Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter XLVI - The Aftermath

A sudden light shock went through Bishop's body.

It took a while for him to remember what happened to him. Although he still wasn't sure. There were those noises and the weird quake of the whole building. Then just the overwhelming light. His head was throbbing and his whole body was buzzing strangely. He was lying on a cold ground and he heard some strange sounds – some swirling, some rumbling and a lot of other things that he couldn't place. Every noise seemed to drown out every other one and it all turned into an incomprehensible flurry in his head. His eyes were still closed and he didn't feel like opening them just yet.

Another light shock passed through him. It was some sort of electricity but it wasn't painful or burning. It seemed really mild.

Finally he determined himself to open his eyes. He needed to know what was going on.

All he could see at that moment was the swirl of large rocks and violet lightning that enveloped them as they hovered above him. It took a while before he noticed the head-like shape with a stony face carved into it.

An atronach.

But it wasn't attacking him. When he opened his eyes, in fact, it seemed to lose interest in him entirely and it floated away.

Bishop let out an exhausted groan as he tried to pull himself up at least a little onto his elbows. The weird buzzing in his body was still overwhelming him, but he really needed to find out what was going on.

His eyes immediately went to the strange glowing teal barrier that separated the rest of the library from the entryway where he was. The Orc was standing in front of it with his arms raised. There was some strange magic coming out of them and it seemed like he was holding the barrier at bay... or creating it. Bishop still had no idea what any of this was.

His eyes were drawn back towards the storm atronach a second later. It floated above the ground towards the barrier before it stopped. That was when he finally noticed Aeyrin's limp body lying motionlessly on the ground below it.

Fuck!

He sprung to his feet as fast as he could to rush towards her. The atronach swirled above her in the meantime and a soft small lightning shot from its form and jolted Aeyrin's lifeless body briefly.

"Stop!" the Orc's booming voice interrupted Bishop before he could reach her. "The atronach will rile her up. Wait."

"What's wrong with her?!" Bishop barked at him, unable to contain the panic in his voice.

"Same thing that was wrong with you. Just wait," the Orc explained curtly.

Bishop fidgeted nervously in spot, but, fortunately, after a minute, the next shock from the atronach made Aeyrin's eyes snap open and she let out a light gasp.

Thank the fucking Gods!

He rushed towards her and knelt by her side on the ground instantly as she hazily tried to sit up. The atronach floated away again, disinterested, and it positioned itself behind the Orc idly.

"W-what?" Aeyrin didn't seem to have a firm hold on her surroundings yet. Bishop carefully helped her sit up while she blinked rapidly before her eyes settled on the prominent teal barrier.

"What the fuck is happening?!" Bishop barked at the Orc again.

"It's the Eye. There's something... wrong with it," the Orc grumbled.

No fucking kidding!

Bishop had told them that it would blow up! He knew that something like this would fucking happen!