Into Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 8 Nirn's Beta

Chapter 111 - The mighty to-do list

Waking up took slightly longer to that expected. I stored away the Pillow of sweet dreams and left Viree with the Dreamworld amulet. It was her property now, after all without it I imagine it might be a little hard for her to access the dreamscape.

She tossed me the Mentor's ring though, "You don't want it?"

She shook her head, "I don't think it will benefit me in the day to day."

I nodded, that was fair. Viree asked the obvious question though. "What are we doing today?"

I pulled out my notebook and began to get to work on a brief to do list. "Well, to start. Illia will teleport back to Ivarstead and get Philip or you can. Your companionship skill tree requires time apart to level up as well. With the locate partner you can find me no matter what."

She nodded, "Let's leave that job Illia. I don't fancy traveling alone on carriage. I feel like it will be so boring unless I get robbed or something."

I doubted Viree could be robbed, her combined perk points made it possible for her to rip a person in half bare handed. "Which leaves, testing your physical strength, several acquisition tasks, and more me learning several dozen spell tomes. You obviously can't help me learn those spells and test their effects. Which leaves the testing your own physical strength and the acquisition tasks."

She sighed, "I'll start with the acquisition tasks. No offense, but the college is a dump. I don't even know how to test my physical strength without breaking something."

I nodded, "Fair. Okay, the first of these tasks are Forgotten Names. Ask if Gwenn has done this quest. Second task would be taking Kyne to Septimus Signus' Outpost. He can't go with Stephan and certain questions do need to be asked. After this the grounds below the College of Winterhold need to be searched for a sword. The sword is likely somewhere around here."

I pointed at my map and Viree nodded. "Should be easy, what else?"

I paused, "The final task would be checking out a place called the Sightless pit. Viree, this task would be the very last one you would do. Also I know your very strong, but you shouldn't enter the pit."

She nodded, "Gotcha, why."

I gave a shrug, "The place is a Falmer holy sight. From what I know, not much is there. However you can never be certain with places like that."

Viree nodded, "What will you be doing? I'm guessing just learning spells isn't what you are doing."

I nodded, "I will likely speak with a few of the scholar's here. After that I will likely go down into the midden to do some stuff."

She smiled, "I bet I'll get done before you."

I smirked, "I don't think that is possible."

She laughed and left me behind. I took out my note book and looked at my own tasks. "I'll start with Urag, Arniel and Enthir."

I got moving and headed toward the Arcanaeum. Before I reached it though I bumped into Arniel Gane. "Oh sorry, I'm very busy with my work."

I grabbed his shoulder, "Maybe I can help?"

He paused and looked me up and down. "You are the one from yesterday. How do you think you can help me?"

I twisted Keening into my hand, twirling it in a circle. "Don't you need this?"

His eyes widened, but before he could take it I pulled it back. "Do you know what will happen when you use this on that warped Soulgem?"

He froze, "H-how do you know my work! Did someo-"

I cut him off, "I don't need to be told to see a fool. You wish to recreate what happened to the dwemer? Do you know what will happen to you? You soul will be split apart, your very existence reflected within the aetherius for a single second as you are ton asunder. Only to return to Mundus a phantom without a will and that is the best case scenario."

Arniel was left speechless, but snapped back. "I need to complete my research!"

I nodded, "You don't need Keening to do that and you definitely don't need to recreate what happened to the Dwemer."

He was on the verge of shouting, "What do you suggest then? This is my life's research!"

I didn't really care what happened to Arniel. His shade was even somewhat useful. "To start, Yagrum Bagarn, the last dwemer was within oblivion when his species vanished. Why was this? What happened?"

He paused, "I had heard of him, but I never thought about it."

I laughed, "The aetherius is connected to Oblivion just as it is connected to Mundus. So, where did the dwemer go? What of the dwemer metals? How are they made? Why are dwemer constructs still running despite only using small soul gems? Shouldn't the souls die off and burn out? How can they design such powerful artifacts without divine forces? You wish to use this knife to test your experiment and yet you barely understand how its made. Do you honestly believe you will get the results you want?"

The zealous mage stared dumbly at me. How could someone plan out this whole test and not think about this? I sighed, and I pulled out a book I had gotten from the Psijic order. "I expect this back before the end of the day. If I have to break your hands to acquire it I will."

