Travels in the Multiverse Part 14 (Patreon)

Myst jumped and nearly dropped the spell book in his hands as the knowledge of how to summon and bind a 'spirit' into the form of a scimitar like sword burned itself into his mind. "Yeah, that's disconcerting."

The man behind the counter laughed. "And the reason the books are behind the counter."

"How many do you have?" Myst asked as he handed the book to Dawn, figuring every young woman needed the ability to conjure a sword at the drop of a hat, especially on the hellmouth.

Dawn quickly opened the book and grinned when she realized she knew exactly how to summon a sword. "Thanks," she said as she handed the book to Ivy.

The shopkeeper smiled at Dawn then looked back at Myst. "I have a few books, mostly things that apprentice magic users have sold over the years for a bit of drinking money. I don't ask where they came from and the college doesn't set me on fire."

"Over books?" Ivy asked after opening the book and picking up the new spell. 'Maybe Hermione can figure out how to duplicate the magic in the book.'

"Mighty kind of them, considering most of the books were probably stolen," Myst replied as he lifted the information out of the man's mind.

"You can't expect me to hunt down the origin of everything I buy," Ranmir argued.

"True enough," Myst acknowledged, not seeing a point in antagonizing the man.

"I have an old book that lets you summon an unbound Dremora, a copy of a stoneflesh tome, two different light tomes, a telekinesis tome and a healing tome which teaches a basic channeled healing spell."

"I'll take them," Myst said as he turned to look at Willow and Tara who were looking over the man's collection of enchanted armor. "Did you find anything interesting?"

"A helmet that is supposed to make potions 10% more powerful," Willow said, pausing when the shopkeeper shook his head.

"I'll have you know, all of my items are certified by the college," Ranmir lied.

Myst frowned slightly as he read the shopkeeper's mind and realized he was lying. 'Only technically, your friend wasn't working for the college in an official capacity and you don't want to pay the gold it would cost to get everything officially examined, I can't say I blame you considering the price they quoted.'

"Sorry," Willow offered, then turned to look at Myst. "Boots that muffle sound, boots that give you waterwalking, robes that fortify conjuration skill and boost magicka regeneration."

Ivy grinned as she thought about how much easier the books would have made some of her adventures. "That would help with sneaking around."

Tara held up a pair of leather gloves. "And some gloves that boost destruction."

"How much?" Myst asked, looking through the shopkeeper's mind, trying to get an idea for a fair price as he pulled a couple of gems out of his pocket to trade.

"I'm sure we could come to some agreement," Ranmir said happily, knowing the gems were worth more than the low powered gear he'd bought off the red haired adventurer that stopped by earlier.

Myst didn't protest all that much when he let the merchant get a much better deal than he probably should, mostly because the bastard was wearing a circlet that boosted his speechcraft by a ridiculous degree. It wasn't a particularly horrible deal considering the gems were basically conjured but he didn't particularly like the fact that he'd probably have walked away thinking he'd gotten a good deal if it wasn't for his telepathy. "I don't suppose you know a good place to pick up some low end magical jewelry?"

"I have a necklace that helps you resist magic and one that works on most poisons, unfortunately that includes ale," Ranmir explained. "Now if you're looking for more impressive gear, you could always try the college though you'll need to prove that you already know the basics so you might want to stop by the Frozen Hearth and talk to Nelacar, he keeps a collection of tomes that he might be willing to part with for the right price."

'That's why Buffy and Xander are already talking to him.' Myst smiled as he stuck his hand in his pocket and created a large ruby then pulled it out and set it on the table. "Add the amulets to the collection."

"Of course," Ranmir replied with undisguised glee, delighted with the day's sales which would get him out of debt and even allow him to make some much needed repairs to the shop.

"Thank you for the help." Myst couldn't help the smile on his face as they tossed their purchases in a cloth sack and left, heading toward the town's only inn to meet up with Buffy and Xander.

Dawn focused and used her genie magic to repair the shop then did the same for the broken, snow covered, wreck of a building they walked past, causing it to reassemble and the snow inside to vanish. "Why are there so many broken houses?"

"Most of the old city fell into the sea seventy or eighty years ago in an Earthquake."

