A/N: Many thanks again to krikanalo and Ozymandeos for your reviews! I have to say, I'm not Almalexia's biggest fan either though I think she can be an interesting and nuanced character, and she's a heap of fun to write for. I wasn't really satisfied with the interaction with her in game, which is why I've made many changes to the plot in that area...
Chapter 9: Best Left Buried
Gavas Drin was less polite than Fedris Hler, which was putting it lightly. He looked Llovesi up and down (again ignoring Julan) as if he'd just found her on the bottom of his shoe, although it was unlikely his embroidered slippers ever saw the outside of the Temple. Unlike Hler, his robe was ostentatious, a golden-brocaded green silk thing draped over a high-collared shirt. And unlike Hler, his dislike for her, the Imperials, King Helseth, in fact anything outside the Temple, was apparent. But whenever he spoke of Almalexia, his face was transported in an expression of rapturous adoration.
"Yes, the Mazed Band," he said slowly. "The purpose of the artefact is unknown to me. All I know is that the Lady wants it. I can only assume it will allow her to better minister to her people, though I find that hard to imagine."
He stared at the ceiling for several moments, his hands clasped in rapturous piety.
"Barilzar himself was a powerful mage... quite powerful, in fact," he said, lowering his face to their level again. "He created the band sometime in the middle of the Second Era, and soon after disappeared. You'll find it in the ruins beneath the Temple. Search to the northwest in the sewers. There was a passageway that had been blocked off by a cave-in, but Almalexia has recently had the area cleared. Now, go away."
It only took them an hour to head back to Godsreach to collect their armour and packs, and Llovesi her spears. "Not leaving, are you?" asked Hession, the Altmer proprietor.
"No, we'll be back,"Llovesi replied. She privately thought that Hession's only concern was the steady trickle of money she would lose if and when they did decide to finish their stay.
They returned to the Temple, and found Galsa in the infirmary, who was more than happy to see them again, and to show them into the basement.
"Here," she said, panting as she pushed some crates to one side. "This trapdoor will lead you to the sewer network, and the old ruins. I am glad you two are doing this for our Goddess. I hope whatever it is you find will do her good, and restore her old peaceful and merciful outlook."
They were walking through some water filled tunnel, long sheets of algae and vines hanging down from above, the distant sound of dripping water their only companion, when Julan spoke, for the first time in hours.
"That was weird. Really weird."
He paused, and the sound of dripping water filled the void between them.
"Why are we doing this, Llovesi?"
She sighed, stopped in her tracks to face him, and decided to be honest.
"Guilt mainly. She didn't say as much, but it's my fault she's the way she is now. If she is... losing touch, that's on my hands."
"I saw the way she looked at you. And the way you looked at her."
There was something new in his voice, something new she didn't like at all.
"Julan." She took his hands as they stood there in the damp tunnel and although he let her, hard eyes met hers.
"I don't know what that was. I'd never felt anything like it. That's why I held you. No one will–no one can–take me from you or you from me. No one will come between us."
In truth, she really didn't understand the strange and different feelings she had felt in the High Chapel. Was it some spell, or something deep in her that she didn't understand?
His eyes softened.
"Almalexia might be dangerous," Llovesi said. "If what we've been hearing is true. Which is another reason I'm doing this. Maybe if we bring her this ring, this artefact, it will mollify her somehow. Maybe it will ease some of this city's ills."
"I'm sorry," Julan said, and they kept walking. "I know you have these responsibilities, and you want the people of Morrowind protected. It's just after Helseth, now we have this... I just want to finish our business here and return to the tribe."
"Me too," Llovesi said. "And don't worry, I haven't forgotten Helseth. We'll see him before our time here is done. It's not over yet. But, maybe this will help things."
"I hope so," Julan said simply.
The low, narrow tunnel they were following suddenly grew wider. They pushed back vines, and found they'd emerged into what must have once been an old square. Except that the central paving stones had sunken, and filled with water, and the purplish mosaics were being hungrily reclaimed by the rampant plant life that abounded in this part of Old Mournhold.
A vast carpet of algae swept across the stone floor. Vines twisted their way round pillars and crumbled stone, holding the ruins together in their embrace. Even luminous blue mushrooms winked here and there, casting spots of soft light in the gloom. It was an almost beautiful state of neglect.
From the sunken square, they took the western passage, and followed it until they reached a rotting wooden door. A great pile of rocks sat against a nearby wall, as if they had been moved out of the way.
"This must be it," Julan said, drawing his bow.
They kicked open the door, and went into the ruined room beyond. It was large, almost circular, and the large slabs of stone were littered with half-crumbled pillars. And between the pillars, scattered by the place's degradation: coffins.
"This is a crypt," Llovesi said, ice running down her spine. As soon as the words left her lips, there was the creaking of wood, as the coffins began to splinter.
