Chapter 29

A loud click filled the large stone chamber they found themselves in.

"And it's open!" Remiel declared as she stepped away from a stone table, the dwemer metal chest atop it opening. "How's that for useless?" She added, specifically looking Athias's way. He ignored it, checking the chest's contents. Compared to the game, these things weren't nearly as prevalent. A natural change; it made no sense for precious valuables to be tucked in the corner of every room and hall just waiting for anyone to stumble across them.

After trekking up and down stairs, backtracking from dead ends, and pushing deeper into Arkngthamz, the group now stood in the first normal bedroom in the entire place. Spacious with only a single stone bed at its center and decorative pieces of furniture about, it was likely the room of the head engineer or someone of similar importance.

The perfect place to find some valuables.

Athias scooped a handful of coins from the chest. Cold to the touch, the things were made of metal -few a silvery-gray, but most golden- and a face similar to the giant ones built all around the ruin marked the octagonal shaped coins.

"Nice, collectors pay quite a bit for those coins in my experience. I assume that's also true in Skyrim." Remiel theorized.

"As long as you find the right person to sell them to, that is the case." Katria confirmed. She waited on them beside the room's entrance, foot bouncing. She didn't care to partake in any looting, but didn't dissuade them from it either, eyes on a more distant prize.

Athias handed the coins over to Remiel. "We'll split the gold when you sell that off." He said.

"I'll get us a good price." Remiel assured him, happily putting them away.

Aside from a few gems and amulets featuring Dwemer fashion, the only other significant thing was a dagger. Despite all the time that'd past, the little thing was in perfect condition; sharp, clean, and free of rust. The air filter system down here must serve as an extremely effective purifier for there to not be so much as a speck of dust present.

A suitable upgrade for Auri; those bone daggers of hers would be useless if any automaton managed to close in on her.

He handed the dagger to Auri as they left the room and reentered the long corridors, fallen automatons marking the direction they came from. Katria led them the opposite way, shield held up.

It wasn't long until something began to feel off. He wasn't sure what. His Sixth Sense didn't react strongly to automatons, a detail he attributed to their status as machines carrying out orders, so he couldn't be certain of what exactly was setting him off.

"The ruins have gone quiet." Auri whispered, a suspicious edge to her voice.

She was right. The once humming pipes above were dead silent. When they backtracked the hum returned, but for one reason or another it was inactive ahead. Unable to spot anything else out of the ordinary, they kept on the path until they found themselves climbing a flight of stairs only to be blocked by metal doors.

Pulling the switch beside it did nothing. Pushing against it with all four of their combined might was just as ineffective. There was no lock for Remiel to pick either.

Magic it was.

"Stand back." Athias warned as he placed a hand at the center of the sealed doors, spreading his magicka around it.

"Would the Corrode spell be effective against Dwemer metal?" Remiel asked. "Perhaps it would be better to target the stone around it?"

He had already figured that out. The abundance of scrap lying around throughout the ruin had made the perfect subjects to ascertain just how effective Corrode might be in a battle against automatons.

It was a waste of effort.

Just as Remiel theorized, the metal was especially resistant to his magicka. It almost felt like there was a barrier, thinner than a strand of hair yet sturdier than metal, preventing foreign energy from invading the material. He could force it but the process would burn through his magicka bar before any significant change was made.

Maybe that barrier was why Dwemer metal didn't rust. There was something about it that set it apart from anything he'd felt up to this point.

Athias spread his magicka into the stone around the doorway. Cracks spread across it almost instantly.

Water sprayed from them.

Athias yanked his hand back, spell canceled. That failed to stop the spread of cracks, more and more water sprayed onto the ground and leaking down the steps.

Fuck.

All of them turned and sprinted down the steps, a string of curses leaving Remiel. Auri reached one of the rooms that lined the corridor first, slowly forcing it open. They filed in, just as a loud crash echoed throughout the ruins. Together, he and Katria slammed the door shut, cold water slipping in around their feet.

Not a moment too soon.

They could hear crashing waves careen past, moving with such speed that the ground almost shook. The crashing settled after a minute, taken over by the thuds of whatever had been caught up in that rush of water.

