BedivereLancelot
Bounty Hunter.
aw the heros of tamriel is ending 
cant wait for next series
cant wait for next series
18+ Return of the Dwemer
- Thread starter ultimatedovahkiin
- Start date
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Chapter 5: The Dwemer Treaure Room
Cold. That was the first thing that went through Kara's mind when she stepped outside. Sure, she had her clothes on now, but with the lack of sleeves and the cold property of Blackreach, she was having trouble warming up. She wished she could just go back inside the quaint little house and sit in front of the fire all day. She was still confused on what had just happened. One moment she's the only person from the rac of man down here, now suddenly there were five others who had been sent by the Divines and the Empire. But they weren't just any people, they were the best of the best. The strongest heroes to ever exist, they had survived death itself. They were the Heroes of Tamriel, as they called themselves. A team who had been assembled by Argon, the Dragonborn. In comprised of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness who was also the Divine Crusader and Champion of Cyrodiil. There was also, Garnin, the guy who had dealt with the Numidium problem in High Rock years before Kara's time. There was Fayen, the Eternal Champion, he had defeated Jagar Tharn and saved Uriel Septim from Oblivion. And then there was Indoril Nerevar, saint to the Dunmer also an enemy to the Dwemer no doubt when they would finally meet, the result would be disastrous. And finally, there was Argon, the Dragonborn. The greatest hero of them all, some may say he's even greater than Talos himself. Kara wasn't sure.
But why were they down here? The best of the best? They usually only fought together if there was a threat that could possibly bring about the ruin of Tamriel. Sure, sometimes they might come together to smoke out a Vampire cave of Bandit Hideout, but they would only do that if those places became too active. This didn't seem like one of those times. Whenever they would do that they didn't care what the plans were, they just went in there and slaughtered them all. This time they wanted to know the plans. This time was different. The Dwemer posed a bigger threat than Kara had previously thought. But neither Kara, nor the heroes, know exactly how big a threat the Dwemer are.
As they were following the gray brick road, she was looking around. All over the cave were giant, glowing, blue mushrooms. Why there were giant blue mushrooms here, she would never know. But she did know that the consistent ringing being given off by those Crimson Nirnroot dotting the cave floor was annoying as fluff. During her first few days down here, she was so tempted to cut off her eyes and feed them to a Dwemer just to get the ringing out of her ears, but now, she was used to it. It was still annoying, but she had made peace with it.
"Where are we going?" she asked Argon.
"Somewhere around here there is a room where the Dwemer used to store their plans and ideas. Last time I was down here I found it and it was filled with Ruined Books. I tried reading one, but the books were so old I couldn't read the text. But it had a nice picture." Argon recalled the picture in his head. It was a giant metal cover with doors on the side and wheels underneath it. Inside of it, there were two chairs and a giant wheel sticking out to one of the chairs. On the front of the thing there was a weird crest. It looked like a shield with rectangles in the middle of what appeared to be a wreath. It was a really high tech piece of machinery, Argon just wished he knew what it did.
"Do you know how to get to this storeroom of yours?" asked Kara.
"I think so." said Argon.
Argon led them down the stone road. Gods how he hated Kara. He hated that they had to take her along. He only said that because he knew she couldn't be trusted on her own, she might attack them again or interfere with their plans to destroy the Dwemer and force them back into extinction. Whatever her reasons were for staying down here longer than she was told to bugged Argon into Oblivion. Every moment she was with them, every time she questioned him, the fact that she had an Ebony Blade, it all pissed him off.
"So," said Nerevar feeling the tension between Argon and Kara, "what exactly are we looking for?"
"Anything that can give us some sort of hint to what the Dwemer are doing. Hopefully their whole plans." said Argon
"That's an amazing plan Argon. Not sure what we are looking for. Just something that has to do with plans. Wow. What a great leader you are." said Kara in sarcastic awe.
"If you qeustion my authority one more time I will--"
"You'll what? Call your big bad grandpa on me? Have him seal me in Oblivion for the rest of my life? Go ahead. I got nothing to lose. My whole family's dead anyways." said Kara.
"What? Kara, I'm sorry. I didn't know." said Argon.
"No one ever does." she said, "Now before you ask how it happened let me save you the trouble. Don't ask. They were killed, slaughtered before my very eyes when I was a girl. Then about six months ago, someone showed up and slaughtered my husband. That's all I'm telling you."
Even though she didn't tell them the whole story, Argon knew, someone wanted to make her life miserable as they could. Which, for some strange reason, made Argon want to kill that person. It was probably just his hero side making him want to bring this person to justice.
"I'm so sor--" Nerevar began.
"Yeah, so am I. Sorry that I didn't kill that person the first time I saw him. All I can remember is the black mist covering his face." said Kara
Black mist? But that sounded like, maybe this person was already dead. But a six months? The numbers didn't add up. It couldn't have been the same person. Argon had killed this guy over a year ago.
Argon grabbed Fayen by the shoulder and whispered into his ear, "You lead for now, just follow this road until we come across a giant rock with a golden door in it. Make sure you lead carefully. I can hear the robots out today, and in full force too."
"Yessir." said Fayen.
Argon slowed down his pace and let Fayen get ahead of him. He slowed down his speed until he was walking next to Nerevar. As soon as he was about to walk by him, Argon met his speed.
"Cold in here, huh?" asked Nerevar.
"You think so? I hadn't noticed." said Argon completely without sarcasm.
"Aye, it's because you've been living in Skyrim so long my friend." said Nerevar.
"I suppose you are right." said Argon.
"I like the ceiling though. The blue specs of light look rather nice to me." said Nerevar.
"They are very pretty. I very much like the exotic plant life in here. You got the giant glowing mushrooms, the crimson nirnroot, the giant plant roots, although the water seems to have a different density than water on the surface. This water is like a blue sludge almost." said Argon.
"I had noticed that. That's gonna make washing up feel different." said Nerevar.
"It's not that bad, I once spent five months down here. I needed to get away for awhile. Needless to say I started to smell. So I wandered around for a bit, gathered some herbs, went back to the Field Lab, then using the Alchemy lab I whipped up so products to clean my hair and body with. The sludge felt rather odd at first, but it got kinda soothing." said Argon.
"Well that's good to hear. So have you actually thought about it, like really thought about it? We were sent here to save Markarth. Sure it's to stop a war, but the war would only be cause by giving Markarth away. Yes, we would be causing the restless Nords even more restlessness, but don't you think they would have tried to negotiate soem way with the Dwemer to let them have Markarth without having to move the nords out? Instead, we are instantlly sent to their Kingdom, where it should be crawling with Dwemer, on strict orders to eliminate them all. Seems like a lot of work just for one city." said Nerevar.
"So you think there is some alterior motive to them sending us here?" asked Argon.
"I'm sure there is. I just don't know what. Now, we both know you didn't stop leading us just so you could back here and have a chat with your old drinking-buddy. What do you need?" said Nerevar.
"Kara's story, the man with the shadowy mist around his face, did he remind you of anyone?" Argon said, his voice going into a hush.
"Not that I can recall, why?" asked Nerevar his voice now on the same level as Argon's.
"Think about it, someone I may have absorbed and had to sacrifice myself to kill?" said Argon.
"You think Xan killed her family?" asked Nerevar.
"No, he couldn't have when she was a little girl he was still locked away, and when her husband was killed I had already erased him." said Argon.
"Then who do you think did it?" asked Nerevar.
"Probably someone who had inherited Xan's powers." said Argon.
"You think Xan had a child, and that he is walking the Earth right now?" asked Nerevar.
"I haven't ruled it out." said Argon.
"That can't be possible though, if Xan would have had him before he was trapped, then his son, or even daughter, would have been trapped with him. And he wasn't out of his realm long enough to be able to get a woman pregnant." said Nerevar.
"I know, I think maybe he had him before he was trapped. He probably hid him away somewhere, put him in some deep sleep so that the Divines wouldn't find him and lock him away also." suggested Argon.
"So you think Xan pulled a Harkon and decided to lock his child away?" asked Nerevar.
Right away Nerevar knew he had made a mistake refrencing Serana. Instantlly Argon seemed unhappy and crushed.
"Yeah, I think he pulled a Harkon...." Argon said sadly.
"Look Argon, I didn't mean to bring her up. I'm sorry." said Nerevar.
"No, I'm fine. Really." said Argon.
Argon reached his hand into his pocket and felt the kiss of the rough edge of Serana's note. He carried it everywhere with him. As long as he had it, he felt her at his side. He wasn't ready to let go yet. He rubbed his finger up and down the soft, yet rough, torn edges of the note. The paper, two times folded, had brought back all the memories of his days with Serana. All the time they had shared together. The love they had, the life they lived, the adventures they went on, now he didn't even know where in the world she was. Sheogorath had actually managed to locate her a couple weeks ago. For some reason the Divines weren't able to. Maybe she had prayed to one of the Daedra and that had given her away to Sheo. Anyways, Sheogorath went to Argon one day, offering him her location. He told him he knew where she was and he could teleport him right to her if he wanted. Argon thought about it for a few moments, but he turned the offer down. He just hadn't been ready to see her face again. Now he wished he had just sucked it up and gone and confronted her.
"Anyways, Argon, your idea is great and all, but why would Xan's child be targeting Kara. You think he would be targeting you. You did kill his father after all." said Nerevar.
"Yeah. I dunno." said Argon and he glumly walked off to regain his place as leader.
Nerevar facepalmed himself for bringing up any refrence of Serana.
"What's his problem?" asked Kara.
"For your information, his girlfriend left him while he was most vulnerable three months ago. They had gone through everything together." defended Nerevar.
"Ah, I'd heard about her. Sarah, wasn't it?" asked Kara.
"Serana." said Nerevar.
"That's right. She left him? Really? Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would happen between the two of them. They'd been together forever." said Kara.
"Well it happened. That's why he's so upset." said Nerevar.
"But three months? He should be over her by now." said Kara.
"They'd been together for decades! Argon died twice during their relationship and that didn't even dent the relationship! It makes sense why he's not over her yet!" defended Nerevar raising his voice but not loud enough that Argon would hear.
"So? My husband was murdered right before my eyes six months ago, but you don't see me still crying and being a baby about him do you? Sure I miss him, but life moves on." she said.
"You are just one heartless bitch aren't you?" said Nerevar.
"We're here." Argon called out.
The walls were the usual gray Dwemer stone but up above them was a ceiling made of bronze and silver. The two metals taking up halves of the ceiling all for themselves, but in the center line, they ever so gently came together and silver crossed over to bronze and bronzed flowed over to silver. Across the room from the team was a vacant throne sitting upon an wooden platform that went just above the gold. a few stray coins had managed to make their way up to the throne. There were four pillars in the middle of the room holding up the ceiling. Each pillar had six gold rings around the stone and at the top where the cylinders turned into squares, there were gems implanted into the stone.
"I don't think this is the storage room." said Kara.
"More like the treasure room." said Nerevar.
"I like this room more than a boring old plan room. Treasure!" shouted Garnin.
"These coins aren't worth anything to us." said Fayen.
"Why?" asked Garnin.
"Because they are Dwemer coins, made specifically for the Dwemer. The gems may be of worth and it seem as though there are some, swords, armor, circlets, and crystal balls, that we may be able to sell for a fair price, but that's about it. "said Fayen.
"Well what about the coin purses? Empty the coins out and the sacks may score us a few septims. "said Garnin.
"Sure Garnin. Whatever you say." said Fayen.
As the heroes were wading through the treasure grabbing gems and circlets, they heard a creeking at the door. Dwemer were coming in!
"Quick! Everyone dive into the treasure! Hurry!" Argon said in a hushed tone.
They all dove into the coins and they were instantlly covered. They left their faces barely sticking out so that they could breathe and see the Dwemer. Across the room from him, Argon spotted Nerevar and Garnin. About three feet to their left were Fayen and Sheogorath. Sheogorath made some of the coins from the middle of the room rise up and take the shape of an angry face that followed the Dwemer guards around the room. The Dwemer walked into the room and stood in the middle of the coins. They were clad in Dwarven armor with packs on twenty-four dwarven arrows around their backs and bows slung across their shoulders. At their sides dangled Dwarven one-handed swords and next to the sword were small daggers about a foot big. Their faces were the only things not covered with armor. They both had brown hair but one of them had his hair tied into three seperate braids and the other's hair was short and didn't free fall all the way down to his back, instead it stopped at his neck.
"I'm telling you Rorek," said the one with the short hair "I saw the lights of the battle over there. The girl is alive."
"You were seeing things my friend, probably too much skooma again. " said Rorek, the one with the braids.
"I am telling you, I wasn't seeing things. I went to Lord Kagrenac and told him about it. He believed me. His orders are to send scouts over to that area right away."
"I understand that they may have been his orders, Kraldar, but I am not going to send scouts away for a useless mission that will turn up negative when we should keep them posted at the castle where we can plan this war that will surely happen." said Rorek.
"Please Rorek, at least send three." pleaded Kraldar.
"I will not." said Rorek.
Rorek's face had a natural angry look on it. It always looked buff and strong, his mouth was always just a line across his face, and his puffy eyebrows always had a bit of a dip in them. But now, his mouth was in a frwon, and his eyebrows were slanted even more, his pale white nose was wrinkled and if you looked at his eyes just right, you could see the tiny fires of anger flaring up inside.
"If you don't send anyone, then I will go myself." said Kraldar.
"Kraldar, my brother, though you may be family if you do this then I will be forced to detain you and send you to work on Kagrenac's 'project' with the rest of the prisoners. I will however send some scouts to the surface to try and locate Keening, but that is it. There were no Dwemer or robots in that area yesterday for the girl to be fighting. Sending anyone over there is a waste of mer." said Rorek.
"I appreciate you sending scouts to find Keening, and I appreciate your concern about having to lock me away, but I will not just stand idle while a possible threat is inside of our home! There may not have been Dwemer or robots over there for the girl to fight yesterday, but who's to say that the Empire hasn't sent anyone from the surface to come down here and attack us?!" Kraldar shouted.
"Well if there is anyone in here they haven't trouble us yet. And with our new weapons we will make short work of them. What is it about attackers that has you so worried dear brother?" asked Rorek his expression actually lighting up and for once a concerned look came over his face.
"Indoril Nerevar. He was reincarnated hundreds of years ago. He eventually died again, but from what I've heard he is alive once more, walking around the world. I am afraid he might be a part of the team the Empire has sent to attack us. Clever of them, sending an enemy of the Dwemer to defeat them. I'm afraid he may learn about the Heart of Lorkhan and then use it to banish us, like Kagrenac accidentally did in his attempts to make us immortal." said Kraldar.
"Don't worry my brother. Without Kagrenac's tools he cannot do that. And Kagrenac already has possession of Wraithguard and Sunder. So even if he does manage to get Keening before us, he won't be able to banish us. Sure, Kagrenac won't be able to move on with his plans as easy, but he can't hurt us." said Rorek putting his arm around his brother's shoulder.
Sheogorath's coin face was still floating behind them, making mocking faces. Kara who was right next to Argon was doing her best not to laugh out loud. Argon put his hand over her mouth. Rorek suddenly got a feeling something was behind him and he turned around quickly. The coins dropped to the ground and by the grace of Sheogorath they made no pinging sound as they hit the other coins.
"Is somehting wrong brother?" asked Kraldar.
"Nothing, I just thought something was behind us. It was nothing." said Rorek.
"Well then let's get going." said Kraldar and him and Rorek started walking out of the room.
"Wait a minute Kraldar. If it makes you feel any better, I will send a few guards to that area to search for any signs of the girl." said Rorek.
"Oh thank you dear brother!" said Kraldar throwing his arms around his brother's neck.
"You're welcome." said Rorek hugging his brother back, "Now, let's got get us some Dwemer mead."
The Dwemer walked out of the room. The heroes waited a few minutes then stood up.
"Did you hear that? They are going to scout our house!" said Garnin.
"More importantly, they know we're down here." said Fayen.
"Well somehow they know she's down here. Kara, have you been messing with the Dwemer?!" asked Argon frantically.
"I was, just now! With my face of coins!" laughed Sheogorath.
"None of that matters right now! Did you not hear them?! They have the Heart of Lorkhan and Kagrenac has Sunder and Wraithguard already! If he finds Keening then he will be able to use the heart to make the Dwemer immortal and unleash whatever else he plans on throwing on the world!" shouted Nerevar.
"I guess that is the most important." said Argon "We cannot let that happen."
"We have to stop him. Let's head back to the Field Lab. Maybe if we can get there before the scouts we will be able to get rid of them when they arrive without having to kill them." said Nerevar
"Hold on a minute. I've always wanted a crystal ball." said Argon.
Argon bent down and grabbed the crystal ball that was right in front of him. Instantlly, his eyes glazed over and turned white. His body froze and his fingers tightened and grew solid around the crystal ball. His whole body tensed and not a single muscle moved. He opened his mouth and began to speak.
"A hero will die and chaos will rise
A shadow will call but be defeated when a hero falls
The hero twice dead, will rise again
The one with the power gives the gift of the end
The Dwemer return with a plan to rule
A god will turn his back on the rest of his pack
A battle will ensue and the Fallen God swears to make his enemies rue"
The color returned to Argon's face and his eyes rolled back in his head. He dropped the crystal ball and it shattered to bits. His body untensed and he fell over. Then Argon blacked out.
Cold. That was the first thing that went through Kara's mind when she stepped outside. Sure, she had her clothes on now, but with the lack of sleeves and the cold property of Blackreach, she was having trouble warming up. She wished she could just go back inside the quaint little house and sit in front of the fire all day. She was still confused on what had just happened. One moment she's the only person from the rac of man down here, now suddenly there were five others who had been sent by the Divines and the Empire. But they weren't just any people, they were the best of the best. The strongest heroes to ever exist, they had survived death itself. They were the Heroes of Tamriel, as they called themselves. A team who had been assembled by Argon, the Dragonborn. In comprised of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness who was also the Divine Crusader and Champion of Cyrodiil. There was also, Garnin, the guy who had dealt with the Numidium problem in High Rock years before Kara's time. There was Fayen, the Eternal Champion, he had defeated Jagar Tharn and saved Uriel Septim from Oblivion. And then there was Indoril Nerevar, saint to the Dunmer also an enemy to the Dwemer no doubt when they would finally meet, the result would be disastrous. And finally, there was Argon, the Dragonborn. The greatest hero of them all, some may say he's even greater than Talos himself. Kara wasn't sure.
But why were they down here? The best of the best? They usually only fought together if there was a threat that could possibly bring about the ruin of Tamriel. Sure, sometimes they might come together to smoke out a Vampire cave of Bandit Hideout, but they would only do that if those places became too active. This didn't seem like one of those times. Whenever they would do that they didn't care what the plans were, they just went in there and slaughtered them all. This time they wanted to know the plans. This time was different. The Dwemer posed a bigger threat than Kara had previously thought. But neither Kara, nor the heroes, know exactly how big a threat the Dwemer are.
As they were following the gray brick road, she was looking around. All over the cave were giant, glowing, blue mushrooms. Why there were giant blue mushrooms here, she would never know. But she did know that the consistent ringing being given off by those Crimson Nirnroot dotting the cave floor was annoying as fluff. During her first few days down here, she was so tempted to cut off her eyes and feed them to a Dwemer just to get the ringing out of her ears, but now, she was used to it. It was still annoying, but she had made peace with it.
"Where are we going?" she asked Argon.
"Somewhere around here there is a room where the Dwemer used to store their plans and ideas. Last time I was down here I found it and it was filled with Ruined Books. I tried reading one, but the books were so old I couldn't read the text. But it had a nice picture." Argon recalled the picture in his head. It was a giant metal cover with doors on the side and wheels underneath it. Inside of it, there were two chairs and a giant wheel sticking out to one of the chairs. On the front of the thing there was a weird crest. It looked like a shield with rectangles in the middle of what appeared to be a wreath. It was a really high tech piece of machinery, Argon just wished he knew what it did.
"Do you know how to get to this storeroom of yours?" asked Kara.
"I think so." said Argon.
Argon led them down the stone road. Gods how he hated Kara. He hated that they had to take her along. He only said that because he knew she couldn't be trusted on her own, she might attack them again or interfere with their plans to destroy the Dwemer and force them back into extinction. Whatever her reasons were for staying down here longer than she was told to bugged Argon into Oblivion. Every moment she was with them, every time she questioned him, the fact that she had an Ebony Blade, it all pissed him off.
"So," said Nerevar feeling the tension between Argon and Kara, "what exactly are we looking for?"
"Anything that can give us some sort of hint to what the Dwemer are doing. Hopefully their whole plans." said Argon
"That's an amazing plan Argon. Not sure what we are looking for. Just something that has to do with plans. Wow. What a great leader you are." said Kara in sarcastic awe.
"If you qeustion my authority one more time I will--"
"You'll what? Call your big bad grandpa on me? Have him seal me in Oblivion for the rest of my life? Go ahead. I got nothing to lose. My whole family's dead anyways." said Kara.
"What? Kara, I'm sorry. I didn't know." said Argon.
"No one ever does." she said, "Now before you ask how it happened let me save you the trouble. Don't ask. They were killed, slaughtered before my very eyes when I was a girl. Then about six months ago, someone showed up and slaughtered my husband. That's all I'm telling you."
Even though she didn't tell them the whole story, Argon knew, someone wanted to make her life miserable as they could. Which, for some strange reason, made Argon want to kill that person. It was probably just his hero side making him want to bring this person to justice.
"I'm so sor--" Nerevar began.
"Yeah, so am I. Sorry that I didn't kill that person the first time I saw him. All I can remember is the black mist covering his face." said Kara
Black mist? But that sounded like, maybe this person was already dead. But a six months? The numbers didn't add up. It couldn't have been the same person. Argon had killed this guy over a year ago.
Argon grabbed Fayen by the shoulder and whispered into his ear, "You lead for now, just follow this road until we come across a giant rock with a golden door in it. Make sure you lead carefully. I can hear the robots out today, and in full force too."
"Yessir." said Fayen.
Argon slowed down his pace and let Fayen get ahead of him. He slowed down his speed until he was walking next to Nerevar. As soon as he was about to walk by him, Argon met his speed.
"Cold in here, huh?" asked Nerevar.
"You think so? I hadn't noticed." said Argon completely without sarcasm.
"Aye, it's because you've been living in Skyrim so long my friend." said Nerevar.
"I suppose you are right." said Argon.
"I like the ceiling though. The blue specs of light look rather nice to me." said Nerevar.
"They are very pretty. I very much like the exotic plant life in here. You got the giant glowing mushrooms, the crimson nirnroot, the giant plant roots, although the water seems to have a different density than water on the surface. This water is like a blue sludge almost." said Argon.
"I had noticed that. That's gonna make washing up feel different." said Nerevar.
"It's not that bad, I once spent five months down here. I needed to get away for awhile. Needless to say I started to smell. So I wandered around for a bit, gathered some herbs, went back to the Field Lab, then using the Alchemy lab I whipped up so products to clean my hair and body with. The sludge felt rather odd at first, but it got kinda soothing." said Argon.
"Well that's good to hear. So have you actually thought about it, like really thought about it? We were sent here to save Markarth. Sure it's to stop a war, but the war would only be cause by giving Markarth away. Yes, we would be causing the restless Nords even more restlessness, but don't you think they would have tried to negotiate soem way with the Dwemer to let them have Markarth without having to move the nords out? Instead, we are instantlly sent to their Kingdom, where it should be crawling with Dwemer, on strict orders to eliminate them all. Seems like a lot of work just for one city." said Nerevar.
"So you think there is some alterior motive to them sending us here?" asked Argon.
"I'm sure there is. I just don't know what. Now, we both know you didn't stop leading us just so you could back here and have a chat with your old drinking-buddy. What do you need?" said Nerevar.
"Kara's story, the man with the shadowy mist around his face, did he remind you of anyone?" Argon said, his voice going into a hush.
"Not that I can recall, why?" asked Nerevar his voice now on the same level as Argon's.
"Think about it, someone I may have absorbed and had to sacrifice myself to kill?" said Argon.
"You think Xan killed her family?" asked Nerevar.
"No, he couldn't have when she was a little girl he was still locked away, and when her husband was killed I had already erased him." said Argon.
"Then who do you think did it?" asked Nerevar.
"Probably someone who had inherited Xan's powers." said Argon.
"You think Xan had a child, and that he is walking the Earth right now?" asked Nerevar.
"I haven't ruled it out." said Argon.
"That can't be possible though, if Xan would have had him before he was trapped, then his son, or even daughter, would have been trapped with him. And he wasn't out of his realm long enough to be able to get a woman pregnant." said Nerevar.
"I know, I think maybe he had him before he was trapped. He probably hid him away somewhere, put him in some deep sleep so that the Divines wouldn't find him and lock him away also." suggested Argon.
"So you think Xan pulled a Harkon and decided to lock his child away?" asked Nerevar.
Right away Nerevar knew he had made a mistake refrencing Serana. Instantlly Argon seemed unhappy and crushed.
"Yeah, I think he pulled a Harkon...." Argon said sadly.
"Look Argon, I didn't mean to bring her up. I'm sorry." said Nerevar.
"No, I'm fine. Really." said Argon.
Argon reached his hand into his pocket and felt the kiss of the rough edge of Serana's note. He carried it everywhere with him. As long as he had it, he felt her at his side. He wasn't ready to let go yet. He rubbed his finger up and down the soft, yet rough, torn edges of the note. The paper, two times folded, had brought back all the memories of his days with Serana. All the time they had shared together. The love they had, the life they lived, the adventures they went on, now he didn't even know where in the world she was. Sheogorath had actually managed to locate her a couple weeks ago. For some reason the Divines weren't able to. Maybe she had prayed to one of the Daedra and that had given her away to Sheo. Anyways, Sheogorath went to Argon one day, offering him her location. He told him he knew where she was and he could teleport him right to her if he wanted. Argon thought about it for a few moments, but he turned the offer down. He just hadn't been ready to see her face again. Now he wished he had just sucked it up and gone and confronted her.
"Anyways, Argon, your idea is great and all, but why would Xan's child be targeting Kara. You think he would be targeting you. You did kill his father after all." said Nerevar.
"Yeah. I dunno." said Argon and he glumly walked off to regain his place as leader.
Nerevar facepalmed himself for bringing up any refrence of Serana.
"What's his problem?" asked Kara.
"For your information, his girlfriend left him while he was most vulnerable three months ago. They had gone through everything together." defended Nerevar.
"Ah, I'd heard about her. Sarah, wasn't it?" asked Kara.
"Serana." said Nerevar.
"That's right. She left him? Really? Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would happen between the two of them. They'd been together forever." said Kara.
"Well it happened. That's why he's so upset." said Nerevar.
"But three months? He should be over her by now." said Kara.
"They'd been together for decades! Argon died twice during their relationship and that didn't even dent the relationship! It makes sense why he's not over her yet!" defended Nerevar raising his voice but not loud enough that Argon would hear.
"So? My husband was murdered right before my eyes six months ago, but you don't see me still crying and being a baby about him do you? Sure I miss him, but life moves on." she said.
"You are just one heartless bitch aren't you?" said Nerevar.
"We're here." Argon called out.
--------
The room was filled with treasure. Before them lay a sea of cold coins that filled the room. Argon walked down the stairs and into the coins. They went up to his knees. Throughtout the sea of gold were gems and coin purses just doting it like they were stars in a golden night sky.The walls were the usual gray Dwemer stone but up above them was a ceiling made of bronze and silver. The two metals taking up halves of the ceiling all for themselves, but in the center line, they ever so gently came together and silver crossed over to bronze and bronzed flowed over to silver. Across the room from the team was a vacant throne sitting upon an wooden platform that went just above the gold. a few stray coins had managed to make their way up to the throne. There were four pillars in the middle of the room holding up the ceiling. Each pillar had six gold rings around the stone and at the top where the cylinders turned into squares, there were gems implanted into the stone.
"I don't think this is the storage room." said Kara.
"More like the treasure room." said Nerevar.
