Chapter 11
"Are you sure you can't come along with me to return the Key?" Karianna asked and nervously eyed the door to the Twilight Sepulcher.
Karliah shook her head solemnly. "I'm afraid the Pilgrim's Path is something that must be undertaken alone. It will be a harsh road, but I'm confident you can do it. Besides, with my failure to Nocturnal still so fresh, I fear the consequences should I attempt to return the Key myself."
"Right…." Karianna steeled her nerves and entered the hallowed halls of the Sepulcher.
Wary as to what lay ahead of her, she kept her warhammer drawn and inched forward as quietly as she could. There, in a large room filled with unlit torches and pillars columns wrapped in cobwebs, she found a guardian of the Sepulcher. The specter was sitting on a set of stairs leading to a large wooden door with an air of defeat about him. There was something familiar about him, though. Karianna tried to look past the translucent nature of his being and wracked her brains for who it could be. Her first thought was Brynjolf but the specter sitting before her was too lean to be him. It was only when she drew nearer did it hit her.
"Gallus?" she asked uncertainly. She had seen his face once on a dusty and worn portrait hanging in Nightingale Hall. When he looked up at her, she was sure it was him. The former Guild Master and Nightingale.
"I haven't been referred to by that name in what seems like an eternity. How do you know of me, child?"
"Karliah told me about you… how Mercer betrayed and murdered you…," she explained.
"Karliah? She's alive?" Gallus' ghost seemed very excited to learn this news.
"Yes, but she was too afraid to deliver the Key herself because of Nocturnal," Karianna said.
"The Key! You have it?!" The once Gallus leaped to his feet with renewed vigor.
To prove her claim she pulled the Key from her armor and held it out to the ghost.
"Then… it is not too late! You must hurry, then! Follow the Pilgrim's Path and find the Ebonmere! Once the Key is returned, balance will finally be restored."
"Are there… others like you here?" Karianna asked.
Gallus looked at the door behind him and sighed as softly as a breeze ruffles the leaves on a tree.
"Unfortunately, yes. But they have become corrupted. Tainted due to being cut off from the Ebonmere for so long. Even I feel myself weakening as we speak and I fear I don't have much longer before I become one of them."
"Wish me luck, then." With new determination, Karianna gripped the Key tightly in her fist and entered the door.
The first trial was a simple matter of sneaking past a trio of corrupted sentinels. It was hard to tell where they were sometimes due to their translucent quality, but Karianna found that they weren't very silent with their attack approach. A single archer shot arrows at her with hit and miss accuracy while the other two attacked head on with swords. Once the specters were dispatched, she made her way around the statue against one wall and into the next room. This one didn't seem to be guarded but instead was very dark with bright patches of light from unknown sources. When she first tried to step across one of the patches of light, she received an immense shock and quickly jumped back into the safety of the shadows.
That's when she saw the dead body of a bandit laying half in and half out of the shadows. One hand was clutched around a piece of parchment which read 'The light is the enemy. Stick to the shadows.' Karianna came to the conclusion that the bandit had died reading the note, too stupid to follow the advice immediately.
Even without the added challenge of the harming light, the trial was extremely difficult with many a trap which, when triggered, shot a volley of poison tipped arrows at any soul unlucky enough to walk into them. She wondered vaguely who set the traps each time a bandit or stray adventurer triggered them only to parish at the hands of the poison or the light or even the sentinels that may yet lay ahead.
She was quite right about the hoard of sentinels guarding the trap ridden path to the Ebonmere. Part of her hated to kill the sentinels, corrupted or not, and so she hoped they were able to serve Nocturnal in the Evergloam after being freed from the mortal plane once and for all. Another part of her wondered about Brynjolf. Each time she thought about him, guilt built up in her chest and threatened to send more tears pouring from her eyes. As much as he angered her in the beginning with his deception and little tricks, she couldn't bear walking through the Guild without seeing him in the training room or discussing more contracts with other Guild members.
'Stop it. You have to focus on the task at hand or there may be no Guild to return to,' she scolded herself.
