Chapter 6: Whisker to Whisper (Part 4)

Khinashi scratches the wall one last time to no avail, and slumps down in the tiny wall space. Too cramped to even sit, it's more of a disconjointed lean with her digitigrade legs needing to be straighter than they should be. Her fur is drenched in tears from sobbing, and even with her nocturnal eyes, it's too dark to see anything, and she can't hear anything, so she decides to think.

This was all her fault, she should have listened to her friends. They knew not to trust Ceryeas, and they were right. She put them in that danger, and because of her they will be killed... Dark Moons, Jahirr had even been here with Father before! She should have listened to him! Maybe it goes even further, maybe it's not just Ceryeas, maybe it is magic in general that corrupts...

But then Father was not evil, so how can that be? He used his magic to save lives not end them, and he was known as a hero across more than just Elsweyr.

But then Khinashi is not like her Father...he would not have let himself be trapped in this situation, and if he did, he would know how to get out of it. Just like he did that time when he was captured and trapped in a castle of Vampires...he poisoned his own blood to weaken them when they fed on him, and used that as his chance to escape. He then survived long enough afterward to create a cure for his own poison.

Or that time in Black Marsh when he was swallowed whole by a swamp leviathan, sacrificed by one of the Argonian tribes as punishment for a crime he didn't commit. He managed to survive and live inside the leviathan for days with magic until he could force it to spit him out and escape.

And then in Valenwood when a clan of Bosmer hunted him down when he unintentionally broke the Green Pact in a major way, some of their clan used the Wild Hunt against him as a last resort, permanently turning themselves into mindless, ferocious giant animals. After days of being hunted in the jungle, he managed to capture and tame one of the beasts, and used them to escape Valenwood, and let it free back into the wilds afterward.

He always did say, the most unconventional escape you can think of, will probably be the one that works.

Khinashi heard a loud roar through the walls, somewhere in the hallway, as far as she could tell. It must have been Jahirr, or Ma'krin. No, the experiment must be almost starting! She needs to find a way to save them!

Think, Khinashi, think! What is the most unconventional plan you can think of?

I run out of Jasper's room and head down the hall toward the lobby again. Along the way down I hear the sound of several doors shutting soon after one another. I guess I woke everyone up with my roar. I should go down there and tell all of them about what I discovered. Although a part of me wishes I could take Ceryeas down by myself, the rational side remembers that in the end, I am just an Alfiq with a moderate level of magical power, and he's the headmaster of a magical college.

I run and jump on the railing of the stairs down to the lobby floor, sliding all the way down. I jump off at the last second and glide across the floor, spinning around and facing the hallway where I heard the sounds coming from. I dash down it, seeing Ma'ketra, Ma'krin, Jahirr, Jizad, and J'shabi walking out of their rooms and walking in the opposite direction. Strange, they don't seem too alarmed about anything.

Maybe they just all realized they suddenly had to go use the litterbox in the middle of the night at the same time.

I run closer toward them and meow loudly to get their attention.

No response. They keep on walking without so much as turning around.

I do another loud, magically amplified roar.

Still no response. Huh, I thought they would have at least reacted to that.

I catch up to Ma'ketra and jump on her head, and look down over her eyes.

"Hey, what's going on Ketra, what's with the whole silent treatment, are we having a super secret special team meeting?" I sign to her. Still nothing. Then I look closer into her eyes. It doesn't look like she even sees me.

"Ma'ketra?" I sign again right in front of her eyes. Worry starts to come over me. What's going on?

I jump off of her, and run up to look at Jizad, and J'shabi, both of them have that same blank stare as they walk slowly toward the end of the hall. It looks like they're moving toward a door down the steps.

I run over to Jahirr and walk in front of him backwards. I sign to him. "Hey big guy, snap out of it. I don't know what's going on, but whatever it is I don't like it. Sign to me what's going on!"

Yet again, no response. Whatever's happened, it's even got to Jahirr...wow, that's bad. Real bad.

I jump up on him and claw into his neck to try to snap him out of it, but that only makes him roar in anger. He shakes me off of his head and grabs my collar with one of his claws. I get another quick look in his dead-straight eyes, and he doesn't look at me, only flings his arm back, throwing me far down the hallway. I flip over in time to land on my feet, sliding as I hit the ground, and start running back toward them.

They walk through a door at the end of the hallway, with Jahirr being the last to go through it, and then the door slams in my face before I could make it through.

No! Something's not right. Ceryeas must be doing something to them, he must be! Damn it, Ceryeas! You take away my best friend and now you're messing with my new ones! You're in for it big time, now!

I try to use alteration to unlock the door, but it doesn't so much as budge. There's much more powerful magic keeping it shut. Damn it, I need to find another way in, but how?

I look around the wall, and something catches my eye. A small grate in the wall near the floor. It almost looks like a cat door except it's just got a lot of thin vertical slits across it. I walk over and take a closer look, and can see a tunnel of sorts behind it. Strange.

I focus my telekinesis on it and force it to unscrew itself, and open it up.

What is this? An Alfiq shortcut?

I climb into the square hole in the wall, to find a long square tunnel made of metal and feeling slightly warm to the touch. I'm just small enough to get inside and walk through it. Whatever could this be for? Some new magical technology for something?

Part of me wonders if I should even be entering this, for all I know it could be some convoluted rodent death trap, but right now I'm just crazy enough to do it.

It continues down for quite awhile and then has two paths leading in opposite directions. I take the left path and see more turns and winding pathways. This is like some small metal square maze! How am I supposed to find my way through this in time?

Suddenly, as if in response to my question, I see some fire flare out in a stream from down one of the pathways of the metal maze. It stops after a while and I walk toward it and see a soul gem on the other side. That must be what caused the flames.

I knock it over, just in case it tries to burn me, and I see another flame start streaming down another one of the paths. I get the strange feeling that I should follow the paths that the fire leads to.

