Chapter 17

Chapter 17

     After sliding down an incline of maybe ten feet, I hit solid rock and stood up, brushing snow off my armor, then dodged out of the way as Aetra came sliding down behind me. 

     Forgoing my favorite one handed Daedric sword and firebolt combo, I instead called a firebolt to both hands.  This would work nearly as well as a torch and I could use it to fight with at a moment’s notice.

     She got up and looked around.  “Cheery,” she commented.

     “Isn’t it?”  Obviously total sarcasm, of course.  The flickering fire did nothing to warm the atmosphere of the place.  To my surprise it was a fairly large cavern that went on past the reach of the light.  There were one or two skeletons in here, but they had to be at least a few years old.  Nothing was living in the top sections of the cave, anyway. 

     I say ‘top sections’ because most of Skyrim’s caves are far larger than they seem.  Most run into another location entirely or go down for miles, and all have dangerous creatures of some sort in them. 

     “So what kind of animal are we looking for?”  She kicked a bone into a dark corner, looking around uneasily.

     “You’ll know it when you see it.” 

     “I’d prefer to know what it is before then, if you don’t mind,” she said sarcastically.  “That would make it easier to kill.”

     “We aren’t here to kill it.  We’re here to talk to it.”  I watched the surprise flit across her face.

     “Well then I hope it isn’t a bear or a troll.  That might not end well.” 

     “I’m not thick enough to try reasoning with a troll, don’t worry.”  I headed forward, taking short careful steps on account of the ice.  How would Aetra fare on the slippery surface?

     Apparently fairly well, although I should have expected that.  Thieves need to have good balance and be light on their feet, and both qualities helped tremendously on the treacherous ice.  She followed after me just as carefully, avoiding little slopes.  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

     I decided not to turn around and glare at her, instead taking out my displeasure by turning my look on a bare rock in front of me. 

     “What’s that?”  Aetra moved over the edge of the cavern toward a kind of alcove in the rock. 

     I joined her and we looked down what look like some sort of shaft.  It went down for several feet in the flickering firelight, but beyond that there was nothing but blackness.  I put one hand over it and aimed a firebolt into the crack.  It went down, down, down, until the tiny dot of light completely disappeared.  “That must go a few miles down at least.”

     “Well, there’s no way we’re getting down that way.”  Aetra leaned carefully over the edge to look down better. 

     “Obviously not.  Let’s see where this cavern leads.”

     The cavern, it turned out, led to another cavern, which had a set of stairs that led to another cavern.  The stairs in themselves didn’t surprise me.  This might have been a mine or something at one time.  No, it was the carvings on the stairs that surprised me.  I crouched down to examine them more closely, running my hands over the cut stone and watching as the fire spells I still had melted the ice on them and sent little rivulets of water trickling away.  They were decidedly Dwemer, but as far as I knew there was no Dwemer ruin for miles around. 

     “What in the name of Talos are you doing?” 

     I looked up.  Aetra was impatiently watching me examine the stairs, hands on her hips. 

     “Figuring out what we’ll be facing down here,” I snapped.

     “Facing?  What do you mean?  It’s a cave.  There’ll probably be a couple skeevers, maybe a frostbite spider or two.  What else could there possibly be down here?”

     I snorted.  “Have you ever been underground before?”  When she didn’t reply, I turned to face her.  “You’ve… never been underground before,” I stated, seeing the truth of it in her eyes.  I guess it actually wasn’t all that strange.  Being a thief didn’t necessarily mean you ever did anything adventurous like exploring ruins and such, but that Aetra had never been underground still came as a surprise.  Most of the members of the Thieves’ Guild had gone underground at one point or another. 

     “I’ve been underground, just not like this.  I’ve never had a reason to,” she said defensively. 

     “Well then,” I said, turning away from the stairs and continuing on, “let me tell you something about caves.  There are always more dangerous things than skeevers in these places.  Those stairs were made by the Dwemer, which means we’ll most likely be seeing some of their blasted contraptions down here.”

