11
Fynix heaved on the big stone door, rewarded with yet another unsuccessful attempt to open it. He stood up straight and cracked his aching back. Fynix needed this particular Ayleid ruin to find pure glow dust. No one had entered the ruin in over a millennium, and that meant the glow dust deposits and glow stones would be fresh and undisturbed. However, Fynix was discovering the reason why no one had been in here in over a thousand years. The door into the ruins was half his height taller and wider and had to weigh a solid ton. Fynix looked at the door and tossed back his hood to scratch his head. He needed to get in, but there seemed to be no way in. He sat down on the steps behind him and stared at the door. There had to be a way to open it.
He started musing out loud to think better, "This door weighs several times as much as I do. That rules out pushing it open. I could try telekinesis, but I don't want to be stuck with a headache for the rest of the week." He breathed a heavy sigh and hung his head, "And my stubborn pride won't let me let go of this problem. If I go somewhere else, this is going to be a burden on my mind for theā¦" Fynix trailed off and his head snapped up, "Burden. That's it! The door has a burden enchantment on it!" He stood up and started to probe the door again. He placed both palms on the door and summoned his most powerful feather spell. He closed his eyes and poured as much of his strength into the spell as he could, knowing full well that an Ayleid enchantment that lasted this long was nothing to be trifled with. He felt the enchantment resist the feather and pushed harder. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he fought the enchantment. He probed the burden's defenses, looking for a weak point. The enchantment's power dwarfed his own, so he couldn't win by strength alone. He probed further until he found it, the enchantment's weak point. He pushed inward and outward, undoing the burden at the seams. The feather took root and the enchantment dissipated. Fynix opened his eyes and stood up, instantly staggered by a light-headed feeling that washed over him in the wake of his exertion. He shook his head to remove the feeling and looked at the door again. He knew it still wouldn't move as the result of another enchantment, but at least he'd broken the burden.
Fynix started feeling around the edges where the two parts of the door met. There was a slight depression that ran down the height of the door right down the middle, perfectly coinciding with where a seam should be. Fynix furrowed his brow. He'd seen locking spells like this back in Morrowind. This particular type locked a door so well that it literally merged the parts of the door into one piece. Fynix stepped back and held his hands toward the door, releasing his most potent unlocking spell. The door pulsed white for a brief moment, but the seam didn't reappear. Fynix frowned, then stepped forward and touched the door, hoping the tactile contact would help. He used the spell again and the seam reappeared, but disappeared only a moment after.
Fynix narrowed his eyes, "Whatever they locked up in here, they didn't want anyone getting to it." He held his free hand near where the seam should be and used his spell one more time. When the seam reappeared, he jammed his hand into the seam and used a dispel. The seam stayed for a moment longer, giving him enough time to put his shoulder to the door and heave it open. He got the gap just barely wide enough to squeeze through before the enchantment locked up the parts of the door again. Fynix picked up his staff from against the door frame and wiggled himself through the gap. The interior was dark and warm. Fynix went as far down the steps in front of him as the light dared let him and looked around the small room he was in. It was a usual landing for a descending staircase, probably fraught with traps. Fynix's life detection spells hadn't sensed anything, so he clicked his staff on the ground twice, triggering a light spell. A green glow emanated from the head of the staff, illuminating everything within about sixty feet. He continued on around the landing and down the next flight of stairs. The stairs shortly ended in a long downward sloping hallway. Fynix continued down the hall and into the depths of the ruin. He carefully scanned the hallway walls and ceiling, looking for deposits of glow dust or hanging cages with glow stones in them. Fynix furrowed his brow as he walked, puzzled why there wouldn't be either this far up in the ruins. He kept walking downward until he came to a gate at the end of the hall. Another thing that struck Fynix as odd was this gate's design. It wasn't the usual ornately decorated Ayleid gate. In fact, it looked like it had been very hastily constructed. It was solid enough to keep him out, though. Fynix stood back and cast his unlocking spell. He heard the gate's lock unhinge and he pushed the door open.
