Chapter 16

"And this necromancer," Beras said slowly, trying not to shake with fear after hearing about his new enemy. "You want me, someone who has never cast a spell, who was banned from using weapons because of how bad I am with them," he swallowed. "You want me to… to kill him?"

Sabona was lying on the floor again, fiddling with a twig from one of the plants that were positioned against the walls. "That pretty much sums it up," he responded unblinkingly.

Beras stared at him, trying hard to analyze the argonian. Was he really this casual about the situation, or was he just putting up some kind of act? "But you told me that he's defeated everyone you've sent at him! And brutally murdered them!" He shook his head, trying not to vomit at the thought of the atrocities the dark mage had committed. "I'm sorry," he said. "I don't want to become a zombie."

Alix looked around nervously, clearly worried about losing Meridia's chosen champion. "No," she said quietly. "We aren't sending you out right now. Obviously, you need to train up."

Sabona nodded in agreement. "Beras, what do you know about restoration magic?"

Beras thought for a moment before answering. "Only that it is used to heal, and that the priests in all the chapels were trained in it." He remembered being sick once, when he was only nine. His mother had taken him to the chapel back in Anvil, and a priestess had stood over him. With a flourish of her hand, he had been enveloped in a golden light, and had immediately felt well again.

"That much is true," Sabona replied. "But it can do more. It can enhance your abilities, give you resistances to magic, shield against spells, and most importantly, banish the undead." A small white light appeared in his palm, which spread out into a circle of light that spiraled around him. "This is a guardian circle," he explained. "Most undead creatures that enter it will catch on fire and flee."

Alix cleared her throat. "That spell is well known in Tamriel, but we will be able to teach you things that only those who follow Meridia can learn." She folded her arms across her back and began pacing. "While most restoration mages know how to ward off the undead, we know how to kill them outright."

Beras crossed his legs and began to twirl his foot around nervously. "What if I'm not any good at magic? What if I can't learn?"

"That isn't an option," Sabona said bluntly, snapping the twig between his thumb and forefinger. "Besides, I doubt Meridia would have chosen you if you were completely useless." He leaped to his feet and walked over to Beras until he was so close that the latter felt uncomfortable. "I understand that you have been through a lot lately. You watched your friends die, you were prevented from returning home, you were tortured for days, and now you have an immense and dangerous task ahead of you. It's enough to make anyone go crazy."

Alix watched the situation, clearly ready to step in if she thought it had gone too far. She seemed somewhat on edge, as if they were in foreign territory, and she anticipated attack at any moment.

"I understand that you're tired, both physically and mentally," the argonian continued. "But right now, we have problems. Big problems. If you aren't able to get past your grief, many more people will continue to die, and face suffering even more intense than yours."

Beras nodded. He understood that he needed to help, that he needed to prevent any more of these horrors from happening, but he couldn't simply push aside his grief. He couldn't put aside the fact that many of the people he was closest to were killed before his eyes.

"I will help," he said slowly. "In whatever ways I can. But I'm not- I'm never going to get past my grief. I won't let that stop me though."

Alex raised her eyebrows. "You're willing to have your negative emotions resting inside of you while trying to accomplish tasks that will only add to their weight?"

Beras nodded, and looked down at the floor. A sudden wave of heat passed through his face. He needed to shut up. They probably thought he was a stupid child, like everyone else who ever met him.

Quick as lightning, Sabona grabbed Beras' face by the jaw, and lifted his head up so their eyes were locked. Beras swallowed nervously, not knowing what to make of this. The argonian seemed to be staring into his very soul. He felt violated, as if his entire life was on display. He couldn't even begin to guess what this man was thinking. Sabona scared him, almost as much as Inyen had.

"Don't," Sabona said bluntly. He gave Beras a little shove, who stumbled backwards and fell onto the bench. "Just don't. We can't work with you if you're being shy around us."

"Sabona, there's no need to be so harsh," Alix interjected. "We need to treat him with some gentleness or he isn't going to want to be open with us." She walked over and stood behind Beras, putting her hands on his shoulders. On contact, he flinched. "There's only so much someone can take, and you shouldn't be adding to his load."

The argonian glared at her for a moment, then backed off. Clearly he respected her views and ideas. After a few moments of silence, he quietly said, "Your training will begin tomorrow." Then he exited through a door that Beras hadn't seen due to the plants.