     “Like spiders and spheres and centurions, I know.  I read books!” she growled, seeing my dubious expression.

     “Well, the books are right.”  I hated fighting Dwarven contraptions.  Instead of the rush and exhilaration I felt while engaging in a good sword battle with a worthy opponent I had been reduced to hacking at the things either until I hit something vital or they were too slashed up to even move any longer.  There was no finesse required, no skill, only mindlessly hacking and stabbing and trying not to be stabbed yourself.  The spiders were fairly delicate, but they were fast.  The spheres were completely invincible until they unrolled, at which point you had to dodge their… hands?  Sword arms?  Centurions were very difficult to kill.  I’d much rather fight a dragon, actually.

     We traversed one more cavern, then the ice gave way to pure stone.  The rock was clearly inlaid with Dwemer material, and now there were columns periodically spaced about.  The roof certainly needed the support.  In places rock had tumbled down, piling up and forcing us to find alternate routes through the halls.  I hope none of the corridors are filled in, I thought, then had a highly unsettling image flash through my mind of one of the hallways behind us getting blocked off while we were down there. 

     Shaking the image away as highly unlikely, I started glancing uneasily from side to side as we continued downward.  The corridors and wider halls would extend forward for a while then just as quickly lead back around the way they had come, sending us spiraling in roughs circles but heading ever downward.  I had never been in a ruin like this, and I wondered what it was for.  There were no bedrooms, kitchens, work rooms, or anything else I’d ever seen in a Dwemer ruin, just corridors and hallways and occasional plates of metal lying around. 

     I suddenly grabbed Aetra’s arm and pointed.  There, about thirty feet away across the stone floor was a Dwemer spider.  It was facing away from us, clanking softly at some task.

     I let go of the fire spells, since there was light in here from torches the spiders kept lit, then carefully eased a hand into my widest pocket and pulled out my old ebony sword.  Firebolts would have very little effect on these things, and I’d rather have two blades in my hands to fight them with.  Drawing my Daedric sword in my right hand and gripping the ebony one in my left, I signaled to Aetra to move forward and crept ahead.  She drew two daggers and followed soundlessly. 

     The next few seconds were filled with the screeching of metal on metal as Aetra and I hacked at the spider.  One of us would distract it so the other could move in and get in a slash.  Finally it fell down in a smoldering heap and I sheathed my swords, thinking that it was actually useful to have a follower who knew how to fight decently. 

     We encountered several more spiders after that as we went deeper and deeper underground, following the twisting and turning passages.  As of yet we hadn’t seen a single sphere, but I didn’t doubt there would be some soon.  Centurions were fairly rare and not found in all Dwemer ruins, so maybe we would be spared the life threatening circumstances of meeting one.

     “Oh, look.”  Aetra pointed at the wall. 

     There, inlaid in Dwarven metal, was an alcove exactly like the one near the surface, and on closer inspection I discovered that it was exactly the same.  “That shaft must run all the way to the bottom,” I realized.  It did make sense.  If it really did run all the way down, it would be the perfect conductor for the sounds that the villagers heard coming from the cave.

     “What is it for?” Aetra asked curiously. 

     “Maybe a sort of fresh air vent?” I guessed.  “They have some constructions like that in Markarth, though on a much smaller scale.”

     “You’ve been to Markarth?” she asked as we moved on.

     “A few times.  Perpetual stone doesn’t really agree with me.”  My throat tightened as I remembered breaking out of Cidhna Mine with the Forsworn.  Thank the gods that had happened back in the days before I was Dragonborn, before anyone knew who I was.

     “Sure, right.  What really happened?  And don’t give me that look.  You’re a terrible liar.”

     Actually, I was an excellent liar.  Aetra just happened to be obnoxiously good at reading people.

