"You're not relaxing." Akonus said as he sat in front of Naspia, crosslegged, his eyes shut. To the Dragonborn he looked like the epitome of calm and collected. Her inability to completely relax was only causing her to get more and more frustrated. "Just close your eyes and focus on your own breathing. Don't try to control it, just pay attention to it."
"That's easier said than done." Napsia snapped as she closed her eyes once more. A few months after the death of the vile mage Casius she had convinced Akonus to help her become more like him. It had started off with a simple 'why do your eyes glow' and ended with 'teach me how to do that!' Akonus had been agreeable, but he kept on warning Naspia that power had to be treated with temperance or she could become just like Casius.
"It's not." Akonus informed her matter-of-factly. "Nothing is easier. You are simply letting little things bother you because you have the time to contemplate them. Let go. If you cannot focus on your breathing, focus on something positive. Nothing exciting, just something peaceful."
Naspia made no response and tried to bring calming memories forward. That part was definitely easier said than done. Her childhood years were fleeting memories of Cyrodil, her teenage years had been spent fleeing Thalmor when her father had refused to give up Talos and her entire adult life had been devoted to saving Skyrim, many times over. He thoughts drifted to that final battle with Casius, where she had almost died. Surviving thanks to a Shout that she swore she would never use again, Naspia defeated the man who had stolen the power of Magnus himself. But as she continued down the memory, she found herself recalling days later when she simply stared out over the Sea of Ghosts, alone at first. Then Akonus had joined her and the two of them had talked about living peaceful lives. Her breathing began to slow, as did her heart as she began to relax more and more, recalling every detail of that day.
"Good." Akonus said, taking Naspia's attention away from the memory, but her calm remained. "Now, I want you to reach out. Not with your hands, but with your magicka. Feel the world around you."
"How do I do that?" She asked calmly, unsure what spell he wanted her to use.
"When you cast a spell you are bending the world to your will, even if it's only a small portion of it." The Akaviri replied softly. "When you create fire in your hands is no different from when you close another's wounds. Apply that to your whole body, and send it down, into the world beneath you."
Naspia struggled to grasp what he meant at first. She held her hands out in front of her, eyes still closed, and flames opened up in her palms. She allowed the fire to die out, but the magicka remained coursing around her, and she began concentrating on it until she could feel the immaterial encompassing her whole body. She then allowed it to expand away from her and as it began moving outward, she began to see the world around her, though it was all grey to her. As the magical bubble passed over Akonus she could see him, not physically, but the blue mass in front of her was definitely him.
"What... what is this?" Naspia asked curiously as she pushed further out.
"You are beginning to see the magic that flows through our world." Akonus replied. Slowly, quietly he crawled forward and gently placed his hand on Naspia's forehead. "Maintain this focus. Feel the world around you."
Naspia did as she was bade. She reached out far enough to see the essence of a large tree that had not been too far off. It was a bright, shimmering white with small, golden blurs moving all around it. She soon realized the golden blurs were squirrels, simply going about their innocent lives. Naspia couldn't help it anymore and opened her eyes. The tree was normal, now. Brown bark, green leaves and the animals within were difficult to see.
"Congratulations." Akonus told her and pulled his hand away from her with a smile. "You've seen something no one in this world has for thousands of years."
"Do I always have to relax like that in order to see in that way?" She asked, not feeling that it was a very practical thing to do.
"Not at all." Akonus replied, standing up and holding his hand out to her. "That particular ritual is merely a requirement for the enchantment."
"Enchantment?" Naspia asked as she took the hand offered and stood up. "But the Soul Cairn is still closed and we didn't have anything to put an enchantment into."
"You forget, we Akaviri had enchantments long before we knew soul stones existed." He replied, holding on to her hand and guiding her over to the small lake near by. Akonus let her go and gestured toward the smooth, glassy waters. The Dragonborn nodded her head and stepped to the edge of the water, peering downward. She canted her head to the side, confused by what she saw and so she knelt down for a better look. Her eyes were their usual green color, only they glowing, just as Akonus' blue eyes did. She covered her mouth in surprise and looked back up at the Akaviri who merely gestured outward. "An enchantment of the body is very different from an enchantment of a weapon or armor, especally as you know it compared to how I know it. To truly enchant something, you do not steal the soul of another and use it as fuel like you would for a torch. To truly enchant something, you must allow a part of yourself to meld with whatever it is."