A candlelight hovers behind Khinashi, lighting up the wall space. Khinashi wedges the bound dagger into one of the bricks in the wall, but it shatters, and Khinashi pants from exhaustion.

This is not working, and even if it did, it would take too long to escape this way. She needs to think of something else...how does one break through a stone wall with only a handful of novice and apprentice level spells?

The candlelight spell dims and Khinashi is returned to darkness.

Hm, perhaps listing the standard spells she knows would provide an answer...

Frostbite, Ice Spike, Flames, Healing, Healing Hands, Lesser Ward, Bound Sword, Bound Dagger, Familiar, Flame Atronach, Calm, Fear, Muffle, Candlelight, Magelight, Oakflesh, and Water Breathing.

Then she can remove the ones that clearly won't be helpful in this situation, like the Restoration and Illusion spells. She clearly does not have enough space for conjured creatures or a bound sword. Flames would be too dangerous to be cast so close to her. Light spells will be convenient but not really useful in breaking a stone wall down, and neither would Water Breathing, even if Alteration is what she's best at.

What does that all leave? Frostbite, Ice Spike, Bound Dagger, and Oakflesh - ah yes, she can remove that one too-

Wait.

If Oakflesh is a spell to make one's skin as hard as oak, would it also work to weaken a stronger material to share the properties of oak? Weaker and wooden, and maybe even flammable? Khinashi had never tried that before, though if it was true, it would likely require knowledge of the equivalent material flesh spell. These are stone walls, and Khinashi had practiced Stoneflesh before, but not to the point that it was reliable.

But if there were ever a time to use it, it would be now.

Khinashi casted another candlelight spell to see better, and focused on her magic. She weaved an Oakflesh spell in one hand, with a Stoneflesh spell in the other, and casted them as one and touched the wall in front of her.

For a brief moment, Khinashi saw a glow of light spread outward from her hands that enveloped the wall, but it quickly dissipated and returned to the center.

Khinashi sighed. It did not work.

She then instead tried an Oakflesh spell in both hands, and pressed it against the wall, and it did absolutely nothing.

Gah! She was so sure that would work...Why did it do nothing this time? Hmm, maybe it worked because the Stoneflesh spell matched the material?

Khinashi tried using only a Stoneflesh spell on the wall, and saw the wall light up with a glow that stayed.

It did something! But now it is just a stone wall being magically altered to be...a stone wall.

Khinashi prepared an Oakflesh spell next, and pressed it in. The magic aura around the area of the wall changed from a blueish to a yellowish hue. In a fit of excitement, she conjured a bound dagger to see if her theory proved true, and wedged it into the wall, and...it splintered!

She slowly widdled away at a wooden 'oak' brick in the wall.

I turn left at the next fork and to my relief, see an exit out of this crazy maze. I was starting to feel lost and claustrophobic. I still have no clue what this thing is used for.

I crawl up close to the grate and start to hear chanting noises and push my nose up against it to see as best I can.

I see a dark room lit with more of those ever-constant burning blue flames, I see alcoves in the walls containing work tables and drawers of supplies. On the tables are some medical tools and Restoration books. I'm guessing this is where the wounded are treated? Or a Restoration lab room.

There are tables about the room in a circle, facing away from an indented ritual circle in the center.

In the middle of the circle on a wooden pedestal, is an opened book, and in front of the book reading from it is Ceryeas, with his arms out, chanting nonsensical words that are probably a part of a spell.

On top of the tables are my friends, lying about it, as if sleeping.

Next to the tables they're on are stands holding up a soul gem, which suddenly start glowing brightly. A stream of light flows from the gems into my friends, and I hear them start to scream out in pain, as particles start to flow into the gem from them.

Alright, I've seen enough, I don't have much of a plan but I know I need to stop this soon. I'll just have to improvise... Soul gems and screaming and creepy chanting usually don't mean anything good is happening. None of them will be any help in this state, and going up against Ceryeas directly would be suicide. Hmm...What to do without resulting in my immediate and untimely death...

Well whatever's going on, I'd bet destroying those soul gems would stop it...Or kill them...Let's hope it's the former because that's the only plan I've got.

Finally, the brick is carved out completely. In a moment of truth, Khinashi pushed the brick outward, and it fell on the other side of the room.

Her excitement upon finally getting to see the library, was quickly overshadowed by the realization that even this will not be quick enough. She sighed and slumped against the wall again, and the candlelight spell wore off. The light from the library peered in on her, and she decided to poke her arm out of hole in the wall, and try to reach for something that could be useful.

But nothing was there.

So much effort, so much magic, just to be able to poke her arm through a wall. What does that even change? Clearly, turning the wall to Oak is the path forward, but carving it is too slow. Wood is also flammable, but it's too dangerous to cast any flame spells inside the wall...

But then...now she can cast it on the other side.

The flames spell would be too hard to concentrate, and she wouldn't be able to reach everywhere she would need to. But a flame atronach on the other hand...

Her head was pounding, but her focus was relentless, and she turned the wall into its oaken form again, and poked her arm out through the hole. This spell always got her in trouble before, but now its going to save her life.

She focused and strained, and conjured a flame atronach.

"Burn it, burn the wall!" she shouted in command of the Daedra.

I squeeze my paws through the thin slits of the grate, but it doesn't budge, it's latched on hard to the wall. My mysterious friend must realize I want out now though, and slowly opens the hatch for me without making a sound.

I jump down quietly and turn invisible, walking through the room past Ceryeas who's still distracted, and jump on up the top of the stone table where Ma'ketra lies. The sounds of her whimpering in pain make me wince. Poor girl...Hopefully, this wakes you up, and we can take him down together!

I hop up on top of her back and focus my thoughts on the soul gem next to her, and use telekinesis to lift it up, and throw it hard against the ground floor. It works! The gem smashes into bits upon contact, but the noise alerts Ceryeas.

Come on, snap out of it! I nudge her neck with my claws. She no longer screams, and is definitely still alive...but still perpetually asleep. Dang it.

I hop down quickly and hide behind the table.

