Caprifexia shifted her form as they approached the frosted stone steps, wincing slightly as her wounded leg twinged from where her incompetent and weak willed ex-minion had slashed her.

  Like most wizard towers, Winterhold College was built in an incredibly precarious place. Surrounded by the angry Sea of Ghosts on all sides and rising on a pillar of dark rock hundreds of meters high its only connection to the mainland was via a thin crumbling stone bridge. It rose from the seat stack like a grey monolith, with two lower, roughly circular towers, and one much wider and taller one, furthest from the coast.

  It was early morning, and the air was still. The sea of ghosts roiled and crashed against the cliffs, a dull rumble from beneath, and a few sea birds squawked, but other than that it was quiet.

  Soft blue light streamed out of the window of a small guardhouse on the mainland side, and as they approached an elf of some description – no doubt Einar would have some specific label – emerged, shutting a thick and aged tome with a sharp snap.

  "This is Winterhold College, I am Master Wizard Faralda," said the elf, her eyes focusing onto Caprifexia's horns and pursing her lips in what looked like disapproval. "What is your business?"

  "Hello. I'm Einar, and this is Capri. We'd like to use your library," said Einar. "To study dragons; find a way to defeat them."

  "Hmm," said Faralda, giving him a critical once over. "The College may have what you seek, but the way is closed to non-mages."

  "Ah," said Einar. "That, err, isn't a problem. Capri here is very good at setting things on fire, and I am, err, good at… polymorphism?"

  "Really? That is an unusual skill for a novice to focus on," said Faralda, her eyes lighting up with interest. "Please, demonstrate."

  Einar turned to Caprifexia and gave her a meaningful stare.

  "Lizardify," he said seriously.

  Caprifexia arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

  "Capri, change your form," he hissed under his breath, before laughing weakly and raising his voice. "Stage fright, I, err, guess, this normally never happens. Straight into a lizard, that's- heh- that's what happens. Almost always."

  "I am not a lizard," she hissed back. "This is blatant dragonism, you silly looking, dim-witted, bigoted little mortal ape."

  "That isn't a thing. Don't be difficult," whispered Einar. "Please."

  "Take your time, there is no rush," said Faralda.

  Einar glared at Caprifexia, thrusting his hands towards her again. "Lizardify."

  Caprifexia muttered under her breath, but nevertheless shifted herself into her true, majestic form. A small –regal– dragon replaced the horned elf, and she flapped her wings a few times before settling in the snow.

  "Remarkable!" said Faralda, clapping her hands. "I've never seen magic like that from a novice before! Are you sure you've not attended another college?"

  "Err – no."

  "Amazing then," said Faralda. "Prodigal even!"

  "Err, um, yes – that's me, Einar, the prodigal mage… heh," he said awkwardly, rubbing his elbow.

  "But-" spluttered Caprifexia, not sure if she was more outraged at the idea that Einar was prodigal at anything, or that he was stealing credit for her spell.

  "Capri," hissed Einar, putting his hand over her maw and whispering in her ear. "I can't cast any magic, remember? I need you to play along so I can get into that library, understand?"

  Caprifexia huffed, shifting back to her mortal form a moment later.

  "And you?" said Faralda. "Can you use magic?"

  "Of course. I'm the real prodigy," said Caprifexia, summoning some fire to her hand with a flick of her wrist.

  "Not a bad fireball I suppose," sniffed Faralda, clearly unimpressed. "But nothing like your friend's magic."

  "But he-"

  "But he… is a friend, and it isn't a competition," said Einar, putting his hand over her mouth again.

  Capreifexia glared at him as the mage turned, leading them across the crumbling icy bridge that in most places lacked hand-rails and plunged precipitously down towards the crashed sea below. Since Caprifexia could fly she wasn't that bothered by it, but she couldn't fathom why such aerially challenged creatures would ever make so something so patently unsafe.

