Warning: this chapter contains some spoilers! I hope you enjoy!
Rose thought she was at the entrance to Alftand. She tried the handle, but it wouldn't budge. There were no apparent key holes, so she couldn't pick the lock. Though it was night time, she had made out a wooden catwalk which spiraled downward, to disappear within the icy cliffs. With a sigh, she resigned herself to camping out for the night. She unraveled her bedroll and her bear pelt, and after she finished her food, she snuggled in for the night.
She woke at the first hint of light; it was enough to see by, so she hastily packed up her belongings and immediately headed for the rickety catwalk she had spotted the night before, hoping that it would lead to another entry point. She passed by some tents; she thought nothing of it at first, until she stumbled upon a badly decomposed corpse. "Oh!" she yelped, backing away instinctively. After a few minutes of investigation, she concluded that the body belonged to a researcher that had come along with an expedition. I wonder what happened to them, she thought, hoping that whatever had killed them either wasn't around anymore, or wasn't too strong for her to handle.
Deciding to bury the corpse, she looked around for something to dig with. She found a trenching hoe and immediately set to work. Half an hour later, she dragged the corpse into the hole, covered it with snow, and said a quick prayer. With a sad sigh, she continued on her way. Gods, she hated this part of Skyrim. So desolate and inhospitable, except for those horrible frost trolls, ice wolves, snow bears and of course, dragons. The snow began to fall as she rounded a bend in the wooden catwalk, and she cursed inwardly. "Some Nord I am, to be hating the snow so much!" she said aloud.
When she came to the entrance to Alftand Glacial Ruins, a draft of cold air blew through her, inducing a shiver of dread. She swallowed a lump in her throat and pushed on, determined not to falter lest her fear get the better of her. Farkas should be here with me, she thought bitterly.
As she descended the sloping, icy path to the ruins, she made out the sound of voices. She dropped to a crouch; it was better to be safe. As she approached the source of the voices, she recognised the accents to be Khajiit. In fact, it sounded more like one voice. Yes, someone talking to himself, she thought. She passed a few crates full of paperwork, and a couple of boxes of rotting fruit and vegetables. She wrinkled her nose, and continued on. Sitting on the next lot of crates she passed, was a diary. She picked it up and flicked through it. It read:
"I've run out of the little skooma I brought and J'darr is getting pretty bad.
He's started hallucinating creatures coming out of the ice and the ruins,
the others are starting to think he may be behind Valie's disappearance,
but I know he would never do something like that."
She put the book down and pushed on, until the path abruptly u-turned around a wall. She crept around, and found herself getting nearer to the voice, until she came face-to-face with the Khajiit.
"Look, J'zhar, a smooth-skin is here to steal our food. This one does not recognise her...she did not come with the expedition? No, she must be the one who took my Skooma!" Rose couldn't see anybody behind him at first, but then her eyes landed on a pool of blood. She followed the trail, and made out a stiff, matted tail and a foot. That must be J'zhar, thought Rose. Upon noticing that she had seen J'zhar's body, the Khajiit pulled his wood-axe from his belt.
"Shhh...It's alright J'darr, I'm not going to hurt you." Rose said, one hand forward in a supplicating gesture, the other resting on the hilt of her sword. "You can put that down, you know. I can help you."
"Never should have come here!" he cried, swinging his axe wildly. Rose made up her mind in that instant; he was beyond help. With one slice of her blade, she opened him from neck to guts. She grimaced as he fell wordlessly, blood spurting out of his jugular and his guts spilling out of his tunic. I'm sorry, she thought. She dragged his corpse beside his brother's, and draped a blanket over them both. At least you're out of your pain now.
Two hours later, Rose arrived at the door to the Animonculary. She opened her pack to look through the loot she had acquired—this little venture had so far been rather lucrative. She'd found three filled lesser soul gems, some dwarven ingots, about 150 Septims and an emerald gold necklace. She'd also encountered several dwarven spider workers and a couple of dwarven spheres, both of which freaked her out a little bit. How was it that they kept on working and guarding the halls as though their makers were still around?
Farkas reasoned they were about a day behind Rose. "I should have kept the horse that brought me from Riften. He was a fine steed."
"What did you do with him, then?" Vilkas said.
