Chapter XLVIII – In Pursuit of Power

The battle with the Falmer wasn't quite as hopeless as the one in Raldbthar had been, but it was far from easy.

There were a number of the creatures hiding in their strange wall-dwellings as well, enhancing the nest's numbers. The whole chamber was far smaller than the one in the other Dwemer ruins, but that only left them less room to maneuver and more chances to get surrounded.

There was a very shallow lake in the center of the room which Aeyrin was constantly verging on the edges of. The Falmer were trying to lunge at her and make her trip, so that she would lose her footing and fall into the shallow water. It would, at the very least, stagger her for a bit and the Falmer would be free to jump at her and kill her.

They didn't really know about her Shouts yet though. She had decided not to use them unless it was necessary. Who knew if there weren't any more caved-in passages that weren't instantly visible? And they didn't even know what was behind the last door in the central chamber. This was the safer option for now.

Bishop stood behind in the passage leading back into the central room with his bow constantly ready, thinning the Falmers' numbers. As the area was small, however, it didn't take long before he had to switch to his sword instead when a couple of Falmer jumped down from their nearby dwellings and lunged at him.

Darren was standing in the passage along with Bishop, but he didn't really know how to keep a safe distance from the fray. Bishop had to shove him aside several times to prevent one of the Falmer from attacking him.

Just as Bishop plunged his sword into one of the creatures, sending shocks throughout its body, he had to quickly dislodge it to parry against the other one's axe.

He felt something on his back, suddenly, something like a mild slap.

Was that Darren? What the fuck was that idiot doing, disturbing him in battle?

Bishop concentrated on the Falmer in front of him before he managed to dexterously evade its next attack and slash his sword against its neck. The head came right off.

He turned sharply to yell at Darren for the imbecilic disturbance, but instead, he was faced with a strange sight. It wasn't Darren who had slapped his back, it was a Falmer. It just stood there, staring… well… not 'staring'. It was enveloped by a strange green glow and it took a while for Bishop to notice Darren standing some distance away with his hand lit up with the same-colored orb, held at the ready.

Huh… maybe he wasn't as useless as it seemed.

Bishop plunged his sword into the idle Falmer without any more hesitation, letting the monster slide down from his blade to the ground limply, before he gave Darren a curious look.

"A calming spell. You should really learn how to watch your back," Darren scoffed at him.

Funny… he was the one who needed rescuing constantly. Bishop himself had prevented his death a couple of times already in this chamber alone. But at least the mage managed to actually be of use for once.

Without another word, Bishop turned back to check on Aeyrin. She was still surrounded by those beasts, but there were a lot fewer of them now. He could concentrate on thinning the numbers again now that there were no Falmer actively focusing on him and Darren.

He pulled out his bow and started to shoot the Falmer systematically. There were only about five of them left now, it wouldn't take long.

When Bishop downed another one of those creatures, he noticed a strange flame flicker some distance away from the battle. Soon enough, a fire atronach formed from the small flame and it instantly started floating towards the remaining three creatures and Aeyrin.

Darren was trying to be useful again, although he might have gotten this idea a little earlier. Now it was hardly necessary anymore.

Aeyrin had her mace locked with one of the Falmers' swords while Bishop's arrow pierced another one's spine. It fell down instantly and in the meantime, the atronach floated straight towards Aeyrin and the other two Falmer.

The summoned Daedra raised its fiery hands and a thick stream of flames erupted from them, but not in the direction that anyone had expected.

A surprised shriek echoed across the chamber when the flames shot right at Aeyrin. The atronach didn't even seem interested in the Falmer.

She could feel the intense heat of her metal plate and her nose got filled with the unpleasant smell of burning hair. Luckily, it didn't aim at her head and the metal protected her from burns on her skin, but the creature showed no inclination of stopping. It only took a second before she acted.

"IIZ!"

She was operating on blind instinct alone. She barely noticed the three chunks of ice around her before she fell backwards into the small pool, submerging herself as much as she could. There was only steam coming from her armor a second later and she could still smell the burning hair, although it was surely doused by now.

