Chapter XLIX – Necessary Risks
Their evening at the stronghold was surprising, to say the least.
Darren had spent the entire time talking to the Chief in a shockingly amicable mood. Bishop and Aeyrin didn't dare to disrupt them or even approach them. Darren had a tendency to turn morose by their presence alone and they were kind of glad for the respite from him.
Instead, they spent their time with the other Orcs, drinking, eating and talking about adventures.
Since they turned in for the night rather early, they were able to head out back towards the College right at the break of dawn. Most of the Orcs weren't even awake yet after their merry night. Ordinarily it would have been hard to fall asleep in the longhouse with all of them still laughing and talking, but the three of them were already exhausted enough after the adventure in the ruins, so the merriment in the other room didn't pose an issue.
When they set out for the journey, Darren's mood gradually worsened again. Bishop and Aeyrin weren't sure whether it was their presence or whether he dreaded the tasks ahead. In either case, talking to him was usually moot and it only tended to aggravate him further, so their journey was yet again passed mostly in silence.
The College looked almost peaceful from afar.
The people in town didn't scurry around nervously either anymore. Maybe the lack of disasters for the past three days calmed them down at last.
That didn't mean that disaster wouldn't come, however. They needed to find a way to retrieve Aren's necklace and get to Labyrinthian as fast as they could.
There was no one waiting for them on the bridge to the College but, luckily, Darren could open the gate himself.
…
"You're back! Do you have the Staff?" Tolfdir let out a sigh of relief when he spotted them entering the Hall of Elements.
The situation there didn't improve in the slightest. It looked even worse than before.
Several mages were sitting on the ground with magical burns on their singed robes and any exposed parts of their bodies while Colette ran around, trying to heal all of them systematically. Two more mages were snoring loudly in the provisional bedrolls and there were remains of half-finished food everywhere. Four mages were standing by the barrier, holding it up with their magic to prevent the field from spreading.
One of those mages was a familiar sight. Brelyna gave them a brief look when they entered and she waved her hand somewhat tiredly at them.
"Brelyna!" Tolfdir chastised her instantly. A strange ripple appeared in the barrier where her hand used to be until Brelyna placed her hand back and lit it up with magic again.
"Sorry, Master," she huffed out the words with effort. Only then they noticed J'zargo standing nearby as he approached Brelyna tentatively and squeezed her shoulder in support.
It seemed like the mages had to resort to the apprentices for help too. Everyone seemed so exhausted.
"No. We don't have it," Aeyrin sighed in defeat.
It was instantly obvious on everyone present how much hope their arrival had filled them with. All of the mages deflated instantly.
"What happened? We… we are getting to the end of our rope here. The anomalies are more frequent and numerous now too," Tolfdir's brows creased in concern.
"The Staff is in Labyrinthian, but the Psijic monk said that it is sealed. We need… a key," Aeyrin explained. She approached the barrier tentatively and peered inside. The scene was exactly the same as last time. She could faintly see blurry shapes on the ground – likely the bodies of Aren and the other mage, and the black smudge that could only be Ancano was still right by the glowing pulsating Eye.
"I am sure that we can manage to locate this key. Do not despair," Tolfdir smiled at her weakly. He was likely trying to lift his own spirits with those words. "Do you have any clue as to where it might be?"
"Yeah… that's the problem. The monk said… that it's an amulet. And that the Arch-Mage has it. On him," Aeyrin gave Tolfdir a hopeful look. She desperately sought the encouraging smile on his face, but there was none, only a look of shock and despair.
"But the Arch-Mage's body is…" Colette exclaimed from the back of the hallway.
"Yes. We know," Aeyrin looked at one of the blurry smudges on the ground. The desperate tone of Colette's voice certainly didn't fill her with any more confidence.
The room fell silent.
It was strangely oppressive and telling. Nobody knew any immediate solutions to their problem.
Aeyrin focused her eyes on the Thalmor-colored smudge. How was he just… standing there? It's been nearly three full days!
