As a huge blast of freezing wind from the blizzard outside hit his tent, Hardvak's sigh rose back to his face in the form of a white smoke. The sound of which annoyed him more than it should've. He lived in the cold for most of his life and sighed all of his life so for something as menial as that to annoy him proved that he had been away from civilization for too long of a time. Not that it was idea to sail to this frozen hell in the first place. No that credit went to his highness Emperor Titus Meade who had asked him to.
Now he didn't have to accept but the aging man looked like he was just barely holding it together. The Aldmeri Dominion re-declaring war on the Empire must've been taking its toll on the bastard with that in mind, Hardvak's admittedly sappy heart couldn't help but feel for him and so he accepted. But sitting in his tent alone in the Gods Damned frozen wasteland known as Atmora for the third week in a row, he began to wonder if he would've been better off telling the Emperor to shove it up his ass.
After an hour or so, the wind eventually died down and he quickly exited his tent and looked around. Yep absolutely nothing had changed. The ground around still remained frozen solid and covered with snow and still expanded out in all directions for gods know how many miles. Granted the sky above was still filled with clouds which prevented the sun from shining down and reflecting on the snow so scratch that, one thing had changed. He sighed yet again and folded his tent back up and strapped it back to his back before continuing on. He made it a point to head to Solstheim after this mission and thank Frea and the Skaal for the clothes they gave him. True to her word, they kept a man warm even in the coldest area on the planet despite how itchy they were. To be fair that may have been more him than the clothes. He had heard that as you enter twilight years your skin begins to change more than you want and since he had turned fifty yesterday, he officially admitted himself into that category.
"Some birthday present." He grumbled as his trek continued. Despite the complaints, he was grateful for the isolation that Atmora brought. Places like these, which was kindly for white empty flat plains of ice devoid of all life, allowed him to really think about things. Fifty years old. That was a long time for someone who still adventured for a living. Ten years more so than a certain Harbinger whom he had the courtesy of knowing in life. If that man felt ancient back then, He wondered how he would feel right now. The thought brought a smile to his face as he remembered not only Kodlack, but Aela, Vilkas, Farkas, Skjor, and all the other Companions whom he had fought and bled with over the years. He made another note to stop by Whiterun after this and challenge his old Shield Brothers and Sisters to a drinking contest before focusing back on the task at hand. After several more hours of trekking through an empty wasteland, he finally came to his destination. A small camp composed of a single large brown tent. With a thankful sigh, Hardvak entered through it expecting to see......Well anybody really. When he didn't see said anybody, he immediately assumed that he was out studying whatever it was that the Emperor asked him to study. Which was the same thing he had asked Hardvak to study. Sure enough, he found a note on a nearly empty table.
My lord Dragonborn,
If you're reading this I'm glad you arrived in one piece. I would like to apologize for my absence but not long after I brought word to the Emperor, the anomaly began to act strangely. Fluctuating on and off for hours on end. You'll find it and me, a half a day's journey to the north, if you can bring some food, I would greatly appreciate it. My thanks.
Seric.
Of course, he had to walk some more. He sighed, yet again and angrily pulled scroll from his backpack. Channeling some Magika through it, the scroll unrolled and exploded in a white blinding light. When it faded, he heard several hard thuds and saw several pieces of armor now in the floor.
"I'll half to tell J'zargo that these storage scrolls actually work." Hardvak said actually impressed at the mage's latest invention. Hardvak quickly slipped on a modest set of steel plated armor on, because when were fluctuating anomalies ever a good thing? And exited the tent and resumed his trek, this time northward. Soon enough, his thoughts began to drift yet again only this time to a thing he usually didn't think about. The future.
Did he really want to keep doing this? For a huge part of his life, he had lived the life he had always wanted. A life of adventure, exploration, violence, excitement, politics, warfare, in short all the elements of a life that would make a great story. But such a way of life had its costs. Whenever he came home to any of his houses, he immediately noticed how quiet things were. Nobody there to criticize him for being late, nobody to shout at him for getting blood on the floor, nobody to ask how his day was and annoy him with a hundreds of questions of the outside world. Pretty much all the things he had seen families go through out in his travels through Skyrim and beyond. Yep, everything he was glad he didn't have to go through, was now something he wished he had. He laughed at how sappy it sounded but then again he had always been a little sappy. How else do you get the nickname " the Heroic"?
Still though, sappy or not, he admitted to himself for the first time that an adventurer death might not be what he wanted. Maybe he would be content dying in a bed somewhere, if he ever did make it back to a bed of his own. Here, Hardvak found himself at a crossroads. The Emperor had given him this mission because he was worried about the Thalmor creating a weapon to be used on the Empire. But if he had to guess, what Seric was talking about was a portal. And a unique one at that. The uniqueness stemming from the fact that what the researcher was describing was almost like a Gate of Oblivion. Now Hardvak wasn't alive when Oblvioin Crisis went down but he had always a mild curiosity about the subject so when he read up about them for a mission, he ended up reading about whole armies of Daedra soldiers could charge through at any moment. So in conclusion, if this was indeed a Gate to Oblivion, and it was activated, and whole armies and can move through it, odds are he and all of Tamriel were going to be facing another invasion.
Now he could've brought this to the Emperor's attention before he left but he didn't. He could've organized his allies across Skyrim and have them come with to quell the potential threat but he didn't. He just set out on his own for the coldest land on earth without a word and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. His working theory was that a part of him wanted to go out like a hero would. Fighting an army of monsters for Tamriel. An exciting end to an exciting story. He continued to ponder on the question until he he began to feel the wind acting up again as well.