Ceryeas stops chanting and walks over to see the smashed gem.

"Hmm..." he says to himself.

I make use of his distraction to buy me enough time to cast invisibility and use telekinesis to smash the next gem, Jahirr's. Two down, three to go...This isn't so hard, if I can just keep invisible he can't see me, and then-

My thoughts are cut off as I revert back to visibility and feel myself lifting up in the air.

Crap.

With as much strength as she can muster, she carved the bound dagger across the burnt, charred, and weakened wall, into the shape of a door. Not a complete exit yet, as she couldn't reach the bottom of the wall from her position, but with a little pressure, she could push the wall forward and hear some wooden cracking. If she could push it enough, then she would be able to climb out.

She slumped back, panting heavily from exhaustion.

Khinashi opened her palm and prepared a final Stoneflesh spell, and this time casted it upon herself. With her newfound durability, she punched the wall, and pushed it, exerting the force of its own weight to pull it down. She climbed up, turned around, and wedged her feet and hands between the bent and inside wall. She pushed hard against the wall, straining herself, until finally she hears the sound of snapping wood, and she fell into the wall space. She pushed herself back up, and saw a wide open hole in the wall for her to escape. She climbed over the wall, and fell to floor from exhaustion. She laid on her back in the library.

Despite the circumstances, Khinashi suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to laugh.

For awhile Khinashi really thought she was going to be trapped in there forever, she was almost ready to give up at times. Breaking through a thick stone wall with nothing but a bound dagger, oakflesh and stoneflesh spells, and a flame atronach...

When the laughing fit subsided, Khinashi caught her breath, and her smile turned into a snarl.

Her friends - no, her family was still in danger. With a renewed burst of energy she jumped up to the ground and ran out of the library with a speed only a Suthay could boast.

I'm lifted higher into the air to be on eye level a couple feet in front of Ceryeas, who holds his other hand to his chin in thought. He doesn't seem too perturbed.

I hiss at him and extend my claws, and bare my teeth.

"So, the meddling housecat arrives at last."

I try to say "Hey! That's meddling Alfiq to you, mister!" but all that comes out is the distorted mix of a meow and roar, like always...

"Interesting." He says.

I meow at him.

He starts to carry me across the room.

"Your drive to invade my privacy, learn my secrets and disrupt my plans is fascinating, if vaguely annoying, but I think I'll have to examine you later after your friends are through with their experiment," He says with a monotone voice.

I hiss at him and try to bite his hand, but can't reach it. He doesn't even seem threatened by me! I hear the screaming of my friends behind him, and I catch a glimpse. They start to look a little pale from the light being stolen out of them - their soul energy.

I struggle against his grasp, and try to claw his arms, but it's no use. It's too far. I hear a cage unlocking behind me, and I see a metal cage over my shoulder used to hold birds, or small creatures for study, open up. He wants to trap me!

I look about the room for something to help me, anything. All I see are buckets, books, and various healers tools. Hmm, actually, that might just do!

I focus my eyes on one of the sharper tools in the collection on a nearby table and swivel my head quickly over to Ceryeas. Immediately a sharp cutting tool embeds itself into Ceryeas's back. He yelps out in pain and loses his grip. I drop to the floor and quickly run behind the tables, turning invisible again.

He pulls out the tool and heals himself, and readies some spells. "Ah! You stupid...Argh! How dare you attack me! I am a master of the arcane, I could incinerate you where you stand-"

His sentence is cut off as a bucket of water falls on his head. That never gets old.

I hop on a table and use my magic to grab the next nearest gem while he's caught in my prank, and smash that one to bits. Ma'krin's. Just as I leap down off of the table, I hear the sound of a lightning bolt narrowly missing me, and my fur stands on end. He's mad now.

"You know, maybe you're not worth the trouble of experimenting on after all, cat! Your friends are more than enough! I think I'd rather just kill you too!"

Too what does he mean too? Wait. Khinashi isn't here, does that mean...

An uncontrollable rage takes over me, and I roar at him. I use telekinesis to tip over a bookshelf next to him, and it crashes down onto him before he can react.

He'll be down for awhile with all of the books on top of him, so I run over and knock over the next gem. J'shabi's.

Now, just one more to go...Jizad's. Sorry to leave you last buddy, but you were the furthest away.

I hear a rustling of metallic objects being lifted up, and I turn to look, and duck just in time to dodge a flurry of knives flying overhead, and then start to turn around to come back. I run and hide behind a stack of crates.

This isn't working, I can't outrun those forever, and one of these times his spells will hit me!

I close my eyes and deeply concentrate on a spell that I've never fully mastered before, but right now I don't have a choice, it needs to work.

Come on, Smallpaws! Do your magic!

I feel a tingle as three illusions of me run and turn in different directions about the room, and the tools make the mistake of following one of the illusions.

It's mental chaos, but I keep it up while I run toward the next gem. I see my illusions doing random things to distract him. One of them disappear as they run close to a wall and the tools fly through it and crash against it. Another gets close to Ceryeas and sticks his tongue out while pulling his cheeks to the side. Ceryeas tries to grab him, but his hand passes through. Ceryeas grumbles loudly. He's very irritated.

I jump on the table and knock over the soul gem to the ground with my weight, knocking over the stand with it. Luckily, the force is still enough to break the gem. That's it! That's all of them! But why are they still not waking up?

"Enough! I will not be defeated by a glorified housecat!" Ceryeas shouts.

I laugh as I notice the last illusion stroking up against his leg, flipping over and trying to play with his shoestrings.

Ceryeas stomps his foot on him, making it disappear. I feel very magically exhausted from that spell.

I fly back from the force of a fireball explosion missing me, and I hit the wall, stunning me. I feel myself being lifted in the air again by the neck, and I'm too drained to be able to use anymore magic.

He starts to tighten his grip and choke me. I can't breathe.

