Chapter 12 – A New World Order (Part 2)
Thirty minutes earlier
Varo Sinclair stood silently, gazing into the pit of lava that had consumed his wife. Fariel stood with him, holding his hand, her eyes swollen and damp with tears. She had just seen her own mother die, and had witnessed the death of Erdora, who she had not known well but knew to be a kind man, a friend of Galmina's and an important figure in the shaping of Vvardenfell.
Only Jurard and Marconi remained in the room, Marconi guarding the door and Jurard stood still in stunned silence in the middle of the room.
Eventually, Varo turned around so he was facing the doorway that led back out into the cave.
"Come on, Saroth" he said under his breath. "How much longer are you going to torment me for?"
--
Outside, Ralix Hermidius stood in one of Caldera's watchtowers, one that offered a view both to the north and the south. He could see down the valley towards Balmora – he could see Arlen Saroth and his men approaching, around fifty House Dres soldiers. He had few men at his disposal, only the Legion garrison that had remained in Caldera. A rank of archers had lined up on the battlements next to him.
"Fire as soon as they're in range" Hermidius ordered. "Don't worry about orders or volleys of fire – give them everything you've got"
The archers nodded as Hermidius drew his sword and ran down from the battlements, joining the rest of his soldiers behind the barricaded town gates. He had posted a few men as lookouts beyond the northern wall of the town – he had to know when Saroth was making a run for the caves.
Suddenly the air filled with the sound of drawstrings being released and arrows shot from the battlements, arcing towards the approaching soldiers and taking several of them down. It had begun.
"Show no remorse, men!" Hermidius ordered to his foot soldiers.
The other side of the gate, the soldiers pressed forwards, holding their shields above their heads to protect themselves from the barrage of arrows being fired at them by the Legion archers.
At the front of the group was a Dunmer whose armour differed from that of the rest of the soldiers – a full suit of the finest ebony armour. A Daedric sword lay in a hilt on his belt. It was Arlen Saroth.
--
"Gentlemen, it is time" Saroth said calmly as he cast an enormous fireball at the town gates. The fireball roared through the air, completing its journey in seconds and slamming into the gates of Caldera, blasting them clean from their hinges and throwing a huge cloud of smoke, filled with chunks of burning wood up into the air. Using the explosion as a distraction, Saroth and several other soldiers ran off the trail, up into the foothills to the west.
"Break out! Break out!" Hermidius shouted, leading a charge forwards out of the destroyed town gates under a constant rain of arrows, some fired by his own men and some by the Dres archers.
The Legion and the Dres soldiers collided, most of the men on the front line being cut down immediately. Hermidius fought hard, knowing that the fate of Vvardenfell lay in the amount of time he could stall the Dres soldiers for. He fought two soldiers at once, parrying with his sword and blocking with his shield until he got a blow in, hewing the head of one of the soldiers then spinning round and plunging his sword into the abdomen of the other soldier. Immediately, two more soldiers engaged him, but then he noticed something. Three figures running past the town, to the north.
"Varo!" Hermidius cried as he disengaged the soldiers, leaving his Legion men fighting them, and bolted back towards Caldera.
The soldiers knew where their leader had gone. He had business in the strange cave found beneath the town, business with Varo Sinclair and Arlen Saroth. All they could do was win the battle on the surface, defeat the rest of Saroth's men. But they were getting overwhelmed and being forced back into the town. They were losing men by the second.
Then, the soldiers noticed something out of the corner of their eye. A Dres soldier, at the back of the formation, was hurled forwards with a tremendous force, a crossbow bolt protruding from the back of his neck. Then, another Dres soldier fell. A third soldier's head burst like a watermelon as it was struck by a bolt. More Legion soldiers were racing towards Caldera, coming from the south – about ten of them, led by Tertius Levisson and covered by Sten Hawk-Eye. It was the survivors of the battle in Vivec, and they had arrived with a vengeance.
