Morndas, 1:10 PM, 12th of Morning Star, 4E 202

Blackreach

After all these weeks in the laboratory, a change in scenery was most welcome.

The Dragonborn had spent yesterday with his soldiers in the Silent City, and today he returned to the laboratory. It was most unexpected. One moment, J'zargo was practicing his alchemy as usual, and the next, the Dragonborn was poking his helmeted head in through the laboratory doors.

"Hey," the Dragonborn said. "Want to go ride the shuttle?"

The shuttle!

He'd seen the great big golden pod during his first tour of Blackreach, but had not ridden it, despite his pleas. The Dragonborn had said that it could go from here to Hjaalmarch within half an hour. That was hundreds of miles away. The shuttle must have been able to move faster than even the fleetest dragon. He'd wanted to ride it this whole time.

J'zargo dropped everything and started for the door.

"Wait." The Dragonborn stepped inside and held up his hand. "Put your College robes on."

That was unexpected. He hadn't worn those in weeks. They were so heavy and stifling. He couldn't stand it. "Why?"

"So people will know you're a College mage. We'll be around some work teams." Iseus pulled off his helmet. He looked perfectly refreshed. Not a drop of sweat.

"…Fine." J'zargo crossed the room and started rifling through the dresser. His mind was in five places at once. He was so giddy about getting to ride the shuttle. This was going to be fantastic! The shuttle was the most spectacular machine down here. "Why don't you look overheated? J'zargo wants whatever you are using."

"It's a necklace of fire resistance. Check in, uh… Check in the… Oh, what is it." Iseus closed the doors behind him. "Check the bottom drawer. Gold amulet, with rubies inset."

The apprentice took his robes out first. Always right to business, the Dragonborn. Didn't matter, shuttle ride. "You have two?"

"That one's not nearly as strong. Should be enough for just some robes. It's one of my earlier enchantments. Uh… You should finish your potion."

"It's condensing. J'zargo was not going to do anything further with it anyway." J'zargo located the amulet amid a pile of other jewelry. When he put it on, the room felt almost imperceptibly cooler. Then for the robes.

Iseus glanced over at the lab. The mixture was steaming right along. "Right. What potion were you making, anyway?"

"Healing potion. The ingredients were there." There were no more ingredients to make invisibility potions. Well, technically there were, especially with near-infinite chaurus eggs, but the Dragonborn was unwilling to pick the nirnroots behind the lab. He'd already pulled one hundred fifty nirnroots from elsewhere. One hundred fifty! That was really the sort of thing that could only work once.

But he had not been told what exactly the invisbility potions were for, so he asked, "What did you end up doing out there?"

"I took the Black Machine to Labyrinthian. We turned invisible, thanks to your potions, walked into their camp completely silently, thanks to my enchantments, and executed everyone in the 14th Unit," Iseus said matter-of-factly.

J'zargo froze. His jaw hung open. He had thought stealth would be involved, but… "By the Twin Moons," he eventually murmured.

Iseus didn't seem to wish to dwell on it. "Yeah, it went well. Get your robes on."

So he started pulling on his old College outfit. Once, he had been proud to wear his mage robes. Now, they felt cumbersome and awkward. He noted that with the amulet on, the room did not become much warmer for him, even with his robes covering him. "J'zargo is not sure why you want his company for this."

"Well, you don't really need to be in here every single second now. And you did good work with those potions. I wouldn't have been able to do it all in time by myself, that's just a fact. So I figure you deserve some kind of reward."

"Hm. A reward, now?" J'zargo gave the Imperial a meaningful smirk.

Iseus just rolled his eyes. "… Later."

"Shuttle, now."

"Yes."

With that, the two of them headed out of the laboratory, out into the open cavern. J'zargo never really tired of this place. Perhaps he tired a little of that nirnroot noise coming from behind the lab building. So many nirnoots in one place. It did not seem like nature's intention.

Then again, no farm was nature's intention. And Blackreach spat in the face of normal nature anyway.

