A Conjuror's journey

"Is this your attempt at prompting me to reveal my deep, dark secrets?" You ask teasingly, earning a snort in return. "Obviously I am growing rather advanced in age, so forgive me if some of my memories of events are a bit fuzzy."

"That's fine, it's not like I'm asking for a detailed history here." Louise responds, leaning forward in her seat.

Sitting back, you stroke your beard in contemplation. "I guess it begins with my first memory." You say, holding back a smirk. "I was born in the one hundred and forty fourth year of the Fourth Era. My mother had been ejected from Markarth a year before my birth and found refuge with my grandmother's... clan, I guess you could call say. I remember hearing her voice singing songs of the city she once called home. Sitting on her lap by the fire as she tells stories to the gathered children.... Then she was gone. I recall sitting on top of a cliff with my younger brother, Esmond, and the other children as the adults fought to clear out an old stone tower below. You see, a necromancer had taken residence in the tower and decided that she didn't like having neighbors. She would send large groups of skeletons to attack us in the night and drag away the bodies to be experimented on. Naturally, we took exception to that and spent the next six years in that tower with her body tied to the ramparts."

"That's barbaric!" Your apprentice exclaims, voice laden with disgust. "How could you live with a rotting corpse just sitting out in the open next to your home?"

Chuckling at that, you continue. "Well, it wasn't just rotting. You see, my grandmother was an accomplished mage and after the necromancer was slain... That was the day I started learning magic. We bound the woman's spirit to her body, leaving her to suffer through her decay for her transgressions against our family. For killing my mother. Let's not forget the carrion as well... But still, that first successful spell is what set me on my path. My unfortunate birth was a hindrance in my practice, leading many to suggest I leave the magic to the women and focus on more physical pursuits. Even my own brother thought me foolish for continuing what was, in his eyes, pointless study. Still, grandmother was always willing to teach an eager student and I am thankful for that."

Pausing to take a few bites of your meal, you see Louise eyeing you with a strange look. You suppose your story must sound familiar to her in some regard. "I spent those six years mastering the basic spells and theories that are common knowledge across Tamriel, along with my own people's brand of 'bush magic' as the more narrow minded wizards call it. You see, the Reachmen have always been inclined toward nature. Throughout history we have used magics to grow foods, rituals to call forth great storms, create natural barriers to hinder large armies, encourage the plants and animals to kill our enemies, and even resurrect the dead. I-"

"Wait! Resurrect the dead? You say that like it's special, but you mentioned some 'necromancer' attacking you with skeletons... and what about my familiar?"

Shaking your head, you explain. "No, necromancy is creating an undead servant or conjuring ghosts. What I mean by resurrection is that, with the proper ritual, we can truly bring someone back to life. It requires a special ingredient and the only one I have has... sentimental value... I would not use it if I had a choice. Also, do not forget that the familiar you summoned would be a bisected corpse if not for me reanimating it, so that is still necromancy."

"Now, where was I... Ah. Those six years were some of the best in my life; constantly learning new things, helping my grandmother prepare potions or heal wounded warriors, creating a towering monster out of wood and vines to scare the other children when they were mean, and one time I snuck into Markarth to see the place my mother had lived in." You eat the rest of your meal as your apprentice gets more and more annoyed at the lull in conversation. Just as she is about to say something, you speak up. "To my childish eyes the city of Markarth was a wonder. Towering white stone building, doors and decorative inlays made of golden Dwemer metals, waterfalls leaving rainbows in the air as they rush over toward the ground from above the tallest towers... and all this carved into the very mountain itself, a massive wall with equally massive gates. I could see why my mother had loved the place, it was truly beautiful back then before... but the people... Nords as a whole have never been very accepting of foreigners in Skyrim, especially elves... which extended to Bretons and the Reachmen for some Nords. Luckily my childhood was over long before distrust turned to hatred and violence or that might have been my last day among the living."

"But why? How could they hate anyone as much as the elves?" Louise asks, looking somewhat disturbed at the notion. "I can't even see hating Zerbst that much and she's a Germanian trollop that always made fun of me!"

Laughing at that, you elaborate. "To put it simply, my people are not fully human. Bretons and Reachmen are the same physically, just not culturally. Most who call themselves Bretons would sooner claim to be an albino Redguard than an 'mongrel'. Semantics aside, the two groups of people are the product of many generations of interbreeding between Nordic slaves and their Elven masters since the First Era. The Reachmen, having been around since the first voyages to the continent of Tamriel have extended their... couplings to include Imperials, Daedra, and Orsimer... probably some Dunmer in recent generations since Red Mountain's eruption forced them to flee to Skyrim."

