I woke up from the dreamscape with a long sigh. "I suspected breaking the restriction on such unique magic would be difficult, but I can't think of any way to break the restriction other than recreating the spells themselves."
I got up and stretched, "I ended up creating 9 more spells during the dreamscape this time. It feels like I got closer to something, but at the same time this was only the first try."
I sighed, "Today is travel day."
It was decided I should go to Atmora. It wasn't a simple decision either. It wasn't just Sorex and Viree telling me to go. General Tullius asked me to leave as well. His reasoning was that my spreading reputation was causing a degree of trouble.
Since I was constantly selling information to the Imperials about stormcloak movements and camps, the stormcloaks believed they were infiltrated. Though I hardly believe that is my fault. I walked over to Viree's room and pushed her out of bed.
"Urggh..." Viree sighed, "Are we leaving now?"
I nodded, "You can eat first, I packed everything yesterday. Meet me down in the basement when you are done eating though."
I left her to get ready and made my way to the kitchen. I poured a bowl of pure oats and walked down to the basement. I stepped over Simon the Scuttler who had made his home inside the basement staircase.
"I'd rather not take a ship all the way to Atmora as that would take weeks. Which leaves opening a portal that travelled to Atmora." I sat down and ate my oats as I did the math on the portal.
With the third spoon of bland oats I reached the mental math. Using a combination of the Atmoran language, Dovahzul and daedric runes I created the required portal. Injecting some magic in the ritual circle a purple portal opened.
As it opened Viree walked down the stairs. A bowl of... "Are you eating raw eggs in a bowl?"
Viree shrugged and pointed to the portal. "Is it supposed to lead to purgatory?"
I looked back at the portal and the endless white. "It seems I miscalculated the portal opening position slightly." Calling it purgatory was accurate it did look like a white nothingness. "The good news, is that is only snow."
Viree choked behind me, "Huh?"
I nodded, "Atmora is in a constant blizzard. We won't have to worry about that though as I have this."
I lifted up the Amulet of Hearth. "I'll be able to influence the blizzards of Atmora with it. Enough where our travel will be quick."
She gave a simple nod and switched topics. "What about you? Are you going to be fine?"
i turned back to the portal and stared into the endless white. "Yeah, I had a lot of time to think about this. I'd preferred to have ignored it, but it would be better to accept it. Are you ready? I left some extra supplies to the side there."
Viree looked over to the portal, "And we step through?"
I jumped to my feet, "You will have to go in first. The portal will close once I walk through."
She glared at me, "And if we are stranded in the blizzard?"
"I do have a back up plan if we are stranded. To reassure you, the plan is to summon a dragon and fly us out of the storm." Specifically it was a zombie dragon, but that part wasn't important.
She sighed and set down the bowl and picked up the supplies I set to the side. As she walked in I picked up Simon and walked in after her. The portal snapped shut when the magic connection to the ritual circle was cut off.
I waved my hands, "I'll use some magic on you."
Viree was bundled in two cloaks I had prepared. "It would be appreicated."
I frowned, my magic washed over Viree, but it required more mana than it should've. "Ah, the blizzard is sucking up my mana to fuel itself. I was not aware of that detail. Let's get moving, if I need to start a fire it will be costly."
Viree stared at me, "And which way are we heading."
That answer required a little extra work. Using detect my mana began to burn away. "Ah, that isn't good."
Viree twitched, "We are surrounded." She heard the footsteps in the snow. Hard to pick out, but if I was paying attention I likely would've heard them as well.
We pulled out our weapons, "Going to be a ha-"
"VEK! Vek Frostwane? That really you?" A burly man who blended in with the snow stepped out of the blizzard.
The unexpected greeting made us both flinch. I kept my weapons up before I realized I knew the pale man personally. "Hardoc?" In my Atmoran memories Hardoc was one of the snow trappers.
Viree didn't lower her weapon though and I couldn't fault her. Hardoc smiled, "Still cautious as ever?"
I threw out a laugh, "It is a little surprising to see someone in the blizzard when I expected to see nothing."
Hardoc nodded, "We saw something shimmering in the blizzard. We were afraid another Ice Ravager spawned."
Ice Ravagers were massive Ice Wraiths that were extremely hostile. I put away my sword and nodded to Viree. The I continued speaking to Hardoc, "You know the way to the city?"
Hardoc smiled and lifted up a steel cable, "Follow the cable back and you will find the city within the hour. We freshly left the city when we spotted..."
i waved, "Was a portal, you know how difficult those waters are to travel. So we came by portal, i miscalulcated where it would open though."
Hardoc gave a thumbs up. "Well, we got a job to do. See you some other time."
The other snow trappers all raised their hands as well. "Aye, See you off Vek."
I walked past Hardoc and began following the Cable. When we were alone again Viree spoke. "What are they doing in the snow? and what is an Ice Ravager?"
"They are snow trappers, before you ask, it isn't for hunting. The Blizzard can be filled with numerous ice monsters. One of which is the Ice ravager, a creature similar to the Ice wraith."
"Tell me about the city." Viree's question was fair and I should honestly tell her about it.
"Well, The city is made of ice and stone. Almost all the living spaces are made from stone, but anything and everything is made of ice. No reason to waste stone when ice doesn't melt. Most of the residents are some mix of Nord and Snow Elf. Though there is two faction of purebloods. Which I'm sure is heavily inbred telling that many relationships are planned to prevent inbreeding."
Thinking about it i stopped briefly, "If anyone does something strange tell me or shatter their bones."
She smirked at me, "Oh? You think they will do something."
I gave her once over and she shrugged. "I understand, Atmora is cut off from everything else. I doubt there is any werewolves."
"I was referring to the fact you are a Breton, but yes. No werewolves exist here, gods are mostly non-existent in fact. Oh, there is the city walls."
Viree looked ahead of us and her eyes went wide. "Those are bigger than..." She looked back at me with curiosity.
I pointed to several spots on the walls. "The whole thing is insulated. About 7 levels tall, that isn't including the very top which very few are stationed at. Everyone works the walls once in their life. Though I didn't since I took the chance to come to Skyrim. If I didn't I likely would've worked it that year I left."
Viree nodded and stared up at the endless wall. I grabbed her shoulder before she got any closer. "Let's wait a bit. The gates are closed and those on the wall likely took notice of us already. Best to follow procedures."
She tapped my shoulder, "Take your time."
I looked down at the snow while we waited settling myself.