"You know, I understand now why Jasper thought you were so special. Oh yes, I've realized you must be the cat he constantly babbled on about. He was a meddler, too, before his 'accident'. But I guess you've figured out by now that there was more to it than that. A shame you won't be alive to tell anyone. Not that you can talk anyway-"

A lightning bolt strikes Ceryeas directly in the chest, and the force makes him fall back and drop me to the ground. I take a second to catch my breath. What just happened?

I look over and see one of those Storm Atronach guardians floating into the room, and it charges up another spell, but doesn't aim at me, but Ceryeas. What in the world?

I stop questioning it and think. The others still aren't awake. If I leave now, he could just get more soul gems and start the ritual again. I can't kill him, but what if I could take something to prevent him from completing the ritual?

Hmm, that book in the center on the pedestal looks important. It probably contains the rituals he was chanting. It would be too heavy to constantly carry the book with telekinesis, but the page it's on must have the ritual he's using now, and maybe even contain a way to stop it. I jump up on the pedestal, and use telekinesis to rip it out cleanly, and hop back down with it.

"Jasper!" Ceryeas shouts angrily, and sends a fireball at the Storm atronach and making it explode.

"You and your cat will pay for interrupting my work! I warned you what would happen if you tried to regain control again!"

Jasper...? What? He's still conscious? He's why the guardians never attacked me - he can control them? What else can he control?

The revelation distracts me from reading the page I tore out, and Ceryeas catches sight of me with it.

"Hey, what are you doing - get away from that!" he shouts, and charges up another spell.

So it must be important. I sink my teeth into the page to carry it, and jump back up into the crawlspace.

"Get back here with that, you stupid cat!"

I run through the tunnel a ways until I feel like I'm far enough. There's no way he can get in here, so I'm safe.

I drop the page and take a look at it, glancing over if there's anything useful I could do to break the spell.

Then I remember that I can't speak anyway, so there's no way I can do it myself... I need to find someone that can speak for me and do it.

But Ceryeas said Khinashi is...

I can't think about that right now.

I can't trust the others aren't in league with Ceryeas, either, and I don't know if I'd be able to make them understand my side of the story quick enough before Ceryeas gets to them, even if they aren't.

Which means there's only one other person.

Jasper. Jasper's still conscious, which means if I can find him, he could say it, right? If he's able to speak. I need to find him anyway and save him, and then he can help save my friends! He must be in that tower I saw in the portal!

I pick up the page and run through the tunnels the same way I came through them.

Khinashi closed the last of the doors, as expected, none of her friends are in their rooms anymore. They must have already been taken to the place where Ceryeas is doing the experiment. She wished she had more time to look around earlier, maybe she would be able to tell where he took them. They could be anywhere in the college!

Khinashi sighed.

Another door nearby swung open, and she ran towards it.

"What, right now?" Divyral shouted.

"We need to go find Merellis and tell him what we learned! We can't let Ceryeas get away with this!" Muffin shouted back, and ran out into the hallway.

"Muffin!" Khinashi shouted.

She turned around and smiled, but then frowned. "Khinashi! What's wrong? You look like you've been through Oblivion and back."

"My friends are in trouble! It's Ceryeas!"

"Wow, that does sound serious. What's going on?"

Divyral walked out the door behind her and closed it.

"She means it's headmaster Ceryeas. If I were to guess, he's doing the lunar experiment on them against their will and controlling them with dream magic to do so," he said plainly.

Khinashi looked at him, surprised. "Yes, that is exactly it, how did you-"

"We just learned from his notes that he sacrificed a student to create the Nexus two years ago. I figured he wouldn't take no for an answer with this experiment either," he said plainly.

Khinashi's jaw dropped in surprise at this news.

"Kill that housecat, and bring me back that page!" she heard Ceryeas's muffled voice shout in a lower level.

"That was Ceryeas's voice!" Muffin shouted.

"He must mean Smallpaws, he must not be under the effects of the dream. Come on, we have to go and help him!" Khinashi shouted and ran down the hallway with the others.

As they neared the end of the hallway, the Dremora butler turned the corner from the stairs, and unsheathed the battleaxe on his back.

"Hey, it's Fred, maybe he can help!" Muffin said.

"A challenger is near!" Fred shouted in his metallic voice, and runs toward them.

"I don't think he wants to help us right now." Divyral said. He opened a door and pulled them both inside the room. He locked it, but the battleaxe chipped through the door, and it cracked loudly.

I run down the hallway as fast as my Alfiq body can take me, to the point that I feel the shiver of adrenaline both pressing me onward and scaring me so much I don't want to look behind me. My head is locked into place straightforward, and my teeth clenched into the ritual page.

Down the hall, Smallpaws, that's all you need to do. If you make it to the lobby, you can jump through the portal, and then...uh, and then make your way up to the tower to Jasper, and then...I don't know, but I'll figure that out later!

I jump up several times my height from freaking out as I hear a clamp of teeth snap right behind me. I land on Jahirr's head. I have no time to think of what I'm doing. Jahirr is running at full speed, trying to turn his head and nip my feet, but I tug my claws at his ears and try to steer him into the wall. Just as I do, and he crashes into it, I feel my stomach being grabbed and notice Jizad was riding on the back of him. We fall off of Jahirr, still stuck in his grasp, I drop the page and bite down as hard as I can into his hands, making him yelp from pain, and forcing him to let go. I pick up the page again and run off.

"You aren't getting away that easily, cat!" I hear Ceryeas shouting from far behind. I look back to him and see him raising his hand to cast a spell, but can't tell what it's doing. I look back forward to see the rug of the floor I was running on rolling itself up at a very high speed. I panic and try to run to the side in time to get out of the way, but I wasn't fast enough. I feel myself getting dizzy as I start twisting around upside down and over as the rug rolls up more and more until I almost get back toward the door to the undercroft.

I try wiggling myself out of the rug. I can feel myself loosening, more and more. I see J'shabi running toward me and reaching out her hand to grab me, but I escape from the rug just in time to evade her grasp and start running toward the lobby again.

Some help would be very appreciated right now Jasper!

