How I Found It All: Part IX
This morning I awoke to the sound of birds through the window. The sun was shining through it into my face, and I winced at the brightness. I felt Charley still at my side, clinging to me. I also noticed my own arm around him. I didn't want to disturb him, but the sun was very bright. I moved my arm out from under him, and I noticed him stir. He opened his eyes, and also winced, as the sunlight was reflecting of my white and green scales into his eyes. "Hey, good morning love," I said.
"Good morning to you too, love. What time is it?" I looked at the clock.
"It's almost 8:00 in the morning." We both were still looking at each other, both wincing from the bright glare of the sun. I knew he wanted to stay in the bed for a while longer, but I was hungry, as I always was in the morning when I just woke up. I wanted to go into the kitchen and scrounge around in the fridge. I knew Charley wouldn't like that, so I resisted the urge. I simply stayed in the bed, right next to him, staring into his eyes.
"This light is uncomfortable. I would like to go somewhere."
"Well, for a starters, we can get dressed and make ourselves something to eat."
"That sounds good." We both got out from under the covers on opposite sides of the bed, and we proceeded to get dressed. Once again, I found some clothing for myself from his mother's closet. "How tall is your mother?"
"She's almost as tall as I am."
"That explains why these clothes fit me so well." I found a pair of Khaki trousers, and a green flower print shirt.
"You look great in those."
"You think?"
We both got down the stairs and headed into the kitchen, only to see it in the same condition as it was the night before. The plates, glasses, and other dishes were still in the table, and the candles were burned all the way down. "Did we forget to blow out the candles?"
"Ooh, I think so. Well, I guess there is some work to do before we can have anything to eat. Wait, I got some yogurt in the fridge. You can have some while I get this stuff cleaned up."
"That sounds good." I went over to the fridge, and I found a few packs of yogurt cartons. There were a few flavors: banana, raspberry, and... strawberry. "Mmm, strawberry yogurt is my favorite. How'd you know?"
"It's one of my favorite flavors also." I took a carton, and brought it upstairs, into the bedroom next to Charley's. I decided to do something useful while Charley was getting breakfast ready, so I went upstairs, took out the book I got, and took the medallion off of my neck, and I placed them both on a desk in the room. "Now let's see. There has to be something in common between the two." I could feel magicka diffusing from both objects, although they didn't feel like the same kind of magicka. One made me feel stronger, but the other was almost indescribable. The book seemed to give off darkness. It was very strange, nearly unsettling.
I took the book and opened the front cover. It looked exactly the same as it did when I opened it at the store, but it felt different. The parchment felt much softer, like it it was new at the store, and had been through a year of wear by the time it got to the house. It didn't feel worn, or any weaker. In fact, the parchment felt stronger. Something must have happened when I came into contact with the book. "The magic from my body could have transferred itself into the book. There's no other explanation for this." I decided to begin looking through the pages. As I flipped from page to page, the words became more and more obscure. Finally, on the tenth page, the words changed completely. It was written in a Daedric dialect that I couldn't make out. None of the words I knew. I only made out one word. "Found" was capitalized, followed by something like a dash, but more curved. The following word was also capitalized, followed by the same symbol. Finally, the third word was capitalized, but it wasn't followed by the dash symbol. "It's Marbles! She's written in this book!" I then realized that those words spelled out "Found-Her-Marbles." I spent the rest of my time trying to decipher some of the words, using the basis I got from her name.
After an hour, I was able to make out what a few of the pages read. It was mostly about the Mages Guild, and it mentioned the Arch-Mage, who at the time was Marbles. There was something going on with a few of the mages. "Huh, apparently there were a few mages who were experimenting with some new kind of magicka. That must be what's coming from this book." I felt the magicka coming off the pages, and I put my hand over the book to feel it closely.
"Hey," said a voice from the other side of the room. I opened my eyes and looked over to see Charley standing there with wet hands from cleaning the dishes.
"Oh, hey. I was just examining the book I got from the store in town."
"What were you doing with your hand?"
"There is much you don't know about me. Come over here and take a seat." He grabbed a chair and planted it next to me. "As you may know, I had a sister when I was in my own time. She was what you would call a mage. Mages are people who have a certain sensitivity to magicka, a force powerful enough to manipulate the world around you."
"What are you saying?"
