Of Elder Scrolls and Huntsmen: Dragon Rose

by JessesanMan

Team RWBY finds themselves in a strange, new world where Grimm are nonexistent and magic is commonplace. They journey to find a way home, but along the way are caught up in several ancient prophecies and must save this world they find themselves in. As time goes on, they adapt to the dangerous land of Skyrim and fight against its foes be they small, large, or godly.

19. Giant Steps

Chapter 17! Be grateful I go through a forum with this thing. We had so many misspellings that the guy who catches 'em for us near 'bout filled up my screen with his post.

Also, now on our SB thread we have a table of all the dragons RWBY have so far ran into, their statuses, and last known locations. It will be updated as we go, and can be found under the Informational thread tab.

---

"So she never came?" Blake asked sadly as they rode back to Whiterun in the morning light.

"Not that I know of. Guards never said anything about a Khajiit lady, and I was kinda too busy worrying to death about you to ask," her partner explained with a half-hearted sideways glare.

"Sorry. I guess we should have come back first."

"But then she would not know her name," M'rissi pointed out. "If she did not know her name, what would you call her this whole time?"

"I think Fluffy would be good," Yang joked.

"What?! You are the fluffy one if you think that could ever be her fluffy name!" M'rissi spouted, only to receive a boisterous laugh from Yang.

"I feel like you were trying to insult me, but it was just too adorable!"

"Frrreow! Stop it! She is not adorable!"

Blake smiled lightly at the two's back and forth and shook her head. As they came by the stables, they all unhorsed, with M'rissa climbing off of the back of Blake's saddle, and began heading inside. At the gate, one guard looked ready to say something, but a glare from Commander Caius kept him from going through with it. Blake could only feel pride at how they were already improving things around here. After Mirmulnir's death, and their subsequent Thaning, the Jarl decreed that any Khajiit with them, or performing duties for them, were free to enter the city. It wasn't much, but it was a start. Once they entered the city walls, the three went into Breezehome, where Yang flopped into a chair, Blake began placing wood on the hearth, and M'rissi immediately dashed towards the kitchen. As the faunus started up the fire, M'rissi came back with a slight pout.

"There is no fish," she complained. "You said there would be fishies."

"Well, yeah. We haven't exactly had time to go by the river with a few rod'n'reels." Yang shifted in her seat a little, sinking in more comfortably. "We can stop by the market later and see if anybody's got some. Anor- Whatever his name is might have some later."

"But later we need to talk to Salthazar person, to figure out who she is," M'rissi argued.

"That's going to be a day or two, M'rissi," Blake explained. "Riften is far away. Remember how far the tower was from the town? Riften's even farther. And we'll need to be careful heading there. There are at least two dragons close to the city, and while we can get by one, I don't know what the other one is like."

"Dragons? She's seen…one of those. They're very scary!" Her ears perked up as her eyes widened. "She wasn't scared though, just…surprised! Yes, she was surprised something so big could fly. The people were scared though. Everyone thought that they were going to be eaten, but it just kept going. She thinks it was not interested in the river town."

"Wait, was it white and grey?" Yang asked, leaning slightly forward.

"Yes, it was. Are all dragons different colors? She remembers an elder yelling about a black dragon."

"They've been pretty varied from what we've seen." Blake stirred the burning wood so that the flames would die down to a manageable level. "I'll see if I can get us something either from the Mare or Carlotta. After we eat, we could all use a bath."

"A bath?" M'rissi's voice quivered. "Why does that word make her feel…uneasy?"

---

"Rarrrrrooorrr, make it stop!" M'rissi cried at as Blake scrubbed the soap onto the girl, a towel wrapped around herself while she was on the outside of the tub.

"You have weeks' worth of filth built up on you. We're not nearly-" She paused to catch M'rissi by the head and push her back in as she tried to slip away, the girl's claws scratching against her Aura protected forearms. "Now I understand what my mom went through," she muttered as she took the scrub brush against M'rissi's left arm, ignoring her pitiful, catlike mewling.

"Heh, now that I think about it, you never said much about your home life," Yang mentioned from the jacuzzi-like center tub, constantly filled by a stream coming from a nearby hot spring and draining out the old water to the other side. "So, at least I got confirmation you had a mom. Anything else? Brothers? Sisters?"

"Only child," Blake got out as she swapped arms. "It'd be great if you'd help me with this."

"I think it's best if you get used to handling her on your own. I'm not going to be there when you head to the Thieves' Guild, much as I'd hate to let you go on your own."

"I know, but we need you-"

"Here for Ruby," Yang interrupted. Before Blake could apologize yet again, Yang raised up her arms. "No, that's fine. I just wish I had a little more assurance to your well-being besides that of an amnesiac cat girl." M'rissi's struggling caused her to fall into the tub with a small yelp, tossing up buckets of suds and water that fell onto Blake. Yang chuckled at the sight. "Back to my question though, can I ask about your parents?"

"Ghira and Kali Belladonna," Blake got out as she pulled M'rissi to her, forcing the Khajiit back into the water, and pulled her hair back from her face. "You have to have some kind of experience from bathing Ruby before, right?"

"Nah, Ruby loved bath time. The hard part was getting her to come out of the tub. Let me tell you an embarrassing story so that you can dangle it over her head. When she was, like, six or seven, I was trying to get her out so that we could go to McRonalds for dinner, but she just kept staying in. I drained all the water, but she just decided to flop around the empty tub like a fish out of water." Yang smirked at that. "So, I told her, 'you know that gurgly sound when the water drains is a big monster drinking it all up. If you stay in too long, he might come up looking for a snack.' She shot out of there then, but then the problem was getting her to take a bath the next day." She stuck out her tongue in false exasperation. "Luckily Uncle Qrow was around, so he explained that any monster that tried to come up not doing his job would get beat up by either him or dad. After that, Ruby would 'remind' the monster not to try anything funny, because our dad was a Huntsman." She started chuckling at the end of her story, and M'rissi laughed too. Blake just smiled a little brighter.

"Hey, quit trying to beat around the bush!" Yang suddenly called out. "That's twice you distracted me! Now's your turn for backstory sharing."

"Well, I'm not sure what to tell you. I haven't seen my parents face to face in a long time, and the last time we spoke over scrolls was a month or two before I joined Beacon."

"Sheesh," Yang hissed from between her teeth. "Do you guys not get along?"

"Well, I said some things I regret looking back, but I don't know…how they feel. They used to be part of the White Fang too, but they left after Sienna Khan took charge."

"Who?" Yang raised an eyebrow.

Blake blinked at that. "Sienna Khan, high leader of the White Fang, keeps stationed somewhere near Mistral."

"I thought the White Fang was led by some guy named Taurus."

"No, that's just the Vale…" Blake trailed off as M'rissi finally got loose from her and crawled out of the tub. She shot over and grabbed a towel to wrap around the girl before she could do something embarrassing for herself and others. "Sorry. He just leads the Vale branch."

"You never really mentioned how the White Fang operated, now that I think about it. Tell me about these 'branches'."

"Each kingdom has its own cell, each with their own leader, all hand-picked by Sienna herself," Blake began to explain as she dried off M'rissi. "While Sienna sets the overall agenda, which has always been Faunus equality, each branch is free to operate however they so please, just so long as they promote the cause."

"How does robbing Dust stores and working with well-known criminals 'promote the cause'? I would think that would only make things worse. Hell, they did make things worse," Yang brought up, making Blake pause.

"That's what I can't figure out. Sure, the Vale branch has always been more violent than the others, but even then they never worked with humans, especially after..." Blake trailed off, her eyes wandering to the hung Ebony Blade, before her eyes widened in sudden realization. She stood up, knocking M'rissi back, which the faunus didn't notice. "I think the Vale Cell might have been going rogue! That must have been why they were willing to work with humans! Sienna would have never allowed that! When she took over, she basically made all of the human members leave!" As Blake slapped her forehead at the obvious in hindsight answer to their strange behavior, Yang merely shrugged.

"I'd be more excited if I wasn't worried about whether or not I'd be growing claws in a day or two, or if a flying lizard came around to set the city on fire."

"Sorry, but I can't believe I'm realizing this just now. We need to remember this for when we get home," Blake emphasized to her partner, who smiled.

"Locked it in my noggin'!" Yang affirmed with a snap of her fingers next to her head.

"Can she stop being wet now?" M'rissi spoke up. "She does not like being wet."

"Fine, we'll go dry up," Blake dryly acquiesced to the annoyed Khajiit.

"I still want some backstory!" Yang called out teasingly as Blake led M'rissi to go dry and get dressed.

