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SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is largely based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it's inevitably a spoiler.
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previous day
4-201-09-14 02:13
Raldbthar, The Pale, Skyrim
As we proceed along the corridor, we soon see our path blocked by a device spitting tongues of fire every few seconds. So we take a side passage instead. We have to go through doors with very difficult locks, as well as get past various frightening fighting machines made of dark yellow metal. Maybe they're not so terribly dangerous, maybe I'm just on edge after what happened yesterday. At any rate, Lydia and Rayya act professionally and efficiently, which is a great relief.
The sophistication of Dwemer technology is just unbelievable.
We finally arrive at another bandit nest. After killing a couple of them in a dormitory, we end up in a big hall. There are four or five bandits and a strange man who doesn't seem to be with them. In fact, he's pleased to see them killed. But when I approach him, he shouts things to me which I'm not going to repeat here, and attacks. We kill him too. What was his game? Your guess is as good as mine.
We didn't do that. That's how he fell.
A couple of hours and a few killing machines later, we arrive at the base of a stairway, along which two mechanisms with large rotating blades move up and down.
I can see no way past it. More precisely, I'm too terrified to think. Don't ask me why. It just overwhelms me and I can't help it. I feel hopeless. So I tell the girls to go a little way back, out of my sight, and I perform the ritual for contacting my higher self, so we can exchange thoughts telepathically. (As always, no voice.)
I ask him if it's right for me to go on. He says it is.
I tell him I'm paralyzed with fear. He promises he'll protect me. He informs me there are niches in the walls where I can hide and let the blade mechanism pass and then move on. He lets me float outside of my body and shows me where those places are. He instructs me to wait until the first blade is at the lowest point and starts moving upwards. Then I'm to walk upwards and get into one of those niches. When the blade has passed me on its way back down, I should continue walking upwards. He reminds me to first take one of those potions that temporarily increase my health. It's no substitute for being careful, but it does help a little, of course.
Of course. [I smile.]
He assures me he'll make sure I won't die here.
I go.
Yes, it can be done, exactly as Bardslayer taught me. I follow the rotating blade moving upwards and then stand in the niche and the blade passes by on its way down, and it can't reach me. And I can walk on upwards.
Maybe you would have figured it out on your own, but I've never been good at technology.
I'm on top of the stairs now and have to defeat another one of those dark yellow metal mechanisms that came to life the moment I got past those horrible blades.
Bleeding like a pig, I teleport Lydia and Rayya to me. I know it shakes them up a bit, but it's the only way in a place like this. Then I spend some time healing myself.
When that's done, I tell the girls to come and hug me, and not try to console me, just keep their mouths shut and let me cry. For Kharjo. For myself. For my unknown home. For my unknown possibly existing family. For all the people we have killed. Has it been worth it?
* * *
I'm good to go. We can handle this. You can handle anything as long as you occasionally take some time off for crying. That's my philosophy.
At any rate, I'm no longer afraid of those rotating blades mechanisms, because I've learned how to deal with them.
We fight our way through killer machines, Falmers and chauruses, walking along passageways and caverns filled with stone and metal. There's not much to tell and hardly anything I want to remember.
[series of 4 pictures you can click through; click on the first picture to make it big, then click again to see the next picture etc.; press Esc to return to the text]
In one of the big caverns, there are little tent-like huts with hay piles inside. Apparently Falmers live in them. Lived, I mean. I realize I absolutely need some sleep.
next awakening
