Chapter 8 – Riddles

The inside of the Oblivion gate was indescribable. Hordes upon hordes of deadra roamed the land that consisted almost only of fire and lava. The only thing Althea had ever seen that reminded her of the plain of Oblivion was the paintings of hell that she had seen in the books at the priory. Oddly enough, none of the deadra seemed interested by the enormous gate that had suddenly appeared in front of them. They walked around it and past it, but did not look at it.

"Since they are so intelligent, they have probably already figured out that someone has entered, so stay silent," Nika whispered. For the first time since they had first met, Althea appreciated Nika's company. Of course she couldn't see him, but hearing his voice was enough to make her feel safe, or at least safer.

"That big tower is where we're headed. Follow me." This time it had been Émile who had spoken. The tower he was talking about was located at the top of a hill. It was so high that the black clouds concealed the uppermost part of it. A spell that made her able to detect life was cast over her, probably by Thanatos, so that she and the rest of the group were able to see each other.

She followed the human-shaped purple dots of bright light as silently as she could. They followed a narrow trail up a steep hill, carefully avoiding sharp rocks, fire throwers, mines, hazardous plants and deep pools of lava.

The person in front of her grabbed her hand to help her climb atop a big boulder that was blocking the trail. She was already out of breath and they hadn't actually climbed that far. Ahead of them lay more boulders, even bigger than the first one. She squeezed the other persons hand even harder. "Do you want me to carry you?" It was Nika, of course.

"No, thank you. I'll be fine on my own." With that she let go of his hand and pressed on, past the others and down from the boulder. Unfortunately she hadn't looked down properly before she jumped, so she landed with a heavy thump right in front of a dremora mage. She didn't even have time to scream before an arrow zipped by her ear and dug itself into the dremora's forehead. It was dead before it hit the ground.

"Let the kid lead the way," said Thanatos. The sound of his bowstring being stretched out again was muffled by the ringing in her ears. Despite the fact that the danger had been taken care of in no time, she was still terrified.

"Althea? Are you okay?" this time it was Finn who took her hand.

"Yes, just a bit spooked." The composure of her own voice surprised her. Finn steadied her as they continued up towards the high tower.

When they had finally reached the top, Althea thought her heart was going to explode. Finn had helped her the whole way, never letting go of her hand, despite being just as exhausted as she was. "Does anyone mind if we stop for a while?" he asked pleadingly.

"Not for long," said Émile silently. "Nika, do you see that?" he asked and Althea could see a purple arm-looking light point towards the entrance to the tower.

"Yes," he mumbled. "Looks like we are in for some trouble."

"What's wrong?" Finn asked.

"Someone has already been here, probably Kalma and her mages. There is a dead deadra down there, and the other ones are really cautious. One wrong step and they'll be all over us."

"Oh, great." Finn didn't sound very happy. "I'm ready, lets get going."

Quietly they sneaked up to the entrance, past several deadras. Althea just barely managed to avoid stepping on the corpse of a xivilai lying on the base of the stairs. She could not help herself from staring. It was horribly ugly, but the likeness to a human was still striking.

"Be prepared," Émile whispered before pushing the door open.

The surrounding deadra stopped dead in their tracks as they heard how the old hinges creaked. Someone grabbed Althea by the arm and brusquely pushed her inside without a word. Someone shouted out in pain as she fell to the floor. When she looked up she saw two people hurrying to close the gates behind them.

The sudden sound of a metallic clash made her turn around just in time to see two dremoras fall down dead, and a third lose its head.

"This room is clear." Kai, she thought. His voice was still very unfamiliar to her.

"Thanks. Althea, help Finn," Émile ordered. The invisibility spell disappeared and she could see Finn lying on the floor with the shaft of an arrow sticking up from his back.

With a quick movement she went up next to him and pulled the arrow out. A pained scream was what she had been expecting to hear, but instead he just shouted a word she did not know, and did not care to know, probably some nord language. Before he had time to protest she put her hand over the wound and pushed down as hard as she could. Once again he shouted that word. A blue light poured down from her hand and into his body, healing it from the inside.