The final room was dead ahead of her. In it stood a statue in the image of Nocturnal wearing great, flowing robes that hugged her gracious curves and with outstretched arms where a pair of black birds rested. At the foot of the statue stood a small shrine and offering as well as another dead bandit. Karianna couldn't tell what killed him. it could have been the corrupted sentinels but she did know that he hadn't been able to see past the simple puzzle which unlocked the hidden door behind the statue. Or, he did unlock the door but a sentinel slayed him and reset the puzzle before he could step through.
She walked through the corridor as she pondered this and so was unable to see the large pit that stretched before her. As such, the Dragonborn tumbled down into the pit where her fall was broken by a skeleton. After dislodging one of the skeleton's rib bones from her armor, she stood and looked carefully around her new prison. There on the floor beside the skeleton she had landed on was another piece of parchment. She picked it up and hoped it gave her some clues.
'I can't believe it. I came all this way, solved all of those ridiculous riddles just to end up here! After I memorized Nystrom's clues he'd collected from Lythelus, I slit his throat. Now I guess the joke's on me, because I'm stuck here and I don't see a way out. Hope someone comes by soon, I'm getting hungry.'
It was signed by a man named Anders but there didn't seem to be any clue as to how to get out of the pit or to move forward. Perplexed, Karianna slumped against the edge of her cell and sank to the floor. Why would Nocturnal lead her into this pit? There was no other way to go, at least, none that she had seen. Perhaps she could climb out and go back to search for another way.
"All this trouble for a Key," she said with a sad sigh.
The Key. Maybe it was the answer. Tossing aside the note, she withdrew the Skeleton Key once more and stared at it. Such a small thing and yet it held so much power. No wonder so many seemed so eager to find it and keep it for their own. But this power took all the challenge and fun out of being a thief. What was so enjoyable about being able to break through any lock you come across and steal whatever treasure it guards? Sure the rewards would be great, but it would be immensely boring to get whatever you wanted so easily. There was no thrill in the chase or fear of being detected. Being able to cheat your way to victory took the fun out of the victory itself.
When she looked up from the key, she found herself suddenly in a different room. This one was bathed in shadows of purple and blue and in the center sat a small hole that seemed built to house the Skeleton Key. As soon as the Key was slid back into its home, the whole floor changed to reveal a large fountain. From the fountain emerged Nocturnal herself.
"Ah, there you are, at last." Despite the tone in her voice, Nocturnal seemed pleased by Karianna's success. "So. You have returned the Skeleton Key back to its rightful place of honor. I don't know what exactly you expected as a reward. A pat on the back? A kiss on the cheek? Hmph. Your only reward should be the satisfaction that you have served you Mother well, as was expected from the moment you took on the contract. Now go, there is certainly much work to be done now that my shadows are once again open to you."
As soon as Nocturnal disappeared back into the swirling vortex in the fountain, Karliah stepped through one of the purplish-blue portals that had opened on the wall when the Key was slid back into place.
"You did it," Karliah whispered in awe. "And Nocturnal seemed awfully pleased with your efforts."
"Pleased? She seemed… indifferent."
"Don't be so harsh on her. She isn't so much an evil deity looking to use her worshippers leverage as she is a strict mother pushing her children to strive and succeed."
"Karliah?" asked a new voice.
It was Gallus. He no longer seemed the defeated ghost sitting at the steps of the Sepulcher having almost lost hope. Now he radiated power thanks to the Ebonmere.
"Gallus… I thought… I thought I would never see you again," Karliah gasped. She reached out to touch his face but her fingers went right through him so instead she let her hand fall to her side.
"It's so good to see you once more before my departure," Gallus said moving as close as he dared.
"What do you mean, my love?" she asked softly.
"My contract has been fulfilled and I must now leave to serve our Lady Nocturnal in the Evergloam," he explained sadly.
"Will I ever see you again?"
"When your contract has been fulfilled as well, we will once more embrace. Take care, Karliah, my love. May shadows preserve you." And with those parting words, Gallus faded into nothingness.
The two stood in silence for a few moments until Karianna finally took Karliah's arm and guided her through the portal to the entrance.