"One day, Felix burst into my chamber. Instinct took over, and I reacted," Inigo told them with dipped ears and a deep frown. "His murder was my second last step on the road of dishonor. Trying to kill my Nord friend was the last. I…do not enjoy speaking about what happened after that."

"Who was your Nord buddy?" Yang asked, quite enthralled by Inigo's tale. M'rissi also seemed enraptured, while Blake listened in. Tolan seemed to be the only one uninterested in Inigo's story, and instead walked a little behind the group. Yang had convinced the Vigilant to stay with them for the detour and then go with her from there to Dimhollow.

"I must be completely honest, I never learned his actual name. Come to think of it, I never told him mine. Still, he treated me like I was a brother sometimes, and his last letter spoke kindly of me," Inigo mournfully sighed as he continued to describe his fallen friend. "He was a strong warrior, and very brave, but did not tend to think things through. Trusting, maybe to the point of being a little naïve and gullible. He had a knack for getting into places stealthily without even trying, but found it to be too easy sometimes."

"Was he good-looking?" Yang joked. The smile on Inigo's face showed that it successfully drew him out of his sadness.

"I am probably not a good judge of such things. All I can really tell you is that he had well-kept black hair and amber eyes."

"Like Blake?" M'rissi asked. The Faunus in question looked back at them, her ears pointed up in alarm.

"Huh, maybe a little, now that I think about it."

"That's kinda weird," Yang muttered just as they started coming up to Kynesgrove. The people were working on fixing up the place, clearing out broken and burnt wood and patching up houses. Kjeld the Younger was actually replacing a wood board on the outside of the inn while his father directed him, the older man's right arm in a sling. As they approached, Ruby seemingly popped out of nowhere wearing a leather apron and charged Yang. The sisters wrestled against each other for a moment, before both let up and laughed.

"I guess you missed me?" Yang said as they let each other go.

"Hm… Nope!" Ruby expressed with a pop. Before Yang could catch her and make her confess, Weiss came up with a small amount of soot on some older clothes, a hood covering her skin from the sun's punishment.

"Hello everyone. Glad you got up here. Do any of you happen to have any experience with Dwemer ruins?" After a moment of silence, the heiress sighed. "Very well. Learning experience for us all."

"What's this about a Dwemer ruin?" Blake asked, slightly interested.

"Weiss just got a call from her friends in college yesterday afternoon. They said the Synod researchers should have reached Mzulft, which Weiss needs to get to because of some mystical artifact."

"Ruby don't make it sound so…" Weiss sighed and rubbed her forehead. "No sense in beating around the bush then. A former…person turned magical energy orb told me that to avert some unspecified disaster I need a special staff, which I should be able to find in Mzulft." Everyone stared blankly at the heiress, and a look of realization slowly dawned on Yang's face.

"Oh. My. God, you are on a quest," Yang realized with a huge smirk appearing.

"What? No, it's… Who are you to judge?" Weiss accused, a blush appearing on her face. "You told us over your call that you're getting ready to go down into some ancient crypt looking for an even vaguer vampire artifact."

"Yeah, but that's a job. I was hired to do that stuff. Tolan and… Where's Tolan?"

"The old Vigilant guy?" Ruby asked before thumbing towards the inn. "He went inside."

"Well…okay. Anyways, fulfilling requests as part of a job description is way different from following the directions set by some random wizards and a sapient energy ball." Yang shook her head then placed a hand to her hip. "Anyways, after we get this staff, you mind coming with for the artifact? There's no telling what's down there, and having someone with… Well, I might need your help if there's special defenses."

"Special how?" Weiss seemed to realize what she meant and her eyebrows went up. "Oh. Right."

"She missed it," M'rissi objected. "What happened?"

"We'll tell you later, M'ri. Private stuff." Lydia then walked up from where Ruby and Weiss had come, with several malachite swords under her arm and a Dunmer in dark steel armor behind her.

"Oh guys, remember Erevan?"

"The guy that smelled like Uncle Qrow?"

"Yeah, him! He's with us now!"

"Huh, neat."

"Every time I hear about your uncle, I grow more and more wary," Weiss admitted with slight fear. "I'm going to go sell these swords. Let's all meet after supper."

"Okay, so our new knight buddy is on the down-low," Yang concluded. "That's cool."

"I'm beginning to think anyone with any amount of worldly experience is fine with benign vampires and werewolves," Weiss concurred. "Jarls, traveled mages, knights and warriors."

"Tolan probably wouldn't be okay with it, but there're a lot of reasons why he wouldn't." Yang nodded and then crossed her legs under her. "So, with him, that means the eight of us will be going to this Mzulft place. Anyone know what we can expect there?"

"The commonalities between Dwemer ruins tend to be their leftover machinery," Erevan explained. "I've heard the tales of their animunculi, machines that move around independently, like some sort of metal golems. Besides that, there are traps and the ancient steam engines to worry about. While Dwemer metal does not corrode, sometimes the stonework collapses, which can damage the machines within, causing even more hazards."

"Wait, if there's technology in the Dwemer ruins, why haven't people tried digging it up and figuring it out?" Blake asked.

"Dwemer "technology"," Weiss began with air quotes, "isn't technology as we know it. While they do have basic steam engines, most of what they made revolves around a sort of magic called Tonal Architecture. Yang, remember when you told us about rune enchanting?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it's somewhat like that, from what I can understand. Only where runes are…well, runes, Tonal Architecture deals with sounds, almost like the theories of harmonics and cymatics. It's why their metals don't corrode. It's not the ingredients that make them that way, but what is basically magical music."

"Huh, weird," Ruby intoned as she began to think over how much power something like sounds could have. "Kind of reminds me of the Thu'um, now that I think about it."

"So we'll have to deal with music-powered steam bots down there?" Yang asked.

"There's also the matter of Falmer." At the mention of those, Ruby straightened up. Erevan simply continued. "From what I've heard, they tend to be within Skyrim's Dwemer ruins more often than not, likely because of the last war between the two races that was occurring before their sudden disappearance. Don't be surprised if we run into them down there."

"Ah, yes." Weiss rubbed her chin as she recalled those particular tidbits of history. "Ruby, you and Lydia fought them before, right?"

"Yeah. Evil, blind, uglier versions of Gobble with giant pet nightmare bugs." Ruby scowled at the memories of those abominations.

M'rissi went stiff at that. "H-how big are the bugs?"

"I don't know. Pig-sized?" Ruby waved her hand in a circle. She hadn't had much time to accurately measure out the giant insects from Hell.

"Pigs can be very, very big," she mumbled fearfully. "Like Toggle. Er, but Toggle is actually nice! Where is he, by the way?"

"Probably out back, eating all the inn's leftovers." Weiss scratched the back of her head as she thought of how the situation with her mount always seemed to turn out. "It seems everywhere we go he takes the place of a compost machine."

"He got mad when he figured out a fight happened and Weiss didn't let him out to battle." Ruby giggled at the memory of the great boar looking indignant and refusing to make eye contact with her best friend. "Weiss had to bribe him with a sweet roll."

"Gluttonous barbarian," Weiss muttered with no ire, but rather a ghost of a smile.

Inigo's head suddenly drooped before he let out a yawn. "It is getting late, and I am very tired. Perhaps I will call it a day."

"Yeah, we should all get some rest," Yang agreed, letting out a yawn almost as soon as the words left her mouth. A few others soon followed suit, and a faint chuckle was then heard across the room.

"Alright then, that's our cue to sleep. Inigo, you and Erevan get to bunk together," Ruby told the two men. "And maybe Tolan?"

"Frrrow! But M'rissi usually bunks with Inigo!" the Khajiit woman objected.

"M'rissi," Blake reprimanded her, "I told you, you can't share the same bed as him."

"But you shared the same bed with Yang!" she protested.

"That was different!"

"Was it, Blake?" Yang teased her. "Was it, really?"