"I like this room more than a boring old plan room. Treasure!" shouted Garnin.
"These coins aren't worth anything to us." said Fayen.
"Why?" asked Garnin.
"Because they are Dwemer coins, made specifically for the Dwemer. The gems may be of worth and it seem as though there are some, swords, armor, circlets, and crystal balls, that we may be able to sell for a fair price, but that's about it. "said Fayen.
"Well what about the coin purses? Empty the coins out and the sacks may score us a few septims. "said Garnin.
"Sure Garnin. Whatever you say." said Fayen.
As the heroes were wading through the treasure grabbing gems and circlets, they heard a creeking at the door. Dwemer were coming in!
"Quick! Everyone dive into the treasure! Hurry!" Argon said in a hushed tone.
They all dove into the coins and they were instantlly covered. They left their faces barely sticking out so that they could breathe and see the Dwemer. Across the room from him, Argon spotted Nerevar and Garnin. About three feet to their left were Fayen and Sheogorath. Sheogorath made some of the coins from the middle of the room rise up and take the shape of an angry face that followed the Dwemer guards around the room. The Dwemer walked into the room and stood in the middle of the coins. They were clad in Dwarven armor with packs on twenty-four dwarven arrows around their backs and bows slung across their shoulders. At their sides dangled Dwarven one-handed swords and next to the sword were small daggers about a foot big. Their faces were the only things not covered with armor. They both had brown hair but one of them had his hair tied into three seperate braids and the other's hair was short and didn't free fall all the way down to his back, instead it stopped at his neck.
"I'm telling you Rorek," said the one with the short hair "I saw the lights of the battle over there. The girl is alive."
"You were seeing things my friend, probably too much skooma again. " said Rorek, the one with the braids.
"I am telling you, I wasn't seeing things. I went to Lord Kagrenac and told him about it. He believed me. His orders are to send scouts over to that area right away."
"I understand that they may have been his orders, Kraldar, but I am not going to send scouts away for a useless mission that will turn up negative when we should keep them posted at the castle where we can plan this war that will surely happen." said Rorek.
"Please Rorek, at least send three." pleaded Kraldar.
"I will not." said Rorek.
Rorek's face had a natural angry look on it. It always looked buff and strong, his mouth was always just a line across his face, and his puffy eyebrows always had a bit of a dip in them. But now, his mouth was in a frwon, and his eyebrows were slanted even more, his pale white nose was wrinkled and if you looked at his eyes just right, you could see the tiny fires of anger flaring up inside.
"If you don't send anyone, then I will go myself." said Kraldar.
"Kraldar, my brother, though you may be family if you do this then I will be forced to detain you and send you to work on Kagrenac's 'project' with the rest of the prisoners. I will however send some scouts to the surface to try and locate Keening, but that is it. There were no Dwemer or robots in that area yesterday for the girl to be fighting. Sending anyone over there is a waste of mer." said Rorek.
"I appreciate you sending scouts to find Keening, and I appreciate your concern about having to lock me away, but I will not just stand idle while a possible threat is inside of our home! There may not have been Dwemer or robots over there for the girl to fight yesterday, but who's to say that the Empire hasn't sent anyone from the surface to come down here and attack us?!" Kraldar shouted.
"Well if there is anyone in here they haven't trouble us yet. And with our new weapons we will make short work of them. What is it about attackers that has you so worried dear brother?" asked Rorek his expression actually lighting up and for once a concerned look came over his face.
"Indoril Nerevar. He was reincarnated hundreds of years ago. He eventually died again, but from what I've heard he is alive once more, walking around the world. I am afraid he might be a part of the team the Empire has sent to attack us. Clever of them, sending an enemy of the Dwemer to defeat them. I'm afraid he may learn about the Heart of Lorkhan and then use it to banish us, like Kagrenac accidentally did in his attempts to make us immortal." said Kraldar.
"Don't worry my brother. Without Kagrenac's tools he cannot do that. And Kagrenac already has possession of Wraithguard and Sunder. So even if he does manage to get Keening before us, he won't be able to banish us. Sure, Kagrenac won't be able to move on with his plans as easy, but he can't hurt us." said Rorek putting his arm around his brother's shoulder.
Sheogorath's coin face was still floating behind them, making mocking faces. Kara who was right next to Argon was doing her best not to laugh out loud. Argon put his hand over her mouth. Rorek suddenly got a feeling something was behind him and he turned around quickly. The coins dropped to the ground and by the grace of Sheogorath they made no pinging sound as they hit the other coins.
"Is somehting wrong brother?" asked Kraldar.
"Nothing, I just thought something was behind us. It was nothing." said Rorek.
"Well then let's get going." said Kraldar and him and Rorek started walking out of the room.
"Wait a minute Kraldar. If it makes you feel any better, I will send a few guards to that area to search for any signs of the girl." said Rorek.
"Oh thank you dear brother!" said Kraldar throwing his arms around his brother's neck.
"You're welcome." said Rorek hugging his brother back, "Now, let's got get us some Dwemer mead."
The Dwemer walked out of the room. The heroes waited a few minutes then stood up.
"Did you hear that? They are going to scout our house!" said Garnin.
"More importantly, they know we're down here." said Fayen.
"Well somehow they know she's down here. Kara, have you been messing with the Dwemer?!" asked Argon frantically.
"I was, just now! With my face of coins!" laughed Sheogorath.
"None of that matters right now! Did you not hear them?! They have the Heart of Lorkhan and Kagrenac has Sunder and Wraithguard already! If he finds Keening then he will be able to use the heart to make the Dwemer immortal and unleash whatever else he plans on throwing on the world!" shouted Nerevar.
"I guess that is the most important." said Argon "We cannot let that happen."
"We have to stop him. Let's head back to the Field Lab. Maybe if we can get there before the scouts we will be able to get rid of them when they arrive without having to kill them." said Nerevar
"Hold on a minute. I've always wanted a crystal ball." said Argon.
Argon bent down and grabbed the crystal ball that was right in front of him. Instantlly, his eyes glazed over and turned white. His body froze and his fingers tightened and grew solid around the crystal ball. His whole body tensed and not a single muscle moved. He opened his mouth and began to speak.
"A hero will die and chaos will rise
A shadow will call but be defeated when a hero falls
The hero twice dead, will rise again
The one with the power gives the gift of the end
The Dwemer return with a plan to rule
A god will turn his back on the rest of his pack
A battle will ensue and the Fallen God swears to make his enemies rue"
The color returned to Argon's face and his eyes rolled back in his head. He dropped the crystal ball and it shattered to bits. His body untensed and he fell over. Then Argon blacked out.
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
So, I have officially decided on a plot for the first story of my next series. This weekend I am going to begin writing back-to-back chapters, of course they will be posted one at a time. One per weekend, sometimes maybe two per weekend. Just wanted to make the quick update. Good bye.
BedivereLancelot
Bounty Hunter.
AH! Argon have you not seen Lord of the Rings! NEVER TOUCH A CRYSTAL MADE MY THE ANCIENTS!!!!!
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
So a few weeks ago I got some new skin and hair mods for Skyrim on the pc, and I decided to update Kara's looks. And I decided to take a whole new screenshot of her, this one is MUCH more bad ass, and she looks a lot better. It was originally going to be for the next two stories but I just can't get over how ugly she looks in Vanilla, when she is supposed to be a really pretty character, so I am just going to switch the two pictures. The description of her hair in this story doesn't match the picture, but her hair will match it in the next one. So just a little heads up if anyone notices that and then thinks that I messed up on the description.
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Chapter 6: House Arrest
Argon awoke to a strange wet feeling on his face, and an combination of stench and stew. He opened his eyes and found that he was shackled to the cold stone bed in the Field Lab. On top of him was someone he knew rather well. It was Sheogorath's pet sloth Thadon.
"Hey Thadon." Argon said as he opened his eyes "How did you get here?"
Thadon scurried off of Argon, his claws making a clacking noise on the stone has he hurried across. Argon tried to stand up but he was pulled back down. These shackles were shorter than the ones he had used on Kara, these ones wouldn't even let him sit up, instead, he was force to lie down. Kara. Oh no, what if she had double crossed them just like Argon thought she would? He had caused him to faint in the Treasure Room, then after he was out she overwhelmed the team again. But instead of killing them she decided to chain them up to sell them for ransom!
"I see you're awake." said the soft female voice.
Argon looked up, Kara was leaning over him. Her long brwon hair fell forward over her head and dangled about two inches above his face.
"Sorry about the shackles Argon, we didn't know if the crystal ball had made something possess you. We didn't want to risk you attacking us when you awoke." said the deep voice, it sounded like Alvor's voice. Except it wasn't Alvor, it was Garnin.
"So why are they so much shorter than when they were used on Kara?" questioned Argon.
"Well, we decided to make them shorter, keep you as far away from us as possible." said Garnin.
"Well, if you don't mind, would you please release me?"
"I dunno, I think you look much better shackled than I did." said Kara.
"Just unchain me, then you can make all the jokes you want." said Argon.
"Fine." Kara pulled a key out and stuck in it the key hole.
She turned the key and there was a small click then the shackles fell off Argon's wrists and onto the bed.
Argon sat up and started rubbing his wrists. They were bright red.
"Hurts doesn't it? Now you know how I felt." said Kara.
Argon looked down and examined himself, he wasn't wearing his armor. Instead he was in ragged garments with no shoes.
"Who changed me...?" Argon asked.
"Well I did of course. Don't worry, we're family. I used to change your diapers!" said Sheogorath.
"Grandpa.... Not in front of the other heroes..." said Argon.
"Oh sorry." said Sheogorath.
Argon then noticed the ever quiet Fayen at the cooking pot. That must've been the stew Argon smelled earlier. It semlled delightful, horker meat, mead, some vegetables.
"What kinda of stew you making?" Argon asked.
"It's a special recipie. My mom used to make it all the time." said Fayen.
"When's it gonna be done?"
"In a few minutes. Makes sense why you would be so hungry, you were out for a while." said Fayen.
"How long was I out?"
"Two days. And boy how you snore when you've just been possessed!" laughed Sheogorath
"TWO DAYS?!" exclaimed Argon.
"You were sleeping like a wittle twiny babwy" said Kara in a mocking baby voice. But for the strangest reason Argon found it, well, cute.
"Well plops. I've been asleep for two days, I gotta go walk around a little. I'm gonna go gathter some herbs" said Argon not bothering to equip his armor or his sword, arrows, and bow. Instead he grabbed a knife off of the metal rack against the wall.
Argon walked to the golden door with his hand firmly on the leather-covered handle of the knife. He stopped in front of the door and reached out to push it open. Right as he was about to push it open, an arrow flew through the air and sunk into the door right above Argon's hand. It hit it with a thunk, and the back end wagged up and down like a dog's tail. Argon turned around to face Fayen who had his bow out.
"What in Oblivion are you doing?!" Argon exclaimed as he slowly readied the knife.
"You can't go out there." said Fayen as he leaned his bow against the wall.
"Why not?"
"Look." Fayen walked over, yanked the arrow out of the door and tossed it back to his quiver so he could sharpen it later, then he silently, gently, and slowly open the door just a crack. Out side of the door there were seven Dwemer scouts wandering around the area. Each one had a bandolier with weird thin metal boxes on them, and around their waste they had weird ball looking things with some sort of ring protruding from the side of the top. Argon didn't know much about those things, but if the rings weren't there to use to hang the device with, then they had to be the things that would cause them to explode. Each of the pale elves had a small, one handed, device that looked a little bit like an L in their hands. The device was made of Dwarven metal and across the top was a carving of Keening, which was supposed to represent Kagrenac. The devices were rounded at the top, but where they held was mostly flat, but did curve in the back to add comfort and support for the hand. The Dwemer's fingers rested on the side of the top and right underneath on the bottom of the weapon was a small, curved piece of metal which was drawn back to allow the projectile to fire. On the end of one of the Dwemer's guns, was a large, detachable, cylinder which Argon wasn't completely sure what it was for.
"When the hell did they get here?" whispered Argon as he quietly shut the door. It closed, but when it did it made a small thud which caused everyone in the room to flinch.
"They got here not long after we got you back here." said Nerevar finally speaking up.
"Well why did you guys take me here? We knew they were coming." said Argon.
"Where else were we going to take you?" asked Nerevar.
"I don't know. I'm sorry I'm just very confused right now." said Argon.
"It's alright. What do we do?" asked Nerevar.
"Well we can't kill them. If they don't go back then someone will come looking for them and when they can't find them they will know we are here and we killed them. We can't afford to lose this place. It's our only place of refuge here." said Argon.
"And if we try fighting them, their weapons will easily annihilate us." said Kara.
"Maybe we can lure them away somehow. Make them think we're somewhere else. Trick them into going someplace dangerous so that they will get killed." suggested Fayen.
"Not a bad idea, but how will we do that?" asked Garnin.
"Well, I can use my throw voice shout, you guys just have to get me out there first so I know where to aim." said Argon.
"That shouldn't be too hard, get Sheo to kick up a distraction somehow." said Nerevar.
"Oh, this'll be fun...." said Sheogorath.
"And what do I do?" asked Kara.
"You, keep being pretty." said Argon.
The whole room was shocked, even Argon.
"What the hell is going on with me?! Damn crystal ball!" exclaimed Argon.
Argon, clearly scared, embarassed, and confused, grabbed Thadon then went and sat down on the bed. He dug around in the pocket of his armor and he stared at the not from Serana not paying attention to anyone or anything else.
"Is that the note from that vampire girl?" Kara asked Garnin.
"Aye lassie. Damn shame. Those two were perfect for each other. Poor Argon, he's been going through a lot lately." said Garnin
"What happened, when I touched it?" Argon asked.
"What do you mean?" asked Nerevar.
"When I thouched the crystal ball, what happened?" asked Argon.
Nerevar told him about his eyes glazing over and the odd prophecy he recited.
"By the nine...." said Argon, his head got dizzy just thinking about it and he was forced to sit down.
"Are you okay?" asked Nerevar.
"I'm fine, but this... this isn't good." said Argon holding up his light-feeling head on with his hand.
"When is anything in our lives ever good? Do you know who this Fallen God is?"
"I have no idea. But we can't focus on it right now, we have a job to do down here and that comes first." said Argon.
"We gotta get rid of the Dwemer scouts. I was thinking, what if we got Kara to kill them? They already know she's down here. They just think she's here at the Field Lab, which I guess is right. But anyways, it'll cover for the deaths of the scouts, they won't focus completely on us anymore, and they'll think Kara is in that are over there instead of over here where we are. Then they'll send scouts there to look for her." said Nerevar.
"I guess that is a good idea. Kara, are you up for that?" asked Argon.
"I have been itching to get my hands dirty...." said Kara with a smug grin slowly creeping across her face as she drew the Ebony Blade from her back. As soon as the blade came out of its sheath Argon felt the presence of evil and daedra. But it was a faint signal, something down here was blocking out the gods and daedra. But why wasn't it effecting Sheogorath?
"Well then," said Argon. "I guess we have a plan."
The Dwemer heard it and were enraged, they ran down onto the path only to find no one was there.
"It seems as though someone thinks they can trick us, eh?" said on of the Dwemer.
"This bitch had better be ready to face some series power." said another.
"Or maybe you need to know when you've walked right into a trap." said Kara emerging from the rock with the Ebony Blade in her hand.
"It's her! Get her!" yelled on of the Dwemer.
A Dwemer tried to hit her with his gun, but as he swung it Kara kicked it out of his hand. Another Dwemer aimed his gun right at her face but it one swift move she sliced his hand off. It let go of the gun and fell to the ground, the white skin on it was now stained crimson. The Dwemer grabbed his hand in pain and Kara sliced off his head. She spun around and punched another Dwemer in the nose, a loud CRUNCH was heard even by Argon who was about thirty feet above their heads. She spent a few moments dealing with the rest of the Dwemer until finally, Kara's blade traveled up and out of the Dwemer's head, starting from the bottom of the chin. When she pulled it back out, he fell to the ground, a small pool of blood slowly surrounding his head. Then, from behind Kara, there was a small click Kara turned around to face the Dwemer who dare challenge her. It was the Dwemer with the weird cylinder on his gun.
"Drop it." he said, aiming the gun right at her chest.
"You first." said Kara.
"I don't think so. Don't make this any harder on yourself, put the sword down and I won't shoot you." he said.
"Alright, I'm going." said Kara, she slowly lowered the sword and placed her hands on the back of her head.
"Dumbass." said the Dwemer, and he pulled the trigger. There was a slightly loud click and quicker than Argon's eyes could see, a small piece of metal flew forth from the weapon and hit Kara in the chest. It traveled right through her skin and stopped, only inches from her heart. Kara fell backwards and hit her head on the cold stone ground. The black ceiling with the blue spots started spinning before her eyes and she felt the whole world beginning to shake. Slowly, darkness crept in front of her eyes, covering up her view of the ceiling above. Then, her eyelids shut and that's all she remembered.
Above, Argon watched the scene unfold. "NO!" he yelled when Kara was shot. He quickly drew the Infinity Sword and hopped over the rock. He landed in front of the Dwemer as he tried to make a clean get away. The only clean thing there was the slash Argon's blade made as it turned one elf, into two pieces. A top and a bottom. Argon put away his sword and grabbed Kara and slung her legs over his arm, rested her back against his other, and rested her head against his chestplate. Argon burst through the of the Field Lab with Kara in critical condition, blood from her wound was slowly pouring out all over his armor.
"What happened?!" asked Fayen
"Kara's been shot." Argon answered.
Argon awoke to a strange wet feeling on his face, and an combination of stench and stew. He opened his eyes and found that he was shackled to the cold stone bed in the Field Lab. On top of him was someone he knew rather well. It was Sheogorath's pet sloth Thadon.
"Hey Thadon." Argon said as he opened his eyes "How did you get here?"
Thadon scurried off of Argon, his claws making a clacking noise on the stone has he hurried across. Argon tried to stand up but he was pulled back down. These shackles were shorter than the ones he had used on Kara, these ones wouldn't even let him sit up, instead, he was force to lie down. Kara. Oh no, what if she had double crossed them just like Argon thought she would? He had caused him to faint in the Treasure Room, then after he was out she overwhelmed the team again. But instead of killing them she decided to chain them up to sell them for ransom!
"I see you're awake." said the soft female voice.
Argon looked up, Kara was leaning over him. Her long brwon hair fell forward over her head and dangled about two inches above his face.
"Sorry about the shackles Argon, we didn't know if the crystal ball had made something possess you. We didn't want to risk you attacking us when you awoke." said the deep voice, it sounded like Alvor's voice. Except it wasn't Alvor, it was Garnin.
"So why are they so much shorter than when they were used on Kara?" questioned Argon.
"Well, we decided to make them shorter, keep you as far away from us as possible." said Garnin.
"Well, if you don't mind, would you please release me?"
"I dunno, I think you look much better shackled than I did." said Kara.
"Just unchain me, then you can make all the jokes you want." said Argon.
"Fine." Kara pulled a key out and stuck in it the key hole.
She turned the key and there was a small click then the shackles fell off Argon's wrists and onto the bed.
Argon sat up and started rubbing his wrists. They were bright red.
"Hurts doesn't it? Now you know how I felt." said Kara.
Argon looked down and examined himself, he wasn't wearing his armor. Instead he was in ragged garments with no shoes.
"Who changed me...?" Argon asked.
"Well I did of course. Don't worry, we're family. I used to change your diapers!" said Sheogorath.
"Grandpa.... Not in front of the other heroes..." said Argon.
"Oh sorry." said Sheogorath.
Argon then noticed the ever quiet Fayen at the cooking pot. That must've been the stew Argon smelled earlier. It semlled delightful, horker meat, mead, some vegetables.
"What kinda of stew you making?" Argon asked.
"It's a special recipie. My mom used to make it all the time." said Fayen.
"When's it gonna be done?"
"In a few minutes. Makes sense why you would be so hungry, you were out for a while." said Fayen.
"How long was I out?"
"Two days. And boy how you snore when you've just been possessed!" laughed Sheogorath
"TWO DAYS?!" exclaimed Argon.
"You were sleeping like a wittle twiny babwy" said Kara in a mocking baby voice. But for the strangest reason Argon found it, well, cute.
"Well plops. I've been asleep for two days, I gotta go walk around a little. I'm gonna go gathter some herbs" said Argon not bothering to equip his armor or his sword, arrows, and bow. Instead he grabbed a knife off of the metal rack against the wall.
Argon walked to the golden door with his hand firmly on the leather-covered handle of the knife. He stopped in front of the door and reached out to push it open. Right as he was about to push it open, an arrow flew through the air and sunk into the door right above Argon's hand. It hit it with a thunk, and the back end wagged up and down like a dog's tail. Argon turned around to face Fayen who had his bow out.
"What in Oblivion are you doing?!" Argon exclaimed as he slowly readied the knife.
"You can't go out there." said Fayen as he leaned his bow against the wall.
"Why not?"
"Look." Fayen walked over, yanked the arrow out of the door and tossed it back to his quiver so he could sharpen it later, then he silently, gently, and slowly open the door just a crack. Out side of the door there were seven Dwemer scouts wandering around the area. Each one had a bandolier with weird thin metal boxes on them, and around their waste they had weird ball looking things with some sort of ring protruding from the side of the top. Argon didn't know much about those things, but if the rings weren't there to use to hang the device with, then they had to be the things that would cause them to explode. Each of the pale elves had a small, one handed, device that looked a little bit like an L in their hands. The device was made of Dwarven metal and across the top was a carving of Keening, which was supposed to represent Kagrenac. The devices were rounded at the top, but where they held was mostly flat, but did curve in the back to add comfort and support for the hand. The Dwemer's fingers rested on the side of the top and right underneath on the bottom of the weapon was a small, curved piece of metal which was drawn back to allow the projectile to fire. On the end of one of the Dwemer's guns, was a large, detachable, cylinder which Argon wasn't completely sure what it was for.
"When the hell did they get here?" whispered Argon as he quietly shut the door. It closed, but when it did it made a small thud which caused everyone in the room to flinch.
"They got here not long after we got you back here." said Nerevar finally speaking up.
"Well why did you guys take me here? We knew they were coming." said Argon.
"Where else were we going to take you?" asked Nerevar.
"I don't know. I'm sorry I'm just very confused right now." said Argon.
"It's alright. What do we do?" asked Nerevar.
"Well we can't kill them. If they don't go back then someone will come looking for them and when they can't find them they will know we are here and we killed them. We can't afford to lose this place. It's our only place of refuge here." said Argon.
"And if we try fighting them, their weapons will easily annihilate us." said Kara.
"Maybe we can lure them away somehow. Make them think we're somewhere else. Trick them into going someplace dangerous so that they will get killed." suggested Fayen.
"Not a bad idea, but how will we do that?" asked Garnin.
"Well, I can use my throw voice shout, you guys just have to get me out there first so I know where to aim." said Argon.
"That shouldn't be too hard, get Sheo to kick up a distraction somehow." said Nerevar.
"Oh, this'll be fun...." said Sheogorath.
"And what do I do?" asked Kara.
"You, keep being pretty." said Argon.
The whole room was shocked, even Argon.
"What the hell is going on with me?! Damn crystal ball!" exclaimed Argon.
Argon, clearly scared, embarassed, and confused, grabbed Thadon then went and sat down on the bed. He dug around in the pocket of his armor and he stared at the not from Serana not paying attention to anyone or anything else.
"Is that the note from that vampire girl?" Kara asked Garnin.
"Aye lassie. Damn shame. Those two were perfect for each other. Poor Argon, he's been going through a lot lately." said Garnin
--------
The heroes waited for the right moment to strike the Dwemer guarding and scouting their house. The Dwemer were on strick orders to not go inside the house because if the girl they had been chasing a few weeks earlier was in there, she might be able to kill them. Guns or not. Argon finally stood up from staring at the note for hours."What happened, when I touched it?" Argon asked.
"What do you mean?" asked Nerevar.
"When I thouched the crystal ball, what happened?" asked Argon.
Nerevar told him about his eyes glazing over and the odd prophecy he recited.
"By the nine...." said Argon, his head got dizzy just thinking about it and he was forced to sit down.
"Are you okay?" asked Nerevar.
"I'm fine, but this... this isn't good." said Argon holding up his light-feeling head on with his hand.
"When is anything in our lives ever good? Do you know who this Fallen God is?"
"I have no idea. But we can't focus on it right now, we have a job to do down here and that comes first." said Argon.
"We gotta get rid of the Dwemer scouts. I was thinking, what if we got Kara to kill them? They already know she's down here. They just think she's here at the Field Lab, which I guess is right. But anyways, it'll cover for the deaths of the scouts, they won't focus completely on us anymore, and they'll think Kara is in that are over there instead of over here where we are. Then they'll send scouts there to look for her." said Nerevar.
"I guess that is a good idea. Kara, are you up for that?" asked Argon.
"I have been itching to get my hands dirty...." said Kara with a smug grin slowly creeping across her face as she drew the Ebony Blade from her back. As soon as the blade came out of its sheath Argon felt the presence of evil and daedra. But it was a faint signal, something down here was blocking out the gods and daedra. But why wasn't it effecting Sheogorath?
"Well then," said Argon. "I guess we have a plan."
--------
Fayen slightly creaked open the door, just enough to fire an arrow out of. Argon had handed him Auriel's Bow and a Sunhallowed Elven Arrow. He was tasked with firing the arrow under the archway right behind the dwemer. That would distract them and cause them to run over there, which would then in turn give Argon and Kara enough time to get outside and get in their positions. Fayen drew back on the bowstring and looked down the bright shaft of the arrow. The Dwemer were mindlessly wandering about just trying to find anything that might give them a clue of where to go. Fayen aimed the arrow to go just above the heads of the Dwemer and land in a perfect curve directly under the arch. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and relaxed his muscles. Then he let go of the string. The arrow flew forth breaking through the air that tried to stop it. It flew so smoothly, it was as if it had been fired by Auriel himself. The arrow then made a perfect arc and hit the ground. There was a loud BOOM! and the Dwemer scouts ran forward towards the large flash of light. Argon and Kara quickly and quietly burst out the door. Argon turned right and ran behind a rock on top of a ledge across from the right side of the house. Kara ran down the slanted path and also ducked behind a rock that was in between the two ledges. The Dwemer couldn't find any signs of an attacker, and the arrow had blown up, so they resumed their posts in front of the house and continued being bored. But only for a moment, because then Argon whispered a shout, which is kinda ironic, but it happened. A small white light appeared down on the path in front of Kara's rock. "Hey melon nose!" the light yelled before it disappeared. The Dwemer heard it and were enraged, they ran down onto the path only to find no one was there.
"It seems as though someone thinks they can trick us, eh?" said on of the Dwemer.
"This bitch had better be ready to face some series power." said another.
"Or maybe you need to know when you've walked right into a trap." said Kara emerging from the rock with the Ebony Blade in her hand.
"It's her! Get her!" yelled on of the Dwemer.
A Dwemer tried to hit her with his gun, but as he swung it Kara kicked it out of his hand. Another Dwemer aimed his gun right at her face but it one swift move she sliced his hand off. It let go of the gun and fell to the ground, the white skin on it was now stained crimson. The Dwemer grabbed his hand in pain and Kara sliced off his head. She spun around and punched another Dwemer in the nose, a loud CRUNCH was heard even by Argon who was about thirty feet above their heads. She spent a few moments dealing with the rest of the Dwemer until finally, Kara's blade traveled up and out of the Dwemer's head, starting from the bottom of the chin. When she pulled it back out, he fell to the ground, a small pool of blood slowly surrounding his head. Then, from behind Kara, there was a small click Kara turned around to face the Dwemer who dare challenge her. It was the Dwemer with the weird cylinder on his gun.
"Drop it." he said, aiming the gun right at her chest.
"You first." said Kara.
"I don't think so. Don't make this any harder on yourself, put the sword down and I won't shoot you." he said.
"Alright, I'm going." said Kara, she slowly lowered the sword and placed her hands on the back of her head.
