“I’m just following a saying I once heard: Daedra aren’t as frightening as people paint them.
The Pilgrimage has to be something people can actually complete.
Otherwise, there’d be far fewer knight-paladins.” I shrugged with a smile.
It felt strange…
Saying something like that to the man who would spend the next three and a half thousand years guarding the site of the Pilgrimage.
For that alone, Gelebor had earned my respect, and I already found myself looking favorably upon his younger self.
“I see…” my companion murmured thoughtfully.
“Besides, I have a Vais…
Ahem.
A relative who’s already a Knight-Paladin.
And believe me, if she managed it…” I chuckled, naturally omitting the part where I’d played Dawnguard and had a rough idea of what awaited us.
“…then I can too.
And so can you and your brother.
So straighten up, carry yourself with the confidence befitting a descendant of Auri-El, complete the Initiation, and stand before the Archbishop of our God.”
“You’re right!” My little speech had been rather theatrical, but for an elf, that carried even more weight than cold logic.
“Thank you, Feator.
If I make it through, I’d be honored to call you my friend!”
“Likewise.” I held out my hand, and a moment later he shook it.
“But we’d better pay attention…
the Commander is coming.”
“I see him,” my new acquaintance replied more quietly as his eyes fell upon the imposing figure clad in armor adorned with crimson cloth.
“My name is Aranfin, and I explain things only once.
If you fail to understand, that’s your problem.” Our future superior got straight to the point, sweeping an appraising gaze over us.
“Five shrines.
Five mantras, which you were expected to memorize perfectly.
Once you have finished reciting the appropriate mantra before its corresponding shrine, you will dip the ceremonial ewer into the basin at its center and proceed to the next shrine.
“It is not nearly as simple as it sounds.
Believe me.
Once you, the Initiates, attain complete enlightenment along the path, you will bring the ewer to the Temple’s Inner Sanctum.
Pour its contents into the Sanctum’s sacred chalice, and you will be granted an audience with the Archbishop of Auri-El himself, who will name you full Knight-Paladins…
Your first shrine lies at the end of the Darkfall Passage, the first cavern, which symbolizes your lack of enlightenment.”
The moment the elf spoke his final word, stone ground against stone behind him as a small structure slowly rose from the floor.
It resembled…
um…
a three-dimensional rectangle—that is, a rectangular prism—except…
hexagonal?
A hexagonal prism?
I’d never been particularly good at remembering geometric shapes.
Nevertheless, I recognized the thing almost immediately.
It was one of those wayshrines.
In reality, they were full-fledged portals!
“Well…” I muttered.
What really caught me off guard, however, was the wonderful news that followed.
“Initiate Feator, step forward!” boomed the voice of the elven herald.
The bastards.
They’d apparently found out I’d been training under a knight-paladin relative.
And instead of taking the twenty years my parents had expected, I’d managed it in seven.
Still, there was nothing for it.
I stepped forward, doing my best to ignore the dozens of eyes boring into my back.
It wasn’t as though this was the first time I’d had to stand in front of a crowd.
Back in college, there had been plenty of occasions when entire year groups were gathered together for various events instead of lectures.
Approaching the shrine-portal, I carefully lifted the rather massive ceremonial ewer, its surface adorned with the distinctive leaf-shaped ornaments so characteristic of Snow Elf craftsmanship.
I cast a grim look at the equally dark and unsettling rectangular portal set within the shrine wall like a doorway, let out a quiet sigh, filled the ewer with water, and stepped inside.
At least those nasty bastards—the degenerate Snow Elves—weren’t there yet.
So there wasn’t much to worry about.
Besides, sparring with Vaisy was probably more dangerous anyway…
Well then.
Forward, into the Forgotten Vale, back when it had yet to be forgotten.
Forward, into the most tedious and infuriating quest in Skyrim…
“And may the light of Auri-El guide you through your darkest hours!…” came a voice from behind me as I stepped through the portal.
Kgh!..
For the love of your pointy-eared mo-o-other…
…The instant I crossed through the murky veil, my sense of balance went completely haywire and nearly gave up on life altogether.
I almost fell, which would have shattered the vessel I’d been entrusted with.
Still, all those training sessions with Vaisy had paid off.
Somehow, I managed to keep my balance, and the obviously fragile ewer survived intact.
I didn’t even have time to breathe a sigh of relief before I was hit by crushing gravity.
Or something very much like it.
My entire body suddenly felt far heavier, as though my legs were suddenly supporting ten times their normal weight.
Under those conditions, keeping my knees from buckling was simply impossible.
For roughly a minute I teetered on the verge of falling, unable even to set the ewer down.
Ngh…
One of two, or even three, things had to be true.
Either the Dragonborn was a damned cheater who simply ignored this sudden heaviness… or Auri-El’s attention to this place had faded over the millennia… or, finally, the Dragon God of Time and the Ancestor God of the Elves had personally decided to make life miserable for one particularly unfortunate reincarnated isekai protagonist.
The last theory lost credibility, however, when after about four minutes the pressure gradually began to ease… Or perhaps I was simply adapting to the… hmm… peculiar nature of the magical energy that literally saturated this place.
It felt much…
heavier.
Denser.
More powerful.
And since I was strongly attuned to magic, it had hit me especially hard.
Now I understood what the Commander had meant when he said that completing the Initiation wouldn’t be so easy.
After roughly five minutes, I’d adapted well enough to finally set the ewer down.
Rolling my shoulders and taking several deep breaths, I started forward, drawing my sword with my right hand while preparing to conjure fire in my left.
Somehow, I doubted the local wildlife would be particularly vulnerable to icicles.
Proceeding cautiously down the underground passage beside the flowing water, I first heard a faint buzzing.
About ten seconds later, several thoroughly revolting creatures attacked.
“Chaurus…”