"Well, since my sister was a mage, she was sensitive to this force. In fact, she was so saturated with it, even the blood in her veins was illuminated from it. That's one reason she was able to become the Arch-mage at the Arcane University. How this ties into me is, since she was my sister, I too am sensitive to magicka. Here, let me show you."
"What are you going to do?"
"Oh, nothing much. Do you have some locked trunk or chest?"
"Well, I have an old jewelry box that I haven't been able to open for quite a bit of time now. It's right over here." He got up and grabbed the small box, and he handed it to me.
"Watch this." I muttered a few inaudible words, and a glow emanated from my hand as I touched the jewelry box, which then made the box itself glow for a brief moment. I then opened it and handed it to Charley.
"How did you do that? The thing's been locked for years."
"It's the magicka I was talking about. Now, how that relates to this book is it is filled with magicka. Also, this medallion is filled with magicka. However, the book doesn't have the same kind as the kind from this medallion."
"I'm confused."
"The magicka I used to open the box was one kind of magicka tuned to manipulate the physical realm. There are other kinds of magicka, such as one that can affect the mind or senses, such as invisibility."
"You're saying that you can turn invisible?"
"Well, yes, but there are limits to my capabilities. I can only use the spell for a certain amount of time, depending on the amount of magicka I would like to use. I can become invisible for a shorter period, or for longer. There is a limit to how much magicka I can use in a period of time, and it is this limit that determines how powerful of a mage you are. Marbles had a higher limit than anyone else at the University and possibly in all of Tamriel, without aid from magicka enhanced equipment."
"Is there any possibility for me to be able to use this magicka?"
"I'm afraid not. I can't feel any magicka in you. It seems that no one in this time has this sensitivity. I think the only way you'd be able to use magicka was if you received some kind of artificial boost, like a stimulant. There are a few ways to do this. In Tamriel, there were scrolls with spells that increased the amount of magicka in a person. Also, there were potions that could be made from combining certain plants that would increase the magickal output of a mage. I'm not sure if these would work on someone who isn't sensitive in the first place."
"Well, there is a possibility?"
"As I said, I'm not sure. It might be something to look into, but there isn't anything in my possession that would do that."
"Anyway, what are you doing with the book."
"Before you walked in, I was trying to identify the kind of magicka that was in the book. I haven't had any luck with that. It seems to be some kind of new magic, one that I haven't experienced before."
"Were you doing anything before that?"
"Yeah, I was translating the book. It seems to be a dialect of Daedric that I've not seen before. I managed to get a few of the pages translated. They are mostly logs from the Mages Guild. There is one interesting entry in one of the pages. It has to do with a few mages experimenting with a new kind of magicka. I have a hunch that this new magicka is the same kind in this very book, although I don't know why. I feel like I'd need to investigate this further."
"How are you going to do that?"
"Well, as you should know, time travel moves you through time, but not space, so that means when I was transported from the Arcane University, I arrived in the same place. There were ruins where I came from. I could feel magicka still lingering there, so that must be where the Arcane University was. I need to go up there and see if there's anything that I'd be able to find."
"I want to come with you."
"I guess you can come. I think you should experience the essence of magicka yourself." In the back of my mind, I didn't want him to go with me, but I knew there was no stopping him. I knew enough of him to know that he was stubborn. "I'm sure that if there are any animals there, they will have become more aggressive from the mixture of magicka there. You'll need to be on your guard."
"Hey, don't worry about me. I'll come prepared for anything that might happen. I have some military equipment here."
"Well, I guess I can leave this stuff for later. I'm hungry. Did you get anything done breakfast-wise?"
"I made us each an omelet with sausage."
"What are we waiting for? The sooner we eat, the sooner we can get to the ruins."
We both headed downstairs into the kitchen. There, two steaming omelets were waiting there for us with some sausage. We ate fairly quickly, not talking the whole time. Charley took the dishes and put them in the sink. We both headed up to our rooms and got our stuff together. My leather vest and pants, along with my moccasins were cleaned and ready. I put those on. I then grabbed my satchel, which I had stuffed with some bread and apples, along with the remainder of my potions. I grabbed both my dagger and my claymore. Once I was finished preparing I walked into Charley's room. He was wearing some kind of uniform. It was a blend of colors, ranging from green to brown. "Hey Jumps. This is my uniform for the British army. The print is called camo, which helps break up my figure so I'm harder to see."
"Ah, back in Tamriel there is something called chameleon. It's a spell that bends light around the caster, making him harder to see."