"Shouldn't they have rebuilt?" Willow asked.

"You'd think," Myst replied as they walked past another snow covered, broken house. "Without the rest of the city, the town was basically reduced to a fishing village with a magical college, something the townsfolk still resent, never mind that none of the residents were actually alive eighty years ago. I doubt most of the young people wanted to stay so they left and there's no real reason to come here other than the college so people probably died or drifted off over the years."

Willow turned to look at Myst. "Why would they resent the college?"

"Because they're…" Myst glanced at Tara and changed what he was going to say, "superstitious and because the college doesn't have the best history of controlling their apprentices and magical accidents happen. Not to mention it survived because they'd built it on solid stone and reinforced the ground with magic or at least that's my guess."

"I can see that," Ivy replied, thinking about Hogwarts and some of the other magical locations she'd heard about.

"Are we going to help?" Willow asked as they passed a house that was just a couple of broken posts.

Myst sighed as he noticed the broken buildings past the inn. "I'm not sure where we'd even start. I'd rather just offer to buy everyone out and set up an actual town filled with ice mages or werewolves that don't mind the cold. There are a number of interesting ruins scattered around the surrounding area and I know Hermione would love a copy of everything in the college."

Ivy nodded. "It's probably worth looking into."

"We'd need protection against the cold," Willow mused.

"That's why we have a magic college," Myst replied with amusement as they walked up the steps to the inn. "With any luck, we can set things up and leave before we run into trouble…" he trailed off as they walked into the room and saw Buffy and Xander arguing with a couple of elves in robes.

Buffy snorted. "I don't give a damn if you don't like my new necklace, piss off."

"You're under arrest!" the elf snapped.

"Something the matter?" Myst asked, noticing the axe shaped holy symbol with a broken cord that Buffy was holding.

"Mind your own business human!" the elf mage snapped.

The other elf glared at Myst. "Worship of Talos is forbidden!"

"Why?" Willow demanded as Ivy pulled her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the elves.

"Because the altmer are a bunch of butt hurt little shits that hate Talos," Myst replied with a grin as he focused on reading the mage's mind. "I'm a touch surprised that Sheogorath hasn't killed every last one of you degenerate shits for stealing their glory."

"What are you talking about?" the mage demanded.

"The Thalmor had nothing to do with ending the Oblivion crisis, you stole a hero's glory as an excuse to go to war. So yeah, you can piss off and run back to your island filled with bigots and lunatics or you can tell me where your friends are and I'll take care of the problem myself."

"Die!" the elf shouted as he raised his hands to cast chain lightning and kill the idiots stopping him from completing his duties then stared in shocked disbelief as nothing happened.

"Having trouble?" Xander taunted the man to distract both of the elves so that Buffy could step forward and drop the other elf with a well placed punch.

Myst gestured and floated the elven mage off the ground with telekinesis.

"Put me down!" the elf demanded.

"No," Myst replied as he floated the mage over. "Where are your friends?" he demanded, lifting the information about the nearby Thalmor camp from the elf's mind. 'Twenty guards, five battlemages and two scholars, more than I thought but workable.'

The elf spat in Myst's face and glared as the spit hit an invisible shield and fell to the ground. "You're resisting a lawful order, they'll execute you."

"They're welcome to try," Myst replied as he pulled out his wand and stunned the elf. "That was fun."

"Sorry," Buffy offered. "Nelacar didn't mention the necklace was a holy symbol of a banned religion."

"Don't worry about it, there's nothing all that objectionable about Talos, the Thalmor are just bigots and hate him. They're worse than the Death Eaters and want to rule the world and aren't above killing anyone they can get away with." Myst glanced around the empty inn then towards the kitchen. "Let me guess, everyone ran when the Thalmor showed up?"

"Yep," Xander replied.

"Just as well," Myst replied as he floated the unconscious elves over then stuffed them in his pocket dimension. "Did you learn anything from Nelacar?" he asked, glancing at the bag near Xander's feet.

Xander grinned. "We picked up seven novice spell tomes and the amulet before we ran into the goon squad, so I'm calling it a win."