His eyes widened as I handed over the research notes to the Left-handed Elves. "This... Why are you?"

I looked down on him and shook my head, "You ask where did the dwemer go? and yet so few know where they come from."

Arniel's brain was clearly processing what I meant and his eyes went wide. "You are right! They were never considered related to the Aldmer! The dwemer always just existed in the records... If they in fact split off from the ancient left-handed elves!"

His ideas curved away from the his previously deadly project. The 7th game had revealed exactly what happened to Arniel. As someone found his notes and they were passed around. Leading to a chain reaction of mages trying to replicate, alter, and research what Arniel had done. It ultimately lead to an accidental discovery not about the dwemer.

I sighed in some relief that Arniel's curiosity was curbed toward a better path of discovery. It wasn't even that wrong. The dwemer, Snow elves, and Maormer were all related. I had no clue if they were related to the Left-handed elves. However it did make a lot of sense if they were. Perhaps Arniel could discover this, if he couldn't? At least in the future the crack in the stars wouldn't happen.

I stepped around Arniel as he began to flip through the research notes. Which lead me toward the Arcanaeum. Entering the Library Urag met my gaze. "Oh? It's the thief. Here to return my tomes?"

I shook my head, "No, they are mine now. Just giving you something of equal value."

I dropped the book Illia found in Shalidor's Maze. Urag raised an eyebrow, "What's this?"

He opened the book and his eyes widened. He flipped through the pages just like I had. "This is Shalidor's hand-writing! It is all in Elder word though."

I took out the Elder word Language translator I got from the Psijic Order. They really were scammed by me. "I believe this will help."

He opened the translator and his eyes widened. "Another tome by Shalidor!" So the translator was also written by Shalidor? That made sense I suppose. The old orc filled between the books. "Fascinating! I can't say for certain, but this might just be his notes on Glamoril."

I raised an eyebrow, "Wasn't that an artifact?" Getting Glamoril might make up the loss of the Eye. I had those arcane batteries. However surely Glamoril would be similar?

Urag looked at me and smirked, "I know that look. You don't care about the books, just what you might gain from them. So I will accept the Elder Translator for all those tomes you stole. After all if I ever get an elderscroll I might be able to study it closer. As for the Shalidor's Notes, I will translate it for you and provide a copy. If you get something from it, just tell me."

I nodded, "Fair, I got the translator from the Psijic Order anyway. I planned on giving it to you anyway. I do enough translating for the dragon tongue. I don't need more work."

He smirked, "Sure, sure."

With that I walked away to locate Enthir. Finding him was easy enough, I just had to find the dark corner of the mages dormitories. He was lying down on his bed with a book in hand. He saw me in the door way and spoke. "Oh? You have business with me?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I want some daedra hearts."

He jerked, "Shhhh, keep your voice down."

I rolled my eyes, "They aren't banned ingredients. The only suspicious thing about you selling them is how do you have so many."

Enthir laughed, "You know, Gwenn said the same thing. Both of you are somewhat close to right. Except unsanctioned use of daedra hearts, deathbells, and some other items are restricted. Which is why me selling them freely can get us in trouble."

I nodded, "That makes sense I suppose. Anyway, I'll take 10 hearts, 15 Void, Fire, and Frost Salts, some Dwarven Oil, along with Sload Soap, Spriggan Sap, Burnt Spriggan Wood, Ice Wraith Teeth, 1 Liter of Holy Water, About 10 Filled Black Soul Gems, 3 empty Grand Soul gems, and finally Heart Stones if you have any."

He stared at me, "You..."

He paused and continued to stare at me, eventually he sighed. "I can get all of that by tomorrow. I need to know you can pay for it all. It would be app-"

I dropped a sack of coins on the ground, "7k in gold."

He blinked and opened the sack whistling, "Okay fair enough."

I picked up the gold and smiled, "I have to say though, I didn't expect you to get all of them."

Enthir shrugged, "It is just good business. I won't reveal my sources, but there are mages all around who have their own research and studies that lead to additional materials."

I nodded, "Speaking of can you get Sybille to send me the razor and her notes when she sends you the soul gems?"

