Chapter 70: The Bruma Caverns
[24th – 25th of Sun's Dusk 4E 202]
On the next day we left Yumi and Lucia behind in the care of our two trusted housecarls and strolled up to the castle to meet the guard captain.
Adius was already waiting for us and seemed to be happy that we had actually come to meet him.
"Not everybody is eager to work together with the guards," he explained, "and I am quite happy that you showed up. I have heard a little bit about your exploits in Skyrim, and your reputation precedes you. It will be an honor working with you today."
Well, I should not have been surprised. We had been busy for more than one year in Skyrim working together and finally defeating Alduin, and we had achieved Thane status in several holds. Surely some news of that had reached other provinces as well, and I just hoped that we were not going to disappoint the good guard captain today.
The Bruma Caverns were located southeast of the city, but we were going to use a short cut today. Adius reported that the guard had learned that there was a trapdoor leading there from Botram՚s house. They were investigating if Botram was involved in the theft or maybe other crimes as well, but that was still in progress. Meanwhile, we entered the house and easily found the trapdoor once we knew where to look. Before we entered, Adius told us:
"Of course I have already sent a detachment of guards to the main cavern entrance, so that any bandits we may encounter cannot flee. In addition, two of my guards will stay here, just in case a few bandits manage to get in our backs and try to escape here. I am not aware of a third exit from the caverns; let's hope that there isn't one."
We carefully opened the trapdoor, and the guard captain asked who should take the lead. I smiled and suggested to leave that to us, and once I was down, I conjured Pammy, my familiar. Like in similar situations before, she would scout ahead and warn us if danger was imminent. Adius was impressed to see such a big and powerful familiar and told me so, and I replied:
"Yes, I was surprised too when I was able to summon her for the first time, many years ago. However, initially she was just a small whelp, smaller even than a skeever, and frequent summoning made her grow over time."
The trapdoor had led us into a larger room with some shelves and barrels, and when we were all down, we started to move through the only passage available, while the guards we left behind closed the trapdoor again. Our troop consisted of Adius and five guards, T'mara and myself, and we followed Pammy at some distance. Initially the path dropped down into the ground, and a long straight stretch probably got us out of the Bruma city borders. Eventually, once we had found some various mushrooms on the ground and in small niches, we came upon a few sharp turns, and the passage abruptly ended with a stone wall and no visible path onward. We suspected a hidden door, and one of the guards actually found it after some time. Operating it was not very difficult, as a lever was easily identified in an empty barrel. The guard pushed the lever, and the door opened promptly.
After the door, we found ourselves in a large storage room with what looked like lots of stolen goods, and two people together with three wolves were busy categorizing the wares. When they noticed us coming in, Adius demanded identification, and, almost like expected, the two men attacked us, followed by the wolves. Pammy took on the wolves, and T'mara and I hit the two bandits with fire blasts, which slowed them down enough to be arrested by the guards. The two men were bound, and two guards were ordered to stay here with them for now, while the rest of us continued to look around.
The adjacent room was a large living and sleeping quarter, with shelves, wardrobes, beds, and other stuff. Nobody was in here at this time, but we found more loot in the drawers. Another adjacent room had a workbench and a large supply of leather, iron ingots, steel ingots and ebony ingots.
From there on we came upon a four way intersection. Captain Adius had been down here a long time before and knew that the southern path led to the main cavern entrance. The western branch opened up into another large storage room, and the northern one turned into a passage, wide enough for two to go side by side, first through rock and later joining an underground creek. When the creek came down from a waterfall, the passage ended with a sturdy looking wooden door, and we heard some noise behind it.
Before we tried to open the door, we listened carefully, and after some time one of the guards whispered:
"Those noises almost sound like frost trolls. But that's impossible down here, right?"
Adius looked at us, and I nodded: "The guard may be right about trolls, indeed."
"Maybe we need to get reinforcements, best with some battle mages."
I smiled and replied: "No need for that, my wife and I can handle it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, we are – trust us."
