“Then go forth, child blessed by the River of Time.
May Auri-El’s blessing strengthen your resolve on your journey to the Inner Sanctum,” he said with a faint sigh, reciting words he had undoubtedly spoken hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
“What do you mean, blessed by the River of Time?” I asked directly, sensing that my interlocutor didn’t particularly care about formalities.
“It means exactly what it says.
Go.”
He nodded toward the shrine, making it abundantly clear with a single glance that he had no intention of explaining anything further.
Tell me, Auri-El…
Akatosh…
Anu…
Aka…
Whatever else you’re called.
Why all the mystery and secrecy?
Do you Aedra have some divine restriction against giving a straight answer or something?
“O Auri-El, may Your winter light sanctify my resolve…” I began reciting the mantra I’d memorized by heart.
One long minute of prayer passed.
Then another.
At last, I spoke the final words…
and once again braced myself for whatever was about to hit me.
This time, it looked like the ewer would hit the stone without actually breaking.
So I filled it with the sacred water…
and instead of being slammed into the ground, I felt that same sensation again—the warmth of a blazing-hot radiator against a body chilled by the cold.
…Yeah.
Now I understood what it was.
This was Auri-El’s blessing.
If I remembered the game correctly, it cured diseases, just like the blessings of the other Aedra.
But here…
it seemed to do something entirely different.
I’m absolutely certain now—the whole business with time and this pilgrimage are connected somehow.
“Interesting,” I murmured, finally turning toward the west.
That was where the same rich sensation of ancientness and warm light on a cool day was calling to me.
***
It took a ridiculous amount of wandering.
I had to double back, then work my way through some gorge by crossing an entire chain of stone bridges suspended over a chasm…
Run into another couple…
dozen sabre cats, wear myself out in the process…
and, in the end, manage to cover…
only half the distance.
“Whew…” I raked a hand through my now thoroughly disheveled hair and kept going.
Following a narrow trail past what felt like the five-hundredth waterfall, then beneath yet another stone arch, I eventually reached an enormous wall of ice.
With no other path available, I stepped into the fissure carved through it.
The icy tunnel soon opened into a vast frozen canyon, forever shrouded in a pale, chilly mist.
Oh, how I came to hate caves after that.
Wandered.
Around.
For.
Three.
Whole.
Hours!
One canyon gave way to another, then another tunnel, forming an enormous labyrinth…
full of damned chaurus.
Both the flying ones and those that looked like some hideous cross between a centipede and an earwig!
“SKREEEE!”
“Oh, just die already!” I didn’t merely stab the creature—I drove the tip of my blade straight into its head.
(9)
A bit larger than their winged cousins, these oversized arthropods had become a royal pain in my ass.
I’d lost count of how many times I’d heard their mandibles snapping inches from my face.
“Skreee…”
The damn thing was still alive.
“Die.”
I spoke with finality, channeling magical fire through my sword.
The giant insect-crab’s head burst into flames, marking the end of its miserable existence.
I pressed onward across an enormous stone bridge supported by colossal columns that disappeared into the depths below.
On the far side, I quickly found a steep staircase leading down to the canyon floor and headed south into yet another tunnel.
And toward yet more chaurus.
God, they were really starting to piss me off!
Seriously, where did they even keep coming from after every initiate like me passed through?
It’s not like there’s a whole crowd of Snow Elves wandering around here luring them back into place, right?
…Right?!
…At long last, after killing five more of the damned arthropods and burning through the last scraps of my magical reserves, I climbed to the source of that warm radiance that seemed to permeate every fiber of my being.
And that wasn’t even a colorful exaggeration…
The Wayshrine of Radiance stood before me.
Outwardly, it was no different from the others, yet its nature was altogether different
“You have found the Wayshrine of Radiance, Initiate.
You have traveled a long road, no doubt filled with dangers…
So tell me…
are you prepared, even now, to honor Auri-El by reciting His mantra, filling your vessel with His enlightenment?”
The elf with his hair slicked back and weary eyes rose from the steps.
Yeah… Not exactly the most uplifting sight.
Still, I hadn’t set out to become a knight-paladin to find faith.
I’d come for the skills.
Sorry about that, Auri-El.
I’m just a more practical sort of person.
“Naturally.” I nodded respectfully, offering that respect more to the elf himself than to our god.
“Then may Auri-El’s blessing protect you on the final stretch of your journey to the Inner Sanctum and ultimate enlightenment.”
The prelate inclined his head with equal respect, making me feel unexpectedly awkward.
Seriously, though…
there hadn’t been anything especially difficult about this pilgrimage!
It had been long and exhausting, sure, but…
not that hard.
What exactly had I done to earn this kind of respect?
Standing before the pedestal containing the sacred water, I let out a slow breath and dipped the ewer into it once more, nearly filling the vessel to the brim.
And…
my intuition hadn’t failed me.
Gravity didn’t crush me this time.
That unbearable weight from before never came.
There were no unpleasant side effects at all.
Instead… It felt as though warm sunlight had washed over my body on a cold spring morning.
Exactly like the sensation of frozen skin suddenly warming up, making you shiver ever so slightly from the sudden change in temperature… I honestly couldn’t describe it any better, even to myself.
I’m no poet, no skald, and no bard…
What else were those fellows called again?
Anyway, I’m definitely no Dandelion.
…Crossing an elaborately decorated bridge of imposing grandeur, I finally stood before what was known as the Inner Sanctum.
And compared to what I’d seen in the game…
It was like night and day.
Literally.
Everything looked broadly similar, but the scale… A colossal statue of Auri-El towered nearly ten meters high, forged from some metal resembling gold.
He was depicted as a Snow Elf clad in armor and loose trousers, wearing a star-shaped crown, with a great halo behind his head crowned by the image of the sun.
And then…
The sanctum was filled with dozens—no, hundreds—of Snow Elves, all dressed in the traditional armor of the Knights-Paladins.
And every single one of them was silently staring at me with extremely interested expressions.
Suppressing the urge to shiver, I climbed the steps with as steady a stride as I could manage and approached another pedestal… Only this one held no sacred water.
Message received.
Carefully taking hold of the ewer with both hands, I slowly poured the water out.
Once again, I felt the vessel becoming something like a radiator, its warmth spreading from my palms throughout my entire body.
…What the…?
Squeezing my eyes shut against the brilliant light erupting from the pedestal, I heard a woman’s voice behind me through the dazzling radiance.
“Greetings…
O First Sword of Auri-El…”