A Door to Perception
"Over there."
All eyeballs followed Runa's pointing. The grassy hill they'd been trekking up took a sharp rise and ended in the mountainside. Cut into the same jagged face, Avanchnzel was clearly visible a short distance to the left.
"Can't see it," said Erik.
"Up close you will. There's the entrance. Now, I suggest we bring the horses instead of leaving them down here."
"Why would we leave them?"
"Right. Never mind."
Erik frowned. The woman was definitely acting strange.
"Let's hurry, then!" said Ariadne with enthusiasm spiked by an undercurrent of anger.
Ariela was frowning as she studied both the mountain and the other ruin.
Erik swallowed. He was the first to admit that the prospect of diving into one of those ruins again was rubbing him the wrong way. But he'd committed himself. And he wanted to make sure Ariela was kept safe.
You old fool. What kind of trouble are you going to get yourself into, all over some—
Yeah—what? Over what?
He shook his head, as if in hopes of shaking off his doubts. It didn't work, but then it never had.
Try as she might have, Runa could not keep the foreboding at bay as they stepped into the cave. It wasn't her profound hatred of the Dwemer as much as the all-too fresh memories of . . . how many days ago?
I never killed the Nightingale, remember that. How could she forget . . . The rub was no one else was going to know it.
Really? If the man had been a ruse, certainly there had been a purpose for him. Maybe they'll keep hush-hush and simply replace the decoy with another. There might not even be a reason to come after little ol' Runa Fair-Shield.
She hissed. Wishful thinking? Now that did not become her at all!
"What is it, Runa?"
Ariadne's already frayed nerves seemed to wind ever tighter with every noise. The accursed tip-tip of water, the echoes of their steps, the round of a stone rolling free from the bedrock, those she could just about tolerate. But Erik's voice sent her teeth grinding.
"Quiet!" she hissed behind her, rightfully leading this farce of a companionship. She'd make sure to have them stay back once they got closer to Calisto.
"Who made you the boss?" asked Runa, not bothering to whisper.
Ariadne glared murder by flaming daggers at the woman. "Do you want him to hear us coming?"
Runa was about to reply when Erik wisely silenced her. It was a refreshing change to see someone, especially him, do something wise for a change.
So what was supposed to be in here, she wondered as she slowly but steadily walked deeper in the cave. Nothing of interest, far as she could see. Rubble and damp stone, a wooden walkway in the middle leading deeper and deeper into the depressing, stale-aired grotto. Passing, she took a brief note of what looked like an ancient door within an inset hacked into the stone. One of those which you saw in drawings found in boring books about boring old stuff. Ahead, a faint—
"Ho!" Ariela cried suddenly behind her.
She spun, hands in front of her and a small selection of destruction spells dancing at the tip of her tongue. But her hands soon fell as she saw what had alerted the scholar. Figures. Ariela was ogling at the door, as if the very secrets of the universe had been scribbled there.
"This," Ariela breathed. "What's this?"
"What is it?" asked Erik.
"It's a door," Ariadne said.
"Yeah," added Runa. "Seen plenty of those in my day."
"Slammed in your face for the most part, am I right?"
Runa grinned at Ariadne. "Good'n," she said. "Sorta."
"What Runa means," Erik said equably, "is that these are common in old ruins. Puzzle doors."
Ariela turned to look at him. "Nordic," she said emphatically, "ruins."
"Yeah, sure. What does— oh!" Erik looked at it again. "Yeah, this is different."
"Now when have you ever been in the Nordic ruins?" Runa asked.
"A little thing called books," said Ariadne. "Damned things come with pictures on the odd occasion." Yeah, she knew she was among the last people to say anything about the virtues of reading. But she was confident that of the two of them, she'd read more of them than Runa. Probably one would have sufficed!
"No need to get sarcastic," said Ariela.
Ariadne and Runa both snorted. They shared a look. And then a grin.
"Those are runes," Erik said, pointing at the scribblings on the door.
"They are," Ariela confirmed. "But look." She touched on the runes on the outermost of the three rings. "This script." She shook her head. "It's Ayleid!"
Erik frowned too. Probably not because the significance of all this hit him so hard but probably because he was trying hard to either understand what it was or then to appear as if he didn't have to try.
Either way the sight brought a little smile to Ariadne's lips. He is cute when baffled.
"Now, even I know," Runa said. "That bunch ain't native to Skyrim."
"Weren't, Runa," said Ariela.
"That's what I meant, of course. Ain't no past tense for ain't is there?"
Ariela gave the other woman a brief look, a fond smile on her. Then she squinted at the door again.
There was something endearing about how Runa tried her best at times to conceal her intelligence. Either by acting dumb or saying things that made no sense. But I guess in her way of life, that is the smart thing to do.
