It was a quick journey to reach Ninendava – Camri knew the footpaths around the Jerall Mountains like the back of his hand. At one point, they passed the once-sacred ruins of Sancre Tor, now infested by undead creatures – a lone skeleton archer took aim at the five interlopers but Assurrani and Gajin were both quicker on the draw – the skeleton went down as it was struck by an arrow in the forehead and another in the throat.
"Yes, this is it…" Ariel said as the five approached Ninendava. A rough stone causeway led up to a squat doorway built into the mountainside, the statue of a sword-branding Ayleid king stood above it.
"Who gets sentry duty, then?" Lasatel asked. "You never know who might have followed us here…"
"Nobody followed us here" Camri said with an air of certainty. "And I don't know what we're up against inside yet. We might need all five of us on board"
Ariel stared at the doorway. "One figure stood just behind the door, Camri"
Camri nodded. "Thanks. Falas, give me some cover"
Cautiously, Camri approached the stone door, his glass sword in one hand and his lightweight iron shield in the other, and pushed it open with his boot.
The Dunmer just beyond the door was most surprised, moreso when he saw Falas Assurrani crouched in a bush fifty yards away, a longbow aimed at his head.
"What?" the Dunmer asked. Camri lowered his sword. The Dunmer was dressed in chainmail armour, a silver sword sheathed on his belt. He also had the cold, dead grey eyes of a vampire.
"You have something that the Empire has great need of" Camri answered.
"The Empire? Their affairs do not concern us, and if you mean the gemstone, it is property of our coven"
"What's your name, friend?"
"Valen Elseth, Imperial"
"Mr Elseth – Valen – did you see the Oblivion gates a few days ago"
"I did, as it happens. Hard to miss, weren't they?"
Camri took a deep breath. "They opened because a gemstone, very similar to the one that you have, was taken from its natural resting place. Perhaps you'd reconsider"
Valen looked Camri up and down. He took in his rare and valuable glass sword, his specially-constructed shield, and the array of jewellery around his person that glowed with enchantments. He looked at the four people behind him – the two other treasure hunters, the pretty and harmless-looking Breton girl in the dark blue robe and the unblinking eyes of the Dunmer marksman crouched in the bushes. They were no ordinary group of tomb raiders.
"You should come and speak with the Patriarch," the vampire said eventually. "Follow me"
Cautiously, the five followed the Dunmer vampire into Ninendava. As the procession passed a small side-chamber, Valen called into it.
"Laucard, you're on watch. I won't be long"
A Breton wandered out of the room, a sword held idly by his side.
Then, as they passed into a wider corridor, Valen pressed a small button. Two black Varla stones in ceiling-mounted pedestals began to glow an ominous red. "Don't worry, we have a minute before they start discharging. We have a lot of problems with unwanted visitors at Ninendava, you see. It's mentioned by name in a book…"
"The Song of Pelinal" Camri said, finishing his sentence. "Volume Three, to be exact"
Valen nodded. "A lot of pilgrims and witchhunters seem to have got it into their heads that it's a holy place of some sort"
"It was also quite a strategic position for the Ayleids – a mountain retreat for them"
"Indeed – the amount of Ayleid armaments we found in here was incredible…"
Assurrani shook his head. They were like two peas in a pod. But he noticed that, even as Camri spoke, he glanced around the ruin, taking it in, plotting it out. Looking for escape routes. He never once took his eyes off the ball.
After passing through a huge open chamber, Valen led the five into a small ante-room, with a large altar in its centre, and an elderly Altmer, with straggly grey hair and a long, flowing beard, seated in a throne next to it. And there, lying on the altar, was a huge, perfectly spherical orb of lurid green glass – the Sixth Stone.
Valen pulled a lever and a sturdy iron portcullis thundered down behind the five, sealing them in the throne room.
"What is your business, travellers?" the elderly vampire asked. "I assume that since Valen let you in that you mean us no harm"
"We don't" Ariel answered. "We come to seek use of the glass orb"
The Altmer slowly rose from his throne, walked over to the altar and picked up the Sixth Stone.
"You seek use of it? Then you know our gemstone's true purpose?"
Ariel nodded nervously.
"The Sixth Stone of Ada-Mantia has been in the hands of our coven for a few years now. Before that, it had quite a journey around Tamriel. We are just lucky it was never broken up to turn into armour or weaponry. I have been waiting for someone to come and use it for its intended purpose"
"Sir…" Camri began.
