Author's Note:
Dear all, I hope you're ready for adventure ;) Destiny awaits.
I just thought it might be good to mention that I changed up the layout and size of Blackreach considerably for the purposes of the story. I moved some landmarks a tiny bit and I included Mzulft as one of the landmarks as well (since we could see one of the Blackreach entrances there in the College of Winterhold plotline). I tried to make the distances correspond more with how I'm portraying traveling on the surface, so no five minute walks from one end of Blackreach to the other :D It covers most of the Pale, half of Winterhold Hold, and the entirety of Eastmarch. It's going to be a challenging journey for certain ;)
I hope you'll all enjoy the upcoming chapters and thank you all for your continued readership :3
P.S. For ffnet readers, the riddle (you'll see) is lacking some aspects, namely arrows, since the site's formatting is the most frustrating and idiotic thing under the sun :( So if you want to see the riddle properly with the arrows, I again recommend using Wattpad or AO3 instead. It's just easier to read the riddle there in general because it doesn't have to use dashes between letters and doesn't delete spaces.
Chapter CXXXII – Crossroads
Aeyrin and Bishop had heard a fair amount about Blackreach by now.
An enormous underground cavern complex. Crossroads between the ancient Dwemer cities. Ruins teeming with Falmer. They imagined a lot. A lot of danger, a lot of bleak, dark environments and the same old structures they had known from their previous ventures beneath the earth.
They never would have imagined this.
"Damn," Bishop let out an astonished sigh. "I didn't think this place would be so…"
"Beautiful," Aeyrin finished the thought as her eyes roamed all over the sights in front of them.
It was so big they couldn't even see the cavern walls. Granted, they knew that most of this place was supposed to span over a large portion of Skyrim's area. It may even be as big as an entire Hold. It was dark, but not as they had imagined. There were actual roads, paved with sturdy tiles and lined with the occasional Dwemer light. There were large structures all over the place too. It actually looked like a bustling hub – it must have been, back in the day. Why would they just imagine dreary caverns?
But there were things much more mesmerizing than the size and the state of the complex. There were enormous glowing mushrooms growing all over, illuminating the place in an enchanting teal light. The ceiling, high above their heads, was almost glittering with what they could only assume were some glowing fungi. They had seen them before in deep cavern ceilings, but not in this scope. It was almost like millions of bright stars in the night sky. It was hard to remember that they were deep underground right then. And on top of all that, beautiful softly glowing crystals lined the stones and walls around them.
It almost felt like they were in a different world, on a different plane. Everything just looked so magical.
"And here I didn't think you'd still be showing me new 'beauties of Skyrim' after all this time," Aeyrin smiled at Bishop softly. Granted, Blackreach wasn't really his idea, not really, but he did promise a very long time ago that he would show her 'everything worth seeing' in Skyrim. This place should definitely make that list.
"I feel like we're not even in Skyrim anymore," Bishop chuckled in response. If he knew a place like this existed, he would have definitely tried to take her there a lot sooner, despite the dangers. It made all their travels through Alftand worth it to be able to see this. Especially to be able to see this with her. They had seen so much together, traveled so many places together, but there was still more to see and there were still more of these moments when he couldn't stop thinking how glad he was to have her by his side in a place like this. He couldn't really explain it, but the feeling was always there. When he took her to Nilheim for the first time, in that sanctuary to Kynareth in the tundra, or just in that small hunting cabin near Whiterun.
He felt Aeyrin's hand reach out for his own a second later and, when he turned to her, she just shot him a wry smile. He knew she felt the same. Every place was even more special when they could explore it together. Bishop gripped her hand briefly and leaned towards her. Looking at her in the faint teal light with everything around all shiny and mystical like that was just too tempting. He dipped his head down towards hers, placed his free hand on her cheek to nudge her to respond and captured her lips in a brief but insistent kiss.
He didn't prolong the kiss overmuch, but when they pulled apart, his hand lingered on her cheek, the rough leather of his armor stroking over her skin. She leaned into his touch without a word, but unfortunately, the serene scene, when they only got to focus on each other in the mesmerizing surroundings, got interrupted promptly by a strange sound.
They reluctantly tore their attention from each other and looked towards the source – it was like some very rapid chittering. They spotted the culprit promptly against the soft light – a big flying bug circled around a nearby cluster of glowing crystals, before it turned and disappeared further in, into the darkness.
It was gone, but it still served as an unpleasant reminder. They weren't here to enjoy some sightseeing.
This place was deadly.
"Well… I guess we better get started, huh?" Bishop looked around the area curiously. They had no idea where the Elder Scroll could be. It could be somewhere prominently displayed for all the Falmer to see. It could be heavily locked under numerous Dwemer security measures. Or it could just be tossed onto the ground somewhere haphazardly. There was no way of knowing. The Scrolls had disappeared from the Imperial Library with no trace and no explanation, as far as anyone knew. Or as far as the public knew. Maybe the Moth Priests knew more about what happened, but the two of them sure as fuck didn't.
"Yeah, let's start there," Aeyrin pointed to a surprisingly small Dwemer structure straight ahead of them. It looked like a small house, surprisingly enough, not another giant tower or another big complex. "It might be some sort of a road outpost. Maybe there's a map there."
Bishop nodded in response. She had a good point – it may have been some sort of a 'border checkpoint' for people traveling to and from Alftand.
The immediate area seemed safe and clear enough so they headed straight towards the small outpost.
They entered the structure promptly, ready for battle, but they were greeted with what could only be an empty laboratory. Unfortunately for them, it was no outpost, no checkpoint. It was clearly a workspace of some alchemist. There were ingredients everywhere. Mostly nirnroot. Its chiming noise was reverberating through the small chamber. There were even some strange red nirnroots planted in small planters. Maybe the alchemist was studying them. These certainly didn't grow up on the surface, as far as they knew.
"Well… no map," Bishop sighed. He really did expect some large map plastered onto the wall. That was probably naïve. Maybe there was a small one stashed somewhere though. There were certainly a lot of books and parchments around.
"You don't know that yet," Aeyrin shook her head as she approached one of the stone slabs in the room with various ingredients, books and notes on it. "And look at all the stuff!"
