Alftand, we discovered by checking the map, was almost entirely buried by a glacier. We resupplied in town, and headed out into the early morning light, much to Serana's disapproval. The sun reflected off the snow, and even I had to squint uncomfortably. We had to cut across the glacier fields to the southwest of Winterhold, fending off wildlife that saw us as a potential meal. Just as with the icebergs, we had to test our steps as we skirted several deep ice fissures. The storm had been more windswept here, as the piled snow had been stripped down to a pretty easy hike across the top.

What we didn't expect was to find the remains of a camp scattered between the few towers of Alftand that rose above the ice and snow. A quick investigation showed that the camp had belonged to an ill-fated expedition that had not taken the deadly storm seriously. There were two derelict shacks sporting holes in the walls and roofs, as well as missing doors. We found the remains of an unlit campfire and several destroyed tents with bed rolls. A few frozen bodies lay where they had been caught by the rapid plummet of temperature.

In the remains of one of the cabins, I found an expedition manifest, which listed a large group of people, but only seven were named as vital members:

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Sulla Trebatius - the expedition leader

Umana - Sulla's constant companion and bodyguard

Valie - an Altmer mage not associated with Winterhold

Endrast - a fellow explorer of some local renown

Yag - an orc woman, hired to keep the rest of the labor in check

J'darr and J'zhar - two Khajiit brothers, hired as labor

The manifest read:

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We've managed to secure the site and hold off any others who may try to steal our discoveries so far, especially those from the College of Winterhold, who seem to think the glory of exploring every ruin should be theirs alone.

We're going to need a couple more laborers, as getting through the ice is proving difficult.

We've set up a shelter and scouted the area. The small ruins on the lower plateau of the glacier don't seem connected to the main structure and we haven't managed to find a way into the tower parapet we've found here. Yag mentioned spotting a fissure in the glacial wall that may lead into the ruins so we are going to try to find a way to get down there with the gear. Looks like a storm is coming.

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I passed the book to Serana, who nodded sadly, glancing at the frozen bodies. They had little more than simple tents for shelter; simple laborers were treated with far less care than the higher-ups.

We explored the area, finding a tower that housed some sort of lift. Unfortunately, the lever to open it was too far inside to trip, and the metal gate that blocked us was both sturdy and tightly meshed. I couldn't even wiggle Dawnbreaker's blade through a gap to reach the lever. Giving up on that, we made our cautious way to the edge of the glacier and found a wooden catwalk attached to the vertical wall of ice. This gave us access to the fissure mentioned in the manifest.

Inside, we followed an ice tunnel littered with crates and barrels; supplies that had been dragged inside to escape the damage of the storm. The tunnel twisted and turned in a way that suggested it had been hastily excavated over a short time. Eventually, we came to the remains of another campfire, with a cooking spit that had been knocked over.

Serana and I shared a concerned look. The snow was churned here, though there were no distinctive footprints. We hadn't met anyone from the expedition, and signs were pointing toward something unexpected and untoward happening at this camp. I drew Dawnbreaker warily and checked down a nearby tunnel to make sure nothing was moving. Returning, my search turned up a journal. Sulla's name was written on it.

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We tried to get through the glacier at the top, but we couldn't find any way into that tower parapet. Yag spotted the fissure in the glacial wall and construction of the catwalk finished just in time for a storm to hit. At first, we thought to wait it out, but it has only gotten worse. A shift in the glacier took out several of the new laborers, and the cold claimed a few who weren't paying attention in our old camp.

I ordered everyone to quickly move as much of the supplies as we could into the fissure and we managed to get most of it. One of the hands decided he wasn't going to listen and tried to make it out through the storm, but got blown off the catwalk. We couldn't even hear him land over the howling of the wind.

Looks like we are well and truly stuck in here. But for all that, I feel even more driven that I should be the one to uncover the mysteries of this ruin. I'm tired of all the credit for my work going to the Mages or the Legion. It will be MY name that goes down in the history books for this discovery!

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I frowned. I understood Sulla's wish to receive credit for his work, but renown is a double-edged sword. Every vampire hunter who lives longer than a year in their trade knows that discretion and caution are vital. For every town grateful for the rescue from an enemy, there was always an enemy… or twenty... who knew that you stood between them and their goals. Sulla was giving off some arrogant vibes, and by the looks of this camp, he had bitten off more than he could chew.