As if my thoughts themselves summoned them, I see a few Storm Atronach guards appear in front of me, immediately charging up spells toward my friends.

No! Not them!

I jump in front of the atronach and wave my hands vigorously and shake my head, meowing in disapproval. Then I point a paw at Ceryeas.

The storm atronachs disengage their targets, and instead focus more on Ceryeas. Phew! Even in this semi-conscious state he's in, he still understands me the best out of anyone. I hear the sound of lightning bolts crackle through the air, but the following sounds of spells indicate that Ceryeas isn't about to let himself be defeated by lowly Atronachs. I hear their battle as a volley of explosive fireballs and lightning bolts are exchanged.

I gulp. If just one of those spells would hit me, I'd be incinerated.

I feel my shawl being tugged on, and myself being flipped upward and upside down. I look down to see the gaping maw of Ma'ketra wide open as if to eat me in one gulp. I spread out my arms and legs to stop myself from falling in her mouth, pressing them against her jaw. She snaps them shut and makes me lose my balance, falling backward.

I flip around and dash down the hall again. It's too dangerous to be on the ground, they're all faster than me. It's time to take to the skies.

I focus my magic on a book from a shelf nearby, and pull it down toward me. I hop onto it and make it float away with me high into the air. Ma'ketra jumps up to try and chomp at me, but can't reach me.

Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about, this will be a cinch now!

My thoughts are interrupted when I hear the swooshing of arrows fly past me. Jizad is aiming to kill!

I glide the book through the air, swerving to dodge the incoming arrows, but I start to lose focus from straining too much with telekinesis on these maneuvers.

An arrow pierces through the book, narrowly avoiding me, but throws me off balance, and I fall forward to the ground, stunned.

I see J'shabi running at me again before I can get up, but then a door swings wide open in front of her and she crashes into it.

I snicker. Ah, Jasper, just like old times. I grip the page again and start dashing off, staying close to the doors.

I hear one of the Senches coming up close, and wait to hear the associated crashing sound, but instead, I hear the door swing open, and then get busted down, unable to stop the charging force.

I look behind me to see Ma'krin, as he gains speed on me. No doors are going to stop him! The others are catching up too!

I weave some more to dodge his grabs at me, thinking of something I could do to help, and then realize I've never even tried using the fear spell yet!

I sprint a little more forward and then turn around and skid across the slick floor, facing Ma'krin, looking at him in the eyes as he charges at me. I let out a menacing, loud growl infused with the fear spell to scare him, so loud that it makes the college walls shake. The others - J'shabi, Jizad, Ma'ketra, and Jahirr are affected further back. Ma'krin skids to a halt in front of me, and then looks at me, unfazed.

He puts his paw down on my tail and I yelp from pain. How did the others get affected but not him?

I try squeezing out from his grip, but to no avail. He just sits down and rests his arm on me. Then he pokes me with his other claw like he's playing with is food!

I look for something nearby to help, and see a painting on the wall. It's pretty big, but I focus on it anyway, and strain to hover it over to Ma'krin. I smash the probably priceless piece of art on his head, and it breaks through. He lifts his paws to try to get his head unstuck, and I dash away from him. I'm almost to the lobby now!

"Enough! These charades end now!" I hear Ceryeas yelling from far away. In front of me I see stone bricks from the walls behind and in front of me forming to create an impenetrable blockade at the end of the hallway into the lobby. No! I was so close!

I mew loudly at the bricks, hoping Jasper realizes my predicament and tries to open a gap.

I see some of the bricks urging to try to break out, but they're held in place immediately after.

"Your friend overestimates his power to control the magic of the college. You might have allowed him a small glimpse of awareness enough to use it, but my control is absolute over him! You can't escape me!"

I look for another way through, and I see another of those small tunnels. I quickly run over to it and magic it open, and run inside before Ceryeas can stop me.

I run through the tunnel, and turn right to make my way down to the nearest exit that leads into the lobby. I hear Ceryeas yelling in frustration. Then I hear him laughing.

Why is he laughing?

I glance behind and see one of those soul gems behind where I turned, and it starts to send out a long stream of flame. I panic and run faster.

The fire gets closer, and closer. I see the grate up ahead and focus on telekinesis to open it up. The fire reaches my tail and scorches it, and I burst out into the lobby. I pat out the flame on my tail with my paws and blow on it. Then I pick up the page and run to the trapdoor in the lobby. It opens up by itself, and I realize then that Jasper must have been helping me a lot earlier on than I realized.

The wall blocking the lobby crumbles. "You stupid, worthless cats, get him!" Ceryeas shouts.

I look back to see all of my friends running toward me from the halls, and jump down the trapdoor.

Hang in there Jasper, I'm coming to save you!

"I will feast on your heart!" Fred shouted. Another chip in the door.

"What's going on? Why is Fred trying to kill us all of the sudden? Did I tell him to do too many chores?" Muffin asked.

Neither Khinashi nor Divyral answered. Divyral sat on his bed with his hand to his chin, and Khinashi stood by the door. The magical aura around the door faded, and Khinashi casted an oakflesh and then a stoneflesh spell on it once more.

"This one cannot do this for much longer," Khinashi said, straining.

"What can we do, Div? You haven't said much," Muffin asked.

"Mulfendun, grab my desk and push it up against the door," he says at last.

Mulfendun nodded and did as he asked.

"That will not hold for very long, though," Khinashi said.

Divyral shook his head. "No, it won't. Only one of us needs to get out of here. It should be you, Khinashi."

"What? Why, this one will not let the Dremora-"

"You're the fastest of us. Mulfendun and I are more experienced mages. Combined, the two of us can hold him off long enough for you to escape and go after your friends."

"Are you sure we can? That's a Dremora!" Muffin asks worriedly.

"In a suit. I'm a third year student of Conjuration, we can handle a Dremora in a suit," he said with a resolve that makes it clear it is not up for debate.

Khinashi and Muffin nodded. The door cracked once more under the weight of the battleaxe being swung into it.

