Chapter 38: Bloodstained Steel
The Nixbrid's claws were dug into the roof next to Ruby. She was staring at it, clearly shocked. I wasn't sure why it missed until I noticed a glint of metal from in front of it. Someone was standing in front of the Nixbrid, their sword impaled into it's arm. I couldn't see their face, but going by their build and clothing I could have sworn it was Schimmel.
"Honestly, Ruby. You're getting soft hanging around with these weaklings." An unfamiliar voice chuckled, it definitely wasn't Schimmel. By the accent it had to be a Dunmer.
"What... what are you doing here?" Ruby stuttered.
"I save your life and not even a thank you. Talk about ungrateful." The person sighed, leaping away from the Nixbrid as it tried to grab him. With the next jump he landed on the beasts back, slashing the back of it's head before jumping off and landing next to me.
I stared blankly at him, wondering how anyone could move that effortlessly. He looked me over and grinned. "You're... Nem, right? Nice to finally meet you."
"Uh..." I mumbled, not sure how to respond.
"You're the guy I saw talking to Ruby in Gnaar Mok!" Trelana exclaimed.
The Dunmer glanced over his shoulder at her. "That's me. And you're the one that was spying on us. Trelana, right?"
"Y-you knew?"
"I'm an assassin. Hearing people sneaking up on me is the only reason I'm still alive."
"Ganus! This is no time for introductions!" Ruby shouted. "If you haven't noticed, your killing techniques didn't seem to do anything to this thing except make it mad!" She was doing her best to keep its attention away from us, since Barbarius seemed to have been knocked out when his head hit the wall.
"I was hoping I'd show up and save the day myself. No such luck, huh? Looks like you're the only one that can kill it now." Ganus said with a shrug.
"How am I supposed to do that?!" Ruby snapped, dodging another swing.
"Oh right." Ganus took something long wrapped in cloth off his back and tossed it to Ruby. "Use that!"
Ruby caught it and quickly rolled out of the way as the Nixbrid continued to relentlessly attack her. She ripped the cloth off the object as soon as she was out of the beast's reach. It turned out to be an old staff with a large ruby mounted on one end. Ruby stared at it for a moment. "This is my... and you just throw it carelessly?! Damn it, Ganus! After the Nixbrid, you're next!"
"Geez... does she have any emotion other than anger?" Ganus asked quietly.
"Yeah..." I said, thinking back to the events in Mournhold. "...but anger seems to trump most of the others. Tell me though, how is a staff supposed to help her kill that thing?"
"Just stand back and watch."
Ruby was aiming the tip of the staff at the Nixbrid, but nothing seemed to be happening.
"What's the hold up, Ruby?! It should've been dead by now!" Ganus yelled.
She hesitated for a moment, then the end of her staff began to glow red. A glowing orb shot from the tip, striking the Nixbrid in the face.
The next part is a blur... there was a massive explosion that knocked me backwards into the dome, and a crash. By the time my vision got back to normal after being blinded by the initial flash, Ruby was standing at the roof's edge where part of the short wall along it had been blown away. Ganus was still standing, or had already gotten up, and was helping Trelana regain her senses. She must've been taken off guard as well.
I unsteadily got to my feet and walked over to Ruby. She was staring down at the Nixbrid. It was on the stone yard below. At least the lower half of it was, the upper half seemed to have been scattered everywhere.
"Trelana, was Bryenn in that dome with you?" Ruby asked, still staring down.
"No... and none of the others I asked in there had seen him." Trelana mumbled.
"He could have been transformed without ever having to be put in there... so that doesn't tell us anything. We need something to tell us for certain if it was him or not."
"We'll search the stronghold. Aya still hasn't come back either, we have two people to find." I said.
"Three." Ruby handed the staff to Ganus and walked to the door back into the stronghold. "That fetcher Orland has to die for this." She touched the door, there was a light glow and the lock clicked open. "Hurry up." She said as she walked inside.
"Why doesn't she ever tell us she can do things like that?" I sighed, following her.
"I'll join you after I take care of Barbarius." Trelana said, dashing over to him.
"I have other matters to attend to. A shame I couldn't have met the person I was looking forward to seeing. Farewell." Ganus jumped off the roof and ran off in the direction of Hla Oad.
