Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

 
 

View User's Journal

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 15:


Artemis doesn't mind the dark. But he can't help but feel that something is watching him. It reminds him to much of the Underdark. "I wonder, do you have illithids here?" She turns back to Artemis, who was close behind her. "Illithids?" "Mind Flayers, they live in the Underdark. They're not physically strong, but they have powers of the mind. They're not human, they have a thin body with the head that looks like an octopus...if you know what that is.." She shakes her head at this. "Can't say I've heard of it, but they sound creepy." "They use whatever races they can as food, they use their tentacles to reach into peoples heads and eat their brains.." She lets out a horrid gasp. "Ehh, oh that's...just...ehhh..." She just wants to move forward, the tunnel slowly slopping down more. She hears a light sound as she places her finger over her lips. The tunnel grows into a large cavern. The place is full of Falmer, huts dot the area as they scurry around. They're blind, so she's able to light the place without their notice. There's a cage off to the side with a few people tied up. She moves slowly, quietly, watching her every step. She makes it to the gate, where a female Bosmer looks up. "Arch-Mage." Evelyn hushes the elf, glances back. The Falmer still haven't taken notice. She gets the gate open and unties the elf. As well as the other mages. There's only about five of them, none of them she knows personally. She waves them to leave the way she came. She spots two others, but one's dead, the other is being torn apart by the blind elves for food. She frowns a bit, but turns to leave, there's nothing she can really do for them.

Once safely back in the main room of the ruins, she turns to the female elf. "The hell were you people thinking to come here?!" The elf lowers her head as a male Nord steps up. She has no idea who he is. "This was my idea, I thought the place was safe enough to study.." Evelyn glares at him. "And you were wrong, I'm in charge of the Collage, if you wanted to study this place I should have been told. Now thanks to you two people are dead..." He lowers his head slightly. "March, now!" He jumps and turns to leave, the other mages slowly following after him. She just lets out a low growl as she follows after them. She leads them to the lift that will take them back to the outside world. Once outside she turns to the male Nord. "Your name?" He shuffles nervously. "Lue..." She rises her brow at this. "Right, we'll be taking a cart back to Winterhold, you can explain yourself better once we're there.." The five mages shuffle, the elf still shaking slightly. It really didn't seem they understood the danger they were in until it was to late. Still that doesn't give them a pass. Artemis watches Evelyn, she's strangely protective of the people around her. It doesn't really seem to matter who they are. He's not sure if he should really admire that, or think it's foolish. She keeps her eyes on every single one of them until they reach the stables in Windhelm. She pays the driver to take all five of the mages back to Winterhold. Once they were settled she summons Arvak and follows the wagon. She's going to trail behind it to make sure no one makes a run for it.

Artemis follows her with his own horse as they head down the road. She keeps her eyes on the Nord. "What will you do once we return to Winterhold?" Her mouth twitches as she gives it some thought. "I don't know, never ran into this problem before. But I'll make sure he pays for this. There's a reason we have rules, the fact they did this without permission bothers me. I really didn't need to know Falmer ate people." She shutters slightly, it's a image that's going to stick with her for awhile. "Still I've never seen anything like it. Like they were farming. Keep the cattle in a pin sort of thing. So they're not as mindless as we thought..." She shakes her head slightly. They are smart, smarted then she really thought them to be. Which only makes them more dangerous. The other mages aren't free from blame, but she's going to get down to the bottom of this as to why they thought this was a great idea. It's a slow ride to Winterhold. But she stays right behind the wagon. "I wonder what else the darkness hides, besides those Falmer.." She glances at Artemis. "I don't know, maybe there's more then we know hiding in the darkness. Can't say I want to go looking." He can't help but agree, he's had enough of being underground to last him a lifetime. By the time that make it back to the collage, it's the next day. She's tired, but it's something she's used to. She ushers everyone into the main hall, Tolfdir waiting for her. "You found them." "I did, now talk, I want answers.." The Nord steps up, his eyes on the ground. He was kind of handsome, young looking, barely had a beard going. His dark brown hair hangs over his eyes. "It was my idea, we heard stories of Mzulft, I wanted to study the Oculory. But we heard noises in the night, and the Falmer got the upper hand..."

