Into Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 8 Nirn's Beta-Chapter 109: Gwenn’s story?

---Viree---

Yanking my hammer from the dragons skull was a tad difficult. I had really got it stuck in its head. Vek might be pissed that I destroyed the skull. Though he already has one, "Do you think Vek needs two dragon skulls?"

Stephan looked at me, "What?"

I shrugged, "Ah, nothing."

I looked backwards at Gwenn. She was wheezing from the effort of fighting the dragon. Some older mage to the side spoke, "Who are you people? We appreciate the help, but your help came out of no where with everything we needed."

I looked at him, "Who are you?"

He held out a hand, "I am Tolfdir, lead lecturer here at the college and a scholar of alteration."

I nodded, how much would Vek explain? I shook his hand and introduced myself. "I am Viree companion of the man who is currently speaking with the... uh..."

Gwenn came to my rescue, "The Psijic Order."

I nodded, "Yes, them. He is the leader of the information guild in Solitude, but acts as an adventurer and merchant across skyrim." I pointed to Stephan, "He is like Vek and Gwenn, but lacks any of the additional knowledge they do. At least from what I understand of them. The other woman there is Illia she is a stray Vek took in to help in the information guild. She is traveling with us because she didn't want to head to Solitude alone. As for the last person here."

Kyne was complicated, how much do I reveal about him? Vek would want that information cost money. "I suppose I can't say much that he is a good man. Anything more than that I think Vek would want you to pay for."

Kyne shook his head, "The idea of Vek using my destiny to make money is madness. Though I suppose I can't blame him." Kyne held out his hand, "I am the Dragonborn, I was just starting my journey to understand my bloodline when your college here got in trouble."

I rolled my eyes, "Any way I am going to check on Vek."

I walked away from the forming conversation. I peeked into the lecture hall where Vek was talking. It seemed he was making the Order sign a contract. I remember the one he had me sign. Honestly at this point it really didn't matter to me.

I leaned against the wall until Gwenn walked over. "Is uh, your friend still inside?"

I nodded, "Why do you ask?"

She rubbed her hands, "He scares me." She looked down as she said that. Though she met my eyes again to continue. "Anyway, you know what we are right?"

I looked at the girl with some curiosity. When I was younger I wanted to learn magic like my father. I likely would've been very similar to Gwenn if I hadn't caught Lycanthropy. I nodded, "Yeah, you are another Player. Like Vek, but you are less knowledgeable right?"

Gwenn nodded, she paused and looked at Stephan. "Stephan is nice, but he clearly isn't someone I can tell this too. I can't explain it, but he just doesn't seem like he knows the world, the settings and plot of... This feels weird."

I gave her a genuine smile, not one of Vek's insincere ones. "Take your time, even if I don't understand I can just ask. Vek came clean after... he filled me in here and there. You are good to talk."

Gwenn nodded and sat slumped against the wall. "I played the original games, almost all of them. Though that was only one series of games I played while I was being treated. Like I was born malformed, it gave my parents a lot of stress so i was in and out of the hospital for treatment plans and stuff like that. Eventually I was offered a position in this program. The program helped me greatly, but later I realized my parents had sold me to the program. They were, like, paid millions of the currency of Earth."

I got the idea she was providing me, "Earth is the player's home right? Also was everyone in this program getting treated for something."

Gwenn nodded, "I remember Vek, before coming here. He never spoke to anyone just watching. I didn't know his name, but his eyes. I don't like to speak bad about people. Specially since I don't remember much else about my life before. I think we are all like that, The Players."

I remembered something Vek mentioned in the past. How he didn't care about his past, just what he could achieve with the knowledge he had now. I understood where Gwenn was going. "You think he knows more than he should?"

Gwenn paused thinking about it. "Something like that. I played the games and I even watched some livestreams play a bit of ESO."

I stopped her before she continued, "What is ESO?"

Gwenn winced, "That is like really hard to explain without context. To put it simply the program the players took part in was a sort of test run for a new version of ESO. ESO it self is like multiple players running around in one game."

I processed her words, "So the normal games have one player and this ESO is more than one."

Gwenn nodded and I took that information in. "Divines, you players really make no sense in a lot of ways. Continue on though."

