9
Fynix stood with his back to the wall and carefully peered around the corner. The goblin chieftain was coming down the hall with a war band of goblins in tow. They scanned the corridors carefully, knowing they had seen him come down this way. Fynix pointed two fingers at a loose rock and gripped it in a telekinetic hold. He waited until the chieftain was right near the rock when he pulled it right under where he was stepping. The goblin stepped on the rock and tripped, tumbling several goblins behind him. They all stood up and started to squabble about whose fault it was, giving Fynix a chance to slip further down the corridor. The goblins noticed him and stopped fighting to pursue. Fynix turned in the hall to face them and pointed his staff at them, unleashing its tremendous lightning power. The bolt struck the goblin chieftain squarely in the chest, throwing him backward convulsing. The goblins behind all slammed into the body as it fell and tripped over one another. Fynix smiled and turned to continue running. While the goblins were all picking themselves up off the floor and climbing over each other, Fynix was making good time down the hall. He rounded a corner and bounded down the narrow hallway. He heard the cries and croaks of goblins behind him and turned his head to see them gaining on him again. He reached back and unleashed a powerful frost spell, this time at the floor. The stone floor behind him glazed over with a lair of ice. The goblins reached the ice patch and started slipping as they tried to run over it, again tripping over each other and falling.
Fynix kept running. It wasn't much further. He rounded another corner and ran down a short stretch of hallway before coming to a small circular room with a high ceiling and a chest-height pedestal in the middle. He slid to a stop and looked at what was on the pedestal. It was a statue, a tall and thin piece of stonework of Ayleid craftsmanship. All Fynix needed was the white crystal in the center of the statue, but with goblins in hot pursuit, he didn't have time to carefully remove it. He picked up the statue and set it in a sack that he secured to his back to free up his hands. As he secured the statue to his back, he noticed a small device where the statue was resting that had tripped. His attention turned from the device to the sounds of more goblins coming down the hall behind him. As the first goblins rounded the corner, a pendulum blade in the wall swung and split their heads in half crosswise. Fynix's eyes bugged as he looked down each of the four corridors, seeing blades swinging widthwise in each hallway. He smacked the heel of his palm on his forehead for not recognizing the telltale grooves in the walls. To top it all off, there was a spiked grate in the high ceiling that was rattling, getting ready to fall. Goblins on one side, pendulum blades in every escape route, and now spikes above him.
Fynix shook his head, "Maybe I should've picked another Ayleid ruin." He noticed that there was a circle in the middle of the spike grate, for the pedestal to slide through. It was his only option, so he took it. Fynix climbed onto the pedestal and stood as straight as he could as the grate fell. He felt the edges of the grate brush his arms as it fell around him and hit the floor with a loud clang.
Fynix looked around, "It worked?"
The grate started to rise on the chains that held it and Fynix grabbed one. He cast a feather spell on himself and held on as it pulled him up to the roof. The holes in the ceiling the chains were hanging through were large enough to accommodate a person, and Fynix figured where it led was better than here. He made himself as thin as possible as he rose through the hole. He carefully slipped on his Ring of Nighteye as the passage grew darker. Eventually, after a good twenty feet, he came out of the thin circular passage into the small chamber where the trap's mechanisms were housed. He hopped off the chain and started down the only hallway he could find. He followed the turning hallway for several minutes before it came to a stop at a stone wall with a small blue crystal button on the wall next to it. Pushing the button opened the wall in front of him and exposed a large room that Fynix hadn't seen on the way in. Clearly, he was in another part of the ruins and had to find a way out.
He walked into the center of the room and looked both ways. As he was trying to decide which way to go, he felt the floor beneath him shift. Fynix looked down and his eyes bugged as he saw the telltale holes. The floor quickly dropped out from under him. He turned in midair and grasped the stone ledge behind him. He slid down until he was holding on with just his hands. His feather spell had worn off and ebony armor wasn't exactly light. One of Fynix's hands slipped, leaving him one holding on. Fynix strained as he held on, his fingers slowly sliding off the edge. As he slipped off the rim of the ledge, Fynix pulled his dagger and jammed the blade into the crevice between two large floor stones solidly enough to hold his weight. Fynix looked down and saw the floor coming back up. It picked him up as he dislodged his dagger and brought him up to floor level. He immediately stepped off onto solid ground and dropped down to sit against a pillar and catch his breath. He threw his hood off and pushed the sweat from his forehead back into his hair. Fynix looked at his dagger. The sides had furrows scratched in them and the blade was bent and cracked now. He tossed the useless weapon aside and leaned his head back.
