Down to the Darkest Depths
10th of Frostfall, 4E 201. Fredas
Ra'shall walked into Frozen Hearth Inn. He shook snow out of his fur before turning to his left. He gave a curt nod to the innkeeper before he walked into one of the bedrooms. His tail settled in a happy hook behind his back.
Harry was still sleeping.
Not that he could fault the teen after everything that had happened, and the nightmares that had followed. He sat down next to the teen and ran a hand through his hair slowly. "It's time to wake up now," he said quietly.
The teen rolled over on his stomach and mumbled something incomprehensible.
Ra'shall rolled his eyes. "That won't work," he said as he placed a hand on the back of the boy's head. "You know I'll carry you outside and throw you in the snow if you don't get up now." He combed his fingers through thick raven locks. The boy had been letting his hair grow wild. Katla had asked if he wanted to cut it, but he'd said no. "Up with you," he said.
A bright green eye looked up at him. "Do I have to?" the teen mumbled.
"Yes," Ra'shall said. "We need to get going. We have a long road ahead of us and most of it will be underground." He stood up. "I'm going to order breakfast, and you better be out of here when it is served," he said.
"Sure whatever," Harry said tiredly.
Ra'shall rolled his eyes and walked out of the room. 'Impudent child,' he thought.
Harry closed his eyes and sighed. 'I better get up before he gets back here,' he thought. He was well aware of the fact that Ra'shall was serious about his threats, and he did not want to get thrown out in the snow. He sat up slowly and looked down at the floor. 'Now where are my clothes?' he wondered. Standing up, he looked around searching for his pants. He ran a hand over his chest. A small smile spread over his face. He'd only been in Skyrim for about a month, but his physique had improved a lot. He wasn't buff or anything, but he felt much better.
Finally he found his shirt crumpled up in a corner. He grabbed the dark-blue cotton fabric and pulled it over his head. He combed his finger through his hair to get rid of a few knots. Hiding a yawn with his hand, he pulled the door open.
"So you managed to get up," Ra'shall said. "You look like a scarecrow."
Harry rolled his eyes. "I need a comb or something to fix that," he said. He yawned again, walked over to their usual table and sat down. "You're not joining me?" he asked as he looked up at the feline man.
Ra'shall shook his head. "I've eaten already," he answered. "I'll be waiting out west when you're done. We're probably not coming back here so you better pack everything you need."
"Sure," Harry said before going back to his breakfast.
…
Snow was falling like always in Winterhold. It covered everything in a soft white blanket. Sound was muffled and heat only found by the roaring fires in the houses. The College was the only place where people in the area actually wanted to be. The Mages didn't want to leave something the few citizens in the city did not share with them. Only the Jarl seemed to be stubborn enough to stick around in the actual city.
Amber eyes moved over the nearby mountains. A sigh disappeared with the wind. It had been far to close.
~ Katla opened her eyes slowly. She felt like shit. "Ra'shall," she said croakily.
"Hush, Katla don't move," the feline man said softly as he moved up next to her. "You still haven't healed fully."
The brunette nodded slowly. "Where's Harry?" she asked.
Ra'shall smiled softly. "Look to your left hon," he said.
Katla turned her head. She was surprised she hadn't realised that the weight settled against her was even there before she saw the teen lying next to her with his head on her shoulder. She turned back to her old friend ready to ask a question, but he beat her to it.
"He worked so hard to get his magic to heal you last night that it completely exhausted him," Ra'shall said. "But you would have died if he hadn't managed." He placed his hand on her stomach. "Don't ever do that to us again," he said. "It isn't just Harry that has to be careful." ~
"Katla… Nirn to Katla."
Amber eyes turned to a dark furred Khajiit. "Lost in thoughts, huh?" the man said.
"You could say that," she answered. She moved the hand that had travelled up to lay over her stomach away. Thanks to Ra'shall's potions and Harry's magic she had healed just fine. She sighed and shuffled her feet. "Harry's on his way?" she asked.
Ra'shall nodded. "He'll be here as soon as he's finished his breakfast and packed what little he has left," he said. "Do you really think it's a good idea to bring him along down there?" he asked.
