"Hey, have you seen M'rissi?" Blake asked Weiss as she walked to her room, seeing the heiress packing away her things.
"She said something about looking around the Geir Island," Weiss absentmindedly mentioned as she buckled her bag and slung it over her shoulders.
"The what?"
"It's the island inside of Lake Geir, just a little ways away from the western shore of the lake. She was listening to someone rambling on about secret treasure there, so she took Inigo and went to look into it."
"Great," Blake sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "How far is it?"
"Literally just outside of the village, a little southeast. We're headed in that direction, anyways, so I figured no harm, no foul."
"Right." Blake nodded and shrugged. "Do you know where this Sunguard place Ruby texted us is?"
"Smallish town built in and around an old fort, a little ways up the Treva River. It's on a big curve in the main road, going by what I was told." As the two headed down towards the lake, Weiss gained a thoughtful look.
"What's up?"
"Just thinking about our renting plans. We can fit four tenants in Hjerim easily, and I think we can get a similar amount in Proudspire from how Ruby described it. We can only have two or three in Breezehome depending on how well the cellar cleans up. I'm still estimating how much rent we'll potentially receive every week, but it should be quite a substantial sum of money."
"You're really going in for that, huh?"
"Well, we do need more income, both now and…long term." Weiss paused, letting the implication sink in before shaking herself out of her stupor. "I also have some experiments planned, and they've been chewing through our funds with their material costs. One I've been drawing up will total a small fortune for a fully functional piece, and I'll need two pieces for it to properly function."
Blake eyed her teammate wearily. "...May I ask?"
"I'm trying to remake the Wayshrine network." Weiss was met with a blank stare from Blake, and she sighed. "Back in the second era, during the Three Banner's War, the Wayshrines could allow individuals to traverse long distances with ease, had the individual been to the respective Wayshrine to begin with. Not very good for transporting armies, but for certain individuals, it was quite the effective tool. But, the events of that war also destroyed that particular characteristic of the land, and the knowledge has been lost ever since. I've been working with Savos Aren to try and rediscover it, but at the moment all I have are theories."
"So...you're trying to make a teleporter?"
"...Yes, I'm making a teleporter." Weiss grumbled, annoyed at her detailed explanations flying over everyone's heads.
"Do you…have to do that?" Blake asked, already seeing the astronomical cost such an endeavor would bring.
"I'm hoping it helps us make some headway on getting back to Remnant. If it doesn't then at least travel will be easier. I'm thinking of placing them inside our various houses and properties, thereby making travel between them almost instantaneous while also justifying any future properties we may acquire. I have to admit, Isael's notes have actually helped a lot in that regard." Blake bristled a little at that, but Weiss just shook her head. "I know, but despite who she was the things she discovered can still be used for good. Imagine if all of us could teleport the others to our side instantaneously in the midst of combat, or if we needed to get from Solitude to Windhelm right away?"
"I've got no problem with you taking her magic and making it ours. Hell, we took a ton of her stuff. I just hate thinking about her specifically." Blake rubbed her stomach, feeling the ugly scar beneath. She shuddered at the memory of being hit by that spell and the pain that had coursed through her for so long. Weiss noticed and tried to avert her eyes, acting as though she hadn't.
"Sorry. Well, onto other things, I see the boat they used." Weiss pointed across the waters to a rowboat pulled up onto the island's shore. "Not sure where they got it from, and I'm afraid to ask. At least we don't need one." She arced her hands around and then pushed them forwards, hitting the lake with a frost spell that quickly froze much of the surface. She started walking across, Blake right behind her, taking careful steps on the ice as Weiss continued making their bridge. As they walked, Blake almost slipped a few times on the ice, while Weiss was completely unaffected by the lack of friction, annoying the panther Faunus to no end. As they came to the other side, Weiss ended the spell and shook her hand, bits of ice falling from her fingers. Blake looked back and saw the bridge slowly breaking apart and beginning to float away in chunks.
"Couldn't your glyphs have gotten us across?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"They could have, but I wanted to see if I could do that. Also, it was a little fun." Weiss smirked before turning around and looking inward to the island. "Well, let's see… I'm guessing that cave over there would be a good place to start."
"Yeah, I'm not seeing any sign of them up here." Blake followed the vampire towards the hill cave and they both walked in to see M'rissi looking down a hole. Her ears perked up at the sound of footsteps, and she looked back up at them.
"Blake, please do not be mad at her, but she has made a mistake!" M'rissi called out with a fearful expression. Blake calmly held out her hands and walked towards her at a quicker pace.
"It's okay. What happened?" Blake asked as she walked up to the hole, peering downward. It was dark, and she could hear the sounds of water striking rock.
"She lost Inigo." Blake's head whipped towards a sheepish M'rissi, a flabbergasted Weiss looking at her then the hole in horror.
"It is okay!" they heard from the hole. Both girls looked down to see Inigo swimming in the water at the bottom. "My head softened the fall!"
"What happened?" Weiss repeated, peering over the edge of the hole and activating a night vision spell. True enough, she saw Inigo swimming around in the pool of water, none the worse for wear.
"We were looking for treasure, but all we found were skeevers, a dead man being eaten by skeevers, and a very big hole. I just got here, so you are all caught up. Wait, I see a door. New update, there is a door down here!" Weiss couldn't help but laugh at his tone, and Blake let out a smile.
"Okay, so he tripped and fell. Sounds like Inigo. Throw in a part where he narrowly stopped himself from falling only for a loose rock to take him down, and it'd be perfect."
"Blake, you are scaring her with the scary good guesses," M'rissi replied with absolute seriousness, causing Blake to chuckle.
"What is a door doing down in a natural…" Weiss paused when she saw something amidst a bunch of loose stones nearby. "Wait, that's an ancient Atmoran style dragon head carving. Okay, so maybe this place has an underground ruin beneath it. That would be interesting."
