Blackreach was a beautiful, ominous, and widely expansive region beneath the earth. The air was thick with spores released from the bioluminescent mushrooms that shone like blue crystals, adorning the caverns like magnificent umbrellas, with glowing moss hanging from their caps.
Dwarven architecture was embedded in every corner, as far as the eye could see, and the turquoise lighting revealed Falmer, Chaurus, and Dwarven Construct alike.
It reminded Cura a tad of the Darkfall Passage. Beautiful, but deadly. They would need to tread carefully.
They would have to locate an Oculory - the lexicon was likely to be used in one, similarly to Mzulft. It seemed the Dwemer would keep important things hidden in those.
"Wow... it's really beautiful down here." Vilja marvelled as she stepped out onto the jade-coloured grass. "Even if noone decides to help, I'll bet I could find some ingredients down here!" she looked at Cura with the corner of her eye before walking ahead.
Inigo grit his teeth and caught her attention. "Er- I do not think that is a wise idea, Vilja. You do not want to stray too far from the group down here. We could be separated for days!"
"We're stronger together." Umana stated factually. "Separation was what doomed the exhibition. Nobody trusted each other, and we all kept our distance at every turn. The constructs and the Falmer picked us off until only I and Sulla remained."
Lucien agreed. "Yes, it's always important for a group to be unfractured. I shudder to think of what may have happened way back in the Volkihar moat if Inigo and Carcette weren't with me."
"Volkihar..." Umana uttered the word as she tried to recall where she'd heard its significance. Then it hit her. "By Zenithar! You're Vigilant Cura, the Dragonborn!" she pointed directly at the Breton.
Cura had no room to hide. She simply walked ahead along the beaten path. "I am."
"Wow, it's an honour! I hear you're an adventurer of some renown. This must be my lucky day." Umana exclaimed. Though, she was somewhat curious as to what brought the Dragonborn into these parts.
"Where are you from, Umana?" Vilja asked.
"Cyrodiil. From the Imperial city, like Sulla." Umana admitted. Now, she considered that she may take this new information to the Black Horse Courier. The Imperial City should know about the return of the Dragon blood - or rather, who the Dragonborn was.
A Vigilant of Stendarr being the Dragonborn was certainly unexpected, to be sure, but that would earn her a few pretty Septims just the same.
"And me, as well." Lucien ducked under a broken doorframe and passed around a colourful blue geode. "So I guess Cura's name has crossed the border?"
"Yes, but more as a colourful rumour. I didn't think she actually existed..." Umana sheepishly admitted. "When Sulla comes to, he can brag about it back in the Imperial city about being blown away by the Dragonborn." And she could brag about having spent time, no matter how small, with the living legend herself.
"I hope he doesn't die on the way out." Inigo shuddered. "My friend here may have disoriented him beyond repair."
"I tried not to." Cura admitted coldly as she shifted around a giant mushroom. "He attacked me, so I had to do something."
"You did not use all three of the magic words though." Inigo remarked as he shadowed her steps. "You said the Fus, and you said the Ro, but you did not say the Dah."
Vilja looked at the blue Khajiit with utter disbelief. "You could actually understand what she said? I could just hear the sound of roaring thunder!"
Inigo wiped his nose on his finger and transferred it onto a disgusted Lucien's Novice robes. "Yes. She told me what the words are, and I have stood very close when she has used them. I am certain in twenty years I will be deaf."
The group followed a ravine and heard the familiar shimmering sound of a Nirnroot. Though, something about it seemed different. Vilja slowly descended from the higher part of the hill and found the culprit below: it was a Nirnroot, to be sure, but it was Red. "Wow! Is that a Crimson Nirnroot?" she exclaimed excitedly as she rushed towards it.
"Vilja! Wait!" Cura called out to her.
What Vilja failed to notice in her excitement was a chain of black, green-splattered cocoons in a crescent row along the water's edge.
Cura immediately rushed to her ally, but was too late, as when Vilja turned around to see her, she was pulled down into the water beyond the Nirnroot by a pair of long, black pincers.
