Chapter Text
Tiglah was in her home in Windhelm when it happened. One minute she was sorting through containers of materials, and the next… darkness. For what felt like an eternity, she felt like she was suffocating, which was a curious sensation since, as a vampire, it had been some time since she had needed to actually breathe. Then she came out into air, into uncomfortably bright sunlight, and then straight into the water.
The first thing that struck her was that the water was clearly too warm for Skyrim, never mind that it had been currently night in Windhelm. The worst of it was that she was unarmed and clad in nothing but her smallclothes, although she found the Talos amulet that she'd been storing still clenched in her hand. She'd picked a very poor time to be rearranging her equipment. She bemoaned her enchanted, exquisitely crafted glass armor, tucked away in a chest in Hjerim Manor and clearly far, far away from wherever she was now.
She slipped the amulet around her neck to free up her hands and swam toward shore, then caught her first glimpse of what could only be a high elven city. No one else would build with such delicate white spires. So was that where she was? Somewhere in the Summerset Isles? An awfully long way from Skyrim indeed.
She climbed up onto the beach and shook herself out. Before anyone spotted her, she took off the amulet and shoved it into a nook inside a piece of driftwood. She had no pockets or shirt with which to hide it and being in Aldmeri Dominion territory, the Thalmor might literally kill her if they saw her with it. She'd come back for it once she got some clothes, though. It was still hers. That taken care of, she started to walk to dry her fur off in the hot sun and get her bearings. What manner of teleportation magic had that been? There hadn't been any magical artifacts in Windhelm that could do something like that, that she knew of anyway, so had it been something on the Summerset side of things that had caused the translocation effect? But there was nothing near where she'd come out. Just water.
The sounds of battle up ahead shook her out of her thoughts. She broke into a sprint to see what was going on, and spotted a Khajiit like herself locked in deadly combat with several strange creatures the likes of which she had never seen, like a Daedra and a mudcrab had had some sort of unholy spawn. No time to wish for her bow, swords, or various staves. She wasn't sure how the male Khajiit would react to blatant vampiric powers, either, so she decided to stick with normal magic. Between the male Khajiit's blades and Tiglah's ice and darkness, the foul creatures quickly fell.
"Razum-dar thanks you for the assistance." He gave a suave bow of his orange-topped head. "Terrible way to interrupt your swim, is it not?"
Tiglah nodded in agreement. "Yes, good thing Tiglah is a mage. What were those things?"
Normally, she didn't go in for the Khajiit manner of speaking, but normally she was also wearing full armor and concealing her tail. It was a little hard to conceal being a Khajiit with everything on display like this.
"Raz has never seen such creatures in his life! There was a strange pearl Raz thinks was calling them somehow."
"That's… troubling," Tiglah mused.
"You are new, yes?" the other Khajiit asked.
Tiglah chuckled and glanced down at her swishing tail. "What gave it away? This one thinks most of the people who live on this island do not have quite as much in the way of luscious fur as us."
"Hmm, you seem capable. Like one who won't shy away from a fight even when wearing almost nothing but their fur."
"They may have eaten this one's clothes… she cannot find them anywhere," Tiglah said sheepishly.
"Unfortunate." Razum-dar fished some coins out of his purse and offered them to her. "Here. Buy yourself something to wear. It's the least Raz can do. Surely nothing so splendid as whatever you must have been wearing, but he would be remiss if he were to allow a fellow Khajiit to fight monsters wearing naught more than what a Nord might wear while diving into frigid water during New Life Festival."
Tiglah had to crack a grin at that. "Thanks, Raz."
"Once that is squared away, would you be interested in asking a few questions around Shimmerene? Raz is gathering information, and a less recognizable face would be most helpful."
Tiglah assumed Shimmerene was the name of the town they were by. "That sounds simple enough. What would Tiglah be asking who?"
"Raz has heard rumors and complaints about the Queen's decree. Some of the high elves believe that their island should be only for the high elves, yes? But since the Queen opened up the island to newcomers, they now have to deal with non-high elves. Raz has gotten such looks, and he does not think it is just because of his handsome face!"
