Chapter 15: Dwemer

Justiciar Erundil...

"What are you looking at?"

I lazily rubbed my chin. "None of your concern, Corelas."

The mer shook his head. "You've been looking at that thing since we entered the ruin."

I sighed and met his gaze. "If you really must know, it is an emblem I found a day ago. I've been trying to translate it, which is difficult considering my knowledge of Ancient Falmer is limited. And you are no use."

He gestured to the space around him. "We've just found an abandoned Dwemer tunnel and you are too busy translating some old rock you found half buried in the snow? Really? I thought you would be fascinated by this place!"

It was true, I did find the Dwemer tunnel interesting, but I had visited plenty of Dwemer cities in my time, and I was too preoccupied with the emblem to notice any of it.

I waved my hand in the air for us to continue along the path. "Yes, yes, quite fascinating, now if you will excuse me, you are distracting me from some valuable research."

Corelas rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, research."

I stopped; the final words of the emblem making sense. My eyes scanned the Dwemer tunnel and landed on the door to our left; past two Dwemer statues just above alters. "This way."

Corelas frowned and struggled to keep up with my fast pace. "Wait, what have you found?"

"We shall soon see."

We delved deeper into the ruin, the meaning of the emblem becoming clearer. To my surprise there weren't any Dwemer machines guarding the hallways, which was very strange. The automations were always functional. Why was this place different?

On the third level down we were met with another door; this one locked. I glanced from the door to the emblem.

"This is it." I said, casting a light spell.

"What is what?" Corelas asked as he peered over my shoulder.

"The emblem is a map."

"A map to where?"

"Here."

Corelas' mouth parted in confusion. "Here? To this door?"

I nodded.

"But... it's just a door."

I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head. Did he ever listen to me? "It's what is past the door that we are looking for."

Corelas stepped back and rubbed the back of his neck while laughing. "Yeah, I knew that, I was just seeing if you knew that... so yeah, a door... interesting."

The carvings on the door weren't written in Dwemer. No, they were Falmer; chiselled into the walls. In fact the whole room was decorated in them. I noticed that they were clearly carved at the top, but as the writing moved down the wall the chisels were less legible and some were spelt incorrectly. At the bottom the letters were barely written, only a few dots and scratches remained. If my assumption was correct, this was when the beasts started to lose their sight. My guess was that over the decades someone would write on the wall, and as they gradually lost their sight their ability to write was lost. This wall was all that was left.

The emblem mentioned a key held in another part of the tunnel. The emblem specifically used the word 'masters' to describe the Dwemer, which made me even more fascinated. Why would the Falmer call the Dwemer masters, unless the previous theories on Dwemer enslavement were correct?

I turned to leave but Corelas stopped me. "Where are we going now?"

I held my hand up. "You are to stay here with the guards. Wait for my return."

Corelas' eyes widened. "You're going to go alone? Are you mad? Wait, don't answer that."

"Corelas, you are to do as I say." I warned and took a step back.

"But what if you run into trouble?"

"It is nice for you to worry for my safety but remember that I am a-"

"Thalmor Justiciar, yes, yes, I've heard this speech before."

"Then you know that I am more than qualified to take care of trouble. Now be a good apprentice and stay here, and try not to touch anything! The last thing I need is for this place to fall apart because you pulled the wrong lever."

Corelas shook his head and walked back over to the men. "By Magnus, please let something eat him!"

I smiled and turned my attention back to the emblem.

As I dove deeper into the forgotten ruin, I found the automations; beaten and discarded on the floors. Obviously, a fight had taken place. When this fight occurred I could not say.

Once I made it to the end of a corridor; another door ahead, I realised that there must have been some sort of fire from inside as my shadow was cast behind me. The light peeked through the cracks of the door and as it opened I was taken aback by what I saw.

Cages; steel cages both on the ceiling and floors. Some skeletons remained inside them. The contraptions that were beside them, rusted and covered in a fine layer of crimson, weren't unlike the one's I had found back in Skyrim. I had come across the Falmer using them as torture devices, and previously thought they had made them, but from what was in front of me, I realised that they originally came from the Dwemer. A forge fire with several empty white soul gems was in the corner and I could feel the heat from where I stood. The room was vast and led into three other doorways and a large spiral staircase. I moved straight to the staircase.

Above, the technology the Dwemer held was much more complicated than I originally thought. There were two lines of large, what I could only describe as pipes, running across the room. Each had some sort of control panel with several levers attached. My hand ran over one of the panels and I noticed that there was a small sphere-shaped gap, probably used as a key to get the machine to function. Beside the panel on the floor was some type of fungus. I picked it up.

Strange. I had never come across this type before. While those in the caves were a florescent green or purple, this was a dark red, almost similar to nirnroot. I placed it into my satchel and wandered down the corridor until I saw one of the pipes open.

A body; half decayed laid on the floor. The smell was horrendous.

I turned the side of the head and stared at the mer; half surprised, half intrigued. There was no doubt that it was a snow elf; I had to guess that he was a experiment of some kind, as he had all the physicality's of a perfectly normal mer, but his face was disfigured and even looked worse than the Falmer I knew of. Inside the pipe were shackles and steam. In fact the steam rose from the floor and was cool to my touch. Perhaps the pipe was used to preserve the body, like frost magic but a more mechanical version. After all, Dwemer preferred their machines to magic.

I looked back at the stone emblem and wandered back to the torture room and opened one of the three doors. Inside was a bedroom and on the table was a key. I took it and followed the halls back to where Corelas and the other two guards were waiting.

By the time I had returned, Corelas was sat on the floor. At seeing me he stood and walked over.

"Did you find anything?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yes, quite a lot in fact."

"And what was that?"
I shook my head. "I will tell you another time. First let's see what is past this door."

I slotted the key into it and the door made a light screech. It slid open and inside was... nothing.

I frowned.

Corelas stared at it for a moment before bursting out into laughter. "Oh, this is brilliant! We came all this way for nothing. It looks like the Thalmor Justiciar isn't as intelligent and wise as he likes to think!"

I ignored him and entered the room. Why would this room be locked if there was nothing inside?

As Corelas ranted on about how this was a waste of time, I crouched and searched the floor. There was a fine layer of dust but it wasn't level. I wiped the dust away and smiled.

"Corelas. We are not done here."

"What are you talking about? There is nothing here! Admit it, we came all this way for nothing."

"Oh," I said, standing, "and what do you make of this?"

His eyes narrowed and he took a step closer. His mouth hung low. He frowned at me and crossed his arms. "Oh shut up."

I smirked and took out my journal and quill.

'It feels like years since we were forced into hiding. We took the Dwarves bargain, but never knew the consequences would be so high. We want to leave, to no longer be slaves to them. We want to see the sky, touch the snow, and feel the wind against our skin. We tire of the forges and fires, the metal that surrounds us; so lifeless and cold. The others, the ones who managed to escape the first time, have befriended one of the Dwemer and he has given us their message. Their letter tells of a valley inside one of the mountains, unknown to the Dwemer and too far away for them to find us. They've already started settling there and want us to join them. I carve this message and map into the stone in the hopes that if another one of my people is trapped they will know where we are. I have written it in my language and the carvings aren't deep enough to see unless you are close to the floor, so the Dwemer shouldn't be able to read it. If you are reading this, follow this map. No more of my race should suffer the way we have.'