"Oh," Tolfdir shrugged him off. "There's nothing to be afraid of, young man. Just stick close to me and we'll be fine. Now...as some of you may know, Saarthal was one of the earliest Nord settlements in Skyrim..."
Onmund began to tune him out as worry began to take over. He had heard stories about these crypts in his childhood. In fact, he used to fear them greatly. When he was a boy, the kids in his village would play cruel games with each other that would involve going into Shriekwind Bastion, a ruin near his village, and scaring each other there for fun. Sometimes they would dare one another to venture inside alone and spend half an hour or more inside the crypts before coming out and declaring victory over fear. It was sort of a rite of passage among the young Nordic boys. All except for Onmund. He was a small, quiet kid, and preferred the company of books to the company of a bunch of rough, rowdy boys playing Trolls and King of the Mountain. That was how he had developed an interest in magic in the first place. But there was a time when he was eight years old, when he got involved with the rough boys in the neighborhood and was coaxed into going into Shriekwind Bastion by himself. He remembered being shut into the dark ruin all by himself, and he was to stay there for exactly half an hour, not a minute less. He remembered sitting there, on the floor, not feeling scared at all until he remembered something he had read in a book. Necromancers liked to venture down into crypts and experiment with dead bodies, bringing them back to life so that they were nothing but zombies for them to control. The book had some chillingly realistic-looking illustrations, and one of them came to mind. It was an image of an undead creature, a Draugr, and its head was nothing but a rotting remnant of what it had been in life, with a gaunt face and black gaping eye sockets, the skin falling off the cheeks like paper. Little Onmund was about to stand up to listen at the door for the other kids when all of a sudden, he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder and heard an ugly snarl in his left ear, causing him to let out a bloodcurdling scream and turn around, now face-to-face with the dreaded Draugr…except that it was actually Kodnar, the blacksmith's son, with mud smeared all over his face. And with a dumbfounded Onmund staring at him, Kodnar broke into raucous laughter, pointing at the silly, little kid who fell for a stupid prank. Onmund remembered not wanting to punch the wily kid in the face, but rather, to cry. And cry he did, and ever since then, he had a very rough childhood.
Onmund put the bad memories out of his mind as he followed Tolfdir and the other students into a very large and tall room, with rickety wooden steps and bridges leading down to the ground floor.
"What are we looking for?" Brelyna asked the professor.
"Anything! Anything at all that might be of interest. We're particularly interested in the prevalence of magical seals placed on the tombs here. It's rather unlike anything we've encountered. That's why I adore this location...we have no idea what we're going to find. And if, along the way, my message about the dangers of magic should happen to sink in for a few students, that would be a happy coincidence."
The dangers of magic? Onmund thought wildly. That's the least of our worries right now. "Uh, Tolfdir…are you're sure this excavation was-"
"Don't touch that!" Tolfdir suddenly snapped, not looking at him.
Onmund followed his stern stare to J'zargo who was looking back at the group in embarrassment. Beside him was a large urn that had broken into two pieces.
"It was already broken when he touched it," the Khajiit declared. "J'zargo is not making any trouble."
"Nonetheless, please refrain from touching anything until I have a good look at it first," Tolfdir said. "There are many priceless items to be found in these ruins, and we want to make sure they are preserved in their original state as much as possible."
There's more to this place than its priceless items, Onmund wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut. He knew that he couldn't possibly talk Tolfdir into leaving the crypt now, but he hoped that the other students would understand what they were dealing with and that they could find whatever they were looking for in here and leave as quickly and quietly as possible.
As they continued on through the ruin, though, Onmund's worries about the other students only got worse. J'zargo was so fascinated with everything he found. He couldn't seem to keep his paws off of anything. Whenever Tolfdir wasn't looking or too busy blathering on about history, he would run his claws along the walls or pat some object. There was one instance where he picked up an amethyst, admired it for a few seconds, and put it back down all without Tolfdir even noticing. It took all of Onmund's will not to lash out at him. Brelyna was starting to try his patience, as well as Tolfdir's at certain points. She lived up to her self-declared clumsiness by tripping over things and knocking over objects as they trekked through the narrower and darker corridors. Fortunately, she didn't knock over anything valuable or sacred and she didn't break anything, but she was really starting to put everyone on edge. And the Breton girl, Danielle…Onmund wasn't so sure what to make of her. All he could see was that she seemed scared out of her mind of the whole place. She looked like a frightened mouse, retracting close to herself and speaking very little, if at all during the whole trip. He was about to think of a lighthearted comment to say to her to try to get her to ease up when Tolfdir clapped his hands and said, "All right! Let's all split up now. I have assignments for each and every one of you for the remainder of this excavation." He turned to Danielle and said, "Danielle, why don't you see if you can assist Arniel Gane? He's one of our scholars, here working on cataloging our finds."
