Sellen
Rarely did I receive visitors. At least, my projection rarely did. My true body was still visited by witch hunters from time to time, each trying to force death upon someone who could not die for as long as the stars were held in the place.
And yet, here and now, I was visited by a girl wearing foreign clothes with a beauty that defied anything natural. My ‘guard’ had simply fallen to its knees as the girl had approached, not a sign of magic being picked up on by me and yet she still simply managed to knock out the being I’d tasked with fending off unwanted visitors by walking past it. She was tarnished, certainly, for there was no Grace of Gold in her eyes but she was definitely no ordinary tarnished.
“How can I help you?” I asked, curious and happy for the change of pace. The primeval current, I could not touch upon just yet. Not without Azur’s and Lusat’s bodies nor access to the academy.
I needed an accomplice to achieve my goals and, perhaps, she would be just that.
“I wish to learn sorcery from you.” She told me simply as though that explained everything.
In a way, it did. However, “If you’ve come to seek me out, do you know who I am? I was exiled from the Academy of Raya Lucaria as a reviled, apostate witch. Do you still wish to learn from me despite that?”
“The way I see it, there are only three who are worthy of teaching me and still capable of doing so. Ranni the Witch is unlikely to agree in the first place and Seluvis does not hold up to either of you. Meanwhile Azur, Lusat and Rennala are all unfit for one reason or another. But, in all honesty, even if I were able to pick and choose freely from that list, I’d pick you simply because I believe you can teach me the secrets of the stars better than any of the others.” The girl explained her reasoning.
Part of me felt elated to hear those words. Another part remained suspicious but the part of me that had merely been waiting for oh-so long wanted nothing more than to accept. “You are quite a piece of work, aren’t you?” For anyone to claim they would choose me as their teacher over the Queen of Caria or her daughter was not something I had ever expected to hear but I couldn’t deny that it pleased me.
“Very well. I shall now teach you glintstone sorcery. Be warned, though. I will not coddle you or cast kind words. Never. Anticipate grievances, young apprentice.” I told her, already looking forward to our lessons despite myself.
“Then please teach me. I promise to learn all you will give me.” The girl replied and, faced with such eagerness, I couldn’t help but begin to lecture her.
To my great surprise, she soaked it all up with such ease. Even when I had studied under Master Azur, I had not learnt so quickly. It made me eager to see just how far this apprentice of mine would come under my tutelage.
Perhaps my desires to further research the primeval current weren’t doomed for failure quite yet. Of course, she had no duty to do so but, if she were willing to aid me, I could see myself succeeding.
Now as eager as she herself was, I talked for hours and hours. My projection had no needs, after all, and my apprentice apparently had some kind of spatial storage from which she’d gathered food and water as she needed it.
Eventually, however, my apprentice rose from where she’d seated herself at some point and sighed. “I will have to leave for now. I still have duties outside. I will, however, return tonight.”
“Then your studies shall resume later.” I told her, never having expected her to put her life on hold for my teachings. With how quickly she absorbed all I’d taught her this night, she didn’t need to.
If she didn’t slow down, she would soon have surpassed any of the sorcerers left in Raya Lucaria. That was simply how pathetic those who remained were.
Millenia of study and, yet, how many of them had the skill, the knowledge to represent their age?
Lily
Sellen was, perhaps, truly the only sorcerer left who was worthy of being acknowledged as my teacher. In a single night, she taught me more than the fool I had once taken in out of a lack of options had ever had.
And Sellen still had more to offer. She understood the intricacies behind glintstone sorcery in a way that entranced me to hear. The way she spoke of the vitality of the stars, of the nature of sorcery, fascinated me immensely.
Really, I should’ve visited her earlier. Now, I just had to hope she’d come to trust me quickly enough because, once Radahn had fallen, her life would be at risk. It’d all come down to whether or not she’d be able to entrust me with her primal glintstone by the time Radahn was dead.
I could almost certainly avert her tragic fate, too. A simple application of Naturalized Foreigner and my teacher would become immune to the corrupting effects of studying the primeval current.