"Astarel, please" the Altmer replied, smiling.
"Astarel. The fate of the world is at stake here. The Stones must be returned to their resting places"
"Young Imperial, we have little concern for outside affairs in Ninendava. But, despite that, I cannot sit back and watch our world be destroyed. I presume the Selective have put their plan into operation then?"
Camri nodded. "The Dragon Break is coming…"
"Know this, young Imperial. It is a piece of information that seems to have been lost in almost all the records concerning the Stones. The Second Stone – the Chim-el Adabal. When you reforge it, it must be reforged physically, not just magically…"
Shnick!
Without warning, Valen Elseth strode over to Astarel, drew his sword and sliced at the old Altmer's throat!
But Falas Assurrani had been watching him the whole time, and lunged at Valen, knocking the blade from his wrist with a split-second to spare – indeed, Valen's blade nicked Astarel's throat, drawing a thin line of blood. Valen then summoned a Daedric blade and began lashing wildly at Assurrani, who stumbled to his feet, carried by the momentum of his attack.
But the others snapped into action. Camri and Gajin both drew swords, but it was Lasatel, the Bosmer, who was the quickest, drawing a throwing knife off her belt and hurling it overarm, straight into Valen's forehead, killing him in an instant.
"It seems that Valen Elseth's allegiances were not necessarily with our coven" Astarel said, getting to his feet and wiping the hairline cut on his throat.
Just then, Camri shot a glance through the portcullis.
"Astarel, how many members of your coven are Elven?"
Astarel blinked. "Nearly all of them…"
Camri shook his head. "This is all kinds of bad"
He pointed out of the portcullis. Around fifteen vampires, a mixture of the three Elven races, were entrenched on their side of the large open chamber beyond the portcullis, fighting four others – two Imperials, a Nord and an Orc, who had leapt for cover behind a pile of crates and begun returning fire with longbows. Ninendava had just turned into a battlefield.
Camri spied another rudimentary barricade on the opposite side of the large chamber, the other side of the group of Selective vampires from them. If he could only…
"Alright everyone, give 'em hell! Ariel, look after the Stone and for Gods' sake keep your head down!"
Camri then pulled the lever that controlled the portcullis and a shocking volley of fire burst out of the small room – arrows fired by Assurrani and Gajin, a throwing knife from Lasatel and a fireball from Astarel. Two of the Selective convulsed wildly as the attacks pummelled them.
The effect was instantaneous. Nearly all of the group of Selective turned their sights on the small room. A vampire raised a longbow but Assurrani, quicker on the draw, nailed him as he reached for an arrow from his quiver. Then, Camri drew his sword and leapt out into the fray. Arrows shot by him in both directions, the Selective archers focused on trying to take down Assurrani and Gajin. Several of the Selective drew melee weapons, but Camri was ready for them – the old Legion soldier in him was back. He parried their blows, getting his killing strike in as quickly as he could. He danced between two of them as they lunged at him, blocking one blow with his shield and another with his sword as he span, then used his momentum to decapitate the pair of them in one single swordstroke.
But then, as a fireball roared past his head, he saw the remaining Selective gear up their attack in a whole new way. Most of them had reached the barricade and were hurling magical ordnance, not at Camri, but over his head…
A shocking explosion rocked the ante-room behind them. Lasatel and Ariel leapt out in time, but Assurrani, Gajin and Astarel were all thrown to the floor by the blast.
"Get out of that room!" Camri shouted, drawing his bow. Assurrani quickly leapt to his feet and did the same, extinguishing a fireball mid-flight with an amazingly aimed shot. Lasatel drew her shortsword, Gajin keeping his bow, and the pair made a break for Camri, still fighting off the Selective footsoldiers and trying to dodge arrows, making for the only cover he could see – a large altar, halfway between the barricade and him. As he cut down one final maceman, he saw the altar and made a run for it.
But then, an archer jumped up from behind the altar, his bow raised. He had been hiding there all along. Camri was a sitting duck…
As he closed his eyes and waited for the impact of the arrow, he heard a drawstring snap. But something was odd about the sound.
It could have been an echo, but it sounded like two drawstrings. He opened his eyes to see the Selective archer fall to the side, slammed by a massive impact to the side of his head. The archer's grip on the bow released, the arrow fired but went wide, arcing up and clanging harmlessly against the ceiling.