  Inside there some kind of spell keeping the inner courtyard warm, along with a host of other spells on the gate that Caprifexia couldn't immediately identify; because she couldn't be bothered, of course – not because of any lack of magical ability. The very suggestion of which would have been, obviously, absurd.

  The warmth meant, however, that the light snowfall melted as soon as it entered the arcane field, turning the entire inner courtyard rather damp and misty. Hopefully they also had some kind of spell to repel insects, otherwise Caprifexia was sure that the doubtlessly creep-crawly infested vegetation would mysteriously spontaneously combust in a matter of hours.

  "This is the Hall of Elements," said Faralda. "It is where most of the college's lectures and meetings are conducted."

  "And where is the library? That's all we came here for," said Caprifexia.

  "It is above the main hall," said Faralda with a slight scowl. "But there is an Alteration lesson about to start in a few minutes, I should take you there – we can finish the tour later."

  "I'd rather go to the library," said Caprifexia.

  "That attitude is probably why you're not nearly as good at magic as your friend," sniffed the impudent elvish wizard.

  "How dare you? You insolent, pointy earred-"

  "She means, you're right – she should definitely focus more on her studies," said Einar, clamping his hand over Caprifexia's mouth for the third time in as many minutes.

  "Mmrph!" protested Caprifexia, forcing herself to remember that she was a hero, and that heroes were boring and didn't set rude mortals on fire.

  Still, it was tempting, and surely a hero couldn't be expected to refrain from such things all the time…

  Surely there was space for a bit of burning insolent mortals within the scope of heroism?

  Faralda however, removed the possibility, raising an imperious eye-brow and sniffing derisively before opening the door and moving out of range of Caprifexia's righteous and heroic fire.

  She got lucky.

  "Capri," hissed Einar, distracting her from her righteous anger. "What am I going to do? I can't do magic!"

  "You're a 'prodigy,'" snickered Caprifexia. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

  "Are you seriously annoyed that in order to get into a library that we need to access, in order to save the world, I am taking credit for your transformation magic because I can't cast anything myself?" he said, pinching his nose.

  "Yes! It's my spell, developed by my people, and impossible for you silly little mortals to even cast! You don't even have an astral form!"

  Einar groaned.

  "And I'm the prodigy!"

  "Yes, and I know that – what does it matter if Faralda thinks otherwise? Isn't she just a 'silly little mortal?'"

  "She certainly is," sniffed Caprifexia. "Fine – so long as we're clear that I'm the prodigy, and you're the magic-less meat-shield."

  "You know, I don't know why I ever thought you weren't humble," said Einar.

  "I don't know why either, I am a dragon, and therefore better at everything than you," she said. "Humility included."

  They followed the arrogant little mortal wizard into the 'Hall of Elements,' which was a large circular room with a font of mana in the centre of the room that seemed to be mainly there to provide light. There was a small group of various mortals already there, and Faralda was talking in excited, hushed tones to the oldest looking of them, who's eyes lit up when he saw Einar.

  "Welcome, welcome!" said the man as the pair drew closer. "I am Tolfdir, Master Wizard and one of the instructors here at the College – Faralda tells me you already know some fascinating Alteration magic Mr. Einar? A polymorph spell?"

  "Oh… um, yes," said Einar, rubbing his hands together nervously. "My, uh, 'Lizardify' spell I call it."

  "Well today's lesson might be too simple for you then," said Tolfdir. "Though you're welcome to participate if you want."

  "Oh no, I might just… sit over here," said Einar in a relieved voice, moving off to one of the benches. "Long journey, and all that."

  "Well, all right then," said Tolfdir in a slightly disappointed voice, before turning to Caprifexia. "And you're Mr. Einar's friend? What's your name? Faralda didn't say."

  "Caprifexia," she said, huffing in irritation. It wasn't fair, Einar being treated as being good at something. She was the dragon.

