Dragonborn Saga

Chapter 601 - The Psijic Monk

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Today was an unfriendly day to Alina. She woke up earlier than anyone with messy hair and a drowsy head, submerged herself in warm water, ate breakfast on her own at the same time when Jon walked out of bed, kissed him goodbye, and headed out to the College.

It is this day of the week again when she has to attend the College and teach a class.

Despite the fact that she has striking popularity as the youngest College teacher and one of the most advanced tutors in both theory and practice, her class was only made of a handful of students.

Compare that to her Arch-Nemesis, the teacher who only has to attend once a month and turns the entire college upside down when he shows up for class, her husband Jon.

She explains complex theories, solves unimaginable equations, delves into arcane mysteries, and broadens the horizon of everyone in her class with her experience.

On the other hand, Jon starts his class by cracking a few jokes, telling a story about how awesome he is, puts on a magic show, tells everyone to spread love and peace as he walks out amidst their fanatical cheers.

"ARGH!" She banged her head against the table she was sitting at along with Faralda, Laaneth, and Nirya.

"Your husband again?" Nirya asked.

"I hate this." Alina felt out of energy as she didn’t even want to complain anymore.

Her teaching career is just impossible with someone like Jon acting like everyone’s favorite rockstar.

"It told you before, didn’t I? Not everyone enjoys being crammed up with arcane knowledge as if their heads can absorb it all. Not everyone is as smart as you are." Faralda said.

"And let’s not forget that Jon is teaching the journeyman class. His teachings are all about practical real-life experience and he is not the academic type such as you are." Laaneth added.

"We are in an academy! Why is it wrong to be the academic type?" Alina slapped the table, "I don’t tell anyone this but I prepare for my classes so much that I sometimes get frustrated about..."

As Alina wanted to rant, Nirya interrupted.

"For Oblivion’s sake, Alina. You keep ranting about teaching a class once a week and losing to your husband who teaches once a month in front of us, working-class ladies, who have to teach every day." She said, "Grow some shame, woman!"

"What?! You know my classes are different from the normal classes, right? Even the students can’t take what I teach every day. Tell her, Faralda, Laaneth." Alina retorted.

Faralda and Laaneth looked at each other then back at her with eyes that wanted to tell her that they are not on her side.

"Guys..." Alina made a sad face as she realized, "That’s so low from you."

"What is low is how you and your husband behave. Hmph!" Nirya said, "You two always act all mighty and important as if the Psijic Order itself will one day come and seek an audience with you."

At that time, a figure approached the table casting his tall shadow on the four ladies.

"Excuse me!" The man spoke as the three of the four women made sour faces when they saw him, "I need you to come with me at once."

The man was the Thalmor Advisor of the Arch-Mage, the Altmer known as Ancano, and his words were directed towards Alina.

"What is it you want, Thalmor?" She replied with obvious hostility.

"What is it I want?" Ancano repeated Alina’s words with obvious spite, "I want many things Teacher Alina but now, I need an explanation to what in Oblivion is going on?"

Alina and the other ladies frowned.

"Did my husband put skeever shit in your Sun Wine this time?" She asked with a grin she found impossible to conceal.

Ancano’s face turned from Altmer golden to ashen yellow as he remembered an event that almost ate him from inside. On the other hand, Laaneth found it impossible to stop her burst of laughter which proved contagious to the other two ladies.

"Fine, allow me to clarify the situation. I’d like to know why there’s someone claiming to be from the Psijic Order here in the College. More importantly, I’d like to know why he’s asking for you specifically." Ancano spoke, holding together the last bit of sense he had.

The four ladies froze at once, then three of them looked at Nirya rather than looking at Alina.

"Gurl! Even I can’t see that one coming." Alina said.

"Enough with this at once." It was finally Ancano’s breaking point.

Alina, Faralda, and Laaneth turned towards him in rage but the Thalmor wasn’t backing down either. He looked at Alina and continued to speak.

" You and I are going to have a little chat with that... Monk and find out exactly why he is here and then he will be removed from College grounds."

He was angry, nervous, and didn’t seem like minding his manners with Jon’s wife after that time Jon humiliated him in the main hall.

But a Psijic Monk really appeared and they requested an audience with Alina of all people. She had an idea why but she wasn’t going to share it with Ancano, of course.

"Run along, Thalmor. I’m heading over there myself." She said dismissively.

"I insist we go now." Ancano started to act stubbornly.

"The nerve!" Laaneth seemed infuriated by his behavior yet Faralda held her arm telling her not to act rashly.

