[Encanto] 9 - The Augur of Dunlain

The Midden is a Dungeon filled with all manner of corridors, caverns, and old structures built countless years ago.

Draugr, Giant Frostbite Spiders, Ice Wraiths, and more call the place home.

There were two ways to get into the Middin, well, there were three, but I wasn't willing to climb down all the way to the shoreline to enter through a cave entrance only to have to climb back up.

The easiest way in would be through the courtyard, but, since I didn't want to be discovered, I thought it best I wait until nightfall, so since I still had a few hours to kill, I decided to keep learning.

For the next couple of hours, I decided to learn more spells from the Restoration School of Magic.

Specifically, I learned 'Sun Fire' and 'Turn Lesser Undead.'

Two relatively simple spells, with the Sun Fire spell being basically an offensive spell that dealt more damage to the Undead and 'Unholy.'

While Turn Lesser Undead was a spell that made low-level undead flee if hit by the spell, a semi-useful spell that should help if I were to get swarmed by any undead that was created by the students here at the College and left to roam freely in the midden.

I didn't have as much time as I would like, but I did manage to get the basics of the spells down and could at least cast them.

So, after I put back all the tomes and books I gathered to their respective places, under the scrutiny of Urag, I walked out to the courtyard and instantly shivered as I felt the cold slip right through my clothes and into my flesh.

It seems I'd need to find a spell to help me stay warm in cold environments...

I quickly walked over to a desolate corner in the courtyard and found the trapdoor hidden behind some old crates.

Finding it not locked, I opened it and climbed down, closing it above me.

Once down, I noticed it was pretty dark, so I conjured up a fireball and had it hover above my raised hand.

Looking around, I noticed I was standing in an expansive open room, with stairs in front of me, and on the other side of the room, there were four openings in the wall. The bottom right opening is clear, while the others are barred with iron grates.

Walking down the stairs, I looked around, seeing multiple passages that I could take, and looking over the hole, I could see what looked to be a long shaft all the way down with water at the bottom.

From my memories, I remembered where each pathway led.

To the northeast is a passage that leads to a split. The right side (which leads to the east) leads to a single empty jail cell. The left (north) passage leads to a snow-covered room that joins onto a room with a low ceiling many pillars with two exits. An exit path to the east/northeast leads to a large room with an attached room straight across to the southeast that contains the Atronach Forge. A passageway to the southwest leads to a cell door, with a room beyond that has a bench comprising some alchemy ingredients.

Conjuring a Familiar, a spectral wolf, I had it charge forward to clear the way.

Once I felt it die, I conjured another, and another, until eventually whatever was killing them must have died.

Applying my modified Oakflesh spell, I slowly crept down the passage with a fireball in hand, and with my other hand, I was ready to send a crushing wave of gravity.

Even though my gift had seemingly evolved, I could still control Gravity.

Coming around a corner, I found a fluctuating Spectral Wolf about to collapse and turn to mist and several rather large Frostbite Spiders.

Waving my hand, I let the spell collapse, causing the wolf to poof into blue smoke, only for me to recast the spell, and summon yet another Familiar.

Raising my hands, I used my Gift to shove the carcasses of the spiders out of the way, and with a wave of my hand, I burned away all of the cobwebs and egg sacks to prevent a foreseeable Frostbite Spider infestation.

From there, I had the Familiar continue its role as a vanguard, slaying anything it came across that proved a threat.

I spent around two hours clearing out the Midden, grabbing and claiming whatever goods I found that were clearly without an owner, amounting to 230 Septims, a couple of Soul Gems, alchemical ingredients, and even some dusty tomes that featured spells that I haven't learned of yet.

Then I found it.

A locked door at the very bottom of the Midden.

"Augur, may I speak with you?" I asked, politely.

"For what reason do you seek me?" A loud ethereal voice echoed from around me as if the very air around me was speaking to me.

"Answers, and...perhaps a proposal, if you're willing to listen," I offered.

"..." An awkward silence answered me, and after what felt like a few minutes of waiting, it answered.

"You may enter."

Immediately the locked door swung open, revealing a small circular chamber with a floating blue orb of energy in the center of the room.

The door closed behind me.

The Augur of Dunlain, previously a Breton Mage studying in the College that was gifted in the Arcane Arts, ended up turning into this...entity, his soul fused with the very Magicka and energy around and inside the College that resulted in him becoming the Augur of Dunlain

During the events of the game, he helped the Last Dragonborn in finding the Eye of Magnus, an artificial said to be so powerful, that it could change the world.

So, I sought its wisdom.

"Greetings...if I may ask, do you know who I am?" I asked, testing the waters.

"You are a new student of the College, your name is Salem Madrigal, and you...are not of this realm or any realm known," He answered.

"So you know...do you if I can go back?"

"You have come here, it is only reasonable that you can return," The Augur said simply.

"I see...how strong would I have to get before you think I could do it?" I wondered.

"You are 25% of the way there."

"25%? In what way?" I asked, confused, looking at it with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you offer for the answer?" It asked, in the same monotone voice as before.

"Hmmm...How about knowledge? Whether it be about Stories, History, Science, or something else?" I offered.

"Knowledge?" It asked, curious.

Hook line, and sinker.

"That's right, I could teach you about how stars are formed, how galaxies are created, and how the very planets form in the vastness of space, or I could teach you about atoms, and the building blocks of the universe," I offered, finding nothing so specific or knowledgeable in the college's library, only theories.

"...Deal."

"Right, then I guess I'll start with the big bang and the subsequent creation of my universe," I started.

Sure, it might have been how the universe in my reality was created, but I think the Augur still would have loved to know how it was possible since this Universe was created by God-like beings.

"Fascinating, so you're saying this explosion started with an infinitely hot and dense single point in space that inflated and stretched as if it exploded and continued inflating and stretching at unimaginable speeds and continued going faster and faster over billions of years?"

"Correct," I answered.

"Did it ever stop?"

"It's logical that it would eventually stop once it ran out of energy and slowed down, but it was still going strong in our universe, at least from what we could tell," I answered.

"And with this energy, matter also spread out, before a force called gravity compressed the matter to create gas, then stars, and these stars exploded creating new matter, and this matter created new stars and so on?" It asked, excited.

"That's right, after that, matter trapped around the gravity well of these stars condensed, forming Gas Giants, Terrestrial Planets, and more," I continued.

"And these...countless solar systems became trapped in the gravity wells of these...Super Black Holes, forming a Galaxy? How many Galaxies were there?"

"Unknown, but probably more than we could fathom, each Galaxy had countless planets that could possibly house life, meaning there were bound to be aliens somewhere out there, we hadn't made it out of our solar system yet, so we didn't know if there were any in our Galaxy."

"And your species called the galaxy 'The Milky Way Galaxy,' correct?"

"That's right, however, this is where we will stop, I have given you a sufficient amount of information for some answers and knowledge for myself,"

"And once this transaction is complete, will you be willing to continue exchanging information?" It asked, curious.

Feeling a strange sort of pressure, I shook my head and asked, "Sure, though it will be of equivalent exchange, a trade, understand?"

"Yes," The Augur replied.

"Good," I said with a victorious smile on my face.