Today was… Hard. It was hard and terrible and I don't think I've ever been so scared.

We almost didn't make it. We've never come this close, and it's not like we haven't faced Falmer or bandits before, it's just… There were so many of them and they were strong. Too strong. We've never seen so many like that at once!

If I go on about it too much my hands'll start shaking again and I won't be able to write.

It didn't start out bad.

Well, not for me. I was the only one who didn't wake up with a hangover!

I got the others up and moving, then had a quick breakfast before I went across the street to Arnleif and Sons.

I figured I could do what trading needed done while they got themselves together and had breakfast. I had to promise to take Septim with me, though. They're still paranoid about letting me out of their sight, but after the past week or so and with what happened yesterday, I understand.

Lisbet was her usual cheery self, and it was obvious what had her in such a bad mood. The place was a wreck, and looked like the most picked-over stall in the Tower Market back in the Capital. I asked if she'd been having a rough time, and she told me about how the Forsworn have been hitting the trading caravans hard lately. She offered me a reward if I'd be willing to bring back a specific thing she'd lost: A custom statute of Dibella, made of gold and with a jeweled base.

I said I'd look into to, and she marked the Forsworn camp on my map once we were done trading.

The others were more or less on their feet by the time I got back. I had to pick on them a bit for getting so trashed last night, but to my surprise, they remembered most of what was said!

Erandur tried to disappear into his hood when he realized that he'd gone on a rant about love and confessed his undying devotion for everyone and everything.

Still, Lydia thanked him for that. She feels a lot better about this whole "Agent of Mara" thing we're doing, now.

As we were about to leave, Lydia tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a book. It was "The Last Scabbard of Akrash," and she'd found it while they were sorting the books for the library. She reminded me that we'd promised Ghorza the blacksmith that we'd get her a copy if we ever came across one.

I completely forgot about that, so we made a quick stop before we left the city. Ghorza taught me some smithing tricks in exchange.

A good trade, I'd say.

I explained the agreement I'd made with Lisbet as we walked to the crossroads outside of Markarth. They agreed that getting the statue would be a good idea. We're still short on gold, and not only would we get a reward, but we could probably sell her whatever we got off the Forsworn, too.

I swear, it's like our luck turned as soon as we got to the crossroads and headed towards the camp.

First, a thief ran up and demanded that I hand over everything I had on me. I told him to back off, but he didn't listen and lunged at us. While we were fighting him, a DRAGON showed up!

So, we had to deal with a dragon breathing fire at us, and a thief who was more determined to rob us than get his ass away from the dragon!

WE let Septim take care of him while we focused on the dragon. It was a smaller one, but because the road was so narrow, with a drop-off to the river on one side and the hill on the other, it mostly stayed in the air. They're harder to fight that way, but we managed to bring it down.

The others took some bones and scales, and I took the soul.

I saw a path leading up the hill, where the thief had come running down from. I was curious about it, and it was going the same way we were, so I figured why not? Maybe it was a shortcut. If not, we could easily get back down to the road.

At the top of the path we found the Lovers Stone, on an outcrop overlooking the valley.

We also found a bear!

Well, the bear found us. I think it was sleeping behind a rock and I startled it when i walked past. It came out of nowhere and got me! The others took care of it, but I could feel a familiar chill settling in my body before it was even dead.

Bone Break Fever.

Again.

At least this time I recognized what was happening and was able to down a Cure potion before it had much of a chance to set in.

Erandur caught the whiff of potion when he came over to heal me, and made me promise that we'd get back down to the road as soon as I changed my sign. The Lovers is my birth sign, and I wanted to change it back from the Shadow.

So, after the pretty light show, we went back the way we came. The road was quiet until we got to Broken Tower redoubt. It's been reoccupied by the Forsworn, and there were two Vigilants being attacked by the lookouts. We helped the Vigilants, then looked at the map and decided to head overland. There's an obvious path over the hill opposite Broken Tower, and it looked promising.

As soon as the tower was out of sight, we were attacked by a sabercat.

The fight wasn't hard, but I was still feeling a bit off from the fever. After the sabercat was dead, I had to sit down on a rock to rest. While I was taking a drink, Erandur said he could hear a fight somewhere. Septim could, too, judging by the way he was looking around.

Valdimar spotted a door in the rock face nearby. Erandur said that was the place, so we got our weapons and spells ready, and came in.

