Camri Everlight clambered over the top of the battlements just as another black-robed Altmer darted out of a guard tower. Camri didn't miss a beat – he leapt to one side as a bolt of lightning shot past him, drew his sword and charged at the Altmer. As he ran, he executed an impressively high leap allowing another bolt of lightning to pass harmlessly underneath him, and then rammed his sword straight through the Altmer's heart. Hearing footsteps behind him, he wheeled around – from another guard tower, about a hundred yards away, another Altmer, this time wearing Elven armour, was emerging.

"Come on!" Camri shouted down over the wall. "I could use a hand up here!"

Sartan fired his bow, winging the other Altmer, and Camri used the distraction to draw his own bow and deliver a killing shot to the Altmer's chest. Then, he crouched behind the battlements and scanned the inside of the Crystal Tower grounds, hearing the rope rubbing against stone behind him as Ariel climbed it.

The Tower grounds were similar to Green Emperor Way – the huge, alien-looking crystal spire stood in the exact centre of an eight-pointed star of wide gravel footpaths. Between the paths was an assortment of open ground and small stone buildings, crafted ornately from a white stone, with turrets sprouting up in their roofs. An Altmer equipped with a bow ran out from one of the buildings, spotting Camri and firing almost immediately. Camri crouched back behind the battlements as the arrow, well-aimed, shot through the gap he had been looking through… straight into the rope which Ariel was climbing up…

"It always happens to me…" Camri said to himself as he tumbled backwards and grabbed the rope with both hands, halting it just before it fell from the battlements. Once Ariel had finished her climb and joined Camri on the battlements, he bound the two cut pieces of rope back together again, once again anchoring it using the grappling hook, and ordered Radash up.

"Nice of you to join me" Camri said to Ariel. "If anyone fires at us, stop their arrows. I'll be back in a minute"

"Camri, don't…" Ariel began. Camri placed his hands on Ariel's shoulders.

"I'm just going into that guard tower to look for another rope so we can get down on the other side. Don't worry"

As the rope once again went taut as Radash began to climb it, Ariel looked out over Crystal Tower. The Altmer marksman was still stood on one of the footpaths. He fired again, but after ten yards or so of flight, his arrow's path was bent by telekinesis and it thudded harmlessly into the grounds' sturdy wooden door. Annoyed, the Altmer threw his bow to the ground and hurled a fireball up at the battlements – it hit the stone wall the other side from where Ariel was crouched with a resounding boom.

Radash managed to climb the rope quickly and he had barely set foot on the battlements when Sartan began to climb it.

Then, another Altmer guard appeared from one of the guard towers.

"Shit…" Radash said to himself. He and Ariel were alone on the battlements, being rocked as another fireball crashed into them, taking about a substantial chunk of masonry. Camri had disappeared into the other guard tower. They were sitting ducks…

"Give me your lockpick" Ariel said to Radash suddenly.

"What?"

"I know you've got one. All mages carry them – for getting into Guildhall display cases! Just give it to me!"

Radash sighed and handed Ariel a lockpick from one of the pockets in his fur coat. Ariel threw it weakly at the Altmer on the battlements but then used telekinesis to commandeer its flight, propelling the lockpick at huge speed straight into the Altmer's throat, piercing his jugular vein. The Altmer fell to the ground, trying to scream in pain, as blood poured from his throat…

Crash!

One of the raised sections of battlement was blasted apart as another fireball struck it. Several more mages had joined the man on the ground, trying to repel the attack on the battlements.

As licks of flame began to appear at the hands of one of the spellcasters, Radash and Ariel prepared to flee, but then he was hurled backwards as an arrow struck him in the chest.

Camri. Firing from the top of one of the guard towers. Immediately, he reloaded and fired again, managing to hit one of the spellcasters in the leg. Then, as Sartan finally made it onto the battlements, Camri disappeared back into the guard tower, clutching something in his hand.

"Sorry 'bout the delay, folks" Sartan said as he stood up and drew his bow, firing a snapshot at the spellcasters – it didn't hit any of them, but disrupted whatever attack they may have been planning. Then, Camri reappeared on the battlements.

"Doors out of the guard towers are barricaded," he said. "I tried them whilst I was in there. We're going to have to go over"

Only then did the other three see what Camri was holding – a length of rope with a grappling hook over one end coiled over one shoulder, and a crossbow in each hand. Anchoring the grappling hook on the battlements, he turned to Sartan and Ariel. "Any cover you could provide would be nice. Then, just follow me down"

"You're mad" Sartan said.

"I know" Camri replied, climbing over the battlements as Sartan fired off another shot, taking down a spellcaster.

