Sunset stood in her chamber for a moment, staring at the table where that the Archmage Robes were now resting on, as she reflected on everything that's already happened over the last few weeks. It was hard to believe that she had been named Archmage, by the Psijic Order no less, a week or two ago, only to have it taken away from her by her allies. Now she was dressed in simple college robes while the Staff of Magnus was propped against the wall, a constant reminder of her promise to Morokei. She even traced the cut in the fabric that Revan had delivered to her, sighing as she eventually picked up the robes and made her way outside her room.
Her friends were outside the main keep with Elenwen and Delphine, who were both planning on who would be chosen to accompany Sunset to Solstheim, though she also noticed that Fiona was speaking with the mage that had lived in Morthal until his Jarl had everyone move out of the town. She spotted Tolfdir approaching the main keep, though she could tell that he had been waiting for her to come out so he could officially take over as the Archmage, as much as they both hated the idea.
"I never thought that I'd be wearing these one day," Tolfdir said, taking the robes from Sunset with a sad look in his eyes, "I will look for someone to replace me, but I daresay that we may never find someone of your skill again Archmage."
"Its Dragonborn now Tolfdir," Sunset sadly replied, reminding the old man of his new station, "or Dragon Priestess as it were."
"Regardless, you shall be recorded with all the rest of the previous Archmages," Tolfdir said, heading off towards the rest of the mages, who were busy training their own skills, "I shall prepare our students for either the war with Tirek or the departure for Solstheim, as Elenwen and Delphine have requested that some of them accompany you."
Sunset nodded her understanding as the old man walked away with the Archmage Robes, before turning back to her friends and finding that Fiona and the mage had approached her.
"Sunset, this is Falion of Morthal," Fiona said, beckoning to the mage for a moment, who nodded his head towards her, "He's an expert in both conjuration and vampirism. I've convinced him to take me back to the marshes of Morthal and cure myself... something I should have convinced by sisters to do when we separated from Lord Harkon."
"What brought on this change?" Sunset asked, wondering why her friend would want to stop being a vampire, something she had been for at least the last three hundred years.
"We think that Lord Molag Bal is being drained," Harkon said, appearing to their right for a moment, a look of disappointment on his face, "We are unaware of what the consequences would be if the Daedric Prince that gave us our power lost his own, so Fiona is taking matters into her own hands this time. My family and I are taking our chances, as well as many of my soldiers."
"Then I wish you luck Fiona," Sunset told her friend, who nodded to her for a moment.
"And I hope that you learn everything you need from Alduin and the Dragon Cult," Fiona replied, a light smile appearing on her face, though Sunset realized that she had overlooked something.
"Wait, how did you guys know that Molag Bal's being drained?" Sunset asked, determined to get the answer before they all went their separate ways.
"My family is the oldest clan of vampires in all of Skyrim," Harkon replied, a fanged smile appearing on his face, "Surely you felt the vibrations beneath our feet, or the shuddering of the barrier earlier? I know that you were in the main keep for the last hour or two, but I cannot believe that you couldn't feel either event. Anyway, I have sent some of my soldiers to scout out the Rift with some of the Dawnguard, where we're sure that our enemy has built his main base of operations. We'll have answers in a day or two, so go train and prepare for the coming war."
Sunset watched Harkon return to whatever he was doing, while Fiona bid farewell to their friends before departing from the keep, with Falion not far behind. She sighed for a moment before she approached the table that Elenwen, Delphine, and her friends were standing around, wondering what they were up to now.
"Ah, Dragonborn, its good that your here," Delphine said, beckoning Sunset to the table for a moment, where she found the plans that the other leader had been working on before the meeting yesterday, "Elenwen and I have drawn up a list of soldiers and mages that will be accompanying you to Solstheim in one weeks time, but we have caught a snag in our preparations; we have yet to chose the commander that will follow you and lead your forces. We have, however, decided that we would ask you for your recommendation on who should come along with you, besides your circle of friends of course."
"How about you Delphine?" Sunset asked, causing the Blade to look up for a moment, "You and Elenwen kept this Alliance together while I was seeking the Daedric Artifacts and dealt with Revan, plus you showed that your dedicated to the cause. Would you honor me by being my commander when we travel to Solstheim?"
