A New Dawn 2
- Darkfall Passage -
A strange feeling of warmth swept over Aeros as he stepped through the portal. The air felt thick as it filled with a myriad of shifting colors, and he felt as if he was traveling a great distance. It only lasted for a moment, before he emerged on the other side of the portal. He blinked several times as his eyes adjusted the sudden darkness around him. When he could see again, he found Serana waiting for him nearby, an odd look on her face.
"Are you all right?" he asked, once he had gotten his bearings.
"I'm fine," she replied. "Actually, that...wasn't as unpleasant as I thought it would be. Kind of soothing, actually. I feel a little warmer now."
"Still a bit weird though," Aeros said with a chuckle.
"Still a bit weird," she agreed.
Together, he and Serana examined their surroundings. They were standing on a stone platform amongst the ruins of what had likely been a wayshrine or gateway of some sort, with the portal which they had come through set between two crumbling stone pillars at the back. Through the shimmering veil, Aeros could see the interior of the wayshrine, but there was no sign of Gelebor. Beyond the stone ruins, there was not much else to the small underground chamber which they found themselves in. The only other thing of note was a tunnel opposite them. Seeing no other way forward, Aeros and Serana set off down the tunnel. They had expected the tunnel to be pitch black, but to their surprise, they instead found it to actually be bathed in a soft violet light emanating from several unusual plants growing along the sides of the tunnel. Curious, they tried to examine one of the plants, but when they got close, the long, tube-like plant actually retracted into a crack in the wall, plunging that section of tunnel into darkness.
The tunnel was fairly straight, and as they followed it, they passed several stretches of water, although most were little more than oversized puddles. However, to their unease, they noticed several holes in the wall above the pools of water similar to those used by the Falmer to ambush travelers. As they passed one such pool of water, they heard noises up ahead. Listening closely, it sounded a lot like guttural snarling and hissing, something that they had both heard before.
"Falmer," Aeros whispered, and Serana nodded in agreement. Dropping into crouches, they both crept forward as carefully and quietly as they could.
They soon found the source of the noise, as the tunnel began to widen until they found themselves in a small cave. In the far left corner, they could see where the tunnel continued, but blocking their way was a group of Falmer. The Falmer did not seem to notice them, instead wandering aimlessly about the room and occasionally snarling at each other.
"Want to just charge them?" Serana whispered, figuring that she already knew what Aeros's answer would be.
"I was actually thinking we should just sneak past them," Aeros replied. Serana stared at him in surprise.
She recovered quickly enough though, as a second later she was smirking at him. "Oh, so you CAN be stealthy when you want to be, huh?" she teased.
"Bite me," he said with a grin, which he realized was probably not the best choice of words as Serana's smirk grew even bigger.
"My pleasure," she said with a grin, flashing her fangs and trying to look predatory. The effect was ruined somewhat when she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Alright then, O' master of stealth," she said, snickering. "How exactly do you plan on getting past the group of Falmer that's right in our path?"
Now it was Aeros's turn to smirk. "Have I ever told you about the Shout I learned at Shearpoint?" Serana shook her head, having no idea what he was getting at. "Allow me to demonstrate then."
He moved forward slightly, making sure to not make any noise that might alert the Falmer. Finding an area of the cave far enough away from both where they currently were, and where the other tunnel was, he cupped his hands around his mouth.
"Zul Mey Gut," he whispered. Immediately, in the direction he had been facing, a voice called out insultingly, echoing against the cave walls.
"Hey, slug-breath!" came the sound of Aero's voice. The result was immediate. All of the Falmer's heads snapped in the direction of the voice and with a collective snarl, they ran to find the source.
With a grin, Aeros motioned Serana forward, and they dashed forward as quietly as they could across the breadth of the cave and into the tunnel. They kept going for a little bit, putting some distance between them and the aggravated Falmer, before taking a break, stopping next to a giant boulder of luminescent stone that almost resembled a giant gem. When they finally stopped, Serana couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing.
"That...that is the most insulting Shout...I have ever heard!" she gasped, laughing so hard that she had to clutch her sides.
"You wouldn't believe how effective that is against enemies, especially bandits," Aeros said with a chuckle. "I've lost track of how many bandits I've caused to get into fights because of that Shout. It's saved my life a couple times too."
It took a while, but Serana finally managed to stop laughing and catch her breath, although she still let out the occasional chuckle. When she had finally gotten herself back under control, they continued onwards, further into the caves.
