Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-24685738-20141123175252/@comment-3293219-20141123190936

The doors to the hall of Elements slowly opened as the Arch Mage barged in, accompanied by an entourage of two guards and a fellow scholar, who was briefing her on the college's progress. The Arch Mage shirked her ceremonial robes for her more preferred set of brown scholar's robes, with a matching hood, that she wore, even in doors. She carried a silver, well crafted, truly unique staff on her back and seemed to be completely calm despite the pressure of the situation.

He guards stopped, two paces in and turned around to tend to the doors, ensuring that they were closed and sealed behind her. She didn't even stop to look as she marched inside, approaching the center of attention, a large ball of energy, which was being stabilised by several mages. They slowly circled it and cast various spells to keep it from going out of control and absorbing the entire college as the magic was experimental, to say the least, though 'impossible' would seem a more fitting word.

The Arch Mage's scholar stood by her side, looking like he was eager to say something, leaning in to talk but pulling away at the last minute, like a child teetering on the verge of doing something rash as a dare but not quite building up the courage but, eventually, he spoke...

"The Portal appears to be sustainable, much to our surprise..." He informed her, turning to view her and revealing his face as a middle aged Nord man.

"Though, I'm sure that it's energy will alert the empire to our presence..."

The Arch Mage sighed and shook her head, turning to face him and revealing herself to be a middle aged Imperial woman, with black hair and harsh, untreated skin on her pale cheeks. She looked at him, for a moment, like she wasn't fully in the room with him but eventually relaxed and addressed his concerns.

"I know that, Onmund, but the risk is worth the reward, you know what will happen if we don't try."

"I wasn't criticising, Arch Mage, I... I'm just afraid of what they'll do, if they see this, I mean, the last time we had anything half as powerful as this, it nearly blew up the province."

"Well, that was different, there aren't any mad Altmer here, I assure you." The Arch Mage replied, it sounded like a joke but her tone and face suggested that she was serious.

"That was a long time ago, a lot's changed since..."

"True, now we have an entire order of people watching us, twenty four hours a day. Just waiting for a chance to exterminate us and I fear that we're giving them that chance." Onmund replied, getting the Arch Mage to stop and raise an eyebrow at him.

"That sounded like a criticism to me..." She pointed out, folding her gauntleted arms across her chest and glancing to the floor.

"Look, I know the risks but the fact is, the Empire tracking us down and killing us on our door step is not worse than this. If we don't stop Landfall, then it will come here, it will be everywhere, I'm sure of it.

The Seers have all confirmed it, one of them even committed suicide out of fear, I'm not grasping at straws here, I know what I saw. Landfall will destroy us all, if we don't do something about it." The Imperial informed him, looking incredibly unnerved as she finished speaking and glancing her eyes back up to him.

"We can protect ourselves from the Empire but we can't stop this, if it comes here. It has to be stopped, now." With that, she marched into the hall of elements, her hood flew back to reveal her long, shoulder length black hair and her neck, which had a somewhat nasty scar on it, that would have been fatal, if it wasn't for the intervention of a skilled healer.

Her hair and robes were tossed around by the wind, emitting off of the energy ball before her, which seemed to be increasing and decreasing in strength, with every passing second. She gazed into the bright ball of energy, slightly intimidated by its size and burning power as it towered over her, illuminating the whole room and having various effects on those closest to it, due to the erratic nature of its energy spikes.

Onmund followed her to the energy ball, gazing up at it in awe and fear as he was introduced to the portal, the energy of which was overwhelmingly powerful, by anyone's standards...

The two of them stood for some time, watching as their colleagues prepared, just gazing into the majestic patterns forming inside, swirling around so effortlessly and free. It was beautiful to look at but they all knew the danger that it possessed, the chaotic and destructive properties of the energy, being contained within.

"This... This is no Eye of Magnus..." The Nord observed, glancing to the Arch Mage, with a sigh as she just stared into it, with her intense, red eyes.

"How are you feeling?"

The Imperial just shrugged and looked over to him, her eyes grew weaker as she glanced down to the floor.

"How should I be feeling?"

The Nord took her question into consideration as he looked back up to the portal, giving a brief smile as he observed it before turning back to his superior with a sigh.

"Terrified..."

The Imperial nodded and returned her gaze to the orb, above their heads as it surged, though it was quickly brought under control. The two of them stood in silence, not knowing what to say, one was determined, inspired and truly excited to step into it. The other fretted for the safety of the Arch Mage, who would be going in alone. There was only enough power for one trip and a return trip, once she was done, only she and she alone could go through.

He feared for her life, knowing that the chances of survival were slim indeed and yet, she seemed fearless, more than that, she seemed eager to throw herself into danger. He didn't know as to whether or not he should be envious of her bravery or full of pity for her lack of common sense but he couldn't deny that she was about to do something that he wouldn't have the gall to do.

It was then that the clapping of clogs, hitting stone steps in rappid succession could be heard, echoing, throughout the hall as one of the servants came charging down the stairs.

"They're here! The Empire has found us!"

"Dammit!" Onmund hissed, looking over his shoulder and staring at the front door.

"Set up a magical barrier, keep them out!"

