Chapter Fourteen: The Rock
Two days after meeting Divayth Fyr, Merlac saw the walls of Balmora again, the walls he hadn't believed to be able to see again. The journey back had been a lot faster as he was now able to use public transportation again. Merlac's mind was now as sunny as the weather in Balmora. He had just survived the one and only incurable disease in Morrowind, the corpus disease.
Merlac paid generously to silt strider caravaner and stepped down from giant insect's back. Again, like so many times before, he walked over the bridges leading to other side of the river which splits the city in two. He walked up the small hill, past the South Wall Corner club, to the street where Caius' house was in. When he reached the correct street, Merlac's face turned into smile, as he saw his master standing in his house doorway.
Merlac silently walked behind Caius, who was standing in the doorway with his back facing Merlac. Merlac stood there quietly for few seconds and was just about to greet Caius and scare him to death, as he saw Caius was wearing travelling clothes and carrying a small bag in his back. He was leaving somewhere.
Before Merlac had time to do anything, Caius closed the door, locked it and turned around only to find Merlac standing only few inches in front of him.
"AAAAAAHH!!", Caius screamed with his face as white as a kwama egg. "Holy… what a… how… to the name of Almsivi DON'T DO THAT AGAIN, Merlac!", he yelled after trying to escape through the door and collapsing on the doorstep.
"I'm happy to see you too, master", Merlac grinned.
"You're…you're…", Caius stuttered.
"Cured", Merlac continued his words.
"But… how? I…I didn't expect to see you ever again!"
"I'm not sure whether it was the stuff Divayth forced me to drink, or the voice of Azura inside my head, but I'm now fully cured.", said Merlac while helping Caius stood up again.
"Can we go inside to talk, master? I haven't slept well since I caught the corpus over a week ago. You're going somewhere by the way?"
"Well… yes, of course, lets go inside.", Caius said, still sounding a bit confused and shocked.
Inside the house, Merlac saw that all chairs, desks and Caius' bed was gone, as well as all other items in the room. The whole house was completely… empty.
"What… what has happened?", asked Merlac, this time he was feeling confused."
"I'm so happy you're still alive!", said Caius and this time he hugged Merlac like if he hadn't seen this for years.
"Yes, yes master, thanks, but where are you going? Somewhere far away?"
Caius looked away looking a bit bothered.
"Well… you see Merlac, I was about to retire just before you came, to Vvardenfell I mean. I promised the emperor that this would be my last task in the Blades. No offence, my friend, but I didn't have much trust that you would return after you caught corpus…"
"Well I'm back now, master, you can't leave yet."
"Yes, but it's not that simple. Yesterday I got a letter from the capital of Imperial province, in the mainland of Tamriel."
"And? What did it say?"
"They are calling me back, back to Cyridil city. I must leave today."
"But… but master!", said Merlac. "You can't leave, not now, you have to help me find the lost prophecies and stuff…"
"Merlac, I can't win you in any kind of combat at all, you have travelled all around Vvardenfell and I have taught you everything I know. You can survive alone now, you must find your own path to become the Nerevar reborn."
"But…", started Merlac, but he knew his master was right. He would have to survive alone.
"I'm promoting you to fully qualified Blades Operative, Merlac. You report to no-one and I trust you will do fine in your path to become Nerevarine. I can also help you with one other thing…", Caius said with a blink in his eye.
"Milo!", Merlac breathed in joy.
"Your instincts serve you well, Merlac. Normally I wouldn't risk you in such a high-risk mission, but this time it's worth it. Milo is a member of the dissident priests, and the head priest promised that they will reveal their location to you if you rescue Milo from the prison in Vivec. You have this one chance to find those lost prophecies and take them to Urshilaku wise woman."
"Yes, master, tell me what I have to do.", said Merlac without hesitation.
"Hehe, you don't have to call me master anymore, you're no longer in my command, remember?"
"Yes, mast… Caius", Merlac grinned.
"So, listen carefully, this is not going to be an easy task. I got a letter from another agent, with the codeword "amaya" in it. It says Milo has been taken to the prisons of Vivec without a trial. The prison is called The Rock."
"I've seen it", said Merlac. "It's the huge hovering rock above the ministry canton in Vivec, isn't it?"
"Yes, the ministry of truth is also located inside that huge rock, but most of it is filled with just prison cells."
"So I just get myself there are free Milo?"
"It's not that simple. The Rock is the safest prison in whole Tamriel, though it is very small compared to the prison where you grew up for example. I won't lie to you Merlac, but nobody, nobody has every escaped from The Rock. And that's not all. You can't just rush in, stun everyone and rescue Milo, no."
"Why not?"
"Because then you're a criminal and it will make you journey to become Nerevarine much harder if you are wanted in whole Vvardenfell. That's why you will have to remain invisible."