"Doesn't… doesn't he need to… eat? Or sleep?" she broke the silence uncertainly.
"Apparently not. We suspect that… that Ancano is no more. We suspect that the Eye is merely using his body, the magic in his soul and blood, as a vessel, like a soul gem to store energy into and release it. In a similar way that a mage would continuously charge a soul gem trap. Only on a much larger scale, of course," Tolfdir explained briefly.
"Why does it need one?" Aeyrin pried further. Now she was getting worried that killing Ancano wouldn't cut it, but surely the Staff could disable or destroy the Eye itself, couldn't it?
"We do not think that the eye is capable of emitting this magic itself. We believe that it needs a vessel capable of such magic to imbue it with power and then release it," Tolfdir continued.
She wasn't sure if that made any sense, but she still understood none of this properly.
"The issue isn't Ancano now. It is Aren's amulet. We need to find a way to retrieve it," Tolfdir sighed in defeat.
"What about that… telekinesis shit? Can't you do that?" Bishop asked after a while of silence.
"No. We have already tried to drag Ancano away. No magical projectile can enter the field for longer than a few seconds. And it drains the magic of anything else that enters too… ending with the magic that is used to sustain a living being," Tolfdir shook his head at him.
"So the Eye drains magic first, and when there is no more left, it goes for the… magic inside us?" Aeyrin asked to clarify. What if someone had just… more magic on them?
She didn't seem to be the only one with that idea.
"J'zargo has a thought!" the Khajiit exclaimed somewhat smugly. He had the face of a man who suddenly had it all figured out. He waved his hand briefly and his body got instantly coated with a very familiar faint fiery aura.
Oh Gods! He was gonna try out one of his spells inside the field?!
"J'zargo, wait! The power is immense. A regular spell will not suffice," Tolfdir scowled at him instantly.
"This is no regular spell, Master," J'zargo beamed. "Master Faralda said that it was more powerful than any cloak spell that she had ever seen."
"J'zargo, what are you doing? Look at that thing! It won't be enough!" Brelyna called out to him in panic. There was clear strain in her voice as she tried to hold the barrier firmly.
"Have faith, Brelyna, dear. J'zargo can retrieve the amulet and save the day," J'zargo chuckled. He seemed really confident in his spell.
The Khajiit didn't seem to be listening to anyone's concerns anymore. Before any of the mages could stop him, he rushed forward, straight towards the barrier.
"NO!" several mages, including Tolfdir and Brelyna, shouted in unison, but the Khajiit was already inside the field.
He turned towards them briefly with a wide grin as the fire around him started to grow frantic and overwhelming. When he rushed a few paces forth, his form became blurry under the swirl of magic. Everyone stared at the orange smudge with bated breath, waiting for events to unfold. There was nothing anyone could do now to stop him.
The form became smaller, when it was distant enough to reach the corpses, as if the Khajiit was kneeling down.
He was doing it! He was retrieving the amulet!
With bated breaths they stared. Nobody dared to say a word, they only watched in awe as J'zargo's form crouched down near another smudge – the Arch-Mage.
But the form didn't stand up again. A second, two, five, ten, fifteen, twenty. It felt like an eternity. Nothing more happened. The form remained small and on the ground.
"J-J'zargo? NO!" Brelyna broke the silence with a desperate cry. The barrier rippled violently as her hands fell from it in an instant and went to cover her face.
Tolfdir was next to her within a second, but instead of paying his attention to Brelyna, his hands shot up with a quick motion towards the barrier and lit with magic.
Colette left one of the wounded mages and rushed towards Brelyna who was now crouching by the ground and sobbing hysterically.
Everyone just stared in shock silently as the only sound in the room was the humming of the Eye and the desperate cries of the grieving Dunmer.
"That stupid idiot! Why?!" Brelyna wailed into her hands while Colette tried her best to mumble soothing words into her ear as she enveloped her in her arms.
This couldn't go on. J'zargo was dead and if they didn't do something, the other mages would eventually follow. And who knew how far the field would spread then?
They needed to get the amulet.