They encountered several more groups of Falmer, but they were able to sneak past them using Aeros's trick, which never failed to amuse Serana. However, there were several times when Aeros's trick proved insufficient, and they had no choice but to fight their way through. Fortunately, they were able to defeat the Falmer without too much trouble, and neither of them suffered any serious injuries.
After one such fight, they turned a corner and found themselves facing a stone wall, with the faint outline of a door carved into it. Looking for a lever or switch of some sort, Serana noticed a pair of pull chains, along with the obvious signs of several traps.
"Hmm," she said thoughtfully. "Pull chains and traps. We'll need to be careful here. Whatever's on the other side of this, the Falmer wanted to keep it there."
Finding the chain that would release the door, Aeros gave Serana a quick glance to make sure she was ready. When she gave him a nod back, he pulled on the chain.
With a rumbling, grating noise, the stone wall slid down, revealing the other side. And the glowing sabre cat staring hungrily at them.
With a roar, the sabre cat leaped from its ledge, flying through the air towards them. Reacting instinctively, Aeros yanked on the other pull chain. Simultaneously, three different traps went off, sending spears into the air while a great claw descended from above. All the while, a hail of darts flew from various holes in the wall.
The unfortunate sabre cat seemed to freeze in the air for a split second as it was hit by all three traps at the same time, before it went flying backwards, bouncing off a wall and falling to the ground. It didn't get back up.
Aeros and Serana both winced. "Okay," Aeros said as best he could. "No more activating Falmer traps. I actually feel bad for that sabre cat."
"Despite the fact that it was going to eat us?"
"Well, there is that," Aeros admitted.
"By the way, why do you think that sabre cat was glowing?" Serana asked curiously.
"Who knows? It could be a natural thing, it could have gotten hit by a mage's errant spell, maybe it has a thing for glowing mushrooms…"
Serana snickered at that image. "Well, whatever the reason is, we should keep going."
"Ah yes, back into the doom and gloom of caves, where we find danger and adventure around every corner!" Aeros said dramatically, prompting a smack on the back of the head from Serana.
Laughing, they walked through the opening, expecting something similar to the rest of the cave. Instead, they found a scene of unexpected and exotic beauty.
An immense cavern stretched out in front of them, dimly lit by dozens of giant glowing mushrooms. Water cascaded down a rock wall nearby, joining the dozens of pools of water down below. Gathered around these pools were a number of what looked like deer and sabre cats, all glowing like the one they had just encountered.
"Wow," Serana breathed. "This is absolutely incredible."
Aeros could only nod in agreement. "It's like a miniature version of Blackreach," he said in awe.
The two of them made their way slowly down to the bottom, moving like they were in a dream. A few glowing deer scattered as they crossed one of the cave's stone bridges, bounding away. Lounging lazily at the water's edge or on outcroppings of rock, several sabre cats watched curiously through narrowed eyes as these strange outsiders passed, but did not attack.
Aeros and Serana followed the meandering stone path. As they neared the far side of the cavern, the path began to climb again. As they approached the top, Serana spotted the top of a metal sun.
"I think that's another wayshrine up there," she said, pointing it out to Aeros. "Let's see if this works."
They hurried up the remainder of the path, and found that Serana had been right. It was indeed a wayshrine, although the structure seemed out of place amongst the cave's otherworldly beauty. As they approached the wayshrine, they were met by a spectral snow elf. Instead of armor, like Gelebor had been wearing, the ghost was wearing a set of religious robes.
"Welcome, Initiate," the spectral Prelate greeted them. "This is the Wayshrine of Illumination. Are you prepared to honor the mantras of Auri-El and fill your vessel with His enlightenment?"
Remembering what Gelebor had said about the Prelates not realizing the Chantry was no longer in operation, Aeros decided to play along. He bowed to the Prelate, holding the ewer in both hands.
"Yes, I am prepared to receive the blessings of Auri-El," he answered, hoping that was close enough to what he was supposed to say.
The Prelate nodded. "Then behold Auri-El's gift, my child. May it light your path as you seek tranquility within the Inner Sanctum." He tossed his hand up in the air, as if casting a spell.
Similar to before, the sun on top of the wayshrine seemed to glow with an inner light, as the wayshrine rose out of the ground.