If Sellen chose to trust me, she would not become a graven mass. If she did not, she would die at Jerren’s hands, however much of a shame that’d be.
Thankfully, Sellen was among the most sensible people in the Lands Between and would likely choose correctly.
And, if not, I’d have learnt as much as I could before that point. Really, it almost made me wish that I hadn’t scheduled a meeting with Faultline and her crew. I could’ve spent so much longer learning some of her immense quantities of knowledge.
I also still had to visit Whiterun. Unless things had changed even more drastically than I’d expected, the city would be the first to face a dragon.
If they had become so different as to change that then there was nothing I could do about it. I could hardly set up a surveillance system covering all of Skyrim within a couple days, after all.
“So, you’ve had some time to enjoy the benefits of working with me. I believe there’s only one thing left to do before I will let you know what I even hired you for.” I told the assembled hunters, pointedly looking at the two Case 53s in the room.
Immediately, they stilled as if my words had frozen them. Then, they cautiously relaxed. I didn’t even blame them for their hesitance. People had been trying and failing to figure out how to help Case 53s for decades. None of those people had been me, of course, but it was still for the best to not get one’s hopes up for nothing. “How likely do you believe it to be for them to regain their human forms?” Melanie asked as if she hadn’t posed that same question in our first conversation already.
“High enough that it’s worth a shot.” I answered for the sake of her subordinates. “Now, which one of you wants to be the one to see if this can help you?” I asked the two Case 53s in the room.
“I’ll do it.” Gregor stepped forward almost immediately despite me being able to see his hesitance. “However, what if this harms us instead of helping?”
“Then I’ll get you to Amelia, a friend of mine who should be able to heal whatever issues it caused.” I replied, ignoring the urge to just wave off the question. Gregor had yet to internalize my greatness, it seemed. “Any further questions or are you ready to get started?”
He squared his shoulders, trying oh so hard not to let the others see his anxiety. “I’m ready.” His little show amused me, enough so that I almost hoped this would hurt him as much as it had hurt Noelle back then.
‘Ah,’ I thought to myself, realizing something. ‘I should probably warn them. Them throwing a tantrum might ruin my office, after all.’ “Just so you know, this is probably going to hurt if it works.” I told him and then immediately applied Naturalized Foreigner before the words could sink in.
Almost immediately, his skin began to shift to one a normal, if slightly pale, human could’ve had, flesh morphing, bones shifting in loud, creaking sounds while his body was being rearranged. Hair even began to grow on top of his head.
The screams were music to my ears but I tried very hard not to show it. Enjoying their suffering was a quick way to reduce the loyalty of one’s employees and, while my binding vows should prevent consequences from that, I’d still rather not have to deal with them trying to find loopholes.
Thankfully, all of them were too disturbed by the sight before them to focus on me. Newter, in particular, was quite horrified by what was happening to Gregor.
But, by the end of it, there was an out-of-shape man on the floor my office rather than someone who was given the epithet of ‘the Snail’ solely based off of his appearance.
‘That in and of itself should be enough to recruit several Case 53s. Especially the ones in the asylums. As long as I can get the PRT to agree to letting me have them, that is.’ I noted, much more bored now that Gregor’s suffering had ended. “Congratulations,” I spoke up with a smile a moment later to break the silence that had formed in my office, “You’ve regained your human body. Now, could you kindly attempt to create some fairly harmless substance in the same manner as you were capable of before?”
It took several moments before my words sank in and the now-former Case 53 began to manipulate his mana. Considering the circumstances, I was willing to forgive the inattentiveness.
And, as Gregor produced some kind of liquid on his skin, I knew that this was really as I’d hoped it would be. Naturalized Foreigner rejected the corruption of his body but still kept the power around.
“I think I’m good without it.” Newter spoke up, probably frightened by the pain Gregor had gone through. “My body isn’t that inconvenient.”