"LOK VAH KOOR" Hardvak shouted not eager to walk into another blizzard. As his powerful echo spread out through the air, the blizzard began to dissipate rapidly until it disappeared from existence completely. With the air around him clear, his journey continued. When the sun began to set on his on the horizon, he finally caught sight of the anomaly.
It was a massive structure rising high above the flat sheets of snow and ice and styled in a manner that was strikingly similar to a Gate of Oblivion. There was just one problem, where the two spires of an Oblivion Gate were supposed to be black and have an almost alive look to them where instead metallic and had an almost golden color to them and where a red portal was supposed to be, instead a solid blue one existed. It took a full three seconds for Hardvak to sigh in realization.
"Damn Dwemer." He grumbled continuing towards the object. Soon another tent came into view, and just outside it stood the man he was supposed to contact.
"I was beginning to wonder if anyone else was on this damn continent." Hardvak called out to the man. He wore a standard hooded blue cloak he had seen countless other mages wear but when he turned around and spoke back to him, he revealed something no other mage ever had. The face of someone who was dead.
"Oh don't worry about that. You Dragonborn are never really alone." The man said in a raspy voice that was identical to the man Hardvak had known. A man he had watched crumble away to ash so many years ago.
"Sepitmus?!" Hardvak asked taking off his helmet to see see clearly.
"Good to see you again Dragonborn." Septimus replied with a small bow. "You've gotten older."
"And you....haven't." Hardvak replied steadying himself and raising his guard. Septimus laughed and for the first time Hardvak realized that the madness that had once infected his voice was gone.
"Yes. Well it seems that I still had some use in this world after all."
"How are you back? Is Mora somewhere around here?" Hardvak asked looking around the area waiting for the tentacled Daedric Prince to show himself in one form or another.
"No. Fortunately not." Septimus replied with a sigh. "As for how......That reason still eludes me."
"But your sure Mora's not behind it?" Hardvak asked again. When Septimus nodded, he lowered his weapon slightly. "Fine. Still though your back from the dead. Not exactly something that happens to a lot of people." Hardvak replied.
"No but unlike most I seem to be better for it. My madness from the Elder Scroll, its gone." Septimus said in what almost sounded like a happy tone. "Despite my predicament, It is good to think freely again."
"What predicament?" Hardvak asked. Septimus tone's flipped when he replied.
"I....don't think I have much time left." Septimus replied. "When I awoke here on Atmora, a powerful voice echoed throughout my mind that I needed to bring you here. One that I haven't heard before or since. And once you were here......that I would return to my rest." Septimus said in an almost fearful tone. Hardvak's stared at the man with pity at his position.
"I'll help if I can Septimus but....."
"I appreciate the offer Dragonborn. More than you know but.....I think this is beyond even your power."Septimus said raising his hand to stop him and smiling thankfully." Septimus' gaze then switched to the massive structure before them.
"Whenever the anomaly fluctuates it sends out a powerful burst of magic that spirals out across Atmora creating blizzards." Septimus said switching topics. Hardvak not relaxing in the slightest moved beside him also looking up towards the gate.
"I noticed." Hardvak replied remembering the last blizzard. "So you got a theory about why the Dwemer built it?"
"I cannot say in truth but my working theory is that it leads to wherever they went. And that it became active not long after I returned."
"Which you needed to then find me...."
"And the quickest way to do that was through a letter to the emperor of a Thalmor plot." Septimus finished.
"So your Seric then?" Hardvak asked raising the note he found.
"Oh no. That poor boy went home a week ago. I've been running his outpost ever since. Just been using his name." Septimus saiid with a small amount of wry in his voice. Hardvak chuckled at the man before replying.
"I wish I had known you like this." Hardvak said remembering the shell of the man he had met before.
"Yes. I did sort of lose it at the end of my life didn't I?" Septimus said in sad remembrance. "What was it I used to say? Dig, Dwemer, in the beyond. I'll know your lost unknown and rise to your depths." Septimus said mimicking his old madness. Hardvak laughed at the joke before remembering.
"I guess you haven't had anything to eat then." Septimus shook his head allowing him to continue."Well then. Here." Hardvak said tossing him something. Septimus caught it and smiled.
"Dragonborn......thank you." He said biting into the sweet roll.
"If you're going to face the gods soon. Best not do it on an empty stomach.." Hardvak said with a smile of his own as Septimus finished. Almost as soon as he did however, his body once began to shift to an all too familiar sight.
"I appears my time is at an end." Septimus said as he watched his lower half begin to crumble seemingly unfeeling towards it. Hardvak inially moved to intervene but a raised hand from Septimus stopped him.
"One last thing Dragonborn. Even if I'm wrong about the portal's destination. What is true is that it goes to a realm where not even the gods know about."
"What did that voice say he wanted me to do about it?" Hardvak asked.
"I believe it was........Adventure." Septimus replied. Hardvak's face was one of shock and confusion as the rest of Septimus finally faded away.
"Farewell my friend." Septimus said with a wave before vanishing into a pile of ash. Hardvak stood alone there for several minutes before replying.
"Be at peace Septimus." Hardvak said before shifting his gaze toward the gate just in time for a fluctuation. The air around his began to move forward at a rapid pace until the wind began to hiss around his ears and the cold dripped down to obscene temperatures even for Atmora. It was there standing several feet away, the previously blue portal shifted to a light green color and Hardvak made a choice of either getting out of the way or charging in. And right then regrettably or not, his Nord blood kicked in. With a proud yell, He charged through the powerful winds and just before reached the entrance he shouted yet again.
"WULD NAH KEST" He screamed as he shot forward like an arrow from a bow and into the portal dissapearing from the world of Nirn for what would ultimately be one of the greatest tales ever told.