Chapter CXXXIV – Destiny

Aeyrin kept taking off her glove, staring at that beautiful ring glittering in the magical lights.

Their stay at the platforms remained surprisingly undisturbed, but once they got their rest in shifts, it was time to keep on marching again.

Getting out of the Silent City was no easy task. Once again, they found themselves with a few more wounds on them. After this adventure, they were in sore need of an experienced healer. But neither of them seemed to be particularly bothered by it. It was all worth it. Even though they still had no Elder Scroll, this excursion was so worth it.

Their next target was clear – they had already agreed.

Mzark.

It was the only place left on the road signs that they didn't know from the surface maps. Another place that was likely incased down here with no access to the world above. They had no idea if it was going to be another city or what it was going to be, but they wanted to check. And besides, the road to Mzark also pointed towards Raldbthar. If they needed, they could use it as their exit point, rather than marching all the way back to Alftand.

Bishop never ended up making his map. He wasn't even willing to part from Aeyrin's embrace for longer than necessary on those platforms. But it was likely useless anyway. They still had their directions.

It was a little concerning how woefully unprepared they were for a lot of opposition now.

Aeyrin had no armor. She only had her bracers and one thigh guard left. That and her underchain, broken in several places. She had to use the leather boots from her regular outfit, and as silly as it was, she kept adamantly avoiding any nasty puddles along the way. The good news was that the black water seemed drinkable – they had no other choice but to try since their supplies were dwindling steadily and water was first to go. But she wasn't so confident that it wouldn't forever stain her boots. She liked her outfit – it was very silly to be concerned about it in the midst of this dangerous dungeon, but there was no harm in being a little careful when she could.

Besides, the whole getup went well with her new beautiful ring. She couldn't stop looking at it every chance she got.

And at least they still had their weapons. Bishop's armor wasn't in a great state. It was holding up, but there were too many cuts in the leather for the plates to remain hidden. And there were too many cuts and tears all over the other parts, leaving him less protected than usual.

And that was all atop all the wounds, bruises, magical burns and muscle strain.

But it still all felt worth it.

Bishop couldn't help but smile every time she removed that glove and admired the ring. He had so many disastrous scenarios running in his head ever since he bought it – how she would reject him, how she freaked out she would get about the notion alone. But none of that happened. He could barely believe that she was really as excited as he was about this.

Despite their current state, they felt ready for anything.

They continued on their path, towards Raldbthar, towards Mzark. It was a familiar routine by now – a stray Falmer here, a chaurus there. There were even some of those large automatons along the way, but they seemed inactive. And Bishop didn't forget to quip about how their 'arms' looked so much different than those they saw on the presumably dirty Dwemer book from Alftand. He even pointed out that he could translate it now, with their riddle solved. Though it would all just be in Dwemeris anyway and they wouldn't understand a thing.

It took several hours, but finally, the road signs pointed towards an actual structure, identifying it as 'Mzark'. Much to their relief, it was not another large complex, not another city beneath the earth. It was a tower. It was much larger than the first one – it was more on par with the one going all the way up to the ceiling in Silent City. But this one was only a lone structure. There must have been something important about it to warrant the road sign.

And of course, they could already see the Falmer skulking around from a distance.

They already knew that this was going to be another rough battle. Before they went any closer to the tower, they stopped for a while by the crossroads, with one direction pointing to Raldbthar and the other towards Mzark. Only a few moments to have a quick ration and some water.

Aeyrin leaned herself on one of the nearby rocks beset with the gleaming crystals. They were rather uncomfortable to lean on, but there was nowhere else.

As she wiggled a bit, trying to get a more comfortable position, one of the crystals came loose from the rock and clattered onto the ground.

She bent down mostly instinctively and picked up the crystal. It was funny. The crystal was so sturdy, she was pretty sure that even a blow from a hammer wouldn't shatter it, but they came off so easily from the rocks. There was a patch of something that looked like moss on its bottom that had surely held it attached and growing to by the rock.

Hmm… that crystal was really sturdy. On a whim, she tried to smash it into the rock, but it didn't even crack, not even a little bit. That gave her a strange idea.

"What are you doing?" Bishop raised his brow at her antics before he bit off a piece of the dried meat he had pulled out of his pack.