"May Auri-El's brilliance illuminate your path," the Prelate murmured as they walked past him. They entered the wayshrine, and Aeros, holding the ewer, approached the water basin in the center. Dipping the ewer in the basin, he scooped up some of the water.
The wall in front of him shimmered, and resolved into another magic portal. He couldn't see much through the limited view of the portal, but he was able to tell that it was definitely lighter. Wherever the portal led to, it most likely wasn't as deep as the section of caves they were currently in.
With a shrug to Serana, he hoisted the ewer and stepped through the portal.
As he waited for the disorientation common with such portals to fade, he took a look around. There wasn't much, but like he had noted earlier, it was lighter than the previous sections of Darkfall Cave.
Serana emerged behind him a moment later, and also looked around at their surrounding with interest. "Where are we? It looks different than earlier."
Aeros shrugged, not really having a specific answer. They found a tunnel leading out of the cave, and decided to follow it. As they walked farther and farther, the area grew lighter and lighter.
Aeros noticed something then, a faint sound. He held up a hand to stop Serana, and listened more carefully.
"Can you hear that?" he asked Serana. She stopped and listened intently. Her face lit up with a smile.
"Birds!" she exclaimed. "If we can hear birds, then that means…" She didn't have to finish as they both took off running down the passage.
They found themselves in a wide circular area, encompassed by rock walls on all sides. Looking up, they found themselves staring into the bright light of day, sunshine filtering down to the bottom of the hole, and the sound of bird song filling the air.
"I can see a ledge running up to the top," Aeros said. "If we follow this tunnel a little further, it should lead us up there."
They followed the tunnel Aeros had pointed out, and it wasn't long before it began to climb and twist back in the direction that they had come from, just like Aeros had hoped. It wasn't long before they emerged halfway up the side of the hole on the ledge that Aeros had noticed. Just like they had hoped, the stone ramp led straight to the top.
Trying to control their excitement, Aeros and Serana hurriedly climbed the ramp to the top. As they reached the surface and looked out, for the second time that day they were left speechless.
An entire valley stretched out in front of them, surrounded on all sides by mountains. They must have been high up in the mountains, because despite it being summer, there was a coolness to the air, and a light layer of snow covering the ground. To Aeros's surprise, he realized that it was actually dawn. It had been a few hours before sunset when he and Serana had entered Darkfall Cave, and it would seem that unbeknownst to them, the rest of the day and the entire night had passed them by while they were underground. A light mist filled the early morning air, turning everything hazy and indistinct, and giving the entire valley an aura of mystique and wonder.
"This is incredible," Serana said next to Aeros. "It's like a whole other world. I've never seen anything so beautiful…"
Aeros looked over at her, and seeing her illuminated in the pale light of dawn, had to disagree, but could not bring himself to say so out loud. Instead, he forced himself away from such thoughts, and instead chose to focus on the scene before him. They stood there for a little while longer, simply taking in the beauty and majesty of this forgotten vale, lost to the mists of time. Eventually though, Serana shook herself out of her reverie. "Come on," she said, "the bow has to be in this valley somewhere."
"You're right," Aeros said with a laugh. "But now I see why Gelebor was so amused by us assuming the Chantry was just a bunch of caves."
Picking their way down the ridge to the valley floor, they began their search for the wayshrines. It took a bit of effort, but they managed to find the remains of a trail, bits of weathered cobblestone poking out of the ground. Following the trail as it wound its way past the ruins of ancient snow elf architecture and piles of rubble, they eventually found themselves in front of another wayshrine. The same scene played out as before, with the ghostly Prelate thinking Aeros and Serana to be Initiates, and with them playing along.
And so it went, with Aeros and Serana picking their way through various ruins as they followed the barely discernable remnants of trails and paths in search of the wayshrines. At each wayshrine, a ghostly Prelate admitted them and recited another portion of the mantras of Auriel. Besides an encounter with a frost giant, everything went along relatively normally. That is, until Aeros heard a familiar chanting.
He and Serana had just reached the Wayshrine of Resolution and filled the ewer, leaving only one more wayshrine until they were able to enter the Chantry's Inner Sanctum.
"Why is it that I'm the only one lugging around the big pitcher of water?" he asked. "Shouldn't we be taking turns?"
Serana gave him a wide-eyed, innocent stare. "Why Aeros, surely you're not going to be so crude as to make a woman carry such a heavy thing all across this valley?"
