Skyrim is the property of Bethesda Softworks. A double-header today. Because why not?
Aela and I arrived early the next afternoon at the windswept doors of High Hrothgar. The four monks were at their prayers so Aela and I waited in their dining hall. Eventually, Arngeir came in to sit with us.
"You have returned Dragonborn," he said, "What further guidance can we offer you?"
"I need to learn a Shout that can bring down a dragon," I said.
He looked crossly at me, "Where did you learn of that? Who have you been talking to?"
"I have been working with the Blades to find a way to defeat Alduin. I learned of this Shout from Alduin's Wall," I said.
Arngeir rolled his eyes back and slapped his hands on the table, "The Blades! Of course. They have always specialized in meddling in matters they barely understand. Their reckless arrogance knows no bounds. They have always sought to turn the Dragonborn from the path of wisdom."
"But the Blades seek to defeat Alduin."
"Have you learned nothing from us? Would you simply be used as a tool of the Blades for their own purposes?" He demanded, leaning over the table.
"The Blades are helping me Arngeir. I am not their puppet."
That mollified him somewhat, but he was still unhappy. "Forgive me for being impertinent. But heed my warning: Though they claim otherwise, the Blades do not serve the Dragonborn. They never have."
I nodded, "I've picked up on that truth already. For now though, their purposes align with mine."
"And would you abandon the Greybeards so easily when we no longer further your aims?" He shot back.
"If honor demands it, yes," I said evenly.
"So what is this Shout?" Aela asked into the uncomfortable silence that followed.
"The Shout you seek is called 'Dragonrend,' but you cannot learn it here," Arngeir said.
"We need this Shout," Aela pressed, "Is there no way to change your mind?"
"We cannot teach it young woman, because we do not know it. We have no desire to know it."
"What's so bad about Dragonrend?" I asked.
"It was created by those who lived under the unimaginable cruelty of Alduin's dragon cult. Their whole lives were consumed by their hatred of dragons. They poured all of their anger and hatred into this Shout. When you learn a Shout you take it into your very being. In a sense, you become the Shout. In order to learn Dragonrend, you will be taking this hatred into yourself. Something so evil has no purpose among the Greybeards," Arngeir explained.
"But if the Shout is lost, how can I defeat Alduin?" I asked my mentor.
"Only Paarthurnax, the master of our order could teach you, if he so chooses."
"Then I must go speak to him," I said.
Arngeir sighed and looked down at his veiny hands for a second. "You were not ready when you first came to us. You are not ready now. But I can see you won't be dissuaded. I had better teach you how to open the path before you get yourself killed," he said as he stood.
We left the great hall out the back doors with the three other monks slipping into line behind us. Arngeir gestured upward to a stone arch at the rear of the courtyard, "The path to Paarthurnax lays though this gate. I will show you how to open the way," he said.
"Why do you hate the Blades?" I asked.
Arngeir shook his head quickly. "Not hate. Distrust and fear. The Blades have always sought to turn the Dragonborn to their own ends," Arngeir said as we came to a halt before a small stone arch at the very back of ledge on which High Hrothgar stood.
The whiteout beyond the arch left frost building in layers on everything it touched. Beyond a few feet, visibility dropped off to nothing. Arngeir stood before the arch and called out three words onto the ground, "Lok, vah, koor," he whispered each before turning to me. "Clear Skies is our final gift to you Dragonborn. Use it well. It will blow away the mists, but only for a short time. The path to Paarthurnax is perilous, not to be embarked upon lightly. Keep moving, stay focused on your goal, and you will reach the summit."
"Thank you for your faith in me," I said, bowing to the four monks.
Standing in the arch with Aela behind me, I let the gale force winds reach out to snatch at my cloak and the straps of my gear. "Lok vah koor!" I shouted into the howling mist.
The air before Aela and I cleared instantly. A bright cold day above the Throat of the World's frost line was revealed as we kept a fast pace. I needed to use Clear Skies several more times before we reached a second ledge that sheltered us from the perpetual winds. The shattered remnants of another word wall stood near a strange flaw in the air: a vortex that seemed to twist upwards. My attention turned from these anomalies at the beating of large wings and the crash of tons of muscle and bone close by. He was large even for his kind and beyond ancient.
The only other dragon I had been able to look at so long and closely was Alduin. In the face of that beast I saw nothing but cruelty and hunger. In this grayscale's eyes, I saw the kindness and wisdom of a venerable old man.