  "Welcome Caprifexia, you are most welcome. Now, this is Brelya, Onmund, and J'zargo," said Tolfdir, indicating to the other mortals, one of which seemed to be an upright Cat. It sniffed suspiciously at her. Caprifexia ignored them, since they clearly weren't important. "And today we are going to be focusing on warding magics, specifically conjuring a shield to repel hostile magic. Are you familiar with this type of magic, Caprifexia? Remember, there is no shame in admitting yourself unfamiliar with a concept, you are a new student after all."

  "Of course I can create shields," said Caprifexia in an offended voice, flicking fingers. "Barricadus."

  A shimmering field of blue energy jumped into existence before her, and Tolfdir eyed it critically.

  "Not a bad first attempt, but you'd do well to incorporate a regenerative component – otherwise you'll have to manually repair any damage to it, and you might not have the necessary attention to spare in the middle of combat."

  "A regenerative component?" she scoffed. "That's impossible."

  "It isn't, observe," said Tolfdir, waving his hand and forgoing an incantation entirely – the show off.

  The energy in the room shifted, and a moment later a white and yellow disc appeared before him. Unlike Caprifexia's shield, which was more or less a solid skein of uniform energy, Tolfdir's barrier surged and twisted, energy washing back and forth across it in a sort of circular motion, ready to reinforce any part of it at any time if it was damaged – just like he had claimed.

  Caprifexia blinked several times. A wave of vertigo crashed over her, and the world seemed to spin as she tried to reconcile the fact that, on the one hand, this mortal appeared to be able to do something with magic that her flight had never developed, and on the other, the objective, transcendental, and multiversal fact that dragons were better at everything than mortals.

  While she could accept –on extreme sufferance– that maybe some of them might temporarily have more experience than her with magic, the fact that they had come up with a way of shielding that generations of genius dragons had never developed was… perverse.

  Unnatural.

  "H-how?" she stammered, her mind still lurching about as it tried and failed to come up with an explanation for what was happening to her.

  Was she dreaming? Was she drunk? Had she gone insane? A curse perhaps?

  "Rather than simply conjuring a skein of energy, as you have done, you have to work a more complex spell matrix that can take in energy and redistribute it. It takes a bit of getting used to, but with practice I'm sure you'll have a good grasp of it in no time," he explained, taking a book out of his satchel and handing it to her. "Have a read of the first chapter of this, and if you're quick, you might be able to get a few attempts in by the end of the class."

  Caprifexia hesitated, before stroppily accepting the book and stomping over to where Einar was sitting as the other students – the other students! – conjured shields like the one Tolfdir had created.

  "Capri, you OK?" said Einar.

  "This… this is obscene," she said.

  "What is?"

  "How did they develop these shields?" she said in a horrified voice. "How do they have better magic than my Flight!? Well, in this single, microscopically small facet of the art – but still. It's horrific. They must have cheated somehow. Yes, that's what is happening – dirty cheating little mortals… you lot disgust me; you should be ashamed!"

  "Maybe us mortals aren't as limited as you seem to think."

  "But we're dragons," she said. "They are – you are – you're all just squishy little mayflies! This is unacceptable, mortals shouldn't be- can't be better than us at anything!"

  "Well then I guess you should be reading the book," snickered Einar.

  Caprifexia glared at him for a moment as she wrenched open the tome and began to angrily devour the text.

  It approached shield theory from a rather strange aspect, and the writer was far less precise than a draconic author would have been, which was to be expected from a mortal, but Caprifexia did have to admit that it was a rather fascinating way to create shields, treating the actual barrier as a secondary cause of the first spell, rather than directly creating it to begin with.

  Her first thought was that it would mean that the barrier formed too slowly to be useful, but there was some tricky mathematics at the back of the chapter that dealt with that in a way that was almost elegant – for a mortal at least – and when she snapped the book shut ten minutes later she was still a bit angry, but more interested to try out the new spell.