"So... you're part elf?" The girl asks quietly, doing a poor job at subtly looking around the room. You really should teach her more about the Daedric Lords if she is more concerned by your relation to elves than Daedra.

"That was many, many, many generations ago... It would not be an exaggeration to say that I am more closely related to Sanguine than I am to any elves... well, maybe an Orc on my father's side, but once again, I digress. Markarth had opened my eight year old mind to the idea that there was more to the world than the canyons and valleys of the Reach. I saw traders from Solitude bringing Imperial clothing, Redguard women peddling gems as big as my fist, an Orc blacksmith selling Arms and Armor... There were so many new sights and sounds and smells. By the time I remembered to go home, father had gathered a search party to hunt down 'my kidnappers'." You chuckle at the memory of his face when you made up an excuse about a troll. "Esmond never let go of the fact that he was not invited when I told him about the city."

Louise follows your lead when you rise to leave, dropping an ecu in the waitress' hand as you pass. "Two years later, everything fell apart. Esmond was captured by a group of bandits while hunting with our father and uncle, who were both murdered during the attack. Grandmother, in desperation, made a pact with the Old Gods for power. Offering a captured bandit as a human sacrifice, the corpse of a skeever, and a set of carefully arranged soulgems, she sacrificed her ability to influence nature and power is what she received in turn. Transformed into a Hagraven, my grandmother used her frightful new power to revive the two men as Briar-hearts... I can still remember her rasping voice as she cut out my father's heart. 'Heart of thorn... bones of the wild... in life, Forsworn... rise from death, Blood of our Blood.' Unfortunately, this ritual is intended for resurrecting fallen warriors in times of great need, greatly improving their strength and vitality at the cost of dulling their gentler emotion over time, slowly driving them to care for nothing but battle. I doubt she had that ritual in mind before she was changed... but most Daedra care not for the intentions of mortals, so they turned her into an uncaring monster."

"The children seemed to take the whole event as another reason to antagonize me. Nepos liked to complain about how the bandits took the wrong brother, but the girls were even worse with Silvia making 'heartless' puns whenever I was around and Moira creeping me out with her constant heavy breathing, following me around, and staring at me when she thought I would not notice. I am fairly sure she was going to murder me in my sleep. Either way, with my father obsessed over finding Esmond, the other children being their usual selves, and my kind grandmother turned into a cruel taskmaster... well, there was nothing to encourage me to stay and a whole world waiting for me to exploit... er- explore." Turning, you see that Louise appears unaware of your slip of the tongue. In fact, she's barely listening at all as she stares at the passing countryside below.

The rest of the flight passes in silence and you spend the next two weeks-

Choose 2:
[] Disenchanting your new sword.

[] Building an Oblivion gate.

[] Continuing Louise's training.

[] Assassinating and reanimating influential members of Tristain's government as thralls.

[] Raising Chaurus and Frostbite spiders with Cattleya.

[] Write in.

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Chose 1 if option three is not chosen:
[] Have Louise practice what you've already taught her.

[] Write out a translation of some Shouts you've heard, Louise can meditate on during her free time. She should be able to Shout in a few years if she works at it.

[] Have Louise assist you, she can learn while helping.

[] Write in.

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A/N: Couldn't write out a whole chapter about petty complaints, so you get this instead.

Over the next two weeks you work at unraveling the strange enchantments on your new sword and attempt to divine their creator's reasoning.

You discovered that the blade is enchanted with three primary effects; self repair via magicka absorption, an interesting new variation on teleportation, and some form of binding that holds an elemental such as an atronach... most likely something similar to a storm atronach, seeing as how damaging somebody's magicka is a lightning effect.

Annoying screams of terror and pain echoed throughout the manor for days as you struggled to unmake the sword's magic. The strong absorptive quality of the blade made the disenchanting rather difficult, as it would use your magicka to repair half of the work you did. Luckily, your apprentice makes a fine assistant and was able to provide you with the necessary raw power to undo that enchantment and move on to the rest. The teleportation, while useful in theory due to it's less ostentatious display upon casting, was useless in actual application. The spell seemed to have no set destination, causing it to merely disappear from the table and reappear on the floor between the two of you when activated. When you undid the last enchantment, the sword crumbled to pieces in a column of light.

