19
Itagaki.
With the aid of Öenthir's incredible satchel, which remained watertight despite looking and feeling like an ordinary, leather satchel, they had somewhere to out their clothes and armour and only had to contend with their weapons as they swam to the other side of the lengthy pool.
It was Öenthir, again, that provided her flame spell to dry their underclothes before being able to get dressed again. The dark elf, of course, cared little about her nakedness while their small clothes dried. Öenthir slipped into a fresh set of everything, digging into her capacious bag and emerging with a fetching set of blue-dyed leather breeches, dark cotton blouse and a leather waistcoat that matched the breeches. Revna sat, uncomfortable, her back to the wall, covering her fur covered breasts.
For her part, Itagaki didn't care about her nakedness, either. The difference between her and the dark elf was that it was a natural thing to do, not a chance to parade herself like the dark elf.
The mage had learned to control her flame spell to a much finer degree, the underclothes dried fast and they all were soon dressed once more. The dark elf took her time, dangling her feet in the warm water of the pool but, after a short time, joined them.
They took the opportunity of the enforced rest to have a small bite to eat. Enough to give them some energy, but not too much that would leave them short of the precious amount of food they had.
"We should get moving." She adjusted her swords in her sash and picked up her one-handed hammers. "The door out of here is this way and the gem glows in that direction."
"Just how much further do we have to go?" The dark elf looked tired, but didn't show it.
"As far we must." With her two-handed hammer over her shoulder, even Revna seemed to be feeling worn and forlorn. The swim hadn't helped on that score.
They were all beginning to feel it. She had to admit to herself that she also felt that this Dwemer structure was endless. To go back now, though, would mean having to fight their way through those spider machines and she did not relish that thought.
Everything felt heavier now. Their steps that little bit more sluggish at the prospect of working their way through more of these corridors. A little more trepidatious at the thought that there may be more of the spiders, or worse, ahead.
But they moved. They made the steps forward, one after the other. They may be feeling the weight of the journey, but they kept going, all of them, where other people would have resigned themselves to failure. They were steadfast and stalwart, even the dark elf, and that was admirable.
Reaching the door, a larger door than any they had yet encountered, twice as high and twice as wide, the dark elf checked it for a lock. She studied the entire door and the walls at the side, but shook her head as she found nothing, not even an indentation for the Gem of Unison.
"There's magicka here." Öenthir held up her hand tracing the invisible forces that mages utilised. "Faint, but present. Try the gem."
Itagaki took out the gem, the light inside it glowing and pulsing steady. She held it in front of her and made slow, careful steps towards the door. When she got to within a foot away from the door, the gem began to brighten and pulse more rapid, but in a disjointed, seeming random pattern.
As the pattern of pulsing continued, they heard clicks within the door, whirring sounds and the release of steam elsewhere, but close. Finally there was a grinding sound as gears crunched together and the door began to open, slow and halting.
She and Revna readied their weapons as the door continued its slow progress. To their left, Öenthir seemed to be preparing a spell as wisps of dark, blue/black energy circled her in waves. To the right, the dark elf had The Sisters at the ready, even though they would be little use against any of the metal creatures.
What they saw beyond the door was, they all thought, the strangest sight they had encountered on their journey. A large hall, some three hundred feet wide and long, with rock formations that were so incongruous to everything else they had encountered in the Dwemer structure so far. And, in various areas were what looked like huts, black, ribbed, organic looking huts with cooking fires in front of them.
But the strangest of all was the creature that stood before them. Bent backed, long arms almost scraping the floor, only a strip of leather covering its groin and pale blue, almost translucent skin. Its head turned to them, bald with elf-like ears, a mouth of sharp gruesome teeth and sightless white eyes.
"Falmer!" A gasp filled with fear erupted from the mage. "Y'ffre's mercy!"
ii. Revna.
Before she could even react, a knife buried itself deep in the throat of the creature that Öenthir had identified as a 'Falmer'. It fell to the floor clutching at its throat, black blood pouring from the wound and its mouth. Tilly was on it in a second, thrusting her dagger into the back of its head and into its brain before it could make a sound.
The dark elf grabbed one of its arms and dragged it back into the room and signalled for them all to stand to the side of the door, out of sight. She pulled the throwing knife from the creatures throat, wiping the blood from it on the Falmer's almost see-through skin.
"I've seen these creatures before." Tilly whispered as she poked her head around the door frame, watching for others. "One was brought to Mournhold. They thought they could train it as a slave, but it butchered the entire family before it could be killed."
"What is it? It looks almost like an elf." Revna knelt beside the creature, examining it. "But this is no elf I have seen. It's ... is it blind?"
