Chapter 12 – Meridia's Guidance
Elenglynn Ruin, exterior
"This is where your stash is hidden?" Staada asked, looking up at the grand Ayleid doorway in front of them. "Isn't it a bit… public?"
"Maybe, but it's full of traps," Camri replied. "And only I know how to get past them safely. Then you'd need both my keys to actually get to my stash"
Assurrani had been to Elenglynn before, but never actually inside it. Over the course of their adventures, Camri had entered it alone, either hiding or emerging with some great treasure that he required. He had hinted towards several Daedric artifacts being hidden in the ruin.
"Follow me" Camri said, pushing open the stone doorway, bearing a torch in front of him to light the way. But then, he stopped a few feet in.
"Oh dear, looks like I've had a visitor recently"
Wondering what he was talking about, Staada stepped forwards and saw a gruesomely beheaded Orc, the dead body only a few days old, lying at the base of the staircase that led in front of them.
Camri turned around and pressed a small button above the doorway, then led the other two further down the staircase. A diagonal gap in the wall at head level ran along the length of the stairs, evidently concealing some sort of head-chopping blade, but the button Camri had pressed had deactivated it. The three rounded the corner, and once again Camri signalled them to halt.
"Trigger stone" Camri said, pointing to a large floor tile in front of them. "Don't step on it. One at a time – wait for my signal"
Camri deftly leapt over the trigger stone and jogged down the corridor, past a series of vertical slits which concealed swinging blades, until he reached the end of the corridor, stepping on a huge trigger stone which was simply unavoidable. The stone set the blades swinging, but rather than swinging in synchronisation, they swung in irregular patterns, rendering them more or less impassible. Camri removed a false brick from the wall at the end of the corridor and pressed a button concealed behind it, halting the blades.
"Alright, you can follow me now" Camri called to the other two, who nervously joined him.
"Did you do all this, Camri?" Staada asked.
"No, I just worked out how to get past it all. This is a really clever trap, designed to get rid of parties of tomb raiders. The first reaches the end of the corridor, steps on the trigger stone, and all his friends get carved up by the blades. But no Ayleid trap cannot be bypassed. And the reason I chose Elenglynn is because it's the only Ayleid ruin I've ever seen where the workings of the traps are accessible"
Camri banged on a section of wall, indicating it to be a hollow false wall covering a passageway that led to the mechanical workings of the swinging blade traps, then led the three further into the tomb. The next chamber they emerged in was a large, flooded room with a walkway leading across it, and several ominously glowing black Varla stones.
"Ready for a run?" Camri asked light-heartedly. "Just follow what I do"
Camri stepped out onto the covered walkway, standing on a trigger stone. A spiked iron grate dropped down at the far end of the walkway and began clattering towards him on railings mounted in the walkway's roof. Camri bolted for a small section of floor that jutted out over the water, out of the path of the grate, and dived to safety moments before the grate shot past him. As he landed on the platform, he ducked as two Varla stones shot fireballs at him, which burst spectacularly on the white stone above him. Camri got to his feet and waited for the grate to fly past him again, back towards Assurrani and Staada, before running the last twenty yards to safety, landing in a forward roll to avoid another fireball.
"Alright, you next, Staada!" Camri called.
The Golden Saint waited for the grate to reach her end of the walkway and begin its journey back, before sprinting to the sanctuary halfway along the walkway, dancing out of the path of the two fireballs launched by the Varla stones. Staada waited for the grate to pass her then ran for the far end of the corridor. But, mere yards from safety, she tripped on a loose floor tile and stumbled to the ground. Staada quickly managed to get to her feet, but she didn't see the brightly-glowing Varla stone to her right…
"Staada! Get down!" Camri shouted. But it was too late. A fireball spat out of the Varla stone and roared towards the doomed Golden Saint…
The fireball burst spectacularly in mid-air, only two yards or so from the walkway, as Staada stumbled the last few yards to safety and turned around to see her saviour – Assurrani, knelt down at the far side of the chamber with his bow. He had fired an arrow which had hit the fireball, detonating it in mid-air.
"Nice shot" Camri said, genuinely impressed.
Assurrani, the most athletic of the three, overcame the trap with ease, not even pausing in the sanctuary, simply using it to evade the grate before he carried on running.
An iron gate stood in front of the three, which Camri opened using a small push block, then pointed out a well-hidden trigger stone on the floor which would have set off two lightning-type Varla stones hidden in alcoves.
