"I'll Show You What I Know." - 14

"I'll Show You What I Know." - 14

Mar 21, 2022

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"Good morning, Skavild!" said Norqamerel the Welkynar.
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"Oh. Caramel, the Parrot Warden." said Skavild. "Hello."
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The gryphon riding instructor was beginning to regret shortening his name for humans. "I suppose Eldaline will have shown you her loop-the-loops by now? What did you think of them?"
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"Sorry?"
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Norqamerel smiled proudly. "An intermediate manoeuvre that involves the gryphon briefly flying upside down. It can be performed evasively, or to feign injury. She was hoping you would find it impressive. She has been anxiously perfecting it."
"Hoping I'd be impressed?" said Skavild. "Well, I promise I'll act surprised when she shows me."
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"Hey. I'll buy you an ale at the Winking Skeever, Caramel. I'm sorry if it seemed like I didn't care about gryphons. I've been so busy looking after poor Archivist Halthir after his kidnapping nightmare."
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"Archivist Halthir." said Very Junior Archivist Linvel. "Are you recovered from your terrible ordeal? Were you really abducted by ruthless shield-maidens?"
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"I can still detect the intoxicating scent of danger upon you." she said.
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Archivist Halthir hurried to finish his report. "Archivist Linvel, do you think it is appropriate for you to comment on the way I smell? And please do not forget to categorise today's incoming documentation in order of weight, not size. You will notice a subtle difference in filing efficiency."
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"What are you all doing in here?" demanded the Jarl of Windhelm.
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"If we hadn't had a letter from the encampment at Dragon Bridge asking for the monthly stipend, we'd never have known it was your birthday, Jarl Ulfric!" said Galmar, the Jarl's right-hand man.
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"Happy Birthday, Jarl Ulfric!" said some girls, a steward, the court wizard and a sea captain. The Wizard was behind a pillar.
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"That camp was supposed to be dismantled months ago and sent to Stonehills, they don't get a monthly stipend, and it's not my birthday." said Ulfric.
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"Sorry, girls." said Galmar. "Everybody, go away and stop bothering the Jarl!"
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"I don't understand it, Jarl Ulfric. Somebody's been spreading false rumours amongst our soldiers again."
"Can I have my bath now?"
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"Of course, Jarl Ulfric. And after I'd had my bath, I'll find the infiltrator."
"It won't be difficult, Galmar. Did I get any other birthday presents?"
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"Only from the encampment at Stonehills, Jarl Ulfric."
"The encampment at Stonehills that was never set up, because it's still in Dragon Bridge?"
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"Yes, and they spelled your name 'Wilfred'."
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"I want my best spies on this." said Ulfric.
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It was a very clear but cold day over Eastmarch. Saril the gryphon could cover great distances. The faintest movement of his enormous wings carried him the length of a small street.
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He would make Eldaline's responsibilities easier in every respect. It had certainly made delivering the Jarl's birthday present easier.
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Though she was sure she remembered his birthday being at a slightly different time.
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Eldaline and Saril flew north-westward, towards friendlier company in Solitude,
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and to examine the progress of her staff.
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"You falsified my signature and attended the Escapology course without my permission, you nearly had Commander Sarendil killed, and now you tell me you have still not got your certificate?" said Eldaline.
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Aralina cried, "Second Archivist Eldaline, I am the worst Escapologist on Nirn! And I fear that due to my incompetence, all hope is now lost!"
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Eldaline clattered angrily to her desk. "All hope is lost? Flopsy, will you stop honking like a hysterical goose and explain what you mean?"
"It is a portent, Madam, of dreadful things to come! My dreams have troubled me since I was assigned to your office!"
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"Perhaps you should drink tea before bed?" The Second Archivist suggested.
"Dreams of the end of everything, Madam! And we are all lost with it, never to return, never to rise among the divines and delight in the glory of Aetherius."
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"Oh, so it's like that." said Eldaline. "The office now has a religious loony, that is all I bloody need. Stop crying, Flopsy, it was a joke. Continue."
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"In the dream, Second Archivist, I am chained to a stone wall in an awful prison and cannot escape. It is dark, and I can see no other living people.
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But then, a hunchbacked jailor turns towards me, and I can see his deformed face in the light of a nearby torch.
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As he approaches, there is blood dripping from a dagger he carries. As he moves away from the opposite wall, I now see your body slumped in chains, as you succumb to death under torture.
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The hunchback scarcely has time to grimace at me with a mouth with no teeth. Then at the moment of your passing, there is nothingness, and dark engulfs the world, and I fade, knowing I could do nothing."
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"Do you understand that what you describe is a preposterous dream, Flopsy?" Eldaline suggested, as kindly as she was able, which was not very.
"Yes, Madam, but I also thought..."
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"Well, understand this." said Eldaline. "As important as I like to be, the likelihood of Nirn's fate being doomed at my passing is exactly as great as your chance of saving it with the art of Escapology."
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"But, Second Archivist Eldaline, the dream is so vivid and will not leave me be. I sleep so badly..."
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"I have told you to drink some tea before bed."
"Please, Madam, tea cannot save us. Nothing can. Nirn is already undone by this dark menace."
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The Second Archivist kicked the side of her desk. "Enough! I have heard enough! Very well, since you are convinced you will be useless otherwise, you will return to Northwatch Keep to attend that Escapology course every weekend, until you have your damned certificate. I will pay for it out of my own pocket. Now, get out of my chair."
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"Yes, Second Archivist Eldaline!" said Aralina. "At once!"
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"For my part," said Eldaline. "There are a great many things in this province that I wish to look at. Many of them, I have not heard of, or seen, yet.
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But many things I have seen and not understood, or not wished to understand, for they bothered me. Saril has a peculiar mind, Flopsy.
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The more he sees and understands, the more I am compelled to know. But I do not know what I do not know.
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I hope I never find out. It will keep things interesting."
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The End

NEXT: Death and its primary functions

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