Chapter 140: Chapter 133
"An Elder Scroll." The Archmage rubbed his beard. "I am surprised to find out that none of you have heard of them. While most knowledge has entered the realm of legends, people these days at least know the barest whispers."
Uh, I guess they're common knowledge around here?
He closed his eyes for a moment, before setting a large book down on the table that appeared out of nowhere. Opening it up, he skimmed several pages, finger running down the lines of the page. "Here we are." He exclaimed. "Also called the Aedric Prophecies, are scrolls of unknown origin which simultaneously archive both the past and future events. The number of the Scrolls is unknown not necessarily due to their immense quantity, but because the number itself is unknowable, as the scrolls 'do not exist in countable form'. They are fragments of creation from outside time and space, and their use in divining prophecies is but a small part of their power. They simultaneously do not exist, yet always have existed."
Fascinating. These Scrolls exist outside of time and space, thus are able to chronicle the flow of the world somehow. That poses an interesting question, if someone reads from one of these 'Elder Scrolls' does that make the future or is the scroll merely describing inevitable events? The chicken or the Egg. Does bringing the scroll's content into reality force that recorded prophetic outcome to occur?
"So, they are basically cast off power from the divines when this world was created. Perhaps they crystallized and took on a new form? Existing outside of time and space means they can see the whole of flow of events, latch onto something of some significance, something that has enough 'power' or 'consequence' in the world's existence to draw these wisps of divine power. Maybe the scrolls don't even exist as 'scrolls' but are merely perceived as such based on limited mortal comprehension?"
The Archmage blinked at me, seemingly surprised by my words. "An interesting theory." He nodded. "Alas, it is one of the mysteries of our world. All we know is that they contain valuable information, and cause anyone who reads them to lose their sight, a curse from the divines they say, for peering into the future."
"Is it a curse or is it just a side effect of looking into something mortals weren't supposed to see?" Artoria asked.
"An interesting question." The Archmage smiled, but he just shrugged. "We don't know. The nature of these Elder Scrolls simply makes them nearly impossible to study. Even in the past when there was a library full of them in the Empire, their nature simply made it unfeasible.
I had a sudden thought. "The prophecy regarding Thorum, it came from an Elder Scroll, didn't it?"
The Archmage gave a huge grin. "I was wondering if you would guess that before I mentioned anything." He stroked his beard. "Yes, it is an old prophecy, so much so that even the Nordic legends speak of it. I do not know when the scroll mentioning it was read, but it was many centuries ago."
"As interesting as this is, why is it important?" Rin asked.
"Harkon was the name of the vampire lord I killed." I answered, tapping my chin. "The question is, why was he looking for something like that?"
"His notes are vague....at best." Jinn sighed. "Some of them are coded, some are just rantings and a few actually provide any insight. But knowing what I do now, there are a few more things I can look up."
The Archmage suddenly turned around, like his attention was taken away. "Something requires my undivided attention, pardon me." He disappeared.
I just shrugged at his sudden departure. I didn't question it, he was undeniably very busy with everything going on. "Any inkling on why Harkon was looking for an Elder Scroll?"
"Well, some of his notes that talked about the Elder scroll also mentioned their 'great enemy' and referenced the sun, but otherwise I don't know." Jinn replied.
"You sure he wasn't just bonkers?" Rin asked.
"It's entirely possible, he did think consorting with Molag Bal – a second time – was a good idea, so who knows." I shrugged.
"I'm actually interested in this and everything, but I'm super out of it right now. Any chance we can go over this in the morning?" Rin stated, and after taking another look she looked rather sluggish.
"I'm a bit weary from our travels as well." Artoria added.
"I want an actual bed, I'm tired of sleeping on the ground." Rin whined, head falling to the table.
"Well, I finally got my house anchored here, I have plenty of rooms over there." I offered.
"Oh, I can show you what I've done with the place!" Jinn said gleefully.
"You did more?"
"Uh huh." Jinn nodded happily. "Meridia was very helpful when getting everything sorted and helping me decorate!"
