~ Chapter Fifteen ~
The Gauldrstone
Luz and Amity made their way out of the flooded hall, finding some halfway dry passages ahead.
Sitting down, shivering, Luz started to scribe her fire globe spell onto the floor with her chalk, using Irileth's dagger to charge the spell, by scratching the last sigil with the tip.
A blaze of flame ignited, and Luz quickly dumped a few rotted bits of wood into it, just enough to sustain itself after the magic ran its course.
Then she sat down and looked at the wound on her side. Nothing serious, but her robes were beyond ruined.
"You look ghastly," Amity said, though her tone wasn't judgemental. "You don't happen to know any healing spells?"
Luz ignored the skepticism in her tone, nodding. "I do actually." She pulled out Eda's potions. "Half a dose each I think."
She unplugged the small bottle and took a swig of it, before handing it to Amity.
Amity made to take it but hissed as her hand flexed and Luz had to catch the bottle.
"Sorry." Amity glared at her hands as if they had betrayed her.
"No worries," Luz said, scooting closer. "Head back."
"Wh-" Luz had already cupped the back of Amity's head and knocked the potion into her mouth before Amity could object.
The golden glow spread through her, small sparks of light knitting the skin on Luz's side and dancing over Amity's palms.
Sitting back, Luz quickly went through her satchel, taking out her journal and setting it on end near the fire to dry, before getting out her sandwich.
She offered one half to Amity, who still looked a little flustered about the potion, but was holding her hands out to the fire.
"It's just cheese," Luz said. "Nothing fancy."
Amity took the offered food but kept looking anywhere by Luz. "Why?"
"Why what?" Luz asked around a mouthful of slightly soggy bread and hard, sharp cheese.
"Why are you being nice to me?"
"What, should I just sit here and eat this on my own?" Luz shrugged. "Seems like a mean thing to do."
Amity took a bite of the sandwich and chewed for a bit. After a while, she said, "I'm sorry. I haven't been all that friendly. I've been under a lot of stress, and…" She trailed off and Luz made to change the subject.
"If you don't want to talk about it," she nodded to Amity's hands. "You don't have to. But, if we're stuck down here with a city's-worth of draugr, maybe we should discuss some strengths and weaknesses."
Amity was quiet for a while, eyes narrowed suspiciously. Eventually, as she finished the sandwich, her gaze fell back to the fire. "It's… a long story."
"We got time," Luz said, leaning back on her elbow.
"I was born on the 15th of Sun's Height. Under the signs of the Apprentice."
"You have an affinity for magicka then," Luz said, catching Amity by surprise for a second before nodding.
"You checked out The Firmament. I assumed you wanted to learn more about your own blessing?"
"It was a short read," Luz said. "Didn't have anything I didn't already know though."
"Yes, well, it is more of a folio than a dissertation."
"I'm going to pretend I know what that means." Luz grinned as Amity let out a small snort. "But I remember people being born under the Apprentice can more greatly affect Magicka - for better or worse."
"Yes. It wasn't until much later when I was learning my first spells - lighting candles and making snowballs, minor things like that - that it showed. If I channeled too much magicka at once, or for too long… I could lose control of the spell. Hurt myself." She held up her necklace, and Luz saw the telltale shimmer of enchantment. "My mother made me this. It suppresses a lot of my magical potential, but it allows me to cast without worry."
"But if you surpass it," Luz quessed. "You could still hurt yourself."
Amity nodded. "All destruction magic, basically. Anything capable of hurting others can hurt me."
"That's why you use atronachs so much," Luz said, making sure not to sound too excited at figuring it out. "Because they are something you anchor to your magicka, not like a firebolt or something."
Amity frowned at her. "Yes. How did you know that?"
Luz shrugged. "Just because I can't cast spells like everyone else, doesn't mean that they don't interest me. Like, I think I could, in theory, summon something with my runes, right? There's rituals, I know. But there would be a chance that it would either fizzle, because of the Atronach, or become unbound. Which would be pretty dangerous.
"Not to mention healing magic."
Amity's face paled. "Gods, you're right."
Luz nodded. "Yeah."
"Your skin absorbs all forms of outside magicka. And you don't know any healing magic."
"There's a chance that it either wouldn't work," Luz added, cheerfully, glad she could share something with Amity. "Or be significantly less effective."
"Luz, you shouldn't have given me that potion."
"And what, Blightward?" Luz smirked, sarcastically. "You know a ton of healing spells?"