The familiar drum of thrill kept his heart pounding as they listened. Narrowly avoiding death by flooding. That was an unexpected first.

The harsh thuds settled and the floor stilled, replaced by a disturbing quiet.

Just how much water was that? Was the entire ruin flooded? Would opening this door be a death sentence?

Athias and Katria stepped back from the door and it held strong. Not a good or bad sign. They were too deep in to try and swim back to the entrance, leaving them with only one hope.

"If the room floods, we head straight for those stairs." Athias said.

"And if it's flooded up there too?" Remiel asked.

"I'll try and use Corrode to make enough space for us to breath." Athias said. It was a long shot, but he didn't really see any other solution.

Katria nodded. "That plan will have to do."

After Auri and Remiel grabbed ahold of something, he and Katria inched the door open, everyone taking a deep breath.

Cold water flooded in, his world flipping and turning. It took Athias several attempts to orient himself, now floating upside down in the middle of the room. Katria hadn't gone as far, stopping closer to the door.

There was no time to enjoy the freeing weightlessness.

All of them moved quickly, using the walls and anything they could grab to propel themselves out of the room and back towards those stairs. Broken automatons laid at the bottom, alongside old weapons, armor and other valuables. Athias pulled himself past it all and swam to the top of the steps.

Katria surfaced and he followed soon after, droplets falling from his hair and into the water settled around his upper chest. Remiel popped out, head turned upwards in an attempt to keep her mouth above the water. Auri was next, though she didn't bother standing at all, floating beside them.

"I'm starting to believe these places are death traps." Auri said.

"Don't think like that Auri. These are all just happy surprises on our way to becoming rich and understanding the Dwemer." Remiel said. She adjusted herself and nearly dipped back under. "Oh man, Scrap is really heavy. You guys don't think the rest of the place is flooded do you?"

"I certainly hope not." Katria muttered, already on the move. "At least the flooding took care of the automatons. We shouldn't have to do any fighting in this area."

Athias moved to follow, Auri gripping his shoulder and floating along.

Remiel stumbled along, but eventually gave up and grabbed his other shoulder. "Don't mind me, I'm just going to hitch a ride."

The struggles of being short.

x-X-x

They emerged from watery steps into a grandiose chamber unlike anything else in Arkngthamz. A pathway made of Dwemer metal led from them to a massive wall, various stone archways positioned in front metal gates. Hung high enough to oversee the entire chamber was one of those giant metal faces, it's piercing stare reminding them that this was not their territory. The inactive centurion behind the gate straight ahead reinforced that, a clear indication of the trouble that awaited them.

"A tonal lock." Katria muttered, staring up at the wall with wide eyes. It was the five odd machines, each with a ring of faintly glowing gems extending around them, that truly enraptured her.

"I was under the impression that there were almost none of them in Skyrim." Remiel said as she freed Scrap from her soaked bag. "Whatever is beyond those gates must be valuable."

"Is that lock special?" Auri asked while shaking her hair and attempting to dry her antlers.

"Instead of relying on a key, we will have to hit those resonators above the gates in the right order." Remiel explained. "The Dwemer of Skyrim were said to be some of the last to adopt the technology. It is amazing that we came across one so soon."

"Don't forget to mention the consequences of inputting the wrong code." Athias said, pointing out the body ahead of them.

A rotted corpse was propped against it, still fresh enough to release a nauseating scent. Destroyed spiders were spread across the ground around him.

That was one of many bad omens.

Pipes that ran along the edges of the room were destroyed, rocks having fallen through them. Off to the side, a once proud tower was nothing more than rubble, more rocks laid on its metal roof.

Athias was willing to bet it was the product of a small scale earthquake. Knowing what he did, he'd say screwing up the code one more time would result in the massive earthquake that originally killed Katria.

He wanted to avoid that all together.

"The Dwemer do love their security." Katria said, as they headed over to the body. "You said there is strength in numbers. This poor sod made it this far on his own. The four of us are prepared to handle whatever the Dwemer have to throw at us. We aren't turning back now."

Easy to say when she had no idea seismic activity is what they were up against. If this place did come down, survival was a coin toss.

