20demayo Chapter 273: Interlude I: The Quest for Aetherium
Chapter 273: Interlude I: The Quest for Aetherium
Chapter 273: Interlude I: The Quest for Aetherium
(General POV, a few moons before Harkon's demise)
A small group comprised of seven elves and one human can be seen moving down a narrow path to the south of Markarth's hold. Five of them were simple guards, armed with halberds and armored in the usual dark hue preferred by their lord, all of them were relaxed and chatting amongst each other while one held the reins of the singular horse drawing a small cart behind it.
The scene on the cart was less relaxed.
One corner was occupied by a short and slightly feral looking Falmer playing with a throwing knife while mumbling something to himself while in the other sat a Nord woman currently looking over a messily arranged map. The leader of the group, a young pale haired Dunmer woman, sat at the cart's front with a deep frown on her face.
Edrassa Moabain tsked in irritation as Katria once more rearranged the map and opened yet another book, its pages scrawled over with notes and references.
"I still can't believe you lied to his face and got out alive." Edrassa addresses the Nord woman, startling her out of her research "To think you promised so much only to end up with mere hints."
"Well, I did say it was going to be a search." Katria retorts hotly, annoyed by the distraction "Just because I don't know the exact location of everything we might need doesn't mean I am in the wrong. Besides, I have seen the resonator beacon" She turns almost frantic as she continues justifying herself "It had a slot meant to hold some kind of key and I am sure we will be able to find it in Arkngthamz!"
"Well, you obviously know something at least." Edrassa scoffs "You would not have survived otherwise."
Katria gives her an odd look "I highly doubt someone of your lord's renown would have killed me over a single lie. Kicked me out, yeah sure, but he did not strike me as the cruel kind."
'Poor innocent fool' Edrassa laments her temporary colleague's naivety but quickly redirects her thoughts toward something more productive "I knew we were going to need to explore, I am just disappointed with how shallow your preparations are. For all we know this could very well be a massive waste of our time."
"I see what is going on here." Katria hums knowingly "You just don't like leaving your luxuries, do you?"
The Dunmer pointedly looks straight ahead "And what is so wrong with that?"
"Oh, nothing at all." The Nord coos at her as if she were a child.
Before she can show the irritating human her place, Eldor clears his throat "Is there a point to all this bickering? The lord is a powerful seer, and if she sent us here he naturally believed we would find something of worth at least."
"See, even the goblin agrees!" Katria smirks triumphantly, causing some of the soldiers to let out quiet chuckles.
"Now look here you little shi-"
"Eh hem." Edrassa interrupts "We are here."
The bickering bunch raise their gazes and are met with the usual monolithic architecture of the missing deep elves. Before any of them can so much as blink, Katria is already armed and armored, her enchanted bow in hand and a bunch of leather bound books loaded on her back.
Edrassa and Eldor share a look of pure suffering and the Falmer sighs "This is going to be a thing, isn't it?"
Cursed with long experience in such matters, the Dunmer just accepts her fate and signals for the soldiers to stock up, hopefully the idiot human wouldn't get herself killed too quickly.
They found Katria just inside the first passage, fiddling with the lock of the large bronze gate hiding the entrance into the true facility. Thankfully the well over a dozen traps had been triggered so many times before that all the bolt launchers in the walls failed to skewer her.
Instead of bothering with scolding the human, Edrassa simply walked up to her, gave the gate one quick look, and proceeded to tap certain sections of the bronze metal. The contact sent out a faint ringing sound through the place and then as if it were never locked in the first place, the gate simply opened.
Suddenly out of her fugue, Katria gave her guide a look of genuine surprise "Wha-?"
"I was stuck with this task for a reason." Edrassa explains smugly "Now let us find the fabled aetherium that was for whatever inane reason stuck in this forgotten place."
"Well, it all had to do with a war between the Dwemer holds-" Katria begins only to be interrupted by the Dunmer.
"Yes, yes. You wrote a whole book about it already. I may not like you but I am not stupid enough not to get informed about what I am doing."
Stuck between being flattered and insulted, Katria had to run after the group as they left her behind almost a full minute ago. She really needed to get her head out of the clouds, didn't she?
"Yup, that sure looks like a ruin." An amused voice echoes through the rocky cave covering a massive portion of the once great city.