Weiss and Ruby just watched on with amusement.

"It's much better when she does it to somebody else."

"Yeah. We'll step in if Blake gets too flustered, though." It seemed whatever words Erevan offered just escalated matters. "Hehe, funny."

"You two can be cruel sometimes," Lydia said plainly, though there was a smile on her face as well.

The stairs leading up the hill to Mzulft were worn with time. Some were buried, some had stone arches hanging over them, and some had been cracked and broken, with weeds and grass poking through. It was humbling in a way. Yet, when they reached the hill's peak, they gasped in wondrous awe at the sight of Mzulft's above ground section. It was the first time any of them had seen a Dwemer ruin, and it was certainly spectacular.

"So cool!" Ruby uttered in reverence. A quick look to one side had them all notice a sort of pedestal, which she quickly walked up to and upon. "What do you think this is?" she asked her friends.

"Possibly a lookout position," Weiss guessed. "Although, it doesn't look suitable for a guard station. Maybe something like a toll booth, or a place that a greeter stood?"

"Ooh, there is an entrance!" M'rissi pointed out a little further up the hill and to the opposite direction. The others looked over and saw a separate, smaller building from the rest of the structure further up and walked over toward it. Blake immediately began inspecting the door and probed at its lock. Her brow furrowed in concentration as she quickly noted the complexity.

"Like I expected. This has to have at least fourteen tumblers," Blake revealed as she began fishing out her lockpicking set. "Good thing the Guild had some Dwemer locks in the practice area."

"Wait, the Thieves Guild has a practice area?" Weiss asked, actually surprised.

"What, don't you have places to practice throwing spells?" Yang pointed out.

"That's not nearly the same thing."

"If I could have a bit of silence, please," Blake requested as she stood back up. "I don't think you guys realize just how many fourteen is when it comes to a lock, but it's a lot. A house lock normally has no more than five. And all of these are in mixed patterns and-" Blake's words were cut off as Ruby reached over and pushed on the handle, opening one of the doors. The Faunus stared at the girl and then the open door in absolute shock. "But… What?"

"I, uh, just was wondering if it was locked or not." Blake looked down at the handle and pushed at it, but found it to be stuck. "Yeah," Ruby said as she rubbed her neck. "It's locked but…the door was open?"

"How- What?"

"I think we just saw Thane Ruby's Birthsign at work," Lydia explained. "She was born in Frostfall, under the sign of The Tower. It's said that those born under The Tower can sometimes inexplicably get past even the best locks."

"Wait, you mean there are weird horoscope powers?" Yang asked as the group began to walk in. "On top of all the spells, enchantments, runes, Shouting, and apparently percussion music that shifts reality, people can have Zodiac powers? I swear, this place just keeps throwing curveballs at me." Blake was still looking at her lockpick and the door in disbelief, but M'rissi pushed her on inside.

"Well, well, look at all of this," Weiss indicated to the items scattered on shelves, mostly what looked to be bronze-colored junk and scraps. "Looks like this was some kind of above ground storage. And with the current price for Dwemer metal…"

"Feed the Schnee!" Yang breathed out while waving her fingers wantonly. Weiss ignored her, focusing intently on the deals she was soon to make.

Noticing a door leading to more shelves, M'rissi pulled out one of her own lockpicks and worked it with her tongue poking out the corner of her lips, opening it within a minute. "M'rissi found more goodies!"

Weiss instantly rushed to the newly opened room, and immediately felt ecstatic. "Actual, Dwemer made ingots!" she exclaimed while picking up one of the hunks of meric metal. "These don't even have to go through a smelter, and that immediately jumps the price up significantly! This one stack is worth at least a thousand septims!"

"Feeeeeed it!" Yang called out with a ghostly tone. Looking at another closed off area, Blake began to work its lock, but paused and gulped as she did. Her partner noticed and came over to where she was. "'Sup?"

"Uh, this lock has…sixteen tumblers," she explained.

"Geez, what's in here that they had to lock up so well?"

"No idea." She concentrated then pushed the first lever into place. "But it should be worth a lot."

"Ooh, gems and jewelry! Dwemer-made weapons! I can't believe how much of a treasure trove this turned out to be!" Weiss continued to exclaim in naked greed, with M'rissi helping her loot any and all containers they came across.

"How are you planning to carry all of this?" Ruby asked her partner, who paused in her looting. At the same time, Lydia paled and quietly began to walk away.

"Well, getting a cart shouldn't be too hard. And it's nothing Toggle or one of the horses can't haul."

"Just not my Choco. He's not made for hauling."

"Sure, sure. Toggle won't mind it at all. He's a tougher stock."

"He's a boar, Weiss."

Blake felt sweat dripping down her forehead, despite the cool air around her. The fifteenth was in, and she was on the last one. Her lockpick was on the brink, and snapping now could send her all the way back to the beginning, or worse. Her sensitive cat ears heard a small clink, then her tension wrench turned with almost no resistance. Cautiously, she turned it all the way around, until the lock was open. Smiling with pride swelling in her chest, she pushed open the gate…to see M'rissi on the other side.

"Wha- How did you-"

"She went through the side door," M'rissi pointed out, indicating a door to the side of the room she was in, where Blake saw Weiss rummaging through the Dwemer items. Blake looked around, walking through the two rooms, realizing the one M'rissi opened a few minutes ago led to the same place she had been heading to through another door. "This one had another, simpler lock. She got it pretty quickly."

"I just went through a sixteen lever tumbler lock, made out of a very heavy metal…" Blake quietly lamented, staring at her nearly broken lockpick with blank eyes.

"To that, I say, well done," Inigo congratulated her with a pat on the shoulder. Blake wanted to object, but then thought about what she had accomplished and decided to take it in stride. She took in a breath through her nose and let out a sigh.

"At least if we really do need me to unlock something like that, we're golden."

"It's more like bronze, really," Yang said as held up one of the metal pieces. Inigo began to chuckle, but Erevan looked at her as if she'd grown a second head.

"Oh my," Weiss said as she came into the room. Ruby came in while Yang looked past the group to see what had caught her attention. On a pedestal was a bright, blue, glass-like object, shaped vaguely like a half-circle. Weiss picked it up, and began turning it in her hands. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. It feels…well, magical. Do you have any ideas?"

"I'm afraid not, milady," the knight told her as he looked it over, doing his best not to look at Yang. "It doesn't seem to be malachite, nor the same substance that Soul Gems are made of."

"Strange. Well, I guess that's something to add to the list." She placed the strange object into her pack while Ruby's attention turned toward a large, one-sided battleaxe.

"Whoa! Check this out!" Ruby exclaimed while she picked up the weapon. "It's bigger than any of Yang's axes! Ooh, and it's enchanted with ice!"

After going through the storeroom a little longer, the group came out and then headed up the hill to the rest of the Dwemer structure. As they came closer, Ruby began to see that a few of the bronze-colored pipes had been broken, likely by falling rocks. One was even spewing out a cloud of steam that slowly dispersed as it rose. However, some of the pipes had what looked like patchwork repairs done to them, clashing against the uniform symmetry undamaged pipes showed. Yang then started sniffing, then walked over to the side. The others started to follow her, but stopped when she spotted something and froze.

"Dead body," she quietly announced to the others. "Mostly downwind. Didn't pick it up until now."

"I don't smell…" Weiss stopped her words as she took another sniff and then her nose scrunched up. "Never mind."

"Yeah, looks like he was burned to death," Yang concurred. "Don't know what did it. Let's be careful, guys."

The group pushed through the doors, but the first sight to hit their eyes was an alarming one. A paling man in blue mage robes was sitting down near a door further in, a pool of blood collected around him and a large gash across his abdomen. His hand was pressed tightly to the gaping wound, trying to hold his body together, but blood continued to seep out at an alarming rate. He looked up at the people as they came in, and Ruby rushed to his side, trying to heal him.

"Crystal…gone…" he got out while holding up a bloodied hand, a key in his grasp.