"Now, Mulfendun. You're the strongest of us. When I open the door, I want you to push the desk as hard as you can out of it and into the Dremora, to knock him back. When we do, Khinashi, you need to run out and away from us. We'll keep his attention. I'll summon a Frost Atronach and Mulfendun and I will unleash a flurry of destructive spells on him."

Khinashi and Muffin shared a look of uncertainty, but then nodded again.

"Alright," Divyral said, and walked over to the door. Muffin stood behind the desk, and Khinashi stood behind her, ready to run.

Right after the battleaxe swung into the door again, Divyral flung it open with telekinesis.

"There you are, weakl-" The Dremora was cut off by the desk being shoved into him, and he fell backwards to the ground and grunted. Khinashi darted out and sprinted down the hallway. Behind her she can see Divyral summoning the Frost Atronach, and both of them preparing destruction spells.

This one hopes they will be okay. Less than a day and they are already risking their lives for this one. They are proof that not all mages are bad.

She ran down the stairs to the ground level of the lobby, and saw J'shabi and Jizad climbing down a trapdoor at the center. That is strange, what are they doing going down there?

Khinashi followed after them.

Thunder cracks through the sky relentlessly, as lightning pierces through the infinite clouds in this realm, above and below.

I run to the edge of the stone platform before the winding path to the tower, and take a moment to look down below.

It's just an endless mass of clouds...everywhere. The tower in the distance seems to rise out from nowhere amongst the clouds, and the lightning...it happens everywhere, below, above. The lightning and the screeching beam at the center of the tower are only things keeping this realm lit enough to see anything.

There's a gust of wind ever-present here, that chills me to the bone. It's strong enough to almost blow me off my feet, and when I see that winding path of stone rocks cobbled together to form some crazy bridge to the tower...I'm not usually afraid of heights, but I have no desire to see how endless the fall from here would really be.

But I have to do it. For Jasper. I know he would do the same for me. He would take any risk to find me if he knew it could save me.

And so with that, I step my first foot onto the winding stone bridge and slowly begin my passage through the realm.

It's only just then that I hear the sound of my friends, and Ceryeas, following me through the portal, and now I know I have no choice but to run.

I sure wish I had another book nearby that I could use to surf up to the top. Then again, maybe the wind would be too strong for that.

I dash as fast as I can allow myself without falling, and make my way through the winding bridge. I look behind me and see the others following with a speed that does not seem hindered by the twisting path or the wind at all. They'll catch me in no time like this!

I look for any way to make a shortcut, and use my eyes to follow where the paths twist and turn, go up and down, and swirl, to see anywhere that I could jump to skip some of the way.

Finally, I see one below – a part of the curved path that reaches out just far enough below that I could possibly make it if I jumped. Possibly...Or I could fall to my death.

The loud growl from behind makes up my mind, and I make a run on a small patch of the path and jump. Through the thunder and lightning, the clouds, the wind and the screams I hear own voice in my mind screaming at me how bad of an idea this was, as I just barely grab the edge of the curved path below with my front claws. I manage to lock my claw onto one of the stones and slowly pull myself up. My heart beats like crazy, and it takes me a moment to come to terms with what I just did, catching my breath.

I look up and behind me and see the others not taking the shortcut I did. The dream magic must not be wanting to take any risks, and I appreciate that, considering I don't want them to fall into an endless cloud void either.

I turn back facing forward and run the rest of the way. Now I'm ahead by enough that I should be able to make it to the top before they can reach me.

But I still don't know what to do to free Jasper...or how to get him to read this ritual page.

First things first Smallpaws, get there alive and then figure it out. Yeah.

I get to the tower entrance and look at the large doors before me. They have no knobs that I can use to twist with magic, and so I do the only other thing I can and nudge against it. Thankfully, my weight and force are somehow enough to push it open, where I see a large circular room with a bright light coming down from the top of the tower. It screeches a sound so loud and constant that it vibrates the tower itself. I can hear the screams of Jasper over it as I near. I feel my ears start to bleed from the sound of everything happening, but I press onwards.

There's a long spiral staircase made out of more stone but shaped in a way that there are gaps between the stairs, big enough for me to fall through if I'm not careful. The staircase sprawls all the way to the top. And the top is...very far away.

But I have no time to complain, all I have time to do is climb as fast as I can. I start to hop and hop, up the stairs.

More and more, my body aches and wants to quit. My ears are driving me crazy, my head aches, but I push on. For Jasper.

It's only when I'm about three-quarters of the way to the top that the others charge into the tower after me. When I see the speed at which Jahirr and the Senches can climb the stairs with ease compared to me, a fear of urgency strikes up my spine and I hop up the rest even quicker.

I don't want to glance back behind me when I reach the top. I just hop up the last stair and reach a summit, the top of the tower. Still lit by only the lightning around the realm, and the bright light bursting through from the center below, I see him. I see Jasper, my old friend, hovering in place in the center of the bright light just above the surface of the top of the tower. He still screams in agony, but upon seeing me - and I realize that he actually can see me, his screams go silent as he must be trying to force all of his attention on me.

For a second I wince of guilt, because it's been so long that I've seen him, that if I didn't know he was Jasper, I might not have recognized him anymore. I run up to him.

"Smallpaws!" He says, fighting through the pain.

I meow excitedly out of instinct, then immediately regret it, because the page slips out of my mouth and falls to the level below. No! That was the only way to save my friends!

I look to the stairs and see them running up still, there's no time for me to go down and collect it. I run back to Jasper.

How am I going to tell him what I need him to do?

I try to speak, but it still fails. Damn it! I need this to work!

"I know what you're probably trying to say, but you can't save me. The portal needs to be closed, I can't maintain this realm for much longer! It's going to collapse, and if the portal remains open when it does, the resulting backlash will destroy the college!"

I tilt my head in confusion about the portal part. Then I shake my head vigorously no in response to leaving him.

"You have to, Smallpaws! You need to convince Ceryeas to close the portal!"