"I would be honored," Delphine replied, though it was clear that she was surprised by what Sunset had said, "I will do my best to ensure that our fleet, and our chosen soldiers, are ready in one weeks time, which shouldn't be a problem seeing how Elenwen and the other leaders are so willing to help. Go and train, we'll be ready when you return."
Sunset nodded and turned to the entrance of the fortress, where Alduin had insisted to remain until Sunset was ready to begin her training in Labyrinthian. The black dragon turned its head towards her the moment he heard her walking forward, to which he lowered one of his wings and allowed her to climb on once more. Sunset was still surprised that the World-Eater was willing to let her ride on his back, let alone a second time, but nodded to him anyway and climbed onto his back. Once she was ready Alduin burst into the air and took off, turning around as he made his way towards Labyrinthian, where the other Dragon Priests were waiting for them.
When they landed Sunset found Morokei and Nahkriin waiting for them, while the other six Dragon Priests hung back and watched them as Sunset climbed off Alduin's back.
"We will teach you everything we knew," Morokei said, the Dragon Language rolling off his tongue as he beckoned for her to join the eight of them, "We will share all of our knowledge with you and not only teach you spells that most mages dream of casting, but also total mastery over the Thu'um. We will test you to your very limits and restore you to your full potential as Dragonborn. When we are done with your training you shall be the strongest Dragon Priestess in all of history, so much so that your enemy will fear your approach.
Come along now, its time we began... oh, and you won't be needing the Staff of Magnus, so don't bother summoning it while we train."
Sunset followed the eight priests into the ruin, where they floated along until they came to the chamber that Sunset remembered the skeletal dragon that had once resided in the center of the chamber. Morokei beckoned for her to stand in the center, so while she moved to the center and stood in the now covered mound the eight priests gathered around her. Then, one by one, the priests started to glow, in the similar fashion that the Greybeards had gone when they gifted her their 'knowledge' of the Unrelenting Force Shout. She found it amusing that their method of teaching, one that could be used within a short period of time, was the same as the peaceful monks.
For a moment Sunset wondered if they were actually going to transfer the knowledge to her or not, but then all of it surged towards her and flooded her mind, transferring the basics of every Shout and spell that the eight priests knew. She held her ground against the flow of information, but eventually she had to drop to one knee as the knowledge of the eight priests started to overwhelm her. She didn't know how long she stayed in that position, but she held herself together and continued to tell herself that she could not afford to faint from what she was being shown, before the eight priests completed what they were doing and pulled back.
Sunset huffed and puffed as she caught her breath and made sure that she wasn't about to faint, before moving her eyes upwards to the priests that surrounded her.
"You have emerged unscathed," Morokei told her, just as Sunset forced herself onto her feet and felt sweat rolling down her face, "This is all we will do for today, but tomorrow morning we will begin your training in both the art of magic and the art of the Thu'um."
Sunset was then escorted to a small bed area that had been built by the opening of the underground section, something she was sure that the Cult had built while they waited for her to arrive. It had a bed and a desk, telling her that she would mostly be sleeping in this area, but that she could also study some more before turning in if she wished. Morokei bid her goodnight and departed from the area, no doubt heading to Alduin so he could tell his master of the progress that had already been achieved. She huffed for a moment, still sore from being flooded with information, before she moved to the simple bed and threw herself onto it, allowing sleep to claim her.
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When Sunset woke up in the morning she found that her friends, including Serana she noted, had followed her to Labyrinthian, baring potions that the Dragon Priests had requested for her training. They were there to simply watch over her training and make sure that she didn't strain herself in the process, something that Serana seemed sure was going to happen regardless. Sunset was thankful that they had come, as it would allow her to remember that she was fighting for not only their world, but all of the worlds that Tirek could destroy if he was allowed to have his way. Sunset was also allowed to have her meals with her friends, to help her cool down and relax for a few moments before being dragged back into her studies.
The first thing that the Dragon Priests started her on was the basics of magic, something that both she and the other mages at Fellglow Keep understood well enough by now. It wasn't until an hour into the exercise that Sunset learned that it was merely a warm up, something they had done to get her prepared for the true training that they had planned. The priests took turns with her in the underground area, where four of them focused on teaching her abut magic, while the other four focused on having her master her new Shouts.
