A/n: this is the last in the stock! Will return on next friday!
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"Talents are rare and important. Talents are everything in the world. A wise man once said; 'If you are good at something, never do it for free.' What I see here is that you are a man with a rare talent for finding things that doing treasure hunts, if you put that talent to good use, I will help you have the Museum you always dreamt of. I am not talking about the measly Museum of Dawnstar that you are working on, what I am giving you is a big building in Neo Saarthal build with security and a personal house for your use. You will also gain access to some of my information network and will start to collect the things I point you at, some of them may be interesting and some may be boring but I won't hide their worth from you and will let you display them in the museum… of course, I may be in need for some of those artifacts and the museum will be on my land and under my protection but you will be the face of the project." This was the offer.
"..."
Silus held his breath in from anticipation. He was thinking about the matter wildly.
"Look, I am a businessman and what matters to me is the gold that I will make at the end of the day. The only difference between me and others is that I am admitting it. Yes, my aim is making money but that's not all. The best way to make money is not to focus on the money but to put everything we have in our passion, I had a passion for saving Winterhold and now I am its lord, you have a passion for making a legacy of your own and you will have it along with many riches." This was the price on the offer.
"..." Silus nodded silently and kept thinking.
"But what matters, in the end, is the meaning of what we do. The legacy of Jon Dare is the rise of Winterhold and that's what I am known for. You too want that, right? You always wanted the legacy of the Vesuius family." I said and Silus nodded. "But you are mistaken, what you really want is the legacy of Silus Vesuius, the man with who manages one of the most glorious museums in the land." This was the temptation of the offer.
"Y- You are right."
Silus was heads over heels for my offer.
"Do you recognize the name 'Torasa Aram'?" I asked.
"Are you kidding me? Any collector knows the name of Torasa Aram, the Dark Elf noble lady who was the curator of the Museum of Artifacts in Mournhold who displayed all the artifacts of the Hero of Morrowind, the Nerevarine. She is a part of the legend of a great hero." Silus Vesuius talked with frenzied eyes.
"I am glad you are knowledgeable. Even though my last name is Dare, I am not very sure when I offer you this but what if we made something similar? Torasa Aram has disappeared in the cataclysm following the Oblivion Crisis and the Red Year and her artifacts were gone. I always dreamt of doing something similar but I never had the talent for going on long treasure hunts, so if you are interested in the job, here is my offer." I put a contract in front of Silus.
He took it and started reading it to every fine detail.
Truth be told, I saw value in him and didn't want to swindle him at all. In the Daedric Quest of Mehrunes Dagon when the player goes with Silus to the Shrine of Dagon, the player will be told by Dagon that if they want to acquire the razor, they must kill Silus.
In the game, Silus has acquired some rare items on his own like the [Mythic Dawn Commentaries] written by Mankar Camoran who is the mastermind of the Oblivion Crisis and he also has a ruined page of the [Mysterium Xarxes] which is a book of great and evil power.
If that collector genius worked for me, I will be able to things I was too lazy to do. For example…
"We will look into the matter regarding [Mehrunes' Razor] later. Right now, this will be the project you should focus on." I handed Silus three beautiful small Golden boxes and some notes.
He took looked at the boxes and opened them one by one.
"These are… the Stones of Barenziah!"
"Bingo!"
"Amazing! Three of them? I heard about them but it was a hard task to collect them all. Do you really wish to collect all of them?"
"Yes, I have three and there are 21 scattered around Skyrim. Gather them for me and you will make a ruckus between the collectors. There will be more artifacts in the future but collecting all the Stones of Barenziah is said to give a lot of luck for those who have the whole set. If we are to collect as many artifacts as Torasa Aram, we need at least that luck. What do you think?"
Silus looked between me and the three stones and then gazed at the contract I gave him. Right away, he pulled the quill and signed the papers.
"Good. I promise that you will never regret this. You will manage the Museum and the auction house to sell the things that we deem not really worthy of the museum. I will also donate some of the artifacts I don't need to the museum."
"This will be great! When should I start?"
"Right freaking now, chop chop, you have 21 stones to collect. This will take a lot of time."
"Yes, yes! Wha- What about the Razor?"
"Leave it to me. Now that we have the four pieces, I will go to the Shrine of Dagon myself."
"I wish you luck… Boss." Silus stood up and bowed slightly then looked around.
"My secretary Siv will tell you what to do. Good luck to you too."
He nodded and went out.
I took his contract and stored it in my safe.
"Boss, I was going through your schedule for some reason…"
"It is your JOB to go through my schedule."
"Come on! Why so salty, I thought you were in a good mood."
Siv has a way to irritate me better than anyone else. For some reason, she is very lazy but she is still the best in her job.
"Anyway, I found that this Dark Elf guy from the BioResearch facility whose name is Servos…"
"Yeah, the one who discovered the Spider Scrolls that Jull likes."
"Yep, that him. He said he found something about some sort of energy this morning… I don't know what's its name?"
"What's its name?"
"Anukic or something."
"Anuic! Did he say he found a source?"
"Come on, Boss. I don't even understand these complicated magic terms mean, why ask me?"
"What, did, he, say?" I pressed on each word while glaring at her.
"He said he came to a new discovery."
I could stand her lax attitude and Teleported outside of my office right away. I moved with all of my speed and went to the laboratory house at the edge of town.
I barged in and found Servos sitting around with Rundi and some other researchers who used to be part of the Creation Club.
"Servos, fill me in. What did you discover?"
"Whoa! Boss, you scared me… ehem! The discovery? Yes, please follow me."
Servos acted right away and walked in front of me to his office.
"Here you go, Boss. We found a new source for the Anuic Energy you want so much." He handed me some research papers.
I was really waiting for this for a long time.
Research about the Anuic and Padomic energies was always on my priority but it was never easy. The two energies are always balanced everywhere but what I needed was Vital Sources of both Energies. Something either I or the girls can absorb to meditate with.
After reading the first few pages, I understood what Servos discovered.
"Nirnroot is a source of Anuic Energy."