The trek to Alftand took close to four hours. The snow didn't help, nor did the fact that it was almost dark by the time they started moving. The path led them through a ravine of sorts, between two high cliffs. They had to deal with a few wolves and a bear on the way, which wasn't much of a problem for two Companions.
All the same, before the two moons were at their zenith, Cry and Vilkas crested a ridge to the sight of different towers sticking up out of the snow. They paused, taking the sight in, before exchanging a glance, and heading towards the ruin.
Finding the best way down was the difficult part. There were a series of bridges connecting the towers to one another, and it was hard to decipher which tower led into the ruin proper, and which ones were stand-alone. Vilkas eventually pointed out a cave entrance that looked promising, and Cry, not seeing anything to lose, led the way over bridges and down steep staircases to it.
Once they were through, they were at least out of the worst of the snow storm outside. Cry was immediately grateful for her wolf's blood allowing her to see more easily in darkened spaces. The inside appeared to have been built for mining or something similar, as there were wooden supports holding up snow and ice-covered walls and the ceiling.
"We don't need to explore," Cry decided, peering down the path, which seemed to lead further into the mountain. She looked back at Vilkas. "Right?"
He shrugged. "I don't feel it necessary," he said, "although I am curious to know what people were doing down here, if they were looking for signs of dwarven life, or otherwise."
"Well, maybe when we aren't on a mission to save the world, we can come back," Cry suggested, and she started down the path, glad that her boots were giving her solid purchase against the slick ground.
Eventually, the path evened out a bit, and opened up into an established area with stone walls and pillars. Vilkas nodded to himself, and easily identified it as the work of Dwemer.
"They clearly were down here, once," he said to Cry. "And… listen."
She did so, pausing to focus her hearing. Her brow furrowed as she realized that she could hear a voice, coming from somewhere. She glanced at Vilkas, feeling a mixture of concern and confusion. He merely lifted his shoulders, and then tapped the hilt of his greatsword, an indication that they could handle anything that they came upon.
Cry knew that he was right. With that in mind, they kept going.
The further they went, the easier it was to identify that no one had been down in the ruins for a long time, whether they be dwarves or excavationists. The place was abandoned, cold. Cry didn't think anything would be able to survive down there for an extended period of time.
Anything that was actually alive, of course.
She had to make that alteration to her view when they encountered two metal creatures that Vilkas identified as dwarven spider workers, which came at them on metal legs, that they also used to try and attack. Cry was not a fan of the way that her sword's blade clashed against the metal frame of the things. She'd have to ask Eorlund to sharpen it for her, when she was able to return to Jorrvaskr.
She managed to kill one, and Vilkas took care of the other. They reconvened in the center of the space where the spider workers had attacked.
"Are you all right?" Vilkas asked, worry evident in his expression. Cry was confused by it, until he pointed out the cut that she'd received on her leg. She hadn't even noticed it happen, but seeing it felt the sting almost at once.
"Here," Vilkas said, pulling her over to a rundown stone table. He helped her climb up onto the edge of it, and then set to work dealing with her injury, pulling out linen bandages from her pack.
"I'm fine, Vilkas," Cry tried, but he ignored her in favor of wrapping the injury. She smiled a little, watching him work, and then looked up again, glancing around the space. "The Dwemer were great at building."
Vilkas snorted, lightly. "That's a bit of an understatement," he said. He straightened up, having tucked the bandages in, and helped her down from the table again. "Tell me if it's too tight."
Cry walked around in a circle, and nodded. "It's fine," she said. "Thank you."
Vilkas nodded, and then gestured. "Let's keep going."
They did so, getting lost only once, before the same voice they'd heard before reached them again, without having to focus their hearing this time. Cry was able to decipher it as belonging to a Khajiit, and from the sound of it, they were close.
She looked over at Vilkas, who dipped his head back, reaching up to pull out his sword again. Cry did the same, and they rounded a corner.
Metal pipes rose up out of the ground and disappeared through the ceiling. One wall was stone, the other ice. The Khajiit crouched against the stone wall, next to the body of another Khajiit, and they hissed when they spotted Cry and Vilkas.
"What? Who is this, Brother? More smooth skins, looking for food?" Their head cocked to the side. "But these ones weren't trapped with us."