Good point. There was some loot. They should go through it, even if they didn't understand the books, they could…
"This is in Cyrodilic," Aeyrin's gasp interrupted Bishop's trail of thoughts. He looked at her instantly, and much to his surprise, she wasn't holding a book, but some of the parchments instead. There was a chance that those were made by the occupant of this place – likely not a Dwemer. Maybe a Snow Elf. Did Snow Elves even speak Cyrodilic? They had their own language, right? Or maybe it was some visiting scholar back from times when this place was still bustling with life.
Aeyrin started to open various books and parchments at the same time, curious about the mystery inhabitant, while Bishop studied the rest of the room. There was a small area with an extinguished fire pit and a pot hanging above it, and there was a single stone slab serving as a bed. There was just a pillow and a blanket on it, no bedroll, though the blanket looked bulky, like something was underneath.
"4E 58!" Another gasp echoed from the other side of the room as Aeyrin scanned through the various notes. "Someone was actually here in the fourth Era. Looks like they were studying this variation of nirnroot. I wonder what happened to them. Why are the notes still here?"
Bishop moved towards the bed and yanked the conspicuous blanket away. There was a small cluttering sound before he realized what he had just uncovered.
"Guess they never left…" he murmured as his eyes rested on the skeleton that had been curled under the blanket. He had kind of dislodged some bones by yanking the blanket away. He felt a little weird about that for some reason.
Aeyrin's attention turned to what Bishop was doing, since it made noise, and she instantly noticed the bones on the bed. That was a little disturbing. Another alchemist so dedicated to his research that they had died consumed by it.
Bishop covered the body once more – this wasn't going to be a good place to rest. Not just because a person had died in that bed, but they had just been resting a while ago. They would make a lot more progress further in by the time they needed to rest again, surely. But even if there were no maps and no convenient resting spot, this place could still be useful, right?
"You think Quintus would pay for that research?" He turned back towards Aeyrin when the skeleton was all covered once more.
"Didn't he say he doesn't want to end up like Nurelion?" Aeyrin scoffed. "How is this different?"
"He said he doesn't wanna focus on one thing. It's not like he has to come here and hole himself up in this hovel," Bishop shrugged. "We can just grab one of the nirnroots and the notes and send them to him. I bet this one here would be glad their research is continued," he pointed with his thumb to the covered bed again. "Or Quintus can just pass it on to someone else. I'm sure he knows people."
He made a good point. And they were here also for lucrative loot. Surely Quintus would pay for this and it would be a shame leaving all the work here.
They got to work promptly, scouring the place for anything useful they might find. It didn't take them very long, since the whole structure was rather small, but once they were outside again and facing the mesmerizing caverns, they were hit with their most immediate issue soon.
"We're gonna get so fucking lost here," Bishop groaned. They could try to map out the area themselves, but neither of them had much experience making their own maps and without a system first, they could spend days just going around in circles here. Many of the 'landmarks' just looked the same – mushrooms and Dwemer ruins. As beautiful as the place was, it was still dark and confusing.
"Well… there's a road sign," Aeyrin pointed towards a thin pole by the side of the road, illuminated by a Dwemer lantern.
Bishop had noticed it before, but it was of no use. Nothing here would be of any use. This would not tell them where they were going.
"It's in Dwemeris. We can't read it anyway," he let out a resigned sigh.
"But we can memorize the symbols. Or maybe draw them on a parchment," Aeyrin suggested. "I know they look kinda similar, but if we have the drawings, maybe we could…"
"Hang on," Bishop stopped her in her ruminations. She made a good point, but now he realized something that could possibly be even more useful. He took a few steps towards the unhelpful road sign and studied it for a while. There were seven signs, four pointing to one side of the road, two to the other and then one pointing sideways onto the small platform that led back to where they had originally come from. He concentrated on that one.
"Seven symbols," he announced with palpable cheer in his voice.
"Yeah?" Aeyrin only shrugged. She wasn't sure why that was important.
"Alftand. Seven letters. It says Alftand. I think," It was a sound theory, wasn't it? What else would it say?
"You want to… try to translate these?" Aeyrin looked at him in surprise. That was a good idea. Though she worried that it would just yield Dwemer words which they wouldn't understand anyway, it could at least help them out in knowing their location properly. And whereabouts they were regarding the surface above. They could plan their paths better that way.
She rummaged in her pack for a while before she found a piece of parchment and a sharpened charcoal. She jogged towards Bishop with the items in hand and placed the paper onto a nearby stone slab. Then, she tried to copy the symbols for all seven signs as best as she could. In the end, under the first set of symbols, the letter were written.
"Look, it even fits. The A symbol is there twice on the right spots," she beamed at Bishop. This was a good plan. They needed a system to fall back on. If all else failed, they could always just follow the signs until they returned to Alftand. It was a comfortable safety net against being lost in this giant place forever.
"Great. Let's see what other symbols fit," Bishop nodded. Maybe this would spark some familiar names in their head. They didn't have a lot of known letters to work with, but maybe they would make some progress down the line regardless.
Aeyrin finished jotting down the notes and passed the parchment to Bishop. It was like a riddle. But they might actually be able to fill it.
.
A-L-F-T-A-N-D
_ _ _ N _ _ A-L _ F-T
F-A _ L _ A _ _ - _ _ L
_ _ A _ _
A _ _ N _ T _ _ N _ _
_ A-L-D _ T _ A _
_ _ _ L-F _
.
It was good that all Dwemer names really sounded the same – a lot of them used the same symbols. Still, he couldn't figure it out on the first look, but surely with some time and concentration, they could think of what the other symbols meant.
But before he could ponder any longer, the same rapid chittering sound rang through the area again. The chaurus bug was back and, this time, it seemed to notice the intruders standing there by the light. Bugs were always drawn to the light – maybe this wasn't the best place to stand about.
Aeyrin promptly unsheathed her mace when the bug flew towards her. It tried to spray her with that strange acid that chaurus spewed, but she managed to dodge it at the last second and she smashed her mace against the thing. The cracking sound of its shell echoed through the air, and once it wavered in its flight, getting closer to the ground, Aeyrin gripped one of its wings with her free hand and yanked. The wings were too flimsy to withstand that and she tore it right off. At that, the bug ended up on the ground instantly. One hard stomp did it in at last, once and for all.
"This… might not be a great place for this," Aeyrin huffed in a few rushed breaths.
