Warning: Graphic Injury
Chapter 8: More Trouble Than They're Worth
Quite a bit had happened in the days that we had been relaxing. The College, it seemed, had done everything but relax.
Deep within Saarthal they found a giant glowing orb. It was covered in strange runes that didn’t match Daedric, Dwemer, or even Falmer. Many students had taken to calling it the “Eye of Magnus”. It was said that this artifact held immeasurable power, that of Magnus himself.
Valund had yet to leave the College as he felt the Eye might attract unwanted attention, the kind only a swift blow with a mace would resolve.
I saw less and less of Ancano. It appeared that whatever he thought this Eye was, it was worthy of his attention. Day and night he sat in his office writing, reading, drifting to sleep and shaking himself awake moments later. It was making me and Erissa, and I believed Savos, very uneasy.
I did little other than practice with Colette; suturing, magic healing, sawing, mopping, gripping, and snipping. Everyday I was reminded that I was studying a valid school of magic, and everyday I ignored her.
I was growing bored of the same routine. It was always the same with little variations from time to time. I knew that Tolfdir and Savos were researching the Eye of Magnus, so I decided to offer my help.
They both agreed that I should head to the Arcaneum and look for any books or tomes relating to Saarthal.
The Orc at the counter told me that he had once had a book investigating the possibility of a great power hidden in the ruins, but it had recently been stolen by a mage hoping to join some conjurers in the wilds, using the books as a peace offering.
“And you have nothing else?”
“Nothing that’d help you. Only thing to do is go track down those books.”
“Hm. I’ll have to ask the Arch-Mage about it.”
I walked back up the stone steps to his office.
“Did you find anything, sera?”
“No. Urag says that the only thing that may help was stolen by a conjurer not long ago.”
“Oh, it was one of those tomes? Well, I guess you and Valund will just have to go get them.”
“Me? I’m to go?”
“Well, given from your training,you're fairly skilled in combat, and I don’t think these mages will be happy to see you. Please inform Valund and be ready to leave soon.”
“Yes sir.”
Jarl Ulfric sat upon his throne, listening to Jorleif go on about battle plans and reports. He had been doing so for the past hour, and it was utterly boring to listen to. He shifted again.
“Jorleif, this isn’t helping anyone. All this preparation, it grows more tedious every second. We are ready. It’s the Empire who needs to prepare.”
“My Jarl, we will need any advantage we can muster. Do you not find it wise to gather strength for the attack?”
“Not while the enemy also gathers force. We must strike soon, and turn this from a small rebellion into a real war.”
“As you wish, Jarl Ulfric. What do you command?”
Valund did not take my news well. He mumbled something in a half-drunken slur. I was sure the travel would give him plenty of time to sober up some, so I didn't mind that he had been drinking.
“Ah, I see that the two of you have begun preparing.” Savos said as he looked us over.
I had brought with me my Elven equipment, at Father’s request. I had taken a sword with me instead of a mace, but it was relatively the same combat stances.
Valund was wearing his typical Vigilant gear. Robes, a hood, and his steel boots and cuffs. He also had his mace clipped to his belt.
“Well ‘en. Were are we goin’, Savos?”
“Well, as far as we can tell, the mages had gone to Fellglow Keep upon their departure. Assuming the student who stole the books made it there, they should be somewhere within the keep.”
“Right ‘en. Let's go, Elf.” He turned and started walking out the door.
“Arch-Mage, where exactly is this keep?”
“Midway between Windhelm and Whiterun. You’ll see it from the road.”
“Thank you, Savos.”
Valund went off to another hall to gather his equipment and I went to my room. I was glad that I decided to bring my Elven armor back with me. I fished my travel pack from a large chest and filled it with provisions.
We met back up beneath the statue and set off. A blizzard ravaged the city and the snow created a wall that concealed anything more that five feet away. The winds, thankfully, we're not that strong or fast, however.
We trekked across the road, turning East and out of the heavy snow. In this part of the land frost decorated the grass and plants like jewels nestled in the brush. It was breathtaking, though hypothermia was still a concern around here.
After night fell upon us and we set up a quick camp. We sat around the fire and talked. Nothing interesting, but it passed the time. I roasted some rabbit we had taken and we ate in almost total silence.
“So, friend.” I said. “How good are you at remaining unseen?”