But she had bigger things to think about. This door, this was like a major scholarly break-through which had just suddenly fallen into her lap like a ripe apple. "And here," she said, in awe, touching the runes on the second ring, "we have Dwemer ones." The etchings were beautiful! Not only for the apparent care put into them, not only the fact that they'd survived what was likely thousands of years . . . but the fact that they existed at all! It made her head spin. The implications are . . . enormous! "As is the inscription above."
"Did those folks . . . mix?" asked Erik.
"They coexisted," Ariela said. "In that they both inhabited Nirn around the same time. But without any record of dealing with one another that would have survived in history."
"Could it be a forgery?"
Ariela examined the door, taking a deep breath. She was very much under the spell of whatever it was that she was looking at. "That's always a possibility," she said, fully aware of the skepticism in her voice. Or perhaps it was simply her desire to not believe it. "But there's more, this design. It's most decidedly Nordic."
"Nordic, Dwemer, and Ayleid? All in one."
"Yes! Hard to believe but . . . here it is."
"It may or may not be relevant," Runa pitched in, "but I can attest that the ruin proper still awaiting us does indeed contain surprises of Dwemer-like nature." she paused for a belch. "In spite of its overall Nordic bearings. Curious, ain't it?"
Ariela frowned at the nonchalantly smiling woman. "Curious. To say the least." Absolutely scandalous, might have been more accurate. That is, if you were a scholar. Oh, I can't wait to see that faces of the Scholar's—
Right. That whole ugly affair.
With a jab of anger bundled in dread and disappointment, Ariela sharpened her mind to focus on the immediate. There was plenty there to distract her.
"The inscription," she muttered.
"What does it say, do you know?" asked Erik.
"Strange. It seems that it's Ayleid but written in Dwemeris script. A translation of sorts. I've studied both of these languages, but I'm not fluent. Let's see now." She squinted at it, wracking her brain for lessons long ago. "It says, In the . . . halls? or maybe caves? . . . of lore, ugly and . . . hidden? lies the gold of . . . knowledge. That's close, anyway."
Runa sniffed. "A buncha nonsense."
"It's not nonsense!" Ariela hissed. Then flushed. "Sorry. But it's not. It means . . . well, it must mean that there is some knowledge hidden behind this door. Imagine it, it could be a long-lost library! Who knows what gems might await behind here! Much of what we know could be challenged!"
"Well, what I know," Ariadne said, perhaps a touch impatient. "Is that Calisto did not come here in search of a library."
"Wouldn't it be ironic," said Runa with a grin, "if he had."
Ariela squinted at her. "I'm not sure that it would be."
"He's out there!" hissed Ariadne, waving at the long tunnel yet ahead. "And we're wasting our time here."
Ariela sighed, caressing the embossed patterns. Such craftmanship! "I guess she is right." In the middle of the rings, there was the place for a key, one of those claw-shaped ones which the Nordics used. So curious. It was clearly the mix of influences from all those ancient societies on display here. What did it all mean!
Entranced, she traced her fingers over the rings, settling in the middle to feel around the claw-shaped keyhole. There were four places for fingers instead of the usual three, and it was perhaps of a somewhat more delicate design. The key, of course, might not even be here anymore, or if it was it still lay undiscovered somewhere in the depts of this ruin. Might be years still before the excavation progressed to where it was. If ever.
With more than a little touch of melancholy, Ariela ran a wistful hand over the keyhole. Gingerly placed her fingers in. Her palm in the inset below. Her hand fit there just—
The door groaned.
The scholar took a startled step back. "What did I do?"
By reflex, Erik had his hand on the handle of the two-hand sword on his back. Runa and Ariadne were similarly prepared, even with no indication of hostiles.
The door groaned. The part where the key would have gone, where Ariela had passingly placed her hand, pulled back to leave a hole in the middle of the rings. The rings themselves were spinning wildly. It didn't act quite like a usual puzzle door.
"What did you do!" demanded Ariadne, as though dismayed that the friend she brought over to see her mother's porcelain collection might have broken something.
"I only . . . touched it."
"You didn't press?" Runa asked. "Turn? Fiddle with?"
"No, nothing. Just touched it."
The rings settled down. And with the scrape of stone and the puff of dust, the door slowly lifted up, revealing a dark passage behind it.
"Well," Runa said. "It's open now."
"That easy?" said Erik.
"Seems that way."
"Maybe it's broken. After all these years?" Could they break?
"Maybe it's a trick of some kind?" Runa said
"Or a trap?" said Ariadne.
"Where does it lead?" Erik asked.
Erik, Runa, and Ariadne carefully peered in. It seemed like a long, straight passage of darkness with a faint light discernible in the distance. Far distance.
"Well, I ain't about in to find out," Runa said.
"Obviously!" huffed Ariadne.
Ariela was licking her lips. A hard shine to her eyes as she gauged the depths of the passageway.
"Ariela?"
"Look, this is a diversion! Calisto could be how deep by now—"
"You go." Ariela told Ariadne.
