Chapter 11 – Nothing You Can Possess
Three parties were running as fast as they could down the tunnel that seemed to lead to Black Marsh.
Camri, Ariel, Areen and Lunia, at the front of the race.
Behind them, very slowly catching up, Assurrani.
And the Expeditionary Force, along with Eldred Moravahn, who had just entered the tunnel.
"I can see light!" Camri called from the front of his group. Ariel saw it too – a tiny speck of light at the end of the tunnel. They were almost there.
The group burst out into brilliant midday sun. They were in a large clearing, surrounded by tall trees, which led onto mountains. Mountains that completely surrounded the clearing.
"Where are we, Areen?" Camri asked.
"I think I know" Areen replied. "There's a mountain range in the north of Black Marsh, near the Morrowind border. They're called the Barrier Mountains, for the simple reason that they are completely unpenetrable. The only passes between the peaks are at altitudes so high that any climber dies of asphyxiation. And the rock is too hard for our miners to bore through. Nobody knows what lies in the centre of them"
"Apart from us" Camri said. "Look at that!"
At the other end of the clearing was a strange fortress-like structure, forged from a brown-purple rock, made from strange, twisting pillars and arches surrounding a central tower. Atop the tower was a statue of Meridia.
"If this isn't the resting place of the Marsh Spirit I'm giving up" Areen remarked.
"You and me both" Camri replied. "Come on, Assurrani can't be far behind us"
"It looks like the Daedric shrines found in Morrowind" Ariel said. "They're usually simple structures, literally a corridor leading down to a central atrium where the shrine is located. Or in this case, I hope, the Marsh Spirit"
Camri spied an elliptical doorway at the base of the tower and led the group towards it.
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Shortly after they disappeared into the ruin, Falas Assurrani emerged from the tunnel into the clearing.
"By the Gods…" Assurrani whispered to himself as he beheld the temple, and the colossal statue of Meridia. He became overcome with a sudden sense of déjà vu, and the realisation that he had not been in his homeland of Morrowind for a long time.
Assurrani halted before he entered the ruin, picking up a stick from the ground that had obviously fallen from one of the trees. He took his fire-lighting kit from his belt – a small cloth soaked in naphtha, which he wrapped around one end of the stick, and two flints, which he tapped together until a spark ignited the naphtha. He now had a source of fire – exactly what he needed. His final move was to take one of his arrows and carefully scrape off the silver laminated over the arrowhead with the edge of his sword, exposing the wood underneath.
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Camri raced down the corridor and into an enormous hall in the centre of the ruin to be met by two very unexpected sights.
The first was what he identified as a Hist tree, the base of its trunk surrounded by a marble enclosure with a large, square button mounted on it, a blue crystal in its centre.
The second was an elderly Argonian man, sitting in a chair next to the tree, seemingly meaning him no harm.
"Who are you?" Camri called to the Argonian, drawing his sword.
"I am here purely to tell you what the Marsh Spirit does before you choose to activate it"
Camri lowered his sword, noticing Areen gripping a steel dart discreetly, ready to hurl it at the old Argonian. He noticed a red liquid dripping from the dart's shaft. The dart wasn't poisoned to paralyse – it was poisoned to kill.
"Activate it?" Camri asked. "I thought it was a weapon!"
"It is, but not in the conventional sense" the Argonian said. "I imagine you were expecting something along the lines of a magical sword that granted its wielder great power, am I right?"
Camri nodded. "What is it, then?"
"First, I'll tell you exactly who built it. I imagine your trail here was that followed by my two predecessors, the Argonian mages who first planned to use the Marsh Spirit against the Imperial invaders. I imagine you also thought these mages built the Marsh Spirit. They didn't – it was built many ages ago by Meridia herself"
"Hang on, your predecessors? So for years, generation after generation of Argonian has been living in here?"
"That's right. All living in the hope that someone else will stumble across this temple"
"We always believe that every person has a purpose in life, a destiny" Ariel said, stepping alongside Camri. "You are now fulfilling yours"
"That is correct, young Breton. The mages knew about the Marsh Spirit long before they were killed. What they were researching was actually what the Marsh Spirit did. They were obeying one of the fundamental laws of research – before you use any object that involves magic, you find out exactly what it is going to do"
"And what does it do?" Camri asked him.
"Once that button is pressed, if this tree is alive, every other tree in old Argonia will become a sentient being, one that will fight to defend Argonia against whoever might be invading it"
"Old Argonia…" Camri said to himself. "That would include the south of Cyrodiil too"
"Correct" the old man said. "As soon as the Marsh Spirit is activated, the eastern shore of the Niben basically falls to the Argonians"
"I can see why you lot wanted to get your hands on this bad boy" Camri said to Areen.
"Now" the old man said. "You must make an important decision. Are you going to activate the weapon or not?"
Suddenly, from behind the group, an arrow soared through the air. Not just an ordinary arrow – a flaming arrow.
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Assurrani hadn't heard the Imperial's entire conversation with the old Argonian, but he had heard one crucial piece of information. The Marsh Spirit would only work if the tree was alive.
So Assurrani had used his preferred method of demolition – a flaming arrow and a bottle of naphtha.
He had lit the arrow from his torch and fired it across the hall. Just as it struck the tree, igniting its upper leaves, Assurrani had dropped his bow, taken the phial of naphtha from his belt and hurled it with all his might at the tree.