"As good as new," she said sounding pleased. The process hadn't taken more than a few seconds.

Finn blinked. "Oh? Well, thank you. I didn't know you were so good at this kind of stuff."

"We all have our talents, don't we?" she said with a smile.

"Can we continue now? The lack of organisation among the deadras shows that Kalma hasn't reached the throne room, jet." Nika looked just as impatient as he sounded.

Émile nodded. "There is two doors in here, which one should we take?"

Nika shrugged. "They probably lead to the same place, so it doesn't matter."

"Then right it is," Thanatos said and went ahead together with Kai. It was quite obvious that he thought the others were slow.

"Don't just rush ahead," Nika muttered as he cast the invisibility spell again. "Werther you like it or not, we're a team."

"That is not how I do things."

Before Nika could say anything more, Kai opened the door and stepped inside. "Stop fighting like you were an old married couple, it bugs the hell out of me." None of them wanted to answer, so a tense silence settled down in between them.

On the other side of the door a steep, twisting corridor awaited them. As they ascended to the next floor, Thanatos and Nika went ahead and triggered the different traps that they found. The room at the top of the long corridor was empty, except for the frozen body of a clannfear, a clear evidence of Kalma's presence. They continued through the next door, up another booby-trapped corridor and into the next room. This one was different from the first. It was much bigger, and contained six huge obelisks with different symbols on every side.

"Well if it isn't the rebels. How nice of you to join us." A dozen hooded figures in mages' robes suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and at the same time the invisibility spell Nika had cast was broken. In the middle of the group stood a tall, thin woman in expensive-looking blue robes with golden embroideries. Her eyes were cold, and she had a grim smile plastered across her face.

Althea was pushed back by Émile, who hurried to put himself between her and Kalma. "What are you doing here?"

She chuckled smoothly. "The same thing as yourself. Unfortunately we can't seem to get this door open, no matter how hard we try," she said with an annoyed sigh.

"Then go home." It was Thanatos who had spoken. For some reason he looked paler than usual.

"Oh, you must be Lihau. How come you are still alive?"

Althea could see how Thanatos tensed when Kalma spoke that name. "I had some help opening it."

"I see. So you've all been weakened by the spell? Hmph, and I who actually thought this was going to be a challenge."

"So you're going to fight us?" Émile sounded doubtful. "That doesn't sound like you."

"Well I'm not going to kill you now. I'll do it when you have solved the puzzle for me." She pointed at the six obelisks.

"How kind of you. How about this: We kill you now and open the door ourselves," said Finn angrily. His confidence in their group seemed to have grown.

"Well, that is going to be a bit though since I have the only clue on how to open it." Finn was just about to make another smart remark, but Kalma cut him of. "It's up here." With a bony finger she pointed at her temple.

Émile looked doubtful for a moment before he made his choice. "Okay, fine. We'll help you now, and then we'll fight."

"Unless you give up of course."

"And be used as shields for your mages? I know how you work, so don't even try."

"Fine, have it your way," she hissed.

Émile turned around and showed Althea with a nod in Nika's direction that she should keep close to him. After that he went over to the closest obelisk and studied the symbols with his hands. He did the same thing to all the obelisks before sighing. "It seems pretty straightforward. Turn the pillars so that the same symbols face each other. Why haven't you solved it already?"

"It's impossible to turn the obelisks, not even magic can budge them."

"The lines on the floor then?" When she looked down she could confirm that there actually were small lines forming intricate patterns carved into the rough stone floor.

"I have no idea."

"And your clue?"

"The top of the obelisks shine when you use a lightning spell on them, but it stops after a while."

"That I could have figured out myself.. Have you tried lighting them all at the same time?"

