sit up. The spines in my arms and legs kept me locked to the ground. It hurt too much to move. I had no choice. Better learn on the fly. Ok…I did this before. How did I do it? I managed to summon a Vermeister once and he saved my life. How was I going to do this? I closed my eyes and searched for something I could do. "I call upon you from the heavens to the mortal plane. I summon thee, kyuubi!"

And…nothing happened. I cried to myself as I struggled to sit up. You can't just call me, Veselle. You need to form Conjuration magic. "How?" I asked the sky. Um…I've never been contracted or bound before. So…I think it's like vroom vroom type magic, you know? "No…not really." I said in return. Vroom vroom magic. Um…how do I phrase this? Imagine your soul connecting to my soul. And now, imagine that line stretching from you to me. Imagine the intention of summoning me in the palm of your hand. It's pure magicka, but it takes the form of portal magic. It's all about intention. You want me there, you need me there. So you bring me there. We're bound now, we share energy. Your magicka is now my magicka. And you summon me by willing me to come. Your magicka will take care of the rest. Ok? See…vroom vroom.

So, I started gathering my magicka into my hand. I remembered how it felt from when I witnessed Davilia's magical training. I felt the whirling energy in my hand and I willed the kyuubi to come to my aid. The magicka in my hand turned from clear-ish to pure white and blue. When I released the ball of energy, it expanded into a portal. And out jumped a little white fox spirit with nine tails. Light blue runes ran across its fur, and the fox was about the size of a large cat. The kyuubi looked at me and smiled with blue glowing eyes. "Nice to meet you. I'm Kyuu. It's short for Kyuute. That was the first name ever given to me by some girl that summoned me by accident one day. Oh…I guess I have been contracted before. I just didn't do anything important."

"Introductions later." I said to Kyuu. "Please, get rid of that thing."

Kyuu looked from me over to the ash thingy. "An Ash Guardian?" Kyuu asked. "I can't fight that thing. I'm a novice summoned creature. I'm not strong enough to fight that thing yet. But I can do this…" He walked up to me, stepping up to my chest. "Heal beam!" A giant white light fell from the sky on top of us. The ash shards turned to dust and my wounds started to close. More than just that but my robes started to regenerate too. When the light faded, Kyuu smiled. "See, all better."

The ash guardian raised its whirlwinds as it prepared to attack me. I rolled Kyuu into my arms and pushed off the ground. "We're not safe yet." The ground behind me erupted into an ash spray. The ash guardian rolled his attack with me and the ash spray threatened to overwhelm me again. I looked around for my staff, but I couldn't find it. As the ash spray fell around us, Kyuu's ears shot straight up. "Protection Ward Spell." Kyuu cried out. A giant shield formed in front of us and took the brunt of the attack of the ash spray. The ward dropped when the spray ended and Kyuu looked up at me. "Don't worry, I know Warding magic at least. As you grow stronger in in magicka so will I. You have a lot of reserve, but it's knowledge and control that I need to grow stronger than this." He smiled. "I can't wait to become stronger like my parents."

"You won't get the chance to grow stronger if I die." I said as I looked down at him. "We need to beat this thing. We can do it."

He looked up at me with uncertain eyes. "Umm…ok, but I'm still new to this. What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know, I'm new to this too." I said to Kyuu. As the ash guardian warmed up another ash spray, I looked down at him. "Another ward, hurry!"

"Right away!" He said as his ears flicked upward. His eyes grew even brighter blue and a giant shield formed in front of us. The shield took the ash spray just like the last one, but this time Kyuu cried out. "I can't keep this up forever!" He said to me. "I don't have much magicka, and I used a lot of it healing your body…and clothes."

I looked around for my staff, and found it lying in the sand behind the advancing ash guardian. "Ok…I have a plan. I'm going to drop you and you will get my staff. I'll keep the thing's attention on me and then you just have to bring my staff over to me. Ok?"

He looked up at me. "I'm going to miss you. You were my only friend in a hundred years. Oh well." He jumped from my arms and took off for the staff. "If I get hit too hard I will die, you know that, right? And then you'll have to wait until my wounds heal before I can come back. And it takes a few minutes. In that time frame, you'd be dead." He said as he dodged the ash guardian as it took a swipe at him. The ash guardian was turning to swipe at Kyuu again.

