Chapter III: Duels and Preparations

A firebolt whizzes past Reyvin's masked face as he dodges rapidly, immediately retaliating with a bolt of crimson lightning which his opponent evades with practiced ease. Before he can even blink Faralda starts bombarding him with wide-area spells, forcing him to shadow-walk out of her line of sight.

Not a moment later he feels a sense of danger behind him and shouts "FEIM!" barely in time to feel Faralda's fire-enhanced axe kick pass through his ethereal form. He attempts to overwhelm her with overcasted flames but she ducks under the spell with surprising agility, tripping him.

"Why doesn't she use a weapon?" A curious Davos asks the Archmage, who seemed to be paying the most attention to the fight among all those present in the observer's section of the practice arena.

Savos Aren chuckles playfully, his eyes shining with his usual mischief "An interesting question young Davos" He ignores the subtle eye twitch of the agent and looks back to the arena just in time to see Reyvin get sent flying by a kick to the chest "She uses no weapon, because she IS the weapon."

"Huh..." Davos blinks "Isn't that extremely risky?"

"In most cases, it would be" Aren nods "But Faralda has mastered combat alteration to such an extent that most weapons can't even harm her" He chuckles "Well that is if they can even hit her."

As if to prove the Archmage's point Faralda bats Reyvin's glaive away from her face with her bare hands and blasts him with a wave of frost.

"She always was one of my best students" The proud voice of Tolfdir pipes in from another seat "A shame she focused all her talents on taking lives instead of improving them." He sighs, but the proud smile remains on his wrinkled face.

Much to Aren's further amusement, it takes Davos a whole minute to stop gaping at the old man. The fact that he taught the Altmer who herself was obviously well over a century old didn't quite fit into his worldview.

After a prolonged beat of silence, fiery explosions notwithstanding, Aren turned to the four guests Reyvin brought to the college "How are you all enjoying your visit?"

Davos is about to respond but he notices that his companions didn't even register the question.

Marco, Minthara and a very out of place Onmund were too busy gaping at the fact that all of Reyvin's attacks were getting countered with practiced ease. He was still holding his own, but whenever he tried to go on the offensive he would be rewarded with a well-placed kick to his lower body, or if he annoyed his combat instructor too much a chop to the head.

Whenever he tried to summon his familiar, the 'poor' bird would get sent back home without the Altmer even batting an eye, much to the glee of Reyvin's apprentices.

A loud cough drags the student's attention back to the present as they see Davos pointing his hand at the expectant Archmage.

Onmund is the first to speak, the firmness of his voice surprising all who had spoken to him previously "Apologies sir, what was your question?"

Aren raises an eyebrow and repeats "I was wondering how you were enjoying our college, it will after all be your possible home for some time" He muses aloud.

The Nord nods quickly "I am already honored to be here, it is well beyond my expectations!"

Marco glances at the ever-evolving fight and shudders "As long as we don't have to deal with teacher working us to death even the pits of oblivion would look like heaven."

Minthara nods along "This Faralda lady seems much nicer than him as well. Maybe I will actually learn something without my bones breaking this time!" She gasps enthusiastically.

The entire room suddenly turns silent as all the present Masters give her a dubious look, some offering prayers to Arkay. Phineas, who was completely silent and still until then, slowly turns his head toward the young woman, his neck producing a loud creaking noise as it moves, and a single derisive "Heh" leaving his illusory throat.

Minthara finds herself cursing her big mouth once more as realization dawns on her 'Oh, she is the one that taught him...' a loud gulp resounds in the room.

The lich cackles coarsely and turns back to the fight, his false shoulders shuddering in mirth from time to time.

"The glorious climax approaches!" A squeaky voice resounds from the room's ceiling, Shalazar apparently finding it much more comfortable to sit upside down than mingle with the unenlightened fools below him... or was it above him?

All eyes refocus on the battle just in time to see Reyvin whack Faralda over the head with the blunt end of his blade, only for her to kick him between the legs without even twitching.

"Gods damn it woman, I know you can't actually hurt me here but learn some restraint!" Reyvin hisses and once more curses at the ward's designer who decided it would be funny to protect the fighters from damage but not the pain.

His teacher merely smirks and starts summoning lightning strikes from the ceiling, forcing Reyvin to expend more and more of his dwindling Magicka to dodge out of the way via shadow-walking.

'Screw this' Reyvin growls and takes a deep breath, Faralda's eyes have only a moment to widen in panic as Reyvin shouts "YOL TOR SHUUUL!" 

A massive wave of flames blocks her vision fully and she starts placing ward after ward in front of her, focusing all her spells on surviving the shout. She was in no danger due to the college's defenses but the idea of losing to someone so young, no matter how pleasant his company, grated on her pride something fierce.

While this was happening Reyvin wasn't idle, he rushed behind the flames and muttered "Arise" as a massive antlered shadow exited his own and threw itself at the panting Faralda.

Back in the observer's booth everyone present flinched as Phineas snarled "INTERESTING!" The fact that the lich was actually interested in something brought a frown to many of the Master's faces.

'And now I have this to deal with' Savos groaned and shared a look with Sergius who nodded in return.

(Reyvin's POV)

As my shade throws itself at Faralda, I fully expect it to die nearly instantly so I follow up with a wide swing right behind its back. Moments later my expectations are proven correct when an explosive punch rends the poor thing into nothingness, returning it to my shadow, and just as she overextends I position my glaive right at Faralda's throat.

