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Chapter 44 - Dirsha's Adventures II
By his third day at the Yokuda dig, Dirsha was settling in very nicely. He and the two Alik'r warriors who were the expedition's other guards had taken on and defeated a nest of giant scorpions, then he'd been assigned to help the diggers, and proven his skill at extracting and documenting even the smallest of artifacts. He was enjoying himself thoroughly when Professor Isolde entered the room where he was working. He looked up from the fragment of metal he was cataloging, and smiled at her. "Hello, Isolde. Have something for me?"
"Yep. We've found an odd Nordic-looking door down on sub-3, and Nordic ruins paired with Yokudan are anomalous. I'd like you to armor up and join the entry team. You've fought draugr, which none of the rest have. And it may be something else, as well."
Dirsha sighed, then straightened his worktable and stood. "Give me ... hmm. Fifteen minutes to get my gear and get down there."
As promised, he was armored and had his weapons fifteen minutes later when he joined the team, three levels below ground, that was preparing to go through a - Divines, a dragon-claw door? What in Oblivion was a Nordic puzzle door doing at the bottom of a Yokudan ruin?
He shuddered at that. "Researchers, out, please. And if we have any other fighters available, send them down. Who has the claw?"
"Why evacuate?" one asked, as another held up a claw carved from - malachite, it looked like.
"Because whatever's behind one of these doors is usually quite valuable, so it's also usually guarded by something strong and nasty," Dirsha replied. "And yes, that looks like the claw, which is actually a key to the puzzle door. If I may have it, please?"
He accepted it, inspecting the palm and the door, then nodded. The symbols matched, so this was the proper key. He hid a sigh, wishing Mother were here. He knew the theory, and she'd shared the tales of her experiences with these doors and what they could hide, but he'd never been in on the opening of a new one. Oblivion, no new ones had even been found in years!
The scholars left, reluctantly, except for one who'd had some combat training, and the two of them waited for the other fighters to arrive. Dirsha was glad to see they included Umar and a pair of Alik'r warriors the two of them had been training with.
"All right, there are five of us against whatever's in there," he said. "I know how to use the key, and I have the best armor, so I go in first. The guardians could be anything from a whole lot of low-level draugr to Death Overlords, or if the Divines aren't paying attention, even a Dragon Priest, since Mother only eliminated those in Skyrim and on Solstheim. What we'll find beyond that, I have absolutely no idea."
Once everyone was ready, Dirsha set the rings as indicated on the claw, then inserted it into the central circle and turned it. He put it away as the door scraped its way down, readying his mace and Heal Wounds spell. When he stepped through the doorway and started down a narrow passageway, though, he was surprised to find himself unopposed. Then, to his astonishment, he heard the door's grinding sound again, and turned to find it sliding back up. He followed the rest back toward it, but it was too far; the door was closed by the time the first one reached it.
"Huh, I never heard of anything like that happening," he said, then shrugged.
"What do we do now?" Umar asked.
"What we came for," Dirsha replied. There were Dwemer lamps on either side of the doorway, so he looked around. This side of the door was featureless. He'd been rather hoping for a way to open it from this side, but all he said was, "It isn't really a problem. I know the teleport spell my greats-grandmother developed, and even though I can't go far, I can definitely 'port to the other side and open it again. So let's go." He went into stealth mode and began moving forward along a corridor lit by unfamiliar glowing fungi, supplemented about a hundred yards ahead by another Dwemer lamp. After ten or twelve steps, though, he sighed and gave up on sneaking, since his companions sounded to his sensitive ears like a herd of stampeding cattle.
The passageway sloped generally downward, until he heard the sound of running water, and signaled the rest to stop. "Wait here - there's something I need to check out, quietly."
They nodded, and he went into stealth mode again, cautiously approaching the water sound. If there hadn't been any danger at the entrance, other than it closing behind them, near water was the most likely. He sniffed, but didn't smell anything other than the water itself and wet stone, so he continued, using any available concealment.