"Well, no… but…"
"Then it wasn't a waste." Luz picked up her book and shook it. "Dry enough. You all set, or do you need a minute or two more?"
They traveled in silence for a while, taking a few turns that led to collapsed rooms or tunnels, forcing them to backtrack.
After going down the same wrong turn twice, Luz flipped open her journal and started scribbling.
"What are you doing?" Amity asked, and Luz was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to be an earnest question.
"Well," she said, holding up a very crude sketch. "I realized that we don't have a map. So I'm making one."
"That's a… good idea."
"I mean, if we had a wayfinding spell, that would probably be just as good," Luz said, shrugging. "But I don't have any idea how to make that out of my sigils."
There was silence for a minute and then there was a crackling hiss of blue flame in Amity's palm, illuminating a furious blush.
"Yeah," Luz said. "Like that one."
"We… will not speak of this," Amity said, spinning on her heel and heading back the way they had come.
"Yes, ma'am," Luz said, restraining her laughter. "Gods, you turn redder than my Mami's summer tomatoes."
"I do not!"
"How would you know? Have you seen our tomatoes?"
"Let's… change the subject."
"Okay. How would you know if you had been charmed?"
For a moment Luz worried she had been too direct. But Amity's answer seemed to be unbiased.
"You wouldn't." She recast her magelight as the last one faded, and then brought up the wayfinding spell again. "At least, with some of the higher-level ones. It really depends on what the caster wanted from the spell."
"Let's say," Luz said. "That there was a mage against a group of bandits. Could you trick them into fighting amongst themselves?"
"Of course, but there are a dozen ways to do that." Amity turned another corner, barely looking where she was going. "I don't know many well enough to cast them, but Augustus probably does."
"What would you use?"
"I… I don't know. Why?"
"Just trying to pass the time in this very dark and creepy tomb," Luz lied. Well, half-lied. The silence was deafening to her.
Amity paused, dismissing the spell in her hand. "I'm… not sure. Am I known to these bandits, or have they ambushed me?"
"Does it matter?"
"If it didn't, why would I ask?"
"Fair enough." Luz thought for a second, each of them leaning against one side of a doorframe. "Ambushed. They've got the drop on you. Money or your life sort of thing."
"And I can only use Illusion magics?"
"Ah, yeah."
"And do I have enough space to cast a spell before any of them can get near me?"
Luz nodded.
Amity paced for a minute, muttering to herself before, "Alright. An invisibility spell, to cloak my location. I'm assuming this is a highway, so I'll run into the cover of the roadside and cast an Incitation spell."
"What's that do?"
"Incite is an adept-level spell," Amity said, already lost in the scenario. "Complex and nearly impossible to discern when under its sway. If it was cast on just one of them, it can lead to intense disagreements and even violence if that person is capable of it. It basically uses the target's own emotions and reasoning against them, forcing unreasonable conclusions to become reasonable ones.
"If it was cast on more than one, a fight is almost decided, as both will conclude violence is the only option."
"And," Luz said, a little nervous with how fast Amity had thought that out. "That would work? In this scenario?"
"You tell me," Amity said with a smile. "The only sign of this spell is increased aggression and a faint manifestation. The act of the spell itself. Like this blue flame. Otherwise, I would recast my invisibility and leave."
"What if one of the bandits was a mage?" Luz asked, following Amity as she made her way out of the doorway and along the balcony, the edge falling off into nearly pitch blackness.
"They'd have to be a skilled Illusionist to even know it happened. The signs are very hard to pick out. If they knew a spell was cast, someone could attempt to reason with the target, and the effect only lasts a minute or so. Social momentum takes over afterward."
"And what happens when it wares off?"
"Well, you aren't deceiving their eyes. You didn't make one of them look like a troll or make them each think they were surrounded by wolves. You used their own mind against them. They would rationalize anything that happened."
Amity shrugged. "That's where the social momentum kicks in. It was a concept invented by Morgan LeFhrey, though it's often attributed to his master, Raminus Polus. Basically, if an illusion spell is subtle enough, it need only prompt the target, not change their thinking entirely."
"Wait," Luz said, stopping in her tracks. "Morgan LeFhrey. The Champion?"
Amity turned. "Yes."
"The one who helped found my town?"
"I assumed you knew he served under Archmage Travin during the Resurrection of Mannimarco?"
"Yes! Wait, no. Well, I knew he was inducted into the mage's guild and helped them hunt down a dangerous cult. But, who was Mannimarco?"
