Fredas, 3:35 PM, 31st of Morning Star

Marcurio came back several days ago, he says he was worried I wouldn't be able to fend for myself, but I think he actually missed me.  Either way it was an awkward greeting, he happened to arrive just as I had finished addressing a group of mages, the mages here do not know him as my lover, I had told them he was just a sword-for-hire.  So when came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders I'm sure the mage's were all confused.  I was a bit too, as I hadn't really expected him to come back.  I am so very glad he did though.  I'd been staying in my small room in the students hall up until that point, but with him back, we have officially moved into the Archmage's quarters.

Of course Marcurio wanted to hear the whole story about how I became Archmage.  It was not half so complicated as he thought however, seeing as the Psijic order practically babysat all of us through the ordeal.    The eye of Magnus, that monstrous powerful artifact that Tolfdir had brought back from Saarthal turned out to be even more powerful than we had expected.  It succeeded in catching the attention of the Thalmor, specifically the weasilly Anacano who had been hanging around the college, claiming to be an 'adviser'.  Anacano attempted to tap the power of the Eye, I'm still not sure why, perhaps he thought he could actually control it, perhaps he was just so weak minded the eye gained control of his mind.  Either way he put our college, and the entire city in grave danger, summoning spectral creatures from outside mundus when he attempted to tap the power of the Eye.

In order to gain access to him, so that I could defeat him I needed to get Magnus's staff, a powerful artifact held in Labrynthian, put their by Shalidor himself.  Trust me when I say that I got on a horse and I rode through the night as fast as the poor beast could go to get to Labrynthian.  When I got to the ruin I continued to run, making no attempt at stealth.  I doubt anyone has cleared a ruin that quickly in the history of Skyrim itself!

After acquiring the staff it was a simple matter of taking down the magical barrier and killing Anacano once and for all.  After that ordeal I was named Archmage, seeing as both the former Archmage, and his assistant had been slain in the scuffles.

I am helping a fellow mage with a Dwemer inquiry he is working on at the moment, I am fascinated by the Dwemer as well, so I hope that our experimentations work out!

Several days later

I'm at the college of Winterhold.  The mages here found something of great magical power under the ruins of Saarthal.  It's power is so great even I was able to feel it, all the way from the temple of the Blades.  Marcurio stayed back with the blades.  He has taken a liking to ancient dragon lore and decided to stay and study with them for a time while I discovered what the tremors of arcane power were emanating from in Winterhold.  I find that oddly enough I miss the pompous bastard.  He is an excellent lover.  The thought of him clouds my mind at the most inopportune times, it's difficult enough for me to navigate now that I am on my own again.  I am continually reminded of the fact that Marcurio believed it was possible for me to get my vision back.  Perhaps after this business with the eye of Magnus is taken care of I will pester him to explain to me just how he thinks it would be possible to go about retaining ones eyesight.

There is a Thalmor 'ambassador' here who will not stop lurking around.  He seems more than mildy interested in this artifact the college is holding here and I'm sure he'd stop at nothing to see its power become his own.  I keep trying to find an opportunity to knife him while no one is around, but he seems to have caught on to my hatred and is avoiding being alone for more than a split second.  Damn.

Loredas, 9:33 PM, 11th of Morning Star

Marcurio and I are spending the night in Orothiem, a small cave we just recently cleared of Bandits.  He remarked with a laugh that it seems strange the leader of the Thieves Guild, the Dragonborn is spending the night in a dirty cave surrounded by fresh corpses.  I suppose to an outsider perhaps it would seem absurd, but this is where I feel most at home.

I intend to return to Lake-view soon and perhaps spend a few days there, see how the little girl is, and make sure the house is in good repair.  Marcurio has offered to accompany me, it seems he does not wish us to part ways just yet, I am fine with that, although I'm not looking forward to introducing him to Lucia, she's a very curious child and is sure to ask too many questions.

Marcurio has been bothering me these last couple of days.  He is insisting that with all the arcane knowledge in Skyrim, there must be a way for me to recover my eyesight.  I don't know why he cares so much, I long ago resigned myself to the darkness.  But if only to keep him from nagging about it I will look into it.  I suppose he may have a point, I'm not sure I could handle the disappointment though if I actually did try finding  a way and it turned out to be a dead end.

My hair has started to grow back.  Strange, it's been nearly three years since the accident and never once before now had it shown any sign of regrowth.  It's coming in rough and choppy and Marcurio says it's a silver white.  It used to be auburn back when I had long locks.

The thieves guild is back on its feet, as it's guild-master I will have to check in every month or so with them, but I don't intend to spend any more time than I have to down in the ratway, it's still very putrid down there, despite all the effort they're putting into making it more hospitable.  With Mavin's permission I gave Mercer's house to Brynjolf, he's a good man, honorable too, which is rare among those thieves.

Fredas, 7:24 AM, 3rd of Morning Star

I spent the night at CandleHearth hall in Windhelm.  I plan on setting out for Riften in an hour or two to inform Brynjolf that the Skeleton key which Mercer Frey stole from Nocturnal's Sanctuary has been replaced.  The Pilgrim's Path is what they called the route I had to take to arrive safely at the inner sanctum.  It was no easy route, although meeting the ghost of Gallus at the entrance of the temple certainly helped.  He was able to give me a few hints, the most helpful was in pointing me in the direction of a certain long deceased adventurer who had a diary on him that Marcurio was able to read.  It detailed the four challenges of the Pilgrims Path, or at least had cryptic notes on them.  It was sufficient however.  The first challenge was simple: defeat the guardians of the temple.  We managed to take every one of the ghostly figures out silently and quickly.  The next was similarly simple, once we deciphered the notes: avoid the light.  Marcurio helped to guide me as we traversed from shadow to shadow, staying out of the rays of the burning light.  The third followed along the same principles: Plunge the temple into darkness.  We doused the lights and a doorway opened for us.  The final challenge was the only one either of us had any real trouble with.  The dead adventurer's notes had spoke of carrying on, but when we arrived at what appeared to be a very solid brick wall marking a dead end 'carrying on' seemed difficult to do.  We stood and perplexed over just how to carry on for nearly an hour before Marcurio had a stroke of dumb luck.  In frustration he hurled himself at the wall.  Amazingly it worked, the wall vanished and we were transported to the inner sanctum of Nocturnal.