The effect was incredible. The bottle smashed as it hit the tree, smothering it in the oily naphtha. Then the flames had ignited the naphtha, causing the entire tree to burst spectacularly into flame.
As he did, the old man gasped in shock.
"If the tree dies, the plague is released…"
"Plague? What plague?" Camri said angrily as he looked around the room, spotting Assurrani.
"It's a security measure… You must leave! Now!"
At that moment, hidden doors swung open all around the hall, and living skeletons began pouring out of them! Assurrani saw this and bolted for the exit, back to the clearing.
"You four, hold them off for as long as you can!" Camri yelled, racing after Assurrani.
Areen and Lunia both drew their weapons, as the four left in the cavern formed into a tight outward-facing circle.
"They won't harm me unless I attack them" the old Argonian said. "I am of no use to you". With that, he left the circle and retreated to a corner of the hall.
"Areen, I need some sort of weapon!" Ariel called to Areen.
"Wait until we've killed some of the skeleton, then use their bones" Areen replied. He was worried – he needed this fight to be over quickly. He had to get to Camri before he killed Assurrani.
The horde of skeletons bore down on the group. Areen lunged forward and swung his mace downward at one of the skeletons, smashing it to pieces. As soon as he had done so, Ariel raised her hands, causing the skeleton's spinal column to leap up into the air. Ariel began manipulating the spine, using it as a whip, while Areen and Lunia bravely stood up to the skeleton hordes with their weapons, attacking as hard as they could to use force to break the undead creatures apart.
Suddenly, Ariel froze where she stood.
"Can you two hold them? I have to get to Camri!" she cried.
"What?" Areen shouted back at her. "Why?"
"There's soldiers coming! Imperials! The Expeditionary Force!"
"Go then! Make sure Camri doesn't kill Assurrani!"
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In the tunnel, the Expeditionary Force had all stopped to rest.
"We really don't have time for this!" Eldred said urgently. The commanding officer of the Expeditionary Force turned to face him.
"If you don't need to rest, recce out the tunnel and make sure it's safe. See if you can find out where it comes out"
Eldred nodded and began racing down the tunnel. They had been in it for what seemed like days. It had to end soon…
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Assurrrani burst out of the temple. He knew Camri was right behind him, and extremely pissed off. He drew his sword and turned around, just in time to block Camri launching a powerful swordstroke at him.
Camri backed off. "I don't know why I didn't do this sooner!" he shouted. "Falas Assurrani, you are not going to leave here alive!"
Assurrani stared at Camri, a look of wicked intent in his eyes, before he leapt forward, brandishing his sword. Camri leapt to the side to avoid him, then raced through the arches of the temple out into the open. He was a ranger. He was used to fighting in the open.
As Assurrani began to pursue Camri, Camri drew his bow and quickly fired an arrow at Assurrani. Assurrani dodged the arrow, taking a dagger off his belt and hurling it at Camri. Camri threw up his shield at the last minute, reeling in shock as the dagger thudded through the thin plate steel on his shield and embedded itself in the wood. Camri charged at Assurrani, discarding his bow and drawing his sword again. Assurrani anticipated this and swung his own blade at Camri. Both swords struck each other with tremendous force, sending pain shooting up the arms of both Camri and Assurrani. Assurrani quickly lowered his blade and tried to thrust it into Camri, but Camri leapt to the side, feeling the sword skim his chainmail armour. This was the chance he needed – he punched Assurrani as hard as he could in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground in a daze. Camri leapt on top of him, pinning him to the ground and holding his sword across his throat. It was at this moment that he realised several other things had been happening in the clearing at the same time.
Ariel had emerged from the temple, but instead of intervening in the fight she had run back to the tunnel and held her hands up at a pile of loose boulders above the tunnel entrance. Then, she had brought them crashing down around the tunnel entrance. Just before she had done so, a Dunmer burst out of the tunnel. It was the same man from the cave – the one who Camri had shot.
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Soon, the Expeditionary Force reached the rockslide. They had heard it from in the tunnel, not realising what it was until they had reached the pile of rocks that blocked their way.
"I've seen this method of escape before" the commanding officer said.
"What happened?" one of the other Expeditionary Force men asked.
"Ariel Lassaile happened"
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Areen had also come out of the temple a short while after Ariel, with Lunia following him. He emerged just in time to see Camri about to kill Assurrani.
"No!" Areen cried. "Camri, leave him! You cannot kill him!"
Camri looked at Areen, still holding his sword across Assurrani's throat. Ariel, Lunia and Eldred surrounded the three of them.
Areen sighed. "I suppose it's time you knew. You, Assurrani and Ariel are bound together by destiny. Everything has been about bringing the three of you together!"
Camri looked at Assurrani. "If I get up, will you kill me?"
"No, I want to hear about this too" Assurrani said. Ariel walked over to them and took their weapons from them as Areen approached the three of them.
"So an entire war is being waged to make sure the three of us cross paths?" Camri asked him. "It's a set-up?"
"It hasn't so much been set up as manipulated. We knew you'd want to fight against the Empire. The Morag Tong knew that Assurrani would fight for the Empire. And we knew Ariel would have visions that she had to also become part of the fight. Myself, Horunn and Sun, Assurrani's boss at the Morag Tong, were tasked with keeping the three of you alive and making sure you didn't kill each other"
"Let's sit down" Camri said. "This is going to take a while to explain"