She crosses her arms. "You're mages, you should have known better. Studding something is one thing, but this should have been brought up to someone. It's possible no one would have figured it out and all of you would have perished." He winces at this, keeping his eyes down. "The rest of you are suspended, you are to remain here and do whatever Tolfdir can think of. As for you." She turns to the one that came up with this bright idea. "I should kick you out." He closes his eyes. "However you need to pay for this mistake. Two people are dead because of your lack of thinking. So I'll hand you over to Urag, I'm sure he can find something for you to do for awhile." The poor man sinks back, but all things considering, she could have done far worse to the man. Once they wonder off to get to their punishment she turns to Artemis. "I know it sounds strange, but I'm not really used to dealing out punishment." It's not really something she does often. So it always leaves her unsure if it's to harsh or not harsh enough. She lets out a low sigh as she finds Tolfdir. "What made them think this was okay?" He gives her a helpless shrug. "I did try to warn them, but Lue was adamant it was safe. After all you survived the place. They wouldn't listen to me and left." He is only a old mage, there's only so much he can do. "It's okay my friend, this isn't your fault...still maybe we need to rethink a few rules.." The last thing they need is for more people to die. After all people are still a bit mad over the accident with the Eye. Not that she blames the townspeople for that one.

"Getting into trouble are we?" She turns to regard a male elf. She chuckles slightly. "Enthir, of course not. I'm the one trying to make sure no one else gets into trouble.." He smirks as he makes his way over to her. "I heard what happened, not the wisest idea I've heard." "I understand wanting to study the Oculory but taking a bunch of new members was not a great idea.." "It's no wonder the Collage can't keep new mages when things like this happens." He lets out a low sound. "Humans are always so careless at times." "I am not." "Says the woman that snuck into a tower to get a translation for Falmer." She holds out her hand, pointing at him. "Hey I did that to help Karliah. And I'm glad I did, Mercer was an a** for what he put her through. What he put the guild through." Artemis just turns his head as they talk. He's not sure what they are going on about. "The thieves guild. I joined them while I was looking for Esbern. Their leader, Mercer was a real a**. He stole...something important and blamed the death of their former guild master to take the heat off off him. He got away with it, for over twenty-five years." Enthir shakes his head slightly. "I'm just glad it's over with and Karliah is back with the guild. How is she doing by the way?" "I haven't checked in on them, but I'm sure she's fine.." The elf smiles warmly at this, and turns to leave. "Mercer took what's known as the Skeleton Key, it's a well kept secret among the guild. It's a gift from Nocturnal herself, but it's never wise to steal from the Daedric Princes, let along her." "What was so special about this key?" "It held more power to it them just unlocking doors. From what Karliah told me it could unlock any hidden abilities a person has. Imagine the chaos it could create if Mercer understood what he had." Artemis scowls slightly at this. "And where is it now?" "Safe, back with Lady Nocturnal. What she does with it now is up to her. But I imagine it'll be awhile before she gifts it to anyone again."

In hindsight she most likely should have never told him about it. But it's not like he can go running off to go find the key. Not that he seems all that interested. "Arch-Mage!" She blinks and looks up. "J'zargo.." She sighs slightly as the Khajiit wonders up to her. He saw himself as a master of destruction magic. Truth was he was still a novice but he would never admit to such a thing. "What do you want?" The guy always kind of annoyed her slightly with his attitude. He was always smug about something. "Word is going around a small group wondered into Mzulft." "You heard right, seems they found a tunnel that lead deeper into the complex, full of Falmer no less." The cat shivers, his whiskers twitching. "Interesting, sounds like a few mages that know what they are doing should go take a look." She glares at him slightly. However he's not wrong. As dangerous as it is, there's more going down there that needs to be looked into. "As much as I hate to agree with you, you have a point.." She hates that he's right. "This might be a good chance to really learn more about how this creatures live. How they..." She shakes her head slightly but lets out a low hum. "I may have an idea..." She smirks slightly as she turns and heads for the Arcanaeum. Urag has poor Lue on his hands and knees, cleaning the floor with the smallest brush he can find. "Today is your lucky day my friend." The mage stops his work as he looks up at her. He was not a happy camper, but she can care less. "I'm going to send you, along with some trusted mages to return to Mzulft. I want you to study the Falmer, closely." She turns to Urag. "Think you got a empty journal I can use?" The Orc nods and heads off to a far bookshelf. He finds the largest book he can and hands it over to her. "Thank you."

