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Insane stories of a McDonald's employee
Just some stuff that's happened in the last few years I've been working. As well as other things
Journey through the Realms
Chapter 9: {A nicer Collage of Winterhold [X]}


It's been awhile since Artemis had some time to himself. It's strange but he finds he's not used to it like he once was. Still his own room is nice, he can't remember the last time he had something like this. He's lost track of how long he's been here, at least a week or so. It feels oddly longer then that, but not in a bad way. Skyrim isn't home but he finds it far more interesting. Though he's not used to the cold weather. He's not sure he like being alone with his thoughts, but he finds himself able to think a bit clearer now. It's not as jumbled as before. Maybe Charon's Claw had a greater hold then he thought. Space seems to have done him some good so maybe he'll just let Evelyn keep it. Not that it really bothers him, the glass sword he gave him is just as nice. Hell if he wanted to all he really has to do is ask for something stronger. No doubt she would be more then happy to give him anything he asked for. She really didn't think twice about it. It's a far change to how Jarlaxle handled things, which again is kind of nice. After awhile he starts to feel restless and leaves his room. He can hear voices nearby and follows the sound. He finds Evelyn, dressed in a simple traveling clothes as she patches up what looks to be Cicero's motley. The assassin himself stood at her side, not wearing his shirt. "Cicero swears he didn't see that nail.." She just chuckles lightly as she carefully runs a needle through the fabric. "It's fine, it's not as bad at it looks. But I should fix that nail so no one else gets hurt.."

He's pacing a bit, worried. Cicero has a strange attachment to the outfit. Artemis isn't sure he wants to know the story behind it. He seems a bit unhinged. It's remarkable how careful she is, as if she understands how much the outfit means to him. "Cicero didn't know you can sew." "Before I knew I could use magic I learned basic medical training. It's a lot more handy then I thought it would be." Cicero crosses his arms. "When did you learn magic Listener?" She pauses, looking up slowly. "Um..." Her brows knit slowly as she bites her lower lip. "Sixteen?" She lets out a low gasp. "I remember, I was gathering firewood...set wood on fire with my hands. Imagine my surprise!" She chuckles again as she finishes patching up the shirt. She gives it a slight tug before handing it over. Cicero is so happy he throws it on. "Thank you Listener!" He could have done it himself, but it had torn in a place he had no idea how to fix. She just waves her hand at him. "Anything to stop having to stare at your pasty butt. Really man get a tan...oh wait you can't." The poor man doesn't tan, he just burns so he doesn't go out much. He just huffs. "I'm not that pale." "Moth Priest have gone blind looking to long." He stomps his foot as she laughs deeply, covering her head. "I'm joking!!" He mumbles as he wonders off to go about his duties. She was about to get up as Babette wonders up to her. "Could you be a dear and get me some things?" The vampire hands over a list and Evelyn looks it over. "Sure I can get this for you." It's the only thing Babette hates, she can't buy the more dangerous plants because she looks like a child.

Evelyn rises and sees Artemis not far. She smiles as she holds out the list Babette gave her. "Want to tag along?" He has nothing better to do. "Where are we going?" "Most of the stuff on the list I can get from the Collage. I told you about it didn't I?" She sometimes has a hard time remembering what she tells people and what she doesn't. "Mages guild, or something close to it I'm guessing." "Correct, come I'll show you something.." She heads for a door he hasn't seen before. It hides behind the large colored glass window. Once they head up he finds himself just outside of Dawnstar. She leads him to the stables to where a strange circle hides in the snow. She clears away the grass. The circle shows an eye, but he's not sure what it is. "This is the Eye of Magnus, I didn't come up with this idea. The Arch-Mage before me did." She stands on the circle and waves for him to join her. He does as she pulls out a small soul gem. The gem breaks as they teleport from outside, to somewhere inside. He has to blink a few times to keep his head from spinning. "Sorry, you okay?" She holds him still to make sure he didn't fall over. "Where are we?" "The Hall of Countenance, this area is mostly for the higher ranked mages." He moves slowly, looking at the wall. There's two shelves one on each side, with a orb in it's own holder. Each orb is labeled, Whiterun, Riften, so on. "You can teleport to any place you want?" "I can, at the cost of soul stones. It's not a bad deal, but I often forget I need more or I just don't want to waste them by being lazy. I just wanted to show you, that and this was faster, for once.."