"Jauffre's right. I am getting careless." He stood up and scanned the room more thoroughly this time, looking for all the signs of old but still deadly Ayleid traps. He noticed the hollow section of roof that housed more spikes in the ceiling, undoubtedly with a rising platform beneath them. Besides the two he knew of, the rest of the room seemed to be clear. He took a deep breath and reached around to his back to remove the statue, but stopped when he heard more goblin sounds coming from the hallway to his right.
Fynix's shoulders sunk, "Oh, don't I get a break?" He started running down the hall on the opposite side of the room and followed the winding passage. As he ran, the sounds of goblins were progressively and quickly getting closer. He came to another large room, one that he recognized, and turned around to face the goblin threat. As the first ranks came into view, Fynix summoned his most powerful fire spell. He reached his hand toward the goblins and unleashed a fireball the size of his chest. The ball struck the first goblin in the line and expanded to consume the next five, leaving their burning corpses in the hallway. Undeterred by the deaths of their brethren, the following ranks trampled the charred remains and stampeded forward. Fynix aimed his staff and fired a lightning bolt that struck three more, dropping them on the floor and causing their corpses to twitch. In spite of his efforts, the goblins were getting closer. Fynix punched the floor beneath him, releasing a wave of frost that froze the feet of several goblins to the floor. He drew his ebony sword and ended their miserable existences. One goblin leaped at him from behind, axe held high to strike. Fynix turned and clobbered the goblin across the chest with the head of his staff, followed up by a quick sword strike. He spun and landed a lightning enhanced swing of his staff across one goblin's forehead. He turned to decapitate one goblin, then twisted back around and let fly a fireball that consumed another.
Fynix slowly battled a fighting retreat back to the reason he made his stand in this particular chamber. He took a quick glance over his shoulder and saw that he was close enough. He stabbed one goblin in the face, then sheathed his sword and dropped his staff as he turned around and extended his hands outward and upward. He fired a bolt of lightning from each hand that cleanly struck the Dark Welkynd Stones on both of the pillars behind him, then snatched up his staff and dove for cover. With the charge he'd just given those stones, no doubt they'd finish off the goblins and still have some left to attack him. The stones alternated firing powerful frost balls at each of the goblins as they attacked, dropping them dead on the floor one after another. Fynix stayed down as he heard the stones firing off and the cries of their goblin victims. Once the last goblin was put down, Fynix chanced a look over the rock he was behind. There were no fewer than twenty to thirty goblin corpses littering the room, all of the closer ones showing blue shriveled flesh covered in frost burns. Fynix ducked under a frost bolt from one of the dark stones, then stood and sprinted for the door of the chamber. He made his way through the labyrinth of hallways and rooms until he finally saw the light of day. Even though he took off his Ring of Nighteye, the sunlight seemed harsh in Fynix's eyes. He pulled up his hood again and made his way to where he'd left his horse, Jerrall. Jerrall was a powerful, snow-white stallion from Anvil. He removed the Ayleid statue from his back and looked it over, making sure it wasn't damaged, and especially making sure the crystal was intact. It was still in good condition, so he secured it to his saddle and mounted. Jerrall turned his head back and nipped at Fynix's boot.
Fynix smiled and leaned down the scratch the horse's neck, "It's all right, boy. I'm fine. Just a little tired. Let's go." He gave Jerrall a gentle kick and started back toward the road. As he rode, Fynix pulled out his list of items and looked it over. He had the crystal, now he needed pure glow dust. The only place he could get that was from either a glow dust deposit or glow stone in an Ayleid ruin. Fynix winced at the thought of going back into another ruin so soon, and decided to head to the nearest town to rest for a little while before undertaking such a dangerous task. He decided to pass up Anvil to head to Kvatch to see how the rebuilding was going. He rode along the path for about an hour before the dirt road to Kvatch came into view. He pulled off the main road and onto the winding way upward. The first good sign he noticed was the refugee camp was gone, meaning they had moved back into the town. He continued up the path until he rounded the last turn. The old barricade was gone and much of the grass had grown back, but Fynix saw something that piqued his curiosity. The scar stones that marked where the Oblivion gates had been were still there. One on one side of the road had several swords staked into the ground around it with guard helmets on each one. The one on the other side had several grave stones with lists of names scrolling down each. He rode through the gates and dismounted inside the walls. He looked around at the progress they had made in the short time they'd been rebuilding. Several shops and houses were rebuilt and the chapel was in the process of getting a new steeple. Fynix stabled Jerrall and started walking through town. Much of the residential area was still in ruins, but also much of it had been cleaned up in preparation for rebuilding. As he walked, he noticed two men struggling to put a small fire out. No matter how many times they doused it with buckets of water, it kept coming back up. Fynix shook his head, recognizing the flame's unusually red color. He walked closer and cast a powerful frost spell on the flame that extinguished it instantly. The two men looked up with a start, likely wondering how he did it.