I mew a disapproving meow as loudly as I can. Then I point at him, and then the portal, and beckon to him.

"How touching, the pet wishes to save his master," Ceryeas's haunting voice says from behind.

I turn around and face him. I hiss at him. I jump at his face with claws extended.

Ceryeas raises a hand and I stop mid-air, and just start hovering. He used telekinesis on me.

"You know, I really did underestimate you at first. I didn't think a lowly Alfiq could prove to be such a thorn in my side. I applaud you for that - really I do – but it's time we settled this. You could have left it all alone and would have just been a test subject for some experiments. Maybe you would have even survived. Then I gave you the chance to just accept a quick death, but now you've pushed me too far..." he says.

Ceryeas continues. "It's true that Jasper's power is running thin, and I've since come up with a solution for it. After all, it worked so perfectly before."

"No! Let him go, Ceryeas! You can't keep doing this, hundreds will die! You need to close the portal!"

Ceryeas shouts. "That is unnecessary! The Nexus simply needs more power! This Alfiq clearly shows some magical prowess, the Nexus should be able to last a little while longer until I can find additional sacrifices."

I hiss at him and try to claw him again, to no avail. There seems to be an armor spell protecting him, his skin is as tough as ebony!

"Besides, this will allow you to be reunited at last. Isn't that what you've always wanted?"

"Ceryeas..." Jasper says in defeat.

Ceryeas walks over toward the beam of light, still carrying me through telekinesis. Ceryeas prepares a spell in one of his hands. I look Jasper in the eyes, who seems to be in more pain than the beam could ever make him feel.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you Smallpaws," Jasper says.

I mew sadly, and close my eyes.

"Kali xaquin kair nal!" a voice shouts. I thought it was Ceryeas doing some ritual, but no, that's not his voice...that's...

Ceryeas turns around immediately, looking surprised, confused, and annoyed. I open my eyes and see her standing behind the others, holding up the ritual page. Khinashi!

"What? You? How in Oblivion did you manage to escape!" he shouts. "No matter! You'll just be another sacrifice for the Nexus!"

I look around and see all of my friends waking up and collecting their thoughts. The spell over them is broken.

"What?...Where am I? What happened?...What is this place?" J'shabi asks.

"Ooh...my head..." Jizad says.

"It is over, Ceryeas! You are outnumbered! Stand down, or face the wrath of the Pride of Portneu!"

He breaks out in laughter. "Outnumbered! Oh Xarxes," he says, and wipes a tear from his eyes, and keeps laughing.

"So you broke the dream spell, congratulations. Do you really think that changes anything?"

Ceryeas backs further away as Ma'krin, Ma'ketra, and Jahirr close in on him.

His concentration wavers and I drop to the ground. I notice the magical aura of his armor spell dissipates too.

"You're all forgetting that I'm a master of the arcane! Headmaster of the College of Whispers! You're all just a bunch of kids, I could kill all of you with a single-"

I interrupt Ceryeas as I climb up his leg and bite sharply down into his hand. Before he can react, I climb up his arm and stab my claws into his face, scratching everywhere I can.

"Agh! Get off, you mangy cat!"

Ma'ketra lunges forward and bites his leg, making him lose balance and fall backwards. I push away from his face, and watch him merge with the beam of light.

"No!" I hear Ceryeas shout.

As I touch the ground, everything goes crazy for a few seconds. The lightning, the thunder, the wind, the tower. Everything starts shaking and flashing light, and amongst all that noise is Ceryeas screaming in agony.

"No! What have you done!? You FOOLS! You stupid cat! I'll DESTROY you. I'll DESTROY you all! If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!"

This felt like the perfect time for some witty comeback, if I could speak, but after hearing what Jasper said, he's probably serious.

I look back one last time and notice something on the other side of the light beam. Wait. Jasper?

I meow loudly as I run over to him.

He mumbles from pain and barely seems conscious, but he's alive!

I sign to Ma'krin. "Quick, Ma'krin, you need to carry him! We can't leave him behind!"

Ma'krin doesn't protest, and Khinashi realizes what I mean and helps get him on Ma'krin's back, and rides with him to keep him stable.

Lightning strikes the tower directly and the beam of light starts to waver in and out, and making different sounds. Ceryeas starts maniacally laughing.

"You'll never make it out in time!" he shouts, and laughs.

J'shabi climbs on Ma'ketra, and Jizad on Jahirr. I jump on Ma'ketra, and we all start running down the spiral staircase.

The entire tower rumbles, and it sounds like an earthquake mixed with a volatile lightning storm. The structures start to crumble to the ground, including the stairs, so we have to jump down halfway to the ground.

We race outside the tower and start down the winding path, and I look back to see the tower collapsing in on itself, and the beam of light gets louder and wavers uncontrollably. Lightning repeatedly strikes the path and we narrowly avoid some of them, but press onward.

Now even pieces of the path itself are starting to fall, and the clouds around the realm start to move inward, consuming everything it touches.

Suddenly one of the bridges we were on collapses. Ma'ketra and Ma'krin make it, and Jahirr leaps at the last second to climb onto the stable platform, but Jizad slips off of his back, and starts falling into the abyss.

"No!" J'shabi shouts.

I leap off of Ma'ketra and focus every bit of telekinesis magic I posses on Jizad. I grunt and strain from the mental and physical pain of carrying something so heavy, so far, but slowly and surely, I lift him back up onto the platform. Then I collapse from exhaustion. Jizad picks me up and we climb on Jahirr and keep going.

"Thank you...That...I thought..." Jizad says, but doesn't continue.

As we all near the final stretch to the portal, my heart breaks as I see the final part of the bridge ahead collapse. The gap is way too big for any of us to consider jumping.

For a moment, I can't speak.

"That was it...that was our only way out...We can't make it to the portal now." Khinashi said, as Ma'krin walks up to the ledge.

All of us look at each other with mixed expressions. Surprise. Confusion. Utter fear. Panic. Acceptance. Denial.