"Why does this place get all the cool stuff? No matter. You'll never find this there." He lifted a what looked like another gun and handed it to me. "This, my friend, is the L85A2. It's a gas-operated, rotating bolt automatic assault rifle with a 30-round magazine, and a rate of fire of 775 rounds per minute, and an effective range of 450 meters using iron sights."
"That's impressive, but nothing substitutes the classic sword in hand-to-hand. Let me tell you. There could be a lot of hand-to-hand where we're going, so long as the sewers are still intact for all these years." I placed my hand on the hilt of my sword and put my hand back down.
"I'll be sure to let you at 'em if we ever get into that situation."
We were both ready to head out. He handed me a torch, which I placed in my satchel. We headed downstairs and walked out the front door. "We're going that way," I said, pointing towards the direction of the ruins.
"Let's go." We began the trek over grassy hills until we began to find rocks and boulders scattered here and there. Then, after an hour of grass and rocks, I began to see stones different than the others. They were much whiter, and they looked like they were shaped by tools.
"We're getting close." As we continued, more and more of these stones appeared. Eventually, we came upon a patch of grass that looked like it was scorched or burned. The odd part was it was burned in a perfect circle. "This is where I arrived. We're in the dead center of the Arcane University. Start looking around for anything interesting."
"Okay, I'll go this way." He started walking in once direction. I stayed near the scorched grass, taking in a wave of memories of what happened. I remembered seeing Marbles there next to me, watching me go through. I remembered seeing the objects in the room shaking from the magic. I remembered stepping through, and feeling those strange sensations in the portal. I remembered why I made it back to the ruins. I shook my head a bit and walked off to investigate further.
There wasn't very much at the sight. There were mostly broken stones and masonry. There were a few standing pillars, worn down by time. 'Shouldn't this have aged more than it has?' I thought to myself. 'I mean, it has been thousands of years.' It hit me. 'Of course! The magicka here, saturated in the stone must have preserved it, or at least slowed the wear.' I was walking around, trying to remember the layout of the university. I was trying to recall if there were any entrances into the sewers. All I found was just more rubble and ruins. I could feel there was a strong amount of magicka still there. There were also 'hotspots' of sorts where the magicka was stronger than other places. I saw Charley over yonder walking through some better preserved ruins. I yelled over to him "Hey! You feel the magic here?"
"The what?"
"Magicka! You feel it?"
"I do feel something! It's a strange feeling." I let him continue exploring over where he was, while I continued where I was, feeling the magic beginning to concentrate itself. I began walking over to what looked like some kind of statue. It looked amazingly preserved, as there were intricate details still distinguishable. The closer I walked over to it, the stronger the magicka was. The statue depicted a dragon, one of great power, rearing, and roaring into the skies. Its wings were stretched out, and it was on its back legs, aided in balance by its tail. I came up to it, and I touched it. I suddenly felt a strong surge of magicka flow through me. Pain shot down my legs, and I fell to my knees. I apparently screamed, as Charley ran up to me and asked me what was wrong. "You okay?"
"Agh!" After a few seconds, I was able to breathe again, heart racing. I got up, confused as to what just happened. "I--I'm fine. That was strange."
"Okay, stupid question, but what just happened?"
"I don't know. I touched it, and it felt like I was struck by lightning. The strangest part is it only lasted for a few seconds, then dissipated completely." I took a minute of silence, acting like I was searching for something. "That is very strange. I can't feel anymore magic here. It's like it was built up in the statue, and then discharged."
"So you're saying that this is some sort of capacitor?"
"I guess so. By Talos, that hurt." I took out my dagger and began poking at the statue. I felt no more magicka coming from it, but I did feel like some of my magicka was leaving me and going into it. "I think you're right. This thing is sapping my power, although only slowly."
"Is that bad?"
"No, no, this is good. That means it's still working." I looked at the other side, and I saw five small holes in the base. "Huh, it looks like these were meant for fingers. See how they're arranged?" I began to move my hand towards the holes, but Charley grabbed my arm.
"Are you sure that's safe?"
"If it was meant for fingers, then I don't see why it wouldn't be. Trust me."
"Okay, but I warned you." He let go of my arm, and I moved my hand to the holes. I placed my fingers in the appropriate places. Nothing happened.
"See, nothing to worry about, but I wonder what's wrong. Wasn't it supposed to respond or something?"
"Well, as you said, these ruins are thousands of years old. I wouldn't expect it to work."
"Hey, it was able to store up a charge of magicka."