The place was empty this time of day so she leads him outside. He glances around to see what looks to be a large greenhouse. "Savos, the Arch-Mage before me came up with this idea as well. I think it's a great idea, to allow students to grow their own plants." She looks at the list Babette had given her. "But most of this I can get from my chest." She heads for the main hall of the Collage. He moves slowly, looking at everything as she heads for her room. It reminds him of LaValle, a mage that once worked for Pasha Pook. Only her room is huge compared to his. She pays no mind as she opens a large chest she has and starts to go through it. He spots what looks to be a large clock. It tells what he believes is the month and day. "Fifteenth, First Seed..." He has no idea what month that is or how far into the year it is. However there is a book near the clock as he takes a look. It goes into detail about the clock and how it works. Most of it goes over his head but there's a small calendar to make sure it's working properly. "First Seed, third month of the year..." So that made more sense. Behind him is another teleporting orb, but he can't use it. No doubt only she can so it must lead to somewhere more private. He heads back, looking at her bookshelves, not a single space goes unused. She finally gathers everything she needs. "I found everything I needed, would you like to look around?" He points his head to the orb. "Where does that go?" She smiles brightly as she leads the way. She takes a hold of his hand as she places her other on the orb. Everything goes fuzzy as he finds himself in another room.

It's a bit smaller, but it has windows throughout the room, from what he can see this tower is far up. She has all kinds of items on display in this room. Books, strange claw like keys, weapons, armor, and other items. A large sparkling gem catches his eye. "Eye of the Falmer, I have one, the other is on display. I'm sure they're worth a ton, but I couldn't sell it, it's to rare to let go.." Artemis runs his hand over the large gem. He doesn't want to touch it to much, because it looks fragile. But he wants to figure out what it's made of. "What kind of gem is this?" He gave up and asked. "I..." Her head tilts, she wasn't sure herself. "Pink diamond, I think I could be wrong, it's stronger then it looks." He decides to leave it alone as he turns his gaze to the smaller gems beside it. All different colors as he picks one up. It was a emerald color. "That's the Emerald Paragon, found the set in the Forgotten Vale. Each one opened a door to a different area, found some good loot for my trouble." He puts it back as his eyes turn to the books she had. They looks strange, black, but each had different art on them. He tries to open the book, but it slams shut on him. She winces slightly, she should have expected that. "Those are the Black Books, they belong to Hermaeus More. It's a long weird story but only I can read them.." He's not sure if he wants to know. Near the back ate two large scrolls. He takes a closer look, but doesn't get to close. "Two of the Elder Scrolls I found, I wouldn't open those." He can feel a strange magic coming from them, and from what she told him. He's more then happy to keep his hands to himself.

His eyes travel to a large collection of masks. He picks one up, looking it over. "Where did you get these?" "Those are Dragon Priest mask. The more important ones wore them. I tried wearing one but I just can't..." The cover for the Nightingale Armor is hard enough. But something about the mask just makes her feel like she's closed in. She's not sure where the fear comes from, but any small space just sends her into a panic. "So I'm guessing only you can go into this room." Artemis takes a look around, eyeing her weapons. "Correct, unless a new Arch-Mage is named only I can get into here. Which is nice I kind of like the space. It's like my own tower." After awhile she leads him out once more. "There's one more orb but I don't really use it. It leads to a hidden cabin far from here. I tend to forget about it." That and it's far to small for her to stay there long enough. It's nice though, but she can only enjoy it for so long before her heart starts to race. "You want to see the Arcanaeum?" She has no idea why she wants to show him around so badly, but he seems to be enjoying himself. "It's just a really big library." He doesn't answer but she shows him anyways. Of course the place is huge, the perfect place for mages to gather and learn. There's a huge collection of artifacts, each one carefully labeled. "You better not...oh Arch-Mage, it's just you." Artemis turns to a grumpy looking Orc. She's told him about the race, but he's still on edge. "Hello Urag, don't mind us."

He lets out a low huff, but doesn't say anything as he heads for his desk. "It's nice to be in charge." Artemis is busy looking at some maps, as well as some other items. He could get lost in here, but a strange rumble could be heard outside. She turns her head as Tolfdir quickly runs up to her. "Thank goodness you're here. A dragon is attacking the Collage!" He knows well enough the mages could take care of it, but having her around makes a difference. Without a second thought she turns and runs, Artemis quickly following after her. She runs right into the main court yard to see a large dragon flying past. A purple dragon, they can be annoying. She waits for just the right moment, holding out Charon's Claw as well as her other dagger. The sword was more then eager to taste dragons blood. The dragon flies low as she quickly takes in a deep breath. "JoorZahFrul!" Dragonrend hits the beast and it roars in anger. The Shout was powerful, forcing it to the ground below. There was a reason the Nords created this Shout, they used it against Alduin, but it wasn't enough. It was enough for her however as all the mages gather to face against the large beast. The dragon snaps at them, ignoring her, which was a big mistake. She jumps at the right time, getting right on top of the dragons head. It tries to shake her off but she lifts Charon's Claw and thrust the powerful sword through the dragons skull. She's surprised with how easy it is as the dragon stops moving and hits the ground with a loud thud. She slides the sword out and leaps off, stepping back. Everyone watches as the dragon starts glowing and a strange aura comes from the dead beast.

