A/N: And Here's the next chapter... and an early update at that!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Elder Scrolls series. I only own my original Ideas.
Chapter 37: Revealing the Unseen
Shouts-at-Sun's POV
Out in the College's central courtyard, I quickly found Mirabelle Ervine. I went over to speak with her.
"Good day Mirabelle," I said, "I need your aid with something".
"What do you need apprentice?" asked Mirabelle.
"I heard you were researching the Staff of Magnus," I said.
"I was… what about it?" asked Mirabelle.
"We need to locate it," I said, "It will allow us to contain the power of the Eye of Magnus that we found in Saarthal".
"The 'Eye of Magnus'?" said Mirabelle disbelievingly, "I understand that it is impressive, but there's no need to jump to such wild conclusions".
"…Actually, it was the Augur of Dunlain that called it the Eye of Magnus," I said.
"The Augur!" said Mirabelle, "what have you gotten yourself mixed up in, apprentice?"
"I ask myself that fairly frequently," I replied with a sigh.
"…Alright, I'll tell you what I know about the Staff of Magnus," said Mirabelle, "I know fairly little about the staff, other than that it is supposed to be quite powerful. However, I do have a possible lead for you: some 'researchers' for the Synod came by the college not long ago. They were searching of powerful artifacts… that they could hoard for themselves. In any case, last I heard, they were working on some sort of project in the Dwemer city of Mzulft. I'd suggest looking there. I'll mark its approximate location on your map".
"Thank you, I'll start looking there," I said.
I then left the college, heading in the general direction of Windhelm. Before too long I found myself passing said dreary city, and crossed the river to its south shore. From there, I continued trekking south-east towards the Velothi Mountains. I soon found the outskirts of a Dwemer city, and climbed the stairs towards the main buildings. As I approached the doors, I spotted a dead mage off to one side. I checked his corpse, and found a journal. The information provided in the journal told me that the rest of the Synod's expedition team had already gone inside, and one of them was carry some sort of Focusing crystal. I then entered the doors of Mzulft. Just inside, I found another Synod researcher, this one still alive, albeit just barely.
"cough, you... you must get the focusing crystal to Paratus Decimius," groaned the Synod researcher, "One of those… creatures ran off with it. Take this key with you… you'll need it to get any further".
With that, the Synod member slumped down, the candle of his life having been snuffed out. I took the key from him, and used it to open the door. I then headed down the passage, fighting my way through dwarven machinations as I went. I soon reached the split in the path, with a door to the north, and one to the east. I decided to try the north door first. As I approached it, I noticed that the floor was covered with holes for something… It appeared to be a quite obvious trap. I took a closer look at the door, and spotted a tripwire attached near the lower right hinge. I carefully stepped over to the tripwire and disabled the trap. I then opened the now safe door, and descended the stair beyond. As I reached the room at the bottom of the stairs, I was attacked by a Dwarven Sphere. After dealing with it, I searched the pile of scrap metal it left behind for useful items. I found, among other things, a pot of machine oil, a couple of soul gems… and also what at first thought were arrows, but I then realized that they were shorter, and less flexible. I decided to take them with me… I had a feeling that I might find a use for them at some point in the future. I checked the rest of this dead end chamber, collecting a few items from the treasure chests, and a mined a couple pieces of moonstone ore from the nearby vein using the convenient pickaxe.
I returned to the junction, and this time took the east passage. This tunnel quickly turned into a sunlit cavern, where I passed a couple more former Synod members. The next section of the passage held a nasty surprise: Chaurus. I knew that if these creatures were present, there would be Falmer nearby. I fought off these giant bugs, and moved towards the exit. However, I got another surprise as I approached the exit. One of the 'dead' Chaurus started to move… and then its exoskeleton burst open, and a new creature came flying out! This new Chaurus form was thinner of body with wings. I fought it off, and then continued deeper, soon re-entering the tunnels of Mzulft. A short distance further ahead, I passed through a small storeroom, and then another a couple of turns later. I soon arrived on the last chamber of this floor, which was guarded by a couple more Dwarven Spiders. I smashed them into scrap metal, and then moved towards the exit, which was labeled as 'Boilery'.
I moved into the Boilery, and soon arrived in the first chamber. Ahead of me, I spotted a Falmer… and somehow, it spotted me as well. I fought it off, and then continued down the next hallway. I next arrived in a room that could have possibly functioned as a prison at some point, due to the cells set into the walls. I fought a couple more Falmer here, and then moved on. After leaving this room, I entered an area where the Dwemer construction once again gave away to a cave-like passage. I soon discover that the Falmer had left their Chaurus pets to guard this tunnel. I pushed past them as well, and reached a chamber illuminated by glowing fungi clinging to the walls. I continued forwards, battling Falmer and Chaurus as I went. I eventually reached the metal walls of Mzulft once more. I noticed that the room I'd just arrived in had a locked-off section, acting like a vault. After a couple of tries, I managed to get to door to open… only to discover that someone had replaced to contents of the treasure chest with a pile of junk. I left the not-so treasure behind and continued further into the tunnels. Up ahead on the right I found another locked door.
I stepped up to the door, and heard the sound of something moving on the far side. I picked the lock, and then stood off to one side and pushed the door open. When I did, a Chaurus came rushing out and ran straight into the opposite wall, knocking itself out cold. I checked the room it had come out of, but I found nothing of interest. I quickly worked out what had happed here: some past adventurer, or possibly a Synod member had been raiding the chests in this room when the Chaurus had attacked. This past adventurer apparently had thought quickly, and locked the Chaurus in the room. In any case, I continued down the tunnel, and quickly came to the chamber that this level had been named for: the Boilery. I fought off a couple more Falmer here, and then moved down the passage leading to the next level. In this passage, I noticed that someone had marked this door with the word 'Aedrome' I pushed this door open, and entered this new level.