Finally, the three reached a locked iron gate which Camri opened with an ancient-looking key, then he placed another key in a small hole in the wall and turned it, prematurely setting off a huge razor-sharp blade that dropped down from the ceiling just beyond the doorway.
"Help yourselves to weapons" Camri said as he walked briskly into the room, quickly locating a wooden barrel with a sturdy metal lid screwed onto it.
"Where did you find all this, Camri?" Staada asked, gazing around at the contents of the room – it was a treasure trove, packed with chests containing gold and gemstones, and piles of unusual armour and weapons. Assurrani picked up a Daedric bow and Camri nodded, indicating he could keep the weapon.
"What's this glass ball?" Staada asked, picking up a crystal ball-like object the size of a melon.
"I don't know" Camri replied. "But it's not glass. It's too heavy – I think it might be diamond"
At that moment, Camri walked over to a small button in the wall and pressed it. Then, he grabbed a few bottles of potion, a sack of gold and a quiver of enchanted arrows.
"We've got five minutes to get out before the traps bother us again"
--
Latta sprinkled the bonemeal on Meridia's shrine and waited for a response. She had told the worshippers assembled at the shrine that she was Meridia's daughter, but they hadn't believed her – they were about to get proof. In a burst of magic, Latta vanished into thin air.
She appeared in what seemed to be a room of Ayleid construction – it was perfectly cubical in shape and brilliantly lit by many blue crystals. Sat on one of two chairs in the centre of the room was a beautiful elegant-looking woman in a white robe, with silky golden hair.
Latta smiled and walked over to embrace the woman. "Hello, mother"
"What brings you here, Latta?" Meridia asked. "Time is not on your side"
"Sheogorath has gone mad" Latta said bleakly before telling Meridia of how Sheogorath had outcast the Golden Saints from the Shivering Isles and deferred to the House of Dementia.
"I tried going back to the Shivering Isles to sort this mess out but the Fringe was packed to bursting with Dark Seducer soldiers. Suffice to say I didn't feel very welcome there"
"And House Mania and the Golden Saints cannot mount a defence because Commander Staada has been exiled" Meridia said. "I am beginning to see the problem here"
"I thought you might… have influence on Sheogorath. Is there anything you can do?"
"Sheogorath is going to wish he had never crossed my daughter or the Golden Saints" Meridia said menacingly. "I'd like to see how his Dark Seducers stand up to a battalion of Aurorans. I can employ force to partially resolve this situation, Latta, but much of the responsibility lies in you"
"What do you mean?"
"You must understand by now that the underlying issue in this event is in the balance of power – the balance between good and evil, the balance between mania and dementia, light and dark. If you succeed in defeating Mannimarco, good will have triumphed over evil, and you can restore the balance in the Shivering Isles"
"I have known this for some time. I've read that document found in the Mystic Archives. If Sheogorath stands for Dementia, but an entity of similar power stands for Mania, harmony will come to the Shivering Isles. I know that this is what I must do with my powers – if I get them…"
"There is one thing you must know, Latta. If you want to undergo an apotheosis, you must kill Mannimarco, not any of the others"
"There's a problem there…" Latta began.
"I know" Meridia continued. "You plan to spirit the stone hidden in Snow-Throat to the Shivering Isles to make Mannimarco mortal again, but you are required in Tamriel to kill Mannimarco. That is where our friend Commander Staada comes in. Tell Staada that she must be the one to take the stone, and assure her that I will make sure the Shivering Isles are safe for her to return by that time. And I have a warning for you about the stone"
"What?"
"It cannot be destroyed under any circumstances. It may power evil, but it is an intrinsic part of the fabric of Mundus. There are many stones like it, all of which ensure the safety of the mortal world and keep the waters of Oblivion at bay. One by one these are being destroyed – the Heart of Lorkhan and the Amulet of Kings are both gone"
"This is one of those stones?" Latta asked. "This subject fascinates me – the Stones of Ada-Mantia – the mythical artifacts that allow the mortal world to exist"
"Yes. It is the Mantella, the Third Stone, Numidium's Heart. It is a conduit of great evil, but one that is sadly necessary to the safety of the mortal plane. If one more of the Ada-Mantian Stones is destroyed, the barriers between Mundus and Oblivion will effectively not be there. You thought the Oblivion crisis was bad…"
"I will make sure the Mantella is not destroyed, Mother" Latta said. "Do you know where it is hidden?"
