Chapter 9: Ruminations of a Deranged Wizard

Weiss's Perspective

After another successful day of learning and practicing spells, it was yet again time for another evening where I was trying make any sense of these dust forsaken books. Ruminations hardly had where the Elder Scrolls were and Effects was true to its title. I decided to put them in my bag and walk over to the library to ask if they any more information of Septimus Signus. I walked through the front door, up the stairs and into the library. Once there, I saw a heavily armored man talking to Urag, and he was giving him the usual introduction.

"You are now in the Arcanaeum, of which I am in charge. It might as well be my own little plane of Oblivion. Disrupt my Arcanaeum, and I will have you torn apart by angry Atronachs. Now, do you require assistance?" Urag said and asked, in the normal way he greets new people.

"I'm looking for an Elder Scroll." The man said, and with that, my heart sank. I also found myself paying more attention to the conversation.

"And what do you plan to do with it? Do you even know what you're asking about, or are you just someone's errand boy?" Urag asked.

"Of course I do. Do you have one here?" The man asked. What a stupid question, if Urag had one, I would've already gotten my hands on it.

"You think that even if I did have one here, I would let you see it? It would be kept under the highest security, the greatest thief in the world wouldn't be able to lay a finger on it." Urag said.

"What about the Dragonborn?" The man asked. Wait, did he just say Dragonborn? As in the Dragonborn that I've heard the townspeople mention occasionally?

"What about...wait. Are you? Were you the one the Greybeards were calling? I'll bring everything we have on them, but it's not much. So don't get your hopes up. It's mostly lies, leavened with rumor and conjecture." Urag said, getting up and moving to a nearby bookshelf.

"Now where did I leave...ah! That's right, one of the new apprentices, Weiss over there" He said while pointing to me "is also looking for an Elder Scroll. You'll have to ask her for the books."

"Thank you." The Dragonborn said, turning around and walking over to me. I quickly recognized him, but couldn't place where I had seen him before.

"Hello." I hesitantly said to him.

"Hello, Weiss. It's great to see you again." The Dragonborn said.

"I'd hate to be rude," No I wouldn't "but where have I seen you before?" I said politely.

"Ah, my apologies, I walked with you and your friends to Whiterun a few months ago." The Dragonborn said.

"Oh right!" I said remembering as soon as he said it. "So you're the Dragonborn of legend, huh?" I asked him, as I pulled the books out of my bag.

"Yep, your friends were quite surprised as well. Considering Blake found out while I held a dagger to her throat, and I beat Yang into the ground shortly after she and Ruby found out." The Dragonborn said, nonchalantly.

"They deserved it." I comment. "So, here's the books on the Elder Scrolls." I informed him, handing him the books.

"Thank you." He said, walking over to a nearby table to sit down.

The first book the Dragonborn picked up was "Ruminations on the Elder Scrolls", the book I had been trying to decipher this entire time. After no more than a minute of reading, he got up and brought the book to Urag, saying "This 'Ruminations' book is incomprehensible."

"Aye. That's the work of Septimus Signus. He's the world's master on the nature of Elder Scrolls, but...well. He's been gone for a long while. Too long." Urag said.

"Where did he go?" The Dragonborn asked.

"Somewhere up north, in the ice fields. He said he found some old Dwemer artifact, but...well, that was years ago. Haven't heard from him since."

"Thank you for the information." The Dragonborn said.

It was that easy?! Seriously?!

While I was still in semi-shock, the Dragonborn walked over to me and placed the books in my still partially extended hands.

"It was great seeing you again, Weiss. Maybe we'll be able to properly catch up later." The Dragonborn said, walking out of the Arcanaeum.

"That'd be nice." I said, still in a daze.

I walked angrily out of the room and started punching a bale of hay that was lying around. It was that easy! I could've had the Elder Scroll and gone home by now! I went back to the library and picked up my stuff, then headed back to my quarters to grab my things. I'm going to run to Whiterun and tell everyone about this.

I ran out into a blizzard, but I didn't care. I had a mission. I threw up a Candlelight spell, which lit my way. I ran until I couldn't stand, and that only lasted until I stopped breathing heavily. After I caught my breath, I was off again, Candlelight hovering in front of me. I followed the road that I thought led to Whiterun. I figured that the further from this blizzard I got, the better.