Gwenn returned to before my question. "Like, Vek seems way more self-assured. I can't put it into words, it is li-"

She shifted gears, "I was raised here, in the college. I have all sort of memories of be a kid learning magic from the teachers. I watched members of the college come and go. Suddenly when my 15th birthday came, i woke up! Like I was finally possessing my own body. With all those memories and years of my life. I thought I had integrated into my life here."

She looked into the Lecture Hall. "Vek, feels like a resident. Urag gro-shub is like a father to me, and yet he always felt foreign. Vek gives that same feeling."

I nodded, I wasn't normally the one to piece things together. However I picked up on how Vek lead people to his conclusions. "You are talking about his Prescence. Some kind of confidence about the word around him?"

Gwenn nodded emphatically, "Exactly! It makes my spine shiver. Which brings me to why I am talking to you."

I put all the pieces together even the a little bit Gwenn like didn't think about. "You want to discuss being a player. However you are frightened by Vek, and Stephan seems out of his depth. So you talk to me in order to bridge information between you and Vek. The problem you find with this though is you don't know how to explain things to me in a way I can pass on to Vek."

Gwenn shook with agreement. "Yes! Like I saw him clearly use magic I am not familiar with. How does he craft spells. How did he know how to absorb mana with the Staff of Magnus? Just a tiny bit of the things I've seen are wildly different the what I know."

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

I didn't know how to take in her questions. So I just let her ramble on, I could tell them all to Vek later.

------

I slowly made my way to the door to outside. I was heavily over-encumbered by the loot I scammed off the Psijic Order. I still hated them and left them with some choice parting words as I watched them steal the eye of magnus from me.

I pushed open the door and Gwenn jumped back. "Oh!" She darted away as she waved to Viree. "I'll talk later!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Making friends?"

Viree shrugged, "She is scared of you. I think she senses mana like you. So she was asking me questions she wanted to know as a player. I'll tell them to you later and I can pass them on."

I raised an eyebrow, "I was just told sensing mana is rare. You really think so?"

Viree laughed, "I am, she jerked when you got close to the door. I couldn't hear you so she didn't notice you from usual methods. I bet if you wrap something in mana and toss it to Stephan he will react to it before it hits him. I think all the players might sense mana."

I nodded along it wasn't a bad theory. "Perhaps on a low level. Stephan would likely react, but he doesn't use magic. So a better theory might be that those that picked mana first have higher sensitivity to it. Anyway, how were things out here?"

Viree looked at the corpse of the dragon. "Smashed its skull open, I think I damaged Volendrung doing it. So if you could check it out later."

I held out a hand and she passed me the hammer. "Whoa, yeah you managed to crack the thing."

She smirked feeling victorious from the possibility. I passed Volendrung back, "Keep using it for now I was going to try and reforge the thing anyway. So if it does break it will just be easier to smelt down."

She nodded, "After we killed the dragon the Tolfdir guy introduced himself. After some explaining I walked over here to wait for you while he talked to the others."

That was simple enough, "Anyone die?"

She shrugged, "Surprisingly no, well not yet at least."

I met Viree's gaze and followed it to Mirabelle. She had a hole in her stomach and I frowned. So she survived, but during the dragon fight her stomach was pierced. "I don't think she will die. Not yet at least."

Viree shrugged, "Yeah the mages didn't seem to concerned. I assume you want to stay here?"

I rubbed the back of my head, "Yeah. I think I will give some of those extra scrolls to Stephan and Kyne so they can go back to High Hrothgar."

Viree nodded, paused, and frowned. She sighed, "You want me to use one too don't you."

I laughed, "No, I thought about sending you since I can trust you to get here quickly. However looking at Illia I think she might want to stay here in the College. Works out for me since I can convince her to do what I want for the greater good of Winterhold."

Viree smiled, "Good, I didn't really want her to join us in Solitude."

I looked at Viree curiously and glossed over her weird jealousy. "Originally I wanted to Illia to be a guard of the winking skeever and the guild. Except from Sorex's letters he seems to be handling the security extremely well. So having her here, I think we can use her presence along with Gwenn to restore Winterhold. I can also trade magical supplies freely with the college."

Viree gave me a smirk, "You want to use her identity as a witch. By telling her that you think she should stay behind and try to change the opinion of the Winterhold citizens you leverage an idea of redemption on her?"

I smirked back, "You are starting to understand exactly how I think." I patted her head and her face flushed.

"I try my best to think about what you want. I owe you a lot and I, uh, just like working with you." Viree was embarrassed.