Aeros snorted. "Right. The woman with fangs and glowing eyes who just happens to be stronger than me is too fragile to carry a pitcher of water? Nice try."
"Well, it was worth a shot," Serana said with a grin.
Aeros started to respond, but stopped all of a sudden, cocking his head as he glanced out towards a nearby frozen lake.
"What is it?" Serana asked when she noticed Aeros had stopped.
"There's a Word Wall nearby," he answered. "It sounds like it's coming from the middle of the lake over there." Without waiting for a reply, he began heading towards the lake.
Knowing that Aeros was going to try and find the Word Wall no matter what she said, Serana simply sighed, before following him. Someone has to keep the fool out of trouble, after all, she thought to herself.
As it turned out, it actually wasn't all that hard to find the Word Wall, since it was sitting on an island in the middle of the lake. Aeros could hear the Word of Power calling to him, a perpetual chanting that only grew in strength the closer they got to the black stone surface..
As they approached the island, Aeros kept his eyes on the skies above them, searching for the image of a dragon bearing down on them. He had learned long ago that dragons loved to roost near Word Walls and would ambush anyone who got too close. But there were no signs of dragons anywhere as they got closer.
For some reason, that bothered Aeros more than anything, putting him ill at ease. He had just opened his mouth to say something about it when the surface of the lake shook.
He whirled. "What was-" He never got the chance to finish his sentence as directly next to them, the ice exploded, knocking both him and Serana off their feet. Through the chunks of ice and geyser of water, Aeros could make out a dark, winged shape as it flew overhead, accompanied by a familiar roar.
That roar was immediately answered by a second roar, from the opposite direction. Turning his head, Aeros saw a second dragon approaching them.
Climbing to his feet, Aeros drew his swords and readied himself for a fight. One of the dragons angled itself down towards the ice, well short of where he and Serana were standing. What is it doing? he thought. That angle's way too steep for a landing; it'll just wind up crashing.
And almost as if to prove him correct, the dragon crashed through the ice and disappeared. Aeros stared at the hole in confusion for a second before turning his attention to the remaining dragon. However, a call from Serana got his attention.
"Aeros! Below us, underneath the ice!" she yelled frantically, pointing down. Aeros followed her gaze down just in time to see the edge of a wing moving underneath him.
The ice under his feet exploded, sending him sliding back across the ice. Looking up, he found himself staring into the eyes of the dragon that had crashed underneath the ice.
Dragons can swim? he thought. Great. Because a giant, fire-breathing lizard that can fly isn't bad enough.
As he climbed back to his feet, the second dragon made to dive under the ice. Fortunately, as it dived, a well placed lightning bolt from Serana hit one of its wings. With a screech, the dragon crashed into the ice, skidding for several yards. When it came to a stop and had climbed back to its feet, it gave Serana a hate-filled glare that promised a painful death.
"Come on then, you big overgrown lizard!" she called tauntingly, a sneer on her lips. The dragon's eyes practically bulged out of its head in anger, and with a roar, it charged headlong at her.
Aeros meanwhile, was attempting to deal with the other dragon, but was having a difficult time due to it constantly taking to the air or diving under the ice. Finally, he had had enough.
"JOOR ZAH FRUL!" he shouted. The force of his Thu'um enveloped the dragon in front of him as it attempted to take off again, dragging it down to the ground where it was forced to land.
He grinned savagely. "Finally," he said. "A fair fight." He advanced towards the land-locked dragon.
With a roar, the dragon unleashed a blast of fire, trying to incinerate the insolent mortal who had dared use such a twisted Thu'um on it.
Aeros released the sword in his right hand, and brought it up to cast a ward. The flames hit the ward head on and stopped. Unfortunately, it didn't work for long, as a sudden wave of weakness washed over Aeros, and his ward buckled and began to flicker.
Swearing, he dropped the ward and rolled to the side, and not a second too soon, as flames consumed the spot where he had been standing. When they dissipated, there was a patch of steaming water where the ice had been.
Aeros grimaced, as he reminded himself that he had to be more careful than normal. He was still nowhere near fully recovered from giving so much of his blood to Serana, and even his magic was weaker than normal right now. He grabbed his fallen sword and charged forward.
While Aeros dealt with the first dragon, Serana was actually managing to hold her own against the other. The wide open space and her quick reflexes meant that she was able to stay just out of the dragon's reach while hitting it with a continuous barrage of magic, which only increased its ire. The aggravated dragon spun constantly, trying to keep the irritating female in sight. Every time it tried to take off to give itself the distance it needed to attack, the female hit its wings with painful arcs of lightning and spikes of ice. It gave a roar of frustration.