"Shh," Ruby urged him. "Save your strength. I'll try to heal you."

"Too late," he wheezed out before coughing a few times. Yang tried to help her sister heal the man, but her addition to the spell didn't seem to be having any effect. "Find…Paratus…in Oculory." The man suddenly gave out, his back and head hitting the wall behind him before he slipped over and fell, his eyes rolled into the back of his head. The sisters ceased their spell and looked at their gathered friends. They all closed their eyes tightly for a moment then opened them.

"This spells a bad omen," Inigo said quietly while looking him over. He gently pried the key from his hand and wiped it clean with a bit of water from his canteen. "I just hope our luck holds up better than his.

"I wish we'd come up here sooner," Ruby lamented.

"There's nothing for it, Ruby," Weiss told her with a squeeze of her shoulder. "He was too far gone as it was with a wound like that. He'd have needed an expert healer to save him. It's likely the septic shock would have gotten him had blood loss not."

"Yeah," the Dragonborn solemnly agreed before looking around. With her focus torn away from the dead man, she noticed the large gears spinning within the floor, placed under huge pipes running along the wall. Inigo went forward and tried the key on the next set of doors, then opened them wide for everyone to go through. "Let's try to save the rest of this group then."

"M'rissi found a thing!" The Khajiit woman then offered said thing over to Blake. It was a leather-bound notebook, which Blake glanced through before passing over to Weiss, who in turn read it and then passed it to Ruby.

Attendant Gavros,

The Council has become aware of the lack of progress in your group's efforts. They are particularly displeased to learn that your specifications for the focusing crystal were completely incorrect.

The entire Binder's Conclave has worked tirelessly, and the Council is quite sure this new crystal will suit your needs. You are herewith entrusted with delivering the crystal to the site, completing your work, and delivering a full report to the Council with all possible haste.

The Council trusts you will deliver the crystal to the Oculory personally, and that there will be no further complications.

-First Adjunct Oronrel

"So this was Gavros." Ruby looked back at the man then forward into the ruin. "He needed to take a crystal to…Paratus in the Oculory."

Blake did a quick pat down of the man, but came up with nothing and shook her head. "Might be further in. He could have left it somewhere."

"Maybe the blue thing Weiss has?" M'rissi suggested.

"Unlikely," Erevan answered. "That storeroom was locked up, and the object was placed there seemingly in a spot made for it."

"Either way, we should go in." Ruby began to head deeper, but paused when she saw a steam-powered piston within one of the wall pipes just on the other side of the door. Just a little beyond, some dirt had fallen through the cracked ceiling and now featured a few plants growing within it, including a fern. Between the steam leaking out from vents and broken pipes and the seemingly unending light from the green flames that mimicked gaslights, the plants were well-nourished. "Huh, I feel like this would make a great metaphor." Ruby took out her scroll and snapped a picture of the spot before heading forward. The group looked around in appreciation of the Dwemer architecture as they continued, including at a pair of faces, likely crafted to resemble their creators. As Ruby made to head in-between them, Blake suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Hey! Wh-" Suddenly, dozens of spears shot out from the ceiling before her. Blake pointed down and forward, and everyone looked to see a conspicuous square stone. Ruby began to rub her neck and awkwardly grinned as Blake let her go again. "Right. Traps."

"Goodness, it feels like this happens every time," Weiss complained.

"Sorry. I keep forgetting they're a thing."

"Just be careful and step over the square of death," Blake told her. One by one, each of the fellowship did so, coming up to another bend in the hall. Something was clacking out of time with the clinks and clangs of the ancient machinery, and a few looked to see a metallic spider-shaped machine coming towards them. Ruby was unsure what to think about it, then jumped out of the way as some sort of electric arc shot at her from its head.

"Whoa!"

"What the heck?!" Yang shouted as it turned to her and tried to grab her with its clamp arms. She kicked it like a football and sent it several feet back. The spider picked itself back up, but then was hit by a dwarven pot, denting it and breaking the pottery. It wobbled a moment, but went back on the offensive and started after them like a demented wind-up toy.

"Little guy doesn't give up!" Yang observed and she started to pull out her axe. Ruby suddenly had a thought and reached out with a telekinetic spell. The automaton was then up in the air, and the girl mentally threw it at a wall. Pieces broke off, including the gyro at the top and a couple of its legs. The machine then went still and began to leak oil and steam.

"Okay, so their bots really do still work," Ruby said as she poked at it then turned it over to see a gem inside. She reached in and pulled it out to find that it was a Lesser Soul Gem. "Huh, so they use these as batteries. Wait…"

"How long have these Dwemer been gone, again?" Yang asked.

"Four thousand years, give or take," Weiss answered.

"And that thing was still running?"

"I know! Even the best Atlesian tech would be lucky to last at most a century! And that's with constant maintenance. These things had none for over four millennia, and they still work like they were only made yesterday!" Weiss gushed excitedly, her mind swimming in an endless sea of curiosity.

"I don't even think this one was all that bad," Ruby said as she pocketed the gem. "That little bit of a ruin I went through at Shimmermist had an inactive… Was it a Centurion? Anyways, they have robots almost the size of Atlesian Paladins. This looks like some kind of worker droid."

"If it's a worker, why'd it attack?" Blake asked as she nudged a leg with her foot.

"Faulty security system? Haywire programming? I don't know. Let's keep going, and hope nothing too bad shows up."

They continued on, but it seemed like a switch was flipped somewhere. Several of the droids came down the hallway then immediately began snapping their clamps and firing short burst of lightning at the eight. Erevan zeroed in on one and struck forward, hitting right between two gears at a knee joint. The crippled droid tried to follow his movements, but was unable to turn sufficiently before his buckler slammed down on it, knocking it to the ground. Yang punched one away, then drew her axe and chopped down into another. She crushed and partially cut through it before yanking the axe back and knocking another out of its leap mid-air. Weiss summoned up a smaller Frost Atronach, which immediately began slamming its icy fists into one of its perceived enemies, which she added a bolt of lightning to. Blake, Inigo, and M'rissi seemed more focused on keeping out of reach of the machines until their allies could take care of them. Ruby, for her part, couldn't really draw Crescent Rose in such tight quarters and knew Dawnbreaker wouldn't be helpful against such an enemy (and possibly harmful with Weiss so close), so she concentrated her magicka into spells, first grasping two with telekinesis and smashing them together, but she found that technique to be too draining on the first try. She saw one looking to jump on Inigo, so she lifted a stone and sent it flying at the robot. The rock burst apart, but the droid was sent flying to the side with a dent in its chassis. As it got up, Ruby focused the Scattershock spell and set it loose on the construct. It was soon bombarded with electricity and something popped within it before it collapsed. With no more Dwemer machines coming after them, the group began to breathe a little easier and took a moment to rest.

"Okay, so those little boogers are kinda worrying in numbers," Yang observed as she wiped her brow.

"Yeah, that was kinda crazy," Ruby agreed as she began checking them to salvage the Soul Gems. Some had petties, some had lesser, some had commons, and some even had more than one gem. However, she also began to notice a sort of tank. Curious, she pulled one out and opened it, finding that it was the container for the machine's oil. "Oh, neat. I could use a couple quarts of oil."

"Fill 'er up," Yang quipped. Blake suddenly moved ahead, confusing the group, but then came right back.

"There's a couple more ahead, but I think we can avoid them if we time it right."

"How many's a couple this time?" Inigo asked. "Because last time it was definitely more than two."

"Four or five. Just be quiet and follow me."

The rest of the motley crew followed the Faunus and paused when they saw a handful of the automatons going around, carrying pieces of Dwemer metal and holding it up in places before their small electric tools began sparking, welding the pieces over holes or onto broken parts that needed reconnecting. Some held a piece of pipe in place as another arc welded, while others sealed up smaller holes. When their work was done, the spiders turned away and began heading towards a different tubing, where they jumped in and seemed to disappear.

