15th of Heartfire, 4E201
I don't know how long we slept, only that I was still tired when we woke up. I was tempted to go back to sleep, but my desire to get out of this place stopped me. I got  out some of our food for breakfast as Jenassa looked out the room's barred window. There were no signs of anything out there at the moment, and thankfully nothing had tried to get in. We ate in silence, afraid that something would hear us talking and come after us. We washed our breakfast down with a few stamina potions to keep us going, then got our armor and gear back on. I pocketed the room's key, just in case it opened any other doors. A key was much faster than a lockpick, and lockpicks couldn't lock doors behind you. At least not that I knew of. I removed my floor runes and opened the door as quietly as I could. Nothing out there, thankfully. We set out further into the unknown, our weapons ready for the inevitable things that would surely try to kill us.

Not far from the room we stayed in, I found more moonstone ore. I managed to mine it without anything coming to attack us. In a nearby hallway, we found another of the Altmer like monsters, dead. There weren't any machines around though, except the ones attached to the walls, just pipes and gears. We weren't sure what killed him, but we didn't stay around long enough for it to come kill us too. Down the hall, we found a locked room. I tried the key and it opened it. Inside was another of the insect monsters, but my frost atronach took care of him. It was a bedroom. The bed was on a raised, what was it called, dais I think? It was larger than the other room, and also had a table with a chair and a chest sitting on it. In the chest was a beautiful amethyst, a gold and amethyst necklace, and a silver one with an emerald in it, that seemed to be enchanted. There were dishes everywhere, and various metal components from something. I also found a helmet on the desk. It seemed to cover your whole head, and a likeness similar to some of the metal decorations we'd seen on the wall was made onto it. I wondered if they just liked that face, or if perhaps they all looked like that. I left it sitting on the desk, and we continued further into the ruin.

In the next room two more of the creatures were skulking about, and one of them even summoned a bound sword like I used! I explored the room after we killed them, and we found what seemed to be a water reservoir. Amazingly, the water was still clear and seemed to be drinkable. We refilled our water jugs, and had some to drink. I was glad that the creatures hadn't spoiled it. We found another bedroom near the reservoir, and it had one of those large insects in it. I had to summon  two frost atronachs to kill it. In the room, there was a large chest on a desk. It seemed that the bedrooms were getting nicer and nicer. It worried me though, that these bugs had somehow managed to get into them though. I found an amulet to one of the divines in the chest, as well as another amethyst. The Dwemer seemed to like them. I also found the main piece of a set of armor, which Jenassa said looked Orcish. How had this gotten here? She picked it up and managed to fit it into her bag after throwing out a few other things. I asked her why she wanted it, and she said that it was worth quite a bit of money. That seemed to be a fair reason. If we got out of here alive, we were going to be able to afford to buy a feast fit for a Jarl, or even a king.

I'm never going to make it out of this place. Those creatures, those horrible horrible creatures, managed to kill Jenassa. I flew into a rage and shouted at them, knocked them backwards and cutting them until they fell, and even after. I was covered in blood and had gotten it everywhere. I held her for hours it seemed, begging her to come back. I could have raised her from the dead, but it wouldn't really be her, just a soulless zombie that looked like her. I cried and cried until I was empty. Then, hate started to fill me. Hate for this place, those creatures, and for the gods for letting her die. There was no dirt to bury her in, everything was stone. I knew that she hated it underground, but I hoped that she would forgive me. I managed to carry her back to one of the bedrooms, and laid her on the bed. I made a bouquet of nightshade and lavender for her, and left it clutched in her hands on her chest. I also left a note with her, letting anyone that found her know that she had fought bravely, and had fallen to the horrible creatures of this accursed place. I left her there, and locked the door behind me. Now it was time for me to make some of her art in her honor. My brushes would be my sword, my bow, my spells, and my hands if they had to be. The paint would be the blood and insides of those creatures. The canvas would be the walls and floors of this place, and any of their fellow creatures who got too close while I was killing them.

I went back to the room where the creatures had been, and tripped over something in the dark.I picked it up and carried it over to some light to see what it was It was a metal sphere, with a metal ring around it. Part of the sphere was missing, and there were crystals inside. I assumed that this had been the crystal thing that the dying mage had been talking about. It was broken, likely thanks to those damned things. I put it in my bag anyways, in case I managed to find one of those Synod mages alive here. Along the side of the room, I found another dead one. I kicked her body out of spite, for coming to this place. If they hadn't come here, I wouldn't have been sent here, and Jenassa would still be alive.Part of me knew that it wasn't their fault, but I still blamed them anyway in my anger and despair. I tried all of the doors in the room. One, I couldn't pick open, and my key didn't open it. Another, I managed to pick open, and it had a small chest and some moonstone inside. I left it where it was. The third door led down a hallway,and seemed to be my only option.

