Chapter 16

Glass shattered against stone.

The floors, the walls, the inactive pipes. From the top of the chamber, Athias took flask after flask from the collection held in Remiel's arms and haphazardly chucked them around every level of the Falmer filled chamber.

The creatures moved quickly to investigate the sounds, splitting into groups. Each one recoiled as they neared the points of impact. The sometimes bubbly liquid left behind by the shattered vials released nauseous fumes that drew troubled sounds from the creatures.

The creatures weren't stupid, a portion of their number left to patrol the top level. They weren't free of the fumes' effects though, flinching as they carried out their slow patrols.

With the potions thrown, Auri led the way, steps lighter than feathers. To her it was child's play to cross the stone bridge, stalking past blind Falmer, no sense of fear to shake her steps. At the end of the bridge, she could've turned right to follow the round path down a level. She took to the left and stopped beside a closed Dwemer door.

There were doors on every level and Remiel, the one with the most first hand experience with the Dwemer, said every ruin was different. There was no telling which one led to the control room so they had no other choice but to go one by one.

Auri readied her bow, taking aim towards them.

Remiel began her advance.

Her crouched movements lacked the practiced finesse of Auri's steps but she was no stranger to skulking about. He'd expected someone like her to panic when the Falmer approached but even when they took a step in her direction to sniff the air, she neither froze nor jolted. She kept it moving and reached Auri with no issue, grabbing hold of the door's switch.

Now it was his turn.

Athias walked forward. He didn't bother crouching or anything like that; two spells in effect. Oakflesh in the event he was discovered and Muffle to ensure that didn't happen in the first place. He wasn't ashamed to admit that without magic he likely would have been discovered immediately, no where near as experienced with the stealthy approach.

Catching elks by surprise didn't compare to toeing around creatures with a heightened sense of smell and hearing.

As it were, he walked right past the Falmer on their level, all within range of his magicka unable to perceive any sound from him and those beyond it too far to pick the little noise he was making.

He reached the end of the path and turned right, strolling down the stone decline. A Falmer passed him, pointed ears twitching. It stopped to sniff the air and reached out. Of course, he was already gone, avoiding the patrols on this level and stopping beside the switch of a door.

Athias pulled his switch down.

Remiel pulled her switch down.

Auri fired an arrow.

Mechanical clicks and a sound akin to turning gears alerted every Falmer in the chamber. An arrow pierced the head of one of their own, its body falling over the edge and splashing into water below, setting them all running.

Athias stepped around approaching Falmer, heading back up to the others. None followed, checking out the opening door as well as the splash further down.

A burn spread across his nose.

Athias let loose a reflexive sneeze, quieting it with a hand.

Those in range of his Muffle spell heard nothing but the Falmer further down? Many of them were turning away from the splash and rushing up the spiraling stone pathway, communicating through primitive grunts and noises.

It was too much to hope Remiel's concoctions didn't affect him.

A pep added to his step, Athias quickly found his way to the door on the upper level.

Unlike the one on the lower floor, still swinging open as Falmer gathered around it, Remiel had pushed the switch back up almost as soon as she pulled it, the doors barely parted.

Taking off his bag and quietly slipping through, Athias narrowed his eyes.

The door had led into a dark hallway faintly illuminated by the crystal above it, a silent pipe running along the right wall and a path to the left. Two Falmer were coming down a flight of stone stairs ahead, swords and shields in hand, no space to step past them.

Athias slipped his bag back on and pulled himself onto the pipe along the wall.

The Falmer walked past the opening to the left. One stopped. Then, after sniffing, went down the darkened path while the other continued to the door. It stopped beside Athias and made more sounds, communicating with those on the other side.

He loved the adrenaline of a fight and the excitement of exploring the unknown far more, but Athias found himself enjoying the tense thrill of the situation.

Would he be caught? Where were Auri and Remiel? How long had it been since he casted Oakflesh and Muffle? Would he be able to cast them again and keep going?