Thrown into disarray, the Dres soldiers were sandwiched between the two groups of Legion men. They fought on rather than surrendered but it did not take long for the Legion to be victorious.
Then, they heard the bang.
--
"He's coming" Marconi said ominously as he took several steps back into the chamber.
"You three, get out of the way" Varo ordered as Marconi, Fariel and Jurard backed off to the sides of the room. Three Dunmer charged in through the doorway – two in Dres bonemold armour and one in a grand ebony suit.
"Varo Sinclair, I presume" the Dunmer said in a deep voice, removing his helmet. "At last, we meet"
The first thing Varo noticed about Arlen Saroth was the look of proudness and determination on his face – Varo knew that Saroth didn't know what was about to happen, but the Dunmer was not showing it.
"Why are you here?" Varo demanded.
"Please allow me to make some introductions" Saroth replied, almost ignoring Varo's question. The other two Dunmer removed their helmets, revealing one wizened-looking male and a beautiful Dunmer woman.
"Sotha Gimothran and Alma Ravel" Saroth continued. "The most skilled engineer and the finest mage in Morrowind. Now, to answer your question, we are here to use the crystals. You know why"
"You seem to think you can re-instate the Almsivi" Varo said bitterly.
"Not just that, Sinclair. We are going to become the Almsivi. Now, I have always classed myself as a bard. An adventurer but a scholar and storyteller at the same time. A warrior-poet, if you will"
Varo shook his head slowly. "Lord Vivec is no figure to aspire to, Arlen. A False God. Why would you want to be one of them?"
"Because under the Almsivi rulership the Dunmer were a great people. Now you have come here and polluted Vvardenfell with your pathetic little crumb of Imperialism. If you do not obstruct me I may let you live. Now. Hand me the Tools"
"Wraithguard is not tuned to your body" Varo said. "Feel free to take it, but don't blame me when it kills you"
"Very well. Then I will have to use you to carry out what I want to do. Just like Drothan Indoril did"
"And look how he met his end. I will not help you, Saroth"
With that, Arlen Saroth drew his sword and grabbed Fariel. The girl screamed as Saroth held his sword across her throat.
"Put her down!" Varo shouted. He took a deep breath. "Just listen to me. A terrible event has just happened in this cave. I must warn you what these crystals can do"
Varo recounted the three with the tale of how Dagoth Ur had possessed Galmina, and how they had both met their end.
"I am sorry for your loss. But you honour me, Varo" Saroth said when Varo had finished speaking. "The Dunmer have tried for aeons to defeat Dagoth Ur. All the more reason for me to let you go free"
Saroth removed his sword, letting Fariel go, and strode towards Varo. Varo drew his sword and stood before the Dunmer.
"The Almsivi had one flaw" Varo said darkly. "They were immortal, but not invincible"
At that moment, everything happened at once. Two lightning bolts, cast by Marconi and Fariel, lanced across the room and slammed into the other two Dunmer, Sotha Gimothran and Alma Ravel, killing them. Varo lunged forwards with his sword held above his head and swung it downwards as hard as he could at Saroth. Saroth threw up his own sword to block the blow, and the two engaged in a vicious swordfight, attacking each other with vicious ferocity. Evenly matched, the two parried across the floor, watched by Jurard, Marconi and Fariel.
Blocking one of Varo's powerful swordstrokes, Saroth reeled with shock. Varo used the opportunity to kick Saroth square in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Varo loomed over the Dunmer, holding his sword to his throat.
"You made this happen!" Varo snarled through gritted teeth. "If you hadn't threatened our island I would never have got involved with Dagoth Ur! Galmina would still be alive!"
Saroth grabbed Varo's sword using his gauntlets and twisted it, relieving it from Varo's grip and throwing it to one side. Varo lunged to get his sword back, which gave Saroth the opportunity to get to his feet. The fight was back on.
"Do something!" Varo cried. "Help me end this!"