"But how do I do that? I haven't practised invisibility of chameleon spells and…"
"No, those spells won't work up there. They have prepared for almost anything. But there is a way. You should be able to slip in using these.", said Caius and took black pants and a black shirt from his bag.
"Err… would you care to explain?", asked Merlac.
"These are the trousers of a spymaster. While you wear them, they will make you almost invisible for people who don't know about you and even people who are really looking for you, will have hard time while trying to keep you in front of their eyes. However, these will not make you walk silently, so if the guards hear you, they will lock up the whole prison and then you are in deep guar droppings."
"Ehm… isn't the whole prison locked up anyway, Caius?"
"Well, it is a prison. It is meant to keep people inside, but its rather poorly protected against intruders from outside. Now, the first step is to get up there, the rock is higher in the air than it looks like from the ground. However, I believe you will have little trouble getting there now that you're cured. You should be able to levitate up there in matter of seconds."
"And then?"
"Most of the doors inside the prison are not locked, but the trouble is the outside door. Luckily, the Ordinator guarding the door is a Blades operative, so he will open the door for you. Then you must just go inside, find Milo and give her this."
Caius handed Merlac two small bottles of blue liquid from his bag.
"The other is for Milo and the other is for you. These potions should transport you both to Ebonheart, the small coast city near Vivec."
"Umm… should transport?"
"Well yes. Almsivi potions are not quite accurate and might as well transport you to different cities, so you will have to agree where to meet or something before you drink these in case one or both of them won't work properly. I would give you Almsivi amulets, but unfortunately I don't have any."
"So… this is it then?", asked Merlac.
Caius sighed. "Yes, I won't be here when you get back. The letter ordered me to report in Cyridil as soon as possible, I don't have any time to wait for your return. I wish you luck from my whole heart, though I believe you will not need it."
"Why not?"
"Heh, you just survived corpus, remember? I believe you will give those Ordinators some fun time."
They both laughed.
"Now go, save Milo, get the lost prophecies, become Nerevarine and do whatever his path leads you into."
"Yes, Caius. And I won't forget you, I owe you everything."
"No, Merlac. You owe me nothing. Now go, and save Morrowind."
Friends shook hands one last time, after which Merlac left the house for Vivec, knowing that when he would come back, if he would come back, Caius wouldn't be there to welcome him anymore. He was alone now.
***
At the evening of the same day, Merlac stood in shadows in the ministry canton, looking up at the enormous rock hovering above him. He was wearing his previous master's pants and shirt, which seemed to work perfectly; no Ordinator or any other person had looked at him since he arrived to Vivec.
Merlac looked around one more time, making sure as few Ordinators were looking as possible. Most of the citizens had already went sleeping and the streets were half-empty. Merlac breathed slowly and lifted himself upwards. Slowly, carefully, he levitated upwards toward the Ministry of Truth, also known as The Rock.
He looked around while rising, no Ordinator in the ground had noticed him. Even if the clothing hadn't been magical, it would have still been rather hard to spot him, as he was dressed in black and the night was already painting dark shades to dark sky.
After about one minute of levitating, he finally reached the bottom stand outside the rock and silently landed on it. Merlac sneaked around the corned and found a door guarded by an Ordinator, who stood in perfect posture next to it. Hopefully this was the Blades operative Caius had mentioned.
"Hello there.", Merlac said quietly.
The Ordinator immediately wielded his long, shining skimitar and looked around ready for combat.
"Who goes there?", the Ordinator yelled with clear voice.
"Shh, nartum.", Merlac whispered. Nartum was the codeword Caius had told him to use when meeting the operative.
The Ordinator looked around him few more times without seeing anything, then he walked to the door, took a small golden key from his belt and opened the door.
"Go, fast!", the Ordinator whispered.
"Thanks", Merlac whispered back while slipping through the half-open door.
Merlac heard the Ordinator closing the door behind him. He was alone again. Merlac looked around, he was in a rock tunnel inside the prison. Fast, but as silently as possible, Merlac ran forward with a light shortsword in his right hand and stunning spell ready in the other.
Soon he reached a crossing in the tunnels. Three new tunnels led in three directions and in the middle of the crossing stood two Ordinators chatting with each other, but Merlac was also able to hear several different sounds of footsteps coming from the tunnels.
Merlac as silently as possible sneaked past the Ordinators to the middle corridor and he was just about to start running again, as something unexpected happened.
"Intruder!", somebody yelled behind Merlac. He jumped around and looked at the Ordinator who had yelled, he could not have seen him, he hadn't made a sound!
But this Ordinator had shining adamantium armour set, unlike the golden Ordinators, and he was pointing at his hand directly at Merlac.