She doesn't move, she knows what's coming. The aura heads right for her as she absorbs it's soul. She's used to it by now, this rush of power. The other mages have seen her fight, but not Artemis. This is the first time he's seen her fight a dragon, and take it's soul. However after a minute or so she starts to feel really dizzy. She sometimes sees memories of the dragons she slays. This time it sort of knocks her out and she hits the ground. When she opens her eyes, she's met with a all to familiar seen. She's been here before, this mountain ridge. It's home, it's safe. Alduin won't find her here, but she hasn't seen him in days. An odd rumor passes he vanished. It's hardly matters to her, she's starving, and so is her mate. Finding food is slowly becoming impossible. But if she doesn't, they'll have little chance in surviving like this. Not just them, but their young. It took everything she had to find a way, the other dragons weren't interested in the idea. But their numbers were dropping. She has to take this chance, for her, her mate, her eggs. So she takes flight to the unknown. When she returns her nest is in flames and her weakened mate tries to fight off a large army of solders. He won't abandon the nest, but he's to weak to keep up the fight. She's to late to save him, and they crush her eggs. It always ends with a sword in her gut. Her roar echoes across the mountains. It's the last sound she hears before waking up. Her eyes flutter as she winces slightly. "Ow..." Artemis looks up from where he was sitting. She's been out cold for hours. He jumps up, her fellow mages have taken her to her room until she woke up.

She slowly sits up, looking around. "What happened?" "You passed out after you killed that dragon. I should be asking the same question. Does that happen often?" She shakes her head, slowly laying back. "Not really, at first I would just see flashes of memory. Mostly of the dragons I kill. However these last few times it's been the same vision." He pulls up his chair, leaning forward a bit. "I don't know what to make of it really. Same place, same outcome." Her mouth twitches as she rubs her poor stomach. "I could do without feeling like someone punched me in the gut. It's...like I can see myself dying as a dragon. A well placed sword, to the stomach, and I feel every bit of it. Sometimes it hurts like hell, other's not so much. I wonder if this strange vision has anything to do with what I went through when I was younger..." She leans her head back. "But that wouldn't make sense, I didn't know I was Dragonborn until two years ago...I was twenty-one or so when I woke up that morning covered in blood." He doesn't say anything at first, but after a minute of silence he speaks up. "You said you have the soul of a dragon. Maybe it's your soul trying to reach out to you in these visions?" She's about to say something, but he just might have a point. Was that it, these new visions she was having. They were getting stronger with every dragon she killed. But that left more questions. "That would make sense, but why now all of a sudden?" All he could do was shrug his shoulders, he knows as much as she does. Which isn't much. It also didn't explain why she could feel it as well. As far as she knows that can't be normal. And it's not like she has anyone to ask either. There is Paarthurnax, but she's not one hundred percent he would have answers.

Maybe her soul had more power then she realized. It effected her even before she came to Skyrim. So just how powerful was she really? She has options, if Paarthurnax doesn't know, that would leave Mora, but she's going to keep that as a last resort. "I know a dragon, I spoke of him before, Paarthurnax. He lives on the top of the Throat of the World. He's a very old and wise dragon. Talking to him might provide answers. Because if this continues this might do far more harm then good.." She moves slowly, but her head was still spinning. "Ugg...maybe after the room stops spinning." She holds her head for a minute. Artemis has no idea what she's going through, but he can only imagine it's not pleasant. What's worse is that it didn't start like this. It's just been slowly effecting her more and more. He wonders if being the Dragonborn is more a curse then a blessing. After all what mortal could really handle the power of a dragon? But it's a part of her she can't really get rid of. "How far is this place?" "The mountain, south, fastest way there would be to start from Riften. We'll have to pass through high Hrothgar first." It never hurts to stop and say hello to the Greybeards. After all they are protective of the dragon. Not that she blames them for wanting to keep him safe. Paarthurnax is the only dragon willing to teach people The Way of the Voice after all. She'll be ready to go, soon, at least she hopes. She just really wants the room to stop spinning so she lays back down.






 
 
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