Aeros twisted out of the way of the snapping jaws, swinging his sword as he spun past. His opponent roared in pain as the blade cut through its tough hide and opened a gash right below its eye.
Ducking underneath the swinging tail, Aeros knew he needed to finish this. He could feel himself tiring, and the longer this fight went on, the more he risked making a possibly fatal mistake. As the dragon lunged forward at him, he ducked underneath, avoiding the deadly rows of razor-sharp teeth. Jabbing at its chest, he managed to get the beast to rear up in an effort to avoid his blade, giving him a nice clear view of its throat.
Pushing off the ice as hard as he could, Aeros stabbed his sword upwards, putting as much momentum behind it as he could. The enchanted dragonbone blade cut through the dragon's scaly hide with ease, sinking deep into the beast's throat. With a strangled screech, the dragon fell away from him. It clawed at its throat, trying to remove the sword, but it was too late. It sank to the ground feebly as its life blood drained out of it, staining the ice around it. With a final, anguished roar, its head fell limply to the ice as the last flicker of life faded from its eyes.
Aeros gave a sigh of relief as the dragon's corpse began to burn away, soon leaving only a skeleton behind. As its soul swirled about him, he felt a little bit of his strength return. Retrieving his sword from the dragon's skeleton, he turned to make sure that Serana was okay.
To his relief, Serana was fine, practically dancing circles around the dragon, avoiding all of its attempts to bite or burn her with ease. "Come on! Is that really all you've got?" she yelled mockingly. But she had gotten too cocky and was so busy taunting the beast, that she forgot to watch out for its tail as it swung towards her..
The tail slammed hard into her midriff, knocking the air out of her and sending her sprawling to the ground. Growling in victory, the dragon opened its mouth and prepared to burn her to a crisp.
"IIZ SLEN NUS!"
A layer of ice formed over the dragon's mouth, freezing it shut. The dragon turned to glare balefully at Aeros, who was now approaching from the side. It snapped the ice with a single flex of its jaws, growling at the Nord, the woman on the ground in front of it now completely forgotten.
Unfortunately for the dragon, that was a big mistake. An arc of lightning crashed against its lower jaw, stunning it for a few seconds. Those seconds were all that were needed though, for Serana to scramble away and for Aeros to close the distance between him and the dovah.
Invigorated by the dragon soul that he had just absorbed, Aeros attacked furiously, his arms moving so fast that his swords were nothing but twin blurs. He landed blow after blow on the beast, all the while dodging its attempted counterattacks.
Already severely weakened after taking so many hits from Serana's magic, the dragon was unable to keep up with Aeros, and the number of cuts and wounds covering its scaly hide slowly began to accumulate. Finally, with a devastating uppercut swing, Aeros delivered the finishing blow.
The dragon sank to the ground, its body already beginning to burn away. As the soul swirled about him before being absorbed, Aeros collapsed against the skeleton, breathing heavily.
"Are you all right?" Serana asked with concern.
"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine," he said slowly, panting from exertion. "It's just...fighting...two dragons at the same time...really takes it out of you. Plus, these two...cheated. Not fair...diving underneath the ice…"
Serana laughed, knowing that Aeros was fine if he was able to crack jokes. She helped him to his feet, and helped him cross the ice towards the Word Wall, circumventing the giant holes in the ice left behind by the pair of dragons..
Once they stood in front of the Word Wall, Aeros removed his arm from around Serana's shoulders and slowly crouched in front of the Word Wall, running his hands along the weathered dragon script. As he read the message inscribed in the black stone, he could feel the thrum of power coming from it, and felt the surge of knowledge and understanding flow into him. When the flow of knowledge had ceased, he straightened, and together, he and Serana made their way back towards the Wayshrine of Resolution.
Unfortunately, finding the location of the last wayshrine proved more difficult than the others had. The only thing they had to go on was that Gelebor had told them that there were five wayshrines, and that they lay scattered across the Chantry. Serana reasoned that the last wayshrine must lay somewhere near the Inner Sanctum, but other than that, they had no clue.
They managed to get a rough idea of where the last wayshrine was by pretending to be Initiates and asking the spectral Prelate for help. But the ghost only pointed out the general direction, claiming that this was part of their journey to enlightenment.