She turned its head, seeing the white eyes with no pupils and looked up at the mage, hoping that had the answers.
"They are elves. Or, rather, they were." The mage stood far away from the dead creature. "They were Snow Elves, enslaved and corrupted by the Dwemer. I didn't think there'd be any here. We're so far south of the normal Dwemer strongholds."
"They are blind, but they make up for that with incredible senses of hearing and smell. I'm going to scout ahead. We need to know how many more of them there are." Tilly looked at Revna and then Itagaki for approval. Revna looked at Itagaki and then back at Tilly, nodding. "Don't make a sound above a whisper and, if you see another one of these, don't even whisper."
She disappeared around the corner of the door, The Sisters in hand.
Revna took up the position that Tilly had left, looking around the door frame, searching for any movement. The dark elf had literally disappeared now. There was no sight of her and Revna couldn't help but admire the skill in stealth that Tilly had. If she had tried it, even with her innate skills as a Khajiit, she would not be able to compare with Tilly.
"This is becoming much more complicated the further we go on." The Redguard was examining the Falmer, now. "Metal creatures behind us, these things in front of us. We could use more warriors."
"Aye. We do appear to be outnumbered down here." Revna saw Öenthir standing far away from the creature. "Are you alright?"
"Yes!" She answered too fast, a tight pitch to her voice. "I've just read a lot about the Falmer and all of it was horrible. So much pain and suffering and then what they became. It's profane."
"We'll be fine." Revna tried to give the mage a comforting smile, but she shared her worries. Looking around the door, she had seen a lot of movement in room ahead.
It was strange, but she felt like she would rather be fighting the skeletons, ghosts and trolls that they had encountered in Hew's Bane. The spirit of the Ayleid mage, Gwinilden, had been right. These things were far worse. The metal Dwemer constructs were one thing, her Argonian hammer could handle some of them, but swarms of them? And these Falmer, twisted mockeries of elves, with their blindness and their strange, colourless skins, they made her gut lurch.
Tilly returning came as a surprise. So quiet and quick, the dark elf was almost within touching distance before Revna caught sight of her. She looked worried and shook her hands, covered in the black blood that Revna had seen gushing from the Falmer.
Tilly rounded the corner and collapsed against the wall, breathing heavy. She was still not completely healed.
"Anyone got any water? Mine's all gone." The dark elf caught the water skin that Revna tossed to her and took a deep gulp from it, then poured some on her hands, washing away the blood before tossing it back.
"What did you see?" Itagaki, ever pragmatic, put aside her problems with Tilly. For now. "What can we expect in there?"
"There's a door, like this one, at the other end of the room." She hung her head, still trying to breathe as normal as she could. "But there's about thirty Falmer between us and that door. There's an easy but open path on the right of the room, or a quicker, more difficult path to the left."
"You had blood on your hands?" The mage, despite her feelings against Tilly, stepped towards her, ready to use her healing spell.
"Not mine." Tilly winked and grinned. "I killed a few. When they're found, it might keep the others occupied for a while. Even with that, I can't see us getting through them all without getting hit. There's too many of them."
"I might have an idea about that." Revna had been thinking. She wasn't the brightest among the companions, but she was still a warrior with a fine tactical mind. Not to the same level as Itagaki, but she wasn't a slouch. "What if we used the things we have at hand?"
"What do you propose?" The Redguard considered, interested in anything they could do.
"'The enemy of my enemy'?" Revna pointed back towards the door, on the other side of the pool, holding back the spider constructs and saw comprehension dawn on Itagaki's face. It took a little longer for the others to work it out. "Maybe we don't have to do all the fighting."
iii. Tilly.
It was a crazy plan. She knew it, Itagaki and Öenthir knew it. Even Revna, who had proposed it, knew that the plan was bizarre, but it was the only plan they had. Trying to sneak past the Falmer was beyond risky and, even with the fighting skills of the Redguard and the Khajiit, thirty opponents, or more, was impossible odds.
The Falmer had discovered their dead compatriots and there was activity within the room. It was only a matter of time before they sensed the open door and then there would be trouble. So, now, here she was, wet, in her underclothes, on the other side of the pool, about to open a door with dozens of those metal spiders waiting to do Vivec know's what to her.
It was a crazy plan!
They didn't even know if the spiders would, or could, follow her through the pool. They had found a slipway, on the other side of the pool that the metal creatures could climb up if they did follow her and, once out of the pool, she had to 'introduce' the spiders and the Falmer to each other.
She hated to think it, but she was loving the excitement of it all. She was feeling the same kind of thrill she got when performing her duties for her calling. It was something she could never describe in an adequate fashion, like sliding down a knife edge without getting cut. That balance between life and death, teetering one way or the other as they enacted each stage of the plan.