Kalma snorted arrogantly. "Like it would be that easy." Émile raised his hand and sent six roaring thunderbolts at the obelisks. Nothing happened. "I told y.." The lines were lighting up, but not only on the floor but on the walls and in the ceiling too. Althea watched in amazement as signs carved into the door started to shine more splendidly than the sun.

As soon as the last symbol had been lighted the atmosphere in the room changed drastically. Émile, Nika, Finn, Thanatos and Kai pulled their weapons and the mages raised their hands, ready to lunge an attack at any moment. Silently they watched each other as the door opened. With a thump the door came to a stop and the madness begun.

Althea was pushed back into the corridor they came from by Nika, and since she knew that she was useless at fighting she stayed there, trying to cast protective and healing spells on the others.

Kai and Thanatos were swirling around the room with their swords like wasps. They had killed no less than five mages in the same time it took Nika and Émile to kill two. Finn on the other hand was just barely holding up. If it hadn't been for the spells that Althea continually kept throwing at him, he would have been long gone.

"Thanatos!" It was Kai who had shouted. He ran over to the other side of the room, almost too quick for her eye to perceive. One of the mages had cornered Thanatos and was aiming at him with a staff. Nika and Émile was fighting their way over to him, but were blocked by the remaining four mages.

The next thing happened so fast that Althea couldn't quite comprehend. Kai threw himself in front of Thanatos, and burst into flames with such ferocity that Althea could feel the heat all the way to where she was standing. His body dissolved into ashes in no time. At the same time Kalma made a run towards the door, but she did not get very far before being tackled down and stabbed several times by Finn, the only one that wasn't preoccupied by any mage. Thanatos killed the mage in front of him with a spell that seemed to inflate the victim until he exploded in a red cloud. His eyes had taken the same blood-red colour. He threw his head back and screamed with a voice that sent chills down her spine. The four remaining mages he tore to shreds with his own hands.

"No, no, no, no.." he repeated while angrily throwing around the dead bodies.

"Thanatos!" said Nika. He knew about the blood-rage and what it could do with a vampire, so he tried as good as he could to position himself between Thanatos and the others.

Althea stepped into the room again. Not quite sure if she was doing the right thing, she walked around Thanatos, as far away from him as she could, and went towards where Kai's ashes were spread on the floor. She noticed the tears running down Thanatos bloodstained face.

With shaking hands she tried to sweep the ashes into a pile, so that she could collect them and bring them with her back through the gate. Everyone deserved a proper funeral, even a vampire.

When she looked up, she found that Thanatos was watching her silently. His eyes had gone back to their normal colour. "Leave it."

Althea blinked. "But don't you want to bury him?"

"His dead already, leave him be."

She stood up again. "Are you sure? If we don't bury him proper.."

"Is said no!" He was showing his fangs.

"Thanatos, I'm sorry for your loss, but we still have to go on," said Émile gently.

Thanatos didn't answer. Instead he just went on to the next corridor. Émile signalled that they should follow him.

(Getting close to the end now. It's going to be 12 chapters in total. Kind of on a roll now, so you won't have to wait too long for the next chapter. While I'm at it I'll just take the opportunity to thank everybody who's reading and especially those who reviews, it really makes my day when I read what you think about my little story!)

Facts about the characters (The few remaining ones!)

Thanatos

Race: 50% Breton, 50% Altmer (Vampire)

Birthsign: The Shadow

Class: Assassin (pretty obvious)

Rank: (Former) Listener, Dark Brotherhood

Laverne

Race: 50% Bosmer, 50% Imperial

Birthsign: The Shadow

Class: Thief

Rank: The Gray Fox, Thievesguild

Kalma

Race: 100% Altmer

Birthsign: The Serpent

Class: The Sorcerer

Rank: Arch-Mage, Magesguild

Panahasi

Race: 100% Altmer

Birthsign: The Steed

Class: The Barbarian

Rank: High Chancellor

Ragnhild

Race: 100% Nord

Birthsign: The Tower

Class: The Crusader

Rank: None