"So they are for repairs," Ruby murmured while rubbing her chin. "That explains some of the patchwork."

"Okay, so we know what happened to the Dwemer," Yang concluded. "Robot uprising."

"Yang, don't be silly," her sister playfully admonished. They were on the move again now that the machines were clear of the area. In another chamber, Ruby noticed a door with suspicious holes in front of it on the floor, and then used the reach of her scythe to open it. When spears popped out, she couldn't help but smirk. Weiss looked down another hall, but then looked to where Ruby had headed down, only for both of them to find a dead end, a broken droid, and a vein of moonstone. They quickly backtracked and followed the others up the other way. Yang pushed open a set of double-doors past some of the 'droid tubes' and walked out into an area with no stone floors or carved walls, but rather a more natural looking cave tunnel.

"Huh, guess the place wasn't finished," Yang wondered.

"I don't know," Blake challenged. "Could have been on purpose. Like a park back home." A little further, she looked to her right and then placed her hands on her hips. "Or it's a mine." Ruby looked next to her and hummed.

"Moonstone. It's the most popular with Altmer and Bosmer. Maybe Dwemer used it in their special metal." Everyone stilled when a chittering sound was heard. Yang peeked past a corner and balked.

"Ruby, you said those chaurus got to the size of a pig? This thing looks like it could swallow pigs." The girl rushed over quietly and peeked to see a chaurus longer than she was tall, with a mouth big enough to fit her head in.

"Gods...that is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen..." Blake paled as she eyed the large insect. M'rissi whimpered while Inigo patted her shoulder.

"That is definitely bigger than the last one," Ruby noted before nodding to herself. "Everyone, be careful. These things have tough shells and sharp pincers. Try to overwhelm it and hit a chink near the head. Weiss, go ahead and bring out Frosty again."

"I'm certain that's not his name," the vampire muttered as she summoned the Frost Atronach. The chaurus seemed to hear the commotion, but Weiss had already sent out her summon to charge the beast. The giant insect tried to bite into the crystalline Atronach, and the others rushed out as the distraction succeeded. M'rissi tried to burn it while Weiss hit it with a stream of sparks. Ruby dashed up a scaffolding in a burst of rose petals and began focusing ice magic into her hands and fired it forward, focusing on the weave of Creeping Cold. The icy beam hit the bug in the torso and immediately began to spread over it. After a few seconds, most of it had frozen solid, M'rissi stopping her flames. Part of it began to crack, but then the Atronach slammed its head off in a hammer blow. Frozen green blood and chunks of chitin splatted against the stone ground, and the others sighed or smiled in relief.

"Whew, he should've chilled out!" Yang called up. Erevan looked at a post while Inigo laughed.

"Seems he got cold feet," the blue Khajiit said as he kicked a frozen piece.

"He did not need to give us the cold shoulder," M'rissi added. Erevan crouched down and began hugging his knees.

"Guys, you realize this probably means that there's-" Ruby stopped mid-sentence and looked down next to her feet to see a woman with a large puncture on her belly and part of her face affected by necrosis. She heard a gasp and looked down to see that the others had noticed another body, or part of one. It was a man who had been eaten from his bottom ribs down. Both of the corpses were wearing robes that matched Gavros'. "Oh no," she muttered.

"This isn't good," Yang sighed. "Weiss, how many of these researchers are there supposed to be?"

"I have no idea. They…weren't actually in official communication with us on it. We may…have been spying on them."

"You did not spy their numbers?" M'rissi asked.

"I wasn't the one spying. First Wizard Ervine was watching to make sure they didn't try to… I don't know, make off with some sort of ultimate weapon or something of that nature. She just let me know a Synod researcher entered the place."

"Well, hopefully something's left here." Yang looked at her little sister as she came down. "So, what's up with all the magic all of the sudden?"

"Eh, trying to get better so I can cast a special spell. Also, there's a lot of people around in cramped quarters and I don't want to hit any friendlies."

"What's the special spell?" Yang seemed genuinely curious.

"Something we found in the Magne-Ge temple ruin. Lydia said it translates to something like 'Rod of Power'. Here, let me try it!" Ruby focused the spell, her tongue sticking out and nearly touching the corner of her nose. She let it loose, and where the ball of light hit the ground, and a small column of light appeared with a crescent moon shape at its very top. Everyone else waited a moment, but nothing else seemed to happen.

"Uh, so what's it do?" the blonde asked.

"I really don't know. The book said something about using other spells with it, but I don't know any of them. I think they're in other volumes."

"Well, it is pretty to look at. If nothing else, cool Halloween decorations!"

"Hollow what?" Lydia asked.

"Special holiday on Remnant." Ruby then smiled brightly. "Especially since it happens on my birthday!"

The troupe picked up soon after laying the bodies to rest as well as they could, leaving behind small cairns made of loose rock and Dwemer metal. There was a rather well-done rock trap, but the group stopped in time and waited it out. Crawling amongst a cleanly picked mammoth skeleton was a handful of smaller chaurus, which were quickly killed by force of arms. Ruby was about to smash a couple of nests, but Weiss held her back from doing so and instead carefully extracted the eggs.

"Weiss?" Ruby's disgust was thinly veiled, but Weiss merely shook her head as she placed the eggs in glass jars.

"These can be used in a number of potions. Plus, there's this one group that's been studying live ant chaurus and their life cycle. They offered some money for giant charus eggs to see if they correlate."

"You are quite money-minded, Lady Weiss," Erevan observed.

"Well, I suppose I'm from a family of warrior-merchants. It's in my blood." Weiss paused. "Also, experiments are expensive."

"I can only imagine."

Just past the bones, they reentered the Dwemer ruins. After a short, uphill climb, they came across another pair of the animunculi tubes, one of which deposited something that appeared to be a ball. The ball then unfolded itself into a humanoid automaton on a set of semi-spherical wheels, one arm hosting a retractable blade, and the other a crossbow.

"Uh oh!" Yang said before having to dodge a bolt fired by the construct. Erevan immediately charged it from one side as Inigo flanked it. The knight's sword parried a strike from the machine, then Inigo swung into it with a shout. His ebony sword cut through the thinner portions of the robot, taking off the crossbow arm and severely denting the left axle. Yang then ran up and punched its head, decapitating it. A few faint sparks shot out before it crumpled to the ground, motionless.

"So this must be some kind of patrol or guard unit," Ruby marveled as she came up to the destroyed machine. Opening a section on the chest, she pulled out a Greater Soul Gem, this one aglow with energy. Yang picked up the severed arm, hoping to try out the crossbow it held, only to find that the device wasn't really usable at it was, with a dent and no visible trigger mechanism. She packed it away, hoping to maybe figure it out later, then took the bolts filling its shoulder mounted quiver. Pressing forward, the group came across three of the same sort, this time having to split up in the T-intersection they had reached. Yang, Erevan, and Lydia quickly closed with them to keep them from using their crossbows, then Ruby, Weiss, and Blake tried to get in behind them. Blake used her Daedric dagger to carve deep into one, while Weiss electrified another before Erevan struck a hydraulic with his buckler. Ruby happened to find herself in the perfect place to deploy her baby, and so brought out Crescent Rose and smashed the last of them.

After getting past a room with a sort of non-lethal pushing trap, Ruby spotted a familiar form lying down in a pool of blood. The others saw it as well, and walked up to it to see that it was a wrinkle-skinned, eyeless, sharp-eared creature.

"That's a Falmer?" Weiss exclaimed, her face scrunched at the sight of the dead creature while Yang whistled.

"Wow! You weren't kidding when you said they were ugly." Yang then noticed a broken spider droid right next to it, dried blood on its clamps. "Oh, hey, looks like the two are fighting."

"I guess the defenses would see them as intruders, too." Weiss hummed and looked up the next incline. "It's not looking good for the researchers at this point, but we should try to find what we can. Even if none of them are left, we still need to get the staff."