Bishop and Darren stared at the scene in shock. None of them knew what to do for a while. The atronach would never survive having its flames extinguished and the Falmer were encased in icy blocks, ripe for her mace to end them for good. The battle was practically over already.

Still in the pool, Aeyrin absentmindedly reached back to her long braid and she pulled it to the front of her chest plate. Her hair was partly unraveled with the leather string that used to bind it completely gone, and the flames managed to take a couple of inches off her hair. Well… it was kind of what she had intended to do anyway, and at least the flames didn't make it further up before she doused them, but she would have definitely preferred to do it herself. Besides, the black burnt ends still smelled unpleasantly.

Bishop seemed to finally rile himself up from the shock and his eyes narrowed at the mage by his side instantly.

Within a second, Darren was slammed against the cavernous wall of the passage with Bishop's arm lodged under his throat. The mage only managed to let out a faint gasp of surprise before Bishop pressed his arm more firmly against him and growled in his face.

"What. The. Fuck?!"

Darren quickly grabbed Bishop's arm and tried to dislodge it from his throat, but Bishop only slammed him back against the wall again roughly.

"Bish… I'm fine," Aeyrin sighed. She wasn't exactly thrilled by that stunt either. She wondered for a second if the atronach's attack was intentional, but she quickly dismissed that thought. Why would Darren want her dead? There was no motivation for it and Bishop would likely butcher him on the spot if anything happened to her – he must have known that. It was more likely that he messed up the original spell, or that he couldn't control the atronach after. She wasn't sure how summoning worked, but it sounded likely.

Darren gasped for air with a palpable effort and wheezing before Bishop finally let up. He still glared at him angrily while Darren only managed to cough and heave with strained words in-between: "See… she… fine…"

"That's the only reason you're still alive, you fucker! Any other stunt like that and you won't be so lucky," Bishop growled again before he turned on his heel and marched towards Aeyrin to check on her. She was already up on her feet, although she was still soaked in the filthy water. It had such a strange color – there may have been some oil in it too. She had to be careful around fire now, just in case.

Darren let out a little sigh of relief when Bishop disappeared from his vicinity. There was an angry sneer on his face, as if he was insulted by the assault. His words, however, carried a much more defeated tone when he mumbled to himself.

"I was just trying to help…"

…

Bishop knelt down by the last unexplored door in the central hall.

Surprisingly enough, it was locked and not by some elaborate mechanism. There were several strange bolts and cogs on the door which hinted at higher security, but only the standard door lock, the one whose design the surface society began imitating Gods-knew-how-long ago, was secured and locked – someone was likely using this door actively quite recently. That pointed to either the Falmer or the Synod. And why would the Falmer lock themselves in the passages behind this door? But… then again, why would the Synod not know that Falmer could open the lock? They had tools and some intelligence.

None of them had addressed the incident with the atronach again. None of them even said a word the entire time. They just swiftly walked back towards this door without even stopping to explore the Falmer nest. There wasn't much to explore anyway – they only noticed the three corpses in the familiar white robes in the corner of the room before they decided that it was best to make sure that the central chamber would be safe to explore.

The lock finally clicked and Bishop tried to open the door. It only moved a tiny bit, however, before it wouldn't budge further. It must have been one of those doors that didn't go both ways, like the one they'd encountered in Raldbthar before behind the deadly spinning blades trap.

"Great. What now?" Bishop sighed in exasperation. There were no more passages to explore. Not ones that they had noticed at least.

"Humans!" an astonished gasp came from behind the door suddenly. Now that there was a crack, the sound carried much easier to the passage behind it and it appeared that there was someone waiting there.

"Oh! A survivor!" Aeyrin beamed, but the door still didn't open.

"Who are you?" there was a hint of trepidation in the strange voice. Even humans and elves were suspect after the Falmer ambush, it seemed.

"We were sent by the College," Aeyrin explained. "You're one of the Synod mages, right?"

"The College! Yes! Yes! We're from the Synod!" the woman exclaimed with excitement. 'We'? So there were more survivors.

