Updated 12.05.15
6.
Lio found herself in a round hall with a high ceiling and second story balconies. Red banners with an iron dragon figure in the middle were draped on the walls. There were two doorways in opposite sides of the hall. The left one seemed to be blocked off by immovable wooden bars, but the door on the right was open and she stepped in. The walls were covered heavily with moss and rivulets of water that were racing down the stone. The air was thick with moisture and the smell of moss. The way was dark and Lio had a hard time seeing details clearly.
She continued through the corridor, delving deeper and deeper. Some carriages and hay piles were littered about, but nothing of interest was along her way.
Turning the corner, she saw some dust fall from the ceiling. She pushed it off of her armor and took another step, but suddenly the ground shook and a large part of the ceiling caved in in front of her. She recoiled and shielded herself with her arms until she felt safe enough to move again. Luckily she avoided most of the rubble. Her way was blocked and the only direction she could go in was through a door on the left.
Lio slowly pushed the door open, keeping a steel sword ready at all times. She sneaked in.
It seemed to be a ware room or a meeting place, as there were baskets and shelves filled with food. The air was warmer than in the corridor; a waning fire was burning in a hearth. Untouched mugs of ale were on a large table, as was some stew and bread. Lio rummaged through chests and barrels, taking healing potions and alcohol with her. She took some food too, just in case.
She exited the room through another door and found herself in the same corridor, but on the other side of the cave-in. The ground shook again, but not as strongly this time and the ceiling was left intact. She hurried down another set of stairs as softly as she could.
At the end of another mossy hallway was a larger room. Lio already turned away her eyes when entering, noticing lifeless bodies of imperials and men dressed in blue armor. Three metal cages were leaning on the wall in front of her, two empty and one holding the body of a robed mage. She carefully tiptoed over the bodies to a nearby table, where she found an odd book and a knapsack.
""The Book of The Dragonborn"?" she read and a small fit of laughter escaped her lips. Lio stopped then in the middle of a small giggle, suddenly reminded of the dead behind her, and felt like she had done something very disrespectful to the men who had given their lives here. Laughing was not something one should do when seeing a sight like that, she thought.
Throwing another look at the book, she was hesitant to pick it up.
"Nords and their myths," she mumbled and stuffed it into the knapsack. She strapped it on.
Something glittered at the corner of her eye. She turned and saw some coins and a potion next to the mage in the middle cage.
"Practice!" she mumbled excitedly and crouched down next to the lock on the cage door. Most of her lockpicks broke one by one, bending excessively in wrong positions. Almost all were in pieces, when at last one turned and the cage door moved with a satisfying groan. A faint smile crossed Lio's lips.
Without giving a look at the mage, she took the coins and potion, ignoring whatever guilt bubbled in her at the thought of stealing from the dead. At the other side of the room was a bigger cage, in which there was a bar counter. The door was open and Lio stepped in, taking the bag of coins from the counter.
With quiet steps she continued down the stairs, following a large trail of blood to another entryway. It was a torture room, filled with cages hanging from the ceiling with skeletons and dead bodies in them, and a lot of blood. A nauseating crimson trail led from a cage to the center of the room. Lio hesitantly allowed herself a quick look at one of the bodies in the cages, giving in to curiosity.
"By the gods," she whispered, as she saw maggots roaming on and in the dead man's skin. He was decomposing, his face swollen and broken. A stench reached her and Lio bowed down above the blood, feeling her morning breakfast coming up her throat.
She threw up until there was nothing more left in her. She gasped and shuddered, closing her eyes to forget what she just saw. Wiping her mouth, she continued moving, looking straight ahead and ignoring the skeletons trapped in the cages.
There was a hole in the back wall of the room. It led down into a wet, dark cave, turning and winding out of her view. Lio held on to the bricks of the broken wall and leaned into the entrance, looking down the path. Sound of water echoed quietly from ahead.
Lio inhaled sharply. She readied her swords and entered as quietly as she could.
This cave had been in use for a long time. A path had formed. The cave was clear of rubble. Bowls filled with burning fire and ashes were placed in long intervals on the side of the path. From one of these Lio grabbed a charcoal and stuffed it in her bag.
The road led into a large chamber. A couple of bodies in blue and red were haphazardly lying on the ground, motionless. Stone bridges led over creeks and stairs led down to a more uneven earth and the creek itself. Red banners were hung on the walls across the chamber and they floated in a slight breeze. From a hole in the ceiling a stream of sunlight entered the dark room.
Lio crossed the bridges to another corridor lighted by candles on the walls. A wooden board was blocking the way and, without thought, Lio pulled down the lever in front of it. The wooden board fell, becoming a bridge over a chasm.
She stepped on the bridge with one foot, testing its stability. It seemed sturdy and she slowly made her way across into another large chamber.
A waterfall in one of the room's sides filled the space with echoing sounds. Its stream connected with the creek from the other chamber. Lio followed it cautiously.
The creek ended at a cave-in. The water slipped through the rocks and continued its way, but Lio had no other way but to turn left. The waterfall's sound blocked out any others and Lio looked behind her, making sure she was alone.
