"Nem... wake up." Trelana said softly, prodding him in the side with her finger.

He rolled over, pulling the blankets over his head. "Come back later... too tired." Nem mumbled, now almost face-down on the pillow.

"You've been asleep for almost ten hours, you should be ready to wake up by now. Besides, this is important." She said seriously.

"Two more hours for an even dozen... then I'll worry about things." Nem muttered from beneath the covers. Obviously the seriousness didn't matter to him at the moment.

"Nem, please! People have gone missing!" She said, her tone slipping from serious to panicked.

There was a moment of silence, and Nem slowly sat up. "Gone missing... like what happened in Balmora a while back? The last thing Vvardenfell, or any part of Morrowind needs, is another incident like that." He said, shaking his head. "Glad I stayed away from Balmora while that was going on."

"No, it's not like that. It's just a tomb. Everyone that went there has gone missing." She explained.

He stared at her briefly, then began rubbing his right eye. "You're drifting to the Horrors of Balmora again. I recall a similar situation with a certain cave. Are you sure-"

"It's not the same!" Trelana insisted, slamming her fists on the bed. "There was a lot more going on back then. This is just people vanishing, no dead bodies have turned up."

"Give it time, I'm sure they will." He replied with a yawn.

"Then we have to find out what is going on NOW!" She yelled, startling him so much he fell off the bed.

Nem groaned, casting a healing spell on his head where it had met the floor. "Why are you so worried about it? Did someone you know go missing?"

"Someone we both know..."

He looked up at her, finally starting to get concerned. "Who?"

"Edwinna."

Nem stared at her with a blank expression. "Edwinna... has gone missing?"

Trelana nodded.

"And I care, why?" He asked, getting back into bed. "With the way she treats me, I think the guild will be an improvement with her gone."

"But... if she's not found... you'll never know why she had such a grudge against you!"

He shrugged. "I can live with that."

"The Mages' Guild will suffer a great loss with her gone! All her studies of the Dwemer..."

"Someone else can pick up where she left off."

"We... we could end up having someone like Trebonius replace her!"

Nem choked on this thought, bolting upright in bed. "Okay, you've convinced me. I'll help you investigate." He said as he got up, taking his robe that was laying atop the dresser near the bed. "Right after breakfast. You can tell me what's going on while I eat."

--

Nem looked up at the sky as they walked down the road, checking for cliff racers. "I still find it hard to believe."

"That Edwinna's whole team went missing?" Trelana wondered.

"Well, not that so much. After all the crap I've been through here, something like that isn't too surprising." He said, crossing his arms. "I'm just shocked Edwinna actually left the guild for a job. I thought she never left the place."

"She's left a few times... don't you remember?"

"I recall once, back when you and Schimmel first met, she left with everyone else to fight off some corpus beasts. That's all."

"You really don't pay attention, do you?" Trelana asked, shaking her head.

"When it comes to Edwinna, as long as she's not giving me hell, I couldn't care less about where she is."

A screech came from overhead, and they both instinctively threw fireball spells into the air. The screeching was promptly cut off by two explosions and a heavy thump behind them as the cliff racer hit the ground.

"So where is this tomb, anyway?" Nem inquired.

"Not far. We just turn left at the curve up ahead and climb over a couple of hills."

"Left? The road goes right..."

"Yes, there's a little... climbing involved to get there." Trelana said. "Steep ledges and such."

Nem sighed. "How do people manage to find these places?"

--

Three hills, five falls and a dozen crispy cliff racers later, they arrived at the tomb where Edwinna's team had vanished. Nem pushed open the door, the dank smell of dust and decay seeping out. It certainly didn't smell like an unusual tomb. Trelana followed him inside closely, peering over his shoulder nervously.

"There's nothing moving." Nem stated, shaking his head and wondering why he didn't find someone else to come with them since Trelana wouldn't be much help if they ran into any undead.

They ventured deeper into the tomb, not finding a trace of of life... or death... or anything. The place was eerily still, even for a tomb. Nem pushed open the fourth door they had come to, taking a sudden step back and bumping into Trelana at the sound of a clang.

There was a grind of metal echoing down the hall before them, along with a consistent clanging like the first one they had heard. Nem and Trelana glanced at each other for a moment, before starting down the hallway. Shortly before the door at the other end, there was a large hole in the wall overlooking a large room that appeared to be part of a previously undiscovered Dwemer Ruin.

"I think it's pretty obvious why Edwinna didn't come back." Nem sighed. "She didn't vanish, she climbed into these ruins to investigate and just hasn't come out. You know how she can be."

"But... but the first reports we got of this place didn't say anything about a Dwemer Ruin. It was about a strange skull, that's what Edwinna came to see." Trelana reminded him.

"I haven't seen any skulls."

"It's probably deeper in... come on." She pushed him forward, past the entrance to the ruins. "If we don't find it in the tomb, we can look in the ruin."

:"Fine." Nem quickened his pace, shoving open the door to make the search go faster. After seeing the ruin, he was convinced they wouldn't find anything in the tomb. The next room split into two paths, one straight ahead and another to the right. "I'll take that way, you look in the other." Nem said, walking over to the door across from them. "If you do run into a bonewalker or something, just yell. The place seems pretty empty to me though."

Trelana opened her mouth to object, but Nem had already gone through the door and left her behind. She took a deep breath, gripping her staff tightly in both hands and moving toward the other door.

--

Nem passed by a few urns lining the halls, still finding nothing out of the ordinary. He opened the door at the end of the urn-filled room... to find a couple ash pits with offerings placed along them. He rolled his eyes, thinking this was the most boring tomb he had ever explored, when Trelana screaming suddenly reached his ears.

He turned and bolted back down the hall, already knowing she had to be hurt. He had adventured with Trelana, and heard her scream often enough at this point, that he could tell one from another. This one wasn't fear or anger... it was agony.

He bashed open the door Trelana had taken, his eyes coming to rest on an empty room. At least, that's what he thought at first. He hadn't been looking for a skull, but that's what he found. It was floating above an ash pit, with a faint white glow surrounding it.

Nem stepped into the room, removing his dagger from the small sheath strapped to his left forearm and pointing it at the skull, just in case it was some new kind of undead summoning. He glanced around the room, but didn't see a trace of Trelana anywhere.

When it became obvious the skull wasn't moving, he returned his dagger to its hiding place, going to inspect the odd piece of skeleton. He waved his hand over, under and around it, but couldn't find anything holding it in place. It had to be a levitation spell of some kind. He crouched down, peering into one of the eye sockets. It almost looked like something was stuck inside it, near the back. He hesitated for a moment, then began to reach for it. His finger brushed the side of the empty socket and it felt like it latched onto his hand.

A crushing feeling suddenly shot through his body and he screamed in pain. He dropped to his knees, still screaming. It felt as if he was being torn apart from the inside out. With a sudden jerk, everything went black, and he was left with the feeling that he was plummeting through darkness.