Chaurus Hunters emerged from the water and set upon the group.
"VILJA!" Cura cried out as a Chaurus attacked her.
Lucien looked down at the water and trembled. She'll die if we can't help her! he told himself repeatedly as he stared at the teal fluid before him. A dark murky abyss beckoned him to submerge himself and slowly sink like a rock under its enclosing, suffocating space.
Fear.
He hated deep water, and until now, had all but focused on staying out of it, as much as possible.
Cura, Inigo and Umana were fighting an onslaught of other Chaurus who'd come flying down from stalactites upon hearing the clamour.
He had no choice. He was the only one available to do it. He cast the special waterbreathing Spell, Reynos' Fins, closed his eyes and held his breath and dove straight into the daunting liquid.
The spell worked; he could breathe even though he was under the water, and his skin felt slippery; slimy. He also seemed to have grown webbing between his fingers and toes, and he developed fishlike fins on the backs of his forearms.
When he opened his pescan eyes, he could see Vilja swiping her sword towards the Chaurus, and it has managed to slice her right thigh and her abdomen, causing a cloud of blood to form around her.
Vilja was feisty, though, and cleaved her assailant in half. However, another Chaurus took her from behind and began to drag her further and further into the darkness.
Lucien placed his hands above one another and Dual Casted Void Bolts at the fiend, causing it to release Vilja.
She slowly lost her consciousness, and the last vision she had was of Lucien quickly paddling towards her into the shadows.
The sounds of battle grew more and more muffled, but Lucien identified the sound of Cura's Unrelenting Force even from the depths below.
He maneuvered around some rocks and held Vilja around her waist, pulling her upright under the water and off the rock she'd slumped against. He began to feel Reynos' Fins wearing off and he could feel the water coming into his nose. He had to pick up the pace.
He swam upward as fast as his legs could propel him, carrying Vilja along the way. He reached the surface and lay her on the flat ground. "No... no... come on." He quickly began to breathe air into her lungs and compress on her chest.
Inigo planted an ebony arrow into the face of another wicked insect, killing it on e and for all.
Cura smashed in the skull of the last hunter and hurried over to Lucien and Vilja. "Keep going, Lucien!" she encouraged him as she cast a Healing spell onto Vilja to seal the injuries.
"Those bastards are so sneaky." Inigo spat at the dead Chaurus around them. "Please be okay, Vilja! You have only just begun traveling with us! You are not allowed to die now!"
Umana wiped the sweat off her forehead and began to look around. "You... you know what? I think I'll just... go back. You're going on a very dangerous trip, and I think I might be safer back in the ruins."
"Really?" Inigo glared at her.
"Y-yeah." Umana reaffirmed. "I'm going to get out, and head back to Cyrodiil. I'll take my chances with the Falmer and the traps. No more adventures for me. Good luck to all of you." She quickly dashed away, leaving Inigo unimpressed while the others were distracted.
Lucien pushed down one more time on Vilja's chest and she coughed up the water and began to hack and spit.
Lucien exclaimed joyfully as she became responsive and rolled onto her side, coughing out the rest of the water. "Y-you're alive! You're alive! Oh, thank Stendarr! It actually worked! I did it!"
Vilja gasped and heaved a while longer as she returned to clarity.
"Are you all right?" Cura leaned down towards her new ally.
"I... I think so. I'm alive, right?" Vilja slowly sat upright.
Inigo sighed with relief. "Yes you are! And you have our friend Lucien to thank for that!"
Lucien looked away bashfully. "Well... er... Cura healed her injuries, so..."
Cura shook her head. "That may be, but you dove into the water and rescued her from the Chaurus."
Vilja looked at the group, watching the reactions between them before returning to the shy Imperial wistfully. "You did that? Oh, how sweet of you."
"Well... er..." Lucien stammered as he massaged the back of his neck awkwardly. "I... yes, but... it-it just seemed like the right thing to do, and..."
He never would have expected to actually do such a thing. He was. supposed to be the sheltered milk-drinker!
Cura smiled when she saw his reaction. "Well, I'd hate to interrupt your praise, but-"
"No, please, Candle! By all means!" Lucien frantically invited her to do just that.