"Dumbass." said the Dwemer, and he pulled the trigger. There was a slightly loud click and quicker than Argon's eyes could see, a small piece of metal flew forth from the weapon and hit Kara in the chest. It traveled right through her skin and stopped, only inches from her heart. Kara fell backwards and hit her head on the cold stone ground. The black ceiling with the blue spots started spinning before her eyes and she felt the whole world beginning to shake. Slowly, darkness crept in front of her eyes, covering up her view of the ceiling above. Then, her eyelids shut and that's all she remembered.
Above, Argon watched the scene unfold. "NO!" he yelled when Kara was shot. He quickly drew the Infinity Sword and hopped over the rock. He landed in front of the Dwemer as he tried to make a clean get away. The only clean thing there was the slash Argon's blade made as it turned one elf, into two pieces. A top and a bottom. Argon put away his sword and grabbed Kara and slung her legs over his arm, rested her back against his other, and rested her head against his chestplate. Argon burst through the of the Field Lab with Kara in critical condition, blood from her wound was slowly pouring out all over his armor.
"What happened?!" asked Fayen
"Kara's been shot." Argon answered.
BedivereLancelot
Bounty Hunter.
KARA!!!
NO!!
... oh wait shes a ninja ( I think ) she's fine =l I hope
NO!!
... oh wait shes a ninja ( I think ) she's fine =l I hope
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Chapter 7: Poisoned
Kara saw a bright white light off in the distance, it seemed so warm and peaceful, it was like if she went there everything would be okay and she would be safe forever. She was drawn to the light like a deer is drawn to water. Slowly she started walking to the light, as she walked the light started to get ever nearer, but it wasn't happening fast enough. She wanted the safe warm home that the light promised, she wanted to feel safe and at peace. She broke into a run and sprinted and full speed to the light, not losing any energy. Kara felt good, like she could run forever. The light got closer and closer and closer until finally, she reached it and she ran into it. But a loud and soothing voice called out to her, "It is not your time child, you still have a big part in the coming story that you must participate in. You are destined to get the Dragonborn back on his feet, you are to be the one to make him forget his pain. A great evil is coming, one that has not made itself known yet not even to the Divines, and only the Dragonborn can stop it. You alone can get the Dragonborn to forget the pain of his heart and be ready to take this evil on and stop the Apocalypse. Without you, Argon is destined to fail and the whole world will be consumed by the darkness that is coming. Now go, back to your destiny. Save the Dragonborn from the pain that consumes him, save the world."
The disembodied voice sounded so distant, yet so far, but Kara knew who had spoken to her. It had been Arkay, the god of the cycle of birth and death. He had told her what needed to be done, and her heart was set on doing it. Whatever this great evil was, it had to be stopped. And Argon was the only one who could do it. But with the condition Serana had left him rendered him unable to defeat it. She now knew she had to fix the broken shell of what was a great man. But first she had to wake up.
"Oh thank the Divines you're alive!" said Fayen.
"Well, thank one of them in particular." Kara said as she attempted to sit up.
Argon gently pushed her back down. "Easy" he said, "you're in no shape to sit up."
"Here, drink this." said Nerevar as he handed her a large bottle.
"We removed the bullet hours ago, but we didn't want to give you anything because we didn't want to force feed you." said Garnin
Kara drank the whole bottle of the bitter substance. The healing potion tasted like dead skeevers and bugs. After finishing the bottle she gagged. Usually healing potions were supposed to taste warm and smooth, drinking it was like drink the sweet nectar of gods. But instead, this tasted bitter, a little chunky, furry, and like burnt flesh from a rat. Plus it had a horrible sharp aftertaste. Still, it closed up her bullet wound and removed the throbbing in her ears and sharp pain in her head.
"This is disgusting!" Kara exclaimed.
"That's what happens when you are stuck in an Ancient Underground cave and you have to make your own potions instead of going down the road to the nearest alchemist." said Argon.
"Still, it didn the trick. Now I have a question, I know I was shot, but why did my head feel like it had been ripped out by one of the zombies in the Ayleid Ruins?" Kara asked.
"When you were shot, you fell backwards onto the stone road, you probably gave yourself a nasty concussion. But it's all better right?" asked Nerevar.
"Yeah, I'm fine now."
"Good. So what did you mean when you said 'thank one in particular'?" asked Argon.
"I had died, but as I was going to the bright light to wherver I would go, Arkay told me it wasn't my time and he sent me back." said Kara, leaving out the part about the great evil and her needing to fix Argon.
"He didn't tell you anything else? Like why the Divines and reach us down here?" asked Argon.
"Nope. Now, I don't care what you guys say, I want to walk around."
Kara stood up from the bed and started walking towards the alchemy lab, she got about three feet away from the bed when she fell over and started screaming.
"What's wrong with her?!" asked Fayen.
"The bullet must've been dipped in poison. It must have just reached her heart, quick someon grab a Cure Poison off the rack!" commanded Nerevar.
Argon ran over to the rack next to the alchemy lab. He started grabbing potions and tossing them around and he fumbleded around trying to find one labeled: Cure Poison. Finally, he found one, and he held it tightly as he rushed back across the room to give it to Nerevar.
Nerevar took it and held it up to Kara's lips as he slowly poured in into her mouth. She swalloed it and she seemed to relax and the screaming stopped. But a few moments later she went back to spazzing out, this time lacking the screaming.
"Why didn't it work?!" said Nerevar shocked, "Quick get another!"
Argon grabbed another and gave it to him. The same thing happened, something was seriosuly wrong. None of these were working!
"The Dwemer must've made a new poison that won't be affected by these cures!" Fayen realized.
"Well, they must have made a cure, just in case one of their own gets poisoned." said Sheogorath, holding Thadon close to his chest.
"That's a good point, they have to be hiding it somewhere. If you can find a Dwemer, maybe you can make him tell you where it is." said Nerevar.
"I'll go get it. Garnin, Sheo, Thadon, you are all coming with me. Fayen, stay here with Nerevar. You two tend to Kara, the Cure Poisons seem to get the poison away from her heart just for a few moments. We have about five left, and we have just enough ingredients to make about five more. That's ten Cure Poisons, that'll probably give us about two hours so we have to be fast. Try not to fight if we can avoid it." said Argon.
"Alright, but hurry." said Nerevar.
"And guys, be quick if we run out of potions before you get back, we're gonna lose her." said Fayen.
"We won't let that happen." said Argon.
"Do you think we will be able to save her?" Garnin asked.
"Honestly, I'm not sure. Even if we are lucky enough to find and corner a Dwemer, who's to say they actually made a cure? Sure, they're a smart race. The smartest one ever. They would have thought about one of them getting poisoned, but what if they were smart enough NOT to make a cure." said Argon.
"Why would they not make a cure?" asked Sheogorath.
"In case something like this happens, one of their enemies gets poisoned, then the friends of the enemy go to try and get the cure to save their buddy. If they don't have a cure, the enemy will surely die because his/her friends won't be able to get a cure." said Argon.
"You're getting too scared. They probably made one. Why are you so worried anyways? You and Kara hate each other." said Garnin.
"I dunno. She's kinda growing on me." said Argon.
"Oooohhhh does someone have a little crush? Is someone finally getting over---" Sheogorath tackled Garnin before he could say Serana's name.
"I will admit, she's a very pretty woman. And yes, maybe I have a feeling or two for her, but that's it nothing more." said Argon.
"Well that's nice." said Garnin getting up from the damp cave ground, right where he had been knocked over, a small imprint of him was slowly disappearing as the ground rose back up.
"Shh. Be quiet." said Sheogorath.
"What is it Sheo?" asked Argon.
"Get behind this rock." Sheogorath commanded as he went behind it.
Argon and Garnin followed his lead and ducked behind a rock. Two minutes later they heard the sound of clanking metal as a small betallion of Dwarven Spheres who were patrolling Blackreach passed by.
"Nice ears Sheo." Argon whispered.
"Wait. There's more." just moments after the Spheres rolled by, a louder clanking of metal which was joined by the sounds of compressed steam breaking free and spreading out into the air.
A Dwarven Centurion walked by the rock, its heavy metal feet pounding on the rocks and causing the ground to shake. The heroes held as still as they could. But somehow they were noticed. The Centurion swung its arm and broke the rock exploded into pebbles.
The heroes got up and ran. Pebbles pelted Argon's back and his armor made a ping each time a pebble hit it and bounced off. Argon, Garnin, and Sheogorath grabbed their swords and prepared to fight. They ran at the Centurion and swung their swords. The Centurion blocked with its arms and the swords left tiny dents. The Centurion let out a blast of scalding hot steam right on the heroes. Argon's armor heated up and he started to sweat inside of it. The Centurion then whacked Argon with his arms and sent him flying backwards. Argon landed in the damp cave dirt about five feet away. He stood up and brushed himself off, as he had flown through the air his sword had flown away from him. After he brushed himself off he ran over to his sword and grabbed it. He went back to join the fight.
They were not doing so good. The Dwemer must have upgraded their robots because the Centurions were usually easier to kill. Then Argon noticed something. Up on the Centurion, climbing around was none other than Thadon!
"Sheo look!" Argon called
Sheogorath looked up just in time to see his beloved pet rip through one of the Centurions wires and cause it to shut down and fall over.
"Good boy." said Sheogorath when Thadon walked back over to him.
"Damn....." Garnin was shocked by what he just saw, such a little creature take out something so big....
"Well... Let's move on then..." said Argon
The heroes hurried down the road. As they turned a corner, they saw a Dwemer Guard talking to a pregnant Dwemer woman.
"Well, I have to get going now. Have a nice day." said the Dwemer to the woman.
"You too, becareful while guarding. There are rumors that there might be people wanting to hurt us somewhere in the cave. Bah, that's nonsense. Don't believe those rumors." said the Guard.
As the guard was walking away from the woman he murmered to himself, "One day you will be mine Galecki. That husband of yours will be no more. One day..."
As the Dwemer turned the corner, the heroes pounced on him and surrounded him. They backed him up against the wall of a Dwemer structure. Garnin was at his right, Sheogorath was at his left, and Argon was in front of him. Their weapons were out and the tips were pointing right at his head. The Guard reached down to grab his gun from his side, but Sheogorath's blade slashed the guard's belt off and the gun fell to the ground at his feet.
The guard smirked. "I knew the rumors were true. I knew the Empire had team down here to attack us. Now, we no longer have to wait for the Empire's decision to give us custody of Nchuand-Zel. We have an instant pass to go to war." said the Dwemer.
"Except that's not going to happen. Because if you inform anyone of our presence we will kill you. And if you don't meet our demands, we will kill you." said Argon.
"Fine. What are your demands?" asked the Guard.
"Your race has made a new type of poison. One that is poisoning my friend. We want the cure for it, and if you don't want to give it to us we will be happy to kill you and find a more helpful Dwemer." said Argon.
"Well, my life is being threatened... Deal. I'll take you to where we are keeping it." said the Dwemer.
"If you even think on turning on us, there are three of us, two swords and a battleaxe, and a bloodthirsty animal that was directly created and raised by Sheogorath, the Madgod himself." said Argon. "Oh, and you are also unarmed."
"Those are some tough odds to beat." said the Dwemer "Right this way."
"Here we go." said the Guard.
"Now hand it over." said Argon.
"Not so fast. Guards!" called the Dwemer.
Dwemer emerged from the shadows and held their guns at the heroes.
"You lying son of a bitch. You were never going to give it to us were you?" said Argon
"I thought you were supposed to be smart Dovahkiin." said the guard.
"How do you know who I am?" Argon questioned.
"Because, I know all about your little group. It's comprised of you, the Madgod, the Hero of Daggerfall, the Eternal Champion, and Indoril Nerevar. We meant to draw you out of hiding. You see, we had bands of scouts posted all across Blackreach. We knew, eventually, you would try to get rid of one of the groups. Then, the group would poison on of your own which would bring you looking for an antidote. Then, when you came. We would lead you here and arrest you. But we thought all of you would have came, even the poisoned one so that you could give the antidote to them right away. Guess not. No matter, we will still capture you and force you to give up to location of Nerevar." said the guard.
"Nerevar? He's what you're after?" said Garnin.
"Well, really we wanted to catch all of you. But Nerevar is the only one Kagrenac wanted to keep. He said we could just exile the rest of you and not have to kill you or keep you locked up. Nerevar though, we want him." said the guard.
"Why do you want him so badly?" asked Argon.
"Because, he is part of the reason we went extinct! Kagrenac wants to punish him for leading an army against us. And, Kagrenac believes he knows the location of Keening. And with it, Kagrenac will be able to fulfill his plans for the world, and the Dwemer race." said the guard.
"Sheo," Garnin whispered while the Dwemer was still talking, "do you think you can hit him with a bolt of lightning? Maybe disentegrate him and the guards so we can get the cure and get out of here?"
"Worth a shot." said Sheogorath.
Sheogorath called upon his daedric powers to blast all the guards. Nothing happened.
"Guys, my powers, they're not working!" Sheo said.
"Oh yeah, the Divines and Daedra are being blocked down here by a powerful artifact. Somehow you managed to get in, but while you're down here, you're just a regular mortal man who can be killed." said the Dwemer.
"How is this possible?!" Sheogorath exclaimed.
"Easy, the Heart of Lorkhan." the Dwemer explained.
"No... That's, that's not possible. It was destroyed by Nerevar a couple hundred years ago." said Argon.
"Yes but, whatever brought us back also restored the heart."
"Guys, we have to go." Garnin whispered to the other two, "We have to warn the others."
"I got this. Hold on." Sheogorath put Thadon on the ground and whispered something into his ear.
The eager sloth stealthily scurried towards the Dwemer and climbed up his back. It then quickly climbed across his arm and bit his hand. The Dwemer yelled in pain and dropped the cure. Garnin dove for the cure and Argon quickly pulled out his sword and slashed the face of the Dwemer in half.
The heroes turned around and were faced by twenty angry Dwemer with guns. Argon Fus Ro Dah-ed them and they flew back. The heroes sprinted out the door but the Dwemer quickly got up and followed. The pulled out their guns and started shooting.
"They're not gonna stop until the catch us!" Garnin yelled.
"Then we'll give them one of us!" Argon yelled.
"What?!" Sheogorath asked confused.
"You two go, give Kara the cure and warn them about the Heart. Make sure you warn Nerevar that they are looking for him. I'll hold the Dwemer off." Argon said.
"We aren't letting you do that." said Garnin.
"You don't have a choice." Argon stopped running, turned around, and held his hands above his head.
Despite their reluctance, Garnin and Sheogorath kept going.
The Dwemer surrouned Argon and aimed their guns at him. "Argon Stormblade, you are under arrest. Congratulations, you are the first prisoner of this war."
"Lord Kagrenac." the Dwemer said kneeling.
"What news do you have for me?" Kagrenac asked.
"We have captured the Dragonborn."
"Excellent. I want a small army of guards around his cell. He has a great power that for some reason is not blocked by the Heart." commanded Kagrenac.
"Yes m'lord." The Dwemer said, "He and his friends believe they are safe and we don't know of their location. Shall we send some troops there to capture the rest of them?"
"No, let them believe they are safe. It gives us leverage." said Kagrenac. "How goes the search for Keening?"
"Better than expected. We were tracing its Aetherius signal, and we believe to have located the area it is in."
"And where is that area? I want all scouts in that area trying to find that dagger." commanded Kagrenac.
"It's right here in Blackreach."
Kara saw a bright white light off in the distance, it seemed so warm and peaceful, it was like if she went there everything would be okay and she would be safe forever. She was drawn to the light like a deer is drawn to water. Slowly she started walking to the light, as she walked the light started to get ever nearer, but it wasn't happening fast enough. She wanted the safe warm home that the light promised, she wanted to feel safe and at peace. She broke into a run and sprinted and full speed to the light, not losing any energy. Kara felt good, like she could run forever. The light got closer and closer and closer until finally, she reached it and she ran into it. But a loud and soothing voice called out to her, "It is not your time child, you still have a big part in the coming story that you must participate in. You are destined to get the Dragonborn back on his feet, you are to be the one to make him forget his pain. A great evil is coming, one that has not made itself known yet not even to the Divines, and only the Dragonborn can stop it. You alone can get the Dragonborn to forget the pain of his heart and be ready to take this evil on and stop the Apocalypse. Without you, Argon is destined to fail and the whole world will be consumed by the darkness that is coming. Now go, back to your destiny. Save the Dragonborn from the pain that consumes him, save the world."
The disembodied voice sounded so distant, yet so far, but Kara knew who had spoken to her. It had been Arkay, the god of the cycle of birth and death. He had told her what needed to be done, and her heart was set on doing it. Whatever this great evil was, it had to be stopped. And Argon was the only one who could do it. But with the condition Serana had left him rendered him unable to defeat it. She now knew she had to fix the broken shell of what was a great man. But first she had to wake up.
--------
Kara's eyelids flung open, her head hurt and her ears were throbbing, but even worse was the pain in her shoulder. She felt as though someone had just stabbed her multiple times with a dagger in the exact same place. She rolled her head over to look at the wound, and as she did her head hurt worse. Still, she managed to look over at her shoulder and see right underneath it and right above her heart, there was a hole. It was about the size of a septim, but it hurt to no end. She let out a loud cry in pain. Instantlly, the heroes who were gathered around a small stone table eatinf Fayen's completed stew, shot up and rushed to her side."Oh thank the Divines you're alive!" said Fayen.
"Well, thank one of them in particular." Kara said as she attempted to sit up.
Argon gently pushed her back down. "Easy" he said, "you're in no shape to sit up."
"Here, drink this." said Nerevar as he handed her a large bottle.
"We removed the bullet hours ago, but we didn't want to give you anything because we didn't want to force feed you." said Garnin
Kara drank the whole bottle of the bitter substance. The healing potion tasted like dead skeevers and bugs. After finishing the bottle she gagged. Usually healing potions were supposed to taste warm and smooth, drinking it was like drink the sweet nectar of gods. But instead, this tasted bitter, a little chunky, furry, and like burnt flesh from a rat. Plus it had a horrible sharp aftertaste. Still, it closed up her bullet wound and removed the throbbing in her ears and sharp pain in her head.
"This is disgusting!" Kara exclaimed.
"That's what happens when you are stuck in an Ancient Underground cave and you have to make your own potions instead of going down the road to the nearest alchemist." said Argon.
"Still, it didn the trick. Now I have a question, I know I was shot, but why did my head feel like it had been ripped out by one of the zombies in the Ayleid Ruins?" Kara asked.
"When you were shot, you fell backwards onto the stone road, you probably gave yourself a nasty concussion. But it's all better right?" asked Nerevar.
"Yeah, I'm fine now."
"Good. So what did you mean when you said 'thank one in particular'?" asked Argon.
"I had died, but as I was going to the bright light to wherver I would go, Arkay told me it wasn't my time and he sent me back." said Kara, leaving out the part about the great evil and her needing to fix Argon.
"He didn't tell you anything else? Like why the Divines and reach us down here?" asked Argon.
"Nope. Now, I don't care what you guys say, I want to walk around."
Kara stood up from the bed and started walking towards the alchemy lab, she got about three feet away from the bed when she fell over and started screaming.
"What's wrong with her?!" asked Fayen.
"The bullet must've been dipped in poison. It must have just reached her heart, quick someon grab a Cure Poison off the rack!" commanded Nerevar.
Argon ran over to the rack next to the alchemy lab. He started grabbing potions and tossing them around and he fumbleded around trying to find one labeled: Cure Poison. Finally, he found one, and he held it tightly as he rushed back across the room to give it to Nerevar.
Nerevar took it and held it up to Kara's lips as he slowly poured in into her mouth. She swalloed it and she seemed to relax and the screaming stopped. But a few moments later she went back to spazzing out, this time lacking the screaming.
"Why didn't it work?!" said Nerevar shocked, "Quick get another!"
Argon grabbed another and gave it to him. The same thing happened, something was seriosuly wrong. None of these were working!
"The Dwemer must've made a new poison that won't be affected by these cures!" Fayen realized.
"Well, they must have made a cure, just in case one of their own gets poisoned." said Sheogorath, holding Thadon close to his chest.
"That's a good point, they have to be hiding it somewhere. If you can find a Dwemer, maybe you can make him tell you where it is." said Nerevar.
"I'll go get it. Garnin, Sheo, Thadon, you are all coming with me. Fayen, stay here with Nerevar. You two tend to Kara, the Cure Poisons seem to get the poison away from her heart just for a few moments. We have about five left, and we have just enough ingredients to make about five more. That's ten Cure Poisons, that'll probably give us about two hours so we have to be fast. Try not to fight if we can avoid it." said Argon.
"Alright, but hurry." said Nerevar.
"And guys, be quick if we run out of potions before you get back, we're gonna lose her." said Fayen.
"We won't let that happen." said Argon.
--------
Argon, Sheo, and Garnin were walking down the stone road. In the distance they could hear the sound of the waterfall near the Field Lab growing quieter as they got farther away. Argon was worried about Kara, much more than he thought he would be. He hated Kara. Or so he thought. She was kinda starting to grow on him. "Do you think we will be able to save her?" Garnin asked.
"Honestly, I'm not sure. Even if we are lucky enough to find and corner a Dwemer, who's to say they actually made a cure? Sure, they're a smart race. The smartest one ever. They would have thought about one of them getting poisoned, but what if they were smart enough NOT to make a cure." said Argon.
"Why would they not make a cure?" asked Sheogorath.
"In case something like this happens, one of their enemies gets poisoned, then the friends of the enemy go to try and get the cure to save their buddy. If they don't have a cure, the enemy will surely die because his/her friends won't be able to get a cure." said Argon.
"You're getting too scared. They probably made one. Why are you so worried anyways? You and Kara hate each other." said Garnin.
"I dunno. She's kinda growing on me." said Argon.
"Oooohhhh does someone have a little crush? Is someone finally getting over---" Sheogorath tackled Garnin before he could say Serana's name.
"I will admit, she's a very pretty woman. And yes, maybe I have a feeling or two for her, but that's it nothing more." said Argon.
"Well that's nice." said Garnin getting up from the damp cave ground, right where he had been knocked over, a small imprint of him was slowly disappearing as the ground rose back up.
"Shh. Be quiet." said Sheogorath.
"What is it Sheo?" asked Argon.
"Get behind this rock." Sheogorath commanded as he went behind it.
Argon and Garnin followed his lead and ducked behind a rock. Two minutes later they heard the sound of clanking metal as a small betallion of Dwarven Spheres who were patrolling Blackreach passed by.
"Nice ears Sheo." Argon whispered.
"Wait. There's more." just moments after the Spheres rolled by, a louder clanking of metal which was joined by the sounds of compressed steam breaking free and spreading out into the air.
A Dwarven Centurion walked by the rock, its heavy metal feet pounding on the rocks and causing the ground to shake. The heroes held as still as they could. But somehow they were noticed. The Centurion swung its arm and broke the rock exploded into pebbles.
The heroes got up and ran. Pebbles pelted Argon's back and his armor made a ping each time a pebble hit it and bounced off. Argon, Garnin, and Sheogorath grabbed their swords and prepared to fight. They ran at the Centurion and swung their swords. The Centurion blocked with its arms and the swords left tiny dents. The Centurion let out a blast of scalding hot steam right on the heroes. Argon's armor heated up and he started to sweat inside of it. The Centurion then whacked Argon with his arms and sent him flying backwards. Argon landed in the damp cave dirt about five feet away. He stood up and brushed himself off, as he had flown through the air his sword had flown away from him. After he brushed himself off he ran over to his sword and grabbed it. He went back to join the fight.
They were not doing so good. The Dwemer must have upgraded their robots because the Centurions were usually easier to kill. Then Argon noticed something. Up on the Centurion, climbing around was none other than Thadon!
"Sheo look!" Argon called
Sheogorath looked up just in time to see his beloved pet rip through one of the Centurions wires and cause it to shut down and fall over.
"Good boy." said Sheogorath when Thadon walked back over to him.
"Damn....." Garnin was shocked by what he just saw, such a little creature take out something so big....
"Well... Let's move on then..." said Argon
The heroes hurried down the road. As they turned a corner, they saw a Dwemer Guard talking to a pregnant Dwemer woman.
"Well, I have to get going now. Have a nice day." said the Dwemer to the woman.
"You too, becareful while guarding. There are rumors that there might be people wanting to hurt us somewhere in the cave. Bah, that's nonsense. Don't believe those rumors." said the Guard.
As the guard was walking away from the woman he murmered to himself, "One day you will be mine Galecki. That husband of yours will be no more. One day..."
As the Dwemer turned the corner, the heroes pounced on him and surrounded him. They backed him up against the wall of a Dwemer structure. Garnin was at his right, Sheogorath was at his left, and Argon was in front of him. Their weapons were out and the tips were pointing right at his head. The Guard reached down to grab his gun from his side, but Sheogorath's blade slashed the guard's belt off and the gun fell to the ground at his feet.
The guard smirked. "I knew the rumors were true. I knew the Empire had team down here to attack us. Now, we no longer have to wait for the Empire's decision to give us custody of Nchuand-Zel. We have an instant pass to go to war." said the Dwemer.
"Except that's not going to happen. Because if you inform anyone of our presence we will kill you. And if you don't meet our demands, we will kill you." said Argon.
"Fine. What are your demands?" asked the Guard.
"Your race has made a new type of poison. One that is poisoning my friend. We want the cure for it, and if you don't want to give it to us we will be happy to kill you and find a more helpful Dwemer." said Argon.
"Well, my life is being threatened... Deal. I'll take you to where we are keeping it." said the Dwemer.
"If you even think on turning on us, there are three of us, two swords and a battleaxe, and a bloodthirsty animal that was directly created and raised by Sheogorath, the Madgod himself." said Argon. "Oh, and you are also unarmed."
"Those are some tough odds to beat." said the Dwemer "Right this way."
--------
The heroes followed the guard for a while, and eventually the came to the War Quarters. They went inside and Argon noticed how much different this place was than the last time he had been in it. There was armor and clothes thrown across the floor, empty ammo cartridges on the ground, guns and explosives sitting on shelves, alchemy ingredients and an Alchemy Table, there were bed rolls spread across the floor. A few cots had been brought in, and it smelled of sweat and dirt. The guard led the heroes to a cabinet. He opened it up and filling it were small clear bottles with some sort of black substance in it. He pulled one out."Here we go." said the Guard.
"Now hand it over." said Argon.
"Not so fast. Guards!" called the Dwemer.
Dwemer emerged from the shadows and held their guns at the heroes.
"You lying son of a bitch. You were never going to give it to us were you?" said Argon
"I thought you were supposed to be smart Dovahkiin." said the guard.
"How do you know who I am?" Argon questioned.
"Because, I know all about your little group. It's comprised of you, the Madgod, the Hero of Daggerfall, the Eternal Champion, and Indoril Nerevar. We meant to draw you out of hiding. You see, we had bands of scouts posted all across Blackreach. We knew, eventually, you would try to get rid of one of the groups. Then, the group would poison on of your own which would bring you looking for an antidote. Then, when you came. We would lead you here and arrest you. But we thought all of you would have came, even the poisoned one so that you could give the antidote to them right away. Guess not. No matter, we will still capture you and force you to give up to location of Nerevar." said the guard.
"Nerevar? He's what you're after?" said Garnin.
"Well, really we wanted to catch all of you. But Nerevar is the only one Kagrenac wanted to keep. He said we could just exile the rest of you and not have to kill you or keep you locked up. Nerevar though, we want him." said the guard.
"Why do you want him so badly?" asked Argon.
"Because, he is part of the reason we went extinct! Kagrenac wants to punish him for leading an army against us. And, Kagrenac believes he knows the location of Keening. And with it, Kagrenac will be able to fulfill his plans for the world, and the Dwemer race." said the guard.
"Sheo," Garnin whispered while the Dwemer was still talking, "do you think you can hit him with a bolt of lightning? Maybe disentegrate him and the guards so we can get the cure and get out of here?"