Following the ghost's directions, they fought their way through several Falmer and soon found themselves in front of a glacier.
"The wayshrine is inside of a giant chunk of ice?" Serana asked skeptically.
Aeros shrugged. "It's possible. The one where we met Gelebor was inside of a cave, along with the one after that. And it's been thousands of years since the Chantry was an active place of worship; it could have been swallowed by the glacier. Still, I think you're right. I don't think the last wayshrine of Auriel would be inside of a glacier."
He glanced at the opening at the base of the glacier. "But I guess there's only one way to find out."
As they entered the glacier, the temperature dropped considerably, and they could see their breath misting in front of them. Navigating a narrow opening in the ice, they emerged into a wide crevasse, surrounded by walls of smooth ice that towered overhead. A small lake lay at the bottom, fed by melting ice.
Aeros and Serana moved along a narrow stretch of ice along the edge of the lake, trying to focus on keeping their footing and not falling into the freezing water. Their concentration was broken by a loud bellow, followed by a mass of fur that slammed into Aeros.
Aeros and the frost troll tumbled across the ice, slamming into the walls of the glacier as Aeros attempted to get out from underneath the crushing weight of the troll. But no matter how much he strained, he just couldn't get the leverage he needed to free himself.
He had an idea suddenly, something that might get him out of this mess. He had no idea if it was going to work, but it was definitely better than being crushed to death under a couple hundred pounds of smelly troll.
"Hey, Serana," he grunted.
Serana had been circling the two of them, trying to find an angle where she could attack without risking injuring Aeros. She stopped however, when Aeros called her name.
"Yes?" she answered, still trying to find an opening.
"How good is your aim?" he asked as he avoided the troll's snapping jaws.
"What does my aim have to do with-" she started to ask, but Aeros cut her off.
"Catch!" he said with a grunt before taking as deep a breath as he could.
"FUS RO DAH!" he shouted. The look on the troll's face was almost comical as the force of Aeros's Thu'um lifted it off him and several feet into the air.
It only took Serana a split second to realize what Aeros had in mind, and even less time to react, launching twin ice spikes at the poor troll. One thudded into the beast's chest while the other slammed into its head, practically causing it to explode.
Aeros rolled to the side as soon as the troll was off him, and not a moment too soon, as the body thudded down where he had just been.
He climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. "That worked better than I hoped," he said with a chuckle. "Thanks, Serana. I really wasn't looking forward to being a Dragonborn pancake."
"No problem," she said with a smirk. "But next time, don't go hugging big, furry things. They tend not to like it."
They kept going, and soon found themselves surrounded by Falmer structures. As they repeatedly had to cross narrow bridges, they both noticed uneasily how unstable the things were. They made sure they never took long crossing those.
The Falmer, obviously, didn't like Aeros and Serana entering their territory, but despite their ferocity, they didn't prove much of a challenge. They did have a bit of difficulty with the traps, as it seemed that the Falmer were better at building traps than bridges, but their quick reflexes managed to keep either of them from getting seriously hurt.
As the two of them fought their way through the last of the Falmer, they emerged into broad daylight as they exited the glacier. They stood there blinking for a while, letting their eyes adjust.
When they could see again, they found themselves in what looked like a Falmer village, of all things. Huts stretched on either side of the pass they found themselves in, both on the ground and hanging on the sides of the cliffs.
"Huh," Aeros said in bemusement. "I never thought the Falmer would build something like this out on the surface. I've seen a few similar settlements underground, but nothing this big."
Serana just sighed in resignation. "We're going to have to fight our way through this, aren't we?"
"Looks like it," he answered. "Unless the Falmer have suddenly become pacifists, I don't think they're going to want to just sit down and have tea together."
That got a laugh out of Serana. "Somehow, I have trouble picturing you drinking tea with anybody," she said, grinning.
"And there goes my ego. Thank you, Serana," Aeros grumbled in mock irritation, an effect that was ruined by the grin he was trying to hide.
"You're welcome," Serana said sweetly. "Now, as much fun as I have keeping you humble, how about we actually go find that last wayshrine?"
Once again they found themselves fighting through waves of vicious Falmer, but unfortunately for the Falmer, they couldn't even begin to match the sheer power and skill of the Dragonborn and pure-blooded vampire.
As the last Falmer fell, Aeros pointed with his sword. "Look, over there. I think that's the final wayshrine."