Tiglah had never heard much in the way of specifics of what was going on in the Aldmeri Dominion while she was in Skyrim. She could not even say what the Queen's name might be offhand. Best hope someone mentioned it before she embarrassed herself more than she already had. What had she gotten herself into here? Best dig in her claws and make the best of the opportunity. Surely there were great secrets of magic to be gleaned from the reclusive elves, even if her little tropical vacation had been completely unplanned. No one in Skyrim was likely to notice, or care, about her going missing for some time, given her propensity for wandering off without warning or telling anyone where she was going. It did mean she'd either have to start collecting things again or figure out how to open a portal back to Skyrim to access her stuff, though. No matter. She was too excited at the prospect to worry too much about the details right now.
The high elven tailor didn't have any clothes on hand that took into account a tail. While some Khajiit poked holes even in robes and dresses, Tiglah preferred to keep her tail under a skirt rather than thread it through a tiny hole. She found it more comfortable, and she was used to it. Tiglah gave the tailor the "sea monsters ate my clothes" excuse and most of the coin Raz had given her in order to be properly dressed for the job. If she was going to try to get information, it wouldn't do to have clothes that were either too shabby or too fancy.
After retrieving her amulet and speaking with a Redguard at the docks about his missing cousin, she headed off to look for the next contact, and spotted a building with a sign proclaiming it to be the Mages Guild. Aha! Now that was something she was definitely interested in. It was no College of Winterhold, but they'd probably have different spells available to learn. Wait, didn't the Mages Guild in Cyrodiil disband and split into two groups? Maybe that wasn't the case in Summerset. She headed inside.
"Pardon Khajiit, but what are the requirements to join your guild?"
"If you're interested, I can get you in right away."
Tiglah raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to check if this one even knows magic first?"
"Well, if you don't know magic already, then you must be here to learn magic! And I'm certain that you are actually here to learn magic, and not just to have a bed to sleep in and a roof over your head."
"Fair." Tiglah chuckled. "Tiglah is a mage, though. So can I join?"
"Let's just fill out the appropriate forms… You said your name was Tiglah, correct? How do you spell that? It doesn't have an apostrophe or hyphen in it somewhere, does it?"
Tiglah smirked and spelled her name for him, not that it should have been difficult.
With that done, she went off to find the Argonian Raz had told me about. Or, at least the lizard's body, apparently. She grabbed his pack as evidence and then headed down to the beach to find a high elf woman searching for seashells and complaining about her assistant being detained.
"Now I have to find my own seashells!" the elf groused.
"Seashells, hmm?" Tiglah raised her paws and started channeling a spell. "Detect… items… seashells…"
Markers appeared across the beach. Tiglah had spent long nights perfecting her use of divination magic in order to locate items and guide her to objectives. The mages at the College had taught a spell called "Clairvoyance", but she'd improved on it. She called her resulting spell by the equally fanciful name of "Quest Marker", but mostly she wound up using it to locate her keys and ingredients. You know you're a mage when you use magic to sort through your storerooms rather than label and organize boxes sensibly.
"There's a rather pretty one by that rock over there." She pointed with a claw.
The elf raised an eyebrow and went over to take a look. "A Khajiit mage, will wonders never cease?"
She found Razum-dar and passed along what she'd learned. With his assistance, she snuck into the monastery to see if she could find the sequestered newcomers. There was definitely something strange going on in here. Magicka buzzed in the air, but she couldn't quite identify the source or type. Daedric? She had plenty of experience with Daedra, but there was something odd about this.
A napping monk mumbled something about the Aldarch taking newcomers into the undercroft. Tiglah wasn't sure what an Aldarch was, but she had a hunch that his office was probably upstairs. Important people always had to be in the highest part of any building. Plus, there were probably things worth pilfering without anyone noticing upstairs, too. What, she was broke, but not for long.
Several rooms down, she came upon an office with a large sphere laying on top of the desk, swirling purple and making her fur stand on end. That had to be the sort of thing Razum-dar had mentioned. She immediately jumped in with divination spells, not sure how long she might have to study the thing. She was so focused upon her magic that she almost didn't hear someone walk in.