It was definitely true. Bishop opened up the front of his armor slightly and stashed the parchment safely in his secret pocket. They could take a crack at it once they cleared some area or found a good place to rest. Right now, the symbols and roads were enough to guide them.
"Right. So… that direction has more… directions," Bishop pointed to the side of the road with four signs pointing to it. "I'm not sure right now if it's east or west or what… but we'll figure it out once we take a crack at those symbols."
"Maybe we should have invested in a compass," Aeyrin smirked. They didn't usually need it. The stars, shadows, moss on the trees and familiar landmarks were too easy to navigate by. Compasses were kind of expensive because only suckers like nobles needed them to tell the directions. But all of their usual tactics were moot underground. It made sense that the Dwemer felt the need to invent the compass in the first place.
"We'll figure it out without a compass," Bishop gave her a resolute nod. "Or maybe we'll find one here somewhere."
It was a possibility. But for now, they've had enough standing about. The direction with most directions sounded like a good idea. The Scroll might be hidden in some structure and it was good to start looking through those.
They really needed to get going if they were to make any progress.
…
The roads weren't too dangerous – most of them weren't overrun with Falmer. There was the occasional giant bug, hanging around a lantern and some chaurus or Falmer stragglers, but it wasn't too bad. It was much worse near the Dwemer structures. They could see it from afar. Crouched forms were creeping all over the distant bridges and platforms, illuminated by the glowing mushrooms.
They were sure that exploring the structures was going to be challenging. Right now, they had spent almost two hours just following the road and looking around. Most of the surroundings were only filled with mushrooms and rocks, but the sparse structures were visible from a great distance. They still weren't sure how long exploring this place could take. Judging by what they knew of the entrances scattered around Skyrim, it could take up to two days to cross the complex – from Alftand to Mzulft at least. But that was without any proper exploration and combat. That was unrealistic. It was clear already that they would likely spend much more time here than that.
But they were prepared for it. And besides, the magical surroundings were kind of making up for it, when the two of them weren't getting attacked by bugs and lost Falmer. A sight that drew their attention the most was a very distant light. Unlike the rest of the complex, it wasn't blue, teal or purple. It was bright orange and very close to the glittering ceiling. At least it looked like it. It was too far to see properly, but it shone brightly like the sun in the skies above. It was really strange to see such things here. It was almost as if the Dwemer had attempted to recreate the surface here underground – the glittering fungi stars above, the bright orange sun. It was obvious that the Dwemer had nothing to do with the mushrooms and moss around, but still. Or… maybe they had something to do with those too. Who knew what they were cultivating down here?
The red nirnroots – crimson nirnroots, as the notes had suggested, were sometimes peeking out from between some rocks, usually near a small puddle of water. Just like on the surface. Aeyrin grabbed only two more as they explored around – she didn't want to take too many, the nirnroots were a decent source of light for the bodies of water.
Though when it came to the water, they were a bit uncertain.
There was water. There were small puddles all around and it was possible that there would be larger bodies of water further in. The Dwemer made a lot of use out of water and steam after all – most of their cities utilized a lot of water. The structures around could have had pipes coming all the way from the surface, but that was a long way for pipes to go. A very long way.
The issue was more with how the water looked.
It was quite dark all around, save for the glowing sources, but the colors tended to distort things. That was why the water looked just pitch black. Or was it?
When they were near one of the puddles, Aeyrin curiously knelt down by the crimson nirnroot there glowing upon the water. She made a bowl with her hands and scooped up some of the water in order to see it properly against her nearly white chainmail. But much to her surprise, the water did have a black tinge. It was still a bit translucent, but much less than any other water. The darkness of it was palpable and she couldn't imagine why it had such color.
Neither of them dared to drink it.
They knew they would have to eventually, but for now, they still had enough supplies on their own.
As they continued following the path, a small structure appeared up ahead – a tower. It wasn't nearly as tall as the towers in Alftand and it was practically on the road. It was as good a place to start as any – leaving out structures for later would only make things more confusing in the long run. So they decided to explore it fully.
They readied their weapons preemptively before Aeyrin opened the door to the small tower.
The second she did, another chittering sound echoed through, but this time a little different. A little more familiar even.
Before either of them noticed the large spider, a thick web shot at the two of them, sticking to their armors. And within a second, two more spiders suddenly lowered themselves from the ceiling of the first floor.
"Fuck!" Bishop growled the second they got hit by the web. It was always so fucking annoying to have their armors covered in this shit. It was so fucking hard and time-consuming to get off and it was making it hard to move. Aeyrin, in the meantime, reacted quickly. But just as she ran towards the spider and raised her mace to hit it, another shot of web landed on her flank from a second creature.
Bishop rushed to thrust his sword into it in retaliation. He managed to hit it right in its fat bottom, making it chitter with a high-pitched screech of pain. At the same time, Aeyrin smashed her mace into the first spider, letting the sound of its crackling semi-hard shell echo through the small circular chamber.
The third spider managed to shoot another sticky web onto Bishop's back and, with another angry growl, he swiftly turned around to chop off its head in one swing.
That was that. The spiders were dead. Fighting them was hardly ever challenging, but that webbing made things difficult every time.
"Fuck. It's gonna take fucking ages to get this thing out again," Bishop groaned as he tried to grab the worst of the webs and take them off himself. They only stuck more to his glove. But Aeyrin had it even worse. Once it got into the rings of her chainmail, it meant only hours and hours of cleaning to get that off.
"I know," Aeyrin let out an annoyed sigh while she herself tried to remove the worst of the sticky webs. This was a nightmare. She almost wished they would have found Falmer here instead. They needed to find a proper water source, deeper than a puddle, and get rid of the webs soon.
But first, there was the rest of the tower to explore.
Before anything else, they headed up the spiral stairs to find out what was up there – in case there were more spiders.
There was one, in fact, but it wasn't fully grown yet and it tried to scurry away when they approached, not even attempting to shoot a web at them. Bishop stomped on it promptly – they were not going to be taking any chances.
And with no more stories to explore, now it was time to do some looting. Who knew? Maybe the Scroll was stashed somewhere in a cupboard. And if not, there were sure to be other treasures lying around.
Moving was a bit more annoying due to the webs. Both of them kept trying to clean the worst of them off while scouring the tower. They hadn't even managed to drop their packs when they were attacked by the spiders so the webs didn't spare parts of them either. They really needed water. It was the only way to get rid of it properly.