Once I got out of the blizzard, I started to notice more things than just the path. I saw mountains and snowcovered hills. After a short time I passed a fort patrolled by Stormcloaks. Ah, that's one old looking fort. I didn't have time to think too much about it. Soon after passing the fort, I saw a river and some fort-like buildings on the mountains in front of me. These Stormcloaks sure do like themselves some forts… I kept running.

I came upon a sign by a river that pointed towards where Whiterun was. I nodded as if someone told me where I was going. I briefly caught sight of a fort-looking building perched on the side of the mountain, but didn't look long enough to get details beyond that. I ran along the path and noticed that It started to get steeper, but leveled out around the same time that I saw an inn. My legs and lungs told me that the inn looks nice, but I needed to get to Whiterun as fast as possible. The hill started sloping downwards and I picked up speed. Within seconds it seemed that I saw Dragonsreach in the distance. My legs awoke with newfound energy. I poured all I had left into getting to Whiterun. It was in sight. I passed all the farms and mills that surrounded Whiterun and never gave them a second of my attention.

The gates of Whiterun stared me in the face. I shoved them open and staggered through. I was exhausted from my long journey. I walked up to the nearest inn thinking that I would be able to rest for the night and find everyone in the morning.

"Weiss!" Three familiar voices shouted my name from inside the inn. I looked up and saw Ruby, Blake and Yang.

"H-hey guys." I say, exhaustion making me stutter.

"Are you alright?" Blake asked as she ushered me into a seat and put a pelt over my shoulders.

"I-" I caught my breath "I ran all the way from Winterhold." I told them, shaking from the temperature change.

"Why? We can't be that important to you can we?" Ruby joked.

I glared at her. "I know a person we can talk to about finding an Elder Scroll."

They all looked shocked.

"You mean that we go home?" Yang asked excitedly.

"Not quite." I inform them. "The Dragonborn is probably at, or past, the man we need to talk to. He was the one who asked. I only overheard."

"Well where is that man?" Blake asked, seemingly ready to sprint to the ends of the earth.

"North of the college. In the middle of the sea." I tell her harshly.

"N-Not water." She said, taking a step back.

"Sorry, but that's the only way." I told her.

"It's alright. We can figure it out when we head over there tomorrow. You need to sleep now. Here's 10 gold, go get yourself a room." Yang said.

"No, we have to go now!" I said angrily.

"I would go now, but I don't want to carry you." Yang retorted.

"Neither do I." Blake comments.

"Carrying her doesn't sound fun." Ruby says, looking at the fire.

I glare at all of them. "I can't believe you would think that I can't make it there."

"I can't believe you made it through the door." Blake responds.

"Fine. I'll go take a nap." I said, angry at them. I snatch the 10 Septims out of Yang's outstretched hand and walked into my room.

After my nap and a very long journey back to Winterhold, we stood outside the college. I staggered into the Arcaneum and went to talk with Urag about the location of Septimus Signus.

"Wh-Where is Septimus Signus?" I ask him, waving my hand around and not really knowing what I was doing because of my exhaustion.

"Up north in the ice fields. Didn't you overhear me and the Dragonborn talking about it?" Urag said, a slightly harsh tone present.

"Y-Yeah, but I just wanted to double check." I told him, my body moving side to side on its own.

"You're probably too late anyway. The Dragonborn most likely already has whatever he wanted from Septimus, considering how long it's been." Urag said, looking past me and to the window.

"Well thanks anyways for the help." I said to him, running out of the Arcaneum and back to my friends.

"We proceed as we planned." I told them, hustling past them and behind the Jarl's Longhouse. They follow me tentatively.

After navigating the icefield in a "borrowed" boat, we came upon a wreck-like thing in the side of a chunk of ice. Blake hopped off and inspected it. Her thumbs up told us that this is where we wanted to be. We all climbed in one-by-one and heard the ramblings of the man inside.

"Dig, Dwemer, in the beyond. I'll know your lost unknown and rise to your depths."

Yang, Blake and Ruby looked at me like they thought I was crazy.

I shrugged. "He went a little crazy." I whispered to them.

"You think?!" Yang whispered back.

"When the top level was built" He laughed for a second "no more could be placed. It was and is the maximal apex."

"Are you sure that this is the man who knows where the Elder Scroll is?" Ruby whispered to me.

"I'm certain." I say back.

"Septimus! We call upon you for guidance to the Elder Scroll!" I call out from above him.