  She considered the incantation for a few moments, reflecting on her feelings and something vaguely Draconic before threading the energy from around her carefully into the proper matrix and linking it within her mind with the new incantation.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "Obstantus," she said firmly, taking her time to make sure everything was flowing properly as the white and gold barrier slowly came into being before her, the energy of the primary spell swirling across and creating the barrier as a byproduct.

  "Oh very good, very good!" said Tolfdir, wandering over unwelcomly. "I seems you've got the same flare for magic as your friend. It is so good to see the younger generations taking such a keen interest in study. An excellent first attempt."

  "Of course it is," said Caprifexia, preening.

  "Make sure to keep the secondary flux under control though, otherwise you're wasting mana unnecessarily."

  Caprifexia was about to snap something back and tell him to mind his own business, when she saw that he was actually right and made the adjustment, reducing the golden sheen of the shield and making it more transparent.

  "Good, good – keep practising and I'm sure you'll master it in no time," said Tolfdir, bumbling off again and talking to the upright house pet.

  Maybe, thought Caprifexia begrudgingly as she dismissed the spell and tried again, maybe these mortals might have a little to teach her after all.

  Capri grew more confident with the spell as the class progressed, and by the time it ended Caprifexia could cast the spell after only a few seconds of concentration. Not as good as her normal shield, but she'd practised with that for far longer.

  "Excellent, excellent," said Tolfdir as the lesson grew to a close. "I'm glad that everyone has such a solid foundation in the defensive aspects of Alteration. Safety, after all, is the most important thing to remember when studying magic. Now, I'm excited to tell you that rather than the usual lecture and practical with Master Wizard Colette Marence tomorrow, the Arch-mage has approved a field trip to the archaeological dig at Saarthal – the ancient capital of Skyrim.

  "Although not mandatory, a firm grasp of history is necessary to pass the theoretical portion of the Trials – although it will likely be some years before any of you attempt those; except perhaps Einar over there, if Faralda is to be believed."

  Einar laughed weakly and tugged at his collar.

  "There is also always the possibility that we may discover artefacts or spells from that era," continued Tolfdir. "Several surviving works from the age describe the conflict that eventually destroyed the city as being fought over some kind of immensely powerful object."

  Caprifexia's ears perked up at that.

  She might be a hero now, but she was still a dragon. She didn't care about money or jewels or in-sor-ance or other mortal nonsense. But powerful magical artefacts? Those were worth something.

  ***

  "Hey Capri, found anything?" asked Einar as they sat around a table in the library piled high with tomes later that evening.

  Outside the sun was setting, and a few tell-tale wisps of smoke wafted up past the large circular, almost floor to ceiling window that looked out from the Arcanium – or 'library' for people who weren't mortals with over-inflated egos. Somehow, inexplicably, the tree –and the accursed bugs festering within it– had spontaneously caught fire shortly after Tolfdir's lecture on shielding.

  Caprifexia certainly hadn't had anything to do with it. It was a true mystery.

  The air was warm, and smelt pleasantly of candel wax and paper, and there weren't too many mortals about. In fact, there didn't seem to be that many who called the college home. Despite its rather impressive size, it seemed almost abandoned, with long, empty corridors, flights of stairs with steps gathering dust, and two or three times as many empty rooms as used ones.

  "Hmm?" said Caprifexia, looking up from her book of astrapmancy.

  "I asked, have you found- hey, that's not a book on Dragons."

  "No, it's on lightning magic. It turns out your world isn't entirely useless after all, some of the authors are decent. Not as good as a dragon, but still, remarkable for creatures with such limited minds and lifespans. I'll admit, it really is impressive the way your kind try and claw your way out of the mud even though you're just inevitably going to die after a few short decades."

  "Capri, we came here to study a way to defeat the dragons."

  "And lightning can't do that?" she said.

  "Since they reincarnate unless killed by a Dovahkiin, the last one of which you threw into the Void, no, it can't."

  "That's absurd, they're not demons," said Caprifexia. "I would have sensed the Fel on them if they were."

  "What's the Fel?"

