The Legend of Zelda: Skyrim Chapter 21: Advancements in Magicka, a Legend of Zelda + Elder Scroll series Crossover fanfic

The Legend of Zelda: Skyrim - Chapter 21: Advancements in Magicka

Over four (really five) months again, seems to be the upload schedule for this but would like to make it at least once a month if possible.

"Farengar."

The court wizard looked up to see Link enter his study. "Long time no see. For what reason did you decide to visit?"

"I happened to come across a copy of the second volume of Sun's Dawn. It was…" The Hylian trailed off, trying to think of a word to describe what he had read. "Interesting. What got my attention though, was it mentioned throughout the book of magic that did things to the mind. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

"Ah, Illusion magic." Farengar nodded. "Yes, I do in fact know a great deal about it. Take a seat anywhere you like."

Link found a seat at the nearby table and gave Farengar his full attention.

"Illusion magic is one of the six schools of magic, some of the others you already know of. The school of Illusion deals in changing your perspective of the world around you, so things aren't always as they seem. This can range from Spells that manipulate the senses like Muffle, which dampens the noise your armor makes when you move, to spells that manipulate the emotions like Pacify, which makes those affected become easier to control and calm them to the point of non aggression unless they are attacked first; Courage, which allows the user to increase confidence in those the spell affects, and prevents those affected from fleeing; and Frenzy, which makes the user fast paced and unusually very aggressive." Explained the court wizard.

Farengar then looked at Link for a moment. "May I see those two daggers of yours?"

"Sure." Link got up from the table he had been sitting at, laid Dawn and Dusk on the counter, then stepped back as the court wizard inspected them.

Farengar, who had picked up a book from his table that Link didn't remember being there on his last visit, looked between the daggers and a page of the book, as if comparing something. "It seems you named them almost correctly, these are actually the daggers of Dawnfang and Duskfang." Farengar commented. "I don't know how they ended up in Skyrim, or how a bandit came into contact with them."

"Are they artifacts?"

"Well… it's strange, really. Somehow the sword got split into two. You see, the sword is originally from Akavir, it is transformed by the sun and moon to become fire and ice enchanted, respectively, but somehow…" The mage gestured at the two daggers. "As I stated previously, the sword is now two daggers." Farengar handed them back to Link, who returned the daggers to their scabbards and then walked over to a nearby bookshelf.

He noticed a book called Lost Legends on the shelf and picked it up.

The book detailed various folk tales from Skyrim's past, such as the Pale Lady of Morthal, and Red Eagle of the Reach. However, as Link read further, he happened across a "Forbidden Legend", one that spoke of a man named Gauldur.

Gauldur was said to be one of the most powerful archmages to have ever lived, then his three sons killed him and fled to the mountains. One was said to have been killed at some ruin named Folgunthur, nearby Solitude.

"So you found that book, I take it?" Farengar spoke from the counter. "I've done some looking into it. I believe the unnamed ruin spoken of is Dustman's Cairn, past Dragonsreach. I'm not sure what you'll find there if you decide to look into the legend yourself."

"I'm not sure when I'll head north again, but it's something to think about." Link returned the book to the shelf and was about to leave the study when he saw a familiar face walking towards him. "Jarl Balgruuf."

The man smiled. "Hello again. It certainly has been a while. What brings you to Dragonsreach?"

"I wanted to learn about Illusion magic, I figured Farengar was my best option."

The Nord nodded. "I see, there is something that I was wanting to speak to you about. Farengar." Balgruuf nodded to the court wizard as he led Link away and up the stairs to the large room.

"What is it?"

"I'd like to thank you for killing that dragon yesterday, despite what I heard happened in Morthal." Balgruuf began. "I know you most likely don't want any sort of payment, but if there's ever anything you need help with, let me know and I'll get things situated."

"Thank you. What's the real reason you wanted to speak to me?"

The Jarl gestured for Link to join him at a nearby table. "I wanted to speak to you about the war, and how I fear that my hold will be at the center of it soon."

"What about it?" Link asked as he pulled up a wooden chair to the table and sat down.

"You've seen the walls around my city, do you think they'll hold off an attack?"

"Depends on what is used, I think. They don't seem to be easily scalable."

Balgruuf nodded. "I heard you were at both Castle Dour and the Palace of Kings. Answer me truthfully, did either Tulluis or Ulfric ask you to join their cause?"

"They did, but they both decided I was too young."

"Makes sense. People have been asking me why I made you Thane. I told them that age doesn't determine a person, it's who they are, how they act around others, things like that." Balgruuf paused for a second. "I wonder, what is your opinion of vampires?"

That caught Link off guard for a second. "I only fought evil ones, there has to be good ones somewhere… it's like… an illness, right? I was cured of it, and I assume once you're too far gone, you can't be cured…?" He looked to the Jarl for confirmation.

"It depends. Powerful spells and potions can cure a vampire, but only if they're willing. That's rarely the case." Balgruuf then looked around, then reached to his neck and showed Link a familiar necklace. "I happened to notice you have one of these." His voice was quiet.

"That Talos necklace?"

The man shushed him. "Keep your voice down! His worship is outlawed here!" Balgruuf then nodded and continued in a whisper. "Where did you happen to find yours?"

Link took the hint and tried to speak more quietly. "When I reached Solitude, there was… someone that was being killed for letting Ulfric in. I found the necklace on his body and returned it to his sister, who told me to keep it."

Balgruuf seemed to accept this answer as he nodded. "Keep that hidden and safe. I'm not a Voice user but Ulfric talked about feeling some sort of power from these necklaces. Do you also feel it?"

"I don't know what 'it' is, but I do feel something, yes." Link responded, once again getting the feeling that his Shouts had been somewhat altered. Did the necklace have magical Thu'um powers?

The Jarl slowly got up from the table. "The others will be wondering where I've gotten off to. Walk with me, might as well see you out."

Link followed Balgruuf down the stairs. "Where are you off to now?" The Jarl asked him.

"High Hrothgar."

"Why so?" Balgruuf looked at Link with interest.

"Figured I'd need more training. I feel as if the dragons I've fought so far have been weaker than those I'll be fighting in the future, and so I'll need to prepare for that. Practicing using the Voice and such."

"I understand. Best to not keep you then. Farewell Link, and good luck." Balgruuf left Link near the entrance doors as he vanished into Farengar's study while Link opened a door and stepped outside.

It didn't take long to reach Jorrvaskr from Dragonsreach, just a few series of steps and over a wooden bridge past the Gildergreen sapling up to the overturned massive boat on the left.

Fortunately for Link, Vilkas was the first to greet him when he stepped inside. "Back again so soon? What can I do for you?"

"I'd like that duel now."

Vilkas gazed at Link for a second, then nodded. "Of course. Follow me."

Link and Vilkas walked out to the back. There wasn't much out there, just a covered porch with tables and chairs, then down the steps were tied bales of straw and straw training dummies up against a stone wall.

"Right." Vilkas turned to Link and drew a sword, motioning for him to do the same. "No magic, this is a duel to see if your skills are up to par."

"What if I lose?" Link asked as he drew Dawnbreaker.

"Then I get to train you." Vilkas said matter of factly,

"Are there rules to this?"

"First one to be disarmed loses. Lydia will probably kill me if you're injured, though…" Vilkas muttered as an afterthought as he seemed to study Link's stance, then got into a defensive position.

Vilkas then swung his sword in an upwards arc without warning, intending to knock Link's sword away.

The Hylian dodged, seeing sparks fly as the blade hit the cobblestone before he sliced at Vilkas with Dawnbreaker, pausing when he saw that he had given the man a cut to the face.

"It's fine. Keep going." Vilkas responded as he wiped the blood away with his free hand. The Companion then spun his blade around in his hand as he leapt at Link, who blocked the attack with Dawnbreaker.

"Your balance is off." Vilkas stated as he easily pushed Link back across the cobblestone as his next sword swipe connected with Dawnbreaker. "Focus on keeping your weight steady."

Link nodded and quickly attempted to correct his stance, managing to successfully push Vilkas back somewhat when the Nord swung at him.

"Good. You have a lot to learn, but at least you learn things quickly." Vilkas uttered as he blocked another swing, and another, and a third. Finally he held up his free hand. "That's enough."

"What? We're just getting started, aren't we?" Link gave the Nord a confused look.

"Maybe. It's clear to me that you're more skilled than you've let on. Consider this a win for you, kid."

"I didn't really even do anything."

"No, you did." Vilkas smirked. "Trust me. What I meant with you having things to learn is true, but you know your way around a blade. Question is, who taught you?"

"A few people." Link didn't bother to say more and Vilkas didn't ask, the man instead walked Link back inside the overturned ship.

"Now that you won the duel, what do you plan to do now?"

"Travel to High Hrothgar."

"That old castle place up on the mountain? Never did see the appeal of it. Did the monks summon you again?"

"No. I need more training." Link explained. "I just have this feeling that more dragons are going to show up and I need to be prepared for when that happens."

Vilkas nodded in understanding. "You don't need to waste your time standing here talking to me then. Go, I'll tell the others you stopped in."

Link shook Vilkas' hand and then walked out of Jorrvaskr.

Before Link left Whiterun, he stopped to talk to Samuel and Swift, who were once again at their stall in the market. The dragon skeleton was gone, having been taken apart to use for various purposes; however, as Link was soon to find out, his friends had acquired some of these bones.

"Link!" Swift hugged him as he drew near the stall. "Look at this!" She showed the warrior a bone necklace that was made of various sized teeth. "These bones were part of the dragon skeleton. Sam gave this necklace to me, but I think it'd look a lot better on you. I'm not a warrior like you are."

"You might be." Link couldn't help but smile as Swift looked down at the tooth necklace and held it up to her neck, her eyes shining.

"You really think so?" She asked excitedly.

"I do." His smile grew wider as Swift hugged him again and after a second, he returned it.

"Thank you for this." Swift told Link once they separated. "I actually wanted to be proficient with weapons ever since I could remember."

"I'm not the most qualified, I leave a lot to learn myself, but that doesn't mean I can't teach you some things."

"When can we start?"

"I wasn't expecting you to want to start now…" Link paused, trying to decide on a good starting date. "I'm leaving Whiterun today and I'm not sure when I'll be back, but next time I show up at your stall, we can start then."

"What are you doing here, Link?" Asked a heavily accented voice.

Link turned to find a familiar Khajiit looking down at him with arms crossed. "Hi, Sam."

Sam gazed at his friend with a cool look. "You seemed to be speaking to Swift about something. What was it?"

Swift was unable to contain her excitement and bared her fangs in a grin as she hugged Link again from behind. "Sam! Link said he'll teach me how to fight with weapons!"

"He did?" Sam drew his head back a bit in surprise as Link nodded and untangled himself from Swift's hug.

"Yes. Whenever I return from High Hrothgar though, if I'm going there to train, I don't know how long they'll want me to stay." Link responded.

Sam put a few claws to his chin in thought. "I see. Don't let us keep you then." He held up a claw before Link could step away from the stall. "Before you leave…" He rummaged through a nearby pack until he pulled something out and handed it to Link. "Here." The Khajiit smiled. "My mother made this when I told her about you."

It was a small carved wolf statue made of quartz. Link gazed at it for a second, then took the object from Sam and examined it. "So she carves statues?"

Sam nodded. "Always has for as long as I can remember. My father is a trader in Rimmen. My home village is Riverhold."

"In Elsweyr." Swift added.

Link set the statue inside his own pack and then hugged Sam and Swift before he left their stall and headed to Breezehome.

He found the key in his pack and opened the door with it, then stepped inside and closed the door, taking a second to look around the room before a blur of scales struck his shoulder.

"Hello, Cobalt." Link reached up and scratched the hatchling's side as Cobalt chirped happily in response.

"Going somewhere?" Lydia had stepped out of the room under the stairs.

"High Hrothgar."

Lydia sighed. "You don't like to rest, it seems. If you're so adamant on going, then go. I can only persuade and pressure you so much."

"I wanted to train more with the Voice. They can help me with that." Link responded as Cobalt climbed down from his shoulder to the pack at his side. "I won't be gone for too long." 'I should also ask them about the hatchling, they seem like knowledgeable people and maybe can tell me how to raise him.'

"If you remember, stop in before you go to some other hold, people are starting to wonder if anyone actually lives here." Lydia remarked as she gave a friendly departing nod to Link and walked into the room under the stairs.

