Chapter 7

Chandra emerged from the Blind Eternities as Caprifexia's portal snapped shut behind her looking slightly queasy. They had emerged on the rocky beach of Winterhold Isle, Caprifexia's Spark somehow 'fudging' the distance transfer to prevent them emerging in the middle of the 'Sea of Calamity' as the ocean that Caprifexia's future self had created was called.

They had rested on the gas-giant orbiting moon that was seemingly uninhabited for a while before beginning their trek to Nirn, and Caprifexia was feeling a bit better. Yes, she had made a mistake by giving into the Whispers, but for whatever reason the Tyrite dust had allowed her to regain control after her… momentary lapse in judgement. Yes, she wasn't quite the perfect hero just yet, but she would be; even dragons made mistakes, occasionally, very rarely, almost not at all, really. And- and she didn't know how to deal with facing her death just yet, but… but that was a long way off…

It was early-morning, and several ships could be seen departing from the harbour with the dawn tide. A nearby Walrus-thing, called a 'Horker' by the locals, brayed at them. It backed off, however, when Caprifexia replied with a snarl, letting out a whimper as it rapidly hopped away.

"And the tentacles and eyes, you always see those?" said Chandra, grimacing and putting her hands on her knees.

"Yes," said Caprifexia. "That is, if not an accurate representation of the Void, something our minds are capable of understanding. Oh, and don't tell anyone else what it is really like – they'll go insane."

"Insane!?" said Chandra. "You didn't say that!"

"Relax Apprentice, you're fine," said Caprifexia, waving a hand. "Your Spark protects you from the deleterious effects of the Void.

"Just so long as you don't turn all… tentacle-ie again," said Chandra, drawing up her cloak's hood as she looked around. "Brr! This is where you study? Is Kaladesh, like, the only warm place in the multiverse or something?"

It was cold. Colder even than the snowy forest town they'd left behind which had been a few degrees below freezing. Winterhold only ever went above freezing during summer heatwaves, and was currently a balmy minus seven. It didn't bother Caprifexia, of course, since she was a dragon, but she would have preferred a nice warm volcano. Unfortunately, mortals allegedly 'couldn't breathe sulphurous fumes,' and they had rejected her idea to relocate the college to the very nice sounding Morrowwind Volcano.

"This is high summer, it is far colder during winter," said Caprifexia, reflexively casting a warming charm over her friend.

"Oh, that spell is wicked!" said Chandra as the orange magic rolled over her body. "Can you teach me?"

Caprifexia smiled. It was nice to have a friend who actually complimented and recognised her genius. Some of the time, at least. "It's actually a sub-set of pyromancy, a modified blood-boiling spell…"

Caprifexia began to outline the basics of the spell's theory as they made their way across the beach, entering the small town of Winterhold. Following the 'Calamity,' as the locals called Caprifexia's heroic rescue of Nirn, Winterhold had become much larger and more prosperous than ever before. Mages from across the world had flocked to the college that was now the home of the Psijic Order who had 'saved the world.' Halls were filled with students – noisy ones, there were dozens of different research teams, and an entire new wing had been added to the circular, sea-stack topping campus.

All that all meant, according to what Einar had said, that there were more jobs for non-wizard mortals. As a result, Winterhold Port, had grown significantly, and there was a bustling morning market in the main square. The mortals in this town knew better than to trifle with Caprifexia, however, knowing that she was a member of the college, and instead she got some respectful nods and terrified whimpers as she passed through.

The college itself was a bit of a hike up from the town, and Chandra was huffing and puffing and Caprifexia had just begun to explain some of the necessary formulas as they approached the bridge. Before they could step onto the newly repaired structure, however, the large stone gargoyles that guarded college stirred into life. They had been upgraded by the Psijic Order when they'd moved in, and instead of being the size of horses were now the size of small houses, and wrought from some kind of gleaming obsidian stone that revealed itself as they shuddered and shifted, displacing the snow that had accumulated on their bodies.

"Halt," they growled, fixing their glowing eyes on Chandra. "You are not a member of the college, human."

"Ahh!" yelled Chandra, cowering behind Caprifexia. "What are those!?"

"Stupid mortal-made Golems," grumbled Caprifexia. "Yes, she isn't, but I am, and she is with me you useless heap of stone."

