Chapter 17 – The Bloom
Throat of the World, temple exterior, the previous day
Reaching the perimeter wall of the temple-fortress, the three located a short ladder that enabled one to climb onto the wall itself. Assurrani scurried up the ladder and located a button, which he pressed without worrying about possible consequences, and a small vertical strip of the wall receded horizontally into a narrow groove, revealing a ladder leading back down into the crater. Clearly, the tower was intended as an escape route.
"Movement down below," Ariel said, the glow of mystical magic surrounding her. "Five people"
"Hold it, Assurrani" Camri whispered. Assurrani drew his bow and knelt down on the wall, focusing on the temple's huge arched doorway. Soon, the five figures stepped out into the crater. Latta, Halisman, Captain Pasqual and two Imperial Battlemages, looking very weary.
"Hey!" Assurrani called to them. They all snapped up, and visible relief stretched across their faces as they saw the Dark Elf perched atop the perimeter wall. Assurrani began to climb down the ladder, followed by Ariel and eventually Camri.
"How did you three get out?" Halisman asked. "I had a horrible feeling you'd been left for dead"
"Whoever built this temple made it sure you could always get out," Assurrani explained. "There's so many different switches and relays operating the doors in the tower it's ridiculous…"
"I see Commander Staada is not with you," Latta said. "Does that mean…?"
"She made it," Camri said. "We saw her just now, descending the river in a kayak, and she has the Mantella with her. We are agonisingly close to victory now…"
"But so is Mannimarco" Latta said, slightly ominously. "The fact that we have not encountered him here means that he has already used the Mantella for whatever he needed it for. I've got the feeling he's in Echo Cave already – and he's about to strike"
--
Bruma, the next day
The citizens of Bruma had woken to a truly terrifying sight.
Skeletons.
Hundreds upon hundreds of them, marching in organised ranks, in a great column, from somewhere in the mountains to the west.
The guards had tried to stop them. The archers on the town's battlements had taken down a few but soon realised it was futile. The guards at the gates had simply been overwhelmed, trying vainly to fight them off, but the skeletons hadn't even fought the guards, just overwhelmed them with sheer numbers then trampled them into the ground. The gates fell.
Guards ran around the town ordering every citizen back into their homes. The skeletons marched into town – but did nothing. They simply stood all around the town, staying in their organised ranks. The guards, retreating to the castle, could only gaze at what was happening in sheer amazement.
Then, one more figure marched into town – a Dunmer woman in a black robe bearing a menacing-looking blood-red emblem. It was Relmyna Verenim.
"People of Bruma!" Verenim shouted, climbing onto the plinth which bore the statue of the Champion of Cyrodiil. "You are witness to the rising of a new power! The legions of the undead – the hands of Mannimarco, the King of Worms!"
Citizens began cautiously emerging from their houses to listen to this deranged prophet, seeming to sense that there was no immediate danger to them.
--
Meanwhile, Captain Burd, the Bruma Guard chief, surveyed the situation from a balcony in the castle. He had fifty men at his disposal, plus the town militia – probably another thirty men, mostly made up of hardened Nords who knew how to handle themselves in a fight. He made a quick guess at there being two hundred skeletons in the town. He might just be able to beat them if they attacked – just.
"Let's see where this goes" the Countess, Nerina Carvain, said from next to him. "It might just be a show of power. I'm not surprised in the slightest that Mannimarco himself is not here to bear witness to this event"
"I will order the guard to remain alert, Ma'am" Burd replied. "I will send a runner to Cloud Ruler Temple and hope that he makes it there"
"You think the guards at Cloud Ruler didn't see this?" Nerina asked dryly.
--
Down below, Relmyna Verenim continued her speech.
"The citizens of Cyrodiil are presented a choice by Mannimarco. Either present yourselves willingly to us, or we will take your souls by force! You will all end up in the service of Mannimarco one way or another – thralls to the new power. You will be granted immortality, a gift desired by all men. You will be part of a new world order. Cyrodiil is merely a stepping stone – soon, all Tamriel shall worship the new theology that is Mannimarco, the King of Worms! Do not foolishly anticipate help arriving. This is currently happening in every city in Cyrodiil!"
