The explanation was, luckily for the old men, completely devoid of any such things in need of immediate cleansing, even if it did come close when Arngeir demonstrated a proper way of circulating one's breath for greatly increased stamina when shouting.
As he spoke of how the Greybeards studied shouting, getting periodically interrupted by his brothers from time to time, it slowly started to dawn on me just how different our application of the thu'um was, even if they was oddly fitting when one considered our clashing world-views.
The Greybeards focused mainly on resonating with a word of power, which would usually take them multiple months all the way up to a year at a time, and then finding an inner calm as a form of focus, nothing terribly new so far. The true surprise came when Arngeir told us they powered their shouts almost exclusively through their breath and not their will, more surrendering themselves to the words instead of imposing them upon the world.
This naturally led to whole another debate once I introduced my own way of doing things and oddly enough the dragons' way of doing it as well. Krein had seen no issues with my shouting method once I displayed it and simply took it for granted that one's will was to be enforced if they were capable, the Greybeards, to absolutely no one's surprise, thoroughly disagreed.
Before Arngeir could attempt to preach at me once again I raised a hand to silence him and instead asked "Do you have a safe place to practice some more destructive shouts nearby?"
He shared a quick look with his brothers and considered for a moment before slowly nodding and getting up. Our destination was not far and was in fact just another cliff face with a bunch of large rocks placed about haphazardly "Here we are" He turned to me with a curious glint in his eyes "What did you wish to demonstrate?"
Instead of answering I pointed at a lather large specimen of rock "Why don't you use unrelenting force on that one? Just the first word will do."
He seemed confused as to what I was getting at but his curiosity quickly won out and under the watchful gaze of the rest of his brothers he breathed deeply and shouted "FUS!" His shout was almost like a gentle wind when compared to what I saw it do usually, still striking with immense force and pushing the large rock back but doing virtually no damage as I had previously guessed it would not.
"Thank you, Master Arngeir." I nod at the man and step up "It would seem that my hypothesis was correct."
"And what hypothesis is that, if I may ask?" He raises an eyebrow, poorly pretending to be patient.
Once more I acted instead of answering "Observe." I said and aimed for that same rock, my crown materialized on my head and I shouted "FUS!" My voice was far more clipped and forceful than that of Arngeir, and it showed. The rock did not so much as budge away as the wave of force struck it, but it did not need to do so as it was immediately shattered into small chunks, even the ground below what remained was cracked.
Almost immediately, I could feel the gazes of the others on my back, their looks of both concern and surprise distracted only by their brother speaking "Fascinating." Arngeir muttered, his eyes widening slightly "I understood intellectually when you described willing the voice upon the world as you did, but seeing it with my own eyes is another thing entirely."
"Quite." I nod and give Minthara a sideways glance before amusedly noting "Even if you did get the opportunity to see it done previously, I am guessing you were rather distracted at the time."
The old man quickly caught on and also directed a much less amused and much more reprimanding look toward the by now thoroughly embarrassed demigoddess. He shakes his head and turns back to me "I can see what you wanted to show here, your voice is far more potent and destructive than ours was at your level of mastery." There is no pride in his voice as he bluntly tells me he is better "But it is obvious that even a single word is more draining than a full string."
"Yup." I agree easily "Your methods are far less taxing on the body and soul than my own." I give the resident half dragon another sideways look "Not a terrible bother for her since that is how dragons shout."
"Speak for yourself." She interrupts with a slight huff "I would love to hear all about a way of not ruining my throat for days on end whenever I need to fight something strong."
"Don't you have resi-" I begin to ask only to be interrupted by a twitching eye.
"Resistance is not immunity, Reyvin." She points out slowly.
"Ah." I mutter and then nod, earning a satisfied 'hmph'. I ponder the situation briefly before turning to Arngeir once again "I have an idea, if you are willing to consider it."
His brows furrow and he shares a quick look with his brothers, they seem to have some kind of wordless conversation with only their eyes before coming to an agreement. Arngeir bows to them slightly and focuses back on me "We are willing to hear what you have to say." He declares.
