28 It's a me! Paarthurnax!

"Lingrah krosis saraan Strundu'ul, voth nid balaan klov praan nau. Naal Thu'umu, mu ofan nii nu, Dovahkiin, naal suleyk do Kaan, naal suleyk do Shor, ahrk naal suleyk do Atmorasewuth. Meyz nu Ysmir, Dovahsebrom. Dahmaan daar rok."

("Long has the Storm Crown languished with no worthy brow to sit upon. By our breath we bestow it now to you in the name of Kyne, in the name of Shor, and in the name of Atmora of old. You are Ysmir now, the Dragon of the North. Hearken to it.")

"Dovahkiin. You have tasted the Voice of the Greybeards, and passed through unscathed. High Hrothgar is open to you." Arngeir declared with a short bow.

"Good. I need to learn the shout that stopped Alduin." Lucius said as he groggily stood.

"Where did you learn of that? Who have you been talking to?" Arngeir bitterly replied.

"It was recorded on Alduin's Wall. Can you tell him it or not?" Ciri voiced, leaning on the far wall.

"The Blades! Of course. They specialise in meddling in matters they barely understand. Their reckless arrogance knows no bounds. They have always sought to turn the Dragonborn from the path of wisdom. Have you learned nothing from us? Would you simply be a tool in the hands of the Blades, to be used for their own purposes?" Arngeir scolded.

"What would you have me do!? Sit around twiddling my thumbs while the literal end of the world is coming? If you don't know the shout, just say so, and i'll begin searching elsewhere..." Lucius hissed, getting fed up with monks attitude.

"Of course not. Forgive me, Dragonborn. I have been intemperate with you. But heed my warning - the Blades may say they serve the Dragonborn, but they do not. They never have." The monk asked for forgiveness.

"I know full well what they want...And frankly i don't care. Now, can you teach me this shout?" Lucius asked after a calming breathe.

The monk took a seat on the stone steps. "No. I cannot teach it to you because I do not know it. It is called Dragonrend, but its Words of Power are unknown to us. We do not regret this loss. Dragonrend holds no place within the Way of the Voice." He explained.

"How come?" Lucius asked.

"It was created by those who had lived under the unimaginable cruelty of Alduin's Dragon Cult. Their whole lives were consumed with hatred for dragons, and they poured all their anger and hatred into this Shout. When you learn a Shout, you take it into your very being. In a sense, you become the Shout. In order to learn and use this Shout, you will be taking this evil into yourself." Arngeir finished in a warning tone. "Only our leader, Paarthurnax may help you now... Follow me, Dovahkiin." He finished.

Arngeir led Lucius and Ciri past the courtyard to a giant gate of icy black stone blocked by raging winds of frost.

"This will be my last gift to you, Dovahkiin. The clear skies shout. It will the clear the path up the mountain to our leader, Paarthurnax." He said and inscribed all three words of the shout into the floor, transferring his knowledge of the shout over to Lucius as he did so.

"Lok Vah Koor!" Lucius bellowed and the winds of the gate halted, the clouds made way and the rays of gold beat down onto the mountains peak.

"That's going to be useful on the road." Ciri muttered.

"Good luck. The path is long and treacherous. Watch your footing." Arngeir warned, before heading back inside High Hrothgar.

"We had better get started then." Lucius said as he walked past Ciri to begin their ascent.

"If you're keeping a sword of that quality you have to let me train you." Ciri eyed his sheathed blade as she caught up.

"As long as i don't have to dance first. I already know a fair amount of the elvish sword styles." He haggled.

"Fine. Only if you craft me a ... necklace with a wolf on it." She bit back.

"Sure, that sounds easy enough. Enchantments will cost you though." He smirked.

"Cheapskate, they take you an extra 5 minutes." She grumbled as they came upon another wind gate.

Lucius quickly shouted the gate away to reveal a frost troll.

Drawing his new blade he advanced towards the beast, dodging an overhead swing of its large claw he severed its arm, like a hot knife through butter, before thrusting the blade through the back of its head.

"You could've kill it in one motion if you pirouette the cut around to its head after you cut off its arm." Ciri instructed.

"Really? Then how do you build enough power to cut through the bone with just a slash?" He inquired, wiping the blood off the sword on the beasts fur.

"With a blade that sharp, the momentum you carry from the first cut should be enough. If it still isn't? Then the damage will be enough to win you the fight anyway." She finished with a small nod.

'Hmm, good to know.' He pondered whilst eyeing his sheathed blade.

"Well, let's go. there's one gate left up there." Ciri said pointing behind Lucius.

"Lok Vah Koor!" Lucius cast one last time as he waltzed through the gateway to a small clearing, a word wall placed in the for corner by an outcrop of stone.

A roar resounding over the howling wind alarming the duo who prepared for a fight.

An ancient looking dragon of white scales soared over the peak of the mountain and softly landed in front of Lucius.