Still, with the basic architecture of each enchantment memorized, you spent the next ten days contemplating the reasoning behind why the spells may have been used. Obviously being able to block spellfire is a useful ability and using the absorbed magicka in maintaining your gear is a good bit of foresight, but why use that ability on an offensive tool instead of a defensive on such as armor or a shield? The only reasoning the two of you can think of is if the creator wanted to completely destroy their enemies very essence and was unaware of the separation between magicka and the soul... possibly a precursor to Soultrap enchanted weapons? The teleportation was likely a failed attempt at an emergency escape method in case of injury, but the enchanter must have either forgotten a destination or they were interrupted during the blade's creation. As for the binding, they were rather successful in creating what could be classified as a Daedric sword... an talkative one rather than malevolent, but it still counts.

Of course, you didn't just sit and meditate for two weeks.

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"What is it?" Your apprentice asks as the two of you approach her sister. Cattleya had taken to frolicking in the gardens with her assorted pets, prompting you to use this as an opportunity to hatch some monsters.

Handing the egg over, you pull out a different kind. "That, my dear, is a chaurus egg and this is a Frostbite spider's."

Almost tripping as whipped her head back toward you, she stutters, "S-s-spider?!" You nod indulgently. "But, but it's as big as my fist! How many spiders are in there?"

"One." You smirk.

Your apprentice's hysterical and repeated shouts of 'One?!' attracts the elder pinkette's attention. Jogging over and picking her shuddering sister up into a hug, she pets the girl's hair and looks at you questioningly.

"Giant spiders." You say, holding out the egg.

With a chuckle, she carries Louise the rest of the distance into the garden and you reclaim the other egg. Setting the two in the grass, you pull out a flask of water. "I shall wait to hatch the spider until I can instruct the two of you on casting a calming spell." You say, pouring a few drops onto the chaurus egg. As you wait for the little insect to hatch, you inform the girls about the species. "Back home, the Falmer domesticated chaurus and use them as livestock. These bugs, while primarily raised for their strong chitin and their use as potion ingredients, can grow large enough to serve as mounts and make excellent 'guard dogs' due to their keen senses."

Clapping with glee at you description, Cattleya asks, "Oh they sound marvelous, but how do we train them? I've never kept an insect for a pet."

"Much like a duckling, it will imprint on those it spends the first few weeks of it's like with. I have raised a few for their eggs and antennae back home... I never tried to raise the spiders, since raiding their nests was more convenient, so I am unsure if they can be trained." You explain as the egg shakes for several moments before it bursts in a shower of green slime.

The little monster's mandibles shiver as it lets out a trill and Louise faints. With a shrug, you pull out the other five chaurus eggs and prepare them as well.

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"Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!" Louise shrieks as she flails and attempts to run away from the foot-long chaurus that had crawled onto her shoulder.

Seeing that your attempt at recreating the sword's enchantments will have to wait, you follow your fleeing apprentice as she races down the halls. The servants you pass attempt to hide their snickering, so you pretend not to notice. Other than a few minor outbursts of abject terror, the staff have adjusted well to the presence of your new livestock. After two days of feeding large fish to the insects, they have more than tripled in size and will soon start developing their signature plated carapace and glowing spots.

Eventually you find the crying teen latched onto her sister, who had apparently rescued her from the curious larva. "I am beginning to think that you do not like insects." You say, walking out into the garden. "You do realize that we keep the spiders out here, yes?"

Of course, this prompts the girl to run screaming into the house.

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"See, they aren't that bad." You hear Cattleya's voice through the door. After a week and a half of Louise's fearful reactions interrupting your work, you requested for the elder sister to help her get over her irrational fear of insects. Honestly, the girl wouldn't last a week in Tamriel if she ran screaming at every large bug.

Opening the door, you can only say one word. "What."

Looking at you with innocent eyes, Cattleya gently lowers the second bewitched spider onto her bound and gagged sister's stomach. "She wouldn't sit still long enough for a demonstration." As if that made this scene acceptable.

Once more, you remind yourself that being bedridden for much of her life is what made her strange, not interference from the Mad God... you hope. "O-okay..." Is all you can manage, looking into Louise's eyes and mouthing the word 'sorry' as she screams into the cloth gag.

Backing out into the hall and closing the door, you head for the kitchen in search of a snack before heading back to your studies.

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So it is, two weeks since purchasing a magic sword, that you believe you fully understand the process and reasoning behind creating said sword. Tomorrow, you will-

Choose 1:
[] Enchant some new robes with this new enchantment.

[] Have Louise use this new enchantment on her sword-wand with your guidance.

[] Assassinate the girls' father and reanimate him as a thrall.

[] Purchase armor for the zombie.
[]Send Louise after the Manticore
[] Write in.

"Meal time is over, come with me." You say to your apprentice as you pass through the dining hall. Confused but obedient, the girl sets aside her lunch and follows.