The shuttle was right where it always was, at the top of its stone staircase. It was only a few minutes' walk away from the laboratory. J'zargo had seen it up close before, but only now did he really appreciate it. Unlike many dwarven machines, which tended to be covered in rivets and bolts, the shuttle's outer hull was perfectly smooth. The metal plates fit together perfectly. Even the windows on either end fit the shuttle's curved surfaces. And even hanging perfectly still from its golden cables, J'zargo felt it was part vehicle and part projectile.

Needless to say, he was practically jumping up and down with excitement. He was going to get to ride this machine? How could anyone not be absolutely thrilled by that?

Once they were standing on the shuttle's station platform, the Dragonborn pressed a button on a little pedestal, and one of the metal panels revealed itself to be a sliding door. The inside of the shuttle was right there, in front of the Khajiit. He could not believe he was doing this. It was hard to breathe normally. His heart pounded.

Iseus stepped in first, then turned and held out his hand to J'zargo. Only one hand. The other was holding his helmet. "Come in, it's perfectly safe."

"Well, yes." J'zargo took the armored hand and stepped up into the shuttle's interior. He did not feel endangered in here, but he was trembling a bit anyway. "Khajiit knows it to be safe. This is simply… New. Let's be on our way."

"You got it." Iseus reached up and pulled a lever on the ceiling.

The door slid shut. They were sealed inside. J'zargo could see out the front and back windows perfectly clearly. He decided to sit by the front one. Iseus soon joined him.

There was a bit of a jerk as the shuttle started moving, like the Dwemer lifts. The cables extended into the fog, held up every so often by forked support columns. From his perspective, it was like looking down a tunnel.

And when they started to move forwards, he felt like he was diving into infinity. Every time a column passed them, another appeared out of the fog. J'zargo found himself laughing with glee.

Truth be told, he had expected to be thrown around a bit, perhaps like riding a horse. This turned out to be totally inaccurate. He could not well describe what it felt like, to move like this. They were steadily gaining speed. There was a constant pull on J'zargo's body. He had to struggle to sit as he did.

After a minute or so, he dared to glance sideways at the Dragonborn. "This makes skooma look tame, you know!"

"Skooma's far less addicting." Iseus smiled at him. He had obviously made this trip quite a few times before. J'zargo could tell because he wasn't staring in awe out the window.

J'zargo nodded appreciatively, then went back to looking out at the cavern. There were no buildings out here, just a stone path running parallel to the shuttle's route. And mushrooms. Huge, glowing mushrooms, some close, some far. A few were so far and so huge that they must have been the size of entire castles. Their tendrils made them look like gigantic jellyfish floating in the fog. "J'zargo thought this ride would be far… Rougher. The shuttle is traveling on flexible cables, yes?"

"Technically, yeah, but they're taut as a bowstring. At these speeds, I don't think having a bumpy ride would be a good idea." That was fair, J'zargo thought. The shuttle seemed to have finished speeding up, and they were racing down the cables so quickly that the path beneath them was a blur. And at the same time, things felt perfectly still inside here. It was very odd.

Another minute or so passed. Still no structures out here. J'zargo had to wonder what lived in these great expanses of space, if anything. "What are we going out here to see?"

"Oh, uh… There's a mining operation I want to take a look at. I could've done it myself, but… I wanted you to come along."

J'zargo had little reason to question that. He had brewed one hundred and fifty invisibility potions. And they'd been used to destroy an entire Thalmor mage unit? He could not help but feel proud of his hand in that. It would have been better if he could have helped more directly, but serving under the Dragonborn himself wasn't a bad alternative.

Still, he couldn't help himself. "How much longer?"

"Hm? Oh, uh… Twenty minutes? Twenty-five? I haven't… Really been ... keeping track." Iseus had shifted to lean against the shuttle wall, his helmet in his lap. He seemed relaxed enough. Or distant, or pensive. It was so hard to tell with him.

The Khajiit moved to sit opposite him. "What's on your mind?"

Iseus did not immediately reply, or even acknowledge what J'zargo said. He simply looked out the window in silence. There was plenty to see out there, but he seemed to be observing none of it at all. He looked like his mind was someplace else entirely.

Eventually, he answered, "I've been thinking about you."

Now, there was a new answer. J'zargo smiled. "What about J'zargo?"