"She knows that tone. She does not want to jump into the water, even if there are coins and jewels in it for her."
"I can get us down there without getting us all soaking wet," Weiss said as she raised a hand and began concentrating. A glyph appeared a ways down the hole and then she hopped down onto it. Blake and M'rissi followed her, tentatively in the case of the Khajiit, and then she made another below them and dissipated the one they were on so they could fall to it. The girls were then able to jump from the glyph and onto solid stone. Inigo climbed out from the water, dripping wet, and shook himself, causing the others to sputter and run away.
"Brrrr! I'm so cold and wet I think my fleas are going to get the sniffles."
"You won't have any fleas a week from now if those drops work," Weiss muttered.
"I've been meaning to talk to you about those, actually. They taste awful. Do you think you can work on the flavor, make it taste good or at least palatable?"
"What- You're not supposed to eat them! You rub them into your fur and on your skin!" Blake shook her head and pushed open the old, iron doors in the wall. Immediately, a dog-sized frostbite spider turned around and looked at her. Weiss shouted and hit it with a lightning bolt, throwing it back and killing it. Another spider came to investigate, but Blake pulled out her bow and fired, hitting it in one of its eyes. As it chittered in pain, M'rissi came around and put another arrow into it, killing that one as well.
"Maybe we shouldn't wander into every grave, mrr?" She glared at Weiss, and Blake shrugged.
"Maybe, but we're already down here, and Weiss is the only way back up."
The girl in question was already looking into every vase, urn, and pot for anything of value and pocketing all she could. Groaning, M'rissi followed after her, pausing in her steps when she saw a raised flagstone. "Watch for the dart trap."
"Got it," Weiss answered before she moved on. The four came into a flooded room with corpses laid into the walls like in past tombs. As Weiss looked at the pillar, one of the draugr began to shamble up, only to get a black arrow embedded in its skull.
"Gods, I hate those walking corpses!" Inigo got out before turning to see a few more. They were swiftly put down through their combined efforts, but, at the end of the hall, an iron gate stood in their way. M'rissi tried to pull the lever, but it didn't work.
"Oh, one of those puzzle doors!" she realized. "Quick, let's solve the puzzle!"
"I believe the solution was up at the front," Weiss told them as she looked around an altar, picking up a Soul Gem and some corroded coins. As she took the gem, the plate underneath it rose, and she heard something to her side. She hopped back as a mammoth's skull came swinging down, nearly hitting her with its massive tusks.
"Okay, points for style, although I'm scared of what an actual skull indicates about what they were using for materials." The Khajiits went by her, and groaned in frustration before going back again to the other end, turning the pillars as they went. "Blake, do you think it's possible to raise a full mammoth as a zombie, or its whole skeleton maybe?"
"I honestly don't know, Weiss." M'rissi and Inigo went by them again, turning the last pillar and flipping the lever, only to come up negative again. When they went back to the front, Blake looked over at her teammate. "You wanna pitch in on that?"
"Let them figure it out on their own for now. I'll go when I'm ready. Ah!" Weiss took out an amethyst from one of the draugr's pockets. "Nice!"
"Would that happen to be a flawless amethyst?" Blake eyed the gem intensely as Weiss appraised it. She hummed in approval once she finished.
"By flawless you mean without impurities? Yes, actually. Why?"
"Because there's a guy in Riften making a wedding ring and he asked me to be on the lookout for those. You mind me taking it?"
"Well, if it's for love." Weiss handed the jewel over. "What kind of wedding is it?"
"Argonian Saxhleel wedding. I think he's been talking to the priests at the Temple of Mara to set up the wedding with traditional Argonian elements." The Khajiit sped by again, M'rissi letting out a frustrated sigh this time. "It's the couple that runs the inn, the Bee and Barb."
"Interesting… See if you can get me an invitation. I'd love to see a traditional Argonian wedding. The idea of an entirely different culture's take on marriage is actually intriguing." The Khajiit ran by again, looking at the solution at the entrance with more scrutiny before trying again. Weiss walked back up that way with Blake and looked at the carvings on the wall very carefully. "You know, I can't help but wonder what their gender roles are like."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, traditionally amongst men and mer, men are the big strong ones and women are the pretty ones, though elves try to have their males look pretty as well. While women can still be warriors, soldiers, and leaders, there's a distinct notion that men are just better at it overall, while women are overall better at domestic issues. It's wrong, of course, we're living examples of that. Unfortunately, while it's more apparent here than in Remnant, it's a little visible everywhere. However, Argonians have the pattern in which the 'fairer sex' is opposite. The males sport crests, fins, and even colorful feathers, while females sometimes have horns, though never as long or decorated as the males. Then there's their coloration, brighter colors on the males and duller, more earthly colors for the females."
"Males still look like the fighters though. They're usually more muscular," Blake pointed out.
"True, but how many other things are different? Being a fighter doesn't necessarily mean you're in charge."
"Maybe we could look it up in that big library of yours?"
"Maybe, if only to satiate my curiosity. Honestly, for me at least, it feels like I'm learning something new every day. It's amazing!" Blake nodded in agreement.
"She gives up!" M'rissi called back. "Nothing is working!"
Calmly, Weiss walked forward and began turning the pillars around. When they came back to the door, she pulled the lever and it opened up.
"Wha? How?" M'rissi looked at Weiss in shock, and Weiss merely smiled.
"It was the order in which you see them."
"What, but-"
"I don't know either," Blake admitted. "Let's just go forward and try to get out of here. I need to change my socks again."
