章 18: MADNESS

[3rd Person POV]

The night of the second day of the tournament was cheerful and many people started to celebrate after witnessing the amazing fights of the day.

Two fights made the people of Solitude lose their minds. Argir Swift-Hilt vs Ongeim Scar-Mouth were too blood boiling. Many young boys after that match wanted to learn the ways of both junior warriors.

But the second match was too flashy that it covered the hype of the first match. Magic as a dreadful force in Nord eyes was the cause of many misfortunes. The Oblivion crisis when the Daedric prince Mehrunes Dagon tried to enter the realm of Nirn was caused by extremist mages, the Great War was against the High Elves who are also mages, adding to that the great collapse that destroyed Winterhold and left nothing behind except for the college of mages.

These events made Magic in Skyrim a dreadful force and any Nord who associated himself with magic to be alienated and shunned by icebrain Nord societies such as Windhelm.

But today's matter was another deal. A young man called Jon from team 'White Wolves' challenged a boy from the college whose name was Rusning.

Jon and Rusning were both Nords and they used magic in beautiful ways.

Jon used summons to counter his opponent's dominant element and trapped him again and again, Rusning was not bad either, his only disadvantage was that his opponent was too capable and too cunning.

Rusning ability to spam spells and control the fight against multiple summons and a caster showed how very capable this young mage was.

When people who knew of magic started explaining to common folk how refind the match was people started to take a new idea of mages.

Mages were capable of destruction yet their way of fighting was never this refined or beautiful in others eyes.

A mage can easily blast his opponent sky high if his opponent was a warrior of an equal rank but two mages fighting made mages' matches much better than it normally used to look like.

The children who was admiring the first matches' warriors started worshiping the second matches' mages in their hearts secretly. One could not tell but the college's purpose of participating in the tournament this time was fulfilled in an unexpected way even though they lost their match.

*******************

In a particular manor near the Blue Palace of Solitude a tall woman wearing a sky blue robe was sitting on an expensive looking chair while looking at a young man wearing a deep blue robe.

Her gaze at him was emotionless but he was not looking back at her, he just looking to the ground while standing front of that woman.

"A wild mage! That's all we could find about him. An orphan from Riften that can use magic and barely left the orphanage a month ago was able to defeat a trained destruction mage from the college. What the f**k was that? Someone explain it to me." The tall woman was shouting, that was clearly Faralda.

The young man looked up and squeezed what's left of his courage to talk to his teacher "But master, his magic was so strong. You could see him able to control many atronachs and using conjuration to a strong degree. I couldn't have much space to breath." He said.

"That's all you have to say? Fine, then what about the duel, what the f**k was that, he was clearly an Apprentice rank mage, you are a Journeyman mage already, how could you lose that bad?" Faralda was shouting her lungs out at Rusning.

"I don't know master. I could press him at first but it was like pushing against a wall for a second then the wall started pushing back." Rusning said.

"A wall? Are you f**king kidding me? Why would a Nord let alone a wild mage would muster such a strong Magicka? He wasn't even a Breton for Oblivion's sake." Faralda was angry.

She stopped and looked at Rusning again then said "You failed the college, You failed me, and unless you atone, I'll deal with you when we return. Now get out."

Rusning turned around and left hastily.

After he walked out Faralda was huffing from anger and threw away the stuff on the end table next to her chairs.

Outside the room Rusning stood with a sad face, his friends from the Destruction major stood around him showing support. They were the two boys Holman and Svadall, and two girls Svefna and Jolma.

They were the best Nord students in the Destruction major, actually Rusning was better than many other students and was at the rank of Journeyman mage already.

"How is Faralda?" Jolma asked.

"In a scary mood." Rusning answered with heavy emotions. Faralda was his teacher and no matter how haughty that Altmer was, he never hated her.

"We really didn't see this one coming." Holman exclaimed.

"It's not strange for wild mages to exist but this one was truly powerful." Svadall said his judgement.

"How powerful was he?" Svefna asked.

"In terms of technique he is good as us, his casting speed and the speed of changing between spells were so refined." Rusning said "In terms of control, he is not lacking when it comes to Conjuration, his wards were very good too, but his Destruction is a bit hasty and uses too much Magicka."

Everyone went silent, there was a strange statement came from their friend.

"But if he used too much Magicka then he shouldn't have lasted this long against you let alone win a direct duel." Holman said.

"That's where I find it strange, I thought he would was away his magicka early and flatter in a direct duel but that was not the case, I pressed on him hard in the start and his spell fell to mine, you all saw that." Rusning said in a gloomy voice "But he suddenly felt like a wall, he stopped me and undid my spell with no effort at all."

"Mara's mercy!" Svefna took a step back and covered her mouth.

