"I'm getting sick of salted horker meat." The bandit looks at his friend as he drops the meat into his bowl and makes a sour face.
"It's the best we'll get for now, eat." A sound whizzes past the bandit's ear as the other makes a small gasping sound.
He looks up as his friend slowly falls back from the rock he sat on, an arrow protruding from his right eye, he jumps to his feet looking around.
Kyra looks down, her back pressed to the cold stone as she seats another arrow and pulls it back. Exhaling she raises the bow and leans around the corner of the pillar she had hidden behind.
Peering over her thumb she releases, the arrow sails through the air and the second bandit falls forward as the arrow buries itself at the base of his skull.
She shoulders the bow and sprints quietly through the camp, past the two corpses now laying dead around their fire. She dashes up the ramp of the ruined tower and ducks as a bandits warhammer smashes into the stone where her head had been, turning her face from the spray of pulverized rock as the bandit struggles to pull his hammer free.
Kyra ducks under his arm turning in place as she pulls the Elven blade from the small of her back. Grabbing his forehead and pulling it back she slits his throat, grabbing the back of his thick chest plate and sidesteps shoving him backwards into the murky water with a loud splash.
She jogs up the second ramp to another crumbling tower and narrowly jumps a small pressure plate before she steps on it.
Edging around the stone wall she looks at the remaining two bandits talking near the entrance to Nchardak. Kyra leans back against the stone wall as she looks around for a moment in thought. She makes a face before she circles around the tower again and licks her lips. She whistles quickly ducking back out of view.
She closes her eyes, drawing her Skyforged blade from its scabbard she listens as the sounds of boots approach. She exhales and steps around the corner bringing her blade up and thrusting it into the first bandits chest plate.
A look of surprise paints his face as she rips the blade out, turning him in place as the second bandit looses an arrow that plunges into the shoulder of her impromptu shield.
She releases the bandit letting him tumble over the side and into the water as she draws the blade from the small of her back and sends it spinning through the air plunging into the remaining bandits throat.
The bandit drops her bow, it clatters to the stone ground as she clutches at the dagger, blood running down her chest.
Kyra sheaths her sword in its scabbard as she calmly walks over to the woman who was still clutching at the dagger in her throat, gasping and gurgling her eyes wide in shock.
"I'm sorry." Kyra takes a knee beside her looking down at the woman, her eyes searching her surroundings for more bandits.
Kyra pries the woman's hand from the handle yanking the dagger out with a sickening sound of tearing flesh, she then cups the woman's jaw and the back of her head, violently twisting until she hears her neck snap.
Kyra holds her there for a long moment until the woman's body goes limp. She wipes the blade on her armored thigh and replaces the dagger in its sheath.
Dusting off her fingerless gloved hands, Kyra hops onto a fallen pillar and puts her middle finger and thumb to her mouth whistling a loud sharp tone that echoes off the stone walls. She drops back down onto the ground and approaches, her eyes wandering up the huge metal doors.
"About time." Kyra looks up as Neloth approaches her crossing the stone platform, stepping over the body of the dead bandit.
"Yeah, I'm a little rusty." Neloth pushes open the double doors and steps into the Reading Room of Nchardak, gesturing for Kyra to follow. She takes one last look around before she steps in, closing the big door behind her.
Neloth crosses the floor as Kyra's gaze wanders the large chamber. Her eyes fall on the glass surface embedded in the stone floor surrounded by a brass ring and approaches it.
She takes a knee looking at the Black Book, sealed in the case just as Neloth described. She runs her fingers over the glass then looking down and around herself, she sees the letters engraved in the brass ring surrounding the case.
Standing up she slowly circles it, mouthing the words in the ancient language.
"Enkagr Bcharn." She finally says aloud as Neloth turns and looks at her.
"I didn't know you can read Dwemeris."
"Well reading and understanding are two very different things. Bcharn could describe some sort of device, but these are the same two words repeating not four seperate phrases, and I have no idea what Enkagr means." She looks up at the focusing crystals mounted near the highest point of the ceiling then looks down at the four surrounding crystals embedded in the floor around the case.
"You know Kyra, you are far more intelligent than I give you credit for."
"Thanks...I think." Kyra smiles to herself as she walks over to the only other set of doors in the room and grunts as she pushes them open with loud and drawn out creeking sound.
"Oh great." She says as she looks down as the single lever in the floor.
"What?"
"Nothing I just hate these things." The pair walk to the center of the large stone circle surrounded by gears and Kyra makes a face as she pulls the lever and the platform begins to descend into the depths of the ruins.
The platform shudders as it hits the bottom of the shaft, and Kyra looks around at the massive cavern.
"Nchardak was among the greatest of the Dwemer cities. It is said they used the massive steam pumps to sink the city into the ocean at will..."
"And it was the seat of the production of their army, producing an automaton every day, not to mention their most extensive research and archive center." Kyra says as she runs her hand over one of the control consoles.
"You know more about this place then you let on." Kyra smirks looking over her shoulder at Neloth.
"I like to let you feel important." She adds, she winks and turns back depressing a control switch to no avail.
"Yes, well, most of the ruins are still flooded so it'll take time but there's another problem." She taps another control before turning and following Neloth to a pair of pedestals with ramps leading down into the water, reaching inside his robes he produces a large cube.
"Now this is-" Kyra takes the cube from his hand.
"A control cube." She tosses it into the air a couple of inches and catches it again.
"Yes, well I think it operates the steam pumps but I can't get them to function." Kyra walks over to the left pedestal as Neloth talks, examining it.
"It should activate this pedestal but you see the mechanism doesn't fit, I thought perhaps this ruin would have cubes meant for these pedestals but I've never-" Kyra reaches back and flips a small lever to its stop, the claw mechanism snapping open.
Kyra drops the cube into the claw and it lights up with a blue hue, gears beginning to whir as the internal mechanics activate. There's a large rumbling sound and the water in front of them begins to drain revealing more of the ramps, then a second platform with four large upright steam pumps.
She looks at Neloth before walking down the wet stone ramp and onto the second platform circling as her eyes wander over the large machines. Kyra runs her hand over the control plates mounted on the front of the pumps then turns looking back up at the platform above her as Neloth comes to her side.
"We're going to need six cubes, four to activate the pumps one to keep the water level down and one to open doors."
"And how will we manage that?"
"Well my friend." Kyra says resting her hand on the wizard's shoulder looking him up and down. His eyes follow hers, a puzzled look coming over his face.
"I hope you weren't planning on staying dry."