Chapter 2 Diagon Ally
The swirling purple and blue portal appeared at the gate way of Diagon ally and out stepped Silandra, Aralas and Farkas. The armour and sword that Silandra had worn during their meeting a few days before was replaced by tight black leather pants, high black boots and a tight navy blue, leather sleeveless shirt with a hooded pulled up to hide her ears. A pair of tooled leather bracers and belt bearing her daggers and satchel completed the eye catching ensemble. Aralas was dressed similarly except he wore brown and green, with his new elven had matching pale grey clan paint on their faces tracing the wide tear trails down their faces, just barely visible.
Farkas loomed over the mother and son wearing a red linen tunic, brown wool breeches and simple brown boots, his Steel great sword hanging from its sheath on his back. He looked around the ally that was beginning to fill up with shoppers and crossed his arms with a snort "this place looks like Riften during market day" he commented, sweeping his gaze across the hordes of shoppers who had yet to notice the new arrivals.
"Thank you for agreeing to come Farkas" Silandra said to the big Nord.
"No worries shield-sister. I'm always willing to help out you and the pup" he reached down as if to ruffle the boy's hair but stopped because of the hood, opting to put a hand on his shoulder instead "besides I'm not about to let you go running off on a new adventure without me."
Silandra smiled at him before casting her eyes over the crowd. "I need the two of you to stay here for a few minutes." Farkas raised an eyebrow at the elf who grinned and looked at her son "stay with Farkas, Aralas. Mamas going fishing." With that she melted into the throng of people, Farkas rolled his eyes and Aralas smiled as he caught glimpses of his mother ghosting through the crowd. He knew what she was doing and hoped she would let him join in the fun too, very carefully he let his fingers brush against the coin purse a blond aristocrat who looked remarkably like an Altmer, right down to the arrogant expression. Soft as a sigh he pulled out two gold coins and slipped them into his own pocket smiling innocently at Farkas who shook his head at the boy's antics, like mother like son.
Ten minutes later Silandra reappeared smiling like a cat that had just had a large saucer of cream. "Let's go the bank shall we?" she told the two of them and led them to a large snowy white building at the end of the street.
Aralas looked at his mother and said innocently "can I spend some of my allowance mother?"
Silandra looked at her son with suspicion "how much did you bring?" she asked him, her eyes twinkling. Proudly Aralas pulled the two coins from his pocket and held them up for his mother to examine. Any other mother would have been horrified at the thought of their child picking pockets, but Silandra was not most mothers. At seeing the fruits of her son's efforts, she smiled proudly "of course you can."
They halted at the steps of the bank and she turned to her companions "why don't you two explore for a bit, don't get anything yet. I'll be a little while" she turned back towards the steps and smiled in what Aralas recognized as her "gold" face. Her eyes would widen innocently and she would exude a sort of fragile naiveté that lulled even the most hardened merchant into a false sense of security, just before she robbed them blind without them even realising it.
Silandra walked up the steps with a confident stride, passing the two heavily armed goblins on either side of the door. She had always wondered if Akatosh had been drunk when he had made her Dragonborn; Dragons horded power and Bosmers horded shiny things, put them together and you got a kleptomaniac Bosmer with a serious thirst for power. As she passed through the second set of doors she smirked mentally at the warning on the wall:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
Really, she mused, that was just daring her to try, poems and warnings were like a giant flashing sign say "Steal me steal me" to thieves like her.
She walked up to an unoccupied teller and waited to be acknowledged, rule number one: never antagonise the ones who kept your shiny things safe. The goblin looked up "I am teller Witherclaw, how may I help you?" he asked in a bored tone.
"I would like to set up and account and convert some coins" she told him politely
"Under what name?" came the uninterested question
"Thane Silandra Stillglade" she informed him, rule number two: Names could be as effective as any blade.
The Goblin wrote the title down "what form of money would you like to convert" he said, still filling out forms.
"This" she replied placing an ordinary one Septim coin on the desk in front of his ledger. The goblin looked up and his eyes widened "what kind of coin is that?" he asked picking it up and examining it carefully.
"That is an Imperial Septim" she informed him again putting on her best "gold" face, rule number three: the gods gave talents for a reason, use everything you have.
The goblin looked from the coin to her then back at the coin again "Am I right in thinking that Thane is a noble title?" the goblin asked furrowing his brow at her.
She smiled sweetly "Yes, it's one of my many titles. The others include: Arch-mage of the Collage of Winterhold, Harbinger of the Companions, Dragonborn, slayer of Alduin, Mirrak and Harkon, Legate of the Imperial legion and Lady of the Ancient and powerful Bosmeri house of Stillglade in Valenwood."
The goblin cocked his head to the side "you wish to open account. May I suggest making some investments?" Silandra blinked imperiously, rule number four: silence can be more powerful then speech.