Link left Breezehome shortly after and lingered in front of the house for a few moments before he walked down the cobblestone road, over the bridge, past the gates, down the path, and finally started on his journey to High Hrothgar after retrieving Epona from the stables.

Link left Whiterun and began to head towards Ivarstead, and High Hrothgar proper. When he passed the Valtheim Towers, he noticed movement at the far end of the second tower and got down from Epona, then walked up to the previously bandit occupied structure and stepped inside, walked through the tower and across the bridge, and then stopped halfway.

He didn't expect to find a skeleton standing in the entrance room. The thing didn't attack, but instead tilted its head to the side as if it was wondering why Link was there. Link drew Dawn, then ran forward and stabbed the monster in the chest. Seeing the light fade from the undead's eyes, Link kicked the skeleton to the side and then turned around to look at the interior of the tower. There were alchemy and enchanting tables, and books on shelves that he had never seen before.

Link stepped out into the bridge; further on, there was someone standing in the clearing before the second tower, they were waving their arms and saying strange words.

Flame appeared around the figure and then some monstrosity was standing before the robed person. The figure waved their arms and the creature vanished. Link took a step back, narrowing his eyes as he watched the flames arc into the air and then dissipate. 'Perhaps I should stop whatever this person is doing.' He tried to be silent as he started to walk across the bridge.

The person raised their head, having noticed Link, and sent an ice spike in his direction. Link drew Dawnbreaker and shattered the ice spike as he swung at it. The sorcerer then sent a hail spell in Link's direction; quickly thinking, Link returned Dawnbreaker to its scabbard, then dove to the edge of the bridge, and ended up hanging from it.

Link looked down at the rushing water far below. He then looked up at the bridge he was hanging from. 'This might hurt.' He then let go and spent a few seconds in free fall before he hit the water and sank beneath the surface.

It took him a few seconds to get his bearings, and he quickly felt like he was freezing when he narrowly avoided being run through with ice spikes as they shot through the murky water and out of sight.

Link shook his head and started to swim upwards, only to feel a sensation that he had felt a few times before, a sensation that made him turn himself around, lightning arced through the water towards him -

- Link was floating on the water's surface, looking up at the bridge high above him. He didn't recall how he had ended up on the surface, instead he was focused on remembering how to breathe, how to move. Had he died? The thought briefly crossed his mind, but then he dismissed it as he forced himself to get his bearings and start treading water.

Link swam the short distance to the other side and slowly exited the water, shivering as the temperature of the air and wind seeped through his waterlogged armor and clothes.

He shook himself like a wet dog to try to get rid of some of the excess water, then looked up at the tower set in the rocky cliff high above him. 'Could the Clawshots work?' Link wondered as he reached to his pack and took the two weapons out, then primed them.

Only one way to find out. Link aimed one at a sturdy looking ledge, then fired. The hook launched from the Clawshot and sailed through the air, creating sparks and grooves in the rock face as it sank the hooks into the hard surface and went taunt. Link pulled on the weapon and then ran through the same motions with the other Clawshot.

He then let himself be pulled up the cliff to the ledge, then rested for a few minutes before he got up, primed the dual Clawshots again, then aimed them towards another ledge and fired.

He did this twice more before he ended up on the bridge before the tower, feeling utterly exhausted. But he couldn't stop now, and so Link got his bearings, picked himself up, and staggered inside the tower.

He found himself facing skeletons and other undead a second later. As they rushed him in the small room, he cast Fireball at them, relishing the warmth the spell brought to his water drenched form as the fire moved in a wave through the undead, turning most of them to ash while the remainder stopped in place.

It was silent for a few seconds, then the remaining monsters charged Link with raised weapons. Link used a Clawshot; the weapon punched through five skeletons and sent bone shards in all directions.

He caught a sword blow to the side of his head and he sank to his knees, having been half stunned. Link's vision cleared just in time to block a killing blow with Dawnbreaker and he struggled to his feet, swinging the sword in a blind upwards arc and he caught out of the corner of his eye the recipient draugr turning to ash.

A large dog sized lizard creature knocked him to the ground and dug its fangs and claws into his chest armor. Link's movements were sluggish as he raised Dawnbreaker and used the pommel and hilt to hit the lizard in the head and mantle repeatedly, attempting to knock it off of his chest.

Ribbons of metal were torn from his armor as the creature fell to the ground beside the youth. Link rose to a sitting position and raised his sword, then decapitated the lizard monster in a single swing. Except his aim had been off and he had missed. The creature slashed his face with its claws, nearly missing his left eye as he tackled the beast and enclosed his hands around the scaled throat. He kept his grip there until the lizard stopped struggling and breathing, only then did he let go and he kicked the creature away from him.

Link closed his eyes for a few seconds, listening for any signs of movement. He didn't hear any, so he wearily opened his eyes and looked around. Everything was dead.

Link sighed heavily and slowly got to his feet, swaying slightly as he gave a fatigued look at the stone stairs. 'I can't keep going like this. I need to heal myself somehow…' He looked down at the bloodied sword in his hand, then ran the blade across a nearby tapestry hanging on a wall, mostly cleaning it of blood, and returned Dawnbreaker to its scabbard. He then walked over to the stairs and all but fell to rest on them, leaning back and closing his eyes as a wave of dizziness coursed through his body. 'Would healing magic even work?'

It might have worked for the probable head injury and lightning burns, but certainly not for this mysterious illness he now had. Still, it was worth trying, and so Link focused, used Heal on himself, and waited.

He felt just a bit better and he opened his eyes as the dizziness faded. He rose to a sitting position and waited until his vision focused before he rose from the stairs and turned around, then slowly began to climb them.

There was a second floor filled with more monsters. Link didn't get a chance to draw his sword or any other weapons before they were upon him. A few desperate Fireballs were cast, but all of them missed due to the small fighting quarters. Link retreated backwards and then found himself in free fall, twisting his body around as he hit the first floor hard. He had fallen down the stairs.

Link slowly picked himself up, wincing as he felt aches and pains all over his body. Nothing seemed broken at least. He looked up as the horde of undead made their way down the stairs and he drew Dawnbreaker, waited until they got close, then started swinging the holy blade in all directions. Blood and bone matter soon covered the floor and the Hylian as he carved his way through the mass of summoned creatures.

Then there was a massive lizard creature that towered over him. He didn't know what it was, he didn't care to know what it was called, he only knew that he could easily die in his current state. The thing roared and tried to grab him, but Link dove out of the way, throwing Dawnbreaker like a spear and hoping it wouldn't miss. His heart sank as he saw the sword vanish from view behind the lizard and he took out the two daggers, keeping his distance as he tried to get behind the lizard to get his sword.

The two legged beast noticed this and lunged at Link, knocking him to the floor and sending the daggers flying to rest underneath a table. The creature reared back with a clawed fist and tried to run Link through, but he grabbed the arm with his hands and attempted to stop the attack. He could only watch as the clawed arm got closer and closer to his chest inch by inch, his hands slowly losing their grip on the reptile's arm as the creature bared its fangs in a grin.

Link felt like his chest was on fire as the beast overpowered him and slashed at his chest, cutting his armor into shreds of metal, tearing his skin and muscles. The reptile then bit down on his left shoulder and lifted Link into the air, then tossed him away like a sack of flour and stalked across the room to where he had ended up, up against a wall, barely conscious.

He was, however, next to his sword. It taunted him as he lay there, that gleaming gold shining in the darkness that was forming across his vision. The creature was getting closer, its fangs and claws dripping crimson with his blood. The will to live rose in him and he grabbed the sword and got to his feet, watching as the creature bent down and leapt at him from across the room.

Link swung Dawnbreaker upwards, catching the lizard creature in the stomach as the youth paused for a brief second, then carved deeper into the lizard's body and angled the sword further down.

The resulting scream made his ears ring as Link was tossed away from the mutilated creature, the beast stumbling around and clutching at itself as Link rose from the bloodstained floor and spun Dawnbreaker in his hand. The lizard gave the youth a death glare and charged him, but Link kicked off of the floor and tried to decapitate the creature.

Dawnbreaker stopped halfway through the creature's neck. This only made it angrier, it reared its head back and drew a deep breath, then spat blue fire at Link as it sank his claws into his left shoulder, tearing through nerves and muscle until they struck bone. The sword blocked most of the fire, yet the injured shoulder received some of it and Link's eyes went wide with silent pain.

He went limp in the creature's grasp, somehow still conscious as the fight came to a standstill; having been caused by the sword in the creature's neck - it was stuck, unable to be driven deeper into the torn flesh. The creature was unwilling to move forward due to this, and so it became a stalemate.

Footsteps drew Link's attention and he slowly moved his gaze from the monster to the stairwell.

As the figure stepped down the stairs and drew closer to Link, they reached up and dropped their hood, revealing a male Dark Elf that was wearing red robes.

The man stepped forward. "Intriguing. I don't tend to get very many visitors, those that do visit me perish quickly. You however… are formidable." The man had red eyes, dark gray skin, black hair that went to his shoulders, and a black tinted face pattern that ran below his left eye and curved down to the left side of his face. "Release him." The Dark Elf ordered the lizard creature.

Link landed on the floor as the creature removed its claws from his shoulder and retreated into the shadows of the room. The man appeared in Link's line of sight. "Get up." Commanded the Dark Elf. "I want to see you prove yourself, prove to me that I have a good reason to not end your life here and now."

Link ignored the man and instead focused on healing himself with a quick use of the Fast Healing spell. He then moved to a sitting position and cast Fast Healing again before standing, searching through his pack for a healing potion. He found one and only managed to down half of it before it was swiped from his hand; causing the potion to fall to the ground and shatter into tiny glass shards, the red potion pooling on the stone floor.

"Telekinesis. A useful spell to know." Stated the Dark Elf as Link gazed at him for an explanation. The necromancer then fired a volley of Ice Spikes in Link's direction. The youth dove out of the way, feeling some of his injuries begin to heal as he came back up and ran back over to the table to retrieve his daggers.

"SU!" He then used Elemental Fury and tried to get close to the necromancer, but was driven back by more Ice Spikes. Link chose to get out the Fire Rod and start casting fireballs in the man's direction, managing to slowly get close to the Dark Elf as he did so.

"I'm tired of you hero-types barging in and ruining everything. Why must you always interrupt my work?" Complained the necromancer as he sent a frost spell in Link's direction.

Link's vision was greatly impaired by his spell and he stayed in place while he waited for the spell's effects to wear off. "Your work? You mean the horde of undead that you sent to kill me?" He dodged the massive lizard creature as it lunged at him from the shadows and twisted around to stab it in the neck, this time, the sword struck true and downed the beast.

He then summoned the Flame Atronach and watched as the creature turned to face him with a concerned look, then the flame woman noticed the necromancer and flew towards the dark elf with fiery wrath.

But the dark elf waved a hand and muttered something like "Banish Daedra" before the Flame Atronach even touched him.

The woman made of flames vanished a second later in blazing sparks. "So you are capable of learning magic. Show me." The necromancer said, casting Ice Spikes at Link, who dispelled them with the Fire Rod.

"What is your reasoning for this?" The youth stepped to the side to avoid another frost spell and then continued to use the Fire Rod against the dark elf.

"My reasoning? Do you mean to ask why I practice necromancy, or something else? I practice this magic in order to summon powerful shades to the land of Nirn."

"Shades?" Link found that he was somewhat interested. "Of what sort?"

Curiously, the dark elf stopped sending spells at him. "So you are wanting to know more of my work? For what need would you desire to know of my magic?"

Link got the feeling the fight was over and stayed his hand, turning off the Fire Rod and leaning on it for support. "It's a long story, but basically my undead ancestor helped me save my homeland."

The Dark Elf went silent. "I suppose I could help you summon this ancestor of yours here." He said in a pondering tone.

"You would? How?"

"I am a Necromancer, but also a Conjuror, summoning from other worlds is what I do best. My name is Galsdar Darevalo." Galsdar leaned on his staff and eyed Link. "If you take up my offer, you shall become my apprentice for the next two weeks. In exchange, I'll summon this ancestor of yours. Is this acceptable?"

'Being an apprentice sounds interesting, but I need more information.' "Why are you doing this?"

"I have not had an apprentice in quite some time. No, you shall be my disciple if you accept my offer. You shall train under me how to use the various arts of Necromancy. What you do after you leave my company is out of my control. I shall ask again, do you accept?" questioned the Dark Elf.