"Huh?"
The scholar turned to regard the mage. "You go after him. This." Motioning at the passage. "This I can't let pass."
Ariadne raised her arms and let them drop to slam into her thighs. "I can't believe what I'm hearing! You of all people should understand how important this is! Whatever happened to the secrets Calisto was— oh. Oh. Do you suppose . . . ?"
Ariela nodded slowly. "There's a good chance," she said. "This is what he came here for."
Erik frowned. "A library?"
"No one ever said it was a library, doofus."
Erik gave Runa a warning look.
Runa grinned. Suddenly it felt like they were kids again. Well, Erik, truth be told, had been a grown man already. But to Runa, he had always felt like a big brother but one not too much older than she. Either she had been precocious or he had been . . . postcocious?
"If so," Ariadne said, looking about and looking a great deal more agitated, which was quite an achievement, "then where is he?"
"Maybe we beat him to it," said Runa with a shrug.
"Maybe he's watching us." Erik frowned deep and took out his sword.
"We need to hurry," said Ariela.
"Why?" asked Runa.
"The door might close. And I don't know if whatever I did will work again."
"You don't seriously suggest," Runa said with a nasty foreboding, "that we go," she gestured, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up even pointing her hand in the direction of the forsaken hole, "there?" She got the most unpleasant feeling that this precisely was the unpleasant feeling her companions got when she explained her plans to them.
To her dismay, but no surprise, Ariela nodded. "Yes. But you don't have to come if you're . . ." She smiled, the imp!
"Oh no! Don't even say the word. Runa Fair-Shield ain't the one to be—"
"Reasonably cautious," Erik completed.
"Shut it." Runa rubbed her face. Damn, I hate ruins and caves and all that crap! Ruins! So . . . I don't know, anticlimactic. Somehow.
"So?" asked Ariela.
Absolutely not! This is where the line must be drawn if anywhere! Runa Fair-Shield, this is your long-lost reason speaking. I've let you lead us to dumb places before but there's something about this place—
Who was she fooling?
"Alright," Runa said, while she was anything but alright with it, and shrugged where she wanted to vigorously shake her head. "I'm in." She even threw in a grin. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."
That's it! I'm done with you.
Runa shrugged again. Reason, who needed it.
"I'm coming too," Erik said.
He didn't feel the need to add anything more. He'd made up his mind. He would follow Ariela wherever she went and he felt happy about it, despite the other part of him that felt very much uneasy.
He met with Ariela's eyes, and she smiled. And he smiled.
And Ariadne hissed.
"There's no guarantee," Ariadne insisted, prudently, "that this is what he came here for. He could be down there, after the real thing. Whatever it is." She bunched her arms underneath her breasts without stopping to consider if that was a touch too petulant of a gesture.
"I'm not saying you're wrong, Ariadne," Ariela said equably. That's what you always said when you really did think it, though! "But consider that so far, this seems the most logical option."
"Does it, really?"
"Well, let's see what we know. Runa, you were down there. What did you see."
Runa paused a little, and Ariadne thought that an almost imperceptible shudder ran through the woman. The Nord shrugged. "Nothing much out of the ordinary. Some Dwarven traps in the midst of an otherwise Nordic interior." She thought. "More or less."
"Was it big?"
"Damn big, more like it."
"So in any case, it would take a while to study it."
"Not if he leads us to it," Ariadne insisted. Whatever it was.
"He might. Or he might be just as clueless about what he's really looking for."
Clueless? You mean me! Ariadne narrowed her eyes.
But Ariela did not even seem to notice. "Could be he is still looking for the key, not realizing that . . . well, whatever just happened."
"That would mean we get to it before him!" said Erik.
Whatever it was.
"Now, that," Ariela said, "would surprise him. Think of that Ariadne."
She did. And it was admittedly true. They might just be able to grab it from right under the bastard's nose!
It, what is it? Power, he said. Great power. Can't say that doesn't . . . Yes, indeed the mere thought made her heart beat a little faster. Made her belly tingle. A bit lower too . . .
"We have to go!" Ariela said. When her eyes met with Ariadne's, there was a resolve there that she could not remember seeing. "You make up your mind."
And the foolish woman walked right through the door!
Runa looked at Erik and Ariadne in turn, gave a shrug, and dove after the scholar like it needed no second thought.
Erik likewise gave Ariadne a look, a sort of strange mix of apologetic and maybe somewhat accusing, and then he was gone too.
"Fuck's sake!" Ariadne stood there for a few antsy moments, wavering. She gazed back to where the ruin awaited, not so calling. Maybe Calisto was there. Maybe he wasn't. Surprise him? That was maybe a possibility. A trap set by him, it was possible too, but down there or behind that door? The latter seemed dubious.
Surprise him?
Power!
Ariadne bit her lip. "Fuck's sake!" And she sprang after the rest. "Wait up!"
This is a stupid idea!