"Well, you didn't waste any time in trying to gather information," said a woman's voice behind her.
Tiglah dropped her spell and turned about. The high elven woman was clearly not dressed like a monk, more like a mage. "Tiglah guesses you are not a monk anymore than she is."
"No, not at all. My name is Valsirenn, and I'd imagine we're both here for similar purposes."
"This one sought information about the newcomers who had been taken away, but she had to stop to examine this trinket. There was another like it on the beach earlier that seemed to be calling up monsters to attack." Tiglah sighed and lowered her paws. "Sadly, Tiglah does not believe she will have time to do in-depth divinations before anyone else shows up."
"Very likely," Valsirenn agreed. "I came here looking for a friend, but there seems to be more going on here than I had anticipated. Would you care to join me in exploring the undercroft? If there's trouble, it would be good to have another set of hands, or paws."
Tiglah gave a terse nod. "Let's go."
The undercroft was, unsurprisingly, full of cages, some of which still had living people in them. After freeing them, Tiglah found Valsirenn on the other side of the room crouching over the body of a Nord man who had, from the looks of it, died slaying several Daedra with his bare hands.
"This fellow has certainly earned his mead in Sovngarde," Tiglah said, impressed.
In the next room, they discovered the grim truth of what had been happening to the newcomers. Their life was being drained out to power some sort of sinister ritual, and there was another of those strange pearls. After a quick fight that left Tiglah wishing she had some sort of weapon, she looked back to see that Valsirenn had done something to make the pearl disappear.
"Oh, if we had only gotten here a moment sooner!" Valsirenn bemoaned.
Maybe Tiglah shouldn't have spent so much time shopping, trying on clothes, chatting, joining guilds, locating seashells, and picking up everything that would be easy to fence later.
"What did you do with the pearl?" Tiglah asked.
"Ah, perhaps it's time to explain," Valsirenn said. "You see, I'm a member of the Psijic Order. I cast a spell to teleport the pearl back to Artaeum for study."
"Why am I not surprised that the Psijics wound up involved here somehow?" Tiglah muttered to herself.
Clearly not quietly enough, as Valsirenn asked, "You have had dealings with our order before?"
"There was… an incident involving a crazed Thalmor and a magical artifact he should never have gotten his hands on."
"I had not heard of this," Valsirenn said.
Tiglah shook her head. "Not important right now. Let's get out of here. Tiglah needs to report back what she found out. And hopefully she will not need to be the one to inform some people that their friends and relatives were murdered by cultists."
"Life-sucking pearls, dark rituals and Psijic mages? This is not the sort of scandal Raz was hoping for."
"Sorry to disappoint," Tiglah said with a faint smirk.
"Where did this Psijic go, anyway?" Raz asked.
"We parted ways. She told Tiglah she'd catch up later."
Tiglah wasn't sure why she'd gotten herself involved in all this in the first place, aside from the fact that Raz was paying her for it and now Valsirenn might put in a good word about her with the Psijic Order. She was certain someone on that island hadn't forgotten about that incident at the College of Winterhold, even if no one had mentioned it to Valsirenn. Their habit of freezing time just to chat with her had been disconcerting. Stupid Psijics and their bullshit time freeze ability. She wished she could do that, but they'd given her a firm "no" when she asked if they could teach her.
Tiglah lowered her voice. "This one must ask, do you know where she can find a reliable fence?"
Raz cocked his head at her in amusement. "Ah, you wound me! You think that just because Raz is Khajiit, that he knows all about engaging in criminal activity?"
Tiglah rolled her eyes. "You're well suited to playing coy, but this one really needs to know who she can trust in a strange land, and you're all she has right now."
"You have good taste," Raz said.
"You were literally the first person Tiglah saw."
"And you did not run screaming!" Raz replied. "Ah, Raz will tell you who you can speak to. But," he held up a claw. "There's one more thing you can do for Raz."
"Who does this one need to stab?" Tiglah asked.
"No stabbing this time," Raz said, then quickly amended, "Well, probably no stabbing. Raz does know how badly dinner parties can go sometimes, but do try not to stab anyone important."