At the end of the tunnel, there was a large column and a stairway built next to it. A draugr saw them and drew its greatsword as others came up. Blake dashed forward past the greatsword wielder and went for one with a sword and shield. Weiss squared off against one that was firing frost magic, and M'rissi began exchanging arrows with the last. Blake successfully got around the shield and cleaved the head from her foe while Weiss sent hers into the air. An arrow pierced the skull of M'rissi's opponent, and Inigo slashed down his.
"You are dead, again," he announced while brandishing his blade.
"All right, nice and exciting," Weiss said as she climbed up the stairs, pausing as she saw the altar that a body rested on and a piece of ancient paper set on a pedestal before it. Curious, she picked up the paper enchanted against the ravages of time and read it.
"'Lord Geirmund
"Archmage of Windhelm
"Lord Battlemage to King Harald
"Magus keep thy vigil eternal.
"Serve now in death as you did in life.
"By these seals our realm preserve.
"From traitors three and their charm of strife.'"Weiss' eyes widened in realization as she finished reading the passage, and she excitedly brought the paper closer to her face.
"Amazing! If I'm remembering correctly, Geirmund was the one who stopped the Gauldersons. This must be his tomb. That explains why it was hidden. More importantly, one of the Gauldersons are interred in this place."
"Why's that important?"
"Because that means so is his fragment of the Amulet." Weiss held up the charm of her amulet. "The sons spilt it in three pieces, and went mad with power. I can kind of see why, too. The only thing I've ever found comparable to it is the Necromancer's Amulet, which was the jewel of Mannimarco. Still wrapping my head around the fact that Jaune was the one who finally killed him, but regardless, I found mine in Saarthal along with Jyrik's staff, axe, and some kind of object called the Eye of Magnus. That's where we found the amulet Onmund lent you as well."
"Okay, so it should be an impressively enchanted artifact. That's neat."
"More than that, this place is a piece of lost history. I'll need to call back to the college about this. Onmund will be ecstatic!"
"You know," Blake said as they began to move, "I can't help but wonder how Oobleck would react to all this."
"Field trips, if I had to guess." Weiss suggested. "Could you imagine?"
"Yes, yes I can."
The group went forward, unlocking the door in front of the altar with the key placed in the corpse's hand. A draugr was immediately put down by a combined strike from Weiss and Blake before they pressed on. Another got struck down by Inigo right before they came up to a drawbridge. Weiss reached for the lever and pulled it, but then something told her to dodge, and so she jumped out of the way before a series of spikes could spear through her. Almost losing her balance at the edge, Blake reached over and pulled her back up.
"Okay, booby-trapped." Weiss looked past Blake and saw another lever. "Um, try that one real quick."
M'rissi looked up and saw the lever, hidden within an indention made by the architecture. She reached up and pulled it, and the drawbridge came down. They walked across it and found another lever next to another drawbridge. A little dubious about levers after nearly being impaled in several places, Weiss gingerly pushed the lever, only for the drawbridge to lower with no trouble, save for a couple of draugr waiting on the other side. Inigo went at one swinging, cutting it down, but then the other brought its greatsword around. He blocked but was shoved aside and nearly fell off the bridge, saving himself by clinging on with his claws as his feet lost purchase.
"Inigo!" Blake yelled as she charged forward. The draugr got in her way, but M'rissi rushed past both and pulled the fellow Khajiit back up while Blake ran her sword through their enemy and the tossed him aside.
"I am fine, though that was a bit of a scare. Thank you, M'rissi."
"She did not want you to fall so far. She doubts landing on your feet would have saved you."
"Maybe not. Today has been filled with lots of falling it seems."
They progressed to the next chamber, and immediately began hearing a sound that brought groans from those who recognized it. The group came upon a narrow hall filled with swinging pendulums. Weiss and Blake began observing it while M'rissi noticed and pointed out another flagstone.
"Okay, I can probably stop these with strong enough glyphs if no one wants to run through it," Weiss suggested, silently wishing Ruby and her Semblance were here to take care of this. She hated those pendulums.
"Yeah, I really don't want to risk that, Aura and Semblance or not," Blake added dryly.
"And I do not look forward to my fur being shaved off," Inigo put in. "I don't think I can run fast enough to get anything less."
"Right, then I'll-"
"M'rissi can do it," the Khajiit announced before rushing in right after the blades swung by.
"Wait!" Blake yelled as she ran over. She heard the pendulums swing by again and her heart seemed to skip a beat, only for her to see M'rissi having stopped in the exact right space and pull herself in, even her tail, so that they went right by her, after which she dashed the last bit to the other end. She smiled back and waved, but then immediately moved out of the way as Blake felt herself sink a little. She looked down and realized that she had stepped on the flagstone trigger, only for it to turn out to have not been enough pressure to activate whatever it did. Suddenly, the pendulums stopped, and the others crossed over.
"She told you she could do it," M'rissi bragged. "What would you do without her to help you?"
"Have less heart attacks," Blake deadpanned, only to receive a stuck out tongue from M'rissi.
"I think we're near the end," Weiss announced as she went forward. "Okay, if this is anything like Saarthal, expect a very powerful draugr or one with a trick up his sleeve."
"What kind of trick?" Inigo asked. "The kind with the diem behind the ear, or the kind with the booby-trapped lever?"
"Booby-trapped lever, but worse."
"What could be worse than a booby-trapped lever?"
"Two booby-trapped levers?" M'rissi suggested.
"Ye gads, you're right! Two booby-traps are always worse than one booby-trap!"