"Yes, Tolfdir," she said obediently, still appearing uncomfortable.
"Onmund, why don't you see if you can find some books that we can take back to the Arcaneum?" Tolfdir continued.
Onmund sighed. "All right." I'm not touching any dead bodies, though.
Everyone went off to do their assignments, and Onmund wandered off to go do what he was told.
About half an hour had passed, and Onmund didn't find any books that were in good enough condition to take back to the College. They were either all tattered and torn or completely destroyed in some other manner. He was beginning to get tired of wandering around in these ruins and was ready to go see if the others had any luck in accomplishing their assignments when a shrill scream broke through the air. He jerked his head up in fear. Oh no … He tore through the maze of corridors trying to find the source of the scream, almost getting lost a couple of times. He ran every which way, frantically searching the rooms for any sign of trouble or evildoing and calling out names. "Tolfdir! Danielle! Brelyna! J'zargo! Where are you?"
Finally, he bumped into Brelyna. "What's going on?" he frantically questioned. "Is everyone all right?"
"I don't know!" she cried. "I just heard a scream, that's all. I was trying to find whoever it was."
They both then broke into a run again and tried to locate the others. They finally found J'zargo and Arniel who were also very worried. Together, they attempted to look for the last two missing members of their party. They first came upon a circular room with dead bodies strewn all over the floor. Brelyna gasped. "What happened here?!"
Onmund examined one of the bodies closely. Its body was lying about five feet away from the nearest coffin and was contorted in an unnatural manner. Immediately, his blood ran cold. Draugrs…they have awakened… "We need to find Tolfdir and Danielle!" They then hurried through the next room and the next, finding more dead Draugrs and getting more and more worried by the instant. Finally, they began to hear voices.
"It's them!" Arniel cried, and they all followed the sound.
Everyone screeched to a halt when they saw what was in the next room. Up ahead, the most spectacular thing Onmund had ever seen lay in front of them. It was a giant whirlwind of bluish light, and in the center floated some kind of giant, glowing orb.
"Will you look at that?" Arniel breathed.
"Wow…" Brelyna uttered.
Suddenly a voice snapped everyone back to reality. It was the voice of Tolfdir. "Tolfdir!" Onmund cried, and then he saw them. Tolfdir and Danielle were on the floor below, standing in front of the orb, completely mesmerized by it. As the four headed down to them, they suddenly heard the sounds of stones cracking and crashing to the ground.
"Is…is someone there?" Tolfdir looked up, and just as he saw the other four mages heading towards him and Danielle, Brelyna screamed, "Look out!"
Everyone sprang into action as a Draugr approached them. It was as Onmund had feared. As he ran to the edge of the steps to hurl Lightning Bolts at the creature, the others attacked, as well. But he was already beginning to notice that the creature didn't seem to recoil at all to anyone's attacks. Their attempts at trying to kill him were futile.
"Nothing seems to work!" Tolfdir cried, confirming Onmund's fear. "Keep it busy. I'll try to drain some of its power!" He then ran towards the whirlwind with the orb inside and began casting some sort of draining spell on it. The others tried to distract the Draugr by luring it to the edges of the room and pelting it with Shock and Flames, being careful not to get cornered. Suddenly, their efforts appeared to start working. The Draugr reeled back after Arniel's Storm Atronach pummeled it, and everyone began letting out a barrage of attacks to exterminate the thing. Finally, it collapsed onto the floor and disintegrated into a pile of ashes.
"It worked!" Tolfdir exclaimed. "Somehow this orb was powering the creature. Come see this thing that Danielle has found!" He led everyone closer to the orb. The great whirlwind surrounding it had now vanished, likely due to the energy having been drained out of it. The orb had strange designs on it, with many concentric circles and spirals outlined in black along the smooth, glassy surface of it. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before.
"What is this thing?" Brelyna asked.