"Your powers of observation are noted, Eldor." Edrassa almost growls.
The sleazy Falmer bows "Why thank you, my lady, I exist to impress."
The sound of huffing draws them from their conversation as Katria catches up and is greeted with the same sight as they "Well, that doesn't look good."
"You don't say." Edrassa snips dryly.
"But I am sure we will be able to find what we are looking for!" Katira exclaims excitedly "We just need to give the surface level a once over and we will no doubt find an intact passage."
The Nord woman starts looking around the place without even waiting for them, surprisingly enough finding a couple of passages and leading the group into a vast opening which led to an odd looking Dwemer construct in the distance.
"Something tells me that is exactly what we are looking for!" The Nord sates with complete certainty after a full three seconds of looking.
"Delusions are not a valid source of actionable information." The already emotionally exhausted Edrassa snarks.
"Oh come off it you stick in the mud." Katria waves her off with her ever increasing excitement "We just need to reach that spot and the proof will be ours!"
The Dunmer prepares to make a passage from the nearby stone but goes completely ignored by the Nord who was already looking at everything with the speed of a hamster on cocaine.
Minutes later Katria gives the group a slightly embarrassed look "Um... do you have any
ideas?"
"And you know where you can voluntarily stick it you-"
"Eldor." Edrassa cuts him off with a threatening smile "Get in the water or I will confiscate
your loot for research purposes." He shivers "You wouldn't."
"You did endanger the group multiple times due to your constant pillaging." Her smile
widens, the expedition having long since brought out a bit of a sadistic streak in the young Dunmer "I wouldn't even be lying to Lord Reyvin if I said that."
"Gah" The Falmer flinches "Fine, fine. I will get in the damn pool."
A few minutes later the sound of turning gears fills the room and the water level lowers
enough for the gate that barred their path to be opened.
And then the gate opened on its own. And a centurion barged out from within.
As the sounds of gears were replaced with those of battle, Eldor found himself suddenly
enjoying the now shallow pool of water. Truly, one should enjoy the little things in life.
He did not enjoy it much after a stray lightning bolt struck the water though.
(Weeks later)
The ragged group of adventurers approached yet another Dwemer ruin, all decorum and
pomp long since forgotten as they were forced to avoid Stormcloak patrols for days at a time. Even Edrassa failed to look prim and proper, and she had access to alteration magic.
They approached the gates of Mzulft, many of their weapons and armor replaced by scavenged Dwemer metal as even with the many enchantments they were blessed with the constant fighting had overburdened their lord's gifts and now the lot of them looked more like mercenaries or bandits than proper soldiers.
Before Edrassa could unlock the gate, she felt Eldor tugging at her sleeve and turned to see
him pointing at a small shed like structure nearby "I think we should check that one out first." "Just because you got an admittedly good price for your loot doesn't mean we are going to
waste any more time scrounging through any more holes than necessary." Edrassa shakes him
off.
Eldor looks just about ready to accept her words when Katria speaks up "Maybe we should check it out? It may be some sort of storage building."
It does not take them long to explore the small building, and once they managed to unlock
one of the small doorways within they came upon a wonderous sight. The last fragment sat there, beckoning them like sweet salvation at the end of a torturous pilgrimage.
"I could kiss the both of you right now." Edrassa almost cries now that her task was
technically completed.
"We do still need to go to the main resonator." Katria pipes in.
"No." The Dunmer rejects her with finality.
"No?" Eldor looks surprised.
"We are going to Winterhold." Edrassa nods to herself for her impeccable logic "Lord Dagoth
no doubt wants to see the forge himself and us wasting the metal on accident sounds like a good way to get our asses fried."
"You just want your bed back, don't you?" Katria teases immediately.
"YES DAMN IT, BY AZURA I WANT TO SLEEP IN AN ACTUAL BED NOW GET MOVING YOU
DAMN N'WAH!" Edrassa practically screams and starts pushing the chuckling Nord out of the storage room.
She could not even bother being surprised once she learned about everything that happened
during her absence.
You too must now go on a quest for a certain mineral of great potence
it is the law.
If you want to support me directly and get access to 35ish chapters (Some 70k-ish words) in
advance visit my patreon page patreon.com/Rastislav156
If you want to discuss the story or just meme about join my discord server:
https://discord.gg/NSDHGQpvsF (refreshed)