They found themselves in a deep cavern and since it was dark, Danielle cast Candlelight for all of them.

"Huh, so we don't even need torches anymore!" Onmund remarked at her new spell.

"The light doesn't last as long as a torch," Danielle replied. "But I am slowly trying to learn this simple but useful Alteration spell."

"You must feel like you have the world on your shoulders now as Arch-Mage," Brelyna said.

"It's…overwhelming to think about," she admitted.

"Well, I think you're doing a fine job!" Onmund complimented.

"Thanks."

They soon realized that the only way out of the cavern came down to two paths- back the way they came or down…there was a large hole in the middle of the cavern and as the mages stood on the edge of it and gazed down, they could see water down below.

"Um, is this the only way into the ruin?" Brelyna questioned.

Danielle looked at her fellow students and hesitatingly replied, "I'm afraid it is."

"Ugh, J'zargo is not beginning to like this," J'zargo quipped.

"Well, you could just stay here and guard the entrance then," Onmund suggested.

"And miss out on all the fun you guys are going to have down there?!" J'zargo cried, insulted. "Nonsense! If J'zargo must get wet, then he will do it in the name of adventure."

"It's your choice," Onmund shrugged. "All right, who's gonna go first?"

No one jumped at the chance to volunteer. Finally, Danielle stepped forward and said, "I will. As Arch-Mage, I will sacrifice myself in the name of safety."

"Don't say that, Danielle!" Brelyna cried. "You are going to make it."

"Here, wait…" Onmund suddenly said and ran off to go find a rock. He found one just a little smaller than his hand and brought it back. "Let's see if this thing is deep enough." He dropped the rock into the hole and it fell for several feet before making a "sploosh" sound when it hit the water.

"That doesn't tell us much!" J'zargo protested.

"Then fine, I'll go first!" Onmund cried exasperatedly, stepping towards the edge.

"No!" Danielle shouted, throwing her hand out in front of him. She gently pushed him back. "I will go. I shall be fine."

Onmund looked at Brelyna and they both shrugged. "Arch-Mage's orders," she sighed and he smiled slightly. Ah, ever the feisty adventurer, that Danielle…He knew not to mess with her when she was in that mode.

Danielle stepped right up to the edge and said to her friends, "I'll let you know when the coast is clear, and then the rest of you jump." She then glanced down into the hole once and back up. At last, she gave a small hop up off the ledge and dropped down into the hole, landing in the water with a splash.

Onmund nervously gazed down into the chasm, praying that she was all right. He was then filled with relief when he saw her surface and then swim away out of sight. After a few seconds, he heard her shout from below, "Okay! You can come down now!"

"J'zargo shall get this over with," J'zargo sighed and went up to the edge. He then pinched his nose with his paw and jumped into the hole. Another splash was heard and J'zargo surfaced, coughing and spitting as he joined Danielle wherever she was.

Onmund could hear them talking animatedly about something and he chuckled to himself, guessing that J'zargo was doing his usual griping about how much he hated water and such. He looked over at Brelyna who looked at him uncertainly. "Um, you go ahead. I don't mind going last."

"All right," he replied and stepped up to the edge. He looked down at the water below and nearly lost his confidence. That is a long way down into a pool of water of unknown depth! he thought. But if Danielle and J'zargo made it…He decided to stop thinking about it and go for it. He took a deep breath and held it as he hopped up into air and then fell several feet. He hit the water sooner than he thought he would but fortunately still had his breath held in. He immediately started kicking his legs and swam up to the surface. As soon as his head broke through the surface, he gasped for air and saw J'zargo and Danielle waiting for him on a ledge. He swam over to it and the two mages helped him up onto it. They were all drenched and had taken off their hoods. Onmund did the same.

"Okay, Brelyna!" Danielle shouted up to the top of the hole. "We're waiting for you!"

Onmund couldn't see Brelyna from his viewpoint so he just waited for the Dunmer mage to make her leap. He removed his satchel and checked the inside of it and was glad to see that the contents were not soaked, only damp.

"Brelyna, are you there?" Danielle asked after several seconds. She still had not jumped.

"I'm here," they heard her shout back down.

"Are you all right?" Danielle continued. "Can you make it?"

"Yes," Brelyna shouted back. "Just…just give me a few seconds."

J'zargo sighed. "Any day now."