We were at the top of a set of stairs, and ran down . We came out on a platform, with stairs going down into the main room to the left. It was a carved-out cavern, clearly part of a ruin or fort, full of tables and chairs, with a bar at the back.

At least, that's what it used to look like. Half the tables are smashed, and it was full of dead bandits, with a few living ones fighting a band of Falmer!

There were a few… Well, I don't know what to call them, "regular" Falmer fighters in the mix, but most of them were the big ones covered in heavy chaurus chitin armor, and those really strong magic users!

It was a terrible fight.

I'll write what I can remember, if I can.

Septim and I were the only ones left standing, and I was a breath away from dying myself when the last Falmer fell.

Valdimar went down first. He and Lydia had charged down the steps, right into the thick of it. Erandur and I stayed on the platform, using magic to thin the crowd. Valdimar concentrated on keeping them away from the steps, while Lydia ran back to fight the strongest mage. The mage was hiding behind the bar, protected on both side by weaker mages and fighters. She sometimes ducked through the kitchen door that's back there, probably to heal up.

We hadn't noticed the opening at the side of the room, near the end of the bar. A few more Falmer came out, along with a bandit, and they all set upon Valdimar. I was too busy trying to keep the other, weaker Falmer off of Lydia from my place up on the platform to really see what happened, but I heard Erandur call out his name, then run down the steps.

Valdimar was laying in a heap, surrounded by Falmer. I saw a flash of Healing magic surround him, then Erandur practically exploded with that Flame thing he does. He drew both of his swords, and flung himself into the fight.

I went back to trying to help Lydia, but she and the other magic user were gone. I could see flashes of magic through the door that leads to the kitchen, and then the mage came out.

I couldn't see Lydia.

I was already starting to panic at that, and then the mage threw a raging Blizzard right at Erandur. She hit her people, too, but I don't think she cared. She did what she intended. Erandur went down, and his fire went out with him.

I was running out of magic, but I had enough to summon my bow and I hit her with a terrible poison, the worst I had.

She retreated into the back, and then the last three Falmer came up the stairs.

I tried to poison them as best I could, but poison takes time to work, and I could feel myself fading. Septim kept having to drop back to regain his strength, but he would get a few good bites in before he had to retreat again. I had a handful of paralysis poisons left, so I poisoned my daggers and started swinging. I managed to keep them down for short bursts, where I'd try my best to hack at them, but they never stayed down for very long.

I wonder if they're a bit resistant to poison?

Anyway, I was almost dead by the time they finally died, and I credit Septim with that. I had just enough potions to get my Magicka back up enough to Heal the both of us, then I staggered downstairs to check on the others.

Valdimar was out, but not bleeding, and I was able to Heal him enough so that he could wake up on his own. I had to drag a few bodies off Erandur, and he was already starting to wake up by the time I got them off him.

He understood enough to nod at me when I asked if he would be all right, then Septim and I went to look for Lydia.

I found her in the kitchen, laying face-down inn the middle of the floor. The mage wasn't too far off, clearly dead from poison. There was a blast of snow on the far wall, and when I rolled Lydia over I saw that the front of her Ebony armor was silver with frost. There were footprints - hers - in the snow. She'd taken the full force of a Blizzard, at close range, and she'd kept going.

She was still alive, and I was able to use the last of my Magicka to wake her up.

Of course, the first thing she did when she got up was lift her sword (she never lost her grip on it) and ask me how many were left.

I told her that the ones we knew about were dead, but there was no telling how many more were through that opening in the side of the main room. She didn't put her sword away, and instead growled something about wanting to go find out.

I told her to wait for a little bit, and at least eat something. She hadn't lost a lot of blood, luckily, but Valdimar told me how Frost magic can really drain you!

I went back out to the main room to see how the guys were doing, but getting up to walk, now that the rush had worn off, made my stomach lurch.

Yeah, I'd been drinking potions pretty much the entire fight to keep myself going, and I paid for it.

Still am, actually. I feel like shit, but I should be better tomorrow.

Erandur and Valdimar were both up, and we all sat at the bar for a minute to collect ourselves.

I pretty sure we were all thinking about how we'd nearly died in that room.

I grabbed a bottle of mead that was sitting there and took a swig before passing it down the row. It seemed to help break the heavy mood, and Erandur, who was last in line, finished it off, then said we should take some time to check over each other's wounds.