But fortunately, some of the things in the tower managed to make this all worth it. There was a pouch full of some coins – they had never seen them before, but those must have been some ancient Dwemer currency and also one of those shiny red spinning orbs encased in Dwemer metal. They forgot what those were called. The College mages said that they were common, but they didn't find too many of them on their own excursions. Calcelmo was sure to pay for it.
"Think we should just go on? We really need to find some fucking water," Bishop noted as they finished scouring the lower level again.
"Yeah. This looks like a good place to rest, but it's too early anyway," Aeyrin nodded. They had barely only begun. Despite the discomfort, it wasn't very practical to stop now. "We can come back if we don't find anything better."
Bishop nodded. It was a good plan. And he really hoped there would be some water further down the road.
It better be soon. He felt like he could barely move, although he knew it was the warped perception of feeling covered with webs for the most part. Still, it made him less confident with his bow. That was not a good thing here.
Who knew what awaited them next?
…
After a few more hours of walking through Blackreach and disposing of any stragglers on the road, Bishop and Aeyrin spotted another landmark in the distance.
They had been following the same direction on the road – fortunately there weren't any forks in it yet so they didn't have to make any tough decisions with their incomplete directions. But now they were approaching a familiar sight – a platform that looked very much like the exit from Alftand. It appeared to be another entrance into a Dwemer city. It made sense, given how long they had been walking.
What was more concerning, however, was that even from a distance, they could see a number of Falmer skulking around the platform.
This looked like it would be a tough fight.
Bishop didn't hesitate before he drew his bow. He hated how his arms moved with that webbing still sticking to his armor, but he did his best to ignore it as he notched the first arrow. Aeyrin was ready a few paces ahead of him, prepared to take on the Falmer that would inevitably start rushing at them soon.
The first arrow hit its target – Falmer skulking around, leaning on a curved staff. It was always a good idea to get rid of the mages first.
The staff clattered onto the ground and the creature fell dead on the spot. But this, of course, caught the attention of the rest of the Falmer. They started to run around, trying to locate the source of the disturbance, but once Bishop's second arrow picked off another target, a few of the Falmer realized where the attack was coming from. The rest followed right away.
Aeyrin tried to be as quiet as possible as they rushed towards her. She wasn't sure if these things could smell her, but she didn't think so. They always went by the sound. So when the first Falmer rushed past her and towards Bishop, she swung her mace swiftly, hitting the creature straight in the face and letting the enchantment singe the shriveled skin to an ever worse state than before.
The screech of their fallen kin alerted the rest of the rushing Falmer, but that was the plan. Bishop was better off covering Aeyrin's melee assault from a safe distance anyway. It was always their most effective tactic.
More Falmer swarmed Aeyrin within seconds. She spun around in wide swings, taking on as many of them as she could while Bishop's arrows thinned the herd. He was so concentrated on watching her back – watching how she managed to put up a ward against a burst of flame from one of the mages just in the nick of time. He was too preoccupied trying to ease her situation that he didn't even notice the Falmer appearing behind him.
He wasn't sure whether one of them somehow got past Aeyrin, escaping his notice as well, or whether it was another straggler from the road, lured in by the noises of the battle. All he suddenly felt, just as he was aiming his bow, was a harsh poke right into his spine, sending dull pain through him and reverberating the plate underneath his leather.
Thank the fucking Gods for that plate – he would have been dead if it wasn't for that, likely impaled on whatever weapon he just got 'stabbed' with.
His arrow let loose from the shock, Bishop didn't even waste a second before he turned around sharply to face the Falmer. It seemed very caught off guard by the unexpected obstruction in its attack and Bishop used the momentum to punch it right in its scrunched up disfigured face. But he couldn't actually reach for his sword and finish it off in any way. The sound of Aeyrin's shocked yelp tore his attention back to the fray instantly.
He barely caught it in the corner of his eye. Aeyrin slumped down to the ground entirely, surrounded by Falmer. But he realized what happened right away. She didn't stagger, she didn't stumble. He saw her, stiff as a log, fall heavily and motionlessly.
He shot her.
And the paralyzing effect of his bow did its job.
Fuck. The only comfort now was that he must have hit her somewhere in the arm only. She was way too protected with her heavy plates in more vulnerable places. Unless he managed to shoot her in the head…
Don't think about that!
He didn't even have time to think, to panic. He had to prevent the Falmer from using the situation to their advantage. He needed to get in there and keep them away from her somehow.
The battle wasn't far, but it wasn't exactly close either. Not close enough. The Falmer were all right there, upon her. Any one of them could just…
"FUS!"
Just as Bishop broke into a fierce run, a Shout echoed through the cavern.
She did it. She Shouted. It looked like her instincts could still kick in, still gauge the control she had lost, despite her blood. It was a relief for so many fucking reasons. Most of all, that she was actually alive and capable of Shouting.
But aside from the sound, nothing happened. The Falmer gathered around her with their weapons drawn weren't thrown off by an invisible force.
Fuck. The Shout did nothing. Maybe the force of it was so small, it didn't even faze them.
But it did manage to do some good. The Falmer seemed confused, turning around sharply, startled by the loud noise that could in no way come out of their presumably only elven prey.
That gave him a chance.
Bishop had probably never run that fast in his life. He dropped his bow entirely – he couldn't waste time sheathing it – and the only motion he made through his fierce dash was drawing his sword. He didn't even stop. His blade slashed against three Falmer's stomachs, just when they turned towards the whooshing of air around them. His movements were muffled after all, but they noticed his presence.
It didn't matter though. Sending those three Falmer falling onto the ground, he was by Aeyrin's side in no time. She was on the ground, still surrounded by a number of them, twisted in a strange half-contorted position, mid-attack. He could see her eyes move when she spotted him, but there were already tears accumulating in them as she was unable to blink. She also let out a sigh of relief, but she didn't speak further. It was for the best. The less vocal she was, the less attention from the Falmer she would draw.
But there was no more time to ponder any of it. It was time to take care of those creeps once and for all. Bishop locked swords with the first one that got too close and he used his foot to kick it away in the meantime.
His sword slashed across another one's neck, sending jolts of electricity through it. As if that was really necessary – it was already dead. But a second later, he felt a sharp pain on the side of his thigh.