"Can't you push it back?" Aeyrin asked desperately. They needed to come up with something! These were the smartest people in Skyrim, weren't they? Why didn't any of them have any ideas?!
"We tried," Colette shook her head regretfully while she stroked over Brelyna's hair softly. "We're lucky that we can hold it in place."
"There's nothing we can do! The magic can consume whatever it touches!" one of the wounded mages, likely an apprentice, judging from his age, cried out desperately. He looked on the verge of tears too.
But that gave Aeyrin an idea.
The magic would consume whatever it touched. But… what about something that it couldn't touch?
"FEIM!"
Everyone's eyes fell on her in shock as the loud Shout rumbled through the hall. It may have been desperate, but… even though her Shouts were technically magic, this one always made her immune to it. Was it really stupid to think that it would work?
"No! No! Not a fucking chance in Oblivion!" Bishop exclaimed at her suddenly. "Did you not fucking see what just happened?! NO!"
"Calm down! I'm just gonna try something!" Aeyrin shot him a disgruntled look. She wasn't just going to charge in like J'zargo did. She was definitely not willing to sacrifice herself stupidly. It was just a test.
"I know what you're gonna 'try'! Don't fucking do it!" he snarled. He took a step towards her and, with a mind-boggling gesture, he tried to grab her arm. Of course that his hand went right through, leaving her only with a strange tingle in her arm, but he seemed to be content with at least making a point.
"Bishop, I'm not going inside. Not yet. Just trust me," she sighed.
He didn't look reassured at all, but he didn't say anything more.
She stepped towards the barrier and took a deep breath. She could just take her hand away if it evaporated her magic, right?
She thrusted her hand into the field and waited.
There was nothing. No pain, no instant dissipation – her ethereal form held strong.
She waited for a long time. Longer than J'zargo had been there before he fell. She could feel the effects of her Shout ending before anything more sinister and she withdrew her hand quickly.
"You can get inside!" Tolfdir gaped at her in astonishment.
"And then what?! You can't grab the amulet!" Bishop instantly retorted. He did not want her to do this. He kind of wished that her Shout wouldn't have worked in the field, then she would dispose of this insane idea at least.
"J'zargo went so far with his spell! If I can… Tolfdir, can you cast those… those coating spells on me?" she quickly turned towards the old mage.
"Yes. Yes, I can do that," Tolfdir gave her a relieved smile. "My most powerful one lasts for two hours."
"See?! I get in, find the amulet, wait for my Shout to dissipate, grab the amulet before the Eye can… eat Tolfdir's spell and I just Shout again," Aeyrin beamed at Bishop. It was a good plan, wasn't it? What else was there to do? They couldn't just go to Labyrinthian without the amulet – what if the monk was right? The mages couldn't hold out like this for much longer. Who knew just how much was at stake here? If she didn't do this, they could all die from the field anyway. The whole world could be consumed!
"This is fucking insane! You are fucking insane!" Bishop yelled. She would get herself killed just as stupidly as J'zargo did. Bishop knew that once she got this shit in her head, he could do nothing to stop her and just then, he hated her for it. Why did her survival instinct practically evaporate whenever the situation was most dire?
"I will be fine. I promise." She stepped towards Bishop and gave him a brief reassuring peck on his lips. It didn't help even a little bit.
"It should work! We've seen it. This is our best chance," Tolfdir nodded. He gestured to one of the wounded mages to make her briefly take his place by the barrier before he stepped towards Aeyrin.
The old man faced her and his hands grasped her shoulders. She could feel a strange burning sensation all over her body a second later, but it wasn't painful. It was actually rather pleasant. When she looked at her hand, she couldn't see anything, but there were small fiery speckles dancing occasionally below her eyes on her cheeks. She could just faintly notice them. The spell had worked. And the burning sensation would tell her whether it was still working even under the effects of her Shout.
"Please, don't do this," Bishop shook his head at her desperately. She didn't know what else to do to reassure him. The best course of action was to get this over with.
"FEIM!"