He stared at me again, "How? Wait, you are the one from Solitude. She warned me about you. Said that you might ask for a bunch of random items or pawn some task off on me."

I laughed, "Ah, this is true. That isn't important for business though is it?"

He sniffed, "Be on your way, I need to start contacting people."

With that I stepped out of the room. Now I headed straight toward the Atronach forge. Dropping down into the Midden from the dorm was the better entrance. Mainly because it was the normal path I used to navigate the place. I arrived at the forge within a minute of entering the midden.

I paused when I saw the forge contained a sigil stone. I blinked and realized it must be Gwenn's Sigil Stone. I summoned Keening into my hand once more. I undid the clasps on the crystal and pulled it out form the handle. Each part still glowed with magic, but inspecting both it seems only the handle held the absorb enchantments.

I avoided cutting my hand on the crystal and placed it on the altar, I added a Salt Pile, A Ruined Book and a chunk of moonstone and finally readied the Star Prison with the other ingredients. I stood in front of the atronach forge. "I really hope this works."

I pulled the lever and the altar sprung to life. I felt the power flow out of the forge and back into it. It roared as something on the other side of the forge tried to resist it. A purple rift in space opened and the ruined book raised into the air. The salt spread out around a circle while the moonstone burned up as the portal opened.

On the otherside of the rift an old lich screamed as he was pulled forward. "What is this magic! Who are you to bind me!"

I smirked, if I could hear the lich the forge worked. I didn't know how much time I had so i jumped onto the Altar and dove into the portal. If I did get trapped on the other side I could just use one of the teleport scrolls I had left to get back to the College. I had two to spare after all.

The lich stared at me as his whole being was getting dragged into the portal. "Who are you!"

I looked at him and smirked, "My name is Vek, and I am here to steal your shit."

I grabbed the staff in his hands and if his eyes could go bug-eyed he would've. He tried to hold on to it, but I yanked it from his dead hands. He yelled, "It's mine! Let go you little bastard! I am Norion! I am the Undying and I wi-"

I yanked it from his hand and the force pulling him into the portal grew stronger. "My staff!"

I lifted it up, "Don't worry about it man. It is just on my shopping list, now where is the fucking key."

He cursed me, "You filthy half-breed! I don't know how you found this place or what power you used to open a portal here. However I will animate your skeleton while you still live and have it peel out of your skin."

I raised an eyebrow, "You can do that?"

He paused, "Well, no. I can't, but it would be a pretty awesome spell wouldn't it?"

I stared at him, he stared back and his anger returned. "Don't distract me! I may be, uh..."

I walked around him while he thought. Eventually though he spoke, "it doesn't matter how old I am! What does matter is that I will kill you once I break free of this ritual!"

I spoke as I picked up a silver key from the ground, "It isn't really a ritual per-say." I paused and reached out to the Lich's head.

He yelled, "Don't just steal my stuff off of me! and finish your sentence so I can gain a better understanding of what binds me."

I nodded as I pulled off his crown, it was enchanted with some great power. I stashed it away and stepped around Norion again. I started taking his cloak as well as I spoke. "The portal was created by an atronach forge. Do you know what that is perhaps?"

He scoffed, "Of course I know what that is. Those infernal contraptions were invented by the dwemer in order to steal from the daedra! How could you use it to bind me like this! Also stop stealing my clothes you pervert!"

His magical essence was flowing into the portal and into the book on the other side. I could see it slowly get restored from the aged damage. "Seems we got about 10 minutes before you get fully bound to the book I used."

He stared, "What! 10 minutes! I can't resist this force for 10 minutes!"

I looked around the stone vault, I was pretty sure this location existed in Bruma. "What do you even do here?" I spoke to Norion as I opened the Vault with the key.

"Why do you want to know! I won-" I interrupted him as the door opened.

"I am asking since this place seems extremely boring. Besides you are being added to the collection of friends. We might as well get along." Once he was bound to the book he would become summonable, or at least his soul would be.

He shouted, "I do not want to be your friend. I was supposed to defend this place!"

I clicked my tongue at him, "No, you were supposed to defend the Great Welkynd Stone. Which I am here to steal."

