The amulet weighed heavily around Onmund's neck as they wound their way through the Saarthal catacombs, allowing the earth to swallow them deeper in their attempts to find whatever power Lili believed the Psijic spoke of. If it was even a power. Part of him still believed it was some monstrous beast that would bring doom upon the world, but that was probably just his fear of the shadows talking. All these undead, popping out of tombs, lurking behind walls, barks echoing down dark, moist halls—
He jumped as he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, letting the sharp breath go as he once again realized it was his silhouette dancing in the magelight. He was the one who wanted to go out into the field, and here he was afraid of his own shadow.
But still, maybe it would be best if the three of them regrouped with the others. After all, it was a class expedition. The others were being robbed of a learning experience.
"You alright, Onmund?" Tolfdir asked from behind, seeming to attribute his constant quakes to the exchange he had with the spectral elf. But it was true—ever since that encounter, ever since putting that damn amulet on his neck (no matter how powerful it made him feel) he felt a foreboding sense of doom hanging around them, thick as the underground air.
"I—feel like something bad is going to happen." He confessed quietly. Even though he knew the altmer could hear, if she commented it would be perceived as eavesdropping.
"The Psijic literally said 'and the dangers to come'. A Nord could figure that out."
Evidently she didn't care.
"Oh—sorry." Lili retracted, abashed. Evidently she just realized she was speaking to two Nords, one of which happened to be her professor. "Professor, I didn't mean—it's just an altmer phrase, rude slang for referring to something easy. I should be more careful with my words."
"Yes, yes," Tolfdir dismissed, that trademark smile on his face. Onmund wished the old man would yell at her, not for the sake of their race but for the professor's own reputation. Everyone already viewed him as eccentric and treated him as a pushover. He couldn't stand to have this High Elf form such disrespect as well.
The continued onward quietly; there was nothing left to say. Coming around a slightly collapsed, cobwebbed corner, Onmund's face fell in dismay to see the way forward was shut off by an iron release gate. Great, another obstacle probably ridden with traps.
The awkward silence broke with a series on ominous rattling and crunching under their feet. Onmund looked down, horrified to find brittle, skeletal remains covering the floor. A skull rested by his boot, the alarming, eternal smile leering up at him. He recoiled, a disgusted scowl on his face.
Lili grabbed her robe skirting, pulling it away from the deathbed floor with a similarly startled expression. They exchanged uneasy looks but quickly glanced away, neither eager to let onto their apprehension.
"Oh my." Tolfdir murmured, bending down and reaching his hand to one of the skeletons. Its arm was outreached towards a lever on the wall.
"Professor—!" Lili yipped as the old man picked up the aged skull.
He held it out to Lili, a perplexed expression on his face. "It's an elf."
"I—I can see that, professor. It's very old." Lili said through gritted teeth, placing her hands behind her back to defend herself from holding the crumbling bones.
"Yes…it appears to have a dent in its head. Ancient bones crumbling or a blow to the head perhalps?" he murmured, bringing it back to his view. "Strange, an elf corpse so old was found in here. This was is an ancient Nordic ruin." He paused, picking up another skull in his free hand. "And this one is a Nord. How pecular."
As Lili despondently humored the professor's one-sided ramblings, Onmund approached the lever. "Professor, there seems to be…" he placed his wrapped hands on the cold, grime packed metal, pulling backward, "…a lever here."
The mechanism groaned as he forced the tool back with his weight. Lili's yells were drowned as the cave rumbled, showering them in dust. Tolfdir dropped the skulls and curiously watched as the slowly gate rose up from the ground, all but its bottom prongs disappearing into the earthy, cobbled ceiling above.
"—we should be watching out for traps!" Lili continued, face red in the mellow light. She then whirled at Tolfdir, hands on her hips, and continued shouting, "We need to treat everything like a trap! We need to watch are feet, study objects before moving them," glaring back at Onmund, "not pulling random levers on the wall! We could've stumbled across worse than skeletons."
"I opened the way forward," Onmund growled, crossing his arms to keep himself from swinging at her. "If you hadn't noticed."