"You must hear the Word within yourself before you can project it into a Shout," Krosis told her at one point, while she was huffing and puffing from loosing several failed Shouts in a row, "That is how we learned how to use the Thu'um when we were taught by Alduin, before the defeat of the Dragon Cult, and its no doubt how the ancient nord heroes learned the same thing when they were taught by Paarthurnax. If you wish to use and eventually master the Thu'um, in the time period allotted to you, then you must meditate on the Words we have given you and hear their echo."
Sunset looked up at Krosis for a moment, recalling similar instructions from Master Arngeir when she first came to High Hrothgar, before she sighed and took a few deep breaths. The priests were having her start with the elemental Shouts, having her use Frost Breath or Fire Breath to being with before they moved on to the next ones. She had been so used to not having the ability to use any Shout save for Unrelenting Force, so when she was actually having to train with them she felt like she was tiring out more often. She gathered herself for a moment, making sure that she knew what she was doing, before facing the wall that the priests wanted her to aim her Shouts at.
"Yol" Sunset breathed, drawing on the Words of Power she had been taught once more, only this time she could feel the fire responding to her call, "Toor Shul!
A gout of flames erupted from her mouth and struck the wall, which she was able to keep going for a few seconds before she was forced to cut it off and fall to her knees once more. She had the sudden urge to chuckle as she looked up at the wall, as she had managed to perform the Shout in a similar fashion that the dragons used when calling on their own fire Shouts. Raja ran over from the location where her friends were watching her from and wiped the sweat from her forehead, before giving her a swing of water and returning to the others. Sunset took a moment to catch her breath before getting onto her feet once more, where she turned to her current trainer and wondered what he had next for her.
"So you can be taught," Krosis commented, though Sunset couldn't tell if he was pleased or indifferent towards her actually using the Shout, "This is excellent news, because there are other Shouts that demand your attention and you cannot afford to waste time on mastering a single Shout. Now then, let us see if you can use the Frost Breath this time."
And so it went throughout the first day, where she was moving between casting spells at one wall and summoning the power of the Thu'um against another wall. Morokei, her main magic instructor, had allowed Krosis to go first and taught her some spells throughout the day, intending to give Sunset time to learn the Shouts she had neglected to use before. There were breaks that she had to take to prevent herself from collapsing, as the priests pushed her to her limits that day and made sure that she understood one of the Shouts before they moved onto another one.
Sunset noticed that, now that she had the knowledge of all eight priests, her instructors were giving her simple instructions on how to accomplish her tasks, as they were making her access the trove of information she had been given to complete what they asked of her.
Eventually the first day came to an end, where the eight priests finally allowed Sunset to return to her bed chamber and do what she wanted before going to sleep. As she walked to her new chamber she found that Bjorn had followed her, no doubt to make sure that she was holding up after what she had been through. She was touched that he was there to see all of this, and to make sure that she didn't collapse on the floor she mentally added, though she was grateful none the less.
"Rough first day," Bjorn commented, following Sunset to her chamber, where he stood by the wall as she sat on her bed for a moment, "Its hard to imagine that you have to do this for six more days."
"Don't remind me," Sunset moaned, stretching her arm as she recalled the only other time she had trained this hard was when Princess Celestia herself had picked her as her student, "but this is what must be done if I am to stand a chance against Tirek."
"Our allies are looking for him as we speak," Bjorn informed her, sighing as he looked outside the small chamber, though Sunset could tell that he was wondering where the demon was hiding, "Harkon said that his scouts should be at the area where the quake originated by tomorrow morning, so we won't know anything until the following afternoon. You just focus on learning what those Dragon Priests have to teach you, because when you return to Fellglow Keep we'll have everything prepared for you."
Sunset nodded and watched Bjorn leave her to her own devices, where she laid her head on her pillow and allowed her exhaustion to finally catch up with her.
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On her second day of training Sunset found that the four priests that wanted to teach her about magic, Morokei, Hevnoraak, Nahkriin, and Otar, were fully prepared to teach her. What that meant was that she was to stand in the middle of the underground area with at least ten draugr scourge standing around her, all of them ready for combat. Their plan was simple, they told her, all they were going to do was watch her fight against enemies that were close to her power level, so they could see where she needed improvement before moving on. She thought that they were being crazy, as the scourge were powerful enemies and she knew that ten of them would definitely push her to her limits.