Fucking axe.
He turned around to stab the culprit in turn and he only narrowly avoided another attack. This was insane. Aeyrin always told him he got overwhelmed when he was surrounded way too easily, but what the fuck was he supposed to do?
She said he couldn't kill many enemies at once with his 'precision', that was after he mocked her swinging her mace blindly in all directions.
Maybe she did have a point about that. Maybe he should try it.
He felt another sharp poke into the plate on his back and he had to resist the urge to turn around and retaliate – that was counterproductive and it took precious time from him. Not anymore. Instead, he just started to slash around with his sword. Aeyrin was well out of the way there on the ground, so he didn't have to even think. He just made wide circles with his weapon, going for quantity instead of precision.
Aeyrin did have a point. It was quite effective in the large crowd. The Falmer didn't expect the attack coming quickly in succession and while he did certainly feel many more slashes and stabs against his back and sometimes his arms too, which unfortunately weren't plated, he did thin the herd considerably.
It was a sound tactic. It was just sounder for someone in a heavier armor. But he couldn't really be prissy about some cuts right now.
There were only a few Falmer left then, but just as he was about to lock swords with one, it suddenly fell to the ground instead. It took him a while to notice that Aeyrin was regaining her mobility. And while she was breathing heavily and blinking very fast, she did grab the creature by the ankle and yanked it away from Bishop. Now he could just stab it easily.
The last three Falmer fell quickly after that. And after all that chaos and confusion, Bishop and Aeyrin found themselves sitting on the ground, aching in various places, covered in Falmer blood and surrounded by a heap of corpses.
Aeyrin was still breathing very heavily with her cheeks stained with tears. Only then Bishop at last noticed his arrow protruding from her forearm.
"Fuck, princess, I'm so sorry," he grabbed her by the shoulders carefully and pulled her towards him. He was really careful not to let anything touch the arrow. He needed to take it out, but she looked like she was shaking a bit. She needed to be calmer so that it could be quick and as painless as possible. "I got attacked just as I was aiming. I didn't see where it… fuck. Is it bad?" He looked at her arm with concern. He knew by now what anything piercing her chain meant – the wound would be very painful with those fucking rings lodged in her flesh like that.
She didn't answer him right away. She just let out a shuddering breath as she pressed herself into his arms with her own wounded hand outstretched so that she wasn't aggravating it. She didn't seem concerned about the blood or by the pain, though he noticed that she was a little slow to press herself to him too much – she likely wasn't sure whether he wasn't wounded too. But just then, it looked like she just needed to take a breath in his embrace.
"Would you take it out, please?" she whispered after what felt like a long time, but she still didn't seem entirely calmed down.
"You're shaking," Bishop noted, but she must have known that herself.
"Please, just do it quick," she let out another shuddering breath as she gripped him around his waist with her hale arm, as if to hold onto him in preparation for what was to come.
He grabbed her hand in his promptly, but carefully enough that he didn't make things worse. She wanted it quick so he didn't dawdle before he grabbed the arrow with his other hand. It didn't go all the way through, it didn't really seem deep at all – her chain must have slowed it down considerably. But it was still enough to cause her pain. Hopefully she would be able to heal it.
He yanked at the arrow in one swift motion and Aeyrin let out a loud cry. It was over soon, however. And the quick yank seemed to tear all the rings of her chains out of the wound as well. That was good. Still, it looked fucking painful. Bishop couldn't even remember that he himself was sporting a few nasty cuts and bruises right now, not when he was so focused on her.
The second he was done, she let go of him and placed her hale hand on her forearm. It lit up with healing magic instantly. The wound looked nasty before, but he knew it wasn't too deep. Especially since it only took a while for her to stop the healing and take her hand away – there was barely any sign of the wound there, just the blood staining her arm and the torn chain.
Still, she didn't look any less shaky as she leaned into his embrace again, letting out another sigh.
"Does it still hurt?" Bishop asked in concern. Sometimes wounds were still sore, even after healing. Maybe she was having a hard time shaking this one off.
"No… just… bad memories," she murmured sourly.
Shit. He completely forgot about that. It wasn't really the arrow that was the issue, but the paralysis must have brought back all that shit she had suffered when Calixto abducted her. All that helplessness. And even though she wasn't silenced by a spell this time, her Shouts still couldn't help her.
Now he just felt even worse about what happened.
"I'm so sorry, love," he squeezed her closer, despite the pain that shot through his thigh as he did.
"It's not your fault," she shook her head at him wryly. She knew that something must have happened to make him miss like that. In fact, the first thing that hit her right after his arrow did, was the horror that something attacked him just then. She didn't know what was happening for so long. Then she tried to Shout and it only made her realize much more just how helpless she was. She could practically see that small room in that Valunstrad mansion all around her again. It was such a relief when she saw him dash through the crowd of Falmer. But it still took a bit longer for her to shake that helpless feeling. It lingered just as much as it did back then.
But she needed to. This wasn't the right place to wallow in self-pity. It was too dangerous. Besides, even though Bishop was acting like he was fine, she saw him from the ground, getting slashed and hit several times. He must have had his fair share of wounds.
"You're hurt," she didn't even ask. She just noted it knowingly.
"Not 'hurt'. Just… might have a nick or two," Bishop smirked at her in reassurance. "But look." He pointed somewhere in the distance, towards the cavernous wall. It would have been barely visible, were it not for the two crimson nirnroots shining there, illuminating the water, both a little distance away. It was possible that there were just two small puddles there, but it was more likely that it was actually a tiny pond – one they could wash their armors in. And one secluded and dark enough to keep any enemies away.
"Come, love," he nudged her a little, still wary of any injuries getting in the way for either of them. "Let's go lick our wounds there."
…
The small pond did indeed come very handy.
They were safe enough there; or at least it appeared so. They could remove their armors, take care of Bishop's cuts and gashes, and start working on removing at least some of the webbing from their equipment.
The glow of the nirnroots revealed a batch of those pretty blue crystals on a nearby rock and Aeyrin tried to use them at one point to scrape the web off the armor. It wasn't very effective. And she got to find out that the crystals actually came off the rock pretty easily. But since they weren't of much scraping use, the cleaning took them a long time.
At least they got to spend it in relative peace for a while, undisturbed by the denizens of Blackreach.