"Oh… I was just thinking…" she mumbled. She tried to smash the crystal again and again, but she found herself to be a little careful. She didn't want to make too much noise. Not that it would. The Falmer were still far away and that small crystal would hardly reverberate through the entire cavern. But she had learned to be careful how loud she was around here. Well… except for on a certain platform, when she was gripped in throes of passion. Still, the wariness was instinctive now. But she was still pretty confident that it was very sturdy.

"You know… these might make good armor if they're worked right," she mused. It was free material. There was nothing wrong with that. Her armors were always so expensive with all that metal and the work put into it. She would only have to pay for the work this way. Maybe a little extra for the unusual material. But a skilled smith would surely manage. Yes, she was probably going to have some money after this excursion, enough to afford a brand new plate. Maybe even ebony. Although that was really expensive. But still, she didn't have to spend everything right away on new armor. This sounded like an excellent alternative.

"You're kidding, right? Look at how it gleams," Bishop chuckled at her. He knew she liked to stand out in battle. It was a good tactic on her part – she always did best on the front lines while he covered her. But still, this was even more eye-catching than the shiny Dwemer metal.

"I know. It's going to work much better than a dark metal would," she beamed. Yeah, it would be even better than ebony. That was much more suited for stuff like reinforcing Bishop's armor. He might need a new one too, depending on what a leather-smith would say about this one's current state.

Bishop smirked at her eagerness. Well, it wasn't the worst idea. He took the crystal from her and smashed it against the rock as well. It was sturdy.

"You sure someone can work it? It's gonna take a lot of our pack space to lug these around for all your plates," he pondered, but he knew that she had already decided. And if it proved to be unsuitable for armor, someone might even pay for these. They had never seen these things up on the surface – they were probably not that common.

"We'll find someone," Aeyrin gave him a wry smile. "And if we find something too valuable here, we can always toss these again. No harm in that."

Bishop nodded in response. It was true enough and it was definitely cute how excited she got about the idea. At least he would always be able to see her in the fray. Not that he couldn't now, but extra attention was good, especially after the way he shot her a few days ago. He still felt crappy about that. He felt crappy enough about shooting her at all, but it was even worse when he realized that the paralyzing effect triggered all those bad memories.

But in any case, for now their brief respite would get a bit prolonged. There were plenty of these crystals around to suffice for Aeyrin's plates.

And neither of them was in any rush to jump into the fray again anyway.

…

Heavy doors closed shut behind them loudly as both of them panted in exertion.

It wasn't really even surprising how many Falmer were inside the tower of Mzark. They knew going in that it was going to be a rough fight. It was almost becoming mundane by now. They had spent three nights in Blackreach – or at least it seemed like it, based on their approximate sense of time down here – and by now, it was a familiar routine. New cuts, new holes in their equipment, new bruises and a whole other level of exhaustion.

They must have killed dozens of Falmer in this tower. There were so many of their strange pods hanging on the walls and off the ceilings from which they kept jumping out at Bishop and Aeyrin in every single room. It almost looked like the tower had some secret tunnel system in between its walls through which they kept crawling. It didn't make any sense otherwise. And it was a disturbing image – the Falmer, always able to get to them, no matter the room they were in. They usually didn't even have the time to toss aside their heavy packs, making the battles all the harder.

But they finally made it to the top of the tower and entered the last chamber. It was odd though – as they progressed upwards along the spiral pathways, exploring the adjacent rooms, they never saw the familiar golden dome above them. There was only flat stone. Now, they finally entered the one remaining door beneath that stone and emerged in a small alcove with only another platform leading up.

They didn't see what was up there – they could only see solid stone. Likely it was a corridor. They didn't care right then though. Their last moments of their ascent were spent in panicked battle, trying not to plummet all the way down from the winding pathway when more Falmer emerged from their pods above their heads. They just wanted to escape the main tower where the potential for a fall was ever-present.

They were sure though that more Falmer would await them further up. The most concerning part was their exhaustion. They wanted to set up their camp already and get some rest, but for that, they would likely need to go all the way down and find another place altogether. That was almost unthinkable in their current state. But they couldn't rest in any of those rooms with those pods.

There was one silver lining. The door leading to this part of the tower was equipped with the securing metal bar. Once they finally calmed down a bit and noticed it, they promptly slid the bar into place, making sure that nothing would enter from down below. It was probably useless anyway – more pods were sure to be there on the walls – but at least their backs were covered now.