I plucked the necklace on my neck and tossed it away from me. Just as quickly as I did that, my body lit up on fire. The area around me lit up just as quickly. And that drew the ash guardian's attention. It looked over at me with two glowing red eyes. It raised its hands to me and unleashed what it had at me. I screamed out in fear and willed the fire to protect me. A wall of fire built up in front of me, taking the ash spray. I could see a visible line where the fire pushed against the ash and managed to protect me from the guardian's wrath.

"Got it!" Kyuu called. He wrapped a tail around my staff, and flicked it out of the ash over to me with surprising strength. I caught it as it flew over to me and began willing my fire into it. "I can feel your control brewing." Kyuu called. "And I feel it flowing through me. The element of fire has been added to my spell collection." Small blue flames lit up around his nine tails and he pushed off the ground with the grace you'd expect from an angelic fox. He spun around several times, covering himself in fire. He landed right on top of the ash guardian's head and started breathing fire down on it. A rock formed in the mist of ash and slammed into Kyuu. He cried out in alarm as he flew through the air and crashed into one of the walls.

"Kyuu!" I called out. I stuck out my staff and willed everything I had to destroy that guardian. And the staff responded. The whole crystal glowed with untapped power and when it released, it roared like a dragon. A massive whirlwind of fire raced from my staff, overwhelming everything in front of me. The sheer force of it pushed me back and I found myself barely able to plant my feet as I struggled to stay rooted. The fire died off quickly and I fell to my knees after the effort was done. When the ash settled, I could see a wall of glass. Behind it was the ash guardian. It rolled past the wall of glass and started sailing up to me. Well…this was it then.

The ground shook. I heard and felt the explosion from the fort's main house. The explosion from the fort threw all the ash in the courtyard up into the air. Before the ash guardian could kill me, we were both taken off our…well for me they were feet. But the ash guardian, I'm guessing he just joined the ash. I flew through the air landing in the sand near the ocean. When I tried to stand up, I could see the guardian already putting itself back together. When it turned to face me, bright green lines flew out of the ground and wrapped around it. A giant white circle encased it and it trashed against the sudden ward. It didn't get him anywhere though.

"Don't worry, Apprentice." Master Neloth called from the courtyard entrance. "He can't hurt you." He walked up to us, looking at it. "What is this…thing?" He asked me. "Believe it was called an 'ash guardian'?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. It formed from a heart stone and started attacking me."

"Good, more diverse test subjects." He said to me. He patted me on my shoulder, actually smiling. "I kept an illusionary eye watching you during your fight. You did very well. And contracting your first ethereal ally. Not bad for your third day." He stopped to look at the trapped ash guardian. "You grab Talvas and head back to the tower. You did well today. Take the rest of the day off and have some sujamma milk."

"Master, I'm underage." I responded.

"You deserve it nonetheless." He said in return. "Collect the heart stones you collected from the ash spawn with Talvas and some ash from them as well. I'll look at it once we get back. Ok?"

I nodded and turned to pick up my staff. "Ok, Master. If you're sure."

He nodded. He looked at me and almost smiled. "I'm more sure than ever. You've earned your place. I'll create your room tonight and will be ready for you before you turn in to sleep. We'll set it up with a bed from town tomorrow. You should be proud of your work today. You acted like a true Telvanni mage." That made me smile. I just got a compliment from Master Neloth, although it seems that he purposely hadn't begun building my bedroom and could have done it in a day's time.


Cearbhail:

Ok, so I originally wanted to introduce Kyuute as a hopeless creature in the Daedra realms, being picked on and basically nearly beaten to death by the other Daedra. And then it was supposed to be just 'called' by some conjurer. And next thing Kyuu woke up in a summoning circle with my conjurer character standing over it. Everyone makes fun of her for her pathetic summoning and then they become bound together. but that seems too much like the Familiar of Zero so i decided to go with Madoka Magicka instead. Yes, Madoka Magicka reference. Nice, huh?