I  found two more of the creatures, already dead. I stabbed them anyways out  of hate. There were more dead in a room nearby, and one of the sphere machines was there, curled up and waiting.  I summoned a frost atronach and shut the door behind them. My atronach didn't last long. Thankfully it didn't come out of the door after me, and I kept to the shadows. I did it again and again, each atronach being sent back to Oblivion faster than I liked. It was my only option, since I knew I'd never survive if I fought it. For a brief moment, I considered letting it kill me, but quickly dismissed the thought. If I did that, Jenassa would never forgive me. Soon it did come out though, and I had to fight it. I kept summoning atronachs to distract it, and hacked at it until it finally fell to the ground in pieces. It had cut me up pretty badly, and I downed a few healing potions to heal my wounds. I limped back to the room it had been in, and kicked and stabbed at the dead creatures in the room. It was a bedroom, larger than any of the others I'd seen so far. I searched the dead creatures to see if any had any healing potions, and ironically one of them had a nightshade flower in his pocket. I took it of course, and kicked him for defiling it by touching it. A chest in the room also held another key, probably the one I needed. I was exhausted, so I dragged the creatures' bodies out of the room, tossing them into the hallway. Then I shut the door and places a few runes just inside of it. I used some of the scrap metal in the room to patch up my armor as best as I could. It was still in terrible shape. Luckily I knew a couple of mage armor spells that I could use if I needed to. I crawled into the bed, not even bothering to eat anything.

14th of Heartfire, 4E201
This morning, we had a nice breakfast with Roggi. He talked more about mead, and said that he missed travelling to Riften, where the best mead in Skyrim, Black-Briar mead, came from. He hadn't been there in years. When we left, I stopped to tell him goodbye and gave him a bottle of Black-Briar mead that I had been carrying around to sell someday. He stood up and gave me a hug, then ran around the inn celebrating. I  laughed and told him goodbye, and to enjoy his mead. Jenassa just shook her head, but I could see a small smile in the corner of her mouth.

We continued south from Kynesgrove, and I found a lot of alchemy ingredients growing along the way. I even found some of the "rare" jazbay grapes for Avrusa Sarethi. I found the twenty bunches that she had wanted with relative ease, and grabbed a few more to experiment with myself. I guess they were only rare if you didn't know where to look. We kept hearing a dragon roaring in the distance, and we finally saw him further south. He was west of the road, and circling around his roost. I was going to ignore him, but then I spotted the falls near Darkwater Crossing in the distance, and remembered my friends there. I couldn't leave that dragon alive and have them in danger. We took off across the volcanic tundra, weapons in hand, to defeat the dragon.

He flew to us and spewed fire down on us. Jenassa shot him with arrows until he landed, then I finished him off with my sword and my frost atronach. He set me on fire, and I jumped on top of his head, slicing at his eyes and face until he finally collapsed in death. I healed our wounds and burns, and we made our way to his roost to see if he'd had any treasure. There was another chanting wall, and a large chest.I didn't know why such a large dragon needed a chest that would have been too small for him, but I doubted that I would ever find out. In the chest was a coinpurse of septims, a scroll, an Imperial helmet, and an elven greatsword. It was too heavy for either of us to carry without difficulty, so we left it there for an adventurer to find. I left the helmet too, it was dirty and grimy, and you could buy an Imperial helmet in almost every town in Skyrim. We climbed back down from the dragon's roost, and hurried back to the road.

At last, we made it. We'd seen what looked like Dwemer stonework from the road, so we followed a footpath up the hill and found the ruins.  According to where we were and the mark on Jenassa's map, this seemed to be the right place. We readied our weapons just in case and went inside. Just inside the door we found a wounded mage mumbling something about a crystal being gone. Jenassa looked around for trouble and I sheathed my sword and hurried over to him to help him. He bled to death before I could help him. Before he died, he said something about finding someone in something called an Oculory. He was clutching a book in his hand, so I gently closed his eyes and took it to figure out what had happened. Apparently the Council of the Synod had sent them here with a crystal of some sort  to do something, but something had gone wrong. I kept his book, and tried to open the door near him, but it was locked. I apologized to him and searched through his pockets for a key. Thankfully he had one. I used it to open the door and pocketed it in case we'd need it later. We walked quietly, heading further inside with our weapons ready in case of trouble.
Not too far from the door we spotted a dead mage in a hallway, and were nearly killed ourselves when spikes suddenly came down from the ceiling. There hadn't been a tripwire or anything. Thankfully they didn't go far enough to kill us if we flattened our bodies against the floor. We waited on them to stop trying to impale us,then got up and hurried over near the mage and out of the way. There was blood everywhere. He didn't have any sort of journal or research log with him, but he did have a magicka potion. He wouldn't be needed it anymore, so I carefully put it into my bag. Not far from the dead mage, we were attacked by metal spiders! How were these machines still working? The halls were filled with gears and pipes, all making noise and turning away. The Dwemer had vanished ages ago, yet all of this still worked without them. It was enough to nearly make my head spin. The spiders had soul gems in them also. One had fallen out when Jenassa broke it nearly in half attacking it. If we made it out of here alive, we'd have plenty of septims after we sold these gems.