---

"Wow! Just look at them!" Ruby exclaimed in awe as they rode close towards the Giants herding their pachyderm chattel. A few looked in the direction of the two humans, watching them warily, but otherwise did nothing. Ruby saw one Giant walking among them that was head and shoulders shorter than the rest, and rather than the full, bushy beard almost all of them sported, this one only had something wispy growing on his chin. "I think that one's a teenager." Ruby reached into her backpack and fished out the two amulets of Giantspeech, handing one over to Lydia before dismounting and putting hers on.

"Are you…sure you want to approach them, my Thane?" Lydia nervously asked as she followed along.

"Of course. I know they don't like people messing with their mammoths, but we-" Ruby's voice halted as an arrow zipped through the air and sunk into one Giant's shoulder. He yelled in pain and turned as the other Giants went on alert.

"Attackers!" a deep voice called out.

"They hit Nir!"

"Mind the herd!" one wearing an outfit with dozens of dangling bones of all kinds, including three sabercat and two troll skulls warned them. "Watch the herd!"

Avoiding the confrontation for now, Ruby and Lydia spied several people pop up from over a hill and unleash a small volley onto the Giants. Several hit, but they seemed to be only marginally worse than bee strings to the large folk. A few mammoths were hit as well, but their tough hide held out. Ruby looked through her scope towards the attackers, but then noticed several of the Giants running towards them, massive clubs at the ready.

"What are they doing?" Ruby wondered aloud. "There's way too many for them to take on, and they-"

She paused when she heard a higher pitched trumpeting, and turned to see that at the back of the herd, a mammoth calf had been separated and was being chased by several men and women of varying races, predominantly Nords, all hefting spears that were being jabbed at the young one's legs to make it run. Three mammoth cows moved to save the calf, but then a man and an Argonian pulled at some ropes, causing a veritable wall of wooden spikes to pop up from the ground, pointing at an angle towards the herd. The cows slowed down before they could impale themselves, but one trumpeted sadly as the baby was chased further away. Ruby immediately ran towards the group as she pulled forth Crescent Rose.

"Thane Ruby, wait!" Lydia called right before she began speeding up, rose petals trailing after her.

"Wuld!" Ruby Shouted, shooting her forward. Her scythe sliced out and cut several spears apart. The calf was still running, but now the people had to stop as Ruby placed herself between them and the mammoth, going into her ready stance with Crescent Rose held behind her.

"Damnit, take her down or we won't get our meal ticket!" an orc called out. Several charged her with their spears while others pulled forth an array of melee weapons. Ruby spun as she dodged the wall of stabs and then hit three with the back of her scythe. A Nord with a rusty battleaxe swung down at her, but missed entirely as she side-stepped and then landed a roundhouse kick upon his head. He went down, but then the Argonian came at her with a short spear, stabbing towards her rapidly, only for her to block each strike with the scythe's shaft while holding Crescent Rose in reverse. Twirling Crescent Rose, the speartip end of her weapon sliced up and cut away the blade of his cheaply made weapon several times before ending right above the Argonian's scaled hands. Holding what amounted to a stick for a moment, the Argonian looked at it dumbly before dropping it and baring his teeth with a hiss and curling his clawed fingers.

Before he could attack again, a stone attached to a tree trunk slammed up into him, launching him up into the air with a yelp where he began shrinking in the distance, flopping limply. Surprised, Ruby looked up as more Giants came in, smashing down with clubs, stomping with their feet, and sometimes just backhanding or slapping them away like nuisances. Some of the poachers managed to form up with their remaining long spears, but one Giant they tried to cow away simply grabbed one of the weapons and yanked up, tossing the wielder into the air before using the stick to swipe at the others. Any of them not dead began high-tailing it out of there as quickly as they could, but some of the Giants still chose to pick up large stones and throw at the retreaters. Ruby saw the calf round its way back to them, and the teenage Giant went up to meet it, petting and comforting the scared baby animal. Ruby couldn't help but smile at the sight, but then felt one Giant get close to her, its loud and heavy stomps shaking the ground slightly.

The Giant looking down directly at her was the one with many different bones tied to his clothes. Up this close Ruby could also see that he was fairly more wrinkled than the rest, with large stripes of grey mixed into his dark beard and hair. His club was also not a primitive construction like the others', but looked like it had a professionally carved shaft and an end made with wrought iron shaped like a Morningstar. If she had to take a guess, this was their chief.

"Uh, hello?" Ruby squeaked.

"You," he started. "You fought the other small folk and saved our calf. Thank you." He reached down and patted her head gently with two fingers. "You and your elder are welcome friends. Come, graze with us. We could use a small one's help."

Ruby blinked in amazement and looked back to Lydia as the old Giant stood back to his full height.

"Did you hear that?"

"I did, my Thane," Lydia affirmed, looking at the Giants with no small amount of wonder. "I don't think I ever heard of a Giant be so welcoming before." She shook her head and looked towards Ruby. "I noticed which way the poachers were retreating towards. All of them were turning north at one point or another. There's probably a cave up at the mountains they're hiding in."

"That's good to know. At least we caaaaaaaaaa…" Ruby was stopped from going further as she was lifted off the ground. She looked to her side to see the mammoth calf's head and gasped when she realized it had wrapped its trunk around her waist to pick her up and hold her tightly to its face. She squealed in joy as her legs dangled in the air.

"Lydia! It's hugging me!"

---

The Giants and their herd were slow going, often stopping wherevers the grass was sufficiently grown to let the mammoths graze. In these spots, Ruby tried conversing with the Giants, but few of them knew about many subjects to talk with her about. They were basically all simple ranchers, with the exception of one or two craftsmen who had been slowly weaving together hides as they went, but even they didn't have much to say. All Ruby had been able to talk about was mammoths, but at least there had been a range of topics from there, such as how to milk them, how to help them when they were ready to have their calves, how to watch out for their predators, and how they had to keep the bulls separate from each other most of the time in order to keep the bigger males from getting into fights.

Between afternoon and dusk they came up to the 'camp', though to Ruby it seemed more like a proto-village, with large mammoth hide tents and several large rocks pushed around to make an artificial, shallow cave. As the herders came in so did another group, this bunch totally beardless, slightly curvier, and with a number of others smaller than even the teenager. The whole group couldn't have been more than a hundred individuals, but it was more than Ruby had been expecting.

"Giant women?" Lydia asked incredulously.

"Well, where else would little Giants have come from?" Ruby noticed the ears on the little ones and then looked up to see that the adults' ears were all pointed as well. "Hey, are Giants some kind of elf?"

"I… To be fully honest, my Thane, all I know about Giants is that they're big."

One of the women set down a large basket big enough to fit several people in and started pulling out handfuls of leaves, passing them out to the men. Other women followed suit, until everyone had a big plate full of the leaves. A few men set some skeevers, wolves, or other animals on sticks to begin cooking them on the fire, but all of them began grabbing leaves and stuffing them into their mouths before chewing.

"Oh, they eat tree leaves! I should be writing this stuff down. Except I'd have to do it with… Ah, got it!" Ruby took out her scroll and made a note document while seeing that her Dust battery had about six months of charge left in it. As she entered in the words, the Giant she'd began thinking of as 'Chief' came over with a wrinkly, silver-haired Giant woman who walked with a staff the size of a small tree.

"Small Ruby," Chief said, getting her attention. "This is Grandmother Gern. I told her how you helped us."

"You are kind, little friends," Gern thanked them. "We've lost several mammoths to the raiders in the past phases. We have had to send many men up the mountains looking for more food to feed us, and our kin cannot help for their own problems." She nodded sadly at that. "We are grateful, but I am afraid we must ask for more. We know where they come from. There is a cave upwards where they hide. The openings are small, and big folk cannot go after them without crawling in. But you are small too. You can stop them."

"We have many coins and pelts we can give you," Chief added. "We trade with caravans and cities, and use the coins to trade back for things. Get rid of the raiders, or capture them, and we will give you many coins and pelts for helping."

Ruby looked over at Lydia with a smile. "Well, sounds like a regular, old bounty request. Think we can handle a few bandits?"

"I think it would be trivial for you, actually, seeing what you can do. So long as you don't get too cocksure." Lydia smiled back.

"Don't worry," Ruby reassured her housecarl before redirecting her gaze upwards. "Okay Chief, Granny Gern, we'll do it first thing in the morning. But for tonight, as I'm sure Weiss would kill me if I didn't do this, I wanted to ask you guys some things. First, do you know how the basics of forging works?"