"Worth a shot." said Sheogorath.
Sheogorath called upon his daedric powers to blast all the guards. Nothing happened.
"Guys, my powers, they're not working!" Sheo said.
"Oh yeah, the Divines and Daedra are being blocked down here by a powerful artifact. Somehow you managed to get in, but while you're down here, you're just a regular mortal man who can be killed." said the Dwemer.
"How is this possible?!" Sheogorath exclaimed.
"Easy, the Heart of Lorkhan." the Dwemer explained.
"No... That's, that's not possible. It was destroyed by Nerevar a couple hundred years ago." said Argon.
"Yes but, whatever brought us back also restored the heart."
"Guys, we have to go." Garnin whispered to the other two, "We have to warn the others."
"I got this. Hold on." Sheogorath put Thadon on the ground and whispered something into his ear.
The eager sloth stealthily scurried towards the Dwemer and climbed up his back. It then quickly climbed across his arm and bit his hand. The Dwemer yelled in pain and dropped the cure. Garnin dove for the cure and Argon quickly pulled out his sword and slashed the face of the Dwemer in half.
The heroes turned around and were faced by twenty angry Dwemer with guns. Argon Fus Ro Dah-ed them and they flew back. The heroes sprinted out the door but the Dwemer quickly got up and followed. The pulled out their guns and started shooting.
"They're not gonna stop until the catch us!" Garnin yelled.
"Then we'll give them one of us!" Argon yelled.
"What?!" Sheogorath asked confused.
"You two go, give Kara the cure and warn them about the Heart. Make sure you warn Nerevar that they are looking for him. I'll hold the Dwemer off." Argon said.
"We aren't letting you do that." said Garnin.
"You don't have a choice." Argon stopped running, turned around, and held his hands above his head.
Despite their reluctance, Garnin and Sheogorath kept going.
The Dwemer surrouned Argon and aimed their guns at him. "Argon Stormblade, you are under arrest. Congratulations, you are the first prisoner of this war."
--------
One of the guards that had arrested Argon went to report to Kagrenac who was sitting in his throne atop the Hall of Rumination."Lord Kagrenac." the Dwemer said kneeling.
"What news do you have for me?" Kagrenac asked.
"We have captured the Dragonborn."
"Excellent. I want a small army of guards around his cell. He has a great power that for some reason is not blocked by the Heart." commanded Kagrenac.
"Yes m'lord." The Dwemer said, "He and his friends believe they are safe and we don't know of their location. Shall we send some troops there to capture the rest of them?"
"No, let them believe they are safe. It gives us leverage." said Kagrenac. "How goes the search for Keening?"
"Better than expected. We were tracing its Aetherius signal, and we believe to have located the area it is in."
"And where is that area? I want all scouts in that area trying to find that dagger." commanded Kagrenac.
"It's right here in Blackreach."
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Another long chapter, hope y'all like reading
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Having a busy weekend, no time to write so no new chapters this weekend. I'll see if I can get one out sometime this week although I'm doubtful that will happen.
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Chapter 8: Kara to the Rescue
Garnin and Sheogorath all but knocked down the door when they burst into the Field Lab. They had run nonstop across more than half of Blackreach.
"Oh thank the Divines you guys are here. We ran out of Cure Poisons a while a go. Did you get the cure?" asked Nerevar.
"Yeah, we got it." said Garnin.
"Give it here." said Fayen and he reached his hand out.
Garnin put it in his hands and Fayen uncorcked it. He then grabbed Kara's head and slowly and carefully raised it and lowered the vial to her lips. He then tilted it back and the cold black liquid leaked out into her mouth. Despite its appearance, it tasted warm and sweet like a batch of Sweet Rolls that had just come out of the oven.
A moment after Kara finished the potion she started coughing and a gooey-blue liquid came out of her mouth.
"How are you feeling?" asked Nerevar.
"A lot better." Kara said.
"Thank the Divines you three made it back safely and in time. Any longer and we may have-- Where's Argon?" said Fayen, the stress suddenly clearing from his mind and allowing him to notice that their leader was gone.
"He... He was captured. Taken prisoner by the Dwemer. It was either just him, or all three of us, the sloth, and the antidote." said Garnin solemnly.
"And you just let him do that?!" Nerevar exclaimed.
"He insisted." said Sheogorath.
"Three months ago we got our leader back after being separated and thinking he was erased from existence for a year! And you just let him be captured?!" Nerevar was growing frantic, partially from the stress of trying to keep Kara alive, the worry for Argon and Kara, and the fear that he may have to take over as leader again.
"Well we have to go get him." said Fayen.
"Then let's go." said Nerevar, he put his belt on and started walking toward the door.
Kara blocked his way. "Woah there," she said, "you and Fayen just spent hours trying to keep me alive, you are in no shape to go and break someone out of Dwemer prison. Sheo and Garnin just ran across Blackreach and had to go get an antidote that there weren't even sure if it existed. I'm going. By myself."
"But you're forgetting that you were dying of poison just two minutes ago, right after being shot, and actually dying!" Nerevar argued
"I wouldn't have died. If Arkay wouldn't let me die because I was shot, then why would he have let me die from poison?!" Kara argued back.
"The lass has a point. I think we should let her go. She has the best chance. Other than Argon she is the most familiar with this place, and she has already battled the Dwemer." Garnin said.
"But last time she battled the Dwemer she was shot and almost died, twice!" Fayen said.
"But, if she were to die now then what would be the point of Arkay saving her last time? I know it doesn't seem like a good idea Nerevar, but I think you should let her." said Sheogorath.
"Fine." said Nerevar, "But becareful, we can't afford to have another team member captured."
"So I'm on your team now?" Kara said.
"Temporarily." Nerevar answered.
Kara had the weirdest feeling right now. She had literally been dying on the floor just a few minutes ago, and now she was in perfect condition off to risk her life again for some guy who she barely knew, and who was supposedly the greatest hero Tamriel had ever seen. Some would even say he was better than Tiber Septim. Talos himself. Oh, and also, her destiny was supposed connected to his and she was the only one who could get him out of his slump. Kara hated her life right now. What had she gotten herself into down here?
"Mine faster prisoner." said one of the guards.
"You know, I was thinking, if I'm gonna be mining this stuff for you and since you have me locked up, you might as well just tell me what Kagrenac's big project is." Argon said as he was swinging at one of the rocks.
"Nice try Dragonborn. But it won't work. We will not tell you what Kagrenac's big plan is, but what we will tell you is that it holds the power to bring Tamriel to its knees, all we need is Keening." said one of the Dwemer.
"If Keening is all you need, then that means you don't need anymore materials, so why don't you just take me back to my nice warm cell and I can fall asleep to the sound of steam and robots." suggested Argon.
"You know what I meant when I said that." said the Dwemer, he was getting a little irritated and his hand slowly moved down to his gun.
"What are you doing?!" the other guard asked in a hushed tone.
"This one won't tell us anything, and he holds a Divine power. Killing him will benefit us greatly, we won't have to worry about him wanting to use that power some day." said the guard.
"You have a point, we really don't have much of a use for him and he isn't minining very fast. Let's do it. When Kagrenac asks what happened we tell him he as trying to escape. Deal?"
"Deal." said the guard.
The Dwemer turned and faced Argon who's back was to them. The reached down and grabbed their guns from their holsters, one of the guards kicked the pick out of Argon's hand and the other grabbed him and shoved him up against the stone wall of the cave.
"Fellas, what's going on here?" Argon asked.
"Shut up you prick, you have been a nuisance to us long enough, it's time to die. This time for good." said one of the guards and he brought his gun up to Argon's forehead.
The other guard stood two feet back and aimed his gun at Argon's chest in case he tried to escape.
"Whoa whoa whoa, we can talk about this. Come on, you dont have to kill me. I know we can get along!" Argon frantically said, half messing around the other half shaking in his ragged clothes.
"We're done with you." said the Dwemer who was standing back.
"Come on, we don't have to fight. Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends?" Argon began to sing.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! We will not only be doing the Dwemer a favor, but the whole world, by killing you!" said the Dwemer with the gun to Argon's head.
"Sorry boys," said a woman suddenly appearing from the shadows, "but I have orders to take this man with me. Now, we can either do this the easy way, or the way where I cut your heads off and let your blood soak into the ground and water the nice blue mushrooms."
"Huh?" said the Dwemer with his gun to Argon's head. He turned around but kept the gun on Argon's head and saw Kara.
"You again? I thought you were poisoned." he said
"And now I'm all better." Kara said.
"Not for much longer." the Dwemer took his gun off Argon's head and swung it to face Kara, but Argon took his chance and diagonally kicked the back of the Dwemer's right knee.
As the Dwemer fell to his knees in pain, Argon ripped the gun out of his hand and threw it at the other Dwemer who was also turning his attention to Kara. The gun hit him right in the eye and caused him to accidentally pull the trigger of his gun while he was still turning it. The bullet flew off somewhere never to be seen again. Kara swung her sword and slashed the head off the Dwemer Argon had kicked, and Argon picked up his pickaxe and threw it into the head of the other Dwemer.
"What took yah so long?" Argon joked as he pulled his pick from the Dwemer's head. The pick was now dyed a deep crimson color.
"You're lucky I came at all." Kara joked back.
"Well I'm glad you came. How are you feeling?" Argon asked.
"A lot better than I was a couple hours ago. Now let's hurry and get out of here. No doubt some guards heard that gun shot and realized something was wrong." said Kara.
"Wait." said Argon.
"What?" Kara asked an irritated Kara, if they didn't get out of there soon, the Dwemer would help exit another way.
"I don't have my weapons or armor." said Argon, "They're keeping them in the new jailhouse the Dwemer built."
Kara finally registered the fact that Argon was indeed in plopsty clothes and had not weapon other than a pickaxe that looked like its head would fall off very soon.
"Fine," she said, "we'll go get your stuff. But we have to hurry."
Argon looked around and saw why she wanted him to be quiet, at the end of the hall was a Dwemer with armor covering every inch of skin on his body.
"Don't suppose you could get him with your pick from here could you?" asked Kara in a hushed voice.
"Doubtful. Picks aren't supposed to be thrown, the weight is uneven. They are good to be thrown if the target is a few feet away from you, but this guy is probably about thirty yards away. Besides, to actually kill him and not just cause him terrible pain I would have to hit him right in the head and with a pick that is an impossible shot. And even if I somehow by the grace of the Divines managed to hit him, it would cause a loud THUNK! when it hits his helmet and that would attract the attention of other guards. No, to kill him we have to get upclose and personal."
"Well goddamm it." said Kara. Her and Argon started sneaking down the hall, luckily the Dwemer was facing sideways down a different hallway.
The got up to him and an unspoken plan was made between Argon and Kara. Argon swiftly went up to him and removed his helmet, without giving him time to even know something was happening, Kara ran up to him pulled his head back revealing a fleshy area of his neck, and slit his throat. She let go of his head and his body dropped to the ground.
"It feels wrong. To kill these elves. I don't know what it is about it, but something about it just feels weird." said Argon.
"Well, you didn't have to kill this one. I did. That's one of these little dicks that's off of your conscience." said Kara.
"Yeah, but it still doesn't feel right." Argon said.
"Just get the fluff over it for now. Do you want your stuff or not?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go."
Argon and Kara started down the hallway again, Argon holding his pickaxe with the dried blood of one of his victims at the mine all over it. As they were walking they came across two guards who were talking.
"She just appeared like a ghost and started killing people." one of the guards said.
"And the prisoner? Where is he?" asked the other.
"Gone. She managed to get him. We've no idea where they went, we have already sent word to Lord Kagrenac. He issued permission for us to activate ALL the robots and send them on a rampage to find him. He just wants the Dovahkiin captured." said the first.
"Why does he want him so badly? He may have a Divine power, but other than that he is just a man." asked the second.
"Nay, he is more than that. He has defeated the most fearsome of foes. Namely Alduin, Sithis, and I assume you've heard of the legends of The Shadow King and Apocapher?"
"Aye. I've heard of 'em."
"Well, he managed to kill them both. He died once but his life was restored, he has cheated death on countless occassions, and he survived almost being erased from existence. Literally." said the first. "No matter what, he is no ordinary man."
"Alduin, Sithis, Apocapher, and Xan? Those are some of the worst to have ever attacked this world." said the second
"That's just a few. He has slain many more powerful entities." said the first Dwemer. "Some say that even though he has defeated Alduin, he has not yet acheived his destiny. Kagrenac is worried that the Dragonborn's destiny is to kill him and stop his plans."
"Then we'd better make sure we capture him." said the second Dwemer.
"Good luck with that." said Argon emerging from the shadows.
"Dovahkiin! You just made my work so much---" his words were cut short, quite literally as Kara's blade swung through and slashed the top half of his mouth and everything above it.
Argon swung his pick and stuck it in the head of the other Dwemer. He yanked it out and a small splash of blood flew up from the wound and splattered on the ground.
Argon and Kara walked away from the bloody corpses of the Dwemer, and a little bit more guilt was added to Argon. As they were walking down the hall, Kara got in front of Argon and Argon suddenly jerked her backwards. Just in time too, because Kara had just stepped on a trap and both sides of the wall flew out and slammed into each other. A moment later, they retracted and went back to normal.
"Thanks." Kara said.
"Mmm hmm." was the reply.
One of the Dwemer sitting in the control room noticed that the light on one of the buttons to spring the trap manually, had lit up. That meant that, that trap had just been sprung.
"There's a problem in sector two. A trap just went off." said the Dwemer into a little tube that ran throughout the prison and projected his voice.
Immediately, Argon and Kara heard the sounds of clanking metal as guards rushed down the hall to get to investigate the disturbance.
"There!!!" yelled one of the Dwemer as they ran down the hall.
"You made a big mistake coming back here Dragonborn!!" the Dwemer all charged Argon and Kara but they didn't move. Argon simply moved his foor forwards, pushed the plate, and pulled his foot back. The walls did the rest. They flew outward and crushed the Dwemer army. There was a loud CRUNCH! as the bones, of the Dwemer were cracked. The walls retraced and revelaed the gruesome sight. There were guts all of the walls, weapons fell to the ground and pieces of armor had broken off and were stuck in the flat bodies. A trail of blood leaked down from the walls as they drew back.
"Ew...." Kara said.
They walked out of the complex and started heading towards the Field Lab. Along the way, they had to walk up a small hill and go over it. When they reached the top of the hill, they saw a horrid sight. Robots. Robots everywhere. All over the place. It was like a sea of metal below their feet, they were all looking for Argon and Kara and they didnt care what it took to find them. They were severly beating Dwemer and tearing up houses and buildings to try to find any clue as to where Argon and Kara were.
"Argon and Kara," Nerevar said to himself, "where are you?"
Garnin and Sheogorath all but knocked down the door when they burst into the Field Lab. They had run nonstop across more than half of Blackreach.
"Oh thank the Divines you guys are here. We ran out of Cure Poisons a while a go. Did you get the cure?" asked Nerevar.
"Yeah, we got it." said Garnin.
"Give it here." said Fayen and he reached his hand out.
Garnin put it in his hands and Fayen uncorcked it. He then grabbed Kara's head and slowly and carefully raised it and lowered the vial to her lips. He then tilted it back and the cold black liquid leaked out into her mouth. Despite its appearance, it tasted warm and sweet like a batch of Sweet Rolls that had just come out of the oven.
A moment after Kara finished the potion she started coughing and a gooey-blue liquid came out of her mouth.
"How are you feeling?" asked Nerevar.
"A lot better." Kara said.
"Thank the Divines you three made it back safely and in time. Any longer and we may have-- Where's Argon?" said Fayen, the stress suddenly clearing from his mind and allowing him to notice that their leader was gone.
"He... He was captured. Taken prisoner by the Dwemer. It was either just him, or all three of us, the sloth, and the antidote." said Garnin solemnly.
"And you just let him do that?!" Nerevar exclaimed.
"He insisted." said Sheogorath.
"Three months ago we got our leader back after being separated and thinking he was erased from existence for a year! And you just let him be captured?!" Nerevar was growing frantic, partially from the stress of trying to keep Kara alive, the worry for Argon and Kara, and the fear that he may have to take over as leader again.
"Well we have to go get him." said Fayen.
"Then let's go." said Nerevar, he put his belt on and started walking toward the door.
Kara blocked his way. "Woah there," she said, "you and Fayen just spent hours trying to keep me alive, you are in no shape to go and break someone out of Dwemer prison. Sheo and Garnin just ran across Blackreach and had to go get an antidote that there weren't even sure if it existed. I'm going. By myself."
"But you're forgetting that you were dying of poison just two minutes ago, right after being shot, and actually dying!" Nerevar argued
"I wouldn't have died. If Arkay wouldn't let me die because I was shot, then why would he have let me die from poison?!" Kara argued back.
"The lass has a point. I think we should let her go. She has the best chance. Other than Argon she is the most familiar with this place, and she has already battled the Dwemer." Garnin said.
"But last time she battled the Dwemer she was shot and almost died, twice!" Fayen said.
"But, if she were to die now then what would be the point of Arkay saving her last time? I know it doesn't seem like a good idea Nerevar, but I think you should let her." said Sheogorath.
"Fine." said Nerevar, "But becareful, we can't afford to have another team member captured."
"So I'm on your team now?" Kara said.
"Temporarily." Nerevar answered.
--------
Kara stepped out of the Field Lab into the cold, dark, damp, and musty cave. Blackreach truly was a remarkable place, and Kara loved it, but if she had to spend another month down there then she would go insane. I mean that quite literally. Being in a cave, especially one with no giant entrance to give you light so it was almost like you were in a box, for too long would make someone go insanse. That's part of what happened to the Falmer. The other part is that the Dwemer were so cruel to them that they devolved into insane psychopaths with no sense of what is right and what is wrong. Kara did NOT want to end up like the Falmer. That would not be fun at all. Kara had the weirdest feeling right now. She had literally been dying on the floor just a few minutes ago, and now she was in perfect condition off to risk her life again for some guy who she barely knew, and who was supposedly the greatest hero Tamriel had ever seen. Some would even say he was better than Tiber Septim. Talos himself. Oh, and also, her destiny was supposed connected to his and she was the only one who could get him out of his slump. Kara hated her life right now. What had she gotten herself into down here?
--------
Argon was stuck. He had let those damn elves capture him so that his friends would have a chance. He had no idea if they had made it or not, and he had no way of knowing. If they hadn't, then they would definetely be dead. That's four people down. Argon was captured, Sheo and Garnin would have been executed, and Kara would have died from poisoning. The Dwemer were forcing him to mine for materials to help them with some project Kagrenac was doing. They never said what the project was, but it obviously would be disastorous. The only thing he knew about it was that it was secret and they needed all of Kagrenac's tonal artifacts. They already had Sunder and Wraithguard, and all they needed was the dagger, Keening. The Dwemer were also suddenly more active, from his cell Argon could overhear guards being given orders to patrol Blackreach and he also heard from two guards that they were building even more weapons. Apparently the project called for something really, really, big. The Dwemer were calling them rockets and missiles but what they did, and what the "project" was going to use them for, Argon wasn't sure but his heart was set on finding out. First he had to escape. Sure he could just thu'um his way out, but their were Dwemer all around his cell and when he was at the mine. If he shouted a few, the others would just be able to fire their guns and put him out of his misery. "Mine faster prisoner." said one of the guards.
"You know, I was thinking, if I'm gonna be mining this stuff for you and since you have me locked up, you might as well just tell me what Kagrenac's big project is." Argon said as he was swinging at one of the rocks.
"Nice try Dragonborn. But it won't work. We will not tell you what Kagrenac's big plan is, but what we will tell you is that it holds the power to bring Tamriel to its knees, all we need is Keening." said one of the Dwemer.
"If Keening is all you need, then that means you don't need anymore materials, so why don't you just take me back to my nice warm cell and I can fall asleep to the sound of steam and robots." suggested Argon.
"You know what I meant when I said that." said the Dwemer, he was getting a little irritated and his hand slowly moved down to his gun.
"What are you doing?!" the other guard asked in a hushed tone.
"This one won't tell us anything, and he holds a Divine power. Killing him will benefit us greatly, we won't have to worry about him wanting to use that power some day." said the guard.
"You have a point, we really don't have much of a use for him and he isn't minining very fast. Let's do it. When Kagrenac asks what happened we tell him he as trying to escape. Deal?"
"Deal." said the guard.
The Dwemer turned and faced Argon who's back was to them. The reached down and grabbed their guns from their holsters, one of the guards kicked the pick out of Argon's hand and the other grabbed him and shoved him up against the stone wall of the cave.
"Fellas, what's going on here?" Argon asked.
"Shut up you prick, you have been a nuisance to us long enough, it's time to die. This time for good." said one of the guards and he brought his gun up to Argon's forehead.
The other guard stood two feet back and aimed his gun at Argon's chest in case he tried to escape.
"Whoa whoa whoa, we can talk about this. Come on, you dont have to kill me. I know we can get along!" Argon frantically said, half messing around the other half shaking in his ragged clothes.
"We're done with you." said the Dwemer who was standing back.
"Come on, we don't have to fight. Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends?" Argon began to sing.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! We will not only be doing the Dwemer a favor, but the whole world, by killing you!" said the Dwemer with the gun to Argon's head.
"Sorry boys," said a woman suddenly appearing from the shadows, "but I have orders to take this man with me. Now, we can either do this the easy way, or the way where I cut your heads off and let your blood soak into the ground and water the nice blue mushrooms."
"Huh?" said the Dwemer with his gun to Argon's head. He turned around but kept the gun on Argon's head and saw Kara.
"You again? I thought you were poisoned." he said
"And now I'm all better." Kara said.
"Not for much longer." the Dwemer took his gun off Argon's head and swung it to face Kara, but Argon took his chance and diagonally kicked the back of the Dwemer's right knee.
As the Dwemer fell to his knees in pain, Argon ripped the gun out of his hand and threw it at the other Dwemer who was also turning his attention to Kara. The gun hit him right in the eye and caused him to accidentally pull the trigger of his gun while he was still turning it. The bullet flew off somewhere never to be seen again. Kara swung her sword and slashed the head off the Dwemer Argon had kicked, and Argon picked up his pickaxe and threw it into the head of the other Dwemer.
"What took yah so long?" Argon joked as he pulled his pick from the Dwemer's head. The pick was now dyed a deep crimson color.
"You're lucky I came at all." Kara joked back.
"Well I'm glad you came. How are you feeling?" Argon asked.
"A lot better than I was a couple hours ago. Now let's hurry and get out of here. No doubt some guards heard that gun shot and realized something was wrong." said Kara.
"Wait." said Argon.
"What?" Kara asked an irritated Kara, if they didn't get out of there soon, the Dwemer would help exit another way.
"I don't have my weapons or armor." said Argon, "They're keeping them in the new jailhouse the Dwemer built."
Kara finally registered the fact that Argon was indeed in plopsty clothes and had not weapon other than a pickaxe that looked like its head would fall off very soon.
"Fine," she said, "we'll go get your stuff. But we have to hurry."
--------
"Shhh." Kara hissed as her and Argon snuck through the door into the prison.Argon looked around and saw why she wanted him to be quiet, at the end of the hall was a Dwemer with armor covering every inch of skin on his body.
"Don't suppose you could get him with your pick from here could you?" asked Kara in a hushed voice.
"Doubtful. Picks aren't supposed to be thrown, the weight is uneven. They are good to be thrown if the target is a few feet away from you, but this guy is probably about thirty yards away. Besides, to actually kill him and not just cause him terrible pain I would have to hit him right in the head and with a pick that is an impossible shot. And even if I somehow by the grace of the Divines managed to hit him, it would cause a loud THUNK! when it hits his helmet and that would attract the attention of other guards. No, to kill him we have to get upclose and personal."
"Well goddamm it." said Kara. Her and Argon started sneaking down the hall, luckily the Dwemer was facing sideways down a different hallway.
The got up to him and an unspoken plan was made between Argon and Kara. Argon swiftly went up to him and removed his helmet, without giving him time to even know something was happening, Kara ran up to him pulled his head back revealing a fleshy area of his neck, and slit his throat. She let go of his head and his body dropped to the ground.
"It feels wrong. To kill these elves. I don't know what it is about it, but something about it just feels weird." said Argon.
"Well, you didn't have to kill this one. I did. That's one of these little dicks that's off of your conscience." said Kara.
"Yeah, but it still doesn't feel right." Argon said.
"Just get the fluff over it for now. Do you want your stuff or not?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go."
Argon and Kara started down the hallway again, Argon holding his pickaxe with the dried blood of one of his victims at the mine all over it. As they were walking they came across two guards who were talking.
"She just appeared like a ghost and started killing people." one of the guards said.
"And the prisoner? Where is he?" asked the other.
"Gone. She managed to get him. We've no idea where they went, we have already sent word to Lord Kagrenac. He issued permission for us to activate ALL the robots and send them on a rampage to find him. He just wants the Dovahkiin captured." said the first.
"Why does he want him so badly? He may have a Divine power, but other than that he is just a man." asked the second.
"Nay, he is more than that. He has defeated the most fearsome of foes. Namely Alduin, Sithis, and I assume you've heard of the legends of The Shadow King and Apocapher?"
"Aye. I've heard of 'em."
"Well, he managed to kill them both. He died once but his life was restored, he has cheated death on countless occassions, and he survived almost being erased from existence. Literally." said the first. "No matter what, he is no ordinary man."
"Alduin, Sithis, Apocapher, and Xan? Those are some of the worst to have ever attacked this world." said the second
"That's just a few. He has slain many more powerful entities." said the first Dwemer. "Some say that even though he has defeated Alduin, he has not yet acheived his destiny. Kagrenac is worried that the Dragonborn's destiny is to kill him and stop his plans."
"Then we'd better make sure we capture him." said the second Dwemer.
"Good luck with that." said Argon emerging from the shadows.
"Dovahkiin! You just made my work so much---" his words were cut short, quite literally as Kara's blade swung through and slashed the top half of his mouth and everything above it.
Argon swung his pick and stuck it in the head of the other Dwemer. He yanked it out and a small splash of blood flew up from the wound and splattered on the ground.
Argon and Kara walked away from the bloody corpses of the Dwemer, and a little bit more guilt was added to Argon. As they were walking down the hall, Kara got in front of Argon and Argon suddenly jerked her backwards. Just in time too, because Kara had just stepped on a trap and both sides of the wall flew out and slammed into each other. A moment later, they retracted and went back to normal.
"Thanks." Kara said.
"Mmm hmm." was the reply.
One of the Dwemer sitting in the control room noticed that the light on one of the buttons to spring the trap manually, had lit up. That meant that, that trap had just been sprung.
"There's a problem in sector two. A trap just went off." said the Dwemer into a little tube that ran throughout the prison and projected his voice.
Immediately, Argon and Kara heard the sounds of clanking metal as guards rushed down the hall to get to investigate the disturbance.
"There!!!" yelled one of the Dwemer as they ran down the hall.
"You made a big mistake coming back here Dragonborn!!" the Dwemer all charged Argon and Kara but they didn't move. Argon simply moved his foor forwards, pushed the plate, and pulled his foot back. The walls did the rest. They flew outward and crushed the Dwemer army. There was a loud CRUNCH! as the bones, of the Dwemer were cracked. The walls retraced and revelaed the gruesome sight. There were guts all of the walls, weapons fell to the ground and pieces of armor had broken off and were stuck in the flat bodies. A trail of blood leaked down from the walls as they drew back.
"Ew...." Kara said.
--------
They were going through the complex and they came across the prisoner belongings area. Obviously, the only things in it was Argon's gear as he was the first and only prisoner the Dwemer had had since they'd been back, even though they had been trying to capture Kara for years. On their way out they ran into little trouble and didn't have to kill much. Argon was glad to have his weapons and armor back. He felt so vulnerable and exposed without them.They walked out of the complex and started heading towards the Field Lab. Along the way, they had to walk up a small hill and go over it. When they reached the top of the hill, they saw a horrid sight. Robots. Robots everywhere. All over the place. It was like a sea of metal below their feet, they were all looking for Argon and Kara and they didnt care what it took to find them. They were severly beating Dwemer and tearing up houses and buildings to try to find any clue as to where Argon and Kara were.