"-We have an Elder Scroll to find. And where did Umana go?" she looked around, but saw no sight of the explorer.
"She ran back. I think the Chaurus spooked her." Inigo stated dryly.
"Let her go." Lucien scoffed. "If she can't handle one fight with Chaurus, she's better off just sneaking out the front entrance."
"Well, I hope that we see her again sometime. I'd hate to think she was killed on the way out..." Cura looked off at the vacuous space away from them.
"I'll search her out when I get back to the Imperial city." Lucien promised. "Then I'llet you know."
When he gets back?
Right. His excursion was to be temporary.
Cura had forgotten that detail all this time. After all, it's been a year that they've been together as a group, since the Dawnguard excursion.
And Inigo has been with her a month shy of two years already, since their first encounter at the Riften Jail.
And Vilja has been with her for about five days, now, since she returned to Whiterun.
She travelled with Lydia for six months before her life was grievously taken by the city guard in Markarth.
She travelled with Mjoll for about two months and a half, parting their ways in the Ratway, and then meeting her again during her eighteenth birthday in Winterhold.
The Companions, she'd been with for a month and a few weeks, and they helped her build upon her skills. Her success at survival for all this time showed that perhaps they've been with her, in spirit, all this time since.
But out of all the people she's travelled with, Carcette was by far the oldest she'd known; straight from infancy. From the first day she opened her eyes, she was met with those stern, yet gentle brown eyes. When she was abandoned as a babe, the Keeper kept her there. From a vision or not, they built a relationship over the decades.
And the Vigil and Dawnguard, and students and faculty at Winterhold.
All the friends she's made along the way on this perilous quest.
Cura thought about them, and her thoughts drifted back to Alduin.
She would do whatever it takes to protect her loved ones and the world she adored.
"You know, Lucien, when you return to the Imperial city, I will miss you." Cura admitted as she began to walk the paved path.
"Really, Candle? I'm touched." Lucien admitted. "But maybe you could come on over, too. It's just past the Jerall Mountains, you know."
"I would like to go to Cyrodiil too, again." Inigo exclaimed. "My brother and I traveled all over it. It was such a long time ago."
"One of my ancestors was in Cyrodiil." Vilja shook the excess water out of her hair. "I was named after her, actually."
The group walked slow and treaded silently, so as not to attract the unwanted attention of Falmer who were perched in Dwarven underground watchtowers and palisades.
Vilja tapped Lucien on the shoulder and whispered to him. "Why do you keep calling her 'Candle'? I don't get it."
Lucien chuckled lightly. "It's a nickname I thought suited her. She shines brightly in the darkness, is part of the Vigil, has a tendency to fire, and we met in Falkreath - the city of the dead."
Vilja ah'd as the realization fell into place, and then cackled softly with her hand over her mouth. "That is quite clever."
Lucien wondered if Cura could hear their whispers from ten feet away, as they trailed behind herself and Inigo. If she did, she made no indication of it.
After descending a few slopes, they found themselves face-to-face with an entourage of the forsaken elves.
Cura stepped forward and reached out to them diplomatically. "We mean you no harm. I just need to find the oculory." she gently handed a few Sweetrolls and a Scroll of Fireball as a peace offering to their leader. "I need to find an Elder Scroll. I'm on a divine mission from Auri-El." she showed the Bow to their leader, who grunted and nodded in response.
When he raised and lowered his hand, the warriors behind him sheathed their poison-tipped swords.
The Falmer group leader tapped Cura on the arm and began to squeal in their distorted tongue. He pointed to what appeared to be a large, linous red orb hanging from the ceiling, illuminating its area in crimson and gold light.
The Falmer made a motion gesture, waving his arms like wings and making hissing and spitting sounds. He pointed again at the orb and jumped up and down.
It took her a second, but Cura began to theorize that he may be trying to refer to a Dragon.
"A Dragon... in the Orb?" Cura thought aloud. "You want my help to slay it?"