"Ah," Amity said, nodding. "You've only read Humphrey Featherwilt's series, An Accounting of the Champion, and its derivatives. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I loved them growing up. Mother said they were drivel, but Father thought I should still learn about him, so he got me some records from his contacts with the College of Whispers. Mostly second-hand records from the Third Era, about his time at the University, but there are some interviews with Featherwilt that were confiscated or duel-recorded for the University's archives."
She paused, a small smile on her face in response to Luz's look. Reaching out, she gently closed Luz's jaw. "I kept my favorite ones in a personal folio. When we get out of here, I'd be happy to let you borrow them."
"That… would be amazing," Luz breathed. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a fireside matchmaker, but… do you think Morgan and Svari Ulfr had something going on?"
"What? No, not at all." Amity chuckled at Luz's crestfallen face, before turning and heading down the stairs. "She and Martin Septim were definitely a thing."
They had been traveling in modest silence - broken only by one of Luz's many questions about magic or the Champion, answered good-naturedly by Amity - when they arrived in a small circular room, with four pillars in it and a series of portcullises leading to a closed door.
At least, Luz didn't know what else to call the pillars. They didn't support the ceiling, being only five feet tall, and each had a silver embossed animal shape on the iron-black stone.
Very much like the animal shapes on the dragon claw from the Bleak Falls tomb.
"A Nordic puzzle room," Amity murmured. "I've seen a couple. Always seemed simplistic to me. Might as well of had a key. Look, the answer symbols are just above them."
Luz hummed thoughtfully as she looked up. Amity was right. None of the symbols above each black pillar matched the face they showed, but on a quick inspection, each pillar had three sides, each with a different picture, and one of them did.
"Just match them up," Amity said, heading to the closest left-hand one. "These usually mean we're nearing the heart of the complex." She gripped one of the pillars and turned it.
"Amity-" Luz called out, jumping away from her pillar as it rumbled and spun. "I think this is a more complicated one."
They watched as each pillar spun in unison, with each subsequent one spinning one more time than the last.
Amity sighed. "Gods..."
"Wait," Luz said. "Wait-wait… spin that one again, opposite direction."
"Are you sure?"
"It's not like we knew what we were doing the first time," Luz said, getting out her notebook. "If it's a puzzle, it can be solved logically. Mami and I would play these kinds of games all the time. We just need to reset it."
As the stones rumbled again, each one turning in sequence - now the opposite way, back to where they had started - Luz started to sketch out the room. After a few more tests, coupled with a discussion on what one of the symbols was - "It's a whale, Luz." "It's a fish, Amity. What in Oblivion is a whale?" - they each stood on one side of the room.
"You ready?" Luz asked, checking her paper again. "It's actually really easy. Your far left one, then the one closest the door. Then my far right one and then mine, closest to the door."
"Told you they were simple," Amity said, grinning at Luz, who promptly stuck out her tongue.
"It took us ten minutes to figure this out on paper. And we're pretty smart."
"Let's hope there's no more to it than this," Amity said, but her voice was drowned out by the rumbling of ancient stones as the pillars all spun. "Alright, then my side again." She hurried over to the other pillar, waiting for it to stop spinning before hefting it into a new turn. "Then yours."
Luz waited long enough for all of them to stop turning before she spun hers, and got to the last one just in time to turn it to the right symbol above, as it stopped spinning.
There was a very audible grinding, click, and then the rustling of rusted chains as the portcullises withdrew one by one.
"Thought you said your favorite game was Glass Jacks?" Amity said, shouldering Luz. "You've got a mind, Lucaeda Nochtim."
"Well, let's not have it go to waste down here," Luz said, laughing. "Let's go."
But as she stepped forward, a blue glow flickered over her, making her feel like she just walked through a thunderhead.
"Amity?"
"Luz?"
Their voices echoed a little, and when Luz turned around, Amity was standing where she had been, stock still, staring straight ahead.
Luz went up to her and shook her shoulder, but it was trying to shake a statue. "Amity, can… can you hear me?"
No answer, except for her echoing voice and a strange feeling that she wasn't alone.
Turning back around, she yelled. A man - dressed in yellow-gold robes - stood in the archway leading forward.
"Hold mage," he said, raising a hand. "And listen well."
"What did you do to my friend?" Luz said, but her voice didn't sound right. It was almost like Amity's, and it echoed back at her from the room, not from her mouth.