"I've seen enough to know their fabric. The warp of air, the weft of time. But no, it's not in my possession." Septimus said, seemingly to a corner of the room rather than us.

"Where is the Elder Scroll?" I ask him.

"Here." Septimus said.

"It's here?" I asked him, looking around for it.

"Well, here as in this plane. Mundus. Tamriel. Nearby, relatively speaking. On the cosmological scale, it's all nearby." Septimus said, with a bit of a chuckle.

We groan. "Okay, so where is it then?" I ask again, facepalming.

"One block lifts another. Septimus will give you what you want, but you must bring him something in return." Septimus said.

"Oh?" I perk up "What is it that you need?"

"You see this masterwork of the Dwemer. Deep inside their greatest knowings. Septimus is clever among men, but he is an idiot child compared to the dullest of the Dwemer. Lucky then they left behind their own way of reading the Elder Scrolls. In the depths of Blackreach one yet lies. Have you heard of Blackreach? 'Cast upon where the Dwemer cities slept, the yearning spire hidden learnings kept'." Septimus said, finishing with a laugh.

We all look at each other. "So, how do we get to Blackreach?" Yang asked him.

"Under deep. Below the dark. The hidden keep. Tower Mzark. Alftand. The point of puncture, of first entry, of the tapping. Delve into its limits, and Blackreach lies just beyond." Septimus said.

"Okay, sounds great. Would you look at the time! We better get going…" Yang said, dramatically looking at her wrist.

"But not all can enter there." Septimus said.

"What." Yang said, not even turning around to face Septimus.

"Only Septimus knows the hidden key to loose the lock to jump beneath the deathly rock." Septimus said.

"Well, can you tell us where the hidden key is so we can 'loose the lock to jump beneath the deathly rock'?" Ruby asked him.

"Oh! But Septimus only knows of the key, the man of dragons is currently grasped by its power." Septimus said.

"Of course the Dragonborn has it…" Yang says angrily.

"Hopefully we can catch up to him." Ruby says cheerily.

"The path is long, the path is winding, but the knowledge hidden in the deep can cast away the dark." Septimus said, taking his focus away from us.

"What he said." Ruby says.

"Alright let's get going then." Yang says, starting to walk out.

"Wait! We don't know where Alftand is!" I say to her.

"Fine. Yo, Septimus, where is Alftand at?" Yang asks angrily.

He didn't respond, Septimus went of into another corner and kept rambling to himself, completely shut off from the rest of the world.

"I guess we'll never know!" Yang says anger very present in her voice.

"Let's just go ask Urag." I say to her.

"Okay. Hopefully he'll be better than this dude." Yang said, giving a nasty gesture to Septimus, who is talking to himself in the corner.

"Imagine, again, this time but different. A bird cresting the wind is lifted by a gust and downed by a stone. But the stone can come from above, if the bird is upside down." Septimus said, laughing at the end.

I turned and stared at him because he quoted Ruminations.

"What? It's just his usual ramblings." Ruby asked me, concern poking through her voice.

"He quoted his book…" I trail off because I am shaking with rage.

He laughed as he stood in the corner, obviously at something he said.

"Let's go." I grumble.

Something appeared in our way. The utter shock of it caused my mind to temporarily short-circuit. Then, as soon as I wrote it off as sleep-deprived hallucinations, it spoke.

"Ah yes...the outworlders. It is an honor to meet you."

"Yes we are. Who are you?" Yang asked, not the least fazed by this anomaly before us. A black mist surrounded its figure, as a result it seemed to appear from beyond this plane of reality. Eyes floated in the air around it, but moved aside when its tentacles occupied the area nearby. Wait… Tentacles? I looked to the center of its mass and saw an eye with a pupil that was trying to diverge into two, but stopped halfway. Five tentacles branched out from the center eye, making it look like it came from an alternate plain of reality even more than it did before, and that is saying something.

"I am Hermaeus Mora. The Knower of the Unknown. In terms that you may understand, I am the Daedric Prince of Knowledge and Fate." Hermaeus Mora said, slowly.

"What's a 'Daedric Prince'?" Ruby asked, also unphased by him.

"The Daedra are immortal beings who chose to not help create the Mundus." I responded, scoffing at her stupidity.

"Ah, it's good to see that at least one of you has some knowledge of the immortals." Hermaeus Mora said, slowly. What's with the condescending, slow speech?