     “Some stuff,” I said vaguely, taking a valuable looking necklace out of a Dwarven pot.  Was that a diamond?  Whatever it was, it would probably fetch a decent price.  I slipped it in my pocket.

     “Look out!” 

     With reflexes hones by the years I had spent fighting I threw myself sideways as I heard a loud clank to my right.  A golden object passed just in front of my face as I fell, and I skidded sideways a foot or so and rolled to my feet, drawing both swords.  The Dwarven sphere paused.  If the cold metal face could have shown emotion the features would have twisted into a look of surprise.  It swung at me again and I slashed the bladed hand away from me with the ebony sword, then cut at the shoulder joint with my Daedric blade.  The powerful weapon sliced through the ancient metal and sheared off the arm, which fell to the ground with a clang. 

     Aetra dug a dagger into its back, then jumped backward as it spun around.  I stabbed both swords straight through the plated metal of its head and the machine sparked a few times before collapsing. 

     I stood there panting in reaction, swords still raised. 

     “Well, you’re welcome.”  Aetra sheathed her daggers.

     “I heard it,” I said defensively. 

     Aetra snorted, obviously not convinced. 

     I really hadn’t heard it, but she didn’t need to know that.

     A few hallways and spheres later we found another alcove with yet another opening to the shaft in it, then we reached what must finally be the bottom.  There were no more Dwemer buildings down here, just natural caves that ran as straight as an arrow in what I was pretty sure was a western direction. 

     Behind me there was a loud clank and Aetra let out a curse.  “Hey, what is this?”

     I turned around.  Oh no….  “That,” I said grimly, “is a Falmer.”

     Aetra looked up from examining the corpse.  “A what?”

     “Everyone knows the story.  The Dwarves enslaved the Snow Elves, and they became the Falmer?”  I leaned closer and studied the pale, twisted features.  The body didn’t smell yet, meaning it couldn’t be very old.  

     “I didn’t know there were any left alive.”  She nudged the weapon she had tripped over with her boot.

     “They only live in the deepest caves.  I should have known we would find some down here.  They’re blind, so they aren’t very good at fighting, but they have very good hearing and good aim with a bow.  We won’t be able to sneak past them.”  I had encountered Falmer before.

     “Wonderful.” 

     It turned out that although we did have to fight a few Falmer, they did not inhabit these caves in the numbers I had expected.  One village-  if you can even call it that-  was entirely abandoned.  I thought at first that maybe the Dwarven contraptions and the Falmer had been killing each other off, but there were no twisted metal remains to be found.

     Soon after the abandoned Falmer village the caves doubled back on themselves, leading back the way they had come.  “Are all caves this complicated?” Aetra complained, stumbling over a rock.

     “Not always.”  This wasn’t a complicated cave, really, but it was an exhausting one.  Walking through a Dwarven ruin while fighting off angry machines and then following a group of caverns that just doubled back the same way was tiring.  My legs felt like lead from scrambling over fallen stones and my arms ached from hitting unforgiving metal with swords.  Not that I would admit this to Aetra.

     I suddenly stopped and forgot about my aches.  “I think this is the end of the tunnels, though.”

     Before us was a door.  Not a door like the front door of Breezehome, nor a door like the puzzles doors that required some sort of dragon claw to open.  These were large stone double doors, the like of which I had never seen in Skyrim.  One was hanging crazily on its hinges, while the other just lay flat on the ground.

     “I bet something big did that,” Aetra observed intelligently.  No, obviously it was a bunny….

     I gripped both swords tighter, causing the flames from the firebolt spells to lick at the blades.  The flames held no heat until they left my hands, so they wouldn’t damage the weapons.  “Let’s go see if the dragon is home.”

     “Dragon?”

     I ignored her exclamation and moved into the cavern beyond the door. 

     The first thing I noticed was the waterfall that seemed to come from somewhere on the opposite wall of an enormous cave.  I think that the entire city of Whiterun might have been able to fit in there.  There were giant mushrooms ringed around a lake that bubbled like a pot of boiling water, and I realized the waterfall must come from a hot spring.  It was actually quite warm in the cave.  I could feel the colder air of the passage washing against my back.