  "This – Pesadillus," said Caprifexia, extending a hand and summoning a small spark of arcane power. The azure spark danced for a moment, before Caprifexia viciously twisted the energy in on itself, turning the blue energy into a sickly green.

  Immediately her teeth began to ache as the magic surged against her control and the back of her mind began to itch. There was a reason that she didn't use Fel magic often: even as a creature who had grown up bathing in the power of the Void, Fel magic was simply unpleasant.

  It might be powerfully destructive, but it was also insane for any but the most experienced dragons to try to use in a combat situation. And even they had to be careful, lest it corrupt them and begin to transform them into a demon.

  As for the mortals who used it… well, the poor things had never been blessed with abundant supply of wisdom and usually blew themselves up. A self-solving problem, for the most part.

  Einar drew back in disgust from the green fire. Even as a limited mortal with no real magical ability to speak of he still had an instinctual revulsion of the twisted and chaotic magic.

  "That's horrid," he said as she extinguished it. "But what's it got to do with reincarnation?"

  "Only beings of the Fel are capable of reconstituting themselves in a realm known as the Twisting Nether after they are killed. It is because of the nature of Fel energy itself, which comes to infest their souls. Other beings need some kind of anchor, phylactery, or external artefact. Well, anything not on the level of a Titan."

  "Maybe the dragon's, or 'proto-drakes' as you call them, are like these Titans-"

  Caprifexia burst into laughter, earning a series of increasingly angry 'shushes' from the grumpy orc librarian.

  "What's so funny?" said Einar as Caprifexia's mirth slowly faded and she wiped her eyes.

  "Titans are capable of reordering the cosmos, of creating life from nothing, of feats of magic that only real-dragons can even begin to comprehend," she said. "These overgrown lizards are no where near the power of a Titan."

  "How can you be sure?" asked Einar.

  "The being that assaulted you in the Void? When I had to burn out a bit of your brain? That was an Old God – a being so incomprehensibly vast and terrible that it made you mad just by looking at it. Titans are far, far beyond even them."

  "Huh. OK. Then I guess this 'Fel' thing is just another difference between our worlds-"

  "No, it is a Law of Magic," insisted Caprifexia.

  "Well I'm telling you dragon reincarnation is real. Real, and extensively documented. Maybe your 'law' is wrong."

  "It isn't. If you were an actual wizard, and not a just credit-stealing-faker, you would know this."

  Einar rubbed his eyes before taking a deep breath and apparently deciding to try to be more reasonable.

  "OK, assuming that you're correct with this 'Law' of yours, if the Dragons could indeed come back to life – how could they do it?" asked Einar.

  "They could have phylacteries-" she said.

  "Which are?"

  "Objects that very foolish wizards – mortals, obviously – put bits of their mangled, dismembered souls into as part of becoming 'Liches,'" she explained.

  "And this lets them return to life?" asked Einar.

  "Sort of, although it is more that they gain control of an undead puppet that they foolishly think of as 'themselves,' which can be destroyed without what's left of their soul disintegrating. Although this arrangement isn't true immortality – like what I have – and typically the Phylactery decays over a few centuries and they go slowly mad and then die. We had a bound one at Blackrock spire, we got to tormen- err, 'interact' with it in Necromancy class."

  "OK, dragons have been around a lot longer than that," said Einar. "What else could explain their documented ability to come back from death?"

  Caprifexia tapped her lip and considered for a moment. "Another being could scoop up the souls of creatures at the point of death and store them in some kind of medium and then, assuming they were powerful enough, perfectly recreate the bodies and put the soul back in. If they were good enough there wouldn't necessarily be any appreciable damage to the soul."

  "Akatosh probably does that then, they're supposed to be his children," said Einar.

  "What is an 'Akatosh?'"

  "You really don't pay any attention, do you?" said Einar. "Akatosh is the Dragon God of Time, Chief of the Nine Divines-"

  Capri-snorted and rolled her eyes.