“So you’re fine with anyone who touches you being exposed to a hallucinogen?” I challenged solely to see whether or not he’d change his mind. Ultimately, I didn’t need to have him return to a human form. Gregor on his own would be enough to provide a proof-of-concept. The more monstrous Case 53s would then happily become more evidence that I could make them human again.
Helping Newter was an unnecessary step. I could’ve respected his choice and stopped offering but I wanted to see what he’d pick after I pointed out the greatest downside of his current form.
“I…Alright. You can do whatever you did to Gregor to me, too.” Newter told me and I didn’t waste a single second before applying Naturalized Foreigner to him, too, now that I had his permission.
His change was less extreme in regard to most of his body than Gregor’s had been but I was fairly certain losing his tail had to hurt immensely. His bone structure remained just about the same except for that but that single aspect of him was removed in its entirety.
Still, less than a minute later, Newter was a human once more and could still produce his hallucinogenic. Only, now he did it at will.
“Now that that’s out of the way,” I spoke up after letting the group celebrate for a minute or so, “I feel like I should probably tell you what I intend for you to do.”
“Go ahead.” Melanie declared as if her permission mattered at this point.
“I’m planning to make you,” I looked straight at her to make it clear who I was talking about, “the head of a second branch of the Traveler’s Guild.”
Melanie seemed surprised by my announcement. “Many won’t follow an A-Rank as easily as an S-Rank.”
“You’ll have both Elle and Millicent with you. On top of that, most of the people who want to join are interested because of my lectures. If they have a problem, tell them that they’re free to use the exit clause of their contracts. It’ll just mean that they’ll be unable to use anything I taught them without breaking their binding vows.” I waved off her concerns.
Melanie nodded but still seemed unconvinced. “Can you even handle dealing with recruits for two branches. Your binding vow system will eventually be too much for you to handle.”
“Which is why I’ll teach you, Lisa and the entire managerial staff how to form them yourselves. I’m just waiting for Lisa to finish recruiting the latest batch of managers.” And my assistant was doing her best to rush that process without messing it up. She was probably even more tired of all her duties than I was of mine because, unlike me, she still had to sleep.
“That would solve the problem.” Melanie acknowledged, much more open to the idea now. “I assume the new guild branch would be connected to this place, too.”
“It would be.” I confirmed casually. “So, if anything really does go wrong, you can still just come to me fairly quickly.”
Melanie hesitated before her eyes flicked towards her crew. “Would it be alright if we discussed the rest of the details tomorrow?”
“That is acceptable.” If she wished to let the former Case 53s enjoy their newly regained human forms rather than keeping them in a business meeting for what could end up being quite a while, I would permit it. At the very least, happy employees were less likely to want to make things difficult for me.
“Thank you.” She replied and, not long afterwards, we said our goodbyes for the time being.
‘Time to return to Skyrim, I suppose.’ I decided, standing up while I called Missy to figure out where she was.
Probably best to have someone with me who might have a sliver of respect for nord culture because I certainly didn’t and taking Millicent anywhere was dangerous for as long as I was still working on a solution to her Scarlet Rot.
Akatosh probably wouldn’t stop at kicking us out if we brought space cancer to Nirn.
Missy
“Halt!” A guy in armour called out as Lily and I approached the gate to the city she’d told me we’d have to go to. There was another guy in the same armour nearby so I assumed they were guards. “City’s closed with the dragons about. Official business only.”
“We’ve news about the dragon attack at Helgen. My sister here was present for it, you see?” Lily replied, not bothering to put on a smile for some reason.
“You were at Helgen?” The guard sounded shocked as he turned his helmeted head towards me.
I nodded, swallowing at the memory of dragonfire scorching my skin. “I was.”
The guard inspected me for a moment, probably trying to figure out whether or not I was lying before saying, “The jarl will want to see you. Follow the road up to the keep. Just don’t cause any trouble along the way.”
“We won’t.” I promised firmly, hoping that Lily’d take the hint to not get up to any shenanigans just because she was bored.