Beyond the gate was a massive room that was too dark to see the other side from the door. Fynix slipped on his Ring of Nighteye, amplifying the light from his staff. The ring also revealed what he was looking for. There were several glow stones cages hanging from the high ceiling and numerous deposits along the walls. Fynix smiled and moved to go toward one, but stopped when his life detection sensed something. It wasn't necessarily alive according to the spell, but it wasn't dead either. He doused the light from his staff and cautiously advanced toward the life form. He rounded a pillar and found the source of this life. Whatever the creature was, it looked like a lich, but instead of tattered mage robes and a staff, this lich wore head-to-toe armor and carried a sword and shield. The armor looked old but still solid, and the blade at its side had an unexpectedly shiny edge, meaning it was quite sharp. What struck Fynix as most odd about it was if it wasn't hunched over, it would have been a full two feet taller than he was. The lich turned its head slightly toward Fynix, revealing eyes sunken back into a skull-like face that glowed an eerie yellow. The lich opened its mouth and let out a breathy hiss. Fynix shuddered at seeing the lich's face. He'd seen undead before, bonewalkers, skeletons, zombies, but none of them had given him the shivers like this thing.
Fynix turned away to get his glow dust and get out when his boot slipped on some loose dirt. He lost his balance and fell against the pillar, his armor clacking loudly against the stone. The lich turned its head toward the source of the noise and started lumbering toward where Fynix was hiding. He pressed himself against as flat against the pillar as he could. The lich rounded the pillar and looked around while Fynix quietly slid around to another side of the pillar. Fynix pressed his back against the pillar, breathing as silently as possible. The lich's fingers slid onto the corner of the pillar next to his head with the lich following. Fynix held his breath. He had nowhere else to go and he wasn't good enough at Illusion for invisibility. The lich turned his head and looked right at him. Its eyes flared brightly and it let out a hissing shriek. Fynix whipped out his blade and stabbed the lich in the face. It reeled from the blow, pulling backward off the sword and bringing its own blade and shield to bear. Fynix stepped away from the pillar and steeled himself for a fight. The lich stayed behind its shield, slowly circling Fynix, sizing him up. It finally moved the shield aside and swung its sword downward in an overhand strike. Fynix held his sword up to block and was nearly decapitated by his own blade with the force of the blow. The lich was incredibly strong, no doubt about that. Nix took advantage of the lich's long recovery time and aimed a strike for its neck. The tip of the blade slashed across the rotting flesh, but the lich wasn't even phased. Fynix opened a wound in its neck and dust started falling out, but it was undeterred. The lich raised its sword and swung sidearm. Fynix ducked and rolled underneath the swing rather than blocking it. He came to his feet and spun his staff to crack the lower half in the back of the lich's head. Its head jarred forward, but it came back up and looked at him with fiery eyes. It came around with another high sidearm swing. Fynix dropped to one knee and ran his blade into the lich's gut under its cuirass. Once again, it was unharmed by the strike. Fynix pulled his blade out and twirled it in his hand once to shake the dust off. He took a step back and aimed the head of his staff at the lich, unleashing its power. The lightning bolt struck the lich in the chest, but only staggered it. Fynix shook his head and fired off another bolt, striking the lich's chest again and fracturing the armor. A beam of light shot from the crack and faded and the lich shrieked in pain.
Fynix's eyes widened, "That's it then. Break the armor." The lich was angry now. It charged and swung low. Fynix hopped over the swing and swung his own blade around into the lich's shoulder pauldron, chipping a piece off the edge. A beam of light sprung and faded from the chip and the lich recoiled. It attacked with an overhand chop. Fynix sidestepped the strike at the last moment and swung his blade downward on the lich's arm. This time, his sword struck a small maroon gem on the higher forearm of the lich's bracers. The gem shattered and the lich's arm, bracer, and weapon dematerialized to dust.