When they signaled the start of combat she barely had time to react as her enemies were on top of her, spells flying her way as they froze her to the ground almost instantly. She was thankful that they weren't trying to kill her, because if that had happened and the draugr were enemies she could have kissed her life goodbye. Instead of leaving her there until she thawed several restless draugr came up to her and broke her out of the ice, to which they returned to their stations and waited until they were needed once more.
"Try again," Morokei snapped, commanding both the draugr to charge once more and Sunset to fight them, "You'll never get better if your taken out like that."
Sunset groaned and summoned her magic, choosing to blast those that got the closest to her with lightning so that they'd think twice about attacking her... and maybe take away some of their own magic in the process. She was forced to move to the side when one of the scourge pulled out a battleaxe and charged at her, though she had to think of a strategy that would allow her to deal with the weapon without harming her. That was when a second weapon came into her field of view, forcing her backwards as the group of enemies drew closer to her as she neared one of the pillars.
When the weapons were swung at her Sunset decided to test one of her old spells from Equus and snapped her fingers, sparking the magic in front of her to create a bright red colored barrier that formed around her like a half sphere.
She waited a moment, just to be sure that the weapons had stopped, before she opened her eyes and found that the scourge had spotted the barrier being formed and had chosen to back away. It was clear that the undead were smart, as someone else could have noticed the spell happening and still attack anyway, but she knew that they were being careful not to hurt themselves. She gathered her magic around her fists and leapt out of the barrier, slamming her fists into one of the scourge and releasing the magic, blasting him backwards enough to make the other nine back off a bit. She prepared to strike another one of them, but then noticed that the magic was gone and that Morokei was staring right at her, almost as if she had done something wrong.
"You will never understand magic if you continue to use your home world's spells," Morokei told her, though this time she could tell that the priest was somewhat disappointed in her, "Resume the training exercise, but use nothing from your home world."
From there she was forced to use the spells that the priests had given her, where she had to back off and consider what she had to do before actually doing anything. it was time consuming, as she had no idea what powerful magic the scourge could actually command, but eventually she was the last one standing. The ten scourge had returned to their places near the priests, as they were supposed to when one of them was forced onto their knees by Sunset defeating them. When the training was finally over she was surprised to find that the day was already gone, but how the priests knew when the sun actually set and rose was beyond her understanding.
As she started to make her way back to her chamber she found that Fiona had returned to them, though she could instantly tell that there was something different about her friend.
"Fiona, how are you feeling?" Sunset asked, forgetting about her own tiredness for a moment as her friend approached her, giving her a glimpse of the person Fiona had been before she had become a vampire.
"More like a nord I guess," Fiona admitted, a small smile appearing on her face, before she sighed and grew serious once more, "Sunset, I only cured myself out of fear that when Lord Molag Bal loses his powers that all vampires would suffer in some way, or maybe even die due to their years of cheating death finally catching up to them. I would rather die defending the world that I love with my sword and spells in my hands, rather than be cut down by some cheap trick of our enemy. How's your training going?"
"Its going," Sunset sighed, showing how tired she was from only the second day, "I'm doing as much as I can before General Tullius and Karl Ulfric complete our fleet, which is when we'd set sail to Solstheim and meet Miraak at long last. Then we'll come back and defeat Tirek... unless he shows himself before we're done one the island."
Fiona nodded and went to join the rest of their friends, while Sunset yawned and returned to her chamber, where she fell into her bed and wondered how much more the other priests had for her to go through.
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On the morning, or what counted as the morning, Sunset found that it wasn't the Dragon Priests that were going to be training her that day, but rather a massive dragon that seemed almost as old as Alduin was. She had the feeling that this was Paarthurnax, the Master of the Greybeards, though she was surprised that he was all the way down here and not back on the Throat of the World. The dragon nodded his head towards her as she approached him, wondering what he wanted to teach her that the other priests couldn't teach.
"Drem Yol Lok. Greetings, wunduniik." Paarthurnax greeted her, swinging his head towards her as she stopped beside him, "I am Paarthurnax."
"And I am Sunset Shimmer," Sunset replied, a light smile appearing on her face for a moment, "the Last Dragonborn, or so the legend says anyway. What are you going to teach me?"
"Drem. Patience." Paarthurnax told her, tuning towards the side of the mountain for a moment, "There are formalities which must be observed, at the first meeting of two of the dov."