"Drem yol lok. Greetings wunduniik. I am Paarthurnax," He said, "Who are you? What brings you to my strunmah ...my mountain?"
"I think you already know who I am," I replied. Speaking with Paarthurnax would prove a challenge. Either he kept forgetting that I didn't have a large vocabulary in the dragon language or was trying to teach me as he went along.
"Yes. Vazah. You speak true, Dovahkiin. Forgive me. It's been so long since I held tinvak with a stranger. I gave in to the temptation to prolong our speech."
"Why live alone on a mountain if you love to talk?" Aela asked.
The old dragon turned to inspect my fiancé. His gaze changed to something threatening before snapping back to its gentler cast. For a moment he resembled Alduin. I thought back for a moment on all those legends of dragons demanding maiden sacrifices.
"Evanaar bahlok. There are many hungers it is better to deny than to feed. D'ni nahkip. Discipline in the lesser aids in the quhnarr... Denial of the greater," He faced me again, "Tell me why do you come here volaan, why do you intrude on my meditation?"
"I need to learn Dragonrend. Can you teach me?"
"I can, but drem-patience. There are formalities that must be observed, at the first meeting of two dov. By long tradition, the elder speaks first. Hear my Thu'um! Feel it in your bones. Match it, if you are Dovahkiin."
I had witnessed dragons breathing fire before that moment, but nothing to compare with this. Standing mere feet from Paarthurnax, the sound of his Voice passed through my body like a shockwave. The flame was more than white-hot, fading in and out of sight before my eyes as the dragon put the whole of his being into creating fire. In the end the shattered word wall had the etching of a new word on it, like a shadow that had been burned into the stone.
He turned his ponderous body to face me again, "I have spoken. The rotmulaag awaits," he told me.
I stepped down onto the shallow pit in front of the new word and felt the familiar sensation of knowledge being forced into me.
"A gift Dovahkiin, 'tor'. Understand the inferno as the dov do. Now show me what you can do. Greet me not as a mortal, but as dovah!"
My reply was puny by comparison; like a spark from shuffling across a rug in comparison to the charcoal in a smelter. Paarthurnax seemed pleased none the less.
"Ah... yes! Sossedov los mul. The dragon blood runs strong in you. It is long since I had the pleasure of speech with one of my own kind. So you have made your way here. No easy task for a joor... mortal. Even one of dragon blood. What would you ask of me?"
"I wish to learn Dragonrend," I replied.
Paarthurnax's vast bulk appeared to sag, "Ahhh I had expected you. Prodah. You would not come all this way for tinvak with an old dov. No. You seek your weapon against Alduin."
"The Greybeards did not want us to come at all."
"Hmm. Yes they are very protective of me. Bachlaan fedone," he chuckled, "But I do not know the thu'um you seek. Krosis. It cannot be known to me. Your kind-joor-mortals created it as a weapon against the dov. Our hadrimme... our minds, cannot even... comprehend its concepts."
"How can I learn it then?"
"Drem. All in good time. First, a question of you. Why do you want to learn this thu'um?"
I thought the reason was obvious, "I like this world. I don't want it to end."
"Purzah. As good a reason as any. There are many who feel as you do... Although not all. Some would say that all things must end, so that the next may come to pass. Perhaps this world is simply the egg of the next kalpa? Leiin vokiin? Would you stop the next world from being born?"
"I don't recall ever being upset that my parents conceived me in the month of Midyear instead of Second Seed."
Paarthurnax twisted his head left and right as I spoke, a birdlike gesture that I found unnerving, alien, and hard not to mimic.
"Paaz. A fair answer. Ro fus. Maybe you already balance the forces that quicken the end of this world. Even we who ride the currents of time cannot see past time's end. Wulsteiid lod thradoiis. Those who work to hasten the world's end may delay it. Those who work to delay it may bring the End closer."
"I cannot watch all I know and love be unmade Paarthurnax. If it is my fate to hasten the End, I will face Akatosh and say that I played my part. It will be better than saying I did nothing."
He bobbed his neck in what I guess was a nod, "But you have indulged my weakness for speech long enough. Krosis. Now I will answer your question. Do you know why I live here at the peak of the Monhaven...? What you name Throat of the World?"
I had never really considered it, "You dragons like mountains right?"
"True. But few now remember that this was the very spot where Alduin was brought to battle by the first ancient Tongues. The first mortal masters of the Voice. Varlukt unslaad... Perhaps none but me now remember how he was defeated."
