Chapter 166 The Fate of Heroes 1
’Fuck me! We got defeated! And Nurina got kidnapped! This is officially the worst day of my life... The fuck did just happen?’
A strong state of denial controlled Jon’s mind and tried to calm himself. It was the first time in his life to see the person who he looked up to the most get disadvantaged in Magic of all things then get kidnapped also by Magic. This was way beyond his comfort zone.
He never imagined anyone with the power to surpass the strongest mage he knew, and Arch-Wizard of all beings... and one of the most talented ones.
His eyes were moving around like crazy trying to figure out what to do...
’Okay! Let’s calm down. Calm down. Take it easy! The woman, she wasn’t trying to harm Nurina. She was just, just screwing around with us... She was serious but she wasn’t murderous. Okay, this is not bad! A good start..."
Jon was calming himself and started rewinding what happened in his mind.
’Okay, First thing first! Nurina knew that woman, she knew her very well. She called her ’Crazy Old Hag’... So this is the Legendary Master that Nurina talks about... If I remember, the description matches. She is a Dark Elf with ashen grey hair. Good! Nurina’s master won’t harm Nurina... Physically at least!’
Jon kept coming and going around the place Nurina and the other woman disappeared from. While he was moving around, Jon remembered a part of their conversation.
’Nurina called her ’Alfe’! Alfe?! Where did I hear that name before? ... System, search for ’Alfe’ in my memories!’
No response!
’Alexa!’
<Confirmed!>
The system responded and Jon started to check out the place once again.
<1 Result found!>
’Show it!"
The system opened a screen with some explanations. It said that ’Alfe’ was a name that meant ’Alpha’ in Jon’s past life and there was only one person with that name from his memories.
What was really strange was that this memory didn’t come from this life, it came from Jon’s past life.
That only meant that the woman Alfe who has a chance to be Nurina’s master was an NPC from the Elder Scrolls game series! Yes, the Elder Scroll game series, not the ’Elder Scroll V: Skyrim’. The memory was related to the ’Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind’ and it seemed that Alfe was an NPC from ’Morrowind’.
The only person was who fit the description had her name written on the system screen with some images from Jon’s past life.
Jon saw these results and froze in his place.
This person was no ordinary person at all.
"... Fuck me! Alexa, call The Augur."
***
Nurina and Alfe appeared in a different location, it was a small room with a strange and alien structure. Nurina looked left and right frantically and finally recognized the place.
"Alfe... No! Where is Jon?"
Alfe looked at Nurina with a faint smile. She snorted and walked away to a strange looking chair.
"You haven’t changed at all. Still playing around with cute little stuff and pretending to be a mother."
Nurina got tensed up by Alfe’s words and seemed to have remembered something very unpleasant. She glared at Alfe and the air around her changed.
"Where is he, Alfe? If one single hair of his head got so much harm, you will never see the end of this!"
Nurina was angry to the limits and the air around her started giving a black Aura. Nurina, who was normally using magic, unleashed a powerful and terrible Aura.
Alfe couldn’t help but giggle with sharp eyes. Her red eyes stared coldly at Nurina.
"Look at you! You have grown up... a little."
"Where, is, HE?"
Nurina held back no more and put all her power into a very strong attack. The attack had both natures of Magicka and Aura.
Alfe raised her brows in admiration and moved her hand to face the attack with equal power.
Both forces clashed but Nurina fell short and her attack got handled by Alfe.
"Nice! Linking the Warrior Energy and the Magicka can be this interesting? Looks like you have made some progress... a pointless one though!"
After the energy in the room settled, Nurina seemed to be a bit tired but Alfe was completely unscathed.
"Tsk, monster!"
"Oh, thank you! By the way, your so-called son is fine. I left him behind."
Nurina heard Alfe’s words and relief appeared on her face. She sighed and her tensed Magicka calmed down.
Still, she didn’t let her guard down and glared at Alfe once again.
"How did you find me?"
"News tend to travel, dear. House Telvanni has eyes and ears everywhere. How hard it is to not know about an Arch-Wizard in Winterhold’s College?"
"... And what do you want?"
"Nothing really, I was just doing some business in the area when I sensed a unique presence so I just went to take a look."
"You are telling me that you are causing this mess because you only got interested after finding me?"
"Huh? No."
"... What?"
"Not you."
"Not me?"
"Disappointed?"
"Screw you!"
"Hehe! I am talking about the boy."