There were several metallic sounds following before the door finally opened to reveal the Breton woman in the white robes with purple and blue accents. She was holding a long Dwemer rod, likely a bar used to hold the door closed. The mage looked rather filthy and haggard, but the relieved smile on her face was palpable.

"Come in, quickly! There are Falmer about," she ushered them into the long corridor where she was standing.

"The Falmer are dead," Bishop nodded at her reassuringly.

"Really? Oh, thank the Eight! We thought that we would starve here. We didn't manage to grab as many supplies as we could have before we barricaded the door. We were just exploring and there was this caved in passage, so we broke through and… the Falmer attacked. We've locked ourselves here… it's been so long. And then… a while ago… we heard that… strange loud noise. Are you sure that the passages are cleared? We don't know what the noise was. There could be something worse in here," the Breton looked around cautiously.

She was likely referring to Aeyrin's Shout. It must have been confusing for the mages to suddenly hear that, although it was a little surprising that the sound carried so far.

"Oh… don't worry about that… it was nothing," Aeyrin chuckled a little uncertainly. "It was… a spell of sorts."

"Princess, don't tell a mage that it was a 'spell'," Bishop sighed, but it was already too late.

"A 'spell'? What kind of spell was that? I've never heard of a spell making such an odd noise. It sounded like a word even, but not in a language I know. Was it perhaps…" the Breton started to speculate excitedly, but she was promptly interrupted by Darren.

"It was a dragon Shout. It's some stupid Nordic legend… whatever. We don't have time for this. We need you to take us to the Oculory," Darren scowled impatiently.

"Oh… uh… alright. Wait… why are you here?" the Synod mage gave Darren an uncertain look. Her eyes still darted to Aeyrin curiously from time to time – it was clear that she had already deduced that Aeyrin was the one to produce that Shout.

"Something happened at the College. There's… trouble. We were told that the Oculory can locate powerful artifacts. We need the Staff of Magnus," Aeyrin explained briefly.

"The Staff of Magnus? Interesting. Well… it's not so simple, but… follow me. Let's get to the others so that we can discuss everything," the Breton nodded before she gestured for them to follow her.

They traversed the long hallway. There were only two Dwemer doors on the way, but they didn't get to explore what was behind them. They were merely steadily led forward into a large chamber ahead.

"We have been stationed here for months, researching. We have managed to disable all the automatons and uncover the Oculory. We've even managed to figure out what the levers by the boiler did and we disabled the city's defenses, but still… the Falmer caught us off guard," the mage continued to explain on the way.

The boiler must have been that strange vat-forge. It explained why all those traps didn't spring, unlike during Bishop's first expedition here.

"We have been holed up in the Oculory chambers for over twenty days. We have food and water, but our supplies are dwindling. Some of us had to make a run for more several times already, but soon, the supplies in the research chambers will run out too. There is an access elevator that leads to the surface, but… the key to it was in the research chambers and we couldn't find it on our runs. The Falmer must have stolen it," she continued to explain.

"Well, we can recover that easily now. And if it's destroyed, the way back to the entrance should be clear now anyway," Aeyrin gave her an encouraging smile.

They continued to the large chamber which was almost entirely filled with a wall of Dwemer metal, aside from a staircase along the wall's edge. They all ascended the stairs until the contents of the chamber were revealed to them.

The wall turned out to be a giant platform lined with more Dwemer metal. Above it was a suspended contraption with several lenses made of dark-teal glass – the same type of glass that was covering the ceiling of the dome. There was machinery everywhere and there were four other mages scurrying around. Their faces lit up with astonishment when their group appeared on the platforms.

"People. Thank the Eight!" one of the mages exclaimed before all of them rushed towards the new arrivals.

The three's eyes, however, were still caught by the Oculory itself. It looked quite outlandish.

Hopefully it would really hold the answer to the Staff's location.

…

"So what are we waiting for? You said that it can show us where the Staff is," Bishop tapped his foot impatiently.