She grinned inside her head, her dragon soul was thrumming with pleasure, there was power and coin to be had, and out loud she said "You may."
It was a little over an hour later that Silandra strode out of a building with a smug self-satisfied smile on her face. Aralas and Farkas were waiting for her, having walked the length of the ally but not entered any shops.
Silandra grinned at them and pulled the school list from her satchel that now contain two thousand galleons and a key to a vault that now housed a growing crop that had sprung from nearly ten thousand Septims, a mere drop in the ocean that was Silandra's fortunes with an already growing interest.
The first few stores they went too were almost identical to their Nirnian counterparts, quills and ink, parchment and notebooks, but as they stood in the doorway of a store called Flourish and Blotts, Farkas realized that he was doomed.
Everyone in Skyrim knew of the infamous Book Thief, a criminal that had struck across the province, sweeping homes and palaces clean of their literature. Few knew that Silandra was the Mer responsible. Ruined books, tattered books, fact and fiction; no literary work was safe where the Dragonborn was concerned, and she had passed that vice to her son. The two Stillglades leapt into action, buying so many books that the clerk had almost fainted as she rang up the total. No subject was safe from their pillage of the shelves, and Farkas ended up heaving the large enchanted bags through the streets.
The apothecary earned a sniff of derision (followed swiftly by a gag at the stench) from Silandra who none the less purchased the necessary supplies. Telescope, and safety equipment (the dragon skin gloves had Aralas snarling and Silandra nearly incinerating the poor shop assistant) and various miscellaneous items, until they stood outside a shop that proclaimed "Madam Malkin's robes for all occasions."
His mother looked at the list and back up at the sign, her brow furrowed "I think it would be best if we waited outside, if they're anything like Radiant's then we'll just make a mess by all of us cramming in there" she told the other two quietly, Aralas nodded and entered the shop.
Inside a matronly Breton woman in magenta robes bustled up to them "Hello, Hogwarts dear?" she asked, Aralas nodded and was soon whisked away and deposited on a stool "We have another boy here as well, won't be but a moment" she told him before hurrying off the find some robe.
A pale imperial boy with platinum pair and pale grey eyes was standing over on the other stool with another witch pinning his robes. "Hello" said the boy "Hogwarts too?"
"Yes" Aralas replied, Madam Malkin came back and looked at the hood covering his head.
"I'm afraid that you will have to take your hood off young man" she told him lifting the robes as if to emphasise her point. With a sigh Aralas pulled the hood off and set it on the ground next to his stool, Madam Malkin slipped the robes over his head and got to work.
"What happened to your ears?" the pale boy demanded "some kind of magical alteration?" there was a hint of disgust in his voice.
"No" Aralas informed him frostily "these are my natural ears, I'm Bosmer, a wood elf, a Mer, and as such I have pointed ears."
Malkin left to get more pins and the boy's face now looked as if a skeever had just crawled out of sewer in front of him "You're not human and they are letting you into Hogwarts?" he asked incredulously "the school must really be going to the dogs." Aralas's eyes narrowed to dangerous slits; but the boy took no notice as he continued to verbally dig his own grave. As the other witch finished with the pale boys robes and he hopped off the stool he turned to give one last parting shot "my father is on the board of governors, he won't let a non-human freak like you stay in Hogwarts long."
That did it, Aralas breathed deeply through his nose and pulled on the power he had inherited from his mother "BOVUL!" [Flee] he shouted at the boy.
A wave of energy visible only to him swept across the distance and enveloped the boy who let out a terrified shriek and pelted out of the shop like Dagon himself was behind him. Malkin had just come around the partition too see the boy's flight and looked curiously at the impassive elf on the stool.
The door banged open and let in a defensive Farkas and a snarling Dragonborn with flaming hands ready to rain death and destruction on the one who had dared lay a hand upon her child; "something had made her hatchling shout", her dragon soul snarled, turning her eyes a glowing gold as it reared to the surface, "kill the threat" it demanded roaring and clawing at her mind. Seeing nothing wrong and her hatchling safe, she wrestled the dragon back into her subconscious and she smiled apologetically at the quivering woman who stood near her son.
"My deepest apologies Gentle lady" she soothed, calling upon the skills she had honed in among the bards "I was concerned for my son's safety when I heard him shout and I'm afraid I over reacted." Farkas bowed and muttered a similar apology. Slowly the Madam Malkin retrieved her calm, seeing as the two adults in front of her had now adopted a nonthreatening pose. Taking a deep breath she finished the young boy's fitting and saw them out.
Once the door had closed behind them however she summoned a bottle of Firewhiskey and took a swig straight from the bottle to calm her nerves.
Outside the shop Silandra and Farkas looked at Aralas sternly "any particular reason you shouted at the boy we saw sprinting out of there?" she asked him with a dangerous glint in her eye.