When he found the water, it was a respectable river, running through limestone walls, with only a small bank of sandy mud on one side. He followed the river downstream for a quarter hour or so, veering away every so often to investigate something the Dwemer lamps illuminated, but aside from a few interesting rock formations he hadn't seen in Skyrim, he found nothing.
He was almost ready to turn back when he came across a path leading from an attractive yellowish crystal formation toward the river in one direction, and deeper into the cavern in another. He followed the one toward the river, deciding to get the rest before going any deeper.
He got a shock when he neared the river and saw a hut with a small dock, and what looked like a fishing net running half-way across the river. That meant intelligent life still existed here, and the Dwemer lights weren't simply relics of that vanished race - or if they were, someone else was still using them. The new users weren't Falmer; the hut was worked stone, not chaurus chitin, and as far as he knew, Falmer didn't know how to either work stone or catch fish.
He made the best time he could back to the rest, and briefed them on what he'd found. "The cave changes about five hundred feet in. The glowing fungus tapers off, but the Dwemer lamps continue; the lighting's more than adequate. After what I guess you could call this rough-stone entryway, the place opens up into a very large cavern with formations I never saw in Skyrim or Solstheim. Spikes hanging from the ceiling or growing from the floor, sometimes forming columns. Clusters of crystals, tiny hollow stone tubes, what looked like a waterfall made out of stone, even some rocks that look almost like pearls. Really odd, but beautiful."
The researcher, Karrod, chuckled. "Those are limestone formations, mostly. Stalactites and stalagmites for the two types of spikes, and yes, they sometimes grow together into columns. The pipes, for some reason, are called soda straws, and the pearl-like things are cave pearls. Typical features of a limestone cave - and no, I don't think those exist in Skyrim."
"Anything else?" Umar asked. "What about the hostiles you warned us about?"
"No trace." Dirsha hesitated. "Or at least not yet. I did find paths, a stone hut, and a fish trap just before I turned back, though. I think we need to keep going until we find something definitive. That puzzle door wasn't put there for nothing, and considering this side is bare, it was primarily to keep something inside from getting out, rather than to keep outsiders from getting in. So that tells me there's something extremely dangerous here, even though we haven't found it yet."
Umar and the others nodded. "That makes sense," she said. "Why don't you lead, in stealth mode, and we'll stay a couple of hundred feet back, so we don't betray you?"
"That sounds reasonable," Dirsha agreed, and began the trip back to the stone shack. He followed the path back to the intersection, un-stealthed long enough to indicate to those following him that he was going right, then re-stealthed and kept going.
About a quarter hour later, he saw a brighter area off to his right, and veered toward it. He caught his breath when he got close enough to make out what was being lit up, and recognized a large number of hydroponics tanks, lit by full-spectrum Dwemer lamps. A hydroponic farm, in Hammerfell? That was a major surprise, and no hostiles he knew of had the ability to set that sort of thing up, so he un-stealthed and approached, if cautiously.
One of the people working over a tank apparently heard him and straightened, turning to face him, and he got another shock. "Odmer? Here? I thought you were all in Skyrim?"
The woman looked at him curiously. "What is an Odmer, young one? We are Falmer. And what are you doing in the Sacred Caverns? How did you get past the Barrier?"
Dirsha held up empty hands and bowed. "I'm Dirsha, of Family Marcurio in Clan Ysshaya, and Odmer are Falmer my mother restored from their betrayal and degradation by the Dwemer, thousands of years ago."
The woman cocked her head, giving him a puzzled grin. "What you say is well beyond my knowledge, young Khajiit. Will you go with me to our high priest?"
"If that's your leader, gladly. But I have others following me; I should let them know things are safe."
"Go ahead. Then I will guide you to the High Temple."
Dirsha returned to the path, and waved the others forward. "It seems we have Snow Elves here, but the one I spoke to apparently doesn't know much history, and wants to take me to their High Priest. I've encountered no hostility, so it's probably safe enough for me to go with her. Umar, you can come along if you wish, but the rest of you should probably go back to the entrance."
They agreed , Umar accompanying him back to the hydroponics area as the rest headed back up the path.