We also found some moonstone ore veins. I remembered moonstone being expensive at the blacksmith shops, so I mined as much as I could. Jenassa was getting a little nervous as I mined, because we kept hearing an odd clicking sound. We soon found out what it was. It was a giant insect of some sort, and it was nearly the size of a small pony! I summoned a frost atronach to block it from getting closer to us, and we aimed around it to shoot at the creature. We found two more mages in the area that it was in, dead with their faces splattered with some sort of greenish liquid. They'd been torn up and partially eaten as well. Near one of them, we found two bedrolls. There was also a table near the platform that the bedrolls were on, as well as some food that was beginning to spoil. Another moonstone ore vein was near the table, so I quickly mined  the ore before any more of those things came. Further along, we found two more of them, but they were thankfully smaller and a little easier to kill. They spit some sort of poison at us, but thankfully missed. It smelled foul as it flew past my head. More machines attacked us in the next area. They were about our size, and seemed to be half man and half sphere. They also moved very fast. I wished that we could find a lever somewhere that would turn them all off. I didn't like things coming out of walls to attack me. We were both getting hungry, so we found some shadows to hide in and quickly healed our scrapes and bruises and had something to eat. I summoned an atronach to guard us. Further into the ruin, we found more traps and machines trying to kill us. I discovered that my frost atronach seemed to last longer against the metal beasts, so I decided to summon him from now on.

Through a door and down a hallway, we found a few dead machines and a dead creature that I'd never seen before. It looked like an elf, but it was eyeless and nearly nose less, and had sharp teeth and claws. It was wearing rags, and had weapons and armor plates, made from a material that looked like the shells of the insects we'd seen. We found another dead one and more dead machines further down the hall. They looked like Altmer that had been cursed to become monsters. I hoped that we would only find dead ones.

In the next area, we found more dead machines, but I saw one of the cursed Altmer creatures skulking around between the shadows. We crept closer and stayed still in the shadows, and he walked right past us, wheezing heavily. I summoned my bound bow and killed him from the darkness. We also found another
dead mage, seemingly throttled to death by the creature.

Hours later, after trekking through miles and miles of creature and bug infested tunnels, we finally made it back into what seemed to be the Dwemer ruin again. We'd found a few more mages in the tunnels, probably dragged there by the creatures. Just inside the ruin, we found a locked room that the creatures hadn't managed to get into. I picked the lock, and we shut the door behind us and looked for something to block the door with. All of the furniture was carved stone, but I did find a key on a table that fit the lock in the door. We locked ourselves in. It was a small room, with a table, a chair, and a stone bed with a long dead skeleton on it. There was also a chest on the table with a beautiful emerald ring in it. We pushed the skeleton off of the bed and made a mattress of sorts with some of our clothes. We ate some dinner and studied the room. Most of the room was chilly, but it was warm near the bed thanks to some steam coming out of a few spinning gears in the floor. I put some fire runes near the door in case anything managed to get in, and we huddled together in the small bed. We'd been through the closest thing to hell that we could imagine, and we were nowhere near out of it yet. I wondered if we'd ever get to see the sun again.

13th of Heartfire 4E201
I woke up fairly early, and found Jenassa already up and having breakfast. I sat down to join her, and we made small talk about how we slept, and all the crazy stuff happening at the College. Mirabelle walked by the dining room and told us good morning as she passed the doorway. I got up and went after her, stopping her to ask about the Staff of Magnus. She thought it was a strange question, and asked why I wanted to know about it. I told her about the possibility of it being connected to the Eye of Magnus. She dismissed the orb as not being legendary enough to be called that, and told me to not jump to conclusions. I told her that the Augur had called it that, not me. She gave  me a look and chided me about getting into something over my head, and warned me to be very careful. I reminded her that I had asked about the Staff, and she told me that it was supposedly very powerful, but it had been missing for ages and was likely nothing but a myth. She added that the last she'd heard anything about it had been a few months ago, from the Synods, the mages from Cyrodiil. She told me about them, and about how she suspected that they weren't true mages like us at the College, but used more smoke and mirror style magic and were all talk. It seemed that they were asking about the Staff since they were trying to hoard magickal artifacts in an attempt to appear more powerful. They had seemed to think that the Staff was somewhere in Skyrim, in a dwarven ruin called Mzulft. She suspected that the Synod would be there, but warned me that they likely wouldn't want to help me.

Jenassa and I went to our rooms and got our gear together, then went to town for supplies before starting down the road to the south. We got interrupted during our shopping  trip by a dragon. It breathed ice at us, and kept landing on rooftops out of our reach. It finally landed after we enough fire and arrows into its hide, and I summoned a sword to attack it with. The guards and some of the townspeople helped, and we finally killed it. I thanked everyone for their help, and we went to the store at last. We got some supplies and sold her a few things, and I bought a ring from her that was enchanted to help your magicka recharge faster. Then, at last, we left town, walking around the dragon skeleton on our way down the road.

I wasn't looking forward to our trip, since the gods no longer made the animals stop attacking us. I was reminded of this when a bear near the road tried to tear us to shreds. This was going to be a long trip.

Another assassin tried to kill me!! I had almost forgotten about the Dark Brotherhood, and an Argonian woman came out of nowhere and attacked me! Thankfully Jenassa helped me kill them. Their note said the same thing as the other one had. They never said anything to me but yelled insults and taunts. I stood there by the road holding the note and shaking. Jenassa grabbed what she could from their body, then kicked it a few times for good measure. She managed to get me calmed down some finally and we continued down the road.

According to Jenassa's map, Windhelm was the next city between us and Mzulft. I didn't like it there, but I wasn't sure what choice we had. It was still barely past the middle of the day, so Jenassa suggested that we get as close to Mzulft as we could, and we could perhaps find a camp or inn along the road to stay at. I readily agreed, since  I didn't want to deal with the Nords in Windhelm.

