HP: Sacred Gear Chat Group (2) - Chapter 51 (Patreon)

Chapter 51 - An Offer You Can't Refuse

My hand tightened around the Staff of Magnus. Sweat began forming on my palm.

The Eye of Magus pulsated behind me, releasing its heavy Magicka into the air, yet it wasn't even the most powerful presence in the room right now.

Alfe watched me like prey, with barely concealed amusement. Her portal, filled with an army of undead, loomed threateningly behind her.

Fight? I stood no chance against such a monster, not to mention her army.

Run?

Could I grab Ghislaine and Agnar? No! I can't.

Could I grab Mom, Tracey, Astoria, and Daphne? Maybe? I probably could... but Brelyna knew they were here. They may have made preparations.

Could I save Ghislaine later? No...

What options did I even have left? What could I possibly do?

The only reasonable approach left was to negotiate.

"What do you want from us?"

The gorgeous dark elf, her hair white as the moonlight, raised an amused eyebrow at my question.

"Oh, already giving up? Are we?"

I shrugged not letting my fear show. "Not really, but I know when I'm outclassed. And you haven't killed us yet. There's something you want."

Alfe gave me a pleased nod. "Good! You're no fool. Knowing your limits is important. You passed."

Huh? Confusion crept onto my face. "Passed what?"

"You may become my apprentice!" Her tone sounded very pleased.

"Uh, don't you already have Brelyna?"

Alfe smiled, but her eyes looked dangerous. "She's my daughter. Of course I'm going to teach her. But that doesn't mean I'm unable to teach more than one person, especially if I find such a rough, unpolished gem. I can have more than one Student. Are you perhaps saying you wouldn't like to study under me?"

I knew a threat when I heard one!

Instinctively, I raised my hand in a placating gesture, the Staff of Magnus ready for defense in the other. "Of course not. I would be honored to become your apprentice! It's just a matter of having already been accepted into a School of Magic, which I'm going to attend. I don't have time to go with you right now!"

"I see. If you mean the College, then there's no problem. They are unable to teach at my standard and simply cannot compare to me. I practice the old ways, not their pale imitation of the magic mortals practice these days!" Her tone was confident and arrogant.

She was better, there was no doubt of that in her head.

"It's not the College. It's just a stop for us," I clarified hurriedly. "My school is further away. I don't believe you've heard of it. It's not in Tamriel."

"I already know you're from a different realm of Oblivion. Don't worry about it. You don't have to follow me. We'll simply come with you. I have my ways of traversing beyond Mundus. But be warned, student: If this school doesn't meet my standards, I will remove you from it," Alfe declared sternly, as if the matter had already been decided.

Was Hogwarts a good school?

While there might have been some changes to the timeline, the events there had remained pretty much canon.

Its history of Magic lessons were haunted by a demented ghost who taught the same thing year after year, without even knowing the students' names. Probably just to save some budget. A Ghost is free labor.

The Potions professor simply hated teaching. At the same time, he had never grown up, blaming three-quarters of the student population for the bullying he had suffered during his own school days. And he took out his grudges on them.

Defense Against the Dark Arts didn't even have a teacher who lasted more than a single year. Two of the last three hadn't even taught anything, with one being outright fraud. The third was a werewolf.

Then there are the life threatening Events to the Students every year. Hell, there were several Students petrified almost for an entire School Year. Had they been slighly less lucky they would have been dead.

Also...

Generally, the teaching standards in magical Britain had declined, with more and more topics being declared dark magic and restricted over the last few centuries.

So, was Hogwarts a good school?

Hold on... when did I even say I was going to become her student?

What the fuck was I even supposed to do here?

"Well?" Alfe asked impatiently, noticing my hesitation.

"The school is a boarding school. Outsiders aren't allowed inside. Not even parents are allowed to visit under normal circumstances," was the first reply that came to mind.

Alfe gave me a look.

Suddenly, the atmosphere grew tense.