'Learn how to use necromancy… it's evil, yet if I learn it, maybe… maybe I can see him again…' Link weighed the various options in his head as he stood there.

'I could learn more spells, create… I suppose they'd be like guardians to fight alongside me if needed… I think the pros of this outweigh the cons…' "I do accept your offer." He finally decided.

"Wonderful." Galsdar looked pleased as he returned to a normal standing position.

Link looked around. "This place has really been cleaned up since the last time I was here." He commented, ignoring the bones of skeletons and the stains of his and monster blood covering the floor and walls. "Had to deal with bandits, killed a few, got ambushed, a few Stormcloaks showed up and helped me out."

"So it was you who cleared out those bandits. I was wondering who did that for me, it would have been troublesome bringing my things here from out of the region if this tower had been occupied."

"You're not from here?" Link questioned.

Galsdar shook his head. "No, I'm originally from Ebonheart of Morrowind."

"Why are you here in Skyrim?"

"I heard that there were rumors of advanced Necromancy spells that could summon shades rather than just reanimated corpses. I traveled here to investigate, but ran into dead ends, so I am conducting my own research into enchanting until I can decide on how to proceed." Darevalo said as he inspected the staff he was holding.

"Spells that can summon shades?" Link questioned.

"Yes. As I stated, the rumors are unfounded, and with no concrete evidence." The necromancer looked at the sky through a nearby window. "It's late, perhaps we should turn in now, and we can start when the sun rises."

Link nodded, feeling his fatigued and battle worn injured state catching up to him as some part of his mind decided he could finally rest. As Galsdar started to walk towards him, the Dragonborn closed his eyes and felt himself fall backwards, not knowing when he hit the stone floor of the tower.

Several hours later, Link was in a state of being half awake and half asleep, looking up at the cloud filled night sky. He had found himself lying on a sleeping roll outside of the tower up against the outer wall, his injuries having been healed and the mysterious illness was no more.

A wolf lunged out of the darkness and pinned the half awake Link to the ground. He quickly woke up and rolled over, drawing back as the canine began to bite and claw at him. He made it as if to get up, then the wolf lunged at him again. Link grabbed the wolf by the neck without even thinking about it and threw the creature away, watching as it hit the ground with its neck at an unnatural angle. He tried to calm himself down from his startled state as he lowered himself to a sitting position against the wall. His state wasn't helped by Galsdar's voice.

"Good morning, I see you were so eager that you got yourself a test subject. Wonderful, we'll start right away."

Link gazed up at Galsdar for a few moments, then let his head fall back and hit the wall, closing his eyes. "Do we have to do this now?"

"Yes, you're already awake and we have a test subject. Get up. I need to show you around this place." The Necromancer picked up the dead wolf and carried it to a nearby table inside the tower as Link got up and followed the Dark Elf past the table and into another room.

The main tower had four levels. The first was the entrance hall, the third was the living and sleeping quarters, and the top floor was for storage, there were stairs leading up to the roof.

The second floor had a door that led out to the bridge spanning the river, this level held most of Galsdar's equipment and spells and tomes and various ingredients. The first tower was merely a vantage and lookout area for passerby, as well as extra storage.

Once the tour was done, Galsdar and Link returned to the main tower, ending up before the wolf corpse.

"Watch this spell very closely." The Dark Elf said as he turned to the wolf corpse. He uttered "Reanimate Corpse."

To Link's surprise, the wolf stood up as if it was alive, although it clearly wasn't.

"Reviving corpses is something that Necromancers can do. We can also kill the revived corpses when we wish, as so." Galsdar hit the corpse and it fell to the ground. "Now I shall let you try." He then paused. "You will need to know the spell first, though." The Dark Elf walked over to a nearby bookcase and ran his fingers across the spines before he pulled out a book and returned to Link's side. "Here." Galsdar handed the book to the youth and stepped back. "Learn the spell, then attempt to raise the wolf's corpse. This is Raise Zombie, it's a more easy and simple variation of the spell I used earlier."

Link opened the spell tome and the book turned to dust as the spell was absorbed into his mind, granting him new knowledge. He stepped up to the wolf corpse, then recited "raise zombie." Nothing happened.

Link tried a second time, and a blue light appeared in his hand, then flew towards the wolf and struck it. Once again, there was no movement.

He tried a third attempt, and the blue light flew from his hand into the wolf's body, the wolf twitched for a second before going still.

"The first time one uses this spell, it seems to take a while for it to work. Keep trying until you get it right, it will happen eventually." Galsdar told his new apprentice as Link nodded and recited the spell again.

The wolf jerked on the table this time as the blue light stuck it, but didn't get up. Link recited the spell for the fifth time and as the wolf spasmed in the blue light, he suddenly felt a bit weak and had to sit down in a nearby chair.

"The spell uses a lot of magicka for someone of your skill level. Take as many breaks as you need in between attempts." The Dark Elf said as he looked on at the scene.

Link nodded and waited for his magicka to return, then he got up and walked over to the wolf corpse, then tried again.

He attempted the spell ten more times, all ending in failure much like the first five times, the blue light striking the wolf each time, taking several breaks to recover his magicka every so often.

Link then recited the spell for the sixteenth time and watched as the wolf opened its glazed over eyes as the blue light hit it in the face, then slowly rose to its paws, swaying left and right as it stood before him.

"Well done." Galsdar remarked. "Now you need to go get more test subjects."

"Why? Isn't the one enough for now?" As soon as Link asked the question, the wolf collapsed and turned to dust.

"That is the reason why. When reanimated corpses are killed, or the spell's effects wear off, they turn to dust. Unless you reanimate a dead thrall, the effect of that spell lasts forever. Or you're extremely skilled in the art of Necromancy to the point that you know a few soluble tricks, in which case they won't turn to dust." Galsdar explained.

"Why can't I make an undead thrall now?"

"The skill required to successfully be cast is far beyond your level at the moment. Not to mention that judging by how much you rested, you don't have near enough Magicka to cast said spell." The Necromancer replied.

Link nodded as he opened his pack to see if the dust had gotten on anything. He was about to close the pack when he looked again.

Cobalt wasn't there.

"Lost something?" Galsdar inquired.

"I believe so, I'll be back." Link left the tower and looked around. It was early morning, a few hours before dawn, and so it was hard to see anything. He then heard splashes of water and headed towards the river.

He soon found the dragon hatchling gorging himself on various fish. Cobalt squeaked when Link picked him up and turned the hatchling to face him. "We really should have some way of communicating. If you're going to be running off like this constantly, I need to somehow know where you'll end up."

The dragon looked at Link for a moment, then nodded and struggled out of the youth's grasp, then glided onto his shoulder.

—-

Link returned to the tower with Cobalt and fish in tow, finding that he had to keep the dragon away from his new test subject as he returned the hatchling to his pack, then placed the fish on the table and once again recited "raise zombie."

Nothing happened, other than the blue light hitting it.

Link tried again, this time getting slightly better results as the fish flopped around for a few seconds after being struck by the blue light before again going still. A third use of the spell caused more flopping for a longer length of time, before the fish stopped moving.

On the fourth try, however, the fish kept flopping. After around a minute, the fish soon turned to dust.

"Good." Galsdar said, having been sitting at a nearby table. "I saw the entire display. It was good of you to find an easier test subject, as more simple creatures are better to work with."

"They are? I thought I was getting better at the spell."

Galsdar gave Link an amused look. "You will eventually." He left the room and then returned with something in his hand.

"Here." The Dark Elf handed Link a leather bound journal and a quill. "Enchanted to always have ink within the quill, you can use this to write down your thoughts, or keep track of your items, or what happens from day to day. An adventurer like you needs something like this."

The Necromancer stepped inside his room, then stepped out partially. "We start at dawn later today in a few hours, maybe something with that Flame Atronach of yours."

Galsdar then turned and re-entered his room, lighting a lantern, then closing the door as Link examined the thing in his hands.

The journal had many pages in it, it seemed to be well made and the quill did seem to work as the Dark Elf had stated.

Link found someplace comfortable nearby and gazed at the open journal for a few moments, then he lifted the quill and began to write.

I never had one of these before. Back home, I had a ledger that was just for keeping track of goats and such, not something like this. Suppose I can keep track of what I find while wandering, what people tell me to do.

Today

The Hylian paused. So much had happened. After a while, in which the ink had dried, he started writing again.

is the first day of my two week training under a necromancer by the name of

Link noticed the thing on the table and realized that Galsdar had written his name on a small piece of parchment, which he of course copied into the journal.

Galsdar Darevalo. I killed a wolf after it snuck up on me and then had to bring it back to life with various spells. I like to think I did a good job, Galsdar seemed to think so.

The current date is

Link had to think about it for a while.

Hearthfire 9th, which is a Tirdas, and the year is 4E 201. Strange that I seem to not even think of the months and days back home. It is easier to use this realm's dates.

I miss home. I miss running through the open plains and fields, walking through the forest near Ordon, visiting the locations of the various tribes and seeing how they're doing.

Link paused again, his thoughts turning to a certain someone.

I wonder how Ilia is faring in my absence. Never mind just her, what about Midna?

Link became lost in thought for a while, long enough for the ink on the page to dry. He gazed at the words on the page for a while before he wrote again.

If only everyone back home could see me now, the stories that I would tell them. Is time passing there? I have no way of knowing if it is.

He stopped writing again as he tried to think of a good closing note.

I hope I can put an end to this stupid civil war by myself. I don't really see any point in it, just two old men fighting over nothing. I wonder what tomorrow will bring for my training.

Link looked over the page, found it to his liking, then waited for the new ink to dry before he got up from the table and took the journal with him to his sleeping quarters.

"Sleep well, I take it?" Link awoke to find Galsdar standing in the doorway of his temporary room.

"I did. Thanks for the journal, I think I'll be using it a lot." Link responded as he slowly got up from the bed.

The Dark Elf nodded briefly. "Someone like you needs to keep track of things. Now then, today, you shall be learning more about Conjuration, Daedra, and Oblivion." Galsdar gestured for Link to find somewhere to sit.

"The definition of Conjuration is as follows - it is the granted ability via spells to summon creatures or items from other realms. I could go over the history of Conjuration, but I believe that would take a few hours. If you wish, I could go over the history later."

"Sure."

Galsdar took a moment to acknowledge Link's agreement, then continued. "The subject of Daedra is quite broad and varied, so I shall be brief - they are immortal beings that did not take part in the creation of the Mundus, and thus retain the full potential of their power. There are many types of Daedra, from the Scamp, to the Atronachs, to the Clannfear. Different cultures have their own myths and names for Daedra; they are studied under the name of Daedrology, and those that study Daedra are called Daedrologists.

"With that said, I'm going to be teaching you more about bound Daedra. Go ahead and summon that Flame Atronach of yours, then take this fire proof necklace, place it around its neck, and dismiss it." Galsdar told Link, handing him a fire proof necklace.

Link got up from the chair he was sitting in and summoned the Flame Atronach. "Do you mind if I test something?"

The flame woman looked curious and nodded, eyeing the necklace that Link was holding. She floated to the ground and towards him, allowing him to put the fireproof necklace around her neck. Link then waited for the Daedra to vanish into flames.

Galsdar quickly grew frustrated. "Dismiss the spell with a mental command rather than wait for the spell to wear off."

"How would I do that?"

"You should still feel the spell's magic around you, simply think about it going away."

'So I just think about the spell's effects wearing off?' Link then felt the summoning effects fade, watching as the Atronach vanished in flames. He then felt his magicka return shortly after, and summoned the Daedra a few seconds later, noticing the necklace was still around the creature's neck.

"Good, now dismiss the Daedra again." Galsdar commented.

Link then dismissed the Flame Atronach, then focused his attention on Galsdar.

"Summon it again, but this time, focus on asking for something else." Responded the Dark Elf.

Link resummoned the Flame Atronach, except this one wasn't wearing the necklace.

"As you can see, the bound daedra are usually the same, but you can make another daedra answer your call each time you use a Conjuration spell if you wish to do so." Galsdar explained. "I shall now tell you about Oblivion."

"Oblivion, which is also known as the Outer Realms, is a realm within the Aurbis - the known universe - and is home to many types of Daedra. There are sixteen major 'planes' of Oblivion, with many, many more smaller ones, over thirty seven thousand that have been documented or rumored.