"Oh, a carriage driver from Solitude was headed that way, so he hooked him up to his carriage."
"Hmm. Well it's slow-going with only one horse. Are you faring alright back there, Farkas?" he said, looking over his shoulder.
"Yeah. I'm feeling shaky and tired but the beast blood is helping me to feel better a lot quicker than I would otherwise, I think." Vilkas felt Farkas shrug his shoulders behind him.
"That's good. I know you'll be alright soon. But what about...Njada? How are you feeling about that whole thing?" Vilkas ventured.
"Well, I ahh...haven't really thought a great deal about it as yet." Farkas was silent for a moment before continuing. "You know, if Rose hadn't have walked in and run away with the wrong impression, I could get away with being really pissed off at Njada but not hating her. But the fact that Rose got hurt...it makes me wanna kill her." Farkas growled, and he felt his beast spirit snapping, calling for her blood for hurting his love, his mate.
Vilkas nodded, processing Farkas' reaction thoughtfully. It was very rare that Farkas spoke in this way. Fulfilling contracts for the Companions was one thing—the killing was impersonal, necessary. He never spoke about the people he killed on jobs; they were forgotten the moment his blade was resheathed. Apart from the necromancers who took their mother's life, he had never expressed a desire to kill in anger. But in this instance, Vilkas wouldn't have expected any other reaction from Farkas—or from anyone, for that matter. "Aye." Vilkas grunted. "Well, if you want to talk more about it..."
"It's alright brother. If she'd have gotten what she wanted...then I think I'd be a bit more upset about it. But thanks."
Rose traveled through the dwarven ruins with relative ease at first; she hacked and chopped her way through mechanical spiders and spheres, pocketed lots of goodies and increased her lockpicking skills. She was feeling rather pleased with herself—in fact, she was beginning to feel confident that her fears were unfounded. She sauntered through the halls, happy that she might just get to Blackreach with her stamina intact. And just as she let out a sigh of relief, she heard a shriek up ahead. Her heart jumped as she crouched behind a barrel, waiting to see if the source of the noise revealed itself.
Sweet Talos, she thought, as a Falmer crept up the corridor towards her. I hate those things! She readied her bow and nocked an arrow, and waited to see if any more Falmer were going to appear. When it became apparent that this was the only one, she loosed her arrow. The horrid creature fell without a sound, and Rose quickly sneaked over to it to make sure it was dead. She rummaged through its pockets, and found twenty eight Septims. Why do these things need coins? It's not like they have shops down here...or do they? she thought, amused.
She pressed on with more caution, taking down as many Falmer as she could by stealth. There were the occasional group of them; some were stronger than others, but Rose was stronger. She was fast and she was intelligent, and she was determined to live. These creatures seemed as though they neither cared or understood the drive to survive; any streak of conscious, humanoid thought had been lost thousands of years ago. To them, she was little more than food.
After another hour of fighting with the twisted former snow elves, she noticed glowing piles of egg sacs. Oh-oh, chaurus eggs! She crept slowly, her heart thumping once again. Falmer were easy enough to kill; but the chinitous hides covering the chaurus protected them from damage. She took a moment to check her pack—good, she had plenty of cure poison potions, health and stamina potions, as well as food and water.
Luckily, she only encountered two chaurus scuttling along with their Falmer masters, though killing them was exhausting. She took the two Falmer out with bow and arrow, and only had just enough time to sheathe her bow and draw her blades in time for the chaurus to approach her. She dodged their streams of deadly poison and slashed at their mandibles to disable their ability to spit at her, before she stabbed her way between the gaps in their chitin plates. Gods, these things are almost as scary as trolls, she thought with a shudder.
Eventually, she came to a large room which contained shelves, tents, tables and an alchemy table. One of the first things she noticed was the cloying scent of blood and decomposition. She spotted the body of an Altmer woman lying on one of the tables; the thick pools of dried blood over her decomposing features suggesting she had been there for quite some time. She was shackled hand and foot, and her body was covered in deep gashes, stab wounds and bruises. It looked as though someone had been experimenting on her. This must be Valie, she concluded.