The town was silent apart from Verenim's voice echoing around the town walls.
"You have one hour to decide before Mannimarco's minions attack! Bruma will fall first!"
--
"There's a time limit on this now" Camri Everlight said, struggling to hear Verenim's speech from the top of a hill just outside Bruma. They had witnessed everything – the skeletons marching into Bruma, Verenim's speech, and now many more necromancers, approaching from the west and entering the city – at least thirty.
"That's what I call a street party," Assurrani said to himself.
"Echo Cave. Now" Latta ordered. "Captain Pasqual, the Legion are probably needed in Bruma. You'd better head down there"
"You're right" Pasqual said. "Good luck to you all – I hope we all survive this ordeal"
With that, the ebony-clad wizard-like Battlemage and his two remaining comrades ran towards the city.
"If all the Legionnaires are needed down there in Bruma, do you want me to go down there too?" Halisman asked, reserved.
"You're staying with Ariel" Camri replied.
"How is Verenim alive?" Ariel asked suddenly, somewhat asking the obvious.
"Yeah, maybe we should have checked she was actually dead before we left Vilverin" Assurrani added.
"It doesn't matter" Latta said, still focused. "She gave us the information we needed and Mannimarco would just have got one of his other lackeys to do this job"
--
At that moment, all of Cyrodiil was in chaos. Every town, including every district of the Imperial City, was filled with ranks of skeletons standing in perfect formation, waiting to attack. Even the villages and minor settlements hadn't escaped.
Only Cloud Ruler Temple remained free, the Blades all having been dispatched to Bruma, apart from Jauffre and a small detail of Blades, who remained behind to defend the Temple should it come under attack.
Crucially, a Blade in Bruma had overheard Verenim's speech and reported back to Jauffre – "Bruma shall fall first". The order to attack in the other cities would not be given until Bruma had fallen.
--
The five raced west across the undulating hills, past a grand Ayleid ruin, looking even more spectacular encased in snow, before they reached a steeply-ascending trail, marked with two stakes on which several human skulls were mounted.
"This is us," Camri said. "It's at the top of this trail"
A lone necromancer stood guard outside Echo Cave, but had barely registered the presence of the five before he was nailed by an arrow to the head from Assurrani. The door leading into the cave was locked securely from the other side but the solution was simple – Halisman shoulder-barged the door in his heavy Imperial Legion armour and the lock snapped, causing the door to swing open.
"Watch your heads," Camri said before leading the group into the cave. "According to the Cartography, Echo Cave's main trail leads down a wide canyon. Watch for snipers at the top of the canyon"
Ariel nodded, casting a life-detection spell, whilst Camri and Assurrani readied their bows. Latta took the lead.
The trail indeed ended up in a wide canyon, whose walls were about ten metres high, snaking through a huge cave about thirty metres in height. The five's footfalls echoed crisply around the cavern – Echo Cave was living up to its namesake.
Little resistance met the group, no more than a couple of skeletons and zombies that were easily bettered, mostly by spells from Latta or arrows from Assurrani. Eventually, they reached a doorway that looked disconcertingly similar to those found in planes of Oblivion, coated with Daedric script. Ariel's eyes flashed like camera shutters, taking in the text.
"This is incredible," Ariel said to herself. "Part of it warns of the Great Underking that lies beyond the door – that must be Mannimarco – and that the Bloom will conquer the mortal world. But this bit here is all about the Stones of Ada-Mantia… what is this doing in here?"
"Come on, let's not hang around" Camri said, thrusting his sword into the gap between the door's two panels and rotating it, jimmying the door open.
--
The Necromancers' Chamber
The doorway emerged at a T-junction in a tight, narrow corridor.
"Left" Ariel said firmly. Latta continued leading, taking the left route, when suddenly a necromancer sprung up in front of her, wielding a summoned mace…
Latta ducked as an arrow shot over her head, piercing gruesomely through the necromancer's eye, killing him instantly.