Katla looked skywards as she answered, "He can handle himself. If he hadn't been around down in the barrow I would be dead now. We need him with us." She looked back down at Ra'shall meeting his eyes. "We'll just have to make sure that we don't split up again," she said. "If the two of us had fought that spectra then what happened wouldn't have occurred."
"Never split up," Ra'shall said. "If we work methodically through the place with that in mind, we should be alright."
"I should hope so," Harry said as he walked up next to the grown-ups. He was wearing a set of mage robes that had been altered to fit him. Colette had given them to him when she'd heard that they were travelling down into Dwemer ruins. She had muttered something along the lines of wanting to see him return to the College one day. The robes were enchanted with some kid of health regeneration which would help him heal. He wasn't really sure how that worked though.
Katla looked down at her map. "We need to get here," she said and pointed. "Unfortunately we have no clue what the terrain is like because of the snow."
"We'll just have to hope we'll end up in the right place," Ra'shall said.
"Yeah, cause that ended up so well last time around," Harry said cheekily. He started walking down the hill.
"Now see there a rich boy, eh," a male voice said.
The raven turned around and ducked down. He lifted his hands and sent a cloud of ice towards the man. A purple mist gathered in his palm and an angry griffin sprung forth. He moved to the side quickly and kicked at a set of bare legs.
"Harry," Katla called.
"I'm here," the teen responded and stood up. He brushed snow from his clothes before walking up to the brunette.
"Damn bandits," Ra'shall said irritably. "Don't they get that they would live longer if they don't attack us?"
"Ra'shall shut up," Katla said as her arms tightened around Harry. She did her best to keep him away from the dead bodies as she guided him further down the mountain.
…
The sky cleared up as they reached Alftand. They'd stopped to eat after climbing a rather steep slope. It was heavy work to walk through the snow and had taken them much longer than what was normal for them, so it was nice to finally see the sun again.
"Wait," Ra'shall hissed suddenly as he crouched down.
"What?" Katla breathed back.
"There is a giant up ahead," the feline answered.
"And a dragon," Harry said quietly.
"What no there's no…" A roar cut Ra'shall off. "O.K. so there is a dragon," he said. "Great."
Katla pulled her bow from her back. "Come on Harry let's see if we can't deal with this from a distance," she said. She placed an arrow on her bowstring and pulled it back before moving up. She could see the teen join her out of the corner of her eye. "Tell me when you have a shot," she said calmly. She didn't have to wait long.
"Got it," Harry said determinedly.
"Fire."
The arrows flew across the white expanse covering the ground. They buried into the thick skin of the giant. It staggered back and the dragon descended upon it before closing its giant jaws around the large man's upper body. Great wings beat quickly as the dragon took of with its prey.
"That's fortunate," Ra'shall said softly. "At least he won't come back to attack us." He moved up from their hiding spot and looked towards a makeshift camp that had been set up by the base of a Dwemer tower sticking up out of the snow. Obviously someone had tried to build houses there, but considering the state those houses were in, they hadn't made it.
They moved through the first house together. Harry disappeared into the second one.
"Shit," Katla breathed.
"What?" Ra'shall asked.
"Look at that," Katla said as she pointed towards a number of charred bodies partly covered by the snow.
"I found a journal," Harry said as he walked back out of the house. "And a locked chest." He gave the feline a pointed look.
"What does the journal say," Katla asked as she walked up to the teen. In an attempt to guide Harry away from the bodies, she turned him back around so they could walk through the house to the place they needed to check out next.
The raven opened the journal and looked down at the sloppy text. He tilted his head to the side and his eyes widened before he squinted. "Whoever wrote this is not good at writing so it's visible," he said. "We've managed to secure the site and hold off any others who may try to steal our discoveries so far, especially those from the College of Winterhold, who seem to think the glory of exploring every ruin should be theirs alone," he read.
"Treasure seekers or fame seekers," Ra'shall said. "They probably would have been better off letting the Collage deal with this."
Harry nodded in agreement. "Then it lists off the members of the crew. There were seven in total," he said. "Sulla writes that they need more labourers because it's difficult to get through the ice down there. 'We've set up shelter and scouted the area. The small ruins on the lower plateau of the glacier don't seem connected to the main structure and we haven't managed to find a way into the tower parapet we've found here. Yag mentioned spotting a fissure in the glacial wall that may lead into the ruins so we are going to try find a way to get down there with the gear. Looks like a storm is coming,'" he read.