He blinked and stuttered, "H-How do you know about that!"

Ignoring his question, I entered the vault and looked around. The place was a circular room with a spiked pedestal in the room. The similar pedestal hung from the room and the two spikes met the Welkynd Stone in the center of the room. I yanked it from its floating storage.

I stepped back into the room where Norion was still struggling to resist the power of the forge. He had grown incredibly close to the portal. His skeletal legs already vanishing past the entrance of the portal. He stared at me, "Put it back! My reason to become Lich! How could you ruin my life's purpose."

I shrugged, "Blame yourself. If you weren't a lich I wouldn't have been able to do this."

He stared, "What do you mean?"

I stepped through the portal and met his gaze. "Well, the portal is being sustained by your magic. While the book binds your soul into a summoning spell. A ring of salt is what is containing you, while the portal itself was created by Keening's crystal and some moonstone ore to supplement it."

He stared with his skeletal mouth hanging open. "Astonishing, you used the Welkynd crystal that was used to forge keening to open a portal to the closest Great Welkynd stone. A fascinating use of that infernal machine."

I nodded as his praise, but commented on the Lich's absent-mind. "You do realize you are still being absorbed."

He frowned, "Going by what you said, if I do break free I will just be stuck on this side of the portal. Which means I will have failed my duties. Which means I would need to leave my tomb and hunt you down to retrieve the stone. The problem is I have no idea where you are, but ff I accept my fate I will at least have a chance to continue to protect the stone."

Hm, I felt like a monster now. He continued to speak though. "Before I fully embrace my fate. I want to know how you came up with this idea."

I rubbed my chin in some thought. Norion was actually pretty smart despite his clear dementia. "It's hard to explain it all, but essentially some Altmer redesigned the Atronach forge into a dwemer teleporter. The atronach can summon daedra, so I took a leap and used it to open a portal to the Great Welkynd Stone. I needed a method to sustain the portal so knowing you would be defending it. I used a book to bind your soul using the forge's ability to create spell tomes."

He nodded, "This capitalized on a lich's weakness..." Almost his entire body was consumed by the portal at this point. He was practically just arms and a head. He held a hand to his chin though. "I suppose I don't mind being defeated like this. It is an interesting death at least, having my magic siphoned to fuel a portal while my soul is being transcribed into a summoning spell. I do wonder where my soul will actually go though when it separates from my body completely."

I hadn't mentioned the Star Prison, but it was where his soul was being pulled too. If I hadn't used the Star prison I suspected my plan would've failed. A second later he nodded, "You said you were named Vek? Please do summon me at some point I wish to talk to you more. I would especially like to know your reason for acquiring the Great Welkynd Stone."

I nodded and the Lich finally gave up. His body crumbled away and the portal faded away while the Spell Tome snapped shut. I picked up the book and nodded. The spell tome was labeled Conjure Ayleid Lich Norion."

He seemed like a decent guy, likely because his mind was scrambled from Dementia, became a Lich to defend the Great Welkynd Stone, and then got his mind scrambled more from being alone for hundred or something years.

I shrugged and inspected the loot I took off him. The Staff of Ehlno Ede, it blasted the ground with storm walls and drained Stamina of anyone near them, unfortunately it had the restriction of only being usable by the undead. I suppose I could trade it to Sybille or something.

I held up the robes Norion was wearing next. These were useable, "Grants the wearer Elemental Resistance and longevity." I wondered what Longevity meant? As for the Elemental Resistance that explained why he couldn't resist the atronach forge. I stashed it away, the robes would be good for Viree.

Finally I pulled out the fancy crown her was wearing. It was entirely made of metal, though it was feathered and almost bird like. The enchantments were increased spell damage by 5%, something called Idle Augmentation, and Autocast. I equipped it briefly to see its effects, I was surprised to realize the enchantments were really good. Idle Augmentation was an enchantment that allowed rapid spell casting while standing still. While Autocast was an enchantment that would refresh all spells casted upon themselves.

I added it to the belt immediately. The belt had a limit of 12 items and I was slowly filling it. I would do some hard work to reduce the number of items I had currently stored. I paused, checked the time and sighed.

I still had to meet with the Augur of Dunlain and learn all those spell tomes.