"Dinner parties?" Tiglah groaned. "Why can't you do this yourself?"
"Raz does not entirely get along with the Kinlady and it would be best if he were to stay out of sight. Besides, you are certain to find out more than Raz could, like you did with the information gathering around town! People can let down their guard around you, while everyone tries to behave around Raz."
"Why, are they afraid of you or something?" Tiglah wondered.
"Did you not know? Raz is an Eye of the Queen."
"Oh," Tiglah said dumbly. "Should this one have known that? Would it help to say Tiglah does not even know the Queen's name?"
"Perish the thought!" Raz said in exaggerated shock. "You do not know of Queen Ayrenn, ruler of the Aldmeri Dominion?"
"Tiglah could pretend if it would make you feel better, but she is afraid not. Up until this week, Tiglah was in Skyrim. She could not resist the opportunity to see Summerset for herself, though."
Difficult to resist when she was here before she even knew what was happening.
"Ah!" Raz exclaimed. "That would be why you were sunbathing in your smallclothes when those creatures attacked. Raz would imagine whatever you were wearing would have been too warm for Summerset, anyway."
"So, yes. Tiglah has been up to her whiskers in Jarls and Thanes, but she knows nothing of Aldarchs or Kinladies and alas, she has not seen your Queen."
Tiglah decided it was best to keep quiet on her thoughts about the Thalmor outlawing the worship of Talos. Not to mention just how many Thalmor she had killed, for that matter. She'd never understood why the elves were so upset about the humans worshipping one particular god, when gods and worship varied widely across Tamriel regardless. They hadn't seen fit to invade Morrowind to stamp out Daedra worship, so why Talos? Ah, but these were thoughts definitely best keep from the Queen's Eye here.
"Raz is certain you will do fine."
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Tiglah does not know why she keeps letting you talk her into these things. Fine. Send the Khajiit who knows even less about what's going on than usual to hobnob with the snob elves."
"Ah, you just can't say no to this handsome face," Raz said.
The dinner party was exactly as tedious and pointless as Tiglah had anticipated. No one wanted her there, and she didn't want to be there. Was she really just getting suckered in by a handsome face? When Kinlady Avinisse went inside away from the guests for a bit, Tiglah slipped in after her to take the opportunity to speak with her in private, and damn subtlety.
"Who are you, and how did you get in here?" Avinisse demanded.
"Tiglah had an invitation," Tiglah replied calmly. "Not that it matters." She might as well just give her name, seeing as no one here knew her anyway. "Are you aware of what the Aldarch has been doing to the newcomers?"
"He's been sequestering them to test them for their suitability for life in Summerset," Avinisse replied. "The ones who fail get sent back to wherever it was they came from."
"So you're not aware that he's a Daedra worshipper and has been murdering them to power sinister rituals."
"What?" Avinisse sputtered. "That's preposterous! He came highly recommended… although he doesn't appear to have existed before he was appointed as Aldarch here."
"Tiglah saw it with her own eyes, but you need not take her word for it. Go see for yourself what's been happening in the monastery. This one is certain he hasn't had time to remove the cages and bodies yet."
A courier came in and interrupted their conversation with a message from the Aldarch, asking Avinisse to meet him in the Coral Forest.
"It's a trap," Tiglah said flatly.
Avinisse scowled. "So you say, but I must hear his side of the story."
"He's going to try to kill you," Tiglah said. "Take a bodyguard at least if you must go. Do not trust him, and do not be with him alone."
"How dare you speak to me in such a way!" Avinisse protested. "I am a Kinlady, and you are a mere… Khajiit." She clearly had a less polite term in mind that she'd replaced at the last minute. "Do not presume to give me orders."
Tiglah sighed. She was used to dealing with Jarls and Thanes who didn't have time for the sort of bullshit pleasantries high elves might like.
"This one apologizes if she seems impolite," Tiglah said. "Seeing horrible murders up close not an hour ago has made her quite tense."
