Waking, I wonder whether it really is morning or not – there is no light to be seen from the opening in the ceiling. Ah well; no real point in trying to get back to sleep now – I'm stiff enough as it is, so I gather up the items I'd slept on and head into the next passageway.
The tunnel slopes upwards slightly, and after a few feet turns right around and heads back into the cave, leading onto a ramp leading around the edge of the cave and up out of the ceiling and into a beautiful vale. The snow from the mountains reaches down the slopes, ending only where the ground flattens out and is covered by trees and fallen masonry. There are several patches of the little glowing blue flowers I'd seen throughout Darkfall Passage, and I can see many veins of ore scattered around the edge of the vale. As I gaze across the scenery, a striped sabre cat chases a deer with similar patterning across the vale, disappearing from view behind some rocks.
"It's incredible… like a whole other world!" Serana gasps beside me. "Come on, the bow has to be in this valley somewhere." She starts clambering down the rocks towards the remains of a path, and I hurry to catch up.
As we reach the bottom, the sabre cat reappears, blood dripping from its whiskers, and charges straight towards us. As if that fat deer wasn't enough! I draw my sword faster than I ever remember doing so before, and swing at the same time the cat pounces. Through some sort of strange strike of luck, my blade sails through the beast's open mouth, slicing the top of its head clean off to land at my feet with a messy thump. Ew.
Leaving the corpse behind, I head off in a random direction, leaving the scattered remains of the road behind. On the way, I mine a couple of silver veins and slay a troll before coming upon the second shrine.
"Welcome, Initiate." The ghost guarding it says. "This is the Wayshrine of Sight. Are you prepared to honour the mantras of Auri-El, and fill your vessel with his enlightenment?" I respond in the affirmative, and he continues. "Then behold Auri-El's gift, my child. May it speed your journey to the Inner Sanctum."
Filling the ewer once the shrine has risen, I notice a pair of gold veins behind the shrine, so I deplete them before I return to the tatters of the road and head for where it passes through a gap in the mountains. There is another vein of gold nearby, which I am about to mine when a trio of spiders dash out of the pass and attack us. I decide to just use the pickaxe, since it's already in my hand, so I bring it swinging down to pierce the first spider's abdomen while Serana slays another with an icicle. We round on the third at the same time, and we both take out one of its eyes each. I swung the pickaxe so hard that I have to use my foot to push the dead arachnid off of it, and I wipe the blood off on its back before I use it for its intended purpose on the ore vein.
As we head through the pass, another massive spider descends from an overhang, and a wrapped, desiccated corpse falls at our feet. Urgh; I draw my sword and charge the disgusting creature. Why can't the spiders here be more like the comparatively tiny little ones in Cyrodiil, who would rather hide in a dark nook than be anywhere near a person?
The spider lunges at me with its two front legs, and I easily hack them off with one swipe of my blade before sinking it into the monster's face. As it collapses, its life fading, I catch my reflection in one of the larger eyes, and I flinch a little – I am quite scary when I'm fighting. Especially with that vicious rage shining in my eye…
After mining out the nearby gold veins, we head down into the next valley, which is completely covered in snow – except for the parts where a thick layer of ice covers the river coursing through the middle. Ahead of us, a waterfall cascades down from a tall cliff, with steps carved into the rock close by. On this side of the frozen water, a chest sits guarded by a stiff skeleton, a book fallen from its hand. I flick through the book, but it's written in a language I don't recognise – Snow Elf, maybe? I'll have to see if I can get it translated.
Looking to my left, I can see the shape of another shrine, so I head in that direction first.
"You've reached the Wayshrine of Learning, Initiate. Are you prepared to honour the mantras of Auri-El, and fill your vessel with his enlightenment?"
"Yes."
"Auri-El bless you, child. For you are a step closer to the Inner Sanctum, and everlasting wisdom."
Once I have added the water from that shrine to what rests inside the ewer, I continue southwards along the river's edge, until I reach a point where it cascades into a hole in the steep rocks. I'm curious…
"Careful, here." Serana warns me. "If you fall down that thing, I'm going to have to drag you out of… wherever it leads."
I pause, thinking. I am getting more curious as to where the waterfall leads as I do, and I've always enjoyed 'waterfalling', as I call it…
I jump into the cold water and allow the flow to sweep me over the falls and into the darkness below.
Luckily the pool at the bottom is deep enough that I don't hurt myself when I fall in, but shallow enough that I can easily push off of the bottom to reach the surface of the water, which is flowing, getting steadily faster, towards another opening on the other side of the cave we've ended up in. Yep – Serana jumped in after me.
"Ugh." She complains as we reach a point where we can drag ourselves out of the water for a little time. "I told you! Next time I say to please not go over the waterfall, maybe you'll listen to me."
Serana really can be a spoilsport when she wants to be. And anyway, by the looks of it, the only way out of this cave is to go over the next waterfall.
As we explore the cavern, various naked Betrayed attack us, and we end up leaving them amongst the corpses of their not so feral brethren. A couple of chests lurk near some of the crude chitin huts the poor Falmer live in, and as we return from looting them a single chaurus hunter attempts to make us into lunch. After proving to it what a bad idea that was, we take the plunge down the other waterfall and end up in the water at the bottom of the final cavern of Darkfall Passage.