With that cleared up, we were let into the city and, while I did somewhat want to explore, Lily’d told me that we had to visit the city specifically to talk to the jarl and that it was pretty urgent so we walked through the streets as we’d been told to.
The people were definitely a bit tense but not nearly as much as I’d have expected from a city pretty close to where a dragon had burnt down a town.
With us just walking, it took us over an hour to reach the jarl’s palace. “This place is called Dragonsreach because of a previous jarl imprisoning a dragon here.” Lily explained as we were getting close to the end of the stairs.
“Most of it is made out of wood.” I felt a need to point out, feeling like that sounded like a terrible idea.
Lily’s eyes gleamed in response but she lowered her voice before responding, “There’s theories that there’s something weird about it. Of course, someone could’ve just bound the dragon’s mouth to prevent it from breathing fire but it’s still possible that the jarl wasn’t quite as great as he’d claimed.”
I had a feeling if the guards had heard us, Lily’s speculation would’ve caused issues. That was probably why she had been so quiet about it.
I’d have responded because I knew Lily enjoyed such things even if she didn’t really care all that much about which story was true but a guard stopped us shortly before we reached the doors to the keep and we had to explain our purpose once again before quickly being ushered into the large, wooden hall and introduced to a grey-skinned woman with pointy ears. Irileth, the guard had called her.
And the elven woman had then announced our arrival to the jarl, sitting on his throne while loudly discussing what to do about the dragons. Apparently, we’d shown up at a great time.
“Irileth tells me you were at Helgen.” The man questioned after having put a hold on his current discussions to hear me out. His voice was calm despite the topic being dragons out of all things. Those things were terrifying.
“I was.” I confirmed, slightly nervous from being the center of attention here, in the palace of what was the leader of a part of a country. I knew that I was probably the second strongest being here but I wanted to do right by these people. I’d messed things up in their world, after all. “A large, black dragon was there, breathing fire everywhere and, when I tried to fight it, it said some strange words. After that, all my attacks just passed through it.”
“You hear that, Proventus? You think we should still rely on the strength of our walls against a dragon?” The jarl turned towards his advisor. “Irileth, dispatch guards to Riverwood immediately. If that dragon makes its way there, I want them to be ready.”
The advisor protested the jarl’s choice but, in the end, his word was law and, soon enough, the gathered people dispersed to do something other than wait around here.
“Thank you for bringing this information to my attention. I will have Proventus reward you later and, if you are so inclined, I believe my court wizard, Farengar, has a task that you might be suited for.” Balgruuf told us and, after Lily and I shared a look, we nodded towards him, causing the jarl to lead us to a room to the side where a man wearing a hooded robe was looking over some documents.
As the jarl introduced us, I let my eyes roam over the assorted odds and ends scattered around the room, including two strange tables, a bunch of scrolls, books and gems as well as some potions.
If not for her inventory, I knew Lily’s room would’ve looked like an even greater mess than this one and that was even with the maids probably cleaning it up for her.
And, as I wondered what any of this was about, Lily had apparently already started discussing things with Farengar.
“There is a so-called ‘Dragonstone’ in Bleak Falls Barrow, a ruin on a nearby mountain. It is a tablet that is said to contain a map of dragon burial sites. Go there, retrieve the tablet and bring it to me. Simplicity itself.” I barely caught the end of his explanation but it did sound pretty simple provided Lily knew where this ‘Bleak Falls Barrow’ place was.
“Alright then. We’ll return as soon as we have it.” Lily agreed before starting to walk out of the room. Startled, I quickly began to follow her and, on the way out of the palace, we got a couple hundred gold coins handed to us as our reward for telling the jarl about Helgen.
So I considered changing some of the Whiterun quest stuff but, honestly, the Dragonborn’s death didn’t really affect this. The only way I could’ve changed things would’ve been by making Mirmulnir attack earlier or just not having the jarl have his discussion as Lily and Missy arrived but the former wasn’t in the cards as far as I’m concerned and the latter wouldn’t have changed much
Anyways, hope you enjoyed and let me know if you have any feedback