Maybe it would have helped had she remembered to try to feign the horror a normal person might have been feeling at seeing what she had. After every stupid thing she'd seen in Skyrim, it was no more shocking than the moons rising and setting.
"Well, 'this one' appreciates if you're actually trying to help," Avinisse said. "But kindly get out of my house now."
Tiglah didn't bother to argue. Raz would be very interested in hearing what she'd learned.
"Do not look directly at Raz, as difficult as that might be," Raz said quietly. "Pretend to be admiring the architecture."
Tiglah definitely did not stare at Raz and his stylish orange mohawk out of the corner of her eye. Had she really already fallen for the first male Khajiit she had seen in years who wasn't trying to sell her something or set her on fire? That was stupid. She hadn't even known him a day.
"The Kinlady didn't seem to know about the Aldarch's plans," Tiglah murmured as if to herself. "She's meeting the Aldarch in the Coral Forest. This one is certain it is a trap."
"Mm, yes, that's most worrying," Raz mused. "Ah, is this your friend approaching?"
"I'm glad I found you," Valsirenn said, coming up behind her. "I just saw the Kinlady slip out the back by herself."
Tiglah sighed. "This one told her not to go alone. She's walking into a trap in the Coral Forest. Where is that?"
"Along the beach south of town," Valsirenn said. "You can't miss it."
"You'd be surprised how often this one has heard those words said of a cave she wound up having to use magic to locate," Tiglah drawled.
"Let us make haste," Raz said. "But we should leave town separately to avoid attracting attention."
"I'll meet you there," Valsirenn said.
The three of them parted ways and left town. Although she trusted something with "forest" in the name probably wasn't hard to find, she still preferred to trust in her Quest Marker spell to get her pointed in the right direction. As it turned out, the large rock-like formations were indeed hard to miss. It didn't take long for her to locate Valsirenn on the edge of the "forest".
After a brief search, Tiglah heard raised voices, and recognized them as the Aldarch and Kinlady even though she couldn't make out what they were saying. It didn't sound like either of them was happy. She caught sight of them in time to see Avinisse running for her life and the Aldarch whose name she still couldn't remember summoning up monsters with another pearl.
"I'll go after the Kinlady," Valsirenn said. "You deal with the Aldarch!" She ran off, leaving Tiglah to face him on her own.
"The Prince of Bargains has grand plans for this world!" exclaimed the Aldarch.
"Clavicus Vile?" Tiglah interjected. "Really, Aldarch?"
"I am no Aldarch. I am the Earl of Clavicus Vile! And you will not interfere!"
"I don't care if you're Barbas' chewtoy," Tiglah said. "You're annoying me."
She didn't bear any particular loyalty to Clavicus Vile, even if he did once give her a cool mask that she liked to creep people out with. Sadly, that mask was back in Skyrim, or she'd have loved to see this mer's reaction to her having it. Most importantly, she was getting paid to take him down, and she was more interested in getting in good with the Psijics than making any terrible bargains.
Of course, she had no weapons or armor, no magic items but an amulet that had no enchantments useful to her, she'd been running around in sunlight all day, and it had been some time since she'd fed. Still, she wasn't about to back down from the fight, and it didn't look like anyone was watching, so she felt free to break out everything she had. Time to see how he liked having his life drained. Tiglah danced and dodged, seemed to be in four places at once as she tagged the Earl and his sea monster pets with spells to hinder them and drain their life and souls.
Once the Earl was down, she went over and whacked the pearl with her claws, and it popped like a bubble.
"Vile," she said to the air. "You really need better servants. Your Earl went down embarrassingly quickly to an unarmed Khajiit."
Tiglah caught up with Valsirenn.
"The Aldarch is dead," Tiglah told her. "Or I should say, the Earl of Clavicus Vile."
"Clavicus Vile," Valsirenn repeated, shaking her head. "His involvement in Summerset's affairs worries me."
"Did you find the Kinlady?" Tiglah asked.
"We captured her," Valsirenn said. "She's in Razum-dar's custody now. I need to report back to Artaeum and inform the Ritemaster of what has transpired here. You should join me there when you're done here."