We found a town! It was a small mining town south of Windhelm, called Kynesgrove.  We met a Dunmer woman in town named Dravynea, and she asked us to get her some frost salts. She used them to make a potion to keep herself cool in the mines. Without here there, the tunnels might collapse on the miners. I happened to have some frost salt in my bag, and I gladly gave it to her. She seemed surprised that I had helped her, and taught me about Alteration spells in return for my help. I also met the mine's owner, Kjeld, and he told us that he paid a fair price for any ore we managed to dig up. We still had a few hours left before dark, so I decided to help them out and make a few septims. Jenassa didn't like mines, so she said that she'd take our things to the inn and go ahead and get us a room for the night. I met a nice man in the mine named Roggi. He talked more about mead than mining though. He said that he'd even tried to make his own, but he'd been terrible at it. He also told me about the ore in the mine, and said that it was used to make glass weapons and armor. I saved a few to smelt into ingots in to work on Jenassa's glass mace with, and I sold the rest of the ore to Kjeld. He gave me four-hundred and twenty septims for only fourteen pieces of ore. I went to the inn to tell Jenassa the news.

I ran into Kjeld's son in the inn. His name was Kjeld the Younger, and he was very rude. He kept asking why I was there, and saying that I didn't look tough and he could best me with no problem. I sighed and ignored him and joined Jenassa at a table across the room for some dinner. At least his father was nice.

I told Jenassa all about the mine, and about the people there. She seemed impressed with how many septims that I had made, and thanked me for saving some of the ore to use on her weapon. After dinner, I went out to the smelter near the mine and made  the ore into ingots, then used some basic smithing equipment that I found near the inn to work on her mace. It took a while, but at last I finished. When I gave it back to her, she thanked me and said that it was even deadlier now than it had been. She told me that her art would be a little more beautiful now thanks to me. I was confused, but took it as a compliment.

There weren't any rivers or lakes close enough to the town for comfort, so I asked the innkeeper for a kettle of water and bathed off the best I could. My soap was starting to get low though, so I'd have to get more in the next large town that we came to.I washed my clothes as best I could, then Jenassa helped me and we managed to get all of our armor and weapons polished and cleaned. As I got ready for bed, I remembered Jenassa's compliment, and then it dawned on me. When I'd met her, she'd compared vanquishing her foes to making art. She was strange, and a bit morbid at times, but I was still thankful to have her here with me. Hiring her was the best thing I had ever done with five-hundred septims.

12th of Heartfire 4E201
I only slept a few hours last night, since I'd gotten so much rest in the carriage.After breakfast, I hurried off to find Tolfdir and ask him about the Augur. He told me that he hadn't spoken to him in some time, and supposed that he was still somewhere called the Midden. He then asked if I was going to go and see him, and that I tell him hello for him. I asked where the Midden was, and he told me that it was below the College, and warned me that it could be dangerous down there so I had better go prepared. I asked him for more information about the Augur. Apparently, he was a brilliant  student, but seemed too focused on how much power he could acquire, which led to an accident of some sort. On the way to the Midden, I ran  into Onmund and Brelyna. Both of them asked me to do a favor for them. Onmund asked me to get an amulet back for him from Enthir, and Brelyna asked me if she could practice some spells on me. I told Onmund I would help him, and he thanked me and hurried back to his studies. I then asked Brelyna what was involved in the spell casting, and she assured me that they were harmless. I warily agreed, and closed my eyes, bracing myself. She cast the spell, and I felt a little odd. She then asked if I felt alright, since I looked a little green. I opened my eyes slowly, and everything was green!! I scowled, and she started apologizing profusely, and said that she had tested the spell and that this wasn't supposed to happen. I asked what she did to me, and she sheepishly admitted that she wasn't sure, but that it should wear off at some point. I sighed and went back to my room and decided to learn my new spells and read the books Urag had given me until everything stopped being green.

It took almost four hours for that spell to wear off! I was thankful when it did, it was starting to make me sick. I went to find Brelyna and tell her the good news. She was glad that it had, and asked if she could try again, since she was certain that it would work this time. I sighed and agreed, hoping that this one wouldn't mess up. IT MESSED UP!! She turned me into a cow, then a horse, and then a dog! Finally she turned me back to normal, and I felt so sick that I threw up into the nearby magicka pool. She patted me on the back, and thanked me for being a good friend and for my help. I asked that we never speak of this again, and she agreed. She offered to follow me on my travels in Skyrim as a reward, but I thanked her and declined. There was no way that I was going to have her  watch my back until she learned more about spellcasting. Otherwise we might be in a fight, and she'd accidentally turn a bandit into a dragon! I told her goodbye and we went to find Enthir. On the way to his room, Jenassa jokingly said that I had made a fine steed. I punched her in the arm and stuck my tongue out at her. She just chuckled.

Enthir was not a very friendly mage. He was a Bosmer, and apparently dealt in hard to find goods. I asked him to give me Onmund's amulet, and he insisted that Onmund had made a deal with him, and that all deals were final. The only way I could persuade him to possibly return it involved getting a staff for him from a place called Sunderstone Gorge, which was located far to the south between Whiterun and Falkreath. I agreed, then went to find Onmund to tell him that I was working on getting his amulet back. When I found him, he was overjoyed, and thanked me profusely. Now it was time to find the Midden, and the Augur within.