"Let's go," Bishop let out a defeated sigh. "The sooner we see what's up here, the sooner we can actually think about where we'll be able to rest." He was already dreading that. He didn't even feel like he had the brain capacity anymore to start plotting another long and dangerous journey to some safer place.

Aeyrin only nodded before she started to march on, first in line. She ascended up the pathway, but there was only a circular stone wall there with more winding paths in the distance. It looked a bit familiar. The dome in Mzulft had a similar setup, as she recalled. But what was more encouraging than the predictable layout was the lack of pods on the walls. She looked around carefully – behind them, all the way to the top of the dome where the golden roof was already peeking out. But there was nothing.

They only shared a brief uncertain look. It was too soon to be hopeful. They might get sorely disappointed by another horde of Falmer up above. But the quiet around was a little reassuring.

Aeyrin continued up the next pathway with Bishop right behind her. They both emerged right under the dome soon enough and the sights there captured their attention instantly.

It was both new and odd and also familiar.

The ground was covered with a strange Dwemer metal circular platform with grooves all over it. There was a huge device above the platform, covering almost the entire dome. Big glass lenses and metallic arms holding them in various places. And also some strange egg-like glass thing in the middle of them. The unfortunate thing about Dwemer glass was that it was so thick, it was hard to see through it, even through those lenses, let alone the egg. It seemed like the glass itself was glowing a bit, reflecting its blue tinge on the golden dome above.

It reminded them a lot of the Mzulft Oculory. It was different, a bit, but the lenses in the dome looked similar.

"You think it's the same thing as in Mzulft?" Aeyrin pondered out loud. It really did remind her of it.

"Probably. But didn't they say something about it locating heavenly shit? We're underground," Bishop scowled.

"So was Mzulft. I know it has parts that go up to the surface, but there was the elevator and everything. I think we were deep down in Mzulft," Aeyrin shrugged. She couldn't even begin to comprehend Dwemer devices, but she was always led to believe that they were capable of anything. Really, was finding heavenly objects from underground so far-fetched? These people build chutes for moving platforms that went miles into the earth. They had devices that inscribed books on small cubes. Guardians that were still active after Eras. It wasn't that hard to believe for her.

"Well, if it is the same thing, it's useless to us," Bishop sighed. "We can't operate that shit and it's not like we have 'the essence' of the Scroll to locate it anyway. But look around," he gestured towards the walls of the dome.

Oh!

"There's no pods!" Aeyrin grinned in both excitement and relief. They could rest here. Safely. The door was barricaded, they could put up their traps for good measure, and they could actually finally rest and recuperate again.

"Yeah. Come on, let's go set up by this thing's controls. It will be a good place to put up the traps," Bishop gestured towards the elevated platform by the side of the room – one more familiar sight from Mzulft.

Maybe they could actually get some decent sleep here without having to take shifts like the last time.

…

"We'll have to think of another tactic," Bishop sighed as he started to rummage in his pack for the dart traps.

They had already settled their bedroll on the platform, had more of their dwindling rations to eat and took off what was left of their armors. Now it was time to rest their strained muscles for a while again.

"It's clearly nowhere in these places. I fucking hope that the Falmer hadn't dragged it somewhere into their huts," he grumbled. Still no Scroll, not in the Silent City, not in this prominent tower. They ran out of directions to follow now. It was going to be much more challenging to scour places where an Elder Scroll could be. Mostly because it could really be anywhere.

"Yeah," Aeyrin sighed. For all they knew, it could be at the bottom of an underground lake. Or on some hardly accessible ledge on the cavern walls. Or half-buried in the ground anywhere. She idly ran her hand around the strange controls to the giant Dwemer device. There was nothing around with any hints to how it worked. And even with hints, she doubted they could make it work. Or that it would actually be of any use to them, if it was anything like the Oculory back at Mzulft.

There were six small pillars there, one with a strange ball on it, one with what looked like a map of shiny constellations, though she didn't recognize any of them, and one with a button with a glowing dot in the middle of it. She tried to push that button before and nothing happened. The rest of the pillars kind of looked like they had buttons too, but those were under some tiny oval metallic grates, inaccessible.