"I'll look ahead real quick. M'rissi, follow me quietly. Inigo, I'll whistle."

"Right, my friend." As the two girls went forward, Inigo looked over to his comrades and smiled. "So, does anyone else think this place is an eyesore?"

"I actually kind of like it," Ruby admitted. "Although I could do without the evil, blind creatures and the murderous robots."

"Ruby, you do know why the Falmer are like this, right?" Weiss asked her partner.

"No, Weiss, I don't know. I don't know what makes someone act so cruel as to go out of their way to kill people to feed them to their bugs, and frankly I don't care to know."

"Perhaps if every other person you ran into wanted to kill or enslave you, you might." Ruby recoiled at that, visibly hurt, but then Weiss immediately covered her mouth in shame. "No, Ruby, I didn't- I didn't mean for it to come out that way."

"Weiss, dude…" Yang muttered in disbelief.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. It's just…" Weiss sighed and rubbed her head while Ruby looked at the heiress, awaiting an explanation. "This isn't a black and white issue like you'd think. The Falmer were driven from their homelands by the Nords' ancestors long ago, and the survivors fled to the Dwemer."

"Oh, I remember Vilkas and Farkas telling me about that," the blonde realized. "That was way back before even the first Empire."

"How does that explain why they kill people and feed them to their bugs?" Ruby asked, confused about the direction the talk had gone. Weiss sighed and shook her head.

"I don't know why, but the Dwemer poisoned the Falmer in exchange for a safe haven, rendering them blind, then made slaves out of them," Weiss continued, wincing when she thought of how few steps there were to reaching a point like that in other places. Ruby looked taken aback at the declaration while Yang's jaw hung loose. "Whatever the Dwemer did, they... destroyed the Falmer's minds, turning them into what they are today. They've only recently begun to heal from the damage the Dwemer inflicted upon them. They are the victims of exploitation, and I can only guess at the bitterness their broken minds must feel. It's possible that it may only be a few generations from when the Falmer were first enslaved, and while I know it doesn't excuse what the Falmer today may do, there's more to it than them just 'being evil'."

Ruby seemed to hang her head at that. Biting her lip, Weiss stepped forward and embraced the younger girl.

"I didn't…mean to be…"

"It's okay. You didn't know," Weiss comforted her.

Inigo's ears went up, and he looked in the direction Blake and M'rissi had gone. "The coast is clear. We should move ahead." As he went, Yang looked back to her sister and teammate. Erevan and Lydia looked to her, as though for guidance, and then the other two separated.

"Come on. Let's go and get out of this dreary place."

"After you, ladies," the knight offered with a bow. Moving along with the others, they all began to incidentally follow a trail of carnage, with slain Falmer and broken animunculi chassis littering the halls. Occasionally a straggler from one side or the other would be found, but the fellowship was able to quickly put the offending party down. However, more and more were turning out to be Falmer, and soon they were running into two at a time.

"I think we've stumbled upon a warzone," Erevan stated as they passed another destroyed robot and a dead Falmer pock-marked with stab wounds. "The Falmer may be trying to claim the ruins as theirs, but the animunculi are holding them back."

"If my theory is right, it's not really a battle they can win," Weiss explained, "just an eternal struggle they can stay on top of."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The spider droids are workers. We've seen them repair the pipes and doors. I wouldn't put it past this place to have an area that broken droids can be taken to for automatic repairs. As long as one spider is left to pick up the pieces and enough spare parts are lying around, this place can always get back up and running." Weiss paused and looked around. "Gods, what Atlas would give to have access to this place!"

"Try every single kingdom on Remnant," Yang corrected, and they all nodded in agreement.

The group then came into a more open room. Three archers and two armored warriors turned in their direction, then began to attack. Ruby and Blake dashed past the fighters and into the archers. Working in tandem, Erevan and Weiss made short work of one warrior, both slipping their blades around his shield at an opportune moment. Lydia bashed one back as he tried to block, then Inigo stabbed straight through his chitin shield and into his neck. M'rissi launched a fireball, then quickly followed it up with a shot from the Blackbow, both hitting the remaining archer, the arrow hitting as he was launched backwards.

"Looks like a prison," Blake said as she cleaned her blade off. Around them were four large cells, each with a barred gate on them and a bench inside. Ruby started to imagine what being in a Dwemer prison might have been like, then realized that she didn't know much about being imprisoned at all. She planned on keeping it that way.

"Do prison cells sometimes have giant holes in the back?" M'rissi asked.

"To my knowledge, no. Sometimes, very small holes," Inigo answered as everyone came over and saw the hole that had been busted through the thick stone walls, which were nearly a foot thick from the looks of things.

"Shortcut!" Yang declared and started heading down.

"I highly doubt it's a shortcut," Weiss objected, despite following her. "More likely this will lead straight to more Falmer."

"And they definitely busted down more than one wall. Besides, I didn't see any other way to go. Did you?"

Weiss tried to think back, but she couldn't recall another path. As they went, the group came across a hut made of chitinous material. Weiss quickly looted it of valuables, including a few more chaurus eggs. Through another tunnel, curiously lined with planks of wood in some places, they came upon what looked like an encampment. The first Falmer to detect them made a cry and raised one hand in their direction. Sparks flew from his fingertips, but were stopped by a ward with a glyph mixed in. Ruby sped around him and brought her scythe to bear on a small chaurus' neck, then the entire place broke into melee. Ruby paused at the sight of one of the Falmer, who summoned a nearly amorphous Bound Blade and had hair tied into braids. From the shape, she could tell that it was a female. Mind a whirl, Ruby prepared to launch a Scattershock volley at the Falmer witch, but she seemed to hear her spell and charged her with the ghostly sword. Ruby unleashed the Scattershock into her, but had to let the spell go after five orbs crashed into her to dodge an overhead strike. Ruby then spun her scythe around and brought it up, stabbing up through the female's chest. A moment later, the battle was ended, and the group was moving forward. This time, the tunnel brought them back to stone walls and floors.

"Told you guys it was a shortcut," Yang said.

"It also lead to a bunch of Falmer," Weiss countered. At the sight of a door, she attempted to open it, only to find that it was locked. Blake prodded at the lock, then looked over to Ruby.

"You know what, I'll let you handle this one."

"Uh, what's up?" the younger girl asked as she came over.

"Another sixteen tumblers, that's what. I'd rather not go through all of that again."

"Uh, okay." Ruby pushed against the door, but it remained in place. The handle barely budged one way or the other no matter how much she tried. "I…don't really know how my Zodiac powers work."

Blake sighed and began working the lock. Ruby watched with interest and then squatted next to her to get a better look at what she was doing. "So…how does it work?"

Blake looked at her for a moment, then went back to her task. "Well, different ones work differently. This one actually has spring drivers and key pins. Each key pin is a certain length, so when a key is inserted it pushes them up to match with the sheer line, which lets you turn the lock." As Blake explained the functions of locks and how to feel out a lock with the hook of a lockpick and a tension wrench, Ruby readily absorbed the information like a sponge before Blake handed the tools to the younger girl and guided her along. As they did so, the others began to look around. M'rissi backtracked a little and started looking into a window. Yang and Inigo went forward with Erevan watching their backs to see that the hallway leading from their current position was lined with boilers, fans, and vents. Weiss simply waited patiently while looking over some old Dwemer pottery.

Ruby gasped when she felt the tension wrench turn without resistance, and Blake smiled. It may have cost her five lockpicks, but the look of accomplishment on Ruby's face was more than worth it.

"Got it!" she announced as they stood up. Blake then pushed open the door and her eyes went wide. It seemed like it may have once been an average room, with a stone bed, a stone table, and a single stone chair, but on the bed was a fleshless skeleton with a book clutched to its chest. The two walked in as the others came to see their success, but nearly jumped when they saw M'rissi standing on the other side of the window.

"What…?" Blake began.