"Kill... Aka. We... show you... scroll." the Falmer choked out the words in his dry throat. It was tough to communicate clearly, but Cura could decipher most of it.
The Breton nodded. "Very well."
Cura's allies looked baffled.
"How does she do it?" Vilja asked. "It makes no sense."
"I'll tell you about our expedition to the Forgotten Vale sometime." Lucien said before immediately reconsidering. "Or, maybe I'll let Inigo tell it! He's quite good at telling stories."
"Hehehe. And I'll add in the double Dragon fight for good measure!" Inigo rubbed his hands together.
Cura walked into the small palisade and stood on one of the watchtowers. From this viewpoint she could see something stirring from within the large, spherical object.
"FUS RO DAH!" came her Shout, which blasted it open, causing a loud ringing sound and a Dragon to come spilling out. It was a metallic bronze color with black and beige striping patterns on
its wings and coiling around its tail.
Lucien, Inigo and Vilja were all stupefied by the wyrm's sudden emergence.
"I am Vulthuryol!" the Dragon proclaimed, enraged, as he regained his balance in mid-air. "Who are you, joor, to disrupt my slumber?"
"The one you fear." Cura said plainly.
The Dragon's sharp pupils dilated with offense and he thrust back his head. "YOL TOOR SHUL!" Vulthuryol blasted her with a breath of mighty fire.
Cura instinctively held up Spellbreaker, but was knocked off her footing and came spilling down off the tower. She held her shield firmly down on an angle and used it to slide off the palisade wall and broke her fall. Despite a few thrashing tumbles as she made impact with the ground, she emerged without any broken limbs. Cura stood firm and gestured to her allies as the Dragon swooped around the watchtower. "FIRE!"
Lucien channeled his power into an Elemental Burst and launched two identical sparking fireballs at the Dragon, and one made contact with its throat, causing the lizard to stagger mid-flight.
Vilja's arrow planted itself in its right wing, and Inigo's entered its throat from its gaping mouth.
The Dragon hovered labouringly for a few seconds before spinning around and soaring over a couple of Dwemer Buildings. It swooped right down towards Cura, who readied her mace in both hands.
The Dragon's gaping maw slid towards her as it hit the ground due to the loss of its flight, and she swung her mace brutally to the left. "WULD NA KEST!" with a great, forceful gale, Cura was propelled forward, and once her speedy rush met the Dragon's fast-moving jaws, the hooks at the bottom of her Mace's head caught the gummy flesh between the wyrm's upper and lower jaws, tearing open the flesh and pulling its head backwards.
The Dragon's head thrust back over to its left side, and a loud popping noise was heard as Cura's mace dislodged itself. She leapt through the air and quickly pivoted around, causing her feet to slide along the floor and kick up dust as she screeched to a halt.
Lucien summoned a Bound Battleaxe and rushed the Dragon, and began to slash its neck as it tried to pull itself up.
The Falmer, who had been hiding behind the mushrooms and ore veins, emerged and began to shoot their own poisoned arrows at the fiendish lizard.
Vilja was disoriented, and attempted to nock another arrow, but her body was still unnerved from her near-death experience. Her next arrow missed the Dragon entirely and embedded itself in a stalactite.
"Oh, darn it! I can't aim very well..." Vilja complained as she misfired a second arrow.
Inigo picked up the slack, nocking and firing an ebony arrow into the Dragon's forehead. "Not a problem! This is why I am here!"
"Showoff." Vilja muttered disapprovingly.
The Dragon began to thrash about. "No! Zu'u nis kos krii naal mal joor!" It blasted a vain Fire Breath at Cura, who blocked the inferno with Spellbreaker and firmly planted her feet into the ground.
Force without effort. You will push back harder than the world. She told herself as she thrust her shield forward, driving the flame torrent back at the Dragon, causing it to burn itself.
The Dragon began to crawl towards her angrily.
They really didn't know when to quit. Not that it mattered; this one was fodder.
Perhaps she was just too powerful for it. Maybe she was ready to face Alduin, after all.
"Zu'u fen ni dir naal hin haal, hefhah!" the Dragon hissed as it towered over the Breton like a shadow of hatred.