The door shut quietly, leaving Alix and Beras alone in near silence, the only sound being the water in the pool. Taking her hands off of him, Alix walked over to a chest positioned next to the bench she had been sitting on. She took out a piece of bread and tossed it to Beras, who dropped it ungracefully.

"Please don't think poorly of Sabona," Alix pleaded. "He's undergoing a lot right now, and even though he seems stoic, he is just as fragile as any of us underneath." She pinched her nose, right between her eyes. "Don't tell him I said that, he'd be furious."

Beras nodded, understanding fully that pain could drive people to hide themselves. He just wished that he could at least see into his new mentor's heart and mind, even just a little.

"Anyway," Alix said. "Could you tell me a bit about yourself? I'd like to know who I'm working with. That way I can put my all into trying to make sure you succeed where others have failed."

His mouth went dry. Beras hated this. He hated talking about himself more than most things. The question was so vague, he had no idea where to begin.

Alix shook her head. "Never mind," she said. "You don't have to talk if you don't want to. After all, you hardly even know who I am." She sighed, and looked up at the ceiling. "It's probably best if I don't get attached to you. Not saying that I think you're going to die or anything." She slapped herself and shook her head.

Beras stared at her, able to feel his heart thumping against his ribs. How powerful could this necromancer be? Not even one of the people they had sent after him had returned alive, though evidently some had returned as zombies. These weren't random people who challenged him on a whim, they were people trained to fight against the undead, and even so they couldn't win. It wasn't helping his confidence that neither Sabona nor Alix seemed to think he stood a very strong chance.

Really, the only chance he had would be determined tomorrow when he started training. If he excelled in using magic, then maybe he might make it out of this alive. If not, he might as well buy himself a coffin in advanced. That is, he would were he not sure his body would be resurrected or torn apart for research.

The thought of it made him nauseous and he swallowed, trying not to lose the only bit of food he had eaten in days. Come to think of it, he hadn't taken any water or any sort of liquid, and it occurred to him how thirsty he was.

"Do," Beras stammered. "Uh, do you have any, um, any water? Or something?"

Alix nodded, stood up, and made her way to the door that Sabona had exited through. She reemerged a few moments later with a goblet filled with water. She handed it to him, careful not to spill any.

It was cool and clean, far nicer than any water he had ever had. Something must have been done to it to get it into this condition. Magic, maybe? It didn't matter.

Beras looked up from his water and his face flushed. Alix was staring at him. "You must be wondering where we are," she said, as though this were obvious to her.

In fact, the thought had never even occurred to him, but now that it had been brought up, he was curious. He nodded, running the names of the provinces and the cities that he knew within them through his mind, creating a mental map.

"We're in an underground shrine to Meridia, obviously," she said. "But more specifically, we're in one of the more southern regions of Hammerfell."

Beras coughed on the water he was swallowing. Hammerfell? He had been moved from Elsweyr to Hammerfell in his sleep? "Why Hammerfell?" he asked.

"Well," Alix explained. "The shrine in Cyrodiil, which was the closest to us at the time, kind of just sits out in the open. There isn't any place to stay, just a statue." She ran her fingers through her fluffy hair, and smiled a bit. "It's also nice to be back in my home province. I was born in Dragonstar, the northernmost city in Hammerfell. I haven't been there in a while, but being close to home still makes me feel safe." She paused a moment before asking, "Where are you from? Cyrodiil, judging by your accent, and you look Imperial."

Beras nodded. "Anvil," he muttered. He didn't like thinking about his life back home. He prefered to imagine that he had been born and raised in Cloud Ruler Temple, but he wasn't going to lie. Anyone could tell if he was lying, and he just didn't feel right doing it.

Alix furrowed her eyebrows in worry. "Anvil? Did you say Anvil? Were you there when, you know…?"

He nodded again, and chewed the inside of his cheek a bit.

The redguard's eyes were watering. "I'm so sorry," she said quietly. "So you joined the Blades after that?"

"They more or less adopted me," he replied, biting his lip. He didn't know why, but talking to Alix didn't make him feel nearly as awful as talking to most people, which was surprising, seeing how she was practically a complete stranger.

Alix sighed, a long, sad sigh. "You should probably get some rest. It's getting late, and knowing Sabona, he will want to start early tomorrow morning."

Beras stood up, and tried to say thank you, but a strange squeaking sound was all that came out of his mouth. Then he headed back to the room he had woken up in and lay down. He wasn't sure if he could manage what they wanted, but he was going to try his hardest not to disappoint the people around him.