"She was looking in the room the whole time." The girl smiled, but then pointed towards the table. "There is a key there. Maybe it is important." Blake followed her hand and saw a key of Dwemer make sitting next to a container that Ruby was already going through. She picked it up and realized that it may have matched the very room we were in.

"Looks like he locked himself in."

"She," Ruby pointed out as she walked over to the skeleton. "See the way the rib cage is shaped? And the pelvis's pubic arch is more u-shaped with a more than one-hundred degree angle." She then turned the skull a little. "The jaws is also narrow, and the temporal bone is smoother than most humans. Likely an elf."

"Could it be a Dwemer?" Blake asked in interest as Weiss came into the room..

"Not likely. This place is humid, so bones would decay quicker. Couldn't be more than fifty years old, but has to be pretty old for everything else to go first." She poked at a rib, which made a crackling sound that caused her to wince. "It's maybe less than ten years from disappearing completely. This book though," she gently took the book from the skeleton's hand, but some of the fingers came apart anyway. "Yeah, enchanted against decay. Still, it'd be gone after a millennium or two. The Lunar Lorkhan."

"I'm surprised you know all this forensic stuff."

"I had to catch up on my non-combat subjects, but I ended up reading ahead of the syllabus on crime scene investigations. It was kinda cool though."

"Well, let's move on," Weiss suggested. "We can't really move these without just damaging them anyways." As the girls caught up with the others, M'rissi looked back at the room.

"She wonders what happened."

"Might have been hiding from the Falmer and locked herself in. Could have died from any number of reasons, like poison or starving." Ruby shrugged. "It's kinda sad to think about, but I guess that just means you should never go alone into some ancient ruins or tomb without backup." She suddenly stopped and looked at everyone intensely. "Remember that! Never go alone!"

"Yeah, sure," Yang agreed before reaching over and rubbing her head, causing the team leader to cry out and duck from under her grip. Inigo then waved to grab Blake's attention to another door.

"Geez, remind me to put you through the ringer so that I'm not the only one doing this," she said before pausing and taking out the key she'd just pilfered.

"I would, but my memory is not the best. Also, I don't want to." Inigo's statement was punctuated with a smile, and she shook her head.

Blake unlocked the door and opened it, but a small chaurus was within and turned towards her, chittering angrily once its beady eyes locked onto her form. It shot out a spray of poison, which she dodged with a shadow clone, but then the spray landed near Yang's feet. Seeing the bug, the brawler leaped forward and stamped down on its head, causing a green splat to form around it. It twitched a moment, but Yang stamped down again, destroying its head and sealing its fate.

"Bleh! Gross!" she complained as she tried to scrape the ichor off of her boot.

"Ooh, a helmet!" M'rissi exclaimed as she picked up such an armor piece from a table. Yang walked over to an odd pile of dust and began grinding her boot into it while Weiss and M'rissi picked through the contents of the room.

"How did that thing even get in here?" Weiss wondered, to which Erevan pointed out a small hole in the wall next to the stone bed. "Oh."

There were a few more rooms, each one seemingly being a living place for the Dwemer that called the place home long ago. The group then emerged into a chamber full of boilers and with a sort of cistern that was extremely drained, but slowly being filled. A number of Falmer noticed their arrival and went to challenge them, but then something one of them called out made them all back off before the fighting began. The group watched as the creatures retreated with some hesitance.

"Uh, what happened?" Yang asked.

"Self-preservation, I'd assume," Weiss answered. "We've been able to get through their forces…well, I would say easily, but we haven't had any casualties on our side. If word got back to them, or even if they just realized what us being here means, they'd be right to be afraid."

"Good, let's hope it stays that way," Blake said as they started back on the path. They went toward the other door, rather than the one all the Falmer had gone down, but opening it just revealed a massive chaurus nearly the size of Toggle being fed some mushrooms by a smallish Falmer. The Falmer turned its head up in surprise, but the chaurus was too focused on its meal. Blake immediately shut the door and counted to ten.

"Okay, I'm really glad I used the restroom before we got here," Inigo said as he began to slowly walk away.

"Uh, I'm fairly certain it was a dead end anyways," Weiss agreed. Almost as though she was unperturbed, Ruby went forward to check, but was dragged back by her sister and housecarl.

"She's right," Lydia said plainly. "It was an enclosed room."

"But should we really leave them there?"

"It's not gonna hurt, Ruby," Yang argued. "We're here to get the magic McGuffin and get out so Weiss can… What is it supposed to do again?"

"All I know is that the Augur said "To see through Magnus' Eye without being blinded, you require his staff." I don't know if that means literally or if it's some sort of metaphor. Probably a metaphor."

As they entered a more broken down hallway, the group had to duck out of the way or shield themselves from incoming arrows. A few clanked against Lydia's shield and bounced off of Weiss' ward as they all took cover. Ruby looked past her cover to see a dozen or so Falmer all firing down the hall. Groaning, she took out her own bow as her fellows did the same or similar things, like Weiss summoning a bound bow and Yang thinking a moment before pulling out her new Dawnguard crossbow with a grin.

"Been meaning to try this out." The blonde looked over her cover and took aim, firing at the cluster of demi-elves. The bolt missed, but seemed to alarm the Falmer enough to make them pause in their assault. M'rissi and Blake then took aim with their own bows from either side of a pillar while Inigo rolled out from his. One Falmer went up in flames while another stumbled back as a stream of energy flowed from him to M'rissi. A black arrow then shot through the skull of the one seemingly in charge of the archers. Ruby shot one in the arm, then Yang fired again, hitting the same one M'rissi had injured, knocking him back and into the wall behind them. The Falmer then began retreating again while yelling in their throat-scratching language.

"You know, I kinda feel bad about doing this," Ruby said as she slowly came out from her cover.

"I know what you mean." Yang put the safety back on her crossbow and holstered it. "I feel like an invading force right now. What happens if we push into their home where their kids are at and stuff?"

"I…have no idea," Weiss admitted. "I don't want to just kill them all when they're defending themselves, but we can't just let them kill us."

"It's a hard decision, but one you have to make," Erevan agreed. "If they're in the way of the staff, and you need the staff to prevent a greater disaster, what are you willing to do to get to it?"

"Maybe we could scare them?" Blake suggested. "Cause some explosions, loud noises. SDC guards used to use things like that to keep some Faunus with sensitive hearing at bay. And I know some fear-inducing spells that should make them turn tail with a little encouragement."

As they talked about how to tactically get around the Falmer obstacle, they soon came upon a large, open chamber where a number of chitin huts were set up. Several Falmer ran while others seemed to be acting as rearguard. The eight, once again, took cover. This time the group only laid down suppressing fire, trying to scare the Falmer away more than anything. The demi-elves were certainly more numerous here, but they could see that there were far more than fighters in the ranks. Several were too small to be adults, and a lot more had done up hair and feminine shapes. These were among the retreating mass that the fighters were seemingly defending, putting themselves between the non-combatants and Team RWBY and their allies.

"Wow, I really feel like a piece of crap," Yang groaned as she threw a fireball halfway between them. The loud explosion caught the Falmers' attention and definitely was frightening them. Blake tossed red bolts of Fear at them, but they seemed to be resisting the spell. One of them, however, suddenly ran over to a chitin fence and opened a gate, bringing out a number of dog-sized chaurus, which he then directed towards the attackers.