I am about to smirk in triumph but a prickling sensation draws my attention to my groin area just in time to see Faralda's extended right hand holding a summoned rapier positioned exactly in the gap in my armor that would allow her to remove my family jewels with a simple twist of the hand.

"Alright then" I mutter "We'll call it a draw."

Her smug smirk nearly gave me an aneurysm.

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After Faralda retracted her weapon she congratulated me on my improvement and lamented the fact I didn't wish to celebrate it in our usual way. She was not angry or jealous at the development, we both knew that our previous relationship was purely physical and left it at that, deciding we could always tumble in the arena instead.

Finally getting to the point of our little get-together I offered to host the expeditionary meeting in one of my private booths and soon I was sitting in my inn surrounded by most of the Masters of the college and those I brought myself.

Before we could even begin Sergius and Tolfdir congratulated me on my Mastery with proud smiles on their faces, they spent a good ten minutes singing my praises and I swear if I was an actual eighteen year old my head would have grown to such colossal proportions it would pop.

Savos looked ready to start the meeting but Phineas interrupted in his usual uncaring manner "That shadow summon you used, what was it?"

The Archmage rolled his eyes in exasperation but didn't interject so I answered calmly "An old umbramantic ritual, the shades are powerful but the upkeep is ruinous without proper artifacts."

"Something you no doubt had no issues dealing with" The lich states "I would still like to get my hands on it, name your price." His expression doesn't shift but I sense that he wants the ritual, badly.

Now what could I ask of a Master necromancer? Raising the dead was and interesting niche but it came with unfortunate amounts of attention and I already had far more capable servants. Wait, a presumably ancient necromancer should have a ridiculous understanding of anatomy...

"I want a copy of your entire anatomical research" I say, and before his frown even has the time to form "In return I will grant you the ritual AND craft you a piece of jewelry of your choosing to help feed a singular powerful shade or multiple lesser ones."

He stills for a moment, his focus moving away from the glamor hiding his true body making him look like a statue, and finally nods lightly "Agreed, after you have created the necklace I will grant you a copy of my tome."

"Expect it by midday tomorrow" I smirk, almost cockily.

Neither of us feels the need to get assurances from the other, we were after all colleagues now and while Phineas might be a lich he is also a highly respected Master known for his fair dealings.

"Ah hem" Savos clears his throat while staring pointedly at the two of us "I do believe we were here for another reason, you can dig through guts together at a later date."

"But of course Archmage" I nod sagely "We wouldn't want to waste other people's time with our foolishness, that is after all your job." Savos' eyebrow twitches and I swear to god I hear Phineas let out a quiet Skeletor laugh.

"As I was saying" Savos stares at me pointedly while I feign innocence "The expedition to what we presume is an entrance to Blackreach is all but ready, the tunnels have been dug and a forward camp established." He looks over everyone present "Now we must decide who among us will be joining it."

Neloren and Collete weren't even present so their opinion was clear to all. Shalazar, Faralda, and Sergius opt out for different reasons. Aren nods at their decision and sighs "As much as I would love to dig through the secrets of the Dwemer, the ever-turbulent political situation will take up a lot of mine and Mirabelle's time." For whatever reason his pointed stare once again ends up on my most innocent self.

Tolfdir hums thoughtfully before nodding to himself "I believe I shall be joining the operation" He smiles genially "I haven't stretched my old legs in some time and a nice walk through beast infested caves is said to be good for the heart." Many of the Masters roll their eyes while I have no idea what is going on.

"Count me in as well" Phineas pipes up cheerfully, well... you get my point "The thousands of Falmer no doubt waiting down there will be a fine playground for my abilities." The atmosphere shifts as some grow discomforted by the necromancer but no one voices their disagreement.

I scratch my chin in thought, seeing a Master necromancer in action, one that was on my side even, in action will be an interesting experience. I notice everyone staring at me, the fact that I was now one of them was still taking its time to sink in and I nod "I will of course be joining the expedition, my students and house forces will also follow."

I had already informed everyone but Edrassa about this so it is of little surprise when I notice Davos looking gleeful at the idea of being the one to inform her.

"I will focus mostly on dealing with the animonculi and trying to weaken them as much as possible with my knowledge" I look at Aren "What are our forces going to look like, and what kind of timeframe are we looking at?"

He pulls out a scroll lazily and read out "Some... two hundred laborers and half as many adventurers of different flavors."

"Have they been properly vetted?" I ask.

Shalazar pipes in in his most glorious of voices "None shall do critical damage to the expedition." His oversized red eyes peer at me, his hidden warning clear.

I sigh and mutter "And that tells me literally nothing..." Still I mentally thank the lizard wizard, my guard was now thoroughly raised.

We go through the more tedious details of supplies, scheduling, organization and command hierarchy. I was naturally placed below the two other Masters but I was not surprised by this. I may be a somewhat experienced commander at this point but Tolfdir was a centuries old head of a clan of warriors while Phineas was an army onto himself with enough preparation.

As we finally hashed out the details and decided that we would move out in three days Aren once again piped up "Oh, and I also took the liberty of visiting our... creatively sane friend in the frozen wastes" He tosses me something and I catch it on reflex "He was willing to co-operate as long as you used that little box when you reached the tower." He shrugs "Whatever the tower is."

I blink and look down, in my hand is the Dwemer lexicon... How awfully convenient.

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The great and mighty Shalazar demands your stones!

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