"Recognise: Apprentice Caprifexia," said one of the golems, grinding its stone head towards her. "Negative: Apprentices do not have authorisation to admit outsiders to the college. Please wait."

"Apprentice?" spluttered Caprifexia, sparks flying from her mouth in outrage. "I am Caprifexia! Daughter of Neltharion! Scion of the Titans! Slayer of Amanosh! Saviour of the miserable reality! I am no one's Apprentice, and you will let us past!"

"Err," said Chandra.

"Negative," repeated the golem. "Apprentices do not have authorisation to admit outsiders to the college. Please wait."

"I'll give you authorisation!" snarled Caprifexia, summoning lightning to her fist. "You stupid, poorly made-"

"Caprifexia!?" came a voice from behind her, and Caprifexia temporarily put her righteous demolition on hold to turn her head.

A familiar blonde haired human came into view, her long blonde braids bouncing around wildly as she rushed up the slope.

"There you are!" gasped Lombardia, doubling over and trying to get her breath back. The blonde woman was one of the Psijic monks who Caprifexia (in her future guise) had resurrected. "Thank the Seven! We were so worried!"

Lombardia taught defensive magicks to the upper classes, which included, naturally, Caprifexia. She also lectured on something called 'ethics,' and never shut up about why Caprifexia 'really should' attend a class – even thought it explicitly was not a subject where magic was taught, and therefore useless.

"A perennial issue," said Caprifexia with a sniff, nodding toward the golem. "I was just about to destroy this jumped up piece of stone, but since you are here-"

Caprifexia was cut off as Lombardia wrapped her in a hug. "Oh little one, we didn't think you were coming back!"sobbed the pathetically sentimental mortal.

"Yes, yes, I am sure you were beside yourself," said Caprifexia, tapping her on the back twice. "However, dragons do not hug."

"Oh, yes, of course," said Lombardia, drawing back and wiping a tear from her eye.

"Now that you are finally here, you can admit my apprentice," said Caprifexia.
"Your… apprentice?" said Lombardia, taking in Chandra for the first time.

"Um, hi!" said Chandra, offering her hand. "I'm Chandra! Chandra Nalaar! And, um, Caprifexia said I can learn magic here?"

"Welcome Chandra, I'm Lomeria," said Lombardia, wrongly. "I'm one of the lecturers here, and a member of the Psijic Order. Caprifexia doesn't usually bring… 'friends?'"

"She saved me from bad guys," said Chandra brightly. "They were going to execute me for my pyromancy but then she showed up an-"

Chandra started shadowboxing and making 'pow-pow' and 'zapping' noises.

"Anyway," continued Chandra. "Then the arena began to collapse, and Caprifexia tried to shield me, but then my 'Spark' activated and-"

"You're- you're like her? Another Planeswalker?" interrupted Lombardia, a note of surprise and unease in her voice.

Chandra deflated slightly. "I, um, yeah… is that a problem?"
"What? No!" said Lombardia.

"Oh, um, great," said Chandra with a shaky smile.

"Oh no, I'm sure you're lovely," said Lombardia. "It's just we've had some bad experiences with Planeswalkers. One called Mirael tried to… end this universe."

"Caprifexia told me," nodded Chandra. "She stopped her."

"Her future did, yes," nodded Lombardia. "But at great cost, this entire region was devastated, there didn't used to be a sea south-east of here. Which is why-"

"She said that no one even thanked her for saving the world," said Chandra, crossing her arms. "And that you were mean. She was really upset."

Lombardia blinked owlishly and turned to Caprifexia. "You were… upset?" said the blonde woman, her face falling. "Oh little one, why didn't you say anything? We didn't mean to make you unhappy, we thought you were, well, indifferent to us."

"I-I wasn't upset!" said Caprifexia. "My apprentice just has… an overactive imagination! Yes, that's it. And of course I don't care what you mean and nasty mortals think! At all!"

"We are grateful," said Lombardia. "Little one, your future self resurrectedme. I owe you my life. It's just, we're a bit perturbed by how powerful you're going to become, a being that eclipses the Divines, and because you're, well, a little bit… erratic. Surely you can see why that worries us?"

"Typical dragonism," sniffed Caprifexia. "I don't know why we came back here."

"She said you put up a statue, but not to her," said Chandra.