The next table contained a whole range of different ingredients, some of which she pocketed. She noticed a few empty Skooma bottles, and a few that hadn't been opened. And there's the rest of the Khajiit's stash, she thought, shaking her head sadly. She left the grissly room behind; she didn't want to linger any longer than she had to.
After slaughtering a few more Falmer, she headed for the great brass doors which would hopefully lead to Alftand Cathedral. As she reached for the handle, she heard a hiss behind her. She moved out of the way in time to dodge the poison of a giant frostbite spider. "YOL...TOOR!" she Shouted, setting the thing on fire. She lunched for it, whirling around with her twin blades. The disgusting beast died quickly. Rose smiled to herself—her skills had improved since being in Alftand.
She looked at the pile of hairy arms and legs and eyes, feeling bile rising up in the back of her throat. With a pang, she thought of Farkas and his fear of spiders. She remembered the dream he'd had that morning in his room, and thought about him describing the dream. "Ah...those spiders! They were all over me, crawling on me...their babies too. Disgusting." he'd said. She smiled at the memory; he'd looked so stricken, so cute. She'd fallen even more head over heels for him in that moment. How could the gods be so cruel to allow her to love this man so intensely, only for him not to feel the same way? Worse still was the fact that she had started to believe that he did feel the same way; the love in his eyes and in his touch when he'd farewell'd her at the gate was plain to see. Had he changed his mind in the week she'd been gone, or was it only her imagination in the first place?
She opened the massive brass doors to Alftand Cathedral, and was immediately assaulted by Falmer, dwarven spiders (some of which were also fighting the Falmer) and spheres. She had no time to examine her surroundings; she fought tooth and nail to get through to the other side of the Cathedral, only to run head-first into Dwarven Centurion Master. "Bollocks!" she cried in fright, scrambling backwards just as the great mechanical giant swung its arms at her. She quickly gathered her wits and Shouted fire at it, stunning it momentarily. She used the opportunity to run behind it and sever some of the pipes inside the back of its knees. She darted out of the way quickly as it fell backwards, narrowly avoiding its hiss of hot steam as it fell. She made some calculated cuts along the join of its neck, hoping that the pipes she severed were enough to deactivate it.
Once she heard its inner hydraulics cease, she searched inside it. She found a grand soul gem, some bit of scrap metal and a key. Ah-ha, she thought. This must be the key to those doors up there!
As she climbed the staircase, she made out the voices of a man and woman. They appeared to be arguing, so she crouched low to listen; they were fighting over treasure. How stupid! All of their fellows are dead, and the two remaining survivors are fighting over trinkets, she thought, shaking her head in disgust. Suddenly, the woman's blade cut through the man's neck, followed by the sound of gurgling. She felt a pang of sadness at the unnecessary loss of life.
"Who's there?" the woman called.
Rose stepped out of the shadows, her blades at the ready. After a brief battle, the woman lay dead next to the man, and Rose walked away with nothing more than a few scratches and bruises. She smiled smugly, once again proud of her improved abilities.
With her newly acquired key, she unlocked the door to a small chamber which contained a room with a lift lever, and a receptacle for the attunement sphere that Seginus had supplied. She figured that the lift would take her back to the surface and home; and the other would open the way to Blackreach. Blackreach. She rolled the word around on her tongue, tasting the adrenalin in her mouth. Her hands trembled slightly—underneath her very feet lay the way to the most mysterious and alien places known to man and mer. She fumbled in her inside pocket for her map, and took a few moments to go over the landmarks within Blackreach. Do I really have to do this? I'm so frightened! She looked longingly at the lift to the surface, but she knew she had no choice but to go down into the abyss.
With a sigh of resignation, she placed the attunement sphere into the receptacle. Nothing happened at first, and she had a moment of panic—and then she heard the grinding of gears, squeaking and scraping with years of disuse. A spiral staircase presented itself before her. Knowing that she may need it later, she pocketed the attunement sphere and descended the stairs. "Oh...gods, here it is. The entrance to Nightmare City!" Rose said aloud. As she put her hand on the door, the opening to the stairway closed itself with a loud clang, swathing her in blackness. "I guess there's definitely no turning back now!" she cried. The finality of it made her feel very much separated from her world; as though she'd just stepped into the plane of Oblivion.