"Well, you know, when I went to the College of Winterhold to find an apprentice, I was basically just looking for one who'd be willing to abandon their regular studies and… Go follow a Nordic hero on his adventures, basically. And I knew that anyone I got that way would be either ruthlessly ambitious, or totally crazy."

"Which of those is J'zargo?"

Iseus chuckled dryly. "I'd go with ambitious. A lot of people have dreams of being big one day. You're one of few to actually back it up in your actions. You went all the way to Winterhold because it was the only mage's school not contaminated with politics. That's impressive on its own."

J'zargo nodded in thanks. These words, really, they meant even more to him than the shuttle ride. Maybe not from anyone, but certainly from the Dragonborn. He was the ultimate mortal authority on power.

"And since you've come here, you've… It hasn't been long, it's only been a few weeks, but you've learned quickly. I dunno, maybe the Khajiit are just naturally good with alchemy?"

"Khajiit alchemists are not unheard of. Certainly compared to mages."

"I hope you don't feel boring for it," Iseus said with absolutely no conviction.

Before now, J'zargo hadn't even thought to compare himself to the alchemists of Elsweyr. They weren't playing with nirnroots in Blackreach. He was. "You must remember that J'zargo gets plenty out of this arrangement himself. The alchemy, the enchanted gear…"

"Don't forget that other stuff we do."

"Perhaps less worthy of recording in the history books."

Iseus sat up and focused on J'zargo. "Honestly, this bugs me. You know everyone here will just go crazy if they learn about… Y'know. But even your friends at the College didn't think anything of my taking you in like this. What if I'd picked that Dunmer girl?"

"Brelyna, I think." It had been a while. J'zargo remembered her, though. A bit clumsy, though all of the apprentices were, including J'zargo himself.

"Right, her. What if I'd decided to spend a few weeks alone in the lab with her? Everyone would be disgusted with me and probably feel bad for her. But with you, I guess 'cause you're a guy, or a Khajiit, or… Who knows, but no one seems to even notice."

"That suits J'zargo fine." Truthfully, J'zargo rather disliked secret relations such as these. Still, he could not blame the Dragonborn. No Khajiit were particularly well-received in Skyrim.

"Well, that's just how people are." Iseus leaned back again, frowning darkly. "They all have their own little priorities. Their own little motives, schemes, whatever."

J'zargo raised his eyebrows. "All of us have priorities, Iseus."

"Yeah, but…" Iseus aborted his thought. The expression of distaste left his face, and he was back to total blankness.

J'zargo was rather unsettled by how quickly he was able to discard that emotion. "Er… What?"

"I guess you're right," he sighed. "I dunno. I do hero things a lot, it gets boring."

"J'zargo can only hope he can help to relieve the tension."

Iseus gave him a look that said something like "… c'mon." without actually using words. J'zargo smiled sweetly.

"Yes, an entire day without me must've been miserable for you." Iseus rubbed his face in his hands.

"Very irresponsible of you. Khajiit can die if they can't find a mate in time, you know."

"No they don't," Iseus said through his hands.

"It works to pick people up in taverns sometimes," J'zargo offered.

"Yes, I am a random guy from a tavern," said the stunningly attractive Imperial warrior who had saved the world as foretold by ancient prophecies of Alduin's return and the Dragonborn's intervention.

J'zargo didn't have anything else to say right then, so he simply waited and watched the cavern go by. And he'd thought this place was vast before. One continuous underground space spanned these hundreds of miles. It was like a tenth hold of Skyrim.

It also occurred to him that it must have taken immense effort from the Dwemer to build all these columns and put up such long cables. The choice to use cables did perplex J'zargo. Did they want the rails to be flexible for something? It was a pity the Dwemer were no longer around for him to ask them about it.

Soon enough, something unusual appeared off in the distance. A giant yellow glowing ball, somewhere ahead in the fog.

"That's our stop," Iseus said. "The Silent City. That sun-orb thing there is right over the debate hall, where the Black Machine's been staying."

The ball was getting bigger. Buildings were starting to emerge from the fog, too. Blocky stone structures, some large, some small. "Will J'zargo be meeting your soldiers today?"

"No, we're not going there. Mining operation, remember?"

