With Great Interest
The sun was nearing the horizon by the time Felwinter made it back to Tel Mithryn. He stopped to catch his breath after cresting a small hill, a difficult task even out of his armor. He could see the foregrounds of the tower, as well as his housecarls waiting outside. Felwinter found himself angered once again by the meniality of their tasks but he was glad to see them unharmed. Neloth stood apart from them as well as Talvas, holding the reins on two horses.
Lydia was the first to notice when he was halfway to them. Her face lit up but not for long once she saw his own. "Thane-"
"Everything went well?" He didn't need to be interrogated right now.
Lydia blinked, looked at him for a short while before replying, "No problems."
Argis gave a nod of greeting. "None that couldn't be handled." His face also darkened with concern. "Neloth said you were handling a problem…"
"We'll discuss it later." His eyes had already flicked up to Neloth approaching them, Talvas still with the horses. As soon as they were close enough, Felwinter could feel the magic coming off them; spells weaved to keep the horses preternaturally calm and obedient.
"It's done?" Neloth asked.
Felwinter grunted but said nothing further.
"Good. Then mount up," he said, "We head out immediately."
Lydia looked from the sorcerer to Felwinter. "Thane…"
"Let's go," he sighed, "The sooner, the better." He looked back to Talvas, handing Neloth the reins to one of the horses. "There are only two horses," he said to Neloth.
"I'm aware. Mount up."
Felwinter's jaw clenched tight. Whatever patience he had mustered on the way back was quickly crumbling away. He heard Lydia start, "Go on, Thane, we can keep-"
Felwinter stalked towards the horse, taking care to not yank the reins from Talvas' hands when he meekly offered them. He pulled the horse towards his housecarls and thrust the reins into Argis' hands.
"Arvak!" His thundering voice rang through the air. Only a moment passed before ethereal flames began to gather on the ground some distance away. They grew, accompanied by the beating of hooves, building in volume until a fiery spectral horse burst through the ground. Felwinter rubbed the bony snout once Arvak was close enough. He pulled himself onto the steed, catching Neloth's eye once he was situated. "You forget which foot to climb with? Mount up," he spat, mocking Neloth's tone. Argis had already climbed up his horse and helped Lydia on behind him.
Neloth grumbled something beneath his breath but did as told, climbing, turning his horse and spurring it onwards, in the direction of the coast.
It was not a far ride. They made for the beach and rode along it, taking in the layout. Felwinter notices the tower off in the distance where Ildari died. He can feel his lips twitch but he pressed them tighter together. They reached a hill that overlooked Nchardak and dismounted. Neloth cast a spell to keep the horses in place while Arvak returned to the Cairn. Felwinter took count, confirming with his housecarls how many they saw. They had spread themselves across the platforms, mainly those that looked sturdy and were high enough above sea level. A number of the stone walkways had collapsed but Felwinter was able to track a path that would take them directly to where they needed to be.
"Are you finished staring?" Neloth asked, rising to his full height, "Because I am."
They had no plan for getting in, Felwinter wanted to say but he didn't bother wasting his breath. Again, if Neloth got himself hurt, it made little difference to him. So he stood and brought up his sword. "Keep formation tight and push your way through. Argis, take point."
The warrior nodded with a grunt and vaulted over the ledge, drawing his sword and shield once his feet touched the ground. Neloth went right beside him, before Felwinter or Lydia could follow and started making his way towards the temple without a look back. His brazenness cost them their element of surprise but their combined might more than made up for it. The cultists converge on them, ranged fighters keeping their distance. While Felwinter and his unit moved together, Neloth went where he pleased, making for the door as if their opposition wasn't any concern of his, though he did pause to set a cultist or two alight.
The closer he came to the great bronze doors, the more Neloth's focus refused to go anywhere else. Not to his allies still fighting nor to the cultists still approaching. Not even when one began to move in on his flank. Felwinter had to break away from his housecarls to bring her down, throwing her to the ground hard enough to cause something to crack.
Felwinter kicked the flailing hand of the cultist away before sinking Zazikel into her throat. Before he could step away from the body, Neloth came striding out from his left, nearly bumping him. "Come along now."
Felwinter grunted again. He put a hand on his ribs, where another cultist had cut him and brought his hand back. No blood; heavy armor would have been preferable but he could barely move as it was. He cast a small spell to dull the pain, twisting his torso to test it.