She could still feel Tolfdir's spell on her. Good. Hopefully the Eye wouldn't consume it despite her Shout. If it did, she would just come back and they would figure out something else.
She stepped towards the barrier with trepidation before she took a deep breath.
Quick and painless. It was better than wallowing in anxiety. She rushed forward, into the swirling magic, heading straight towards the corpses on the ground.
She couldn't feel anything sinister clawing its way to her body and Tolfdir's spell still pleasantly warmed her.
She could do this.
She reached the bodies only after a few seconds. She checked the limp curled body of J'zargo first – it didn't look like he was holding anything in his hands. He likely never got to the amulet. Then her eyes fell on the Dunmer in the lavishly decorated robes right after. That was definitely Savos Aren. And just then, she noticed the glitter of a silvery necklace behind his collar.
That was it!
Now she just needed to wait for her Shout to dissipate.
She knelt down by the Arch-Mage and outstretched her hand to instantly grab the necklace from him when she was able to.
She briefly thought about sneaking behind Ancano instead and slitting his throat in the limited time, but she had no idea what would happen. What if the Eye did something unpredictable? What if even killing Ancano regularly wouldn't stop the flow of magic? She just couldn't risk it.
This was a sound plan.
Bishop stared at the smudges of the corpses in the distance. He couldn't see Aeyrin at all – her ethereal form melded with the thick magic completely.
He had no idea what was happening, where she was or whether she was still alive.
This was heart-wrenching. He didn't know what to do with himself.
He felt Tolfdir's hand land on his shoulder in a comforting gesture but it didn't help one bit.
This was taking too long. Was she already dead?!
But in the meantime, Aeyrin could finally feel the familiar tingle.
This was it. She knew exactly how long it would take now for her body to materialize and she was ready.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Her hand grabbed the amulet and yanked it from the Arch-Mage's neck. She held it firmly in her palm, but already she felt something strange. The warmth of Tolfdir's spell became searing and she could feel her body churning and convulsing in a strange way, as if someone was pouring more and more blood into her veins somehow.
She was suddenly so weak and tired.
"FEIM!"
The loud sound was like a saving grace for Bishop and he let out an exaggerated sigh of relief.
He was far from calm now, but it was a little better to know that, at least for now, she was still alive. She better fucking hurry up so he can yell at her again for being so fucking insane! She was doing this to him on purpose! She had to be! Who in their right mind would just do this?!
It was taking longer than he thought that it should.
Finally, after several more excruciating seconds, he could see the faint change of color in the thick magic before her ethereal form emerged from the field and past the barrier.
"I… I have it…" her voice came out strained. She didn't sound good at all.
It only took a little while before she materialized again and he rushed towards her instantly.
He practically crushed her into his tight embrace and he buried her in his chest forcefully. She barely even moved. She only slumped against his form and let him support her fully, armor and all.
"Are you alright?" Tolfdir gave her a concerned look.
"So… tired…" she let out a strained huff against the leather of Bishop's armor.
"Let me check on her," Colette rushed forward and she practically pried Aeyrin from Bishop's arms. The mage quickly pressed her hand on her forehead, then on her neck to check her pulse. "Her heart rate is too high, but that is an easy fix," Colette smiled before she grabbed Aeyrin by the shoulders and her hands lit with a familiar warm-white light. Aeyrin's whole body got briefly enveloped in that light and Colette checked on her pulse again. "Good. Bring me a stamina potion," she called out to the room of mages.
One of the nearby apprentices rummaged in a crate by the wall before he rushed over to Colette with a vial of green liquid. She pressed it to Aeyrin's lips quickly and the elf started drinking the fluid with greedy gulps.
"Better?" Colette smiled at her when she finally downed the entire potion.
"Yes. Thank you," Aeyrin let out a sigh of relief. She felt so much better. She was still a little tired, but she definitely felt more normal now. She quickly unclenched her fist a little to let the silver necklace unravel from the tangled state in her grip before she raised it for everyone to see. It was a simple chain with a rather large pendant at the end – a set of three triangles with rounded edges in palpably Nordic style. It was definitely the one they needed for an ancient Nordic barrow.