Huh.
As strange as that is, I'm glad Meridia is spending time with Jinn, they both need more friends.
"That reminds me...."I turned to Rin. "Did Meridia approach you about getting a phone made?"
"No, was she supposed to?"
"Eh, she mentioned it but may have gotten busy. Do you have the materials to start making more?"
"I got most of the stuff, I just need some raw materials, most of which I can find here somewhere." Rin nodded.
"Probably going to need several more...."
"God, you're such a man whore." Rin rolled her eyes. "Jinn needs one, obviously, The old man too, even if he probably already made one himself. Saber need her own." She began listing them off, making Artoria smile. "Meridia like you said. You want a couple for Yasaka and your daughter?"
"And maybe one for Izzy in the future." I thought about it. "You know, it might just be easier to make a sort of 'routing' device, a mystic code that can direct real-time calls to us regardless of where we are due to the phones instead of everyone needing a phone." The thought just entered my head.
Rin paused for a moment, deliberating. "That.....would probably be more efficient, but I'm no where close to being able to do that right now. I'll need more data from this kaleidophones before I start creating any theories."
"That's fair." I couldn't really ask for much more. It would be a decent undertaking if the thought turned out to be fruitful. "Just a random thought for later." I shrugged. It wasn't my attention to just heap some stuff onto her plate. "Well, why don't we go check out my house?"
"Please, I wasn't looking forward to sleeping on the beds here." Rin looked rather grateful.
***
We walked through the front door, Rin and Artoria inspecting the area immediately.
"Did you really link it up with a closet at the College?" Rin deadpanned.
"Well....you see....—"
"He put the house down over by Whiterun and forgot I can't open portals like he can." Jinn said dryly.
"I'm not even surprised." Rin didn't react otherwise. "So how does the plumbing and lights work here? I can't imagine the infrastructure would stay intact after using the Kaleidoscope to pull it across several worlds."
"Magic." I smiled.
She gave me a flat look.
"Fine." I grumbled. "Actually, the house is in Yasaka's little pocket dimension that houses West Kyoto, home to a large portion of Japan's supernatural population. Mostly everything there is built through magical means, including the houses. The hot water heater, is powered by magic. The lighting in here, is powered by magic. There are several large scale rituals all around the property that focus on pulling in magical energy and converting to for the house's purpose."
"Wait, really? Aren't those kinds of rituals rare back home?" Rin looked surprised.
"Not in the way you think, there just isn't much a need for that kind of thing. Magical energy doesn't immediately denote 'Mystery' which is why the Mages Association was built where it is. While the magical energy there is much denser than most other parts of the Earth, it's the fact that Albion's corpse also exudes a very dense amount of 'Mystery' to saturate the area. Yes, such rituals are 'rare' simply because everything is rare back home, not even because of resource problems. Every scrap of knowledge is hoarded like it's a treasure."
I paused for a moment collecting my thoughts. "If you think about it, many types of magic circles act just as these do, but on a smaller and more specific scale."
"I get it." Rin yawned, stretching her arms. "I'll care more in the morning when I get a better look. For now, can you just show us around?"
"Sure." I smiled, getting my bearings. "Jinn did a wonderful job decorating."
"It have a very welcoming feel." Artoria added as well.
"Meridia needs credit too, she did help me." Jinn preened under the praise.
"Of course, when she's not busy, I'll make sure to pass it on." Really, I'm very lucky that all my girls are getting along like this. "Anyways, lets start the tour." I began to lead them to the back. "This is where I'm keeping my treasury." I pushed open a door, revealing an absurd amount of material wealth.
"I fucking hate you." Rin hissed.
"Your anger fuels my existence." I smiled, continuing onwards. A few doors down, I pushed into another room. "And this is the Library."
"My Library." Jinn corrected.
"Jinn's library." I didn't argue. "She's been doing a wonderful job of getting everything sorted and set up." There was even a table where she had been going over a bunch of Journals, what I'm assuming were the ones that led her to us in the first place.