"What happened down here?" Cry asked, and the Khajiit's ears pressed back against their head as they hissed again.
"You won't get the food we have left!" they said, and then darted forward, pulling out two daggers at the same time. Cry sidestepped, relieved that Vilkas had done the same, and they both swung at the Khajiit as they skidded over the ice, stumbling without anything to meet. The cat wailed as their Skyforge steel met their back. They hit the ground, and did not get up again.
Cry sighed, and slid her greatsword away once more. "Shame," she said, glancing between the cat they'd killed, and the one dead already. I wonder if they were part of the excavation team, or if they were just staying down here."
"No way of knowing now," Vilkas said. "I think we're getting close to the ruin proper."
He was right. They continued forward, and eventually made it past any sign of ice at all, although the air was still very cold. At the same time, however, steam was puffing up from grates in the pipes that they passed by, hot steam. Cry had to wonder how the place was still running, without no one around to keep it going.
"The workers," Vilkas explained, when she mentioned this aloud. "They're still at work, even with the dwarves gone."
"But how are they still running?" Cry asked. "I mean, don't they need maintenance, too?"
Vilkas was unable to answer, for at that moment, two more spider workers, and something he called a sphere appeared, ready to attack and defend the ruin. Cry ended up facing off against the sphere, which she did not appreciate. The thing was tough, and had a powerful attack. It lashed out at her with metal arms, catching her in the side of the head, and she staggered, her vision going black.
"Cry!" she heard Vilkas exclaim, and then she heard him shout as he swung his sword at the two spider workers. Cry blinked rapidly, to regain her senses, and straightened up to face the sphere. It had circled around, waiting to see if she'd get back up. She was glad that she could, and she elected to give Shouting a try.
"Yol!"
Fire burst from her mouth and at the sphere. The thing whirred, angrily, and spun in a circle, clearly uncertain of how to deal with flames. The metal hadn't caught, obviously, but the heat from the flames did appear to have softened it, a bit, giving Cry a thinner target to strike at. She did so, and her blade sank into the things center, straight through. When she pulled it out again, the sphere hunched over, and did not move again.
Cry let out a breath of relief, and stepped back. Vilkas immediately hurried over to where she was, and placed his hands on either side of her face, turning her head this way and that, peering into her eyes.
"Vilkas -"
"It hit you hard," Vilkas said, his voice low. "Are your ears ringing? Are you seeing double?"
"No," Cry said, reaching up with the hand she wasn't holding her sword with, and placing it over his. "I'm fine, really. It startled me, mostly."
"Are you sure?" She nodded, and Vilkas let out a breath, pressing his forehead to hers for a moment, before stepping back again. "I don't know how I would've dealt with it, if I'd let you do this alone."
"Well, you wouldn't have known what I was doing, so maybe it would've been easier?" At the look on his face, Cry relented, and leaned forward, resting her forehead on his shoulder. "No, you're right, it would've been worse, probably." She exhaled a breath. "I'm glad you're here, too."
Vilkas let out a quiet chuckle. "The faster we keep moving, the faster we can get out of here," he said, and Cry nodded in agreement, straightening up again.
"Let's go."
They did so, and eventually pushed their way through heavy metal doors into a new part of the ruin, that was much more lively than the one they'd been in originally. They encountered a few more spider workers along the way, but thankfully, not another sphere. All the while, the entire ruin was active, pumps running, steam flowing. Cry couldn't understand it.
Vilkas did his best to explain why it was all still running, and how, but she didn't really absorb any of it, too focused on getting through the ruin without getting lost. It was similar to a maze, she decided, and just as difficult to navigate. She decided if she never had to deal with another Dwemer ruin, she'd be happy.
They successfully made it through a large piece of ruin without getting lost, or without getting another injury. Cry warily crept through the gate that Vilkas had opened by reaching through the bars to tug down a lever, and peered over the edge of the path, far down to what was below.
"I can't believe this," she said. "How did -"
"Stop asking questions if you aren't actually going to pay attention to my answers," Vilkas said, already making his way down the ramp that led further in. "Come on."
At the bottom was a locked door. Vilkas sighed, testing it several times, before he looked at her.
"Locked," he said. "What're we going to do now?"
"Well," Cry said, pulling off her pack again. "I haven't had to do this in a while, but I'll give it a go."