The hallway erupted into loud cheers and everyone who wasn't holding the barrier instantly approached Aeyrin to pat her back or to thank her.
This was such a contrast to the desperate atmosphere before. They've given the mages something that they needed to keep this up. Hope.
Everyone was suddenly besides themselves with merriment. Everyone but Brelyna. She stayed down on the floor, sobbing, and mumbled words escaped her lips: "You couldn't have thought of that a few minutes sooner?" She buried her face into her hands again, but her cries got steadily drowned out by the cheers.
Aeyrin couldn't help but feel a little guilty over J'zargo's pointless death, but… he was the one who gave her the idea in the first place. And he charged so carelessly. No one managed to stop him.
She wanted to console Brelyna, to tell her how sorry she was, but she suspected that right then, Brelyna hated her with a boiling passion. As irrational as it was, it was understandable.
"We should get going. We need the Staff as soon as possible," Darren interrupted the merriment with a loud sigh.
Aeyrin was a little surprised that he was counting on coming along again without a second thought, but it was probably for the best. The Psijic monk was obviously integral to finding their next step, if they needed guidance. It was better to be safe than sorry.
The cheers stopped and the mages returned to their previous tasks wryly with only a few more words of encouragement and wishes of good luck.
Bishop grabbed Aeyrin around her shoulders, when the crowd finally left her alone, and he squeezed her to himself with a brief kiss on the top of her head.
"Come on, crazy. Are you ever going to stop with these insane stunts?" he smirked, but there was a palpable edge to his words.
"Hey! It worked!" she only shrugged in response.
"Yeah, that's not the mentality that you should get used to."
…
Their little party managed to get as far as the lighthouse near Dawnstar before the night had fallen and they were forced to camp – this time outside. In the snow.
Aeyrin was getting more and more tired by the minute and she couldn't go much further.
The location wasn't ideal. Aside from the snow, they were uncomfortably close to Dawnstar and to Fort Fellhammer. They did hope that no new group of bandits made the fort their home – it was decimated enough, but they couldn't be sure. And camping so close to a bandit hideout was never a good idea.
At least they found a very small cave only slightly east from the fort where they could hide from the elements. It was so small that the wind could still carry the snow inside, but it was better than nothing.
Aeyrin was shivering constantly, both from the cold and from the exhaustion, and Bishop promptly started to set up the campfire.
There was no place to wash up nearby and no real privacy. All three of them, along with Karnwyr, had to be cramped together in the small cavern with a tiny fireplace to spare some room.
"This is how you live? Why would anyone with half a brain choose this life is beyond me," Darren scoffed while he warmed his hands by the fire.
"It's not always like this," Aeyrin rolled her eyes at him. "What, you never had to travel?"
"I travel by carriage like civilized people do," he shook his head. "This is outright barbaric. Have you two ever heard of basic hygiene?"
"Stop complaining already," Bishop scowled at him while he started to prepare some quick dinner. "It would definitely be a much better place to camp without you in it."
"Nobody sane would not complain about this," Darren only grumbled in response.
"You didn't have to come, you know," Aeyrin sighed. "We will only get the Staff and get back. The monk told us what we needed."
"Right. So you can come back and take all the accolades for yourselves again?" Darren snarled at her. "This is my problem. Without me, no one would even know what is happening or what we should do. I'm the one who gets to end this."
"Why do you care? You didn't seem that invested at the College," Bishop smirked as he placed the pot with the stew on the stones by the fire before he settled himself next to Aeyrin. Her draped his arm around her and nudged her closer to warm her up a little more from the cold while Karnwyr rested against her thigh to warm the other side.
It was true, Darren barely ever said a word about any of this whenever they were in there. In fact, he wasn't that talkative with the Synod mages either. The only time when they had actually seen him talk to someone somewhat amicably was, surprisingly enough, at the Orcish stronghold.
He was even worse than Bishop when Aeyrin had just met him.