"That's true. Hey! Try using a spell."
"You're right. Most magical items are activated by a spell. Let's try a soultrap spell."
"Whoa! Soultrap?"
"Don't worry. It only works on animals. I can't capture human souls."
"Okay, good."
I uttered the spell, and I felt it travel down my arm, and into the statue. At first it did nothing, then I heard it begin to hum. I immediately removed my hand from it, and it began to glow slightly. It stayed like that for a minute, glowing and humming, then it stopped. "Huh, was that it?" It did nothing.
"Maybe that's all it's supposed to do."
"I don't know. It seems too important to just do that." I leaned my body on it, then the statue slid completely off, hitting the ground and shattering. I jumped up, surprised, then I saw a dark hole in the base. "Whoa!" I exclaimed. "That wasn't there before."
"Yeah, there was a statue. Anyway, it looks like it goes underground. You think we should check it out?"
"Well, we've gone this far. Plus, my curiosity is getting the best of me. I say we go down. It might lead to the sewers, although I don't see why there'd be a secret entrance to the sewers."
"I say we go."
"Okay, let's go."
He helped me into the hole, and I lowered myself down on the ladder. Charley was right behind me. It was very dark, and the only light was from the hole above. When we got to the bottom, I tried looking around, to no avail. "This is why I brought torches," he said.
"Wait." I tried uttering the spell for light, but I couldn't cast it. "That's strange." He took out his torch and turned it on. I took mine out as well. "Wow, this place seems remarkably intact." It looked like it was part of the sewer system, but there was nothing to indicate it really was part of it. There were no pipes leading to or from the tunnel. There were no canals for drainage. It simply looked like an underground tunnel. "I guess this is worth checking out. You're staying with me. There's no telling what could be down here."
"Oh, come on. You think something could have survived all these years down here?"
"You'd be surprised what could survive in these conditions. Just stay with me. This place seems familiar." We began walking through the tunnel, which didn't seem to be dangerous at all. There were no signs of damage or wear. There wasn't even a single stone misplaced from the floor, wall, or ceiling. I could feel a lot of magicka lingering there. I kept on my toes the entire time. Who knew what had been down there, living, or not living, waiting, guarding.
After about a mile of walking, I could tell there was something not right about the place. I was hearing things, things that sounded like faint voices. I looked at Charley, then I looked back. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I don't know. I've been hearing things, faint voices here and there."
"I hear nothing."
"That's what disturbs me the most. It might have something to do with such a large concentration of magicka in the tunnel. I can feel it in the air, like a charge." There wasn't anything in the tunnel. We were in there for well into an hour. The air was stale and musty. There was no light in either direction. "The strangest part about this place is there seems to be no other way out. It's a straight line in either direction. There hasn't even been any sign that this ends. It makes me nervous."
"I think we should turn back. This place gives me the creeps."
"Yeah, I think you're right. I don't know. I just have a feeling about this place, like we should continue on."
"Okay, but I don't like this."
We continued walking for another half-hour, then something changed. The tunnel broke off into two paths, not forking, but forming a 'T'. I knew what Charley was thinking, and I didn't like it. "No, we're not splitting up."
"But that's the best plan for this."
"You know this place is creepy enough. It would be worse to be alone."
"Yeah, never mind. Well, which way, then?"
"I'm trying to think."
"How about we choose at random."
"Let's go right. I don't like taking left turns in dark, creepy tunnels."
"Why's that?"
"It's a long story."
"Okay, then I guess we're going right." We both headed off down the tunnel, turning right at the split. I could have sworn that I heard something coming from the other way. I looked back, and I saw two faint glows, at about eye's level. They didn't move, but they did act like they blinked. I tugged at Charley's shoulder and pointed him towards the glows. He took his torch, and pointed it at the glows, revealing a tall figure, without a face. Instead, there was a skull with two eyes. The skull was attached to a neck, also bone, which split off into two bony shoulders, covered by a tattered robe. In its skeletal hands was a wooden staff. "It's a lich!" I pushed Charley aside, knocking him down. A bolt of lightning shot out from the staff, barely missing me and Charley. I grabbed my sword and pulled it out. Charley quickly got up and began firing at the undead creature. After thirty shots, he stopped. The lich looked at him, and moved his staff, firing another bolt of lightning, which was barely dodged by him.
"Why isn't he falling down?"