"The planes of Oblivion are basically pocket realms with various descriptions and locations. There are an unknown total number of these realms, and mortals aren't really allowed to go into Oblivion, unless they are summoned for some unknown purpose.

"Oblivion is extremely dangerous, you can easily get lost if you're not already swarmed by various Daedra who want to eat your soul; the very void you see in the sky is Oblivion, the the sun and stars are holes in that very realm which leads to Aetherius, another realm in the Aurbis." The Dark Elf lectured Link, who had resumed sitting in the chair to listen to Galsdar's words.

The lessons continued until around noon, after that, Link helped Galsdar with whatever work needed done until very late in the evening. The Dark Elf finally sent Link off to his room, and the Hylian fell into a deep sleep while dreaming of the goddesses and Daedra.

"Today, you shall go out nearby the towers and forge for ingredients." Galsdar walked over to the bookshelf and pulled a book from the shelf, then walked back over to Link and handed him the book. "This book has the ingredients, where you can find them, and what creatures you can get some ingredients from. I expect you to be back by dusk, if you are back before then, I will assume you didn't search long enough."

Link opened the book, which was called Herbalist's Guide to Skyrim, and briefly skimmed its contents. It didn't just contain some plants and creature parts, it was clearly a complete edition, with detailed descriptions of what the items were, what they did, and how to get these items.

"I'm running low on supplies, which is why I'm sending you out to look for them. Here is a list." Galsdar handed Link said list, which had various ingredients on it.

Link silently read the list. "I'll find everything on this nearby?"

"Correct." The Dark Elf confirmed. "Now go, the longer you stand there, the less time you have to look for ingredients."

Link nodded and left the tower soon after. Wandering into the nearby forest, Link got out the book and started to search for ingredients.

The Hylian spent some time in the forest, checking the book constantly as he found various flowers nestled between rocks and trees. He found Deathbells around some sort of animal skeleton, and lavender in a forest clearing.

Some ingredients weren't on the list, such as honeycombs and Pine Thrush eggs, yet Link spent some time acquiring what he could.

The honeycombs he found at the base of a pine tree, the hive had been knocked to the ground and bees were swarming it, yet as he slowly approached the hive, the bees didn't seem to notice him, so Link was able to quickly grab a few pieces of honeycomb, then get away from the hive.

The Pine Thrush eggs were found at the scene of a massacre - for the bird, anyway. Some predator had desecrated the Pine Thrush and left its bones scattered everywhere, leaving the eggs in the elements. Link climbed the tree, took the eggs, then climbed back down and kept exploring the forest.

Link sensed movement sometime later and froze, scanning the nearby brush. He soon spotted a lone doe walking through the undergrowth close by; he watched as the deer lowered her head and began to eat various plants.

'Deer meat and fur is on the list…' Link thought to himself as he silently drew his bow and notched an arrow to the bowstring. He pulled back on the arrow as he raised the bow, kept the weapon steady, then he let the arrow go as he lowered the bow, watching as the arrow sailed through the air and found its target - the doe sank to the ground, her open eyes glazing over as life left her body, the arrow having pierced her heart from the side.

Link ran over to the downed beast from his position and knelt beside the doe, drawing one of his daggers and cutting the arrow out of the creature. He then began the long and tedious process of skinning and preparing the fur and various meat. After some time, he carefully wrapped the meat in the furs, and put everything into his magically enchanted bag. He then took his dagger and carved the small antlers from the doe, put them in his bag, then got up and left the carcass where it lay - other wildlife would see to it later.

As Link walked in the direction of the tower, he passed by a creek. There was a high pitched droning noise. It was somewhat annoying at first as he soon found the source to be a plant that was sitting in water near the creekbank. Thankfully, the droning noise stopped when it was uprooted.

Link checked the book that the dark elf had let him borrow, and found that the plant he had found was a Ninroot. Interesting name.

He put the Ninroot in the gathering satchel the Dark Elf had loaned him, next to various flowers such as Deathbells and Lavender. Link then looked up at the nearby tower and noticed how late it was.

When he reached the tower and stepped inside, Galsdar was standing over the alchemy station. The Dark Elf turned to greet Link. "You're back. Did you find anything?"

"I did." Link walked over to a clean table and carefully took what he had found from his pack, laying it out for Galsdar to inspect.

Darevalo stepped over to the table and spent some time looking over what Link had found. "I see you found ingredients that weren't on the list. How thoughtful." He paused. "I was wrong about you, it seems. I shall spend the rest of my waking hours figuring out what to do with all of this." He turned to Link and waved him off. "We're starting early tomorrow morning, get some rest while you can."

Link spent some time tending to Epona outside the tower before he returned to his room and read the ingredient book for a while, then eventually fell asleep on the bed.

"I want to see that fire weapon of yours." Galsdar stated the next morning.

Link took out the Fire Rod and primed it, then drew back as Darevalo took the weapon from him.

"Interesting, this item seems to use a completely foreign magical source." Stated the Dark Elf as he tested the rod to summon Fireballs and Flame Storms. "Yet I can tap into my own magicka and it seems to work just fine."

"My people have… I suppose it's a weak natural magic, we can only use various magical weapons."

"By that statement, it's no wonder you can't use our spells and items properly, your body still isn't attuned to Nirn's natural magic sources." The Necromancer shook his head as Link's eyes widened. "I felt that your magicka isn't natural to Nirn. I care not where you're from, only if I can teach you."

'I can accept that answer.' "Thank you."

The Dark Elf handed Link the Fire Rod. "Let me explain Soul Gems to you, as understanding how they truly work will allow you to almost nearly keep your weapons and armor forever charged."

Link took the Fire Rod and found someplace to sit as the Necromancer continued speaking. "Soul Gems are used as vessels to enchant and power weapons and armor. The more powerful a soul, the more powerful the Soul Gem will need to be to contain it. There are several types - minor, petty, lesser, common, greater, grand, and divine. Black gems are the result of sapient beings, while white gems are of lesser creatures. This is just a matter of speech, being that black soul gems are forbidden to use. The soul gems you have are of white souls."

Link took out the various Soul Gems he had and showed them to Galsdar. "So these were once people?"

"Their souls, yes. Or animals, those as well." Galsdar gazed at Link. "May I see that artifact of yours? The sword?"

Link drew Dawnbreaker and handed it to the Dark Elf, who took the weapon and examined it. "Hmm… It's not every day you see a Daedric artifact. How did you obtain this?"

"Meridia asked me to deal with a necromancer inside her temple." Link responded.

"I see." Galsdar didn't ask about the necromancer as he went over to the enchanting table and waved Link over. "One of your soul gems, if you will. Place it on the table."

Link placed a Petty gem on the table and then looked at Galsdar for further instruction.

"Good." The Necromancer leaned over the table and placed his hands on the cold stone surface. "You have figured out enchanting by now, seeing as you're wearing those rings and necklaces. Recharging works the same way." The Dark Elf ran his gaze over Dawnbreaker before he straightened his posture and stepped back. "Go on. See if you can recharge your weapon."

Link stepped up to the arcane enchanter and looked down at the artifact and the soul gem. He then went through the motions of enchanting, except this time he focused on recharging the weapon on the table. As he watched, a mist rose out of the quickly darkening soul gem and then entered the artifact. The soul gem shattered in the process and Dawnbreaker started to glow a few seconds later.

"There. See? Your weapon is charged again. The Soul Gems are consumed in the process, but you can find filled ones all over Skyrim, whether it be in caves or dungeons or shops. You can also fill empty ones you find yourself, once you properly learn how to fill them." Galsdar said, nodding in approval. "That's enough for today, return to your quarters and rest, we'll try something new tomorrow."

"Here." Galsdar took a broom off of hooks and handed it to Link, who stared at the object for a second, then slowly reached out and took it from the Necromancer. "You're cleaning the tower today, fixing it up, repairing it. In the meantime, you can practice your known spells. If you do good enough, perhaps I'll teach you other Conjuration spells."

"…I guess this is better than fighting things." Link muttered dejectedly as he eyed the broom and then turned to look back at the sorry state of the tower. 'Might as well get started then.' He half-heartedly lifted the broom and walked away from Galsdar into another room of the tower.

This room was the storage room. It was dark, damp, and very unclean. "How does he store all of this…" Link saw something on a wooden crate that appeared to have once been an article of clothing. He picked up the fabric, briefly examined it, then tossed it towards the door. "First hour of however many cleaning this place is starting now…"

He began by awkwardly sweeping the floor of the storage room, once that was done, he then tackled the shelf contents. Link spent some time carefully taking small boxes off of the shelf and placing them on the floor, then recoiled when he saw a dead Skeever on the second highest shelf.

Link gazed at the dead creature for a few moments, then he got an idea and uttered "Raise Zombie". To his surprise, the usual blue light shot from his hand and entered the Skeever, then, the creature slowly got up and started sniffing around as if it was alive.

'I didn't expect that to work so fast.' Link thought as he got the Skeever down from the shelf and continued cleaning.

—-

"Raise skeleton."

A blue light appeared around the pile of bones, but nothing else happened.

'Come on, it shouldn't be this hard.' Link chided himself as he tried the spell again. This time, there were more favorable results, as the blue light appeared once more and began to swirl around the bones, lifting them into the air until eventually, a reformed skeleton was standing before Link.

The skeleton gazed at him in silence.

'Right, it expects an order, doesn't it?' "I need help repairing the tower."

The skeleton nodded, but didn't move.

Link vaguely gestured towards the crumbling wall to his right and the skeleton ran over and started to slowly piece together said wall.

There were other skeletons already reformed, likely by Galsdar, and they all moved to help the first rebuild the wall, allowing Link to clean up what was left. He had moved on from sweeping to dusting to hand cleaning windows and other surfaces. He admitted to himself that cleaning was actually very relaxing, it helped him take his mind off of things, and it was a lot more fun than fighting creatures and people.

He stopped every once in a while to rest for a short period of time, before he continued cleaning. Little by little, the condition of the tower began to improve.

Eventually, Link all but collapsed on the first flight of stairs and leaned back to rest on the second through six steps. He heard chirping and saw Cobalt appear in his line of sight. "Cleaning is hard, Cobalt." He shifted to accommodate the stone digging into his back through his clothes. "Place is looking better though."

"What are you doing?" Galsdar's voice reached Link as Cobalt returned to the bag, and soon the Dark Elf was looking down at him with a stern expression.

"Resting."

Galsdar began to inspect the room Link was currently in, making various remarks as he walked around the room. "You didn't clean this window, there's still dust on this table, the floor beneath it is supposed to be spotless…"

Galsdar then noticed a pile of dust nearby, he walked over to it and inspected the dust pile. "…A Skeever… I noticed a reanimated skeleton… Did you forget you can only have one summoned corpse at a time?" The Dark Elf gave Link, who was currently gazing at the floor in vexation of his failure, a disappointed look. "I expected you to do better."

'Well, if you want this place to be clean, then why don't you do it?' Link bit back a retort and stayed silent.

"I want this floor cleaned in an hour, if not… then I'll decide something." With that, Galsdar turned and left the room, leaving Link alone.

Link sat up from lying on the stairs and swallowed an annoyed growl as he glared at the retreating figure, feeling utterly exhausted as he pushed himself to his feet and looked around. 'I'll clean this place so well he'll be able to see his reflection on the floor.'

—-

It was done. The entire second floor was completely spotless, and Link had discovered a new level of fatigue and exhaustion. He was more or less dead on his feet, somehow still awake as he thought about tossing the broom he was holding against the wall out of spite, but he instead carefully set it against the nearest wall and went off to find Galsdar.

Galsdar didn't seem to care about Link's condition when he entered the main room. "It's done then? Let me see." The Dark Elf left the room and Link decided to collapse in a nearby chair. He was halfway asleep when Galsdar returned. "Well done. You actually exceeded my expectations."

The Dark Elf then seemed to think of something. "Where did you find the Skeever that you turned to dust by reanimating a skeleton?"

"The storage room, it was on one of the shelves."

"Despite your error earlier, I think you've earned the right to learn a new spell, so watch carefully." Galsdar undid Link's spell, which caused the skeleton to turn to dust. The Dark Elf cast "Reanimate Corpse", on another pile of bones and a skeleton was formed a few seconds later, then he explained to Link on how to cast the spell. "Now you try."