I found a hatch on the edge of the courtyard, and we climbed inside. I readied my spells as soon as we got to the bottom of the ladder. A draugr and an ice wraith or two were the only threats in the first section, but we found an amazing forge thing of some sort. It needed something else to work completely though, some sort of round object according to the journal I found on a table nearby. I decided to try something out. There was an offering box that you placed items into, and then you pulled a lever to see what happened. I put in a broom, some frost salts, some moonstone ore, and a greater soul gem. Then I pulled the lever and a staff appeared! I tried out the staff, and it summoned what seemed to be a Frost Atronach.  The salts and moonstone were both pale and icy looking, so it made sense. I would need more ores, and more brooms, to try to make any more staves. Luckily there had been a broom nearby. I was definitely going to be coming back down here, especially once I found whatever piece was missing. We explored a bit more, and found a door leading further into the Midden. Not far inside we found a strange decoration on the wall, consisting of a skull, five hands, and what looked like leg and arm bones. It was the creepiest thing I had ever seen that wasn't trying to kill me. Further in, we came across some spiders, which explained the skeletons everywhere. Past the spiders, we found an odd room, with a daedric glove in the middle of it. According to a journal of sorts nearby, some students had been trying to summon something with its help, but they were found dead, killed in a terrible sounding manner. The investigator who left the journal had written that they were unable to move the glove from its pedestal, but he had pried the rings off of its fingers and placed them in the Arcaneum. He also conveniently left us a key. A room nearby was full of bones. Just full of them. There must have been at least ten or fifteen sets of remains here. Two sets got up and attacked us, but we knocked them back to the floor. In the room after the skeleton one, I found an alchemy lab, and a book that I tucked into my bag for later. After a little more exploring, we found another door. When I approached it, a voice said "Your perseverance will only lead you to disappointment" I slowly walked closer to the door, and the voice said "Still you persist? Very well, you may enter" Then the door opened and I saw the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life. It looked like a magicka pool at first, but then a glowing mass of energy formed above it, filled with what looked like beads of ectoplasm. I had to squint my eyes from the brightness of it. It was the Augur. It told me that my efforts were in vain, and that those who sent me had not told me what they seek.  He told me that I was seeking knowledge, which would lead to my ruin, as it would also ruin Ancano, who had come here before me. He was looking for information about the Eye of Magnus. I knew he was up to something! That bastard. The Augur told me that to avoid the coming disaster, I would need something to help me see from Magnus' Eye without being blinded: I would need Magnus' staff. He then told me to go and inform the Arch Mage about all of this. The Augur then vanished, and the room became mostly dark. We hurried and found our way out of the Midden, so that we could warn the Arch Mage about Ancano, and to tell him what we had learned.

We found the Arch Mage in the Hall of Elements, standing near the orb. I told him that I had information, and that we needed to find the Staff of Magnus, since it was connected to the orb we found. He asked how I knew this, and I told him about my conversation with the Augur. Instead of being mad like I thought he would be, he seemed impressed. He even suggested that I have the honor of going to find the Staff, and rewarded me with. an enchanted circlet that would help boost my magicka reserves. He then suggested that I go and find Mirabelle, since she had been talking about the Staff recently. I was yawning and stumbling as I walked, so I decided to go and find her in the morning. Hopefully the fate of the College could wait a few hours. Even dragonborn mages need their beauty sleep.

11th of Heartfire 4E201
I had more nightmares last night. They weren't so bad that I woke up screaming, but they did leave me shaken. I dreamed that all of the mages had come back to life, and they stormed our room and dragged us both to the Caller woman to experiment on us. When we got to the ritual chamber, Orthorn was there on a table, and she was already hurting him, he looked at me and asked why I hadn't saved him, then he just screamed. I was so shaken that I didn't even want to eat breakfast this morning. Jenassa had some, and looked at me worriedly. She didn't ask what was wrong though. When we left, the bodies of the mages we'd killed were already starting to smell a little. It was terrible. We hurried out of there as fast as we could. I wanted to go and have another bath, and then take the carriage from Whiterun to Winterhold. Luckily, we found a small pool outside of Fellglow Keep, and the water seemed clean. I hurriedly washed myself off, and Jenassa did the same. I was glad that we still had plenty of soap left, since it took a lot of it to get all of the blood off of my armor. I dried the water off of it with a shirt, then we got dressed and made our way to Whiterun.

A skeever attacked us on the way back to Whiterun. I guess that meant that the blessing of the gods no longer applied. It was nice while it lasted though. We made it to Whiterun in record time, and I hired the carriage outside of town. I figured that it would be night when we got there, so I decided to rest on the trip so that I could deliver the books when I got to the college. Hopefully everyone would still be awake.