Striding through the halls until you reach the entrance to the freshly emptied cellar, you usher Louise inside and bar the door. Channeling magicka to the Daedric runes that you carved into the corners and ceiling this morning, you activate the minor barrier to separate this room from ambient magicka, not even strong enough to block a Light Orb, but fortification wards are unnecessary anyway. Retrieving her sword from it's sheath, you etch the Dovahzul words 'grunz' for prison, the Ehlnofex 'Vvarden' meaning shield, and the Daedric runes for home. Heating the blade with flames until it begins to glow, you quench the metal by squeezing the blood from a Dremora's heart and hand it back to the perplexed teen.

"I have prepared your weapon for housing a lesser daedra. Hopefully, through the use of languages that have powerful tonal implications and the blood of a powerful daedra, I have created a strong enough magical connection to compensate for the weak material of the blade. Prepare yourself, for once I have summoned the unbound creature, you must soultrap the beast and immediately vanquish it before it can resist." You explain, settling down in a comfortable position to cast your mind about the the 'nearby' realms for the feeling of void that every lightning elemental has.

"What? Why are we doing this?" Your apprentice demands with a hand on her hip.

Closing your eyes, you respond with, "You are enchanting your new weapon with the enchantment we have bee working on for the past fourteen days."

You can almost feel her frowning at your explanation. "But why is this different than all the other times we enchanted stuff?"

"We are essentially creating an enchanted Daedric sword. This is the best and only way to craft a weapon with the potential to become self-aware such as the sword that we destroyed. An ordinary sword could be enchanted to drain magicka, it could be enchanted to use your enemies blood to increase in as you slaughter more and more foes, it could be enchanted to be tougher or sharper, it could be enchanted to serve only those you would deem worthy, so on and so forth... It could not drain magicka from incoming spells to protect it's wielder, use that magicka to repair itself intelligently, or bond with you to the point that it can potentially assist you in battle by guiding your hand or activating secondary enchantments." You lecture as you attempt to focus on selecting a target for conjuration. Most of the nearby realms of Oblivion seem to be lacking in magically exotic creature, possessing a feeling of mostly mundane nature.

"If it's so useful, why isn't this a more common practice? I've never heard of this being done before." She refutes.

Sighing at the interruption, you say, "You also were taught to blow up potions and wave sticks in the air like a madwoman." You point out, earning a 'harrumph' noise in return. "Daedric smithing has a tendency to be dangerous and expensive. Normally, they require an ebony ingot to be forged in Daedra blood fueled flames on a specific phase of the moon, but we were lucky to find a work around. Once the creature is captured, you will use the same binding spell that was on the other sword to essentially wipe the creatures soul of all memory before it was housed in the blade... now may I get back to finding the blasted thing so we can get on with it already?"

No longer listening to whatever her response might have been, you focus on searching for a proper target. Oblivion being an infinite number of realms that are themselves infinite in size and outside the influence of time or distance, there really is no way to measure how 'close' the 'nearby' realms are other than how their laws of reality compare to your current realm's. Obviously you want to chose a being that can actually exist in this environment, so you are able to narrow your search in that manner, but you still are forced to what is essentially blind gropping in the dark... This is why mages conjure from planes they are familiar with or use tools for seeking out new realms. Full astral projection is one of the things you've always coveted of those without your cursed birthsign hampering their casting.

At sundown, you finally manage to find your target. With a surge or magicka, you envelope the beast in a swirling maelstrom of indigo as you tear it from it's home. What greets you when the spell finishes is a large yellow rodent with odd markings on it's face. Before you can study the strange static emiting spots on the mouse's cheeks, a silvery steel spike erupts from it's eye as Louise gives a cry of effort and lifts the creature into the air on her blade.

You watch as she flings the corpse away and sets the blade down on the floor. Over the next ten minutes, your apprentice endures randomly arcing bolts of lightning as she weaves her magic over the shaking sword. Suddenly everything stops and the girl sags in relief, quickly falling asleep as you inspect her work. The enchantments seem to be stable, though given the nature of the daedra used, you doubt that it will gain intelligence anytime soon without absorbing large amounts of magicka. Looking about the room, you find the bloody carcass of the rodent and decide to skin it and preserve it's parts for testing. You're disappointed to find that it's bones seem to have very little void salts in them, but at least you have a replacement daedra heart for the one you used.

Carrying Louise up to her room, you tuck her into bed and take the sword with you for observation. Following your apprentice's example, you decide to go to bed early as well.

Choose 1:
[] You should probably work on obtaining a sigil stone for when you build a gate, who knows when you might need to leave this plane.

[] Your chaurus will soon need bigger food-

[] Louise needs some combat experience.

[] You really ought to meet this supposed fiance that your apprentice mentioned.

[] Write in.