Figures in robes flew upwards, the material flapping around bodies and limbs that were no more than bone, some with grey and decaying skin stretched tightly over them. Some figures still had eyeballs, rolling madly in their sockets, others were no more than robed skeletons. They shouted, in an old and disused language, but a language Llovesi now understood: Dunmeris:
"Who disturbs this place?"
It wasn't really a question they were meant to answer, she realised, as the robed figures turned and attacked as legion.
Great jolts of electricity flew through the air. Llovesi and Julan threw themselves to the ground, and felt the energy crackle above them, leaving the noxious scent of burning filling the room.
Julan had rolled upright again, and was nocking an enchanted arrow to his bow. Llovesi threw herself behind a nearby pillar as another barrage of electricity sailed overhead. What use would her spears be against skeletal flying wizards? She would have to use her spells. Oh, brilliant.
She began conjuring a fireball to her fingertips, carefully regulating its size and heat.
She spun back round to release it, just in time to seen one of Julan's arrows ignite, and catch onto one of the skeleton's flapping robes. The whole piece of faded cloth caught fire, and the skeleton fell to the ground, screaming and charred.
"Looks like they're weak to fire!" Julan shouted, drawing back another arrow and ducking an incoming spell.
"Good," Llovesi said, and concentrated, letting the fireball soar from her hands into the air.
She ducked back behind the pillar to ransack her bag for a restorative potion, and when she resurfaced, two more skeletons had fallen to the ground.
There remained only three now, circling them closer as if they were eager to end the battle. Llovesi launched another fireball, smaller this time, at one of them and didn't stop to see it burn as she hurled her spear at another. It carried no magical enchantment, so all it did was catch the skeleton's robe, scattering its bones on the ground. Llovesi ran over and crushed the skull with her foot, before the animating magic could pull the bones together again.
Julan fired one more flaming arrow, and the last figure fell into a charred heap on the ground.
"What were they?" Llovesi asked, picking up her spear cautiously.
"Lichs," Julan replied. "Undead wizards who have bound their souls outside their body so that they can 'live' eternally."
"So we're here looking for an artefact–a ring to be precise, in a tomb of undead wizards," Llovesi said slowly, looking round at the bones and old robes littering the ground. "I suppose we'd better start searching."
They checked all the finger bones, all the robes, even checked the coffins, but there was no ring to be found.
"I guess we go further in," Julan said, but as soon as he had finished speaking, a great booming voice echoed around the chamber.
"You have no place here, children of living flesh."
Llovesi jumped back, brandishing her spear, but no figure appeared to join the voice. Julan was by her side, his eyes wide.
"You heard it too?" she asked, knowing their past experience with disembodied voices.
"Yes, it sounded like it came from above."
He gestured at the rocky ceiling with his bow, and Llovesi's eye followed it, falling upon a nearby ladder leading to a trapdoor.
"Come on," she said, drawing the Fang of Haynekhtnamet.
They had both climbed through the trapdoor into a roughly hewn corridor, when the deep, melancholy voice rang out again.
"The Mazed Band must not be allowed to leave this tomb."
They followed the voice, weapons raised, hearts thumping.
"The Band should never have existed at all."
They rounded a corner, and there he was.
As with the Lichs in the lower room, Llovesi supposed he had once been a man. Now his skin clung desperately to bones, a paper-thin fabric stretched tight over ribs, arms, and legs. His face was a grinning skull, topped by a golden crown and small wisps of white hair. Half rotted clothes, half rusted armour still held his body together in places. A vicious-looking claymore banged against his back as he turned to stare at them.
"That was my folly, and this is my curse," he said, and a deep sadness resonated in his voice that contrasted with his forced permanent smile. "For all eternity, I am damned to walk in this half life, to keep my creation from destroying the hearts and minds of mortals. Those who would challenge my fate will pay with their lives."
He drew the sword on his back. "Everyone who has ever come here has tried to claim the Band. I have continued to guard it. I will not let you take it."
Then, as suddenly and terminally as the lowering of a coffin lid, blackness descended upon Llovesi. A heavy, crushing blackness, that forced her into the ground.
It's over. He's killed me.
But there was still a scuffling in the obscure, then she heard Julan yell, felt the swish of a sword as she rolled to one side, and she understood that death was unlikely to sound or feel like this. He's blinded us somehow. Blinded and burdened.
Then a groping hand found her ankle in the darkness, but a warm, living hand. And the blackness was gone. Well, not gone entirely, but replaced by a many-shifting coloured void, all hues of blue and black together. Standing out against this void was a figure, composed of moving clouds in white-purple. And it was coming straight for her. Llovesi rolled again, feeling the pressure of the burden spell against her chest, then forced herself to her feet. Every movement was sluggish, but she understood that somehow Julan had pulled them both back from the brink.