Lydia and Argis joined them at the entrance. Neloth stood directly at its base, a palm-sized cube of Dwarven make in his palm and a pedestal before him. A receptacle and its key, one he never mentioned having. Without a word of explanation to them, Neloth inserted the bronze cube, needing only a bit of force to lock it into place. Only a moment later, the ground beneath them jolted, dust showered from the arched stone ceiling above the doorway and small chunks of rock broke loose and fell into the water. Slowly and loudly, the doors began to separate. Neloth slipped through as soon as the gap was large enough, unconcerned with anything that might have been waiting on the other side. It was no matter; Felwinter wasn't concerned about his safety either. To Lydia and Argis, he said, "Weapons free. I'm not in the mood for surprises."
They crossed the threshold, Felwinter at the front, a spark of light appearing over his head. A hall of stone and metal ran towards an open space, where Neloth was, lighting torches. When they reached the room, lined with pipes and quiet vents, downward his eyes went, towards a circular pane of glass embedded into the floor, surrounded by a ring of brass. The glass was a window into the room below, which was much bigger. Right under their feet was the Black Book.
"Don't get any ideas," Neloth spoke up before Felwinter had a chance to. "No magic in the world will break through. If it did, I'd already have it."
Felwinter huffed silently through his nostrils but kept his eyes on the book and on the bronze metal cage within which it was held. A cage with no path leading directly up to it and which dangled over a deep pit. The occasional ripple told him that it was water. He had to adjust his angle and strain to see it but he could just barely make out more stone on the surface of the water, with more of those pedestals similar to the one out front.
"I trust you see it?" Neloth said. Felwinter turned to find him holding the cube again and standing beside another door. "Then, let us begin."
"Thane?" Lydia held out a hand to pull him back to his feet.
Felwinter pointed. "It's hard to see from here but there's a platform below that we should be able to use to reach the book. We just need to-"
Metallic grinding pulled their attention to the back of the room and their hands to their weapons. They only found Neloth, using his magic to push a door open at the back of the room, once again unconcerned with what might have been waiting on the other side. "Follow, Felwinter!" His command echoed off the walls of the ruin and within Felwinter's head. But he followed, the door opening to a descending staircase, his eyes boring into the back of Neloth's head the entire time.
Another set of stairs led them to another door. This time, it was Felwinter and Argis who pushed it open; slowly, to not be caught unawares. Neloth pushed his way past, nearly jogging out into the open, before they could call the coast clear. Before them lay a peninsula of stone and Dwemer bronze that projected from the door into a large open cavern almost filled with water; so oily and stagnant that Felwinter couldn't see past the surface. He had no idea how far down it might have gone.
Just as they saw from above, at the center of the room was the cage that held the Black Book, dangling from a chain high above their heads. At the end of the walkway stood four pedestals.
"Four pedestals, four cubes," Neloth muttered. He turned back to Felwinter and his housecarls. "There are fewer traps than I had originally anticipated. Provided everyone is careful, the four of us should be able to each procure a cube from somewhere in the ruin."
"Absolutely not," Felwinter told him, "We have no idea what's lurking here. I'm not risking our lives just so you can get your gratification a few minutes earlier. We stick together."
Neloth scowled at that, clearly unused to being denied. "Or we can stick together," Felwinter added, "And you can go off on your own."
The scowl deepened but then fell. "Fine." Neloth gestured back to the door. "This way."
Felwinter stepped aside to let him pass on his way back to the door and once again, he followed.
Felwinter's instincts had been right. As soon as they entered the lower levels, automatons were swarming them, jumping from holes in the floor and openings in the walls. Between the five of them, the machines posed little challenge. Rooting the required cubes from their hiding places proved more trying but little by little, progress was made.
In quiet moments, while traveling between chambers, Felwinter would ask about Ildari, such as why Neloth buried instead of burning her. Her family, were they ever notified? How much did she know about the experiment? How much did he know?
Neloth brushed off his questioning for the most part but his patience was predictably thin. "What makes you think that is any of your concern?" Neloth finally asked back.
"Call it idle curiosity." He could still see Ildari's final moments, the last look on her face before her spell went off. He could also feel the confusion in the looks that his housecarls were giving him. It shouldn't have been surprising that Neloth hadn't told them where he was when they returned but it angered Felwinter further all the same.