Tiglah's ears perked up. "You want this one to go to Artaeum? How do you get there?"
"There's a portal in a nearby ruin that only works for those who have been attuned to it," Valsirenn said. "I'll cast a spell to attune you so that you may visit."
Tiglah bounced around from paw to paw. "This is awesome! I've always wanted to see Artaeum!"
Valsirenn chuckled at her enthusiasm. "Well, I hope it doesn't disappoint. It's a beautiful place." She finished her spell. "There. You are now attuned."
Tiglah practically had a skip in her step as she went to meet up with Raz nearby. Aside from winding up on the other side of Nirn nearly naked, this had been a great day. Well. It probably hadn't been great for the people who had gotten murdered in a sinister ritual, but it had been great for her. There were exotic lands, daring quests, riveting battles, new allies! Now to just get paid for this, too.
"Tiglah has slain the Earl of Clavicus Vile who was masquerading as the Aldarch."
Kinlady Avinisse groaned. "Aldarch Tilcalar was secretly working for Clavicus Vile? How crude!"
"That is one way of putting it," Raz said.
"That was his name?" Tiglah asked.
"You didn't even know his name?" Avinisse said. "Assuming that even was his name."
"Everyone just kept calling him 'the Aldarch' but apparently he wasn't even an Aldarch. Whatever an Aldarch is."
Avinisse sighed. "Do you remember my name?"
"Kinlady Avinisse," Tiglah said. "Whatever a Kinlady is."
"I suppose I shouldn't complain too much about outsiders considering you saved my life and haven't killed me for my foolishness. Do you want to gloat now, and tell me you told me so?"
Tiglah cocked her head. "Tiglah thinks you've gotten the point well enough."
"Where did the Psijic go?" Raz asked.
"Back to Artaeum," Tiglah said. "I'm going to go meet her there and talk to the Ritemaster." She could hardly hold back her excitement.
"You seem so excited you might just hop right out of your paws," Raz said with a grin. "Did you just giggle?"
"It might have been more of a squee."
"At least someone here seems to be having a good time," Avinisse said. "I suppose I'm going to need to throw myself on the mercy of the Proxy Queen."
"Play up being a victim and how he tricked you and tried to kill you, too," Tiglah suggested. "That one always works."
"I suppose looking weak is preferable to looking complicit," Avinisse said. "I just wanted the newcomers to go home. I didn't want anyone to die. I'm not a monster."
"Tiglah understands. You have your beautiful island here, all peaceful and quiet. You don't want boisterous Nords to show up to start drunkenly singing 'Ragnar the Red' while swilling your fine elven wines."
Avinisse's face contorted in horror. "That's what I'm going to have to deal with, isn't it."
"Unfortunately, it was an Altmer who brought death and vile creatures to your fair shores, and a pair of Khajiit who stopped him," Tiglah went on.
"The point is not lost on me," Avinisse said.
"Raz will take care of the Kinlady. Before you go meet the Psijics, Raz thinks you need some payment as well, yes?" He handed her a jingling pouch. "Get yourself properly equipped. Wearing pretty clothes is for parties and nudity is for bedrooms."
Tiglah almost choked at his words as she took his coin.
"You would not want to be dressed incorrectly for whatever Raz might need of you next." He winked.
"Ugh, like I need to watch cats flirting," Avinisse muttered quietly. "Disgusting."
Tiglah ignored her. "Tiglah will be sure to be ready for anything you might need. But next time she will take the sewers while you do the dinner party."
"Nonsense!" Raz exclaimed. "We can suffer together!"
Valsirenn hadn't mentioned which ruins contained the portal leading to Artaeum. As it turned out, Summerset had quite a lot of ruins. Tiglah counted at least three visible just from where she was standing. No matter. She cast a Quest Marker spell to locate the correct one, and headed through the portal inside.
The first thing she noticed was the sky, stretching out over the land sparkling like a pink crystal dome. The land itself otherwise resembled Summerset, with its bright flowers and white limestone, but there was a distinct lack of aggressive salamanders, winged snakes, and annoying imps on this side of the portal. Tiglah had not imagined that it would be this beautiful. She hadn't even realized that she could still appreciate beauty.