"By using this Dragonrend?"
"Yes and no. Viik nuz ni kron. Alduin was not truly defeated, either. If he was, you would not be here today, seeking to... Defeat him," the old dragon appeared to savor the irony before continuing. "The Nords of those days used the Dragonrend shout to cripple Alduin. But this was not enough. Ok mulaag unslaad. It was the Kel-the Elder Scroll. They used it to... cast him adrift on the currents of time."
"An Elder Scroll? What's that?" Aela asked. I was equally curious. In Cyrodiil, I had heard of them. A great number were said to be kept under careful guard at the White Gold Tower in the Imperial City. They were rarely spoken of, and even then only as artifacts possessed of a tremendous and vague power.
For a moment Paarthurnax was at a loss for words, "Hmm. How to explain it in your tongue? The dov have words for such things that joorre do not. It is an . . . artifact from outside time. It does not exist, but it has always existed. Rah wahlaan. They are... hmm... fragments of creation. The Kelle... Elder Scrolls, as you name them, they have often been used for prophecy. Yes, your prophecy comes from an Elder Scroll. But this is only a small part of its power. Zofaas suleyk."
"Are you saying the ancient Nords sent Alduin forward in time?" Aela asked.
"Not intentionally. Some hoped he would be gone forever, forever lost. Meyye. I knew better. Tiid bo amativ. Time flows ever onward. One day he would surface. Which is why I have lain here. For thousands of mortal years I have waited. I knew where he would emerge but not when. Tiid krent. Time was... shattered here because of what the ancient Nords did to Alduin."
To think just a few days ago I had wondered where else this adventure would take me. "How does any of this help me?" I asked.
"If you brought that Kel, that Elder Scroll back here . . . to the tiid-ahraan, the time-wound... With the Elder Scroll that was used to break time, you may be able to... cast yourself back. To the other end of the break. You could learn Dragonrend from those who created it.
"Do you know where I can find an Elder Scroll?"
"Krosis. No. I know little of what has passed below in the long years that I have lived here. You are likely better informed than I."
Aela looked over to me, "Esbern or Arngeir might have some idea," she suggested.
"Trust your instincts, Dovahkiin. Your blood will show you the way," Paarthurnax said.
"What do I do with the Elder Scroll when I find it?"
"Return it here, to the tiid-ahraan. Then... Kelle vomindok. Nothing is certain with such things... But I believe that the Scroll's bond with the tiid-ahraan will show you a... a seeing, a vision of the moment of its creation. With the Kel that was used to break time, you will be cast back to the other end of the break. To the moment of its creation. Then you will feel, know Dragonrend, in the power of its first expression." He looked away to the east behind us for a moment, appearing wistful, "You will see them... Wuth fadonne... My friends. Hakon, Gormlaith, Felldir."
"Who were they?"
"The first mortals I taught the Thu'um - the first Tongues. The leaders of the rebellion against Alduin. They were mighty, in their day. Even to attempt to defeat Alduin... Sahrot hunne. The Nords have had many heroes since, but none greater."
"How could an Elder Scroll cast Alduin through time?" Aela asked.
The old dragon turned back to her, "Vomindok. I do not know. Perhaps in the very doing they erased the knowledge of doing it from time itself. The dov are children of Akatosh. Thus we are specially... attuned to the flow of time. Perhaps also uniquely vulnerable. I warned them against such a rash action. Even I could not foresee its consequences. Nust ni hon. They would not listen."
"You mean you were there?" From what I had read, the Dragon War had ended in the second century of the First Era. I was having trouble getting my mind around just how truly old this creature was.
"Yes. There were a few of us that rebelled against Alduin's thur... his tyranny. We aided the humans in his overthrow. But they did not trust us. Ni ov. Their inner councils were kept hidden from us. I was far from here on the day of Alduin's downfall. But all dov felt the... sundering of time itself."
"What does the Dragonrend shout actually do?"
"I cannot tell you in detail. I never heard it used. Kogaan. It was the first thu'um created solely by mortals. It was said to force a dragon to experience the concept of mortality. A truly vonmindoraan... incomprehensible idea to the immortal dov."
"Thank you Paarthurnax. I will return when I have an Elder Scroll."
"Lok, thu'um Dovahkiin," he said, lifting off to perch on the shattered word wall.
Thank god for the uesp wiki. This was one of my favorite moments in the whole game and one where I wished my character and followers were able to express themselves more completely.