Cura was stonefaced. She shook her head and responded accordingly: "Hi fen dir naal dii Zul."
The Dragon roared and pulled back its head for another Shout, but Cura was faster. "FUS RO DAH!" her Shout blasted the dying Dragon's head with unexpected vigor. After the might of the whirlwind made contact, a snapping noise resonated through the caverns. The Dragon's vertebrae in its neck snapped out of place, killing it almost instantly.
The Dragon's lifeless body slowly slunk down to the floor, and the Falmer began to cheer excitedly, jumping up and down, clapping their hands and waving their bows and swords.
Vilja was awestruck by the spectacle, and was only more surprised to witness the Dragon's body dissolving in fire and its soul torn out and flowing directly into Cura's body.
"She... she really is the Dragonborn..." Vilja felt a sensation of both fear and fascination as the spectacle concluded. It was sure to say she'd never seen such a thing before, and it was quite eerie.
Cura clenched her fists tightly as she felt herself overflowing with power. The sensation lit up every nerve in her body and she shuddered as the flame merged together with that inside of her chest.
She stood there for a moment, and absorbed something of the Dragon's knowledge as she searched within herself. Like the Dragon's Spirit, her Ethereal power could only advance.
Zii. Spirit.
What is a Spirit, exactly?
The nonphysical manifestation of a living being's person; their essence. The very thing they are, down to its purest form; the divine energy that forms consciousness. The thing that Alduin seeks to devour more than anything else. The life force of creation.
The words strung together. Feim Zii.
Cura's Ethereal Form would burrow deeper and deeper into the astral world as she grew closer to the gods.
What would happen, then, if she absorbed Alduin's soul? Would she cease to be? Would she transcend time and space? Ascend as Talos had?
The thought was fascinating, but quite jarring at the same time.
"It's like a magnificent light show." Lucien remarked jokingly.
"They say you cannot kill a Dragon, and yet that was what I just saw you do." Vilja shivered lightly. "You killed it and took its soul. That's so creepy!"
It was, and Cura knew this already. However, she was long past her existential crisis concerning the topic. This was her eleventh Dragon absorbed, nothing more.
The Dragonborn turned to the Falmer leader. "A promise is a promise. Where is the Elder Scroll?"
"Follow. Mzark." the Falmer rasped as he began to navigate the gloomy cavern with hobbling footsteps.
After some wandering through the damp environment, the Falmer led the group to a small Dwarven tower in the furthest corner of Blackreach. It was built on a spire between two large waterfalls. There was a Dwarven stone bridge over the river below which connected to the northern face of the tower.
The Falmer fumbled up the stairs and laid his hand on the door. "Scroll... here..."
"Thank you." Cura expressed her gratitude as she pushed open the door.
"This place looks desolate." Lucien remarked as they found themselves in a dirty old chamber filled with ruined books around sleeping bags and cooking spits. There were chairs carved of stone around stone tables in each corner.
"I don't like it here," Vilja groaned. "it stinks, the air is stale, and the walls are all greasy! Ew, ew, ew!" she carefully dodged the old, smeared carpets on the floor, lain thick with a coat of dust. "Wow, that Umana and Sulla missed so much! Just think; they could have gotten to be inside this disgusting place too."
"We won't be in here long." Cura informed her as she approached what seemed to be a lift. There were two levers on the platform.
"Pull the lever, Cura!" Inigo pointed directly at it enthusiastically.
Lucien and Vilja boarded the lift and Inigo was coming along.
Cura glared at her friends for a second before activating the first.
Suddenly a Dwarven Spider leapt down from an opening in the ceiling and exploded on Inigo. "Graah!"
He caught ablaze and began to roll on the floor, putting out the embers.
"Why do they even have that lever?" Lucien asked anxiously.
"Oops. Are you all right, Inigo?" Cura reached out to her friend and cast a Healing spell on him.
"I am okay; just wait for me to get on the lift this time." Inigo scuttled along into the elevator with the others.
As soon as he boarded, Cura pulled the second lever, which allowed them to ascend the tower.