The guard captain obviously still had doubts, but he nodded. T'mara got to the door and got her lockpicks out. The lock was not an easy one, but she got it open within a few minutes and carefully and slowly opened the door. Our guess based on the noise had been right – two frost trolls awaited us in the cavern behind the door, and of course they had noticed the door opening. While the two beasts trotted towards us, my wife opened her mouth and shouted 'YOL TOOR SHUL' directly at the two trolls. While that was not quite enough to kill them, they were stunned and hurt at least; Pammy finished off one of them and I ran my fire enchanted greatsword through the other one.
The guards had watched in awe, and one of them commented:
"I have to admit that I have never seen killing two frost trolls look easy like that; this was quite impressive."
Of course, as the Shout my wife had used had been quite loud, we had to expect more company to show up, but this was not bad. Consequently, we moved into proper defense positions in the large room: T'mara and two of the guards found proper positions on ledges and got their bows ready.
We did not have to wait long until a stone door on the other side of the room opened and three bandits emerged; when they saw our party and noticed the guards along the walls, they quickly surrendered. Adius questioned one of them, and the bandit claimed that their boss was in the last room of the cavern, not far from here. We again left two guards with our captives and proceeded carefully. The next passage had some traps on the ground, but we could avoid them.
Eventually, after some turns, we came upon another door, which was wide open. A larger cavern opened before us, and two people were inside, a male Khajiit and a female Imperial, together with a group of three wolves. The Khajiit started to shout when he noticed us, calling for his men. As we knew that we had taken care of them, we advanced cautiously, and Adius explained the situations and demanded immediate surrender.
The big Khajiit ordered the wolves to attack, so that we had to kill them. He also attacked Adius and his one remaining city guard by himself; the guard captain defended himself and killed the attacker. The female Imperial surrendered quickly, seeing that she did not stand a chance. When asked, she told us that the Khajiit had been Dar'zorben, the leader of the bandit gang, and keys on his body would open a row of chests behind a wooden separation wall in this room.
We found a set of keys on the leader's body and the chests, and there were not only the stolen Akaviri artifacts, but lots of other merchandise and valuables, most of it probably stolen as well.
The guard captain looked at my wife and me and told us:
"Well, I guess that's it. Thank you very much for your help today, and I will not forget to inform the count about your assistance."
"You are very much welcome, and it was a pleasure to be of assistance" I replied.
We left Adius to his work and slowly made our way towards the cavern exit. For a change, we planned to take the exit outside of the city, and Adius asked us to tell the guards stationed there to come in and help with the tasks inside.
We took our time, now as the cave was cleared, and eventually got to the two guards Adius had left behind to guard the first set of prisoners. We told them about our success deeper down in the cavern and chatted with them a little, and we shared a meal. Being dutiful guards, they also made sure that the prisoners got their share and some water, one after the other.
We took the turn towards the main cave exit and stepped out into the cold snow covered ground west of the city, but to our surprise there were no guards right at the cave door. However, we could hear some fighting noises just west of us, and we approached, we saw three guards being attacked by a couple of frost trolls, and they obviously had a hard time defending themselves. A fourth soldier was on the ground next to them, barely moving. We did not waste time to think about what was happening, but ran to them, and T'mara called out:
"Step back! Now!"
The guards looked around when they heard that, and although they probably did not understand the reasoning, they retreated, which gave my wife the opportunity to shout her 'YOL TOOR SHUL' right at the two trolls. As expected that did not kill them, but stopped them long enough for me to get my crossbow our and start shooting. T'mara used her 'Bow of the Jedi', and while we slowly retreated, we sent bolt after bolt and arrow after arrow, until the two frost trolls could not proceed any longer. I quickly dropped the crossbow, pulled my greatsword out, jumped to the side of the beast next to us and ran my fire enchanted sword through its body, which finally killed it; T'mara took care of the other troll.
While my wife retrieved some arrows and bolts form the dead trolls, I moved over to the guard on the ground and found that she was still alive. I quickly cast a healing spell and examined her body, finding a few nasty cuts from the trolls and some bruises, but no broken bones. The healing spell, supported by a potion I gave her, made the cuts close themselves and hopefully got rid of most of the concussion she must be having.