  "What?"

  "Gods don't exist – even ones that are dragons," said Caprifexia. "That's just mortal delusion; the universe and the multiverse follow concrete laws that with enough knowledge and skill can be manipulated by sentient beings, even limited mortals, like you, either physically or magically."

  "Err, no, the Gods do exist, there are countless instances of them intervening directly in Nirn, and Restoration magic draws directly on the strength of Mara – the Divine of, among other things, healing."

  "Pfft."

  "There are also artefacts that confirm their existence – the Elder Scrolls for one."

  "Every religion has 'holy books,'" chortled Caprifexia. "My people have watched religions rise and fall across ages beyond your mortal comprehension, and documented them extensively. We even created a few as a means to control you silly little gullible mortals."

  "The Elder Scrolls aren't 'holy books' – they don't contain passages and scripts – they're fragments of distilled reality; objects outside of time," said Einar.

  "That doesn't make any sense – objects do not exist 'outside of time,'" said Caprifexia. "Time travel, while possible, is incredibly difficult, almost always imprecise, and usually cause paradoxes that end up unmaking themselves and reverting the time-line to its previous form. Even the Bronze Dragonflight were pretty limited in what they could actually do – and they were dragons."

  "Well it's true," said Einar. "Assuming your right about your home, about Azeroth, and there aren't Gods there, why do you think it is the same here? Mundus, Oblivion, and Aetherias might well be different."

  "That's not possible…" said Caprifexia, sniffing primly before shrugging. "But very well, I'll indulge your mortal nonsense a bit more."

  That's what a hero would do after all; pat the silly mortals on the head and tell them that they were very clever. It wasn't really their fault, after all, they hadn't chosen to be born such limited, inferior creatures.

  She really had come a long way with this hero business. She should ask Einar if they gave out awards for heroism…

  "How magnanimous of you," said Einar, agreeing with her conclusion.

  "What's this 'Mundus, Oblivion, and Aetherias' then?" she asked.

  "Mundus is this world, while Aetherias are the various celestial bodies that orbit it-"

  "Rubbish, stars don't orbit planets," said Caprifexia.

  "Err – yes they do, they orbit Nirn," said Einar.

  "No, they don't," said Caprifexia.

  "How do you know? You're a baby."

  "I am a dragon," explained Caprifexia.

  "That isn't a justification."

  "It is."

  "No it isn't," huffed Einar. "Being a snarky winged lizard with supernatural powers doesn't automatically make you right."

  "I am a dragon," she said slowly, as if explaining to a hatchling. Although even hatchlings weren't so obstinate. "Therefore, I have ancestral memories of the laws of physics. QED."

  "'QED?' What's that?"

  "Quod erat Draconium. It's a Draconic expression," said Caprifexia. "It means, literally, 'what the dragon said.'"

  "That is one of the silliest things I have ever heard. Fine, prove it."

  Caprifexia considered just ignoring him and going back to her book. But then Einar would probably keep on thinking he was right and she was wrong, and she couldn't allow that. So Caprifexia huffed and pulled a sheaf of paper towards her and wrote 'Basic Astrophysics for Irritating Mortals' across the top of the page in Einar's ugly looking language.

  "The simplest proof that hopefully even you will be able to understand is that rather than circular or eliptical orbits, if you place a planet at the centre of stellar systems you have to plot ludicrous epicycles to make the model have any ordering at all, and can't use it to predict anything," she said, drawing a circle to represent Nirn, another for a sun, and then a squiggly swirling line for another body. "Like this, see?"

  "No, that's wrong," said Einar, grabbing her pen and making some rough drawings on the other side of the page. "The orbits of Akatosh and Julianos and everything else are circular around Nirn, like this. I'm sure there are dozens of books, and probably an Orrery or two, that will have the same diagram in this library if you don't believe me."

  Caprifexia looked down at Einar's rather poor penmanship, frowning as she tried to wrap her mind around how the insanity that Einar was spouting would actually function.