A thought came, because in battle thoughts were quicker than words.
Couldn't dispel it. Have cast detect life.
Fighting in this way was bizarre, but Llovesi had been forced to move away from sight as a primary sense months ago. Now she felt the vibrations in the ground with her feet. Listened for the rattling of bones or a sword sailing through the air and dodged. Smelt the stench of death hanging in the gloom and attacked.
Her dagger hit bone, and the lich shrieked as electricity danced across his body. Then his sword bit deep into her side, and she fell back, concentrating on healing the wound.
Julan's silhouette was behind the lich's; sending sword blows into its joints. Arrows would be far too dangerous in this situation. He hacked at the wrists, and there was the sound of metal bouncing on stone as the claymore clattered away uselessly. She raised her dagger for a renewed attacked, when suddenly bony hands closed around her throat.
"I... will... not... let... you... take... it!" the lich wheezed.
He'd made a mistake in getting so close. Llovesi didn't hesitate, but punched through his chest, tearing fragile skin and shattering brittle bone. She found his heart, a shrivelled, long-dead, still-beating thing and squeezed, flames sputtering at her fingertips.
The lich screamed, a strangely deep yet high-pitched sound that forced itself through Llovesi's ears and down the back of her neck, pricking her spine. She pressed her hands against her ears as the lich tumbled back, his innards on fire. But she could still see Julan's flickering silhouette as he stepped forward, swinging his sword in a large arch. The lich's head tumbled from his shoulders and their sight was restored.
Julan sheathed his sword, breathing raggedly. He was bleeding in many places, and his hair was hanging in his face. Realising his magicka reserves probably hadn't yet regenerated after the powerful detect life spell, Llovesi caught him as he tumbled and set to work on healing him.
"So…" he breathed, as her hands caressed his stomach, "that must have been Barilzar. He must have created this ring, this Mazed Band. And it sounds dangerous. He certainly did his best to stop us getting our hands on it. Are you… sure this is the right thing to do?"
Llovesi finished healing him in silence.
"The way I see it," she said finally. "Everything we do to help this city gets us one step closer to home. I'm sure–I hope Almalexia will use the ring for good, to help her followers and so to heal the rift between the Temple and the Palace. Maybe Barilzar was lying?"
Even as she said the words, she wasn't sure why she was saying them. A strange feeling had come over her, a mixture of disgust and... longing. Like she had felt in the High Chapel. She got up and crossed the room to Barilzar's headless corpse. His skull sat nearby, still smiling at her. She reached for his left hand. On his third bony finger, there sat a ring. It was a heavy looking carved stone set with many small red jewels that were probably just coloured glass. Ordinary looking enough, even ugly. Why did the Goddess want it? to keep my creation from destroying the hearts and minds of mortals... this Mazed Band, I know it can bring me the power I need. To do good. To serve the temple and all of Morrowind...
Llovesi shook her head and tugged at the ring. It was stuck. She had to break the finger bone, and with that snap it dropped into her hand. It was strangely cold, although she swore she could see a flicker like fire within the red jewels. Ordinary.
Julan was watching her carefully from his position on the floor.
"If you're sure about this, then I trust you," he said.
Llovesi held the ring up in the light of the High Chapel, Julan beside her, his arms folded.
Almalexia's eyes gleamed for the briefest of moments, and she almost snatched the ring from Llovesi's hands.
She sighed deeply, her features beatific as she stared at the ring. Then she secreted it somewhere on her person, and turned back to Llovesi, serene and calm.
"An interesting item, is it not? It seems ordinary enough, but it is much more. The ring is cold now, but the embers of its power still burn hot within. I will use my magic to reawaken this power."
"What power does the ring have, exactly?" Julan asked.
Almalexia appeared to not even have heard him. Llovesi stared at her in disbelief, and repeated his question.
"Do not concern yourself too deeply in these matters, friend Llovesi," Almalexia said. "You have been a pleasant surprise to meet. I have seen something in you that I have not seen in a very long time. I bestow the blessing of My Light upon you. May it serve you well. We will speak again soon."
She spread her arms wide, and Llovesi was bathed in a soft glow. She felt all her worries disappear suddenly. Alamlaexia was right. The ring didn't bear worrying about. Everything would be fine.
"Come on," she said dreamily, tugging on Julan's sleeve, and they left the High Chapel.
Llovesi realised something felt strange that night, as they ate their dinner in the crowded tavern bar.
Julan wasn't talking; instead he frowned at his flatbread as he mopped up the stew on his plate. Somehow, the feeling between them felt dulled, had done ever since she'd returned the ring to Almalexia. And she'd been feeling strange ever since she'd met the Goddess. She'd instantly felt drawn to her, until she'd taken Julan's hand. But she'd dropped his hand, hadn't she? And when they'd returned with the ring, Almalexia had bestowed Her Light upon her. She thought it was a blessing, but what if it was something else? Strangely, Julan's voice came back to her, as it had echoed in her head through the dark of Barilzar's crypt: "Couldn't dispel it..."