He was right, as it turned out. Not far from where the Falmer village ended, the last of the wayshrines sat gleaming in the sun. They approached it just as they had with all of the others. Upon noticing their arrival, the spectral Prelate greeted them in much the same manner as the others had, no doubt seeing a pair of Initiates and the Chantry in all of its past glory.
"You've found the Wayshrine of Radiance, Initiates," the ghost said, sounding pleased that they had made it this far. "Are you prepared to honor the mantras of Auri-El and fill your vessel with His enlightenment?"
"Yes," Aeros and Serana said at the same time. They had gone through this so many times, the response was automatic by now. Neither of them could wait to be done with this, if only to not have to put up with this "Initiate" nonsense any longer. Well, that, and the fact that Aeros was getting tired of carrying the pitcher of water around.
"Then may the blessings of Auri-El protect you as you climb the road to the Inner Sanctum and final enlightenment," the dead elf replied. He cast the spell, and the wayshrine rose up out of the ground. "May Auri-El's radiance fill your heart with joy."
Aeros filled the ceremonial ewer from the basin, filling it almost to the brim. He and Serana exited the wayshrine, feeling a sense of excitement at the idea of almost being done with everything, and finally being able to retrieve Auriel's Bow.
"So where's this Inner Sanctum we're supposed to gain access to?" Serana wondered aloud as they walked away from the wayshrine. "That's where this Vyrthur is, isn't it?"
"I'm guessing that might be it over there," Aeros answered with a grin, pointing. Ahead of them stretched a small snow covered path. At the end of the path stretched a long, graceful stone bridge leading to a great structure.
"That...has to be the place," Serana said in awe. "I've never seen a building like that before. It looks like some kind of temple."
Aeros had to agree. The building looked unlike anything he had ever seen before, refined and graceful despite its size. Somehow though, it gave off a feeling of melancholy and abandonment, a reflection of the tragic fate that had befallen the rest of the Chantry.
The two of them crossed the bridge side by side, speechless. As they entered the courtyard, they were greeted by the sight of a giant statue, the figure's features looking definitely elven. But somehow, Aeros knew that this wasn't a statue of some ordinary snow elf.
Serana also realized this, but she recognized why. "This is a statue of Auriel," she explained, "but it's using the older signs of his power. This temple must be ancient. The bow has to be in here."
They ascended the steps behind the statue, finding an empty basin, and a curious design cut into the paved stone. Opposite of the basin was a giant, metal pair of doors with a stylized bronze sun set in the middle.
"Ready to find the bow?" Serana asked.
"I'm just ready to get rid of this damn ewer," Aeros joked. His jovial mood only lasted for a second though, before he became serious. "But yeah, let's get this over with. Let's find Vyrthur, and find Auriel's Bow. The rest we can deal with after."
With that, he turned back to the basin, and emptied the ewer's contents into it. The water filled the basin almost to the brim, but as they watched, it slowly drained away, emerging through a small hole cut in the bottom of the basin and travelling along the channels cut into the stone, outlining the design. As the water flowed towards the far end, it began to fill the carving of the sun set in front of the sanctum doors.
As the last of the water filled the sun carving, it lit up with a green glow. As it did, the metal sun set in the sanctum doors began to spin, and they could hear the sound of bars sliding out of the way. As the metal sun came to a rest, it split two, and the doors swung wide open.
"Time to settle this," Aeros said grimly, as he took the first step forward into the Inner Sanctum of the Chantry of Auri-El.
Author's Notes: Here's the second part of A New Dawn. I tried my best to skip the majority of the filling the Initiate's Ewer for you guys, since that portion of Touching the Sky isn't particularly interesting, besides exploring the Forgotten Vale, and other random encounters such as with Frost Giants or the dragons. Feel free to leave a review or point out any grammar mistakes I might have missed.
Characters:
Naaslaarum and Voslaarum: The two Revered Dragons you encounter on the frozen lake in the Dawnguard DLC. I have to admit, these two really threw me for a loop when I first encountered them, and they came bursting out of the ice.
Dragon Language:
Zul Mey Gut = Voice Fool Far (Throw Voice Shout)
Joor Zah Frul = Mortal Finite Temporary (Dragonrend Shout)
Iiz Slen Nus = Ice Flesh Statue (Ice Form Shout)
Fus Ro Dah = Force Balance Push (Unrelenting Force Shout)