"Turn your curiosities elsewhere. Your job, for example. Or your surroundings even." Neloth spread his arms out to the walls around them. "We stand within a marvel of technology and history and all you can do is talk about some girl. Have you ever even been inside a Dwarven ruin?"
Felwinter didn't bother answering.
He kept talking despite that, waxing on about the ruin's history and capabilities and every second of it pissed Felwinter off fiercely. The chatter was only just annoying. It was the way he moved and acted under Felwinter's questioning, in light of the consequences of his actions that Felwinter was bringing to the fore.
Ildari had been left for dead and then pulled back to life against her will with no kind of explanation. She had been afraid, lost, alone and bitterly angry. Felwinter had offered her a choice; abandon her quest for revenge and he'd spare her. And it was clear that not only had the thought crossed her mind but that she believed him. She believed he would let her go.
But let her go to what? She was a corpse, reanimated by strange magics; not truly alive. Not how she used to be. What could she go and do? See her kin back home? Marry and start a family? There was no life to be lived. Not anymore. This was what Ildari had to wrestle with until the very end and when she reached that end, when she reached that decision, there was no relief. Just defeat, for the both of them.
Neloth knew this. He must have. It could have been that he was great at donning a mask and pretending he wasn't affected. Control of one's facial expressions, awareness of one's posture, these were required skills in the realm of politics. But it could have been something else. It also could have been that it was exactly as it appeared; that Neloth had put that woman through hell twice over and did not, would not and would never lose a minute of sleep over having done so.
Every time Felwinter found himself worked up, he had to bring himself back down, quickly and quietly . The way Neloth worked through Nchardak, solving the puzzling locks before Felwinter could even begin to figure out a solution, without him, reaching the Book would have taken much more time than it was
So Felwinter followed. He moved what he was told to move, climbed what he was told to climb and when Neloth barked commands at his housecarls as if they were little more than hounds, he encouraged them to obey without complaint.
With the fourth and final in hand, Neloth led them back to the central chamber, having memorized their path. It had changed somewhat, likely because of them. The water level had lowered some dozen or so feet. The cage seemed further away as a result.
Neloth inserted the cubes one by one, each locking with a gentle click when set in place. Felwinter kept beside him. He had to admit to some anticipation on his part though wariness kept him level. When Neloth locked in the last cube and stood back, nothing happened. The silence stretched on, long enough doubt to fill the air. But not from Neloth.
His patience was rewarded. The sound of rumbling emanated from all around them, the water below their walkway growing choppy and violent. Hand on one of the pedestals, Felwinter peeked over the edge. He could see the water sink into itself just before large pillars emerged from beneath the surface.
Only the first one stopped at the level of the walkway. The rest continued to rise. The second stopped just a few feet above the first and the third a few feet above that.
"A staircase?" Neloth murmured before scoffing, "How mundane."
"How long has this been here?" Felwinter asked under his breath though his question was incomplete. How long has this been here waiting for him? How long had Hermaeus Mora been planning this?
The last pillar, four in total, linked to the one preceding it behind and the cage ahead. A lock clicked and the door popped out of place. Just like that; no great fanfare, no further safety measures. The way was clear.
Felwinter looked to Neloth, who was already staring back. When their eyes locked, Neloth swept his hand up toward the ascending pathway and the cage. The most straightforward of paths laid out before him. All according to a plan that was not his.
What choice did he have?
Felwinter took the first step, waiting to feel his foot fall out from under him or for a trap to click. Nothing, so he took the next and then, the next.
The Black Book loomed over him, even as he drew closer. This one was unlike the others; it held his attention all the same but something stirred within him, growing as he approached. Something he's never been able to accurately describe and more than that, was unsure how he felt about it.
The bronze cage didn't so much as twitch when he stepped into it. Something more than a single chain held it in place. This Black Book looked no different from the others; the same ancient leather shell, the same insignia of swirling tentacles and pincer claws, the same stomach-turning stench. Felwinter undid the clasps holding it to the pedestal and after another moment of reconsideration, he opened to the first page.
"'Epistolary Acumen'" he read aloud. As soon as he did, he felt a tug in his gut. He didn't know why. Nothing about it felt familiar to him. Despite every instinct telling him not to, Felwinter turned to the next page; blank save for two words.
Behind you.
Felwinter's head turned on instinct and his eyes moved by something other than his own accord. They locked onto something long and thin, hurtling towards him.