"Ah. Yes. What is being mined?"

Iseus just smiled at him.

J'zargo realized that they'd been slowing down for a while. It had just been hard to perceive. They were passing through the supports far less frequently than before. And seeing as there were actually buildings all around them now, the stop must have been seconds away.

Sure enough, it was. After all this time sitting still in the shuttle, it didn't feel too remarkable that they were stopping. It was a station just like the one in Alftand, complete with stairs. The shuttle door opened up by itself. Iseus put his helmet on and hopped out onto the platform, and J'zargo simply followed.

It was noticeably warmer here than by Alftand, and there was distant noise of people doing things. Walking, talking, the usual. It had been a while since J'zargo had heard that. He looked at Iseus curiously.

"Follow me," he said, then started down the staircase. This was going to be exciting.

Actually, it turned out to be fairly boring, by Blackreach standards. All of the buildings here seemed to be deserted, and they were going away from that big yellow ball thing. Up close, J'zargo could see that it was contained in a fine metal lattice, and it hung from the ceiling above a big angular fortress-like structure. The debate hall, then. Which they were going away from. Fantastic.

The Dragonborn was taking him to the edge of the town, he realized. Not quite along the path of the shuttle cables, but close. J'zargo kept close by. He kept expecting some Falmer to jump out of one of the buildings, or something.

After a while of walking, the buildings stopped, and it was just open road through the cavern, lit up by nothing but glowing mushrooms. Which were rather bright, admittedly. The people-noises had given way to metallic clacking noises from someplace ahead. Mining operation.

"J'zargo does not understand the relevance of mining ores to the practices of magic," he said, once they seemed to be fairly close to the sounds.

"It's relevant," Iseus said flatly. "Come on, we're not far."

The mining area turned out to be very easy to find. There were balls of magelight everywhere. The work space was almost painfully well-lit. Ten or so workers were chipping away at a rock face with pickaxes, surrounded by wooden hand carts. Some of the carts were full of chunks of ore. Only, it wasn't normal ore. It was full of pinkish-bluish iridescent crystal deposits.

J'zargo did not take long to realize what they were. "Are they mining..."

"Soul gems, yes." Iseus nodded. "This is the only place in the world where they're known to just occur in the ground. Usually they have to be synthesized and … well, you know how that works, you're a mage."

This changed everything. Normally, a single soul gem, even of common size, was quite expensive to produce, even more expensive to purchase. Being able to mine them like iron or copper? That was something else. J'zargo had thought he understood how big this whole project of the Dragonborn's was, but he hadn't made room for anything as crazy as this.

One of the workers noticed the two of them standing there, and stopped his work to walk over. He was a big, strong Orsimer fellow, carrying a pickaxe lazily in one massive hand. His work clothes were soaked with sweat. His two lower canine teeth jutted out from his lips even more than with most of his kind.

"Dragonborn," the worker said.

"Foreman Darag," Iseus nodded politely. "How is the gem quality?"

"Nothing special, as soul gems go. Mostly common-grade, a few greater-grade." Darag glanced at J'zargo, but said nothing further.

"Mage from Winterhold," Iseus said, by way of explanation. "Helping with the whole enchanting thing."

Darag nodded. A satisfactory answer. "We've retrieved about ninety distinct common soul gems so far. More are on their way."

"Ninety!" J'zargo couldn't help but exclaim. "By the Twin Moons, how many are there?"

"Thousands, I bet," Iseus said. "But we don't need them all. Darag, I want you to clean and prepare the common soul gems for enchanting. Not the greater-grades, not the lesser-grades. They don't take priority. I need that one size."

Darag nodded again. "Understood, Dragonborn. Will that be all?"

Iseus turned to look at J'zargo. "I don't know. Will it?"

There was a moment's pause. J'zargo realized he was supposed to conclude this. Honestly, he didn't know what to even say to this, so he simply said, "That will be all, thank you."

"Dragonborn," Darag said again in parting, before returning to his work.

Iseus kept looking at J'zargo. He said nothing.

J'zargo just gaped. "What in Oblivion has J'zargo just witnessed?"

"You've just witnessed part of my next big project."