     I led the way in, moving warily toward the lake and looking around the cavern.  There was nothing remotely dragon-like anywhere.  We reached the shore and I looked into the water, wondering exactly how hot it was.

     The surface exploded upward in a shower of droplets and a large brown shape shot out of the water with a tremendous roar.  I yelped and leapt away from the lake as scalding hot water hit my skin, scratching at my clothes like I could brush it off.

     There on the rocky bank of the lake stood a dragon unlike any I had ever seen.  Instead of two legs and a pair of wings it had four legs, while its neck was oddly curved backward in an S shape.  The head jutted out from the neck and was so adorned with spines that it looked almost lie it had been shot full of arrows.  Instead of the normal colors I had come to recognize it was a very dark brown all over except on its underbelly, which was black.  The scaly hide steamed in the heat from the water and its gaping mouth only added to the terrifying picture it presented.

     I noticed all of this in a split second of surprise which would have killed us both if the dragon hadn’t suddenly changed its mind about frying us with the Fire Breath Shout that I could see was on the tip of its tongue.  “Why, you aren’t Falmer,” he said in surprise.

     “Um….  No, we aren’t.”  What was I supposed to say?  Well, I knew what I was here to say, but….

     “That’s all right, then.”  The fire licking around the edges of his mouth died.  “I can’t explain to you how tired I am of those little rodents.  They broke my lovely door and started coming in here, disturbing my sleep.”

     This was not how I had imagined this conversation starting.  “I imagine that must have been pretty annoying,” I began, but the dragon cut me off.

     “I hope you aren’t here to kill me.  That won’t end well for everyone,” he said thoughtfully.

     “We’re here to ask you something,” I tried to say, with the same results.

     “Figures.  Why else would anyone want to talk to an old flightless dragon such as myself?”  I had no idea how to answer that, so I remained silent.  “Well?  What do you want?” he said sharply.  “I don’t have all day!  Or is it night?  My scales are telling me it’s night,” he added to himself.

     This dragon was as different from Paarthurnax as Alduin was from Gormlaith.  The way it talked, looked, and acted was just so different from any dragon I had ever dealt with that I was having trouble forming coherent sentences.  “Um….  Paarthurnax-”

     “Ah, Paarthurnax!  Is that old lizard still living at the top of that mountain, oh what was its name?”

     “The Throat of the World?” 

     “Right!  A cheery little spot, but not as warm as my little cave,” the dragon said conversationally.

     “No, not at all.”  Before the dragon could interrupt again I asked quickly, “Paarthurnax told me you could help me find a Shout with five Words of Power?”

     The dragon instantly became serious, sitting back on its haunches to look at me better.  “Why do you want to know?”

     So for the second time I told someone the entire story of how I had met Miraak, except this time I left nothing out.  Aetra would probably be interested in some of this….  When I glanced over at her, I saw that her lips were pressed tight shut and she looked very annoyed.  Interest comes in many different forms.

     “I remember Miraak.  He didn’t like the dragons, and we had no use for him.  I thought he’d died all those years ago.”  Dipping his tail into the steaming water, the dragon swirled it around thoughtfully.

     “Well, he’s back and trying to take over the world,” I reminded him.

     “Yes.  I suppose as far as reasons go for wanting to know the Shout that is a fairly decent one.  I can tell you where it is, but I must warn you first: this is no easy task you have taken on.  This Shout is known only as Death.  A single Word can kill, and all five can utterly destroy.  Only once have all five Words been uttered at the same time, and that was long ago when the dragons ruled the land.”  The dragon shifted, scratching a claw across the ground.  “I can teach you the first three Words, but the other two you must find for yourself.  Having no dragon soul will not affect this Shout, for it rests outside the boundaries of all normal rules.”