--------
Things were going horrible at the Field Lab. The robots were everywhere and were not letting up. The fight had been going on for ten minutes and already they were in bad shape. Fayen had taken a blow to the head and was knocked out. Sheogorath, who was still in shock of being powerless down here, had decided to take care of Fayen. That left Garnin and Nerevar. They were a good team, but they were slowly losing the fight. Eventually they decided they had to get out of the battlefield. They ran into the Field Lab and started barricading the doors. They held, but the robots were slowly making their way in."Argon and Kara," Nerevar said to himself, "where are you?"
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Sorry people, I'm working on the next chapter I'm kinda uninspired to write much. I really want this story to just be over so I can move on to the actual story of the story arc. : P
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Okay, so apologies are in order. In the last few months I have not so much as even breathed on my computer screen while anything related to this story was pulled up, however this story is NOT abandoned. I have done too much planning to just give up due to a decline in views/reviews compared to my last story. And yes, that is the reason for the extended break. At first it was a small writer's block as I was writing ch 9, but as I tried to get over it I guess my mind decided fluff it, you aren't getting as many views as normal, why not just quit the story? I argued with this for a few days but I finally realized I just needed a two week break, well two weeks became 3 which became a month which became 2 months. And it will NOT go any further, tomorrow I will finish up ch 9 and hopefully sometime in the morning it will be up and ready. During the last few days I have done a lot of planning for my next series (since the rest of this one is already past planning stage) which will be entitled, Children of the Five. It will be five stories full of epicness, the first two, and possibly the last villains have all been decided, I know how it will end, I know who the characters are and what they will look like and what special abilities they will have. Trust me, Tamriel has never seen a team of heroes quite like this before. Children of the Five will (as previously stated) be a five story saga full of epicness, adventure, romance, betrayal, and many MANY twists. I want to take these last few seconds to thank all my readers who have stayed with me through all these stories and will hopefully stay through the end of the next series. I also want to thank any one we picked up along the way, thanks for taking an interest in my stories and taking the time to read them. But finally the highest thanks go to BedivereLancelot, he is the reason the story actually managed to make it to ch 9, in case any ghost readers (I dont know if anyone else calls them that but thats what I call readers who dont review) havent noticed, he is literally the ONLY person who has done ANY reviews on this story and if he hadnt been, I would have just given up completely. Remember, REVIEWS ARE ESSENTIAL TO ME!!! So please, leave reviews, I dont care if there is one from the same person after every chapter, that wont annoy me, it will encourage me since I know people are reading. Or at least send me a message saying, "hey i'm enjoyinh you're story" or "good chapter Dovah." or something like that. Anyways, thanks for reading this updated, have a nice night/day depending on where you are.
mattizcool
Flying lawnmowers are cool.
Good to know that you didn't leave this story to gather dust. Can't wait for the next chapter to be out.
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Chapter 9: Rebooted
The steam given off from all the robots was all collecting at the top of Blackreach and it was creating a thick white cloud. The hot steam cloud was generating so much heat, the cool cave whether changed to the equivalent of a hot summer's day in the desert of Hammerfell. The cloud would eventually seep out through the great lifts and dissipate into the cool Skyrim whether, but not if it kept being fed by the robots. The cloud was generating so much heat Argon started sweating in his armor. It got so bad that he was forced to remove Konahrik and put the mask in the pouch around his waist. He left the hood on though in hopes that the shade it provided would give some relief from the heat. Argon took a long deep breath, now he could breathe. He looked over at Kara and saw that she too was sweating. Little beads rolled down her face and neck and collected at the collar of her shirt. On her forehead were little sweat beads just resting and getting ready to drop. Her hair was stuck together in clumps at parts and there were little shiny dots all over.
"Sure would be nice to go dive in that river." said Argon, sweat dripping into his eyes.
"Too bad we can't right now. We have a much bigger problem. We have to get to the main control room, there is probably a shut down button there." said Kara.
"That's a really big assumption." said Argon, "Care to back it up?"
"The Dwemer are smart. They know that there is a possibility the robots could malfunction and turn on them, so in case that happens they have a shut down button to kill them all and prevent the Dwemer race from slipping back into extinction." explained Kara.
"But if the Dwemer are so smart, wouldn't they just avoid the whole problem by making the robots so that there is no way in Oblivion that would ever happen?" Argon rebuttatled.
"And how would they do that?" Kara questioned.
"I dunno I'm not a Dwemer. I'm a Breton, like you." Argon sarcastically informed her.
"Just keep walking we should be there soon." As soon as Kara breathed these words, there was a loud scream from a woman not far away.
"Sounds like one of the robots has malfunctioned. Maybe they'll use their magic shut down button." Argon mocked.
"Shut up. I doubt they will use the button right now, the robots are being told to find us at any cost and to do whatever it takes to ensure our death. So if they have to attack a few Dwemer then so be it." said Kara.
"You sure have a big knowledge on how the Dwemer operate." Argon interrogated.
"I've lived among them for three months, I've learned a few things. Now, are we gonna save this woman or let the robot kill her?"
Argon shrugged, "Well... I guess we should do the heroic thing."
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"Help me!! Please! Someone! Agh!" the dwemer woman screamed in pain and terror as the towering centurion swung at her with its blade hand. She attempted to dodge but the blade still opened a slit in her side. Crimson blood poured out of her side as she desperately attempted to cover the wound with her hands, she did the best she could but her hands simply weren't big enough to completely cover it and stop the bleeding. She removed one hand and reached down into her pouch hopeing to find a healing potion. She felt around and was met with the familar feeling of cold glass, she felt around the object to ensure it was a potion. She felt the cork and she moved her hand down and felt the cylinder and just below the cylinder was-- yes! a triangular prism! She pulled the potion out of the pouch and in her efforts to uncork it with one hand she lost her focus and her attention turned from dodging the centurion to uncorking the bottle that her life relied on. Though it was only a split second it was long enough for the robot to have an opening. The hammer hand of it rapily swung through the air and collided into her stomach. The blow causede her to fly backwards and the potion flew out of her hand. She hit the cold and damp stone wall of an abandoned watch tower. Unfortunately for her the watch tower was the same destination as the potion and it smashed into the wall and broke into hundreds of tiny pieces, the potion splattered on the wall and the glass rained down from above and covered the poor dwemer, some of the pieces were so sharp that as the fell they embedded themselves into her skin opening even smaller holes through which more blood seeped out of.
It was the end of the line for her and she knew it. The Centurion towered above her and in a moment it would spray its scorching steam all over her and she would be burnt alive. She tilted her head up, wanting her last sight to be the beautiful blue lights that dotted the ceiling of the cavern. It was her favorite sight in the world, though she had only been in the cave a matter of months, she was already happily married. On her first date with her husband three months ago, the pair layed in the cold wet mud by the lake and gazed up at the lights. It was the happiest moment of her life, before her and the rest of her race had disappeared, she had seen so many spectacular sights. But this one was by far the best of them all. As she looked up at the lights she knew that in a moment it would be clouded by the white steam. Then, the centurion leaned its head back to gather power for his killing blow, his head swung forward and out came the steam as it made a sound that mimicked the blowing winds of the outside world. The steam came forth with the speed of a stampede of falmer but instead of engulfing the woman, it turned up at an angle and collided with the top of the watchtower and diffused it all directions, but the steam that drifted down seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier and was forced back up. She moved her head back down and looked straight forward, and she saw him. Her knight in shining armor. A man with a black veil of mist surrounding him and a glowing orange and black sword on his back. Through the black mist she saw the back of an elegant hood, below the hood was a special type of ebony armor which she had only seen once long before the extinction. Extending from the armor were gauntlets that were made of bone, much like his boots. And coming from the gauntlets was a magical ward! The ward must've been what was holding off the steam. The steam! She had almost forgotten about it! She noticed that along the outside walls of the huge ward was a thick white cloud. It was like they were in a bubble formed by steam.
The steam came to an abrubt stop and the bubble diffused and floated towards the ceiling. The man was relieved and dropped his hands to his knees and bent forward trying to regain energy. Then she noticed his hood was drenched in sweat, using that much magic at once must've taken a lot out of him and the heat and humidity of the caverns caused by the surplus of active robots was obviously of no help to his condition. She glanced at the robot and saw the most beautiful human woman she'd ever seen holding a large blade that radiated energy in one hand, and it the other was a large metalic tube that steam blasted out of and towards the top of the cave.
"Oops." said the woman, "Was this important?"
The angered robot turned his attention to her and slowly walked forward. She held out her blade and tried to block the attack of the robot's blade. She centurion was too strong, Kara's sword took the power of the attack but was knocked out of her hands and across the stone road. Kara slowly backed up trying to avoid the robot but it kept creeping closer, finally Kara's back came into contact with the edge of a cliff above and she was trapped. The centurion closed in on her forbidding any movement she might try to make.
"Uh... Argon, now would be a good time to help out a little...." said Kara.
"Hold... On... Need... Energy...." said Argon said between breaths.
"Here..." said the woman though she was beaten and close to death, "Take this potion, it-it'll g-give more stamina...."
Here started trailing off but she held out a yellow bottle to Argon. A potion of strenght, that'll temporarily give him the power he would need to fight off the robot. Hopefully it would last long enough to get him to the robot shut down switch also. Argon took the bottle and the woman's had dropped down next to her. Her head turned to the side and her eyes drifted close. Death was past the door and entering her house.
"Hold on.... a few... more moments...." Argon urged the unconcious dwemer. But he knew the chances of that weren't good. Her white skin was now painted crimson red. She looked like a whole new race of elves and not a dwemer.
Argon uncorked the bottle and held it up to his lips. A sudden jolt of strength overcame him and as the centurion swung at Kara for another attack Argon shouted.
Time slowed down and Argon rushed forward at her at a full sprint, he extended his arm, grabbed her by the waist and tackled her to the ground a few feet away. Time sped up again and the centurion's arm hit the rock of the wall and made a loud clinking sound and a few sparks. The confused robot stopped for a second in wonder of what had just happened but then it saw Argon and Kara lying on the ground. It prepared for a burst of steam.
"Not today bitch!" Argon yelled and he lunged forward and his blade collided with the gyro that was empowering the robot. The blade sunk into the gyro and a blast of energy knocked back Argon and Kara went sliding across the floor. A small crater was made where the robot had just been standing. Inside the crater was the body of the centurion but it had a giant hole in its chest and glowing sword sticking out of in. Argon climbed into the crater and grabbed his sword. He climbed back out with the sword on his back and went over to the dwemer woman. He put his fingers under her ching to check for a pulse.
"Does she have one?" Kara asked.
"It's very, very, faint but yes." Argon said with a sigh of relief.
Argon reached into his pouch which was now full of smashed glass from being blown back, but he managed to find one potion that was in tact. Thank the Divines it was a health potion. He uncorcked it, tilted up the woman's head and opened her mouth. He held the bottle up to her lips and poured it down her throat. At first there was nothing, Argon checked for a pulse again and felt none. He looked over at Kara and solemnly shook his head. Then, for a second there was a rapid pulse and Argon looked at the woman. The glass shards fell out of her body and every wound closed, her pulse slowed down and was back to normal. Her eyes fluttered open and she coughed up some blood. She looked down at her hands and saw how drenched in red they were, but she didn't care she was alive! Thank the nine she had been spared! She hopped up and rejoicefully ran around just to feel her working legs. She stopped running and went up to Argon and Kara.
"Thank you two. Thank you so much. If not for you I would be dead. Kagrenac has his robots looking every where for a group of humans, they'll attack anyone they see. Dwemer or not just to ensure that they get the humans. I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and assume you are two of the six are you not?"
"You would be correct in that assumption." Argon confirmed.
"But why? You are not bad people, you just saved my life. Why would our leader want you dead?" she asked.
"We were sent here to bring down Kagrenac and prevent a war that would result in the death of all surface dwellers. If that war starts, all humans and elves alike will be killed by your kind." said Argon.
"Then why attack Kagrenac, why not just talk to him?" she asked.
"Kagrenac is beyond talking, there was a peaceful alliance going on, but Kagrenac got greedy. He wants what we cannot give him. An old Dwemer city that was turned into a thriving city of the nords, we cannot give him that. The nords are restless enough as it is, if they are told to move out of a thriving city they will become angry and revolt. Either way, a war will result. We are here to ensure that one doesn't" Argon explained.
"I suppose I see. If they were told to leave that city they would become homeless. Like we would have been when we returned if we hadn't been so lucky as to return in Blackreach." the woman said.
"Exactly. It was a pleasure meeting you, but I'm afraid we must be going. There are four good men who are probably in a fight for their lives against these robots and we have to shut them down. Goddbye." said Argon.
"Goodbye Dragonborn, thank you for saving me." said the Dwemer.
--------
Argon was drenched in sweat, even more so than he had been before they saved the woman. Beads of sweat seeped down into his eyes and stung them, the pain would be unbareable if not for the effects of the potion he had taken. Though, the strength potion was almost out and then Argon would once again not be able to go on. They had to find the control room and fast. Argon looked over at his companion, she too was drenched in more sweat than she had been. Sweat glued her garments to her body and she looked as though she had just gone swimming.
"Are you okay? You haven't said anything since the fight." Kara asked.
"Just conserving my strength." Argon answered.
"Look, I'm not good at this so don't make a big deal out of this, but thanks. For saving me back there I mean. One second I'm looking into the eye sockets of death, the next I'm on the floor. How'd you do that anyway? You were so far away."
"I slowed down time then ran at a full sprint."
"Well thanks." Kara repeated.
"Don't mention it. You're a part of the team."
"I wish it felt like that." Kara admitted.
"Look, these guys, they have a hard time trusting people and accepting changes to the team. When I was Kriid, they hated me. I know part of it was because I was so secretive, but I didn't wanna let them down when they thought they were all saved and then having to inform them I wasn't Dragonborn anymore, but now I am again but that's not the point. The point is, they couldn't trust me because they didn't know if I would betray them or not. We cannot afford to put our complete trust into new additions to them team because they could betray us. Things change so suddnely for the five of us that anything could happen. We can trust people who haven't proven themselves or have too many secrets." Argon explained.
"How do things change so suddenly?" Kara asked looking for examples.
"Well, take the beginnings of our stories for example. Ironically, we all started off as prisoners for some sort of crime we didn't commit. Some of us, like Sheo and Fayen, just woke up one day and they were in jail without knowing why or how they got there. Then just when it seems like its the end of the road, in my case execution, or in the others' cases they're permanetly imprisoned, we learn of a big threat and that we are the only ones who can stop it. In my case, right as I'm laying down on the chopping block, ready to feel the embrace of death, my arc-nemesis comes in and accidentally saves my life. Then I learn a few days later that I'm the fluffing Dragonborn and that dragon I saw, I'm destined to kill.
So, one day we are just enjoying life and then suddenly we are thrust into a dangerous adventure that if we fail the whole world will suffer or be destroyed. Then we become the greatest heroes ever and are constantly tasked with protecting the world." Argon explained.
"I get it, one moment you guys trust me completely and then the next I could stab you in the back, literally. Like how one moment you could be doing something as simple as crossing the border to a different province and then suddenly you are going to be executed becasue you are assumed to be a rebel, then the next you are thrust into a lifetime of danger. Am I correct in this?" Kara asked trying to understand.
"Exactly, that and you attacked us when we first met. That doesn't make a very good first impression." Argon joked.
Kara laughed, "I am sorry about that. Like your friends can't trust me, I didn't know if I could trust you."
"It's alright, I get it, and I'm sure that after the guys hear about what you've done here today, or these last few days, you really can't tell the passage of time down here can you? Sorry, back to what I was saying, after the guys hear about your actions, I'm sure they'll accept you." Argon assured her.
"Good, because I think we are about to tell about because I think we're here." Kara told him.
"How do you know?" Argon asked.
"I know this place pretty well, and there is a big sign above the door that says Robot Control Room but who reads anyways?"
"Well that's convienent." Argon said, "Let's go in."
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The pair crept around through the dwemer building, avoiding guards and hiding in closets. Finally they reached the main room. Inside there was a big giant metal box with glowing blue buttons all over. It the middle of the control panel was a big red button that had the label CAUTION right above it. "That must be the shut off switch." Argon concluded. The only problem was that in front of the panel there was a dwemer which had a gun that Argon had never seen strapped across his back. It had a brown wodden stock that had a large chamber protruding from it, coming down from the chamber was a wooden handle which the trigger in front of it which a little guarder around the trigger. The magazine which held the ammo curved out from the chamber and was in front of the trigger, not in the handel like the other guns the guards had. Coming from the front of the chamber was a long barrel with a sight on the end. Where the barrel and the chamber met was a wooden grip for the other hand, that was obvious because it was shaped so that a hand could comfortably and easily hold on to it. (Sorry, I'm kinda bad at describing guns. I'm better at describing scenes, but the gun is supposed to be an AK-47)
"If this is how they guard the robot control panel, I REALLY don't wanna see how they guard Kagrenac." Argon whispered to Kara.
"Well, there's only one choice. Use your assassin skills and go stab him." Kara commanded.
"Why don't you do it?" Argon asked.
"Because I wasn't the Listener of the Dark fluffing Brotherhood." Kara told him. She had a point.
"Fine." Argon crept forward towards the guard, he pulled out a small broken piece of glass from his pouch and held it in his hand.
As he crept forward he was carfeul where he put his feet, and he was ever greatful for the sneak protection the Ebony Mail gave him. He got right up behind the guard, slightly stood up and raised his hand with the shard, ready to slit the guard's throat. Suddenly, the guard turned around and punched Argon in the unguarded face. There was a crack as Argon's nose broke and blood came out.
"Agh!" Argon said as he fell back.
"That's close enough." said the guard and he pulled his gun off his back about to shoot Argon.
"Hold it Horace!" a voice commanded.
"Ah, Argon, I knew you would come. Did you really think I wanted to kill my people? No. I had a plan, I knew as a hero you would feel it necessary to save innocent lives, even if you are tasked to kill all the Dwemer. That's right, I know why you're here, it's not just to kill me. It's to kill us all. Anyways, I knew you would be even more angered and want this madness to stop so your judgement would be clouded and you'd fall into my trap." Kagrenac explained.
"Lord Kagrenac, I would say pleasure to meet you, but your face has no pleasure in it." said Argon.
"M'lord, may I please shoot him? It'll save us a lot of trouble and it'll scatter the rest of the heroes." said the guard.
"No Horace. We need him alive, I believe he knows where Keening is. I want to make him tell us." said Kagrenac.
"You fluffing bitch. I'll never tell you." Argon said.
"Unprompted, no, but given a little push, and I know you will." Kagrenca smiled evily.
"And how do you expect to do that?" Argon questioned.
"By torturing and killing those you love and care about." Kagrenac said. "Pick him up, hold him, force him to watch."
The guard grabbed Argon and picked him up off the floor. He held his arm aroung Argon's neck and put the barrel of his gun up and into the bottom of his chin.
"Come on in." Kagrenac commanded to the dark hallway.
A guard walked in holding a thrashing Kara.
"Let her go!" Argon jolted forward trying to break free but the guard yanked him back and held his neck tighter and pointed the gun in more.
Argon couldn't move, he could barely breathe, all he could do is watch, horrified as the dwemer leader approached Kara with a small sacrificial knife.
"I've been looking for you since you got here, and you too fell right into my trap." Kagrenac ran flat edge of the dagger across Kara's face. "Where to start... Ah yes."
Kagrenac thrust the dagger forward and slahed at Kara's arms, Kagrenac made it so that the blade made a small cut, but to Argon it looked like a gash. There was a small amount off blood coming out and Kara laughed.
"Your torture skills are rusty old man, you think giving me papercuts is torture? Bring it on." said Kara.
"It's not to break you, it's to break him." Kagrenac pointed at Argon.
For the first time Kara noticed the fear and anger in Argon's eyes as he started directly ahead at her watching. Kara noticed a small flickering in Argon's left hand. She took a closer look and noticed it was the reflection of the flickering torch hanging on the wall. Then she noticed what it was flickering off of, the glass shard! Kara looked directly ahead into Argon's eyes to catch his attention to hers. Argon stood straight ahead looking into the eys of the woman he failed. For a moment Kara forgot why she was looking at him, she was too lost in his eyes. But then she saw the fear again as Kagrenac made his next cut. Kara snapped out of it. She quickly switched glances between Argon's eyes and hand hoping he would pick up on what she was doing, after two minutes and three new cuts, along her arms, Argon finally noticed. He broke his glance from her and looked into his hands. A look of realization came over him when he remembered he still hand the shard. He adjusted it so that the point was backwards and he thrust it back into the knee of the guard. The guard released his grip and dropped the gun to the floor, the guard followed his gun down also.
"AH! It feels like a took a fluffing arrow to the knee!" the guard yelled.
Kagrenac looked over at Argon and pointed the knife at Kara. Argon grabbed the knife, put Kagrenac's arm under his armpit, turned his hand and yanked the knife out. He brought up the shard and sunk it into his eye and he threw Kagrenac and the knife to the ground. He grabbed the guard that was holding Kara and slashed his throat with the shard. Argon dropped the shard and grabbed Kara's hand. A sudden remembrance came upon Argon and he grabbed a loose brick from the wall and threw it at the button. It hit the button and pushed it in. Suddenly, all of the robots throughout Blackreach dropped to the ground. Argon managed to smash the control panel with the brick also so the robots couldn't be turned back on. Argon, still holding Kara's hand, ran out of the control room and didn't stop running or holding Kara's hand until they got to the field lab.
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The scene at the field lab was grusome. There were broken robot parts everywhere. The ground looked like a sea of bronze. There were bricks falling out of the wall, the ground was torn up, and inside Argon and Kara found four wounded heroes.
"Are you guys okay?" Argon asked.
"We'll be fine. How are you two?" Nerevar asked.
"We're really shaken up. We ran into Kagrenac as we were shutting off the robots." Argon answered.
"Did you kill him?" Garnin asked.
"No. I was to enraged, killing him didn't even cross my mind."
"What happened?" Sheo said.
"I'll fill you later." Argon said. "What happened here?"
"It was horrible. There were robots everywhere. Fayen was knocked unconcious, Sheo was too shaken up by the news of him being powerless that he decided to watch Fayen, that left me and Garnin. We tried fighting but there were too many, we decided to barricade the door but they got in, we tried and tried to push them out, there was nothing we could do. Eventually they filled the place and we were forced onto the bed, we did all we could, you shut them off just in time. It'll take a while but we need to clean this palce up." Nerevar told Argon.
"Then let's get started." Argon said.
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Clean up was a bitch. They had to rebuild the house, collect all the robot parts, and then move the parts to a different location. Eventually though, it was done and Argon finally was able to retire to the nearby pond to clean off the sweat and refresh himself. Thankfully, not long after the robots we shut off, all the steam seeped out of the lifts and other little holes and there was no steam being generated to replace it. Argon stripped off his clothes and climbed into the water. He cleaned himself off and the decided to rest for a while on a rock that he used as a makeshift bench in the water. A few moments after sitting there, Kara came up to the pond. She'd had the same idea about getting in and cleaning off.
"Oh, plops. I'm sorry I didn't notice you were here." she said to Argon and she turned back to the house.
"No, it's okay, it's a big pond there's room for us both." said Argon.
"Well, okay." Kara stripped naked and climed into the water, the refreshing cool sensation relaxing her cuts.
"How're your arms?" Argon asked.
"They hurt. I'm not gonna lie, one cut was fine but five? It's not pleasant."
"Come here, let me show you something." Argon said.
Kara waded over to Argon.
A nice gold light glowed in Argon's right hand and with his left he grabbed one of Kara's arms. He gently rubbed his hand over her right arm and the cuts disappeared.
"That's pretty cool. Mind doing that with the other?"
Argon grabbed her other arm and gently moved his hand down it. He released her arm with his left hand but his right hand stayed on, he looked up at Kara and she looked down at him. The two held this stare for a few moments but then Argon pulled her in and the two kissed. Then the two fell back against the rocks and started having sex.
The steam given off from all the robots was all collecting at the top of Blackreach and it was creating a thick white cloud. The hot steam cloud was generating so much heat, the cool cave whether changed to the equivalent of a hot summer's day in the desert of Hammerfell. The cloud would eventually seep out through the great lifts and dissipate into the cool Skyrim whether, but not if it kept being fed by the robots. The cloud was generating so much heat Argon started sweating in his armor. It got so bad that he was forced to remove Konahrik and put the mask in the pouch around his waist. He left the hood on though in hopes that the shade it provided would give some relief from the heat. Argon took a long deep breath, now he could breathe. He looked over at Kara and saw that she too was sweating. Little beads rolled down her face and neck and collected at the collar of her shirt. On her forehead were little sweat beads just resting and getting ready to drop. Her hair was stuck together in clumps at parts and there were little shiny dots all over.
"Sure would be nice to go dive in that river." said Argon, sweat dripping into his eyes.
"Too bad we can't right now. We have a much bigger problem. We have to get to the main control room, there is probably a shut down button there." said Kara.
"That's a really big assumption." said Argon, "Care to back it up?"
"The Dwemer are smart. They know that there is a possibility the robots could malfunction and turn on them, so in case that happens they have a shut down button to kill them all and prevent the Dwemer race from slipping back into extinction." explained Kara.
"But if the Dwemer are so smart, wouldn't they just avoid the whole problem by making the robots so that there is no way in Oblivion that would ever happen?" Argon rebuttatled.
"And how would they do that?" Kara questioned.
"I dunno I'm not a Dwemer. I'm a Breton, like you." Argon sarcastically informed her.
"Just keep walking we should be there soon." As soon as Kara breathed these words, there was a loud scream from a woman not far away.
"Sounds like one of the robots has malfunctioned. Maybe they'll use their magic shut down button." Argon mocked.
"Shut up. I doubt they will use the button right now, the robots are being told to find us at any cost and to do whatever it takes to ensure our death. So if they have to attack a few Dwemer then so be it." said Kara.
"You sure have a big knowledge on how the Dwemer operate." Argon interrogated.
"I've lived among them for three months, I've learned a few things. Now, are we gonna save this woman or let the robot kill her?"
Argon shrugged, "Well... I guess we should do the heroic thing."
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"Help me!! Please! Someone! Agh!" the dwemer woman screamed in pain and terror as the towering centurion swung at her with its blade hand. She attempted to dodge but the blade still opened a slit in her side. Crimson blood poured out of her side as she desperately attempted to cover the wound with her hands, she did the best she could but her hands simply weren't big enough to completely cover it and stop the bleeding. She removed one hand and reached down into her pouch hopeing to find a healing potion. She felt around and was met with the familar feeling of cold glass, she felt around the object to ensure it was a potion. She felt the cork and she moved her hand down and felt the cylinder and just below the cylinder was-- yes! a triangular prism! She pulled the potion out of the pouch and in her efforts to uncork it with one hand she lost her focus and her attention turned from dodging the centurion to uncorking the bottle that her life relied on. Though it was only a split second it was long enough for the robot to have an opening. The hammer hand of it rapily swung through the air and collided into her stomach. The blow causede her to fly backwards and the potion flew out of her hand. She hit the cold and damp stone wall of an abandoned watch tower. Unfortunately for her the watch tower was the same destination as the potion and it smashed into the wall and broke into hundreds of tiny pieces, the potion splattered on the wall and the glass rained down from above and covered the poor dwemer, some of the pieces were so sharp that as the fell they embedded themselves into her skin opening even smaller holes through which more blood seeped out of.