"Oh, it's still a mess. Wilhelm left me with a bunch of stuff to handle, and I've been going through it in my spare time."
"I would offer to help if I didn't know you enjoyed it." I gave her hand a little squeeze.
Jinn just giggled, leaning over to place a kiss on my cheek. "Feel free to browse and take anything that catches your interest."
Rin took a few looks around. "Yeah, I'll definitely take you up on that." She mumbled, still clearly tired but a bit expectant.
"Alright, only one more important place to check out." I led them out once again. We moved towards the center of the house, where my anchor was located. It was moved to a less open location once everything settled.
"This is the heart of the house." I gestured as they all entered. "The magics that keep it afloat, and where all the defenses pull their strength from. Speaking of, I might as well go over what I've got going on so far." There were stacks of Talismans lined up, dozens of Spell Scrolls, and about 50 Staves lined up on the walls, with much more of each to be coming. "Basically, you got the standard package of bounded fields and anything else like that I thought to throw in. Then we have the next layer, if something can make it past those, then all of these activate at the whims of whoever is here at the time, most likely Jinn, and they are bombarded with an uncountable number of spells."
"What happens if these are not enough?" Artoria eyed everything.
"At that point, we're dealing with something beyond mortal abilities, so the final fail safe pulls the house back to my birth world."
"I see." Artoria nodded.
"I'm also adding more. Got a guy who's scouring the market for more of the same to add to my arsenal." I explained. "Several thousand Staves all firing in tandem will slow down most things below a god."
"How much magical energy will that take?" Rin also looked around.
"A lot, but not as much as you would first assume." I smiled.
"Again, interesting, but I'm running on fumes here." Rin yawned once more. "Bed?"
"I have a few rooms set up, I'll show them to you so you may pick one." Jinn happily suggested.
"And like that, you're my favorite Genie." Rin accepted immediately, barely even waiting for acknowledgement before pulling Jinn away.
"You going with her?" I asked Artoria.
"I....admit to being mentally exhausted through the adventure." She looked a little hesitant. "I know I have been away for awhile and we have not spent much time together..."
I flicked her forehead, earning a little surprised noise from her. "You don't need to explain yourself to me. Just because we're in a relationship doesn't mean we have to involve ourselves with every moment of each other's lives." I did wrap my arms around her. The time we spent apart did make me miss her. "You get to have your own time, your own adventures. I'll always be here waiting for you, just like how you were for me when I was jumping around."
"Will." She whispered, burying her head in my chest. "You have been very good to me. I don't know what to say.....I am very happy with you as my boyfriend."
"You're so cute it makes it hard for me to let you go." I kissed her forehead. "Once you've rested for a bit and Rin regains her baring, I hope you can join me in some sparring."
"Sparring?" She perked up.
"Mmm, I've been picking up my training recently. I was going to head over to Thorum and work on my Thu'um with him as well."
"I would be happy to spar with you, Wilhelm." She smiled brightly. "Mayhaps we seek out Sasaki Kojiro for some bouts with him as well?"
"That....is a brilliant idea." I completely forgot about him. "I suppose Rin is probably getting impatient, waiting for you."
"En." She grunted. "Rin is still very....on guard."
"Oh." I blinked at her statement. "Having to constantly be on the look out for days at a time, I hadn't even considered how she was still stressing over certain things like that even now that she is relatively safe and could let her guard down."
"It is to be expected. Her last time in such a situation was the Grail War but she was a bit more.....na?ve then. Mayhaps this experience brought up some memories of then."
"Even so, I think she's handling it well. She only looked tired, not anything else I could see on the surface. I guess we should just keep an eye out.....therapy isn't a bad choice if she does have some issues to work through." Gods know I probably need it as well.
"Something to consider." Artoria nodded. "I should probably go." She looked at me expectantly.
I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers, her arm moving up to cup my cheek.
"Sleep well." I said my goodbyes as we separated. She gave one last smile before shuttling off up the stairs towards the bedrooms.
Peeking out the window, the Sun was still high up in the sky because it was barely past noon.
