The three of us stood on the bridge that linked the Market District to the squat fortress that formed the Imperial Prison. There were guards at each end of the bridge, manning the gates that led into the respective districts, but they were out of earshot.
The first thing I had done was told Milie Lafontaine what myself and Ancius had found at the Wayshrine in the West Weald.
"And you say you cast a fireball, almost subconsciously, having never managed to do so in your life before?" Milie asked.
"That's right" I replied.
Milie paused for a few seconds. "Can you take me there? I have to see this!"
"Not safe" Ancius piped up. "Something, someone, was guarding that shrine last night. Even if it was the man who tried to kill Erris, there might be someone else there tonight"
"But we can do the next best thing," I said. "I want to try something. I want to see if all the Wayshrines are like that underneath"
"Fancy a walk, then?" Ancius asked. "'Cos we need to find a Wayshrine off the beaten track if you want to do that. Any old fucker could wander down one of the main roads and come across us"
"Where do you suggest, then?" Milie asked, clearly already slightly shocked by Ancius' yobbish personality.
"There's a shrine to Tiber Septim on the banks of the Niben, just south of Lake Rumare" Ancius replied. "Might as well be in the arse end of nowhere – there's no other reason to go round there"
We hung around in the Market District before it started to get dark – we figured the more members of the public we were surrounded by, the safer we'd be. When it got to about 7:45, just before all the shops started to shut, we approached a smithy who sold a fairly useless selection of weapons from a little stand in one of the Market District's two squares. Ancius and I scraped together seventy drakes to buy an iron warhammer – we paid sixty-nine more than it was worth. I carried the weapon, used to lugging heavy tools around all day, and I had to put my fur gloves back on to stop the piece of shit's wooden handle from splintering my hand to shreds. I at least hoped that walking around carrying twenty pounds of iron would deter any would-be attackers.
By the time eight o'clock came, the Market District was starting to empty. Ancius announced he was going to get us something 'for the journey' and stepped back into the Merchants' Inn, emerging a minute later with two bottles of wine and what looked to be another wine bottle filled with ale.
"Beer for me, fruit-based drink for the ladies" Ancius smirked, distributing the booze. "Come on, let's go and find this shrine"
The Gods weren't smiling on us that night. Maybe they knew what we were about to do. The thickest, pea-soupiest of fogs had settled, and a soft, fine drizzle fell relentlessly. How we had any idea how we would get to the Wayshrine I was not sure, but Ancius hit upon the idea of following the shore of the Niben, something we could identify by sound, and slightly by sight despite the horrendous visibility.
After a few hours of struggling we could go no further and had to stop to rest. Ancius swigged his ale as I began playing my fiddle, which I had brought with me – no musician likes to be separated from his instrument. I started playing a gentle, haunting reel which a Nord piper in Bruma had once taught me – I could think of nothing better to suit the atmosphere, the strains of my violin echoing ghost-like around the shallow Niben valley.
"Come on, Erris" Ancius said eventually. "Stop playing mood music and get up. We're nearly there"
We continued stumbling blindly along the uneven riverbank which somehow managed simultaneously to be rocky and muddy. Even Milie, who seemed to be quite good-natured, swore like a docker the third time she slipped and her leg plunged into the stagnating shore-waters.
Soon, though, it felt like a weight was lifted from our shoulders. We saw the lights of Bravil piercing through the fog, which also meant we were nearly at the Wayshrine, according to Ancius.
"This is your hidden shrine?" Milie asked incredulously as we reached the Wayshrine. Ancius, showing no respect for the Gods whatsoever, sat down on it and began to dig into the wine that I hadn't drunk.
"Yeah, what's wrong with it? We're fuckin' miles away from the road"
"For those of us not completely ignorant of Tamriel's quite recent past," I began, "This shrine is steeped in religious lore. This is the shrine where the hero believed to be the re-incarnation of Pelinal Whitestrake met Sir Roderic, the knight who would fail in his task but eventually lead the hero to the Sword of the Crusader, defeating the undead heretic Lord Vlindrel in the process"
"And now we're about to smash it up with a hammer" Milie said, a vague hint of disbelief in her voice.