It was the end of the line for her and she knew it. The Centurion towered above her and in a moment it would spray its scorching steam all over her and she would be burnt alive. She tilted her head up, wanting her last sight to be the beautiful blue lights that dotted the ceiling of the cavern. It was her favorite sight in the world, though she had only been in the cave a matter of months, she was already happily married. On her first date with her husband three months ago, the pair layed in the cold wet mud by the lake and gazed up at the lights. It was the happiest moment of her life, before her and the rest of her race had disappeared, she had seen so many spectacular sights. But this one was by far the best of them all. As she looked up at the lights she knew that in a moment it would be clouded by the white steam. Then, the centurion leaned its head back to gather power for his killing blow, his head swung forward and out came the steam as it made a sound that mimicked the blowing winds of the outside world. The steam came forth with the speed of a stampede of falmer but instead of engulfing the woman, it turned up at an angle and collided with the top of the watchtower and diffused it all directions, but the steam that drifted down seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier and was forced back up. She moved her head back down and looked straight forward, and she saw him. Her knight in shining armor. A man with a black veil of mist surrounding him and a glowing orange and black sword on his back. Through the black mist she saw the back of an elegant hood, below the hood was a special type of ebony armor which she had only seen once long before the extinction. Extending from the armor were gauntlets that were made of bone, much like his boots. And coming from the gauntlets was a magical ward! The ward must've been what was holding off the steam. The steam! She had almost forgotten about it! She noticed that along the outside walls of the huge ward was a thick white cloud. It was like they were in a bubble formed by steam.
The steam came to an abrubt stop and the bubble diffused and floated towards the ceiling. The man was relieved and dropped his hands to his knees and bent forward trying to regain energy. Then she noticed his hood was drenched in sweat, using that much magic at once must've taken a lot out of him and the heat and humidity of the caverns caused by the surplus of active robots was obviously of no help to his condition. She glanced at the robot and saw the most beautiful human woman she'd ever seen holding a large blade that radiated energy in one hand, and it the other was a large metalic tube that steam blasted out of and towards the top of the cave.
"Oops." said the woman, "Was this important?"
The angered robot turned his attention to her and slowly walked forward. She held out her blade and tried to block the attack of the robot's blade. She centurion was too strong, Kara's sword took the power of the attack but was knocked out of her hands and across the stone road. Kara slowly backed up trying to avoid the robot but it kept creeping closer, finally Kara's back came into contact with the edge of a cliff above and she was trapped. The centurion closed in on her forbidding any movement she might try to make.
"Uh... Argon, now would be a good time to help out a little...." said Kara.
"Hold... On... Need... Energy...." said Argon said between breaths.
"Here..." said the woman though she was beaten and close to death, "Take this potion, it-it'll g-give more stamina...."
Here started trailing off but she held out a yellow bottle to Argon. A potion of strenght, that'll temporarily give him the power he would need to fight off the robot. Hopefully it would last long enough to get him to the robot shut down switch also. Argon took the bottle and the woman's had dropped down next to her. Her head turned to the side and her eyes drifted close. Death was past the door and entering her house.
"Hold on.... a few... more moments...." Argon urged the unconcious dwemer. But he knew the chances of that weren't good. Her white skin was now painted crimson red. She looked like a whole new race of elves and not a dwemer.
Argon uncorked the bottle and held it up to his lips. A sudden jolt of strength overcame him and as the centurion swung at Kara for another attack Argon shouted.
Time slowed down and Argon rushed forward at her at a full sprint, he extended his arm, grabbed her by the waist and tackled her to the ground a few feet away. Time sped up again and the centurion's arm hit the rock of the wall and made a loud clinking sound and a few sparks. The confused robot stopped for a second in wonder of what had just happened but then it saw Argon and Kara lying on the ground. It prepared for a burst of steam.
"Not today bitch!" Argon yelled and he lunged forward and his blade collided with the gyro that was empowering the robot. The blade sunk into the gyro and a blast of energy knocked back Argon and Kara went sliding across the floor. A small crater was made where the robot had just been standing. Inside the crater was the body of the centurion but it had a giant hole in its chest and glowing sword sticking out of in. Argon climbed into the crater and grabbed his sword. He climbed back out with the sword on his back and went over to the dwemer woman. He put his fingers under her ching to check for a pulse.
"Does she have one?" Kara asked.
"It's very, very, faint but yes." Argon said with a sigh of relief.
Argon reached into his pouch which was now full of smashed glass from being blown back, but he managed to find one potion that was in tact. Thank the Divines it was a health potion. He uncorcked it, tilted up the woman's head and opened her mouth. He held the bottle up to her lips and poured it down her throat. At first there was nothing, Argon checked for a pulse again and felt none. He looked over at Kara and solemnly shook his head. Then, for a second there was a rapid pulse and Argon looked at the woman. The glass shards fell out of her body and every wound closed, her pulse slowed down and was back to normal. Her eyes fluttered open and she coughed up some blood. She looked down at her hands and saw how drenched in red they were, but she didn't care she was alive! Thank the nine she had been spared! She hopped up and rejoicefully ran around just to feel her working legs. She stopped running and went up to Argon and Kara.
"Thank you two. Thank you so much. If not for you I would be dead. Kagrenac has his robots looking every where for a group of humans, they'll attack anyone they see. Dwemer or not just to ensure that they get the humans. I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and assume you are two of the six are you not?"
"You would be correct in that assumption." Argon confirmed.
"But why? You are not bad people, you just saved my life. Why would our leader want you dead?" she asked.
"We were sent here to bring down Kagrenac and prevent a war that would result in the death of all surface dwellers. If that war starts, all humans and elves alike will be killed by your kind." said Argon.
"Then why attack Kagrenac, why not just talk to him?" she asked.
"Kagrenac is beyond talking, there was a peaceful alliance going on, but Kagrenac got greedy. He wants what we cannot give him. An old Dwemer city that was turned into a thriving city of the nords, we cannot give him that. The nords are restless enough as it is, if they are told to move out of a thriving city they will become angry and revolt. Either way, a war will result. We are here to ensure that one doesn't" Argon explained.
"I suppose I see. If they were told to leave that city they would become homeless. Like we would have been when we returned if we hadn't been so lucky as to return in Blackreach." the woman said.
"Exactly. It was a pleasure meeting you, but I'm afraid we must be going. There are four good men who are probably in a fight for their lives against these robots and we have to shut them down. Goddbye." said Argon.
"Goodbye Dragonborn, thank you for saving me." said the Dwemer.
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Argon was drenched in sweat, even more so than he had been before they saved the woman. Beads of sweat seeped down into his eyes and stung them, the pain would be unbareable if not for the effects of the potion he had taken. Though, the strength potion was almost out and then Argon would once again not be able to go on. They had to find the control room and fast. Argon looked over at his companion, she too was drenched in more sweat than she had been. Sweat glued her garments to her body and she looked as though she had just gone swimming.
"Are you okay? You haven't said anything since the fight." Kara asked.
"Just conserving my strength." Argon answered.
"Look, I'm not good at this so don't make a big deal out of this, but thanks. For saving me back there I mean. One second I'm looking into the eye sockets of death, the next I'm on the floor. How'd you do that anyway? You were so far away."
"I slowed down time then ran at a full sprint."
"Well thanks." Kara repeated.
"Don't mention it. You're a part of the team."
"I wish it felt like that." Kara admitted.
"Look, these guys, they have a hard time trusting people and accepting changes to the team. When I was Kriid, they hated me. I know part of it was because I was so secretive, but I didn't wanna let them down when they thought they were all saved and then having to inform them I wasn't Dragonborn anymore, but now I am again but that's not the point. The point is, they couldn't trust me because they didn't know if I would betray them or not. We cannot afford to put our complete trust into new additions to them team because they could betray us. Things change so suddnely for the five of us that anything could happen. We can trust people who haven't proven themselves or have too many secrets." Argon explained.
"How do things change so suddenly?" Kara asked looking for examples.
"Well, take the beginnings of our stories for example. Ironically, we all started off as prisoners for some sort of crime we didn't commit. Some of us, like Sheo and Fayen, just woke up one day and they were in jail without knowing why or how they got there. Then just when it seems like its the end of the road, in my case execution, or in the others' cases they're permanetly imprisoned, we learn of a big threat and that we are the only ones who can stop it. In my case, right as I'm laying down on the chopping block, ready to feel the embrace of death, my arc-nemesis comes in and accidentally saves my life. Then I learn a few days later that I'm the fluffing Dragonborn and that dragon I saw, I'm destined to kill.
So, one day we are just enjoying life and then suddenly we are thrust into a dangerous adventure that if we fail the whole world will suffer or be destroyed. Then we become the greatest heroes ever and are constantly tasked with protecting the world." Argon explained.
"I get it, one moment you guys trust me completely and then the next I could stab you in the back, literally. Like how one moment you could be doing something as simple as crossing the border to a different province and then suddenly you are going to be executed becasue you are assumed to be a rebel, then the next you are thrust into a lifetime of danger. Am I correct in this?" Kara asked trying to understand.
"Exactly, that and you attacked us when we first met. That doesn't make a very good first impression." Argon joked.
Kara laughed, "I am sorry about that. Like your friends can't trust me, I didn't know if I could trust you."
"It's alright, I get it, and I'm sure that after the guys hear about what you've done here today, or these last few days, you really can't tell the passage of time down here can you? Sorry, back to what I was saying, after the guys hear about your actions, I'm sure they'll accept you." Argon assured her.
"Good, because I think we are about to tell about because I think we're here." Kara told him.
"How do you know?" Argon asked.
"I know this place pretty well, and there is a big sign above the door that says Robot Control Room but who reads anyways?"
"Well that's convienent." Argon said, "Let's go in."
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The pair crept around through the dwemer building, avoiding guards and hiding in closets. Finally they reached the main room. Inside there was a big giant metal box with glowing blue buttons all over. It the middle of the control panel was a big red button that had the label CAUTION right above it. "That must be the shut off switch." Argon concluded. The only problem was that in front of the panel there was a dwemer which had a gun that Argon had never seen strapped across his back. It had a brown wodden stock that had a large chamber protruding from it, coming down from the chamber was a wooden handle which the trigger in front of it which a little guarder around the trigger. The magazine which held the ammo curved out from the chamber and was in front of the trigger, not in the handel like the other guns the guards had. Coming from the front of the chamber was a long barrel with a sight on the end. Where the barrel and the chamber met was a wooden grip for the other hand, that was obvious because it was shaped so that a hand could comfortably and easily hold on to it. (Sorry, I'm kinda bad at describing guns. I'm better at describing scenes, but the gun is supposed to be an AK-47)
"If this is how they guard the robot control panel, I REALLY don't wanna see how they guard Kagrenac." Argon whispered to Kara.
"Well, there's only one choice. Use your assassin skills and go stab him." Kara commanded.
"Why don't you do it?" Argon asked.
"Because I wasn't the Listener of the Dark fluffing Brotherhood." Kara told him. She had a point.
"Fine." Argon crept forward towards the guard, he pulled out a small broken piece of glass from his pouch and held it in his hand.
As he crept forward he was carfeul where he put his feet, and he was ever greatful for the sneak protection the Ebony Mail gave him. He got right up behind the guard, slightly stood up and raised his hand with the shard, ready to slit the guard's throat. Suddenly, the guard turned around and punched Argon in the unguarded face. There was a crack as Argon's nose broke and blood came out.
"Agh!" Argon said as he fell back.
"That's close enough." said the guard and he pulled his gun off his back about to shoot Argon.
"Hold it Horace!" a voice commanded.
"Ah, Argon, I knew you would come. Did you really think I wanted to kill my people? No. I had a plan, I knew as a hero you would feel it necessary to save innocent lives, even if you are tasked to kill all the Dwemer. That's right, I know why you're here, it's not just to kill me. It's to kill us all. Anyways, I knew you would be even more angered and want this madness to stop so your judgement would be clouded and you'd fall into my trap." Kagrenac explained.
"Lord Kagrenac, I would say pleasure to meet you, but your face has no pleasure in it." said Argon.
"M'lord, may I please shoot him? It'll save us a lot of trouble and it'll scatter the rest of the heroes." said the guard.
"No Horace. We need him alive, I believe he knows where Keening is. I want to make him tell us." said Kagrenac.
"You fluffing bitch. I'll never tell you." Argon said.
"Unprompted, no, but given a little push, and I know you will." Kagrenca smiled evily.
"And how do you expect to do that?" Argon questioned.
"By torturing and killing those you love and care about." Kagrenac said. "Pick him up, hold him, force him to watch."
The guard grabbed Argon and picked him up off the floor. He held his arm aroung Argon's neck and put the barrel of his gun up and into the bottom of his chin.
"Come on in." Kagrenac commanded to the dark hallway.
A guard walked in holding a thrashing Kara.
"Let her go!" Argon jolted forward trying to break free but the guard yanked him back and held his neck tighter and pointed the gun in more.
Argon couldn't move, he could barely breathe, all he could do is watch, horrified as the dwemer leader approached Kara with a small sacrificial knife.
"I've been looking for you since you got here, and you too fell right into my trap." Kagrenac ran flat edge of the dagger across Kara's face. "Where to start... Ah yes."
Kagrenac thrust the dagger forward and slahed at Kara's arms, Kagrenac made it so that the blade made a small cut, but to Argon it looked like a gash. There was a small amount off blood coming out and Kara laughed.
"Your torture skills are rusty old man, you think giving me papercuts is torture? Bring it on." said Kara.
"It's not to break you, it's to break him." Kagrenac pointed at Argon.
For the first time Kara noticed the fear and anger in Argon's eyes as he started directly ahead at her watching. Kara noticed a small flickering in Argon's left hand. She took a closer look and noticed it was the reflection of the flickering torch hanging on the wall. Then she noticed what it was flickering off of, the glass shard! Kara looked directly ahead into Argon's eyes to catch his attention to hers. Argon stood straight ahead looking into the eys of the woman he failed. For a moment Kara forgot why she was looking at him, she was too lost in his eyes. But then she saw the fear again as Kagrenac made his next cut. Kara snapped out of it. She quickly switched glances between Argon's eyes and hand hoping he would pick up on what she was doing, after two minutes and three new cuts, along her arms, Argon finally noticed. He broke his glance from her and looked into his hands. A look of realization came over him when he remembered he still hand the shard. He adjusted it so that the point was backwards and he thrust it back into the knee of the guard. The guard released his grip and dropped the gun to the floor, the guard followed his gun down also.
"AH! It feels like a took a fluffing arrow to the knee!" the guard yelled.
Kagrenac looked over at Argon and pointed the knife at Kara. Argon grabbed the knife, put Kagrenac's arm under his armpit, turned his hand and yanked the knife out. He brought up the shard and sunk it into his eye and he threw Kagrenac and the knife to the ground. He grabbed the guard that was holding Kara and slashed his throat with the shard. Argon dropped the shard and grabbed Kara's hand. A sudden remembrance came upon Argon and he grabbed a loose brick from the wall and threw it at the button. It hit the button and pushed it in. Suddenly, all of the robots throughout Blackreach dropped to the ground. Argon managed to smash the control panel with the brick also so the robots couldn't be turned back on. Argon, still holding Kara's hand, ran out of the control room and didn't stop running or holding Kara's hand until they got to the field lab.
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The scene at the field lab was grusome. There were broken robot parts everywhere. The ground looked like a sea of bronze. There were bricks falling out of the wall, the ground was torn up, and inside Argon and Kara found four wounded heroes.
"Are you guys okay?" Argon asked.
"We'll be fine. How are you two?" Nerevar asked.
"We're really shaken up. We ran into Kagrenac as we were shutting off the robots." Argon answered.
"Did you kill him?" Garnin asked.
"No. I was to enraged, killing him didn't even cross my mind."
"What happened?" Sheo said.
"I'll fill you later." Argon said. "What happened here?"
"It was horrible. There were robots everywhere. Fayen was knocked unconcious, Sheo was too shaken up by the news of him being powerless that he decided to watch Fayen, that left me and Garnin. We tried fighting but there were too many, we decided to barricade the door but they got in, we tried and tried to push them out, there was nothing we could do. Eventually they filled the place and we were forced onto the bed, we did all we could, you shut them off just in time. It'll take a while but we need to clean this palce up." Nerevar told Argon.
"Then let's get started." Argon said.
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Clean up was a bitch. They had to rebuild the house, collect all the robot parts, and then move the parts to a different location. Eventually though, it was done and Argon finally was able to retire to the nearby pond to clean off the sweat and refresh himself. Thankfully, not long after the robots we shut off, all the steam seeped out of the lifts and other little holes and there was no steam being generated to replace it. Argon stripped off his clothes and climbed into the water. He cleaned himself off and the decided to rest for a while on a rock that he used as a makeshift bench in the water. A few moments after sitting there, Kara came up to the pond. She'd had the same idea about getting in and cleaning off.
"Oh, plops. I'm sorry I didn't notice you were here." she said to Argon and she turned back to the house.
"No, it's okay, it's a big pond there's room for us both." said Argon.
"Well, okay." Kara stripped naked and climed into the water, the refreshing cool sensation relaxing her cuts.
"How're your arms?" Argon asked.
"They hurt. I'm not gonna lie, one cut was fine but five? It's not pleasant."
"Come here, let me show you something." Argon said.
Kara waded over to Argon.
A nice gold light glowed in Argon's right hand and with his left he grabbed one of Kara's arms. He gently rubbed his hand over her right arm and the cuts disappeared.
"That's pretty cool. Mind doing that with the other?"
Argon grabbed her other arm and gently moved his hand down it. He released her arm with his left hand but his right hand stayed on, he looked up at Kara and she looked down at him. The two held this stare for a few moments but then Argon pulled her in and the two kissed. Then the two fell back against the rocks and started having sex.
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Finally did it! I know, I know, it's long as plops! I'm sorry for that, I got really into my writing. Anyways, if you read of have read it thank you, please leave a comment or something. Thanks again, expect a new chapter tomorrow most likely.
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Chapter 10: The Plans of the Dwemer
Argon awoke on the rocks of the pond with his arm around Kara and her snuggled up next to him. He pulled back his arm and kissed Kara on the head and got up. Kara's eyes opened and she saw Argon walking away.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"In the house, I would've invited you to come but I didn't wanna wake you." he told her.
"How sweet, well now that we're both up, let's go in."
The pair got dressed and re-equipped their weapons and went into the field lab.
"Where have you two been?" Nerevar asked.
"Bathing." Argon answered.
"For six hours?!" Nerevar exclaimed.
"After the day we had walking around in a giant oven, some refreshing cold water will keep you awhile." Kara said.
"I guess you have a point." Nerevar concluded.
"We need to get down to business, that robot assault was almost too close. That was only a few thousand bots though, imagine hundreds of thousands of them running around and terrozing people who can't defend themselves, who aren't as skilled as we are. And if they can bring Tamriel's best to their knees, then as soon as the war starts and the next batch of robots hit the surface world, there will be no stopping them. They will massacre innocent people because they are mindless machines. We have to kill the Dwemer and we have to do it soon." Argon said.
"Then what's our next step?" Fayen asked.
"We need to learn what it is Kagrenac is planning, he needs Keening for something, something big. We need to find out what so we can try to stop it." Kara said.
"Last time I checked, you weren't a part of this team. You were just some girl we happened to stumble into down here. So, stay out of this." said Nerevar, "Right Argon?"
"She's as much a part of this team as you and me, the four of you need to stop being so hard on her and lighten up. If I can trust her, then so should you." Argon defended.
Nerevar fumbled around for his next words trying to come up with something to say but all that came out was, "Buh, duh, beh, Bu--, eh..."
Argon looked over at Kara who was blushing. Argon smiled to himself.
"What's so funny?" Nerevar asked, finally finding words.
"Nothing, it's nothing." Argon glanced at Kara again.
"Did something happen between the two of you?" Garnin asked.
"What?! No. That's stupid, us? No way." Argon and Kara both said at the same time.
"Then why are y'all acting so weird?" Garnin said.
"It's been a rough day. Anyways! Back to planning." Argon said in an effort to change the subject.
"We need to figure out what we're gonna do next. Any suggestions?" Nerevar said.
"I already said no. That's a stupid idea." Nerevar said.
"I think it's a good idea." Argon said.
"Fine. We'll find out Kagrenac's plans. Does anyone know where we might find them?" Nerevar said.
"They'll probably be in the Debat Hall of the castle." Kara said.
"Why there?" Garnin asked.
"It makes sense, Kagrenac will assemble his head leaders there, tell them his plans and what he needs to carry them out and they will supply." Kara said.
"But why's he doing it there? Can't he like do it in the market or something?"
"The Debat Hall is the meeting room. It's where he would go to meet with them and discuss plans." Argon said, catching on.
"Exactly." Kara confirmed.
"So it's settled, we go to the Debat Hall." said Argon
"I'll go see if I can scope out the castle from here, see what we're up against." Kara said.
"I'll go with you." Argon said.
The couple walked out of the field lab and over to the stone path to try and scope out the castle's defenses.
After they walked out a big smile crept across Fayen's face like he knew something that he shouldn't.
"What's got you so smiley, lad?" Garnin asked.
"I know why Argon and Kara are acting so weird." Fayen said, his grin getting even bigger.
"And why's that?" Sheo asked.
"Because, they had sex." Fayen said in a minor accusitive yet, playful tone.
"They what?!" exclaimed a shocked Nerevar.
"How do you know?" Garnin asked.
"I was going to bathe in the pond and I walked out of the house and as I was walking over to the pond I caught them doing it on the rocks." Fayen said.
"Did they notice you?" Garnin asked.
"I don't think so."
"So those two finally hooked up, I thought they hated each other." Nerevar said.
"Yeah but when you go on a dangerous rescue mission turned suicide mission a lot can happen." Garnin said.
"So, my little grandson has a little girlfriend now? Aww, I'm so proud of him." said Sheogoragth.
"You know Sheo, sometimes your insanity scares me." Fayen said.
--------
Argon and Kara were standing on the watchtower near the back entrance to the castle, two headless Dwemer lay next to their feet.
"You know Fayen saw us." said Kara.
"I know." Argon said.
"About that, what-- what was that? Did it mean something? Was it like a relaxation thing from our long day? Or was it just a thanks for saving my life type deal?" Kara asked.
"Well, I dunno. It kinda meant something to me." Argon said.
"Really? It meant something to me too!" Kara excitedly said.
Argon drew Kara in for a kiss. After about a minute they stopped and Argon was holding Kara's hand and there was a voice from below the walkway stretching over the road.
"You know, when you guys said you were just gonna scope out the castle, I thought you meant you were gonna stay up near the house." It was Nerevar.
"Yeah, but then we realized we couldn't see plops from over there so we decided to come down here. Come up here, we dont want the Dwemer to hear us." Argon said.
The other four came up the spiral ramp to the couple.
"You two holdin hands?" Garnin asked.
"Oh uh," Argon fumbled for words, it a quick attempt at making an excuse Argon lifted Kara's arm up to his face.
"Yep, seems like your cuts are all healed." Argon said then he dropped Kara's hand back to her side.
"Save it Argon, we know you hand sex." said Nerevar.
"What? No, I would never let him." Kara said.
"And I would never be with her." Argon said.
"Fayen told us everything, he caught the two of you in the act, it's not a big deal can we just get back to the mission at hand?" Nerevar said.
"Whatever. So, we can't see much from here except for the backdoor, but it's heavily fortified. there's probably about fifty guards alone, not to mention the three giant crossbows and that Dwemer in the middle." said Argon.
"What's up with the guy in the middle?" Garnin asked.
"That guy has a special gun like the guard from the control room, it's bigger, I'd imagine it's more powerful too. We don't want him spotting us." Kara said.
"So we have to sneak through there." Sheo said.
"Yes, but if it's that heavily fortified on just the back door, I'd hate to imagine what's going on with tropps, INSIDE." Argon said.
"There is another option, not far from here there is a pipe, it has a locked gate on it, but if could give me cover for a few minutes I could probably pick it and get us in." said Kara.
"That's a great idea and all, but the pipe will lead right into the pumphouse, that place powers the castle and everything else in this cave, it'll definitely be heavily guarde also, not to mention all the workers it would take to maintain all those pipes and pumps." said Argon.
"But if we can reach the top, we'll have a clear direct path to the Debate Hall." said Kara.
"Yes, but even if we're up high we'll be out in the open, worse we will be on eye level with Kagrenac. Even if he only has one, due to a freak glass shard incident, if he spots us he'll turn the whole fortress on us." said Argon.
"So we go through the backdoor then." said Kara.
"Guess so."
--------
The six team members slowly sneaked up the muddy path to the entrance. They got almost to the door, but right at the moment they were about to bolt through, the big gunner decided to turn his sights right on the door.
"plops!" Argon whispered.
"Fayen, can you take him out with an arrow?" Sheo asked.
"I could, but the other guards would notice. I could probably take the two at the door though." Fayen answered.
"Two at the door? fluff! Alright, I'll get the guards attention, Fayen hit the guys at the door." Argon commanded.
"No way, you are not going out there." said Nerevar.
"I wasn't gonna, I was gonna use my Throw Voice shout to attract his attention to somewhere else. Someone hand me a rock." Argon explained.
"Why do you need a rock?" Kara asked.
"Watch."
Kara handed Argon a rock about the size of his fist. He looked over at the wall away from the door, he thought about exactly where he wanted the thu'um to go, and at the same time he threw the rock, he used the shout. "Zul Mey Gut!" There was a brief blue light exactly where argon wanted it to go, and the rock hit the stone road and made a clunk in an attempt to mimick footsteps. It got the guard's attention and he and the rest of the guards on the roof turned their weapons in that direction. Fayen stood up from behind the rock and fired two arrows, one at each of the door guards. The arrows hit them in the throat and the guards fell over. The heroes took this brief oppurtunity and bolted through the entraceway.
"That was close." said Sheo.
"Nice shooting Fayen." said Garnin.
"Thanks." Fayen said.
"Okay, so there's the Debat Hall over there, we just have to make it past the Dwemer in courtyard. No doubt we'll run into some Dwemer inside the Debate Hall, so we'll have to be ready for a fight." said Argon.
The heroes came out from the cover of the entryway and ran and ducked behind the wall of the Pumping Station, they peered around the wall and saw what Argon claimed was the Debate Hall. The only problem was that it was across the courtyard, they would have to do some quick running.
"plops. We're gonna have to go one at a time so the person going can have some cover and to attract less attention." Nerevar said.
"Alright, here's the order we'll go in. Kara goes first, then Garnin, Sheo, Nerevar, Fayen, and me." said Argon.
"Alright, let's get going then." said Kara.
Kara was about to take off from behind the wall but Argon grabbed her hand and pulled her back. He drew out his sword and swifty brought it up from between the Dwemer's legs and slashed him vertically in half.
"Aw, Argon you saved me." said Kara.
"I wouldn't let anything happen to you." said Argon.
"Ugh. I hate that phase couples go through when they first get together." Nerevar said disgustedly.
"Hey, I don't remember you hating so much when you started out with Carla." Argon said.
"You don't remember because you were dead or should I say the mysterious hooded hero defending Skingrad off in Cyrodiil." said Nerevar.
"So is this gonna be what's gonna happen from now on?" Garnin asked, "The two of you being all super-couple and stuff like that?"
"Yep, and if you don't like it, it's not our problem." Argon said.
"Oh look honey, I cut someone in half for you." Garnin mocked silently. Fayen tried to hold back laughs.
"Seriously though, back to the mission." Argon said.
Kara ran across, then Garnin, Sheo, Nerevar, Fayen, and finally Argon. All of them made it in the Debate Hall without being seen.
The Debat Hall was strangely empty, and there was an eerie silence across the room. No one was seated on the benches, there was no display set up on the stage, no weapons or armor laying around from the lazy Dwemer, the dimly lit room was completely empty.
"I don't like this." Argon said. "Why would they just leave their plans completely unguarded?"
"Maybe they're not keeping them here and your girlfriend had us go to the wrong place." said Garnin.
"No, they have to be here." said Kara.