"Right" Ariel said as the five reached another junction. This time, the trail led into another enormous cave, partially flooded with a large island in its centre, a narrow rock bridge granting access to the island. The island itself was surrounded by a fence that seemed to be made out of giant bones…
"We're here," Camri whispered. "Assurrani, cover"
Assurrani nodded as the other four advanced towards the bridge and crept across it. Ariel pointed directly forward – seated at a desk, his back turned to the five, was Mannimarco. But then, he heard them approaching and leapt to his feet. By now, all five were on the island.
Mannimarco radiated unmistakable evil. He was tall, even for an Altmer, with a gaunt, wraith-like face, black eyes and a grand mane of hair in the same colour.
"Well, if it isn't the hope of Tamriel" Mannimarco said evenly, eyeing the five. "What a shame you escaped from the Dark Fissure unscathed – no, wait, not all of you did"
Camri's blood boiled at the mention of Areen.
"It seems you believe you have me beaten. The Mantella has been banished to the Shivering Isles, and the ambush I laid for the Golden Saint didn't quite work. My immortality has been nullified.
Latta and Camri both breathed sighs of relief. Staada had made it!
"But you do, of course, still have to defeat me!" Mannimarco continued, clutching the Necromancer's Amulet around his neck. At that moment, he let loose a colossal bolt of lightning, which missed Latta by millimetres and burst in a spectacular shower of sparks on the bone wall, at the same time summoning a wraith, which was wielding a glass sword. The wraith cast a spell at Ariel, which engulfed her in a sickly green glow. Silenced.
Assurrani raised his bow and fired. His aim was immaculate as always – the arrow was on a straight bearing for Mannimarco's temple. But inches before it made contact, Mannimarco halted the arrow in mid-air with telekinesis and turned it around, launching it back at the five at tremendous speed.
Straight into Ariel.
Assurrani gasped in horror, dropping his bow and sword and bolting from the cave.
Ariel Lasaille tumbled backwards with the impact then lay still on the damp, stony ground.
"No!" Camri cried, before turning to face Mannimarco with a look that could have frozen water. But Mannimarco wasn't there.
"Where did he go?"
"There!" Latta shouted, pointing at a narrow tunnel leading out from the back of the cave. Latta had seen Mannimarco, or more precisely, the purple glow that betrayed him to her life-detection spell, run into the tunnel, and set off after him.
Camri turned to look at Ariel, knowing it was hopeless. Tears began to well up in his eyes.
"Camri! Come on!" Latta called from in the tunnel.
Camri turned to look Halisman in the eyes.
"I'm staying here," Halisman said evenly. "My fate lies with Ariel"
Camri nodded in understanding, then stooped down and gently kissed Ariel on the forehead. Then, trying to block out the images of the death of his friend, the young, fragile Breton mystic who had spent her life under pursuit and threat, Camri reached the tunnel and raced into it after Latta. All the time, Ariel's words resonated through his mind.
One of us is going to die.
Knight-Bachelor Marlus Halisman remained alone in the cavern, sitting down and burying his head in his hands. He had failed.
--
At that moment, Bruma suddenly erupted into chaos. The skeletons began an enormous charge on the castle – the guards reacted quickly, dropping the portcullis, but this still sealed a number of skeletons in the courtyard, and the majority of the Town Guard out of the town itself.
"Get back out into the town!" Burd shouted, racing down to join the furore. "Open the portcullis! Barricade the castle doors shut!"
Arrows flew down from the battlements, aimed not at the skeletons but the necromancers that seemed to be commanding them. Fjotred, the town blacksmith, burst out of his shop clad in a thick suit of steel armour wielding a war axe in each hand, and began fighting off the hordes of skeletons.
"To arms!" Fjotred bellowed. Several more Nord men ran out of their homes, armed and ready to fight to the death to defend their town.
It had begun.
--
Falas Assurrani, meanwhile, ran as fast as he could to the east, towards Morrowind. He wanted to go home. His role in this quest had come to an abrupt end. As he ran, all he could think of was one recurring sight, of his arrow thudding into Ariel's chest. Ever since he had been fighting alongside Camri, his priority had always been Ariel's safety – her knowledge and foresight was crucial to everything. And now he had just killed her.
Then, Assurrani froze in his tracks. A blinding white light burned in front of him, causing him to reel back, shielding his eyes. The light faded, and Assurrani gazed in awe at the figure stood before him.