"Of course, anyone who doesn't is stupid." I responded, holding my chin high in pride and in recognition of his compliment.

"But of course, you're still among the dullest of stones compared to some of those who I have contacted before." Hermaeus Mora said, slowly.

"...What?" I asked, my pride shattered with one sentence.

"It is simple, you simply only know the tiniest fraction of the tiniest fraction of what there is to be known." Hermaeus Mora said, slowly.

I had no response, my pride that I always held high was crushed on the ground.

"You broke Weiss…" Ruby commented.

"But...I could assist you in that matter, if you assist me." Hermaeus Mora said, slowly.

"What would you require from me?" I perked up.

"Ever since you arrived here, the knowledge of your world has been just beyond my grasp. The thought of having such a vast pool of knowledge kept just out of my reach is...maddening." Hermaeus Mora said, slowly.

"All you want is information on Remnant?" I asked, shocked at this sudden development.

"So that's what it's called...Remnant...such a fitting name for a world I know nothing of. But no, I do not just require simple information." Hermaeus Mora said, slowly.

"What do you want to know then?" I was unsure where this was heading.

"Everything." Hermaeus Mora said, in a slow but slightly harsh tone.

"Do you want me to just tell you everything I know, or how are you going to get the information?" I asked it. Him. Whatever it is.

"Your small mind can't hold all that is known and unknown about your world, or even this one. I require everything known and unknown. Supply me this, and you'll be richly rewarded." Hermaeus Mora said, slowly.

I didn't respond. The rest of my team was staring at me.

"I can see that you'll need some time to think about this. Very well. I will contact you again soon, but... I will be watching you four with even more detail now." Hermaeus Mora said, slowly.

And just as quickly as he/it appeared, he/it vanished into thin air. With that interesting event past us, we walked in silence out of Septimus' cave.

We hopped back on the "borrowed" boat and navigated the ice like a skier on a slalom, the prow swinging left and right at its own desires. Only a few minutes after we left, it seemed that the height of the college poked through the clouds, casting an ominous shadow upon us all. We hiked back up the mountain and back through the roads of Winterhold.

I casually stroll into the Arcaneum and walk towards Urag.

"Back so soon? What, was he dead or something?" Urag asked.

"No. I wanted to know if you know where Alftand is." I told him.

"Alftand? Why do you need to know where that is?" Urag asked.

"Because that's one of the places that Septimus told us to look." I told him, trying to hide the majority of the truth.

"Alright, it's southwest of here. Be careful though, the majority of it has collapsed into the glacier. Heck, I'm not even positive if there's a way inside anymore." Urag said.

"Can you point it out on my map?" I ask him, pushing my map towards him.

"Sure." Urag said, taking my map.

After a minute of analyzing the map, Urag marked where he thought Alftand was.

"Even if it's not right where I marked, it should be somewhere near that area." Urag said, handing the map back to me.

"Thank you very much!" I tell him, as I make my way out.

"Now hold on just one moment!" Urag yelled as I began walking down the stairs.

I stopped and walked backwards. "Yes?"

"Those Dwarven ruins...they're always hiding something. Be careful and watch your back, never know when one of their automatons will jump out at ya." Urag said, sternly.

"Oh trust me, I know." I say to him, remembering the ruins I walked through to get here.

Urag grunted and waved me off, his reason for conversation spent.

"Alright we have the general area of Alftand." I tell my team, circling around the place on the map with my finger.

"'General area'?" Yang asked me.

"Well it's somewhere around that area." I told her.

"Okay, Weiss…" Yang trailed off, not convinced that we know where we're going.

We got to where Urag marked on the map and saw a single building off in the distance that was the style of the ruins we went through. We walked up and saw a partially destructed camp, a single burnt body stuck out of a collapsed tent. Buildings with collapsed roofs ringed the camp. When I stood on the edge of the crevasse, I saw a single standing building at the bottom and a couple collapsed ones. But what really caught my eye was the ruins poking out of the glacier. Two towers seemed to deny the advance of ice and stood out against the whitish-blue ice with their brass colored roofs and dark grey walls.

"There's a path. Let's head down it." Blake said, pointing at a wooden bridge descending into the glacier. And so we walked down the path and into the glacier, treading lightly across the old bridge.

/AN: Sup guys! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! My friends and I will be taking a quick break over the weekend, but after that, the normal schedule should resume. See you guys in the next chapter! (Which should be the longest one yet!)