So many unknowns. So much uncertainty. He might just understand why Auri's people considered stealing an art if this was what was involved. Not just anyone could keep their cool and make all the right calls.

The Falmer finally closed the door and started heading back down the hallway. It stopped to make noises down the pathway to the left. Its ally emerged from the darkness and the two left, one wandering back up the stairs they had come from and the other going further down the room and turning a corner.

On their way to inform the others of what was going on no doubt. The main chamber wasn't the only thing infested by the Falmer.

Athias dropped off the cold pipes and headed down the hallway. He peered into the darkness of the left.

Remiel was curled up beneath a table made of dwemer metal, her dagger in hand, while Auri balanced on top of it, an arrow nocked. Effective enough places to avoid Falmer detection but an amusing sight for anyone with a pair of working eyes.

"You made it." Remiel whispered, quietly rolling out from beneath the table. "For a minute there I thought we were going to have to kill those two."

"We probably should have. All the Falmer in this area will be on alert soon." Athias whispered back.

"What?"

"I said, we should have killed them."

"Huh?"

"Open up your ears Remi. He said we should have killed them." Auri said with a smile as she silently dropped off the table. Athias instantly recognized the playful energy in her eyes; she was up to something.

"My ears are open. His lips were moving but I didn't hear anything." Remiel said. "Maybe I breathed in some of my potions fumes? No that can't be, I heard you just fine. Oh, maybe he breathed in the fumes? That's an odd side effect."

Athias nearly facepalmed. He was Muffled.

"Really Auri?" Athias questioned as he pulled in his magicka, canceling the spells effects. He didn't have enough control to differentiate between ally and foe.

"What?" She said innocently. "Surely the expert mage wouldn't have forgotten to do something like cancel his spell? You're too smart for that."

"Oh, is that what happened? I wish I had enough magicka for that to be a problem for me." Remiel muttered the last part mostly to herself. "Well, the plan worked, so we should give ourselves a pat on the back. Although, I was hoping those things wouldn't be back here too. I don't have enough potions for us to do that again."

"It wouldn't work as well anyways." Athias said, taking a peak around the corner. The hallway was still empty. "Things look like they get pretty disjointed from here; the smell wouldn't spread."

"I think we'll be fine. There's more space to hide and we won't have to worry about their archers hitting us from every angle." Auri said. She pointed towards the pipes that lined the area. "These metal things should help us get around too."

"Pipes." Remiel corrected absent-mindedly, reaching out to feel the metal. "Normally that wouldn't be possible but it'd looks like the security system isn't the only thing that's down. How long have the Falmer been down here without proper ventilation? There must be other openings providing air considering we haven't passed out yet but-"

While Remiel muttered to herself, Auri looked his way, confused by what the woman was talking about.

"These pipes were used for heating and bringing in fresh air. If they were working they would probably be too hot to crawl around on." Athias said, while pulling himself on top of them. That bit of information was something anyone who read up of Dwemer should know so it shouldn't have Remiel breathing down his neck. "Get her. We should get a move on before the Falmer come this way."

Auri nodded and, after a quick poke to the back of Remiel's neck, managed to pull the woman out of her theorizing. The two followed up after him.

"Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall." Remiel quietly repeated to herself over and over as they headed deeper in Nchuand-Zel.

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

「Alert: Numerous skills advanced」

「Light-armor: 23 -> 24 Restoration: 29 -> 30 Illusion: 23 -> 24 Alteration: 24 -> 25 Sneak: 23 -> 25」

「Alert: Experience threshold met 」

「Advice: Rest as possible to advance your level」

Athias pulled his sword free from the neck of the Falmer he had dropped onto and rose off its fallen body. Auri landed beside him and made her way up the bloody stairs in front of them, stopping to pull arrows out of dead Falmer. Remiel dropped from the pipes above with a stumble and quickly followed after Auri.