They have all spent a long time on introductions and talking about the issues at the College before the mages began explaining lengthily how the Oculory worked. Bishop really couldn't care less. They could just find the Staff for them, right? What was the hold up?

"No, no. I said 'in theory'. There's an issue. It requires the essence of the necessary signature to be absorbed by the lexicon so that it can anchor itself and then use the position of heavenly objects to…" the old mage, the leader of the group of Synod, Paratus, started to explain again. The other mages have returned back to their research area in the meantime to ascertain the damage and to recover whatever they could from there. "I… I have already explained. You know what? It would be better if I demonstrated," the mage continued pondering.

Suddenly, Paratus weaved his arms and a small light appeared on the ground in front of him. Only a second later, something formed from that light – a tall warrior in blindingly light-gold armor with a full helmet covering his face. There was not an inch of the man below visible anywhere – he was completely covered in the strangely bright metal.

What. Was. That?

"This is an Auroran. A Daedric creature spawned from the Colored Rooms, the realm of Meridia," Paratus explained. Aeyrin and Bishop stared at it uncertainly for a while. They've never seen anything other than an atronach be summoned. It was the same, right? Just a lackey, for now? Although… after Darren's spell, they weren't so comfortable with summoned Daedra either.

Paratus made a gesture with his hand and the Auroran reached out for a glowing cube in the center of the myriad of mechanisms that lined a narrow platform which they were standing on. The runes on the cube were glowing red, but once the Auroran touched it, they turned bright blue and suddenly, the mechanical arms holding the dark glass lenses shifted.

"I have imbued the machine with the essence of the Colored Rooms. Now I need to align it properly. It will only take a short time. We have done this before so I remember the proper positions," Paratus smiled encouragingly.

With another wave of Paratus's hand, the Auroran disappeared completely and the Synod mage moved towards the mechanisms. As he manipulated the buttons and levers, the mechanical arms started to move again, until each one caught a strange ethereal beam of light in the glass lens. The three beams met into one large one which led down onto the metal platform.

"There. Let us see," Paratus smiled proudly before he ushered them down onto the platform.

When they reached the wall of the narrow perch where the mechanisms were, they noticed the result of the mage's work. There was a large glowing map of Tamriel there, portrayed only as a unified landmass with no borders and topography. When they stepped closer, they could see two dots of light on the map. One was large and by its location, it looked like it was southwest of Solitude, near the Thalmor Embassy. The other was much smaller and it was somewhere on the Whiterun plains. Those were just the ones in Skyrim. There were other dots in other provinces too, varied in their size, but the one near Solitude was one of the largest.

"The large one, here," Paratus pointed exactly to that dot. "It is where the shrine of Meridia lies. There is an old barrow below and we believe that some object of power connected to Meridia lies there."

"You mean… a Daedric artifact?" Aeyrin's eyes went wide at him.

"Perhaps. We cannot know what it is. It could also be a one-way portal into Meridia's realm, or a champion imbued with her power. Nevertheless, it shows a concentration of power with the same signature that we have loaded into the lexicon. Do you understand what that means?"

"You need the… 'signature' of the Staff's power to locate it," Aeyrin whispered quietly as she peered at the map. The Eye was made out of the same source of power, right? But… they couldn't really move it. Perhaps one of the strange wisps that the barrier created? It could be transported here in some small cage maybe.

"That's a non-issue. I have the same power in me," Darren scoffed.

The rest of them turned their eyes to Darren instantly with surprise.

"Are you sure?" Aeyrin gave him a worried look. Sure, he had touched the Eye, but did that imbue him with its… signature? The Oculory could be dangerous. Dwemer machines were nothing if not unpredictable.

"Of course," Darren scoffed. "I told you, the anchoring, the essence of the Eye… the… contact with…" he didn't continue, keeping the involvement of the Psijics a secret. "I touched it, I have its residue on me."

"Young man, you have touched an artifact of Magnus?" Paratus gaped at him in palpable concern. "That… that sounds like a dangerous experiment."

"It wasn't an experiment, it was an accident," Darren huffed in indignation.

"Not really. We told you not to touch it," Bishop scoffed at him.