“Ha! A blind man could find me in an instant.”
“Well then, let me teach you some basics. When the fort comes into view, I think we should go a few feet off the road. From there we can disguise ourselves and I’ll watch them, get a feel for their patrols and the like. Remember; sentries will look for movement, not shapes. They won't try to see you, they will try to see what you displace. Understand?”
He glanced at me
“An’ who put you in charge, eh?”
“I'm not in charge, but I find outright charging the place to be a suicide mission.”
“I'll gladly exchange my life for glory and Sovengarde.”
“You do what you want. I will be happily alive while they use you as an experiment,”
He grunted and crawled into his bedroll. I fed the fire and sat against a tree, keeping watch. I sat there for hours, staring at the moon. It was getting late in its cycle, nearing the end. I had always found the moon to be oddly poetic. It spends all this time invested in building itself to full, only to crash back down and do it all over again. Once you reach the top, you can only go down.
I listened to the crickets, the wolves, the hawks screeching miles away. It was so serene it was almost out of a novel.
I woke my partner and slept the rest of the night, happily dreamless.
The crisp morning air still smelled of burning pine from the fire we had put out and the snow crunched loudly as we walked back onto the road. We walked about another hour and were rewarded with our first glimpse of the fortress. Valund eventually agreed to help me in my plan as he recognized that it was the only logical course of action
We left the road and covered any exposed skin with dirt and concealed our travel packs under leaves near a small bank facing the fort. I lay on my stomach and began to watch them.
“So what ‘en? We sit here for a day?”
“Correct.”
“Hmph.”
I watched the patrols and I was truly surprised at their numbers as every station was able to rotate people three times. No plan would get just us out of there alive if we went in. I began to think of alternatives. We could cancel and go back, then we could return later with a larger force. I decided it would be best it one of us stayed while the other went to get more men.
“Valund, do you think any of the other Vigilants would be willing to help us?”
“Aye. These mages are consortin’ with foul Daedra, even worse than that conjurer at your College.”
“Could you go to your lodge and get some of them? If just the two of us entered we would be overwhelmed in seconds. We clearly underestimated their numbers.”
“Well, it ain't too far. Maybe a day there and another day back?”
“Perfect. I'll remain here and keep watching them to make sure the tomes aren't moved from here.”
He left, and I felt fairly confident that I would remain unseen and would be able to provide for myself. I could spare a day’s food from my pack, and I knew some snares for rabbits. Once those others arrived, we would have no problem.
“So. We have camps here, and another force hidden here. If we were to combine them, we could take the city in the first hour of the attack.”
“General, calm yourself. We have yet to see which side Whiterun will take. They are not fools, not in Dragonsreach. He will do what is right for Skyrim.”
Ulfric continued.
“However, General, if they do not, that is when your forces will attack. That combination idea is flawed, though. Have one force attack from the main gate. The other will have spent time before hand digging a tunnel into the Hall of the Dead. In the event we must attack, the second half of the force will storm the city from below.”
The general bowed. If he succeeded in this, Jarl Ulfric would certainly show his favor. In a way, he wanted a siege to begin.
“Yes, my Jarl.”
Valued explained the situation to his fellow Vigils and gathered a force of three combat-trained men, along with two healers and himself. He figured that should be enough. They traveled for a day until they got back to the place where he had left from.
“Well Valund? Where’s that Elf you mentioned?”
“I dunno. He said he'd be right where I left ‘im.”
He searched the area for a short time until he noticed something.
“Look at this. Blood. Drag marks too.”
Something had been injured and dragged over to the fort, and it could only have been Caranthir.
“Aight men. They took the Elf. Let's go get ‘im back.”
They marched over to the entrance.
“Oi! You ain't welcome here! Turn back now or suffer punishment.”
One of the Vigils cast an ice spike into his skull. They took shelter from a few spells and charged the other four mages. It wasn't long before the walls of the ruin was painted red.
They made short work of some at a forge, but they paused. A scream rang out from deep within the keep.
They ran downstairs and continued through. They came upon a room full of cages, vampires in each one, except for one.
“Oh, please let me out! It's me, Orthorn, from the College!”
“Did they take an Elf through here?”
“Yes. Or no. Maybe. They often capture new prisoners when I'm asleep late at night.”
Valund sighed. He pulled a lever and let him out and watched him scamper back towards the entrance. Another scream of excruciating pain.