The dragon then proceeded to blast the mountain side with his fire breath, though when he finished he beckoned for Sunset to do the same, only he beckoned to himself. Sunset wondered if the dragon was telling her to blast him with her own fire breath, but she sighed and gathered herself before allowing the gout of flames to erupt behind the Shout. Paarthurnax seemed to grin as she finished using her Shout, which she figured because he was staring at the sky for a moment before turning back to her.
"Aaah… yes! Sossedov los mul." Paarthurnax said, though Sunset knew that he was nearly shouting the words in joy, "The Dragonblood runs strong in you. It is long since I had the pleasure of speech with one of my own kind... not counting my brother Alduin, who convinced me to come and aid you."
"And I appreciate whatever help you can give me," Sunset told the dragon, surprised that Alduin went out and spoke to his brother, as from everything she had heard the two of them had been at odds.
"But first, a question for you," Paarthurnax said, turning his head back to Sunset, "I have heard about your fight with this... demon from your home world. Tell me, why must you stop Tirek?"
"Because if he powers up to his full power than every world in all of existence will be in danger, not just Nirn," Sunset told the old dragon, wondering how she didn't see such a question coming, "I desire to see Tirek stopped and thrown back into his prison, so that he cannot escape ever again... or even completely destroyed."
"That is a fair answer," Paarthurnax replied, letting out a sigh before turning his eyes on her, "I shall teach you what I can of the Thu'um and ensure that you are properly prepared for what is to come. We had better get started, Dragonborn."
For the rest of the day the dragon reinforced her training with the various Shouts that she already knew, the same ones that she had learned in the previous two days. Once she had enough progress in those Shouts Paarthurnax got her started on some of the Shouts that the Dragon Priests hadn't gotten to yet. The dragon had enough patience to allow her to take a break and recover for a few minutes before continuing with the lesson, which is the pattern they went through for the rest of the day. Her friends came and watched her use the various Shouts that the dragon wanted her to use, commenting on what one of them did every now and then when Sunset was resting.
When the end of the third day finally came Sunset was sure that she had never been so sore in her entire life, but also knew that she had to pull through if she wanted any hope of defeating Tirek.
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The next three days were the same thing as the first three, where the trio of trainers took turns teaching her the skills that they knew and increased her own skill with either magic or the Thu'um. It was tiring work, but Sunset knew that if she got better in all of her skills that she would have a better chance at defeating Tirek when the time came. It didn't help that she felt the shudder of the barrier whenever he accessed another of the Daedric Princes, but she could only pray that they were holding out as long as they could before he managed to grab onto them.
On the seventh day, the final day of her training, the eight priests took her to the chamber where they had transferred their knowledge into her to prepare her for her training. She wasn't sure what they were doing, but figured that whatever it was had to be important considering that it required all eight of them present. The only thing that they had told her was that she wasn't to use her sword or the Staff of Magnus, which made her worry that this was a training session that pitted her against all eight of them. Her friends were still standing around the area, though she was sure that none of them knew what was coming as she waited for the priests to do whatever they were going to do.
What they ended up doing was circling around her, similar to what they had done when they gifted her with all of their collected knowledge on the Thu'um and magic, so she had to wonder what they had planned this time.
"You have mastered the Shouts that we had to offer to you," Morokei said, magic appearing around him and the other priests, "and the spells that we revealed to you, all within a week's time. We have pushed you to your limits, and several times you fell to you knees as if you were surrendering, but then you would get back up and throw it all back at us. You have gained confidence in the face of our training, and in doing so you have unlocked your full potential as a Dragon Priestess. The eight of us have gathered here, in the very chamber where we gave our knowledge to you, to present you with the armor of a Dragon Priest.
We are honored to name you Konahrik, meaning Warlord in the Dragon Language, and give to you the title as the First Dragon Priestess in all of history."
The magic that the eight priests were weaving wrapped around Sunset for a moment before she noticed something begin to emerge from the strands, something that had the appearance of dragon scales. Sunset watched as a suit of armor appeared from the magic, armor that did look like the robes that the eight priests around her were wearing. Instead of having an actual mask to cover her face there was a circlet that was missing its gemstone, which told her that it had been crafted for her horn in mind. Morokei beckoned to it and Sunset stepped forward, pulling the armor on over her head, her arms, and her waist, before pulling the circlet on and letting the metal touch her forehead.