Just as Auri said, handling the Falmer in these enclosed spaces was a simple task. She fired arrows from the safety of the pipes, focused on taking down archers before they were found. Those with swords, concerned with reaching Auri, were unprepared for him to cut them down. If the sound carried far enough to alert others, reinforced by Oakflesh and obfuscated with Muffle, Athias took on the new arrivals with support from Auri. Remiel stayed near her, a ward ready.

They were an effective team.

As he followed them up the steps and into what resembled a living area, much of it buried under the rumble but home to intact chairs, tables, and an odd tree in the corner, Athias noticed the body at Remiel's and Auri's feet.

"A member of the research team?" Athias asked. He kept his voice low, still on high alert in case any Falmer were still nearby, waiting for a chance to ambush them. They might look primitive but they weren't idiots.

Remiel was reading through a bloodied journal. Taken from the man's body he assumed.

"Yep, I wonder how he managed to get this far in." Remiel mused as she flipped through another page.

Athias decided to leave her to it and moved to check one of the two pathways connected to the room. Auri could handle the whole protection duty alone for a bit.

The one straight down led to a….torture room? There was some kind of old rack in the room obviously meant to hold something humanoid. A glass flask sat on a table beside it alongside some tools covered in dry blood.

The bizarre thing was that the left path led to a pair of bedrooms both big enough to contain a small family, outfitted with stone beds and dressers.

Who in their right mind kept a torture chamber a stone's throw away from their bedroom? Or kept a torture chamber at all?

To be honest he shouldn't be surprised. The Dwemer were known to be logical and while he doubted it, it's quite possible the intelligent and useful were allowed leeway to indulge in their darker desires. These were the same people who blinded an entire race trying to avoid extinction and made slaves of them.

Intelligence did not mean someone was beyond cruelty. If anything, intelligence enabled cruelty. Whenever an advancement was made, someone had to bite the would be bullet and he imagined the Dwemer used the snow elves for that. Why risk yourself or kin as test subjects for magic and technology when you had all the slaves you could want?

That's just a theory though.

Athias returned to the main room and found his two companions standing around the odd tree from before. It looked old but it wasn't particularly big, near leafless branches growing out in every direction.

"The researcher's notes claim this tree resembles one from the city of Whiterun." Remiel said.

"The Gildergreen." Athias said as he joined. That explained why he found the small tree so odd. "It's an old tree in Whiterun that's considered sacred by one of the religious groups there. Apparently it came from the one of the oldest trees in all of Skyrim."

"That sounds interesting. I would love to see them both if we ever get the chance." Auri said.

"Hmmm, I wonder why the Dwemer have this."

"Who knows." Athias quickly followed up before Remiel started her muttering. "We should get a move on and find the control room."

"Actually, can we take a break? I'm not sure how much I can keep up with the both of you." Remiel request. She wasn't exaggerating; an invisible weight lowering her shoulders and a slight sluggishness to her movements. He had seen her use a stamina potion during their clambering atop the pipes but that wasn't enough to truly fight the building exhaustion.

A window popped up, reminding Athias of his own state.

[Mentally burdened]

[Description: Prolonged concentration and focused use of your magicka has dampened your cognitive abilities. Continued magicka use above a certain degree will worsen the effects.]

[Effects: Maximum magicka reduced by 10% and magicka regeneration slowed by 25%]

Getting around with Oakflesh and Muffle active minimized the chance of injury but he wouldn't be able to keep it up all day. As the condition worsened, magicka potions would need to supplement natural abilities. Once all the physical activity caught up with his body, the same would be true of stamina potions.

This was as good a chance as any to mitigate that.

"Come on, there were some rooms back there. We'll take an hour or two then get back at it." Athias said, leading the two down the left pathway.

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Doing battle with a crazy headache right now so I'm keep things short here.

Hope you all enjoyed and toss me a stone if you did.

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