How long were they going to have to stay here? As much as she loved this place and, even though she would always have such good memories of it now, they were really in a sorry state. She didn't even want to imagine how that Sinderion survived here all that time. What did he eat? The mushrooms? And how did he survive the Falmer hordes? Invisibility? He clearly didn't engage in lengthy battles, judging by the fact that he avoided the Silent City.

Her hand ran over the pillar with the ball on it slightly. She had no idea what that one could be for, but just as her fingers brushed the smooth ball, she felt it shift a little beneath her fingers.

Huh.

She put more pressure on it and tried to brush against the ball. And this time, it actually opened, retracting into the metal of the pillar, revealing a circular slot underneath. A slot for a small ball.

"Bish. Get the key," she instantly recognized the familiar shape. It was definitely for the Blackreach key.

Bishop stopped looking for the traps and located the key in his pack instead. He passed it to her and hovered behind her back curiously to see what she was up to.

The key fit into the slot perfectly, clicking into position. Aeyrin waited for a second to see what happened, but nothing did. That was disappointing, but she promptly pressed the one uncovered button again.

Nothing.

She let out another disappointed sigh. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to happen, but she expected something. Bishop turned back again, heading back to his pack, while she started to press that button in frustration, again and again.

"Princess, maybe don't press random buttons on a device we know nothing about," Bishop smirked as he squatted by the ground again. "It could be some defense mechanism."

He made a good point, but just as she had almost given up, pressing the button for the last time, a clicking sound echoed through the area. And a second later, the oval grate retracted from the button next to it.

"Oh," her brows shot up. It worked. Maybe there was a delay as the mechanisms worked. Or maybe it needed to be pressed a lot of times.

"What happened?" Bishop was up on his feet again in no time, watching the controls from behind her back.

"This one opened. Look," she pressed the new button once. Then twice. Third time and another click echoed through the dome and yet another button opened on the other side of the controls.

Bishop stepped towards the newly accessible button and hesitated with his finger above it. It could still be a trap. But something was happening and it was tempting to see this through, even if it was just buttons being uncovered. Besides, if he didn't do it, Aeyrin definitely would.

He pressed the button and right after he did, more metallic clicking sounds echoed through the room. The platform below them started to shift, the grooves revealing strange large metallic circles that shifted and moved around. The arms with lenses above started to shift along with them, positioning themselves closer to the floor.

"Do it again," Aeyrin gasped in astonishment. They were making something work, even though they didn't know what it was exactly.

Bishop pressed the button once more carefully and this time, the metallic circles moved again and the lenses neared closer to the ground. The glass egg in the middle was lowered towards the platform and when everything seemed to be in place, the lenses started to emit beams of light, right onto the metal below.

That didn't look good. Beams of light meant nothing good. They could burn shit. Or something. But there was no sizzling, no indication of them doing any damage. And it took a while for Bishop to notice that somewhere along with the process, the last button finally got uncovered as well.

"Alright. I'll press it, but we duck down right after that, clear?" He scowled. He could already see the beams shooting against them instead. It would be a stupid risk to take to just stand there while it inevitably happened.

Aeyrin nodded with determination and she braced herself for what was about to happen.

Bishop pressed the last button, and while the clicking started to reverberate around them again, they both ducked down, hiding behind the control panels. For a moment, that was all they did, listening to the mechanical sounds and hiding, before Aeyrin lost her patience and peeked out of her hiding place. There were clearly no beams directed to the controls.

Bishop stayed hidden, hoping that Aeyrin would be able to duck down fast enough to hide again, but then, an astonished gasp escaped her lips. He couldn't resist. He needed to see what happened. He stood up as well and he was only left staring at the scene in disbelief.

The beams were shooting right at the glass egg in the middle as it was slowly beginning to open, revealing something inside. It was hard to see for a while with the light covering it, but when the clicking sounds stopped, so did the beams.

There was nothing else happening, but the egg was lowered to the ground, opened in the middle, just like a cracked egg would be. And it had a yellow center too. Except that it was more golden than yellow. A long object, gleaming in the dim light of the room.

They've seen enough depictions of it in books to be sure instantly.

An Elder Scroll.

Bishop felt like kicking himself for almost deterring Aeyrin from playing with the controls. He didn't even want to imagine the hours and days they would have spent in this place, thinking that this tower withheld no more secrets from them.

It looked like sometimes being reckless paid off.

"Is that really it?" Aeyrin spoke in a hushed whisper, still disbelieving over what had just happened.