At this, Danielle scolded, "Don't you take that impatient tone. You were the one who made all that noise about getting wet earlier."

J'zargo grumbled and Onmund laughed.

Finally, they saw Brelyna fall into the water and she surfaced and swam over to them on the ledge. "Wow, that was thrilling!" she proclaimed.

"All right, let's move on," Danielle said and they all went through an iron door which led into the catacombs.

They passed walls of bodies long dead and made their way up a set of steps onto the upper floor, where they saw a lone body lying on a pedestal. There was an epitaph in front of it which read:

Lord Geirmund

Archmage of Windhelm

Lord Battlemage to King Harald

Magus, keep thy vigil eternal.

Serve now in death as you did in life.

By these seals our realm preserve.

From traitors three and their charm of strife.

"So this is Arch-Mage Geirmund, himself," Brelyna gestured toward the body.

Onmund sighed. "Hate to break it to you Geirmund, but the seals on those 'traitors three' have been broken. But we vow to put them back to rest!"

"Can he hear you?" J'zargo asked.

"I hope so," he replied. "He must not be resting easy with still one 'murderer and betrayer' on the loose."

"Then let's find Sigdis and put him back where he belongs!" Danielle declared.

"Right," he answered, and the four mages continued on.

Throughout the ruin, they encountered a few Draugrs here and there that they had to fight, and they had a near-miss with a booby trap when Onmund pulled a lever that he thought would lower a bridge for them to get across. But when he had pulled the lever, it triggered a line of spears to shoot out of the wall and he was nearly skewered to death by them. It turned out that the real lever to draw the bridge was located on the wall near it, out of their field of sight initially. They also had to maneuver their way across a line of swinging pendulums. They all took it slow and easy as they traversed them one at a time. It was the most nervewracking feat he had ever undertaken in his life. And he knew that they were going to have to do it again on the way back, a thought which made his stomach churn.

They finally reached a large chamber filled with about a foot of water and two circular platforms on each side of it. There was also a ledge up front where a coffin sat. Onmund surmised that it was Sigdis' coffin. As everyone descended down into the water and ascended up the steps to the ledge, the coffin broke open and Sigdis emerged. "Wo alok dilon?" the Draugr spoke.

Everyone looked at Onmund, expecting him to address the undead Nordic warrior, but he was too tired to laboriously try to form the ancient words again. He shook his head and said, "Just kill him and get it over with!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Sigdis laughed and then he disappeared into a purplish mist.

"W-where did he go?" J'zargo questioned, dumbfounded.

"Over here!" Danielle yelled, turning around.

The others all turned around and gasped when they saw three forms appear on the platforms in the back of the room.

"Which one is Sigdis?" Brelyna questioned, frantically looking at each one.

"Doesn't matter," Onmund replied. "Hit the one nearest you!" He then proceeded to hit the form in the far back with his lightning as everyone else pummeled the other two forms with their spells.

Just then, he felt a sharp pain on his shoulder as an arrow hit him. "Gah!" he cried out as he fell to one knee. "Guys, watch out, they're shooting arrows!"

Brelyna was then hit with an arrow and she fell to her knees in pain. Danielle and J'zargo put up their wards in time to deflect the arrows flying at them and continued to hit them with spells from their free hands. Onmund and Brelyna hurried over to the other side of the coffin and sat down behind it to get away from the flying arrows. They then got out their healing potions and drank them. The arrows that were stuck in them fell off and they felt much better.

"We've got to help them!" Brelyna cried, and Onmund nodded. They both got up and cast their wards, advancing forward to attack Sigdis and his likenesses with their Destruction spells.

Finally, Sigdis was defeated and the mages jumped for joy. They found his Writ of Sealing inside of his coffin and J'zargo found the amulet fragment around the Draugr's neck. He took it off and presented it to the Arch-Mage. "Now we have all three pieces of the amulet," he declared.

"Yes, and the curse is over," Danielle said.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and she continued, "Let's get out of here. I saw a passageway beyond the coffin that we might be able to get out through."

With that, the Apprentices followed their Arch-Mage through the back passageway and they finally ended up in the cavern that they had started in. Onmund was relieved that they didn't have to go through the gauntlet of pendulums again. They went out of the cavern and back outside. It was about midday.

"Ah, fresh air, finally!" Onmund declared, breathing it in deeply.

