20demayo Chapter 125: Chapter LXVI: Reprieve
Chapter 125: Chapter LXVI: Reprieve
Chapter 125: Chapter LXVI: Reprieve
The celebratory feast was prepared in record speed, the deeply ingrained Nordic need to get drunk after a good battle being far more potent than any exhaustion the defenders might have felt. Barrels of mead and ale were rolled out from the Thane's own stock and the abundance of supplies prepared for the siege was now being cooked up by the merry residents.
I had just finished reporting the entire thing with Harald to the new arrivals and went to relieve myself when a young Nord approached me. I recognized him as one of the lads tasked with sharpening the stakes for Gatecrasher during the siege and greeted him with a polite nod.
He seemed uncomfortable with whatever he was about to say, and I was not about to waste time waiting for him to gather himself "What do you need?" I ask not tersely but still urging him to hurry up.
He stills and lets out a fearful breath "Umm... I..." he slaps himself and nods in determination "I saw what you did to those Reachmen, and I was wondering... if you were willing to teach me magic?"
I smiled at his initiative, but my hands were already full "I already have two apprentices, and I took them on for far better reasons than them merely asking me."
He sighs as his eyes radiate disappointment, he looks ready to turn and leave but I interrupt "You could always join the college if you were so eager to learn."
He lets out a self-deprecating chuckle "Thank you for the recommendation sir, but I could never afford even to travel there."
"Hmmm" I scratch my chin "And why the sudden urge to learn?"
"Are you kidding?" He almost looks at me like I am an idiot "If this is where the lands are going I am going to need to do far more than merely sharpen stakes sir."
"Tell you what" I say as I pull out the notes I made on accessing Magicka "If you manage to do what is written here before we leave, I will see what I can do about getting you a... scholarship let's call it." There goes my good deed for the year.
His eyes blaze in excitement as he grabs the folded notes and gives me an earnest bow "I won't disappoint you, sir."
"See that you don't" and before he can rush back to wherever he is no doubt going to spend the entire night in meditation I ask "What is your name kid?"
He stills and looks aghast "Sorry about that, name's Onmund"
Onmund eh? Small world... "Good luck to you, Onmund"
I walk back to the large table where most of the upper crust were seated, my apprentices being seated nearby with the housecarls and my colleagues from the college, sharing stories about the siege.
I note the distinct lack of King and Elisif as I take a seat next to a bored Sybille "Not enjoying the celebrations Syb?" I ask as I grab a bottle of mead.
She rolls her eyes "As if there was anything to enjoy, just a bunch of sweaty Nords screaming their guts out while the corpses outside are still drying."
"So morbid madam" I tease, even though I agreed about the corpses not being dealt with, at least the new legionary recruits were finally being useful and piling them up while we partied... poor sods "Let them have their little party, we will be marching after the cave- dwellers as soon as tomorrow."
"Why were you so insistent about hunting them down?" Before I can interject she adds with amusement "Besides the obvious."
"I have just a wee bit of a grudge against Namira" I shrug, not at all caring about saying the name out loud "And I promised the foul thing that whenever I found a temple of hers I would burn it to the ground, this is merely fulfilling that promise."
She tilts her head and shrugs uncaringly "Well, it isn't like someone needs a reason to destroy those disgusting things."
"A bit hypocritical coming from one of ole' Molly's" I raise an eyebrow.
She shivers in disgust "I don't worship that... thing!"
I raise my hands placatingly "Alright, I was just teasing."
"Well, kindly do not 'tease' about that" She grits out, while unconsciously crushing her goblet.
As I am about to apologize I notice something out of the corner of my eye, change of topic go! "Look over there" I say in a hushed tone.
She follows where I am pointing and lo and behold under one of the towers there stood Torygg and Elisif exchanging necklaces.
Sybille coos at how cute they are. Apparently, Sybille was a friend of Elisif's mother before she died and was something of an aunt figure to the future Queen.
"Oi Harald" I elbow the Thane who was dozing off nearby, he grumbles as I wake him up and immediately focuses on the scene as if following some supernatural instinct.
"Imma kill him" He states with finality as he pulls out his axe.
I roll my eyes "You will do no such thing"
He turns back to me and angrily starts "And how are going to sto-" just in time to see me grinding a soul gem on the blade of my staff, moving it in such a way that it produced sparks as if I was sharpening it.
Just as we were about to leave, a very happy looking Onmund rushed up to me and showed me
a small flickering flame in his palm. I left him with a signed note and instructions to wait for
me in Solitude.
As we rode I decided to finally check up on my progress, a part of me always wanted to look at
it every day but something about seeing big numbers go up always made me wait patiently.
And boy was I satisfied.
[Str: 15=>16]
[Dex: 16.5=>17]
[Mag: 370=>400]
The way my stats were growing confused me, I didn't spend any time training physically yet
my strength and dexterity kept growing, and my reserves grew exponentially even without
rituals...
The first hypothesis I could come up with was that the races of the world reacted to combat differently than my previous one, maybe we all evolved in such a way that we grew when challenged in a more literal sense?
The second however rang far truer than the first, taking into account the fact that runes
worked to some extent on belief, it was not too much of a longshot to then apply that to the growth of strength. After all, if I proved to the world itself that I was stronger, would the magic in the air not work to make that a fact, much like it made runes actually have concrete
meaning?
Food for thought...
[Destruction-expert: +Runecasting]
[Conjuration-adept: +Umbramancy(strangle), Bound shade]
[Adept tongue: Fire breath (YOL, TOR, SHUL) Unrelenting force (FUS, RO, DAH) Whirlwind
sprint (WULD) Slow time (TIID) Become ethereal (FEIM)]
I close the notification with a satisfied smile, things were progressing well. My eyes narrow as
I start seeing darkened Magicka attempting to latch onto our supplies.
It appeared the Namirans were welcoming us.
I see seas of red
Forsworn heads too
And I think to myself
If you didn't give me your stones you would join this wonderful view!
(Poetic genius, I know.)
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