Chapter 674: The Frozen Path

A/n: Another Double Chapter since I wasn’t able to publish for the past week. The VPN service I used was blocked from Egypt along with many others. It was kinda impossible to access ******* so I couldn’t do much but after a lot of time trying to get it to work, I managed to get a “Chrome Extension VPN” of all things to work. Well, whatever gets the job done I guess.

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(Part 1)

Disasters strike with fortune on their heels, a concept of seeing the world that saved many souls more than any would dare count. A concept that pushed Glymet up from the disaster he just witnessed and put him on a straight path towards Winterhold.

Old as he may look, the 50 years old man was rushing on an exhausted horse that was the third on his journey. He would stop in every village with a good stable and switch horses not to get any horse lame and keep on a steady pace to the city.

In the matter of two days, which is a record by itself, Glymet arrived at the entrance of Winterhold, passed the checkpoint, and rushed straight to the city.

It was common knowledge that the Dare Dragon Trading Company had its old headquarters located in the main city of Winterhold right beside the Jarl’s longhouse. In the recent months, the manor which belonged to House Dare was attacked by the Dragon Cult and Jon Dare relocated to the Dare Tower in the city of New Saarthal with his family, but the old place still houses the top brass of the Company including the management offices which Jon Dare’s seconds-in-command are stationed during his absence.

But the moment Glymet stepped past the gates of the city, something terrible happened.

“RUN!”

“The Mages! They’ve lost it!”

“They’re acting mad!”

“And here we thought we could trust them!”

Seeing many people rush in the opposite direction while he was getting off his horse and tying it to a post, Glymet went ahead immediately and rushed north to the College of Winterhold, the destination he was aiming for.

What he found was another disaster brewing in a spherical shape around the grand building of the college.

Standing on a spire rising from the sea, the College of Winterhold was shrouded in both honor and infamy. By having its bad relationship fixed with the locals for the past couple of years, the College was on the way to being the jewel of the north as it always should have been, but today and upon Glymet’s arrival, the College was shrouded in a sphere of wild Magicka rather than honor and infamy and whatnot.

The sphere of wild Magicka seemed to be causing the wind to whirl and the weather to rumble. A storm started to appear on the horizon as if something sinister was brewing far into the sea, and an untimely spring storm formed above the city.

Glymet helped some of the citizens get up as they ran away from the direction of the College of Winterhold and as he reached it, he noticed that many young mages were running on the college’s bridge, some bearing strange injuries, and others fully unconscious.

On the heels of the retreating mages was a Dunmer woman that was leading the crowd. She seemed to have been through a rough fight and her face carried serious expressions but aside from the anger and the shock, she was keeping all the young mages in order.

“Retreat! Put on warding formation at the sixth and the fifth allies! Make sure the people don’t get near this place… And somebody find me Alina!”

The woman kept ordering the other teachers around while Glymet was looking between the crowds to see if Laaneth was among the teachers. He looked and looked again but he felt like she wasn’t among this crowd at all.

He then headed towards the Dunmer Mage leading the evacuation efforts and was about to ask her about Laaneth if not for what happened next. All Glymet could do was unsheathe his sword and rush towards the woman with swift steps.

Nurina was a second too late to react to Glymet but he passed her like swift wind and behind her, she could feel the resonance of Magicka types clashing against one another. Just one look and she realized that the man had attacked something made of pure Magicka and shattered it with a swing of his blade.

“Be on guard! Magicka Anomalies are forming!” Nurina shouted in the crowd of Mages before turning to Glymet, “Thank you.”

“Laaneth, where is she?” Glymet didn’t have time for pleasantries and cut to the chase right away.

“Inside.” Nurina replied, “She’s trapped with other teachers and students. Please, be patient, we will sort this out.”

“Sort this out?” Glymet looked at Nurina with a face filled with disbelief, “I can’t wait.”

He immediately darted off towards the College’s bridge and rushed at the strange white spherical barrier. Nurina’s shout for him to wait fell on deaf ears as he held his sword with two hands and attempted to slash at the barrier before he realized the stupidness of his actions.

His attack felt as if it was repulsed by a wall of metal that was left unshaken in the face of his fruitless strike. Moreover, the barrier formed a repulsive force that hit him back with the same amount of force he exerted and caused him to lose control of his energies for a second.