"So the ruin might be full of explorers who will not be happy to get company," Katla said.
"I can deal with them without killing them if we find them in there," Ra'shall said. He didn't look forward to meeting these people either. The big question was if the bodies they'd seen were a part of the crew or if they had been intruders. He followed Katla and Harry as the brunette led the teen down towards what seemed to be an entrance into the ruins. She had placed herself so that Harry wouldn't see the bodies half buried by the snow.
What had looked like an opening turned out to be nothing but stone. But the wooden bridge they had walked down continued until there was an opening in the ice.
"O.K. remember we stay together," Katla said. She'd stopped by the entrance. "When we get to a new room we make sure that it is clear, and you don't open any doors without at least one other person there and only after the room is clear. Got it?" she asked.
Harry nodded and Ra'shall rolled his eyes. "We got it, Katla," the feline said childishly. He ducked as the woman took a swipe at him.
They walked into the frozen cave. There were wooden beams and signs of people working everywhere as they went. Passing an overturned cooking pot, they could see blood smeared out over the frozen ground before them.
Harry breathed in deeply and tried his best to keep his stomach in check. There was nothing that could be done to change what had happened so there was no point in getting upset about it. At least that was what he tried to convince himself. Walking past the blood on the ground, he noticed several empty wine bottles. "They've been drinking a lot," he said quietly as he pointed down at the bottles.
"Probably has something to do with all the blood," Ra'shall said. "There's nothing here so we might as well move on." He walked first as they continued. "I'm really starting to wonder who's been bleeding like this," he said as they reached another smear of blood. "It can't be healthy."
They followed the blood smear down a steep hill and through a tunnel.
"Where is it? I know you are trying to keep it for yourself J'zhar. You're always trying to keep it for yourself," a rough voice drifted through the tunnel they were walking through. "No! There's got to be more Skooma. Shut up J'zhar! You hid it you're always trying to steal it from me."
Ra'shall held a hand up to stop the other two. "It's a Khajiit," he said.
"How do you know?" Harry asked quietly.
"Speech pattern and Skooma," Ra'shall said. "While other races drink Skooma as well, it's much more common among the Khajiit." He walked forward slowly. "Just let me knock him out and then you can come in," he said.
Katla nodded and pulled her bow from her backpack and lined an arrow up. "Just in case," she whispered.
Ra'shall shrugged before he started walking forward slowly. He walked through a dark corridor. As he reached a turn, he waved Katla and Harry over. There was no point in having them that far back if the person they had heard was further up the way. There was a possibility that what they'd heard was an echo or that it had travelled through a wall. He continued walking and came upon dripping water that was slowly covering the floor. He sniffed at it. It smelled clean. "We can refill our water here," he whispered to Katla.
The brunette nodded. "You go on ahead, but don't go too far," she said softly.
The feline man nodded. They seemed to have entered actual ruins now. In the distance he could hear Dwemer machinery still going at it. He passed an unmoving Dwemer spider. The little creatures did maintenance work and guarded the Dwemer's machines. It was a wonder that they could still move around considering how long the Dwemer had been gone. The place was far from well taken care of though. A large piece of pipe lay on the ground where it had fallen from the conduct above. There were piles of rocks and gravel all around. Icicles hung from the ceiling dangerously. Most of them seemed to be melting slowly. Ra'shall stopped and sat down. He didn't want to get too far away from the other two. So far there seemed to be no one around but the Khajiit who had spoken earlier, but one could never be too careful.
Footsteps approached slowly. They were quiet. He was smiling softly. Katla had gotten better and better at moving silently with her armour on, and Harry was wearing softer boots so his steps were not all that loud to begin with.
"Still haven't found anything?" Katla asked.
Ra'shall shook his head. "He must have been on the other side of the wall up there," he said. He stood up slowly. "We should move on," he said.
They continued down a rubble filled corridor into a larger room. There was a table with the pieces of two Dwemer spiders on it and a barred entrance. They scanned the area so they wouldn't get surprised by anything as they looked closer at the things in there.
