Author's Note:

Whoever gets the reference in the chapter title and completes the phrase before the next one's out gets a virtual cookie ;) And yes, this is a very obvious ploy fishing for comments :D But I still wanna know if anyone gets the reference. O:)

Enjoy!


Chapter LXXXIX – From Beneath You

They looked over the enormous structure from their vantage point.

There was a large platform with several sets of stairs leading towards an imposing building with heavy metal double doors

It was really impressive. And kind of intimidating as the entrance into the main complex towered above the valley ominously

If only it were empty…

The bandits scurried around lazily, drinking and occasionally sparring with each other, clearly bored with their fancy housing.

"What are they doing here? I thought these places were too dangerous…" Aeyrin furrowed her brows at them, whispering to Bishop quietly.

"They sometimes set up in the first few chambers – those are usually already cleared out. They definitely wouldn't get as deep as the map goes," he nodded reassuringly. This still looked like a worthwhile endeavor, and they stocked up on a rather surprising amount of healing supplies from Sondas.

They did plan on being equipped a bit better after leaving Windhelm, but that was clearly not to be.

Well… enchantments were expensive anyways and the best ones were done by the College mages – they might as well stock up on loot here and then spend the money in Winterhold.

"At least I know what to expect from bandits…" she looked over the scurrying people below the steep hill they observed them from. "Well… most of them, I guess…" she gave him a wry smile, earning a disgruntled eye roll in turn.

He did not like being called a bandit by her. It reminded him of all the people that hated him who spewed that word like a badge of shame – like Casavir or Ysolda.

"I just meant… as opposed to the machines inside…" she shrugged.

"Whatever. Let's go for it. I'll stay here," he nodded resolutely, eager to get rid of those scumbags that brought back this topic.

"Alright. Just… wait for us! Don't try to shoot them all before we get there – they have archers too," she gave him a warning look. She knew all too well that he just might try to do that, relying all too much on his selection of vantage point.

"Fine…" he smirked. She knew his tactics a little too well.

Karnwyr ripped into the woman's leg just as she was about to descend her sword on Aeyrin.

Whew… that was good timing.

The other bandit beside her fell heavily to the ground, an arrow pierced right through his eye. Bishop was so far away, how could he see his target so perfectly?

Maybe it was just a coincidence.

She smashed her mace into another woman's midsection before she even managed to heave with her warhammer. Amateur – you don't carry such heavy weapons with no armor on, the swings leave you too exposed. She was sent almost flying to the ground, clutching her stomach.

Aeyrin approached her, but the bandit was slumped down limply already – no need to make a mess by finishing her off.

That looked like all of them. Bishop would check from his vantage point, but she could relax at least a bit.

The ruins were even more impressive from up close – the gold-bronze metal shining beckoningly in the noonday sun. The ancient stone still towered above her, sturdy as ever, the geometrical carvings were barely even weathered. She looked over the reliefs curiously, brushing her armored palm over them.

It was so exciting.

She was a bit wary of the automatons inside – Bishop implied that they were fierce enemies, attacking anyone that stepped foot in the ancient Dwemer cities. But still, she's always been intrigued by the Dwarves. Visiting one of the ruins was originally part of her plan for her pilgrimage – to see the works left after the Dwemer's toil in the eras past. Zenithar must have been impressed. And she couldn't even begin to imagine all the knowledge hidden in those harsh stone halls.

She heard that Markarth was built entirely on the remains of one of the ancient cities. It must have been quite the sight. She couldn't wait to go there. When she mentioned it to Bishop, he grumbled something about barbarians in the mountains – it rang a very vague bell from her history studies, but she didn't really know anything about the subject.

She's never been interested in Skyrim's history before she took up an interest of the worship of Talos.

"It's not gonna do anything exciting, ladyship. It's a rock," Bishop smirked, approaching her as she still studied the stone walls by the entrance to the complex.

"It's definitely prettier than any rock I've seen before…" she giggled, gesturing towards the carvings around the metal doors.