But the figure didn't pause. "You have sent in motion a chain of events that cannot be stopped, nor allowed to come to pass.
"Judgement against you cannot be made, as you had no way of knowing your actions would manifest these consequences.
"Judgement will be made on your actions to come, as well as those of your comrade, against the dangers ahead.
"This is a warning. Passed to you because the Psijic Order believes in you, despite the company you will keep. You have the potential to prevent a terrible disaster amidst another. Take great care, and know that we are watching."
Luz felt the wave of static again and stumbled as she felt what she could only describe as 'time' start moving again, like when she was in the back of a wagon.
She suddenly became very aware that Amity was beside her, as if she hadn't always been there.
They looked at each other for a long moment, both somehow out of breath.
"Did… did you?" Luz trailed off, gesturing to where the man had been.
"You as well?" Amity leaned on her knees. "Gods, I'm going to be sick."
"What happened?"
"I don't know."
"What was he talking about?"
"I'm not sure." Amity was paler than usual, and Luz decided that she had the right idea and took a seat on the floor.
Her skin was itchy, like it had been after she took the atronach's spear to her back. Numb yet hot, though it was fading a lot faster than that one.
After a while, Amity got up, taking a steadying breath, and then offered Luz her hand. "Come on. We won't find any answers down here. We need a library."
"What did he… tell you?" Luz asked, taking the hand and standing.
"If we saw the same person," Amity said, heading toward the hallway. "I'm guessing he told us the same thing. A cryptic warning. The Psijic Order.
"But I don't know what they have to do with these ruins. The Psijic's are an Aldmeri order, based out of Artaeum. No one has seen or heard of them in over a century, after their island vanished. And they certainly have no relevance here.
"This is something we should bring to the Archmage, for certain."
They emerged from the tunnel and into a massive chamber. Luz hadn't been sure where the blue light was coming from, but as they entered, she saw it.
"Wow."
"I'd have to agree," Amity said.
In the lightless crypt they found themselves, a flood of magical energy occupied the center, surrounding a great sphere, floating a few feet off the ground. The wall of magic gave off a green-blue glow and a slight gust.
In front of the sphere, slumped in a chair - or, more accurately, a throne - was a desiccated corpse, their hands linked to the throne with chains.
Luz and Amity exchanged a look.
"Ladies first," Luz said, gesturing.
Amity gave her a raised eyebrow in response but recast her magelights and started down the stairs on the left. Luz followed after, rubbing at her arms.
"Are you okay?" Amity asked, reaching the bottom of the stairs and looking around.
"I keep getting chills," Luz said. "It must be the magic. It gets like this whenever it absorbs magicka, or something. Never noticed until recently."
"How have you never noticed that?"
"I mean, until a couple weeks ago, I didn't think my life would be threatened every day. Most magic I saw before this was Missus Cobble's Magic Show. I don't even think it was real illusion magic. Just sleight of hand."
She shrugged. "You said it took you years to figure out your situation, and you grew up with it."
"Huh," Amity said in response, wandering over to a stone table. Her lights revealed several soul gems, numerous rolls of linen, and a staff - polished white wood, seemingly grown around a crystal orb at the top of it, with a white-gold inlay of runes and swirling patterns.
She picked up a slip of paper and started to read, leaving Luz to trot over to look too.
"Be yee bound here, Jyrik, patricide, and servant of the Woodland Man. Condemned by your crimes against realm, lord, kith and kin. May your name and deeds be stricken and forgotten forever. You lie here, with His Eye, laden as its defender, even beyond death, but never able to attain its power."
They looked at each other, then back at the corpse in the chair.
Its eyes flared with an insidious green glow, and its neck crackled as it jittered in its chains.
"Kriist ahrk kos mindok… Kro. Bo het, ful Zu'u aal tiinvak…"
"Dragon speech," Amity whispered.
"Yeah," Luz said. "I've heard it before. You understand it at all?"
"I've only ever seen it written," Amity said, unable to take her eyes off the shimmering green of Jyrik's. "Not spoken."
"Ah, joor… Mun," the draugr said, its hollow, wheezing chuckle echoing out of a lipless mouth. "So long… it has been. But new is this tongue, bound in iron, nevermore and never after…"
"Oh, that's a lot of creepy," Luz said, but Amity stepped forward.
"What is your name, spector?" she demanded.
"Zu'u Jyrik," the corpse said, straining against the chains. "Keeper of Gauldrstone."