The Daedric Prince herself appeared then and spoke to us.  Although she held a rather condescending tone, I am sure that she was pleased with our efforts in returning the skeleton key to her sepulcher.  She granted me any of the powers that Nightingales could posses.  I chose the Shadows, as the other two had limited use to me with my lack of vision.

I finally caved and slept with Marcurio last night.  It's been months since my last encounter of such nature, and it reminded me how much I miss it.  Perhaps it's not such a horrible mistake.  I was rather expecting him to be flaunting his victory today, but he hasn't even mentioned it, which is to my liking.  He also is not acting any different towards me, something else I was afraid of.  I hate to think that he views me as just another woman to mark on his apparently ever growing tally.  According to him he tries to woo a different woman every time we stop in a major city, I find that rather disgusting, but to each his own.

Morndas, 2:12 AM, 30th of Evening Star

The guild has been good to me, better, in fact than I could have ever expected.  My bounty is paid off and I am once again welcome in all the towns throughout the Rift.  After running several mindless jobs for the guild it came to our attention that there was definiteley someone trying to take us out.  I investigated of course, and, after traveling to Solitude and forcing the truth out of a certain Argonian there, discovered that it was a Dunmer by the name of Karliah who was so intent on making our guild suffer.  Mercer Frey, the guild-master told me that this Karliah was a murderer who had killed Gallus, the previous leader of the Thieves Guild.  It turned out however that he was only covering for his own past.  After recovering and decoding Gallus's journal it was plain to all of us that Mercer was the one who had really killed Gallus.  Unfortunately Mercer has since disappeared and we are at a loss to locate him.  Brynjolf suggested that he may be intending to try to steal the eyes of the Falmer since he made off with many maps and notes relating to them.  Stealing the eyes had apparently been Gallus's last big heist he had planned before Frey murdered him.  If that is so then we must move quickly, those eyes are worth a fortune, and it is doubtful anyone will ever hear from Mercer Frey again if he succeeds in recovering them.

Karliah had Brynjolf and I inducted as Nightingales.  Marcurio 'just happened' to disappear as we were speaking to her about the induction.  I swear that man is more afraid of commitment than wealthy seadog...he has however tried many times to make a move on me as we traveled together.  I've shut him down hard every time.  Perhaps I'm being stubborn about it, but I still miss Erandur and am not ready to enter into a meaningless relationship with a crazy destruction mage no matter how suave and intelligent he may be.

While travelling back from Markarth we decided to swing up to Saarthal since I had finally gotten the mages permission to investigate the ruins in my search for the last piece of the Gauldur amulet.  We found it, deep in the ruins along with a very curious orb.  Tolfdir, the mage who had accompanied us into the ruins asked that we tell the Arch-mage of our discovery.  I did, but other than that I have not done anything else in regards to it, matters with the theives guild are too pressing at the moment.  I did however decide to take time to reforge the Gauldur amulet.  It is indeed a powerful item.  I intend to keep it secret and safe until I have a time to study it further.

Sundas, 11:00 AM, 7th of Evening Star

Well.  I am sober now.  Three days later.  Things have taken a change, perhaps for the worse, I'm not so sure yet however.  I do not remember doing any of the things I've been told I did, but apparently I caused quite a scene.  As in a have a bounty on my head that is over ten thousand gold.  I don't remember myself  these details, but according to the Imperial who pulled me out of the chaos I approached a guard and loudly began yelling at him, he said I shouted something and sent the guard flying across the room.  Needless to say, no one appreciated that, and a swarm of guards immediately swooped down to try and arrest me.  Well according to this Imperial I fought off half a legion of armed guards while not even able to stand up straight and did not show any signs of leaving the scene.  He must have grabbed me at some point in the confusion and dragged me down here to the Ratway.

I don't know if I owe him my life, or if he's full of dragon droppings.  Either way I was not pleased when I woke up with my wrists bound, my mouth gagged, laying on a dirty pile of hay.  He's released me now, sense I really have no desire to cause any more damage.  He says I shouldn't show my face until I find a way to clear my name.  The most convenient way of course would be by contacting the thieves guild, although they may be weaker now than they were in years gone by, they still hold enough power here in Riften that they could eradicate my bounty.  How I hate the thought of having to run errands for those lowlifes though!  I hate Maven Black Briar even more, the thought of being her thrall makes me sick to me stomach.

Turdas, 11:07 PM, 4th of Evening Star

Arrived in Riften this morning, I took a bit of a detour through an old draugr filled crypt and came out with the last word to my shout 'Kyne's Peace'  It calms animals within a radius well over a hundred feet now.  I'm not sure when I'll have need of it, but it's nice to have mastered another shout.

I still miss Erandur.  I'm on my second bottle of Black Briar right now, and I know I should slow down, but why stop?  I'm the Dragonborn, I should be able to at least drink myself into a stupor if I so wish.  And besides the Argonian here is giving me drinks on the house since I dropped off those amethysts he wanted so badly finally. Hope they have a happy life.  Or whatever.

A female Argonian who had a blasted long name gave me this funny lexicon, reminds me of another lexicon I had the other day, can't remember which one though.

There's a guard looking at me funny.  It's making me angry.

I feel sick.