Jasper mumbles something and lifts up a hand with a spell in it without looking, still slouched on Ma'krin. He clenches his fists tightly, and groans.

The entire bridge that had fallen starts to rise up again, shaking awkwardly, as a green glow surrounds it all. The same color as the magic in Jasper's hand. It crashes into the bridge we're on and rests on the spot of land where the portal is.

"Go..." Jasper says weakly.

We all quickly glance at each for a moment in utter amazement, and run across the bridge and jump through the portal. As we do I can hear the light beam from the tower imploding.

All of us make it safely through the portal into the cellar below the lobby. I hop off of Ma'ketra and run over to Jasper.

I meow loudly at him, and point at the portal, and sign the word for 'close'.

I look at him and wait for him to respond.

"Need to close portal...before it destroys the college...Incantation..." he says weakly.

"An incantation to close the portal..." Khinashi says. "The incantation is probably in the notes the others stole from Ceryeas. They have to be!" she runs over and climbs up the ladder.

The rest of us look around the room for anything else that might be needed, but it's completely bare. The portal starts vibrating rapidly and changing colors, and making sounds the same as the beam of light.

Come on, Khinashi...get back here soon...

"Will she make it back in time?" J'shabi says, worriedly.

I shrug and walk over to Jasper, and nudge him. He starts to mumble some incoherent words, and I think maybe he's not conscious but wait. That's the incantation! He knows it!

He just isn't saying it loud enough to work.

I put my ear up right next to his mouth and listen. He still keeps saying it. I can tell the words he's speaking, but...I can't speak.

I run over to Jizad and tug at him, and point to Jasper, and then my ears.

"Oh, you need me to hear what he is saying? Okay." he says, and walks over to him. He drops to his knees and puts his ear next to Jasper's mouth.

I wait a few moments. Jizad nods. "I can tell what he is saying. I will say them to close the portal."

He walks in front of the portal, and pretends to know what he's doing, waving his hands all magic like. He looks silly.

"Utzaeore Herana Eperiioty Eccoyium!" he shouts.

Nothing happens.

I put a paw to my face in embarrassment. He doesn't know any magic, it won't work. It needs to be someone who knows magic, and that's only Khinashi, but she's not here, and Jasper, but he's too weak right now.

And me. But I can't speak.

The portal is starting to grow, and the cellar itself starts to shake. Khinashi isn't going to make it back in time.

"You probably need some magic ability for it to work Jizad," J'shabi says. "Let me try, I've seen Khinashi cast a lot of spells, maybe I can do it?"

Jizad gestures both of his arms toward the portal for her. He walks away.

J'shabi runs up to it with a look of uncertainty written all over her face. Then she also starts doing random nonsensical hand-waving. Really, why do they think we do that?

"Utzore Herana Eperoty Eccoyum!" J'shabi shouts.

Still nothing happens. The portal continues to grow, and the vibration feels like it's extending into the college. That wasn't even the right pronunciation, gah!

"We have to go, and get as far away as we can. It is too late!" Jizad shouts.

I sign to Ma'ketra. "No, there's no time! We won't make it far enough in time! The portal is about to explode in less than a minute!"

She starts to sign something back, but I turn away and run in front of the portal. Ma'krin carries Jasper away, and everyone else starts to head to the ladder.

Everyone but me.

"What are you doing, Smallpaws? We have to go!" J'shabi shouts.

I try to say the incantation, but it still blurts out into a mess of sounds. Damn it!

The portal is growing bigger, and the room starts to shake violently.

"Smallpaws, we can't stay here any longer. We have to go!"

I strain my mind, and use all of my magic, and try to speak again. Still garbles...No!

The portal is starting to expand into the ceiling itself, and it starts to crack. Ma'ketra picks me up by my neck and starts pulling me away.

Come on, it's now or never!

I take a deep breath, and close my eyes, and just let the magic take over me.

"Utzaeore Herana Eperiioty Eccoyium!" I shout.

A bright, blinding flash of light envelops everything, and I hear the sound of what I think is the college above collapsing on us. Then everything goes silent, and we're all frozen in place.

I remember to breathe after several seconds, and open my eyes. At first I wasn't sure what I was looking at. The ceiling fell where I was standing before Ma'ketra picked me up, the remnants of the Oblivion gate that stood is now sitting in the cellar itself, it collapsed on the portal. The portal is closed, and no more sound or magical energy can be felt from it.

"You...you did it, Smallpaws. You spoke. You closed the portal." J'shabi says in disbelief.

The fur sticks up on my whole body from adrenaline. I feel my legs shaking beneath me, difficult to hold myself up. "I did...didn't I?" I laugh. I get surprised by my own words coming out of my mouth.

Ma'ketra signs to me. "It is a good thing you learned to speak when you did, Smallpaws. Or this may have ended very differently..."

I start to sign back, and then realize, I don't have to now. "Yeah, heh...I don't want to think about that."

She laughs. "You sound different than this one thought you would." she signs.

"Oh yeah? What did you think I would sound like?" I ask.

She tilts her head and makes a silly face. "Hmm, more 'heroic', and less squeaky."

I laugh. "More heroic, what does that even mean? And I'll have you know-" I stop, as I realized exactly what she meant when my voice cracked on the word have

Ma'ketra laughs at my expense, and then licks the top of my head.

Khinashi and the others - I think their names were Mulfendun and Divyral, look over us from the main floor. Khinashi is holding the no-longer necessary portal notes. They're all clearly surprised and confused.

Jasper groans again, and I walk over to to him. "Are you alright, buddy?" I say to him.

"I'll be alright, thanks. You did good, Smallpaws, you did good. I always knew you'd find your voice one day," he says.

"You did good too Jasper, if it weren't for you, none of us would have made it out of there alive! That was some seriously impressive magic you did back there!"

"I've picked up a few tricks since you last saw me," he says and laughs weakly.

"Oh, so you know each other then?" J'shabi asks.

"Know him?" Jasper laughs. "I'm the one who gave him his name."