"We've got bugs coming!" Ruby warned the group as she fired one more arrow before putting her bow away. Drawing Crescent Rose, she sped up a number of stairs to attract several of the insects to her. Erevan and Lydia came out of cover to engage some of the chaurus directly, depending on Weiss and M'rissi to defend them with wards as they did. After Ruby sliced her third chaurus in half, a female Falmer seemed to notice her and began casting frost spells in her direction. Ruby dodged out of the way of a rolling vortex of ice and wind and then spun her scythe to knock a series of ice spikes away. The Falmer seemed to hear her attacks failing and snarled as she summoned a bound blade in one hand and charged the girl. Ruby blocked the powerful slash and tried to return it, only for her scythe's blade to be halted by a strong ward spell. She backed out of the way of another slice and readied herself as the spellsword pressed the attack. The Falmer was furiously trying to overtake her, and for a moment Ruby was planning to simply kill it and move on, but then noticed something from the corner of her eye. She pushed back against a deadlock and then burst away with her Semblance, leaving the Falmer confused for a long moment that she could have easily taken advantage of. Over at the tunnel they were retreating down, she saw a knee-high Falmer crying out as one of the archers pulled him along. The mage yelled back at them, then refocused on Ruby. Feeling a lump form in her throat, Ruby went back to fighting against the Falmer, but stayed light on her feet as she guided her away from where they were towards the ledge. She then dashed around the Falmer, earning a nick in her armor for the effort, but took in a deep breath.

"Fus Ro Dah!" she Shouted, concentrating the force within to send her target forward a distance, but not very fast. The Falmer screamed as she went airborne, then landed against one of the archers, who stumbled as he caught her.

"Just leave already!" Ruby yelled as she sheathed Crescent Rose and began focusing magicka into her hands. Working with the weave of an Ice Shiv spell, she formed the shape slightly differently and then set one loose. The spike of ice gave out a high-pitched whistle as it sped through the air, and the next one was even higher. Her third made a sound so piercing that even she felt the need to cover her ears. She began sending out several just like that one, all crashing harmlessly around the Falmer. They screamed and covered their ears as they ran, the ones trying their best to resist and fight on going wobbly armed as they felt the pain ripping at their eardrums. Some of them began running into walls and each other, and soon the last of them had gone into the tunnel. Ruby stopped casting the spell and her friends came out from the cover, all glad that the battle was over.

"Good job, Rubes!" Yang congratulated her sister as they walked up to her.

"What?" the Dragonborn yelled. Yang stopped and blinked a moment.

"Ruby, you didn't deafen yourself, I hope!" Weiss yelled at her.

"Maybe," she responded, loudly but conversationally, while rubbing at her ears. "Those things were kind of loud. Kinda made them up on the spot."

"You crafted a spell of your own make while in the middle of combat?" Weiss asked in wonder.

"What?"

"Nevermind," she said loudly before a thought appeared. "Try healing yourself."

"Weiss, how could you?!" Ruby yelled with a look of hurt on her face.

"What? No, I said heal yourself!"

"Oh!" Ruby then concentrated on a self-healing spell. "I thought you said something…well, very mean. Oh, it's working! I'm hearing much better now!"

"That's a relief."

"Crap!" Blake suddenly yelled after looking at a large set of doors.

"Something wrong?" Yang asked, looking at her partner in concern.

"This lock… It's a fully custom unique lock. It has a hybrid construction with a warded part, and, from what I'm able to see with my mirror, there's a pin and a lever… Basically, it's so completely different I couldn't hope to get it with any amount of picks or skeleton keys. I'm gonna need the original one or a very good copy."

"I could try to break it down," Ruby offered.

"You might as well break down the walls," Weiss told her. "This might not even be the way. There's a hall in that direction." Ruby looked where she was pointing to see another hall connected to the chamber.

"Huh, okay. Well, we…" the girl looked around, noting the position they were in. "Crap, if we leave here and it's a dead end, the Falmer might come back or something. Okay. Lydia, Erevan, do you guys think you can watch that tunnel and make sure they don't come back? If they do, come get us immediately.

"Yes, my Thane."

"I will do so."

"Okay. And we need someone to watch out if that other guy brings the giant chaurus. Inigo, M'rissi, can you guys watch for him? Let Erevan and Lydia know if he's coming."

"Sure thing," the blue Khajiit agreed. "The big bugger won't get the drop on us."

A loud sound erupted followed by a slap, and everyone looked in shock at Erevan, who now had a hand clasped over his mouth.

"Was that a laugh?" Yang asked.

"My laugh is…not the most pleasant to hear," he said from behind his hand before lowering it.

"It sounded like a dying goose was stepped on by a mammoth," M'rissi said.

"Nice description, M'ri. At least now we know what was up with you when we were telling jokes. You were just afraid to laugh." She patted his shoulder. "It's okay, dude. Feel free to let it out."

"…Maybe later."

"Okay. So, Team RWBY's going to go look ahead," the leader explained with a nod. "If we find anything, we'll come back and get…Team LIME."

"LIME?" Lydia asked.

"Lydia, Inigo, M'rissi, and Erevan," she explained. "Yep, you guys are officially Team LIME until further notice, with Lydia as the leader." Lydia couldn't help but straighten at that, but Ruby pressed on. "All right, teams, let's do this." As Ruby began to lead her own team down the hall, M'rissi looked over at the two warriors and smiled.

"She wants to be the leader!"

"No," Lydia immediately shot down.

Team RWBY steadily headed downwards until they entered another chamber, this one looking somewhat like a lecture hall in its structure. Through the door at the back was a more zig-zagged hall that led to a smaller room, where two Falmer corpses lay just before a doorway. Ruby quickly opened it to reveal a few more corpses and one of the rolling automatons at the very center. It unfurled itself, looking larger, more solid, and better equipped that the ones before it. The roller came at them and Ruby jumped away from an attempted stab. It let off several bolts in their direction before Yang took out her war axes and began swinging. Her ebony axe hit the crossbow arm, damaging it with a number of sparks, and her holy axe knocked the droid back with a small chink made in its body.

"This one's a bit harder guys!" she warned before chasing after it into the room. Blake came in as well, pulling out her daggers and going low. Weiss let off a series of sparks to stumble the construct, then Blake carved into both its axles. The machine nearly brained her, but she was able to roll to the side before its fist hit the stone floor and cracked it. Ruby took Crescent Rose out in glaive form and charged it with her Semblance, impaling the machine's body but not stopping it, as shown by it trying to reach out and stab her.

"Weiss, shock it!" Blake yelled.

"Hey, hold on!" Ruby called out.

"Ebony doesn't conduct!"

While Ruby tried to imagine that, Weiss hit the machine with a cascade of sparks from Myrtenaster. She saw that her blade didn't let the electricity travel up it, and so started charging a spell up from her right hand. Her Scattershock rapidly filled it with even more lightning, then all the girls backed away as something exploded out from one of its pistons and started leaking steam and oil. Once the last bit of static seemed to have faded, Yang charged it with a yell and brought both of her axes down into the animunculi's shoulders. She kicked it away while ripping her weapons free, tearing loose a triangle of the machine's chest as its head fell off. Cogs and gears spilled out along with the oil, and Ruby started eyeing the bits with interest.

"I guess that wasn't your average bucket of bolts," Yang quipped before sheathing her axes. As Weiss started going around the room, carefully stepping over the deceased Falmer, she hummed in interest.

"This place seems to have been a cross between a barracks or dorm and a workroom. Tools are everywhere, as well as spare parts… And some more ingots." As she picked up one of the metal blocks, Ruby looked into a large container and pulled out an odd key.

"Hey, Blake! This look like it goes to the big door?"

"Great Brothers, it does!" Blake took the key and began looking it over. "Yeah, it should be right. If it isn't, I'll eat my own bow."

"Hairbow, right? Not the arrow shooting one?" Ruby asked as they started heading back up. Back in the large chamber, Lydia and Erevan were both watching the Falmer tunnel vigilantly while the two Khajiit were at the other end of the room.

"Found it!" Yang yelled out for them as Ruby slowly fit the key into place and turned it. The lock clicked, and then the door opened. With the other four rejoining them, they started heading down the newly opened path.

"M'rissi went salvaging. She found some neat things." She showed the group a jewel-encrusted dagger, a necklace made from carved bones, and an odd object with crystals embedded into it.

"That's weird. Doesn't exactly look Dwemer," Weiss realized as she took it and looked it over. "No, I think this is just bronze."