Harry walked up to the table once he knew that the coast was clear. He moved the metal parts of the spiders around a bit. They were quite fascinating. Then he saw a book. Dwarves v.2, he read. He sighed. He didn't want to read the second one before the first one. Then he saw another book. It looked like research notes.
If only Umani would have left one of these Dwarven machine
creatures intact for me to study. The fact that they almost
killed those Khajiit brothers in the middle of the night doesn't
mean we couldn't have found a way to disable one. We
dragged some stuff in front of the pipes they came out of to
stop them from coming back.
They are simply fascinating! It is just as Calcelmo described in
Dwarves, V2. Their appearance does, in fact, resemble that of
an arachnid. I had thought that to be an embellishment given
by his source. The inclusion of the soul gem into the design of
the apparatus is quite remarkable. It could explain the focus
for the lightning that he describes.
Harry closed his eyes. To understand the notes he would have to read parts of the book about Dwarves. He grabbed the other book and opened it up. It told about the Dwemer and their weapons and armour. He continued reading until he found something that seemed to be useful for his understanding of the research notes.
The most simple of which is the standard "arachnid"
design used to ward off trespassers. We are so far
uncertain as to how the dwarves were able to bring to life
these remarkably intelligent machines, but I have witnessed
one stalk a highly trained thief for several hours, only to
ambush him as he was dealing with a lock to some room or
treasure trove - I admit to have forgotten the details past the
point at which it began spouting lightning at him.
'O.K.' Harry thought. 'That does not sound so good.' He looked down at the text again since it told about more of the enemies they might find down there. 'There is a ball monster that turns into a warrior. And a Centurion which can be from twice the size a normal man, to several hundred times a normal man's size.' His brows rose. 'Great,' he thought. 'And we might meet these.'
Oddly enough it doesn't appear to be the main power source
for the apparatus. Perhaps some sort of harmonic resonance
with the energies contained in the soul gem to bring heat to a
small boiler? Too early to say conclusively. That does raise the
question of where they get the liquid for the boiler however.
Harry tilted his head to his side. He might actually look into how the machines worked when he was older. It seemed like an interesting thing to research. He looked back down at the book.
Huh, that was strange. I thought I just saw something moving
beyond the barred door. It looked vaguely humanoid.
I wonder if it could be an undiscovered automaton? I'm going
to move my bedroll down here to see if I can catch another
glimpse of it. This is all so exciting!
"Interesting?" Katla asked as she placed her hand on the teen's shoulder.
Harry looked up at her. "Yeah, sort of. I would like to look into this when I get older," he said. "The author writes that he saw something humanoid that he wanted to look into down here," he told her.
The brunette raised an eyebrow. "We'll have to be careful then. Humanoid creatures down in dungeons are not a good thing," she said. "It is either an undead or something worse than that."
Harry nodded. "It doesn't sound much better than the humongous centurions that could be down here," he said.
"Yeah, those are a bit annoying to deal with," Ra'shall said a bit distracted. "These bars don't open from here," he said. He walked up to the table and looked down at the spiders. He shook his head before he continued down the next corridor.
"Spider!" Harry called out.
Ra'shall turned around as he drew his sword. He smirked as he saw the raven raise his hands as fire spread from his palms. Turning his blade around, he rammed it straight down into the metal arachnid's body.
The spider shook helplessly for a short moment before collapsing to the ground.
Ra'shall pulled his sword back up and turned to leave again. He really wanted to make sure that there was nothing to worry about up ahead. He found a lantern and a burning torch on lying on the ground. There were several more pieces of fallen pipe lying about as he continued. Another spider appeared. It passed right by him, and he waited just long enough that it would be completely turned away from him before he stabbed it. He could see Katla and Harry down by the start of the incline he was standing in.
It was starting to get late. They really needed to find a place to settle down for the night in.
"We should probably head back," Ra'shall said as he looked down a frozen corridor. "That is not healthy for us to sleep in." He pointed at the ice.
Katla grimaced before she nodded. "You're right let's go back," she said.
…
They had settled down for the night. It was late and they were tired.