This second was all that needed to send him off the bridge of the College down to the abyss below the College’s spire.

“Hold on!”

But as soon as his senses came back to him, he was being lifted in the air by a mighty powerful Magical force that levitated him all the way back to the beginning of the bridge of the College.

“Rush like that again at your own peril, stranger!” Nurina shouted at Glymet as she placed him on the ground, “This is a force beyond our understanding!”

Glymet shook his head left and right to restore his jumbled senses and sat up while looking between Nurina and the College.

“Laaneth is in there!” He said desperately, “I can’t leave her…”

“Laaneth is one of the most capable people I know, she’ll handle herself and her students.” Nurina replied, “It’s not the right time or place to waste it for talking but if you are a friend of Laaneth, then you know a thing or two about what she can do.”

Glymet’s face was still painted with all shades of shock and worry but all he could do was nod.

“You’re an adventurer?” Nurina asked.

“I am.” Glymet replied.

“Then I have a task for you.” She said, “Head out to the neighboring city of Saarthal to the Dare Tower and ask where Alina Dare is. Jon must have left her with something to deal with this. Tell her that the Magicka of Winterhold is being siphoned by the Eye.”

Glymet’s senses were still coming back together but he understood what to do.

“Alina?” He asked for more details.

“Alina Dare.” Nurina replied naturally, “The wife of Jon Dare.”

“Oh!” Glymet felt like his head was being hit with something heavy since it seemed unavoidable to run into the Dares and the Firemanes without consulting with Laaneth first, “Fine, I’ll deliver the news.”

Seeing the middle-aged adventurer stand up and rush outside the city, Nurina put her full focus on studying and dealing with the barrier that was creeping out of the College. Moreover, there was a danger coming from behind as the people of Winterhold and the Hold Guards were all agitated with the sight of a disaster brewing over their city.

It seemed to have reminded them of their hatred towards the College and the Great Collapse.

“Faralda, talk to me.” Nurina called Faralda, who was busy getting rid of the Magicka Anomalies and defending the people.

“What?” Faralda had to leave her post for a young mage and approached Nurina while being on the lookout.

“What would Jon do in a situation like this with the people?” Nurina asked as she looked with worry towards the city.

“He’s your son, you should know best.” Faralda replied right away.

“But I can’t just make a mistake here. This is a very sensitive issue and the College’s reputation is on the line.” Nurina showed her worry since neither Jon nor Archmage Savos are here to deal with this sort of stuff.

“Just focus on one thing, honey.” Faralda held Nurina’s shoulders, “The Barrier, the Anomalies, or the People!”

“I’ll do the Barrier.” Nurina said with a stern look on her face, “Once Alina comes, I know she’ll have something in her sleeve for this situation and I’ll handle the anomalies.”

“What do you want me to do then?” Faralda asked.

“Coordinate with the Jarl. I am not as proficient as Jon in politics but we can buy some time with the people if we tell them that the Thalmor are trying to invade the College.”

“Who’s not proficient with politics again?” Faralda smiled in order to ease Nurina off.

“Just go, woman!” Nurina smiled but her face hardened back once again.

She was obviously worried. Many of the kids are still in there, some of her friends including Laaneth are still in there as well, and her cousin, Archmage Savos Aren, is in there.

So what exactly happened and what is this attack?

Earlier this morning, a man known as Ancano, the Thalmor emissary to the College of Winterhold, invaded the College’s Hall of Elements and started to argue with the Arch Mage.

By the time Nurina arrived at the scene, Ancano and Savos were agitated at one another with their staves in their hands.

Nurina could hear Ancano telling Savos that the Dawn of Magic is wasted on a place like Winterhold. That was a reference to the Eye of Magnus that was located in the Hall of Elements since its origin is associated with the beings of the Dawn Era.

As their conversation reached nowhere, it appeared that Ancano had found a way to tap into the magic of the Eye and wanted to transfer it back to Alinor to the Aldmeri Dominion. Savos Aren opposed this and kept Ancano in check but the latter used the Eye to cast a powerful barrier that would separate the rest of the College’s staff and students and push them out while he prepares for moving the eye.