With a nervous exhale she pushed open the door, and the sight before her took her breath away.
The werewolf twins arrived at the same locked tower that Rose had slept against not so long ago. The horse was exhausted, and Farkas wasn't faring much better. It was past dinner time, and his belly protested loudly. "Are you feeling better? You're hungry, that's a good sign." Vilkas said cheerily.
"Yeah, I 'spose. What's for tea, woman?" he said, playfully pushing Vilkas' head.
"Well...the more I think about it, I think it's better that you don't eat..." Vilkas joked, stuffing his food pack under his arm.
Farkas lunged for Vilkas' pack, easily pushing his brother over despite his lingering weakness. Vilkas laughed, dusting the snow off himself. Though Farkas was weary, they had decided to eat while walking; no sense in wasting time—if they forewent the sleep, they would gain maybe eight hours on Rose. Besides, werewolves didn't really need much sleep.
Vilkas looked for a handle or a lock, cursing loudly when they found none. He turned to Farkas, and noticed that he was sniffing the air. "Over here." Farkas said, stepping over to a fresh grave of snow. "I can smell her." he nudged the snow with his foot.
"Looks like she buried someone." Vilkas picked up the same diary that Rose had found, and flipped through the pages. "A researcher. Hmmph."
The brothers followed their noses, which led them to the catwalk, and finally, the entrance through which Rose had been. They followed her scent, and her trail of bodies through the ruins, until finally, they stood next to the fallen Centurion Master that Rose had felled. "Impressive." Vilkas said, examining the cuts she had made to disable it.
"That's my girl." Farkas said, his chest puffing with pride. "She's getting better!"
"And no signs of injury as yet!" Vilkas chimed.
The brothers ascended the stairs to the small chamber where Rose had entered Blackreach, their hearts sinking when they realised they had no way of getting that trapdoor open. "See this here?" Vilkas said, pointing to the receptacle. "Rose must have put some sort of tool in here to get this trapdoor open."
Farkas' fists clenched, feeling anger and frustration boiling to the surface. With an inhuman roar, he set about trying to pry the sturdy brass trapdoor open with his bare hands, to no avail. He even allowed himself to partially transform—much to Vilkas' horror—perhaps the added strength afforded by the beast blood would help him open the door...but no, that didn't work either. Even with the two of them trying, it would not budge.
"It's no use. The mechanism that keeps it shut is no match for our comparatively puny efforts." Vilkas grumbled.
"But she's down there all by herself! What are we going to do?" Farkas said, squeezing the bridge of his nose.
Vilkas paced the room for a few minutes before responding. "Blackreach is huge. It goes for miles. When she has found what she sought, it is likely she won't be coming back this way."
"But what if she does?" Farkas' normally even and calm tone was filled with longing and worry.
"Hmm. Well, from the little I know of these types of doors, there would be no way for her to open it from the other side. No. Our best bet is to head to the College of Winterhold; someone there might have knowledge of the geography of Blackreach, and they might know the whereabouts of the Elder Scroll she's trying to find, as well as any places she might emerge." Vilkas said clapping his brother reassuringly on the shoulder. Farkas nodded, his face a picture of sadness and frustration.
"I miss her, Vilkas. We only nearly cross paths. When we do finally cross paths, I'm never going to let her go." Farkas said softly, as he hefted his pack once again.
"I'm glad you've found someone to love, Farkas. I know you wouldn't give your heart lightly. And I know, she loves you as well. You're a lucky man, brother."
"Yeah. I know. So, tell me. Ria? What's going on with that?" Farkas said, a knowing twinkle in his eyes.
"Oh Ria...she's cute, that one. She acts all innocent and sweet, but that woman...by the gods, I can smell the feral sex beast waiting to get out." Vilkas said, and they both laughed. "She's not just some tavern whore, though. She's got this light-hearted, refreshing way of looking at things. Whenever we go adventuring together, she looks at the world with wide eyes. She even gets excited when she finds little things like bear claws, for Talos' sake." Vilkas said, chuckling.
"Sounds like you love her."
"Yeah. She's workin' her way into my heart."