"My proposal is rather simple, in fact." I grin "How about we try and create a method that combines both our ways of doing things?"
He frowns immediately "You do realize our only use of the voice is for the purposes of worshipping the gods, yes?"
"I do, and oddly enough I can respect that." I nod, earning some wry looks for my choice of words "But current times do not truly allow us the privilege of choice. Whether you like it or not, you will inevitably come under danger from the dragons, the rest of the province and likely some of the word already are." They seemed to agree with my assessment, even if it did chafe on their denied pride "If you still deny attempting it yourself, then at least help us develop a way of using it, it may not be your duty to aid us with research but at least help her get stronger." I say while pointing at Minthara.
Arngeir huffs "You say that as if you would not immediately have her teach you everything as well."
To the old man's surprise it wasn't I who answered but her, as she let out a huff of both derision and amusement "Oh please, the moment you told him how you did things was the moment you ensured you would all be surpassed one day." She gives me a side eye as if to say 'Not counting me, obviously.'
Unwilling to have a proverbial dickmeasuring context with a woman I simply shrugged, my expression unchanging, and judging by her barely hidden pout victory was well and truly mine.
By the time our attention turned back to the Greybeards, they seemed to have had another one of their silent conversations as I found Arngeir giving me an appraising look "Should you find a better and less destructive way of using the voice, we will find no fault with it." He says non-committedly.
I knew damn well that they all wanted me to stop using it in its entirety but after my entrance and a generous donation of threats to their lives an that of their teacher they knew not to press too hard.
"However." He continues a bit more curtly "While the Greybeards have come to... perhaps tolerate is not the right word" He mutters and briefly ponders before his eyes light up "Ah yes, suffer your presence." He seems quite disappointed by my serene expression but soldiers on "We are still unwilling to provide any further teachings to you, you are welcome to explore the temple but the Dragonborn will be the sole person to learn."
I stare at him for a full twenty seconds, and just as he is about to try 'placating' me, I shrug "Fine, just know that if I see anything I find to be dubious I will deal with it in my usual way." My ominous tone gives them no illusions about what my reaction would be "Besides" My entire demeanor shifts to a far more relaxed one "As fun as focusing on shouting would be, they aren't all that efficient for my battle style, so I would probably have to take a bunch of time to master them anyways. The research ought to be entertaining if anything."
Once again, the old man finds himself somewhat taken aback by my nonchalance "With how prideful you seem I would have thought you angry with our decision."
I grin "It is just dragonspeak, I have better things to focus on."
His eye twitches slightly "If you find... dragonspeak as you call it, to be so... mundane, why use shouts in the first place?"
"Because they cost no Magicka." I shrug without a care.
Only the fact that they were already somewhat used to my blatant irreverence saved me from a face full of unrelenting force.
We share a few more words, I wish Minthara luck and leave for their library. It does not take me long to find it and soon I find myself sitting in one of the corners of the blocky room by my lonesome, I make sure I am as comfortable as possible and then truly open my eyes for the first time since coming here.
The old goats thought themselves safe from my curiosity when I told them I would stay put, thinking that I shared their Nordic sense of honor, but they had forgotten the most simple solution to awkward social situations of all:
I lied.
And so it was that I found myself sitting in a dark corner of a mountain temple, using magic to spy on four old men surrounding a young woman and teaching her their ways.
Dear god that sounded disgusting out of context.
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The lesson went on well into the evening, even as the Greybeards wanted to stop it hours earlier Minthara was far too enthusiastic about finally finding a way to advance her use of the voice beyond simply shouting harder and smarter that she essentially guilted the lot of them into continuing well beyond their plans.
I finished writing down the final detail of the main breathing exercise they taught and closed my journal with a satisfying clap of the pages, needlessly dusting off my robes as I left the library to find some place to rest my eyes after all that.
