บท 480: Of Ice and Fire...?

It's been a couple days since the Eye of the World's activation, Michael had gotten Enthir to get in touch with the Thieves Guild and give him a run down of the current military and political climate. Where he learned, much to his surprise, that Whiterun had actually join hands with the Imperials. Something that didn't happen in the game until much later.

Somehow this still resulted in Ulfric being captured and tried in Helgen, where he learned about the dragon attack there. Michael would need to visit Whiterun and see if the Dragonborn had turned up and accepted the quest from Farengar yet. Otherwise he might have to push things in the right direction himself.

If the Dragonborn never learned of Alduin resurrecting dragons and never met Delphine then he had no idea what else would change. Without the word wall that showed the use of Dragonrend the Dragonborn would never seek our the Elderscroll, would never meet Paarthurnax, and would never be able to defeat Alduin.

There was also Miraak to think about... He didn't know if the Veil would stop the First Dragonborn from entering Tamriel and beginning his plan to conquer it. Nor did he know how powerful a full-fledge Dragonborn who'd absorbed the souls of many dragons and studied for thousands of years in Hermaeus Mora's realm would be. He certainly wouldn't be weak, he knew that much.

Michael rubs his face in exasperation, he'd stayed out of all of this because he didn't want to be involved. Yet, he might have to step in anyway, otherwise he'd have to grab his friends and hop to another world again...

To make things worse, he'd received many 'mildly angry' letters from all over Tamriel. He'd only gotten the ones for Skyrim and Cyrodil, but he was sure those from Morrowind, Blackmarsh, and the Summerset Isles would arrive soon enough.

Most were from angry Conjuration Mages who'd essentially been made useless due to the Veil... While they could still summon basic objects, summoning anything Daedra related was impossible... Even Conjured Weapons wasn't working anymore due to the weapons themselves containing lesser Daedric spirits.

One school of magic was completely destroyed by him alone... The only person who could still use the school was Tiffania, whose Void magic allowed her to bypass any barriers, be they god-made or not.

He tosses twenty or so death threats into the nearby fireplace and looks at the more official-looking ones. There were a few by members of the College of Whispers in Cyrodil, which demanded him to cease operation of the Spire immediately, with many threats interspersed throughout them.

On the other hand, the single letter from the Synod congratulated and thanked him for ridding Tamriel of the more vile magics, even going so far as to invite him to join then... He wouldn't of course, as he'd heard the Arch-Mage cursing them out more than once due to their boot-licking of nobles. He wouldn't be hostile with them however, even if he did kill a few Synod members in that Dwemer ruin... Come to think of it, the artifact map might be completely useless now that the Eye of the World was activated...

Continuing to look through the pile of letters on his desk, he finds one that was printed with the black hand of the Dark Brotherhood. Inside he's greeted with a surprisingly pleasant response by the Brotherhood's leader, Astrid, who'd been made aware of the deal struck between him and the Night Mother.

The letter warned of the literal hundreds of Black Sacraments performed in an attempt to have him murdered... The locations of which were located both in and outside of Skyrim, which wasn't too surprising. Some even attempted to have his friends assassinated, making him thankful that he'd dealt with this problem before it'd even started.

The letter did contain some... 'Between the lines' things too, Astrid essentially trying to get in his good books while subtly depreciating the rest of the Brotherhood members. He knew she'd betray the Brotherhood at some point, but was she already planning it? To be honest, he'd rather the loyal Brotherhood members stay in charge under the Night Mother as they literally couldn't touch him.

Lastly, Astrid mentioned that these attempted murderers would probably take matters into their own hands once they realised that the Dark Brotherhood refused their attempts. She offered assistance in that regard, but he writes back a polite refusal, sure he could deal with it himself.

Finally, he dumps the rest of the letters into the fireplace and leaves, deciding to check out some mild concerns that people in Winterhold were beginning to have... Apparently, the weather was far, far colder than usual, with some even claiming that their spit freezes before it hits the ground.

Michael already had suspicions about what this was, especially since reports of Ice Wraiths were becoming more common. Tiffania said she'd found some strange budding plants too, confirming that the excess magicka from the Eye of Magnus was responsible.

He couldn't really do anything about it, unfortunately, so he'd just have to get the Eredar's help in constructing magic lamps that'd heat Winterhold while using the magic from the Eye as an energy source.

To be honest, the only people that were affected by the increasingly harsh temperatures were those who worked outside, or the few homeless people who lived there. The Eredar had done a marvellous job in utilising their Gem Crafting to upgrade the town, making every citizen here live like a king compared to the rest of Skyrim.

As Michael is walking around and surveying Winterhold, he's stopped as a Courier who looked completely unaffected by the weather. "Hey, got some mail for you. Here you go, that's all for now!"

...

Michael looks down at the slightly burned letter, "Why is it singed...?"

The courier doesn't say anything and simply jogs away, ignoring Michael entirely.

...

Shaking his head, he opens the letter and pales slightly, "Half of Dawnstar has been burned by a Dragon...? What of the ballistae!?" he questions, knowing that there were around fifteen Skyrend ballistae in Dawnstar...