---

"Wow! Just look at this place!" Onmund gasped with awe as the students came in for their field trip, disguised as an expedition. "The ancient Nords were truly inspired builders and carvers!"

"I assume it wasn't always all underground?" Weiss asked as she stepped down from the plank that led from the higher entrance.

"No, most likely only the tombs were. Even then, only mostly. Time has buried the ancient city under thousands of years' worth of dust and snow."

"I can feel some ancient magic in here, as well," Brelyna remarked. "I bet I could track us down some nifty artifacts."

"Oh, J'zargo has something as well," the Khajiit mentioned as he reached into his knapsack and pulled out a few scrolls. "He has been working on a new spell, a sort of flame cloak with a twist. It should be especially potent against the undead, burning them into a crisp in no time. You should… Eh, Weiss? What are you...?"

The three looked over to see Weiss hiding behind a pillar, her head peeking out and staring at the scroll with slight fear. "S-sorry, but… I really don't like fire. At all. I'd love to help you, but… Sorry."

"Here, I'll take one," Brelyna quickly stated as she took one of the offered scrolls, giving Weiss a quick, knowing, and sympathetic glance. "I'll be the least likely to be hurt if anything did go wrong with my Dunmer heritage and all."

"Eh, always good to have a backup," Onmund concluded as he also took a scroll. It wasn't until J'zargo put the rest way when Weiss pulled herself out from behind the pillar and nervously approached.

"It is all right to have fears," the Khajiit reassured her. "Here, so you will feel better, J'zargo has also been trying to make a more powerful potion by using special water. He has a fire resistance potion made with special spring water." He then pulled out a bottle and passed it over to the Huntress.

"Thank you. I'll let you know how well it works." Weiss smiled. "Any idea where we should go first?"

"Well, Arniel Gane is supposed to be one of the main researchers on the site," Onmund explained. "He could probably direct us somewhere we could be useful."

"Or we could find something ahead of time," J'zargo suggested. "Taking initiative will be eye-catching, and if we find something worthwhile…"

"I like the sound of that. Adventurous!" Weiss declared, now beaming.

"Let's just be careful," Brelyna warned as Weiss took the lead with J'zargo close behind. "There could be places that the masters and experts haven't cleared just yet."

Their minds made up, the student mages went ahead of the group currently being guided by Master Tolfdir. As they went, Weiss noticed something out of the corner of her eye and looked back a moment to see that Talia was looking towards her, almost pouting. Feeling slightly self-conscious thanks to the woman, Weiss accidentally walked to the side slightly, where she bumped into J'zargo's shoulder.

"Sorry."

"It is quite all right. You are not heavy at all, and did not so much as ruffle J'zargo."

"Or are you just that strong?"

"J'zargo is strong, this much is true. But your own strength cannot be denied, nor your graceful and agile feet."

"Gods, why...?" Brelyna and Onmund quietly groaned at the sight of J'zargo and Weiss flirting.

As the students went further into the ancient structure, they came by a place where several mages were looking over some artifacts, including rings, amulets, and weapons. Brelyna pointed out Arniel, but the four continued forwards anyways. Going through the winding hallways there didn't seem to be much until they stopped near a rusty iron bar gate. J'zargo looked closely at the gate and tapped it as Weiss and Brelyna looked for a lever of some sort, but Onmund's gaze was caught by an ivory amulet hanging on a carving in the wall. He set his torch on the wall and picked up the amulet, only to hear the sound of metal sliding against stone. The students immediately looked towards the sound then at him. Onmund smiled nervously, and a quick look around the corner showed them that the small area they were in had been closed off.

"Well done, my tall friend. You managed to activate a booby trap and get us all stuck. It will take at least an hour for even J'zargo to melt one of these bars sufficiently."

"Sorry!" the Nord apologized. "Here, I'll just…" Placing the amulet back into its space caused no changes. "All right, so that's not how it works."

"I think I heard it up here," an incoming voice said as Arniel, Tolfdir, and several students and assistants came within the trapped ones' line of sight. Arniel sighed while clutching his forehead while Tolfdir approached them.

"Are you lot all right?" he asked, concerned.

"We're a little stuck at the moment, but perfectly fine," Weiss explained.

"How in the world-"

"I grabbed an amulet off the wall," Onmund admitted quickly. "I'm sorry, master."

"Well, at least none of you are hurt, but you should try to keep in mind that you easily could have," Tolfdir admonished before cupping his chin in thought. "Well, perhaps that amulet has some importance? See if you can use it somehow."

With everyone's gazes directed towards him, Onmund looked at the necklace before placing it on his neck. When he let it go, the mages were all startled as a loud sound echoed out as a magical wisp reached out from the wall and towards Onmund's amulet.

"Well look at that!" Tolfdir exclaimed as he peered through at the phenomena. "It appears that there's some sort of resonance between the wearer of the amulet and that part of the wall!"

Brelyna looked at the wispy magic between her classmate and the carved wall while Weiss and J'zargo looked closer to the wall itself. "Wait, I have an idea. Onmund, try casting a spell at the wall."

"Like, any kind?" At her nodding, he looked back at the place he took the amulet from and gulped. "Well, it's worth a shot I suppose." He focused a spell in his right hand and let it fly towards the wall. Upon impact, the stone shattered backwards and the pieces started to disintegrate, causing his fellow students to jump back.

"What was that?!" Weiss shouted.

"It- I only cast a simple magelight spell! Honest!"

"If that is true, then it appears that the wall was made to fall apart like that," J'zargo commented. "Less a trap, more a test. How good a test is questionable when the only options are to pass, starve, or escape."

Tolfdir then walked in beside them as the iron bars receded, rubbing his chin as he observed the new opening.

"Well, this is highly unusual. And interesting. If you four feel up to it, mind coming with an old man to see where this goes? Arniel, watch the other students for me until we get back," the older mage called back.

The expert mage sighed. "Very well, Master Tolfdir. Do be careful down there."

The four students followed the master into the cave-like stone hallways as he threw up a candlelight over his shoulder. Past a couple of bends they began getting close to a doorway of some sort.

"Why in the world would this be sealed off?" the teacher wondered aloud.

"Perhaps there's something dangerous?" Onmund suggested. "Or maybe it's only supposed to be found by someone able to pass the test?"

"Well, Brelyna is the one who came up with the idea to try your magic," Weiss pointed out.

"True, but-" Onmund stopped as something seemed to manifest around them. Tolfdir had frozen in place in mid-step, as had the movement of his candlelight, and even the flame on Onmund's torch, leaving the four students feeling as though they had fallen out of time itself. Weiss felt herself begin to panic a little as the world became tinted in lavender, and then motes of light seemed to coalesce before them into a humanoid shape. The other three prepped a spell in their hands while Weiss grasped the hilt of Myrtenaster and was prepared to reach onto her back for the Sanguine Rose as an Altmer in odd robes appeared. Before any of them could start asking questions, the Altmer raised his hand to placate them.

"Hold mages," he called out in an echoing tone, "and listen well." Weiss eased up on reaching for her weapons, but kept a close hand to her sword and her other hand cast ready. The other students slowly lowered their hands as well, letting the magic they had been ready to call upon die down. "Know that a chain of events has been set in motion that can no longer be stopped," he warned. "Judgement has not been passed, as you had no way of knowing. Judgement will be passed on your actions to come, and how you deal with the dangers ahead of you. This warning is passed to you because the Psijic Order believes in you." He pointed directly at Weiss. "But it is you, and you alone who holds the potential to prevent great disaster. Take great care, and know that the Order is watching."

With that, the Altmer seemed to burst into the motes of light he came from, and the lavender hue over the world vanished. The sound and sight of flames moving came from the torch again, and Tolfdir turned around as he stumbled a bit with his steps.

"What- I felt something very strange just now. What just happened?"

"There was… I think we were just visited by a monk of the Psijic Order!" Brelyna declared, her eyes wide in shock.

"It was strange," Onmund added. "It looked like he froze time on everything but us. I didn't even think there was a spell that powerful."

"He said something about danger ahead," J'zargo ruminated with a claw running through his whiskers. "Very peculiar that."

"The Psijic Order?" Tolfdir rolled back, cupping his chin. "That's very odd. The Psijics have no connection to these ruins. And no one's seen any of their order in a long time."

"But then why would they have gone through all of this just to speak to us?" Weiss asked as she looked to the amulet Onmund now wore.