"... About Jon?"
Alfe nodded.
Nurina felt a bit conflicted but she managed to look composed.
"What attracted someone like you to Jon?"
"You make it sound like a bad thing."
"You know what I mean."
"Hmmm! My father has seen a lot of that kid’s kind but I only managed to meet one and hear about another. Not that I was interested at that time but meeting him was just a confirmation."
"Confirmation! What are you talking about? What is do you mean by kind?" Nurina stood up and urged Alfe for an answer.
"Let’s say that from all the children in the world, you picked up a boy with the fate to be a Hero." Alfe said something as if that was some big deal.
"H- Hero? We already know about that?"
"... Really?"
"Yes, Jon is related to a prophecy that he will find three Elder Scrolls and he is aware of it."
"Oh! I see, you got it all wrong." Alfe dismissed Nurina’s words as if they were nothing.
"What do you mean by ’got it wrong’?"
"It is normal for Heros to be related to the Elder Scrolls. Majority of the scholars argue that any proclaimed hero with no Elder Scrolls in their tale is not really a hero. Just some powerful person! It also doesn’t mean that anyone related to an Elder Scroll is a Hero. A Hero or Heroine is a mortal blessed (and cursed, from another point of view) with a special Fate and the ability to rule their own Destiny. Heroes are closely related to the prophecies revealed in the Elder Scrolls, but are not bound by them. They often grow to become far more powerful than most other mortals." Alfe said while searching between some books on a table beside her.
"Wait! They rule their own Destiny? Didn’t you say that Grandmaster himself can do that too?"
"True. Father is too strong to be bound by the rules of the world, there is a certain threshold that needs to be passed to ignore the restrictions of the world."
"So, what does any of that have to do with Jon?"
"Simple, as his so-called mother, what do you think of his talent and power?"
Nurina thought for a while.
"I think he is not yet a Master Wizard. Last year, he achieved a very rapid growth as he was focusing solely on studying and creating spells. He is halfway through the rank of an Expert Mage. His combat skills fall less behind."
"Hmmm! So Magic is his strong point?" Alfe asked.
Nurina shook her head.
"He is talented in the Thu’um, the Ancient Voice of the Dragons."
"Is there a talent in the Thu’um nowadays? Last I heard was that only Dragonborn can be talented in such a thing."
"You saw him perform it!"
"Well, I didn’t expect anything less from my grand-disciple. He is your disciple, right?"
"My Legacy Disciple."
"Pffft! You have a legacy? Girl, how old are you this year? 200?" Alfe held her stomach and started laughing.
Nurina seemed dissatisfied about her master’s reaction and but she didn’t say anything. It was rare for Alfe to laugh anyway.
"So, back to the topic. You said his talent was the Thu’um? Hmmm! He is sure a Nord, if he is Dragonborn then the world will face a lot of trouble, and if he appeared in Skyrim then that means that Skyrim will be the center of the attention the next few years."
"Just get to the point? What will Jon do by controlling his Destiny? You made it sound like something scary?"
"I don’t remember teaching you that so listen closely. Controlling one’s own Destiny means that there is no plan for the person himself. He is a rogue and an irregular in the world, he can break the World’s law itself. Fate and Destiny are the restrictions made by the World or the Gods to bound people from destroying the world or causing too much trouble. Once this restriction is broken, the person has no limit to his growth or power just like my four thousand years old Father. The World tends to cleanse itself from those irregulars with all sort of ways, like striking them with Lightning in the middle of the day or causing a great accident to kill them through it. Most die before even breaking through the restrictions but rarities like my father and some of the Psijic Monks exist."
"WAIT just a minute? Are you saying that Jon will be killed by the World because he is getting too strong?" Nurina panicked and was about to jump on Alfe and hold her by the nape of her clothes but she managed to stay still.
"Well, the World isn’t really that blind. Heroes are an exception! You see, Heroes are the ones that save the World from falling into chaos. That is why the World itself allow a chosen few of the irregulars to exist as the so-called Heroes..."
"So this means that..."
"Don’t interrupt me, you brat!" Alfe got a stick out of nowhere and hit Nurina on her head.
"Sorry, master." Nurina’s old habit kicked in and held her head while apologizing before remembering that she was on bad terms with Alfe.
"Sigh! Here where I bring you the bad news. Once the heroes finish their trials and complete all the labors... the World turns on them and forces them to make a choice... You read the stories... you know how it ends."