Fynix looked at the creepy lich and smiled, "So that's your secret. Your armor keeps you alive." He didn't have much time to rejoice over his discovery. The lich stood up to full height and swung its shield downward to crush Fynix. Nix ducked and rolled down and between the lich's legs. He came up and slashed it across a patch of exposed flesh, causing it to reel from the hit. Fynix noticed with destroying that gem, the lich felt pain now. It swung its shield around behind it in a blow that would have broken several of Fynix's bones. He stepped back, the shield brushing his chest lightly, and started looking the lich's armor over for more gems. He identified one on each boot, another on the other bracer, and one on each pauldron. There was no gem on the helmet, but then that would have been too easy. He ducked under the lich's next shield swing and swung his staff around to crack the gem on its left boot. The leg started shedding dust and the lich started limping. Fynix swung again and finished the job, the leg and all attached to it falling to the ground in a pile of dust. The lich caught itself on its shield arm and pushed itself back up to balance on one leg. It hopped forward and swung again. Fynix rotated around the downward swing and slashed his blade down to shatter the gem on that shoulder. The shoulder fell to dust and the arm dropped to the ground. Fynix's eyes bugged when he saw the arm was still moving. He stepped on the gem and crushed it under his boot, the arm disappearing in a cloud. Fynix didn't waste any time in finishing off the very ticked off lich. He smashed the other pauldron gem and the cuirass fell off and vanished. This exposed a large yellow gem embedded in the lich's sternum. Fynix gave his hardest swing and shattered the gem. He backed up as the lich started screaming and convulsing violently. Beams of light shot from various holes in its flesh and started to intensify. The light grew until it consumed the lich's body, when it burst into a hundred pieces. Fynix raised his arm to shield his face from the wave of dust that showered him. When he lowered his arm, there was nothing left of the lich save for a falling cloud of dust.
Fynix sheathed his sword and brushed sweat from his face, "Whatever you were, I hope I never encounter another of you." He turned around toward the rest of the chamber and froze solid. Staring at him out of the darkness were hundreds of pairs of glowing yellow eyes.
"Oh, bugger." Fynix turned to run when he heard a voice echo across the chamber, reciting an Ayleid incantation. Fynix translated it in his mind to say "Back to your eternal slumber, ye demons of the fallen darken. For day is come, be gone with ye, and to this power ye shall hearken." Before his very eyes, the army of liches vanished without a trace. Fynix stayed wary, because he recognized the voice that recited the incantation.
He looked around the dark room to where the voice came from, "Krayven. I would never have guessed you to be the type to turn over a new leaf and start rescuing people."
"Why let the monsters kill you," He dropped from a higher point in the shadows and landed in a crouch, "when it's so much more satisfying to do it myself."
"How did you do that, anyway?"
Krayven jerked his thumb back toward the ruin entrance, "It was inscrolled across the wall at the entrance. I would have thought you the type to notice that."
Fynix raised his eyebrows, "I was a little preoccupied with something else when coming in here."
Krayven smiled, "As I guessed. The Ayleid Sacred Army was the greatest fighting force the Ayleids ever created. They specially forged and enchanted thousands of suits of armor to keep the wearer alive through any wound. Unfortunately, over time, they becameā¦unreliable and very dangerous even to those they fought for. The Ayleids feared the army's power so much that they confined them here for eternity. I figured you would have known that history lesson."
Fynix shrugged, "I'm not much of a student of Ayleid history, just craftsmanship." Nix rested his hand on his sword, ready to draw it again, "So if this army is so powerful, why aren't you using them to conquer Tamriel?"
"The same reason the Ayleids feared them: they can't be controlled. Now why don't you pick up your sorry little magical backside and waddle on out of here before this gets ugly."
Fynix scoffed, "That didn't take long. It got ugly when you showed up."
Krayven shrugged, "Do they hand out the stale sense of humor with the accent for you Dunmer or something? You're in my way, and I'm really not in the mood to have to drag your blackened corpse out of here. Leave!"
"Didn't you hear? I have business in this place, too. And from where I'm standing, you're in my way."
Krayven rubbed his forehead with his fingers, "What is it with Dunmer and not taking warnings when they're given?" He looked at Fynix and any shred of joviality on his face vanished, "I guess you've elected for the hard way. I can facilitate that." Krayven snapped his hand forward and cast a fireball. Fynix stood his ground and held up his forearm, absorbing the magicka of the flame and reducing it to nothing more than an uncomfortable heat.
Krayven blinked at what he saw, "I must say, I wasn't expecting that. Can you catch this?" He snapped out his other hand and released a lightning bolt. Fynix rotated and moved his staff into the bolt's path, the staff's lightning enchantment instantly absorbing a similar magic.
Krayven cocked his head to one side, "You've gotten better since we last met, Fynix." He reached his hand toward Fynix's feet and released a different fireball. The ball struck the ground in front of Fynix and exploded violently, throwing him back several feet.