"I don't know… I prefer diamonds. They fetch more drakes. Let's go see if we can find some," he winked at her conspiratorially and pushed at the heavy metal doors.

The few first rooms were, true to Bishop's theory, still crawling with bandits. They were already cleaned out of all the remnants of Dwemer machines and treasures.

It was fairly disappointing, but it was probably for the best. The less vicious automatons they had to dispose of, the better.

After a few chambers, however, that all changed – behind a secure gate of gold-bronze metal, the true depths of the ruins awaited.

"Don't!" Bishop stopped her abruptly when she spotted the first machine – a little one on several mechanical legs, crawling around as the metal clicked periodically against the stone floor.

She was kind of eager to see just how dangerous it really was.

When she first left the temple, she was a little rattled by the sudden thrills of combat – she never thought herself a violent person, but being in the thick of the battle filled her with a lot of adrenaline.

She went back to the temple immediately, concerned about what this excitement over violence said about her.

Master Therien reassured her, as he always did. It was a natural instinct, and as long as she made sure not to succumb to the impulses to harm innocents, he was not concerned.

His words always made her feel better.

She sorely missed the guidance when she got to Skyrim, but she noticed that her need for it waned gradually. Maybe because talking things over with Bishop had the same effect. She was pretty sure that his advice and reassurances were completely different from those her old mentor would have given her, but the result was the same. His indifferent attitude about things helped her let the little things go more. She needed that. Without it, she would have crumbled a long time ago.

Skyrim was way more stressful than her travels over Cyrodiil.

She had no doubt that being the Dragonborn was a large part of that – if it weren't for that, she wouldn't even have to deal with a lot of other things causing her endless stress. Such as people like Ulfric.

"Why not? Is it harmless?" she peered at the little spider-like machine pitter-pattering some distance away from them.

"Hah! No. When you kill it, it explodes into a nasty shock. Best to keep your distance, especially since you can't really heal lightning burns. We better play it safe. Leave those little fuckers to me," without letting her react, he drew his bow, aiming at the odd little red crystal at the top of the little automaton.

The crystal shattered at the contact with the arrow instantly, leaving the machine to crumble to the floor and erupt into a large discharge of purple lightning.

That did look nasty.

A second later loud sounds of clanking metal and the hiss of steam echoed through the room, getting closer towards the hallway in which they were standing.

"Well, your turn," he grinned at her and drew his bow again, waiting for her to charge at the machines emerging from behind the corner towards them.

They were much larger – looking a little more humanoid, but moving around on big metal spheres instead of legs. They had swords in place of their arms. It was somewhat menacing. But the built-in weapons likely only meant that it would be just like any other fight.

She ran towards the two constructs, shield raised to counter the inevitable swings of their piercing arms. She bashed the minute one of their sword-arms made contact, staggering the machine by countering its blow. Her shield connected to its metallic face, forcing its own arm against it.

The other one got pierced by several arrows in the meantime but it refused to be fazed by them. Its fast movements made it almost impossible to lodge the projectiles into its construction the right way to prevent its motion. Some of them clanked away immediately, others lodged into its construction but with no visible damage whatsoever.

She ducked quickly when she heard the other metallic creature creak behind her menacingly. The blade swished through the air above her as Bishop attempted once more to hit the automaton where it… well probably not hurt, but where it could at least have some effect.

It didn't. All he did was diverge its attention a little, but the thing was already readying to swing again.

Aeyrin turned to bash her mace right into her assailant's head. The heavy metal of her weapon connected with it and the machine's sword-arms finally stopped flailing while the head slumped into its torso.

There was another lightening shock, but luckily, it wasn't very big. She felt a slight tingle in her arm as the energy coursed through the connecting metals, but the burst was too mild to do any damage to her.

Suddenly there was a quick pressure and a poke into her back under her plate and chain. The other sphere stabbed into her with an impressive force.

It didn't go through her armors, but it definitely made a dent in the plating.

Damn, that plate was thick. She suddenly felt very vulnerable with her back to it – the creatures were much stronger than she first thought. Apparently they were not using their full force until now.