  "But that's- that's… absurd. Stars are several orders of magnitude heavier and denser than planets."

  "So?" said Einar dimly.

  "So gravity, you ridiculous mortal!" said Caprifexia.

  "Well maybe the Eye of Akatosh isn't larger than Nirn-"

  "That's madness, then there wouldn't be enough gravimetric pressure for solar fusion to occur!" said Caprifexia.

  "I don't know what that means," said Einar.

  "So you don't even know something that basic, but you feel qualified to argue with me?" said Caprifexia, throwing up her hands in frustration. "The arrogance of you mortals is astonishing."

  "As I was saying," he said, ploughing onward in the face of her overwhelming logic. "Beyond Aetherias is Oblivion, the realm of the Daedra-"

  "You mean the Void; I've explained this."

  "No, I don't – the 'Void' is something else entirely, since we don't get attacked by Daedra whenever we go there. I guess that's beyond Oblivion?" said Einar speculatively, before shaking his head. "If it helps an analogy that is often used is to think of Nirn as like the yolk in an egg, Aetherias as the white, and Oblivion as the shell."

  "That's ridiculous," said Caprifexia.

  "That reality; this one at least," said Einar. "Lots of people a lot more clever than me have proven all this. There are books here with experiments you can do yourself which might convince even stubborn little lizards."

  Caprifexia stared at the diagram Einar had drawn for several long moments.

  "But… why?" said Caprifexia eventually, pulling at her horns. "Why!?"

  "Why what?"

  "Why would anything create something like that? It's insane: a fake-sun that doesn't run on fusion, an actually geocentric system… it's- it's insanity! In order for this universe not topple over itself it would need to be actively held in place with magic – a ridiculous amount of magic."

  "I don't follow. Why? What's so different about Azeroth?"

  "Azeroth is just one planet in a solar system that orbits a sun, and that sun is just one star in a galaxy of roughly one hundred billion stars, each with their own systems of stellar objects and planets – some of which support life, some of which don't. And that galaxy is just one of billions and billions and billions of galaxies – even my people don't know the exact number."

  Einar blinked a few times, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to wrap his small brain around the scale involved.

  "But that's…. that's crazy," he said eventually.

  "No, that's normal; your universe is the one that is completely mad."

  "So there is just… all this empty space?"

  "It is called the Twisting Nether – a chaotic maelstrom of Fel and Arcane energy, the lifeblood of reality."

  "So who made your universe?"

  "No one. It emerged from the Void without direction. Naturally. Assuming for a moment, and bear with me on this, that you're actually right about this world, then this universe could only have been made on purpose. Perhaps the beings you foolishly call Gods did it. Although why they would do anything so ridiculous is beyond me."

  "So now you concede that the Gods made this universe? Made Nirn?" he said after a few moments of thinking through what she'd just said.

  "They're not Gods; Gods don't exist."

  "But you just said-"

  "They're obviously just a case of the 'Law of SABIGISMF,'" said Caprifexia.

  "Sabig- what?"

  "'Sufficiently Advanced Beings are Indistinguishable from Gods to Idiotic and Superstitious Mortal Fools.'"

  "And you say I'm the one that talks nonsense?"

  "It's a Draconic term, I'm not surprised you don't understand it. Anyway, this SABIGISMF or SABIGISMFs are clearly incredibly powerful, although they were clearly either drunk or bored when they made this place – maybe both," said Caprifexia. "Perhaps… I don't know- perhaps a Titan who had my ability to walk through the Void might be able to make something like this. Although the question as to why still stands."

  "So now do you believe me then that Alduin, a dragon and child of Akatosh, and who is said to have the power to consume the world, is a real threat?"

  "I suppose on an artificial Plane, under the control of these presumably alcoholic and deranged SABIGISMF, then I guess that even a proto-drake could be hypothetically dangerous to even a mighty dragon such as myself," conceded Caprifexia slowly. "And so if there is some kind of being, or maybe even beings, directing this- this… nonsense, then maybe without the 'Dovahkiin' the proto-drakes can't be killed, but…"

  "'But?'"

