Chapter VII: Securing A Beachead

I spread my arms dramatically and run to my part "Welcome ladies and gentlemen to Fal'Zhardum Din, or as it is more widely known to us mere mortals: Blackreach." I explain most generously.

Marco claps enthusiastically and stops after realizing no one is following his lead, he shyly scratches his cheek and retreats to the back of the group eliciting chuckles from most of us.

As everyone takes a breath of the... surprisingly fresh air, I turn serious and start giving orders "Edrassa start raising walls, Marco, Minthara you two will follow me to the right" I turn to the rest of my vassals "Davos you and the brothers will secure the left."

(General POV)

As Reyvin's orders are heard everyone quickly gets to work.

The lift they exited was positioned on high ground compared to their immediate surroundings so Edrassa got to work rising walls at the more obvious edges of the small hill. The high ground was as many know a most potent weapon, even more so when fortified, and considering how many Falmer Reyvin detected at a glance they would need every single advantage they could get.

Davos' group, which was heading south (not that they had any idea about that while underground) found themselves exploring a small cluster of Dwemer houses, the walls were in pristine condition and there wasn't a hint of rust anywhere in sight.

"Bloody mad that" Varen mutters and turns to Davos "How old would ya recon this place is bossman?"

Davos shrugs as his eyes remain focused on their surroundings "Thousands of years obviously, don't know much beyond the fact that the Dwemer were active in the Merethic era and disappeared after the battle against Saint Nerevar." He scratches his chin in thought "Something about attempting to turn themselves into a god or something resulting in them deleting themselves from existence." He shrugs once more "Ask the Lord if you are curious, I ain't the scholar here."

Varen looks at him worriedly "Wouldn't that be improper?"

Davos thinks the question over for a moment "At the moment? Not really." He explains simply "In the future? Most likely yes."

"Oi, you two!" Oren calls them over "Something you might want to see over here!"

Davos approaches the oldest brother and his eyebrows lift with both surprise and annoyance as he looks upon a somewhat fresh skeleton wearing necromancer robes sitting slumped against one of the houses, a dead red herb resting in one of its bony hands.

"Keep quiet" Davos begins sternly "The Falmer have very sharp ears and your yelling will alert them" Oren winces and nods. Davos grabs the red plant and the satchel resting beneath the skeleton "Lord Dagoth will know what to do with this, let us continue with our work."

(Reyvin's POV)

"Go out and explore they said" Marco grumbles as he and Minthara are forced to trudge through the shallow waters leading up to a murky tower "It will be a right fun time they said" He throws his arms up "Well does it look like I am having fun right now you twats?!"

"Marco!" I turn to him abruptly, my movements eased by the fact that I am levitating above the water, he flinches as my glare lands on him "Language."

The Altmer looks ready to strangle me and is only distracted by Minthara lightly laughing at the constantly changing colors of his face.

Soon we finally stand before the tower's entrance, the webs encasing some of it giving me a very good impression of what might await inside. I open the doors confidently and march in like I own the place, the local spiders stiffening and standing at attention as I approach very much justifying said confidence.

I look at the collection of twenty massive frostbite spiders that had probably gorged themselves on the Falmer for years, natural selection making sure that they were among the most powerful of their species.

My voice is filled with Mephala's aura as I command them "Hunt none but the Falmer, ambush them and feast on their bodies, make sure you are not discovered."

Not even a moment passes and the spiders get to work.

"Well... that was" Marco trails off.

"Utterly disgusting." Minthara finishes for him.

I shrug and head for the massive cluster of eggs "Waste not, want not." I run my hand across the eggs and feel the literal thousands of lives inside, eagerly waiting for their chance at survival.

A shame that they will not get said chance "Hatch" I command and as one all the eggs burst and the newborn spiders gather in front of me, almost in perfect order I note absent mindedly.

I turn to my students and tell them to guard the door, and as they rapidly exit the room, likely trying to get as far as physically possible from the mass of spiders, I get to work. 

First I draw a circle around the roughly two and a half thousand spiders and they quickly stack upon each other to make sure they all fit. I start adding runes and as I do so I can almost feel a hand guiding my work.

I guess Mephala approves of the idea.

Finally, nearly half the chamber stands covered in mostly Dunmeri script and some weaker soul gems, I clap my hands and a burst of Magicka ignites the ritual. I feel the infant spiders' panic for but a moment before their lives are extinguished and the sea of small memories and impressions starts to batter against my mind.

Soon the ritual is complete and I feel yet another connection attach itself to the outer shell of my soul.

[Conjuration Adept => Expert]

[Summoning bonds:]

[Scorch]

[Shackled Reach]

[+Chittering swarm: An army of poisonous, flesh-devouring tiny spider-shades, blessed by the divine mistress of said spiders. What is there not to love?]

I scoff at the description, of course she couldn't hold back whenever something has even the tiniest connection to her...

The quiet giggle in the back of my head is all the confirmation I need.

The advancement in conjuration was a pleasant surprise, but then again I have been abusing shadow-walking like a complete madman so it wasn't an utterly unexpected development.

I was becoming very good at many different schools far sooner than I originally expected. A shame that I couldn't dedicate more time to expanding my spell repertoire to a ridiculous degree but I guess that hyperfocusing each school for a specific application had its advantages.

Still, this expedition was very likely to take months if not longer so I had all the time and excuses to start delving deeper into the art of spellcrafting. Whenever we established ourselves down here anyways...