"That's not the point!"
"Don't act like this is about our safety." He yelled back. "It would've been perfectly fine if you had been the one to open the way forward."
"The lever was literally sticking out of the wall!" She exasperated, gesticulating at the old object. "A blind man could have found it!"
"If it was so obvious," Onmund challenged, "then why didn't you immediately point it out the second you saw it?" He turned from her and headed towards the open gateway and into what looked like a dried up cistern. That was all her fuss was about. She was once again trying to taint his achievements. Well, she better get used to him succeeding. He was going to beat her, he was going to be the best mage that ever lived.
"You are unbelievable—!" Lili seethed, marching after him.
"Students…" Tolfdir murmured from behind.
"Gotten the credit for it," Onmund yelled over his shoulder, "puffed up your little Thalmor coat and pranced around like the hero of the day?"
"I swear, Nord," she growled, boldly stepping across the threshold, hands lighting with small flames, "If this cave doesn't kill you, I will!"
"STUDENTS!"
Onmund stumbled as the ground beneath his right foot sank down an inch, stopping suddenly with an unpromising click. The familiar sound of metal pistons whooshed around them. The exit across the cisterns bridge was now blocked off by close-knit bars. Slowly, he looked down at his foot. It was unevenly standing on a circular stone.
"Dammit."
Heart dropping, he turned around, pleading to every divine he could think of that he wouldn't see metal newly manifested bars blocking the exit.
His prayers went unanswered.
Maybe he should've been praying that his two-time cellmate wouldn't kill him.
XXX
"ONMUND! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Lili roared, hands warm from the gathering flames. "WHAT DID I JUST SAY!?"
"I didn't do anything!" He pleaded pathetically, wincing as the switched clicked again under his foot. Lili's heart jumped a beat as the circular room began to crack. Eyes growing wide, she stared in horror as she realized that all around the room were wall-embedded tombs.
"This can't be happening again."
"I tried to stop you two!" Tolfdir scolded safely behind the bars. "But would you listen? No. You keep letting your differences get in the way of your goals. You don't have to like each other to work efficiently together. I was hoping you would've realized that by now."
"Not helping, professor!" Onmund yelled back, similarly turning with Lili as they watched dust shoot from the tombs' seals.
"I don't know what you expect me to do from this side." The old man muttered. Lili could hear him begin to senselessly rattle the lever back and forth, sending the original gate into a spasm. "Hmm. That didn't work. Here, I'll get you some help."
"Professor!" Lili screamed in a panic as he disappeared down the hall, the light from his spell vanishing with him. The two adepts both immediately cast their own mage light spell, lighting up the alarmingly dark, shuddering cistern.
Just in time to watch as the countless draugrs burst out.
Frenzied in a mixture fear, anger, and frustration, Lili grabbed Onmund's robe front, hissing, "Get under the bridge and keep your ward up," and shoved him off the slightly elevated walkway.
Tightening her shoulders and leaning over her hands, she watched as her fingers moved in a fluid, practiced motion, feeling the force of the flames build like a solid mass between her palms. White flames blazing in each hand, she spent a split second to lock eyes with Onmund below. Face pale and gaping, he quickly rolled under the small gap between the bridge and the floor, evidently realizing he had no other choice.
With a guttural roar, Lili dropped down, slamming her spread finger to the floor and watched as the heat poured out in waves of white flame, rushing up her shoulders and blazing across the circular room. She was immediately counting as the vacuum of fire turned the still barking, senseless draugrs to rancid ash, counting the seconds she could continue pouring out the flames.
"5…6…7…" with a gasp, she let go, catching herself from face planting into the stone architecture. Black dots swam in her vision, her stomach rolled over, her arms wobbled, but she forced herself to breathe. I
It wouldn't take long for her magicka, her energy, to replenish…just a few second…she had to of gotten them all, it was fine…she was fine.
XXX
Uncomfortably warm and sticky from the sweat and heat burns on his skin, Onmund let his flickering, blue ward drop and rolled out from under the bridge. The stone walls were burned black, the shadows of the dead (well, deader) draugr etched permanently on the surface. His heart and mind raced so fast that he could barely focus on the anger he felt towards the elven girl. He breathed, lungs aching in the hot, ashy air, and whirled towards the bridge.
