Cearbhail:
I'm so glad it's finals week. I only have finals on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, so I have plenty of time to write...(as long as I study enough for the tests). And I have my Japanese test tomorrow, which I know I'm going to rock. Well, either way, I'm glad I got this chapter in. It's not so much about magic this time as it is about Veselle well...you'll see. It's a nice light chapter with no action and just doing stuff that needs to be done for her new room. I liked writing it. It's not much of my cup of tea, though. I don't really enjoy writing these chapters, but it needs to be written, and I did enjoy it more than I enjoyed writing the chapter in Chronicles of Lydia where Lydia spent all day with Cecilie and Ruby while Asger conducted secret meetings with Delphine.
Oh...and enjoy. ^^
Dear book of shadows, 23rd Rain's Hand
I love my new room. It's no bigger than Talvas's room but…it has nothing inside it other than my mat and my pillow. It felt nice to sleep in a room all my own, with no eyes looking down on me. No worries about Talvas returning to find me sleeping in his bed. Now I get my own. Master Neloth is taking me to go shopping for room supplies. I get 500 septims to spend on stuff for my room. He calls it my allowance for all my hard work the past few days. It's a lot to spend, I'll admit, but you'd be surprised how much of it will go towards my own enchanting and alchemy table. I'll be lucky if I can afford my own bed and table afterwards. And there is still today's lesson. I'm learning how to write circles today. I can't wait.
Ok, so yesterday I experienced my first real fight. Talvas and I mopped the floor with a bunch of ash spawn. Sure, I was pretty useless, but I held my own for a minute. And then Talvas saved my neck right before an ash spawn killed me. Right after we managed to kill them all, Talvas ran off to the fort to help Master kill the remaining ash spawn. And right as he left, I was stuck fighting some spinning ash creature called an ash guardian. And no matter what I did, nothing seemed to affect it. As I was slowly being defeated, a creature from Aetherius called out to me to summon it. It taught me how to use Conjuration magic. And I made my first contract with a kyuubi named Kyuute, or Kyuu for short. He's a little annoying, but he saved me from dying so there's that. I own him for saving my life.
And I guess that will do for today. I have to go buy stuff and then I have more stuff to do with Master Neloth today.
Veselle Tenvanni.
…
I closed my book and sighed. It was so silent. I had one small glowing orb floating on top of my rounded ceiling. It gave off enough light that it lit up my room to where I could read a book comfortably, but to where I could close my eyes and drift off if I wanted too. It had a built-in dimmer too. I really liked it. Master Neloth cast the spell last night when he finished building my room. And he did it right in front of me too. He peeled off a section of his main tower and then stuck in in the ground. And then he used Alteration magic to make it grow. He manipulated the spores with his magic, making it take the shape he wanted to. And then he threw a rod over the hole where the door was going to go sooner or later and then hung a giant cloth over my doorway so that I had some privacy. I got a cold breeze last night and I think I swallowed some ash that flew through the doorway, but other than that the cover worked pretty well.
It was beautiful to see Master Neloth use his magic to create something as beautiful as this room. It's perfect, and it got me a chance to see what I could do with real training in magicka. I couldn't wait to create my own home one day. I think I could get used to living in here while I continued my training. I nodded my head in appreciation as I placed my book on my roll-out matt. I folded my blanket and placed it next to my pillow and looked around my room one last time before I grabbed my staff by the doorway. I paused by the doorway and brushed my hair out of my eyes. It wouldn't stay out of my eyes; I guess my hair needed washed pretty badly. I had too many split ends, so I took a few seconds to pull my hair back into two twintails. My hair was just barely long enough to go past my shoulders, so my twintails were pretty short. I normally would have done a ponytail but for some reason twintails seemed easier today. I paused by the doorway, wishing I had a mirror to see if they were correctly placed. I shrugged it off and started pushing the cloth doorway open. I could see the rising sun through my open doorway, and I could feel the slight cold breeze that brushed my face, although the sun felt so much warmer than the air felt cold. It was the first time I could sleep in until the sun was already up. I closed my 'door' and walked across the yard over to Talvas's room.
I cleared my throat and knocked on his door. I didn't hear a response so I opened the door and peeked inside. Talvas was lying face flat on his bed, snoring lightly, drool rolling down into his pillow. I cleared my throat before I snuck up to his face and screamed, "Good morning!"