I fetch my students and we head back toward the campsite, the next wave should be coming down soon, better make sure they weren't met with a wave of Falmer.

----------------

We return to the campsite roughly at the same time as the other team I sent out, Edrassa has been hard at work and a earthen wall now surrounded our little beached into the unknown.

Davos approaches me and tosses a small satchel which I lazily levitate into my hand and look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Found that under the remains of a necromancer" He informs me "It looked to be about a year old, not sure how he even got down here." He mutters and straightens up "Anyway, we did notice a large group of Falmer moving about, they seemed to be patrolling but they didn't approach the little hamlet we scouted."

I nod slowly "I am not all that surprised that someone else floundered into this place" I say loud enough for everyone to hear "It is theorized that there are dozens of entrances leading into Blackreach from all over Skyrim, some even posit that there are tunnels leading straight to Markarth and beyond somewhere, though those are most likely completely buried at this point."

"Why would they be buried if this place survived for so long?" Minthara asks, confused.

I shrug "They might not be, but I think that the Falmer might have collapsed at least some of them to keep themselves safe... or it could have just been earthquakes" I hum.

My musing is interrupted as the lift opens up once again and Phineas walks out with about a dozen adventurers following behind him.

"Reyvin" He nods in greeting "I trust we are in no immediate peril?" He asks with his usual terseness.

"The danger is not immediate but it is imminent" I offer my non-answer "The Falmer have not noticed us yet but they will inevitably do so, so we should make sure our position is defensible."

He blinks at me and lazily lifts his left hand, summoning two dozen of the most intact Dwemer spheres I left upstairs "Will this suffice for now?" He drawls.

I think his implication over for a minute before nodding "I should be able to get at least some functional before the day is out." I wince lightly "Though some will likely end up ruined."

He waves me off "You speak as if anyone else could even dream of starting the cursed hunks up, I will fly to the other side of the cavern and cause another cascade to distract them" He states with certainty "Do not worry if I do not return, I will be back either way."

"But of course Master Gestor" I incline my head "Happy hunting."

He leaves without another word and I quickly get to work.

Soon our reinforcements start coming down in waves, Tolfdir likely remaining atop the lift to make sure everything was in order.

A full day passed before I felt a massive wave of death magic erupt on the other end of the cavern, and just as promised Phineas did cause a great distraction. My rapidly evolving clairvoyance informed me that close to a thousand Falmer died and dozens were dying by the hour. Phineas was playing the slow game it appeared.

My freshly conscripted mega spiders were also doing majestic work, they had apparently taken even my subconscious preferences into mind and started targeting the mages among the Falmer ranks, decimating the apprentice level casters of the enemy force.

===============

As I finished tinkering with yet another sphere, my eight if my tired mind could even count at this point, my tent was suddenly covered in webs as Mephala decided to show herself once more.

"Prince Mephala" I greet her without turning around, my hands still busy with the finishing touches of the targeting inscription upon the sphere's left arm.

"Reyvin" She greets me as warmly as a Daedra can "I see you are keeping busy." 

I flick one last rune into place with my diamond-tipped carving needle and turn around "I am indeed, there is so much to find down here I might get lost for years on end."

"The Dwemer were creative, yes" She nods slowly "And yet they were also exceedingly arrogant, you would do well to learn from their mistakes."

I chuckle at her insinuation, causing her to raise an eyebrow "Oh I am not nearly foolish enough to do something as stupid as they tried to do, I value both my freedom and my life far too much."

She nods happily, and to my great surprise it almost looks like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders "That is very good" She smiles in her usual seductive manner "In any case, I have come here to give you a bit of a warning."

"Oh?" I raise a questioning eyebrow.

"The void's followers have set their sights on you." She states ominously.

I tilt my head "The murderhobos?"

She looks at me for a long moment before bursting into merry laughter, she slaps her thigh multiple times before she calms down and gives me a wide grin "Yes indeed... the murderhobos" She confirms before falling into another fit of giggling.

The atmosphere turns infectious as I too join in the honorable act of deriding Sithis' bunch of murder happy madmen.

"I admit I am a bit surprised" I begin after we finally calm down "I thought you preferred to see how things played out instead of interfering directly."

She waves me off daintily "That is for the lesser followers dear, you are my chosen and it would reflect very poorly on me if you were to get taken out due to the temper tantrum of a gold skinned whore."

I tilt my head "Elenwen actually decided to try and remove me did she?" I cup my chin "Probably the wisest decision she could have made, not that anything she did could have made a difference in any case." I quickly add.

Mephala nods in satisfaction "Indeed, the little fool thinks herself wiser merely because she has gold skin" She chuckles "Making her an even greater fool."

"I do wonder..." I begin tentatively "Some theorise that you are the one posing as the night mother, and you should know by now how I deal with threats..."

She blinks "Oh..." and once again begins laughing "I haven't done that in two centuries" She explains happily "Good times..."

"Right" I drawl "Well, I am most thankful for the warning" I tilt my head "If that was everything?"

"Actually" Mephala interrupts and brings out two cups filled with a familiar steaming brew "How about you and I chat for a while?" She smirks invitingly.

Hmmm, on the one hand prince of lies and betrayal, on the other hand... supernatural coffee.

Fuck.

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Bunch of tiny spiders

chewing on your bones

they will eat your liver

if you don't give me stones

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