Link eyed a second pile of bones, then recited "Reanimate Corpse", just as Galsdar had. However, nothing happened.

"It seems your ability to manipulate magicka isn't quite there yet." Galsdar walked over to a nearby bookshelf, then came back and handed Link a tome. "Here. This is the tome for the spell."

Link promptly opened the tome, and just like the other spells before that he had learned, the book turned to dust, and he felt the spell's knowledge enter his mind. He then focused on the bone pile once more and again recited "Reanimate Corpse." This time, the blue light flew from his hand and struck the bone pile, causing a skeleton to rise from the ground a few seconds later.

Link felt like more of his magicka had been depleted than normal, the spell was clearly more advanced, yet it felt more easier to cast.

"You've mastered the Raise Zombie spell, therefore when you use each subsequent powerful spell, you'll have a much easier time of doing so. This is another reason for not teaching you more powerful spells first, aside from you lacking the needed magicka to cast them in the first place." Galsdar explained. "You've done well for today. Go and rest, I have something planned for you tomorrow."

Link got up from the chair and slowly walked to his room, he was so tired that he didn't remember falling into the bed.

"You've mastered summoning that Flame Atronach of yours, so today, you're trying something a bit different. You're going to learn to summon a Clannfear, if you master that, then you'll learn to summon a Frost Atronach." Galsdar explained as he handed Link a book. "Read through this, it will tell you how to summon them." He then left the room and Link was alone.

Link opened the book and skimmed through it. It mentioned that to summon Daedra, you had to imagine the creature that you were summoning, where they lived, what they looked like. And this one in particular told what the Clannfear were, where to look for them when contacting Oblivion, and how they felt when contacting them for a contract so he wouldn't be fooled into summoning another Daedra. Seemed easy enough.

He looked at the summoning altar Galsdar had made for him a few minutes earlier, then recited the spell. As expected, nothing happened. Link tried again, when that failed, he tried the spell a third time. Yet again, nothing happened.

'What am I doing wrong?' Link read the book more closely this time, taking note of each step of the summon.

Link gazed at the summoning altar again, then stepped up to it and skimmed the incantation again before he closed his eyes and attempted to clear his mind. He thought of summoning the Clannfear, forming bones and sinew and everything in between. He thought of the bottomless fire pits and chasms of Oblivion, of dark places and crumbling ruins.

He finally felt something - someone making contact with him, and after feeling his intentions, a bond of sorts was formed.

A purple portal formed for a moment as a Clannfear appeared in the middle of the summoning circle, flexing its claws and making small chirping noises as it seemed to study Link from a distance.

"Good. I've said before that you have a natural talent for learning quickly, but this further proves what I said." Galsdar walked up to the altar and examined the Clannfear, which took a few stumbling steps forwards before the creature shook its head and wandered over to Link.

Link gazed at the Clannfear, then was knocked over as the Daedra chirped and rammed its body into him as a sign of acknowledgement.

Galsdar nodded. "Spend time with your Clannfear, then work on practicing the Frost Atronach summon." The Dark Elf then walked off, leaving Link alone with the Clannfear.

The Clannfear snapped its jaws and waved its tail around, hopping from side to side occasionally as it tilted its head and chirped at Link as he picked himself up and rose to a sitting position.

The Daedra eventually stepped closer and made itself comfortable in Link's lap, curling up into a ball shape like a cat. 'Guess I'm not getting up any time soon. That's fine. I don't think Clannfears are supposed to be this affectionate, though.'

A few minutes later, the Clannfear vanished in fiery sparks, allowing Link to get up. He then found a second summoning book nearby the first and looked through it, then focused his attention on the summoning altar.

He thought back to when he had met Sheogorath, he had first seen a Frost Atronach then, and he focused on that memory, what the creature looked like, what he had felt when he had been near it…

"Summon Frost Atronach." Ice particles swirled around in the summoning circle, yet nothing else happened. Link tried again, and this time was successful.

A Frost Atronach appeared in the summon circle through a purple portal. Standing tall and unmoving, the air around it seemed to freeze solid as it looked around and settled its gaze upon Link.

"Hello."

The creature continued to look at him, then eventually nodded, as if it had been deciding what to think of the human who had summoned it.

The Frost Atronach soon turned to ice particles and they fell to the floor, glistening in the midday sun's rays through the nearest window.

Link found somewhere to sit as he waited for his magicka to recharge. Now he understood why this spell wasn't for beginners. The amount of magicka he had used for the spell was far greater than the Flame Atronach. Considering how big it was and how strong it must be, there was a good reason for the increase in magicka needed to summon the Frost Atronach.

Link then spent the rest of the day practicing summoning his three Daedra and becoming more acquainted with each of them.

"You'll be learning to Soul Trap today, and to fill Soul Gems on your own, this will be very useful to charge your weapons whenever you want." Galsdar explained to Link, handing him a spell tome. "This is the Soul Trap tome, learn the spell, then practice it until you get it right."

Link took the spell tome from the Dark Elf and opened it, the tome becoming dust as the spell was forced into his mind.

To use the spell, he had to say the words, then kill something before the spell's effects wore off. The spell seemed to be quite simple.

Link soon found a half dead Skeever in one of the tower's rooms on the third floor. He took out a dagger and approached the Skeever, but it took off as soon as he recited the spell, and ended up having to run after it. He felt the spell's effects fade just before he cornered the creature, and so, despite failing, Link put the creature out of its misery anyway.

Not to be discouraged, Link found an enchanting table in another room, as well as a dark furred rat nibbling on some sort of decayed food on the table.

"Soul Trap." As Link said the spell, a blue energy left his hand and hit the rat. He swiftly drew Dawn and killed the rat with a stab to the head. As the rat fell to the table, a white mist rose from the body and flew into the soul gem, turning the soul gem a purple color.

"I did it." Link picked up the filled Soul Gem and eyed it, then went off to find Galsdar.

"You succeeded?"

Link showed Galsdar the filled Soul Gem.

"Wonderful. Now that you've learned Soul Trap… I've decided that I want to get to know you better."

"Why is that?"

The Dark Elf gestured for Link to take a seat in a chair as Galsdar did the same. "In order for me to try to determine how to summon your ancestor, I need to know a lot of things, such as who he was, where you're both from, etcetera."

"My ancestor…" Link took a few seconds to drag a chair over, situate it, then sit down. "Lived around five hundred years ago. He was involved in time travel, and had to turn back between the age of nine and sixteen constantly. He hasn't told me how that affected him, and I don't expect him too. He ended up saving Hyrule from an evil warlock, and some sort of time shenanigans happened where he both was sent back to relive his childhood, and he stayed in his future."

Galsdar got up from his chair and left the room, then came back with a quill and paper. "Yes, there is a reason time travel isn't studied much. Continue." He stated as he returned to his chair.

"My ancestor's name in life was Link Kakariko, he was the son of a knight and his wife from a neighboring kingdom, this kingdom was caught in a civil war. His father was killed defending the castle, and his mother fled on a horse for many days, until she reached a forest which was home to the Kokiri people; she died at the base of a magical sentient tree, known as the Deku Tree, and the people there took in my ancestor until he was nine years of age."

"A magical sentient tree… Intriguing. The Argonians have a sentient tree known as the Hist. Go on."

"He soon met the Princess, who told him that evil was rising and that he needed to gather the three tribal artifacts, so he did that, and returned to the castle to find that it was under attack. The Princess fled with her bodyguard, and my ancestor was given a magical artifact known as the Ocarina of Time. This artifact allowed time travel, and basically was a spell conduit."

"A musical instrument that acts as a spell conduit… I've seen and heard of stranger things…"

Link continued. "Anyway, my ancestor entered a temple that was known for having time-related magic, and found a powerful sword. Once it was pulled, my ancestor was forced to sleep for seven years until he was capable of wielding the sword. My ancestor awoke to a changed world - the warlock had sieged the castle and had taken it over, and was now ruling the kingdom."

"Strange that a sword could make someone sleep at all…" Galsdar waved a hand for Link to keep speaking.

Link took some time to catch his breath and finished his retelling. "To make a very long story short, my ancestor had to go around finding elemental medallions in various places. Once he had gathered enough of these medallions, and various weapons, he climbed the castle and faced the warlock in the throne room. He rescued the princess, and they had to escape the falling tower. Once they had done so, my ancestor had to fight a boar demon - the warlock's transformation - and won. He was sent back to relive his childhood with the ocarina, but some form of him stayed behind. He was mostly forgotten, and lived in regret until he met me."

"A fascinating tale. What does your ancestor look like now?"

"A skeleton, wearing decayed armor and clothes, has a broken shield and sword. He lost an eye at some point, the remaining one glows red."

"I see. What is your homeland like?" Galsdar asked.

"Hyrule has many different regions. Sprawling forests, a vast desert, lots of open plains and fields, highlands, snow capped mountains, a volcano…"

"Sounds a lot like Tamriel, although I suppose this 'Hyrule' is a lot smaller."

"It is."

Galsdar checked the notes he had been writing. "I think that's all of the questions I want to ask now."

"There's something else, though. My ancestor was granted the ability to turn into a golden wolf after death."

"Is that so? Why do you wish to tell me this?"

"Because I can also turn into a wolf."

Galsdar set down the notes on a nearby table. "Really? Show me."

Link nodded and showed Galsdar the crystal necklace. "This is the curse shard, it's what allows me to turn into a wolf." He then demonstrated; a black fog surrounding the youth and when it vanished, a black and white wolf was sitting where Link had been.

"Remarkable." Galsdar said. "You can turn back now."

The wolf nodded and a black fog surrounded the creature, then Link was back to normal. "I gained this ability not long after I left my home village, but I wasn't after to control it until I gained a sword that repels curses."

"Why can you control it now?"

"I don't know. Since I got here, I assumed it was because of this realm's magic." Link responded.

Galsdar looked out a nearby window. "It's late, we can continue discussing this tomorrow."

"Of course." Link got up from the chair he had been sitting in and returned to his room, where he soon fell asleep on the bed after writing in his journal that, as of yesterday, he had been in Skyrim for one month.

"Do you mind going out and foraging again?" Galsdar asked Link the next morning.

"Sure. What do you need?"

"Anything, really. Whatever you can find."

Link left the tower soon after, taking Epona with him as he set out to find various ingredients.

He found various plants scattered about, such as mountain flowers and mushrooms, as well as chitin from mudcrabs.

Link came across an empty bird nest at some point that had feathers in it. He took those and continued on his way, and soon after, he found a boar in a forest clearing.

He silently got down from Epona's back, took out his bow, notched an iron arrow to the bowstring and looked down the arrow at the blissfully unaware boar that was eating some nearby grass. He tracked the beast's movements for a while before the Hylian released the arrow, sending it into the boar's neck. As the creature fell to the ground, Link ran over to the boar, then knelt beside it and quickly slit its throat with the retrieved arrow.

Link then spent several minutes carving the boar, separating the fur from the edible meat and burying what wasn't safe for normal consumption. He then gathered the edible meat and wrapped it in various lengths of parchment before he secured the boat meat to Epona's saddle and vaulted onto her back, then headed back to the tower.

However, the Dark Elf had something in mind when Link returned and set the items he had gathered in the foraging table. Once Link had found a chair to sit in and rest, Galsdar joined him in a nearby chair.

"That mark on your left hand. What is it?"

Link looked down at his left hand. "It's called the Triforce. There's three separate pieces - Wisdom, Power, and Courage. I have Courage, a powerful warlock has Power, and the ruling Queen has Wisdom."

"A warlock… How 'powerful' are they?"

Link looked up at Galsdar. "Very. All of the spells that I've seen here in Skyrim, he was capable of casting. He was able to control various dark magics, and he knew his way around a sword."

"When I was healing you the first day, I saw a wound that ran from your left shoulder, across your body, down to your right side."

"That was from him during our battle outside the castle. I ended up killing him, but it nearly cost me my life… I spent, I think, two weeks unconscious, and many more days recovering after I woke up."

Galsdar leaned back in his chair. "I see. Has that injury affected your ability to fight at all?"

"It hurts sometimes… But not really."

"Does this… Triforce… grant the owner any special powers?"

"I'm good with weapons, the holder of Wisdom is smart and can use holy magic, and Power can cast dark magic and turn into a massive pig creature."

"Is your wolf transformation… a side effect?" Darevalo asked.