"Guys, you might wanna see this." said Sheogorath
In front of Sheogorath was an open doorway and the false wall hiding it had been pulled back. The heroes walked in. Inside, there were papers everywhere, on shelves, hanging from the ceiling, taped to the walls, and spread out messily on the tables. Each paper had a different design on it, how to build it, and a picture of the after effects. Each one was labeled with a different weapon category nam missile, pistol, rifle, shotgun, bomb, grenade, machine gun, but the main display was taking up a whole section of wall in the back. The schematics were taller than the heroes, and there was no mess around it. It seemed to be the one area untouched by the tornado that had surely gone through the other part of the room.
"By the Divines, they're going to build a whole aresnal to unleash on Tamriel.... We would never win a war if they had these weapons." said Kara.
"What's a tank?" Fayen said picking up a one of the tan papers from the table.
Then, Argon noticed the big schematics, how could he have missed it? It looked like a king among all the other papers, it was so nicely treated, the others had a few tears or holes in them. This one however, it had none of that, it was no doubt Kagrenac's prized possession, the plans he needed Keening for, and it wasn't good.
"What... What is this?" Argon said.
"Oh, no..... Nerevar, you recognize this also, right?" Garnin asked.
"Yeah.... Yeah, I do." Nerevar said.
"What is it?" Sheogorath asked.
"It's a message that we need to find Keening before the Dwemer do." said Garnin.
"Why?" asked Fayen.
Nerevar paused and took a deep breath then he said, "Because the Dwemer have once again made a numidium."
Argon awoke on the rocks of the pond with his arm around Kara and her snuggled up next to him. He pulled back his arm and kissed Kara on the head and got up. Kara's eyes opened and she saw Argon walking away.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"In the house, I would've invited you to come but I didn't wanna wake you." he told her.
"How sweet, well now that we're both up, let's go in."
The pair got dressed and re-equipped their weapons and went into the field lab.
"Where have you two been?" Nerevar asked.
"Bathing." Argon answered.
"For six hours?!" Nerevar exclaimed.
"After the day we had walking around in a giant oven, some refreshing cold water will keep you awhile." Kara said.
"I guess you have a point." Nerevar concluded.
"We need to get down to business, that robot assault was almost too close. That was only a few thousand bots though, imagine hundreds of thousands of them running around and terrozing people who can't defend themselves, who aren't as skilled as we are. And if they can bring Tamriel's best to their knees, then as soon as the war starts and the next batch of robots hit the surface world, there will be no stopping them. They will massacre innocent people because they are mindless machines. We have to kill the Dwemer and we have to do it soon." Argon said.
"Then what's our next step?" Fayen asked.
"We need to learn what it is Kagrenac is planning, he needs Keening for something, something big. We need to find out what so we can try to stop it." Kara said.
"Last time I checked, you weren't a part of this team. You were just some girl we happened to stumble into down here. So, stay out of this." said Nerevar, "Right Argon?"
"She's as much a part of this team as you and me, the four of you need to stop being so hard on her and lighten up. If I can trust her, then so should you." Argon defended.
Nerevar fumbled around for his next words trying to come up with something to say but all that came out was, "Buh, duh, beh, Bu--, eh..."
Argon looked over at Kara who was blushing. Argon smiled to himself.
"What's so funny?" Nerevar asked, finally finding words.
"Nothing, it's nothing." Argon glanced at Kara again.
"Did something happen between the two of you?" Garnin asked.
"What?! No. That's stupid, us? No way." Argon and Kara both said at the same time.
"Then why are y'all acting so weird?" Garnin said.
"It's been a rough day. Anyways! Back to planning." Argon said in an effort to change the subject.
"We need to figure out what we're gonna do next. Any suggestions?" Nerevar said.
"I already said no. That's a stupid idea." Nerevar said.
"I think it's a good idea." Argon said.
"Fine. We'll find out Kagrenac's plans. Does anyone know where we might find them?" Nerevar said.
"They'll probably be in the Debat Hall of the castle." Kara said.
"Why there?" Garnin asked.
"It makes sense, Kagrenac will assemble his head leaders there, tell them his plans and what he needs to carry them out and they will supply." Kara said.
"But why's he doing it there? Can't he like do it in the market or something?"
"The Debat Hall is the meeting room. It's where he would go to meet with them and discuss plans." Argon said, catching on.
"Exactly." Kara confirmed.
"So it's settled, we go to the Debat Hall." said Argon
"I'll go see if I can scope out the castle from here, see what we're up against." Kara said.
"I'll go with you." Argon said.
The couple walked out of the field lab and over to the stone path to try and scope out the castle's defenses.
After they walked out a big smile crept across Fayen's face like he knew something that he shouldn't.
"What's got you so smiley, lad?" Garnin asked.
"I know why Argon and Kara are acting so weird." Fayen said, his grin getting even bigger.
"And why's that?" Sheo asked.
"Because, they had sex." Fayen said in a minor accusitive yet, playful tone.
"They what?!" exclaimed a shocked Nerevar.
"How do you know?" Garnin asked.
"I was going to bathe in the pond and I walked out of the house and as I was walking over to the pond I caught them doing it on the rocks." Fayen said.
"Did they notice you?" Garnin asked.
"I don't think so."
"So those two finally hooked up, I thought they hated each other." Nerevar said.
"Yeah but when you go on a dangerous rescue mission turned suicide mission a lot can happen." Garnin said.
"So, my little grandson has a little girlfriend now? Aww, I'm so proud of him." said Sheogoragth.
"You know Sheo, sometimes your insanity scares me." Fayen said.
--------
Argon and Kara were standing on the watchtower near the back entrance to the castle, two headless Dwemer lay next to their feet.
"You know Fayen saw us." said Kara.
"I know." Argon said.
"About that, what-- what was that? Did it mean something? Was it like a relaxation thing from our long day? Or was it just a thanks for saving my life type deal?" Kara asked.
"Well, I dunno. It kinda meant something to me." Argon said.
"Really? It meant something to me too!" Kara excitedly said.
Argon drew Kara in for a kiss. After about a minute they stopped and Argon was holding Kara's hand and there was a voice from below the walkway stretching over the road.
"You know, when you guys said you were just gonna scope out the castle, I thought you meant you were gonna stay up near the house." It was Nerevar.
"Yeah, but then we realized we couldn't see plops from over there so we decided to come down here. Come up here, we dont want the Dwemer to hear us." Argon said.
The other four came up the spiral ramp to the couple.
"You two holdin hands?" Garnin asked.
"Oh uh," Argon fumbled for words, it a quick attempt at making an excuse Argon lifted Kara's arm up to his face.
"Yep, seems like your cuts are all healed." Argon said then he dropped Kara's hand back to her side.
"Save it Argon, we know you hand sex." said Nerevar.
"What? No, I would never let him." Kara said.
"And I would never be with her." Argon said.
"Fayen told us everything, he caught the two of you in the act, it's not a big deal can we just get back to the mission at hand?" Nerevar said.
"Whatever. So, we can't see much from here except for the backdoor, but it's heavily fortified. there's probably about fifty guards alone, not to mention the three giant crossbows and that Dwemer in the middle." said Argon.
"What's up with the guy in the middle?" Garnin asked.
"That guy has a special gun like the guard from the control room, it's bigger, I'd imagine it's more powerful too. We don't want him spotting us." Kara said.
"So we have to sneak through there." Sheo said.
"Yes, but if it's that heavily fortified on just the back door, I'd hate to imagine what's going on with tropps, INSIDE." Argon said.
"There is another option, not far from here there is a pipe, it has a locked gate on it, but if could give me cover for a few minutes I could probably pick it and get us in." said Kara.
"That's a great idea and all, but the pipe will lead right into the pumphouse, that place powers the castle and everything else in this cave, it'll definitely be heavily guarde also, not to mention all the workers it would take to maintain all those pipes and pumps." said Argon.
"But if we can reach the top, we'll have a clear direct path to the Debate Hall." said Kara.
"Yes, but even if we're up high we'll be out in the open, worse we will be on eye level with Kagrenac. Even if he only has one, due to a freak glass shard incident, if he spots us he'll turn the whole fortress on us." said Argon.
"So we go through the backdoor then." said Kara.
"Guess so."
--------
The six team members slowly sneaked up the muddy path to the entrance. They got almost to the door, but right at the moment they were about to bolt through, the big gunner decided to turn his sights right on the door.
"plops!" Argon whispered.
"Fayen, can you take him out with an arrow?" Sheo asked.
"I could, but the other guards would notice. I could probably take the two at the door though." Fayen answered.
"Two at the door? fluff! Alright, I'll get the guards attention, Fayen hit the guys at the door." Argon commanded.
"No way, you are not going out there." said Nerevar.
"I wasn't gonna, I was gonna use my Throw Voice shout to attract his attention to somewhere else. Someone hand me a rock." Argon explained.
"Why do you need a rock?" Kara asked.
"Watch."
Kara handed Argon a rock about the size of his fist. He looked over at the wall away from the door, he thought about exactly where he wanted the thu'um to go, and at the same time he threw the rock, he used the shout. "Zul Mey Gut!" There was a brief blue light exactly where argon wanted it to go, and the rock hit the stone road and made a clunk in an attempt to mimick footsteps. It got the guard's attention and he and the rest of the guards on the roof turned their weapons in that direction. Fayen stood up from behind the rock and fired two arrows, one at each of the door guards. The arrows hit them in the throat and the guards fell over. The heroes took this brief oppurtunity and bolted through the entraceway.
"That was close." said Sheo.
"Nice shooting Fayen." said Garnin.
"Thanks." Fayen said.
"Okay, so there's the Debat Hall over there, we just have to make it past the Dwemer in courtyard. No doubt we'll run into some Dwemer inside the Debate Hall, so we'll have to be ready for a fight." said Argon.
The heroes came out from the cover of the entryway and ran and ducked behind the wall of the Pumping Station, they peered around the wall and saw what Argon claimed was the Debate Hall. The only problem was that it was across the courtyard, they would have to do some quick running.
"plops. We're gonna have to go one at a time so the person going can have some cover and to attract less attention." Nerevar said.
"Alright, here's the order we'll go in. Kara goes first, then Garnin, Sheo, Nerevar, Fayen, and me." said Argon.
"Alright, let's get going then." said Kara.
Kara was about to take off from behind the wall but Argon grabbed her hand and pulled her back. He drew out his sword and swifty brought it up from between the Dwemer's legs and slashed him vertically in half.
"Aw, Argon you saved me." said Kara.
"I wouldn't let anything happen to you." said Argon.
"Ugh. I hate that phase couples go through when they first get together." Nerevar said disgustedly.
"Hey, I don't remember you hating so much when you started out with Carla." Argon said.
"You don't remember because you were dead or should I say the mysterious hooded hero defending Skingrad off in Cyrodiil." said Nerevar.
"So is this gonna be what's gonna happen from now on?" Garnin asked, "The two of you being all super-couple and stuff like that?"
"Yep, and if you don't like it, it's not our problem." Argon said.
"Oh look honey, I cut someone in half for you." Garnin mocked silently. Fayen tried to hold back laughs.
"Seriously though, back to the mission." Argon said.
Kara ran across, then Garnin, Sheo, Nerevar, Fayen, and finally Argon. All of them made it in the Debate Hall without being seen.
The Debat Hall was strangely empty, and there was an eerie silence across the room. No one was seated on the benches, there was no display set up on the stage, no weapons or armor laying around from the lazy Dwemer, the dimly lit room was completely empty.
"I don't like this." Argon said. "Why would they just leave their plans completely unguarded?"
"Maybe they're not keeping them here and your girlfriend had us go to the wrong place." said Garnin.
"No, they have to be here." said Kara.
"Guys, you might wanna see this." said Sheogorath
In front of Sheogorath was an open doorway and the false wall hiding it had been pulled back. The heroes walked in. Inside, there were papers everywhere, on shelves, hanging from the ceiling, taped to the walls, and spread out messily on the tables. Each paper had a different design on it, how to build it, and a picture of the after effects. Each one was labeled with a different weapon category nam missile, pistol, rifle, shotgun, bomb, grenade, machine gun, but the main display was taking up a whole section of wall in the back. The schematics were taller than the heroes, and there was no mess around it. It seemed to be the one area untouched by the tornado that had surely gone through the other part of the room.
"By the Divines, they're going to build a whole aresnal to unleash on Tamriel.... We would never win a war if they had these weapons." said Kara.
"What's a tank?" Fayen said picking up a one of the tan papers from the table.
Then, Argon noticed the big schematics, how could he have missed it? It looked like a king among all the other papers, it was so nicely treated, the others had a few tears or holes in them. This one however, it had none of that, it was no doubt Kagrenac's prized possession, the plans he needed Keening for, and it wasn't good.
"What... What is this?" Argon said.
"Oh, no..... Nerevar, you recognize this also, right?" Garnin asked.
"Yeah.... Yeah, I do." Nerevar said.
"What is it?" Sheogorath asked.
"It's a message that we need to find Keening before the Dwemer do." said Garnin.
"Why?" asked Fayen.
Nerevar paused and took a deep breath then he said, "Because the Dwemer have once again made a numidium."
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
Chapter 11: Tonal Artifacts
The six heroes stormed into the Field Lab after a narrow escape from the castle.
"We HAVE to find Keening!" Nerevar exclaimed.
"It's the only way to ensure that, that monstrosity doesn't make it out to the surface world." Garnin added on.
"But no one knows where it is. The Dwemer have been looking for it for ages and they can't find it. What makes you think we'd have better chance?" Kara asked.
"Nothing. I highly doubt we'll find it, but we have to try. If we don't then all of Tamriel will fall to Kagrenac and he will finally be able to take it over." Nerevar said.
"Well how about instead of wasting time finding one artifact, we take the others?" Argon suggested.
"That's, actually not a bad idea...." Nerevar said.
"That's why I'm the leader." Argon said.
"He's right, Kagrenac is spazzing out trying to just find one artifact, it would kill him if he had to look for the others." Kara said.
"I WISH it would kill him if he had to look for the others, it would make our job easier." Garnin said.
"The only problem is, when we take them, Kagrenac is gonna unleash an army on us to get them back." Argon said, "We'll have to prepare for a big battle once they're ours."
"Okay, so what's the plan then Argon?" Fayen asked.
"You, me, and Sheogorath are going to look for the artifacts. Kara, Nerevar, and Garnin are going to go to the Tower of Mzark." Argon said.
"Why are we going there?" Nerevar asked.
"Because it's the only place in Blackreach big enough to keep such a giant monstrosity." Argon said.
"Okay, so where could Kagrenac be keeping the artifacts? He has to be keeping them somewhere safe somewhere well guarded." Fayen asked.
"Kagrenac would want to keep them close by him, but probably not too close in case he got attacked. That would make them easier to find/take." Sheogorath said.
"The market." Argon said.
"What? Why there?" Sheogorath asked.
"Think about it, that place has got to be heavily guarded. During my earlier expeditions here there were metal locked gates behind each little stand, that's most likely where the shopkeepers would keep their inventory to avoid items being stolen, and in case items are stolen there is probably a small army of guards to stop the theives from escaping." Argon said.
"I guess that makes sense, and then the artifacts are probably being held by some trusted official posing as a shopkeeper." Fayen added.
"Exactly. The only problem is, there is probably a small army of guards there." Argon said.
"You just said that...." Sheogorath informed him.
"I know." Argon said. "The reason I said it again is because the small army is going to be there to stop theives, theives like us who are going to take the most important, valuable, and powerful items there."
"plops. We're going to need a distraction and an invisibility potion or something." Fayen said.
"From my time as a nightingale, I have a special power that I can use to go invisible for a time, but you and Sheo are going to need to start a fight or something so the guards will go to break it up and not notice the gate that seems to be able to control its opening and closing." Argon said.
"But when the come to break up the fight, since we're nto Dwemer, they'll probably recognize us and shoot us instead." Sheogorath said.
"I know, that's why you two won't be he ones fighting. You are going to have to cast a frenzy spell on a few Dwemer and in the confusion, slip out of the market."
"Well, let's get to it." Fayen said.
--------
Kagrenac was laying naked on his stone bed with his arms around two Dwemer women. He turned his head to the left and kissed one, then turned his head to the right and kissed the other.
"You ladies ready for round three?" He asked.
They both giggled in confirmation.
"I thought so." he said.
As one of the women was about to climb on top of him, the door swung open and the bright light from the giant light shone in the room. The head of the guards ran in.
"Lord Kagrenac!" he yelled" There's been--- Whoa... Guess I'm interrupting something."
The guard covered his eyes and the two women screamed, grabbed the blanket, and using it to cover themselves, ran out of the room.
"Heavens man! Do you even knock?!" Kagrenac scolded.
"I'm sorry m'lord, but there's been a break in."
A grim shadow covered Kagrenac's face. "Where?" he asked.
"The schematics room. One of the advisors went into the Debate Hall and found the secret door wide open. Also, we found one of our own cut vertically in half laying in the middle of the castle courtyard."
The shadow on Kagrenac's face seemed to lighten up a bit, at least it hadn't been where the tonal artifacts were hidden.
"So the heroes know my plan. No doubt they'll be searching for it. That Argon's a smart one, he'll probably deduce the location of the Kalumiduim. Quick, we must get to the Tower of Mzark, this could be our chance to capture the heroes and force Argon to reveal the location of Keening." Kagrenac said.
"Yes sir, let us go with haste." The head of the guards said.
--------
Nerevar, Kara, and Garnin were hiding in the shadows outside the Tower of Mzark. Directly in front of them was a stone bridge stretching across the blue river. Strangely, there were only two guards outside and instead of having guns, they only had swords.
"I think this is the wrong place, I mean, how could the Kalumidium fit in there? It's so thin, and there are barely any guards." Garnin said.
"Up inside the tower is a back chamber, it's pretty big. If the Kalumidium is in here, then it's probably in there. As for the guards, this is the msot guards we've seen guarding something other than the castle." Kara said.
"Well, guess there's only one way to find out what's in here." Nerevar said.
--------
"Argon, I'm getting a bad feeling about this." Fayen said suddenly chickening out at the sight of the two heavily armored guard guarding the main entrance to the market.
The pathway up to the market was two stone walkways that converged into a big circle and branching out from the top of the circle were two more walkways which led the rest of the way up then ther was a small area gated off on two sides and the wall of the market served as the wall for the back area, there was no door or gate so you could just walk in there. It was kina a pointless venture though because there was only one chest hanging on the wall and it probably didnt have much in it.
The two guards guarding the door were heavily armed with big machine guns strapped across their backs, hanging on belts around their sides were ten grenades each, and strapped to each of their thighs were two handguns, and in case they ran out of ammo there was a big bandolier strapped around the opposite shoulder of their guns.
"Fayen, it will be fine. We're Tamriel's Greatest, remember?" Argon reminded him.
"He has a point lad." Sheogorath said.
"Yeah, I guess, but that doesn't mean I can't still be worried. So how are we going to get around those guards at the door?"
"Shoot them." Argon said.
"With what?"
"Your bow."
"Oh."
Fayen pulled his bow off of his back and hooked an arrow on its string. He took a deep breath as he slowly pulled back the string. He looked down the arrow and set his sight on the neck of one of the guards, he took another breath and released.
The arrow soared forwards breaking through the pesky air that tried to slow it down. The arrow hit its target and the guard collapsed gasping for breath, the other guard saw his pal collapse and he unstrapped his machine gun from his back and aimed it at the rock the heroes were behind.
"I know you're out there, arrows don't just appear out of no where and kill people!" the guard called out.
"Fayen," Argon whispered, "you have to shoot him, if he fires then it'll alert everyone inside to our presence."
"But he has a machine gun pointed right at us!" Fayen whispered in a more harsh tone than Argon, "If I pop up to shoot him he'll shoot me first!"
"Stop being a little bitch and shoot him!" Sheogorath whispered in the harshest tone.
"Fine geez...."
Fayen hooked an arrow on the string and pulled back, he popped up from the rock and with only a split second to aim, released the string and it hit the guard right above his heart. The guard collapsed, he wasn't dead and he would get back up in a moment. Fayen ran out from behind the rock and towards the guard. He yanked the arrow out of his chest and stabbed it into the guard's head.
"Whoa...." Argon said, stunned and slightly disturbed by what he just saw.
"They're dead aren't they?" Fayen said trying to justify what he'd just done, "Well come along then!"
--------
The inside of the Tower of Mzark was quiet. Too quiet. Perhaps the heroes were at the wrong place. It still didn't explain why there were two guards outside, maybe they were just taking a break from patrolling and decided to hang out near the water.
"Where are all of the guards?" Kara rhetorically asked.
"I don't know... Lunch break maybe?" Nerevar said.
"Well if they come back from their lunch break too early I will break them." Garnin said, his hand on the handle of his battleaxe.
"Calm down their Garnin." Nerevar said, resting his hand on Garnin's shoulder.
"Just saying..." Garnin said.
"Will you two please stop? I just wanna get done with this so we can get back to the Field Lab." Kara said.
"And you and Argon can have your 'alone' time." Nerevar joked.
"Shut up, I'm getting more action down here than you." Kara said.
That was the end of the conversation. The three wandered around the room they were in. It was tidy look, there were boxes stacked against the wall, a chandelier hung from the ceiling, there was a cooking pot in the middle of the room, and around the cooking pot were some bedrolls.
"Let's check those boxes." Kara said.
The took the boxes down from the wall and broke them open, inside were machine parts and tools.
"What do you think they have these for?" Garnin asked.
"To build a really big robot golem." Nerevar said.
"Come on, we move on, check the back room." Kara said.
The went over to the back room and pushed open the big golden doors. To their surprise, they were standing on a platform, below the platform were torches hanging all over the wall and two great big legs. The platform they were on had two pathways branching off from either side, the one on their left curled up along the wall and kept going up, the one on the right curled along the wall and kept going down. The pathways were circling a great, big golem. There were little pathways branching off the big pathways at certain spots so they could reach the golem. There was a little wooden bridge that went forward from the platform that led to the golem's chest and directly in front of the bridge was a heart hooked up to metal pipes with gages and meters attached to it. However, the heart wasn't giving off any power and the gages and meters were at zero. The golem may have had metal parts, but it also had humanoid parts, it had a rib cage and spine, at some parts it seemed to have flesh and muscle.
"Guys... The Heart of Lorkhan..." Kara said.
"I've seen it before, but it still gives me chills." Nerevar said.
"Yes, supreme and unstoppable power will do that to you." Said Kagrenac stepping out from the shadows of the Kalumidium's chest.
"What the hell are you doing you crazed elf? That thing has the capacity to destroy whole provinces!" Nerevar said.
"I know, that is the plan. You think we Dwemer want to live down here? No. It's dark, and cold, we don't get any normal crops and most of the ones we do get are not edible! We have only been surviving down here off the supplies the empire has been giving us, and that only happens about once a week and we don't get enough to feed the mulitude of Dwemer down here. When it is ready, I will unleash this on the surface world and it will kill everyone. Man and elves, regardless of race, gender, or age. Everyone will fall under the power of the Kalumidium, and you heroes will be powerless to stop it." Kagrenac said.
"We can work out a deal, more supplies, more deliveries, and you don't have to stay down here. Those who want to can come live with us up on the surface. We can make this work for all of us." Nerevar said.
"Am I supposed to buy this nonsense? This coming from one of the six who would come and kill us in our sleep, in our own home!" Kagrenac said.
"Then let us make a better deal, and don't make it with me, you can discuss it with the Emperor." Nerevar said.
"No deals shall be made! I will unleash this beast on the surface world and take it over! The end of man has come, it is time for the reign of Dwemer!" Kagrenac shouted, his voice echoing all over the room.
"This isn't about being free from here, is it? This is about you. You want to take over the surface world not for the Dwemer, but for yourself. Don't you?" Nerevar accused.
"Well someone is a smart little boy isn't he? I should give you a cookie, except, fluff you." Kagrenac said. "Capture them, do not kill them though. They can be used against Argon."
--------
"They really expanded in here." Argon said, trying to keep his head down.
"How do you mean?" Sheogorath asked.
"Last time I was here, there were only two market stalls. Now look at this, there's six." Argon said.
"Well, hopefully only five of them are actual shops." Fayen said.
"Look at it, there is two guards per shop. That's twelve guards in all, and they're all armed about as much as the guys outside." Argon said.
"Let's just get this over with." Fayen said.
That line echoed in Argon's head. Suddenly Argon had a flashback.
--------
Argon stood up from the bedroll his eyelids were begging him to let them close and go back to sleep, but Argon wouldn't let him. It was day now, time to get on with the mission.
"Good morning sleepy head." Serana was leaing over a makeshift cooking area from the shell of a mudcrab she'd killed earlier and a few twigs she'd found laying around.
Argon knelt next to her by the fire, the fire instantlly warmed Argon's cold body. You'd think after being in Skyrim for seven years Argon would be used to the cold, and he was, but it still felt good to kneel next to a fire whenever he was visiting the snowy tundra part.
"The Sea of Ghosts certainly is nice this time of year." Argon said looking out at the horizon. "What yah cooking?"
"I was making some horker stew, it'll be read in a little while." Serana said. "Hey, are you sure you wanna do this?"
"Don't worry, your cookings gotten better over the last two years, I'm sure I want to eat it." Argon joked.
Serana laughed, "You know that's not what I meant. I meant, are you sure you want to go and kill all of the Dark Brotherhood members? I mean, I know these guys are really bad people and they don't care who they kill as long as they get their money, but still, these people are like your family. You've fought with them, killed along side them, and you're their leader. Plus, it will probably really piss of Sithis." Serana said.
"I'm not gonna lie, I've had my doubts. But it's for the best, I don't know what happened, it's like one moment I'm ready to die alongside these people, and the next I realize how horrible and twisted they are." Argon said. "So yeah, I'm sure about it."
Serana finished cooking and the two ate the food out of little cups Argon had in his pouch (since they didn't have bowls) and they cleaned up the camp.
"Are you ready Serana? This could get pretty dangerous." Argon said.
"Yeah, let's just get this over with."
That was the end of that flashback, then Argon had another one. This time they were outside of Morthal, it was around two years after they had slaughtered everyone in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary.
They were standing at a stone circle with a cart of rotten cabbages leaning against one of the rock pillars. Serana stood in the middle of the stone circle with the pillars pointing right at her. Argon and a redguard man named Fallion stood off to the side.
"Are you sure you want to do this Serana?" Argon asked "You're going to be giving up all of your powers, just so you can be with me and when I die you won't have to live forever without me."
"I'm sure Argon." Serana said, flashing him a smile.
"Okay. I love you." Argon said.
"I love you too."
"Alright Serana," Fallion said, "this won't hurt a bit. Your vision may go dark for a moment but that's normal. You will probably feel light headed afterwards, but that'll go away after a few moments. There is a powerful soul inside this gem. I don't usually ask this, but who's is it?"
"My father's." Serana said.
A shocked and grim look fell over Fallion's face, but he quickly regained his composure. "Okay, are you ready?"
Serana answered with her catchphrase, "Let's just get this over with."
--------
"Hey, Argon, you still there?" Fayen said nudging Argon with his elbow.
"Yeah sorry, just got lost in thought for a second." Argon said.
"What were you thinking about?" Sheogorath asked.
"Nothing that matters anymore." and Argon meant it, he had Kara now. He was finally able to move on from Serana.
"Well then, can we get back to the task at hand?"
"Yeah sure. Here, take these scrolls, you each use them on one Dwemer, it'll make them go crazy and start fighting. After you do that, get out of here. I'll meet you back at the Field Lab." Argon told them and he handed them each a scroll of Frenzy.
Argon then went invisible and slipped through the crowd.
--------
"Run!" Nerevar yelled.
Guards were coming up from both of the walkways branching out from the platform they were standing on.
"Get the lass out of here Nerevar," Garnin said, "I'll hold them off."
"Good luck Garnin." Nerevar said.
Nerevar and Kara turned and ran towards the door to the tower. Garnin grabbed his battleaxe and turned to face the Dwemer.