"Stop saying booby-trap," Blake told them before she hopped across the more flooded floor to a raised platform and then over to the place where a coffin sat with a circle of water surrounding it. She took a few step towards it, but when one foot crossed the water line, the tomb shook as the lid to the coffin was busted off. A draugr wearing an ornate helm rose up as candles lit themselves all around his resting place and near the glowing sigils on the platforms. He pulled out a bow as Blake readied herself to face him, but then disappeared in a burst of purple magic. The Faunus' ears swiveled as she looked around, but then caught three distinct sounds like that of the teleportation spell at once. The draugr and two others had appeared, one on both the platforms and a third on the dais across the floor. Immediately the group had to dodge their arrows. Blake took out her bow and aimed at one, hitting it a moment later. It disappeared, making her wonder what exactly it was as she continued to observe. Inigo's arrow hit another, causing it to fade as well. The last one took a lightning bolt and only seemed to stumble a moment. An arrow from M'rissi then hit it, and the draugr teleported away again. Three more appeared, this time one right in front of Blake. She kicked it and it faded, then she noticed a detail.
"The fakes don't have helms!" she called out.
"They have arrows though!" Inigo warned them after one barely missed him. M'rissi charged towards the middle while loosing an arrow into the clone and then aimed at the real one, only for it to teleport again. She blinked, and then it reappeared with two more clones, all aiming their bows at her.
"M'rissi!"
The arrows fired, but the Khajiit bent back, ducking under them all before springing up, pushing herself from the ground. As she went through the air, she fired an arrow at one fake, then spun and brought her claws down on the other as she landed. She quickly turned, blocking another arrow with a ward and blasting a fireball at the real draugr, causing it to stumble on fire for a moment, and Weiss nearly hit it with another before it disappeared again. The three swirls of magic returned, and this time the group thought they were prepared. However, rather than readying his bow, the draugr and his clones were taking a breath.
"Fus Ro Dah!" each of them Shouted, knocking back Weiss and Inigo and blowing M'rissi across the room and onto the level Blake was at. She stopped herself by planting her claws to the ground, making a loud scratching sound as she did.
"Ouch!" she cried out as she shook her hands. Blake tried to take down the draugr in front of her, but it seemed to be preparing another breath. She thought to brace her feet, but the moment the words came out she knew she had miscalculated.
"Zun Haal Viik!"
The Shout struck the unprepared Faunus. Blake tried to keep her grip on her weapons, but she couldn't fight the force of it for long as they were ripped by what felt like the strongest pulls she'd ever felt. As her sword went one way , trailed by its fluttering black ribbon, and the cleaver went the other, the draugr took aim at her. She ducked under his shot, however, and charged forward while yanking the other end of the elastic length. Her Aura flowed down the connection and folded the errant blade into its sickle form, the kusarigama spinning through the air to sink into the mummy's chest. With no bullets to remotely trigger and dislodge the embedded grapnel, she decided on another course of action.
"Get over here!" she yelled out and pulled the ribbon, her strength lifting the draugr off its feet as she reached behind her back. With the draugr still flying towards her, her arms emerged from her side, now clutching her backup weapons. In her right hand she had the Blade of Woe while the left held the daedric dagger she'd taken from Isael. As the draugr neared, she sliced upwards with both, cutting through mummified flesh and bone with their incredibly sharp edges, completely taking off the undead's arms. As it stumbled back, she brought back her weapons and swung them both, taking the head off the draugr with a double-slice. It fell back, and from its neck stump an amulet fell, almost identical to the one Weiss had, but with the broken, jagged edge on the opposite side.
The clones quickly dissipated as Blake caught her breath and the others all picked themselves up. Blake picked up the amulet and felt the power coursing through it. Biting her lip, she placed the amulet on and immediately felt different. It was as though she could move faster, jump higher, maybe even bend further, and had all of the energy in the world to do it. As she rolled her shoulders, feeling more flexible than she ever had, Weiss walked up to her and checked around the draugr, pulling up a glowing page.
"'Be bound here Sigdis, murderer, betrayer. Condemned by your crimes against lord and realm. May your name and deeds be forgotten forever, And the charm which you bear be sealed by our ward.'
"It sounds about the same as the one for Jyrik." Weiss folded the paper and pocketed it. "How's the amulet feel, Blake?"
"Like nothing I've ever felt before." Testing it, Blake made for a backwards, one-handed tumble, and did so almost perfectly. "Nice! Been trying to get that for a while now!"
"Blake, she got your sheath weapon, but she has bad news," M'rissi said as she came over. The Faunus balked at what had become of the cleaver half of Gambol Shroud. The whole thing was bent at the middle at nearly thirty degrees. She looked it over, seeing where it must have impacted something when it was sent flying. Inigo then came up and hissed in a breath at the sight.
"Oooh, that's not a pleasant sight." He winced then looked at Blake, a shocked expression on her face with a touch of regret.
"Not good," Weiss said as she looked over the sheath. "I don't think there's any going back for this thing."
"…It's fine. I've got plenty of backups." Blake sighed as she sheathed her daggers and took her sword back. After looking around, she took the belt from the draugr corpse and fastened her sword to it. She also picked up his dark bow and began looking it over, seeing the inscription Gaulder Blackbow on its side. It seemed to be enchanted with something to do with draining, and for a moment she wondered if it was like the Blade of Woe.
"Weiss, can you tell what this is?" Weiss touched the ancient bow and nodded. She looked it over for a moment then handed it back to her.
"Magicka drain. Basically, hit someone with it, and it will take their magicka and feed it into you. Good for mages fighting mages."
"Hm, think I'll keep it. Unless… M'rissi, you've been using magic more and more. Want a special bow for that?"
"She does like the style," M'rissi mused as she took the bow in hand and looked it over. "And she would have less fire-related accidents with this. Okay, she will take the Blackbow, and you can have her Burnbow." M'rissi offered the enchanted bow over in exchange and Blake accepted it.
"Why did you get her a fire-enchanted bow, anyways?" Weiss asked with an eyebrow raised.
"I…think Ulfberth made a mistake."
"Right… Well, let's take everything of value and not nailed to the floor and head back up to the surface."
"So, business as usual, then?"
"Yes."
