By: The Orange Mask
No matter what I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about Claudia. Not even the glacial freeze of the Pale could divert my attention from the thought of her beautiful face. I had been travelling for nearly two days; the cave Claudia took me to was almost closer to Falkreath than Whiterun. Damn it! Everything I did seemed to remind me of her. I barely even noticed how cold or tired I was. The only thing that kept me from walking clear through the night was the position of the sun.
I looked to see the sun setting behind a few mountains, and began to look for a place to set up camp; soon after I had found a small clearing between a few pine trees, just off the road. I set up my tent, but decided against a fire, despite the cold. I’d rather not be seen by any bandits or wild animals. I unrolled my sleeping mat on the ground under the tent and sat on it, wondering if I should try to distract myself to avoid any dreams with Claudia. I doubted it would help, though; reading did nothing to help last night. I had gotten nearly no sleep the night before, as I kept waking up after several vivid dreams involving Claudia and our rather… intimate relationship.
I sat in silence and ate the last piece of deer meat, which was rock hard due to the cold. I looked around to see if I could get a grasp on my current location. I pulled my map out of my satchel and held a dim magelight in my hand. It was the best I could do to keep it from going out; magic requires concentration, which was the one thing I was lacking at the moment. I judged my location to be somewhere between Whiterun and Dawnstar, and judging by the sizable snow drifts, I would say that I’m very close to the Windward Ruins and an old dwemer ruin called Mzinchaleft. It was too dark to look for the Nightcaller Temple by this point, but I didn’t care all that much, though; all I could think about was Claudia.
Suddenly, I remembered the orb Tolfdir had given me just before I had left. Perhaps Tolfdir would be able to get my mind off Claudia! Certainly he’d be up at this hour; I had often seen him in the Arch-Mage’s quarters discussing matters with the rather tired Arch-Mage long after nearly everyone else had gone to bed. I immediately pulled out the small, pink, iridescent orb and set it on the mat in front of me. I began to feed what little magicka I could into the small orb to try to alert Tolfdir. The orb stayed dark for a few seconds, then lit up. I could see the sister orb being set on a counter, then I saw Tolfdir’s face, smiling despite the late hour.
“Hello, my boy!” Toldfir said, obviously happy to see me. “Have your travels been fruitful, and, more importantly, safe?” I couldn’t help but smile back; Tolfdir had that infectious happiness that couldn’t be contained, even through the glass scrying orb.
“Hello, Tolfdir. Yes, I’m still safe, if a bit shaken. Do you have a moment?”
“Of course! What do you need?”
“Well, I’ve had quite a trip these past few days, and I’m rather distracted due to recent events,” I said, trying to keep from mentioning anything that might offend Tolfdir. I truthfully didn’t want the old man to have a heart attack. “So I was wondering if maybe you could help me take my mind off my worries for a bit.”
“Ah, that explains the weak magicka stream I felt when you contacted me. Well, fortunately, I have just the thing. Now close your eyes…” I closed my eyes, only to see images of Claudia leaping out at me.
“You see the thing that is bothering you, right?” Tolfdir asked. I nodded in response. “Good, good. Now think of something very general and basic, like a color. Let that sink in for a few moments. Now think about something slightly more specific, like an object that color. Now think of a property of that object. Is it a liquid? Is it warm? Do you have an image in your head?”
“No,” I replied.
“Fantastic! You always were a quick learner. Now I want you to picture yourself floating in a vast nothingness. Keep thinking about that for as long as you want.” I sat there for an unknown length of time, just floating. I had no measure of time while I imagined this.
“Now open your eyes.” Tolfdir said. I opened my eyes, and I was thinking clearly again. I was amazed.
“That was incredible, Tolfdir! Where did you learn how to do that?”
“Age brings more than wisdom, my friend. If you don’t mind me asking, though, what was it that was distracting you?” I should’ve seen that question coming.
“Well, actually-“
“Wait! Don’t tell me! Did you meet a woman?”
“Yes, actually. How did you-“
“Like I said, my boy; age brings more than wisdom. You know, I was once a lot like you; except for the armor and war axe, of course. Young, carefree, just wanting to see what life would throw at me. I met a girl long before your time…” So it went for a long span of the night. Tolfdir and I stayed up and talked about a myriad of things, many of which had nothing to do with magic or my travels. At one point, though, he did ask me about my research. I started to tell Tolfdir about my studies with Wuunferth, but then I remembered that Wuunferth would most likely rip me to shreds if I told anyone, so I held my tongue.
Mages are notoriously secretive, and with good reason. Long throughout history mages have been associated with Daedra worship and necromancy, among other things that most men find unsavory. Such secretiveness was, and still is, necessary outside of magic-accepting societies. In fact, it had saved many mages’ lives.
So the conversation between Tolfdir and I went on, until I began to see a light shining just outside my tent. I was quite curious, until I realized that the light was growing brighter. I groaned, realizing that I had stayed up all night.
“What was that for?” Tolfdir asked. “Do I really bore you that much?”
“No, I just realized we pulled another all-nighter.” I said, suddenly feeling extremely tired.
“Have we? Just like old times, then.” Tolfdir said, smiling. I smiled back despite my sour mood.
“Oh, I’d almost forgotten about my experiment!” Tolfdir ran out of sight, and I swore I heard an explosion just before contact cut off. I hoped Tolfdir was alright. Just then, I realized my magicka was almost completely drained. I groaned and decided to travel the short distance from my camp to Dawnstar. I slowly packed up my things and made my way to the road. I could see Nightcaller Temple in the distance, and knew it was going to be a long walk, and an even longer day.
To be continued…
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In a creative slump right now, any suggestions can be posted on the comment wall on my page.