When they got the worst out, they returned to the platform leading to the other Dwemer city. There was no way in Oblivion they were going inside that city – not even very near that platform. The number of Falmer that had been skulking there meant nothing good inside or in the general area. But they did want to look at the nearby road sign. It pointed to the platform, identifying it with the longest set of runes there.
And after that, the two of them agreed to return to the secured tower instead of continuing. They had lost a lot of time already and it was for the best to finally work a little on their directions.
Besides, the walk back would only add to their exhaustion. It was high time they got some rest.
They reached the tower almost undisturbed, only having to deal with one pesky chaurus. Fortunately the spiders hadn't repopulated it in the few hours, so they were free to enjoy its relative safety.
And after setting up their bedroll and removing their armors again, they could spend some time cuddled up together, leaning on the circular wall of the chamber on the second floor.
"We could probably make a campfire here," Bishop pondered as Aeyrin continued nuzzling into his embrace tiredly. She was pretty quiet the whole way back. That wasn't really surprising – they were usually quiet here so that they wouldn't attract unexpected Falmer. But now that it stretched to their stay there, it was starting to get him a little nervous. "You know, have something better than rations. If… you don't mind the fire… I mean…" he stammered. Maybe he shouldn't have suggested that, with her memories of Windhelm pretty fresh, likely along with that fire.
"Bish, stop fretting over me," Aeyrin smirked. "I'm fine." She couldn't pretend like the experience didn't affect her. But she'd calmed down since then and she was actually starting to forget it steadily. As long as Bishop wasn't throwing her concerned or apologetic looks all the time.
"I know… I was just…" he sighed. He wasn't even sure what the end of that sentence was supposed to be.
"Hey, you have the parchment with the directions? We should really work on that," she quickly changed the subject, determined to concentrate on what was important now – their adventure here and getting that Scroll.
"Oh. Yeah." He almost forgot about that after he had been preoccupied with trying to analyze her silence. But she had a point. They really needed to figure that shit out, so he reached out to his backpack and rummaged around. It was hard to do with one arm, while his other kept holding Aeyrin around her waist, but after a while, he finally managed to grab the parchment from the inner pocket of his armor.
He unfolded it so that Aeyrin could see it as well and the both of them started to focus on the symbols and the letters.
"So we know that there are other entrances," Aeyrin pondered as she tried to remember every one they saw. "There was the broken one in Mzulft and then one in Raldbthar."
"Right. Look at the last word. It's really short and it's got the symbols for L and F. That's gotta be Mzulft," Bishop nodded. That would give them a few more letters to work with.
"Yeah. Raldbthar has nine symbols… if I remember the spelling right," she added.
"It could be this one," Bishop pointed to the second line from the bottom. "R A L D… yeah it fits."
They worked together for a while to fill in the gaps based on their new symbols. And soon, a new riddle appeared before them.
.
A-L-F-T-A-N-D
M-Z _ N _ H-A-L _ F-T
F-A-H-L _ A _ R - Z _ L
M-Z-A-R _
A-R _ N _ T-H-U-N _ H
R-A-L-D-B-T-H-A-R
M-Z-U-L-F-T
.
"So the second one is the one we were by now, right? The symbols match. Do you have any idea what it could be?" Aeyrin asked when they could finally see the almost-filled riddle.
"It looks like Mzinchaleft," Bishop nodded. "It's a ruin near Dawnstar. Given how far we walked from Alftand, it would make sense. So that means that we were going east. And it makes sense since both Raldbthar and Mzulft are west of Alftand." It was starting to fit together nicely. With that, they could fill another big portion of the riddle. At least Bishop was pretty sure he remembered the spelling of Mzinchaleft. It would have been considerably harder had he not had so many letters already filled to help out.
.
A-L-F-T-A-N-D
M-Z-I-N-C-H-A-L-E-F-T
F-A-H-L _ A _ R - Z-E-L
M-Z-A-R _
A-R _ N _ T-H-U-N-C-H
R-A-L-D-B-T-H-A-R
M-Z-U-L-F-T
.
"Hey, not bad," Aeyrin beamed at him. "Only three places left. Two symbols."
"Yeah. And if we continue on the road past Mzinchaleft, we'll be heading towards those three places," Bishop nodded.
"The road was turning south at the ruins. Any idea what the other cities are?" she looked at the letters again, trying to remember some names she might have caught in their travels, but she was coming up short.
"No… I've never heard of ruins south of Mzinchaleft and none with names that would fit these," Bishop sighed. "Maybe they're just well hidden or obscure. Or maybe they're not surface ruins at all."
"Hmm, it could just be some landmarks down here," Aeyrin nodded. There had to be other things than the entrance platforms – like that giant glowing sun. What was that? Hopefully they would be heading towards it tomorrow.
"Guess we'll find out. This is the best we can do now," Bishop put the paper down again. It wasn't too shabby. They knew where they were, where they were going, just not what they would find there yet. But they could only hope that it would be the scroll at some point.
"So… the fire?" Bishop asked again carefully after a second of silence. She said not to 'fret over her' but he was still a little uncertain about asking this again. Even though he was convinced that a good meal would cheer her right up. It usually did.
"Alright, make us some good horker," Aeyrin smiled in return. It didn't sound half bad, actually. She was already planning journeys in her head – the riddle made her push the events of today out of her mind even more and replaced it with more curiosity and excitement about this whole underground complex. If only it wasn't occupied by so many Falmer, this would have been a perfect place. She still couldn't get over how beautiful it was. She wanted to see more of it. Learn more of it.
Come to think of it, there was definitely a way to learn even more, since she had some time to kill while Bishop cooked.
She still had those alchemist's notes.
Maybe they would have some useful information, aside from the fawning over the nirnroots.
…
Through the evening, or approximate evening at least – it was a little hard to tell time underground – Aeyrin read up plenty on Blackreach. The owner of the journal, Sinderion, had the place scoured from a safe distance pretty well. He even used a lot of Dwemer names to describe places. The problem was that he used a lot of them indeed. She couldn't concentrate enough on pinpointing the ones they were unsure about from their riddle in all of Sinderion's notes. So as it stood, it was all just kind of interesting, but not entirely useful. It was a way to pass the evening though.
The next day, presumably, the two of them continued on their previous westward path, now that they were recuperated. They went past Mzinchaleft again, though this time there weren't nearly as many Falmer around. There were some though, scavenging around the dead corpses of their brethren left behind.