--
Ruby and I searched the second floor for any sign of Bryenn, Aya or Orland, but didn't find anything. The first floor was empty as well. Barbarius and Trelana rejoined us just before we entered the underground area.
The underground consisted of a large, mostly empty room and four smaller rooms that houses a handful of nix hounds each. After killing the nix hounds, since they rushed us the moment they saw us, we continued through a door leading down into the sewers.
Apart from a few rats, the sewers were devoid of life. I walked over the water, running through the middle of the tunnels to avoid the rats, and Ruby just kicked them out of the way. Trelana used her bag of tricks to investigate a flooded tunnel we came across, but it just brought her out somewhere she could have walked without getting waterlogged.
As we came toward the end of the sewers, we glanced down the last tunnel off to the side. Someone was facedown on the ground, and there was a splatter of blood on the wall. We hurried over and found Aya. Her shoulder was wounded and had a lump on the back of her head, but she was alive. Her right arm was stretched out, and it looked as if she was trying to point further down the tunnel. Unfortunately, the tunnel was flooded.
--
Trelana used a healing spell on Aya's wounds before handing me a magicka potion and Ruby one of her enchanted trinkets. Leaving Barbarius to take care of Aya, the three of us dove into the water and began swimming down the tunnel. It was an odd sensation. The water breathing spell Razelus had taught me worked well, but it was only the second or third time I had used it.
Eventually the tunnel came to an end at a door. We pushed it open and found ourselves outside, at an exit, or entrance to Hlormaren that was hidden from the view of any normal travelers. We swam south until we found a way onto the shore by a large tree.
We could see the stronghold just up ahead, but Ruby was more interested in something sticking out of the tree we came up by. That's when I noticed the liquid running along the ground at the tree trunk's base and toward the water.
We hurried around the tree, and Trelana gasped at the sight. The Breton was pinned against the tree, a claymore thrust through his chest.
"Looks like you got what you deserved, Orland. I'm only sorry it wasn't me that did it." Ruby said.
I would've asked her how she knew his name was Orland in the first place, since he never introduced himself, but I was more focused on the sword. I gripped the hilt and gave it a hard yank out of the tree. Orland's corpse slumped onto the ground, followed shortly by the claymore's blade. How anyone could wield a sword this heavy was beyond me.
"What are you doing?" Trelana wondered.
"This sword... it's Bryenn's." I muttered, examining it.
"Doesn't that mean... Bryenn's alive?!" She exclaimed.
"No. Someone else could have used it. Bryenn likes this sword too much to just leave it behind. It couldn't have just been some bandit that did this either, the sword is more valuable than anything this fetcher could have been carrying." Ruby said.
"Whatever the case, I'm not leaving it behind." I said, trying to lift it but having a difficult time. "We'd better get back to Barbarius and Aya."
"I'll go get them..." Trelana mumbled, hurrying down the road toward the stronghold.
I laid the sword on the ground and sat down. "Does this mean that Bryenn was that Nixbrid thing?"
"It means we still don't know for sure. The only person that knew can't exactly tell us now." Ruby said, kicking Orland's body.
"Just like I said. We're being picked off one by one..." I sighed. "Who's next? Schimmel? Aya? Trelana? Me? I don't know what's worse... not knowing or not being able to do a damn thing to stop it."
"Too hard to say. I did notice I wasn't on that little list of yours, though."
"Oh please, you're too stubborn to die or be captured. Schimmel's a klutz, Aya's reckless, Trelana and I aren't exactly built for battle... we're all easy pickings if they plan it out right. You're just vicious, it's hard to kill people like that."
"You're wrong, I'm not vicious. I've seen people like that, killing without reason or remorse. And I've sworn to give anyone that does such things a knife in the throat. Maybe they won't find it as enjoyable if they're on the receiving end. This guy was one of them."
I heard a splash and glanced over my shoulder. Ruby had tossed Orland's corpse into the water. A few slaughterfish were already speeding through the water at it. "From deranged mage to fish food. I'd call that a step up."
"At least now we know he's good and dead."
It wasn't long before Trelana returned with Barbarius, Aya and the rest of the people from Gnaar Mok that we had forgotten about in our haste to find the others. The five of us made our way back to Gnaar Mok with the survivors. From there we got on a boat and began the journey back to Suran.