Meanwhile the other three guards approached again, and one of them asked:
"Are you the two strangers Captain Villius told us he'd have along today?"
"Yes, I guess that's us" I replied.
"Well, thank you for coming to our help. We had not been expecting the trolls so close to the city."
"Yes, frost trolls are tough, and my wife's Shout certainly helps. By the way, your comrade here should be recovering nicely. And I can tell you that our raid in the cavern was a full success. The stolen artifacts have been found, and the bandits are dead or captured. Adius needs more help inside to clean up, and if you want, my wife and I can take your comrade back into the city."
The three guards nodded, and once they had briefly talked to their injured comrade, who was still on the ground recovering, they stepped inside the cave to find their captain.
Half an hour later the female guard announced that she was fit enough to get up, but she was still a little weak, so that I gave her a potion for stamina recovery. T'mara and I supported her from both sides, and we slowly made our way around the city towards the northern gate. While we walked, the guard told us a little bit about herself:
"My name is Sereia, and I only joined the guard recently. I seem to be quite decent with a bow, but today I did not see one of the trolls coming until it hit me, so that I really did not get a chance to use my bow at all. Thank you very much, by the way, for interfering and healing me. Most of us are not very knowledgeable in magic, but now I really feel much better."
We had intended to bring Sereia back to the guards barracks in the castle, but the guards at the gate took over. Thus we could look around a little, and we noticed that there were a number of houses placed outside of the gates, or rather mostly huts and shacks. They were surrounded by a low palisade wall, and the guards told us that Bruma citizens sometimes called this area the 'Slums'. On a whim, T'mara and I decided to walk around and maybe find some people to talk to.
The first person we encountered was a male Imperial, who looked like a soldier.
Even before we were close, we could here him talk:
"Living hand-to-mouth in a Bruma slum. Not exactly how I expected my Legion career to end."
"Hello to you, too" I offered. "So, what is your career, and what happened, if we may ask?"
"The Stormcloaks happened – what else? Skyrim has descended into chaos, brother turning against brother. The rebels hunted us."
"So, the news have not reached Bruma yet?"
"Which news are you talking about, Nord?"
"The news about the civil war being ended and peace now reigning in Skyrim."
"Are you serious? Peace? No civil war any longer?"
We told him a summary of recent events, and his mood improved significantly."
"You know", he told us now, "I plan to move on to the Imperial City as soon as I can, to get reassigned somewhere in Cyrodiil and get steady pay once again. Knowing that chaos no longer reigns in Skyrim will give me peace of mind for that – thank you for letting me know."
Our next encounter was with an older man who was resting and leaning against a shack. When he heard us approaching, he said:
"Hello? Who is this? Leo, is that you?"
T'mara and I quickly introduced ourselves, noticing that the man's eyesight seemed to be limited; maybe he was blind.
He continued to mutter:
"I can...still hear their voices...haunting me at night..."
so that we inquired if he was alright.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I...I wasn't sure someone was there. My mind, it...comes and goes. Or are you referring to my vision? Because I got problems with both."
A young boy was not approaching from the other side, and he was excitedly shouting out:
"We almost got enough to move south, gramps! Oh, you have visitors?"
The old man had recovered form his absentmindedness and introduced himself as Balius and the young boy as Leo. He told us a little on their background:
"Ah, Leo. Brave Leo. That boy is older than his years, you know. He calls me gramps, even though I'm not really his grandfather. Though I might as well be now. We met on the road to Cyrodiil, just two Imperial refugees among many. He never told me where he came from, or what happened to his parents. I tried not to pry. It's funny, you know – funny that we, a child and a cripple, made it here when so many others didn't. But Leo is nothing if not determined. He deserves better. He works as a paper boy in Bruma, delivering and selling newspapers, and he actually makers some money with that, too."
Before we got back into the city, we also met a male Dunmer, who looked a little bit angry and annoyed, which was obvious when he responded to our greetings:
"What brings you to our squalor?"
T'mara dared to ask what he was doing here, and his response was quite sarcastic:
"I just love the atmosphere. The decaying, rotting wood, the freezing cold, the lice... it's so delightfully rustic."