"That… well, yes," said Lombardia, placing a hand on Caprifexia's shoulder in a gesture of gross over-familiarity. "And… and now I can see why that might have upset you. But Caprifexia, darling, we really didn't want to spread around what actually happened. Akatosh had, has even, many worshippers, some might try harm you if they knew that you struck Him down."

Caprifexia sniffed. "You didn't even put my name on the monument to the fallen," she said, her eyes suddenly stinging.

"Oh little one," cooed Lombardia. "We had no idea you felt this way. We thought, well, we thought you didn't care about any of that."

"I don't!" sniffed Caprifexia, wiping her eyes, which must have gotten snow into them or something because they were leaking. "And I'm not little! I am a dragon!"

"We will, of course, put your name up if you want," said Lombardia. "It might confuse a few people, but they'll just have to live with that. But little one, please, you can't go running off by yourself again. We were so worried."

Caprifexia made a grumbling sound.

"Einar also said that you were upset," said Lombardia. "About wearing your elven form?"

Caprifexia scowled. "Yes! It's so unfair! I'm not an elf!" she said. "I'm a dragon! You'd never- you'd never ask J'zargo to shave his fur! Or Onmud to pretend to be a horse – although he does look like one, but you make me pretend to be something I'm not!"

Lombardia frowned.

"I hadn't thought about it like that," said Lombardia after a moment. "But I can see now why it would upset you."

Caprifexia huffed and looked away.

"What about if you use it around the college, but not out in the town?" asked Lombardia. "The students here will be wary, but they will adjust. The villagers on the other hand… I wouldn't want them to get scared and try to hurt you."

"Hmph, they're just mortals," said Caprifexia. "How would they hurt me? But fine, whatever, I suppose I can indulge those ignorant fools. But I will use my true form whenever and wherever I please within the college."

"Wonderful, I'm glad we sort that out," said Lombardia, taking Caprifexia's hand. "Shall we go inside? Your friends will be ever so pleased to see you, they've all been worried sick."

"Fine," muttered Caprifexia, wrenching her hand free. "But dragons do not hold hands."

"Oh, of course, how silly of me. Now then, Ms. Nalaar, please, let me welcome you to Winterhold, you are very welcome here," said Lombardia, taking Chandra's hand, who lacked a dragon's intrinsic dignity and did not resist the gross impertinence. "Golems, please authorise Ms. Chandra Nalaar as an Apprentice of the College. Approval, Archmage Lomeria of the Psijic Order."

"Approved, Archmage," rumbled the impudent pieces of stonework. "Welcome, Apprentice Nalaar."

Chandra let out a 'squee' like noise and did an embarrassing little dance. "Apprentice!" she said. "At a real magic school!"

They made their way across the bridge, which had been refurbished and repaired after one of the many new students had fallen over the edge and nearly died.

The inside of the college looked much the same as ever, although emptier than she often saw it, since the morning classes were in session. As soon as they crossed the threshold Caprifexia pointedly transformed, Lombardia gave her a smile, but that was probably just some insipid attempt to cover up her obvious dragonist distaste for being in the presence of one of the most magestic beings in the multiverse.

"Why don't you take Chandra and show her the student dormitories?" said Lombardia. "I think there's a list on the first floor that will show which room might have a free bed? I need to go and get some paperwork together for Chandra's admittance. I'll come and check on you later?"

"I can't- I can't stay with Caprifexia?" asked Chandra.

"There are two beds in her room…" said Lombardia. "But its up to her. We haven't wanted to, ahem, risk having someone potentially annoy her. Not after the bucket incident…"

Lombardia cleared her throat.

"Well, we thought it best," finished Lombardia.

Chandra looked at Caprifexia with suddenly large and glistening eyes. "Can I Caprifexia? I promise I won't annoy you."

"Absolutely not," said Caprifexia.

"But Caprifexia!" whined her apprentice. "I don't know anyone here! And you're my friend! Please? Please? Pleeeeeease?"

Caprifexia grumbled again.

"Fine," said Caprifexia. "But you'd better not steal my fish."

They headed for the Halls of Attainment and ascended to the third floor. All the other students were out, so Caprifexia didn't have to deal with any mortal neurosis, and instead tapped her claw against her door to open it with a cantrip – since this place was very uncivilised, and didn't have handles that were easy use to use with talons.