"Fuck…" Bishop shook his head in a similar state of shock, but he realized himself quickly. "Shit, let's go get it before that thing closes again." Who knew with these Dwemer devices? The Blackreach access and the elevators clearly closed after a time as well.

They rushed down onto the large platform and approached the egg. The Scroll was inserted inside, as if the egg was actually made to hide it as its purpose. Maybe it was. Were the Scrolls always in the Imperial Library before they were mysteriously scattered? Maybe the Dwemer had some of them in their glory days. Maybe they had ways to read them too. But that was something they would not figure out now. All that mattered was that they finally found the Scroll.

Aeyrin reached out carefully and took the Scroll from the egg. It parted from its hiding place easily, but it was much heavier than she had expected. It was all encased in gold with a symbol of a star engraved into it and a small amethyst gem at the center of it. There was this golden bar at the underside of it. If one pulled, they would open the Scroll and see its contents.

But they couldn't do that, no matter how tempting it was. It was too dangerous.

"It's beautiful," Aeyrin could feel a soft smile forming on her face.

"And deadly," Bishop smirked. Just like this place. It was fitting that it had been hidden here.

Aeyrin nodded absentmindedly as her hand brushed against the golden star. Beautiful but deadly. As if it could be anything else on this insane quest to save the world. No matter her current predicament, no matter the struggles her tainted blood had her face, this was her purpose here in Skyrim.

Her destiny.

She had a strange reverent feeling coursing through her, but it was accompanied by the fear of uncertainty. They were getting closer. Closer to facing Alduin. She couldn't even imagine how everything would turn out, how she would survive any of it, if she could even hope to pull through.

She had a strange urge to hide the Scroll back into its egg and run.

But before she could even make sense of those feelings, she felt Bishop's warm hand squeeze her shoulder, as if he could sense her trepidation.

"It's just another step. There's still so much to do. There's no Moth Priest, we don't even know what to do with this. There's… a lot of time yet before we even know how to proceed here," he spoke calmly and reassuringly.

He was right. This was just one small step in this mess. Things would become clearer with time.

She took a deep breath and hugged the Scroll to her body, as if she was trying to accept that they were a little bit closer to what she dreaded again.

At least there was the relief from the fact that they were done. This beautiful and deadly place could be left behind only in their memories. And she would definitely never forget it.

Who knew that the Scroll would not be the most important treasure that she would be carrying out of this place?

…

"Fuck! No! Fuck!" Bishop cursed when he saw the sight in front of him.

With his bow always ready in his hand and the Elder Scroll fastened to the back of his armor strap, in the bow's stead, he let out a grunt of pain that shot from his leg through his entire flank.

It was right there! Raldbthar.

They had traveled for a few hours after they fought their way back down to the base of the tower of Mzark again. They followed the directions towards Raldbthar steadily, intent on finally getting out of Blackreach today. But in their journey, they had to pass through a small settlement of sorts with several tiny Dwemer buildings around the road. Of course, those were crawling with Falmer.

During the battles, Bishop had received a very nasty slash into his right thigh. It made it too hard to walk. But they could see Raldbthar all the way from the village – the entrance to the ruins was elevated in the stone above a huge ravine with water falling down from the cavern walls into an enormous lake below. There were pathways there, leading into the ruins. It wouldn't take more than an hour or two to get there, but with Bishop's wound, it was slow going. He refused to stop though. They were almost there.

But once they neared the platforms above the ravine, he saw it.

The access bridge to Raldbthar was crumbled.

There was another one on the other side of the ravine, he could see it illuminated by the mushrooms nearby. But it was so far. His leg hurt so much and he kept limping in his steps. And they were so exhausted again. It was probably already time for rest once more, but he really hoped they could do it on the actual fucking surface!

"Bish, let's go back, I need to heal you," Aeyrin tugged at the cut in the sleeve of his armor. There was no time to undress him and heal him in the midst of potential Falmer ambushes on the road. They needed a safe place. He could barely walk!

"No! It's right fucking there!" Bishop growled, gesturing towards the illuminated ruins entrance and the nearby road sign pointing to it.

"It's not 'right there' when we can't get to it. Come," she pulled him again. "The village is closer and it will be more cleared than the other bridge. Come on, Bish. You need healing." They could hide in one of the houses, barricade themselves in and recuperate. What was one more night? They were at the end of their strengths again and pushing themselves beyond their limits guaranteed more injuries and danger.