She put her ear against the door and listened. The spiders seemed to have returned to their previous state, with no discernible sounds of movement from within. Taking two deep breaths, trying to calm her mind, she removed the Gem of Unison from a pouch tied to her wrist and held it to the slight indentation on the door.
There was an audible 'click' and the door began to swing open and she prepared to run for her life but, when she glanced around the door, she found the spiders were, once again, dormant, lined back against the walls as they had before.
She didn't relax, but she did stand with her hands on her hips wondering what to do. They had begun moving, before, when Revna had brushed one with her foot. Shrugging, she took a leaf out of the Khajiit's book and threw her foot out towards the nearest spider. As soon as her foot connected, a sharp, needle-like leg shot up towards it. That got them going.
As one, the spiders turned towards her and, even with no 'eyes', that she could see, appeared to be staring at her. Then they all began to move towards her, legs clicking against the metal floor.
She ran. Racing like a madwoman towards the edge of the pool, she almost dropped the Gem of Unison and, reaching the pool, she replaced it into the pouch at her wrist with care. The spiders were fast on those little legs and they weren't far behind her, but she couldn't jump yet. She had to make sure that they would follow her into the water.
"Come on you little snappy bastards." She didn't know if taunting them would help, but she did it anyway. "See how many of you can get their claws into this sweet body of mine. Come on!"
The nearest spider scrunched down on its legs and Tilly wondered what it was up to. She soon found out as it launched itself upwards towards her face. She managed to duck out of the way and caught a glimpse of it landing in the water behind her. It still kept moving. That was the good thing.
The bad thing was she was almost surrounded by the spiders. Turning, she threw herself into the water, arresting her dive so that she surfaced faster. She now knew that the spiders weren't affected by the water, but she couldn't be sure they couldn't 'swim' and she didn't fancy being close to them as the pack of spiders, one-by-one began to follow her into the pool.
She swam as fast as she could and, between breaths, she could see the spiders scuttling along below her on the bed of the pool. The little buggers were fast! Faster than her. At this rate, they would reach the other side before her.
Redoubling her efforts, she tried to swim faster, but now a quick glance showed that there was more trouble ahead. The Falmer had discovered the open door. Luckily, she had told the others to hide within the room, behind a rocky outcrop she had found on her scouting trip. Nevertheless, there were now two Falmer between her and the others and the spiders had started to leave the pool.
She praised Sithis when the Falmer turned at the noises that the spiders were making with their metal legs on the metal floor and soon the spiders and the Falmer had engaged in battle. Razor-like claws against whatever the Falmer swords and spears were.
She paused before pulling herself out of the pool, gauging the battle that was occurring. When she thought both sides had become occupied enough, she jumped out and began to run for the door before more Falmer appeared. This time she was unlucky.
Another Falmer now stood in the frame of the doorway, a spear in its hand, turning its head to locate the sounds of fighting. Tilly wasn't about to let him, it, get in her way. She sprinted towards it and punched it square in the face, sending it crashing to the ground, before it could react. Grabbing its spear, she brought it down and pinned it to the ground before pulling the spear out, spotting some more Falmer about twenty feet away and throwing the spear at them with a high-pitched scream.
The spear missed all of them. She had never thrown one before. It had the right effect, though, as all the Falmer now turned towards the door, as spiders began turning the corner, clicking their way into the room. Veering aside, Tilly dived over some rocks, rolling to her feet and ran to the hiding place of the others as the Falmer and spiders closed in on each other.
"So, how's your day been?" She collapsed beside Revna, breathing heavy.
iv. Öenthir.
She tried not to look at the skirmish going on between the Falmer and the spiders, but she did notice the unnatural quietness of it. All that she could hear were the clicking of the spider legs and the clash of spear and sword against metal. The Falmer made no noise. No grunts, no shouts, nothing. She didn't think the spiders were capable of making noise. It was eerie.
Right now, she had to focus on the perilous path to the other side of the room. The dark elf had been right, this path, on the left, was difficult, littered with stone, large boulders, gaps and cliffs. They had already navigated one steep climb, Revna giving each of them lifts with her powerful arms before jumping and scrambling after them.
The next tricky part was a gap between two rocks that seemed like a chasm to her. She had never been the most active of wood elves, preferring to stay at home reading rather than running and climbing trees like her sister, Ferinwé and, at this moment, she regretted that and envied her sister's exuberance.
"I can't jump that." She saw the look that Revna gave her. "It's not that I'm scared. I am. But I know that I simply won't make it."
"We will jump first." Itagaki pointed to herself and the dark elf. "When you jump, we will catch you."
