Morrowind belongs to Bethesda. Must...not...be..distracted by shiny new fandom...arrrgh! Fear not, gentle reader, this story shall continue regardless. – )

Balmora had not had a deluge for two whole weeks, so of course one was overdue. Winterbell decided that transporting her belongings would be an arduous task without the added problem of keeping them dry, so she spent the next week curled up in bed, herbal tea at her elbow, taking copious notes from various books on the Dwemer and letting her injuries heal properly.

Ranis wandered down to ask why she had decided to take a holiday when there were duties to be done. Winterbell looked up innocently from the piles of parchment that littered her bed and gesticulated with an ink-splattered hand,
"But I am doing my duties. Archmage Trebonius told me to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the Dwarves."
Ranis didn't have an answer to that, so she merely scowled and wandered off to remind Ajira that the supply box needed filling.
"You're actually going to try and complete one of the Archmage's tasks?" Masaline asked in an awestruck voice. Upon receiving the affirmative, she informed Winterbell that no one had attempted, let alone completed, such a feat for thirty years.
"It might be possible to solve the mystery," Estirdalin mused, "but you'd need the lifespan of a Telvanni to do it."
"Hmmm..." Winterbell looked thoughtful.

By the end of the week Winterbell had completed her note taking. The rain was still falling steadily, and there was talk of the river rising. Winterbell was most annoyed that she had a perfectly good house but couldn't move anything over to it. Declaring that she could no longer justify staying in bed; Winterbell collected up her books, tidied away her notes, and asked Masaline to transport her to Sadrith Mora.

Winterbell paid flying visits to both Skink and Edwinna, both of whom were pleased to receive their books. She also received a bunch of new jobs from the Telvanni Mouths none of which, to her relief, put her in conflict with the Mage's Guild. Winterbell then shared a stilt strider to Gnisis with half a platoon of Imperial Guards returning from leave. By the end of the trip Winterbell could recite all ten verses of The Guarskinner's Daughter and had a raging headache.

The weather in Gnisis was only slightly better than the weather in Balmora. Gusts of wind drove icy needles of fine rain and Winterbell shrugged on a second robe. Darkness seemed to be falling early, the afternoon sun completely blotted out by the inky clouds that hovered over the coastal town, and Winterbell hurried to Arvs-Drelen, carefully keeping the precious books dry.

In stark contrast to their earlier meeting, Baladas seemed unnervingly pleased to see Winterbell. He graciously took her coat and enquired as to her journey. Winterbell was instantly wary, and answered politely but guardedly.
"And you got all three books. Well done." Baladas seemed genuinely happy to get the tomes, clearing a space on his overcrowded desk for them. He handed Winterbell a couple rings, claiming that he had no further use for them. Winterbell was waved into a chair, so she sat and examined her new acquisitions while Baladas tried to work out where he could fit more books on one of his overfull bookcases.

"I must say, I underestimated you, Winterbell. You collected these books extremely fast. I take it you didn't have to travel to Nuchleft then?...I didn't think so. You have been to Dwemer ruins before right?"
"I visited Arkngthand not long ago."
"Oh yes? I've never been there; I hear it's quite large."
"I didn't manage to get through to the lower levels, they were locked tight."
"That's a good sign. It means treasure hunters haven't been in that far, so there may yet be something we scholars can glean from the site."
Winterbell fidgeted, she was not comfortable with Baladas's easy, somewhat predatory geniality. She had the vague feeling that she was being laughed at.
"Look, if you have no further duties, I really must be going, the weather is looking terrible, I should get a room-"
"Nonsense, Winterbell. The storm is already upon us, I can't possibly send you out in it. Arvs-Drelen has several rooms you're more than welcome to use while you're in Gnisis. I can't see you being too happy about putting up at the Temple, or the barracks for that matter."
Winterbell rose to her feet, her frame tense, "I really think I should be going, I don't wish to appear rude but-"
"We have things to discuss, Winterbell."
Winterbell began to walk to the door, never taking her eyes of the smiling mage. "I can't imagine what you think we have to discuss. If I have offended you or annoyed you in some way I'm sorry, but I should remind you that I'm just following orders."
"I'm not offended, Winterbell. Whatever gave you that idea? And I should remind you that, as your superior, I could order you to sit down again." Baladas, who had been walking toward Winterbell stopped and held up his hands, "I'm sorry, Winterbell, it was not my intention to frighten you, but once I had it was rather too amusing to stop." Winterbell looked less than pleased by this admission, her eyes narrowing in annoyance.
"All right, I'm sorry. I just have one question, then you can go, although if I recall you have questions to ask me."
"What's your question then?" Winterbell felt very much like a rat in a trap, but realized that there was no way she could leave if the mage didn't want her to. The Telvanni grinned, his dark eyes gleaming with amusement,
"Just when did you join the Mage's Guild, dearest Winterbell?"

Winterbell froze, gazing at Baladas with wide eyes. He still had an amused expression on his face as he waited patiently for her reply. Winterbell racked her brains for an excuse or explanation, but couldn't come up with anything coherent, let along convincing. She turned and ran.