"Meaning you've given me part of your soul?" Naspia asked in shock. Akonus chuckled and shook his head.
"Not quite. More like I've shared myself with you. My knowledge and my experience in a way that spoken or written words couldn't compare to. Now, look out into the waters and tell me what you see."
Naspia peered out into the lake and rotated her head, taking the whole view in. She looked back at Akonus and shrugged, seeing nothing but the smoothe surface of the lake. Akonus shook his head and gestured to a spot in the middle of the lake.
"Focus." He told her, offering no other guidance. Naspia looked out to where he pointed and tried to 'focus.' She was about to get fed up and ask Akonus to actually explain what she was supposed to do when she caught sight of something moving under the water's surface. Little golden blurs, swimming along without a care in the world. Judging by the way they moved, they were just regular fish, minding their own business. Then she caught sight of a small red blur darting for the group of golden ones. For a split second the red blur became black and just as soon became red again, with one of the golden blurs gone. At the top of the water she could see the red blur with tiny ribbons of blood floating to the top around it. It was a slaughterfish that had just made a meal of one of the trout. "Did you see it?"
"I saw... a slaughterfish attacking a trout." She said, brushing her bright red hair away from her face to get a better look. "But it was as though I could see it had intended to attack before it actually did."
"Quite." Akonus replied with a smirk. "The colors all have a meaning to them, though they are not always easy to interpret."
"The trout looked like glowing golden blurs and the slaughterfish was red."
"Gold is a representation of a creature being carefree and content." He replied and crossed his arms as he looked out oer the lake. "You'll find that most animals will appear to be gold when you use your eyes. Red is a representation of determination. The slaughterfish was hungry and had one thing on his mind. Feeding."
"But just before he attacked he turned black." Naspia replied, looking over at Akonus now. Where he had been blue when she'd been reaching out, he now seemed to be a silver color to her. She blinked a few times and the colors went away as she stopped putting forth the minimal effort.
"While most colors are representations and can be masked fairly well if what you're looking at is good at hiding their intentions, black and white will always show themselves. Black is aggression and will always show when someone or something means to harm another, just before they actually do. White, on the other hand is purity. White shows that whatever you're looking at has no intentions of any kind. It is simply existing. I've never met a man, mer or beast that was white to my eyes."
"What about trees?" She asked, pointing to the one she'd seen.
"Indeed, a tree is simply existing." Akonus replied with a laugh.
"So it was thanks to this power that you were able to fight off an army by yourself and hold your own against Casius?"
"Partially." The Akaviri replied. "But the majority of that was experience, as well as enchantments of the rest of the body."
"Meaning you enchanted your muscles so that you could break my bones with a single slap, even though you were hardly bigger than me?" She asked, punching him in the shoulder with a laugh.
"Yes." Akonus said with a smirk. "I enchanted my body with speed, strength and stamina that only other Akaviri have ever possessed after the Ehlnofey. Before I teach you how to do that, however, I'd like you to get more used to your eyes and how to use them properly."
"Does it drain my magicka like a spell would?" Naspia asked curiously as she focused once more and watched a rabbit, highlighted in gold, running around the shrubbery.
"The fact that you youngsters cast spells that tire you is foreign to me." Akonus replied. "Perhaps I'll teach you how to properly use magic before we worry about how hard you can punch."
"What do you mean?" Naspia asked, once more. "How am I doing it improperly?"
"Because you are using your own, limited magical abilities to cast your spells. If I did that I would never have survived in my time. We Akaviri drew on the magical essence of Nirn, as taught by the Dragon Father himself."
"I don't get it." Naspia stated, throwing her hands up.
"With time, you will." Akonus told her, ruffling her bright red hair. Naspia swatted his hand away, at which Akonus chuckled and began walking toward the road.