As the sun crested the horizon, the two men were making their way across the bridge into the College. Faralda intercepted them, and once she heard their plight, led them quickly inside to find Urag in the library. Urag greeted them with the same disdain that Rose had met, though the lads could tell he was a bit intimidated by these two tall warriors with warpaint around their eyes and their strange wolf armour.
"Look. I don't know a lot about Blackreach personally, but here is a book that you can both read. It even has pictures so you can understand it." he said, daring to look Farkas dead in the eye even though he was a bit scared. Urag had to act this way—he had a reputation to uphold, didn't he?
Farkas was in no mood for it, however. He stalked around to Urag's side of the bench, and fisted the front of his lovely robes, lifting him high into the air. Orcs were strong, perhaps even stronger than Nords. But Farkas wasn't an ordinary Nord, even without the beast blood. "Fuck your shitty book. Do you know anything about the layout of Blackreach or not?" Farkas growled.
"You're not going to find any answers that way, I'm afraid. Put me down!" Urag whined, though his voice shook now.
"It's alright, Farkas. Put him down." Vilkas said, his tone soothing.
Farkas put him down, and shoved him back into his seat. "Talk." Farkas barked.
An hour and a half later, the twins walked away from the College of Winterhold with a map of Blackreach, and a surprising amount of information gleaned from Urag's own personal knowledge. "See, Vilkas? Turns out a bit of ruffling of one's feathers can be a good thing!" Farkas said, laughing.
"Yeah, brains aren't always better than brawn!" Vilkas conceded.
It turned out that Urag Gro-Shub knew quite a bit about the layout of Blackreach. He'd explained to the twins that the Tower of Mzark was said to house a massive security device, and that it would be the most likely place to find an Elder Scroll within Blackreach. He'd also marked the Tower of Mzark Great Lift on their map, and then they were on their way.
Rose stood on the balcony, frozen to the spot. Her head shook slowly from side to side of its own volition as she took in the sight before her. Iridescent mushrooms in all different sizes grew in abundance, affording the alien landscape its main source of illumination. She looked up, and sighed at the twinkling lights dotted along the ceiling. So eerily beautiful, she thought. She could hear the faint chiming of nirnroot, and some other soft tinkling that she couldn't pinpoint. Her eyes roamed over the hills and valleys shrouded in shadow, and her heart plummeted in her stomach at the thought of what denizens were hiding therein.
She spent a goodly amount of time marveling over her surroundings—here on the balcony, she was feeling relatively safe; though soon, the reality of her impending journey through this weird underworld snapped her out of her reverie. A short distance ahead of her was a small dwarven bungalow. Perhaps I can find some clues in there, she mused. She took a few steps forward, but the sound of clanking metal caused her to stop again. A mechanical sphere made its presence known; it had noticed her, and began to make its way from the building towards her. She loosed a few carefully aimed arrows, and the thing collapsed in a heap before it even got halfway to her.
A few Falmer loosed arrows at her as she picked her way across the dark ground, taking advantage of the deep shadows. One of the arrowheads embedded itself into her shoulder blade, and not for the first time, she cursed her weak leather armour. Luckily it hadn't lodged itself in too far; she was able to pull the arrow out and toss it away. Three Falmer followed her to the building, swapping their bow and arrows for sword and shield. Rose set them on fire with a Shout, and killed them swiftly as they flailed about. Quickly then, she yanked open the door to the bungalow and stepped in, locking it firmly behind her. She lit a few candles, and sighed appreciatively when she noticed it was a fully furnished laboratory complete with bed, alchemy and enchanting tables and a store of dried meats and fruits that were still good enough to eat. There was even a wash basin complete with its own plumbing, though she was dubious about the quality of the water. Probably bore water, but it'll be good enough to clean this arrow wound, she thought.
Rose dropped her gear to the floor, stripped her armour off and immediately set to cleaning and healing the arrow wound with water and some crushed blisterwort. With a huge, sucking yawn, she looked longingly at the bed. She figured she'd been traveling through the ruins for around ten or so hours; now would be a good time to stop for the night, especially as how this was probably the only safe place to rest. She moved around to the side of the bed, and got a small fright when she knocked a skeleton with her foot. A diary was on the floor next to the skeleton, so she picked it up and had a quick flick through. She discovered that the skeleton was that of a researcher by the name of Sinderion; he had established this laboratory to study the properties of crimson nirnroot. So that's what I heard down there—not just normal nirnroot. She put the journal down, not particularly interested in reading further.