"Maybe they didn't do their magic to it?" Yang suggested as they came upon a door.

"H-hello?" a voice called out from the other side, surprising them. "Who-who goes there? Is Gavros with you?" Some of the group flinched at that before Ruby began to speak up.

"Sorry, sir. We found Gavros at the entrance but his wounds were too great. He's gone."

"Damnation! Confound it all!" There was a soft bang on the door. "Curse these blasted Falmer! They've ruined everything! If Gavros is gone, there's no hope. He was supposed to return with the crystal... Without that, all our efforts are wasted. And you. If you're here for treasure, or wisdom, or anything, I'm afraid you've wasted your time."

"We came for other reasons," Weiss replied. "The Falmer are gone for now, so if you come on out we can get you out of here safely."

There was a slow sigh. "Fine. Stand back now. And don't even think of trying anything." The door opened and swung in, revealing a Cyrodiilic man in Synod robes. "I can't believe it's really come to this. After all of my work, and now the…" He saw the object in Weiss' hands and paused. "Wait, you found it? The focusing crystal!"

"Oh, so that's what that one is!" M'rissi exclaimed.

"What exactly did you need this for, anyways?" Weiss asked. "Why were you all out here in a deadly ruin so far from Cyrodiil?"

"I am on official business of the Grand Council of the Synod. That's all you need to know. I might well ask the same of all of you, running around by in this dangerous place."

"Half looking for you, half looking for the Staff of Magnus."

"The Staff of Magnus? Well, I can't really… No, maybe now that we have the crystal. Alright, follow me. I'll explain it on the way." The mage began to lead the group down the hall. "No matter what Gavros said, this was my idea first. The Council is going to know that when I get back," he declared as they passed another door.

"I was the one who thought of using this... this Oculory. I don't know what the dwarves called it. Something unpronounceable, I'm sure. From all our research, it seems they were intent on discerning the nature of the divine. This machinery, all of it, was designed to collect starlight, and then... I'm not sure. Split it, somehow?" M'rissi began to look at a basket holding some foodstuffs, but Blake quickly grabbed her and dragged her along.

"It was my idea to replace one of the key elements with our focusing crystal. Months of enchantments went into it. Let's just hope they got it right this time." What looked like a simple turn in the hallway turned out to be an emergence to a chamber with a gigantic, orb shaped device composed of Dwemer made metal and crystals. As the group looked on in wonder, the man couldn't help but smile. About halfway around the chamber was a ramp that led upwards, allowing them to get to the top of the massive device, where a large ring with lenses situated on an armillary upon it waited. From the ceiling, a beam of concentrated light poured down upon the rings.

"Here it is. Magnificent, isn't it? Took an incredible amount of work to get it running again. Now I'm hoping it'll all be worth it. Place the crystal in the central apparatus, and we can start the process for focusing it."

"Right." Weiss took the device and placed it in the blank space of the lenses' armillary, and they all seemed to spin themselves into place. The light was refracted through the crystal and then the lenses, aiming the split beams at different places in the ceiling.

"Okay, that's cool, but what's it do?" Yang asked.

"We're not quite there yet. The crystal still needs to be focused. It was created so far away, we knew that some adjustments would have to be made. Heating and cooling the crystal will cause it to expand or contract, which will change how the light passes through it."

Weiss hummed and let a little spray of frost hit the crystal. Sure enough, the lights began to change direction. Ruby noticed a series of pedestals up on a ramp and went to investigate them as Weiss switched between adding minute amounts of frost and heat to try and get the lights to line up.

"Perhaps I put it in backwards," Weiss suggested.

"No, it wouldn't have fit in that case."

"Hey, I found some buttons," Ruby announced to the two mages. "Can I push them?"

"She wants to push a button!" M'rissi demanded before running up the ramp.

"Just be careful," Weiss warned them. "We have no idea what they-" Ruby pressed the first button and the outer ring of the ceiling spun around like a dial, moving its crystal disk a quarter of the way around, lining it up with one of the lights, reflecting it back at the center. "Keep pushing buttons!"

Ruby and M'rissi began tapping the other two. After a few turns, the other two parts of the ceiling lined up with the lights and reflected their parts of the beams back as well. The combined light then shone down onto the stone just below the pedestals, and everyone gathered to observe the outcome, a map of Tamriel created out of light, almost like some sort of projection.

"Years of work, finally going to pay off...but what's this? These results... They're not at all what they should be. This projection should be lit up like the night sky... Something is creating an incredible amount of interference. Something in Winterhold, it looks like." The man then looked over at Weiss and the College of Winterhold pin on her robes. "What are you playing at? Is this some attempt to stall my work?!"

"Whoa buddy, back off!" Yang ordered in a commanding tone. "We didn't even know what you were doing down here. Besides, if we were going to steal your work, you'd be chaurus food right about now."

"What in the… All of the…" The furious look in Yang's eyes calmed the man down, and he looked away with a sigh. "Sorry! I'm just…tired is all. It's just that this…interference. After everything, colleagues and friends lost, years of work ruined and… You have something at your College, don't you? Something immensely powerful. Beyond anything I'd anticipated. What is it?" He looked over at Yang and raised his hands. "Not that I'm accusing you or anything! It's just the map!"

"I think I see what you mean," Weiss said as she looked over the projected map. "There's two points on here, and one of them is at Winterhold, but the other…" Weiss was about to pull out her map, but the man beat her to it.

"That can only be the Labyrinthian. I can't explain the details, they're Synod secrets, but this was designed so that we could find sources of great magical power. Purely for the protection of the Empire, of course. One's at Winterhold, and the other is at the Labyrinthian. But the source at Winterhold is so great that we can't detect anything else."

Ruby softly elbowed Lydia. "Remind me to come by here."

"Winterhold… That must be the Eye of Magnus," Weiss realized.

"The Eye of Magnus? Well, I suppose if that means what I think it does... Well, that's interesting."

"Then the Staff must be at Labyrinthian, right?" Yang asked. "We've been there before. Actually found a neat…thing. All we need to do is go there and find the Staff. We can do it on the way to my thing."

"I suppose so." Weiss sighed. "I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't here, though. Still, this is better than nothing. Paratus, yes?"

"How did you know my… No, Gavros must have told you. What is it?"

"Would you like to get out of here?"

"I would, actually. I have bad news for the Synod. But maybe something can be salvaged from this."

With their tagalong, the group left the Oculory room and Blake went to try her key in the door they'd passed. Suddenly, the world seemed to freeze around Weiss in a familiar way, but Blake, Yang, and Ruby kept moving with her. As the other three looked about in shock, an elf appeared, as Weiss had expected.

"You have done well, thus far," he began, "but trying times are ahead. It is imperative that you return to your College at once. You will be called upon to take swift action. Rise to the challenge, and discover what you are capable of."

"Wait, are you one of those Psijic guys?" Ruby suddenly asked, catching his attention. "What gives? You couldn't have told us where the staff was?"

"We did not know where it was, but now you do. Worry not, Dragonborn. You, your friends, and your partner here are on all on the right path. You will prevail." Before Ruby could ask him any other questions, he disappeared as though into dust, and the world continued on.

"Imperative I return?" Weiss took out her scroll and opened it as Blake opened the door. She started up a call, which was answered by Onmund, but the picture became blurred by static.

"Weiss! We were just thin- ca-ing you! Something's going –ith Ancano."

"Onmund, what's going on? Quickly, you're breaking up!"

"H- arted going crazy and then started casting spe- the big orb. No- ll –eird –"

"Onmund!" Weiss yelled as the call became too static and white-noised to comprehend. She hung up and then tapped another contact, and Ruby picked her scroll from its pouch as it rang.

"Uh, Weiss?" Ruby asked as she answered.

"Our call's clear. Something's happening at Winterhold." She looked toward the north, where Winterhold lay. "We need to get to the College, quickly!"