Harry yawned where he lay with his head resting against Katla's shoulder. The brunette was leaning back against some rubble but hadn't lain down yet. "This place is strange," he said softly. He looked up at Katla. "There are things down here that people would never have been able to come up with on Earth, but of what I've seen, a lot of it would also be considered crude."
"That sounds a bit… strange," Katla said. "How does that work? How can they both be more advanced and less advanced?"
"Well it is mostly because magic doesn't exist so that the ones who use science know about it. So they don't work together. Unlike the Dwemer, the scientists on Earth do not have access to magic," Harry said. "So they use other things to build their machines. And magic users don't build things like that at all."
"Why on Nirn not?" Ra'shall asked. "I mean I know that the non-magic people don't know about magic, but why aren't the magic users using the knowledge that the non-magic people have come up with?" He couldn't understand why they wouldn't use the knowledge.
Harry chuckled. "Witches and wizards aren't that smart," he said. "They don't know anything about newer stuff. If you bring in any kind of technology they'll get all confused." He shrugged. "Magic users on Earth are that way," he said. "I promise that I won't turn out like that O.K." He looked up at Katla. "One theory is that magic kills the stuff that non-magical people use to work their inventions. I'll have to look into that."
"Can we please stop talking about this now and sleep," Katla said softly. She tightened her hold on the teen. "I don't want to talk about you leaving kulsezii."
"Sure," Harry said. "We can stop." He moved off the brunette so she could lie down. "Are you coming over here?" he asked Ra'shall.
The feline chuckled and moved over to the other two. "I'm here," he said. "Can I snuggle up too?"
Katla rolled her eyes. "Come here," she said. "Move over Harry so he can get closer."
The raven giggled and moved down until his head was resting on Katla's stomach. He could feel Ra'shall moving up behind him. It was to make sure that they would keep warm during the night. If it hadn't been that way, he might have felt awkward. His eyes closed as his breathing slowed down.
11th of Frostfall, 4E 201. Loredas
Katla stopped as she saw a Khajiit. It was most likely the one that had they'd heard the day before. He looked up from where he was hunched over. His voice was scratchy as he said, "What, who is this? Another one of those smooth skins looking for food? But this one wasn't trapped with us." He was obviously talking to himself. "No… no! You must be the one who took my skooma," he said crazily.
The brunette turned around. "Ra'shall come down here and deal with your kin," she called before she turned around and caught the knife that the Khajiit was trying to stab her with. She twisted his arm back so he would have to drop the dagger. She didn't want to kill the man unless she had to.
The feline-man came rushing down the icy slope that they'd looked down the evening before. He pulled a vial out and opened it before dumping the contents over the Khajiit. The gray furred feline back off and shook himself, trying to get rid of the liquid that had been splashed over him. He felt how something crept up at him. 'What is going on?' he thought. He stumbled back. His yellow eyes flickered back and forth quickly. "Don't touch me," he cried out. "Stay away from me!" He backed off from the two beings before him.
"Disappear."
The feline turned around … and screamed. There was a ghostly figure standing behind him. Fear grabbed a hold of him and he started running. "J'darr hasn't done anything wrong. Please leave J'darr alone," he whimpered.
Katla rolled her eyes. "It's a good thing that works so well," she said.
"Of course it did," Ra'shall said.
Harry hummed. "Sure just don't get too cocky," he said. Then he pointed down at the corpse of another Khajiit. "He killed his own brother," he said. "Can we burn him?" He walked up to the feline's body and bent down to pick a small journal up.
"Of course we can dear," Katla said.
"It's more sanitary," Ra'shall said. "I'm all for it." He moved his ears down. There was a loud noise from some sort of Dwemer machinery working most likely, and it really grated on his nerves. He did his best to shut the sound out. Walking forward, he pulled another vial from his belt and poured it out over the dead feline's body. "If you set fire to that now it will burn him to ash," he told the teen.
Harry looked up from the journal and nodded in Ra'shall's direction. He was trying his best not to think about what was going on. He knew somewhere deep down that he needed to get used to seeing dead people. It wasn't a pleasant realisation to have. "J'darr was trying to help his brother away from a skooma addiction," he said as he looked back down at the book in his hands. "The guy we scared off was already hallucinating before you dozed him."