"You're a myth," Amity said, but Luz thought she heard a quake in her voice.
"Myth of flesh," Jyrik said, his voice steady, but his body started to throw itself against the chains with a terrible clanking. "Spirit strong. Learned, moreso now than then." There was a deep inhale and Luz was sure that if he had a mouth to smile with, he would. "No Guirmund… dead. Now… join dinok!"
A thundering crack resounded through the tomb, a blaze of purple flame and sound buffeting Amity's ward as she threw it up, dragging Luz behind her.
"Get back," she said, willing a conjuration spell into being. "Flames of Oblivion, rise and strike!"
"No, way," Luz said, gripping her staff in one hand and her dagger in the other. "I can help."
"No! Move," Amity yelled, dropping her ward and grabbing Luz by the shoulders. There was actual fear in her eyes. "This is one of the most powerful mages of the ancient Nords. You are not capable of this. Go!"
The flame atronach that had emerged from Amity's spell, lunged for Jyrik, who laughed, his body likewise lunging forward, the chains snapping. The atronach crashed into him, sending them both back into the throne, rocking it backward.
"Then you need my help," Luz said, gripping her weapons tighter. "You're no Archmage, Blightward."
Amity growled in frustration, just as the atronach was hurled back by Jyrik, smashing into the wall and extinguishing, vanishing in a steam of purple-black mist.
"Bli…ght…" Jyrik said, gathering himself and twisting his head back to face forward with a pop. "Descent? Qiilaan zaam."
Amity collapsed to one knee with a gasp. "Gods! Luz, just run!"
Luz took a step back, looking between Jyrik and Amity. She couldn't leave.
She wouldn't.
"Du arhk zaam," Jyrik said, raising a hand. With a flash of orange light, the staff hurled itself from the table toward him.
"Sorry!" Luz said, vaulting over Amity, whipping her staff out in a wide spin, connecting and sending Jyrik's staff flying off into a corner.
"You… dare!" Jyrik's anger and motion were instant. He moved faster than any undead body had to, hands closing around Luz's neck. "Joor lir! Unmake with own hands!"
Luz grinned around his boney fingers grasping for her throat. "Looking a bit dry, Jyrik." The gout of flames that tore through her staff roared over him, launching Jyrik away in a scream of fire and bone.
She climbed to her feet, forcing herself through the motions, gasping for having taken the weight of their fall. For a skeleton, he was heavy.
She scribbled out her shield rune on the floor, stepping into it with barely-practiced motion, and felt the magic rise over her.
She also felt her staff shudder, as her first one had just before it lost its charge. "Out of options," she muttered, looking toward Jyrik. He had landed just before the wall of energy and was gathering himself.
Looking over at Amity, she could see her straining against an invisible force, something driving her into the ground, forcing her not just to her knees, but all fours.
Without a thought, Luz charged toward Jyrik, whipping her staff around to crack him in the side of the head.
He stumbled back and touched the wall of energy. He screamed - a terrible, ungodly scream, and ripped his hand out of the torrent.
But as he tried to step away, Luz smacked him again, then plunged her staff into his chest, driving him into the wall.
Blue flames cascaded over him, sparks of lighting arching out along his metal armor, striking the walls, the barrier, and Luz.
She felt the first one, sending crackling numbness over her arm. The second took her in the chest and she almost lost her footing, pressing Jyrik - screaming, cursing - into the barrier.
Another went wide, and she leaned in. She could see his bones getting whipped away, torn apart, and cracking from blue fire.
Just a little longer-
With a defiant snarl, Jyrik grabbed the staff and hauled it toward him, grabbing Luz with one hand and pulling her closer, off her feet. "Dinok lir…"
Luz could feel the wind from the magical barrier tear at her face and clothes, tears springing to her eyes as she drove Irileth's dagger home.
Jyrik looked down at her dagger, wedged deep into his ribs, then back at her. "Unlife… has benefits."
"Oh-no," Luz muttered, feeling ancient bones dig into her skin, breaking through, hot blood spilling out from punctures and scratches, being whipped up and away.
There was a thundercrack, and a blaze of energy ripped into the barrier. Luz felt the wind die as the wall slowed, and then another arch of lightning caught her in the chest and hurled her away, tumbling and rolling across stones.
Her vision blurred as she came to rest, looking up at Jyrik as an arrow took him between the eyes, scattering a green, spectral face across the barrier, his body collapsing, before everything faded to black.