Darren looked a little surprised by the accusation, but he quickly lowered his head with the familiar scowl on his face. He mumbled something, almost unintelligibly, but they managed to catch the words in the silence of the cavern. "They don't want me invested…"
Bishop and Aeyrin exchanged a brief look, but Darren didn't really seem ready to elaborate. Aeyrin considered trying to talk to him some more, but before she could, the mage quickly raised his head with a somewhat disgusted look on his face and he pointed towards the pot by the fire.
"What slop are you going to feed me?"
"We don't have to feed you shit, magey. And with that attitude, we won't," Bishop scoffed at him in response. He was pissing him off more and more. Bishop was capable of leaving the memories of his abrasiveness from back when they'd just met him behind – it was not like he cared enough about this idiot to hold a grudge. But he was still the same grating asshole as he was before.
"You have rations. You can eat them if you don't like it," Aeyrin only shook her head at him. It was pointless to try to have a pleasant conversation with him. He instantly defaulted to insults and complaints.
Silence enveloped their small camp again while the fire roared steadily. Aeyrin desperately wanted for the food to be done already so that they could just go to sleep without any more awkwardness. It was much better when they were walking – it didn't feel so strange then when she just talked to Bishop while ignoring Darren altogether.
She idly ran her hand through her hair, only to find its ends much sooner than she expected. She got so used to the much longer hair, it still felt strange that she didn't have it anymore, even though she herself had planned on cutting it only a few days ago.
She started to rake her fingers through her locks that only went down to her shoulders now, getting the worst of the tangles out of them, until Darren's voice interrupted her.
"What's with your ear? It looks weird," he narrowed his eyes at her and studied her intently.
She didn't even notice. She tended to keep her hair over her mangled ear so that it was covered at all times, even when she had it tied. Bishop had made her feel better about it countless times, but she still couldn't help but get self-conscious over it and she still couldn't help the memories that flashed through her mind when she remembered how it happened. It always brought her mood down, although it wasn't very good in the first place in this company.
She quickly fluffed her hair back so that it would cover the ear again. She was used to being unconcerned about it whenever she was brushing her hair because the only one who would get to see it was always Bishop. But that wasn't the case now.
She didn't know how to answer that. She could have made up anything, or she could have just brushed him off with something vague, like 'it's from a battle', but, for some reason, she couldn't say a word.
"Mind your own fucking business," Bishop growled at him angrily instead. As if Aeyrin needed unpleasant reminders from dickwads like him.
"What? I was just asking!" Darren gave him an indignant stare, but he was only met with another glare from Bishop. He didn't care if Darren meant to be abrasive or not, it pissed him off nonetheless.
"Fine. Whatever," Darren grumbled. He shifted to lean his back against the cavernous wall and he closed his eyes pointedly.
For better or worse, that seemed to be the end of their conversations.
But even the silence seemed better than carrying on with this.
…
They reached the ruins of Labyrinthian the next day.
The complex was massive with several structures and entrances and a couple of rather sturdy trolls roaming around the place.
After they had disposed of the inhabitants, they went searching around for the entrance to the ruins proper.
They may have had a hard time and prolonged their quest unnecessarily if they haven't tried the largest doors to the largest complex first. There was no way to open them, but soon enough, they noticed the very familiar slot that could fit the Arch-Mage's amulet perfectly.
They placed the amulet into the slot and they could instantly hear several clicks of bolts from the door. It seemed like an elaborate mechanism was hidden inside.
"Ready?" Bishop asked when the door cracked open slightly.
There was no doubt that this would be a very large barrow, probably teeming with draugr and other undead. The prominent entrance was telling enough – this place definitely housed many corpses.
They left Karnwyr to roam outside again, this time for a different reason. After Darren's 'expert' summoning back in Mzulft, they wanted to avoid any accidents. Their armors could at least handle another atronach mishap, but Karnwyr's fur definitely couldn't.
They opened the door slightly and stepped inside the ruins, only to be greeted by a terrifying sight.
They knew that there would be a lot of undead.
But this was something else.