She retrieved the only lockpick she had, and a dagger, and set to work on the door. Vilkas watched, and she could tell he was curious as to how she knew how to do this. To say she knew how to lockpick a door was stretching it, a little, but all the same, she managed to get it open within a few minutes.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" he asked her.
"I got into some things, in Morrowind," she said after a moment. "It was a skill I picked up."
Vilkas hummed a little, under his breath, and pushed the door open wider. "Well, thank goodness for that," he said, and waved her through.
There were two spider workers on the other side, but they took them down easily enough. Cry was beginning to understand the best way of doing so. From there, it was more of the same, although the enemies changed. Rather than dwarven machinery, they encountered a creature called Falmer instead.
"Snow elves," Vilkas explained, once they'd made it past the worst of them. "They used to be a normal elven species, like Altmer, but something happened, and now they're blind, and very untrustworthy of everyone else." He shook his head. "It's sad, really."
"What's sad is that magic is so damn powerful," Cry mumbled, nursing a burn that she'd been dealt by one of the elves.
Vilkas smiled, and walked away to scout ahead while she finished with her injury. Why she was the one getting hurt, she couldn't guess, but she knew he wouldn't let her forget it, once they'd gotten what they'd come for. She sighed, a little, and finished bandaging the burn, before standing up and going after Vilkas.
She found him in an alcove of sorts, standing next to a lever. He gestured down to it when she joined him. "What do you think this does?" he asked.
"If we're lucky, it opens some hidden compartment that the Elder Scroll is inside of," Cry replied. "But I doubt it."
Vilkas pulled the lever, and then jumped back as the floor started to move. Cry started. "What're you doing?" she asked, and quickly clambered up onto the platform.
"What're you doing?" Vilkas retorted, but Cry was unable to respond, as the floor had kept moving up, and he was no longer in sight. She frowned to herself, and walked away from it, down a short passage. There was a lever on the wall, and she pushed it, unsurprised to see it opened a pretty severe looking gate. She decided that she didn't want to continue forward on her own, however, especially seeing blood on the floor, and so she went back to the original platform and hit the lever again.
It returned her to the first floor, where Vilkas was still standing, looking flabbergasted. "I can't believe you did that!" he said, hotly.
"Well, I wanted to see where it went," Cry responded, annoyed. "There's a path up there, but there's still a way to go down here, so… what should we do?"
Vilkas sighed a little. "I think we should stick with the way we've been going," he said. "Why alter course?"
Cry shrugged. "Fine," she said. "Makes sense to me."
So they continued the way they had been going, following ramps down to the lowest level possible. At the bottom, they encountered more Falmer, and some spiders. Cry joked that she was lucky Farkas wasn't here instead, and Vilkas smiled in response, cutting one down with a single strike of his sword.
When all the enemies were dead, they passed through another door, thankfully not locked, this time, and followed the passage beyond it to a set of stairs that had a pretty obvious trap at the bottom of them. Cry made a face at it, and then looked at Vilkas.
"I dare you," she said.
"What, to trip it?" Vilkas snorted. "Absolutely not."
Cry grinned, and they continued on through another set of doors. On the other side, there were floor tiles to avoid that Cry knew spewed fire when touched, and a single Falmer to kill, before a third set of doors. These ones opened up into a very large area, that felt like they were outside, almost, even though they weren't.
Plenty of Falmer jumped out to impede them, but Cry and Vilkas methodically cut them all down, before coming back together in the center of the space, before a large gate. Cry tilted her head, peering at it, wondering if she was slim enough to fit between the bars if she took off her armor.
"There was a lever, up there," Vilkas said, indicating a set of stairs he'd been pushed up in the fight. "I'll go hit it."
"Sure," Cry said agreeably, and watched him run up the stairs again. A moment later, the bars blocking their path disappeared into the ground, and Cry passed through the gate. "Good job!" she called back to Vilkas, only to turn forward again and stop dead in her tracks.
A large golden behemoth stood in the way, its head the same design as some of the statues they'd seen in the ruins. Cry swallowed, and took a step back.
"So, listen," she began, carefully, "uhm. We're just passing through. We don't have to hurt you, if you don't hurt us."
Unfortunately, it seemed the behemoth didn't speak Common. It stepped forward towards her, menacingly, and Cry wondered if this was where she'd die.