"I'm not being dramatic, Itagaki!" At times of stress, she found that she soon reverted to her learned haughty nature and she didn't mean to snap at the Redguard. "I know how far I can jump and I won't reach!"
"Maybe our resident giant Khajiit can throw you?" The dark elf wasn't joking, either.
Öenthir didn't like the idea, but what other option was there? She looked up at Revna, who made a noncommittal shrug. Öenthir didn't know if that meant she could or couldn't do it. She took one last look at the gap, steeled herself, and nodded.
The dark elf was the first to jump, taking a short run up and launching herself across the gap, her noble's coat flapping around her legs. Itagaki followed, making the jump with ease and landing on the other side. Revna then threw their packs across, her hammer and Öenthir's staff.
"There won't be a lot of dignity with this, you know." The Khajiit stood waiting for Öenthir to show she was ready.
"I know." Her shoulders slumped, but she stood beside the gap ready for the throw.
Revna grabbed her then, by the waist of her leather breeches and by the collar of both her blouse and waistcoat. The Khajiit lifted her once, to gauge her weight, relaxed again and then lifted her full weight, tossing her flying towards her other companions.
She landed in their arms and they fell backwards to soften the shock of the landing. Now it was Revna's turn. She took a few steps back before running and jumping the gap. Mid-flight, an arrow whistled by her ear, causing her to misjudge where she was landing.
Almost failing to reach the other side of the gap, she began falling backwards, arms windmilling in desperation to regain her balance before the dark elf pounced to her, grabbing her by the collar of the 'Scorpion Black' armour and dragging her to safety.
"That was embarrassing!" The dark elf laughed, despite more arrows flying at them now, some Falmer having heard their efforts. "You're a cat, for Khenarthi's sake!"
"I'm not a cat! I'm a Khajiit raised as a Nord." It was another time that Revna's fur spared her blushes. "Nord's do not jump things, they go through them. Little elf."
"If you two are finished joking, we must move. Now." The Redguard pointed to the path on the other side of the room. "We have made too much noise, some Falmer are moving to cut us off."
Indeed, a group of five Falmer had disengaged from the fighting with the spiders and were loping up the easier path, firing occasional arrows in their direction. Quite how they could target the companions, Öenthir didn't know, but they were.
The door they were trying to reach was not much further now, but the Falmer were moving fast. They had to race, navigating through the boulder strewn path, towards the double doors with the Falmer gaining ground every second.
Reaching the doors, Itagaki immediately held out the glowing Gem of Unison, which she had retrieved from the dark elf, and the doors began opening. Far too slow. Arrows pinged from the metal of the doors as they opened and the Falmer neared them.
Revna turned towards the Falmer, teeth bared, hammer lifted in readiness, ready to gain them time if they needed it, but an arrow struck her, thudding into the armour of her chest. The blow brought the big Khajiit to her knees.
But not for long. She pushed herself back to her feet, grabbing the arrow and ripping it from her chest, throwing it down to the floor, with a growl. Öenthir saw furious savagery in Revna's eyes. The Khajiit hefted her hammer and was about to launch herself at the Falmer, not seeming to care that the distorted elves outnumbered her.
"Through the doors, everyone!" Itagaki grabbed Öenthir and pushed her towards the doors.
Revna was likewise grabbed, by the dark elf. At first the Khajiit would not move, her eyes filled with murderous intention, but, with help from Itagaki, managed to get Revna through the door. Then, they both took a side of the doors and pushed them closed. Arrows still whistling at them through the closing gap. The doors soon closed and locked with a click.
Öenthir immediately moved towards Revna, preparing her healing spell.
"You'd better get that armour off. Where did the arrow hit?" She examined the armour's chest piece as Itagaki and the dark elf began unfastening the straps for the Khajiit.
"What do you mean 'Where did the arrow hit'? There's a bloody great hole where it hit." Revna didn't seem to be in much pain, but she wasn't the type to show it, anyway, so that didn't mean much. She was still angry, though, and it was obvious the lure of battle had almost completely overwhelmed her good senses.
"No. There isn't." Öenthir ran her hand over the entire chest piece as the others removed it. It was as pristine as the day Revna had first put it on.
Öenthir grabbed Revna's undershirt and lifted it up, ignoring the Khajiit's embarrassed protests. There, on her friend's chest, she found a wound. Not as big as it should have been, though, only a small puncture that she soon healed.
She dropped Revna's undershirt and spun around to find the arrows that had flown through the doorway, picking up several and examining them close.
They were all barbed bodkin heads, made to pierce even plate armour and the barbs ensured that more damage would occur if the arrows were pulled out of bodies without care. Revna's armour, Scorpion Black's armour, became more interesting all the time.