Chapter 13: Diverging Paths to Power
"So, this is Winterhold?" Patches asked, as they examined the place.
High up on the cliffs over the Sea of Ghosts lay the College of Winterhold. The structures surrounding the college itself were the usual Gustekan huts, just covered in snow, with a few evergreen and pine trees sprinkling the area around them, along with some jagged rocks.
But the college itself was a veritable fortress.
A tall, castle-like building, with at least four smaller spires surrounding the large central one, each one constructed with gray bricks and circular windows, making Subaru think of a cross between medieval castles back on Earth, along with Gothic churches.
Subaru took a look around, and his expectations were… not this. "Gotta admit, I didn't imagine this. I imagined a lot more ivy… and student debt."
Erik nodded, seeing where the two were coming from. "Yeah, Winterhold is actually a very small village. It's the College that makes up most of the space."
"Oh, so it's kinda like a campus?" Subaru asked for clarification.
Aela looked at him confused. "I'm unfamiliar with that terminology."
"Okay, so, in my world, colleges can come with buildings where students can sleep in called "dorms." There's also fraternities, sororities, restaurants, and other buildings around the main classes, and the entire area is called the "campus." Does that make sense?"
"Huh... Well, the College is just one big building sitting over the Sea of Ghosts." Erik point to the large building over the cliffside.
Siegmeyer choked on air hearing that. "I'm sorry, the sea of what?"
"The ocean north of Gusteko," the party's resident werewolf answered.
Siegmeyer gave a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's a metaphor. Phew."
"There are rumors that it's haunted, given all the shipwrecks, but nothings been proven." Erik pointed out.
Patches knew where this cliche was going. "Yeah, no, it's totally haunted."
Emilia gave a cough to get the attention of the others. "Should we not make our way to the College?"
"Oh, right. Let's go," Solaire said.
The group make their way to the bridge that leads to the College of Winterhold, but they were stopped at the entrance by an Altmer, or High Elf, woman.
"Halt! What business do you have with the college?"
"We're here to apply for our friend," Subaru quickly answered.
"Apply? So, you wish to study arcane arts?" the elven woman asked.
Emilia raised her hand. "Not them, just me."
"And what is it you hope to find within?"
"I want to master my fire magic, mostly," the silver-haired Half-Elf answered.
The Altmar woman raised her eyebrow. "Fire?"
Emilia nodded. "The ice aspect of my magic is a bit… wild. I can't unfreeze anything, so we came here to try and find a solution to it."
"Is that so? Please, demonstrate this "unfreezable" ice," the woman ordered.
Emilia nodded, as she chose a suitable target, a nearby tree, and focused. She fished for an unpleasant memory, and one of Pandora did the trick, instantly freezing her chosen target from a tree, to a treesicle.
Deciding to test the claim, The Altmer woman went up to the tree and unleashed a "Flame" spell. After nearly a minute of "flamethrower-ing" the tree, the ice was completely unaffected.
If the elven woman was impressed, she was wearing a good poker face. "Incredible. I've never seen such resilient ice before, and created with such little effort, might I add."
"Of course…" Solaire grumbled to himself.
"I would be correct in assuming this is Fire Primal Magic?"
The amethyst-eyed woman nodded. "You'd be correct."
"This is most interesting. With talent like this, you will be most welcome in the College. My name is Faralda, it is a pleasure to meet you." Faralda bowed, greeting the new student.
"And my name is Emilia." Emilia bowed in return.
"Before you enter the College, I regret to inform you that your companions will not be allowed to enter due to the rules the College upholds," Faralda explained, pointing at the others.
Patches gave the elven woman a funny look. "What kind of rules?"
"Only Mages and those wishing to pursue a magical education may enter. While Primal Magic is widely accepted, Universal Magic is not so upheld in Gusteko, and the College offers a safe haven from more close minded individuals." Faralda explained, which sort of made sense to the others.
"What about Soul Magic?" Subaru asked.
Faralda shook her head. "Soul Magic is seen quite negatively in Gusteko, even more so than Universal Magic. Even some in the College believe Soul Magic to be a corruption of one's own soul."