In the Aedrome level, I moved down the first hallway, and entered a large chamber. This chamber was guarded by several Falmer, the apparent leader of which holding some strange sort of crystal. I fought my way through the Falmer and, once the area was clear, I retrieved the strange crystal. I figured that it was probably the focusing crystal mentioned in the journal. I then preformed a search of the area. To the east, I found some sort of meeting hall, and a storeroom guarded by a Dwarven Sphere. In this storeroom, I found a useful-looking key. I took the key, and headed by to the central chamber. I tried the western door next, only to find it was locked with a mechanisim that looked too complex to pick. On a hunch, I tried the key I'd picked up mere minutes earlier. The key slid into the lock, and the door opened easily. I moved through the fairly unremarkable hallway behind, only to come upon another door. The problem was, there didn't seem to be any way of opening it. I decided that it couldn't hurt to try, so I knocked on the door.
"Hello?" said a voice from behind the door, "is someone there? Gavros, is that you?"
"No, I'm not Gavros, but I did find the Focusing Crystal for you," I replied.
"Well… alright I'll let you in," said the voice.
With that, the door swung open, revealing a mage prepared to attack!
"Whoa… calm down," I said, "I'm not here to attack you".
"Well then, who are you?" asked the mage.
"A student from the college of Winterhold," I replied, "I heard you might know something about the Staff of Magnus".
"Hmm… follow me," said the mage, "I'm Paratus Decimius by the way".
With that he turned away, leaving me to follow.
"We were working on a device here… something the Dwemer left behind," said Paratus, "we don't know what the Dwarves called it… probably something unpronounceable, but we call it the Oculory. We believe if it were properly focused, it would display the locations of powerful sources of magic!"
"That sounds useful," I replied, "and this crystal will provide the proper focus?"
"Correct," said Paratus, "now, the Oculory is up these stairs, follow me".
We continued up the stairs in question, and soon arrived at the 'Oculory'. I noticed that there was an empty slot in the lens array. I took this as a hint, and placed the Focusing Crystal into this slot. When I did, the mechanism spun around so that the Focusing Crystal was on the top of the device. A beam of light came streaming down from the dome above, filtering through a prism, which split the beam in three. From there the beams bounced off a trio of mirrors attached to the framework of the device, and then towards the walls of the dome, where they stopped. I looked up at the dome in question, and noticed that it had three main rings, each of which had a single mirror upon it.
"Ah good," said Paratus, "The Focusing Crystal seems to be working properly. Now all that's left is to align the array properly".
"And how would you suggest we go about doing that?" I asked.
"I've done some research into that very topic," said Paratus, "I believe that the array could be aligned with a combination of Fire and Frost magic. Additionally, on the balcony over to the side of the room, there are switches can rotate the rings of the dome".
"So we should align the beams coming off the Oculory so that one is hitting each of the rings, and then rotate the rings to align the mirrors with the beams".
I equipped my Flames spell in one hand, and Frostbite in the other, and stepped over to attempt to align the mirrors. After a few times shifting the mirrors back and forth, I managed the get the beams aimed at the correct locations. I then climbed the stairs to the controls for the rings of the dome. This took fairly little time, as each ring could only rotate in on direction, as soon the mirrors were all in their proper places. This redirected the beams directly into the Focusing Crystal, which sent the beams directly into the final lens, which was set into the floor.
"It's working!" said Paratus, "Wait… what is this? What's going on here?"
"What? What happened?" I said, leaping down from my ledge to see what he was looking at.
I quickly saw what had caught his eye: the Oculory had caused a map of Tamriel to appear on the wall, with the map properly divided by province. I saw that there seemed to be three points highlighted on the map, all of which were in Skyrim: One was Winterhold, the second was to the south-east of the first, and the third… seemed to be our current position!
"What have you done?" said Paratus angrily, "what did you do to the Oculory?"
"I have no idea what you've talking about!" I replied, "all I did was align the mirrors and get this machine working, why is something not functioning properly?"
"You know there is!" screamed Paratus, "this device should be displaying the location of every source of power in Tamriel! Instead, it's only showing three things: Mzulft, Labyrithian, and your college!"
"How odd," I said calmly, "I think I can explain the one here in Mzulft".
With that, I pulled out Azura's Star, showing it to the enraged Synod member.
"That only leaves me with one question," said Paratus, "what do you have at the college that is throwing off the Oculory?"
"I don't know what you mean," I said innocently, "would the college just be highlighted due to the concentration of mages there?"
"Don't even try to fool me, lizard," said Paratus, "I know you have something valuable hidden there! Tell me what it is!"
"You know what?" I said, "I think you've been down here too long… you need to head outside, get some fresh air before you end up under the control of Sheogorath. Goodbye, now".
With that I headed towards the exit, having gotten a clue on where to go to next… Labyrinthian. However, before I went off on another wild adventure, I decided that it was best to report back to the Archmage. I climbed down the stairs out of the Oculory, and heading for the exit door. However, as I approached the door, time froze: A Psijic monk had arrived to speak with me. When he appeared, I realized that it was not Quaranir, but rather the Psijic monk who I'd seen in Saarthal.
"Greetings again mage," said the Psijic monk, "You continue to move forwards. Do not fear, for you are on the correct path. Now, return to your college immediately… they will need you".
With that, the monk vanished and time resumed. With his words in mind, I left the depths of Mzulft, and started back towards the college… hoping for the best but fearing the worst.
A/N: Things at the College of Winterhold seem to be coming to a head... next time: Containment. See you then!