Talvas was so quick that I barely had time to react. He pushed himself out of bed and fell right out of his sheets and face first onto the spongy floor. "Shit." He said as he started pushing himself off the floor, rubbing his nose. He gawked up at me like he couldn't believe I was real. "Oh…morning, squirt." He said as he yawned and pushed himself onto his feet. "Why did you do that?"
"We're friends now, right?" I said as I looked up at him. "Aren't I allowed to greet you energetically first thing in the morning?"
His reply was grabbing me by one of my twintails and dragging me to his doorway. "Ow, ow, ow." I said as he almost lifted me up and carried me by my hair to the doorway. When I cleared it, he tossed me gently and then slammed the door behind him, locking it before I could open it. So, I knocked on it again. "Oh, come on! I was joking."
"So was I." He replied back. "I could have done so much worse for that. Oh, and your left pigtail is too far left." I stood by his door for a few seconds longer and I heard him say, "I like my sleep. Please don't interrupt it."
"Ok." I said to his door. "I won't wake you up first thing in the morning." I started undoing my left twintail, and then undid my right one as well. It was a bad idea to do this without a mirror. I collected my hair and pulled it back into a single ponytail. My hair danced on my neck and it bothered me. That's why I wanted twin tails. They rested beside my neck, not behind it. Oh well, I'll just add a mirror to the list of things I needed today. A bed, a table, a mirror, …one enchanting table, and one alchemy table. Not like I wanted those but Master insisted I have them.
"That's not good enough. Don't wake me up, period." He shouted through the door.
"Ok, fine." I said snarkily. "I won't wake you up at all." I paused by his door a few seconds longer and then screamed, "And they weren't pigtails, they're twintails."
He opened the door and looked down at me. "And the difference is?"
"I'm not six?" Was my reply. "And they aren't braided. Twintails are like ponytails, only on in two not one." I crossed my arms, and flicked my hair around. "And see? Now they're just one ponytail because you said they were uneven."
He smiled briefly before petting me on the head. "Ah, I see the difference now. Keep this up and we'll get along just fine." He walked past me, dressed in similar dark red robes that I was wearing, carrying a staff that looked a lot like mine. He took a deep breath before stretching out his arms. "Ahh…this morning air feels great." He yawned and then started cupping his hands. I could see fire, frost, and lightning crackling around his body. He launched his hands into the air and all three elements roared off his body straight into the sky to disappear into the morning sky. He looked back at me and nodded. "Yup, after you learn all three elements, you'll be expected to greet the morning with a little gift of all three. Oh…that reminds me. You made a contract yesterday, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah…to a small nine-tailed fox. He called himself a kyuubi."
"Hmm…never heard of those. Think you can summon him? I didn't get to see him yesterday." He turned to look at me.
I nodded and closed my eyes. Hey, Kyuu? Can you hear me?
Yeah, I can hear you. What do you need, partner?
Mind if I summon you?
Hell yeah! I hate being here. I'd rather hang out with you all day!
I found myself chuckling as I opened my eyes. Talvas was looking at me like I was a weirdo. I found my face blushing over as I felt for the connection between Kyuu and me. When I felt the string that connected us, I willed the energy in my palm to gather into a ball. When it formed, I willed the ball of magicka to bring my partner to me. Then, I let the portal open in my hand. It was quick. The pure clear energy in my hand turned bright white and it expanded big enough for Kyuu to jump through the portal into my chest. When he cleared the portal, I reached out and wrapped him in my arms, where he curled up and relaxed while I carried him. I looked down at Kyuu, and he looked up at me with his bright blue eyes. "Kyuu…this is my training partner, Talvas." I looked up at Talvas. "Talvas, this is my bound ally, Kyuute."
"Cute, huh?" He replied. "Nice name. Definitely speaks volumes about his character. …It is a he, right?"
That was a good question. I looked down at Kyuu and thought I'd just ask it. "Yeah, what gender are you?"
"Gender? What's that?" Kyuu asked with a knowing smile. "I'm a spirit; I don't have a gender. But yeah, I'm totally a boy."