He had no time to bring up some sort of protection and barely enough to cleanly avoid the arrow that had been fired at him but as it turned out, the cage itself had its own wards. As soon as the arrow was close enough, it exploded in a small but blinding flash of light. Nothing but ash remained of it, which floated uselessly to the ground.
Miraak's masked soldiers were pushing through the entrance at the back of the room. How they had entered without anyone noticing was an issue to be discussed another time because though they numbered less than a dozen, all were armed to the teeth and ready to take advantage of surprise. Argis just barely managed to avoid a sword's tip from tearing across his face and if Lydia hadn't interfered, the return strike would have opened his throat.
At the back of the invading group was a figure dressed with the same mask but in finer clothes. He brandished a long staff in his right hand and when he raised it into the air, the violet gemstone on its head. A gemstone that released a burst of energy so bright that Felwinter had to cover his eyes, even as far away as he was. When the light faded, six Daedric portals tore their way into being and through them came six Dwemer Centurions, their footsteps shaking the ground.
A wall of red flames erupted from the ground between the two parties, nearly reaching as high as the cage. His arms raised, Neloth continued to push his power into the spell, maintaining its heat and size but keeping it in place. He wasn't attempting to help fight them off, only buying time.
"Focus on the book, Dragonborn!" Neloth shouted, confirming Felwinter's suspicions. His voice was loud but strained, already taxed by his spell. Felwinter ignored him, attempted to break away and return but something stopped him; physically stopped him, as if his hand had been glued to the book. When he turned back to find out what was holding him in place, his eyes landed on the page, on the writing. Writing that had changed.
Fall.
He was. He was falling. That was all Felwinter had time to register before he felt his knees hit something solid enough to bruise and hard enough to knock the wind from his lungs. He frantically clambered to his feet, stumbling before regaining his balance. "Lydia? Argis?" He shouted before he took measure of where he was. An empty black space, devoid of any life or light or sound. He knew this place. He knew where he was
"Mora!" He shouted, only a sliver of the frustration that had been building inside him for days coming out in his voice. "Show yourself! Mora!"
A few moments passed without response. Then, Felwinter flinched at the feeling of something wet and slimy tracing against his neck.
"Just because you cannot find me does not mean I am hiding." The slow drawl filled the world around him so completely, he could not tell whether it was coming from within his head or without. He felt suddenly compelled to turn around. To his credit, he did not flinch when he found the great eye staring back at him.
Hermaeus Mora blinked. "You should know that Miraak is aware of your location. And of your intentions."
"I guessed that when his people attacked," Felwinter seethed. He aimed an accusing finger at the eye. "Before you took me away!"
"Oh, those were not from him. Those were from me." Felwinter could almost hear him grin. His surprise must have been obvious. "A gift as well as a test. You've learned the second Word of Bend Will." He paused, "As well as the Dragon Aspect." He hummed. "Progress, Dragonborn. Progress."
Progress. So he was making some. That shouldn't have filled him with any sort of relief, especially at a time like this, but it did. "Bend Will. It's the Shout Miraak used on the Stones. That's why I was able to counteract it." He turned his gaze back to Mora's. "So what can the second word do?"
Hermaeus Mora only blinked again.
"People." Deep down, Felwinter already knew. "It controls people."
"It controls souls, Dragonborn. What that soul inhabits has little choice but to obey."
Felwinter shook his head. He was suddenly, acutely reminded of the state he had left the others in. "What is this, Hermaeus Mora? What is the point of all of this?"
"Same as it has been from the beginning." Mora's voice somehow seemed to slow down even more, as if he were happy to drag out Felwinter's stay there. "I want to see your potential. I want to give you this great power, release you out into the world and see what you do with it. As does Miraak. Our interests are served best by you surpassing your limits, as are your own, I'm sure you'll see."
Felwinter took a shaky, steadying breath. "Then, answer this for me."
Mora hummed again. "Go on."
"First, this Shout." He looked back at the window into Mundus, at the others fighting for their lives. "Will it work on the Centurions?"
"Soul gems power their existence. They can be turned to your will."
Good. He had their escape once he returned. "Neloth. He was your tool to get me here, wasn't he? You let him have the Book. You showed him to the next one. You put the idea in his head to find me."
"Is that your second question?"
"No." Felwinter's voice became steely cold. "My second question is, do you still need him?"