Continuing through the door at the top to brought them to a short, tight passage with two Dwemer urns on parallel shelves and a closed door at the end.
The door led them to a large circular main chamber which housed the Oculory.
Cura, Lucien and Inigo recognized the style from the chamber that showed the map of Skyrim. It was a good thing Paratus wasn't here.
Vilja was astounded by the incredible mechanism hovering from the ceiling above the glassy floor. "Wow... the Dwemer really were incredible."
"They've always been a favourite topic of mine." Lucien expressed his excitement.
They continued to move in a clockwise direction up the winding ramp to the west, eventually reaching the Oculory's controls. The mechanism had numerous focusing lenses.
"I think you put the Lexicon on the mantle, here." Lucien pointed at a platform next to some switches. "It should activate it, and gather information if I understood correctly."
"Maybe if you're lucky, Septimus may let you have some data, yourself." Cura suggested to Lucien.
"Oh, I doubt it. Besides, my interest lies more with the ruins of Dumzbthar." Lucien waved it off.
Controls for the device were on a raised podium in the center of the upper panel, which featured several buttons and a receptacle, which the Lexicon was now driving from, glowing a blue colour as it slowly gyrated in its place.
Behind the control station, along the back wall of the main chamber, was a Dwemer shelf with five Dwemer cogs piled up next to it. This piqued Lucien's curiosity, and he took them for himself.
"All right, Candle! Let 'er rip!" Lucien thrust his fist upwards.
Cura touched one of the buttons and one of the plates shifted under the light that began pouring in from a hole in the ceiling. The plate reflected the light onto another, which created a webbing of light streams around the room, each touching parts of the ceiling.
Lucien pointed to the receiving spots along the upper walls. "I think you need to direct the light at the constellations."
"I cannot imagine what else you would do, Lucien." Cura scoffed as she tried to redirect the lights.
"Just keep it away from my eyes, or there's going to be trouble!" Vilja covered her eyes as the lights flashed along the walls like a prison searchlight.
After some more tinkering and below-breath cursing, Cura finally got the lights into their proper alignment.
A great tremor overtook the room as the gadget began to spin frantically and fold into itself. Then slowly, but surely, a central mechanism akin to a lockbox descended from the center and opened up, revealing exactly what they'd been searching for.
The Elder Scroll.
Cura hurried down the platform with a great leap and rushed to meet it.
She approached with a glimmer in her eyes and gripped the scroll handles with her own two hands.
This was it.
She was nearing the end of her journey, and she knew it. A bittersweetness locked itself in her heart as she beheld the Elder Scroll. It took her a few moments before she could process thought once more.
The power to defeat Alduin was within her hands, now. They'd gone out of their way to get here, but it was all worth it.
Cura held the Scroll against her breast tenderly and she spun around to face her loyal allies.
"This is it." Cura spoke finally. "The final battle begins." her voice was shaking as much as her hands were around the scroll. "Thank you, all of you, for helping me get this far."
"It is not over yet, my friend." Inigo reminded her. "The Throat of the World awaits!"
Cura nodded. But first they would bring the Lexicon to Septimus. A bargain was a bargain, after all.
The group elected to leave the ruins behind and began their voyage back to the surface.
The insane old warlock walked in circles scratching his head before Cura and her friends descended the ramp down to his level in the frozen outpost.
She held on her back the Scroll, but in her hand the Lexicon, now embed with Runes. "Here you are, Septimus. For your experiment."
The old man took the Lexicon and began to speak, without so much as a thank you. "The box contains the heart. The essence of a god. I have devoted my life to the Elder Scrolls, but their knowledge is a passing awareness when compared to the encompassing mind of divinity. The Dwemer were the last to touch it. It was thought to have been destroyed by the Nerevarine, but my lord told me otherwise."
"The Heart of Shezzar. Are you serious?" Lucien has trouble believing it.
"Who is your 'lord?'" Cura grew suspicious. She had a feeling as to who it may be, and she knew that if it were the case, she would have to cut their business dealing here and now.