Ra'shall nodded. "I'm not surprised," he said. "It is not a pleasant thing to try and get rid of a skooma addiction." He looked down at the body. "We need to continue. What happened here is sad, but there is nothing we can do about it." He walked up to the raven and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Harry looked up at him and smiled softly at him before his expression turned serious as he held a hand out towards the Khajiit's corps and sent a jet of flames towards it. "Let's continue," he said as soon as he knew that the body had taken fire.
"Of course," Katla said.
They continued down towards the loud noise.
It's been about a week since Valie went missing and now
Endrast is gone too. We found blood leading over to the
barred off doorway, but Sulla seems to think that they
found a way through and that they are trying to cut him
out of the discovery.
He keeps saying that we need to press on. We've manage
to break through into another section of the ruins, an
"Animonculory", where the dwarves would produce their
automatons.
We learned the hard way that the metal creatures are still
alive in there and it hasn't improved Yag's mood at all. She
holds that the Khajiit brothers aren't involved with the
disappearances and has been keeping a hard eye on Sulla.
The rations have all but run out and we are going to have
to decide soon whether to brave the storm or try to push
further into the ruins. I don't know if the echoes of screams
I've heard in my sleep are those of our missing comrades,
or my own nightmares.
They fought two Dwemer Spheres along the road, and passed a forge that had Katla swearing about not having any metal to make a sword for Harry with. Since there was no other tools for blacksmithing around she accepted that it would have to wait.
By about midday they had found an old sleeping quarter and settled down for lunch.
It wasn't long after they'd eaten that they arrived in a room filled with what could have been intended as traps or could just be bad construction.
There were several big metal nail-like things moving in and out of a metal tube.
"Dwemer are insane," Harry muttered. "Their architecture is amazing and their weaponry and armours are great but this is insane." He ran by another of the strange nails before it shot out behind him.
"At least they aren't that difficult to bypass if you're just a bit patient," Ra'shall said. He moved up in front of the other two, pulled his sword and killed another Dwemer spider.
They passed through a big set of double doors an then another set. Spiders and Spheres and big piles of fluorescent blue eggs.
"What are these?" Harry asked.
"No clue," Ra'shall said. "But they would be interesting for potions making." He reached out and picked a few of them up before following after Harry as the teen moved forward. "Be careful not to step on the pressure plates," he said and pointed towards the floor.
"That's a long drop," Harry said as he looked over the edge of a railing free bridge.
"Don't get that close to the edge please Harry," Katla said. She didn't feel comfortable with him that close to falling. "Just take my hand will you. You might not be scared of heights, but I really don't want you that close to certain death," she almost begged.
Harry looked over at the brunette and smiled softly at her as he moved away from the edge and took the hand she was offering. "The Dwemer were crazy," he noted.
Katla looked down at him. "Yes, they were," she said.
They made their way down as quickly as possible. Katla might not have problems with climbing mountains, but she really was unnerved by the fall that existed all around them. "And that's why I don't like these places," she said and pointed down at a dead woman. The pathway seemed to have collapsed under her as she walked down it.
"O.K. maybe we should be more careful then," Harry said softly. He hadn't considered that the path might fall down from under him.
"I hope that there is another way down," Ra'shall said.
"Well there's a locked door here," Harry said. He'd walked over to another set of big double doors. "Why are all the doors so big?" he asked. "It is really unpractical."
Ra'shall snorted. "That is a good question," he said. "Maybe they made them that big so it would be easier to transport big things through them."
"Sure O.K. that makes sense," Harry accepted. Everything around the ruins was huge so why not.
Ra'shall got the locked door open. He moved into the new room and found a locked gate. 'They really seem to like locks around here,' he thought. 'And apparently our excavating friends aren't that good at lockpicking.'
Harry moved around the room. There seemed to be nothing animate in there. But there wasn't another way down either. He walked back to Katla who was watching Ra'shall unlocking a chest.
"There's a pair of Orcish gauntlets in here Katla. Do you want them?" the feline-man asked.
The brunette looked down at her gauntlets. They were in pretty good shape, but she knew for a fact that orichalcum was stronger than steel. "Yeah bring them down with you. They're better than the ones I have," she said. She pulled her gloves off and dropped them on the floor. "Harry says we have to take the broken path down," she said. "How do we do that?"