Camri slid one-handed down the rope, firing one of the crossbows as he went at a plucky Altmer who had made a run for the rope. The bolt pierced straight through the Altmer's forehead and killed him instantly. As he continued his slide, he dropped the crossbow, pulled the other one off his back and fired that too, aiming high – his shot gracefully arced through the air and hit the final spellcaster, the first Altmer who had appeared, still bearing a quiver full of arrows on his back. Then, he dropped the second crossbow and drew his longbow, scanning around for any more threats. The whole complex seemed to be deserted…

Cloud Ruler Temple, the same time

Chancellor Ocato reached the bottom steps of the Temple's great stairway, wrapped in a fur coat to keep out the chilling Jerall winds. Just before he stepped out of the gate, Elroy, a Redguard Blade, appeared seemingly from nowhere.

"Can I ask where you're going, Chancellor?"

"Just down into Bruma" Chancellor Ocato replied. "Cabin fever. I've been stuck up here for weeks. I thought I'd see if the Mages' Guild had anything worth reading…"

Elroy stepped in front of Ocato, blocking him, the hand on the hilt of his sword.

"I can't let you out, I'm afraid. Grandmaster's orders"

"Jauffre said that?" Ocato spat. "I can guess what this is about!"

Angrily, Chancellor Ocato turned around to see Jauffre stood before him.

"I'm afraid so, Chancellor. Like you say, you understand the reasons we cannot let you out of our sight. You are Elven, and in a position of power…"

"Ridiculous! And what of all the Elves you recruit here at the Temple? What of Falas Assurrani?"

"Falas has proven his worth and loyalty to us" Jauffre replied. "You, I'm afraid, have not. And the Blades serve the Emperor, not the Empire. It's not easy for me to say, but we have no obligation to you, Chancellor"

Chancellor Ocato said nothing for a few seconds, then sighed. "Then I'll be in the library. The Seventh Tower's not going to find itself"

In Alinor, Camri and Ariel had gone on ahead to the tower. Radash and Sartan had stayed on the ground – Sartan, fearing an ambush, thought it best that the group were not all in one place, especially if that place was at the top of Crystal Tower. It also gave Sartan the chance to scope out any potential exit routes – already, he had found two disguised entrances to a network of tunnels that seemed to run beneath the complex.

"Radash, can I ask you something?" Sartan asked as the pair watched Camri and Ariel approaching the tower. "We're deep in Selective territory here – what's to stop them, y'know, going up there and taking the Stone away again once we've placed it?"

Radash quoted from an ancient inscription. "'And in the times of greatest need, when the Stones of Auri-El are brought home, may they become at one with the Spires of Lorkhan"' – inscribed on the wall of Galerion's tomb. He was the founder of the Mages' Guild, and formerly of the Psijic Order. Probably something of an expert when it came to matters like this – Auri-El, is of course, the Elven idea of Akatosh, the Time God. The Stones of Auri-El must be the same as the Stones of Ada-Mantia, and by the same reasoning the Spires of Lorkhan are the towers – remember what I said about time and space being one and the same? So, what I think it means is that the Stones somehow fuse with their counterpart Towers when placed back atop them, creating a Stone-Tower unity, the ultimate anchor of space and time. And the phrase 'in the times of greatest need' leads me to believe that this can only happen when a Dragon Break is coming. The Stones and Towers can sense it somehow"

Sartan just stared ahead in silence, trying to comprehend everything Radash had said to him. He remembered thinking, when he was sent to Orsinium, that he had been placed on a simple bodyguarding task. Now he found himself in an enormous plot involving ancient stones, doomsday cults and the end of the world…

Given the grandness of the tower, its doorway was rather benign – a simple archway cut into the crystal without the merest hint of decoration.

"To see beauty in simplicity is the sign of genius" Ariel mused out loud as the pair walked through the arch into a similarly Spartan interior – the huge, cylindrical spire of Crystal Tower was hollow on the inside, a wrought-iron staircase spiralling around its edge, leading up to a void in the tower's roof that allowed access to whatever lay on top of it. The roof itself was simply a structure made from wooden planks that plugged the hollow tube, supported by more wrought-iron buttresses.

"Keep an eye open, Ariel" Camri said. "Remember what the Selective did in Ninendava? They could have killed us straight away, but they waited for us to lower our guard"

"I'm all eyes" Ariel replied, casting a life-detection spell on herself. Not wanting to waste any time, Camri hustled up the spiral staircase, Ariel following close behind him.

Halfway up, it happened.

A bolt of lightning blasted into the staircase, conducting through its entire body. Camri jumped up in the air to break his contact with the ground, and Ariel cast a resisting spell on herself, the spell coming into effect a split-second before the current surged past her.