"I do, and fortunately so do your friends. There is one thing they do not know, though – to get into the necromancers' temple, they need the soul of an Ayleid sorcerer – a black Varla stone"
The gemstone Meridia handed to Latta was incredible. It was similar in appearance to a Varla stone but completely black – it didn't even reflect light, it just absorbed every ray of light that landed on it. It was also extremely heavy for its size.
"You have a difficult fight ahead of you. The necromancers' temple will be well-guarded, and the Mantella lies suspended above the vent of Snow-Throat volcano. It plunges several thousand feet down to the lava chamber, and I am not sure if there is an easy way to access it"
"We can use Ariel's powers of telekinesis," Latta suggested. "It's not a problem. What do we do after the Mantella is gone?"
"As soon as it has left the mortal realm, Mannimarco will no longer be invulnerable. He hides in Echo Cave near Bruma. Do what you must, Latta. Your friends are now at Fort Linchal, west-north-west of my shrine. Good luck, my girl"
At that moment, the room seemed to collapse around her and, in an instant, she was back at the shrine of Meridia, surrounded by very bemused worshippers of the Princess.
Fort Linchal.
Latta ran off to the west in search of the others.
--
Ariel Lasaille, once again, had not slept all night. Whilst Halisman slept next to her, she sat upright in the cell, scribbling in the notebook that had been left in the cell. In a few minutes' sleep she had snatched earlier in the day, a very strange vision had come to her. She had seen the gathering of necromancers at the Dark Fissure, with Camri, Assurrani and Staada all there. But she had not seen Areen. Crucially, however, she had heard Mannimarco's speech.
Ariel gazed at the notes written in front of her.
Mannimarco's plan – 'The Bloom'
Bloom – Great expansion? Flowering?
Lush growth
Sudden explosion of life
Reason for soul harvesting in Black Marsh?
As dawn broke, the warden came to do his morning patrol of the almost-empty cellblock. As he approached, Ariel ripped the page out of her notebook and gave it to the warden.
"Give it to Chancellor Ocato" she said flatly. "It's important"
--
Fort Linchal, exterior
Camri poured the last of the mining explosives into the altar outside Fort Linchal. It was a mixture of black powder, volatile oils and fire salts. Trailing a long rope fuse, also soaked in oil, out of the altar, Camri instructed the three to get back. A long way back.
"Camri, I've been meaning to ask," Assurrani said. "Can't they just rebuild these altars?"
"No-one's sure how they work" Camri replied. "They're Ayleid in origin and like all Ayleid technology, people know what they do but can't recreate them. And this is the last one. Besides, we're not going to give these bastards time to rebuild them after this"
"I know" Assurrani said. "The time has come to attack, hasn't it?"
"Yes, but we need our team back first – Ariel, Halisman and Latta"
Camri lit the rope with his torch and a lick of flame shot down it, completing the journey in seconds, before a billowing explosion ripped the altar apart. The three dived to the ground as rubble and scraps of burning fabric blasted over their heads.
The black soul gem trade had been destroyed. The four altars at the four points where the Revenant occurred had all been blown up with Camri's mining explosives, and on the way out of Elenglynn, Camri had paid a visit to a Thieves' Guild operative he knew in Skingrad, giving him orders to pass on to Armand Christophe to raid every merchant of soul gems that night, along with no less than 5,000 Septims as a gesture of goodwill.
"I thought it might be you three," a voice suddenly said from behind the group. They all turned around, cautiously, to see Latta stood before them.
"Latta!" Staada said in joyous surprise.
"A lot has happened whilst you've been away," Camri said. He told Latta of Ariel's removal from the mission and the death of Areen, but on a more positive note, the damage caused to the necromancers by the attack at Dark Fissure and the eradication of the black soul gem trade, not to mention the acquisition of Mannimarco's map.
Latta told the other three everything that Meridia had told her, of the future of their quest and what must be done to defeat Mannimarco, that she had to be the one to kill him and, of course, that the stone must not be destroyed.
"We'd better not waste any time in getting ourselves to Snow Throat, then" Assurrani observed.
"There's one more thing we need to do first," Camri said. "We're getting Ariel back"
"Are you sure, Camri? Maybe the Emperor was right about keeping her out of harm's way"
"Falas, don't you remember the Battle of the Border? When the three of us are together we transcend our normal abilities. We become stronger and more focused. The first time the three of us were ever in the same place at the same time, Ariel cast a powerful enough telekinesis spell to launch you ten feet into the air"
"You're right. I'm sorry"
Camri patted Assurrani on the shoulder. "No worries, my friend"