Subaru cringed at that answer. "Yaaaaay…"
"Miss Emilia, do you still wish to enter the college, even if it means separation from your companions?"
"Don't worry about us, we'll just run some errands while you're here," Aela said.
"And you need not worry. You will be free to leave anytime. The College is a place of learning, not a prison." Faralda assured the Half-Elf.
"Oh! Then, um, yes!"
"Very well, speak to me when you are about to enter the College. I shall wait by the gate," Faralda said, before turning around and leaving the gang by themselves.
"Okay, so here's the plan!" Subaru announced. "Every morning, we'll drop Emilia-tan off, then do some day jobs, and then come back to pick her up in the evening. Sounds good?"
Faralda shook her head, before shouting towards them, "Such a thing will not be necessary! We have living quarters, and plenty of space!"
"Oh, wow, she has good hearing," Erik whispered.
"Okay, we'll visit during lunch," Patches said.
Emilia looked back to the group. "So... this is it for now?"
Subaru shrugged. "I guess. But don't think of it as "good-bye." Think of it as "see you later"."
Emilia looked down a bit before facing her newfound friends. "Okay then... see you later."
"Good luck!" Solaire cheered.
Erik nodded at that notion. "Have fun!"
"Shove fools into lockers!" Patches laughed.
Alea slapped him by the head, before saying, "We'll see you soon."
"Have fun!" Siegmeyer waved at her.
Soon enough, Faralda led Emilia across the bridge to the College, while the group headed back to the carriage.
"So… where to next?" the onion knight asked.
"Well, Dragon hunting's off the table," the bald thief answered.
The huntress nodded in agreement. "Agreed. No Emilia, no Dragon slaying."
Erik was in a thinking position as he went through the possibilities. "Hmm... What about... treasure hunting?"
If Patches had eyebrows, they would be raised right now. "Go on…"
"Well, there's plenty of Nordic tombs around Gusteko, and anyone of them could hold a number of treasures and ancient weapons inside!" Erik explained, the idea of finding weapons and treasures lost to time was exciting to him.
"We're going grave robbing?" Solaire asked, a bit scandalized.
Erik's cheeks went red at that. "I... wouldn't call it that…"
"How about tomb raiding?" Siegmeyer suggested.
"If Lara Croft can do it, so can we!" Subaru joked.
"Don't forget Indiana Jones!" Patches added.
Seigmeyer just looked confused. "Who?"
"Guy who steals artifacts from temples and puts them in museums," the Japanese man said, before quickly adding a few more things. "Also, he punches Nazis and gets babes."
"Nazis?" The helmeted knight asked.
"Super evil guys from my world. Helped eradicate millions of people." Subaru explained, his face a bit sour as he recalled that particular bit of history.
Erik's face went pale at that. "M-millions...?
Subaru nodded his head. "Millions."
"Yeah, I heard those guys were a bunch of racist dicks." Patches pitched in.
"Oh, yeah, totally. Believed that they were "supermen" and had to kill all other races before they killed them first," the nasty-eyed otherworlder answered. "Real nasty people."
"Okay, enough about genocidal maniacs, shall we focus on our current predicament?"
Patches agreed with Aela on that one. "Right, right, we're super broke."
"So... where do we go to get "unbroke"?" the onion knight asked.
Subaru thought for a second, before asking, "Wanna pull off a Robin Hood?"
Erik sighed. "We don't know who that is…"
"He was an ancient vigilante who stole from the rich, and gave the money to the poor, but kept just enough for himself and his merry men to survive," the black-haired Undead explained.
Erik was about to speak, but then a thought came to him. "Well, I have an idea. My father runs an Inn, and according to him, customers always have rumors or juicy info, so I'm willing to bet that Winterhold's innkeeper will have something for us."
Patches could get behind that. "Alright, let's go there, then."
The Group make their way to Winterhold's inn, getting drinks and asking for info.