The Mage guards nodded and did as he said, erecting a large, blue seal over the door, that protected the doors from physical damage. The Nord marched over to the large, wooden door, drawing his staff.

"You people had better have that portal ready; I don't know how much time I can buy you!"

"Yes sir, etc two minutes!" One of the mages called, blasting the orb with as much force as he could muster to up the speed of the process as it slowly changed shape and became much more stable and manageable.

"Arch Mage, the second that thing opens, go through! It won't be stable for long and we don't want any clueless, Empire fools following you through or trying to stop you!" Onmund called as shouting could be heard outside and the crunch of snowy footsteps could be heard as the men evacuated the immediate area.

"Demolition charges! Keep the barrie-" Before Onmund could finish, the large doors blew off of their hinges and the barriers fell. Rifle men marched in and open fired on the mages at the front of the defence, quickly forcing their way inside. A large number of the Arch Mage's guards fell before they managed to mount a defence and found themselves returning the fire power, just as effectively, killing a few of the advanced guard.

"Not one step back!" The Imperial Commander called, drawing his officer's pistol and firing inside the hall, hoping to weaken their defence and break through, to stop this madness before another incident, like the White Gold Catastrophe. Onmund retaliated by blasting ice spikes at the soldiers, piercing their black, shrivelled hearts and sending them dropping to the floor. However, as quickly as Onmund killed them, more took their place, the didn't seem to be taking any chances and were practically lining up to get a shot at this thing or the Arch Mage or most likely both.

"Arch Mage, you must hurry! We can't keep the portal open much longer!" One of the Engineers cried out, getting the Imperial's attention, whose focus was captured by the conflict and bloodshed that was happening before her very eyes. It took her back to some dark places, places that she had hoped to never revisit...

The Arch Mage didn't want to abandon her people, though she knew that she had to go, they did this for her, for this orb and she couldn't let their sacrifices be in vain. She grabbed her staff, from her back and lifted it, readying it for casting as she targeted the Riflemen, who had now successfully stormed the gate. She readied it, charging its power, in her hand as the red energy inside grew brighter and more intense, she then flicked the staff at them and a red orb of energy flew over the heads of her allies and hit the center of the rifleman cluster.

The small, orb exploded, scattering their burning bodies all over the entrance and allowing the mages to fall back and close the second set of doors, erecting another barrier over it, ready for explosive charges or whatever else these bastards had to throw at them.

Onmund looked back, over his shoulder, seeing the Arch mage staring at him, with her staff lowered to her waist as her heart thumped inside her chest, her hands tingle to the point that they were numb. The flashing strobe effect of the portal played hell with her senses and her ears still rang from the loud bangs of the guns. There was a time where this would have caused her to fall to her knees and curl up in panic but time had made her stronger, pain had made her fearless and experience had taught her that, that doesn't solve anything.

"Arch Mage!" The Engineer cried, hoping to get her attention. The Imperial looked over to him and then saw the glowing ball of energy at the center of the room; she frowned as she saw it, afraid of what was on the other side...

A place where nothing was the same and yet so familiar... A world where she doesn't exist or is someone completely different, a world that faced different perils, trials and triumphs over the years...

The Imperial cringed and staggered as the doors were blown off of their hinges again and the mages were scattered, most of them were shot dead as the Commander lead the assault, his dead eye resulted in a quick death for all of them as he marched in and shot them all in the head, without a second thought.

Onmund and two guards were all that remained of the resistance at this point, they fell back, mere feet away from the Arch Mage and the portal that they were supposed to be protecting.

"Lilly! It's now or never, get in that portal, now!" He called, furiously, putting up as much of a fight as possible as both of his guards fell by his sides. He continued to fight, no regard for his own safety at this point as he knew that it was the end for him, if he was going to die, then his death would be a product of success, not failure.

The Arch Mage looked away and seethed, knowing that she didn't want to see her friend die, she'd lost enough friends, over the years. She saw the orb and tightened her hold on her staff, glancing down at the angry face of Sheogorath as she nodded in agreement before charging towards the portal. She made a sprint, constantly stumbling away from the tiny explosions at her feet, from where the riflemen were shooting at her, it was clear to her that Onmund had already fallen and of course, she was right.

The Nord took two shots to the chest and fell onto his back, his head rolled to the side as he watched the shadow of the Arch Mage leap into the portal, causing it to stabilise and eventually warp shut behind her, collapsing in on itself until it ceased to exist. The last thing he saw was the soldiers run up to the portal as it vanished into thin air before their eyes, he smiled, knowing that he was victorious before the Commander personally put a bullet into his head.

-

The Arch Mage was thrown out of the portal, appearing in Winterhold, a parallel Winterhold. With the college gone, she should have materialised above a sheer drop, however, the tsunamis of recent years had created a large, block of ice, that clung to the immediate coast. It broke her fall but it was far from a soft landing...

The Imperial brought herself to her knees and began to look around, seeing ruined Skyrim before her as she slowly rose to her feet, her grieves stopped her from slipping, though just barely.

"So..." She whispered, the icy wind blowing her hair about, wildly and chilling her to the very bone...

"This is landfall?"