The High Temple was a huge cavern with a massive statue of Auri-El at the far end, towering above an altar, with clergy moving around. The guide caught one's attention, and asked to have the High Priest notified of visitors.
The acolyte agreed, and a few minutes later an obvious senior cleric - by his bearing; his clothing was a simple robe in Akatosh's flame-like yellow, orange and red - approached them and smiled. "Welcome. I am Angalmo, High Priest of Auri-El in the Final Sanctuary. His blessings on you both."
Dirsha bowed. "We thank you, Holy one. I am Dirsha of Family Marcurio in Clan Ysshaya, and my companion is my acting housecarl, Umar gra-Yarug. The lady who guided us here told me you are Falmer?"
"Yes, my son. That surprises you?"
"Yes, sir. In Skyrim, where I'm from, only two Snow elves survived the Dwemer Betrayal. The rest became - excuse the description - a physically and mentally warped remnant we know as Falmer hostile to every other race. In Skyrim, the only surviving Snow Elf now is Jarl Gelebor of Blackreach. My mother Restores other Falmer as they're found, and they've taken Odmer as the name for the Restored ones."
"Ahhh." The High Priest returned Dirsha's bow. "Then your mother deserves our thanks and reverence. Will you give us her name, that we may honor her?"
Dirsha chuckled. "Which one? She was born Yssha of Ysshaya and Dovahkiin, renamed Stormcrown and Ysmir by the Greybeards. She goes by all of those, as well as any number of additional titles I'll recite if you want."
The High Priest smiled. "'Dovahkiin' will do, grandson of Auri-El. Like other priests, I was told of her victory over the Destroyer Alduin, and she has been praised as such ever since. But the rest of what you say ... we were unaware of. The outer world has been a mystery to us since the Barrier was established. How did you get through it?"
"The Barrier?" He must mean the Nordic puzzle door, Dirsha thought. "We have a lot of those in Skyrim. They're easy if you have the key, but I've never heard of one that closed itself after being used. They normally protect something extremely valuable that's guarded by something - or some things - extremely dangerous. This cavern complex is certainly valuable, but we haven't encountered anything dangerous. At least not yet."
"Nor are you likely to," the priest said. "The Final Sanctuary is quite tame. Oh, there are occasional wild animals, though we have no idea how they get in, but ... otherwise, nothing. As you can see, we are a peaceful religious community."
Dirsha nodded. This place had the same feel as the Chantry in Forgotten Vale - even the statue of Auri-El was similar, though a slightly different style. An older one, if the Dwemer Betrayal was included in the things the Falmer here didn't know about.
And that was something he should find out. "How far back does your history go, here?"
Angalmo frowned slightly. "To waves of Nords invading from Atmora, when some of our brethren began negotiating with the Dwemer for a place to retreat to. Our ancestors didn't trust the Deep Elves, so instead of joining those negotiations, they fled the welcoming snows for the heat of the west and south, thinking to find a refuge from both. I won't go into detail at the moment, but their terrible struggles with heat, aridity, Dwemer, and Yokudans are chronicled in detail in the Temple Library.
"At any rate, our ancestors stumbled - literally, according to records from those days - into this cave, and found its coolness and beauty welcoming. They settled in, then found the Yokudans building a village, then a town, at its entrance. They began exploring the cave, which by then we had begun converting to a temple."
He shrugged. "There were clashes, of course, and though we were a religious order, I fear we did retaliate against their intrusions. Then one day, following a Yokudan raid deep inside, our counter-raiders found the Barrier, and we have been isolated - to our relief, actually - ever since."
Dirsha smiled. "Both Mother and Jarl Gelebor would love to come here, I'm sure. If you permit, of course," he added hastily, as the High Priest began to look apprehensive. "Gelebor was a Knight-Paladin at the Chantry of Auri-El, and you know who Mother is ... neither would permit harm to come to you here."
"Then ... they would be welome. If you can return through the Barrier."
"That isn't a problem. We can probably get to the other side even from here."