"So, shall we go back to the College now?" Danielle asked.

"Actually, I was hoping to get some lunch at Vilemyr Inn first," he said. "Whaddya say, Arch-Mage?"

Danielle smiled and said, "Okay. I suppose we deserve a good meal after all that hard work!"

"J'zargo was hoping you'd say that," J'zargo said, and they all happily went on their way back to Ivarstead.

After having a hearty lunch at Vilemyr Inn, it was time to head back to Winterhold. It had been the longest any of them had been away from the College since first joining, and Onmund wondered if the others were worried about them.

It was well into the night when they reached the College, and by then it was too late to have a reunion with everyone else there as they were all asleep. They all went into the Hall of Attainment together including Danielle. It was dark and quiet inside.

Brelyna yawned and whispered, "Whew. If you don't mind, I'm just going to go straight to bed. I'm exhausted."

"Okay," Danielle replied. "Good night, Brelyna."

"Good night," Onmund echoed and the Dunmer Apprentice disappeared into her room.

"J'zargo is pooped, too," the Khajiit whispered. "See you in the morning, eh?"

"Okay, good night," Danielle and Onmund said to him.

Onmund and Danielle now stood alone in the foyer. With a heavy heart, he turned to her and asked in a hushed voice, "I guess you'll be heading back to your quarters now?"

She looked up at him with a serious look on her face and said, "Actually, I was wondering if you'd like to accompany me up on the roof."

His curiosity was piqued, but he certainly wasn't going to refuse. "I would love to," he replied.

He followed her upstairs all the way to the top floor, sneaking past the rooms of the sleeping residents within. Once they stepped outside onto the roof and shut the door, they no longer had to be quiet. A heavy snow was falling, but there was no wind blowing. The silence was absolutely magnified up here. Together, Onmund and Danielle walked over to the covered balcony where they could see the town of Winterhold far below.

"That's quite a sight," Onmund commented, resting his arms on the stone ledge.

"It is," Danielle agreed, also gazing at it.

There was silence between them for several seconds before Onmund piped up again, "So…that was quite a first task for the Arch-Mage. I mean, I'm sure you've had other tasks before taking us all out on that field trip, but…how does it feel?"

"It's all right," she answered.

"Are you enjoying being Arch-Mage?" he asked.

"So far, yes," she said, but there was a hint of feigned enthusiasm. She then took her weight off of the ledge and ran her fingers along the length of her shawl, saying to him, "Did you know that these robes were originally made for Mirabelle?"

He turned towards her and shook his head. "Really?"

"Yeah. She was set to take over the position after Savos. But of course, no one had expected that Savos would leave us so soon. Or Mirabelle."

"Oh…" He looked at her thoughtfully. "They seem to fit you perfectly."

"I guess she and I were about the same size."

"Do you miss her?"

She nodded. "And Savos, too."

He shook his head sadly. "I wish I had gotten to know them like you had. They seemed like extraordinary people."

"They were," she agreed. She then looked back out into the distance, appearing far away in thought. With a sigh, she finally continued, "So much has changed in such a short amount of time."

Onmund nodded. "They have." He looked back down at the town below, remembering the Magic Anomaly invasion and how chaotic things had gotten when Ancano had taken control of the College. Now all was quiet and serene down there. "I wonder if the College's reputation will ever recover from our adventures."

"I hope so," Danielle said. "Tolfdir and I have our work cut out for us to do damage control." She then looked up at him and said in a hushed voice, "You know, sometimes I wonder why they chose me to be the Arch-Mage."

Surprised by her confession, he said to her, "Because Tolfdir and the other wizards trust you. They wouldn't have given you so much responsibility if they didn't trust you."

"Do you trust me?" she asked him.

He looked at her and replied with sincerity, "Wholeheartedly." As he gazed down into her eyes and she up into his, he could feel the deep connection between the two of them. He had felt it before when he had taken a hold of her hand in Labyrinthian and even as early on as their study sessions together in the Arcaneum. Does she feel it, too? he wanted to ask. I'm not just imagining things am I?

"I'm going to miss going on adventures together," she spoke, bringing him back to reality.

That's right, he remembered. Those days are over. "Me, too," he replied wistfully.

With a sad smile, she added, "I'm going to miss the way you sprint through doorways opened by levers."