"Okay, so we have good news and bad news," Ruby tentatively began as she walked up to Atub. The orcs looked around the human women, noting the lack of a certain individual.
"Where is Yamarz?" Ugor demanded, her voice strained.
"He…was killed by the Giant leader. We avenged him though, and brought the club in his stead." Ruby indicated the large club in Yang's arms. Toggle had hefted it all the way from the cavern, though he seemed to constantly be looking around the whole way back, as if trying to find Yamarz as well. The sight broke Ruby's heart.
"I see," Atub said, grief in her voice. "Did he…die well?"
Ruby resisted the urge to wince at that as Yang spoke up. "He…went down swinging."
"Ah, that is good to hear then."
"Yamarz was a coward and a weakling," Malacath's voice rang out from his miniature shrine, causing the Huntresses to wince. "It took the convincing of a human waif to get him to act like an orc. His deceitful ways have cost you all greatly."
"I am not a waif, whatever that is..." Ruby grumbled and Yang patted her shoulder, while Atub closed her eyes, as did the other orcs. After a moment, she opened them and gazed at the shine intensely.
"So he has been punished?" Atub concluded. "And what of us? What fate shall we suffer?"
"You'll have to prove yourselves, but I'm willing to give you a chance. Gularzob's in charge now. Let's hope he's a better chief." One orc, likely Gularzob, seemed to stumble back at this revelation. "You, golden-hair," Malacath then called out, causing Yang to stand to attention, "place that hammer on the shrine. You're about the only one proven worthy in all of this. Your little sister and her bodyguard were vying for second."
"Wow, I guess if you're getting all the Thanedoms, I'm getting all the tough-guy gods' favors," Yang muttered as she went over and gently set the club into the antlers of the deer skull. The weapon then seemed to shift before her very eyes, the head becoming more box-shaped and the hilt going from thick wood to thin metal. When it was done, an almost wicked-looking warhammer, with a red glow emanating from within the head, had taken the primitive weapon's place.
"Keep this hammer, Volendrung. It will beat your enemies to paste while it withers them away. The weak stand no chance against a strong pair of arms hefting this weapon."
Yang took the hammer down from the shrine and felt its weight in her hands. She spun it a bit, and laughed at how well she seemed to be able to grip it. Ruby began looking it over, in awe of its structure.
"This thing has spikes in every direction. It's like a giant meat tenderizer."
"Even if hammers aren't my thing, this'll make a good present for Nora. Not until after I hold it in front of her and taunt about having the bigger hammer first, of course."
"That reminds me, I should probably pick up a copy of that book..." Ruby absentmindedly murmured to herself.
Atub and the male orc walked toward the sisters, who looked to see what they had to say. "Thank you both, for helping us lift this curse. Yamarz might be dead, but it's for the best. At least the tribe shall live on."
"I don't know why Malacath chose me, but I will do my best to lead the tribe," Gularzob spoke up, and Yang smiled.
"Hey, if he picked you, then it must mean you're capable, dude," Yang said to him as she hoisted Volendrung onto her shoulder. "Just do your best."
"I will. Thank you."
"And I will send word about you to the other strongholds," Atub added. "As far as I'm concerned, you two are bloodkin to the orcs. Please, let us know if there's anything we can do for you."
"Well, originally we came here hoping to learn how to smith orichalcum," Ruby pointed out. "We want to make a special armor, and Eorlund said it would be the best fit for it, but…"
"But he couldn't teach you. Well, Garakh certainly can. There's an oath to take before we do, but it's nothing no one else wouldn't have to do."
"Also, what about Toggle?" Ruby pointed to the boar in question, currently being tended to by Lydia.
"Yamarz' boar? Hm, normally the chief's boar would be passed down to the next chief, but Gularzob has his own." Atub looked over to the new chief who hummed.
"Well, no harm in letting you keep him if you've gotten attached. We actually have plenty of great boars. Though the Giants may have gone for them next. Besides, with Frostfall here we would end up culling them a time or two."
"Thanks! I know the perfect keeper for him!"
"As for learning orichalcum," Atub began as she gestured for the girls to follow her, "we'll get Garukh started on teaching you."
Yang took the strip of armor she'd just finished and bent it in her hands before letting it go and watching it spring back into place. It was a tough material, but more flexible and lighter than steel of similar size. Currently, Ruby was waiting for some ore to finish melting down, but it was a long wait, due to how orichalcum worked, and one of the biggest reasons it wasn't used as often. It needed to be smelted at a very low and consistent temperature, otherwise the resulting metal would end up getting brittle and risk cracking apart. Garukh made sure to hammer in that detail, as well as dissuading them from trying any shortcuts like adding iron as a bonding agent, something she referred to as "lazy". Thankfully, the mineral itself had few impurities within it, and so the next steps came pretty quickly. Molds were made, and then the different items were planned. Weapons needed to be more rigid, so the metal underwent a slightly different process during the forging from armors. They needed to be heated quickly, then quenched in icy water, then hammered near a heat source, while armor pieces were hammered as they cooled naturally over time.
Under the orc woman's guidance, the sisters toiled for several hours, first making a broadsword, and then a shield with some of their own touches to it. Then the two started working on a set of armor, going by the sizes Ruby had managed to procure. Segment after segment was made, and then set together, bolted to leather, and strapped tightly. When they finished, the full set of armor was done, the shield and weapon sitting beside it on a table. The girls took the bandages off of their hands where they had drawn blood to make the oath, seeing the wounds fully healed, and then looked at their finished product. Lydia had come back inside to view it as well, having spent most of the time they worked tending to other matters or accepting some training from a few of the orcs.
"It looks very good," she complimented the two. "Every time I see your works I'm astounded by it."
"Glad you like it," Yang said with a grin. "Now try it on."
"…What?"