Beyond the trees and down by the water, a massive tower spired into the shimmering sky. It didn't look like any sort of architecture she was familiar with, unlike the high elven cities on Summerset. She made her way toward it, in no particular hurry about it. The constant itch of daylight had been lifted, apparently indicating that whatever lighting up Artaeum's sky was not the normal sun of Nirn. So she could explore the cobbled pathways and lily-strewn ponds in peace.
As she approached the tower, she spotted Valsirenn beneath it speaking with another high elf. And beneath it indeed, the tower itself left a large arch underneath it, with entry most likely granted by the shimmering pool they were standing by. A portal or levitation pad, Tiglah presumed.
"Ah, is this your new friend approaching now?" asked the male high elf, to which Valsirenn nodded to the affirmative.
"Tiglah hopes she did not keep you waiting. She needed a moment to wind down after a rather stressful day, and your lily ponds are quite lovely."
"Quite understandable. I am Iachesis, Ritemaster of the Psijic Order, and I bid you welcome to our fair island. Very few outside of our order have ever seen it."
"Tiglah feels quite privileged and is thrilled to be here."
She wondered if she would run across any of the Psijics who had visited the College of Winterhold. Unfortunately, she couldn't actually remember any of their names, and didn't even want to ask about the Eye of Magnus. Best let that one lie. There were other matters at hand right now. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what they'd done with that thing, after it had almost destroyed the College. Admittedly, a lot of that had been the fault of that Thalmor idiot.
"We'll be studying the pearl Valsirenn sent us and doing divinations on it in hopes of determining information on where it came from and how to proceed," Iachesis was saying. "I'll contact you when we have something to go on. In the meantime, feel free to explore our island and the Ceporah Tower." He gestured to the structure above them. "Valsirenn tells me that you are a mage? You might be interested in speaking with our Loremaster as well."
"Thank you," Tiglah said, then examined the pool of not-water beneath the tower. "How do I…?"
"Get up into the tower?" Iachesis asked. "Just step into the 'pool' and look up."
Tiglah thanked him again and did as instructed, and found herself transported with a rippling sound. The interior of the tower was brightly lit by floating blue globes, leaving her wishing she'd had some of those on hand when she was attempting to decorate her home in Windhelm.
"Pardon me," Tiglah said, approaching an Altmer who was standing around reading a book that was floating in the air in front of him. "Could you tell Tiglah where she can find the Loremaster?"
"You're speaking to him." With a wave of his hand, the book floated off to the side, still partially open and keeping his place. "Loremaster Celarus. A pleasure to meet you. Tiglah, was it? I don't believe I've seen you here before."
"Tiglah just arrived here from Summerset. Valsirenn invited her here. The Ritemaster suggested that she may wish to speak with you."
"Ah!" Celarus said. "Welcome then, indeed. You would be interested in joining our order, then?"
"Could I?" Tiglah asked with a bit of surprise.
"Is that not why you were invited here?" Celarus asked.
"There was an incident on Summerset but… well, never mind, yes, Tiglah is most interested in joining your order! This one is a mage but she did not realize she was even eligible."
"Because you are a Khajiit?" Celarus asked. "Don't worry. While many of us here are Altmer, we accept members of any race who are willing to study the Old Ways and dedicate themselves to doing good."
"Um… yes, this one always tries to do good," Tiglah lied. "What must Tiglah do in order to join?"
Proofs of magical or martial prowess were typical, after all. Or musical, in the case of that one time she attempted to join the Bard's College in Solitude. Fortunately they didn't hold it against her too much that she clearly was meant for combat and dungeon delving rather than singing, and just politely gave her an honorable mention on the condition that she never attempt to sing in their presence again.
"Are you an adventurous sort?" Celarus asked. "Do you enjoy traveling? I have a task that needs to be accomplished, but it will require quite a bit of traveling, and we Psijics tend not to get out much and interact with the world."
"Yes, this one considers herself to be an adventurer," Tiglah said. "She will probably be doing a good deal of traveling regardless."