"Are the three of you done wasting time?" Master Neloth asked as he exited the main tower. He looked down at me, then at my summoned spirit, then at Talvas. "Well, well. I see the two of you have overcome your differences. Glad to hear it." He walked up to us, looked down at Kyuu wrapped up in my arms, and then looked up at me. "You went from summoning a Vermeister to a kyuubi? If I may…that is like going from going from summoning a god to a rabbit. Do you understand how weak your new…pet is?"
I looked down at Kyuu, who only whined at me. "I don't like him."
"He grows on you." I said to Kyuu. I hugged him closer to me before saying, "He's mine, and I'm keeping him."
Master Neloth only rolled his eyes. "I don't care. It's good practice on keeping a bound creature in our plane. He draws only a small amount of magicka to summon and barely any on your part to hold him in our plane through the whole day. In fact…that's a good lesson. Any good conjurer should be able to hold a bound creature in our plane while doing other magic. For now on, when you wake up, the first thing you will do is summon your…pet. And hold him in our plane until you go to bed. Is that understood?" He turned to face me.
I nodded to him, hugging Kyuu close to me. "Yes, Master."
Kyuu smiled, rubbing his head on my chest. "Yay!" He squeaked. "I can stay in Mundus."
That caused Master to pause. "You can speak common?" When Kyuu nodded, it made Master rub his chin in thought. "I wish to speak with you while we walk. Mind if we?"
Kyuu shook his head and jumped from my arms onto Master's shoulder. He curled around his neck like he was a scarf and said, "What do you wish to know?"
"Anything you can tell me about Aetherius. The Aedra, major and minor. Everything you can tell me." Master said, and he began leading us down the pathway to Raven Rock. "Come everyone, we have some shopping to do." He looked at Kyuu and started rubbing Kyuu's chin, "Ok, so first question. Why did the Aedra decide to invade during the events of the Aedra War?"
I kinda zoned out for a while as I walked beside Talvas through the worn pathway leading to Raven Rock. Talvas seemed just as interested in Master's conversation with Kyuu as I was. Instead of listening to the two of them talk, he took time to practice summoning lightning in his hands. I watched as lightning would build in one hand and then jump from that hand to the next one. He had such control over his magicka that it looked like he made it dance along his hands, across his fingers, around his arms. He continued to do the same drill over and over again while we continued walking.
I looked down at my hands. Should I be practicing that too? I grabbed the necklace hanging around my neck, making sure it was still there. Master gave it to me so that I wouldn't explode with fire magicka if I got too emotional about something. I almost burnt down his tower once because of it, and every time I got embarrassed or angry I seemed to cause a mushroom cloud of fire magicka. Looking over at Talvas and how he was flicking the stream of lightning he danced around his arm off into the sky, where it turned into a massive beam with a thundering roar, I felt more confident that I wanted to continue learning as much as I could. I wanted to be able to do that one day.
I willed fire to appear in my hand. I felt my hand warm up with energy and I saw a small spark of fire materialize in my hand. That was as far as it got before my entire hand became engulfed in flames. I tried to make it stop but the fire in my hand exploded and roared into the sky. I had to close my eyes it was so bright. I felt someone clamp their hand on my blazing arm and my magicka suddenly stopped. I opened my eyes to see Master Neloth looking back at me. His hands were glowing with some sort of blue cancelling magic, I could tell. He did it once in a while when he wanted me to stop my magicka. "Apprentice Veselle, may I please ask that you reframe from doing that while we're in town?"
I looked around. I didn't know when we got into town, but we seemed to be in the central plaza where everyone did their trading. Everyone in the entire plaza was frozen in spots as they looked at me with wide shocked faces. I pulled my arm out of Master's hand and I bowed to everyone in town. "I'm sorry, everyone. I'm still new to all this."
Someone dressed up in some scary brown armor walked up to Master Neloth. "Lord Neloth, may I ask that next time you bring your students into our town that you keep them on a leash?"
Master turned to look at him. He bowed in respect. "Captain Veleth, how have you been?" Master looked down at me, placing his hand on top of my head. "And this is my newest student, Veselle Tenvanni. She's still trying to control her magicka. And she'll be extra careful while in town for now on…" He looked down at me, squeezing my head a bit. "Isn't that right, Apprentice?"
I nodded. "Yes, Master. I promise to be extra careful."
Master nodded and released my head. "There you have it, Captain. She'll be on her best behavior. We're just in town for supplies. I'm sure you understand how it can be when you have new people to care for."