A search of the campsite revealed the usual stuff; barrels meant for food, knapsacks filled with supplies, bedrolls, a couple of chests of personal effects, and a forgotten pickaxe or two.

We continued, more cautiously, along the tunnel to a second camp. If the last camp had been in a bit of disarray, then this was where the tragedy had struck. There were five bedrolls around another unlit campfire, a lute, and a book that had probably been in someone's hands before chaos had erupted. There was blood everywhere: splattered on the crates, soaked into the bedrolls, and trailing off down the tunnel.

I looked around and felt the cold seep into me despite the potion coursing through my veins; there were no bodies. Where were the bodies? Surely with that much blood, there had to be bodies somewhere, right?

We crept along, peering around corners. We reached a juncture where another tunnel had been walled off. I could see that it had been made into a small storage room by the crates barely visible through the slats of wood.

Then we heard an angry voice, speaking with a Khajiit's accent, "Where is it? I know you were trying to keep it for yourself J'zhar... You always try to keep it for yourself!"

I couldn't hear the answer over the sounds of rummaging, but the angry voice snapped desperately, "No! There's got to be more Skooma." The rummaging turned frenzied before the voice screamed, "Shut up! Shut up! Don't lie to me J'zhar! You hid it! You always try to steal it from me!"

I wasn't keen on trying to communicate with a Khajiit suffering from skooma withdrawal, so we crept past and down another ramp before stopping again.

"Serana," I murmured, "I think we're going to have to tangle with him. I'm not keen on leaving him to come up behind us at a bad time. Do you know any spells that will nullify him until he can be restrained?"

She tilted her head in thought, "Paralysis," she finally supplied. "It only lasts for a few minutes at a time, but if you're quick…"

"That works for me. The entrance to the tunnel he's in should be nearby. Would you take point?"

We continued our descent, finally coming to a place where snow and ice gave way to partially-crushed Dwemer architecture.

Part of this room's wall had been destroyed in the past, leaving it open for snow, ice, and a stubborn excavation team to spill into it.

My foot bumped something that made a metallic clatter and I looked down to see something arachnid shaped. I gave it a little nudge and realized it was some sort of construct that had taken a crushing blow to the body. Stepping around it, we soon found ourselves in a large workroom with a work table at the far end. Two more spider constructs were in various states of destruction on the table, along with a pair of research books about the Dwemer, and a journal of research notes.

Another of Sulla's works:

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If only Umana would have left one of these Dwarven machine creatures intact for me to study. The fact that they almost killed those Khajiit brothers in the middle of the night doesn't mean we couldn't have found a way to disable one. We dragged some stuff in front of the pipes they came out of, to stop them from coming back.

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I glanced around and gave a disgusted groan at the sight of a few wicker baskets and a wooden bucket piled in front of a pipe with a metal hatch. This was their barricade?! I wasn't particularly keen to approach the hatch, so I had a whispered conversation with Serana, asking her to keep her eyes on our surroundings. This was clearly not the place to kick back with a good book, but I felt it was important to see what information I could glean from the journal. If I could get a heads-up of any sort, I wanted it.

Much of the journal was rambling in mage speak about the constructs; soul gems and a harmonic resonance somehow heating a boiler. I couldn't make heads or tails of that gobbledygook, so I flipped further in and came upon the final paragraph:

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Huh, that was strange. I thought I just saw something moving beyond the barred door. It looked vaguely humanoid. I wonder if it could be an undiscovered automaton? I'm going to move my bedroll down here to see if I can catch another glimpse of it. This is all so exciting!

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Something humanoid? Could there be humanoid constructs as well as these spider things? It made an ugly kind of sense, terrifying as it was that something other than the arachnid constructs was lurking down here. What else could possibly be lurking underground with no access to the surface for centuries?

I tucked the book away and looked around the room again. On the north end of the room was a barred doorway with no way through that I could see. To the west was a ramp, so we headed that way.