Ra'shall grimaced. "That is going to be annoying," he said. "Harry," he called. "Harry what are you doing?"
The raven had walked over to a place where there was a pipe jutting out a bit below the path they'd walked down. He dropped down just as he heard Ra'shall call. He turned around where he stood and looked back up. "I'm fine," he called back. He had after all ridden down a huge sewage pipe knowing that there was a giant snake at the bottom when he was twelve. He walked down the pipe and slid the last part before landing next to a burning torch.
Katla looked down at him. "You're nuts," she said. "If I could ground you right now I would."
Harry tilted his head to the side. "Why don't you come down here and give me a hug instead," he said. He looked to the side and did his best to avoid looking at the Orc's corpse lying only a few feet away from him. "You do realise that there is no going back if you guys come down here," he said. He watched as the two adults made their way down to him slowly. Katla did not look like she was having fun. It was probably a good thing that she and Ra'shall were coming down at the same time.
Once the brunette was down next to the teen, she reached out and wrapped her arms around the boy. "Don't do that to me," she said.
"I'm sorry," Harry said. He bit his lip and looked up at her. "We needed a way down so I found one," he said. "I guess I didn't think it through very well though." He felt really bad for worrying her, but they needed a way down so… He guessed he should have pointed it out to them before trying to go down.
"No you didn't," Katla said.
"Falmer," Ra'shall called up.
"Well of course there are Falmer down here," Katla called back. "Are you killing it or not?" she asked.
"It's dead," the feline called. He had disappeared just a bit down the next ramp they had to walk down.
"What are Falmer?" Harry asked.
"Snow elves that were forced underground. They are blind but their other senses are heightened," Katla said. "And they will kill you instantly if they find you, or possibly worse enslave you."
"So it is another elven race," Harry said.
The brunette nodded. "They're fallen enslaved elves," she said. "And unfortunately we have to kill them because they won't spare us. And it is almost impossible to scare them off."
The raven sighed. "I understand," he said sadly.
They passed the Orc's corpse and set her aflame like the Khajiit before her.
They continued down the stone ramps killing the Falmer they came across until they reached a set of big Dwemer doors.
Katla turned around and looked over at the constant stream of fire they had passed by to get to the door. "Let's just rest here," she said. "This place is relatively safe and clean in comparison to the rest of the ruins. And it is easy to defend."
…
It was several hours later.
Harry was sitting awake looking at the fire shooting out of a pipe overhanging the path they had come down. Katla and Ra'shall were asleep. He knew that he should be sleeping as well, but he was having trouble falling asleep. His mind kept repeating the scenes of death he'd seen that day. He felt sorry for those people - even the Falmer. He knew fully well why they were killing them, but it wasn't really fair, was it?
They just came here barging in and killing everything in sight when the Falmer had lived down in the ruins for ages. He really wanted to learn how to hide his presence so that he wouldn't have to kill people like the Falmer.
The bandits they had faced just after leaving Winterhold the previous day were different. They had attacked them for no reason, and while he didn't like the thought of them dead, he didn't regret attacking them.
Sighing he laid back in an attempt to get some actual sleep. He didn't want to stumble around the next day.
12th of Frostfall, 4E 201. Sundas
As they continued down into the old Dwemer ruins, they noticed more and more signs of Falmer. There were little tents set up along the path they walked. Both Katla and Harry travelled most of the way with their bows at the ready. It was much easier to take the Falmer out from a distance then get up close and personal.
It had taken the raven-haired teen a while to accept what he was doing. Knowing that the beings would either kill or enslave him if he didn't kill them did help, but he still didn't want to do it.
A couple of hours after setting out they found what looked to have been some kind of official office once upon a time. It could have served as a registration desk or recordkeeping room or something. The shelves in there were filled with old unreadable books. Time had made them fade. Just down the stairs from the office they found several torture devices and a lot of blood.
Katla moved up and wrapped her arms around Harry just so he would know she was right there and wouldn't let anything happen to him. The devises made her uneasy as well, but she knew that the Falmer wouldn't get her or anyone she travelled with.
"Let's not stick around here," Ra'shall said quietly once the Falmer who had inhabited the place were dead.