"I have no idea, but it's so very fascinating. Assuming that that's what happened of course. The Isle of Artaeum disappeared over a hundred years ago, and no one has seen them since. And yet now, suddenly, they've chosen to contact you? Why, it's intriguing!" Tolfdir then began observing the coffins more closely as he spoke. "If nothing else, I'd take it as a compliment. The Psijics have only ever dealt with those they feel worthy."

"All right then," Weiss looked at her classmates before coming to a conclusion, "can I assume I'm not the only one who doesn't know what exactly the Psijic Order are?" Weiss asked her classmates.

"J'zargo knows little, unfortunately."

"To be honest, it's the first I ever heard of them," Onmund admitted. "Now I can't help but want to dig up some information on them."

"I know a bit. Not too much, but a bit," Brelyna admitted. "They started back in the early First Era, when Altmer were first settling the Summerset Isles. They don't often appear in history, but when they do it's almost always significant. Their last major action happened in the first century of the Third Era, when they conjured a storm to destroy a massive Maormer fleet coming in from Pyandonea. When their island disappeared a hundred years ago, everyone believed that they would be all right, as the island has disappeared before. Some say they just moved it on purpose to keep from being interfered with by the Thalmor, and avoid any sort of conflict with them."

"So an order of powerful mages, likely more powerful than anything here going by that time spell." Weiss began to wonder if perhaps they could help her and her friends return home. After all, if they were aware of a wall in an ancient ruin being opened, then surely they had noticed a ship being transferred from one plane of existence to another, especially as that ship was carrying someone very important on it.

Suddenly, two of the coffins burst open, draugr walking out of both and pulling forth ancient weapons. Tolfdir immediately unleashed a font of flames at the one closest to him while Onmund fired out a frost spell towards the other backed up by Weiss with a lightning bolt. One went down having gotten frozen and sparking while the other collapsed and broke into charcoaled bits.

"Be prepared to defend yourselves," the teacher reminded them as they headed inwards. Down another stone hallway was a gate with a lever directly next to it. Tolfdir opened the gate and went inside, where the five mages saw that they had entered a room filled with standing coffins and a bridge in the center over a metal grating. The coffins almost immediately started opening, letting near a dozen draugr enter the room. Seeing they were severely outnumbered, Onmund took the experimental scroll from his pack and shrugged.

"Might as well." He unfurled the scroll and the magic within it burned up the parchment, leaving a readied spell in his hand. He unleashed it as he went forward, and became cloaked in flames before running towards the incoming undead. A draugr was hit by the swirling flames and then suddenly exploded, the eruption harming all of the nearby draugr and Onmund. As the Nord was tossed onto his back he cried out in pain.

"Are they supposed to do that!?" he shouted at J'zargo, who began tossing firebolts and lightning at the stumbling draugr.

"He is sorry! No, they were not meant to-" He summoned up a ward, blocking an arrow from hitting his face. "They should not be doing that!"

"Onmund, stay clear until it wears off!" Tolfdir warned as he froze a draugr's feet to the ground before throwing an ice spike directly through its head. Weiss summoned a glyph beneath three draugr, throwing them into the air before changing its direction and throwing them into the side of the stone bridge. They fell onto the grate and both she and Brelyna began filling them with lightning magic, causing them to twitch until they sputtered out. The last one went down as J'zargo caught it by its chin and flipped over it, tossing the undead over his body while freezing the head in his grasp before ripping it off.

"So brittle while they are cold enough," he commented before tossing it away.

"I've never seen anything like this in Nordic ruins before!" Tolfdir exclaimed. "Why just look at all of these coffins!"

"I've only been in a couple but they've never been gathered up like this," Weiss responded. "This might have been done specifically as a security measure, rather than simply laying them to rest."

"Yes, usually the draugr rise up at random. These seem to have been set up. I'd like to stay a while and take a closer look at this. You four can handle yourselves well enough. Feel free to look ahead and see if you can find what your shared vision mentioned. If it's truly dangerous, though, be careful"

"Thank you, master," Onmund answered as he went over and tugged on a pull chain, J'zargo pulling the other. "And don't worry, we'll be careful."

As the four students went ahead, J'zargo looked over to Onmund with some concern. "You are not overly injured, yes?"

"No. The explosions surprised me more than anything. Maybe scorched my robes. I'll live."

"Still, they should not have exploded so violently. At least J'zargo is in the right direction. A little more work, and it should destroy them quickly nicely."

"It is rather impressive that you were able to make your own spell," Weiss commented.

"Thank you. Your unique spell is also eye-catching, and very pretty. It suits you. Perhaps you can teach it to J'zargo?"

"Well, as good as a student as you are, I'm not sure how well it can be taught."

"Only one way to find out. We shall just have to set aside some time for each other after we get back."

Onmund groaned and they came into a new area. Brelyna suddenly brought up her arm and stopped them, pointing ahead towards a red rune glowing on the ground.

"So the ancient Nords weren't just about cages and walking dead," J'zargo commented as he readied a lightning bolt and released it at the rune, which then exploded into a fiery pillar that could have seriously harmed any one of them. A draugr nearby the trap was set on fire as it walked from its resting place, only to end up with an ice spike through the eye courtesy of Weiss. Another one approached, only to be bombarded by the four apprentice mages. Most of the tombs went by like this, with a draugr or two coming out and getting quickly put down by their combined magical might, with one or two traps dodged out of the way. A combination door stood in their path, but was easily solved thanks to Weiss' experience and J'zargo's quick eye for detail noticing the solution hidden just behind each of the turning pillars.

A slightly tougher draugr stood in their way, but once they had spread out to keep its attention split it went down fairly quickly. Weiss sent her familiar forward, but then heard two electrical explosions followed by the return of her summon's essence.

"Lightning runes," J'zargo observed. "Good for trapping against mages. Saps the magicka from the spirit while hurting the body."

"Hope we don't run into any ourselves," Weiss replied as she summoned another ghostly fox and sent it forward. The four walked after it, coming up into a large hall where several carvings stood shaped like massive heads with open mouths, traditional animal inlays inside of their stone jaws. Just past the four carvings were found more combination pillars, but they also had miniature animal inlays above them, matching with the larger twins.

"All right, not too hard," Weiss confidently expressed as she turned one pillar, only for two others to turn on their own when she did. She looked back in surprise with a small jump and the others looked at the pillars with her.

"He is thinking this one is not as simple as the other," J'zargo confided. He went over to one of them that had turned itself and turned it back. It did so, but the one next to it turned as well. He looked over at the one across and then went to turn it. When it turned, each of the others turned as well, one after the other. "Ah, now it makes sense! Onmund, try that last one real quick."

Onmund turned the last pillar, but none of the others followed it. The Khajiit laughed and then turned the one he was at, followed by the one with Weiss, then the one he had tried, which just so happened to have turned the final pillar where it needed to be. While he and Weiss were confident, Onmund and Brelyna still hid behind one of the carvings when he pulled the lever, only for the gate to open rather than a booby trap being activated.

"Quick thinking, J'zargo," Weiss complimented.

"He does his best."

Just as they started heading down further into the tomb, the sound of footsteps coming quickly to them was heard, and they turned to see Tolfdir coming at a slight jog.

"I thought it about time I caught up to you. Well done so far, students. I saw the things you had to get past to get this far. Let's all see what awaits us ahead then."

With their teacher back to help them, they set downwards once again. Past a few more winding tunnels, they entered into a wide and open room, with a large, mystically glowing orb spinning at the far end.

"Well now…" Tolfdir began. "I never imagined we'd find anything like this."

"What is that?" Onmund asked.

"I…have no idea," the teacher admitted. "More importantly, why is it buried so far beneath Saarthal?"

Weiss went close to the edge of the landing they were on and looked down to see an ancient stone altar with a throne seated in front of it, a mummified corpse seated within the throne.

"We're going to go down there," she explained, her tone flat and dry, "and that draugr's going to come to life, and it will be tougher than any other draugr in this forsaken crypt."

"You've done this a few times, haven't you?" J'zargo stated.

"Yes, a few." She sighed. "Well, let's go get this over with. Probably a chest full of gems and ancient coins hidden somewhere in here."

Almost as if it sensed her saying that, the draugr rose to its feet, looking up at the mages before drawing its black, silver-inlaid axe. Rather than head straight for them , however, it went off to the side, where a tendril of magic reached out from the energy surrounding the orb. J'zargo and Weiss hopped off of the landing while the other three started throwing spells. Two firebolts and three ice spikes seemed to harmlessly splash and shatter around the shield that had formed around the draugr while Weiss summoned a bear familiar and J'zargo fired of dual-casted firebolts and lightning. The bear familiar charged in and roared as it bit down on the draugr's helmeted face, but the attack seemed to do nothing as the undead chopped its head clean off with a swing of its axe. Weiss closed it and went for a stab, but Myrtenaster simply bounced off, sending a lance of pain up Weiss' shoulder. She jumped out of the way as the draugr tried to freeze her solid with a cone of frostbite that she could feel chilling the immediate area around them both.