"Intruder!", he yelled again, while other Ordinators wielded their weapons and looked for Merlac, but weren't able to see this.
"He has some kind of magically enchanted clothes! Quickly, drink these and you can see him!", the Ordinator yelled and threw small bottles to other Ordinators who drank them quickly. Merlac watched in horror as one after another the Ordinators looked at Merlac and ran after him. Alarm bells started ringing, now he would be deep trouble…
Now he would have to fight his way to Milo, luckily the clothes were still hiding his identity. Merlac ran around the corner and found two more Ordinators, who immediately spotted him. It appeared all Ordinators were ordered to drink those potions if alarm is made.
Merlac stunned both Ordinators before they could even wield their skimitars and then blew up the thick wooden door between them and jumped through the smoking pieces of wood. On the other side of the door was a third Ordinator waiting for him with his skimitar already wielded.
"Your little trip ends here!", he yelled and attacked. Merlac repelled Ordinator's first attack with his shortsword but second hit from the shining skimitar smashed the much smaller sword into pieces.
"All right then," said Merlac as he evaded Ordinator's skilful hits. "No more playing, it's time to find out whether you Ordinators are as good swordsmen as some people say!"
Merlac took out the longsword of Vivec and prepared to fight. It was impossible to say if there was any fearing look on Ordinator's face, but after one second of hesitation the Ordinator attacked again. With their swords clattering they fought in the dark stone corridor, as seven more Ordinators ran through the destroyed remainings of the door.
"Now this is a fair fight!", Merlac yelled to them. All eight Ordinators now charged with their skimitars against Merlac.
Luckily Merlac's longsword was much longer than a skimitar and it was relatively easy to hold off the Ordinators at safe distance. Merlac swinged his longsword, forcing all Ordinators to evade backwards, and then shot several stunning bolts to the roof of the stone corridor and then jumped into safety as big pile of rock collapsed over the Ordinators.
The corridor was completely sealed, leaving all but one Ordinator on the other side of the rock pile. The last remaining Ordinator looked at the stone pile, then at Merlac and charged again.
"To the death!", he yelled.
"Wow, a professional fighter indeed", Merlac said to himself.
Merlac quickly hit the skimitar off from Ordinator's hand, tripped him to ground and put a leg on the Ordinator's chest.
"Now, tell me where you keep Mehra Milo!"
"I will tell you nothing!", the Ordinator spat.
Merlac lowered his sword at Ordinator's throat.
"Please, I'm just trying to free my friend and I would hate to kill you, where you keep Mehra Milo?"
The Ordinator hesitated few seconds but sighed then.
"She's in the cave at the end of this corridor, third cell from right."
"Thanks", Merlac said and ran away.
Soon Merlac indeed arrived to a large cave room which was filled with small rock cells… and Ordinators.
"There he is!", yelled the Ordinator closest to Merlac and all Ordinators in the room started running towards him.
"I have come to rescue her who is held here without a reason and you cannot stop me!"
Merlac shot stunning spells arbitrarily against the Ordinators and cleared his way towards the third cell from right by swinging his longsword. The Ordinators formed a circle around him, all skimitars pointed at him.
Merlac shot two spells at the cell door, but the door remained solid like it had just been cleaned.
"There is nowhere you can go now, surrender!", One of the Ordinators yelled.
"Milo!", Merlac yelled.
"Merlac? Merlac! Is it you?", a female voice from inside the cell screamed back.
"Stand clear from the door, I'm coming in.", Merlac yelled back to her.
"Haha, there is no way you can destroy the cell doors by magic like you did in the corridors, surrender!", the Ordinator yelled again. The circle around Merlac had started walking towards him.
Merlac sheathed his sword.
"Ah, wise choice", said the Ordinator.
But Merlac had no intentions of surrendering. He pointed his both hands at the cell door and closed his eyes. The Ordinators stopped as Merlac's hands started glowing red and bright sparkles spread to all directions. All Ordinators took cover as enormous fireball emerged from Merlac's hands and struck the cell door with power that crushed the whole door into tiny smoking pieces, along with half of the stone wall of the cell.
Inside the remainings of the cell, sat frightened Milo. Merlac ran to her and gave her the Almsivi potion.
"Quickly! Drink this, it leads you to safety! I will be right behind you.", Merlac said to her.
"Merlac, listen!", Milo whispered to his ear.
"There is no time!", Merlac yelled as the Ordinators stood up again and rushed towards them.
"You must listen", Milo insisted. "Holamayan, Merlac! Holamayan!", Milo whispered quietly but clearly into Merlac's ear and drank her bottle with one gulp. After this, she disappeared with bright flash in front of Merlac's eyes.
Merlac quickly drank his own bottle and disappeared as well, leaving about dozen very confused Ordinators wondering where they had teleported into…