I just chuckled, opting to go get some training done.
I hope Thorum was available.
***
I popped over to Whiterun and practically made a beeline for the Companions building. As I got close, I heard noise, the sound of steel against steel from behind the building in the courtyard. Opting to go check it out, I saw my friend sitting to the side with a cup of water in his hand and sweat dripping down his brow.
There were others there, some I recognized and others I didn't. Actually, there looked to be a few in some guard outfits, partially taken off, training with the companions.
"My friend!" Thorum exclaimed, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Hey, Thorum." I greeted, even at his sudden shout and the attention that I now had on me, seeing how happy he was to see me always brought a smile to my face.
"You disappeared for several days, I had wondered where you had run off to." He stood up, clasping me on the shoulder.
"Oh, some idiots wanted to make a move on me. Decided to go have a chat with their leader." I briefly explained. I didn't really want to go into the details, I feel like Thorum would be upset that I went and fought the vampires on my own. "I also got in some good training."
"Wonderful. It's always good to keep up with your exercises." Thorum nodded in approval.
"Red Dragon Emperor." One of the faces I didn't recognize greeted.
"Wilhelm." Aela nodded to me as well, propping herself up with a warhammer. I thought she used a sword and bow, but I didn't question it.
"Good to see you again, mage." Farkas also greeted beside her. The way he called me that didn't hold any kind of insult behind it. Perhaps just a simple nickname or acknowledgement on his part.
"Good to see you lot in good shape." Though I haven't seen some of their other numbers, even when we partied before. I guess they're out on missions ere or there throughout Skyrim.
Thorum hefted Gram over his shoulder. "My Friend, have you come to join us in training?" He gestured to the area. "We welcome all who wish to better themselves in these troubling times."
Huh, that makes sense then. The Companions are probably some of the best this place has to offer for mundane warriors....besides those odd ones. It would do good for the average guard to come on over during their free time. Not to mention the morale boost it would give the troops.
I wondered if this was the Jarl's idea or Thorum just coincidentally setting it up by being a good guy.
Honestly, I'd give it 50/50 odds.
"Actually, I did."
"Oh?" Thorum didn't seem to expect my answer. "Do you wish to test your blade against me then?" He smiled, holding his own sword up in a good natured taunt.
"Actually that sounds like fun." Now that I thought about it, I should make sure I use this opportunity to train with him too. "Artoria will probably come by soon, I don't doubt she'd also like to cross blades with you."
"Your woman, huh?" Thorum nodded. "Aye, I will gladly greet her with my blade when the time comes. But that does not appear to be the reason you are here."
"You're right." I replied. "I wanted your help on my Thu'um. To be honest, I've kind of neglected it for other avenues of training."
"Oh, I would be honored." Thorum let out a laugh. "I did say I would teach you a thing or two when we first separated from the Throat of the world."
It might be a better idea to go to see the Greybeards, they didn't seem to dislike me. But for some reason I felt it more appropriate to learn from Thorum.
"Someone sounds cocky." I gave a small laugh. "How about I teach you a couple things about magic while we're at it?"
"That would be great, I was stuck on my studies and did not know how to proceed." Thorum didn't even hide it.
Idiot....if you needed help you just had to ask.
"Got somewhere we can make a mess?" I asked.
"Well, we can always do it outside the city." Thorum offered.
I shrugged. "Why not. We can give them a little show too."
Might raise the overall spirits of the people here if they can see the Dragonborn shouting without the threat of a dragon burning them.
I was looking forward to this. Besides the training, I did have some time to kill. I was waiting for Jinn to give me a lead on this so called 'Elder Scroll', and for Artoria and Rin to come on over when they're up and rested.
"Aye, I will make sure not to embarrass you too much." He had that big goofy smile on his face.
"Them be fighting words." I snorted, my lips curling up. "Let's see if you can keep up."
***
This fucking week, if it wasn't one thing it was another. Felt like crap all day.
People asking me what I was reading. I was reading 'trash of the count's family', about a hundred chapters in and it's a fun read.
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