Sunset knew that it wasn't the Archmage Robes she had become used to wearing, but she smiled and knew that her new armor would serve its purpose.
With the deed done the group of priests followed Sunset and her friends outside, where they found Alduin, General Tullius, Jarl Ulfric, and Delphine waiting for her. The fact that three of them were here, after one weeks time, told her everything that she needed to know, so she let them tell her that the ships were ready and waiting near Windhelm. She smiled as Delphine proposed that they get underway immediately, because now that their fleet of ships was ready they could travel to Solstheim and find Miraak. Things were finally starting to look up for Sunset and her Alliance, despite what was happening to the world around them.
As they walked out of Labyrinthian all Sunset could think about was where Tirek was hiding and how many Princes he had left before he assaulted the weakened barrier.
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Tirek huffed and puffed as he tossed the latest Prince aside, as he had been weakened from the constant fighting that he had come to expect from the remaining Princes. Once Molag Bal had been drained he reached forward and drew forth Namira, the Prince of Decay, who turned out to be a women dressed up in robes that had spots of blood everywhere. She had put up quite the fight, disappearing every now and then, only to reappear and inflict whatever poison she had concocted before she had been snatched from her realm. Eventually she had slipped up and that was when he had reached out, silencing her while he stole the power that was coursing through her body.
The following day, when he was done draining her, he called forth the next artifact, but when he saw it was the Razor of Mehrunes Dagon he knew that he wasn't prepared for that fight. He had immediately returned it to the chest, least he accidentally summon the one Prince that might undo all his work, and called forth Vaermina, who was another women dressed up in pitch black robes. She had immediately set the area into a state of darkness, forcing him to pick and choose where he wanted to attack so he could catch his prey. It had actually taken some time in the dark for him to figure out where she was hiding, as the only way he had known was when she tried to open the chest and steal the other artifacts, but in the end Vaermina offered her power to him.
The third Prince, Mephala, was also dressed up in black clothing, but when she appeared she summoned up her webs and wrapped them around Tirek. He figured it would be simple to break them and catch her, but as it turned out those simple webs were as touch as steel and prevented him from moving. It gave the Prince the time she needed to grab her Ebony Blade, allowing it to soak in the energy around them and restoring it to its full and terrible power. She then took her time in cutting into Tirek, making sure that he suffered for what he was doing to the world, before he moved is arm in the way and forced her to cut through the web, where his hand touched her throat and it was gave over.
Sanguine, the fourth Prince he conquered, had come out of the portal in his party clothes and was followed by a group of dremora soldiers that attacked him. He was somewhat easier that the other Princes, as he never got close enough to deal damage but always came close to encourage his soldiers to continue. Tirek received several gashes that were added to his ever growing list of damage that the Princes were dealing to him, but in the end the soldiers were dead and the Prince had been drained. He then took the next two days to recover from his ordeal, making sure that he was fully prepared to fight Boethiah, who he was expecting to put up a fight similar to what Molag Bal did.
That was before a women, one dressed in full black armor, appeared behind him, though her weapon was what appeared to be a longsword that gleamed in the light of the twilight realm he had created. Boethiah came at him, cutting gashes into his body left and right, barely giving him time to defend himself, before he forced her backwards to come up with a plan of attack. Several times he thought that he had her, but she continued to slip away from him and taunt him, all while cutting him down to his knees and eventually making him crumble to the ground. When she thought he was done for he snapped up and secured the powers of the fourteenth Daedric Prince.
Now he sat before the portal, allowing his magic to heal himself as he mentally planned out what he was going to do when he got around to summoning Dagon to this world. The barrier between worlds was weakening faster than he had expected, as it was now allowing each Prince more access to their abilities when he summoned them. When Dagon arrived he knew that the two of them would likely destroy the area around the tower when they fought, so he needed someplace where he could drain the final Prince. For now he was content to wait for once, as he was not ready for the Prince of Destruction in his current condition. He also knew that Sunset Shimmer was training herself to meet his own power, but she would be surprised when they met at the end of the world.
"Soon I shall summon Dagon," Tirek told himself, staring at the Razor as it floated in the air before him, "and then I shall be one step closer to ending this pathetic world."