Bishop let out an annoyed growl. He was really starting to miss the cold Skyrim air and the snow. As beautiful as this place was, the struggles of it were marring it effectively.

"We don't even know what state Raldbthar is in. Maybe the Falmer are back in force. Come. We can't risk it," she pulled him again and this time, he took a step back, leaning on her slightly as another hiss of pain escaped his lips.

She was right. It was frustrating as fuck, but she was right. He couldn't fight well like this.

It looked like they were in for another night holed up in this place, despite having the Scroll securely with them already.

Then again, it was sort of encouraging.

Five nights surviving here with the onslaught of Falmer at every step was certainly an achievement.

…

It was time.

Time to return to the harsh cold of Skyrim. And for once, it was a tempting prospect, even for Aeyrin.

Bishop's injury was healed fully, fortunately. He was able to walk without issues again. But they were still all battered and bruised. Bishop had several magical burns on his form and the strain in both their bodies was hard to overcome.

But they made it.

They rested in one of the buildings in the village – one that fortunately had the bar on its door again. They recuperated a little and, after some proper rest, they headed out again towards Raldbthar. They crossed the lake atop the ravine, across the waterfalls flowing down into the gorge. Then they continued past the ravine towards its other end.

The bridge there was intact, fortunately. They had to dispose of another large group of Falmer there again, mostly throwing them into the ravine. But eventually, their path was clear and they reached the entrance to Raldbthar. There was a slot for the key by the entrance and they finally got inside the familiar ruins.

Aeyrin was right.

Raldbthar was not in the same state they had left it a year ago. The Falmer were there again, not as much as they had originally been, but there were still plenty of them crawling through the place.

It begged the question whether they got inside again through some of their tunnels and crevices, or if they had the key to use as well.

But that hardly mattered. Bishop and Aeyrin didn't even bother clearing the last rooms of the ruins this time. They killed everything in their immediate path, but they quickly rushed straight towards the elevator. Unfortunately, when they reached it, there was only hard stone and metal bars in front of them – the lift was still elevated after their last visit. There was a lever by the door which would surely call it, but they needed to wait before it came down.

They had to dispose of a few more Falmer while the stone moved. It seemed like it took much longer than they had anticipated. Even another mage made their way towards them, but fortunately Bishop managed to dispose of it with his bow. After what felt like an exhausting eternity though, the stone retracted and the bars opened.

They settled on the ground in the small circular room there and pulled the lever instantly, cutting the remaining Falmer off from jumping at them as the bars at the entrance archway sprung up, locking them in.

It was a familiar feeling by now as the platform beneath them began to move. They couldn't help but reminisce about the last time they were right here, scared to death about what they had just done, ignorant of the purpose of the lever.

"Last time we did this, I really thought we were gonna die," Aeyrin chuckled a little as the darkness of the elevator chute enveloped them. It was such a desperate attempt back then – they had no other alternatives though.

"Yeah, me too," Bishop smirked. He remembered it vividly, holding her in his arms and kissing her desperately when they thought they had only moments left to live. He remembered regretting back then that he didn't tell her how much he cared about her, but he hoped that it was obvious from the actions alone.

"And now we know," Aeyrin smiled softly. "Almost home."

"Almost home," Bishop smiled too. "Hard to believe we actually survived that down there. And got that Scroll."

"Not just the Scroll," she chuckled before she shuffled a little towards him and nuzzled into his side. She ran her hand a bit over her other one, feeling the bump of the ring below her chainmail glove.

"Still haven't changed your mind?" he smirked, but he could hear the tinge of uncertainty in his own voice. He really hoped that it hadn't all settled in her head and that she didn't start rethinking the whole thing.

"Never." She nuzzled a little closer. She had half a mind to just find the nearest priest and marry him already. But it was even nicer to fantasize about them celebrating this with their friends properly.

"Good. Me neither, for the record," he grinned at her, though she couldn't really see it in the utter darkness. "Not that I ever did. Or would."

He could hardly believe that they were finally engaged. Even if by accident. And that they had actually talked about the shit he was obsessing over and she still wanted to marry him.

He couldn't wait for whatever adventures awaited them again back on the surface.

He couldn't wait for the whole lifetime of them.