Hermeaus Mora hummed, as he always did but unlike before, this turned into something else. A dark, spiteful laugh.
"He has served his purpose. Have your fun."
The Prince's eye closed and the void fell away. The sounds of fighting and clanking metal replaced the nothingness and Felwinter found himself flat on his back. Had he only been knocked out or…
No time. With a groan, he wrenched himself to his feet, his joints cracking as if he had been on the ground for hours. He called Zazikel to his hand and used it to push himself up the rest of the way. It burned. On his lips, on his tongue, in his throat. Its power gathered in his chest until felt as if it were being stretched down to the bone. Felwinter would not impede it.
"Breath and focus." The old master's words repeated themselves in his head. A reminder to slow down and take in the world, even in the midst of danger. A comfort in unsure times.
"GOL HAH," he Shouted. No golden light flew forth from his mouth. No thundering booms accompanied his voice. No sound at all save for the splashing of water and echoes reflecting off the walls came from his use of the word because as soon as he did, every Centurion, every remaining cultist, every assailant became completely still.
Felwinter started down the walkway. The sound of his footsteps thundered in his ears. He kept his eyes on their enemies, watching to see how long they'd remain under his sway.
Argis, knocked onto his back by a brute of a cultist, cautiously lowered his shield when he realized the impending blow hadn't come. He found no blade but Felwinter standing over him. "Thane. You're alright." He accepted the hand Felwinter offered when he reached him and was pulled to his feet. The cultist that had been standing over him, ready to come down with the sword in his hand, remained as he was. Once oriented, Argis took a long look at him and at all the others, frozen like statues, his eyes occasionally landing on Felwinter in between in a mix of shock and confusion. Mixed further in was a desire for an explanation.
Felwinter told him to step back. He could see Lydia do the same from the corner of his eye. Felwinter turned his eyes from the cultist to the Centurions, steam hissing from their vents, gears whirring but remaining just as still as their flesh and blood allies. He could see the residual energy from the Shout wafting off of them. It danced in the air like smoke, invisible to all but him; judging by the reactions of the others. When he focused, he could see the wisps of power tremble, almost as if in anticipation. Anticipation he could feel, building up further until the wait became unbearable.
Felwinter knew why Hermeaus Mora wanted him to find this power. He knew why Miraak had no interest in stopping him. He knew what they wanted to see.
But damn it all, so did he.
His voice did not come out with the tone of a Shout but when he spoke again, it held the power of one. He ordered one thing and one thing only, not to the cultists but to their towering, metal allies.
He ordered the Centurions to kill those who were not allied with him.
A solitary click in deafening silence was their only warning that something had changed. Then a Centurion twisted at the waist, brought its hammer arm up and with frightening speed and strength, struck the sword-wielding cultist full across the side.
They heard armor crack. They heard bones shatter. They saw the cultist go hurtling over the edge of the walkway into the water below. He didn't scream. He accepted his death with silence because Felwinter demanded it.
There wasn't much to do after that. Every Centurion began to move, turning their backs on Felwinter and towards the helpless cultists. One was flattened beneath a descending hammer, another cleaved from shoulder to groin by a brass axe. Felwinter and his housecarls had to retreat further back just to avoid being splashed with blood and viscera, such was the mess being made.
The massacre ended as quickly as it began. Felwinter turned his eyes down to the nearest broken body, a growing pool of blood spreading from its mangled form and crawling towards his boots. The cultist's mask had been broken and the face had been partially seen. He looked upon her face, in her remaining eye…and he felt nothing. Felwinter shut his eyes and breathed deeply. "It's done."
Neloth shoved past him before he could turn around, circling the corpse to get a better look at the Centurion that created it. "Fascinating," Felwinter could just barely hear him murmur. He looked back to Felwinter. "I take it you met Hermaeus Mora then?"
"I did." Felwinter couldn't bring himself to raise or harden his voice. Something about it felt superfluous, unnecessary. Beneath him, even.
Neloth blinked when Felwinter didn't continue. "Well? What did he say?!"
Felwinter stared at him for a few moments until he felt someone come up beside him. "Do you remember, Thane?" Argis kept his voice just as soft, speaking to him and him only.
After another moment, Felwinter answered. "He's glad that I managed to get here. He looks forward to seeing what I do next." Felwinter let out a breath. "Miraak also knows I'm here."