"Well, so what?! Now we have what we need, so don't act like your 'advice' would have helped anything," Darren growled at him in response.

"Let us try then. I don't believe that the machine would be harmful. We have observed no ill effects on the summoned Daedra so far," Paratus smiled brightly.

At the very least, this meant that they didn't have to return to the College for their 'signature'. And they really did need Darren along in the end. At least his constant grumblings were worth something.

…

The strange cube reacted to Darren in the same way that it had to the Auroran. The runes turned bright blue and Paratus promptly began adjusting the lenses to find the beams of lights again.

It felt like it took forever. They stood around idly while the Synod mage fiddled with the contraption. Every time it looked like it would be over, one of the beams disappeared and he had to align it again. It was quite mind-boggling, but Paratus reassured them time and time again that he would manage to align the lenses properly.

After an hour or two, he was finally done and the three of them instantly rushed towards the lower platform to see the revealed map.

There was a large glowing dot exactly where College of Winterhold would be. That was a good sign. They were looking for the Eye's signature after all.

Finally, their eyes landed on another dot somewhere in the very center of Skyrim near the passes to Morthal.

At least the Staff really was in Skyrim. There were no other dots on the map. There wasn't even one on their location, even though Darren was there, but perhaps he had such a small fraction of that power within him that it didn't show him at all.

"Any idea what that is?" Aeyrin turned towards Bishop.

"Labyrinthian," instead of Bishop, Darren answered with a strangely hoarse voice.

"You know this place?" Aeyrin raised his brow at him.

"Savos… the Arch-Mage, I attended his lecture on Nordic barrows. He told us about his expedition to Labyrinthian, told us all about the ruins." Again, there was a strange sad note in his voice when he spoke about the Arch-Mage. "The famous mage Shalidor built some sort of… maze there in the First Era. Aren said that the entire complex is… holding untold power. I guess he was right."

"Well… we have our place now. We should head out," Bishop nodded with determination. It was about time. They'd spent enough time in Mzulft already and the sooner they got the Staff, the better. They still probably needed to rest before the journey. It was almost night time again already.

"I am glad we could have helped your search," Paratus's voice echoed behind them. "I hope that you will succeed in your task. But first, come, I have something for you."

They followed the mage with some confusion as he led them back towards the research chambers. The mages there were already hard at work, organizing their things after the Falmers' rampage and dragging the bodies of their fallen comrades to the corner of the room, likely for burning. Or… experiments?

"You have saved our lives," Paratus smiled at them kindly. "And it sounds like the College is in need of our assistance in turn. While I cannot offer you more for your search for the Staff, we have copies of our research here. I am sure that Master Gane would appreciate them, as a sign of friendship." He walked over to one of the tables and collected several notepads which he promptly handed over to Darren.

"And as for you two… it would be a shame to come out of Dwemer ruins empty handed, correct?" Paratus smirked at Bishop and Aeyrin. They had mentioned before that they were adventurers, right after Darren introduced them as his 'meat-shields'. It must have been clear to Paratus what they were hoping to find along the way. "That shelf over there is filled with objects that we have no more use for. Help yourselves," the mage grinned.

He didn't need to tell them twice. They quickly moved towards the shelf and began stuffing all the weapons, ingots, metals and odd contraptions into their packs. The College wasn't really appreciative of these the last time, but someone else would surely pay a lot for all of this. Maybe Calcelmo in Markarth would. He had mentioned that to Aeyrin when they spoke.

"Come back to the hallway when you are done. I will show you to the access elevator." Paratus left them to their 'looting' as he walked back into the passage towards the Oculory.

When they stashed all that they could carry, the three of them followed after the Synod mage, ready to leave the Dwemer city behind.

On their way, they noticed that both the metal doors on the sides were now open – one was leading into a very familiar circular platform with a lever in the middle, the elevator, and the other had another familiar object inside. It was the same strange pedestal that they had seen before in Raldbthar, the one which Calcelmo had Aeyrin meticulously describe.