  "But outside of this reality, outside the power of the SABIGISMF, those silly rules wouldn't apply – a proto-drake thrown into the Void or sent to a different world couldn't be reincarnated."

  "Your portals are too small to fit a dragon as big as Alduin is supposed to be through. We've discussed this idea before. We need a way to defeat Alduin within the 'rules of this world' – or at the very least, delay him destroying the world like was apparently done in the past."

  "Delay? What do you mean?"

  "Apparently ancient heroes somehow defeated Alduin thousands of years ago and stopped him returning until now," said Einar, grabbing one of the stack of books on the table and flipping it until he found the page he was looking for. "' … and thus, Kyne, feeling sorrow for her children, begged Paarthurnax, brother of Alduin, to aid the mortals. Moved by the Goddess of the Storm's pleas, the mighty Dovah taught the Tongue to Men, giving them the key that they would eventually use to end the great Dragon War and strike down Alduin.'"

  "What's this 'Tongue?'"

  "Dragonspeech – you speak it, I've heard you."

  "The Proto-drake language?" said Caprifexia. There is nothing particularly special about it – and it's certainly not as elegant as true Draconic."

  "It's the language of the Gods. With enough understanding and practice it can be used to cast spells by ordering the world to change."

  "That isn't how magic works," said Caprifexia.

  "You use incantations – sometimes at least."

  "They make casting spells easier – but they are entirely personal mnemonics," said Caprifexia. "Words don't have any magic by themselves, it's always the Wizard."

  "What have we just learnt about making assumptions?" he said petulantly.

  "Ugh – I suppose if whoever made this universe was completely mad…" she said, glaring at the tome on lightning magic she apparently wasn't allowed to read anymore. "So what, I just say 'Explode Book?'"

  Nothing happened.

  "What did you say?"

  "I told the book to explode," she huffed. "But nothing happened – your Plane's special magic is rubbish. Your so-called-Gods are rubbish. Your 'dragons,' who aren't even proper dragons, are rubbish. You're rubbish-"

  "It definitely does work – that dragon that attacked us used a the language to knock that tower over, and to nearly freeze us," said Einar. "And there are people who can use the Tongue too: the Greybeards, and Ulfric Stormcloak – he used it to kill the High King, before the civil war."

  "And it can hurt the proto-drakes?" she said. "Stop them reincarnating?"

  "I don't know, the book doesn't say why it let the mortals defeat the dragons, or what they did to Alduin to render him powerless for all this time. But it seems a good place to start. We should head to the Greybeards, they might know more about this – they are the experts on the Tongue."

  "I think we should go to Saarthal with the group tomorrow."

  "What? Why?" asked Einar.

  "Because there is apparently a powerful magical artefact there."

  "… and?"

  "And that's more interesting than this 'Tongue' nonsense."

  "Capri, we should be focused on saving Nirn, not running off after shiny objects."

  "But Saarthal was inhabited by mortals when the proto-drakes ruled over Skyrim, it might have hints as to their nature, as well as – purely incidentally of course – powerful magical artefacts that are far more interesting," said Caprifexia.

  "How do you know that?" asked Einar.

  "I read it in a book," she said, shifting the stack and holding up a history tome.

  "Oh, so you can do research, but only when it interests you?" he groaned.

  "That's right."

  "Ugh," said Einar, massaging his temples. "Fine, we can go on the expedition – as long as it is only a few days – on the off chance you're right. But then it's straight to High Hrothgar, OK?"

  A.N. If you like my writing, you might be interested in my fantasy adventure novel – – which is entirely pre-written and with chapters released every Friday!

  Mishka the Great and Powerful that isn't up on Royal Road yet!). However, I don't monetise or time-gate my fanfiction though (plz no sue!).