Captain Veleth nodded. "I understand all too well. So, what are you looking for specifically?"
"A bed for the small one. A large studying desk too; one big enough to hold a small library of books and papers in an organized fashion. I also need one small dresser, big enough for six complete outfits. I also need the following: two small coffee tables; one of which I can turn into an arcane enchanter, and the other one an alchemy laboratory. I will need the necessary supplies to make those. The supplies are as follows: for the alchemy table, I need an inner cauldron; you know the one I speak of. I also need a small calcinator, a small mortar and pestle, and an alembic. That's just for the table. For the arcane enchanter, I will need ten white candles and one crystal ball. And a skull…I need a skull." Master said to Veleth all in one breath, like he had the whole thing planned out already.
"Master?" I pulled on his sleeve and it caught his attention. "I was hoping to get a mirror too."
He arched his eyebrows. "We'll make one out of an Illusion spell. To get an actual mirror is dangerous. Things can travel through mirrors, but Illusion spells…not so much." He nodded his head to Captain Veleth. "Where should I begin my search?"
"How much are you willing to spend?" He asked.
"500 septims." Master replied.
Captain nodded his head. "For a cheap bed, I suggest Fethis Alor. He's pretty much the man who has everything around here, and if he doesn't have it, he can get it. Since he is about the only convenience trader around, he might be pricey, though. But if you're just looking for anyone willing to part with some stuff for your new student, I'm sure anyone here will sell you their stuff for probably a smaller price. Might actually help some people in town who have too much stuff. Try the Severins. They have a large house and a girl that's just a little older than your student. They might be willing to part with some of their older stuff."
Master nodded to the captain and looked down at me. "We'll start with Fethis and see if he has all that we need." I nodded to him and followed Master as he walked over to an older Dunmer who was busy pulling an ash yam out of the ground. He brushed off the ash and then looked up at us.
Fethis nodded a welcome to us and stood up, brushing off his knees with his free hand. "Welcome, Lord Neloth. What can I for you?"\ Master repeated the list he had breathed out in one go to Captain Veleth. Fethis stood there processing the whole list while it was spoken to him. When Master was done with his list, Fethis rubbed his sweaty forehead. "I have the candles. With how often you come here, I always have them in stock. I have a dresser too, and one table. But a bed? No, I don't have that. I do have a mattress, though. Not the frame." He shook his head. "I have a mortar and a pestle around here, and a calcinator. No alembic, though. And I don't have a skull for the arcane enchanter, but I do have the crystal ball."
Master nodded. "I can make due with those. What about the large desk?"
He shook his head. "I don't have one."
Master nodded again. "We'll make due for now. She's not ready for complex notes anyway. Go ahead and order the rest of the stuff and I'll be back in a month to pick it up. I want the other table, the large desk, the alembic, the inner cauldron for the alchemy table, and a proper bed frame. Ok?"
Fethis nodded. "Ok, sir. Is that all you need?" When he nodded, Fethis started doing the math on a piece of paper. "Ten white candles, two gold a piece comes to 20 septims. One small dresser, 30 septims. That's 50 together. One coffee table, 20 septims. 70, so far. One mattress, 25 septims. 95 septims. Mortar and pestle, 5 septims. 100 septims. One calcinator, 10 septims, and one crystal ball, 10 septims. Ok, all total is 120 septims."
Master nodded. "That's what I like about you. Your prices are fair enough." He handed Fethis the small bag of septims and then looked down at me. He handed me the rest of the bag, saying, "Remember, this is your allowance. You can spend the rest doing whatever you want. Even buy that mirror you wanted. You may wish to invest in some actual clothes. If I recall you came here with one pair of clothes and they're pajamas."
I looked down at my robes. "Master, don't I have to wear these?"
He arched an eyebrow. "Only during training, and if you never change your clothes those robes will stink to high Aetherius." He turned his attention to Fethis, who was busy gathering up his supplies. "Go have some fun and buy whatever you want. Come back here when you're done and we'll take all this back to the Tel Mithryn. Talvas, you may do whatever you want."
Talvas nodded to Master and then looked over at me. "Mind if come with you?"