"We made it to your measurements," Ruby pointed out happily. "It's going to be hard getting through this stuff. It's almost like a polymer with how flexible it is, and it's lighter and stronger than steel."
Carefully, Lydia bent down and picked up the main piece, looking it over a moment before looking back at the girls. She smiled, and set it down before taking off her steel armor. With a little help she was able to pull on the orichalcum armor and immediately felt the difference. She strapped on the pauldrons, gauntlets, and greaves and then stood up and walked around a moment to get a feel for it. As well as being lighter, she could move about more easily in it. She flexed an arm and then picked up the sword. Shaped like her normal weapon, the green blade felt good in her hands and she could see that it had a fine edge, one that would last much longer than regular steel from what she'd heard.
"You're lucky to have these girls willing to go through such hard work to protect you," Garukh told the housecarl with a nod.
"I am, thank you. And thank you for teaching them."
"It was easier than I expected. They're naturals, almost as quick to learn as my own daughters. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they were part orc." Ruby then came forward and handed Lydia the shield.
"We did something a little extra here. Know how you tend to bash things in the face?"
"Yes, I do that sometimes."
"Well, see that spike in the middle?" Lydia nodded. "Okay, and see that thing next to your handle that looks like a bike brake?"
"A what?"
"Never mind. Just reach with a finger or two and squeeze it." Lydia did so, and the spike on her shield shifted, opening a little and flicking out a pair of blades about the size of a dagger. "Tada! We put knives in your shield, so now you can stab someone when you block or bash." Garukh just laughed and shook her head, as though it was a particularly silly prank. The other orcs, in contrast, looked upon the shield in awe. Lydia gazed at the knife-shield silently before laughing as she retracted the blade.
"This is all really amazing! Thank you so much for making this for me!"
"No problem," Ruby beamed. "You do all of that burden-bearing for me, so the least I could do is make sure you're protected too."
"And Eorlund was right! This stuff is the perfect material to get us started on that interlock armor. I tested it a few times, and no matter how long it's bent a certain way, it always goes back to how it was before, unless you heat it up to metal melting levels, but not even my Semblance's fire gets that hot." Yang took out a piece that she'd made and pulled at it, showing how it seemed to stretch out, but it was actually just interwoven pieces of orichalcum. "It works kind of like hinge springs, with overlapping segments. First version's going to be thin, but we can work with it." She brought her hands back, showing how the pieces automatically pushed themselves back into place. "Of course, this is harder to make than any chain or scalemail could ever be. This piece wouldn't be enough to protect half a hand, and it took me an hour to put together."
"You'll get better with time," Ruby encouraged her. "And maybe even figure out how to mix it with other metals. Only the springs need to be orichalcum, but the main pieces could be anything from Dwemer metal to dragon scales."
"That sounds good and all, but wouldn't it pinch you when it shrinks back?" Lydia pointed out. The girls looked at her then back at the piece again as Yang pulled at it a few times.
"Huh, you might be right," Yang said as she looked it over. "So… Need to find something to act as a buffer layer. Maybe the White Stag hide?"
"I don't know how magical it is. How do we test that?"
"One thing at a time, I suppose."
"Wow, okay, this doesn't sound nice."
"What is it?" Weiss asked, looking over Blake's shoulder.
"Reading a book of tales. Apparently, some Chimer guy named Ornarol tried to hedge his bets against some Daedric Princes, but they just ended up tearing his soul into three parts." She looked a little further along. "More concerning is that it's believed his soul pieces act as keys to the gateways of part of their realms, including Hircine's Hunting Grounds, Peryite's Pit, and Hermaeus Mora's Apocrypha. Hm, might take a look at those when I have the chance."
"Goodness!" Weiss shivered. "Any more ghastly tales you want to share with us?"
Blake rummaged through the book in her hands. "Well, there's one about a sorcerer who made a deal with Clavicus Vile, but then hid himself and his tower inside some pocket realm when he tried to take his soul as payment. A tale about a giant sea serpent that got so big they needed the King of the Giants of Atmora to bash him on the head so he'd stop stirring up the sea. A story about a devious dragon with gilded horns who fooled a small army into walking into a death trap, only for one brave boy to hit him with an arrow in his eye, which ran him off, saving the remaining half of the army. There's a story about some Nordic island called Falskaar and some big war that happened there long ago, but I haven't reached that one yet."
"I think I heard about that place, but it's very far north and past some icy waters. Most people don't even know about it." Weiss looked at the book for a moment before recalling something. "Speaking of stories, are you still working on…that book?"
"Um, yeah…" Blake admitted bashfully. "I'm…trying to do more research on Pelinal, but the things people write about him are contradictory most of the times, and he's… Well, to put it bluntly, he was an insane war criminal."
"What kind of war crimes are we talking about?"
"Killing civilians. Targeting civilians. Killing prisoners of war. His whole existence was based around killing elves, no matter who they were. He even killed several Khajiit, thinking they were some kind of elf offshoot. It's hard to feel connected to a character like that." Blake breathed out a sigh. "What about you?"
"What?"
"Your dream journal. Anything new?"
"Well, yes, actually. There was something about some Nord woman's jewels, but it didn't seem very important. What was important was that there were slaves being held in the camp, and the person freed them, at some place near Caldera called Shushishi." Weiss nodded. "Yes, I'm almost certain now, after seeing him in combat. This person Azura's giving me visions of is from Remnant, and he was in Morrowind."
"You could tell from how he fought?" Blake raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, his sword style was very peculiar. Very fast and fluid, much more so than anyone from Nirn, yet also choppy. Also, I don't think I've seen anyone that angry at someone since we ran into the Orphan Rock coven. He yelled a lot at the Khajiit in charge of the bandits planning on selling the slaves about being a traitor to his kind. "
"They were doing what?" Inigo growled and Blake scowled. Weiss nodded remorsefully.