Lydia asked why; we'd all been Healed, and aside from the aches and such we could keep going. Erandur explained that there's a point where Restoration magic can only do so much for a person. It can't restore the blood you lose, or fix a bruise or a pulled muscle. Sometimes, if the wound is too large, the new skin is so thin that it tears easily and needs to be wrapped to keep from splitting.

I said that was a good idea, but Lydia was paranoid about someone coming in, so she insisted on there being a watch at the side entrance.

Nothing happened, but it was a good idea.

While we took turns getting out of our gear to make sure there wasn't anything too serious to fix, Erandur told us more about Restoration magic. He explained how it can't really "set" bones, even though people think it can. It can put bones back together, but you have to make sure the bones are in the right place before you do it.

He'd learned that one the hard way, he said.

While he tended to what was left of a nasty axe wound on Valdimar's back, Erandur told us how one time, he got smashed across the face with a chair during a bar fight. It broke his nose, but he wasn't thinking, so he Healed himself before he got back up and kept fighting.

His nose Healed crooked, so after the fight was over, he had to get someone to break it again so he could straighten it out!

Valdimar made a joke about if there was a line or not, and Erandur laughed a bit because yeah, there was!

I was grateful for the laugh, and once we were bandaged up, we sat down to have some food before going on. I had a bit of bread to settle my stomach, and I couldn't help but do a tiny bit of looting while I ate.

I'm glad I did! I peeked in a barrel, and found what I thought were bits of broken Ebony armor. I lifted it up, and saw that it wasn't a bunch of scrap.

Well, it had been, at one time, but when I laid it out we realized that it'd been reworked.

For a DOG.

Of course I immediately put it on Septim, and after a bit of fiddling with the straps, we got it to fit him perfectly!

He looked great! He's not wearing it now because he's sleeping at my feet, but I think having him wear this instead of his harness while we're out and about is a good idea.

Well, after that we felt good enough to keep going. The side door led to a hallway with three separate sleeping quarters. We found two small ones and this big one, where I am now.

I didn't want to keep watch alone in the main room, and I don't think anyone else does, either.

There was a bandit barricaded in the far bedroom, but we took care of him before we kept going. We found a section of wall that had caved in in the back hallway. This was clearly where the Falmer had come in.

It was a cave full of spiders, but I didn't mind at all! It was nice to fight something easy after nearly getting killed!

I wonder if the Falmer keep them like guard dogs, same as they do the Chaurus. It makes sense that they would.

Anyway, we kept going, and were surprised to hear voices. It was bandits arguing, but as we came out of the tunnel we found more Falmer! There were only a handful of them, but they weren't easy to kill, either. It was more of those heavy fighter-types and another powerful mage.

Past them we found a pen with some prisoners in it - The bandits we'd heard. We set them free, but they attacked us as soon as they got out!

What was their problem?! I know if I was trapped somewhere in a cave I'd be glad to be set free and told to run!

But no, they just had to try and kill us.

Anyway, once we were finished with those two, there were three more Falmer to take care of in the next tunnel, and that was the last of them.

The tunnel opened up into a large cavern that was dug out from inside a section of a Dwemer ruin. There were gears turning in the walls, and some pipes and all the normal things you'd expect to find. There were also some Falmer huts and a chest, and in the center of the room was a stone and earth pile that I think the Falmer were using as an altar. There was a dead man on it, with some weapons and things around his body, like a sacrifice.

Weirdly enough, there wasn't another way out like there usually is, so we had to retrace our steps.

We hadn't really done any looting as we went, so going back was a bit slower as we grabbed anything we thought would fetch a good price.

We went back into the bar area to start checking those bodies when a handful of bandits came down the steps, loudly asking for a drink!

They weren't too happy to see the bloodbath, and charged us.

Of course, they weren't that much of a problem, but…UGH. I'm so tired.

Anyway, I looted while the others got dinner together and cleaned up the big bedroom.

The kitchen in this place is huge, and well-stocked with plenty of food and mead. While we ate, Lydia gave a… Tally from today's fighting.

Apparently, she likes to keep track. I had no idea.

Lydia's Count:

1 Thief 1 Dragon 7 Bandits? 10 or 12 Falmer 1 Bear 1 Sabercat 4 Forsworn

She's not too sure on the number of bandits or Falmer, because she's not certain which ones we killed compared to which ones they killed.

Still, that's… That's a lot.