Another voice broke the silence. "I'm sure we'll find a way around that."

My head snapped toward the entrance of the chamber, then back to Alfe and Brelyna, who both looked completely unsurprised, before turning back toward the entrance.

"Mom!? What's going on here?"

"Oh, not much, dear. This fine lady has offered to take you on as her apprentice. After confirming her skill, I felt like I couldn't refuse her offer. It's such a great opportunity for you!" Her words were smooth, as if this were the most normal thing in the world to say in front of a sorceress with an army of undead at her back.

Great, I'm going to learn necromancy.

"But I'm at Hogwarts!?"

"Don't worry, dear. While I was testing her earlier, Alfe showed quite a bit of interest in our magic. And Hogwarts has had a problem arranging a teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts for quite some time. I'm sure your grandfather will be willing to help arrange things."

Of course he would. Pushing a teacher into Hogwarts who was affiliated with us was a solid political move.

"But the position is cursed!"

Instead of scaring her off, that only made Alfe look even more interested. "Oh, really? That sounds fascinating. A nice opportunity to study some of the advanced magic of your world during my free time!"

"There! You said your world, not a realm of Oblivion. You know what I mean." I pointed out.

"After having a bit of a discussion with your mother and coming to a magical agreement. Useful magic, I have to say." Alfe held up her wrist, revealing some particular markings. Mom did the same, showing me identical ones. "We exchanged information with each other. Quite fascinating, I have to admit."

A fucking Unbreakable Vow... Mom had made that while I was busy chasing after the Eye of Magnus.

Not sure if I should be more impressed that she managed to bring Alfe to make one with her.

She did whatever she wanted. Well, she was my Mom and wanted the best for me.

And having Alfe as an ally, along with her father through her, was a powerful opportunity.

I let out a tired sigh. "Let me guess. I'm going to be your student, no matter what I say?"

"Yes."

"And you're going to come with us?"

"We will," Alfe confirmed.

Hold on?

"We?"

"My daughter is obviously coming with us, too. This is a unique opportunity for her as well. One she isn't going to pass up." Alfe decided firmly, while Brelyna gave me a coy smile.

Behind her, the portal containing her undead army closed, while she released Agnar and Ghislaine from their restraints. Both gave her an annoyed and suspicious glare.

Seeing that there was no point in arguing over a decision I apparently had no say in, I turned toward Mom.

"Is the excursion still going on?"

"They are. I concealed the entrance deeper into Saarthal. And Tolfdir is quite excited about teaching Astoria, Tracey, and Daphne, who are showing a surprisingly deep interest in the subject."

That's at least something.

The Eye of Magnus continued rotating in the background, constantly releasing magic into its surroundings.

"Is that what you're after?" Mom asked, having fully stepped into the chamber. She gave the Eye a very interested look.

I knew that look.

If I wasn't careful, she was going to keep the Eye of Magnus all to herself until she fully understood it.

Considering what kind of artifact it was, this was something I couldn't allow. Otherwise, I might never see my mother again.

She was the kind of person who, once something caught her interest, dedicated all her attention to it. Her mind would enter a flow state, making her forget about time and even her own well-being.

With such a complex and mythical object, she might very well starve herself to death.

It was a good thing my dad knew how to handle her when she got like that. That was precisely why she had fallen in love with him.

He was the one person who truly understood her, keeping her grounded in reality.

They were a perfect couple. He was always grounded and calm, while Mom, the genius of the two, saw beyond what everyone else could.

"Do you know the purpose of the Eye?" Alfe asked with interest, having also stepped beside us, completely ignoring the glares she was receiving from Agnar and Ghislaine.

"No. Do you?"

"I do not. Not fully, at least." She shook her head. "I have some ideas. I believe my father does, even if it was an artifact from before his time. But he has never told me about it."

"And your ideas, are they perhaps related to scrying and projection?" I asked, clearly remembering that her father, Divayth Fyr, was a member of the Psijic Order.