"Courage prevented me from turning into a spirit, and I was turned into a wolf instead, so I suppose it is."

'And the boy's ancestor could also turn into a wolf…' Galsdar thought to himself. "This Triforce, did your ancestor also possess it?"

"Yes, it chooses one person out of each era."

"What if there was a way we could somehow tap into this Triforce of yours…" Galsdar pondered aloud. "There must be some way…" The Dark Elf shook his head. "We can discuss this tomorrow, with how long you were gone for today, you must be wanting to rest. Go on."

"Are you sure? You don't want to know the history of the Triforce or anything?"

"I do, but you can simply write whatever you want down and give to me later on." Galsdar responded as he got up from the chair and went to inspect the ingredients and items on the table.

Link soon went to his room and found some pages, then spent an hour or two writing all that he could remember about the Triforce, and how it had affected the history of Hyrule and it's various races throughout the ages, before he became too tired to continue and soon fell asleep on the bed after waiting for the ink to dry on the pages.

Galsdar entered Link's room the next morning and found the pages on the table. The Dark Elf scrutinized the words he read, taking them back to his quarters as he waited for his apprentice to awaken.

He learned that this Triforce was a divine artifact, much like those of the Daedra, if all three pieces were combined with one user, that person could be granted a wish, and that the artifact would grant that wish, no matter how devastating or heinous - for the artifact had no sense of right or wrong, it simply granted whatever was asked of it.

Soon, Link woke up, and Galsdar confronted him about the pages' contents.

"This Triforce of yours could be used as a catalyst if we're able to tap into its magic." Galsdar stated.

"What do you mean?"

Galsdar held out a hand. "Let me look at the artifact."

"I can't just - it's not something I can summon. If you want to study it on my hand, that's one thing." Link placed his left hand in Galsdar's right and stood there awkwardly.

"Hmmm… Yes this is divine, alright, I can sense the same energy that Dawnbreaker has." Murmured the Dark Elf. "When does it usually activate?"

"Not sure. I suppose when I'm in great danger or in a fight. Why do you ask?"

"If we can get it to activate outside of battle, perhaps we can use it to summon your ancestor, as you said this artifact also chose him. Therefore, the two of you have a connection through it." Darevalo explained, letting go of Link's hand as he examined the pages again. "Figuring out exactly how the spell works will take some time, why don't you go and continue to practice your spells?" He suggested.

"Sure." Link left Galsdar to his own devices and went to another section of the tower, where he began by summoning the Flame Atronach.

The flame woman appeared in sparks and spun around in a circle. Her face appeared to lit up as she saw Link and flew towards him, enveloping him in a hug.

Link expected to be burned alive, but that didn't happen. It felt like he was standing in warmth, the usual coldness of the stone tower vanished for a while until the Flame Atronach flew backwards and moved in a backwards circle before disappearing in a wave of flames.

Once the Flame Atronach vanished, he then summoned the Clannfear, except nothing happened.

He tried again, thinking of the contract, and this time was successful. The Clannfear knocked Link over and chirped at him. Link rose to a sitting position as the Clannfear fell against him and rested its head on one of his legs like a loyal dog.

The Clannfear soon returned to Oblivion and he got up and summoned the Frost Atronach.

The Frost Atronach towered above Link and looked down at him with an unreadable expression. It then turned and made a mock punch at the air, then straightened and then stomped at the ground, creating four large icicles around it. The icicles soon vanished and the Daedra turned to Link and bowed, then disappeared in ice particles.

Once the Frost Atronach vanished, he then began by finding a broken down skeleton and using Reanimate Corpse on it.

There was no effect, so Link tried again, and this time the familiar blue energy left his hand and struck the pile of bones. The skeleton soon rose as it reformed and wandered off.

Link found an empty soul gem on a table and decided to try Soul Trap again, so he went off to find a suitable creature to fill the soul gem with. He found a Skeever lurking in the storage room and he recited "Soul Trap" before drawing a dagger and killing the rodent. Just like before, a white mist rose from the creature and entered the soul gem, turning it a purple color.

Link felt as if his magicka was depleted, so he then left the tower to check on Epona, and spent some time looking over the riding gear and making sure her coat was clean and smooth. Cobalt crawled out of the pack at some point and made himself at home on Epona's back like a cat.

Link returned Epona to the small stables, Cobalt was put back in the pack, and Link walked back to the tower, as he felt his magicka had replenished itself. He found Galsdar still looking over the pages. "Are there any new spells I can learn?"

Galsdar looked up and set the pages down on the table. "What is your knowledge of Destruction magic?"

"What is Destruction?"

"Magic that hurts others directly. The most common are Frost, Fire, and Shock, with spells of varying effects and difficulties." Galsdar tapped a finger on a tome that had been lying on the table, Link recognized the symbol as the palm with flaming fingers.

"I know Fireball and Flames."

Galsdar got up from the chair he had been sitting in and walked over to a nearby bookshelf, then took two tomes off of it, walked over to Link, and handed the tomes to him. "You should catch up with the other elements. These are Frostbite and Sparks. Practice them well."

Link took the two tomes and opened Frostbite first. He felt the knowledge be absorbed into his mind, then he did the same with Sparks. Both tomes turned to dust and Link went off to practice his new spells.

He left the tower again and found several hay bales in the stables. He dragged one out onto the grass and decided to test Sparks first.

"Sparks." Nothing happened. Link recited the spell again, this time there was a small ball of lightning in his hand that shot out small arcs of electricity. He tried a third time, and an arc of lightning shot out and struck the hay bale, causing it to burst into flames.

He then tried out Frostbite on the same hay bale. "Frostbite." Nothing happened on the first attempt, save for ice particles swirling around his outstretched hand. The second attempt was much better, as a wave of ice launched itself from his hand towards the burning hay bale. The fire was put out by the ice particles as they impaled the hay bale, and the ice melted away soon after.

Satisfied with his ability to learn spells more quickly, Link went back to the tower and returned to his room for the day.

The next morning, Link had woken up before Galsdar, and was thinking about what he had learned so far. 'I've learned a lot about Conjuration. Elemental spells, how to summon things…' He then got an idea. 'I could summon something on my own, I know how the general spells and summoning work, it shouldn't be that hard.'

Then he thought about it some more. 'If the summoning does work, maybe I can summon Shade… Maybe I can find a way to get back home…'

'Yet Galsdar wouldn't want me to do this… I'll have to do this in secret.'

Link traveled up to the third floor in silence and called open his magic, then opened a connection to Oblivion. Since there was no spell this time, he wasn't summoning anything in particular. He didn't expect something to answer his call, though.

Link attempted to grasp whatever had answered his call and bind it to a contract like he had done with the other Daedra, but to his surprise, whatever he had connected with rejected the offered contract.

'I don't think that's supposed to happen.' Now having second thoughts, Link attempted to cut the connection with Oblivion, only to find that he couldn't. Whatever had contacted him had latched onto his magic and wasn't letting go.

'No, it's not. I sort of regret this.' Link attempted to forcefully cut the connection, only for the magic to cause an overload.

There was an explosion and he was thrown back against the nearby wall by the spell overloading. Link watched as something rose from the ground from an opening Oblivion portal, some sort of armored creature.

The armor wearing creature looked around as the portal closed before it spotted Link. "Are you the one who summoned me? Foolish mortal, you do not understand what you are meddling in." The creature drew its sword and advanced upon the downed warrior.

Link had turned into a wolf and had retreated a safe distance before turning back. "What are you?"

The creature turned towards him. Link was able to see this creature better - they had black hair, red face paint, grey skin, curved horns on their head, and they wore strange armor. "A Dremora Lord. A powerful Daedra that not even the most skilled wish to summon." The creature answered with a savage, yet proud grin, showing its rotten and sharp teeth.

'So this is what that rejection was.' Link very quickly recognized his grave error and he drew Dawnbreaker, noting that the Dremora Lord took a step back. 'I deeply regret this now.'

"So you are the Keeper's current champion." The Dremora Lord grinned. "This shall be quick." The Dremora slowly made his way over to Link, allowing him to get into a defensive position and attempt to figure out what the Dremora was going to do.

The Dremora Lord suddenly charged at Link, who quickly executed a backflip and, with quick thinking, attempted a technique he had learned. He retracted his arm back, then swung Dawnbreaker at the Dremora Lord as he tried to get behind the creature. It wasn't exactly a Jump Strike, but it was close enough.

The Dremora caught Link's sword as he fell towards the ground in its blade's crossguard and Link's wrist was almost forced from its socket. Link was able to free himself though, and retreated while nursing his sore wrist.

'It's not taking any of this seriously.' Link thought as he watched the Dremora Lord start to playfully swing its sword while still grinning and advancing towards him. 'Time to change that.'

Link brought his shield to bear and waited for the Dremora Lord to get close, then ran forward to perform another technique, Shield Bash, but the Dremora leapt back before Link was able to pull off the move.

'Need to get behind it.' Link backed away and waited for the Dremora to attack, then he dodged and rolled to get behind the creature. He then ran up and slashed upward with Dawnbreaker, slicing the armor open and ducked as the Dremora Lord whirled around. Link then rolled again and came up behind the creature again, then attempted another Shield Bash.

But the Dremora Lord had caught on, and sent Link away with a sword swipe. Link managed to land on his feet when he landed and skidded across the floor a bit before he regained his balance. As he began to move again, he felt his chest start to sting and he looked down. He had received a large cut across his chest.

Link then ducked as a spell was sent in his direction. It looked like a fiery lightning bolt. 'What spell is that?'

The Dremora Lord prepared another spell and Link readied himself. As the spell was cast, the Dremora called out "I will feast on your heart!"

Link cast Flames and the two fire spells collided in the air, sending fiery sparks in all directions. The Hylian was momentarily blinded by sparks and he took several steps back as he tried to clear his vision.

The Dremora Lord was before him when his vision cleared and Link had no time to defend himself as the creature cast the fire spell again and swung its sword in his direction.

Link took the fire spell directly to the face and reached out and caught the weapon by the blade with his left hand. He fought through the pain and slowly drove back the sword from impaling his person. Link gathered his strength and shoved the Dremora Lord back, favoring his sword hand as he switched Dawnbreaker to his right, his shield to his left, and tried to clear his vision of ash.

"You are weak, mortal." The Dremora stated as he swung his sword again, Link managed to block the attack with Dawnbreaker, feeling his grip on the shield grow weaker until he dropped it.

The Dremora Lord cast some sort of ward or barrier when Link took Dawnbreaker in both hands and ran forward, causing the Hylian to hit the barrier and fall to the ground.

Link rolled to the right as the Dremora slammed the greatsword into the ground, leaving glowing cuts in the stone floor as Link grabbed Dawnbreaker and got up.

'I think it's taking this seriously now.' Link thought as he backed away, then remembered he had acquired new spells. He cast Frostbite, then Sparks at the Dremora Lord, but didn't expect the creature to raise its sword and block the attack. Or rather, block and send the spells flying back at Link.

Link was hit with ice, then electricity and he fell to the ground, somewhat frozen and paralyzed as he tried to get up, but to no avail.

But then, as the Dremora Lord advanced upon the downed warrior and started to raise its flaming greatsword, a barrier of sorts appeared in front of the Dremora. "What is this?"

Galsdar appeared in Link's line of sight, his face distorted with fury and fear, but also relief. "You're alive," he said aloud as to confirm it before he stepped over Link and raised his staff, creating a ward behind him as he approached the Dremora Lord; the barrier before it faded away.

The Dremora noticed Galsdar and laughed. "A new challenger, and a Necromancer as well! Come, face me in battle, I will end you just as I nearly did him."

Galsdar raised his staff. "You nearly killed him, my apprentice, when he summoned you as a reckless, foolish mistake." His voice was but a whisper filled with fear and rage.

"Your apprentice? Is that who he is? Perhaps you should know his whereabouts!" The Dremora Lord cast Firebolt in Galsdar's direction, but the Dark Elf reflected it with a ward spell and then swung his staff at the Dremora, who fell into a summoned Oblivion portal. The portal then closed and Galsdar leaned heavily on his staff.

"Are you injured?" He managed to ask, looking back over his shoulder at his downed apprentice.

Link had regained some of his magicka and he cast Fast Healing on himself until his magicka depleted again. "Yes."

Galsdar crossed the room and knelt beside Link, then helped him rise to a sitting position and looked him over.

