Corpus Tamrielicum - The Imperial Library

114 2. THE ELDER SCROLLS CHAPTER 2: DAGGERFALL
"Are there only High Elf boys at the Tower?"
"There'll be other sorts, too, most likely. A few Dark Elves, for sure. D'ye miss your own
kind?"
Edward shook his head. "Human boys don't like me much anyway. Nor High Elf boys..." His
eyes filled suddenly and he turned his head away. But Mith's voice was unexpectedly gentle.
"I thought you wanted to go to the Tower."
"I do. But..."
"You'll be lonely."
Edward nodded.
"That's a hard thing to face."
"Did you go there alone, Mith?"
"No. Moraelyn did, but he was older than you, by a good bit. A grown man, in fact. They
didn't take any but High Elf students in those days, you know. But Moraelyn heard of them
and said he wanted to go there. We were together already, the seven of us, save for Aliera,
and a handy bunch in a fight. Moraelyn had already gotten that Dragon's Blade he wears, and
the Dragon's Tooth to go with it - remind me to tell you about that sometime - and he was a
famous fighter already. And the rest of us aren't slackers. But he thought we could be better at
the spellcasting and the Tower was the place to learn that. Well, no one goes near the Tower
without an invitation. No one! No one would even tell you where it was. But they'd tell you
where NOT to go. So he went there. Alone. One morning he was gone and there a note saying
for us to wait for him. So we did, here in Firsthold. He was gone two weeks, then he came
back one night, rowing across with the tide. He just said they'd accepted him, but he couldn't
say anything more about it. But he asked me to come back with him."
"'They want me?' 'Well, they've accepted one Dark Elf,' he said. 'One more shouldn't bother
them too much.' So we go there, and bless me if the Archmagister himself didn't meet us at
the door and demand to know the meaning of this. I wanted to turn myself into a rock! I was
wishing hard that I was stable dung! And figured I was like to get my wish soon. But
Moraelyn speaks up real polite that this is the friend he'd mentioned and the Archmagister had
expressed an interest in his abilities, and naturally he'd want to see for himself."
"But the Archmagister was real interested. See, they don't wear armor or carry anything but a
staff and a dagger. They think it interferes with their spellcasting, all that metal. But Moraelyn
could cast pretty well even with chain and with any one-hand weapon at all. And I could cast
wearing leather and as much as a saber, though it's an unwieldy weapon; I like my short
sword better. Truth, they didn't think that much of me, but Moraelyn...he'd camped outside
their door. And when they tried to move him he just sat there! They threw all the spells they
had at him, the troll guards, everything. Nothing. He laid the trolls out flat and left 'em to
regenerate. If they tried to beat him with their staffs he'd ward them off with his blade and the
spells didn't turn him a hair."
Edward's mouth gaped open. "How'd he do that!?!" He said.