"Are the Thalmor going to send people to harass the town?" Tara asked, wanting to make sure the townsfolk didn't suffer because they'd stirred up the crazy people.

"I doubt it, bandits are fairly common in the region and most of the Nords hate the Thalmor so they aren't likely to tell them anything beyond pointing them our way," Myst walked over to a table and set his bag down. "We should be able to finish with the college before anyone comes looking."

"We should probably collect the girls if we don't want them to complain," Xander pointed out.

"Good point-" Myst jumped as he felt a portal open in town. "Shit!" He focused near the portal and thought about teleporting then relaxed when he realized it was just Anya, Harry, Hermione and Amy. "Never mind, it's just Harry and the girls."

"Nice timing," Xander said as he grabbed his bag and walked over to the table and started pulling out books.

"Yeah, just about gave me a heart attack," Myst admitted.

Dawn snickered. "You forgot you left the remote with Amy didn't you?"

"Yeah, I'm still a bit on edge," Myst replied as he walked over to the door and opened it. He whistled then shut the door, fairly sure his friends would get the message.

"You'll get over it eventually," Buffy assured him as she started working her way through Myst's collection of tomes. "More jewelry?"

"Magical defenses, I'll cover everything when Harry and the girls get here," Myst assured her as he walked back over to the table.

"Speaking of cheating, shouldn't you have a list of all of the enchantments and rare magical items scattered around that we need to collect considering the world resembles a game?" Xander asked.

Myst shrugged. "In theory, but I'd have to grab my laptop and the hero is going to need some of the unique ones. I'd rather not screw things up for the world just because we got greedy."

"Probably for the best," Tara agreed as she grabbed a tome from Xander's pile and opened it, picking up a basic electrical spell.

'Assuming this world even has a hero,' Myst thought as he worked on learning the new spells Xander had picked up. "Besides, the enchanting is already different; we'll probably find things that weren't in the game."

"We can hope," Ivy said, looking forward to having a decent collection of defensive gear for dealing with the Ministry and Death Eaters. "We should probably pick up Sirius at some point so he can duplicate some jewelry so we can practice enchanting."

"Not a bad idea." Myst turned to look at the door as he heard it open, smiling as Amy walked in with the rest of the group following her. "Welcome to Winterhold, feel free to open the books and learn new and interesting magic instantly."

"Thanks," Amy said as she headed over towards the fireplace.

"Instantly?" Hermione asked warily as she looked at the tomes spread out on a table that looked less than clean. "Ron would love it," she muttered as she walked over.

"Not really, you still have to practice using the spells if you want to learn and understand enough to reach the next tier of spells," Myst explained as he pulled a notebook out of his pocket dimension and started writing the names of the spells down so they'd have a list.

Ivy shook her head. "Ron would probably just learn the spell then expect to coast or do the bare minimum."

"Probably," Harry agreed.

"He's a man and not Xander," Anya said as she walked over to look at the magic books.

"How long do you think it will take to buy what we need from the college?" Dawn asked.

Myst turned to look at Dawn. "Anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days if they send us on a mission to test us before they let us join."

"Days?" Buffy sighed. "We should really slip back in and call Giles."

"I'll see what I can do once we get some decent magic resistance gear," Myst offered, not particularly happy about the idea of going anywhere near the other dimensional travelers before picking up some defensive gear.

"Sounds good," Buffy agreed.

"Can't you just open a portal and toss a probe through that can hack the phone company and make a call?" Willow asked.

"I wouldn't even know where to start, but I'll take a look once I get back to the ship," Myst replied, wishing he'd asked Rick about communication systems that worked across dimensions. He swapped to writing down the various magical items they'd picked up while he waited for everyone to finish using the tomes.

0o0o0

"How sure are we that the bridge is going to hold?" Buffy asked warily as she looked at the stone walkway that was suspended over the chasm in defiance of gravity and logic. She glanced down at the waves crashing against the stone cliff a few hundred feet below. "Because I don't think we'll survive the drop."

"I could lie and tell you it's totally going to collapse," Myst said as he walked onto the stone bridge, "but if it hasn't collapsed in the last eighty years, it's probably not going to fall apart today."

Ivy shook her head then followed Myst onto the bridge, fairly sure he'd catch them if the bridge actually collapsed.