"Nothing seems to be working!" Tolfdir shouted as he headed down the stairs opposite of the draugr. "Keep it busy! I'll try to drain it of some of its power!"

"Busy! Right!" Brelyna responded as she cast a spell to summon a flame atronach, only for the creature to disappear almost immediately. "Damn it all!"

Before any retaliation could be unleashed upon the Dunmer, the draugr found itself in a sort of duel with Weiss, its black axe coming close to her face, where she saw how it held a razor edge as it passed her face by scant inches. She couldn't do any damage to it, but she was holding its attention fairly well. J'zargo came in and tried to scratch at it, but his claws simply slid off. He hissed and rubbed the fingers of one hand, then reached out and set loose flames onto the corpse. It went at him with a chop, but the Khajiit easily jumped out of the way. Weiss saw Tolfdir struggling with the magic field, when it suddenly came undone and the white glow that had surrounded their enemy dissipated.

"There! Now attack!" the teacher called out. Weiss stabbed forward with a shout, pinning its arm to its chest. She let go of her rapier and leapt back before unleashing a dual-casted array of sparks onto it, quickly followed by the other four. The draugr spasmed as electricity filled its body until it finally toppled over, smoke coming from out of its armor.

"Eh, not so tough when it's not invincible," J'zargo panted as he went back to rubbing his sore claws. Onmund came down, but his attention was taken by a staff sitting on the altar.

"Wow, look at this! I bet it-" He then noticed a piece of paper sitting under it. He picked up the staff, and then opened the note, seeing that the parchment had been oddly untouched by time.

"'Be bound here, Jyrik, murderer, betrayer

"Condemned by your crimes against realm and lord

"May your names and deeds be forgotten forever

"And the charm which you bear be sealed by our ward'.

"Wait a minute! Jyrik? I think this was Jyrik Gaulderson!"

The other three students looked at Onmund in confusion, their teacher currently too enraptured by the orb to notice.

"…Who?" Weiss finally asked.

"One of the three sons of the ancient Archmage Gaulder, who was said to have been the most powerful mage of his time. His sons grew jealous of him, and then found that much of his power came from his amulet. They killed him, split the amulet in three parts, then spread chaos across the face of Skyrim before the High King was finally able to put them down. Their names were stricken from every record, and even Gaulder was nearly forgotten, but a few texts outside of Skyrim survived to tell the tale. None of you ever heard of them?" he asked in a little surprise.

"Not local," Weiss offered as she pulled her rapier from the newly re-killed corpse, then looked on his neck and pulled off an amulet carved from ivory, similar to the one Onmund now wore, only this one had a jagged edge. "So this is supposed to be his third." Weiss took off the Necromancer's Amulet and placed Jyrik's Fragment on her neck and gasped. While her magicka pool shrank some with the removal of Mannimarco's trinket, it expanded once again, this time even further than what it had been doing. Not just that, but a quick test of magic showed her that she was expending less to cast with the fragment on.

"Amazing!" she went as she pocketed her jade amulet and continued observing her newfound power. "And this is just a third of it? No wonder this Gaulder had so much power."

"Just…promise not to go mad with it and destroy a swath of Skyrim?" Brelyna asked nervously.

"I promise not to go into a murderous power spree." Weiss chuckled, earning a smirk from Brelyna. Shaking her head, she looked over past the orb their teacher was still muttering to himself over and noticed a Word Wall, remembering what Yang and Ruby wrote to her in their last letter. She took out her scroll and went to the camera setting while Onmund walked over and picked up Jyrik's axe, holding it in one hand with the staff in the other, striking a pose that elicited a laugh from their Dunmer classmate.

---

Ruby had shown the Giants a lot before night had come in. It turned out that they were pretty quick learners, and it was easy for them to grab the necessary stones and chip them down when needed to make a charcoal oven, a basic smelter, and a forge. Granted, they were still absolutely primitive versions, but they got the job done well enough to make what may have been the first Giant made piece of iron armor. That piece of armor was also perhaps the shoddiest she'd ever laid eyes on, but the second one they had laid into a mold was already looking far better as a craftswoman hammered onto it atop the boulder chosen to be an anvil. One of the Giants now wore the armor proudly over his hide outfit, strapping it on with sabercat leather.

After a good night's sleep, Ruby, Lydia, and several Giants made their way up north, stopping at a hill nearby the poacher's hideout so that the big folk could point it out to them.

"They hide in there," Chief explained. "Lookout watches for incoming people."

Ruby looked through her scope and spotted said lookout, a Nord man wearing hide. She hummed and looked over to Riek, who held another thing she'd taught the Giants to make.

"Wanna test out your new bow?"

The Giant lifted up the proportionately simple bow that Ruby had painstakingly guided a crafter through carving while awaiting their new facilities' material to be gathered. He had several recovered spears in a sack and had several feathers attached to them. He pulled up one of the arrows and drew it back like he'd been instructed, aimed at the distant Nord, and loosed it. Ruby had expected his shot to go wide, as it was his first time firing at a target so far away. However, luck seemed to be against the lookout, who barely saw the projectile coming before it impaled him, going straight through and driving into the ground. The Giants cheered and a few made gentle punches on Riek's shoulders, congratulating him on a job well done. Ruby just sighed and prepared to head forward.

"Weren't expecting that?" Lydia asked as they headed to the cave.

"Well, I won't complain too much. We can get the drop on the other poachers now."

The cave was simple, with three main chambers and a few tunnels connecting them. There were about twenty bandits within, and Ruby and Lydia were able to beat them all down. Three more were killed in the scuffle, mostly due to their own stupidity than anything. The toughest one seemed to be their 'chief', who wore a full set of plate armor. However, Ruby ended up running circles around the armored orc while bashing him around from all directions until he collapsed unconscious. They then proceeded to drag the outlaws outside, where the Giants started to tie them together in bundles of five and then heft them over their shoulders to carry. A few poachers were regaining consciousness at that point, but refused to put up a fight. Instead, a few started crying that they were going to die or squawked about indignantly.

As they neared, Chief looked over the captured bandits and nodded.

"Thank you, friend Ruby. You've helped our tribe greatly with this. We will spread the word to the other clans. You and Lydia and anyone you call friend may share our fire whenever you wish."

"You're welcome, Chief." Ruby looked over to where the outlaw 'chief' was being taken away. "What are you going to do with all the poachers?"

"Think." The older Giant rubbed his chin as he thought it over. "Small folk pay others to hunt bad folk, big or small. They should pay us big folk like they would other small folk."

"True. Pretty sure I saw evidence of these guys attacking caravans."

"It will happen when it happens. Come, friends. We will give you your coin reward, but we can never fully repay you your kindness."

It turned out the Giants had something of a small treasury inside of a large chest they used to store their coins. Ruby picked through them, finding and taking four denars and ten septims. A few Giants wondered why she didn't take more, but then she explained that different coins had different values. Most of them hadn't known that, so there was a short lesson on coinage value, which made a few of them angry as they realized that some people had cheated them during short deals.

Afterwards, she and Lydia prepared to leave, Ruby waving back at the Giant clan goodbye. The teenaged Enurk waved back enthusiastically, and the mammoth calf mimicked him with its trunk. Ruby was immensely tickled by the sight and squeed to herself at the baby's adorableness. Lydia just smiled at her Thane's actions and shook her head before looking at their map.

They found the road just before crossing the bridge over the river, but left it for a more direct beaten path towards Morthal. At about mid-afternoon, Ruby pulled Chocolate Hooves to a sudden stop. Lydia slowed her own Summer Breeze and looked to see whatever had caught her Thane's attention to see a translucent figure standing a ways away from them. It turned and ran, and Ruby turned her horse towards him.

"Lydia, it's another ghost!" Ruby pointed out. "What if there's another guy like that Sild or whatever?"

"If you want to, we can go see what it's about," Lydia told her. "The last time we did stop a murderer, and you found a Word Wall."

"Yeah, that's true. Okay, let's follow the ghost!"