Fynix motioned to where the fire had been, "It was a daedric flame. You can only put it out with magic."
Both men smiled and one nodded to him, "Thank you, sir." He pulled a small pouch off his belt and tossed it to Fynix, "Here. For your troubles."
Fynix caught the pouch and felt that it was full of coins.
He shook his head, "All I did was put a fire out. I can't accept this."
The man waved his comment away, "Take it. It's the least I can do for one of the Heroes of Kvatch."
Fynix shrugged, "Well, thank you. Can you tell me which way to the inn?"
The other man pointed as he spoke, "Further up that road, toward the castle. You can't miss it. It looks brand new."
Fynix nodded to them, "Again, thank you." He continued up the road until he found the inn, putting out a few more daedric fires along the way. The man was right. The inn did look brand new. Fresh oak wood and pristine bricks and mortar composed the outside. Inside, the tables and chairs were all brand new and all the finishing was fresh.
The inn hostess, a young Breton woman, saw Fynix and motioned to the rest of the room around her, "Welcome to the New Beginnings Lodge. How can I help you?"
Fynix set his pack on a nearby table and leaned his staff against the wall, "I'll just have a glass of water for now. Thank you." He sat down and removed the statue from the bag. He started looking it over, looking for a way to remove the crystal without completely destroying either it or the statue. Unfortunately, the crystal was well seated inside the stone, and the stone itself was solid. He set the statue down on the floor next to him as the hostess walked up with a mug.
She set the mug down on the table, "There you go. It's nice and cold. Is there anything else?"
Fynix took a sip of the water to wet his throat before speaking, "Yes, actually. I was hoping you could answer a few questions."
The woman shrugged, "I'll do my best."
Fynix pointed his thumb out the door, "I noticed there are several items around the gate scar stones outside the walls. I was wondering what they're there for."
"Those are the memorials for the fall of Kvatch. The one on the left side of the road commemorates all the citizens who died in the attack. The one on the right is for all the guards who gave their lives in the defense. Count Matius ordered that the memorials be made so we never forget what happened here."
Fynix nodded as he listened, but the name caught his attention, "Matius? Captain Savlian Matius? Of the Kvatch city watch?"
The hostess nodded, "That's Count Matius now. We all thought it appropriate that he should be the next count. He didn't want to at first, but he's a born leader, and he's very good at it. We thought that it was the best we could give him for taking back the city."
Fynix raised his eyebrows and nodded, "Well, it's good that you're willing to honor a hero."
"We also honor the Heroes of Kvatch. The Dralkes Nylim Courtyard on the castle grounds is almost complete. It's going to look spectacular when it's finished."
Fynix hung his head and rubbed his eyes, "Oh, bother. I have a courtyard named after me."
The Breton woman smiled and nodded, "We give honor to whom it is due here in Kvatch." She motioned to Fynix's mug, "Will this be all for you, or would you like something else?"
Fynix took another sip, "Actually, I would like a small piece of cooked mutton with some leeks and lettuce, if you have that."
She nodded, "We certainly do."
He started to pull out his bag of gold, "I'll pay in advance then. How much?"
The hostess shook her head, "Free of charge."
Fynix looked up at her, "I can pay for it. How much?"
She shook her head again, "One of the Heroes of Kvatch deserves nothing less then complimentary service. I'll have your meal ready for you soon." She turned and headed toward the kitchen.
Fynix dropped his gold pouch into his pack, leaned his elbows on the table, and ran his hands through his hair, "Am I going to pay for anything in this town?" He sighed, resigning himself to the price, or lack thereof, of popularity and went back to studying the statue.