"From what I could tell, the Khajiit in question was doing it for quite some time. The Huntsman found his operation by chance trying to find those jewels and he was...furious is too light of a word. I was wondering what he was going to do after he cut him down." Weiss shrugged. "Eventually he caught his breath, freed the slaves, and left, taking the Khajiit's tanto, and that's where the dream ended."
"Huh? How was his style peculiar?" Blake asked, regaining her composure.
"Almost like he wasn't used to a normal sword. He used one edge most of the time, and a lot of distractions, like throwing a dagger or rock at someone's head to close in with them. Very athletic, and fast, to be expected of a Huntsman type of warrior."
"Why would a Khajiit capture and sell other Khajiit?" M'rissi asked, an innocent gleam in her eyes.
"Money can make people do awful things, M'ri," Inigo answered. "It can make a cat sell his soul sometimes."
"There was actually a time, back on Remnant, when we came across a Faunus who was luring others and selling them to traffickers. Human and Faunus, but mostly Faunus." Blake's ears turned toward the angry position, but then turned back towards sadness as she frowned. "My…mentor got so angry… He just stood there for a long time after killing the slaver. We were scared to approach him."
"What happened after that?"
"He freed just the Faunus then left without a word." Blake looked down remorsefully, her ears flat against her head. "Ilia, a friend of mine, and I freed the humans. At that point, they didn't care what we were, they were just glad to be out of there."
"It's sickening, what some people are willing to do to others." Weiss shook her head before humming in thought. She looked up and out across a field, now brown and with bales being rolled up from the farm's vegetation. "Winter's just about here, it seems."
"It's literally Frostfall. Well, back home it'd be October. Pretty soon everywhere north of Riverwood's going to have at least twelve inches of snow, and maybe all of Skyrim." As they rode up toward the gates, both noticed something very peculiar. Just outside of the stables was a giant boar, larger than some of the horses. It was eating from a trough, likely whatever scraps they could find for such a beast. A familiar red cloak went by, and paused.
"Hey guys!" Ruby greeted the group as they began to dismount. "Just feeding Toggle, but this is the biggest bucket I could find for the scraps the inn's letting me take to him." She held up the bucket of partly eaten foods and leftover soup. "This should be the last he needs, though. Come on, let me introduce you guys."
Following their team leader with no small amount of apprehension, the group walked up to the boar and watched as it raised its head to let Ruby fill the trough back up. It smacked its mouth a few times and let out a snort and an oink towards them as though acknowledging their presence before going back to eating.
"Why do you have a giant pig?" Inigo asked, the first to finally regather his senses.
"He's a great boar. Remember how we were helping the chief go fight a Giant bandit?"
"... Yes..." Weiss slowly said, leaning back away from the boar and nervously noticing the peculiar look Ruby was giving her.
"Well, he's dead, but the tribe let us keep his boar since all they'd end up doing is either eating or culling him to keep the other boars fed. They're better as battle mounts than food, anyways. Speaking of which, Weiss, let me formally introduce you to Toggle, your new mount."
The boar paused his eating a moment to let out a happy squeak.
"I'm sorry, are you saying you want me to ride a giant pig?" Weiss rubbed her forehead. "Ruby, there are so many things wrong with that idea."
"He's good! I rode him a little bit on the way from Larshbarter, and it's way smoother than any horse ride. He can also carry half a ton of weight at one time, and pigs are some of the smartest animals in the world."
"Ruby, there's no way I'm riding a big, smelly pig." Weiss tone was final, and Ruby pouted. At the same time, Toggle suddenly went up from his meal, turned, and then ran into the nearby tree line.
"Toggle! Weiss, you hurt his feelings!" Ruby accused, making Weiss balk.
"What?! No, I didn't! It couldn't have understood me no matter how smart it was."
"Then why'd he run off when you called him smelly?" M'rissi glared at the heiress, to which Weiss threw her arms into the air.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah! And he's not smelly. A little musky, but he rubs up against a lot of pines and usually smells like that," Ruby continued to defend Toggle. The great boar then burst out from the trees, carving through one small pine with one of his tusks and felling it on his way out. "Like that. Hey boy, are you okay?"
Weiss yelped as the boar came right up to her, pointing his giant nose at her face and letting out a series of oinks. She tried to back away in disgust, but Toggle walked along with her, shaking his head up and down until Weiss noticed something in his lips. Pausing a moment, she reached forward and grabbed the object, and Toggle let go and backed up a few steps. She saw that in her hands was a small, leather sack. Cautiously, she opened it to find several septims and malks.
"Did you…find this?" The boar let out a snort and then began rubbing his head against Weiss' leg. Tentatively, she reached out and patted his head. "Well, alright, I'll give it a go."
"Of course. As soon as the pig brings you money, you change your tune." Blake stared at Weiss with lidded eyes, but Weiss purposefully ignored her. "Why am I not surprised?"
"I knew he'd be perfect for you!" Ruby cheered. "The other day he found a surface lode of iron ore. I think Yamarz trained him to find metals, including coins."
"Don't suppose you have a coin sniffing piglet?" Blake asked, to which Ruby laughed.
"No, sorry, just the one big piggy." Weiss began scratching the boar under his chin, which made him started tapping a foot rapidly. Ruby tilted her head. "Huh, thought only dogs did that."
As Weiss looked appreciably over Lydia's new armor and Yang's prototype armor piece, Ruby received Journey of the Heroes from Blake, and started flipping through a few pages.
"It's hard to believe how famous those guys became," She said as she paused at a page and then closed it. "How is it for a book?"