It's a good thing that with each shrine opened up, a portal to the other open shrines appeared inside them, otherwise it would be a long trudge back to around where we were when we dropped down the first fall. The spectral Prelate ignores us as we pass him and head through the portal to the Shrine of Learning.
Once on the other side, I lead Serana northwards, towards the steps up the cliff, and we end up taking a zig-zagging course over the ice as I spot various ore veins scattered along the icy bank under the massive icicles hanging from the rocks above. I'm about to head up the steps when I see, at the other end of the river, a massive white creature, so I sneak closer to get a better look.
It's a Frost Giant. I've only ever heard of these creatures in stories – I never thought they could be real. But it's unmistakable; the five eyes, the two massive curved horns atop its head, the shaggy white fur. I'm about to try to sneak back towards the steps when, with a loud cry, Serana rushes past me and starts pelting it with her icicles. What in Oblivion is she thinking?! I draw my crossbow and join in the attack – I have no other choice; without assistance this thing could kill my friend without a second's pause.
The giant raises its massive club – which is no more than a dead tree trunk – and brings it slamming into the ground, just missing Serana. The ground shudders, sending the vampire stumbling backwards, and I'm shooting and reloading as fast as I can while she clambers back to her feet. The huge creature raises its club again, and one of my bolts thuds into its neck, and with a surprisingly large spurt of bright crimson blood, the giant topples backwards, landing on its back with a thump hard enough to crack the ice on the nearby water.
"What in the Nine possessed you to do that?" I ask Serana as I approach the corpse to find out what the large crystal shape that had fallen from its pouch was. She shrugs, and I retrieve the gem and tuck it in my bag for examination later, trying my best not to glare at her.
Climbing the slope, we encounter the fourth shrine.
"You've arrived at the Wayshrine of Resolution. Are you prepared to honour the mantras of Auri-El, and fill your vessel with his enlightenment?"
"Yes." I respond to the greeting.
"Then go forth, child. May the enrichment of Auri-El strengthen your resolve as you undertake the journey to the Inner Sanctum."
As the spectre raises the shrine, I see out in the middle of a frozen lake, from which the waterfall cascades into the river below, what looks like a primitive Word Wall, so once the ewer is filled I head out onto the ice.
With a crash, two massive, strange looking dragons smash through the inch-thick ice and climb into the air above us.
"Gahvon joorre fah Voslaarum." Cries one.
"Ahrk Naaslaarum kos het." Calls the other. By the sound of it, that is meant to be heard as one sentence. How long have they had to come up with and rehearse that? If only I knew what it was they were actually saying. I get the implication that they were announcing who they were. Voslaarum and Naaslaarum – twins maybe?
As one dragon swoops at us, the other circles above us, then dives back into the lake, crashing again through the ice, and once more to appear elsewhere. This is going to be a fun fight, I don't think.
Drawing Dragonbane, I watch as one – Naaslaarum? – readies itself to swoop at us again, and I draw a deep breath.
"Joor Zah Frul!" The dragon flies straight into the glow of my Shout, and it pulls up out of its dive and lands a few feet away. Serana is first to react, casting her icicles at the beast, and I charge straight towards it, and with a flying leap cut a deep gouge out of the side of its face. I Shout again at the same time it tries to bathe me in fire, interrupting it and causing it to flinch back. I'm hacking and slashing away, and soon the beast is dead, and I turn to the other, who lands not too far away.
I use Dragonrend on Voslaarum to prevent it escaping, and as his brother's soul comes rushing to me I run to drive home our attack. I can see the shock in its eyes – I don't think it expected us to fight back, let alone slay its brother – and its attacks are more frantic than the other one's were, too.
After what seems like an age after their initial appearance, both dragons are mere skeletons lying atop the ice. It is no longer one solid sheet; there are many holes where the dragons dove in and out of the lake. I approach the Wall, and am taught the Word 'Lah', and how to use it to drain the magical energy of my foes.
A chest nearby holds the minor loot I've come to expect after a difficult fight, and I return to solid ground to head further into the valley. In a deep crevice formed by rushing rapids, we find several chaurus pods, which we smash open and some ore veins which I mine out. We head up a stony slope and across a natural bridge to find the cliffs above inhabited by many of the Betrayed, so we have to fight our way along the route.
A little way along, we come across a cave, so I decide to see what is inside. Following the dark passage, I swap my crossbow for my sword so I have a hand free for a torch. The first cavern holds nothing more than a chitin hut built on stilts so that the entrance is halfway up the stone ramp that leads down to the bottom of the cave. The next section of the cave has almost as little, just a chest and a pair of Betrayed. Another stone ramp nearby leads back outside, bringing us to the bank of the rapids again, but further upstream where there are more pods and ore veins. It's dark now, so after dealing with the pods and draining the veins of ore, we head back into the cave to rest for the night.
A/N: To save you the time of looking it up, Voslaarum and Naaslaarum say: 'Yield, mortals, for Voslaarum.' 'And Naaslaarum are here.' Corny, huh?!