"Should we expect trouble topside then?" Lydia asked him.
"No. Miraak wants me here as well. Wanted me to learn…" He turned his eyes to the Centurions. He could still see the power wafting off them; his power. His will. "This."
"Mind control? No." Neloth was speaking to himself again. "No, that's not it. They have no true minds. This goes deeper." He grunted. "We can figure it out another time. Follow along, Felwinter! We have much to do."
"Neloth." He stopped the Wizard with his name. "I answered your questions. I'd like some of my own answered now."
Neloth turned back to him, incredulous. "Now? Right now?"
"You could have answered them earlier but you didn't want to," Felwinter responded, "So, yes, now. Right now." He began walking forward, motioning for his housecarls to follow.
Neloth glowered deeply at him. He prepared to speak, to admonish him for daring to make demands of him. But Felwinter had grown weary of his voice a long time ago. "This would go a lot faster if you, for once, did not speak."
"What makes you think I have time for…whatever this is, Felwinter?"
"You'll make time, don't worry." He walked past Neloth as well as the Centurion he had been examining. He could hear the scuff of Neloth's boots, the Dunmer wizard preparing to walk around the machine.
He didn't make it a step before the Centurion's arm came up and blocked his path. Neloth took a few surprised steps back. Felwinter stopped at the door and turned, resting himself on it while looking Neloth dead in the eye. The other Centurions began to move, drawing closer, forcing Neloth back even further. They surrounded him, foot to foot, arm to arm and they lowered at the waist until they were almost eye level with him, their steel faces and stony visages boring into him.
He was boxed in, with little way of escape beyond drastic measures. Neloth had gone from annoyed to disbelieving to trembling with fury. "Explain. Yourself."
"Ildari had a lot to say about you. Though you probably already guessed that. I listened to her, you know. Her grievances and her grief. It was obvious that you never did."
"Is that what this is about?" His voice was shrill with disbelief, "Some girl you've never met?!"
"She was not 'some girl' and she deserved better than what you gave her." Felwinter brought himself down before he could do something he couldn't take back. "I offered to let her go if she gave up her hunt for you. She couldn't. She would have rather died than exist in the same world as you." The memory of that last conversation was coming to the fore again. The longer the day went on, the harder it became to suppress it. He swallowed the enraged lump gathering in his throat. "Before, I wanted to know why you had buried rather than burned her. I wanted to know if those who cared for her had been alerted to her fate. I wanted to know what steps you were taking to make sure what happened to Ildari never happens again." Felwinter swallowed again and forced his jaw to relax. "Now, I realize, I don't really care. Hermaeus Mora used you to get me here and now your role in this is fulfilled. He has no more use for you and now, neither do I."
All of them could feel the magic build up, sudden and sharp. Neloth's balled, trembling fists began to glow blood-red and for the first time, Felwinter could see that stoic, stony mask beginning to slip.
Argis and Lydia had their swords half out of their sheaths when Felwinter put up a hand, causing everyone to go still and quiet. A few moments passed with no one daring to move.
The Centurions released another plume of steam and then as one, they straightened up at the waist, Neloth flinching at the movement. Felwinter's hand lowered. "This alliance is over, Neloth. Short of life or fucking death, I never want to see you again."
He motioned to his housecarls to leave. Both hesitated only a moment before letting their swords fall back into place and turning. Felwinter followed behind, stopped at the doorway and turned his head to look back at the Dunmer, magic calmed but breathing hard. Fear; Felwinter wasn't ashamed to derive some pleasure from it.
"Talvas is a good kid," Felwinter said to him, "And I hope you'll take very good care of him."
The Centurions had straightened up but not backed away. Neloth would have to crawl beneath their legs in order to free himself. Felwinter left him there to do so and to find his own way home.
Once they reached the surface, away from the smell of oil and rust, Felwinter asked the others if they wanted to make a camp. Both were tired to the bone, not even spared a meal between their return and venturing out again. Both agreed they'd rather sleep beneath a roof tonight and Felwinter did so as well. The sun was gone and both moons were full in the sky. Once on the beach, Felwinter summoned Arvak while his housecarls climbed atop their horse. Neloth's horse. Raven Rock could send it back when they were done with it.
Felwinter turned and took one last look at the submerged ruins. Just barely, he could make out the door pushing open again. He sniffed derisively, turned his back on it and set Arvak into a run.