"Maybe, but there's no reason we should play by their rules." Athias, something of an idea in the works. "A lot of that wall is made out of stone."

"Your spell is risky. The whole wall could come down on us." Katria said, his thought process as clear as day.

"I'd rather we take that chance than play the Dwemer's game." Athias insisted. "Do you think it a coincidence that the rest of this place is almost perfectly intact but the one room holding a tonal lock looks ready to fall apart?"

Katria eyed the rumble and fallen rocks around them. "A security measure like that would be too much, even for the Dwemer."

"And the if the Aetherium Forge is back there?" Athias retorted. He knew it wasn't, but she was operating under that assumption. "Anyone interested in the Dwemer should know how significant that was to them. You don't think they'd go to any length to protect it?"

"By that logic, they would've prepared to deal with a mage."

"They probably did." Athias agreed. The Dwemer had been smart. That level intelligence most certainly gave birth to a intense pride. "But I doubt they were prepared for whatever event caused their entire race to vanish. It's their technology that lasted this long, not whatever magic they used. I've never seen any trap meant to detect or deal with magic, have you?"

"To the Dwemer, science and magic are one and the same. Their animunculi, as well as those resonators, are remnants of their use of magic." Remiel chimed in. "But you do have a point. Aside from their machines, I can't claim to have seen any other form of Dwemer magic in the ruins I've visited. If they set up defensive magic or enchantments more in line with our methods before their disappearance it wouldn't be much of leap to assume they've all run out of power without anyone around to maintain them."

If Remiel agreed with him, then Athias was certain he wasn't sprouting total nonsense. His method would be a hell of a lot safer than playing a guessing game with those machines above them.

"Let me take a look around first." Katria said. "If I don't find anything, we'll do things your way."

He nodded and she got to exploring the massive chamber, starting by checking the body before them.

"Do we have a plan after this?" Auri asked, in the middle of wringing out her hair. This marked the second time he'd seen her soaked to the bone and it was no less distracting. The glow of nearby crystals drew his eye to a droplet trailing down her neck, along smooth skin and-

And she was standing right in front of him, looking up with a smug smile.

"What'd you say?" Athias asked. He couldn't be bothered to come up with an excuse.

"What's our plan after this?" He shrugged, waiting for her to follow up. She knew he didn't really come up with any concrete outline which meant she must have a plan of her own. "You remember the tree you spoke about in that Dwemer ruin? The Gildergreen, you called it."

"That one in Whiterun. Want to go see it?"

"I am rather curious about such an old tree." Auri said. "And I think Remi would appreciate us leaving the mountains of Forsworn behind."

So would he. A ring or a necklace of magic resistance was a must have if he wanted to have any hope of walking away from a straight fight with their mages.

"We can start making our way there." Athias said.

Auri hummed and resumed her little drying session. He made it a point to look away; there was no need to fuel her budding ego.

It wasn't long until Katria gave up her futile search for clues and gave in to his plan, all of them gathering at the gate to the left.

"Just…don't bring this place down on our heads." Katria warned as Athias placed his hand against the cold stone beside the gate.

A hole big enough to crawl through. A simple plan that demanded precise control of his magicka, something he excelled at.

Athias spread his magicka across the stone and condensed it into a spherical shape, a spider web of cracks forming across the stone.

Dust fell down from above.

Hopefully his attempts to avoid an earthquake didn't inadvertently cause a cave in.

x-X-x

It has only been a week but it feels like its been a year. Training went so well, I got throw into a full schedule pretty quickly so my free time been zip but I had last night and tonight off. Going to try to get another chapter of either this or SWTOR out tomorrow morning but we'll see. I'm settling into proper night shifts this week so I'm hoping to resume something more stable in term of updates. I'll keep you all posted on that.

Sorry for the delay but life will be life.

Check out the star war story if you haven't already. Really enjoying writing it even if I haven't had as much time as I wanted.

As always, come support me on patreon if you want to read 10 chapters ahead or just want to help me do this full time. You also get to read a week ahead for my star wars story, all in one tier, so that's convenient if you're into both.

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