I let out a chuckle, and she quickly snapped back and changed the subject. "So what did you do with the Psijic Order."

I sighed, "They really wanted the Eye of Magnus. They didn't want violence and I could've killed them. However telling that they likely would've sent additional members to hunt me down it wasn't worth it. So I scammed them out of their artifacts and research notes. Oh, speaking of, remind me to send a letter to our operation down in Riften. I got them to give me some of their Domino Pigs. If we breed them right we can have some tasty magic filled bacon."

Viree liked that idea and nodded, "Sounds great! Why does a magic secret order own pigs?"

I shrugged, "Apparently they sell them as pets. I think that is just ridiculous though."

Viree nodded rapidly, "Of course! Why wouldn't you want bacon. Anything else as great as that?"

I shook my head, "Nothing that would be of extreme interest for you." I laughed a little and continued, "i did get about 17 separate artifacts from them."

Viree blinked, "Just for that big magic orb?"

I laughed, "The Orb is an Artifact of Aurbical force. Meaning it can transfer information across Nirn cycles. Combine that with it being an infinite magic source, which is why I wanted it. The Eye of Magus would make any research foam at the mouth. For those self-righteous rats, they were willing to just let the thing go off and destroy winterhold to get their hands on it."

Viree blinked, "Wha-What?"

I nodded, I knew what made her stutter. "Yup, that is why they gave the task of saving the day to Gwenn. If she failed they get the artifact, if she succeeds they get the artifact. After all what is a teenager going to do with it?"

Viree's face scrunched, "No wonder you wanted us to leave."

I nodded and continued, "That isn't even the worst thing they have done. That's them being passive. The Psijic order has been manipulated by Potema the Wolf Queen, Gave birth to the Arch-Lich Mannimarco, and finally they helped in the genocide of the Sload. Which was good, the Sload were evil bastards. However it had some serious environmental effects."

Viree let me ramble so after a slight pause I got back on track. "The loot I got wasn't bad though. Some of the loot was is for later use, and some have some uses right away. The important ones right now is the Pillow of Sweet Dreams, Dreamworld Amulet and the Mentor's Ring. Before you ask, they are for accessing the dreamscape."

Viree blinked, "Oh? For me?"

I nodded, that would be a basic test of sorts. We would return to it when it was time to sleep. "As for the other items, I acquired some items that will be of varying use. This list consists of the Bipolar Blade, The Chest of Condemnation, The Ever-filling Chalice as well as the Frostbreak Chalice, The last artifact of these items is the Crown of Freydis."

Viree nodded, "Since you mentioned two chalices I am going to go ahead and guess you are going to combine those items with other things?"

I gave a nod of my own, "Which leaves the last category of artifacts. Which contains, The Thrassian Stranglers, The Ring Cascadia, The Bloodworm Helm, Barilzar's Mazed Ring, The Inescapable Helm, The Shadowcutter blade, The Lantern of Lies, Nuzava's Anvil which by the way is waying me down. Finally the piece I am most proud of weaseling! The once living sword! Umbra! Hahaha! Seriosuly I didn't expect to get that one."

Viree looked at me, "What is Umbra?"

I stared at her and sighed, "Don't worry about it, it is a long history."

She laughed, "So i am just saying this out of concern. Half those items don't sound very good."

I nodded, "That's because most of them are cursed. Which is why I got such a great deal."

Viree looked around and I joined her in the action. Everyone was splitting up. Tolfdir walked over to us, "We've all talked about it and the College is happy to let you spend some rest here. Even give you the title of honorary members if you want."

I nodded, "We would appreciate that greatly. Do you mind we do some tests?"

He shrugged, "That's no problem at all. However I think Urag wanted to speak with you."

He pointed at me, I figured this would come up. I really wish the old man just hadn't noticed that I had stolen all those spell tomes. I paused, "Can I talk with the Augur of Dunlain?"

He raised an eyebrow, "You are a curious man. He is in the midden, speak with him if you want. However just know it isn't likely he will speak with you. Archmage Gwenn told me that he was unhappy speaking with her."

Clever old man, "Thanks, I'll remember that."

Viree blinked, "Oh? Archmage? Good for her."

Tolfdir nodded and wandered off. "Let's get settled in for the night Viree. Best to try out my plan with the dreamscape quickly."

I looked at Viree and her face was red. The big smile on her face concerned me. "What's with that look?"

She reddened more, "Ah, its nothing."