Pulling himself up onto the raised walkway, he was surprised to see her lying on the floor. A small radius of the stone around her remained unscorched, the ash lines bursting out in thin triangles like some inverted eclipse.
"Divines…" he whispered, suddenly panicking. Lili wasn't simply lying down; she had collapsed. "Oh, divines please don't let her be dead." Even though she prevented him from helping, people would still blame him for abandoning his partner to a monster hoard. He would be in so much trouble, possibly even expelled.
He rushed over to her still body, nearly tripping over his own feet, and threw himself beside her. "Lili, hey, wake up!" He demanded nervously, hands unsurely hovering over her still body. "Please don't be dead. Here, I'll cast a healing spell, and Tolfdir will be back soon—!"
His heartbeat doubled as a murmur escaped her golden lips. They quivered tiredly against her pale skin. "What was that?" he asked, leaning his ear down.
"I said I'm fine, you idiot." She growled weakly, rolling away from him and onto her back. "Have you never completely drained your magika before?"
Onmund stared at her in shock, a faltering smile of relief and anger alternating on his face. Good, she was okay and taking full responsibility for her health. He was in the clear. But from what she just said, she could have killed not only him but herself as well. "You did what?" He finally asked. "How the hell are you still—?"
"Awake?" she finished with a smug smile, golden-orange eyes narrowing in pleasure at another ill-conceived triumph over him. "Years of training."
She did what? That was impossible. There was no way she was still awake after all…he looked around the room, surveying the damage once again. If this was the power she truly had, he was beginning to understand why she had been immediately welcomed into the college. "Lili," he said, mostly for the sake of arguing against her unbelievable feat. "We're instructed to never do that. What if they hadn't all died? You would've been here defenseless on the floor—,"
"That's what you were for." She managed, slowly pushing herself up and pulling a small blue vial from her deep pockets. She uncapped it with her teeth and began pouring the tingly liquid down her throat. Onmund moved away, unsure if he should be offering her help or not. "Why else do you think I protected you?" She asked, gently discarding the empty bottle. Vigor had returned to her eyes.
"Protected me?" he laughed in disbelief. "You nearly killed me!"
"You were fine."
"You set the entire room on fire!"
They both tensed as a series of echoes rang down the dark hall, but breathes sighs of relief upon seeing Tolfdir, Arniel, Rennis, and Nirya emerge, all wielding pre-spells. Rennis had a scroll in-hand.
"I found some reinforcements!" Tolfdir shouted, jogging into the room with far more energy than would assume for a man his age. "Ah, students!" he said, coming to a halt, nearly causing his little battalion to topple over him. "You both alright? Taking a well-earned break, I presume?"
"Yes, professor." Lili replied, still sitting by Onmund. "But it was nothing we couldn't handle. Onmund laughed scornfully at the understatement. This elf, no, Lili had so much power, was probably stronger than the two professors in the room. Yet she still kept it shrouded in mystery. If he had her strength and training, he'd be showing it off every chance he got. It was as if she was so good that she wasn't compelled to prove it to them. Well, her tactic worked; he was stunned and disgustedly developing a grudging respect.
"Tolfdir," Arniel grunted, "You said they were in immediate danger. I don't see any danger here."
"Yeah." Rennis interjected, sadly stuffing the unused scroll into his robe.
"Holy shit!" the elf girl named Nirya gawked, surveying the heavily damaged room. "What did you guys do? Light the room on fire."
Onmund exchanged a look with Lili. She simply shrugged form her seat on the floor.
"I dropped my studies for this." Arniel continued. "And the door wasn't even locked! It will take me forever to recollect my notes. Next time emergencies only."
"The door was locked you, and there were draugrs." Onmund affirmed, hastily standing up to defend the old professor. "Maybe if you would've done your job instead of being a coward you would've followed us down here and seen for yourself!"