A rancid smell reached her. As she was turning to face the road again, she walked into thick, white webbing that was floating from the walls. Her sword got stuck in it and with a slash she got it loose again. The blade was covered in sticky, white mass and Lio's stomach dropped.
The only things Lio hated more than seeing kids and dead bodies were spiders.
"By Oblivion," she sighed almost soundlessly and crouched down to avoid the webs hanging from the ceiling. A fearful frown didn't leave her face as she looked at the walls that were colored white.
Weird purring sounds reached Lio's ears. An open chamber was ahead, filled with thick webs. Small masses were wrapped in the white netting and hung from the ceiling, and Lio recognized the origin of the smell that filled the tunnel. Rotting corpses.
The steel sword in Lio's hang shook as shock hit her. Human-sized spiders roamed in the room, their hairy legs making quiet sounds as they scuffled onward. Some smaller ones were wrapping the corpses of skeevers and imperials in webs. Some dead spiders were littered on the ground, their eyes and limbs pierced and their hairy bodies crumpled.
Lio crouched in the shadows, next to the entrance of the room. She inhaled deeply, the fear in her almost rendering her immobile. She gripped the hilt of her sword, trying to stop the shaking of her fingers. For a second she peeked around the corner, counting four spiders, one of them big and the other three smaller.
She closed her eyes and mouthed her prayers. The heroism and boldness she had felt before were gone now, as if the cold had taken all emotions except fear, leaving her shaky and hollow.
"Come on, you coward!" she whispered to herself and stared at her blade, willing her hands to stop shaking. Her fingers fidgeted and that was all that was needed for the blade to slip from her hands.
She gritted her teeth as she watched it fall. For a moment she saw the metal drop slowly, as if time itself slowed. Then the world sped ahead and an echoing, metallic clunk sounded through the cave and everything suddenly fell silent.
A shadow loomed over her from behind. Slowly Lio turned her head, only to see the biggest spider's two bloodthirsty mandibles inches from her face. She recoiled and let out a scream that echoed through the whole cave system.
Suddenly her fingers felt the leathery grip of her weapon. The monster scuffled closer, opening its horrific and foul smelling mouth. It screeched and closed its jaws slowly, Lio's head between them. She raised her sword.
Suddenly, the tip of a steel blade plunged through its upper jaw. The monstrosity squirmed and screamed at the sudden pain and then collapsed at Lio's feet. She pulled her blade from the corpse and stood up, still speechless from what had happened.
A sudden ball of venom flew past Lio, pulling her back into reality. She gripped the sword harder as she faced the three small arachnids. The three of them kept spitting small amounts of venom at her, most missing.
Small amounts hit Lio's left arm and leg and the venom burned through the fabric of her armor, charring her skin. She hissed in pain, but gritted her teeth and pulled out her imperial sword. She plunged forward at the closest spider.
It jumped at her, attacking with legs. Lio randomly slashed at it, almost cutting into her own arms. She countered as best as she could, sometimes backing away to evade the attacks. The spider kept coming at her unrelentingly. She gasped for air, heaved and swung her sword again desperately.
A sudden bite in the back of her left shoulder felled Lio. She gasped; the spider's fangs had bitten through the soft armor at the upper part of her shoulder. The venom in her blood burned and drained her energy and she gasped for air, eyes wide and mouth open.
With a roar she pushed herself up, only to be grounded again by a spider that pounced on her. The girl lost her grip on her steel sword and it slid away into a thick web. The spider bit at her, its legs punching her in her gut. Lio felt the other two nipping at her sides, releasing small doses of venom into her already tired legs and hands.
With one hand she kept slashing at the spider on her randomly, eyes closed, and the other hand was covering her face. She hit her wrist with the sword's hilt and shrieked.
Then a short screech filled the caves.
The spider's mass stumbled from her. She had hit the arachnid in its many eyes and it cried out as it twitched in pain. The other two spiders backed away for a moment and Lio pushed herself up from the ground with an angry cry.
Her hands and face were lacerated and bloodied. The wounds were shallow, but hurt as the venom was slowly spreading in her bloodstream. The crimson fluid dripped into her eye and she hissed. She dropped back to a battle stance, or what she thought one should look like. Stumbling for her second blade, she shook it free from the webs.
The monstrosities were skidding closer, ready to jump any moment. In a moment of flurry and inspiration Lio jumped and turned, putting all her force into her hands and slashing through both of the monsters' beaded heads. Their lifeless bodies fell to the ground, twitching and trembling.
Lio fell to her knees, her blades slipping from her grasp and hitting the dirt below her.
She sobbed and laughed. Her wounds and the venom in her veins were creating pain of the sort she had never felt before. Small paper-cuts or scrapes on her knees were the most she had ever endured. This pain was horrifying, paralyzing, nothing she had imagined she was capable of feeling.
At the same time the success of the battle filled her mind. She rejoiced, relief and satisfaction washing over her, easing the pain she was in. Laughter broke free from deep inside her and the caves echoed of her giggles.