With a swirl of magicka Baladas arrived at the doorway just before Winterbell did. She ran full tilt into the wizard and they both slammed into the opposite wall in the corridor. Winterbell could hear the wizard laughing as he grabbed her shoulders,
"Winterbell, Winterbell! Please," She tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but the old mage was surprisingly strong, "Please, calm down!" He looked her in the eye, "I'm not going to hurt you."
Winterbell looked at him warily, "Why not?"
"I neither need nor want to make trouble for you. I think you'll discover eventually that you've made more than enough for yourself."
"What do you want then?"
"I just want to discuss this...facinating turn of events. Believe me when I say nothing this interesting has happened for a couple centuries now."
Baladas released Winterbell from his grasp, and she stepped away from the mage with a relieved sigh, "I really thought my neck was in the noose."
"Oh it is, Winterbell, but I'm not the hangman. From what my sources tell me you're doing quite well in both factions. Someone not as easily amused as I will notice eventually." The wizard strolled past Winterbell back toward his study, "Would you care for some dinner?"
"I guess so, thank you."
"Don't thank me, thank the townsfolk who believe I must be placated with victuals every few weeks lest I go on some kind of hunger-fueled rampage."
Winterbell looked disbelieving, "Really? They give you food?"
"Well not exactly," he looked back at her with a grin, "they merely insist that I need not pay for anything. It's not my place to disappoint them."
"That's terribly unfair."
"That's being Telvanni for you." He said with a dramatic sigh. "Nobody understands us."
Winterbell chuckled.
"Of course," he added, "it might also have something to do with the fact that I send Zergonipal to do the shopping for me."
Winterbell looked at the Daedroth, who had followed them upstairs and was sniffing hopefully at a large bowl that was sitting on the floor, "He's Zergonipal?"
"I named him after the ruin I found him in. He's not terribly intelligent, but he can understand simple things. Like dinner, can't you boy?" The daedra grunted as Baladas dumped a bucketful of kwana cuttle and intestines into the bowl.
"That's disgusting." Winterbell remarked, as she watched Zergonipal make a mess of the kwana innards.
"You should see what he does to rats."
"I'd rather not."

Like most alchemists, Baladas was an excellent chef, and Winterbell was quite regretful when the meal was over, reflecting that it was not often one was cooked for by a Telvanni Master. Baladas served tea in front of the fire, and asked once again,
"When did you join the Mage's Guild then?"
"The day after I arrived in Vvardenfell. I didn't think...well, I have, in my time, applied for quite a few wizard's guilds and the like. They were the first to accept me, so I joined."
"That's fair enough. So why did you join Telvanni?"
"Oh that," Winterbell waved her hand, "it was a complete accident. One minute I was an innocent tourist and the next I was Telvanni."
Baladas threw his head back and laughed, Winterbell looked embarrassed, "Stupid reason, I know."
"Not in the slightest, Winterbell. In fact, that's the best reason for joining I've heard yet. We must be having trouble recruiting though."
"Or some Mouths are as senile as their Councilors."
"Hmm, yes. And they wonder why I left."
"You were a Councilor?"
"Not exactly. When I was promoted to Master I was supposed to join the council, but there was some infighting, of course. Not to mention I was rather disillusioned with Telvanni politics at the time, and I wanted to continue my research. So I moved here, to comfortable, self-imposed exile. And of course, everyone thought I was out of the loop." Baladas grinned craftily, "But I think I've disproved that little notion, haven't I?"
"How many other people know about me?"
"No one, as far as I know. I keep my sources separate. Gnisis may be out of the way, but it does allow me to keep a discreet eye on both sides of the island. We are too isolationist, we don't see trouble until it is upon us, no offence."
"I'm trouble now?"
"Oh yes. You have the potential to really shake things up." he looked gleeful at the prospect, and Winterbell wondered if he didn't have some old scores to settle among the other Telvanni.
"To change the subject," he said suddenly, "you had some questions for me from our revered Archmagister, did you not?"
"Yes, I'd nearly forgotten. They're to do with the Dwemer."
Baladas rubbed his hands together, "Excellent, I find the Dwemer an extremely interesting field of study, fire away."

Winterbell took notes as the wizard expounded on his theories, what he believed the Dwarves had been capable of was frightening, their attempts to reverse engineer the laws of nature causing their downfall. Winterbell asked many more questions of her own, and Baladas showed her some artifacts that he had collected, expounding on their strange lack of deterioration.
"That reminds me." Winterbell exclaimed suddenly, "I found this in Arkngthand."
She rummaged through her bag until she found the small scrap of paper which had been hidden inside the Dwemer box.
Baladas listened intently to the story of its discovery, the firelight turning his eyes a rich orange. He took the scrap of parchment from her, and they bent over his desk as he carefully unrolled it. Winterbell was disappointed; instead of text there were a series of lines, scored seemingly at random. Baladas, on the other hand, was pleased,
"This is far more useful than Dwemer writing. I've decided that without some kind of key the Dwemer language is inaccessible to us. This, however, looks like some kind of code." He gazed at Winterbell knowingly, "Codes can be broken."
He straightened and stretched, "It must be past midnight. I'm sorry, Winterbell, you must be tired from your journeying. If you like I could try and crack the code for you, unless you want to have a go yourself."
"I'm sure you are far more likely to have luck with it than I am, please keep it."
He smiled, "There's a second bedroom one floor down. Don't go though the locked door, that's my storeroom, and it has guards. There's also a dormitory on the ground floor, although you might want Zergonipal to clear out the rats first."
"That's fine," Winterbell said quickly, "the second bedroom will do. Thank you for your hospitality."
"That's quite all right, what are friends for?"
Winterbell looked startled, "Friends?"
"Well I'd hope so." He said gently. Winterbell felt her cheeks grow warm,
"Of course, thank you...err, goodnight." And with that she made her escape.