One lone Khajiit archer stood behind the barricade on the other side of the room – all that was left of the non-Selective part of the coven.
Camri reached the altar and dived down behind it, poking over the top to fire an arrow at the barricade.
"Get Ariel over here!" Camri shouted back to the others. Gajin and Lasatel reached the altar next to him.
"Camri, what in the name of the Gods is going on?" Gajin asked.
"The Selective are everywhere" Camri said bleakly. "Looks like they didn't want anyone getting out of here with the Sixth Stone"
It was only then that Camri realised that it must have taken hundreds of years of subtle infiltration to get this many members inside one small coven of vampires…
He was snapped back into reality as three fireballs simultaneously roared over his head, aiming straight for the anteroom!
Astarel stood in the doorway, firing off a bolt of lightning at the barricade, when Assurrani appeared behind him and crash-tackled him to the ground – in the process, an arrow thudded into his shoulder. Ariel did all she could and dived to the ground as the three fireballs flew through the doorway into the anteroom and exploded with shocking force. If any of them had still been in there, they would have been incinerated alive.
Ariel grabbed Astarel by the hand, and using all her strength, heaved the old vampire to his feet. The wounded Assurrani crawled behind a crate.
"Alright, you two, cover Ariel! I need her over here!" Camri ordered.
Gajin and Lasatel nodded and in one synchronised move, the three raised up out of cover, their bows raised, and fired.
Two marksmen were hit, and a third arrow sent another archer's weapon flying out of his hands, but a spinning red bolt of energy erupted out of somewhere behind the barricade, engulfing Gajin's bow and causing it to crumble to dust!
At that moment, Ariel and Astarel ducked down behind the altar. Fireballs began to pummel the other side of it.
"If they're going to use magic against us, we'll do the same!" Camri said to Ariel. "I'm going after Falas. Watch my back!"
With that, Camri began to crouch-run back towards the anteroom. An opportunist marksman fired, but his arrow reached the altar then simply stopped in mid-air.
"What the fuck?" someone shouted from behind the barricade. Ariel released her telekinesis spell and the arrow fell uselessly to the ground.
Camri reached cover and skidded to a halt beside Assurrani. The arrow was still jutting from his shoulder.
"You alright?"
"I've survived worse" Assurrani replied through gritted teeth.
Camri drew a cheap iron dagger off his belt – a last-ditch weapon – and offered its wooden handle to Assurrani.
"Bite on that, and watch Ariel. It should distract you from the pain"
"I hate you sometimes, did you know that?"
Camri placed his hands on the wooden shaft of the arrow. "You're more than welcome to walk around with an arrow sticking out of your arm for the rest of your life…"
"Remember what I told you to do" Ariel said firmly to Astarel. The old Altmer nodded.
And with that, Ariel stood up, straight into the line of fire of the four remaining Selective members. It was time to break the stalemate.
Three arrows flew towards her but then bent down and hit the altar, manipulated by telekinesis.
A bolt of lightning hit her but just absorbed straight into her. Licks of lightning appeared at her fingertips.
Astarel placed his hands on Ariel and magicka began to surge out of him, filling Ariel until she could take no more…
As Assurrani cried in pain in the background, an absolutely enormous bolt of lightning lanced out of each of Ariel's hands, slamming into the barricade with tremendous force and blasting it to pieces. Hit by a combination of lightning and flying debris, the four Selective members never stood a chance.
Silence fell over the huge chamber.
"Thank you, travellers. The Ninendava coven nearly came to an end, but it will recover" Astarel said. Mal'ak, the Khajiit, stood next to him. "Take the Sixth Stone with my blessing"
"Astarel, you were about to tell us something about the Second Stone…" Camri began.
"Yes. Some very important information. I'm sure you are aware of the array of Ayleid stones that must be created to re-imbue the magic into the remaining eight points of the Chim-el Adabal, but you must also replace the ninth point. There is a cave in Morrowind where the crystal that the Chim-el Adabal was cut from grows freely. It is a sacred Tribunal Temple site – I hope you are on good terms with them"
"It just so happens that we are" Assurrani said. "Thank you for the information, Astarel"
On the way out, the group encountered the Varla stone trap that Valen Elseth had set on the way in, but twin arrows from Assurrani and Lasatel shattered the two ominously glowing Varla stones, allowing them to escape.
The Sixth Stone had been reclaimed.