The Final Lesson Content . The Final Lesson By Aegrothius Goth “ It is time for you to leave your apprenticeship here , ” said the Great Sage to his students , Taksim and Vonguldak . “ So soon ? ” cried Vonguldak , for it had been but a few years since the training began . “ Are we such poor pupils ? ” “ We have learned much from you , master , but you have no more to teach us ? ” Taksim asked . “ You have told us so many tales of great enchanters of the past . Can ' t we continue to learn until we have reached some level of their power ? ” “ I have one last story for you , ” smiled the Great Sage . Many thousands of years ago , long before the Cyrodiilic Dynasty of Reman and even longer before the Septim Dynasty ruled Tamriel , and before there was a Mages Guild , and when the land called Morrowind was known as Resdayn , and the land of Elsweyr was called Anequina and Pellitine , and the only law of the land was the cruel ways of the Alessian Doctrines of Marukh , there lived a hermetic enchanter named Dalak who had two apprentices , Uthrac and Loreth . Uthrac and Loreth were remarkable students , both equally assiduous in their learning , the pride of their Master . Both excelled at the arts of the cauldron , mirror castings , the infusion of spiritas into mundus , and the weaving of air and fire . Dalak was very fond of his boys , and they of him . On a springtide morn , Dalak received a message from another enchanter named Peothil , who lived deep in the forests of the Colovian heartland . You must remember that in the dark days of the First Era , mages were solitary practitioners with the only organized consortium being the Psijics of Artaeum . Away from that island , mages seldom saw one another and even more rarely corresponded . Thus , when Dalak received Peothil ' s letter , he gave it his great attention . Peothil was greatly aged , and he had found the peace of his isolation threatened by the Alessian Reform . He feared for his life , knowing that the fanatical priests and their warriors were close at hand . Dalak brought his students to him . “ It will be an arduous and perilous journey to the Colovian Estates , one that I would fear partaking even in my youth , ” Dalak said . “ My heart trembles to send you two forth to Peothil ' s cave , but I know that he is a great and benevolent enchanter , and his light must continue to burn in the heart of the continent if we are to survive these dark nights . ” Uthrac and Loreth pled with their teacher not to order them to go to Peothil . It was not the priests and warriors of the Alessian Reform they feared , but they knew their Master was aged and infirm , and could not protect himself if the Reform moved further westward . Finally , he relented and allowed that one would stay with him , and the other would journey forth to the Colovian Estates . He would let them decide which of them would go . The lads debated and discussed , fought and compromised , and at last elected to let fate make the choice . They threw lots , and Loreth came up short . He left early the next morning , miserable and filled with fear . For a month and a day , he tramped through the forests into the midst of the Colovian Estates . Through some planning , some skill , and much assistance for sympathetic peasants , he managed to avoid the ever - tightening circle of the Alessian Reform by crossing through unclaimed mountain passes and hidden bogs . When at last he found the dark caverns where Dalak had told him to search for Peothil , it was still many hours before he could find the enchanter ' s lair . No one appeared to be there . Loreth searched through the laboratory of ancient tomes , cauldrons and crystalline flutes , herbs kept alive by the glow of mystic circles , strange liquids and gasses ( sic ) caught in transparent membranes . At last , he found Peothil , or so he presumed . The desiccated shell on the floor of the study , clutching tools of enchantment , scarcely seemed human . Loreth decided that he could do nothing further for the mage , and began at once the journey back to his true master Dalak and his friend Uthrac . The armies of the Reform had moved quickly since he passed . After more than one close near encounter , the young enchanter realized that he was trapped on all sides . The only retreat that was possible was back in the caves of Peothil . The first thing to be done , Loreth saw , was to find a means to keep the army from finding the laboratory . That , he found , was what Peothil himself had been trying to do , but by a simple error even an apprentice enchanter could recognize , he had only succeeded in destroying himself . Loreth was able to take what he had learned from Dalak and apply it to Peothil ' s enchantments , quite successfully . The laboratory was never found or even detected by the Reform . Much time passed . In the 480th year of the First Era , the great Aiden Direnni won many battles against the Alessian horde , and many passages and routes that had once been closed were now open . Loreth , now no longer young , was able to return to Dalak . When at last he found his way to his Master ' s old hovel , he saw candles of mourning lit in all the trees surrounding . Even before he knocked on the door and met his old fellow student Uthrac , Loreth knew that Dalak had died . “ It was only a few months ago , ” said Uthrac , after embracing his friend . “ He talked of you every day of every year you were away . Somehow he knew that you had not preceded him to the world beyond . He told me that you would come back . ” The gray - haired men sat before the fire and reminisced of the old days . The sad truth was that they both discovered how different they had become . Uthrac spoke of carrying on the Master ' s work , while Loreth described his new discoveries . They left one another that day , each shaking his head , destined to never see one another again . In the years ahead , before they left the mortal world to join their great teacher Dalak , they both achieved their desires . Uthrac went on to become respected if minor enchanter in the service of Clan Direnni . Loreth took the skills he had learned on his own , and used them to fashion the Balac - thurm , the Staff of Chaos . My boys , the lesson is you have to learn from a teacher to avoid those small but essential errors that claimed the life of such self - taught enchanters as Peothil . And yet , the only way to become truly great is to try all the possibilities on your own .