"Well, this is, um, nice," said Chandra, looking around the room. "You have a lot of, err, books?"

"Of course," nodded Caprifexia, flapping inside and settling onto one of her two desks and looking out over the presently calm Sea of Ghosts. It would be a good day for fishing, she might have to go later…

"So I sleep there?" said Chandra, pointing to one of Caprifexia's book storage units.

"Yes," nodded Caprifexia. "I suppose you can move some of the books when you need to sleep."

"Err…" said Chandra. "Can't you find somewhere else for them?"

"You mortals are so demanding," she grumbled, raising a talon and beginning to levitate them, one by one, onto the floor. "Fine."

"Is this… a raw fish?" said Chandra, looking in her fish bucket.

"Yes," nodded Caprifexia. "I caught it, you can't have any."

"Why do you keep it in your bedroom?" said Chandra, poking one of her fish.

"I left it in the hall, the others might steal it," said Caprifexia.

"I don't think anyone is going to steal half-eaten, raw fish," said Chandra, raising an eyebrow. "How is it still fresh? Some kind of charm?"

"You don't know the mortals here," said Caprifexia. "They have no respect for a dragon's hoard. They are constantly trying to appropriate my books."

Chandra picked up one of Caprifexia's books, a rather terribly written tome on weather magic, and flicked it open. "This is a library book," said Chandra after a moment. "And it says that it can only be checked out for a 'maximum of one night' – I think it's overdue."

"See! You're just like them!" hissed Caprifexia flaring her wings. "Stay away from my fish!"

"I don't even like fish-"

The door opened, and Caprifexia turned to see Einar standing in the door.

"Capri!" he said, tears in his silly looking mortal eyes as he moved towards her. "Divines, I thought you weren't coming back-"

Caprifexia growled, and he faltered.

"Capri… I'm sorry for yelling at you," said Einar. "And for saying you… saying you couldn't wear your dragon form-"

"This is not a 'form!'" snarled Caprifexia. "This is who I am! I am not fleshy, squishy little biped! I am a dragon!"

"Right, right," nodded Einar. "I didn't realise how upset you were Capri, I'm sorry. Lombardia said you'd come to an agreement? You'd wear- you'd not wear your elven form in the college, but use it when you went to the town?"

"I will wear my mortal guise when and where I want," said Caprifexia.

"Right… right," nodded Einar. "And, look, I'll try to be more careful about of not telling you off constantly, OK?"

Caprifexia harrumphed.

"Are we good?" he asked.

Caprifexia harrumphed again.

"So… um," said Einar looking at Chandra. "Hello, I'm Einar. Chandra, yes? Lombardia said you're a Planeswalker?"

"Yes," nodded the redhead. "Caprifexia saved me from some… some nasty people, and then my Spark activated. She's been helping me."

Einar beamed. Caprifexia scowled at him, although the reptilian facial expression might have been lost on him. He was just a stupid mortal after all.

"Well, I'm glad she's been such a responsible young wo- dragon," said Einar. "Great job, Capri."

Caprifexia sniffed and nodded, and allowed herself to be hugged. She was stiff for a moment, before patting his back. It… wasn't entirely unpleasant to be back, she decided. Maybe she'd stay for a little while, at least.

"She did, like, demolish an entire colosseum in the process," said Chandra, grinning. "Like, a really big one. The city's main one, I think."

"Wait, what?" said Einar.

"And we had some, err, trouble at a village that was attacked by a demon, which got a little out of hand… but Caprifexia did win in the end!" said Chandra. "About a third of it was still standing…"

"What's that about the colosseum?" said Einar. "Demolished?"

"Heroically!" protested Caprifexia. "Heroically demolished! Chandra, tell- tell him!"

Chandra took a deep breath.

"So the enforcers were going to kill me for my fire magic, and she was all, like, 'you want to face a pyromancer, then face me puny mortals!' And then she set herself on fire and made this wave of glass, and tanked their baton-stuns, and slugged it out with Baral, and then used some kind of scary colourless magic that was so powerful it broke one of the supporting pillars," said Chandra, flailing her hands around and once again making ridiculous and inaccurate sound effects: 'zap,' 'pow,' 'boom!' "And then the building started collapsing, and, like, I was going to get crushed, but then she caught a huge, like, house sized piece of roof with her wicked magic and slowed it long enough for me to Planeswalk away although of course I didn't, like, know that was what I was doing and…"

Chandra took another breath.

