Chapter Five: Memories from the past

When Merlac woke up again, it was already almost noon in Balmora. He rose sitting to his bed's edge and yawned strongly. Caius' house looked as messy and small as yesterday, but there was something new on the table. Merlac stood up, walked to the table and found a message written on a piece of paper

"Good morning, Merlac. Here is your first payment for serving in the Blades, 400 septims. I will help you spending them usefully while I show you the town. Meet me at the South Wall Corner Club as soon as you wake up, the barkeeper promised to offer us breakfast.

-- Caius"

Merlac grinned, put the paper back to the table and took a small leather bag which had been next to the message. The bag was filled with green coins. Merlac put his shirt on, hung the moneybag into his belt and walked outside to sunny Balmora.

The town couldn't be more different from the one he had arrived last night. All streets were full of people doing their daily routines, children playing and guards patrolling. Most of them were dunmer, the dark-skinned Elven people of the Eastern Empire, also known as the dark elves, but there were also some imperials, orcs and some foreign races walking the streets. The whole town bathed in sunlight and there were merely few short shadows visible.

Merlac passed some dunmer women carrying baskets on their heads as he walked to the South Wall Corner club. One of the women waved to him as he was stepping in to the bar. The atmosphere inside the corner club were also different from what it was yesterday; no more drunken people stumbling around the tables, just few dunmer mothers eating breakfast or lunch with their children. Merlac noticed Caius sitting in the corner with the smiling barkeeper woman. As he walked nearer, they noticed him and greeted.

"Ah, our young sleepyhead. Ready for the big day, eh?", smiled Caius.

"As ready as humanly possible, I think."

The barkeeper returned to the table with third plate, filled with fried meat and eggs on it.

"Thank you, I was starving already", grinned Merlac. "What is this?"

"It's guar-meat and cliff-racer eggs, very popular breakfast in Morrowind.", said the barkeeper. "Sorry by the way that I had to end that conversation yesterday, I couldn't talk while that guard was listening. And about that Caius being a crackpot –thing… that was also a lie…", she said and grinned at Caius.

"The Blades are better covered if their leader is a public crackbrain, you know", said Caius.

"Oh… yeah… wait a minute, you just said…"

"Don't worry Merlac", Caius calmed him down. "She is a Blades operative herself too, and a skilled assassin."

"Oh? Well… nice to meet you then."

The barkeeper smiled cunningly, and revealed a small, weird-looking, but unquestionably deadly dark red dagger tied around her ankle.

"I have never seen a dagger like that one", marvelled Merlac.

"No wonder you haven't seen, as you can only find these from Morrowind. It's a daedric dagger, picked up myself from outside a shrine in the northern parts of Morrowind few months ago. Beautiful, isn't it?"

"So that is what daedric weapons look like", admired Merlac. "I was told about them by the trader in Seyda Neen. Worth of lot of septims, I heard?"

"You bet they are", said Caius. "She would probably either sell it or use it to decorate his shelves, unless it wasn't so handy in her secondary job."

The barkeeper winked her eye to Merlac and lowered his skirt again, hiding the dagger.

"Oh, I almost forgot", remembered Merlac suddenly, "could you finish your story you began yesterday, please?"

"Ah, Gaea told me about your little conversation.", said Caius. "I think it's best for me to continue the story, as I don't want you to hear anything that you shouldn't just yet. So where were you when the guard came?"

"I was in the part when general Nerevar met Azura.", replied the barkeeper.

"Ah yes, Azura's shrine", sighed Caius, and leant forward over the table. "So… Azura confirmed what Dagoth Ur had told to general Nerevar, the dwemer were indeed building something big. They were building a new God."

"Err… what? A GOD? You can't just build up a new god out of pieces of metal, can you?", asked Merlac in wonder.

"Well, that is what Nerevar thought as well. The legend says Azura told him that the dwemer had found an ancient and very powerful magical item, called the Heart of Lorkhan. Their scientists, led by engineer Kagrenac, learned how to harness its unlimited powers, and started building a giant machine of some sort, which would have unbelievable magical powers, enough to destroy Azura and other real gods once and for all. Azura also confirmed that this had to be prevented at all costs."

Caius took a short break, thinking what to say next, and then continued.

"Diplomatic methods failed, and the Chimer and the Dwemer went to war once again. The dwemer were well fortified in their huge fort inside the crater of Red Mountain, but general Nerevar's troops tempted the dwarf-armies to open land and fought them there, while general Nerevar, Dagoth Ur and a small group of companions sneaked into the Heart Chamber under the dwemer fort. This is all I know for sure. All I know, is that few hours after they had went inside, the ground shook strongly and ALL dwemer in all corners of Tamriel, disappeared instantly, leaving only small piles of ash behind them. I'm not sure if anybody know what happened to them, but nobody has seen then since that day.

Some time later, general Nerevar alone came out of the mountain. He told Vivec that Kagrenac had used his special artefact, called the Kagrenac's tools and all the dwemer had disappeared. Dagoth Ur had stayed in the Hearth Chamber to guard the tools. The councillors Vivec and Almalexia agreed that the tools must be secured and brought to further studying. But when they returned to the heart chamber, something had changed. Something had happened to Dagoth Ur. He refused to give Vivec the tools, telling him that they were dangerous. Vivec had no choice but to capture them by force. Dagoth Ur and some of his followers were able to escape deeper into the mountain, while Vivec took the tools to Sotha Sil in his Clockwork city somewhere far away for studying.

The people of Morrowind celebrated several days because of the long-waited peace in province, until something unexpected happened. The three councillors, Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil announced that they had been given the powers of gods, and that they would now start ruling Morrowind with hand of just as the Tribunal temple, and protect the people from possible threats in the future. People rejoiced even more. But during the night of that day, something unbelievable happened again. All chimer people in Morrowind turned into Dunmer, their skins turned from light yellow into the colours of ash and their eyes into colours of fire. During time, the chimer accepted this change, and peace came to Morrowind at last. Sotha Sil returned to his clockwork city and haven't been seen by any mortals since that day. Almalexia rules the temple in his chapel, situated in Mournhold, the capital of Morrowind in the mainland of Tamriel. Lord Vivec lives in his hall in Vivec, here in Vvardenfell, but also he has spent less and less time among the mortals."

"And what happened then?", asked Merlac anxiously.

"Nothing", answered Caius. "Nothing has changed after that. That is what happened and that is where we are now."

After he had said that, Caius leant back and stared at the roof looking tired.

"So where did Dagoth Ur go then?", pressured Merlac.

"Nobody knows. Lord Vivec suspects he is still living somewhere deep under Red Mountain, but nobody can be sure. But anyway, we shouldn't have stayed here this long, we have a lot of things to do today", said Caius and stood up suddenly. He threw some septims to the table and nodded to the barkeeper. "Keep the change, Gaea. I'm sorry but now I must take this young man to a city-tour", he said and grinned.