Before she could fully contemplate it, her hair fluttered as Vilkas rushed past her with a battle cry, sword held high. He started attacking the machine without pause, hacking away at its metal legs while deftly avoiding its dangerous looking arms. Cry could only blink in shock when he, apparently, cut off whatever was keeping it running, for the thing collapsed to the ground with a loud crash of metal.
Vilkas took a few steps back from it, panting, and glanced at her, using his wrist to brush a strand of hair out of his face. Cry blinked again, several more times, before she cleared her throat.
"Well done, Master at Arms," she said, glad her voice didn't fail her. "Thank you. Let's keep moving."
She moved past him, up a set of stairs, and opened the golden gate at the top, which opened into a small area that had a strange device in the center of it. She hesitated, however, when she heard a voice, and glanced up from the device to see that two people had emerged from behind pillars, in mid-conversation, even though they had their weapons out.
"Sulla, let's just get out of here. Hasn't there been enough death?" one asked the other.
The other one, Sulla, snorted. "Oh, of course you want me to leave. Just waiting for me to turn my back. So you can have all the glory for yourself!"
"Uh, excuse me?" Cry started, and they both turned towards her, startled by her presence. "Hi, not to interrupt or anything, but… what are the two of you doing here?"
The couple exchanged a look, before they both rounded the device, weapons raised, ready for a fight. Cry sighed a little, but all the same used her greatsword to block the swing of an axe that the woman tried to strike her with. She then spun around, thrusting the axe in the direction of Sulla, who growled in his throat and went to stab at her with his sword. Cry twisted out of the way just in time, sending her sword across his belly, before she faced the woman again, and stuck it into her chest.
Vilkas joined her as she was pulling the sword free again, and shook his head a little.
"If only people knew how to explain themselves, rather than just start fighting immediately," he said, sounding a bit disappointed.
"If only," Cry agreed, and then she nodded towards the device. "I think we need one of those lexicon things."
"Probably," Vilkas said. He moved behind her, opening her pack, and pulled both out, before walking over to the machine. Cry moved to the gate at the back of the space, and tested it. It was locked. She frowned at the lever just beyond it, wondering if it moved the floor like a platform, too, and if it would get them outside.
"Cry." She turned back to Vilkas, and saw that he'd placed one of the lexicons into the device. Doing so had caused the floor to sink around it, into stairs.
"Interesting," she commented, joining him. "Let's go down there, I guess."
He nodded towards the gate. "Did you try that?"
"I did. It's locked. I don't think I want to try my luck at two of them."
"Your choice," Vilkas said. "Downstairs?"
"Yeah," Cry said, breathing outwards. "Let's see where it takes us."
The stairs, and the door at the bottom, took them to what Cry knew had to have been Blackreach. The place was filled with an eerie tealish glow, and Falmer, and it was huge. She and Vilkas no doubt would have gotten lost, had they not had an instinctive sense of where to go. They had to fight Falmer along the way, but eventually, they reached a tower that led up out of Blackreach, and into a place that felt much more like Skyrim, again.
Or, at least, felt like a Dwemer ruin.
They walked through an empty room, and through a set of doors to the other side. They opened onto a golden mass, with a ramp leading up around it. They followed it to a platform that had a series of devices on top of it, each one with a teal button attached to it.
Cry frowned at it, knowing that there was a puzzle involved, and deciding that she did not want to solve it. She looked to Vilkas, hopeful, and he sighed, moving to stand beside her.
"This must go here," he said, and placed the other lexicon into the blank space of one of the devices. Immediately, the buttons glowed, and metal arms with stained glass built into the end of them shifted in the middle of the room, over the large golden thing that they'd walked into.
"Hm," Vilkas said, quietly. He hit two of the buttons, and rings moved over the golden mass, shifting in a way that Cry could not understand. Vilkas examined the middle pedestal, which seemed to Cry to have a constellation or something mapped out onto it. Vilkas appeared to read it for a moment, before looking at the middle of the room again. He hit one of the buttons a second time, and a third started to glow instead.