The Dwemer came at him, using swords and not guns due to Kagrenac's order not to kill them. Garnin swung his battleaxe through the air and slashed off two heads at once, he spun around and using the end of the handle, bashed another's head in. A pair of cold hands grabbed and squeezed his throat, Garnin's foot went up and hit the Dwemer right where you shouldn't be hit, and Garnin turned to him and cut his head in half. Another Dwemer tried to stop him, and Garnin using his axe broke his sword and slashe off his hand. Garnin caught the hand as it was falling and he tore the bottom half of the sword from it and using the jagged edge of the broken blade, sunk it deep into the Dwemer's skull and let go. Garnin started tossing Dwemer left and right, over the platform to the deep floor below. Garnin was on a roll. The Dwemer started getting scared and retreating back into the chest of the Kalumidium. That was went things started to go wrong. There was a loud bang and Garnin fell to the floor, his knee was bleeeding and he knew what had happened, he'd been shot. He managed to get himself up and pull out a healing potion, he drank the potion and his flesh regrew and the wound healed, but the bullet was still lodged in his knee, now it was sealed in. Garnin was quickly limping to the door and he managed to get out.
The Dwemer started following him, but Kagrenac called them off. Garnin collapsed outside of the door and the two guards that had been out there earlier were now laying dead next to him, Nerevar and Kara must've killed them.
"Indoril! Kara! Help!..." his voice started to trail off and everything went black.
--------
Sheogorath and Fayen were wandering about trying to find the two strongest Dwemer to make crazy, the stronger they were, the longer they'd last in battle. They ahd to hurry though, Argon was already invisible and would become visible again in a few minutes. They found the two they were looking for, they were both standing next to each other at one of the shops looking at swords to buy. Sheogorath and Fayen used the scrolls and as they said the words written on them, the scrolls burned up. The Dwemer went crazy and grabbed the swords and started attacking everyone. The guards went over there to try to calm them down before the would be forced to shoot them.
The whole marketplace crowded around the Dwemer to watch the guards attempt to subdue them. Even the shopkeepers left their shops. Argon quickly snuck around the room checking the back of every shop but he couldn't find the artifacts, finally in the last one, he heard a faint hum from the wall. There were loosed bricks where the hum was coming from and he pulled them out, inside was a regal golden chest decorated with little golden pictures and in the middle was a small circle and inside the circler was a small line with a half circle at one end of it, and inside of that half circle was an even smaller half circle. About a fourth of the way up the line from the first half circle were two smaller curved lines that again, had a half circle at their ends and there were small little prongs branching off from those circles.
"I've seen this symbol on the side of Lexicons" Argon thought to himself.
Argon opened the chest and on the inside were two Dwarven gauntlets unlike any he'd ever seen before, and a small hammer. Argon put the artifacts in his pouch, closed the chest, and covered the hole with the bricks. He then carefully closed the door to the back room and went through the crowd towards the door, two guards were both carrying a dead body which each had one bullet in the head.
--------
"Am I dead?" Garnin asked, his eyes opened and he was laying on the stone bed in the Field Lab with Nerevar and Kara hovering above him. "Guess not."
"You gave us quite a scare." Kara said.
"Here drink this." Nerevar thrust a small cup at Garnin.
Garnin took it and drank the black liquid inside. It tasted like rotten eggs. However, knowing it was important, he swallowed it then gagged.
"That tastes horrible." he said.
"That horrible taste, will save your life. We dug the bullet out of your knee, what you just drank was a cure for the poison that was laced around the bullet." Nerevar said.
"And THIS will close up the open wound in your knee." Kara said, handing Garnin another cup.
This one tasted like sweet honey. The wound in Garnin's knee closed up and he was able to stand.
"So you two did come back for me." Garnin said.
"We heard your cry, we couldn't leave a friend behind." Nerevar said.
At that moment, the doors to the Field Lab opened.
"We got the artifacts." Argon said pulling them out and placing them on the table.
"We can hide them under here." Nerevar said, lifting one of the floorboards. Underneath was a small stone chamber just big enough to fit the artifacts.
Argon place the artifacts in the chamber and Nerevar closed the floorboard.
"So how was your mission?" Argon asked.
"Kagrenac knew we were coming, he set a trap. Garnin barely got out alive, but we found the Kalumidium. Argon, it's huge." Kara said.
"How big?"
"About three hundred feet." Nerevar told him.
"They must have expanded that back room to fit it in there. This is not good." Argon said.
"No it's not." Nerevar said, "And we may have the artifacts now, but Kagrenac is gonna try to take them back when he finds Keening."
"About that." Argon said, and he went over to a small satchel sitting on a shelf that no one had noticed.
"I hid this down here a long time ago. I realized its true power and decided that it needed to be out of the reach of Tamriel, but somewhere I could get to it if need ever arose." Argon said.
He pulled out a small cloth that was wrapped around some sort of dagger shape. Argon pulled back one part of the cloth, and resting on the cloth in his hand, was Keening.
--------
Kagrenac was sitting on his throne looking out over Blackreach when the Head of the Guards came to him.
He knelt in front of Kagrenac's throne. "My lord..." he said in a nervous voice.
"What news do you have?" Kagrenac asked.
"There's... There's been another break in..."
"Where?"
"Th-The market my lord. Three items were taken..."
"Both the Wraithguard gauntlets and Sunder I assume?" Kagrenac asked.
The Captain nodded his head.
Kagrenac arose from his throne and walked over to the Captain, the Captain stood up.
"That's two break ins in the last two days, both of which you failed to stop." Kagrenac said slowly walking forwards, forcing the Captain to slowly take steps back.
"But, for the second one, I was with you, at the Tower of Mzark." the Captain explained.
"And you also failed to capture Garnin or the other two, thank you for reminding me."
"But-- then I didn't fail to stop the second, I was following your orders." the Captain pleaded.
"Just as your guards follow your orders. And your guards didn't stop the break in, they failed. Thus, YOU failed." Kagrenac kept forcing the Captain back.
"Oh please my lord, please have mercy!" the Captain cried, he took another step back and he slipped off the edge.
Kagrenac grabbed him by the front of his armor and held him above the castle below. The Captains feet managed to find the edge of the platform.
"Oh thank you my lord, thank you for saving me." the Captain said.
"Tell the Divines I said their heroes will fail." Kagrenac commanded, and he released the Captain's torso and he once again fell.
Kagrenac turned and walked back to his throne as the Captain fell crashing to his death.
"Should we send someone to clean that up?" one of the guards asked.
"No." Kagrenac said, "Leave him there, let his bloodied corpse serve as a sign to all who fail me. Rather, ready the guards. Tomorrow we take back what is mine."
The six heroes stormed into the Field Lab after a narrow escape from the castle.
"We HAVE to find Keening!" Nerevar exclaimed.
"It's the only way to ensure that, that monstrosity doesn't make it out to the surface world." Garnin added on.
"But no one knows where it is. The Dwemer have been looking for it for ages and they can't find it. What makes you think we'd have better chance?" Kara asked.
"Nothing. I highly doubt we'll find it, but we have to try. If we don't then all of Tamriel will fall to Kagrenac and he will finally be able to take it over." Nerevar said.
"Well how about instead of wasting time finding one artifact, we take the others?" Argon suggested.
"That's, actually not a bad idea...." Nerevar said.
"That's why I'm the leader." Argon said.
"He's right, Kagrenac is spazzing out trying to just find one artifact, it would kill him if he had to look for the others." Kara said.
"I WISH it would kill him if he had to look for the others, it would make our job easier." Garnin said.
"The only problem is, when we take them, Kagrenac is gonna unleash an army on us to get them back." Argon said, "We'll have to prepare for a big battle once they're ours."
"Okay, so what's the plan then Argon?" Fayen asked.
"You, me, and Sheogorath are going to look for the artifacts. Kara, Nerevar, and Garnin are going to go to the Tower of Mzark." Argon said.
"Why are we going there?" Nerevar asked.
"Because it's the only place in Blackreach big enough to keep such a giant monstrosity." Argon said.
"Okay, so where could Kagrenac be keeping the artifacts? He has to be keeping them somewhere safe somewhere well guarded." Fayen asked.
"Kagrenac would want to keep them close by him, but probably not too close in case he got attacked. That would make them easier to find/take." Sheogorath said.
"The market." Argon said.
"What? Why there?" Sheogorath asked.
"Think about it, that place has got to be heavily guarded. During my earlier expeditions here there were metal locked gates behind each little stand, that's most likely where the shopkeepers would keep their inventory to avoid items being stolen, and in case items are stolen there is probably a small army of guards to stop the theives from escaping." Argon said.
"I guess that makes sense, and then the artifacts are probably being held by some trusted official posing as a shopkeeper." Fayen added.
"Exactly. The only problem is, there is probably a small army of guards there." Argon said.
"You just said that...." Sheogorath informed him.
"I know." Argon said. "The reason I said it again is because the small army is going to be there to stop theives, theives like us who are going to take the most important, valuable, and powerful items there."
"plops. We're going to need a distraction and an invisibility potion or something." Fayen said.
"From my time as a nightingale, I have a special power that I can use to go invisible for a time, but you and Sheo are going to need to start a fight or something so the guards will go to break it up and not notice the gate that seems to be able to control its opening and closing." Argon said.
"But when the come to break up the fight, since we're nto Dwemer, they'll probably recognize us and shoot us instead." Sheogorath said.
"I know, that's why you two won't be he ones fighting. You are going to have to cast a frenzy spell on a few Dwemer and in the confusion, slip out of the market."
"Well, let's get to it." Fayen said.
--------
Kagrenac was laying naked on his stone bed with his arms around two Dwemer women. He turned his head to the left and kissed one, then turned his head to the right and kissed the other.
"You ladies ready for round three?" He asked.
They both giggled in confirmation.
"I thought so." he said.
As one of the women was about to climb on top of him, the door swung open and the bright light from the giant light shone in the room. The head of the guards ran in.
"Lord Kagrenac!" he yelled" There's been--- Whoa... Guess I'm interrupting something."
The guard covered his eyes and the two women screamed, grabbed the blanket, and using it to cover themselves, ran out of the room.
"Heavens man! Do you even knock?!" Kagrenac scolded.
"I'm sorry m'lord, but there's been a break in."
A grim shadow covered Kagrenac's face. "Where?" he asked.
"The schematics room. One of the advisors went into the Debate Hall and found the secret door wide open. Also, we found one of our own cut vertically in half laying in the middle of the castle courtyard."
The shadow on Kagrenac's face seemed to lighten up a bit, at least it hadn't been where the tonal artifacts were hidden.
"So the heroes know my plan. No doubt they'll be searching for it. That Argon's a smart one, he'll probably deduce the location of the Kalumiduim. Quick, we must get to the Tower of Mzark, this could be our chance to capture the heroes and force Argon to reveal the location of Keening." Kagrenac said.
"Yes sir, let us go with haste." The head of the guards said.
--------
Nerevar, Kara, and Garnin were hiding in the shadows outside the Tower of Mzark. Directly in front of them was a stone bridge stretching across the blue river. Strangely, there were only two guards outside and instead of having guns, they only had swords.
"I think this is the wrong place, I mean, how could the Kalumidium fit in there? It's so thin, and there are barely any guards." Garnin said.
"Up inside the tower is a back chamber, it's pretty big. If the Kalumidium is in here, then it's probably in there. As for the guards, this is the msot guards we've seen guarding something other than the castle." Kara said.
"Well, guess there's only one way to find out what's in here." Nerevar said.
--------
"Argon, I'm getting a bad feeling about this." Fayen said suddenly chickening out at the sight of the two heavily armored guard guarding the main entrance to the market.
The pathway up to the market was two stone walkways that converged into a big circle and branching out from the top of the circle were two more walkways which led the rest of the way up then ther was a small area gated off on two sides and the wall of the market served as the wall for the back area, there was no door or gate so you could just walk in there. It was kina a pointless venture though because there was only one chest hanging on the wall and it probably didnt have much in it.
The two guards guarding the door were heavily armed with big machine guns strapped across their backs, hanging on belts around their sides were ten grenades each, and strapped to each of their thighs were two handguns, and in case they ran out of ammo there was a big bandolier strapped around the opposite shoulder of their guns.
"Fayen, it will be fine. We're Tamriel's Greatest, remember?" Argon reminded him.
"He has a point lad." Sheogorath said.
"Yeah, I guess, but that doesn't mean I can't still be worried. So how are we going to get around those guards at the door?"
"Shoot them." Argon said.
"With what?"
"Your bow."
"Oh."
Fayen pulled his bow off of his back and hooked an arrow on its string. He took a deep breath as he slowly pulled back the string. He looked down the arrow and set his sight on the neck of one of the guards, he took another breath and released.
The arrow soared forwards breaking through the pesky air that tried to slow it down. The arrow hit its target and the guard collapsed gasping for breath, the other guard saw his pal collapse and he unstrapped his machine gun from his back and aimed it at the rock the heroes were behind.
"I know you're out there, arrows don't just appear out of no where and kill people!" the guard called out.
"Fayen," Argon whispered, "you have to shoot him, if he fires then it'll alert everyone inside to our presence."
"But he has a machine gun pointed right at us!" Fayen whispered in a more harsh tone than Argon, "If I pop up to shoot him he'll shoot me first!"
"Stop being a little bitch and shoot him!" Sheogorath whispered in the harshest tone.
"Fine geez...."
Fayen hooked an arrow on the string and pulled back, he popped up from the rock and with only a split second to aim, released the string and it hit the guard right above his heart. The guard collapsed, he wasn't dead and he would get back up in a moment. Fayen ran out from behind the rock and towards the guard. He yanked the arrow out of his chest and stabbed it into the guard's head.
"Whoa...." Argon said, stunned and slightly disturbed by what he just saw.
"They're dead aren't they?" Fayen said trying to justify what he'd just done, "Well come along then!"
--------
The inside of the Tower of Mzark was quiet. Too quiet. Perhaps the heroes were at the wrong place. It still didn't explain why there were two guards outside, maybe they were just taking a break from patrolling and decided to hang out near the water.
"Where are all of the guards?" Kara rhetorically asked.
"I don't know... Lunch break maybe?" Nerevar said.
"Well if they come back from their lunch break too early I will break them." Garnin said, his hand on the handle of his battleaxe.
"Calm down their Garnin." Nerevar said, resting his hand on Garnin's shoulder.
"Just saying..." Garnin said.
"Will you two please stop? I just wanna get done with this so we can get back to the Field Lab." Kara said.
"And you and Argon can have your 'alone' time." Nerevar joked.
"Shut up, I'm getting more action down here than you." Kara said.
That was the end of the conversation. The three wandered around the room they were in. It was tidy look, there were boxes stacked against the wall, a chandelier hung from the ceiling, there was a cooking pot in the middle of the room, and around the cooking pot were some bedrolls.
"Let's check those boxes." Kara said.
The took the boxes down from the wall and broke them open, inside were machine parts and tools.
"What do you think they have these for?" Garnin asked.
"To build a really big robot golem." Nerevar said.
"Come on, we move on, check the back room." Kara said.
The went over to the back room and pushed open the big golden doors. To their surprise, they were standing on a platform, below the platform were torches hanging all over the wall and two great big legs. The platform they were on had two pathways branching off from either side, the one on their left curled up along the wall and kept going up, the one on the right curled along the wall and kept going down. The pathways were circling a great, big golem. There were little pathways branching off the big pathways at certain spots so they could reach the golem. There was a little wooden bridge that went forward from the platform that led to the golem's chest and directly in front of the bridge was a heart hooked up to metal pipes with gages and meters attached to it. However, the heart wasn't giving off any power and the gages and meters were at zero. The golem may have had metal parts, but it also had humanoid parts, it had a rib cage and spine, at some parts it seemed to have flesh and muscle.
"Guys... The Heart of Lorkhan..." Kara said.
"I've seen it before, but it still gives me chills." Nerevar said.
"Yes, supreme and unstoppable power will do that to you." Said Kagrenac stepping out from the shadows of the Kalumidium's chest.
"What the hell are you doing you crazed elf? That thing has the capacity to destroy whole provinces!" Nerevar said.
"I know, that is the plan. You think we Dwemer want to live down here? No. It's dark, and cold, we don't get any normal crops and most of the ones we do get are not edible! We have only been surviving down here off the supplies the empire has been giving us, and that only happens about once a week and we don't get enough to feed the mulitude of Dwemer down here. When it is ready, I will unleash this on the surface world and it will kill everyone. Man and elves, regardless of race, gender, or age. Everyone will fall under the power of the Kalumidium, and you heroes will be powerless to stop it." Kagrenac said.
"We can work out a deal, more supplies, more deliveries, and you don't have to stay down here. Those who want to can come live with us up on the surface. We can make this work for all of us." Nerevar said.
"Am I supposed to buy this nonsense? This coming from one of the six who would come and kill us in our sleep, in our own home!" Kagrenac said.
"Then let us make a better deal, and don't make it with me, you can discuss it with the Emperor." Nerevar said.
"No deals shall be made! I will unleash this beast on the surface world and take it over! The end of man has come, it is time for the reign of Dwemer!" Kagrenac shouted, his voice echoing all over the room.
"This isn't about being free from here, is it? This is about you. You want to take over the surface world not for the Dwemer, but for yourself. Don't you?" Nerevar accused.
"Well someone is a smart little boy isn't he? I should give you a cookie, except, fluff you." Kagrenac said. "Capture them, do not kill them though. They can be used against Argon."
--------
"They really expanded in here." Argon said, trying to keep his head down.
"How do you mean?" Sheogorath asked.
"Last time I was here, there were only two market stalls. Now look at this, there's six." Argon said.
"Well, hopefully only five of them are actual shops." Fayen said.
"Look at it, there is two guards per shop. That's twelve guards in all, and they're all armed about as much as the guys outside." Argon said.
"Let's just get this over with." Fayen said.
That line echoed in Argon's head. Suddenly Argon had a flashback.
--------
Argon stood up from the bedroll his eyelids were begging him to let them close and go back to sleep, but Argon wouldn't let him. It was day now, time to get on with the mission.
"Good morning sleepy head." Serana was leaing over a makeshift cooking area from the shell of a mudcrab she'd killed earlier and a few twigs she'd found laying around.
Argon knelt next to her by the fire, the fire instantlly warmed Argon's cold body. You'd think after being in Skyrim for seven years Argon would be used to the cold, and he was, but it still felt good to kneel next to a fire whenever he was visiting the snowy tundra part.
"The Sea of Ghosts certainly is nice this time of year." Argon said looking out at the horizon. "What yah cooking?"
"I was making some horker stew, it'll be read in a little while." Serana said. "Hey, are you sure you wanna do this?"
"Don't worry, your cookings gotten better over the last two years, I'm sure I want to eat it." Argon joked.
Serana laughed, "You know that's not what I meant. I meant, are you sure you want to go and kill all of the Dark Brotherhood members? I mean, I know these guys are really bad people and they don't care who they kill as long as they get their money, but still, these people are like your family. You've fought with them, killed along side them, and you're their leader. Plus, it will probably really piss of Sithis." Serana said.
"I'm not gonna lie, I've had my doubts. But it's for the best, I don't know what happened, it's like one moment I'm ready to die alongside these people, and the next I realize how horrible and twisted they are." Argon said. "So yeah, I'm sure about it."
Serana finished cooking and the two ate the food out of little cups Argon had in his pouch (since they didn't have bowls) and they cleaned up the camp.
"Are you ready Serana? This could get pretty dangerous." Argon said.
"Yeah, let's just get this over with."
That was the end of that flashback, then Argon had another one. This time they were outside of Morthal, it was around two years after they had slaughtered everyone in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary.
They were standing at a stone circle with a cart of rotten cabbages leaning against one of the rock pillars. Serana stood in the middle of the stone circle with the pillars pointing right at her. Argon and a redguard man named Fallion stood off to the side.
"Are you sure you want to do this Serana?" Argon asked "You're going to be giving up all of your powers, just so you can be with me and when I die you won't have to live forever without me."
"I'm sure Argon." Serana said, flashing him a smile.
"Okay. I love you." Argon said.
"I love you too."
"Alright Serana," Fallion said, "this won't hurt a bit. Your vision may go dark for a moment but that's normal. You will probably feel light headed afterwards, but that'll go away after a few moments. There is a powerful soul inside this gem. I don't usually ask this, but who's is it?"
"My father's." Serana said.
A shocked and grim look fell over Fallion's face, but he quickly regained his composure. "Okay, are you ready?"
Serana answered with her catchphrase, "Let's just get this over with."
--------
"Hey, Argon, you still there?" Fayen said nudging Argon with his elbow.
"Yeah sorry, just got lost in thought for a second." Argon said.
"What were you thinking about?" Sheogorath asked.
"Nothing that matters anymore." and Argon meant it, he had Kara now. He was finally able to move on from Serana.
"Well then, can we get back to the task at hand?"
"Yeah sure. Here, take these scrolls, you each use them on one Dwemer, it'll make them go crazy and start fighting. After you do that, get out of here. I'll meet you back at the Field Lab." Argon told them and he handed them each a scroll of Frenzy.
Argon then went invisible and slipped through the crowd.
--------
"Run!" Nerevar yelled.
Guards were coming up from both of the walkways branching out from the platform they were standing on.
"Get the lass out of here Nerevar," Garnin said, "I'll hold them off."
"Good luck Garnin." Nerevar said.
Nerevar and Kara turned and ran towards the door to the tower. Garnin grabbed his battleaxe and turned to face the Dwemer.
The Dwemer came at him, using swords and not guns due to Kagrenac's order not to kill them. Garnin swung his battleaxe through the air and slashed off two heads at once, he spun around and using the end of the handle, bashed another's head in. A pair of cold hands grabbed and squeezed his throat, Garnin's foot went up and hit the Dwemer right where you shouldn't be hit, and Garnin turned to him and cut his head in half. Another Dwemer tried to stop him, and Garnin using his axe broke his sword and slashe off his hand. Garnin caught the hand as it was falling and he tore the bottom half of the sword from it and using the jagged edge of the broken blade, sunk it deep into the Dwemer's skull and let go. Garnin started tossing Dwemer left and right, over the platform to the deep floor below. Garnin was on a roll. The Dwemer started getting scared and retreating back into the chest of the Kalumidium. That was went things started to go wrong. There was a loud bang and Garnin fell to the floor, his knee was bleeeding and he knew what had happened, he'd been shot. He managed to get himself up and pull out a healing potion, he drank the potion and his flesh regrew and the wound healed, but the bullet was still lodged in his knee, now it was sealed in. Garnin was quickly limping to the door and he managed to get out.
The Dwemer started following him, but Kagrenac called them off. Garnin collapsed outside of the door and the two guards that had been out there earlier were now laying dead next to him, Nerevar and Kara must've killed them.
"Indoril! Kara! Help!..." his voice started to trail off and everything went black.
--------
Sheogorath and Fayen were wandering about trying to find the two strongest Dwemer to make crazy, the stronger they were, the longer they'd last in battle. They ahd to hurry though, Argon was already invisible and would become visible again in a few minutes. They found the two they were looking for, they were both standing next to each other at one of the shops looking at swords to buy. Sheogorath and Fayen used the scrolls and as they said the words written on them, the scrolls burned up. The Dwemer went crazy and grabbed the swords and started attacking everyone. The guards went over there to try to calm them down before the would be forced to shoot them.
The whole marketplace crowded around the Dwemer to watch the guards attempt to subdue them. Even the shopkeepers left their shops. Argon quickly snuck around the room checking the back of every shop but he couldn't find the artifacts, finally in the last one, he heard a faint hum from the wall. There were loosed bricks where the hum was coming from and he pulled them out, inside was a regal golden chest decorated with little golden pictures and in the middle was a small circle and inside the circler was a small line with a half circle at one end of it, and inside of that half circle was an even smaller half circle. About a fourth of the way up the line from the first half circle were two smaller curved lines that again, had a half circle at their ends and there were small little prongs branching off from those circles.
"I've seen this symbol on the side of Lexicons" Argon thought to himself.
Argon opened the chest and on the inside were two Dwarven gauntlets unlike any he'd ever seen before, and a small hammer. Argon put the artifacts in his pouch, closed the chest, and covered the hole with the bricks. He then carefully closed the door to the back room and went through the crowd towards the door, two guards were both carrying a dead body which each had one bullet in the head.
--------
"Am I dead?" Garnin asked, his eyes opened and he was laying on the stone bed in the Field Lab with Nerevar and Kara hovering above him. "Guess not."
"You gave us quite a scare." Kara said.
"Here drink this." Nerevar thrust a small cup at Garnin.
Garnin took it and drank the black liquid inside. It tasted like rotten eggs. However, knowing it was important, he swallowed it then gagged.
"That tastes horrible." he said.
"That horrible taste, will save your life. We dug the bullet out of your knee, what you just drank was a cure for the poison that was laced around the bullet." Nerevar said.
"And THIS will close up the open wound in your knee." Kara said, handing Garnin another cup.
This one tasted like sweet honey. The wound in Garnin's knee closed up and he was able to stand.
"So you two did come back for me." Garnin said.
"We heard your cry, we couldn't leave a friend behind." Nerevar said.
At that moment, the doors to the Field Lab opened.
"We got the artifacts." Argon said pulling them out and placing them on the table.
"We can hide them under here." Nerevar said, lifting one of the floorboards. Underneath was a small stone chamber just big enough to fit the artifacts.
Argon place the artifacts in the chamber and Nerevar closed the floorboard.
"So how was your mission?" Argon asked.
"Kagrenac knew we were coming, he set a trap. Garnin barely got out alive, but we found the Kalumidium. Argon, it's huge." Kara said.
"How big?"
"About three hundred feet." Nerevar told him.
"They must have expanded that back room to fit it in there. This is not good." Argon said.
"No it's not." Nerevar said, "And we may have the artifacts now, but Kagrenac is gonna try to take them back when he finds Keening."
"About that." Argon said, and he went over to a small satchel sitting on a shelf that no one had noticed.
"I hid this down here a long time ago. I realized its true power and decided that it needed to be out of the reach of Tamriel, but somewhere I could get to it if need ever arose." Argon said.
He pulled out a small cloth that was wrapped around some sort of dagger shape. Argon pulled back one part of the cloth, and resting on the cloth in his hand, was Keening.
--------
Kagrenac was sitting on his throne looking out over Blackreach when the Head of the Guards came to him.
He knelt in front of Kagrenac's throne. "My lord..." he said in a nervous voice.
"What news do you have?" Kagrenac asked.
"There's... There's been another break in..."
"Where?"
"Th-The market my lord. Three items were taken..."
"Both the Wraithguard gauntlets and Sunder I assume?" Kagrenac asked.
The Captain nodded his head.
Kagrenac arose from his throne and walked over to the Captain, the Captain stood up.
"That's two break ins in the last two days, both of which you failed to stop." Kagrenac said slowly walking forwards, forcing the Captain to slowly take steps back.
"But, for the second one, I was with you, at the Tower of Mzark." the Captain explained.
"And you also failed to capture Garnin or the other two, thank you for reminding me."
"But-- then I didn't fail to stop the second, I was following your orders." the Captain pleaded.
"Just as your guards follow your orders. And your guards didn't stop the break in, they failed. Thus, YOU failed." Kagrenac kept forcing the Captain back.
"Oh please my lord, please have mercy!" the Captain cried, he took another step back and he slipped off the edge.
Kagrenac grabbed him by the front of his armor and held him above the castle below. The Captains feet managed to find the edge of the platform.
"Oh thank you my lord, thank you for saving me." the Captain said.
"Tell the Divines I said their heroes will fail." Kagrenac commanded, and he released the Captain's torso and he once again fell.
Kagrenac turned and walked back to his throne as the Captain fell crashing to his death.
"Should we send someone to clean that up?" one of the guards asked.
"No." Kagrenac said, "Leave him there, let his bloodied corpse serve as a sign to all who fail me. Rather, ready the guards. Tomorrow we take back what is mine."
ultimatedovahkiin
Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
I know it's long, but hopefully it's worth the read.
mattizcool
Flying lawnmowers are cool.
And indeed it was worth it. Also nice job on bringing out the cruel nature in the Dwemer as they were known to be cruel.