"Drem Yol Lok. Greetings, wunduniik. I am Paarthurnax. Who are you? What brings you to my strunmah... my mountain?" A gravelly voice left the dragons throat.

"Was not expecting you to be a dragon." Ciri whistled.

"I think you already know who i am, dragon." Lucius said with crossed arms.

"Yes. Vahzah. You speak true, Dovahkiin. Forgive me. It has been long since I held tinvaak with a stranger. I gave in to the temptation to prolong our speech." The dragon bowed its head.

"I came here to ask for your help in defeating Alduin. I need to learn a lost shout." Lucius calmly explained.

"Drem. Patience. There are formalities which must be observed, at the first meeting of two of the dov." Paarthurnax replied and turned to blast a long stream of fire at the word wall, inscribing one word in its centre.

"By long tradition, the elder speaks first. Hear my Thu'um! Feel it in your bones. Match it, if you are Dovahkiin! A gift, Dovahkiin. Yol. Understand Fire as the dov do. Now, show me what you can do. Greet me not as mortal, but as dovah!" Paarthurnax bellow in pride.

Lucius shot a short stream of red hot fire at Paarthurnax's snout.

"Aaah... yes! Sossedov los mul. The Dragonblood runs strong in you. It is long since I had the pleasure of speech with one of my own kind." The dragon solemnly spoke. "I have expected you. Prodah. You would not come all this way for tinvaak with an old dovah. No. You seek your weapon against Alduin." He humoured.

"You're right. I need to learn dragonrend." Lucius responded, confirming the dragon's guess.

"Unfortunately i cannot teach you this shout as it is impossible for me to know. A dov cannot fathom such krosis, such hatred, for its own kind." Paarthurnax replied.

"How can I learn it, then?" Lucius muttered with urgency.

"Drem. All in good time. First, I have a question for you. Why do you want to learn this Thu'um?" The dragon asked.

"I need to stop Alduin...I'm the only thing alive that has a fighting chance, it's my duty, my responsibility to this world...My purpose." He whispered towards the end.

"True... But qostiid - prophecy - tells what may be, not what should be. Qostiid sahlo aak. Just because you can do a thing, does not always mean you should. Do you have no better reason for acting than destiny? Are you nothing more than a plaything of dez... of fate?" The dragon countered.

"I'm getting some mixed feelings of your support here..." Ciri drawled.

I don't believe in destiny, not when children starve and die before they even wake to the world. Not when woman and men fight in wars for nothing but a slap on the shoulder by their new overlords... But I will stop Alduin, who else can?" Lucius steeled himself, glaring into the dragons golden eyes.

"And so, perhaps, your destiny will be fulfilled. Who can say? Dez motmahus. Even to the dov, who ride the currents of Time, destiny is elusive. Alduin believes that he will prevail, with good reason. Rok mul. And he is no fool. Ni mey, rinik gut nol. Far from it. He began as the wisest and most far-seeing of us all." Paarthurnax continued to play devils advocate to Lucius's thoughts.

"I didn't come here to debate philosophy with you, even if love a good debate myself." Lucius gave in.

"Hahaha! You have much to learn of the dov, then. There is nothing else but philosophy to a dovah. It is no accident that we do battle with our Thu'um, our Voices. There is no distinction between debate and combat to a dragon. Tinvaak los grah. For us it is one and the same." Paarthurnax began. "Alduin was not truly defeated, either. If he was, you would not be here today, seeking to... defeat him. The Nords of those days used the Dragonrend Shout to cripple Alduin. But this was not enough. Ok mulaag unslaad. It was the Kel – the Elder Scroll. They used it to... cast him adrift on the currents of Time." He finished.

"An Elder scroll? What's that?" Ciri piped in, having listened enough.

"An artefact from outside time. It does not exist, but it has always existed. They are...hmm... fragments of creation. The Elder Scrolls have often been used for prophecy. But this is only a small part of their power." Lucius explained what he learned from his travels in Cyrodiil. "There's an order in Cyrodiil that collects and studies these scrolls." He finished.

"So, these ancient Nords sent Alduin forward thousands of years into the future with these scrolls..." She hummed, in deep thought.

"Indeed young one. I have lived her for thousands of mortal years waiting for his return. If you brought that Kel, that Elder Scroll back here... to the Tiid-Ahraan, the Time-Wound... With the Elder Scroll that was used to break Time, you may be able to... cast yourself back. To the other end of the break. You could learn Dragonrend from those who created it." The dragon theorised.

"Do you know how hard it is to find one elder scroll in this world?...Let alone a specific one?!" Lucius incredulously bellowed to the dragon.

"You had better get started then, haha!" The dragon laughed and took off in flight.

"I like him." Ciri smiled. "He has a certain air of long earned kindness about him." Ciri claimed.

"All he gave me was a headache and a near impossible quest..." Lucius groaned with a hand sliding down his cheek.

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If you don't understand the title reference then you don't have the right to say you love Skyrim... Just kidding.

Have a good one,

Your "patently evil" Author.