Varo swung his sword horizontally as hard as he could, knocking Saroth's weapon from his hands. The sword spun across the room and hit one of the crystals, the handle shattering the crystal as Saroth summoned an identical Daedric sword and began fighting again.
Jurard watched the crystal shatter and saw intensely bright purple light radiating from the exposed inner face of the crystal – pure magicka. Without thinking, Jurard placed his hand on the exposed face of the crystal and felt intense magicka surging through him, more than he had ever felt in his life, conducting through him until it lanced out of his other hand – a beam of pure magical energy. It blasted towards Saroth and engulfed him, gruesomely frying him alive and sending his dead, blackened body flying across the chamber.
But then Jurard noticed that Saroth hadn't stopped the beam of energy, and it collided with another crystal with a loud bang, smashing the crystal open.
"Oh, shit…" Jurard said to himself.
Another purple beam of magic shot out of the newly-broken crystal, hitting the opposite wall. More beams fanned out as an unstoppable chain reaction began.
"Get down!" Varo bellowed as he crash-tackled Fariel to the floor. Marconi and Jurard fell to the ground with him as the cave lit up with a dazzling brightness and deafening bangs ripped through the air.
Varo opened his eyes. Stars and flashes of colour filled his vision. The last thing he could remember was a huge bang and a brilliant, dazzling flash of white light. Looking up at the ceiling, the first thing he noticed was that the crystals were gone.
"It turned from a chain reaction into an explosion" a voice said. Varo looked up and saw Jurard, already on his feet. Looking around, he saw Fariel and Marconi, alive and well. Marconi walked over and helped Varo to his feet.
"I think we did it" Varo said weakly. "Saroth… he's dead, isn't he?"
"Let's make sure" Marconi replied, dragging Saroth's dead body over to the pit of lava then kicking it over the edge.
"Is everyone alright?" Varo asked. Despite what had just happened, none of the four seemed to be hurt.
After a few seconds of silence, Varo spoke. "Every time we are victorious, there is a consequence. First Father Velas, now Galmina and Erdora. When will we have a victory without consequence?"
Fariel walked over to her father and gently put her hand on his arm. "We won, Father. You are a hero again"
"No, it was Jurard who killed Saroth. How did you know that was going to happen?"
"I took a risk" Jurard said. "Just like you always do. But I dread to think what I have done in the process… what was that flash of light?"
"Come on, we'd better go and let the others know we're alright" Varo said, leading the four out of the doorway.
--
Nothing could prepare the four for the sight that met them on returning to the surface. The mine was gone. Not just destroyed, completely gone – no traces of its existence even remained. Desperately, Varo raced up the edge of the crater that surrounded the mines, giving him a view of Caldera.
Or, at least, where Caldera should have been.
The town, like the mines, had completely vanished.
"What have we done?" Varo said to himself as the other three joined him. "The crystals… We unleashed the power of Vvardenfell…"
"It doesn't make sense" Marconi said. "We survived. The room survived. Even the tunnel leading from the room to the surface survived. So what happened to everything else?"
Varo pointed northeast, at the looming expanse of Red Mountain. "We need to see what other damage has been done. We can see the whole of Vvardenfell from up there… we might be all that's left…"
--
A few minutes earlier
"Varo!" Hermidius cried as he raced down the tunnel that led to the newly-excavated passageway to the chamber containing the crystals. The ground shook with constant explosions as Hermidius ran, struggling to keep his footing. Then, suddenly, there was a blinding flash of white light, which lasted several seconds, backed by an earth-shaking roar. Hermidius held his hands over his eyes, waiting for it to subside, then carried on running. Fearing the worst, Hermidius finally reached the chamber.
It was completely empty. No-one alive. No crystals. Nothing but bare rock walls and the pit of lava. Varo, Fariel, Jurard and Marconi had all gone. There wasn't even any trace of their bodies.
Shocked and bemused, Hermidius fell to the ground and buried his head in his hands.
-The End-
-of-
-Vvardenfell Reborn Part II-
-To Be Continued-