I shrugged. I looked at Kyuu, who was napping on Master's neck. His ears perked up and then he looked over at me. He hopped off of Master's shoulders, landing on mine. He felt so light that it didn't bother me to have him up there. He settled down, wrapping around my neck, his head hanging down on my left shoulder and his tail flopping down over my right. "I'm just going to rest for a bit. I'm not used to the strain of staying out in Mundus for this long."
"I thought you were living off my energy!" I said to him.
He nodded. "You don't have much control over your energy so it fluctuates and I'm left filling the reserve when it does. I'm able to feed off of your excessive energy when you overcompensate too to refill my reserves. I'm ok; you're just not pushing nearly as hard as you were on the way down."
Talvas scratched his chin, something I saw Master do a lot. I wondered how long until I started scratching my chin like that when I started thinking. It looked weird and it wasn't a habit I wanted to get used to doing. So, I grabbed Talvas by his arm and started pulling him to follow me. "Come on, let's go shopping."
Fethis looked over at me. "Good luck. I'm pretty much the only merchant in town."
That caused me to pause and turn to face him. "Do you have girls' clothes and a mirror?"
Fethis paused and scratched the back of his head. "I do have a mirror, but no clothes, sorry. Just traditional Dunmer clothes. Much like what everyone else is wearing around town. They come in three colors; red, blue, and yellow."
"I'll take two of each?" I asked him.
He nodded and started looking me over. "You look like a size small, medium. But you'll start growing taller soon, so how about I give you one set of each color in small, medium, and one set in medium, long?"
I shrugged. "Sure."
He started processing my clothes and brought my mirror. It was one of those smaller mirrors that you put on your dresser, the one that could be rotated up and down to your height. When Fethis came back out with my clothes, he nodded. "Ok, so that will be 5 septims for the mirror, and six outfits, 10 septims a piece, 60 more septims. 65 altogether. Ok?"
I nodded and started counting out my septims. I pulled out a 50 piece, one 10, and one 5. I handed him the coins and he gently handed me the clothes. "There you go. I think you have pretty much all you need."
I looked at my clothes. I think I liked the blue outfit the most, and I was just plain sick of wearing red. The yellow looked bright, so I probably shouldn't wear it so much. Ok, so I was going to probably wear the blue one tonight. My stomach reminded me that I was hungry. I looked around for something else and I could see the marketplace had a farmer selling things. He had food. I placed my clothes down with the rest of the stuff we were taking and I ran over to the farmer. Talvas kept up behind me.
The farmer greeted me as I came up. "Welcome. May I interest you in some ash yams?"
My stomach turned over at the thought of eating another one of those. "No!" I said to him. "I'm sick of ash yams. What else do you have?"
He looked at me before looking at Talvas. He shrugged. "Well, I can only grow ash yams, but I do import goods from Morrowind and Skyrim. What are you looking for?"
"Bread, honey, apples, maybe a gallon of cider, or snowberries. Any seeds?" I asked him.
He smiled. "Planning on growing something?"
I nodded. "Yes. If you have snowberries, I want to plant them and grow my own snowberries. I doubt I have the time it would take or space to grow an apple tree."
The farmer nodded. "A mage like you could just as easily grow an apple tree in our land. So, I have a few apples, grapes, snowberries, and juniper berries. I'm sure you can grow your own little garden to give you something to add to your ash yams."
The very thought made me smile. "And I can come here and buy bread and honey?"
He nodded. "I will make certain to have some in stock for you when you come in."
I jumped with joy, saying, "Ok, I'll take a gallon of cider, six apples, a pound of grapes, a pound of snowberries, and a pound of juniper berries. Oh, and I want a gallon of honey, and two loafs of bread."
He stared at me for a second before nodding. "Ok. That's a lot of honey though."
I nodded. "Honey doesn't go bad; it's the only substance that never goes stale or rotten. Jars of honey found in Dwemer ruins were still good and edible. So, I know that getting a gallon of it will not lead to a waste of honey, only the opportunity to have it around for a much longer time. And I love honey."
The farmer nodded. "Ok, I'm just going to snowball the price and say an even 60 septims. 20 septims for the honey, 30 for the grapes, apples, snowberries and juniper berries. And finally, 10 for the loaves of bread and the gallon of cider."
I pulled out the necessary funds for my food and turned to face Talvas. "Mind helping me carry all of this?"