The two began heading in the direction the spirit had gone. When they came upon him again, he went to the side, going behind a series of rocks and boulders. They followed, but past the bend was a large, ancient Nordic tomb. Four stonehenge arches sat before it, with an altar sitting a ways in front of the door. Ruby and Lydia unhorsed, and tied the animals with a pair of long tethers near the stream before heading in. The ghost was just inside, waving at them from in front of an iron gate before turning and walking through it. Ruby, squinting her eyes in thought, hummed at that.

"Looks like we got a friendly ghost this- Hey, look at this!" Just now noticing the altar in front of them, Ruby also took notice of a familiar item. "It's just like Lucan's Golden Claw, only it's red." She picked it up and began looking it over. "I think the claws are made out of-" A pressure plate the Claw was sitting on suddenly rose, opening the gate, but also awakening four draugr, which immediately began to stand and draw their weapons. "Whoops!"

Lydia took out her shield and drew her sword. "It was bound to happen eventually."

"Yeah, sorry about that, though." Ruby set the Ruby Claw down and dashed to one side of the room, swinging her scythe through one draugr before turning and decapitating the other with added momentum. Lydia had cut one down and bashed the other away before stabbing into its throat, returning the corpse to death.

"Okay, so…the Golden Claw turned out to be a key, same with the Sapphire Claw, so I'm betting that this Ruby Claw will be a key here as well." Ruby blinked as she picked the item back up and looked around. "You know, I half-expected Yang to make a joke about this. We need to make sure to take this thing back with us, if only because it'll look really pretty hanging up on a wall. Ooh, this probably means that they're more! I bet they'd make a nice collection!"

"Well, something tells me we'll see sooner or later."

After sufficiently looting the room, they headed through the open door, where they saw the ghost calmly walking by. Trying to follow him, Ruby went around the bend, dodging a trap's pressure stone, only to see he'd disappeared. They continued further on, pausing at what appeared to be a dead end, a mostly smooth, aside from some cracks, stone surface set into a doorway. Ruby looked around for a moment, and then noticed a pull chain. She tugged it, and the stone spun around, a gate opening up as it came into place, revealing more of the tomb ahead. As they walked in, they saw the ghost walking forward, disappearing into another door, causing Ruby to sigh.

"Well, while it's nice of him to try to guide us, I think it'd work a little better if he could open a door or two."

"He might be even more ethereal than normal. It could be that he simply can't interact with the world anymore."

"Huh, I guess that would get in the way of doing stuff like pulling levers."

A little ways in, the Dragonborn turned a corner only to cry out and jump aside as two globs of poison were spat at her. "Frostbite spiders!" she warned.

"We got them!" her housecarl reassured her as she took point, charging against one spider before bashing its face with her shield. She then struck out with her sword, but the spider managed to raise itself out of the way in time and attempted to bite back. Ruby went for the other, steeling her nerves before bringing her scythe down, stabbing through its head and pinning it to the ground. A second later, Lydia stabbed the other spider below the eyes and above the mouth, hitting its brain immediately. With both creatures dead, the girls continued forward, Ruby turning and seeing another pull chain.

"Oh, this must open that door." She pulled it, and suddenly all of the doors around them spun, some closing and others opening.

"My Thane!" she heard Lydia's muffled voice on the other side of the stone wall.

"Sorry! I'll just-" Ruby's word were cut off as a draugr ran at her, one arm outstretched and releasing a torrent of frost at her. To make matters worse, her candlelight chose to go out at that moment. Without her spell or Lydia's belt lantern, Ruby panicked a little, but was able to reel enough of herself in to concentrate her Thu'um and unleash it.

"Yol!" she Shouted, countering the frost magic and setting the draugr ablaze, giving her something to see by. Seeing as she was too close-quartered for Crescent Rose, she swung out with her elven sword as she drew it from the sheath. The light blade sliced across the draugr's chest, and then she stabbed forward into its chest cavity. The undead down, Ruby was forced to dodge an incoming arrow from an archer at the end of the tunnel. Ruby quickly shifted Crescent Rose into gun mode, took aim,and fired, the draugr's head bursting into countless pieces as the corpse fell to the ground. Sighing in relief, Ruby sheathed her sword and summoned up a new candlelight as she walked over to the pull chain and tugged it again, opening the door between her and a slightly cross and worried Lydia.

"What just happened?" the housecarl asked as she eyed the corpses.

"Didn't think it through. Sorry. I just figured this thing opened the door. I didn't think it completely turned the ruins around."

"We're just lucky I wasn't standing right in the doorway." Lydia looked back out, and then stepped back into the room. "Try it now, though. I think it does lead to the way forward."

Ruby pulled it once again and the two followed the newly set path. Another draugr began pulling himself from the way, but Lydia's sword quickly found his neck and sent the mummified head rolling along. A few more turns, and then Ruby hopped over a pressure stone while Lydia skirted around it, neither of them really caring to find out what the trap triggered. Past there was a large room with two grates on the floor. Before they could really take the room in, two large frostbite spiders fell down from the ceiling.

Feeling furious rather than frightened, Ruby set Crescent Rose to spear mode and charged at one spider in a flurry of rose petals, stabbing straight into it and slicing out, cutting the arachnid in half. The other one had gone for Lydia, but had barely engaged in battle when Ruby came spinning from behind, cutting open its abdomen and letting its green ichor and innards spill out. The creature struggled and thrashed around for a moment, but then Lydia struck it across the face, quelling its pain with death.

"I hate these stupid things!" Ruby fumed. "Why can't they just stay in their webs like regular spiders!?"

"My Thane, are you all right?"

"Yes!" Ruby took in a breath and released it slowly. "No, I wasn't. Sorry. It just gets frustrating sometimes when it feels like everything's trying to kill us, even though we could easily beat them." Ruby took in another calming breath. "Also, I hate spiders."

"Yes, I'm…aware."

"Not as much as Pyrrha, though," Ruby muttered. Seeing Lydia's confused look, Ruby moved to explain. "Friend from back home. Best fighter in our class, if not the entire student body. Absolutely terrified of spiders, and pretty much any kind of bug," Ruby smiled as a memory came to mind. "One time, she went to take a bath, only to find a small, harmless spider in the tub. Her shriek was so loud I heard it from across the hall. She ended up refusing to go in until Jaune, her team leader, got rid of it." Ruby's chuckles were joined by Lydia, who was easily able to see why that might be amusing.

"Something tells me her reaction would be a lot worse should she see a frostbite spider."

"Probably. I'd say I would love to see that, but that would be mean."

The two took a moment to scope out the room, but the only way forward seemed to be hidden by a pull chain. Making sure they were secure, Ruby activated it, which caused one of the grates to open.

"I guess we need to go…" Ruby looked down and saw that the bottom of the hole was filled with water. She sighed and sat at the edge. "I wish I knew some magic that could keep me from getting wet. Well, I could try to… But then you would… Hey Lydia, would jumping into that hurt?"

To test, Lydia took an ancient candlestick from an equally ancient table and dropped it into the hole. It plopped into the water and sank in deeply.

"Should be deep enough. My lantern's enchanted against water, so it should be fine. Well, here goes." Lydia jumped down and hit the water with a splash before swimming back up. Ruby released a breath she'd been holding then prepared to jump down as well. As she fell though, she concentrated her Semblance and pushed forward, dashing towards the opening she saw near the bottom, a few rose petals drifting down before disappearing. Lydia swam over and pulled herself up, sopping wet while Ruby was dry above the knees.

"Was there any way you could have pulled me with you?"

"Well, now that I think about it, I should probably practice that."

With Lydia shaking her head, the two traversed the watery hallway. As they came into a room with the floor coated in water, a large skeever tried to jump them, only to be bashed away by Lydia and have its head cracked against a pillar. Two draugr then awoke and charged them while a third busted out of its coffin. The first two were easily taken down, but the third managed to spray Lydia with a large cone of frost magic before Ruby came in and swiped it in half. The housecarl was nearly frozen, and Ruby had to help her get out of the water and down a healing potion along with a frost resistance one while she tried to melt the ice on her with the lantern.

"I'm surprised you came out of that as good as you did," Ruby commented as they got the ice from off of her face. "You're really made out of tough stuff."

"I'm a Nord, I have to be. And it's hard to freeze a Nord." Lydia looked over to her charge as she undid her right gauntlet to get the frozen water off of it. "What race are you and your sister, by the way? I never asked because you seemed Nord-like enough, but I noticed your sister actually does poorly against the cold and seems to be as resistant to fire as a Dunmer."