So, yeah. Rough day.

We were too tired to do much aside from getting ourselves to bed, so once we were done with our food, that's what we did. Valdimar brought a small table into the room for whoever was on watch to use, and I made sure to grab some extra food and drinks.

I'm not a Healer like Erandur, but even I know you can't heal up on an empty stomach!

I know I still have time on my watch but my head's killing me from those potions and I need sleep. I don't think she'll mind if I get her up a bit early.

These are just some little magic headcanons I’ve created during my rp with @doctorottooctavius . They are just little things I made up and have no idea if they are completely wrong in canon as I honestly don’t read that much Dr. Strange and the MCU hasn’t given us much in the rules of magic department. These are only for students of Kamar Taj in my fanfics and any rp where my partner wants to incorporate it.

Eldritch Shield: The most basic weapon/defense of a wizard. It’s the circular geometric spell you see in the movies. Extremely versatile and despite being rudimentary can be very powerful.

Youngling: While native born children in Kamar Taj are rare, the school does see its influx of young people either from the other heavenly kingdoms that send them there to train or children that are orphaned in Katmandu once their powers start to show. They are taught in groups by Masters and the Sorcerer Supreme and are the pride of the community.

Katas: like in martial arts, Katas are a series of buildable movements that help muscle memory.

Mantras: Mantras are Katas that have vocalization added to help train focus and memorize spells

Eldritch signature: As a Sorcerer matures, their eldritch magic will often take on a shape that subconsciously speaks to them. The Ancient One uses fans, Wong uses Hook Swords. although he prefers just using gateways and shields.

I don’t know when people started to use this headcanon and whether it has roots in comics and myth. But I’ve seen it in many, many fics that I think by now most of the fandom treat it is canon :D And you know, it actually fits. Because Asgard is sexist. The post explains why Valkyries, a dead group of female warriors, who probably had to first prove themselves better than men in fighting, still doesn’t change the fact that Asgard is sexist. Even after them, Sif still had to prove that a young maiden could be a fierce warrior. We also don’t see any other woman amongst Asgardian army. Moreover Thor’s promptly kills a Jotun for calling him a “princess”. All of this shows that Asgard is sexist and has gender roles and being a warrior is traditionally known to be a masculine role.

Add to it the fact that Loki was mocked for using magic in fights. To the point that even a servant could mock him and no one would bat an eye. Probably because it was so shameful and ridiculous in Asgardians’ eyes that they could mock a prince and not fear the consequences. And who taught Loki how to use magic? His mother. All of this together, can convey to us that magic is not considered an acceptable way to fight for a warrior which is considered a masculine role. Therefore it makes it a feminine way to fight.

Merlin through the ages - Elizabethan England/Albion

In the late 1580s, King Philip II of Spain planned to invade England with the blessing of the Pope, using their “Invincible Armada”. You might have heard of this in English history as being one of the greatest victories for Queen Elizabeth I because this Spanish Armada invasion (that everyone feared) was averted.

You know how it was averted? A big part of the victory is because an important reason why the English were able to defeat the Armada was that the wind blew the Spanish ships northwards.

What if...

Merlin was still waiting for Arthur at this time, right? I love to headcanon that he’s still doing as much good as he can with his magic, protecting Albion from the shadows and keeping it intact for Arthur to return one day to it. 

So what if Merlin met Queen Elizabeth I and helped them avert the disaster that was the Spanish armada, by magicking the wind?

I’m going to pass out. I love this.

I love witchy dynamics.

Thaumaturges and Black Mages who heat up their hands with whispered spells of fire, rubbing them up and down their arms in fluid, repetitive motions regardless of if they feel cold or not. They can feel the warmth against their skin, not burning, but leaving a tingling all the same that soothes their thoughts so they can think. If they cup their palms together they may even entertain themselves with the sight of a small, flickering flame that shifts in time with their breathing, the fire but a tickle against their skin.

Scholars whose fairy companion sits gently upon their shoulder, whispering a mantra of words which calm them down when emotions overwhelm them. The words are soft and sweet, a constant noise over the chaos of battle or the noise of a crowded room, words that the scholar can focus on. Sometimes they’re nonsensical, sometimes they’re in a language the scholar can’t understand and sometimes still the words are little more than advice to get through the current moment. Even as emotions fly and thoughts whirl, the scholar can focus on the mantra of words flowing into their ear.