"The Daedric prince of the unknown. Hermaeus Mora." Septimus declared casually in the face of a Vigilant of Stendarr. "I thought there were no secrets left to know. Until I first spoke to him. He asks a price - to work his will. A few murders, some dissent spread, a plague or two. For the secrets I can endure. In time, he brought me here. To the box. But he won't reveal how to open it. Maddening."
"You actually obeyed him?" Cura spat in disgust. "For a bit of insight, you've committed mass murder against the people of Tamriel."
That was her inner Vigilant coming back to the surface. To hear such a disgusting affair be uttered from the mouth of such a person, with no presence of remorse or regret, was maddening in and of itself. How could he speak of such atrocities so callously?
Cura laid her hand on the hilt of her mace. She had to confirm whether or not this was just his madness talking.
He paid her no mind, as he began to read the Lexicon. "I see it now. The sealing structure interlocks in the tiniest fractals. Dwemer blood can loose the hooks, but none alive remain to bear it. A panoply of their brethren could gather to form a facsimile. A trick. Something they didn't anticipate, no, not even them. The blood of Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer, Falmer, and Orsimer. The elves still living provide the key." he turned his gaze to the half-Elven Cura. "An Altmer's blood you carry, is that not correct?"
"I'm not going to help you with this." Cura refused point-blank. With each passing second, her suspicions only deepened, and she did not trust whatever was locked away in that mechanism in the room. "If you're working for a maligned Daedra, I want nothing to do with it."
"Your blood; part of the key lies within it! I must have a sample!" Septimus declared as he reached forward with a dagger in his hand and a strange-looking siphon in the other. "With your blood, the Dwemer cocktail shall the door open! Do not deny me this!"
Inigo quickly shot an arrow into the old man's thigh. "Stay back, you freak! You will not have her blood!"
Septimus howled as the splintering arrow cleaved into his flesh. He quickly began to gather energy for a Chain Lightning spell, but Cura acted quickly, dashing forward and smashing him across the head with her shield. Then she followed-up with a second smash in the opposite direction, hurdling the demented wizard into the mechanism. The force of the impact stunned him as shockwaves caressed his entire body.
Septimus dropped to his knees and began to heave painfully as his heart raced like two vioent stallions. The wind was knocked out of the Daedra-worshipper.
"I don't trust what is stored in that box, and if you were wise, neither would you." Cura told him as she held her mace beside his head. "Skyrim has enough dangers out and about. We don't need to add more. I'll give you one chance to surrender peacefully and report to the Windhelm Prison, or face Stendarr's Justice for your crimes."
The old man slowly began to breathe again, and a clear look of disdain swept his face as he pulled himself up. He had no intention of rotting in a prison cell when his magnum opus was right behind him. "I shall exsanguinate your corpse!" he threatened as he cast a quick Flame Spell.
Cura took the flames and shoved him back against the wall, breaking the spell. "Last chance."
She was attempting to be merciful, knowing Septimus was not in his right mind, most likely.
"My friend, I do not think letting him go is a good idea.' Inigo informed her, based on what he'd been seeing. "He is dangerous. There is no telling what he will do for those blood samples."
"Yeah, and aren't you a Vigilant?" Vilja called her out. "You're supposed to kill Daedra-worshippers, right? Isn't that the whole reason you were all suspicious of me, or is it another case of anti-Viljanism?"
Cura closed her eyes and exhaled. "You're right."
Septimus' eyes were vacant; cold. Looking into them was akin to looking into the eyes of a Horker. The man was speaking and reasoning, but his morals were nonexistent, and his sanity was destroyed long, long ago. Perhaps this was the work of Hermaeus Mora, or perhaps himself.
"Anything to add, Lucien?" Cura looked to the local scholar for advice concerning this wizard.
Lucien drove his finger across his neck. "I don't trust him either, Candle. Some researchers don't care what they need to do to get ahead. He was a man without ethics, and can barely string two coherent sentences together. And he's confessed to murder, plague-spreading and chaos-bolstering. Let Stendarr be the judge."
Septimus clutched the dagger on his waist and attempted to cut the distracted Cura, and instead skimmed her left shoulder. The decision was made.
