———————————————
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.
———————————————
previous day
4-201-09-14 20:31
Raldbthar Deep Market, Raldbthar, The Pale, Skyrim
We notice that in the other end of the huge cavern this tent is in, there's a number of cogwheel mechanisms of unknown purpose. Going closer, we encounter Falmers who jump out of one or another hiding place when we approach.
There's a pond, on the other side of which is a door-drawbridge. Apparently it needs to be lowered in order to get across the pond. And there's a button on this side that doesn't do anything.
I remember now. I have dreamed about this place in the past. The button is not working, because the bridge-lowering mechanism can function only when all those cogwheels can rotate unhindered, and they can't, because some of them are blocked by one or another item stuck between them. In order to get to the door, we need to check all the cogwheels and remove whichever foreign bodies may be blocking their movements.
Foreign bodies... That's exactly what they are. Human body parts. A skull here, a spine there. Ugh!
Now we've carefully examined all the cogwheels and cleared them of stuff that doesn't belong there, and they all move, except one. We can't find anything wrong with the last one. We're quite clueless, until Rayya suggests that maybe there's one more cogwheel in the pond, underwater.
I strip and go to check. Yikes! The water is so cold. Indeed, there's the last cogwheel. It has something metallic preventing its movement. I remove it and come out of the water. Now the entire machinery seems to be working.
I put my armor on and press the button.
Complete success! Not only is the bridge lowered – the gate at the other end opens and an enormous metal thing comes walking towards us. It's bigger than giants. I waste no time and start shooting arrows into it. Luckily for us, the humanoid mechanism walks so slowly that we succeed in killing it before it can cross the bridge and hit me.
We run into the next room where we find a ghost, apparently Katria, fighting several Dwemer automatons. There's so much rubble and trash that it's very difficult to get to a proper shooting position, but Katria is very efficient. With the help of a few arrows from us, she kills the machines and runs into the next room, shouting enthusiastically for us to follow. She leads us to a platform with an aetherium shard on it. At least I won't have to search for it this time.
Katria won't stick around. She expresses her joy and promises to meet us where the last piece is.
Then she disappears.
The girls and I, we find an exit nearby and step into the cold night.
We shall now go to the Talos shrine which is not far from here, to fulfill Jarl Elisif's wish. It's midnight, but the snow reflects enough moonlight to see properly.
We are, in my estimate, very close to our destination when we discover something called Alessian Ruins. It looks like a thoroughly destroyed farmhouse or something. I can't detect anything of interest, at least not in the darkness.
Nearby are a couple of giants with a couple of mammoths. They are walking slowly down a path exactly where we need to go. I don't want to disturb the giants. Is there a direct route? As I said, we must be near the shrine already.
Yes, we could move southwards over that hill there, and if we jumped down then, we should be directly in front of the shrine. Except that we won't just yet. I motion Lydia and Rayya to stay behind while I sneak quietly (I hope) to the edge where I stop and observe my surroundings carefully. I can't see anyone, but I can well imagine that thalmors might have an ambush near a place like this.
Indeed, someone hostile appears below me. It's a thalmor all right. One way or another, he has noticed my approach, and has now come out of his hiding place. Too soon, unfortunately (for him). He is ready and willing, but he doesn't know I'm standing directly above him. First I'm unable to get a good shot at him, but when he can't find me, he moves out of the cover into the open and now I can shoot him dead.
I wait for a little while, but there seems to be no one else in the vicinity. I give a sign to the girls to creep to the edge and be very alert while I jump down. Yes, here's the shrine, right under the edge on which I was standing. No one attacks me. I tell my followers it's safe to jump down.
I gently place Torygg's warhorn into a free space on the shrine. I hope this will be right. Yes, I feel something magical happening. For a moment, there seems to be a connection to Elisif. Or maybe not. I step back and turn around. Nothing stirs in the night. There are northern lights all over the sky.
We use the opportunity to wash ourselves in the river. We're not feeling any cold. I mean to say, the water is not uncomfortably cold and neither is the air.
"Why do people keep saying Falmers are blind?" I ask.
"The ones who do have never actually seen a Falmer," says Lydia sneeringly. "Or at least not a Falmer archer."
"Yes, but where does it come from?"
"Maybe it's because the people think there's no light underground?" suggests Rayya.
Lydia says: "I have the impression that there's a certain category of people who enjoy making up cruel and repulsive nonsense because they like to disgust other people."
"Can't disagree with that," mumbles Rayya.
We get back into our armors and run westwards, to Hviterun. It's not far to the eastern suburb.
On the outskirts of the city, we see the ghost of a headless horseman. He doesn't want to talk, or maybe he can't, because he hasn't got a head. Whatever. We hurry in through the eastern city gate and to our sleeping quarters – the girls to the palace, I to my little house. Lucia is already sleeping, so I take the mattress this time.
next awakening
return to the table of contents