"It was awesome!"

"Well… I'm glad you're safe," said Einar, giving Caprifexia an unamused look. "A whole colosseum? Really Capri?"

"It was a villainous colosseum!" said Caprifexia. "Used for- for villainy!"

Einar pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know, by this point, I'm not even surprised anymore," he said. "Just try not to destroy the College, OK?"

"I resent that," grumbled Caprifexia.

"Hey," said Chandra after a moment, furrowing her brow. "Are you also, like, the one who blew up a whole street in the Temple District a year ago? I heard there was a 'flying lizard' involved. You crashed a aether-car into a blockade, I think? Like, a hundred and fifty enforcers died, or something. It was all over the newspapers."

"What!?" screeched Einar.

"No," said Caprifexia firmly. "That was some other amazing, and incredible, and heroic, and… and tragically misunderstood dragon! And it wasn't even like she did anything wrong, she was just minding her own business, doing some field research on the interesting magical cart thing, and then some blue-villains got in my way and- and it was their fault the street blew up, not mine!"

"Capri…"

"No! No I say! That was- that was ages ago!" said Caprifexia. "You can't tell me off for something that happened so long ago! I know the law! I know all about the… status of imitation?"

She'd read a mortal law book during a very dull illusion class, or at least a bit of one before she'd gotten bored with. She was an expert.

"Firstly, that only applies in courts, which you are lucky you've never been in," said Einar. "Secondly, it's 'statute of limitations;' and thirdly, it's a lot longer than a few months."

"They were blue-villains!" protested Caprifexia. "Full of… blue… villainy."

"Vedalkins?" said Chandra. "I mean, a lot of them are in the enforces, but I knew a few nice ones…"

"I don't care what they call themselves, they're villains," said Caprifexia, waving her paw. "Of the blue variety, specifically."

"That's like… really racist," said Chandra. "Like there's normal racist, and then there's… whatever this is racist."

"I don't expect you to understand the ins and outs of heroic pattern recognition just yet, apprentice," said Caprifexia. "Don't worry though, we'll cover this later. But in the mean time, keep an eye out for elves, they too have a propensity for villainy."

"Wait, apprentice?" said Einar.

"Yes," nodded Caprifexia. "I am teaching Chandra to be a hero, that makes her my apprentice."

A flurry of emotions passed over Einar's face. He turned to Chandra. "Chandra, please, I beg you, you mustn't-"

"I know," said Chandra, rolling her eyes and making a swirling motion next to her head. "But she's still my friend. Caprifexia's cool, she just needs, like, a bit of, err… oversight?"

"OK, just so we're, ahem, clear as to the… truth of her… ahem," said Einar.

"I know," said Chandra seriously.

Caprifexia had no idea what Einar and Chandra were talking about. It probably wasn't important, likely some stupid mortal thing like the many topics that Einar was always whinging about, like 'universal sapient rights,' 'democracy,' or 'cheese.'

Einar took a deep breath, before exhaling. "I'm just really glad you're back, Capri," he said, hugging her again. "Serana and J'zargo will be excited to see you too. J'zargo has been missing you terribly, you're like a little sister to him too you know?"

Caprifexia felt a bit bad about leaving J'zargo without saying goodbye. He hadn't been mean to her. Not like Einar. Although… she was quite glad to see Einar again. Well, a little glad at least. Especially if he was going to stop being unreasonable and stop complaining about her not wearing her elven form all the time.

J'zargo also insisted on hugging her several times when his class ended, even while simultaneously telling her she was a 'very bad little dragon' and that she 'should not run off without J'zargo,' and when he pulled away her scales were wet with Khajiit tears.

It was… nice to be back, she had to admit. The college was a bit annoying, but she did enjoy studying magic, and her curl pillow on her desk was comfortable, and the fish was tasty, and when morals weren't trying to steal her books it almost felt like home. Of course, it would have been more comfortable if located in a volcano, and if there were other dragons around to talk to, but, for the moment, it would do.

A.N. I totally forgot I had written this chapter as the capstone to the first arc.