Cura thrust her mace onto his cranium, splitting his skull and killing the mage.
The room fell silent and the air grew heavy and wearisome. Cura sheathed her mace, and without another spoken word, ascended the ramp coiling along the walls. As soon as she reached the top of the room, she was met by a gaping, wretched abyss filled with tentacles and displaced green eyes which littered the vacuous liminal space leading to the ladder and entry hatch.
"Come closer. Bask in my presence." a soft, deep, and dark voice beckoned to Cura from within the abyss.
She stared silently into this odd being's abstract form.
"Excuse me?" Cura asked curtly. She had a feeling who it was. The eyes, the tentacles, it matched perfectly all descriptions she'd heard of the infamous Hermaeus Mora. And considering what Septimus just confessed to her moments ago, it checked out. All that remained was the inevitability of the malignant entity's attempt to offer her temptation.
"I am Hermaeus Mora. I am the guardian of the unseen, and knower of the unknown. I have been watching you, mortal. Most impressive." the abyss droned.
"What do you want with me now, Daedra?" Cura demanded. Not too long ago, Clavicus Vile approached her. Who would come next? Boethiah? Mephala? Mehrunes Dagon? Peryite? Nocturnal? At this point she could count the number of Daedra who haven't tried to bother her on one hand. One hand and a thumb, to be exact.
Perhaps she should feel honoured that all of these dark gods were fascinated with her, but it was more infuriating than anything.
"Your killing Septimus renders him obsolete. He has served me well, but his time has passed." Mora schemed aloud. "Once that infernal lockbox was opened, he would have exhausted his usefulness to me."
"I've slain your servant." Cura confessed. "I rebuke you and all your ways."
A moment of silence passed, and Hermaeus Mora appeared to be unmoved. "You have done me a service. A worthless servant once, a worthless servant always. You have proven your resourcefulness. You shall take his place as my emissary. What say you?"
"I say begone, vile demon! I'll never serve you!" Cura admonished the dark entity. "I don't know what you're planning, but I'll have no part in it. You can't bend everyone to your will, you know."
Cura's friends stood behind her, and were visibly anxious concerning the way she spoke down to a Daedric lord. It was most unwise.
"Your free will is an illusion. Whether you acknowledge me or not is your own business. But I will be in your mind." the Daedra assured her with a calm voice laced with fire. "Be warned. Many have thought as you do. I have broken them all. You shall not evade me forever." Hermaeus Mora threatened her one last time before disappearing into thin air.
Silence.
Vilja shivered. "That was really impressive; I was so scared I couldn't speak, and here you are, talking to a Daedra like he was an annoying Tavern owner. You are crazy!"
Lucien scratched his chin. "I was too scared to ask, but I would have asked him what happened to the Dwemer. Ah, well. Can't win them all, I suppose."
Inigo placed a hand on Cura's shoulder. She was incredibly tense. "My friend, are you all right?"
Cura looked to her furry friend. "I will be. I'm glad that I refused him."
Inigo nodded agreeably. "Yes, my friend - it was very admirable. Not many people who have the fate of the world on their shoulders would insult the god of fate."
A sharp pain shot up Cura's spine as the realization set in. Perhaps it wasn't the smartest move. She quickly shook it off. "Well, he said that I can't evade him forever, so I'm sure that means he wants the world to exist so he could torment me again." She tried to see that as a bright side.
"I am sure you are right. Let us go." Inigo tried to be supportive.
Once they reached the exterior, Cura took her friends' hands and Fast Travelled from the Outpost to the Throat of the World.
She was a nervous wreck, in truth. The demon who'd tormented the land and her dreams themselves, who'd set her heart to ice with each thought and encounter; Alduin. He was right around the corner. Very, very soon, she would have her fateful encounter with him.
She could not stop her hands from shaking.
And there was also the Elder Scroll and its effects. She hoped to Stendarr that she wouldn't have to fight the Black Dragon blind, or without sensible thought. A shiver ran down her spine as they all stood atop the highest mountain in the region.
It begins.