The other two fully agreed with the feline-man, and they moved onwards quickly. Spider webs started covering the walls and the floor as they kept going. Eventually they found at least one of the spiders responsible. Now, there was a creature Harry had no problems what-so-ever killing. He really didn't like spiders. The floor started looking strange, and there was a smell in the air that didn't feel healthy.
They reached a door, walked through it and closed it behind them. The smell wasn't present in the new corridor.
"You know what?" Harry said. "I'll be really glad when we get out of here. Deep dark dungeons are not my favourite thing."
The two adults couldn't help but agree. Neither of them particularly liked exploring old Dwemer ruins.
They eventually came upon a big open cave. At least that made them feel a little better. Though mostly, they missed the sky and trees and grass of the above world. They cleared the place out quickly and found an Orcish helmet in the process that Katla quickly checked for anything unmentionable before putting it on instead of her Blade helmet.
There were big cogwheels spinning on the walls of a fort of sorts in the room. The fact that the wheels still turned effortlessly seemed rather strange to Harry. Shouldn't they have like clogged shut or something without maintenance?
"There is a centurion up there," Ra'shall said as he made his way down a set of stairs that had been blocked by heavy iron bars when they got there.
"Great," Katla said. She looked back up to the lever that she'd just pulled to open the path up for her friend. Then she turned back to the feline. "Can you lure it out here?" she asked. "If you get it out here then Harry and I can attack it from above with our bows. It will be way less risky then trying to attack the thing head on," she explained.
"And my familiar can help as well," Harry said. "Once you get out of there or even before that she can make sure that you don't get killed." He held his hands out and the griffin appeared in front of him.
Ra'shall nodded. "O.K. that's good but not until I'm back out here or call for her because I might be able to do some lasting damage before the stupid machine realises I'm there," he said. He walked back over to the gate and sneaked up towards the metal man carefully.
The plan went off without a hitch. No one got hurt and the centurion was felled.
They had some quick lunch after that since they'd been feeling hunger gnawing at them for a little while by then before continuing. Frankly all of them just wanted to get the Scroll and get the hell back home for a while.
"Sulla let's get out of here. Hasn't there been enough death?" a female voice said up ahead.
"Oh, of course you want me to leave. Just waiting for me to turn my back so you can have all the glory for yourself," a male voice answered. Then there was a short pause before the man exclaimed, "Nhag!"
"Let them fight," Ra'shall said. "We'll deal with whoever is left. I don't trust having either of these maniacs at my back at this point."
Katla nodded gravely. Normally she wouldn't be quite so morbid, but the feline was right. These people had been around the ruins for far too long, and she was not about to trust them.
Harry looked up at the grown ups. He wasn't too happy about their decision, but since he couldn't come up with a better solution that wouldn't put them at risk, he stayed quiet. Reaching up he placed his hands over his ears so he wouldn't have to listen to the two former friends going at each other. He could feel how Katla placed her hands on his shoulders in a try to sooth him. After a while Ra'shall disappeared past a big Dwemer construction of some sort. The raven didn't remove his hands from his ears until the man was back. There was a strange grating noise coming from up ahead. "I sent her out of here," the feline man said. "She seemed to be the more with it of the two. I didn't see any reason to kill her. She most likely won't return."
"Thank you," Harry said softly. He knew why the man hadn't killed her. He didn't really care about the woman. He'd done it for his sake.
Katla smiled softly and shook her head at the man before looking down at the strange thing in front of them. A number of metallic rings and three blue stones sat upon what could be considered a table. But it was probably one of the more insane locks she'd ever seen. "And this is when we thank the madman for giving us a way in," she said as she removed the strange orb that Septimus had given her. She placed it into a pedestal, and they could all see as the circlets started spinning.
"Aaaahh," Harry screamed as the floor he'd been standing on disappeared beneath his feet. He whimpered as he turned over. Pain flared up his side. He'd only stumbled really but as the floor moved and created stairs he'd landed badly. He could feel arms wrap around him before someone lifted him up. He guessed that it was Katla because he was pretty sure that the one swearing in front of them was Ra'shall. A door was opened and there was a collective intake of breath.
They had reached Blackreach.