They weren't the only ones on the road. The more they continued, the more there were. And it became increasingly obvious where the long road led as they were getting closer and closer to the glowing 'sun' near the cavern ceiling. They could see by now that it was some orb of orange light encased in a dark metal round cage, possibly just hanging from the stone of the ceiling. Like an enormous chandelier.
It didn't exactly make much sense why there would be more Falmer around it – they couldn't see it after all – but when Bishop and Aeyrin got close enough to see more outlines in the darkness, behind the mesmerizing fogs of spores illuminated by the various sources of light throughout the cavern, they spotted it.
It was a huge structure complex. Much bigger than anything they've seen before in here. Much bigger than the entrances to Mzinchaleft and Alftand. It almost looked as big as some of the surface ruins were.
This ruin didn't go deeper into the ground, did it?
Whatever it was, however, it was definitely teeming with Falmer. And it was something that needed to be scoured for the Scroll.
"Hey, look at this," Bishop interrupted Aeyrin when she peered at the structures in the distance, illuminated only by the glowing 'sun' above. It looked like the structures were lining the cavern's walls, tall enough to actually reach the ceiling. But now her attention was diverted as Bishop jogged forward a bit.
There was another road sign. And once she caught up with him and studied it, it became clear why it gave Bishop pause.
.
A-L-F-T-A-N-D
M-Z-I-N-C-H-A-L-E-F-T
F-A-H-L _ A _ R - Z-E-L
M-Z-A-R _
A-R _ N _ T-H-U-N-C-H
R-A-L-D-B-T-H-A-R
M-Z-U-L-F-T
.
"Why are they pointing differently?" Bishop scowled. "The long one, the Mzinchaleft one, that makes sense. But why did the last two change?" He scowled. Of course, since they passed Mzinchaleft, it would be in the other direction now. But they didn't pass the rest. Did they? Did they somehow miss the entrance to Raldbthar and Mzulft? That was impossible. Those were way too far. They hadn't been walking long enough to reach anything under the Pale-Eastmarch border, let alone the Icewind Peaks.
"It's a circle," Aeyrin pointed out. That made sense, didn't it? Or at least any shape without ends. It was really the only way she could imagine the cavern and it fit the way the Dwemer cities on the signs lined up and the way they had been walking – always along the cavern's walls.
"Yeah, I figured. But we can't be close enough to Mzulft to have the path actually… wait… fuck this is confusing," Bishop's scowl only deepened as he tried to imagine where could they possibly be now.
"It's crossroads. There might be some forks down the line, shortcuts," she noted. Yes, Bishop had a point. Mzulft was so far. They had only passed Mzinchaleft several hours ago and that was in the opposite direction of Mzulft. But if there were some paths across the circle, it made sense.
It also meant more potential to get lost, but they really hoped that they would be fine with their directions.
Bishop didn't answer as they started to walk again. He seemed completely absorbed with trying to make sense of the directions, when there were no Falmer interrupting them. They walked somewhat silently for another longer while before he finally spotted another road sign in the distance and rushed towards it.
When Aeyrin caught up once more, his voice was quieter than before. It was no wonder. The structure complex was pretty near and they could see Falmer crawling all over it.
"Crossroads," he pointed towards the road sign and then towards the faintly illuminated fork on the road. There were four paths to choose from now. And the sign for Raldbthar was there twice now, each pointing in a different direction. There were clearly two viable paths leading into the ruins. That was good. It was another potential exit for them.
.
A-L-F-T-A-N-D
M-Z-I-N-C-H-A-L-E-F-T
M-Z-U-L-F-T
F-A-H-L _ A _ R - Z-E-L
R-A-L-D-B-T-H-A-R
M-Z-A-R _
R-A-L-D-B-T-H-A-R
A-R _ N _ T-H-U-N-C-H
.
The road to Mzulft was the same – along the cavern walls. That was undoubtedly the longest route they could go through and they didn't really want to go to Mzulft outright. The rest of the new directions were more interesting. One of the unknown locations, as well as Raldbthar, were pointing to their left – clearly towards the structure complex. Another path to Raldbthar, along with the shortest undeciphered sign, were pointing to one of the roads right next to the Mzulft one and then there was another unknown long sign that pointed to the last road, nearest to the left one. For the last sign, they could actually see the destination though. It wasn't close. But it was distinctive.
There was a patch of crimson nirnroots in the distance, glowing brightly. They wouldn't have paid it much mind if it wasn't a clearly and abnormally large patch illuminating a building instead of a puddle. And it instantly sparked Aeyrin's memories.
"The catacombs," she whispered, wary of attracting attention.
"What?" Bishop raised his brow at her.
"Sinderion wrote about them," she continued to explain in a hushed tone. "He kept fawning over the place on several pages. Said that there's so many of the nirnroot, but that he doesn't dare go close to the city. The… city…" she pointed to the structure complex nearby. That must have been it. "What did he call it? The Silent City. And he had a Dwemer name for the catacombs too, I just don't remember it."
"So, this points to the catacombs," Bishop inclined his head towards the singular sign pointing at the nirnroot patch. "We can fill the directions with that, if he really mentioned the Dwemer name. But more importantly, if that is a city, do the catacombs connect to it? I… don't really feel like barging in through the front gates." He smirked. That place was really crawling with those things. Filling the riddle wasn't really that important anymore. They had the most useful bits and knowing what some city here was called wasn't of much use when they could identify the signs pointing to it. That was enough. That and knowing which surface ruins they were near.
"Sinderion never went near the place," Aeyrin scowled. "But… it makes sense, right? And it's close to this 'Silent City'. Fahl-something-Zel. You think he made a direct translation of the name? Because it clearly points to the city." She gestured towards that particular road sign.
"Who cares? We just need to get inside and survive. Doesn't matter what the name is, as long as we have directions." He scoffed quietly. "I say we head for the catacombs."
Aeyrin only nodded. She certainly had no objections to that.
That city was… beckoning. There was clearly something very important about it.
It had to be the place that held their treasure.
…
It was brutal.
Those catacombs were only the beginning. Sinderion must have done some translations to the original name, because there was nothing inside or outside that was in any way reminiscent of these being some catacombs. Well, there were some obelisks with Dwemer symbols on them in front of the entrance, so maybe that was it. Who knew how Dwemer burial sites looked?