An order whose member had appeared before me just earlier in the form of a projection, while also possessing some knowledge of events from a possible future.

"They are," Alfe confirmed.

"Seems like our thoughts are heading in a similar direction. But I also believe the Eye could be used as a powerful power source." I gave her a bit more context, just to see what she would make of it.

She scoffed. "That's obvious. You just fought a foe who was empowered by it."

I gave her a nod, my gaze resting on the spinning orb.

"We may have a problem."

Mom didn't even need to ask. She could see it herself. "The Eye releases far too much magic to be concealed by the concealment spells."

"Yes, I don't think the bag will be able to hide it. Once we take it out of here, the entire world will know where it is. We'll have to protect it until tomorrow. If we bring it within the College's wards, the mages there will become interested in it. And the Thalmor will learn about it, too." My thoughts were clear.

"That is troublesome."

"It is..."

While Ancano was the only real threat on the surface of Skyrim, the villain of the questline, reality was a bit different.

We weren't really members of the College, and the others would love to get their hands on it. Not to mention the other factions.

In the end, the Psijic Order took the Eye. Which was another faction we'd have to look out for.

They might claim that they were doing this for everyone's benefit, that they were the only ones capable of handling the Eye responsibly. But that could very well be nothing more than bullshit they were feeding the rest of the world.

The fact was that, in the end, they were the ones who walked away with the Eye of Magnus, while others, specifically the in-game Dragonborn, did the hard part and defeated Ancano, who had been empowered by the Eye.

Maybe they were telling the truth, maybe not. Who knows?

In the end, half the College was dead, and the Dragonborn became the Archmage without the Eye of Magnus to justify the losses.

"May I see that bag of yours?" Alfe spoke up calmly, a curious glint in her eyes, one that I usually recognized from Mom.

Nodding, I handed her the magically expanded bag, which had been enchanted with all the concealment charms Mom and I knew.

"Fascinating. Quite different from how I would have created such an item," Alfe commented as she studied it carefully. "You have expanded the space inside the bag. A very fascinating approach. But I would say it is more suitable for living spaces you want to actively use, since this approach doesn't force you to switch between dimensions. Doing it with such a small space, however, causes it to become far more unstable."

"How would you have done it?" Mom wondered, showing an interest of her own.

"I would have used the bag's existing space as a flexible, expandable anchor for a pocket dimension. Here, like this."

With my Magic Power Eye, I watched the contents of the bag disappear through a portal before the expanded bag shrank back to its original size.

Then, a portal with the very same frequency appeared inside the bag again, fusing with the space within. Next, some of her magic stabilized the entire construct.

"This way, the bag's opening can grow to any size you like by temporarily putting more magic into it." Alfe demonstrated how the bag's opening could now expand to truly enormous sizes. "At the same time, you have the advantage of its contents being in a different dimension. Spatially cut off from this reality, with the only connection being the opening in the bag. This gives you far less area to conceal. With this approach, the bag will be able to hide the Eye of Magnus without any worries."

"Thanks, Teacher! That helps a lot," I said quickly, relieved that we wouldn't have to spend the next day being hunted by all kinds of forces. The only remaining concern was the Psijic Order.

But if I was right about them, they wouldn't be too much of a threat either.

The impression I had of them was that they were an organization that spent a lot of time debating all kinds of possibilities before actually taking action.

We would be gone long before they finished debating, especially since they couldn't track our actions through whatever Elder Scroll they had.

As far as I could tell, we were outside their records. For now, at least.

"How cheeky of you, calling yourself my student as soon as I have something you want. You may use it for now." Alfe spoke firmly, still not handing it over. "But as my student, you are expected to make such small things yourself. This time is an exception due to the urgency of the situation. There will be no next time. I expect you to study! I don't accept mediocrity."

"I will, Teacher!"

I had the feeling that I'd just acquired another strict taskmaster, just like my mother, who didn't accept subpar work either.

But I knew how the wind blew.

[-- End of Chapter --]