The Nine serve and protect us. That is what is said. I suppose there is too much unexplained in our world that there cannot be some divine presence, whether the nature of that is Anuic or Padomaic. Certainly, we have seen the Daedra do terrible things in our time – Mehrunes Dagon and his plot to destroy Tamriel, which, even though it failed, ended the Septim dynasty. Sheogorath and his constant turning of innocent people to madness, not to mention his attempted destruction of Vivec City. And yet, Azura cursed the Dunmer to their bleak existence for war crimes. But, were they the good guys? Would Indoril Nerevar have simply become a despot, much like Voryn Dagoth?
What we do know, though, is that the Daedra have no qualms with materialising in such extravagant nature in our world. Bar the odd reported sighting of human avatars portraying the Divines, they are rarely seen. Are they even physical beings, or just metaphysical, creations of belief and nothing more?
Yet we have seen Akatosh materialising, or perhaps the apotheosis of Martin Septim, to vanquish Mehrunes Dagon. We have seen Anuic-Padomaic wars between Umaril the Unfeathered and the Nine, where the Gods have once again had to manipulate mortals rather than acting themselves. The nature of the Nine Divines is something I have always been unsure of, yet my agnosticism was rocked that night, when the weather conditions were surely a deterrent put in place by the Divines.
"It's alright, no-one will see us" Ancius said. "We can't even bloody see ourselves"
Ancius raised the warhammer above his head, two-handed.
"This is sacrilege, whichever way you look at it," I said to myself.
"This is my life's work about to be uncovered," Milie added. "I've waited for years to see what lies under this shrine"
We all held our breath as Ancius smashed the hammer into the circular stone at the centre of the wayshrine.
The very earth itself seemed to shake as the hammer made contact, obliterating the stone plate. The instant it happened, there was a loud roar as impossibly bright light burst forth from the shrine, the sheer force of it knocking over nearly all the pillars that stood around the Wayshrine. I grabbed Milie by the arm and dragged her to one side as a pillar fell close to us – it would easily have crushed us both.
Ancius dropped the hammer and looked at his hands in amazement. Tiny forks of lightning zapped between his fingers before, almost uncontrollably, he cast a colossal bolt of lightning into the remainder of the Wayshrine, kicking chunks of masonry into the air with the blast.
The three of us backed off. The light showed no sign of receding as it lanced up into the heavens, shining up for many miles before it began to fade.
"Magicka…" Milie said reverently.
"Er…" Ancius stuttered, pointing towards Bravil, still slightly shaken by what had just happened to him. We could see a couple of dots of orange light as our vision returned to us, having been dazzled by the light shining from the Wayshrine.
"Guards" I said. "I suspect we may have just broken the law…"
"Down to the shore" Ancius suggested. "Into the shallows. They'll never track our footprints through it"
He was right – it wasn't pleasant sloshing through the muddy shoreline waters but of course we left no footprints. By midnight, we were back in the Imperial City, our heads all still spinning.
Out of a combination of security and chivalry, Ancius and myself walked Milie back to her residence at the Arcane University. As we walked through the City, there was only one thing our conversation could turn to.
"So what was that? What just happened?" Ancius asked.
"As far as I can tell we uncovered something truly incredible – magicka in its pure form," Milie answered. "And since you say that you and Erris witnessed the same event at the shrine in the West Weald, I think it's something the Wayshrines have in common… I'm going to speak to one of the scholars tomorrow about this and see if we can arrange a full expedition"
Ancius nodded. "Alright. Just keep your head down – literally. It seems like there's a few mad fundamentalists who don't take too kindly to people smashing the shit out of their Wayshrines"
"But we didn't touch the first one…" I said to myself.