Bishop froze for a bit when he saw that thing impale her, but it became clear in a second that the sword didn't go through.

Fuck, maybe they really should have prepared more…

He's only ever been in one of the ancient Dwemer cities twice in his life.

The first one was an… expedition of sorts… back when he was working for Thorn. He got the brilliant idea that they could clear out a Dwemer ruin and take whatever weapons, armor and metal they were able to equip his best warriors, getting the upper hand on the other clans.

He sent about ten of them into the ruins of Mzulft – near the road from Riften to Windhelm. Bishop would have been convinced that Thorn sent them there to get them killed, but it wasn't as if he couldn't just kill any of his men whenever he pleased anyways.

Half of the men died in the process and in the end, they were stopped from progressing deeper by a set of doors none of them could get past.

Luckily.

He was pretty sure all of them would have died there if they continued.

He was much less experienced back then – especially with ruins and unorthodox enemies, but he still wasn't bad. But that ruin was an insane deathtrap. Thorn even refused to try to have his men occupy it as a base by the road when they told him what happened there – no matter how ruthless he was, letting loyal men die there in the remaining traps more automatons was pointless. And who knew what was hiding behind that impenetrable door.

They did get his precious metal though…

The second time was when he was in Morrowind. He was pretty sure that not all of those ruins were that deadly and when he passed an ancient city on one day, he got curious.

He was right. Not all of them were that bad.

But he did learn the ineffectiveness of his hunting abilities against the constructs. It wasn't that obvious in the large group before, but he eventually had to retreat with his tail between his legs, not even getting that deep into the ruin.

He was way more confident about braving the Dwemer deathtraps with Aeyrin along, but maybe they still overshot a bit.

Aeyrin turned around swiftly, crushing her mace into the second sphere's torso, sending it crashing against the stone wall. She took the opportunity to bash it again and again until she felt that little shock course through her again. It was almost pleasant – a signal that the danger was over.

He sighed, fastening his bow on his back strap and grumbling in annoyance.

He likely needed to think of another tactic, he was no help to her this way.

Karnwyr didn't even attempt to fight, fortunately, only looking at Bishop with lowered ears. He would break his teeth at best and get killed at worst.

They should have probably left him to roam outside…

"That was… wow… a little tougher than I thought…" Aeyrin sighed, her breath still heavy from the fight as she tried to tilt her head enough to look on her back to see the damage to the plating.

Bishop examined her for a while. The deep dent was obviously poking into her chain and the skin underneath.

"Yeah… those fuckers are nasty. You alright?"

She nodded and looked over the stone structure around them, paved with the gold-bronze metal and intricate carvings. It was obvious that she would need more to survive those constructs. Bishop could always take care of the spidery things but it seemed his arrows were more or less useless against anything else. He had a sword but… she kind of preferred her space on the front lines. Karnwyr was small and quick, he could always avoid her swings, but she wasn't so sure about Bishop.

"So… just how… stable do you think these ruins are?" She looked over the ceilings. There were a lot of cracks in the stones and this place was ancient. Getting buried under piles of stone was not the way she wanted to go out.

"Hmm… those construct things are pretty loud and I doubt the Dwarves would build something that couldn't withstand their weird… smithing shit… I think it's safe to Shout… but…" Bishop looked over the crumbled spheres on the floor, creasing his brows.

"There are these holes in the wall and that's where these shits come out of… there, see?" he ushered her into the larger chamber behind the long hallway, pointing out the metallic circles on the walls. There seemed to be two of them. "Thing is… I don't really know if they get activated by noise or what. And I have no idea how many of them fit in those holes."

"Well… there's only two of those here… I say we test them and in case the holes can fit a lot of these, we can just… run?" she gave him a wry smile. At the very least, the chambers leading to the entrance were cleared. Hopefully there were none of these covered holes in them…

Bishop stepped back as she faced the center of the chamber, looking over the emptiest area not to damage any potential loot. They haven't checked out the various shelves in the chambers yet and it was safer to make sure that nothing would attack them in the meantime.

"FUS RO DAH!"

The Shout rumbled through the vast halls, shaking the stone around them.