"Julan," Llovesi said. "I want you to cast dispel on me." She shook her head. She was unable to rid it of images of Almalexia's face.
"What?" Julan dropped his fork, looking dumbfounded. "Why do you want me to do that?"
"Because." She paused, wondering how insane it was going to sound. "Because I think, the first time we met her, Almalexia cast some sort of illusion spell on me. I tried to fight it, so she reinforced it just now."
"Okay..." Julan took her hands, and wove a bright white spell over them. There was a soft whoosh, and Llovesi blinked, as if she were seeing Julan again, her Julan, and everything she loved about him: his bright, worried eyes, thick brows, long, dark hair and slightly sardonic smile.
"That... bitch," she whispered. "She did have me charmed. She's been manipulating me from the start. What have I done?" She jumped up, seizing Julan's hand, tugging him away from their meal and through the bar, up the stairs to their room.
She opened the door and pushed Julan to the bed, kissing him.
"Llovesi–" He grabbed her hands. "What's going on?"
She sat atop him. "Julan, I could apologise a thousand times, and it would never be enough. I'm so sorry. I've just been making things worse, while trying to make them better. And you've been caught in the middle."
She kissed him, moving her hands up to his face, then stopped again.
"In the morning, we'll go straight to Barenziah and explain what's happened. Perhaps it's not too late to do something. Whatever Almalexia's planning, she must be planning something... perhaps we can stop it. But now, I want to show you that, whatever happens, nothing is going to destroy what we have. We're going to come through this together."
She moved to touch him again, but Julan caught her hands.
"Llovesi," he whispered. "I never believed for a moment that we wouldn't."
The next morning was overcast for a change, and Llovesi felt the ominous, growing clouds oddly appropriate to her mood. They went through into the Royal Courtyard.
"So," Julan said. "We go to Barenziah, and we tell her that Almalexia had us fetch Barilzar's Mazed Band–"
"You what?" The voice cut over Julan, and it was Plitinius Mero, sitting on a nearby bench and looking absolutely horrified.
"You've found the ring and returned it to the Goddess?" He jumped at and actually seized Llovesi and Julan by a shoulder each, shaking them slightly. "Foolish, foolish, foolish!"
He dropped them, looking abashed.
"I'm sorry, friends. I didn't mean to snap at you both. It is a cursed object... I have heard many tales of that ring, and the evil Barilzar who created it. It was to be a means of teleportation for the wizard, but it was much worse than that. That ring was said to open gates to hellish planes, releasing creatures best left in nightmare. I've heard the ring was stripped of its power, and that only a god could use it now and not be destroyed. The thought chills my bones."
"I–I..." Llovesi didn't know what to say. Horror was making her mind blank. "I'm sure it won't come to that."
Plitinius looked at her sadly. "I hope your faith in the Goddess is well-placed, Nerevarine. In the wrong hands, I shudder to guess what evils could be unleashed on the city."
Llovesi and Julan looked at each other, and took off at a run. They didn't stop until they were banging on Barenziah's door.
The Redguard woman opened it.
"What is the meaning of this?" she asked crossly. "The Queen Mother does not receive visitors except on appointment. Oh, it's you two…"
"Please let them in, Alusannah." Barenziah's voice rang out from behind the guard. Alusannah stepped to one side, allowing Llovesi and Julan into the room.
Barenziah was sitting as she had been the day before. She placed the book she had been reading to one side and placed her hands in her lap. "So," she said. "What have you discovered at the Temple?"
"We're worried we've done something bad," Llovesi said quickly. "Almalexia asked us to retrieve Barilzar's Mazed Band, and although she claimed that she would use it to serve the city, we're not sure what to believe."
Barenziah got to her feet hesitantly. There was a rumble like thunder from the darkening sky.
"I have heard of this thing, but I know very little about it. I've heard whispers about it, but few details. Some say it is cursed... some say it is not. I can't understand why the goddess would want such a thing. Some things are best left buried... and we should be wary of Gods with mortal failings–"
She was interrupted suddenly by another loud crack of thunder, but this one sounded closer to the ground. As if the stone slabs of the city themselves had suddenly given way.
Screams sounded from outside, as abrupt as a sudden dagger in the heart. Barenziah ran to the window with surprising speed, and gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.
Footsteps clattered down the corridor towards them, and the door was flung open.
"Apologies your majesty," the young guard standing there panted. "It is Plaza Brindisi Dorom."
He clutched his knees, attempting to get his breath back.
"What is it?" Barenziah asked urgently. "Speak."
The man, looked up, breathing hard. "Monsters have broken into Plaza Brindisi Dorom. Mournhold is under attack!"