"I thought that if I created a new spell, I could summon Shade, maybe even get back home." Link uttered bitterly as he closed his eyes and leaned back against the Necromancer. "Now I realize just how stupid that was."

Galsdar said nothing as he continued to look Link over, and Link made no movement to go and retrieve his weapons.

Link opened his eyes and looked up. "Galsdar, are you angry with me?"

"Yes, yes I am, Link." Darevalo said quietly as he deemed Link to be in stable condition. "I told you several times that Oblivion is dangerous, nor did you heed my warnings. It was very reckless of you to even attempt to play with such powerful magic in your current state when you've barely even learned anything -" Galsdar stopped mid sentence and closed his eyes, then took a deep breath. "….I'm just glad I found you in time." He whispered.

It was then Link knew how much Galsdar cared about him and he went silent, staring at the nearest wall as he struggled to come up with some response.

Galsdar opened his eyes and began to heal Link as needed. "I hope you realize that a punishment is needed for this."

"Which is?" Link was brought out of his thoughts.

"I think cleaning out the stables is a fine punishment."

"The stables?" Link gave Galsdar a confused look. "Why? That doesn't seem suitable for what I did."

Galsdar got up from his kneeling position. "Can you stand?"

"I won't know until I try, let's find out."

Galsdar inspected Link's left hand. "It's scarred now, but should still be functional." He then offered a hand to Link, and the Hylian took it, then slowly rose to his feet. "As I was saying, you need to learn discipline and responsibilities, it seems. I can't recall when the stables were last cleaned. You have the rest of the day to clean them, and I want the entire area practically spotless."

"Sure."

The Dark Elf blinked in surprise. "I'm sorry, I thought I heard you agree to your punishment."

"I did. I used to tend to goats back home. Should be similar." Link responded. "Might help to take my mind off of… this."

Galsdar looked Link over one last time before he walked over and picked up the sword and shield, then returned the items to Link. "Very well. Come find me when you're done, I'll keep thinking of a way to use your artifact."

Link adjusted the sword and shield and then made his way down the tower and out to the stables.

—-

The first thing he did was take Epona out of the stables, then assessed them for a while.

There was the ash from the day before, refuse coating every surface of the wood structure, and there were holes in the walls and roof.

Link started by clearing away the ash as much as he could, then he returned to the tower and found various items; such as a broom and rags to clean the wood and floor.

He then returned to the stables and began to sweep away the refuse on the floor, then found a filled water trough up against an outside wall, wet the rags he had taken from the tower, and began to scrub and wipe down the stable interior.

This took a few hours. Once the inside was relatively clean, he started on the outside. Link wasn't sure if Galsdar wanted the holes in the roof and walls to be fixed, so he left those alone for the time being.

He discovered a dead Skeever family in the back of the stables and he took some time carting the bodies away and cleaning the area he found them in. Link then found somewhat fresh hay bales in an offshoot of the stables and placed them where he thought they would look nice.

Link went out to the water trough and tipped it over on its side, then found a clean wooden bucket, went to the river under the bridge, and made several trips back and forth from the river to the water trough to fill it with water.

Finally, Link deemed the stables to be clean, other than the holes in the roof and walls. He went off to find Galsdar in the tower, who was sitting at a table looking over notes.

"It's clean."

Galsdar looked over his shoulder. "Is that so? Let me see." The Dark Elf got up from the table and followed Link outside the stables, then began to inspect them.

"I didn't know what to do about the holes in the roof and walls."

"Those can be fixed… But you did a remarkable job. I'm impressed." Galsdar stated as Link brought Epona in and tied the rope around her neck to a fence pole.

"Like I said, I tended to goats back home."

"It's been a very long day for both of us. Go some rest, we'll continue your training tomorrow." Darevalo responded as he walked past Link towards the tower, then stopped and looked back. "Cleanse yourself before you return to the tower, I don't want my living space smelling like the stables." Then Galsdar continued walking.

Link looked down at himself. In addition to the bloodstains from the Dremora fight, there was also refuse and bits of hay stuck to his clothes. "…Right…"

Several minutes later, Link returned to the tower after taking a swim in the river. He found new clothes and switched them with the old ones, then went to bed and fell asleep soon after.

It was the eleventh day of Link's training. Galsdar had also suggested another foraging trip that morning.

And so here he was, attempting to catch fish.

Fortunately, being a wolf was a lot better than being human for this.

The canine's jaws snapped shut around a salmon, bright red caviar spraying in all directions as the wolf waded from the river's flow and dropped the salmon on the slowly growing pile of assorted fish, then laid down beside it, breathing heavily as he looked out at the landscape before him.

After a while, Link examined the pile of fish and deemed it good enough for Galsdar, if not, then he'd just return here later.

However, the fish had attracted unwanted attention. A bear was lumbering towards Link along the stream bank.

Link eyed the large creature warily, moving to stand in front of the fish basket as the bear continued to shuffle in his direction.

Link heard a chirping noise and saw Cobalt struggle to free himself from the nearby dropped pack, the hatchling then ran over to Link and then noticed the bear. The dragon tried to roar at the bear, but only succeeded in making a tiny squeaking noise.

The bear roared and charged Link, who managed to avoid the attack and then bent down, then leapt forward, claws and fangs bared as he latched onto the bear's side. He tasted blood and fat as his fang sank into the larger carnivore's body and he started trying to gouge the bear's exposed stomach with his claws.

The beast screeched in anger and pain, its eyes locking onto the lone wolf as it sent Link spinning away with a claw swipe to the side.

Link watched as Cobalt crawled towards the bear and struggled to rise from where he had been thrown, his panic and fear rising as he saw the bear focus its attention on the dragon hatchling.

Cobalt lunged at one of the bear's legs, latching on with tiny sharp fangs as the enraged carnivore growled and tried to shake Cobalt off. When that didn't work, the bear raised a paw and raked its claws down the hatchling's back.

The bear only had a second to acknowledge the dragon's cry of pain before it was rammed in the side by Link, who then leapt towards the bear's face and sank his fangs into the beast's maw, then began to tear away the yielding flesh.

The wolf was freed, spitting out a part of the bear's face as the beast roared and clawed at its injury. Cobalt made the injury worse by running up and biting it, then darting away as the carnivore blindly swung a paw in his direction.

This fight was becoming somewhat boring to Link, and he wanted it to end fairly quickly, so while the bear was still pawing at its face, he ran around its side and snuck up behind it, then bent down and leapt towards its neck.

The wolf felt muscle, fat, and bone break under his fangs as blood filled his mouth, himself being tossed around as the bear entered its death throes. Link still held on, securing his grip as he tightened his hold on the bear's neck; it slowly stopped moving and fell to the ground, no longer breathing.

Link slowly loosened his hold on the bear's neck, then fell to the ground beside the newly made corpse and closed his eyes as he tried to get his breathing back to normal. After what seemed to be a few minutes, he heard worried chirping, causing the wolf to open his eyes to see Cobalt looking down at him.

The wolf got up and wandered over to the stream, then entered it to cleanse himself. Once he exited the stream, he shook his fur, water flying in all directions as a dark fog surrounded him, covering his shifting form as he shot upwards to return to normal.

Link then took the time to skin the bear and fold the furs, then he cut up as much meat as he could and wrapped meat with the furs.

After Link got his bearings, he gathered the fish into a nearby basket, picked up Cobalt, and the fur wrapped meat, and headed back to the tower.

Once he reached the tower, he was greeted by Galsdar. "What happened to you?"

Link set everything down on the nearest table. "Caught fish, fought and killed a bear who wanted the fish."

Galsdar approached the table and looked everything over. "So that's where you've been."

Link attempted a shrug. "You told me to forage earlier, so I decided to fish."

The Dark Elf nodded. "I see. There's a few more ingredients that I want you to find, but let's save that for tomorrow. When you return from foraging, I'll teach you more spells, I noticed you don't have a familiar, so we'll take care of that tomorrow as well."

"Sounds good to me."

Galsdar waved Link off and the Hylian wandered off to his room and fell asleep soon after.

"You're off for more foraging today. I need feathers and more plants." Darevalo told Link the next morning.

"Am I using that book again?"

"Yes." Galsdar handed Link the Herbalist's Guide to Skyrim book from a nearby shelf. "Take all the time you need."

Link soon left the tower and went off into the nearby forest.

He found Felsaad Tern feathers caught in a bush at knee level, when he looked behind the bush, he found the tower of the feathers, half eaten by some predator. He took the feathers and continued on his way.

Link found various colored mountain flowers in a forest clearing, as well as Deathbells, Blisterwort, and Bleeding Crown mushrooms. He took all that he could and put them in his pack, then checked the book.

It said that Grass Pods, Canis Root, and Giant Lichens were found in the region, so Link went off and searched for those.

He found the plants around a hawk nest. There were claws and feathers in this nest, he took all of the ingredients and then decided to head back to the tower.

There was a note from Galsdar on the table when Link returned. "Here are two spell tomes for you to use, Conjure Familiar and Bound Sword. I'm still working on that spell, but I left to forage for some ingredients myself. I will be back shortly."

The first tome was Conjure Familiar. Link picked it up and opened it, as he did the spell was absorbed into his mind. He then picked up the Bound Sword tome, opened it, and absorbed the spell into his mind as the tome turned to dust.

He heard Galsdar's voice behind him. "Good afternoon."

Link turned around. "Hello."

"Your magicka reserve has grown slightly from all of your training."

"It can do that?"

Galsdar nodded. "Yes. Just as your skill with weapons can increase, so can your prowess with magic."

The Dark Elf motioned for Link to follow him as he left the room. Once the two reached an open area of the tower, Galsdar stopped and turned to face Link.

"Before we begin, I must tell you that unlike other Conjuration spells, to summon your Familiar, you must call a spirit of Nirn to your side instead of a Daedra from Oblivion." Galsdar explained. "They are spirits that reside in Mundus, and we can call upon them to help us."

"Okay."

"Let me summon mine to demonstrate." As Galsdar said this, a spectral owl appeared and flew up to the Dark Elf's shoulder. "All you need to do is think of asking a spirit of Nirn to answer your call and come to your aid. Try to summon your Familiar now."

Link nodded and recited the spell as he thought of not exactly a contract, more like merely asking for some creature to answer him. "Conjure Familiar." A purple mist formed in his hand and he threw the spell at the ground. He watched as the mist turned into a spectral snake.

Link watched as the snake slowly approached him and hissed. When he reached down, the coldness of the snake's nose touching his hand felt real. He looked back at Galsdar for approval.

"A snake… Interesting… You're seemingly blessed by Orkey..." Galsdar commented. "Try the other spell next."

"Bound Sword." A purple ball appeared in Link's hand and as he said the spell, it vanished with a crack. He watched as a purple flaming sword appeared in his hand. "I thought it would take more attempts."

"The reason you find these two spells easier to cast is because they are Novice spells, and you have moved onto Apprentice and Adept spells."

"What do you mean?"

"In Nirn, there are five levels of spell difficulty. Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, and Master." Galsdar explained. "You have progressed in your learning ability and you could also learn to retain more magicka when casting spells."

Link was surprised to learn that was possible. "How?"

"It's not something that can be taught, you'll have to discover that yourself." Galsdar responded.

"Seems reasonable." Link cast Bound Sword again, then once the sword vanished from his hand, he cast it a third time.

Once the sword disappeared again, he then summoned his familiar. The snake slithered towards him, its forked tongue flicking in and out of its mouth as the creature raised itself into a coiled position.

The snake then vanished, and Link summoned it again. This time, he knelt down and watched as the snake wound itself around his arm and stared up at him.

Link noticed tiny flaws in that what he did wasted magicka constructing the sword and the snake's body.

Then something clicked inside his mind. He dismissed the snake, then resummoned it, then conjured the sword, noticing that he had only used up half of his magicka this time. 'I can cast spells with half the magicka now. Galsdar was right.' Link thought to himself as he mentally went over the other spells that he knew, and realized that what he had discovered wasn't compatible with the incantations of those spells. 'These two Novice spells at least.'

"Can this 'saving magicka when casting' happen with other spells?"

"Absolutely; each level of each school has, let's call them 'quirks' that you can use to save your magicka. There are other things you can learn on your own, such as making your spells stronger by dual casting; for another example, you can learn to keep your reanimated corpses intact and not turn to dust when the spell wears off." Galsdar then continued. "You can also have more than one Conjuration at the time, and your spells can be cast much quieter."