"Excellent," Celarus said. "We've detected a number of time breaches appearing across Tamriel, and we need someone to go seal them before they cause any serious damage."
Tiglah was very, very quiet for a long moment. "Time breaches, you say."
"Yes, they are very concerning," Celarus said. "They could—"
"Loremaster," Tiglah interrupted. "Pardon this one a potentially stupid question, but… what year is it?"
"It's year 582 of the Second Era."
Tiglah put her face in her paws. "Shit."
"Excuse me?" Celarus said.
"Skeeving, fetching, milk-drinking skeever dung, and no, I don't care if that string of expletives makes no sense." Tiglah was too stunned to even bother caring about maintaining the Khajiit accent, and had readily slipped back into talking like a Nord.
Celarus looked at her in concern. "I take it that was not the answer you were expecting."
"Yes, well, the last I knew, it was year 201… of the Fourth Era."
"Ah. I see."
"I was in Skyrim," Tiglah went on. "I was a member of the College of Winterhold."
"That would explain the accent, but perhaps it's best that you do not say too much about the future," Celarus said.
"What does it even matter?" Tiglah grumbled.
"You should be careful not to affect too much while you're in this time," Celarus went on. "Maybe it would be best if you remained on the island until you 'catch up' to the time you're supposed to be in."
"I've already affected things," Tiglah replied. "Who knows what would have happened in Shimmerene had I not been there? Many people could have died. Valsirenn might not have been able to kill the Earl of Clavicus Vile on her own. Razum-dar might have run into trouble on his intelligence mission."
"If you have knowledge of events in this era, it could influence the course of history."
Tiglah shook her head. "I don't know anything."
"Not of the threat to Summerset?" Celarus asked. "Not even of the Planemeld?"
"The what now?" Tiglah wondered.
"Were there no books in the Fourth Era about the Planemeld? Or the Three Banners War between the Aldmeri Dominion, the Ebonheart Pact, and the Daggerfall Covenant?"
"I've never heard most of these names before," Tiglah said. "I've read a lot of books, but I couldn't even tell you any major events that would have happened around the year 582. The Reman Dynasty rose and fell, there was the Akaviri Potentate, then there was an interregnum with vague mentions of a span of insurrections and misrules. Nothing among that apparently even stood out as mentioning in specific. Hmm, let's see, what else, the Knahaten Flu? Yes, you've already had the Knahaten Flu, I'm sure."
Celarus frowned. "If the Akaviri Potentate and the Knahaten Flu were mentioned in your history books but not the Planemeld or the Three Banners War, it's possible you're not even in the same timeline any longer."
"A Dragon Break?" Tiglah mused.
"It could be. If current major events apparently don't even warrant a stray footnote in your history books, perhaps they didn't actually happen in your world. It would mean you would not need to be too worried about affecting the timeline, since it was already different before you arrived, and that waiting here would not take you back to the same world you started in."
Tiglah sighed. "So I'm stuck here."
"If these time breaches were sealed, we might be able to gather enough information from them to get you back home."
"Or that might keep me from ever being able to get back home," Tiglah said. "Could the same breach that brought me here take me back, maybe?"
"I don't know, but it seems unlikely," Celarus said. "They seem to be very unstable."
"It's worth a shot though, right?" Tiglah asked, though there wasn't much hope in her voice.
"There's no telling where or when you might wind up, though."
What did she even have worth going back to in Skyrim, in the Fourth Era? A pile of junk she didn't really need, an overpriced house, titles she didn't want, and people who hated her? Was it really worth the risk of trying? This place was full of opportunity. She could get a fresh start, and maybe not make the same mistakes that had caused her so much trouble before.
And Raz was here. She didn't know if it was possible for that to go anywhere, but she wanted to find out. It was worth the chance.
"Fine," Tiglah finally said. "I will stay in this time, then. But I'm not staying on this island. From the sounds of things, there is much to do out there, not the least of which sealing these time breaches so no more hapless Khajiit find themselves lost in time."
"Very well," Celarus said. "Speak with Josajeh—" He pointed. "Second room on the left. She'll have materials to get you started."