She hands it over to the mage. "I want this book covered in notes, front to back." His eyes go wide at this. "But that could take ages." Her smirk only grows as she leans in close. "Well, you have two choices here, complete that book, or I leave you here to Urag.." The poor mage looks at the Orc and gulps, letting out a deep sigh. "Fine I'll do it." "Good, with any luck you'll learn something useful from this. I suggest you get packing, you'll be heading out in the morning.." The mage shuffles off as she turns to J'zargo. "Take Onmund and Brelyna. "I only want you to keep and eye on him." J'zargo bows his head slightly as he heads off to go get what he needs. He might be a smug b*****d but he's more then willing to do as she ask. He can brown nose all he wants it won't get him anywhere. "You think this is wise Arch-Mage?" Urag askes her, he normally stays out of the way but he doesn't want to see anyone get hurt. "This will be a great learning experience. This will help him think twice about the choices he makes." He just shrugs slightly, she was in charge after all. Who know, maybe this wasn't a bad idea. "I think it's a fitting punishment." Artemis would have done worse so he's not about to judge her. "I still find it hard to believe those things were once elves.." "It has something to do with a toxic fungus they were force fed. Not sure what kind of fungus. We've never been able to figure that part out." She turns as she heads to her room. "All we really know is that the Dwemer are responsible for how they turned out." Once in her room she heads for her desk. She sits herself down in her chair, keeping her eyes on him.

"I spoke of the Eye of Magnus right?" Artemis nods as he finds his own chair. "You didn't go into detail on what it was.." "Honestly, I'm still not sure.." She chuckles helplessly. "But from what I learned, when Ysgramor first landed in Skyrim, they built Saarthal. The story goes they found the Orb deep underground. Now it's unsure if the Snow Elves made it, but they attacked Ysgramor's group because of it. All we really learned of the orb was that it was pure magicka. We didn't get to study it farther thanks to Ancano." She has no love for the High Elves and she won't cry over his death. The man was an idiot. "Shame really, I'm still wondering how something like that exists. But the Psijic Order took the Eye. Honestly for the best." She leans forward a bit, crossing her legs. "I should have you write down about where you come from. The people that life there, what it's like." He just scowls at her. "I'm not a scholar." It's really not his responsibility. Plus some things are better left unknown. "Oh fine I'll do it myself." It's not like he can stop her from putting down what he's told her this far. He just lets out a low huff knowing well enough there's not much he can do to stop her once she has her mind set on something. There's really not much left for her to do here. But she makes sure everything is in order before she leaves. The last thing she needs to hear is more people are wondering off on their own. She even gives Tolfdir a new set of rules for the other mages to follow. The others seem to agree to this and offer no argument. No wondering off to dangerous places without proper protection.

As she heads outside to the courtyard she turns to Artemis. "Heh I just created the 'I need an adult' rule. Gods that was so annoying, couldn't do a thing unless I had an adult with me. Like what's the worse I can do?" She gives him a innocent smile that sends his mind to all the possibilities. Knowing her, she could get into trouble without trying. "Try and make friends with a dangerous creature." She holds out her finger. "Hey I tried that once..." His eyes go wide. "It didn't work." He's not even sure if he should ask what she tried to do. "It was a Minotaur and I was trying to get it to leave the cows alone...what a way to learn about the facts of life." He really doesn't want to hear anymore on this and walks away from her. "Hey, wait, there's more!" She's just doing this to torment him now. When they reached the shelves with the orbs he's just covering his ears, looking the other way. She can't help but chuckle slightly to see his reaction was to ignore her. He slowly lowers his arms when he sees she stopped talking. "Sorry, not the best image eh?" He scowls at her. "I haven't seen any Minotaur's." "They don't travel this far up north...not sure why.." Maybe it was the cold, but maybe it was because there wasn't much of a food source for them up here. "Maybe they just can't survive out here. But I don't miss dealing with them." She holds out a soul gem and soon they were right outside Dawnstar. She was going to have to gather more soul gems at this rate. "Looks like we'll be traveling by horse for awhile..."

She lets out a sigh as she heads for the Sanctuary. "How are soul gems made?" She pauses, looking up for a second. "I know how black soul gems are made, as for the actual gems themselves..." She scratches the back of her head. "I'm not really sure...I just know how they work.." She shrugs slightly as she heads inside where it was warmer. She could see poor Artemis starting to shiver, even if he never said anything about it. He never seemed to complain, which was nice. Far better then most people she knew that never shut the hell up. "But I guess I never gave it much thought, I just always found them or bought them. Never thought to try and make them myself...I wouldn't even know where to start or even what to use..." Maybe she'll look into it. It might save her some time in the long run. The Sanctuary was rather quiet, some of the other members were still out on jobs. Only some of the lower ranking members were still around, doing simple jobs. She still has no idea who most these people are, they never really say much to her. She just shrugs it off, no point on getting close when it comes to most assassins. Chances are they wouldn't last long anyways. She heads for her room, running her fingers over her books. There's a good chance she might just have something that can help her. Artemis ends up joining her, it's not like he had anything better to do at that moment.








 
 
Manage Your Items
Other Stuff
Get GCash
Offers
Get Items
More Items
Where Everyone Hangs Out
Other Community Areas
Virtual Spaces
Fun Stuff
Gaia's Games
Mini-Games
Play with GCash
Play with Platinum