"Pretty good. The writer was more…modern. A lot of books from about three hundred years and earlier tend to be really simple. I think it's because they had to be careful about how they penned things. Heard from some guy writing in an inn once that there are spells for that stuff now, though. Showed me a few, ink removal spells, mostly, and also a spell checker. Not to mention many stories were obviously inaccurate in places. I've looked at a few, and Journey of the Heroes is by far the one people assume is the closest to the truth."
"Really? How inaccurate were they?"
"I remember one where the author turned Yohannes into a blatant Marty Stu-type character who got pretty much every woman in Cyrodiil without even trying and could do no wrong while the others were sidelined, at best. The author's treatment of Nicaea was particularly bad, making her entire existence revolve around him while writing her wearing some…questionably chosen armor into combat. I'm talking metal bikini. I think he was trying to self-insert himself into Yohannes and it...didn't come out very well. Funnily enough, the Bard's College apparently made a brilliant parody based off of it. Won awards and everything."
"That's weird," Ruby muttered as she thought about the other story before looking back at the book in her hands. "Would you say it's more action or drama?"
"A little of both, actually. There's plenty of action and adventure going on, but there tend to be some really dramatic and heartbreaking moments. If you like either of those you'll enjoy it. What kind of books do you normally like?"
"Oh, well, you know. Uh, I think my favorite recent book was…The Elder's War." Blake's eyes widened as her ears shot up at that.
"You're kidding."
"No, it was really good."
"Oh, it definitely was, but… We're talking about a story that starts with an old man visiting his wife's grave right before joining the army."
"Yeah, I know. I read it."
"He made a bunch of friends only to slowly hear most of them in his head dying through the neural implant."
"Yeah, it was really heart wrenching."
"…What other books do you like?"
"Um, let me think. I like Ender's Match. The Hymn of Winter and Summer is pretty good. The Button. Ironically, I really like that series with the wizards who ride dragons fighting the evil emperor. Uh, what was the series itself called? Heritage? You know the one, right?"
"Okay, I can see that one, but all those other books are…a little dark. I mean, I never would have pictured you enjoying…a story full of murder, cut-throat politics, and most of the heroes dying to both."
"Well, I guess I just…kinda got into them after a while." Ruby smiled. "Remember when we first met and we started talking about books and stuff?"
"Yeah. You said Yang used to read to you all the time. Fairy tales and stuff."
"Well, when I was ten or eleven, I went looking for a book of the stories she used to read, but one thing I kept finding was several of the really old versions. You know, the scary ones they don't tell kids about? Instead of just marrying the prince, some birds come and peck out the stepsister's left eyes at the wedding. The girl never actually gets out of the tower and starves to death. Things like that."
"Yeah, the really messed up stories. What about them?"
"Well, I think it frightened me a bit, and I kind of slowly realized that the world really is a scary place. People get hurt and monsters prowl around. Some of the people can be monsters too. But, even though there were all of these dark stories, people were able to make some kid-friendly, bright and happy tales out of them. That's what I meant when I told you that's what we're there for."
"To make the world a better place," Blake clinched. She let out a small laugh. "Take the twisted world and make something beautiful out of it."
"And that's what we're doing here. I'm going to stop the dragons and find out where Alduin is hiding and how to beat him. You're working with a less reputable guild to find evilmurderers, while straightening them out a bit. And, of course, we have to stop all of the baddies we run into on the way. That's what I see in those books. They're not… Well, they can be sad, especially when someone loses a lot of friends, when a young girl loses her father, or when you realize you've completely destroyed a planet at the cost of millions of lives. But there's always something good to be taken away from them. There's that spark of hope. And that's the hope I'm going to fight for, no matter what."
After a warm meal and a night in warm beds, the whole group felt relaxed and relieved come morning. Weiss and Ruby were going over a map for their plans while Yang and Blake were talking with Inigo and M'rissi over breakfast.
"So, we're not going to Mzulft, yet?" Ruby clarified.
"I called back to the college, and Mirabelle said that only the Synods know the way in, so she's keeping an ear to the ground for when they try to move in, which should be soon. We'll try to tag along, or, barring that, push past them. Probably better for their health that way. Dwemer ruins are said to house all sorts of security measures, ranging from automatons to their weaponized industry. Even if the defenses are broken down, Falmer might have moved in."
"Falmer," Ruby muttered angrily, catching Weiss off-guard.
"You know what Falmer are?"
"Yeah, remember, I told you guys about them after you all ran off with Sam." The others all winced and looked away from Ruby's glare.
"You more yelled and ranted. So you fought them? What are they like?"
"They murdered people and dragged them into a cave to feed to their giant bug pets. They raise the chaurus and I guess make armor and weapons out of them. They were all blind and disgusting, but had very good hearing. I mean, they could shoot arrows while still being blind."
"How in Oblivion does that work?" Yang scratched her head.
"Echolocation, I guess? I don't know. How about the Magnet-Jeeps?"
"Magna-Ge." Weiss felt the tick in her head, drawing her northwest. "We'll need to head toward Haafingar, I believe. I'm not entirely sure what we're looking for, but the Marker's psionic guide is leading me to something."
"What do you think it is?"
"I'm not certain. The Augur of Dunlain said more information will become available as we go."
"Okay, so Blake, M'rissi, and Inigo will head back down to Riften, while you, me, Yang, and Lydia will-"
The door to the inn opened, and Ruby and Weiss turned to see Aela and Farkas walking in, a grim expression plastered on their faces. They quickly spotted Yang and walked over to her, and the hairs on everyone's necks began to rise.
"Hey guys. Everything going all right?" Yang slowly rose to her feet, as did the others.
"Actually, something's gone very wrong," Aela told her grimly. "Word just reached us from Whiterun. Someone's attacked and destroyed the Hall of the Vigilant. Nearly everyone there was killed."
The news came to everyone's surprise, and for a moment a chill could be felt settling over all of them.