Some pebbles crumbled from the ceiling, but other than that, the place looked stable.

After a bit of waiting, nothing came out of those holes.

"I'd say that's a good sign…" Bishop smirked. The machines would likely be easy targets for her Shouts, and she could practice on top of that. He did feel a bit useless, but at the very least he could take care of those fucking spider-things. He experienced the shock from those first hand and they really did not have any means of taking care of the wounds from those.

"Yeah… So… you watch out for the little things and I'll concentrate on those… metal ball-men… Anything else you encountered in these ruins before?" she headed towards the shelves, looking over the odd metal cogs and gears all over them.

"No. But I never really got too deep in. There could be anything down there…"

"One way to find out I guess…"

"How deep could the cavern be? We've been here for so long already…"

Aeyrin sighed focusing again on the various cuts, scratches and bruises on his skin, running her hands over him, alit with magic.

They've been descending deeper and deeper into the ruins, constantly going more underground, judging by the number of stairs they already descended. It was staggering how anyone could make a structure this deep without the earth crumbling down upon it.

She was getting more and more uncomfortable with Shouting in that place with all the weight above them, but there were not many other choices whenever there was too many of those constructs surrounding them.

And that happened way too often.

They were somehow still largely unhurt, however, and they were determined to continue.

After they've been systematically going further in for hours and hours already, they decided to make camp for a brief rest. It wasn't as if they were really capable of handling more fights.

Aeyrin's been handling most of the machines while Bishop took care of any of the little spiderlings, or diverted the spheres' attention whenever necessary, constantly shooting at them and retreating whenever possible. The tactics left them both completely exhausted.

They've explored the ruins until they reached a change of scenery – a cavernous entrance with no hints of Dwemer stone and metal lining.

Uncertain what to expect, they returned to one of the previous chambers which had a giant ballista hooked to a pressure plate. It was the last place their detailed map described – thank the Gods. That ballista looked so deadly. If they went in unaware of it, it would have surely killed them.

Bishop deftly made a provisory trap, extending a tripwire at the chamber exit with a somewhat heavy stone fastened to it. The string stretched over a pillar, leaving the stone to dangle just above the pressure plate. It made them cut off and hopefully safe from whatever awaited them in the cavern's depths as they splayed one of their bedrolls in the chamber for a moment of respite.

Karnwyr was fidgety and nervous the entire time. He was unable to help out in battles and a little crazed from the adrenaline with no outlet. He made his way towards the set up tripwire, lying on the ground, his eyes still open vigilantly on anything that might emerge.

"I told you, sweetness, word is that some of these can take days to explore. Who knows what's in that cave," Bishop shrugged, watching her work on his wounds. None of them were life-threating in any way. Some cuts were deeper, but nothing he couldn't handle. They did sting though, and his movement got a bit impaired that way. Her healing really came in handy. And maybe those pompous mages could teach her to heal even more serious wounds when they got to Winterhold.

"It's probably just a passage… hopefully leading into the last chambers. There might even be a treasury," she gave him a sly smile, patting him one of his pecks after she was finally done with the healing.

"I'm not sure we can actually drag even more shit out of here," he laughed. If nothing else, the venture would end up being beyond profitable – the riches they found in metals and gems alone would last them for weeks and definitely pay for any enchantments they wanted.

She smiled at him and crawled over to the bedroll tiredly.

He joined her under the blankets readily, letting her curl against him. The eerie silence was only interrupted by an annoyingly loud periodical hiss of steam nearby.

"I never slept in a ruin before…" she pressed herself closer to hi and looked towards the empty stone ceiling above them. Not that she's ever been to a dungeon large enough to require that.

"Yeah? Me neither, I guess… Well… technically I did… but not like this. There were sleeping areas and shit," he shrugged slightly.

He must have been talking about his bandit days.

Strange. She felt like she almost forgot about all that lately, even though it wasn't that long ago that he told her.

It just seemed so unlike him. Especially after everything she's heard from Raven about Bishop's attempt at rebellion. He didn't seem like the type to play lapdog for some thugs, robbing people on command.