"You're crazy," Buffy muttered as she followed Myst, trying not to look at the water.

"That and I can fly," Myst replied with a grin as he headed towards the college, fairly sure his precog would give him enough warning to save everyone in the unlikely event that the bridge collapsed.

"We're going to have to learn that," Hermione said as she followed Buffy..

"I'll second that," Harry said as he followed Hermione, trying not to look down or get too close to the sides even if there were chest high stone walls on the sides to prevent people from falling.

"It's useful," Amy said with a smirk as she followed the rest of the group.

"It's on the list," Myst replied, everyone falling silent as they made their way across the bridge and into the courtyard in front of the college. He'd barely stepped off the walkway when an elf in a Thalmor robes walked out of one of the stone towers.

"Great, another Thalmor," Dawn muttered as she pulled her attention off the large statue of a mage and focused the arrogant elf dressed in Thalmor robes.

Myst reached into his pocket, pulled out the amulet of Talos and put it on. "I'll be right back."

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

"Thalmor are basically Death Eaters," Ivy explained.

"Great," Hermione muttered under her breath, thinking about her parents.

"He's being reckless," Tara whispered.

"He'll be fine," Willow assured her girlfriend.

"What does the amulet have to do with it?" Harry asked.

"They loathe Talos and the amulet is his holy symbol," Xander explained, hoping Myst knew what he was doing.

Myst focused on suppressing Arcano's magic as he walked over to the Thalmor agent. "Do you have spare coins for Talos?"

"Are you trying to die?!" Arcano snapped, insulted that some no name idiot had the gall to put on a Talus pendant before walking over to talk to him.

"No, I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions, where is the Thalmor Embassy?" Myst asked, lifting the details from the man's head. "Actually never mind."  He used telekinesis to grab the man's hands and tongue so he couldn't cast or scream for help, finding the mage strangely slippery. "What about your secret libraries?" he asked, wanting to laugh when he realized the Archmage's 'advisor' had been stealing books from the college for a couple of weeks. "How were you expecting to control the Eye of Magnus?"

'How does he know about that?' Arcano asked himself, wondering which one of his men had talked or where he'd learned about his plans. "Give those back!" he screamed or tried to scream when his rings floated off his fingers, the sound coming out as little more than a mutter thanks to the telekinetic gag.

Myst lifted the information from the elf's mind about the Eye as well as his anti paralysis ring and antimagic ring which made it a lot easier to hold him with telekinesis as it stopped slipping. "Do you have any caches of magical items hidden?" He asked then dug through the mage's mind, looking for secrets and lore that the Thalmor had hidden away. "What about the archmage's rooms?"

'Why are you asking when you won't let me answer idiot?' Arcano thought as he struggled against the force holding him in place, wishing for the first time ever that one of the idiot teachers would show up or even an apprentice.

Myst sighed and pulled out his wand when his precog flashed a warning that they were about to have a visitor. He pulled him closer and hit him with a stunner then quickly stuffed him into his pocket dimension when the doors started to open. He smiled as he transferred the Talos pendant into his pocket dimension, seeing no point to give anyone a reason to deny them access to the college's library and collection of tomes.

A dusky skinned middle aged woman with short brown hair walked out and glanced at Myst then looked at the rest of the group. "Have you come to join the college?"

"We come seeking knowledge and tomes," Myst replied with a smile.

"It's been a while since we've had this many students at once." Mirabelle glanced around the courtyard looking for Arcano. "Did you see where a shady looking altmer went?"

"No," Myst replied, not even lying as he'd never seen the inside of his pocket dimension.

"No matter, he'll turn up, always does," she muttered the last part as the rest of the group walked over. "Welcome to the college, I'll have to find some additional robes for everyone but we'll get you sorted out and into classes before you know it."

"Thank you," Hermione said, looking forward to being back in a classroom.

"Great," Xander muttered, hoping no one was expecting him to actually stick around for more than a couple of days as he had work to get back to.

"Yep," Harry and Ivy agreed, trying not to laugh at Hermione's enthusiasm.

Anya smiled as she thought about all of the secrets she could uncover and sell back home.