"Damnit! Go on ahead!" Camri shouted, drawing his bow. He quickly located the spellcaster on the ground floor of the tower and fired – the spellcaster didn't react quickly enough and, looking up to prepare to cast another spell, he was hit right between the eyes by Camri's arrow. Only then did Camri see the trapdoor that had opened in the tower's floor, leading down into a tunnel-like passageway…

Another wrought-iron set of steps led out of the tunnel. Altmer wearing a mix of armour and black robes began to quickly ascend them – around ten Selective men soon appeared in the ground floor of the tower. A couple took pot-shots at Camri and Ariel with spells and bows, but most of them began spreading a red, oily substance on the ground…

Camri realised immediately that it was naphtha. The Selective were going to torch the whole Tower!

As three Selective members mounted the stairs and began to race up them after Camri, he took off after Ariel, firing pot-shots from his bow as he did so.

"Come on, Sartan, where are you?" Camri said to himself as he caught up with Ariel. The Selective had stopped firing magic at the stairs after two of their men had got onto it, so he at least managed to get to the top of the tower unhindered.

"What's happening?" Ariel asked as Camri joined her on the squat wooden roof of Crystal Tower.

"In tomb-raider's terms, they've just turned this whole place into a massive time-and-speed trap…"

No sooner had Camri finished speaking when an ominous Whump! signalled the naphtha spread around the base of Crystal Tower being ignited. Bearing a look down, Camri saw that the entire ground floor of the tower had been turned into a blazing inferno.

I'll worry about that later, he thought to himself, locating a crystalline plinth in the centre of the roof, made from the same translucent white material as the Tower itself. It was a squat pedestal, a few feet high with a hemispherical void in its centre.

"That's it, Ariel!" Camri called as Ariel ran over, taking the beautiful crystalline orb of the Fifth Stone out of her robe and holding it above the void…

Ariel Lasaille placed the crystal in the void, a snug fit, just as the three Selective men reached the top of the stairs and ran out onto the rooftop.

A flash of light emanated from the Fifth Stone as it seemed to weld itself into the plinth, becoming part of the altar, turning its cuboidal form into one with a crystalline dome on its top surface. The Fifth Stone had been returned.

"Too late" Camri said wryly to the three Selective men. "And you're trapped"

One of the Selective men drew a sword and lunged at Camri, whilst the other two unleashed spells – one fireball and one lightning bolt. In a stunning piece of co-ordination, Camri used his shield to deflect the fireball high up into the air and his sword to block the attack of the Selective swordsman. But then, he watched in dread as the other lightning bolt blasted into Ariel.

Quick-thinking as always, she had cast a resistive spell on herself just before the bolt hit her, but it was the physical force of the attack that overcame her, knocking her clean off the edge of Crystal Tower, doomed to die some two hundred feet below.

Camri let out a primal bellow as he burst past the other two Selective men, dropping his shield and swinging his sword horizontally, two-handed, as hard as he could and decapitating the Altmer who had killed Ariel, kicking his limp, headless body off the side of the tower, then picking up the severed head of the Altmer and hurling it as hard as he could at the other Altmer spellcaster – the gruesome projectile hit the Altmer in the forehead so hard that it knocked him out cold. Then, Camri blocked and parried two swordstrokes from the Selective swordsman before ramming his sword straight through the Altmer's heart. When angered by the death of one of his friends, Camri Everlight was unstoppable.

Camri did not look over the edge of the tower to see Ariel's fate. He couldn't bring himself to do it. He had to concentrate. He had to somehow get out of the burning Crystal Tower.

Running down onto the stairwell, he encountered two more Selective Altmer, but they had run up onto the stairs in a panic when the fire had started, trapped and trying to flee the flame. Camri ploughed into them with his sword brandished in front of him – he slit the throat of the first, knocking them back into the second, who fell awkwardly, his neck snapping as he landed on the edge of one of the iron steps.

Desperately, Camri looked for a means of escape. Choking smoke from the naphtha fire was beginning to fill Crystal Tower, with only the small void in the roof allowing it to escape, but still he could see that the entire floor was ablaze…

No, not all of it. The trapdoor that the Selective had entered through was still open, and beneath it he could see the flames reflecting off a rippling surface…

Camri bounded down the stairs. They were rapidly becoming heated by the flames, which developed from warmth through to an uncomfortable heat before it penetrated through the soles of Camri's hiking boots and became unbearable. He leapt off the stairs, straight through the trapdoor, hoping to the Gods that the water was deep enough to break his fall.

It was. Camri plunged beneath the surface of the subterranean waterway then kicked his way to the surface, hauling himself out onto a stone walkway then collapsing with exhaustion.