Nurina tried to intervene but she couldn’t overpower the barrier cast by the Eye and eventually got pushed out as well. Even her Chaos Infection wasn’t working on the barrier and it felt as if the two things were made of something similar so they can’t oppose one another.

This was maddening to Nurina and she knew that Jon, whose knowledge of the future has been very accurate so far, is having Alina deal with things related to the college and something like this is hardly outside his scope of perception, especially when he warned her not to get into fights with Ancano.

So, if Alina gets here, she should be able to deal with this as far as Nurina is hoping for. If not, this will turn into a true disaster.

***

(Part 2)

Glymet knew that the only way to Laaneth is behind that barrier and if Jon Dare’s wife is the key to it, he should put aside his feeling of guilt and ask her for help.

As he arrived in Saarthal, the news about the trouble in Winterhold seemed to have been faster than him and he found it easy to get to the Dare Tower under the pretext of delivering a message.

He didn’t meet Alina Dare as he hoped but he could recognize that the youth gathered in the tower were Firemanes and some of them seemed outsiders but what they all had in common was their overflowing power and talent.

As he reported to the one standing in the center, a large young man with black hair and sideburns, the group started looking at each other and whispering about Alina.

They all carried their weapons and told Glymet to rush with them to Winterhold and wait for Alina there. Just like her husband, she seemed to have gone on a small adventure too.

None of them seemed as impressive as the Dunmer Wizard lady who was standing in front of the College, but Glymet knew that this is as far as he can do for now. With them, he returned to Winterhold and they all started to organize the scene.

An hour later, Glymet could see a creature speeding through the sky and since he was the first to notice, others looked at where he was looking and reacted immediately.

“It is the Gryphon!” Isha shouted, “Alina has returned.”

Glymet frowned at the sight of the creature but it was indeed a woman riding a snow-capped gryphon that is rare even in Summerset Isles. She kept rushing with the gryphon towards the barrier and held forward a staff that had a strong and impressive aura.

The staff shot a strong ray of arcane power and clashed with the barrier, causing part of the barrier to collapse, almost enough for the Gryphon to fly in. The barrier kept crumbling slowly and those who were outside readied themselves to swarm in.

As that happened, Nurina and Glymet were pushing their Magicka against the barrier. While Nurina was methodically destroying the barrier, Glymet was chipping its parts like a fighter rather than a magic caster. Still, Nurina noticed that he was a high-leveled Magicka user.

As they all pushed through all the way to the Hall of the Elements, it was only Nurina and Glymet who endured the anomaly of Magicka all the way where Alina was dueling Ancano.

Ancano was using the Eye of Magnus, whose parts opened up and turned from a sphere into different unstable shapes.

Alina was using a staff with a design very close to the Eye of Magnus, so it was safe to assume that this is the Staff of Magnus, the most powerful magic staff known, and an artifact made by a divine being.

Alina was skillful enough to keep the Eye contained while using a Sword on the other hand to send energy attacks at Ancano. While her skills were impressive, she couldn’t put enough disadvantage on Ancano just yet.

He was using the Eye of Magnus to grant himself nigh-invincibility, something that Alina could take away from him by the staff she wielded.

However, once Glymet and Nurina joined the fray, Ancano’s magical invincibility was bound to not last him longer than this. Still, Nurina looked around before doing anything and noticed that her cousin, Savos Aren, was resting his back on a pillar before with his appearance being pale and weak.

He was gravely injured by magic and he was getting tended to by Maribelle Ervine who managed to take him away from Ancano once Alina arrived.

As for Glymet, he finally saw the one he was looking for.

“Laaneth!”

“G… Glym?”

The moment he saw her hiding with a group of apprentices and protecting them from Ancano, he immediately left the quest of pushing ahead and ran towards her.

“I’ll get you out of here.” He said and tried to get her out.

“No!” Laaneth refused, “I am helping Alina. You get the apprentices away from here.”

“I’m here for you.” Glymet insisted, “Come on!”

“One of us stays and covers the retreat, the other has to evacuate them. Your choice!” Laaneth insisted with a face filled with determination.

To see her after so many years in a situation like this. Glymet’s heart was filled with sadness and grief but he had to do what he had to do.