Both my wife and I chuckled and smiled at him, and he seemed to like it and smiled back at us. Eventually he continued:
"Why am I being sarcastic? Maybe it's because of the wonderfully well-crafted... gah, sorry about the sarcasm. It's just hard to keep my spirits up in this frigid squat. I don't mean to come across badly, I... sorry."
We introduced ourselves and learned that the elf was called Tedral Mendrin.
"So, on a serious note, where did you come from?"
"I got chased out of Skyrim by a mob of angry Windhelm citizens with pitchforks. They called me a 'Witch Elf', a 'dirty greyskin', and similar names. Since the Grey Quarter was never particularly homely anyway, I decided I'd leave. I thought people might be a little more tolerant in Cyrodiil. They are, but I don't have the gold for a house. So I sit around, freezing my arse off, in the slums."
He was quite delighted to hear that even in Windhelm things had changed a little by now, and Ulfric had at least started to reduce the racism in the city and hold.
We walked back into the city now, eager to meet our two girls again.
On the next day T'mara and I visited the building which used to be the Bruma branch of the Mages Guild a long time ago. Before we entered, T'mara asked where we were going and what the Synod was; I tried to explain based on what I knew:
"The Mages Guild, which was the main faction for learning magic together with the Arcane University in the Third Era, was decommissioned after the Oblivion Crisis. The Synod, together with a competing organization – the College of Whispers – filled the gaps, and this building is now the Bruma Synod Conclave, the local chapter of the Synod in Bruma."
"So, do we have a specific purpose going in there, like are you a member or so?"
"No, not really; I have not been in contact with the Synod since I left Cyrodiil. I just like to keep current and maybe learn a little bit on what's going on at this time with the training of mages in the province."
Right when we entered, we saw two male Imperials having a heated discussion, apparently about an odd statue between them. We did not really want to get involved and looked around, and in an adjacent room I noticed a young woman with beautiful blond hair bent over an alchemy table, with her back towards us. She somehow looked familiar, and when she eventually turned around, I gasped:
"Debby! I can't believe it!"
Her eyes went wide and then she replied: "Tim! It's you!"
I stepped forward and hugged her, and after a minute or two I noticed that I had not done any introductions, and as I noticed that my wife's tail moved rapidly, which sometimes was a sign of nervousness, I hastened to do that now:
"T'mara, may I introduce my younger sister Deborah. Debby, this is my wife T'mara."
My sister smiled and reached out with her hands: "I am so happy too meet you in person, T'mara. My parents and I have read about you in Tim's letters, but seeing you makes me understand why Tim fell in love with you."
My wife also smiled and replied, with a smirk in my direction: "And seeing you makes me not understand at all why Timotheus has not told me much about his lovely sister!"
I realized that she was right. I had mentioned Deborah a few times, but not really in much detail. Sometimes I was a little bit socially retarded, I admitted to myself.
"So, are you really going to visit Kvatch and our family?"
"Yes, we are, and we are ready to move on as early as tomorrow!"
"That's terrific! I have just finished my task here for the Synod, and I was going to wait for a caravan or so to join them. Traveling alone is not always safe, but now I can join now."
"Yes, of course, and our kids will love to meet their aunt."
Deborah looked at me, then at T'mara, and back at me, and she finally asked:
"You got children? I may be mistaken, but your wife looks a little young for that."
"Oh, they are both adopted."
My sister nodded, and we decided to meet the children and our two housecarls. They were not far away outside, and I was proud to tell my kids:
"Lucia, Yumi, the lady next to me is your Aunt Deborah."
They were both in awe to find out that they suddenly had an aunt, but they bonded almost right away. I also introduced Iona and Valdimar, and we agreed that we'd travel south on the next day, together of course. I really should have talked more about my family before, though.
During dinner, we had more time for talking, and at least T'mara and Deborah had a chance to learn more about each other.
[Author's Notes: Next chapter will see the group moving south; let's see how far they get.
Merry Christmas to all of my readers everywhere in the world! I hope that you are safe and healthy, and I am looking forward to another year of fan fiction. This particular story is still not close to an end, and I am already writing chapter 77 while I publish this chapter.]