"Why are you so concerned?" Alina asked.

Ancano didn’t feel like answering either but he had to make himself clear.

"I’ll be the one asking the questions. All you need to know is that the Psijic Order is a rogue organization, believing themselves to be above the law. They have clashed with the Aldmeri Dominion before, and I have no intention of allowing that to happen here."

His speech was remarkable and all but Alina was now standing up. She is normally as tall as an Altmer but when she stood just now, everyone in her surroundings could feel that they were dwarfed by her almost instantly.

Their hearts raced, they started sweating coldly, and the very concept of time around them started to feel twisted.

Her eyes started changing into slit pupils and the air around her started to become suffocating.

"You..." She stepped ahead, "Don’t..." she walked to the side, "Tell..." then walked past Ancano, "Me..." before circling around him, "What..." and directing her rage through him, "To..." making him shiver, "Do." and feel the taste of blood in his mouth.

He immediately put his arm on the table and held his mouth with the other hand as his body temperature dropped to a critical point. One more second and he would have been lying on the ground vomiting blood all over the place.

The poisonous lady known as Alina can do that much. If the people who felt the murderous intent she can project through her eyes can freeze like mice in the presence of a serpent, those who are directly targeted by her stare suffer even more.

Ancano barely stabilized his insides as he felt every organ of his body just twisting then opened his mouth to speak yet blood appeared all over his lips and teeth.

"I’ll be going to meet the visitor now."

There was no need to tell Jon how Ancano spoke to Alina. Actually, if Jon found out what happened, he would be pitying Ancano for his blunder.

Alina walked off the canteen and headed to where she expected the Monk would be, the Arch-Mage’s quarters. Of course, Ancano was following behind her with a face so wrathful as if he swallowed a stinking fish.

Up to the second filled in the Arch Mage’s tower stood three men once Alina walked in followed by Ancano.

"What’s he doing here?" Ancano said as he saw Jon standing in the Arch-Mage’s quarter as well, "This is Administrative business, ordinary teachers such as yourself are..."

"I’ll ask you nicely to shut up and won’t ask again." Jon said.

Ancano saw Jon and couldn’t contain his anger any longer.

"This is a serious offense towards the good intentions for the Aldmeri Dominion." Ancano turned towards Arch-Mage Savos Aren and wanted to yap.

"You can take those good intentions and stick them up your..." Jon was about to reply but Savos Aren stopped him.

"Teacher Jon, that’s enough." The Arch-Mage spoke.

"Alright." Jon backed off with a grin.

"Yes, that’s enough." Ancano wanted to take the momentum of Savos Aren against Jon.

While the yapping was happening between Jon and Ancano, Alina noticed that everything started to quieten down and even the air became subtle. She looked around and saw everyone around her simply frozen with the space around her turning hazy.

"What is this? What happened?" She turned around.

"I advise you not to move around that much." Yet a voice replied to her and she noticed it was the old Elf in a monk’s robe.

"What? Who are you and what are you doing?" Alina immediately turned hostile.

"Easy! I simply came to talk." Quaranir said.

"And what did you do to them?" She pointed at the rest.

"Your husband can explain the situation if just stops fooling around." Quaranir said, pointing at Jon.

Alina frowned and looked at Jon who moved his eyes in his frozen stance.

"Tsk, you got me." Jon moved himself looking at Alina and Quaranir, "I just wanted to see if I can fool you. Almost worked."

"Jon, what does that man want?" Alina asked.

"He said he wants to speak to you about the Eye of Magnus. You should hear him out." Jon said, assuring Alina who has a tendency to lash out when she feels threatened.

"I see. Monk, speak your piece." She said.

"Alright. We don’t have much time so we must be brief. The situation here at your College is of dire importance and attempts to contact you as we have previously have failed. I believe it is due to the very source of our concern. This object... The Eye of Magnus as your people have taken to calling it. The energy coming from it has prevented us from reaching you with the visions you have already seen. The longer it remains here, the more dangerous the situation becomes. And so I have come here personally to tell you it must be dealt with." Quaranir said all he can.

"So that eye is dangerous?" Alina asked.

"We don’t know. But if we don’t know, then it is most certainly very dangerous." Quaranir replied.

"Hmmm... can’t you do anything about it?" Alina asked.

"Due to our lack of knowledge at the current moment, we can’t act rashly." Quaranir replied.

"And why am I the one who has to deal with all that?" Alina asked.

"Because you set the chain of events in motion in the crypt of Saarthal." Quaranir gave another vague answer.