"Onmund—please." Tolfdir said quietly, looking at him with thanks but pressing him to be respectful. "Arniel has to document all of our new findings; it is his job after all."
"Not all of us get to run blindly down a dark tunnel, boy." Arniel growled, looking around the new room then back up the hall as if longing for his journal and quill. "I need to document all of this still…?" he groaned.
"What happened?" Nirya insisted as the professors began to survey the apparently very interesting room. She walked up to the other elf and helping her up, like she was her bestest friend in all the world. Onmund walked away not too eager to hear the elf brag.
"When we entered this room, nearly ten draugr appeared." Lili answered calmly, gently shrugging the other girl off. "We had to fight them off."
Onmund halted, not believing what he heard. "We?" He repeated, turning back around and looking at the tall, fair elf.
"Yes, we." She insisted, crossing her arms. "You didn't think I'd give you all the credit, did you?"
"How did you guys do it?" Rennis asked in awe, a gaping smile on his face. His eyes were everywhere besides the three people in front of him. "No let me guess first: you set up walls of flame, maybe a few runes, and a bucket of oil? You used the bridge as a platform and watched as the world burned beneath you, basking in the sizzling blaze and stench of your foes?"
Lili blinked, mouth parted at a loss for words. Onmund held back a laugh. It was probably the girl's first time truly speaking with Rennis, if a thing was even possible. He personally tried to avoid the weird man. The guy was a lunatic. "Yeah," he answered for her, "something like that."
As the two reinforcements began to explore the room, Rennis digging through the ashy corpses and Nirya a nearby clay pot, Onmund found himself alone with Lili on bridge.
"So why'd you lie about the fight?" he whispered to her, still shocked.
"I didn't want to give the impression that I'm reckless." She answered coolly, refusing to look at him. But from around the side of her face he could tell she was smirking. "For all they know, the amount of damaged and displaced burns is attributed to you."
"Oh, thanks." He replied sarcastically. However, he found a bit of humor (and truth) in the taunt. "I thought you were trying to be nice for once."
"Nice? I'm not familiar with that word." She replied, giving him a sideways glance.
"Do you always get this silly when you're low on magicka?" he asked with a short laugh.
"Ha! Perhaps." She mused. "I do still feel a little dizzy."
Without thinking he pulled his own blue bottle form his pocket and offered it to her. As she eyed it at first with surprise and then hungrily, he began to regret the gesture, wanting to keep the precious substance for himself. He gasped inwardly as her slender, gloved hand reached forward, then watched in confusion as he pushed the offering away.
"No, thank you." She said, golden face turning rosy. "You'll need it later."
"What—what that's supposed to mean?" he grumbled as he struggled to repocket the potion, his own face growing red. "You think I'm going overdue it?" He stopped short, cutting off the angry tirade before he had the chance to spill out more insults. For some reason trying to offend her no longer had a pleasant taste.
"I think we all will." She murmured, eyes training on the now unbarred way forward. "Very soon."
XXX
The party, slightly deflated as Arniel opted to stay behind in order to catch up on his research notes, continued forward. Lili, still feeling the costs of her large casting, dropped the lead so quietly that no one but Onmund probably new she had been clamoring for it earlier. The Nord was right: draining her magicka made her unusually humble, if not soft.
Tolfdir, being the senior mage, professor, and head of the expedition finally took his place at the head of their group (most likely since he was responsible for four students lives now instead of two) with the whitehaired Rennis dogging his heels, a more nervous Nirya following dutifully behind, and then Lili with Onmund awkwardly lingering by her side.
She shot him another disapproving glance, hoping he would drop the sudden sense of comradery before it became an issue. She was not here to make friends, least of all with hot tempered Nords. A spiteful laugh escaped through her nose. Maybe she wasn't always that cool minded either.
"What now?" he asked, his tone suggesting he attributed her humor to himself. Well, he wasn't completely wrong.
"Nothing that concerns you." She replied coolly, hoping her icy demeanor would ward off any further socializing attempts. "I don't need you baby-sitting me, you know? I told you that I am fine."