“You go. I’ll stay.” He turned away with his hand on his sword’s hilt ready to participate in the fight against Ancano.

“Let’s go! I’ll cover you all.” As for Laaneth, she led the apprentices that were trapped inside out.

As she led them away from the fight, Laaneth took one final look at the sight of Glymet as he headed back into the Hall of the Elements where a fight of blinding lights and divine artifacts was taking place.

Between the Holder of the Eye of Magnus and the Holder of the Staff of Magnus, the Holder of Goldbrand would at least tip the scale for the side of good.

The Eye of Magnus is believed to be a literal body part of Magnus, leader of the Magna-Ge, the Original Spirits that fled the creation of Mundus after the scheme of Lorkhan took effect and rendered many Immortal Spirits mortal.

As a survivor of the Mortal Prison of Mundus, Magnus is an important figure to the mortality-hating Elves. An Artifact such as the Eye of Magnus is a sure way to negate the effects of Mortality and ascend as Immortals, or so many would be led to believe.

Just as Ancano tried to activate the Eye and draw power from it, he caused the Magic of the world around him to go on a rampage. Alina knew thanks to Jon that she had to collect a staff from a dangerous dungeon once she sees the signs that something is brewing within the college. She ventured to the Labyrinthian, a dangerous dungeon constructed by Archmage Shalidor, founder of Winterhold and the College, on the bones of an Ancient Nordic City to test the new Archmages of the College.

With the staff being the reward, Alina headed back with it to face the trouble caused by Ancano. The reason for that is the fact that the Staff of Magnus is the only thing that can control the Eye of Magnus, which brings us to the current situation.

With Ancano hell-bent on exploiting the Eye, Alina worked on sealing the eye once again in order to cut off the power that made Ancano invincible. With that, she hammered Ancano with all the firepower she could muster but she needed more help.

Seeing Nurina rush to her aid, Alina became more confident and used her sword to corner Ancano enough in order to make him easy prey for Nurina’s heavy attacks. Yet despite the tactic, one variable was entering the stage with extreme power.

A swordsman rushed past Ancano and defeated the Atronachs that he summoned with a flaming sword before arriving behind the Altmer and driving his sword into Ancano’s back.

The protection Ancano drew from the Eye was wearing off but it could put a halt to Glymet’s stab. Still, Ancano was pushed down to the ground and tried to crawl away to get closer to the Eye.

Alina shifted her focus on the Eye of Magnus and used the Staff to seal it quicker than before to assist the swordsman who was keeping Ancano occupied.

At such a rate, Alina sealed the Eye of Magnus by 90%, Nurina stopped Ancano from casting any spell, and Glymet had him pinned down by the sword.

“No! Let me… You can’t… YOU FOOLS! The power to Unmake the World! It’s not meant for Humans! You won’t… you won’t… AAAAARGH~~~!!!”

Jon mentioned nothing about taking Ancano alive but the moment he was almost subdued without killing him, something started to change.

Ancano’s energy started to shift and flow beyond Nurina’s restriction and even further from what Ancano can control. He started screaming and screeching as if he was burning from inside and around his body, white fractures started to form.

Glymet retreated and saw the Magicka around Ancano’s body materialize and get siphoned by the Eye. An Artifact started to devour a Mortal Soul, something that can only be done by a Soul Gem but rather than emptying Ancano’s Astral Form of its Energy and damning it to the Soul Cairn, the entire Ghost of Ancano was being enthralled by the Eye.

It was different from necromancy or soul manipulation magic, the sacred Anuic visage of the soul itself was being devoured by the eye.

Ancano was being Undone and what was left behind was nothing but the white ash of his disintegrated corpse.

Glymet looked at the thing that was once a person and looked at the Eye of Magnus. It wasn’t fully sealed yet and some of its cracks showed its white glowing interior.

Alina was working hard to seal the Eye so she wasn’t noticing what Glymet had noticed and right in there, there was a silhouette… a being… an entity.

It wasn’t the Elf that disintegrated just now.

It was something… ominous… deep… unfathomable…

And it was gazing at Glymet as he gazed at it just as the eye was fully shut.

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A/n: You’ll love the coming plot after this last foreshadowing.

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