"Jon, I don’t get what this man is saying." Alina lost hope in understanding Quaranir and spoke to Jon.

"He is speaking about setting off a chain reaction of some sort of Fate. Not necessarily your Fate but in order to let it stabilize, you must correct the course of events. What the Monk was trying to say is that his Order tracks things from the sidelines and is always Divining for a future they can anticipate. The Eye of Magnus is most likely upsetting that ability of them to see in the future clearly." Jon said.

Quaranir seemed burdened by Jon’s explanation but in the end, he put on a smile.

"I can’t confirm or deny any of that." He said.

"That’s what Jon says when I accuse him of being with the other girls behind my back." Alina said with a tired face.

"What you need to know is that object... the Eye... it is immensely powerful. This world is not ready for it. If it remains here, it will be misused. Many in the Order believe it has already been misused or that something will happen soon, something that cannot be avoided." Quarinir diverted Jon and Alina from their dangerous conversation.

"Can’t we contain it?" Alina asked.

"I tested a few things the other day and it is uncontainable so far. There is a Dwemer Lockbox nearby but I’m still working on how to open rather than sealing something inside of it." Jon said.

"So this guy just shows up and tells us it is dangerous and mysterious? Then? What can we actually do?" Alina seemed rather impatient with all that mystery going around.

"Only the one who sets off any Fate has the ability to alter its course even by a little bit. This is where you come in, Lady Alina. We believe that your efforts should be directed towards dealing with the aftermath, but we cannot predict what that will be." Quaranir explained, "Unfortunately, the future is as obscured to us as it is to you. The overwhelming power of the Eye makes it difficult for us to see."

"Did you hear that just now?" Alina narrowed her eyes.

"Yes. Most curious." Jon nodded mimicking her expression.

"He is speaking of the future as if they are supposed to be knowing what it is. So the Psijic Order doesn’t only rely on Divination Magic as a tool of its arsenal but it uses it as its main method to maybe watch over everything." Alina clapped her hand.

"Aha!" Jon nodded pointing towards her while acting as if he caught on to her point.

"Of course, you already know that, right?" Alina asked him.

"Eh! Sure... yeah." Jon nodded and looked away.

As the duo looked at Quaranir who was barely hiding behind an awkward smile, he immediately decided to end it here.

"I fear I have already overstepped the bounds of my Order, but I will offer this." Quaranir cleared his voice and looked at Alina meaningfully, "Seek out the Augur of Dunlain in your College. His perception may be more coherent than ours."

"The Augur?" Alina raised her brows, "I know of him, Jon introduced him some time ago."

Barely anyone in the college believed in the Augur’s existence, let alone an outsider. Then again, an outsider from the Psijic Order which is famous for its Divination and the Augur of Dunlain who is a very accurate Diviner are surely on good terms.

"This conversation has required a great deal of effort on my part so I am afraid I must leave you. We will continue to..." Quaranir paused for a while before exchanging eye contact with Jon and smiling, "We will continue to watch over the situation here."

Quaranir finally ended the spell which isolated time and everything slowly returned back to normal. Strange as it may seem, Jon perfectly remembered what he was saying to Ancano and the two continued locking horns as if nothing happened just now.

Savos Aren seemed to have grown tired of Jon and Ancano then directed his attention towards the Psijic Monk.

"I’m sorry, were you about to say something?" Savos asked.

"Actually, I would like to take my leave." Quaranir apologetically said.

"What is the meaning of this?" Ancano completely disengaged with Jon and jumped in Quaranir’s way.

"I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t understand."

"Don’t play coy. You asked to see a specific member of the College. Here she is. Now what is it that you want?"

"There’s been a misunderstanding. Clearly I should not be here. I shall simply take my leave."

"What? What trickery is this? You’re not going anywhere until I find out what you’re up to." Ancano could take this no more and stomp in rage.

"I’m not up to anything. I apologize if I have offended you in any way." Quaranir showed respect towards the present in the room and walked away.

"I’ll see you off then." Jon immediately tagged along with Quaranir.

Ancano was at a loss at what to do since he was being ignored by all parties.

"So this is it then? Jon Dare and his people are colluding with the Psijic Order? A criminal organization!" He shouted.

Quaranir stopped immediately and looked towards Jon.

"That won’t cause you any trouble?" He asked.

"Not even a tiny bit." Jon replied, offering Quaranir to go on ahead before sparing Ancano a cold stare.

Jon was just making sure what to record in his "naughty account book" to calculate the interests which he shall make those naughty people pay.

But right now, he is going to have an official talk with the Psijic Monks.

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