     The more I heard of this Shout, the less I actually wanted to know it.  But if it could kill Miraak, then learn it I would, no matter the cost.  “I’m ready, then.” 

     The dragon reared up suddenly and roared at the ground, not actually using a Shout but etching its essence into the stone. 

     Krii faaz vul.  Slay Agony Dark.  As the meanings filled my head I felt a sudden sharp pain behind my eyes.  I reached up to massage the spot, but before my hand touched my head the pain was gone.

     Well, that was pleasant.

     “Dragonborn, you now know Slay and Agony.  Use them wisely.”

     “Where are the other two?”  I really didn’t feel any different.  Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

     “You’ll find out.  No, I’m being very, very deadly serious.  You will find out.  There is no other way now.”

     And on that extremely ominous note I said goodbye to the dragon (by the gods, that sounds odd) and we continued to the opposite side of the cavern, where typically there was door that could be opened by lifting a lever.  It led back to the Dwarven section of the caves, cutting off the long trip back through the Falmer tunnels.  Convenient, and also quite annoying.  Why couldn’t we have found this the first time coming through the caves?

     By the time we managed to climb all the way back up the flights of stairs and out of the mouth of the cave we were both gasping for breath.  “Where-” I stopped, bending over my knees.  After I had gotten a bit of breath back, I continued, “Where are the horses?”

     Aetra brushed snow off of her cloak and gestured at the ground, where a row of tracks led in the opposite direction from Dawnstar.  “I guess they went that way.” 

     Once again, that strange note in her voice.  “What is it?”

     She looked flustered for a moment.  “Nothing, just- Could those be troll tracks?”

     I raised my eyebrows.  “Definitely not.  Troll feet are much larger and wider apart, not to mention they have two, not four.”

     “And that is why I don’t hunt,” she laughed nervously. 

     She was seriously acting strange now.  Of course, I kind of had just carried on a conversation with a dragon in front of her and learned a Shout called Slay Agony Dark, so that might be it…. 

     Aetra walked off determinedly following the tracks and I followed, eyeing her back.  She was hunched forward against the cold wind and I couldn’t see her expression.  Suddenly she stumbled and almost fell over a hidden object in the snow.  The collar of her Thieves’ Guild clothes flapped open and a bright golden necklace fell to the ground, glittering in the sun and contrasting sharply with the white powder. 

     I glanced at it almost idly, concentrating on keeping my own footing. 

     Realization hit me like a thunderbolt from a master mage as a flashback from a quest I had handled a year ago tore its way through my mind.

     Delvin, Vex, Brynjolf, Rune, Sapphire, and I were gathered around a table in the Ragged Flagon.  “What’s this now?” I asked.

     “Well, my sources tell me that a rival guild called the Summerset Shadows has formed.  I sent Rune to investigate, and he discovered that the group is holed up in Uttering Hills Cave.”  Delvin unrolled a map on the table and pointed at an area of land to the southwest of Windhelm.

     “So what do we do about it?” Sapphire asked.

     “A client of ours has asked us to retrieve a ring from the leader, Linwe.  We might as well destroy these upstarts while we’re there,” Brynjolf said reasonably. 

     “Let’s do this then.”  Vex smiled slightly.

     Two days later I watched as Brynjolf sliced off Linwe’s head, killing the last of the thieves living in the cave.  We took the ring off of his body and looted the place.  On our way out of the cave I noticed the banner, the four pointed golden star on a red background swaying a little in the draft.  With finality I released a firebolt, burning it to a crisp, and that was the end of it.

 

     Or so I had thought.  Until I recognized the four pointed golden star on Aetra’s necklace as being the same one on the Summerset Shadows’ banner.

I don't like this chapter very much, but here it is anyway.  Maybe I'll feel creative again someday and fix it....  Vote or comment if you liked it!  Or if you didn't like it, actually.

Also, do you guys like these longer chapters or prefer shorter ones?