"Well, I'm not too sure. I'm certain my mom is from Vale, or at least from around Vale, somewhere in east Sanus. I know my dad's mom came from Vacuo, but his dad came from East Anima. Yang's mom came from Anima too, but going by Uncle Qrow they're North Animanese, which is pretty different from Eastern Animanese. They're actually a lot closer to the Central Animanese. I can't really explain it, but humans just stopped caring about the differences between ourselves a long time ago." She then groaned. "But a lot of jerks still care about how different faunus are."

"Well, while we're here, what exactly makes a faunus different?"

"Well… you know how Blake has cat ears but also human ears?" Lydia nodded. "Sometimes it's stuff like that, but pretty much every kind of animal. Bears, wolves, rabbits, mice… I was going to say dogs, but then I realized I never saw a dog faunus before. Now that I think about it, I never saw any sort of domesticated animal faunus. Okay, backing up, every kind of wild animal. I guess that means Blake's a black panther then."

"Then they're people with animal ears?"

"No, not that simple either. It could be all kinds of different traits. Tails, horns, claws, even wings. But almost all of them have only one or the other. I think in one of my classes some kind of special gene matching was mentioned that can make a faunus born with more than one, but I tended to sleep through biology all the time so I can't remember. Too rare to worry about anyways."

"So then, a faunus is a human with some sort of animal feature?"

"Pretty much. Oh, they also have really good night vision. I remember that much. There was bit of a situation in one history class where some students got in an argument over it during the lesson on the Faunus Rights Revolution."

"They sound like they'd make good scouts, maybe on par with Khajiiti nightblades, or wood elf hunters." Lydia rolled her shoulders and then stood up. "I'm warmed up enough to continue if you are."

"Sure, but only if you're really positive. If you start getting chills, we'll park it and start a campfire, no arguments."

"None from me, my Thane," Lydia agreed as Ruby passed her back her lantern, which she clipped onto her belt. The two headed over to a pillar with a ramp circled around it and headed to the top. A gate stood in the way, but it was easily opened, but doing so triggered something and caused a dozen pendulums to begin swinging down, half of them going one way and half going the other.

"Oh boy, one of these," Ruby intoned with a sigh. She started bouncing lightly from foot to foot while shaking her arms. "One sec, Lyd. I got this." She went down into a sprinter's pose and focused herself. Right as the pendulums went past their downward arc, she Shouted, "Wuld!" and sped across. Lydia noticed a few grey petals in the air, but they were quickly scattered by the trap swinging through them.

"Ah, here we go!" Ruby uttered as she pulled a chain on her side that caused the pendulums to cease. Lydia waited a moment and then quickly came over. "Yeah, they usually have some way of stopping them once you get past them the first time."

"I see."

Just past the pendulum-filled catwalk and up another circling ramp was a door that opened to a hallway with a small altar at a corner and another door further down, only it was sealed away by some sort of magic, Ruby wondered if there was some sort of spell that could force the doors open, but decided to risk venturing down the connected hall first. Going down it they eventually came into another room, only the moment they passed its doorway the gate crashed down behind them and three others opened up, allowing draugr from other rooms to pour in.

"Lydia, watch my six!" Ruby called out as she charged the center of the room and went into a spin, slicing down two undead while Lydia shoulder checked another. Three more came in and Ruby smashed one with a downwards reverse swing before jabbing her spear end into the eye of another. Lydia cut down the last one and took a moment to catch her breath. Ruby took in their surroundings, and then quickly dashed into each of the places the draugr had emerged from to find that they were all dead ends. Though one did have chest that seemed to activate a dart trap she avoided. Luckily it didn't activate again and she was able to scoop out a handful of coins and an old helmet that she quickly tossed side.

"Well, nothing else in here. Gonna pull it." With that she pulled the chain and the gate they came from opened as well as the grate at the center, an old spiral staircase leading down. Traveling down the dizzying stairs, they came to a rather obvious secret entrance with a pull handle at the side. Lydia tugged the handle out, twisted it for good measure, and then pushed it back in. Once the action was complete, the stone door slowly receded.

Just past the door, the ghost was sitting down on a rectangular piece of rubble, a long-rotted corpse nearly skeletal lying next to his feet with something clutched in its arms. He looked at them expectantly, then back down at the body. Ruby walked over and bent next to it.

"Is this you?"

"It is," the ghost finally spoke. "And my final work in my hands. Take it."

Ruby took the item from the clutches of the dead body and felt that it was something bound in leather. She gently opened it to see that it was a small book that lay inside. The ghost suddenly disappeared, causing Ruby to jump a little. Figuring it may have been what he wanted all along, Ruby resolved to get the book to someone who could share it with the world, and placed it into her sack.

The two began to backtrack, figuring that they'd done all that they could do for the ghost for now. But as they came back to the space with the magically sealed door, they saw the ghost yet again. He looked right at them then turned towards the door, holding his hand as if casting a spell. The magic hit the sealed doors and opened them, and then the ghostly writer drew his sword while running in. Ruby decided to follow him with Lydia close behind, but soon they came upon a familiar door where the ghost disappeared.

"Just like in Bleak Falls and Shroud Hearth," Ruby uttered as she saw the strange lock. She pulled the Ruby Claw from her backpack and began pushing the combination to match the pattern in its palm: wolf, hawk, wolf. She placed the Claw into the slot, pushed it in, and wiggled it like she recalled Blake doing. The rings then spun themselves, arranging so that the three dragon carvings aligned, and then the door sank down into the ground. The pair went through and traveled through the hallway, emerging into a giant room, where the ghost stood at the center of a shallow pool of water, sword held at the ready for battle.

"Olaf, it is time!" the ghost called out, past the altar and up a long set of stairs to a coffin sitting as the centerpiece of it all. The ruins rumbled, and Ruby noticed that there were over a dozen throne-like chairs seated around the pool in two layers, each with a corpse seated within them like some kind of theater for the dead nobility. Three woke up, one going straight for the ghost, but his intangibility played to his strength as the draugr missed and his ghostly blade sliced through the more corporeal undead. Ruby ended up facing one with a battleaxe, while Lydia squared against another sword wielder.

As each was felled, another would stand to take its place, and so the battle went on like this for a while, with draugr rising up to challenge the trio only to be felled by one or another, some using magic, some using heavy weapons, and some using simpler one-handed ones. When no more stood and nearly all the chairs were empty, the ghost looked back at the coffin.

"Arise, Olaf! My vengeance is at hand!"

The tomb rattled again, and then the four at the second level's chairs stood. Ruby wasn't totally sure, but she had a feeling that their placement meant that they might be a cut above the rest.

The ghost squared off against two while the others went for Ruby and Lydia. Ruby blocked a heavy, overhead axe swing with a clang of their weapons, then twisted Crescent Rose around while spinning and slicing upwards, cutting the draugr in half vertically. She went over to help the ghost, taking one of his opponents away in almost comical fashion when she hooked her scythe around its waist and dragged it away from him. Thinking about whether or not it could work, Ruby held her scythe in place against the undead and then turned.

"Wuld!" she Shouted, cleaving the undead in half as well, although now she was further away from the battle. She turned back and aimed before Shouting again. "Wuld!" This time she stabbed through the ghost's other opponent, Lydia already having finished off her own. The ghost nodded to her in thanks, and then went up the stairs to the very top. Ruby began to feel the pull of power as she followed, and noticed a Word Wall at the back of the massive chamber. She steeled herself, however, and readied herself to fight whatever came next.

"Olaf!" the ghost called out his enemy once again. The top of the coffin was suddenly kicked off as the tomb shook again.

"Insolent bard!" the draugr lord growled out as he pulled himself from his resting place. "Die!" He pulled forth a gleaming, black axe with a magical glow about it, and Ruby suddenly knew that it was enchanted, and therefore could hurt the ghost. Aside from that, Olaf had taken in a deep breath, and she was feeling something else from him. "Fo!"

"He Shouts!" she warned as she put herself between the undead and Lydia.

"Krah! Diin!"

"Yol!"

The two opposing elements clashed, causing a spray of steam where they met, but Olaf's experience and three-worded Shout was easily forcing Ruby's single-worded one back. However, it gave an opportunity for the ghost to strike his foe, cutting him deeply and distracting him so that the tail end of Ruby's Fire Breath could hit him.

"Damn you to Oblivion, Svaknir!" Olaf yelled as he chopped at the spirit, hitting his block and forcing him back. Ruby came in with a slash from behind, but Olaf ducked beneath it and turned while chopping upwards, hitting the wide-eyed and surprised Dragonborn and knocking her up and back. Ruby felt her breath get knocked out of her as her Aura crackled from the exertion of defending against such a blow.