I was right, it was dark when we got there, a few hours past sunset. I hurriedly ran through the snow to get to the College, already missing the warmth of Whiterun. On the way in, I ran into Phinis, and he mentioned something about some missing apprentices. Yisra, Ilas-tei, Borvir, and Rundi were their  names. Yisra had been working on flame cloak spells, Ilas-tei was working on illusion spells, and Borvir and Rundi, who were twins, were trying to use frost to help improve mead. I asked what they looked like, and Borvir matched the description of the mage we had found in the ruins not far from Winterhold. I even showed him the dagger I had found, and Phinis said that it looked like Borvir's. I decided that I would keep an eye out for the other three in my travels. Also, since I had plenty of septims now (over six-thousand I think) I decided to get a few more spells. The only ones that he had that  didn't know already were Banish Daedra and Conjure Frost Atronach, so I bought those and an adept level hood and robes. After that I went around to the other instructors to see if any of them had any spells that I didn't know already. Drevis did, so I bought them. One, called Frenzy, seemed to be a stronger version of Fury, and the other, called Rally, was a stronger Courage spell. I was still wide awake, so I decided to go and see if Tolfdir ever got back, and if he had any spells I could buy. And he'd be happy to finally have his alembic back. I was so tired of carrying it around.

I found Tolfdir in the Hall of the Elements, along with..the orb thing. How had they gotten it out of Saarthal and into the College? It was bigger than the door was! Not to mention it never could have fit through any of the doors in Saarthal. Tolfdir was happy to get his alembic back, and gave me thirty septims and a soul gem.  Sadly, he didn't have any new spells for sale. It was getting late, and I was starting to get sleepy again, so I decided to go and deliver the books to Urag in the Arcaneum, and then get some sleep. He was happy to get the books back, and asked if I had read one in particular. The one called Night of Tears seemed to have some significance. Now I wished that I had read it. He said that I should mention it to Tolfdir, and gave me a few books as a reward for my trouble. I put them in my bag for now, but I would read them before going to bed. I stopped by and talked to Tolfdir on the way to my dormitory, since he was still in the Hall of the Elements downstairs from the Arcaneum. I told him about the book, and he seemed to think that it had been about something buried beneath Saarthal..something that men and mer had fought over. I didn't like the sound of that. Then Tolfdir went on to talk about the orb, and certain characteristics about its appearance. The markings on it didn't match anything they'd ever seen before. He then went on to say that he could feel it radiating magicka. Then, Ancano interrupted his lecture, and claimed that he must speak with me immediately. Tolfdir got very angry, and said that he was being inappropriate because we were involved in serious research. Ancano insisted that the matter couldn't wait, to which Tolfdir replied that he had never been interrupted like this before, and was shocked at the audacity of it all. He then promised that we would continue at a later date, when we could avoid interruptions. I liked Tolfdir, he wasn't afraid to tell off a Thalmor. Ancano then addressed me, and said that I must follow him. I asked what was going on, and he explained that someone claiming to be from the Psijiic Order was here and wanted to speak to me. He wanted to know why, so he said that I was going to go with him, and we were all going to have a little 'chat'. I raised an eyebrow at him, and asked "Aren't you just an advisor here?" He seemed to grit his teeth and replied "Technically that is true, but I still report to the Aldmeri Dominion and this is a situation that cannot be ignored. Don't worry, you can return to your petty squabbles and meaningless 'research' a soon as this matter is resolved." I sighed and followed him, wanting to get this over with. We went to the Arch Mage's chambers, where the Arch Mage was waiting with a Psijic Monk. He looked similar to the one I had seen in Saarthal, but he was a different person. He made the room freeze around us like the monk had in Saarthal, and said that it was good to meet me in person. I asked what was going on, and he explained that he had frozen the room so that we could speak privately. He then told me that he didn't have much time, so he must speak quickly. He said that they had tried contacting me before now, like they had in Saarthal, but he feared that the orb downstairs was interfering. He also said that the mages at the College had taken to calling it the Eye of Magnus. But, we were all in danger because of it. And the longer it stayed here, the worse things could get. I asked him what the problem was, and he told me that the Eye was very powerful and the world wasn't ready for its power yet. I told him that I would help him however I could, but that I had no idea what to do. He told me to seek out someone called the Augur of Dunlain here at the College. I asked who he was, and he told me that he was once a student, but was now something different. He didn't know where I could find him though, but suggested that I ask around the College about him. He then said that they would be watching over me, and to never forget that the ability to succeed was within me. He then unfroze the room around us, and the Arch Mage asked him what it was that he had needed. Then Ancano interrupted and demanded that he tell him what he wanted. It was like no time had passed to them! I hid a smile behind my hand as the Psijic Monk, whose name was Quaranir, acted like he didn't know what Ancano was talking about, and said that there must have been some misunderstanding and that he had to leave. Ancano got angry and said that he wasn't leaving until he found out what Quaranir was up to. Quaranir insisted that he wasn't up to anything, and apologized for possibly offending anyone. Ancano just scowled and walked off angrily. I had to almost bite my tongue to stop from laughing. The Arch Mage came over to me after Ancano and Quaranir left, and said that he wasn't sure what happened. He was worried that he had somehow offended Quaranir. I wanted to tell him that that wasn't the case, but I didn't want to let him know that anything was amiss and cause him to worry. I asked him if he knew anything about the Augur of Dunlain, and he offhandedly asked if Tolfdir had been telling stories again, even after he had been told that the Augur wasn't appropriate discussion material. The Arch Mage then asked me to remind Tolfdir about that, and told me to have a good evening.