One of the waitresses brought Erik a drink, and he took the opportunity to ask, "So, miss. Have you heard any rumors lately?"
"Oh, nothing too amazing," the waitress said.
Erik raised his eyebrow. "Nothing? I'm sure you must have heard something that caught your ear?"
The waitress thought about it for a moment, before saying, "Well… I did hear that there are several false walls scattered all over the land. Illusions to hidden passages."
That peaked Erik's interest. "Is that so?"
The waitress nodded. "Yeah, some people think that it was some old mage pulling a prank."
Erik gave a smirk. "Well, we'll keep a look out for them. Thank you for your help."
"Sure thing!" the waitress said, extending her hand. "That'll be five gold."
While Erik was paying the Waitress, neither noticed Aela staring at them.
Patches was wearing his usual shit-eating grin. "Jeeealous?"
The ginger-haired woman stared at him in aversion. "What?"
Siegmeyer, meanwhile, sighed longingly. "Ah, to be young again."
"I'm not sure what you're implying, but cease it at once," Aela growled.
Patches snorted in response. "And let you miss out? Now way."
Patches, however, shut up instantly when Aela turned to him with a yellow eyed glare.
Meanheile, Solaire was absolutely confused. "I don't understand any of this."
Subaru, meanwhile, patted the helmeted knight on the back. "You will one day."
Solaire shrugged in response. "If you say so…"
After leaving the Inn, the group head back to the carriage.
"So what's the plan now?" Erik asked.
"Well, I guess we'll start looking for those hidden entrances," Subaru said.
"This is gonna take a while…" Patches groaned.
"If we're close to one, I might be able to sniff it out," Aela said.
"You can smell magic?" Siegmeyer asked.
The werewolf nodded. "I've trained to be able to detect it, yes."
Erik, meanwhile, had stars in his eyes. "Amazing…"
"Well, let's get to hunting!" Subaru cheered.
Authors' Note: A short chapter filled with pop culture references. And Nazis.
(Now, fun fact, after the cynical breakfast, we had originally planned to have the Party go to the Labyrinthian and find out about the Dragon Priest masks, but we ultimately decided against it, at least for now. We may go back there someday. Also, we decided that going to the college would be the best course of action to help Emilia get stronger and learn more about the fire part of her magic, which is severely underutilized in other fanfics. Also, we had another reason that will be revealed in the next chapter.)
Anyways, now it's time for the comments!
eren jeager 1st: Oh, you must be Infinite's friend. I know he told me that he recommended this to you. Glad to see you're enjoying everything, even Patches being the comic relief. And to answer your question, the lands of Skyrim are in the borders of Gusteko. (So glad you finally got around to reading this. Like I said, we post every Monday, so you'll only need to wait for a week for each chapter. Also, the bonfires happen off screen since that will get very repetitive. Also, we have no plans to kill Ralof, but he will appear later.)
5queso: I believe in the theory that every version of Patches from each of the FromSoft games is the same Patches. I know it's probably wrong, but I still wanted to capitalize on the idea for this story. Speaking of other Subarus, there was once an idea we had about a battle royale between all of them. (About thirty-six from the IF routes and fanfics, but unfortunately, it never came to fruition.) Also, we tried our best to make the magic system understandable, but it isn't completely essential to know, so you're good.
Kifhjooofff: En realidad, Reid podría tener una base moral más elevada por una vez, ya que en realidad me estaba refiriendo al grupo de Gwyn cuando Subaru estaba hablando con Solaire.
SenSlice: (Yep, considering there seems to be no requirements besides skill and knowledge that prevent you from using Skyrim magic, we thought that it would be a magic system everyone can learn, minus those with defective gates like Reinhard and Anastasia). And Subaru indeed has all the magic from every iteration of Dark Souls, because he's Subaru, that's why. No, Patches didn't bring anything from his outer-world adventures back with him, aside from maybe his spear. Also, I highly doubt Patches could talk to spiders, even when he was one. They'd probably just ignore him.
And now, for the last bit of shilling…
If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules!
Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next time!
- Ernalore & Infinite the Celestian