"He challenged me, he called me a non-human freak" Aralas said defensively "I couldn't let the challenge go unanswered I don't want to be called a freak" he said more quietly.
Farkas frowned and Silandra rubbed the bridge of her nose "Aralas, we are Dovahkiin, we have powers that others can only dream of. But you can't let your Dovah Sil [dragon soul] drive you to dominate others. When you shout you are summoning power from Auri-el himself, you cannot use this power lightly. Have you learned nothing from the greybeards?" Aralas's head hung in shame "when we get home you will climb the seven thousand steps to High Hrothgar and explain to master Arngeir why you are there and take whatever punishment he gives you, understood?" she told him flatly.
Then she sighed seeing the tears beginning in his eyes and put a hand on his shoulder, "You are my son, a member of the Stillglades. Do you remember our family's motto?" she asked him, obediently he recited "There is an arrow for every occasion" Silandra nodded "you used the wrong arrow in this battle, and because of that you may lose the war. Come, we have one more stop to make."
The more somber group made their way to a shop with peeling gold letters reading "Olivander's, makers of wands since 382 B.C."
A small bell tinkled above the door as they entered the dusty shop. The air inside reminded Aralas of a mix between an ancient crypt, a Spriggan grove and the Arcanum in the collage. The smells of wood, fur and dust making him want to sneeze.
"Who do we have here?" a voice echoed from the depths of the shop and a man with large moonlike eyes stepped from the shadows "It has been a very long time since I have seen Mer." He murmured "Especially one of the wood folk, you have come to purchase a wand?" he asked.
Silandra stepped forward and spoke "I am Dragonborn Silandra Stillglade, thane of Skyrim and Legate of the Imperial legion. Identify yourself" she commanded.
The man's eyes widened and he quickly bowed "Balen Olivandus, my lady, of the cult of the Ancestor Moth" he said.
Farkas frowned and crossed his arms again "What's a moth priest doing here?" he asked.
"Alas I do not know how I came here, but I believe I was sent here by the Elderscroll that I had the chance to read. Though it did blind me, it also gave me new sight, the ability to read the magica currents. Since then I have made my living here among these wizards" the moth priest recounted sadly.
"I can make you a portal back to Nirn if you wish" Silandra told him, but the priest shook his head.
"My life is here now. But I must tell you that if you wish a wand for your son you will need Nirnian material, the mediums of this world do not handle wild Nirnian magic well. Also I assume that you both adhere to the green pact?" both of them nodded "then I would suggest a bone wand, do you have a spirit animal child?" he asked and Aralas nodded "dragon" and Silandra reached through her satchel muttering to herself before she pulled out a dragon rib bone.
"That will do nicely, but I will need the hair of a magical creature for the core, the more powerful the better" he said examining the bone.
"I am a blessed of Hircine and a Dragonborn, would my fur do as a core?" Silandra asked cocking her head to the side.
Olivander thought for a moment "yes it would, can you transform here?" Silandra crouched down and seemed to writhe for a few seconds before she shifted shape and remained crouching, a large jet black wolf with dark amber eyes and a faint pattern on her fur that looked like scales in silver.
Carefully Olivander motioned to Aralas "Pluck some of the hairs on her crest" he instructed, confidently Aralas put a hand on his mother's warm fur and pulled a handful of the longer stiff black and silver hairs and handed them to Olivander. With a grunt the wolf shifted back into his mother who shook herself after the uncomfortable change.
"I must measure the boy to ensure the wand fits, young man will you stand on this spot please." Aralas did as instructed and found himself held in place by a floating tape measure that whirled around him measuring everything about him, from the length of his arms to the distance between his nostrils. After a good ten minutes of this Olivander looked up from a pad of paper he had been sketching on and said "that's enough" the tape measure fell to the floor in a crumpled heap and he looked up at the family "it will take some time to craft this, if you could return in three days I will have it ready by then."
Silandra bowed "thank you for your time wise one, we will leave you to your work." Aralas and Farkas bowed as well and left the shop, opening a swirling portal to the amazement of the passing shoppers and hopping back through too Nirn.
A/N- there the burning question has been answered, the dragon soul is hereditary. Thank you to everyone who has read and commented on my story, I am toying with pairings in my head for around third-fourth year. As to those who will scream about the holly wand think on this: the magic of Nirn is very wild, mediums just aren't practicle for Nirnian magic. Aralas got a huge magica boost due to his dual citizenship and his being Dovahkiin. A wooden wand from earth would burst into flames, also the green pact means that no plant can be harmed. I'm going to drive snape nuts with that. So a bone wand makes sense. next will be a rest of the summer chapter, and Serana is going to give Aralas a gift, something that was not purchased in Diagon... care to guess?
Safe travels! Trojan Seeress