"He's undead! Bullets won't do much to it." I began to charge towards it. It apparently saw me, and shot a spell at me. Once again, it was dodged, but I feared that the closer I got to it, the harder it would be to do so. I was about halfway to it, and other undead began to appear. In three seconds, there were all ready two zombies and an animated skeleton. I ran past one of the zombies, slashing its head clean off. It fell, then got quickly back up. "These things just don't die, do they?" I said.
"Hey, I'm doing the best I can!" He yelled back. He reloaded, and continued firing. He shot at the zombie that lost its head, finally knocking it down, and keeping it down. I ran past the skeleton and the second zombie, slashing where I could at them. They turned around and started after me. There was another blast from the lich, this time missing, but then hitting the skeleton, sending it flying in multiple directions. Charley was shooting at the second zombie, trying to get it off of my tail, literally. I tripped with the zombie right on top of me, looking down. "Charley!" I heard a single shot go through the head of that undead, and it fell on top of me. I took out my dagger, and ran it through the chest of the corpse, spilling rancid blood on me. I pushed the now completely dead creature off of me, rolling just to dodge a bolt from the lich. "Charley, get its attention." I saw Charley's torch go out, and with mine smashed by my fall, it was completely dark.
I heard shots through the darkness, and the sound of shattering bones. There was a brief moment of light as the lich shot another bolt of lightning at Charley. I got up, and tried once more to utter the spell for light. There was a flash of green, then everything in the tunnel was illuminated. I grabbed the sword, and while shouting, slashed off the head of the lich. It stood for a moment, then in a cloud of old dead magicka that gave a musty stench, it disappeared. Once again, the only things moving and breathing were Charley and me. "Well," I said finally, "wasn't that an adventure."
"Yes, quite..."
"You okay?"
"I'm fine. The 'lich' as you call it just got me with one of those lightning bolts."
"Well, that's bad, very bad. You need help. Hang on." I pulled out one of the potions from my satchel. "This should heal you."
"I hope so." I opened the top, and handed him the flask. He took a sip, then coughed. "Ugh! I thought you said it'd make me better."
"It will. You need to drink it." He took another sip, almost coughed, then took another. "Come on, drink it all." He took a deep swig, then he threw the bottle. After swallowing the last drop, he coughed once more.
"How do you manage to drink that stuff?"
"Well, you feel better, don't you?"
"Wow! No more pain! That's amazing."
"You can thank my sister for it. She's the alchemist, not me." I helped him to his feet. "Now, can we continue?"
"Yeah, where were we going?"
"To the right--I think. Yeah, we weren't going left. Let's go."
We continued down the tunnel, to an unknown and awaiting destination. "Hey, Jumps?"
"Yeah?"
"Nothing. I just find it weird you're glowing green."
"It's just a spell I know. I can't manage any other color. In fact, I haven't seen anyone ever manipulate any light other than green."
"Well, I am glad for it. My torch was fried when I was hit. At least we can see where we're going." The tunnel was long, but it did have an end. Eventually, we came upon a dimly lit room. There were a few alchemical apparatuses, and there were old parchments scattered here and there. There seemed to be no source for the dim yellow-orange light, which was the strangest part about the room. "Do you think someone lives here?"
"Well, there seems to be no other explanation for the light." I walked over to the desk on the opposite side of the room. There were mostly blank parchments, but there was some scrawling on a few of them, so I blew off the dust and tried to make out anything from amongst the scribbles. "Hey, Charley, come over here."
"What is it?"
"I think you should read this." I handed him one of the sheets. He looked over it.
"So? What is this?"
"Don't you see? This is in Marbles' handwriting! She was here. I knew she survived!"
"Wait, this place looks like it hasn't been touched for a millennium. There's no way to know if she's still here."
"Well, I know she's still here. I have a feeling."
"A feeling? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Ah, you wouldn't understand the bond between my sister and me. Just know that we can sense each others presence. It's faint, but I can feel her in this room, or nearby."
"Well, it doesn't look like she's here."
"I know. That's the most frightening part about this."
"Now, you said that she was able to send you messages telepathically?"
"Yes, but I can't send messages back. If I was able to, I would have done it when I first arrived."
"So, now what?"
"I don't know. I guess we take whatever we can from here and bring it back to your house."
"Well, we can grab what we can and take it home."
"We'll have to make another trip down here. It looks like there's a lot of stuff of interest."
"Okay, we'll grab what we can and take it back. The sooner we get out of here, the better. This place gives me the creeps."