After she sat down to a good meal of bread, dried meat and fruit, she gathered some of the ingredients that were stacked on the shelves. She decided to try and make up some more potions for herself with the materials available—she wasn't very adept at alchemy, but she was willing to give it a go. Next, she replenished her food stores and then she hopped into bed. She was asleep within minutes; her dreams filled with the sound of chiming and images of herself sitting on the tops of giant, glowing mushrooms that could fly.
Meanwhile back at Jorrvaskr, Kodlak and Skjor stood on the other side of the door to the small storage room listening to Njada carrying on like a pork chop. She was kicking things and yelling that she wanted to get out.
"I think the best course of action is to take her to a jail cell until the twins come back with Rose. We can't conduct her trial without them here." Kodlak said.
"You're right as always, Harbinger. I will fetch Athis and Aela to help me take her there."
Ten minutes later, Skjor and Aela held one each of Njada's arms and forcibly dragged her out of Jorrvaskr and into the Gildergreen courtyard, followed closely by Athis. Njada was making a right spectacle of herself; hissing and swearing and struggling despite that there was no hope of her being able to get away. People stopped and stared—it wasn't often that you saw the Companions conducting their business out in the open this way, and wasn't the girl they were pulling along also a Companion? What was going on? The spectators began to chatter and gossip, but the Companions paid them no mind as they took Njada up to Dragonsreach and into the jail.
"Hmmm, what have we here?" said the guard who was sitting at his office desk pretending to be elbow-deep in paperwork.
"This former Companion has been caught trying to...seriously injure a senior member of our faction." Aela hissed.
The guard blinked in surprised at Aela's statement. "And what means did she employ to attempt this?"
"She administered a lethal dose of Sleeping Tree Sap. If he hadn't have been discovered...he would have died. We were able to take him to Danica, and—"
The guard held up his hand. "You need not go on, Companion. I heard that Farkad...Farkwad...Fa—"
"Farkas." snapped Athis, who had been quiet so far.
"Farkas. Yes. I heard that he had been taken to Danica with a serious illness, though I did not know the circumstances. Is he now in good health?" the guard said, as he took Njada by the elbow and led her into a cell.
"Ah yes, he's in fine form now." Aela said.
They watched as Njada took a seat in the cell, the fight gone out of her now. She had become very quiet, her face sullen. The guard locked the cell door, and then they walked away, leaving Njada without so much as a backward glance. Once the door shut behind her former shield-siblings, she put her head in her hands and began to cry. "Fuck!" she screamed, realising that the good life she'd had with the Companions was over; after the token trial, she'd never see the inside of Jorrvaskr again, and she'd never get to see Farkas again. She'd also never get to apologise to him, to tell him that all she ever wanted was to be with him.
It was back to the streets for Njada Stone-Arm.
Rose woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to continue. She couldn't be sure of how long she had slept; there was no sky to tell the time. Day or night—it didn't matter down here in this underworld. All she cared about was the fact that she'd had a good sleep, and once she'd had a good breaky, she'd be ready to face Blackreach.
It took her a while to get used to the landscape, and through the parts of that landscape where the luminescent mushrooms didn't grow, it took her eyes a long while to adjust to the pitch blackness. She had to be careful where she trod; there were many sharp drops and holes that could easily snap ankles if one wasn't careful. Buildings and towers were dotted through Blackreach, and she spent time going through as many as she could for clues, though all she managed to find were more Falmer and their monstrous pets, more Dwemer automatons and the occasional useful item.
As time wore on, she became increasingly frustrated, and more determined. Her tummy rumbled and her mouth was dry, but she kept on.
However, as an experienced warrior, she should have known better than to press on when her body needed rest and sustenance. She had been searching without a break for close to 24 hours—not that she knew that, of course—and her attention span was beginning to lapse. Thoughts of Farkas drifted through her mind; at first, her thoughts were of their happy moments together, though inevitably they turned sour; the image of Njada grinding herself atop him burned itself into her mind's eye, and her waning concentration dropped to an all-time low. Yet again, she passed a tower that she was sure she'd seen before when a chaurus appeared out of nowhere, releasing a stream of poison at her face.