A loud clatter had me spinning around, even as Serana shouted a warning. As I had suspected, wicker baskets made terrible barricades. Two spiders erupted from the hatch, scattering the baskets like chaff as they clattered and clicked toward us. I shot one with a hastily drawn arrow, the impact throwing it to one side as Serana blasted the other with shock magic. The thing I had hit flailed before righting itself and charging again. I was able to draw and shoot with more power. This time the arrow punched through its core, 'killing' it.

This was a bad idea; the thing collapsed, and promptly exploded, hitting me with a blast of shock magic. I hit the stone floor like a sack of flour as my leg muscles contracted out of my control. The electrical bolts sent a spear of pain through my chest. I actually felt the pain of the shock, as well as the feeling of my heart missing a beat or two, before restarting. My vision blurred as I struggled to draw in another breath with lungs that didn't seem to want to inflate.

Serana blasted the spider she was fighting hard enough to send it skidding across the floor. It fetched up against a far wall and exploded as well; thankfully far enough away to avoid hurting either of us. Serana started toward me, concern on her face, when more clicking whipped her head around.

Another spider had somehow detected our fight and was coming up the ramp to investigate. I scrambled for my bow with twitching fingers, but couldn't grip the arrow well enough to draw. My companion planted herself between us and hit it with a bolt of shock magic that caused another small explosion.

And then a gentle hand was on my shoulder; the touch was hesitant, as though unsure of its welcome.

"Ow…" I wheezed, pressing my palm to my chest and feeling my heart pound a little harder now that it had been disrupted.

I leaned into her touch, wordlessly welcoming the small comfort it offered, before accepting her hand to help me get up. I was relieved to see that nothing else moved in the area. The small explosions hadn't alerted anything else in the nearby tunnels.

"Are you all right?" Serana's voice was soft with worry, and I gave her a wobbly smile.

"I will be, thank you. Ugh. So, if there's a lesson to learn about these spider things, it's 'snipe them from a distance.' Now I wish I was used to using a warhammer or something with a long handle that could knock those things away from us."

"If wishes were horses, everyone in Tamriel would ride," Serana replied dryly. I scowled in reluctant agreement. She made a face of her own, "We'll just have to watch for more of those hatches from here on out. I was always taught to avoid these types of ruins. I think I see why, now."

I gave myself a shake, to make sure both legs would support me for walking, and then we headed for the ramp. Once we got to the bottom, I stopped her with a soft, "Hey." She turned to meet my eyes and I gave her a grateful smile, "Thank you."

The Nord woman blinked and tilted her head.

"Thank you for… back there. For stepping between me and that spider. For protecting me until I could get to my feet. For… caring. Things would have gotten ugly if you hadn't."

Emotions flickered across her face too quick to identify, before something soft and warm settled there. "My blade stands ready to meet the blood of your foes," she said, somewhat formally, before she gave a rueful chuckle, "or the oil of your foes, in this case." She gave the nearest machine a dry glance, and I could see a black slick starting to pool beneath the damaged metal.

Warmth bloomed through me. She had returned the pledge of companionship and trust. I was relieved that I could reach her in that distant fortress where she had locked herself. Whatever her father had done to her, and I could imagine several ugly scenarios, it hadn't destroyed her completely.

Nords didn't date much; their lives were intense and difficult. Generally, a few months of good deeds, a battle or two side by side, and a pair would figure out whether to marry.

By contrast, Redguards made it a bit of an elaborate dance; kindnesses, working together as a team, and growing interest and intimacy to full fruition. We called it the Slow Chase, with more than one Redguard lady quipping, "He chased me, until I caught him."

I suspected the Slow Chase would involve a bit more effort than usual with Serana. Watching her scout a little farther ahead with her enhanced abilities, I couldn't say that I minded.

The path turned and split in two directions, and after a quick whispered conversation, chose the one that seemed to go in the right direction. Serana and I moved as quietly as we could up the tunnel. It didn't take long to come upon a Khajiit rummaging desperately through a crate that had clearly been rummaged through before. At his feet, another Khajiit lay sprawled on a bedroll, blood splattered everywhere, the body still in death. These would be the Khajiit brothers mentioned in the manifest.

My soft gasp of dismay drew the attention of the living brother, and he curled his lip, baring his fangs in a feral snarl.