Kyra's vision was blurry and the entire floor felt like it was spinning as she puts one hand onto the ground, then another, then her knees taking movement one step at a time. She pulls one knee under her and then puts her hand on it pushing herself to her feet as she looks around at the ghastly and eerie realm.

Pages of parchment whip in a foul smelling wind around her and pages of parchment seemed to make up the ground she stood on, she snatches one out of the air as it whirls past her face.

"-or at least quiet my complaints of using bedrolls to sleep on the stone floors, but I don't like the precedent this establishes. I was hoping we would move back to New Sheoth before his birthday celebration next month." Kyra reads aloud as she cocks her head quizzically at the page.

"Welcome to Apocrypha." A sickening, sloppy voice seems to come from all around her as Kyra turns in place drawing her sword. Seeing nothing, she turns back around looking back down at the page in her off hand and lets it go, whipping away in the wind.

"All who seek knowledge end up here...sooner or later."

Kyra turns in place again then slowly looks up as giant green void appears like a gaping wound in the sky. She slowly steps back as countless tentacles and then a giant singular eye begin to emerge from the tear, her own eyes widening.

"You...are the other Dragonborn. Good, good, you've finally come to seek a way to succeed Miraak as my servant. To learn how to bend the world to your will." Kyra sheaths her sword, not a natural act for her but she didn't see how a sword was going to help her.

"I came only to find a way to defeat Miraak. I have no interest in serving Demons, or their petty desires for power and control."

More tentacles erupt from the wound and begin to flail more vigorously as the eye moves closer out of the tear towards her, still several hundred or even a thousand feet above her head, it makes her step back a few more steps.

"You will serve me whether you wish to or not, all those who seek knowledge serve me I am Hermaeus Mora. I will give you the knowledge you seek..." Kyra folds her arms across her chest.

"At what price?" Hermaeus Mora chuckles, a slovenly, ick-ridden and oozy chuckle.

"You are wiser than your years, Dragonborn, you know of how the Gods conduct their affairs. Very well...I desire knowledge for knowledge. Bring me the secrets of the Skaal."

"The Skaal? What do they have to do with any of this?"

"The Skaal have withheld their secrets from me for far too long now, the time has come and gone for their knowledge to be added to my library."

"And if they refuse?"

"Miraak would find a way if it was so asked of him. So shall you."

On the ground before her dragon scrawl appears burning with the same eerie green glow that was all around her. She kneels, her blue eyes searching the words, Gol Hah Dov. She looks up at the eye as it blinks at her.

"Seek out the Skaal Shaman, he is the one who possesses the knowledge I seek."

"I-"

The world begins to swirl and bend around her as she suddenly feels sick, falling to her knees holding her stomach. She looks up as Neloth shakes her, his hand on her shoulder. She blinks and realizes she's back in Nchardak, she swats his hand away.

"What happened? What did you see?" Kyra bites back the nausea and groans, holding her stomach as she slams her free fist against the unyielding stone ground in frustration, spitting the taste of bile rising in her throat from her mouth.

"You were right."

"You mean you met...him?" Neloth asks looking around as if he expected the tentacled monster to appear from the ceiling high above their heads.

"Yeah and he's a real charmer." Neloth helps her to her feet as she tries to regain her composure.

"So the Dwemer were right about the book, what happened?"

"He taught me a shout."

"A shout? You mean a Word of Power." Kyra nods as she rests against the wall and leans over, putting both hands on her knees.

"And what will this shout do?"

"I have no idea but he wanted something in return, the Knowledge of the Skaal."

"The Skaal? What could he possibly want with the perfect way to skin a horker?" Kyra manages a small chuckle as Neloth rests his hand on her shoulder.

"After meeting him I don't think he's particular about what the knowledge is...but let's hope it includes what I'm supposed to do with the knowledge he gave me."

Kyra slings her pack around her shoulders and pulls open the big door leading back out into Solstheim. She blinks in the light snow and wind, the sudden sunlight, and rotates her neck around her shoulders rubbing the tense muscles where they meet.

They step over the corpse of the bandit she killed and cross the platform towards the bridge until Kyra stops, something in the back of her mind tugging at her.

Kyra reacts, she shoves Neloth off of the platform sending him splashing into the freezing waters beyond just as a Dragon dives out of the sky and narrowly misses her as she throws herself to the stone ground. The dragon banks and comes back to her flapping its wings as it slows and lands on the platform.

It rears back its long neck and a stream of flames erupt from its mouth as Kyra brings up her shield and the flames encircle it and burn around her singeing the tips of her bangs, leaving a charred silhouette of her on the wall behind her.

Kyra rolls out of the way and draws her Skyforged blade as she skids under its talons sprinting across the platform and up the metal ramp, ducking into one of the wrecked towers.

With a sweep of its claws the roof of the tower gets ripped off and falls into the ocean. Another one takes a few more feet of stone off the top making her duck as large chunks of stone falls onto her.

Kyra looks around, then at the long metal ramp leading to the next tower. Her eyes fall on the pressure plate she had jumped on her way into Nchardak and ducks again as the dragon climbs onto the stone wall displacing more stones and uses one of its front legs, reaching down into the small space to get her.

Kyra moves, rolling onto the pressure plate as several bronze spears eject from the wall and floor crossing each other as they plunge into the dragons claw. It cries out as it tries to pull its hand free. Kyra curls her fingers over the big bronze head of a Dwemer wall statue and drops it onto the pressure plate holding the spears in place as she takes off, running across the unstable metal ramp to the second tower.

She barely makes it past the walls before a gout of flames fills the space, making her turn her head away against the wave of heat. The dragon roars as it rips its claw free mutilating its hand and it arches its long neck, moving like a snake towards the second tower as it climbs over the first.

Kyra hefts her sword and takes several deep breaths as the shadow of the head begins to move towards her. She raises the sword over her head and when it's snout moves past the entrance of the ruined tower, she brings the sword down in a mighty chop onto the place just above its eyes.

The blade sinks in deep, making the dragon roar flames that stream harmlessly out of the other open entrance to the small tower, blood running down into its eyes.

It shakes its head which throws her back against the wall making her cry out in pain as she crumples to the floor, hitting the warhammer of the bandit she killed still stuck in the wall, on her way down.

Kyra leaps to her feet and puts one boot against the stone wall, gritting her teeth as she yanks hard on the massive Dwarven hammer. It pries loose after another yank and its heavy momentum swings her around, bringing it down onto the top of the dragons skull.

She jumps onto its long nose standing to her full height, she raises it over her head and brings down the hammer again.

The dragon tries to throw her up against the ceiling but she keeps her balance bringing the hammer down again, and again. Each swing making a more disgusting squishing sound than the last, spraying her with blood each time an animal like bellow coming from her lips.

The dragon's head goes limp as she brings up the hammer swings it over her head and brings it down with all her strength, leaving it embedded in the dead dragon's skull.

Kyra stumbles back off of its nose to the stone floor and looks at the beast as she pants, trying to catch her breath. The ethereal blue glow of her eyes beginning to fade with each deep breath, her heart pounding in her ears, blood dripping from her hair and arms, it streaks her face as she drags her sleeve across her forehead.

She picks up her sword from where it had fallen and turns when she hears footsteps approaching her. Neloth stops in his tracks holding up his hands as she points the sword at him. She deftly sheaths her sword and walks past him without a word as he stares at the dead dragon.

He turns watching her as she marches away from him, then turns back to the dragon and shakes his head.