I went back downatairs to the Hall of the Elements to see if Tolfdir was still there so I could ask about the Augur, but he was gone. I decided that it was past time for bed, and went to my room to get some sleep.

10th of Heartfire 4E201
We had a quick breakfast this morning, then set out on our journey to Fellglow Keep. I gave Jenassa a few of the healing potions I had made as we walked, just in case she needed them. Ri'saad was back outside of the town, and I sold him many of the potions I didn't need. I told him about meeting the other Khajiit caravans in my travels, and he asked if they had been kind to me. I told him that they had, and that one of the caravans even helped fight a dragon in Dawnstar. He seemed surprised, and said that it must have been a sight to see. As we left, he again told us that he hoped our road would lead us to warm sands.

We managed to find the treasure near Valtheim keep that the map led us to. Thankfully there were no bandits to hassle us this time. And, there was even a path nearby that led up the mountain to Fellglow Keep. I wasn't sure what we would find when we got there.

The keep was mostly ruins, with only part of it still standing. We weren't able to get into the  main door, but we managed to find another door that led to the dungeons. Judging by the hostile mages outside, we were sure to find more resistance within the keep.

There were a couple of mages just inside, and they had imprisoned a few vampires in the dungeons. I let them out, and they helped us kill the mages in the next room, then ran out of the dungeon. It was still daytime outside, so I hoped that they would be alright. The room near the dungeon was horrible. There were bodies laid out on the tables in the room, in various states of decomposition. Two of them were even vampires. And, they had a poor dead Khajiit up in a cage suspended in the ceiling. What kind of people were these mages? And what were they doing to these people? Blood was everywhere in the room, and I had to cover my nose to keep from losing my breakfast. They all looked like they had been tortured to death. I vowed to kill every single mage in this place, to avenge these poor people's deaths.

Further down, we managed to find Orthorn in a cage, being guarded by a mage and a few wolves. After we defeated them I went over to talk to Orthorn. He seemed excited, and asked if the arch mage had sent us to rescue him. I told him no, and that I was just here for the books he had stolen. He sighed, and apologized profusely for stealing them, and said that he was stupid and that it wouldn't happen again. I asked why he was locked up, and learned that his new "friends" had tricked him, and had locked him up until they were ready to use him as a test subject. He also told me that someone named the Caller had the books now. I let him out, and he thanked me, and promised to help me get the books back, then he planned to return to the College and beg them to let him back in. Orthorn offered to come along and help, and I decided to let him. I wasn't sure what we were going to face further into the keep, and we could probably use the help.

In the next area, there were three mages practicing spells. One of their targets was a dummy, and the other two were vampires. One of the vampires was already dead, but the other was still alive. They were both in small cages hanging from the ceiling. There didn't seem to be any way to let her out, and I didn't think it would be right to leave her stuck in there to suffer. I summoned my bow and put her out of her misery. I also left a nightshade flower in the cage for her, and wished her better luck in the next life.

Orthorn warned us that the next area was full of necromancers, so I readied my summoned bow and picked them off before they could raise the dead against us. A few skeletons came out of their coffins regardless, but soon they were just piles of bones again. More mages were in the rooms beyond, and we fought them, but Orthorn was killed in the battle. I felt terrible, and wished I had told him to just leave, even though he had seemingly betrayed the College. We pressed on, though I was a bit saddened. We needed to find this Caller, and make them pay for all of this bloodshed.

After a few more fights, we finally made it to the last chamber. The Caller was rather angry at us, and wouldn't give up the books without a fight. We managed to defeat her, and I collected the books, wondering which one we needed back at the College. In the room beyond her ritual chamber, we found a bit of treasure, and a floor hatch back into the keep. It led to a room we had been in before, with the main door to the outside nearby. It was dark when we went outside, and I was exhausted. We had seen some beds in some of the rooms that the mages slept in, and I decided that we would stay here tonight and go back to Whiterun in the morning. We found the room farthest away from all of the dead bodies, and barricaded ourselves inside with some chairs. I was too exhausted and depressed to even bother eating, so we helped each other out of our armor before getting ready for bed. We decided to keep our weapons nearby though, just in case. I wondered if I could even fall asleep in this place.

9th of Heartfire 4E201
I was right. It was the next morning before I finally felt rested enough to wake up. Jenassa had already gotten up and ordered us some breakfast. I thanked her and ate, feeling very famished after having slept for so long. I also felt very dirty, so after breakfast we hurried and packed our gear so that we could get on the road. I wanted to get back to somewhere without so much snow so that I could finally have a bath. More Khajiit were outside of town, and a female was selling wares. Her name was Ahkari. I was about to sell her some of the things that I had found in the temple, but suddenly the other Khajiit drew their weapons. I wondered why, then I heard an all too familiar sound. I looked up, and a dragon was circling around Dawnstar. We managed to defeat it, with the help of the town guards and the Khajiit. The Khajiit had vanished, and I went to look for them to thank them for their help against the dragon. When I found them, they were fighting a frost troll nearby. Sadly, one of the miners that went with them to help got killed by the troll. I healed the survivors with my spell, and summoned my atronach to help with the troll. We all defeated him, and I made sure that they were all alright as we walked back towards the town. One of them, a male named Kharjo, told me that bandits harassed the caravan often during their journeys between towns, but that they usually scared them off. I asked if they had been giving them trouble lately, and he mentioned a skirmish that they had had not too long ago. One of the bandits had stolen his moon amulet. His mother had given it to him when he was just a cub, and it was his only memory of home in this cold land. I felt bad for him, and offered to get the amulet back for him. He said that was kind of me, and told me where they believed that the bandits made their home. He then asked me to be careful; although he missed his amulet, my life couldn't be replaced as easily as it could. When we got back to the dragon skeleton, I looted what I could from it, and sold what I didn't need to Ahkari. She told us goodbye, and hoped that our road would lead us to warm sands.