"I have no idea!" he answered. "But this is amazing. Absolutely amazing. The Arch-Mage needs to be informed immediately. He needs to see this for himself. I don't dare leave this unattended." He then looked at the orb and then at Danielle. "Danielle…can you return to the College and inform Savos Aren of this discovery? Please, hurry."
Danielle then left them, and Tolfdir gazed all around him. "What could this place be?" he pondered. He then looked back at Arniel, Brelyna, J'zargo, and Onmund. "If the rest of you wish to head back to the College, it is fine to do so now. I think we can call this a very successful excavation!"
Everyone with the exception of Arniel, who wanted to remain with Tolfdir, decided to head back. The three young mages managed to catch up with Danielle, who was on her way back to the College, as well, to talk to Savos Aren. It was late afternoon now.
"You know, J'zargo would've discovered the orb much faster if he was assigned to work with Arniel," J'zargo piped up, making sure Danielle heard him. She said nothing and just kept walking.
"I wonder what that thing could be?" Brelyna mused. "I envy you, Danielle, for making such an amazing discovery!" Still, Danielle said nothing and kept walking.
"We shouldn't have been disturbing Saarthal," Onmund muttered. "No matter what they found down there."
"Oh, come on," Brelyna assured. "We didn't actually touch or break anything in there."
"The dead do not care who walks among them," J'zargo said. "That's why they're dead."
At this, Danielle simply hung her head and walked silently on, seeming to ignore all of them.
You guys just don't get it, do you? Onmund wanted to say. They encountered those Draugrs and made a mess of the place. Doesn't that matter? He gave a great sigh. Maybe this is why there aren't any Nords at the College. If they knew about the experiments that went on within their sacred tombs, they would flip!
Back at the College, Onmund had some pent-up energy to release so he practiced with his Shock spells in the Hall of Elements. Being the lone Nord at the school was proving to be more problematic than he had thought. He didn't want to make any waves in his first days here, but he knew that he had to speak his mind about the excavation. J'zargo was on the other side of the hall, also practicing his Shock spells and humming to himself. Just then, he noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye. A third person had entered the hall and was now approaching him. He looked up and had to do a double-take because he didn't recognize her at first. It was Danielle walking towards him. "Hi, Onmund," she said quietly.
He could see her face clearly now, and he nearly faltered. By the Nine, is that the frail little girl who got into trouble in the ruin today? What a pretty little face! Her oval-shaped face was framed perfectly by her raven-black hair. Her black eyes, now looking more alert and lucid compared to before, shone like obsidian as she gazed at him. Her skin resembled the color and texture of clay. His voice caught in his throat for a second, but he managed to utter, "Oh! I…I didn't recognize you without your hood on."
She smiled at him and suddenly he felt his cheeks grow warm. A smile like that can light up a whole room, he thought.
"I just wanted to tell you," she started, her expression becoming serious. "That I'm sorry about what happened earlier today, and I understand why you are upset about our excavation. You are right. We shouldn't have been digging around Saarthal like that. I had some strange feelings there. There is something definitely sacred and mysterious about that place. And I didn't go there searching for anything in particular when I stumbled upon that orb. I was simply following Tolfdir's instructions."
Onmund was taken aback by her words. He didn't expect a new student- much less a non-Nord to understand his view. But she seemed to really sympathize with him. He was already beginning to see her in a new light. "Well, I realize it wasn't your fault," he said quietly.
She smiled again, shyly this time, and then said, "Well…that was all I wanted to tell you. I'd better get going."
"Where are you going?" he suddenly asked. For some reason, he didn't want the conversation to end just like that.
"To the Arcaneum," she answered. "I do my studying there."
"Oh, I see," he said. "Well, maybe I'll see you there, sometime."
"Okay," she said, smiling again. "Take care."
"You too." Then, she walked off, and Onmund went back to practicing his magic.
"That was…Danielle?" J'zargo's voice piped up.
"Yeah," Onmund replied. "That was."
"She apologized to you about finding the treasure in the ruin? J'zargo finds that strange. If J'zargo made such a discovery, then he would be celebrating."
Well, I'm glad it wasn't you then, he thought of saying, but didn't. "She's different, I guess."
"Fuh," he snorted. "Humans and their funny ways…" He then went back to his spells. As Onmund continued on practicing, he found himself thinking about Danielle long after she had left and the brief conversation that had taken place between them. There was just something about her that he couldn't quite put his finger on- maybe it was her warm, non-threatening personality, but it made him want to see and talk to her again.