The small party entered a new part of the keep. The mages were more aggressive and harder to kill, but the Vigils still had not suffered any losses and only had minor injuries. As they ascended a flight of stairs they began to hear a muffled voice. A few seconds after it stopped, a male voice spoke, followed by another scream. They were close now. The party came to a door, behind which the screams and voices were coming from. They opened the door quickly, weapons drawn.
The door led a large room with four pedestals with books in each corner. A woman in black robes stood near a fire lit in the middle, heating a metal object. Caranthir was chained to the wall behind her.
She stared at them, unmoving, until Valund planted his mace in her skull. The others entered the room. Next to the fire were all forms of torture devices heating until they were red hot. Nearly all of them had recently been covered in blood.
One of the healers freed Caranthir while the other searched through his satchel for an herb.
“I have the sedative.”
“Administer it.”
The Elf went limp, and they gathered him and the books.
I woke up in my College dorm, sweating and shaking. I was covered in bandages and my body hurt immensely. Although I wanted to forget the events that caused this, I forced myself to remember.
One conjurer patrolled the perimeter late at night, after I had gone to sleep. He woke me, then knocked me unconscious and took me to the keep. I woke just after I was taken by two other mages. They chained my wrists to the wall, and the lady who they called the Caller asked me questions. She wanted to know why I was spying and for who. I told her I only wanted the
books, and the torture began. She heated every sharp object she could find to near melting and would use it every time I answered in a way she didn’t like. Slashing. Stabbing. Carving. Valund and the others rescued me, and patched me up.
I was in immense pain, but it was nowhere near how I felt in that keep. I heard a creaking outside my door and called out.
“Hello?”
“Ah, your awake.”
The man opened my door and stepped in. He was small, lightly built, but he had a sense of power about him. It was slightly unnerving.
“How do you feel?”
I tried to sit up and pain shot through me.
“Well, I've felt better.”
He grunted, and paused like he wanted to say something.
“There is one… complication. It appears that one of the devices left shards of metal lodged in you and, well, leaving them would cause severe damage if you tried to walk.”
“So I can never walk?”
“Eh… that's not what I'm saying. Another healer and I were going to remove them while you were unconscious, but we didn't have the tools. We do now, and we think it's best to remove them as soon as possible.”
“Alright. Knock me out.”
He paused again, a worried look on his face.
“That's the thing… we don't have anymore sedative. You would be fully conscious.”
I sighed. Undergoing this while awake would be hard. It would probably last an hour, but I wanted to be able to walk.
I nodded and he looked at his feet briefly. The healer left and came back with another man who had a leather pouch full of medical instruments. Many were reminiscent of the torture devices.
“We’re going to strap your arms and legs down so that you can't move. That way we won't make a mistake. Is that okay?”
“Just do it.”
“Would you like something to bite down on?”
I nodded. He gave me a rolled towel and put it in my mouth.
The first man indicated to me and the other where the shards had been. They whispered to each other to decide on a method and got to work.
“Okay… We need to reopen an incision in your side, then we can remove the metal. This won't be easy for any of us, but I want you to know that this will be just as bad as the torture.”
“Mhmhm.”
“Right then. You might want to close your eyes.”
The second man unwrapped a bandage and selected a large knife from his pouch. That hadn't been what I was expecting.
He paused, and began to cut open my side.
“MMMHMH!”
“Sorry about this…”
He had cut much deeper than I expected him to. As he took the knife away the other medic pressed a cloth against the cut to stem the blood flow. The man next took out what looked like a pair of tongs. He used them to widen the gash.
“Can't see the scrap metal if I can't see into you.”
The pain was even worse than what had happened in the keep.
The first man held the tongs in place while the other fished around in his pack for something. He found a pair of tweezers and took then out.
Blood had began to trickle out of the wound and he mopped it up with a cloth. He inserted the tweezers and began to take out the metal.
Each time he pulled one loose I could feel it dislodge from my flesh, and that was no less painful than the widening of the incision.
Once he had taken five metal shards out, they removed the tongs and began to suture the wound.
By the time they finished I was gleaming with sweat and almost the entire College had gathered to learn what my screaming was about.
The healers untied me, congratulated me on surviving, and left the College grounds.
I closed my eyes and lay there, shaking, until I fell asleep.
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