Argentorum
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Chapter 55: Intramural
🕑 Added 2018-11-26 06:46:06 +0000 UTCChapter 55: Intermural
I woke with my sword halfway out of its sheath. Flame blossomed out of me in a wall, even as I launched myself from the bed to land on the cold stone floor.
“Ysmir’s balls!” I heard.
In the light of the flames, I saw Iliria dancing back from the entrance of my room, frantically patting out smoldering bits of her leather armor.
“Note to self, wake you up from a distance next time…” she muttered.
I rolled out of the bed a moment later. Thankfully, I slept in my robes. One advantage of being mostly energy? It was trivially easy to smooth out the wrinkles. “Or you could wait until morning?” I said. Iliria blinked at me, tilting her head to the side. I rolled my eyes, “Some of us have to sleep, you know.”
“Really?” she said. “Anyway, I brought you the Elder Scroll you wanted! Here” She shoved something into my hands. I looked down. It was white parchment, rolled up around twin ornate scroll handles. It was nearly half as tall as I was, but… it weighted much more than it should, even if the handles were made of solid steel.
I ran my hand over the surface, feeling it prick at my fingers. No, it wasn’t made of parchment at all. I could feel it, feel the magic of it like I could a spell. Still, the specifics were less important here. All that mattered was that this scroll was more than sturdy enough for my purposes. That I could sense it with my power was a bonus.
I nodded once. “This will do,” I said, looking back up at Iliria. “Did you kill anyone to get it?”
Her eyes flicked to the side once. “…No?”
“Please,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Well, I didn’t kill any people,” she said. “Just, you know, some vampires! And it wasn’t even for your quest. I was killing them all because I was helping some vampire hunters and then I just happened to find the scroll! I didn’t even kill the person who had it, pinky swear.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Vampires aren’t people?” I started. “Aren’t you a vampire?”
“I’m the Dragonborn,” she said.
“Sure, whatever,” I said. “Let’s go to the battlements, I’ll teach you a spell.”
“How about two, since I didn’t kill anyone?” Iliria said.
“Your own questionable views on personhood don’t change the fact that you very obviously did,” I said. I pushed past her, towards the stairwell to the upper floors of the tower. “Now if you don’t mind, I have stuff to do after this.”
“Spoilsport,” she said. Still, she was quick enough to follow in my footsteps.
“Now, which spell do you want to learn again?” I asked.
“Your teleportation spell.”
I smirked. “As much as I’d love to teach you that one, I’m afraid I can’t.”
I could almost hear the pout. In the background I heard something about, “Overpowered fast travel,” but, as always, I paid it no mind.
“That thing you did where I couldn’t strike you in melee,” Iliria said after a moment. I nodded, pushing out onto the college battlements. “It works on ranged attacks as well, doesn’t it? Oh, I remember how furious Babette was when she couldn’t even throw her daggers at you.”
I sighed, debating once again the merits of actually teaching this woman anything. But at the same time, she’d come through for me with the scroll.
Not to mention that, this would be my spell, so if she used it against me, well… I’d like to see her try.
“Within a certain radius,” I told her after a moment. I’d tested the limits of that barrier rather thoroughly after our first altercation. “And it doesn’t affect magic, only physical attacks.”
“So that’s why you put so much effort into counter magic.” Iliria said.
I chuckled, “Sure, let’s go with that,” I said. “In any case… for you it’s less a spell and more of an enchantment. You’ll need to use an enchanting table.” I’d done my homework as well, between Raven obnoxiously forcing food down my throat that is.
“Really? How did you set it up then?”
I crossed my arms. “I said I’d teach you the spell, not give you my life story. Now, here’s what you have to do…”
“Right, got it.”
I blinked. “But… I just started to explain.”
“Yep!” Iliria said. She grinned. “Thanks for that! Now, lets go see what I can attach it to!” I held the side of my head as she turned and leapt from the battlements. It was a two-story fall to the courtyard below, but she didn’t even break her stride. The crazy woman was still casting regeneration spells as she walked into the Hall of Elements.
Was she, going for the Archmage’s study? There was an enchanter in the tower we just walked through. Did she seriously expect…
A moment later, one of the windows shattered, sending Iliria flying back out of the building. She landed hard on the battlements. I saw a flash of darkness, coiling like a serpent in the air. Iliria threw herself to the side, barely dodging as Liliana’s sent bits of stone flying through the air.
Apparently, she was about as pleased as I was at Iliria’s sudden intrusion. Who could have possibly guessed.
With a sigh, I glanced up at the sky. The moon was high overhead, bright enough that I could read by it. Really, I’d probably only gotten about two hours of sleep before Iliria woke me up. Raven would be annoyed with me if I didn’t turn in, probably.
But at the same time, I could still feel the magic of the Elder Scroll thrumming against my hand. It was right there, and with it, I could finally begin putting Remedi’s notes to use. With the scroll… I could maybe even make a way to carry people between Planes themselves.
I felt myself shiver at the implications. If I didn’t have to leave people behind… anymore?
But I was getting ahead of myself. First, there were tests I had to do, several. Beyond that, some research into the nature of the Elder Scroll itself would be required. Idle plans spinning through my head, I made my way back to my room. Already, I’d started feeling out the magic of the scroll with my power, getting a sense of how far I could push and pull its innate magic, before I began layering on my own. Perhaps I’d even give it a read?
But then—
I stopped. Looked up.
There was a woman sitting on my bed.
She had long black hair, slightly wavy like mine, that stood in start contrast to her pale skin. The red of her cloak matched the color of her eyes. And her expression was as hard as stone.
“You have something that belongs to me,” she said. “I’d like it back.”
I sighed. “Is it always going to be vampires?” I muttered.
Then we charged, and sword met spell once more.
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A/N: Shorter chapter this time, mainly because I want the resulting fight to take place all in one chapter. I'm expecting that one to be longer than usual, just from past experience of how I write combat scenes and how much I've story boarded out for this fight.
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Comments
Joseph Marcia
Thanks for the edits! It's always super helpful to get stuff like this.
Impasse
Typos; "Now, lets go see what I can attach it two!" should be "Now, lets go see what I can attach it to!" between Raven obnoxiously forcing food down my throat that it.” should be between Raven obnoxiously forcing food down my throat that is.