"Argghh!" Rose shrieked, wiping at her face. The foul liquid seemed to burn her skin, seeping painfully through dermal layers until it entered her bloodstream. Her vision blurred, and her head swam. She cursed loudly, steeling herself to kill the creature despite her state.
Once she was sure there were no more Falmer, chaurus or dwarven mechanisms in the immediate area, she sat herself cross-legged on the ground and opened her pack. She could feel her temperature increasing rapidly as sweat poured down her face, her vision becoming blurrier the harder she tried to see. Bile rose to the back of her throat, causing her to gag. She leaned over just in time as her nausea spilled over, narrowly avoiding her pack. Her hand closed around a potion bottle, her mind dimly registering that the shape of the bottle was different from the health potions—hopefully it was the cure poison potion. She brought the bottle to her lips and pulled the cork off the top with her teeth, and then guzzled the contents. Her shoulders sagged with relief as the charcoalish taste slid down her throat, swiftly washing away the effects of the poison.
"Oh, thank the Divines." she whispered as the burning subsided and her vision cleared. After a few minutes, she gathered her wits about her and found a safe place to rest and eat.
After replenishing her energy stores, she trudged onward. Countless hours passed; she fought her way through a cluster of frostbite spiders big and small, another centurion, spheres, falmer and more chaurus. At one point, she became disoriented and passed the same landmarks once or twice. This time, instead of getting frustrated, she made sure to stop and have a drink of water, and have a good think to regain her bearings. She felt lonely; it seemed she was the only human being down here in this godsforsaken place, and it took a great deal of willpower to stave off the panic that was gnawing away at the edges of her nervous system.
More time passed, and as she walked, she made out a giant golden ball glowing above what appeared to be a small fort. I must be getting close, she thought. The tallest tower she had yet seen stood beyond the fort; the top of it seemed to reach right into the rock above her. Yes, that must be the Tower of Mzark! She smiled, feeling relieved to have her goal in her sights. She was very much looking forward to ending this little mission and getting back to civilisation; gods knew she longed to see a friendly face!
The sound of rushing water could be heard too, and soon she stood at the edge of a waterfall. 'That's...that's...wow', as Farkas would say, she thought, smirking. The water was glowing, and the aroma that came from it smelled fresh and clean. Foregoing the temptation to have a sip, she walked further along the edge and found a shadowed bridge which would take her across to the fort. Rose stayed inside the cover of the shadows as she crept along the outside of the wall, looking for an inconspicuous entry.
Rose found a small opening in the wall and slipped through. Intrigued by the glowing ball of light, she climbed a flight of stairs to get a closer look. What was that? She heard a muffled sound which could have been male voices, and she stood frozen to the spot. Sure enough, as the sound drew closer, she made out distinct conversation between two males. They appeared to be discussing orders; orders? What was this place, some sort of secret army fort? She drew her swords and stepped into the light, hoping beyond hope that these men were friendly.
"Halt! Who goes there?" said one man, as they stepped closer to Rose. Rose was baffled—they weren't dressed like soldiers; in fact, they were dressed in filthy rags. The idea that they weren't soldiers so much as slaves began to form in her mind, but as soon as she had acknowledged that fact, two more similarly-clad men appeared. "Quickly, grab her!" one of them said.
Rose wasted no more time: "FUS...RO, DAH!" she Shouted, sending three of the men flying from the balcony where they stood, to their deaths. As she turned to attack the remaining man, she felt a sharp pain in her neck. Paralysis poison, she thought, as she fell like a lump of lead. The man approached her, followed by several other men. Something was placed over her nose and mouth, and she felt herself slipping into warm unconsciousness.
The last thing she heard before she blacked out was a loud, strange creaking coming from the direction of the giant glowing ball.
Playing Blackreach for the first time freaked me out a tiny bit (sort of), especially as my map marker kept disappearing due to a bug, and I kept on getting lost.
Anyway, I hope you'll stay with me—it won't be long before Rose and Farkas meet up again, though we will see a final bit of drama for Rose, as well as a small, pleasant twist while she is in Blackreach. :)
Thanks for the favs, follows and reviews. I get very happy and excited!