Along the road from Dawnstar, we met a trio of Thalmor. They all told me to move along, and that what they were doing didn't concern me. They also snidely called me "citizen". I remembered my oath to myself, and started loudly praying to Talos. They got angry and attacked us. We defeated them, and I took their armor and robes. I left them there by the side of the road as a message to any other Thalmor that came down this path. Oddly enough, I didn't feel bad killing them. They had not only started the Great War, which claimed thousands of lives, but they also dragged people off to "interrogate" them for worshiping a divine that they held dear to their heart. And on top of that, they were making the rest of the elves look bad.

At last, it was getting warmer! It was the middle of the afternoon by the time we got close enough to see Dragonsreach in the distance. I was so excited that I started jogging down the road, determined to finally have a bath in the river that ran near the town. About halfway there, there was an odd looking man standing in the road next to what seemed to be a broken down cart. As we got closer, he lamented that he was stuck, and said something about his poor mother being unmoving and at rest, but that she was too still. I asked him what was wrong. and he told me that poor Cicero was stuck, and that he was transporting his dear sweet mother's corpse to a new crypt, and his wagon wheel broke. His manner of speaking was rather odd, and I glanced over  at Jenassa to see what she thought about him. She was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. I asked him if there was any way that I could help, and he started dancing and said that of course I could help him. He asked me to go to the Loreius farm just up the hill, and convince Loreius to fix his wheel. Apparently Cicero had aslready asked him for help, but he refused. He promised that he would reward me with "gleamy shiny coin" for my help. I talked to Loreius, and he said that Cicero had already asked him for help many times, and wondered why he wouldn't leave them alone. I asked why he wouldn't help him, since he would surely pay them for their help. He scoffed and said that his reason had nothing to do with money. He said that Cicero was completely out of his head, and that there hadn't been a jester in Skyrim for a hundred years. He then went on to say that he doubted that it was his mother in the box in the wagon, and he thought it must be war contraband, weapons, or skooma. And he didn't want to get involved in anything illegal. I reminded him that he was a stranger who needed help, and asked him to do the right thing. He got flustered, and wondered who I was to come here and tell him his business. I tried again, persuading him that helping him was the right thing to do. He sighed and agreed that I was right. He needed help, and if he turned him away what kind of man was he? He apologized for his rudeness and asked me to tell Cicero that he would be down to help him soon after he gathered his tools together. Cicero was so happy that he started dancing again, and said that even his mother thanked me for my help. He then rewarded me with four-hundred septims. I thanked him and wished him better luck on the rest of his journey, and we continued on to the river to finally have a bath.

We managed to find part of the river that had a strip of land around it, to shield us from the strong current. There was a sabrecat on the middle of it, sitting near a chest. He didn't bother us, and I picked the lock on the chest, finding a few septims inside. Then we spent what seemed like hours bathing and washing all of our clothes. We laid the clothes out to dry on some rocks, and sat on the shore and had a light meal. It was nice to be somewhere warm again. I planned to stay in Whiterun tonight, then go and find Fellglow Keep tomorrow. Since it was near Valtheim Towers, we could also look there for the treasure shown on the map I had found.

I felt so much better as we walked to town after my bath. Jenassa said that it was the best bath she had ever had. Now we wouldn't have to worry about townfolk running away from our smell. I did some trading with Adrianne, and bought some more moonstone so that I could improve the rest of our armor. I also stopped by Belethor's shop to sell some things, and by Arcadia's to make more potions for us. I even made enough poisons to sell to her for a nice profit. I made enough to buy all of the ingredients that she had in stock, then sold more potions back to her to get all of my septims back. And I still had at least thirty to sell later. Alchemy was turning out to be a very profitable hobby. We then made our way to the inn to get dinner and a room for the night. Outside of the inn, a courier stopped me and gave me an invitation to a new museum that was opening up in Dawnstar. I thanked him, then read it as we walked into the inn. It said: "Silus Vesuius Presents The Museum of the Mythic Dawn A History of the Cult that Toppled the Septim Dynasty Inside of his very own home in the great capital of the Pale, Dawnstar Free and open to all citizens of Skyrim". I bought us some dinner, and showed the pamphlet to Jenassa as we ate. She thought it was strange, but admitted that she was a bit curious about what the museum could possibly contain, since the Mythic Dawn had been seemingly wiped out over two centuries ago. After dinner, I rented a room from Hulda, and we made small talk as she showed it to us out of habit. She told us goodnight, and said that it was good to see us again. Of all the beds I had slept in across Skyrim so far, the one here at the Bannered Mare was the most comfortable.