"What do you mean was he an elf or something?" Svadall made a strange face.

"It felt like that I was against one. His Magicka was bottomless and he was pushing me back with ease. Dueling against that guy is a mistake." Rusning said his understanding out loud.

"Then? How shall we atone for that defeat?" Jolma asked.

"That's my mess to worry about, but that was more than an eye opener for me. That guys' style is amazing, I'll send some people to check on his matches. In the meantime you guys go challenge people and win, make a name for our college and never underestimate anyone ever again, some hidden experts might pop up any second. One last thing, Never fail teacher Faralda." Rusning as the team captain regained his spirit and gave instructions.

""""Yes!"""" The other four shouted and left, Rusning looked towards the room he just walked out from and left.

Behind the door Faralda stood leaning her back to the door and smiling.

***********************

In an alleyway behind Solitude's hall of the dead stood a single figure covered with darkness. The figure was hiding its features and looking around in high alertness. Looking at the street outside the alley for a while then going back to hide again.

Every once in a while the figure would check outside the alleyway for something.

While the figure was going back to the alleyway, it bumped into something. The figure jumped in a fright and looked at what he bumped into. Sure enough it was another figure standing there that came out of nowhere.

The first figure was scared but controlled the fear within its heart, he was here from the very start to meet a person and here was the person.

The figure removed its face cover and it was none other than Sibbi Black-Briar. He looked pale and scared.

"You! You are one of those people? Mother have deals with you people? I- I- I ask for your peoples help." Sibbi talked in a shaking voice.

"We do, but we don't help." the other figure spoke in a voice of a young girl, yet it was full of wickedness and evil.

After hearing the voice Sibbi relaxed as he could tell that the voice was of someone of the same age but he turned stiff again, the person front of him was by no means ordinary if that person was sent by these people.

"Right, you don't, you get paid, sorry, do you need anything else?" Sibbi was scared as he handed over a purse of money.

"Keep your money. We take payment after we deliver." The girl replied.

"Fine, anything else?" Sibbi was starting to finally relax.

The figure stood silent for a while and kept staring at Sibbi. Sibbi who was just started to relax, broke into cold sweat again.

"What?" Sibbi cried in a low voice.

"Isn't there anything I need from you?" The girl asked.

"W- W- What is it?" Sibbi was scared but asked.

"I don't know, you are the one who called me for…. ?" The girl asked.

"Eh? Ah! To kill someone." Sibbi woke up from his panicking.

"Perfect answer! *clap* *clap*, and?" The girl mocked Sibbi.

"What else do you need from me?" Sibbi's stomach started to hurt him from fear.

"Obviously a name." The girl in darkness replied naturally.

Sibbi was stupefied. How could he forget such a thing?

"Ah! Yes, about that. He is a boy from Riften who came here to the tournament, an orphan with the name of Jon." Sibbi was hesitant but he spoke with hate once he got down to business, then he said "Kill him, the slower the better."

The assassin girl in the shadow raised her brows and thought 'That talented boy! He offended the Black-Briars?'

"Fine." The girl said while turning away, but she stopped and said "You know, I stood front of your mother once and I was with a senior of mine. The air she gave made me tremble, but for a Black-Briar, you are a pu**y."

Sibbi stood in a daze and as he could no longer retort to that person. She left after insulting him. Normally he would retort and make a fuss, but since that day, when he tried to play his tricks on that boy, he never became the same person once again. He could be domineering in front of people but it was all just a facade. He could never forget that shout. He was so traumatized by it that he never had a good sleep since.

He could barely hide from his siblings, he could hide it from his mother, but he knew he couldn't hide his fear forever, has had to face it.

But this year was the year, after he trained his heart and mustered enough courage to face that person, he would face him and kill him where he stands.

Yet life was cruel, he couldn't face him when he saw him, he could muster that courage he trained for long, all he could do was to challenge the other boy who always followed that person, he wanted to vent his anger and fear before he challenge the person, no the beast, the beast he has to slay.

He wanted to crush that boy, so he can face the final boss.

But reality was even crueler, he was defeated so bad against another orphan that he felt he would have to kill himself.

What did they feed them in that orphanage? Why did two monsters come out from such a place.

He could no longer tolerate it. First he need to find a way to kill these pests, he needed a killer.

The Black-Briars had many of those but his mother would find out, so he had to find someone else.

An assassin, his mother dealt with those people.

He knew about it, nearly the whole city had a rumor that Maven Black-Briar is in cahoots with the thieves and the assassins.

He would do that then.

He would call for them.

They will kill that beast for him.

He is rich and they take money.

Why was he so stupid and didn't do that before?

This is it. He was happy he could find it.

They always deliver.

Kill him.

KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILLHIM KILLHIM KILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIM.

KILL. HIM.