'Just how strong is he?' Ruby wondered as she tried to pick herself up. Olaf seemed to be ready to come at her, but Svaknir stabbed forward and hi ghostly blade ignored the draugr's armor in favor of piercing flesh. Olaf yelled in the dusty tone of his kind and then pulled himself off the blade while turning on the ghost. As Olaf and Svaknir went into a deadlock, Ruby reached out and stopped Lydia from jumping in.

"Wait! Just…a moment."

The ghost gritted his ethereal teeth, then suddenly he spun out of the way, leaving Olaf to tumble forward before he could redirect his force. Svaknir then sliced cleanly through the draugr's neck, his momentum making the cut all the easier. The draugr's corpse fell while the head bounced down the stairs, falling out of its helmet and then bouncing one last time off of the altar before rolling into the pool at the very bottom.

The distraction out of the way, Ruby turned towards the Word Wall and absorbed its meaning into her as she read it.

"Nonvul bron dahmaan dar rok do fin Fodiiz Bormah, Oblivion loost nid nah med spaan vahdin beyn." Before she could contemplate it, she began to sputter into laughter.

"What is it?" Lydia asked. "What's so funny?"

"Well, the dragon word for Oblivion is Oblivion, for one, and the Wall just says that Oblivion has no fury like a 'shield-maiden' scorned." She cupped her chin and hummed. "Fury. Nah. I need to think on that one a little more." She turned and looked to see the ghost of Svaknir walking once again, only this time to an ancient black door before disappearing. Lydia reached down and took a key from the belt of Olaf's once-again dead body, and Ruby picked up his axe, recognizing the materiel as ebony, and finding the enchantment after a moment's observation to be some sort of energy siphon. Tucking the axe away, Ruby followed after Lydia as she opened the doors and headed up into the adjoined room. Inside was a large chest with a battleaxe laying before it that held tons of old, Merethic and First Era coins, as well several gems, a necklace, and an enchanted staff.

Ruby took out the staff as Lydia began bagging their other loot and tried to remember how they worked. Pushing magicka through them was how people cast spells with the staff as a focus, but the effectiveness varied depended on the user and the kind of staff. The one in her hand was corundum coated, with three bladed prongs evenly surrounding a crystal focus, likely either an enchanted gemstone or modified Soul Gem. Ruby then remember how Weiss said they were used, and so focused on manipulating the energy of the staff itself, pushing what was gathered within it towards the focus. A spell formed and she released it, a ghostly wolf forming from the ball of magic.

"Oh cool! It's a Familiar Staff!" She looked at the wolf with some trepidation. "Sit," she commanded, and it obeyed. "Roll over." Once again it followed direction without hesitance. "Play dead." The familiar yelped and then keeled over, its tongue hanging loosely from its mouth. "Oh, wow, that was actually really convincing."

"I think it's just a magical construct, not an actual being."

"Yeah, I guess so." Ruby pulled at the magical bonds of the familiar, and then it dissipated. "Still, cool thing to have, and I can always give it to Weiss if I don't use it much."

"True enough."

Lydia pulled at the lever next to another obvious secret door and the two walked out of the treasury and through a hallway that exited into a familiar room.

"Does every Nordic tomb have shortcuts like this?"

Lydia just shrugged, and the two walked back out of the ancient structure.

---

The night was bright, the moons illuminating all in their pale light. Creatures could see nearly as well as they could in the day, but the shadows still offered places for predators to lurks and prey to hide, but none could hide here as the wolves, foxes, and cats of all kind ran through, picking up on the scent of fear and running down their prey.

Deer were felled, rabbits were ripped apart, even bears were surrounded and brought down. Some bears began hunting as well, tearing asunder their chosen quarry with claw and teeth. All ran forward in a seemingly never ending chase. There was always prey, and the hunters would never tire.

Arrows sang through, striking down creatures of all kinds. Predators were now prey as well as bowman joined the fray. Men with spears joined in, using their weapons to take down the beasts arrows alone could not defeat.

Then they came. They ran through the ranks, looking for those worthy as prey, or unworthy as hunters. Something guided them to what they could fell, and they followed. She felt her claws dig into the ground as she sped forward. There were unworthy hunters, and she would teach them respect while taking joy in the sport. Her jaws opened up for a roar and closed onto a man's neck. The others fought back, but her claws sliced through flesh easily, her teeth sank in and she tasted hot blood and meat with every snap.

As she went for the last, the hunter propped her spear just right, running her through. The last and her looked face to face, and she saw herself, her own face on the hunter, her golden blond hair atop her head, and her violet eyes staring up at her own.

She fell, and when she looked up, the hunter-that-was-her was gone, and in her place stood a being larger than the biggest giant she had ever seen, werebeasts sitting at his heels like loyal pets awaiting their master's command. His face was unseen, covered by an antlered deer skull he wore upon his head.

"The Hunt is coming," His voice boomed. "Soon, we shall hunt together, little one."

She dug her hands into the soil beneath her and looked down to see her arms covered in yellow fur, retractable claws tipping her fingers.

She went to scream, but only roared.

---

Yang woke up screaming. She started gasping and noticed something off. Looking up to her hand, she saw four furrows dug into the wood, ending where her fingers were. She pulled them loose and started picking the wood out from underneath her nails, only to notice something else. Her fingernails weren't nearly as long last night.

"Oh god," she gulped. "I…need to see Kodlak."

---

Unfortunately for Yang, Kodlak's experience and knowledge with werebeasts began and ended with werewolves. Luckily, he knew Farengar had the facilities needed to check some things for them at his study in Dragonsreach. Despite it being the crack of dawn when they approached, the guards let the Harbinger and Thane through without so much as a cross word. Farengar didn't enjoy being woken up so early, but his complaints were shelved when the situation was explained to him.

"This is a grave difficulty," he admitted while looking at Yang's hands. "You say you were inoculated for werebear bites and then inoculated less than a month later for this werelion?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Though-"

"I'll need a blood sample to look over if you don't mind," he interrupted as he turned and began going through several items, collecting a few on the table before him. He then passed over a dagger and a vial to Yang. "At least half full, please. I will need to run several tests to check it thoroughly."

"Sheesh," Yang murmured as she pricked a finger and let it bleed into the container. It filled fairly quickly, and then Yang stuck the wound in her mouth and focused her Aura on healing it as she handed the sample to the Court Wizard. Farengar dipped a little onto a piece of glass then pressed another on top of it before placing the sample into a device that he gazed into.

"So you have a microscope?" Yang asked in interest.

"That what you call small-lenses in your land? Interesting name." He turned a few knobs on the device and hummed at what he saw beneath the glass. He picked up the remainder of the vial and poured it into a solvent before taking a sort of powder and sprinkling it into the mix. He stirred the substances together and they all watched as it changed from translucent red to opaque black. Farengar hissed in at that and looked over at Yang with a sympathetic glance.

"I'm sorry, girl. Not only is it in deep, but I'm afraid any sort of preventative at this stage won't do anything. Maybe I could make something to hold it back, but there's no guarantee."

"You mean…? But what about the medicine I took! Did it not work? What happened?"

"Well, I'm not an expert on lycanthropy, but I did discuss much of it with a few colleges a time ago. Unlike other afflictions, such as common diseases, or even vampirism, lycanthropy itself doesn't work like a disease. Gives you a sort of weakness to silver, yes, but that's hardly more than an allergy compared to how undead react to contact with the purifying element. Lycanthropy works with the afflicted's body rather than against it, so the way to rid ourselves of it is to poison ourselves. The main ingredient in nearly all lycanthropy treatment is monkshood, or wolfsbane, a very poisonous plant. The other things just make it ingestible, while silver is usually sprinkled in to help combat the lycanthropic infection. However, you've developed a resistance to monkshood. Your body's safeguarding itself is allowing the lycanthropy to take hold."

Yang felt like her very world was darkening and sat down in a chair as she hugged her arms around herself.

'No! Damn it, no! I wanted choice! I wanted to choose, god damn it!'

"There's nothing you can do, then?" Kodlak asked the mage.

"To stop it, no. I'm afraid it's outside my area of expertise. Even if I knew someone who might be able to help you, most lycanthropy experts I know of I haven't been in contact with for a very long time. And the absolute best I knew has been missing for months ever since he went to Solstheim." Farengar looked over at Yang and sighed. "Well, there's something one person I know can do, but you'll have to see if he's willing to help."

Kodlak nodded, catching on to what he was saying immediately. "In a case like this, I doubt he'd hesitate." The old Nord went over and patted Yang on her shoulder, catching her attention. He smiled down sadly at her and shook his head. "Let's go home, child. We have a lot to think about."