Link nodded, silently taking this information in. 'Neat.'

"You can return to foraging, I still need to double check things for the eventual spell cast." Galsdar stated, then left the room.

Link left the tower and walked to the stables, then brought Epona out, vaulted onto her back, and took off away from the tower.

He didn't exactly know what to search for, but he still had the book, so he absentmindedly flipped through it as Epona slowed to a walk while they passed through an empty field.

Cobalt crawled out of the bag and onto Link's right shoulder, Link then got an idea and summoned his Familiar, and watched as the snake curled up in a ball around the saddle horn. It looked comfortable enough.

Link reached out and felt the snake's tongue flicker over his hand a few times as it hissed at him in what he thought was a friendly tone. "Hello."

The snake bobbed its head up and down and hissed again, then shifted and closed its eyes, as if it was falling asleep.

The creature then vanished a few seconds later and Link chose to tap Epona's sides, which made her speed up a bit more. "Let's see here… He didn't give me a list this time…"

Link looked over the book a few more times, then decided to just forage for random things, and he let Epona break out into a canter as the tower got further and further away behind them…

"Sparks." An arc of lightning hit a lone boulder before the tower.

'This should be working, right? I should be able to use half my magicka with other spells…'

Link had been out there for a while, practicing his spells, attempting to save half of his magicka when casting the other conjuring and destruction spells, but he always felt somewhat weak around the usual cast rate.

'… This isn't working.' Link thought as he readied Flames, then cast it at the boulder. He then cast Frostbite and Sparks, feeling the now familiar depletion of his magicka. Any further attempts were interrupted by Galsdar showing up.

"I've found a place where we can perform the spell, follow me." Galsdar led Link deep into the nearby forest, to a run down and destroyed tower. "I've set up a ritual that is meant to reach out to far beyond, even more so than Oblivion. I do not know if your homeland is an undiscovered part of Nirn, Aetherius, or even Mundus, but I intend to reach out to it."

"How will that work?"

"Much like you summoning your Familiar, or making a contract for Oblivion, this summoning will be mostly the same." Galsdar explained. "But I must know, what else does your artifact do?"

"It… bolsters my emotions and as I already said before, I'm good with weapons. As soon as I pick one up, I know how to use it,." Link had never really thought about it before.

"Anything else?"

"When I was being corrupted by the Twilight - it's a dark magic in my world - my Triforce protected me from turning into a spirit, and I turned into a wolf instead. It also reacts whenever I'm near Daedric Princes, like Sheogorath."

"What do you mean?"

"I met him." Link held out a hand and summoned the Wabbajack, showing it to Galsdar.

"I don't believe it… Yet that artifact is real… Where did you meet him?"

"In the Blue Palace. It's a long story."

"Interesting." Galsdar looked up at the sky. "We shall attempt the spells tomorrow due to the position of the twin moons and stars."

"Why tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow is the best time in the reasonable future for the alignment. Certain spells need specific star and moon alignments to be successful." Galsdar explained as he showed Link how the ritual would work. "See these soul gems on the table? We'll be using these to power the ritual. You'll need to form a bond with your ancestor over the course of the summoning, so that we can summon him to Nirn."

"Sounds easy enough."

Galsdar gave Link a smile, not one of agreement, but one that told Link the summoning would be anything but easy.

"Here. These are Ice Spike and Lightning Bolt." Galsdar handed Link the two tomes. "You should practice your aim while using these spells."

"Why?"

"Because these take precision to cast, they're not like frostbite where it's just a wave, it's a single projectile." Galsdar explained. "A missed spell is nothing more than wasted magicka, and could be the last thing you ever do." He added ominously.

Link nodded and went off to learn the new spells. He opened the Ice Spike tome first, it turned to dust and he felt the spell be absorbed into his mind. He then opened the Lightning Bolt tome, it turned to dust, and he absorbed that spell as well.

He decided to try Lightning Bolt first, and recited the spell, choosing to aim the conjured lightning ball in his hand at a nearby mountain.

He then cast the spell, but he watched as it hit the ground and burnt the grass.

He tried again, and this attempt caused the electricity to arc off into the sky above him.

'Why am I not aiming well? Is it because I'm used to it with weapons and not spells?'

Nothing happened. Link tried again, but there was nothing but small arcs of electricity. He tried a fifth time, and was rewarded for his efforts.

The sky lit up and there was a booming crack as a lightning bolt hit the mountainside opposite the river.

Once Link got over his surprise, he couldn't help but grin. 'I like this spell. I like this spell a lot.'

He then tried Ice Spike. When he recited the spell, a blue light mist formed inside his fist and started leaking out of his closed hand along with the noise of ice forming. Link kept his hand facing the mountain and waited.

Once the noise of the ice forming had stopped, it left the quiet hum of magicka behind. Link knew it was ready, so he let go and threw the spell at the mountainside.

Ice Spike had a better start, as it hit just one meter off of Link's mental target.

He tried a second time, and was successful. A large icicle was launched from his hand over the river and it embedded itself into the mountain side.

'These spells are pretty useful.' Link tried Ice Spike again, and a smaller icicle flew across the river and cut the larger one in half as it cut into the mountainside.

'Wait, if I have to charge Ice Spike to use it… I didn't do that for Lightning Bolt…'

Link recited Lightning Bolt again, and instead of just outright casting it, he waited. Dark blue light appeared in his hand as he heard the sound of crackling electricity, both light and sound grew in intensity until they stopped.

Link then cast the charged spell, and he was momentarily blinded by the bright flash of light that followed as the lightning bolt struck the two icicles.

Once Link regained his sight, he saw that the lightning had scarred the mountainside and had melted the two Ice Spikes.

'I have to charge these. That's why Lightning Bolt didn't exactly work the first time I cast it.' Link felt proud of himself for figuring this out on his own.

He continued to practice charging and casting Ice Spike, Lightning Bolt, and Fireball for a while, then returned to the stables to check on Epona.

As Link took out the house of the stables and hugged her, his thoughts started to wander. 'I get to see him again. It's been… over one month I think since I was in Hyrule…' Link couldn't help but start to feel excitement. 'I have so much to tell him…'

Cobalt crawled out of the pack to see what was going on and leapt to Link's right shoulder. The hatchling gave Link's offered hand light bites of affection - not breaking the skin, but just putting pressure on the hand.

"I just hope the spell works out." Link retracted the hand and returned Cobalt to the pack before he walked Epona back to the stables and tied her up, then returned to the tower to await the next day.

"Okay, I think we're ready." Galsdar stated as he made last second preparations.

It was late at night, and Link and Galsdar were at the ritual site, about to attempt to summon Link's ancestor.

"What do I need to do?" Link asked. Galsdar had given him the entire day off to keep his magicka full for the ritual. He had been taking care of Cobalt and Epona, but for the entire day he hadn't been able to hold his excitement and anxiety back.

"Place your hand inside the circle, here." Galsdar pointed to a place on the ground with arcane symbols and a small palm-sized circle on it. "Then we can begin."

There were several filled soul gems on the ground around the circle, and next to it, right in front of Galsdar, was a larger circle intended for the summoning itself. It too, had several filled soul gems and runes surrounding it.

Link walked over and placed his left hand on the smaller circle after moving to a comfortable sitting position. He felt magic attempt to tap into the Triforce, and it began to glow as well as pulse a few times before it dimmed.

Galsdar took his place opposite Link. "We will use your artifact as a guide, to help us reach your realm and summon your ancestor. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Then let us begin." Galsdar stated as he closed his eyes and began chanting in an unknown language to Link.

Link had a familiar feeling to the extra sense he had when he had reached out to Oblivion, only this time it was him and Galsdar's senses merged as one, which felt weird to Link. Galsdar, the stronger of the two, was in control.

Galsdar at some point in his chanting, began to search for another realm. A realm which Link had described a few days earlier.

First, they searched Mundus, but there was nothing to react to. Next, they searched Oblivion, Link was impressed at how snakelike and skillful Galsdar's movements were at dodging the Daedra. Then, after finding nothing, they pierced the veil of Oblivion and moved onto Aetherius, where Link felt its pure magic for the first time.

After finding nothing there, they moved on, going far beyond Aetherius in the hopes of reaching the new realm. This strained them both, but thankfully, they eventually found a realm that the Triforce reacted to. It suddenly became emblazoned, like it had been set on fire.

Both Galsdar and Link dove into this realm, looking for someone with a connection to the Triforce.

The two eventually felt something, like a presence watching them. The presence didn't seem hostile, but curious.

Galsdar paused in his chanting briefly. "Do you feel that?"

"I do."

"Focus on it."

And so Link did, and the more he focused on this presence, the more familiar it became.

"Is this presence your ancestor?"

The curiosity turned to questioning, which turned to outright joy and elation.

"Galsdar, we found him."

"Excellent! Now, form a bond with your ancestor."

"Like the contract?"

"Something like that, yes."

And so, Link focused more on the presence and he began to set up the bond. He thought of Shade, who he was, what he was, who he had been as a person and how Shade had helped him on his adventure.

Link felt something connect to his mind and he motioned to Galsdar to start activating the soul gems.

The soul gems began to glow as the bond was formed, and slowly, Shade started to be pulled into Nirn.

A portal appeared, one that showed rolling fields and a massive castle in the distance, its spires vanishing behind clouds.

Something stepped from the portal as it vanished, a skeleton that was wearing rusted armor, a tattered red cape, and it had a sword, a shield, and a single glowing red eye. "How peculiar, this isn't where I was."

Galsdar stepped forward. "What is your name?"

"My name was lost over the centuries, but you may call me Shade. Who might you be?" The undead warrior leaned on his sword and gazed at the Dark Elf.

"I am Galsdar Darevalo, an experienced Necromancer. My young charge and I summoned you from your home plane of existence."

"Did you now… Intriguing. And who might this charge of yours be?" Shade's head turned to the right, his gaze fell on Link and he went silent. The single eye went wide. Then he smiled. "Of course." He said softly. "I didn't believe it at first when I felt your presence, but I am glad to see you."

Galsdar watched on as Link got up, then swiftly walked over to the skeleton and hugged him. "I assume you're the one Link calls his ancestor?"

"He is my direct descendant, over the course of five centuries from when I passed on due to old age in my slumber." Shade explained as he returned the hug.

"I see." Darevalo nodded. "How does it feel to be so close to a living descendant, I wonder…"

"I feel as if he is my own son. I saved his life many times back home, let him speak his mind when he had no one else to talk to, taught him all I knew about weaponry." Shade explained.

Shade then slowly vanished from view. "I am afraid the summoning spell is temporary and will need many days to recharge. With that said, as you continue to practice the spell, you will be able to cast it more frequently, and your ancestor can stay on Nirn for longer periods of time." Galsdar informed Link as he saw his apprentice begin to visibly panic.

Darevalo then gave the Hylian a sad but proud smile. "I have nothing left to teach you as of now. When we first met, didn't you say you had somewhere to be?"

Link took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. "High Hrothgar. You're letting me leave, though? I thought there was more to learn."

"There is. But you must reach a higher skill level first, become more attuned to your own inner lifeforce and magicka, and receive more experience." Explained the Dark Elf. "You can, however, choose to write me letters if you wish, and whenever you feel like it, this tower is open to you if you wish to avoid surviving in the wilderness."

"I'll take up your offer at some point." Link walked over to Epona and checked to see how she was, then ran inside the tower and gathered various things before he grabbed his sword from the table, returned to his horse, and secured his things to her saddle, then vaulted onto Epona's back. He then turned the horse to face Galsdar. "Thanks for everything."

Galsdar nodded. "You're very welcome, Link. Remember, there are very distinct differences in Necromancers, people may fear you, but only use your new magical abilities for good."

"I will." With that, Link turned Epona away from the tower and finally set off for Ivarstead after two weeks of training.

As Link rode Epona away from the tower, he felt ecstatic that he saw Shade again, and could summon him to Nirn whenever he wanted - magicka notwithstanding, of course.

'It's amazing to me that I can learn all of these spells, that I had the capability all along, I just needed someone to teach me how to unlock it. Necromancy… I can see why it's feared, yet it is useful.'

His mind then turned to the Greybeards. 'I wonder how they'll respond when I ask them for more training. Guess I'll find out.'