"Where are you going?" The Dragonborn inquired, following closely behind him.
"I feel like walking. Care to join me?"
Naspia shrugged and walked along the road at Akonus' side, curious as to where he intended to end up.
Trinbjol awoke in a fit and scrambled on the ground for his axe. When it was nowhere to be found he looked up at the people around him. There were three guards that he recognized from the fort, all of whom looked utterly traumatized. Trinbjol felt dizzy, certain that he'd not only lost a fair amount of blood, but that the poison had taken a real toll on him. His limbs were weak and he could barely concentrate. The others weren't speaking, he realized. None of them were even looking at him as he shuffled around, attempting to stand up. Their eyes were all fixated on something beyond the insectoid cage that he just realized he was trapped within.
Peering out, over the edge, Trinbjol could see a table with lots of sharp instruments and red chunks scattered throughout. It didn't take him long to realize he was looking at a dissection table. It was only when he made this realization that he noticed one of the foul monsters heading toward the cage. It pushed the gate open and grabbed Sibil, the woman who'd been swinging a battle axe around earlier. She didn't scream or try to resist at all, to Trinbjol's confusion. It was like she was too traumatized to move away. When she made it to the table the twisted things strapped her down and picked up their sharp instruments.
Then the screaming started. Trinbjol found himself unable to look away from the terrible scene as Sibil was slowly, agonizingly cut open until the wirey beasts pulled pieces out of her and began feasting on it. Then Trinbjol finally managed to look down at the ground, covering his ears, wishing Sibil would just die already and cease her wials of pain.
"Akonus, this road is only going to lead to Morthal if we stay on it." Napsia told him, crossing her arms.
"I'm well aware." The Akaviri replied, gently nudging the Dragonborn with his elbow.
"But what about Lydia?"
"She's a grown woman who can take care of herself." Akonus said with a laugh. "And the only time she gets to herself is when we're gone."
"Having time to herself and being by herself are two different things." Naspia corrected.
"I may or may not have told her I had intended to take a little trip today." Akonus said with a smirk. "And Vilkas might also have been informed of this."
"Did... did you play matchmaker for them!?" The redhead asked in complete shock.
"Of course not. The match was already made, I just gave them an opportunity to spend some time together without us there."
"And Hail?"
"There's plenty of smoked salmon jerky for Hail to eat while we're gone. It's not like we're leaving them completely alone and unable to fend for themselves forever."
Akonus knelt down, causing Naspia to stop in her tracks and whip around. Akonus was hunched over a spot of wet dirt in the road, staring at it like he was able to pick something up from it.
"What's going on?" She asked, her voice filled with concern.
"Oh, just picking you up." Akonus said, grabbing a twig from the ground. "See? A stick in the mud."
Naspia's jaw dropped, barely able to comprehend what had just happened. When she realized he had reversed her joke from the day before onto her, she smacked him on the shoulder and laughed. She hadn't expected him to try and grab her and she began running down the road, laughing as she went. She'd only gotten a few meters away when she realized Akonus wasn't fllowing her any more. She back tracked a bit but didn't see him anywhere.
"Akonus?" She called out, looking into the treeline. "Akonus where did you go?"
When no repsonse came, Naspia focused her eyes and looked out into the woods again. The trees took on their white highlight, the small animals standing out as gold. Then she managed to pick out a larger grey highlight and began to move toward it. When she met up with the grey cloud, she saw she was right in thinking it was Akonus, but something was off. She placed a hand on his shoulder and he glanced at her with a concerned look on his face.
"What is it?" She asked and then looked up at the massive stone fort that was Snowhawk. "Can you see something?"
"No." Akonus replied. "That's the problem. Wasn't this place manned by Stormcloaks when you oversaw the peace treaty?"
Naspia nodded, remembering now that this was an appointed Stormcloak garrison. She looked along the walls, but no colors stood out to her. Confusion set in and she began walking toward the entrance.
"Take care, Naspia." Akonus warned as he followed her up. "If there is danger up ahead I don't want you to think you can rely on your new eyes."
"I understand." Naspia replied as she made her way to the main entrance of the fort.