But the more concerning parts were the living, rather than the dead.
There were so many Falmer crawling through the catacombs and through the city itself. And not just Falmer. Among the chaurus, bugs, and blind Snow Elves, the most startling discovery were the humans. There weren't many of them, but they were there, dressed in rags and rabid, attacking at sight mindlessly. They didn't look like they understood a word when Bishop and Aeyrin tried to communicate with them. They were completely and utterly absorbed in their purpose of defending the city from the intruders.
The two of them explored the majority of it already, several building structures, save for a large tower leading all the way to some platforms by the cavern ceiling, right by the giant ball of light. But it wasn't without its costs.
They ended up holed up in one of the chambers in a more remote building, battered, bruised, exhausted and wounded. Bishop's armor has several slash-holes in it, both above the hidden plates and on the spots where the plates didn't protect him, earning him several nasty gashes. Aeyrin's chain ended up broken in several places as well and she wasn't spared the injuries either. And that was all atop the scorched leather, frozen plate and some small magical burns from lightning, all the result of nasty encounters with Falmer mages.
They were beat. If Mzinchaleft was bad, this was on a whole other level. All they could do by now was trap their room as securely as possible for the night and take as much care of their wounds as they could.
Bishop let out a hiss of pain as Aeyrin carefully tried to clean his nastiest gash going all the way from his shoulder blade to the hip on his flank. One of the fuckers got him just as he was aiming his bow. The pain was eased, however, only after a few minutes of unpleasant rubbing of her wetted cloth over the wound, when the warmth of her healing magic began to replace it. He wasn't even sure now whether he should put his shirt back on tomorrow. It was practically in tatters. Though it wasn't really comfortable to wear the armor without a shirt underneath. But he could always take back the one he had given Aeyrin to sleep in for a while.
"I don't understand," Aeyrin let out a sigh as she continued healing the gash. They hadn't had much time to talk through all the incessant battles before and now it took a while for them to even recuperate enough to be able to think about anything but the pain on their bodies. By now, they were both almost entirely stripped, letting the wounds and bruises breathe before Aeyrin could systematically make most of them better. "How were there people here? How is that possible? Even that… Sinderion guy was here centuries ago."
"I know… it's… fucked up," Bishop shuddered a little and he wasn't sure if it was from the topic of conversation or from the feeling of the wetted cloth back on his body, this time on the cut on his bicep. "But I guess the Falmer have their ways. Maybe some crevices that are barely visible. Or maybe they have another key. Or…" he gave her a meaningful look. The way these people were acting… it popped into his mind right away.
"'Or'?" Aeyrin was behind him and he couldn't see her expression, but he could tell that she was frowning uncertainly.
"Or… they've been here a while. I mean… their ancestors have…" he shrugged. It made sense. Falmer probably bred here somewhere, why not their human zealots too? It would explain a lot.
"You think… they're 'cultivating' them here as some servile race?" The cringe in her voice was palpable.
"Well elves do have a lot of experience with slavery in general," Bishop smirked. He didn't know that much about history, but these things were common knowledge. Some elves who thought they were in charge were always trying to enslave someone. The Ayleids, the Dunmer, the Dominion. Who was to say that the Snow Elves didn't have the same traditions that just translated into their current forms?
"That's… disturbing," Aeyrin shuddered. And she really thought she couldn't dislike the current Falmer any more.
"Yeah," Bishop sighed. "You wanna look at the riddle instead? We should be done now." It was a good idea to concentrate on something else. As beautiful as Blackreach was, its inhabitants definitely marred the experience.
"Yeah. The journal's in my pack," Aeyrin smiled gratefully at the change of subject. She still needed to concentrate on Bishop's wounds, but he could look through the journal in the meantime to find the name they were looking for. "The catacombs part was somewhere in the middle."
Bishop let out another hiss as he reached out for her pack – some of the cuts on his other arm weren't even cleaned yet. But he managed to drag the pack towards him and a couple of seconds rummaging inside yielded the journal. Soon enough, he came across the pages littered with exclamations and hectic writing which Aeyrin identified as the ones they needed. The author was clearly ecstatic about the catacombs and their plentiful nirnroot.
"Here we go. Arkngt… hunch. That's a fucking mouthful," he scoffed, but he was already reaching for his own pack to find the riddle in the pocket of his armor there.
It was the last piece of the puzzle.
.
A-L-F-T-A-N-D
M-Z-I-N-C-H-A-L-E-F-T
F-A-H-L-K-A-G-R - Z-E-L - Silent City?
M-Z-A-R-K - ?
A-R-K-N-G-T-H-U-N-C-H - Catacombs
R-A-L-D-B-T-H-A-R
M-Z-U-L-F-T
.
The directions were still noted from back by Alftand and they had no idea what kind of a place this Mzark was, but they knew everything else by now. The only thing left to do now was explore the rest.
"So… tomorrow, we head out for the tower? There's gotta be something up there, I just know it," Aeyrin smiled wistfully. It was such a prominent place with that light there. Maybe the Scroll was inside of it. Somehow. Maybe there would be some access to it. Or maybe it was up on the platforms. In any case, it was the last part of the Silent City that they needed to explore. Unfortunately, explored did not mean 'cleared'. The Falmer were everywhere. They would surely crawl back into the various structures again.
At least most of the doors were conveniently barrable from the inside. Like the room they were in now. They didn't just trap the door – there was a thick metal bar holding it in place as well.
"Yeah. I really fucking hope it's gonna be there. Then we can get out of this death-trap. Maybe through Raldbthar. It might be closer by now," Bishop mused.
"Yeah," Aeyrin only nodded in response. She couldn't deny that she was eager to get back on the surface, victorious, but still. There was something so… intriguing about this place. "Still, you know… most of this stuff we do, the places we explore, are so dangerous and… yeah, exciting, but also kind of exhausting and a chore. But… this place… I don't know…" It felt like they were in another world, all alien and new.
"It's something alright," Bishop smiled softly. "I'm fucking exhausted and I'm surprised we're still alive. But… I'm glad we could see this place."
He felt Aeyrin's lips press against the side of his neck with an affectionate kiss in response.
They still had a lot of exploring ahead of them.
But this place really made even all the pain and danger seem a little more bearable.