"Do you know what that is?" Aeyrin asked out of curiosity before Paratus managed to show them to the elevator.

"Oh. Yes. Though this one is broken. It should be a mechanism to reveal a hidden passage into Blackreach."

Aeyrin and Bishop stopped instantly and they shot the mage a shocked stare.

"Did you just say 'Blackreach'?" Bishop raised his brows at him.

"We can get to Blackreach from here?" Aeyrin questioned him right after without giving him the chance to answer Bishop.

"We don't have time for more dungeons," Darren growled at them, but they barely even registered the fact that he had spoken. This was the entrance to Blackreach. And another one was in Raldbthar. Maybe they didn't even need to collect the blood and souls for the hermit. He had referred them to Alftand instead. Perhaps the key was only necessary for Alftand.

"Like I said, this one is broken. We only surmised the purpose from some vague descriptions in an old tome. There are no levers, no buttons and no slots. There is no way to get any further from here," Paratus gave them a sympathetic smile.

Even so, now they knew what the entrance looked like and they knew of another one. Perhaps the Dwemer expert at the College could tell them more. Maybe they could really just go back to Raldbthar and get the Scroll right away.

"Can we go now?" Darren sighed impatiently.

It was probably for the best to concentrate on the College for now. The danger there was quite pressing.

But when they were done with that, they would definitely need to find out more about Blackreach.

…

The elevator took them into a mountainous area some distance away from their initial entry point.

The ride to the surface was as unsettling as ever, but it was definitely better than the very first time, now that they knew that the platform wouldn't kill them.

Bishop and Aeyrin stepped away from the structure housing the elevator, but, after a few seconds, they noticed that Darren didn't follow them.

They turned back towards the structure, only to see him standing stiffly in the middle of the platform and staring blankly into the distance.

"Darren?" Aeyrin approached him cautiously. He looked strangely stunned.

"Maybe he's talking to his imaginary friend," Bishop smirked.

It was a likely scenario. They had no idea what it looked like when Darren communicated with the Psijic mage, but this certainly seemed like he was staring at something, or someone, that wasn't there. It took a few minutes before Darren's eyes focused again. He blinked a couple of times to rile himself up before his brows creased deeply.

"The… Psijic monk spoke to me," he cleared his throat.

"We figured. What did he say?" Aeyrin pried.

"He said that Labyrinthian holds evil within. And that it has been sealed," Darren shook his head regretfully. 'Sealed'. He'd said that about the Staff before but they had no idea what it meant.

"'Sealed' how?" Bishop scowled.

"I don't know. But… he said that… that Aren holds the key… that he has an amulet around his neck that… that he used to seal it," Darren sighed. He was clearly troubled by something deeply.

"The Arch-Mage was the one who sealed Labyrinthian?" Aeyrin gave him a curious look. He had mentioned that Aren was on an expedition there. It was possible.

"Don't you get it?!" Darren barked at her. "The amulet is around Aren's neck!"

"So?" Bishop scoffed at him.

"Aren's body is inside the field…" Aeyrin finally connected the dots. It was clear now why Darren was upset. How in the Void were they going to get the amulet? "W-well… maybe we can get inside the field somehow? Or maybe the others at the College will manage to push back the barrier a little?" She tried to quickly come up with some scenarios to prevent herself from panicking. There must have been a way to do this, right?

Darren only shrugged in response. There was not much point in speculating. Their destination was made clear. Going to Labyrinthian to 'try' would be a waste of time that they couldn't afford. They needed to return to the College again.

"Are we gonna rest?" Darren asked after a while of somber silence.

"Yeah. Soon. When we find a spot," Bishop only nodded before he looked around the area. They were pretty close to where they had originally entered the ruins, but it was still somewhat early. They could just rest somewhere further on the way.

"Well… the stronghold… wasn't so bad…" Darren mumbled a little. He looked oddly ashamed of admitting it.

"We can rest there again," Aeyrin shrugged. A bed was definitely better than the ground and she would feel a bit strange to refuse Darren when he clearly wanted to go there, surprising as it was.

He did seem a little less morose there for some reason.