She really didn't like thinking about it.

She didn't like imagining him like that, but what was worse, she knew she had no right to feel that way. Not when she was in a similar situation herself. She doubted that even any bandit chief could have been more twisted than Ri'zhassa.

"I hope I'll be able to get at least some sleep," she sighed, changing the subject with the first thing that came to her mind.

"Please… you'd sleep anywhere and through anything, princess," he chuckled and squeezed her around her shoulders.

"You know… that actually wasn't the case before…" she hid her face a little in his torso, blushing, her fingers tapped on his chest lightly and played with his hairs there.

"Before what?" he raised an eyebrow at her blush but his lips couldn't help but quirk up a bit. After how she was talking just a few nights ago, he got worried that with everything that has been happening lately, she'd get more jaded and numb to anything that used to make her nervous or fluster her. He would have hated that. As much as he wanted to keep her from getting her hopes crushed, he never wanted to see that sparkle in her eyes gone, that combination of excitement and trepidation snuffed out by those who were intent on trying to break her. He was somewhat to still see that familiar blush on her face, proving that she was still the same person he fell in love with.

"After I got here… I could barely sleep at all. I was so excited to explore new places, meet new people. Then all… that happened. I couldn't stop thinking and worrying about everything."

"Aaww, and then you met me, right?" he laughed cheekily, earning a light slap over his chest.

"No, you ass! I don't know… it just got better… gradually," her blush deepened. She knew all too well that it was because she became comfortable around him, relying on him. Her burdens just didn't feel so cumbersome when she curled up to him.

"In fact, that night when we stayed at the Bannered Mare for the first time, I don't think I got a minute of sleep," she said, hoping to erase his smug smirk.

"Yeah? Why's that, sweetness?" he grinned at her, leaning his head against hers, her hair tickling his face.

"I don't know! It was weird… you were so close and I was… uncomfortable…" she bit her lower lip lightly and hid her face in the crook of his shoulder again.

"I think the word you're looking for is 'tempted'," he snickered, turning his head and gripping her around her shoulders tighter. The movement made her arch her neck slightly, giving him access to teasingly nip at the tip of her pointed ear.

She giggled a bit, her face still flushed: "No, I meant 'uncomfortable'."

"Come on, princess, admit it!" his laugh echoed in her ear, making it vibrate pleasantly in the proximity. A shiver ran down her spine as he nipped again, running his tongue over the edge of it a second later.

"We barely knew each other…" she huffed frustratedly as her fingers dug more tightly into his chest.

"That's not an answer," he chuckled again and continued his ministrations mercilessly. This was really not a good place to get worked up.

"F-fine… Maybe. Maybe a little…" she moved her head away reluctantly, eliciting a victorious smirk from him.

"Good. I was really fucking tempted," he leaned towards her again and captured her lips in an insistent kiss, his tongue probing her mouth eagerly.

"Mmm… well don't… mmm… don't tempt me now… we need to… mmm… sleep…" she tried to speak, constantly interrupted by his hungry kisses.

He groaned in frustration and withdrew from her with palpable difficulty. He knew it wasn't a good idea to spend the last remnants of their energy like this. It would only raise the risks of being attacked by whatever was awaiting Gods knew how much deeper below them. But it was still hard for him to stop himself whenever they were sleeping entangled together like this, no matter his fatigue.

"Yeah. But the second we get out of here…" he rumbled low into her ear, squeezing her to him again.

Hopefully that would be soon.

Something sharp poked her back.

She felt like she barely got any sleep – it must have only been an hour or two.

It happened again.

Was Bishop trying to wake her? It was weird. She was tired and disoriented but she felt like he was on the other side of her.

In fact, she was still curled up to him, the rise and fall of his chest steady, warming her hand which was gently lying upon it.

What kept poking her in her back?

Maybe a rock…

A warm and wet drop landed on her face

Ugh! What was that? Something was dripping on her.

Was it from the ceiling?

Sleeping in ancient ruins was really uncomfortable…

She forced her eyes open.