Krayven walked up and stood over him, "But so have I." He raised his foot to step on Fynix's chest when he reached up and grabbed Krayven's throat in a telekinetic hold. Krayven gasped and clawed at his neck as Fynix stood to his feet. What Fynix didn't count on was that Krayven never fought fair. He kicked a heap of loose dust up into Fynix's face, causing him to cough and release his grip. As Fynix waved the air in his face free of dust, Krayven drew his claymore and pressed the attack. Fynix's vision cleared just in time to see a big, armor-clad Imperial charging at him. He drew his sword and crossed it with his staff to block Krayven's overhand swing. He spun sideways as he released the blade and cracked Krayven in the back of the skull with the lower part of the staff. Krayven stumbled forward and looked at Fynix, who twirled his staff around in one hand to get it back into guard position.
Krayven rubbed the back of his head, "That's the best you have? Hitting me with a stick?"
Fynix shrugged, "That's the best you have? A weak insult?" Krayven snarled and charged Fynix with his blade held out to the side. Fynix moved his staff to block it and picked up the lower part of the blade. At the same time, he swung his own sword around at Krayven's side. Unexpectedly, Krayven turned in place to take the sword strike squarely on the back of his cuirass, damaging the metal slightly, but not harming him any more than a bruise. He then snapped out a foot and kicked Fynix in the gut, doubling him over and pushing him back to the wall. Fynix recovered in time to roll against the wall as Krayven's sword slashed down and made sparks along the wall where he just was. Fynix stopped and felt something near his hand. He looked and found a deposit of glow dust, just what he was looking for. He quickly hacked off a large piece and stuck it in a sack before Krayven's blade came at his again. His sidearm slash cleanly struck the wall again as Fynix dropped onto his back. He pulled a small potion vial from his belt and closed his eyes as he smashed it against the wall. The darkness flashed as the potion within released a powerful light all at once. Krayven was caught completely off guard and temporarily lost his sight as his eyes adjusted to the rapid change in lighting. Fynix stayed down and swept his leg through Krayven's, knocking him to the floor. Fynix braced on his staff and picked himself up while Krayven shoulder-hopped to his feet. He stood there for a moment, blinking the flash from the potion out of his eyes. Fynix came at him with his sword out next to him and his staff in front to guard. Krayven's sight came back in time to block the strike and slid it into a corpse-a-corpse.
Fynix pushed against Krayven's blade as he spoke through gritted teeth, "Who are you working for, Krayven? Blackwood Company? Mythic Dawn? Who?"
Krayven smiled, "Oh, I'm here on my own time. My employer doesn't even know I've left. Don't worry, you'll meet him soon enough." Krayven heaved his weight against the swords and pushed Fynix back. He stood up straight and pointed the long blade at Fynix, "But by then, Arken will be too late to stop me. I won't have to worry about you, because you'll be dead!" He charged at Fynix with his blade held low in a thrusting position. Without thinking, Fynix punched the floor beneath him, releasing his frost spell. The frost wave glazed the floor over with ice and frosted over Krayven's boots, effectively freezing him to the floor. The sudden lack of mobility caused Krayven to trip, shattering the ice covering his boots as he fell. He hit the floor hard and Fynix closed the distance between them. He placed his hand on Krayven's back and frosted over his cuirass with a thick layer of ice, adding another several pounds. Fynix stood and sprinted toward the gate. The ice was just going to slow Krayven down and make him mad, not stop him. Fynix bounded through the gate and slammed it shut behind him. He cast a locking spell on the gate, the inverse of an opening spell. The gate's locks all latched shut with a metallic clank. For good measure, Fynix held his hand near the lock and summoned his fire spell. The lock glowed red and melted slightly before Fynix reversed the temperature and cooled it off to harden it. Krayven reached the gate, bits of ice still clinging to his armor, and rattled it hard, but it didn't give. He reached through the bars at Fynix, but he merely stepped out of Krayven's reach.
Krayven's eyes gleamed with anger in the darkness, "Curse on you and all your kind, Dunmer."
Fynix smirked and shook his head, "You really need to think of some better threats, old boy. Ta." Krayven's hateful scream followed Fynix out of the ruins. Half tempted to reseal the door on the outside, Fynix ignored the whim on account of too much work and mounted Jerrall to make the best time away from here that he could. If there was anything that repeated encounters with Krayven had taught him, it's that no cell really can hold Krayven Harkonus for very long. Fynix pulled out his list. Two important materials had been collected and they were well on their way. He smiled as he looked toward the Imperial City. White Gold Tower stood majestically in the center like a spike of gleaming stone.
Fynix nodded as he spoke to no one in particular, "Soon, Martin. Very soon now."