"There we are," he said, pleased, and hit that one. The metal arms moved into a new position, and he examined them for a moment, before hitting the button again. They moved once more, before the fourth button started to glow. Vilkas tapped that one with all the confidence of someone who'd just won a card game, and Cry watched in fascination as the metal arms moved out of the way completely, and a different device entirely came down from the ceiling. The teal gem in the center of it twisted until it was laying flat, and then popped open.
"Wow," Cry said, impressed and amazed. "How did you do that?"
Vilkas smirked at her. "Star maps," he said, gesturing to the pedestal he'd been reading. "Maybe not so worthwhile for a warrior, but for an intellectual?"
Cry let out a laugh, and walked down from the platform and across the golden mass to the teal gem. Her shoulders fell in relief when she saw that it had opened to reveal what had to be an Elder Scroll in the center of it.
"Yes," she said, under her breath, and she carefully lifted the Scroll from its cradle, surprised to find that it was heavy. She really shouldn't have been, though; the casing around it was metal.
"I can't believe it," she said, turning to face Vilkas, who'd come down to join her, holding the lexicon. "We found it!"
Vilkas nodded in agreement. "I'm glad we did," he said. "Hopefully, you can put it to use."
Cry nodded in agreement. "I hope so, too," she said. "Let's get out of here."
They did as she suggested, having to cut back across Blackreach in order to return to the same area that they'd come from. Once they reached the top, Vilkas had the right idea to search the bodies of the people that Cry had had to kill, and he found a key that unlocked the gate she'd tested before.
The level raised the platform up for what felt like forever, but when Cry realized that she could fresh air, she decided it was worth the wait. They pushed their way through the gate at the top, and she breathed in, spreading her arms in relief, despite the fact that it was still snowing.
Vilkas peered over the distance, a hand over his eyes to block out the light from the coming dawn. "I wonder how far out we are from the real entrance," he commented.
"Probably pretty damn far," Cry replied, joining him. "We were underground almost all night." He turned to look at her, and she cocked an eyebrow at his expression. "What?"
In response, he reached up and cradled her jaw in his hands, before pressing a kiss to her mouth. Cry closed her eyes, winding her arms around his waist, and smiling into the kiss. After a moment, Vilkas pulled back, and traced his thumb over her cheek.
"I love you," he said, softly, meeting her gaze.
"I love you too," Cry replied. "But what's with the intensity?"
Vilkas inhaled, and Cry was surprised to hear how shaky the sound was. She furrowed her brows as he let go of her, and walked away a few steps, staring at the ground. "Vilkas?" she prompted.
"It -" He took a moment, his eyes closing, before he turned to her again. "You're going to take that thing to High Hrothgar, possibly use it to go back in time to learn a Shout that was born out of hatred and anger. The next time I see you, you could be completely different, or you could have fought Alduin, and it -"
"Vilkas," Cry said, gently, cutting him off. She walked closer to where he was, and took his hands in hers. "Hey, I already told you before that it's going to be all right."
"I know," he replied, "but I - the thought of it, that I can't be there with you -"
"I think you were with me through the hardest part that I could've taken someone with me on," Cry assured him. "In the end, killing Alduin is my job; I'm probably going to have to do the rest on my own." She managed a smile for him, squeezing his hands. "But I'm so grateful that you helped me with everything so far. You didn't have to."
"Yes, I did," Vilkas said. "I never would have let you do this alone, knowing that I could help." He moved closer to her, and Cry slid her arms around him, hugging him tightly. He did the same, pressing his face into her hair for a moment. "You're going to go alone to High Hrothgar, I'm guessing."
"I've been on my own plenty of times, Vilkas," Cry said. "I practically grew up on my own. I'll be fine."
"I worry," he said.
"I know you do, and I appreciate that," Cry told him.
"What if something happens, and no one knows to tell us?" he asked, his brow creasing, and Cry sighed, pulling back so that she could look at him.
"Nothing is going to happen to me, Vilkas," she said, gently. "I'll be perfectly safe." When Vilkas merely continued to gaze at her in worry, she leaned up and kissed him again. "I'll come back as soon as I can, I promise."
"But you have no idea as to how long that might be," Vilkas said, and she shook her head. He exhaled, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "At least come with me back to Winterhold. We could both use some rest. From there, I'll return the lexicon to Signus, and you can head back to Ivarstead."
Cry smiled, and nodded. "I think that's a great plan," she said. "Let's go."