"Yeah, and as much as I believe you," he whispered back, "I'm still the only one who knows you're nearly drained of energy. If you're going to keep it secret from everyone else it'd be in your best interest to allow someone to watch your back."
"Watch my back?" she murmured to herself, unsure of how she should interpret the words. In all her years of training, she'd never been taught how to wield side by side with a partner. She was taught to rely on herself and abilities only. If she screwed up, it was all her fault; if she ended up dead, no one else could be blamed. It was her against the world, proving herself every day and alone bringing glory to the Altmer race. Perhaps such a notion of solidarity was strange in this land, but it was how she was trained, how she was raised. She wasn't interested in making friends, and she was less interested in forming partners.
But maybe…
She glanced again at the Nord, no, at Onmund, reflecting on the feeling of not walking down this dark tunnel alone.
…she was interested in a truce.
A disturbed, warning bark reverberated down the hall, which surprisingly had been growing wider and taller as they worked their way out of the catacombs. They were now in what seemed to be the remnants of an underground, puzzle vault or a trap ridden labrinth. From their mage lights a shadow of a jerky adversary stretched across the curving wall.
"Oh, finally!" Rennis yelled in delight, forcing his way around the slow professor and ripping the scroll from his side pocket. "I've been dying to use this!"
"Hold on," Tolfdir said gruffly, grabbing the paper from his hand. "Rennis, what is this? Did you find it, bring it here? You know your scroll writings are to be kept in the classroom at all times."
"Professor—gah!" Rennis objected, nervously reaching for it and looking towards the every growing shadow. He spun around, hands sparking with electricity and challenge the approaching draugr.
Lili watched as Nirya began casting stoneflesh over him and readying...oh my word, was that Heal Other spell? Besides being excessive, the healing spell was adept, something one would only be able to cast if they were studying, and more likely majoring in, Restoration maigck. Another snort escaped Lili's nose. That's explained why the other elf had been trying to hide restoration books in one of their alteration classes, and why she was even interested in Restoration at all. Everyone knew majoring in Restoration first was a waste of time, so it was no wonder she tried to keep her interest a secret. The girl wanted to be her crush's healer.
As Rennis easily downed the draugr, leaving a tinge of fried skin in the air, the other elf ran over to see if he was okay. She ran her hands through his white hair, trying to make the ever static charged ends lie flat. It was a lost cause.
"Professor," she whirled around accusingly, evidently giving up on fixing up her small Breton lover. "Rennis did not steal that scroll from the classroom! How could you accuse him of something like that?"
"Yeah," Rennis agreed pompously, putting a shaking hand on his hip. "I made it outside of class—,"
"What?!" Tolfdir yelped, holding the scroll out as if it might explode. Lili and Onmund both jumped back as well, while Nirya shifted uncomfortably.
"—in my dorm room. And as you can see, it is a masterpiece." The Breton finished, a white smile spread wide across his angular face. "What? I didn't break any roles."
"You idiot." Lili spat at him, her words overthrowing Tolfdir's. Nirya tried to defend him, but one flash from Lili's flashing eyes surprisingly silenced the chatterbox. "Do you even understand what you could have done? The power in those words far exceeds what is found in an average spell book. The words are archaic; they have power of their own. All it could take is one spelling error and your masterpiece could have killed is all."
"You didn't even read it!" Rennis whined, reaching for the crumpled parchment in Tolfdir's hand.
"No one will read it!" Tolfdir commanded. "It must be disposed of and dissected carefully. Rennis, I am very disappointed in you. Someone of your age and degree should know better."
"I do know better." Rennis growled in frustration as he let the paper go. "That's why I was able to successfully create it in the first place. I'm ready to do something with my life, something meaningful that will advance our limitations in magic, something—!"
"Crazy?" Onmund finished for him, his arms crossed disapprovingly. Lili watched as the two young men glared at each other. Evidently there was some rivalry, if not bad blood, between the two. Perhaps Onmund had a better judge of character than she thought. To be honest, he hadn't been completely wrong in his assertions about her.
Maybe she should revaluate who she chose to linger around. Though the air was tense, with a potential fire bomb in the room and all, she failed to suppress yet another smile.