I took all of the parchments in the room that had writing on them and put as many as I could in my satchel. Charley took a few books and put them in his backpack. "Charley, do you think you can carry these?" I showed them the alchemy equipment.
"I'm afraid not. These books are heavy enough as it is."
"I can fix that." I muttered another spell, and there was a small flash of purple light.
"What was that?"
"Oh, I just made your stuff lighter."
"Wow, you did. I think I can carry those now. Here." He took the alembic, and put it in the pack, then the calcinator, then the retort. I took the mortar and pestle and put it in my satchel, just barely fitting.
We started heading out, and the green light I was creating began to fade. "My magicka is draining from me. I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. We need to get out of here quickly." We tried to pick up the pace a bit. After a few minutes, we made it to the intersection, running past the decapitated corpses and the scattered bones. The smell from it all stank up the whole tunnel until we came to the entrance. There was no light coming from the hole, so we assumed it was dark all ready. "You first," I said. I helped him onto the ladder. He made it halfway up, then stopped. "What's wrong?"
"Hold on," he said. "The hole's closed up. I can't see a way to open it."
"What?"
"It's closed up. We seem to be trapped down here."
"Get out of the way. I can blast it open."
"No, don't use anymore magicka than you need to. I have something for that. Here, take my pack." I grabbed the pack from his back, and he pulled something off of his vest.
"What's that?"
"High explosives..."
"What?!" He placed it on the object blocking the hole, then got down.
"Come over here. Be ready for a bang." We ran over a few hundred feet away from the hole, then Charley took out a small flashing device. "Cover your ears." I did so. There was a flash from the hole, then the tunnel shook.
When the dust settled, we went over to the hole and looked up to a starry sky. "Well whattaya know," I said. I looked at Charley. "Let's finally get out of here." Once again, I helped Charley onto the ladder. He climbed up and out. I jumped and grabbed the lowest rung. I hoisted myself up, and with Charley's help, climbed out. We sat on the grass for a few minutes. My light finally faded out. "Ooh, just in time," I said, breathing and sighing. I looked over and saw a large piece of stone smoking. "Well, that's what was plugging up the hole."
"Yeah, but why was it there? It seems like someone put it there to trap us inside."
"Yes, that is disturbing. Well, if someone was trying to stop us, then who, and why?"
"I don't know, but at least we're out of there. Let's go home. I'm tired."
"Good idea. I need time to recover my magicka completely."
We got up and began heading home. It took us longer than getting there, because we were exhausted. When we were finally home, we were greeted warmly by Charley's dog, Rosa. Charley and I headed directly up to our rooms to get out of our gear. I took my satchel and put it on the desk with the book and the medallion. "Well, I have a few more clues to the puzzle of what happened, hopefully." I removed all of my leather, which was nearly saturated with undead gunk and put them in a laundry hamper. I sat down on the bed, and I took a deep breath, reflecting all that took place that day. What happened with the statue; the long tunnel; the lich, the zombies, and the skeleton; the strange room; Marbles' handwriting on the parchment; the stone blocking the way--it was all very confusing to me. I was probably going to spend the greater amount of the next day figuring out all of this. "I need to go back to get what we left behind. I'm going to need all I can to figure out all of this." I sighed, and looked up to see Charley in the doorway. "Oh, hey love."
"Hey. I overheard you. I know we need to go back, but tomorrow might not be the best time. I used all but one of my clips fighting those zombies, and I'm afraid I'm not going back 'til I get some more ammo."
"That's okay. I need to go over the stuff we found there. That might take me all week, if what I found can provide any useful information."
"Well, you're not starting tonight. You will need your strength."
"I certainly hope I can find Marbles. I could really need her guidance right now."
"What makes you so certain that she's still alive, even if you say she's immortal?"
"You don't know my sister. She wouldn't simply die. She's too powerful for that. Maybe she's just stuck in Oblivion. I don't know. I'll go over the things we brought back and see if there's any clue to her whereabouts."
"I'm going to bed. You should too. If you say your magicka will return, then let it do so in your sleep."
"Okay, I'll be with you shortly."
I removed the rest of my clothing, including my undergarments, and I headed into Charley's room to see him all ready in bed, eyes closed. I slipped under the covers next to him, put my arms around him, and closed my eyes. "I love you," I said.
Before I finally slipped into dreaming and sleep, I heard four faint words enter my ears, "I love you too."
End of part IX...