Onmund couldn't help but chuckle, remembering his little snafu in Labyrinthian and how they had laughed for a full minute straight afterward until their bellies ached. Danielle chuckled a little, too, now, and then she said to him seriously, "Maybe someday…when you reach the Expert level, you can become a faculty member and we can spend more time together."

He looked at her in disbelief. Her? Wanting to spend more time with me? He felt his hopes rise a little, but then sank just as fast when he realized the loftiness of her suggestion. He gave a snort and replied, "Okay. It'll take me many years to get to that level…but I look forward to it." And it was the truth.

She smiled and then shook her head. "It was just a thought. I don't know if it is part of your dream to stay here and teach at the College. I'm sure you have nobler goals."

"What could be nobler than to pass knowledge on to the next generation?" he asked.

She nodded, admitting agreement. "I don't know," she shrugged.

It was true what she brought up, though. He wasn't sure if he was cut out to teach, but it wasn't as if he had seriously considered what his goals were, anyway. The only thing that he could think was, As long as it took- that's how long I can wait to tell her how I feel. I've waited this long, haven't I?

"I want you to have something," she spoke, and then he watched as she reached into her pocket and took something out. "This is something I had found in Mzulft when you and I were there." She then pressed it into Onmund's hand.

Curious, he opened his hand and revealed a shiny, bright green rock. He knew immediately what it was. "This is a piece of Malachite! Do you know how rare this is?"

She shook her head. "I just thought it was pretty. But I want you to have it. As a reminder of all the adventures we had together."

He felt touched. "Thank you. I will cherish this." He closed his hand over it and held it tightly. He then felt a sharp pang in his heart as he understood what this really meant. "I guess we won't be seeing each other as much from now on, huh?" he submitted.

With a sad look plainly on her face, she gazed down at the ground, appearing at a loss for words. He already knew what the answer was, even if she didn't want to say it. Instead, she simply answered, "We must not lose focus on what's important. And that's our studies."

"You're right," he replied with forced enthusiasm. "What's important." But deep down, it felt like he was reading from a script.

"But I will always be your friend, Onmund," she said to him.

These words had the ability to fill him with a little warmth and hope, and he replied back, "I will always be your friend, too, Danielle."

Then, in an unexpected gesture, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled herself close to him, pressing the side of her head against his chest. Her small body felt so warm and soft up against him. He followed by wrapping his arms around her and practically engulfed her with his large body. But still, as he held her close, he thought how perfectly she fit into him. He wished he could hold onto her and this very moment forever.

She then pulled away and said, "Well, I think I'm going to go back inside and go to bed. I'm sure you're exhausted, as well."

"I'm pretty tired, yes, but I think I'll stay up here for a bit," he answered.

"All right," she replied. "Don't stay up too late. Good night, Onmund."

"Good night, Danielle."

He watched her walk away from him and head back into the Hall of Attainment. Now all alone up on the rooftop, Onmund gazed back down at the dark town of Winterhold below. He still had the piece of Malachite Ore that Danielle had given him in his hand and he squeezed it, feeling the rough texture of it, all the while feeling tranquil yet also with a gnawing feeling forming inside of him that threatened to eat him up. On the one hand, he knew that he loved her deeply and felt like he could do anything for her, including waiting years and years to get to a point where it was acceptable to pursue her. But on the other hand, there was an opposing voice in his head that told him that it was a ludicrous and vain idea. I came here to the College to pursue my dream and to pursue it at my pace, not to pursue some girl that I take a fancy to. Danielle was absolutely right to tell me not to lose focus on what was important. To lose focus on my studies would be detrimental to my career. And even if I could wait that long, it doesn't mean that Danielle can and should. If someone were to come along and pursue her and had the means and status to do it, then she would have every right to accept them without considering me. Not that she gave any indication that she would consider me, anyway. It's just one of my delusions, again.

Still not really sure about what he was going to do about his feelings for her, he decided to just go ahead and call it a night, anyway. He was very tired. They had been away from the College for three days, and now that they were back, it was time to get back into his studies and do what he came here to do. He went back inside and back downstairs to his room and straight to bed.

Onmund and Danielle finally get a quiet moment alone, but sorry...they don't kiss yet! So what'll be in store for Onmund now that he has to put his friendship with Danielle on the back burner? Find out next time!