As I entered what was earlier introduced to me as the guest quarters I noticed some movement in the darkness, my night vision easily allowing me to pierce the shadows just in time to see Marco skulking away from a certain room with some rather incriminating bruises about his neck.
"Finally managed to not shame me with your mere existence, eh?" I cheerfully ask in lieu of greeting, the presence of a rather satisfied Junia in the room removing all doubt as to what may or may not have happened.
As expected, he shrieks like a little girl and jumps away, immediately getting into a defensive stance with his hand reaching for a blade that was not there. It only took him a moment or three but he quickly realized what was going on and simply sighed "Done with the old farts, are you?" He asks, the implied 'Now it is my turn.' going unsaid.
"Not even close." I grin "But I do realize that we haven't spoken much since your return."
He raises his hands to stop me "You have more important things to worry about, don't worry about little old me."
I tilt my head "So you don't want me to teach you how to cast that sweet crimson lightning and remove your enemies from existence?"
He stills completely before immediately bowing "Please."
I snort "Fine." And start walking to the outside.
"Wait." I feel him narrowing his eyes "You want to do it now?" He asks with dawning horror.
I turn to him with a vicious smile "I only need an hour or so of sleep to be fresh so I do hope you won't mind keeping me company."
He almost regrets his earlier exercise as he accepts his fate and follows me outside with slumped shoulders.
Arngeir's face when he rushed outside two hours after midnight to ask us to 'for the sake of Kyne be quiet you children!' was definitely getting burned into my memory.
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We spent two more days taking it easy in High Hrothgar, well most of us did anyway. Minthara never stopped pestering the poor old monks and they barely had the time to take a break with how much she was making them teach her, even without going over the limitation they imposed with the yet unnamed quest.
Marco, Junia, and Lydia spent most of their time just relaxing or reading, more than happy to just chill after the usual excitement of their lives. Marco was, thankfully for him and mildly disappointingly to me, wise enough to remain rested when the second and third night came, so I only got to exhaust him half to death instead of fully.
Arngeir just stopped bothering with interrupting us and straight up cast a silence bubble around the monk's wing of the temple.
Delphine was an interesting case as well, she mostly spent her time researching the temple itself (and sneaking about when she thought no one was looking). Even if her ambition of changing the Blades into dragonslayers was curbed by Minthara's vehement refusal, she was still suspicious of the Greybeards (rightfully so one might say) so by the time it was time to leave, every single corner of the temple was sifted through by her, and that was without her getting caught or even suspected.
Too bad any clue about Paarthurnax was written exclusively in dovahzul.
Finally on the morning of the fourth day the Greybeards had had enough and insisted that Minthara find the horn of Jurgen WIndcaller, the founder of their order, if she wished to gain further instruction.
I got the feeling that even they got carried away as they attempted to merge the two styles of the voice into something more powerful and efficient, otherwise we would have probably been kicked out the first morning after we arrived.
As the rest were busy packing I found myself standing at the cliffside of the garden complex, my eyes wondering across most of the province and taking in everything with immense amounts of detail, as I did so my hand moved with by now practiced skill and ease as I slowly brought canvas to life and patiently immortalized the view, even if some mistakes were still made in the process.
Once I was finished and the paint slowly started drying in the rich air, I turned around to my observer for the past two hours and greeted him "Master Arngeir, how may I help you?"
Our pretense of respect toward each other had become something of a game in the past few days so his next words, and the tightly concealed sarcasm within did not surprise me "Mere curiosity, Lord Archmage." He smiles politely "My brothers and I have been observing you for some time."
"Flattering." I Interrupt in a flat voice.
His eye twitches but he goes on as if I never spoke "And we have discerned that you know more about the dragons than you've let on."
"And you wish me to tell you." I finish for him.
He nods, happy that he didn't have to ask "Indeed."
'I was rather vague when explaining to them earlier, wasn't I?' I ponder briefly before looking him straight in the eyes 'Well, he did ask for it, didn't he?'
For some reason, Arngeir paled.
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