He pulled off the backpack he carried for me and opened it up. "Ok, stuff it in. Start with the gallon of cider and honey. And then the berries and apples, and then the bread." We loaded up the food and the backpack could barely hold it all, but we got it all to fit but two apples. I took one and took a bite of it, tossing the other one to Talvas. He grabbed it as I tossed it to him, looked down at it, and then back up at me. "What's this for?"
"Helping. Besides, we're friends. I shouldn't need a reason to give you an apple." I said to him. I patted Kyuu on the head. "Hey, Kyuu. Ever have an apple before?"
He looked down at the red fruit in my hand. "No…what is it?"
"A fruit. It's a plant that we can eat and it sustains our life for a few hours. It's food." I said to him. I held it up for him to take a bite. "Try it."
Kyuu sniffed it for a second and then started nibbling on the apple. He started with smaller bites, but once I heard him squeak in surprise, he started shoving his face further into the apple until I couldn't see his head anymore. "Oh my Lady Kynareth…" He said screamed in wonder. "what have I been doing with my eternal life?" He jumped from my shoulder, landing on Talvas's backpack. "I want more! Can I have more?"
"Whoa!" Talvas called, spinning around to keep his eyes on Kyuu, which didn't work since Kyuu was digging through Talvas' backpack. "Take it easy, buddy!" He reached back to grab Kyuu. "That's all Veselle's!" When he grabbed Kyuu, Kyuu squirmed but couldn't break free of the hold.
Kyuu looked over at me, smiling and trying to look cute. "You don't mind, right, partner?"
I crossed my arms. "Let's wait until we get back. I want to at least plant a few for my garden. And I have to have Master show me how to use Alteration magic to force them to grow."
Talvas smiled. "Oh, I can show you that. Master keeps telling me that I need to be your mentor when not on official studies. So, after class tonight, I'll help you start your garden."
That brought a smile on my face. "Thanks, Talvas."
He smiled and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me with him. "Come on, we should return to Master Neloth. I bet he's more than ready to return to Tel Mithryn."
"We bought a lot of stuff….how are we going to get it back?" Talvas didn't answer me, but he did smile at the question. I didn't think about how much stuff I was buying, but it was true. I didn't think about just how much I bought today. I bought enough stuff to fill an entire room; enough clothes to last change an outfit every day; and enough food to last an entire month. Were the three of us going to be able to get all this back at all? Oh man…I can't carry all this stuff. If I had thought of that, I would have just bought some essentials and nothing else. The coffee table on its own will be heavy, not to mention my mattress.
When we got back to Master Neloth, he was waiting quietly with his hand crossed. He watched me as I approached. "Are we all set then?"
I nodded. "Yes, Master. We're done."
"Good." He replied. He gestured to the backpack. "Put it with the others."
Talvas nodded, placing the backpack with the giant bundle of all my stuff. I looked at all of it. Oh man…I didn't want to carry all this. I didn't even want to help with it at all. Just imagine the hike back to Tel Mithryn while helping Talvas carry a dresser, a table, and a mattress. I didn't even want to think about how much pain it would be to carry something light like my bundle of clothes.
Master Neloth looked at the stuff and warmed up what looked like Conjuration magicka. He launched an orb of the magicka at the pile and a giant portal ripped open. When the portal faded away, all my stuff was gone. Master Neloth clapped his hands off with the ease of what he had just done. "There." He looked at me. "Oh…I didn't explain how this works, did I? We gather everything up and then we teleport it back home. Saves us a hellish journey of having to carry our stuff like commoners." He snapped around, flapping his cape as he did so. "Come now, time to go home."
I held my laugh at the thought that I was so happy that I didn't have to carry all that stuff after all. And I had to learn that spell for later.
Cearbhail:
So, Veselle now has most of what she needs for her room. Soon enough, she'll learn how to make her little room expand...or grow if you prefer that term...her little room into something bigger. Talvas hasn't figured it out yet so I doubt Veselle will. it's a master level Alteration spell after all. And she will begin growing her garden with Talvas's help of course. And you'll see that her storyline follows the quests of the ones in Dragonborn. She is the main character for these quest lines after all. So, expect her to meet a certain somebody soon enough. Not the evil Dragonborn, but one very evil necromage. And I'm not talking about Nrillia. She's dead in this timeline.
