The area they appeared in happened to be another part of the cave, like Amaryllis and the others expected, but this time all of them found that there was an intact arch with a portal back to the shrine they had just activated, along with a passage that had to be the way out, so with nothing else to do they readied their weapons once more as they carefully followed the path in front of them. The passage in question was a winding path that brought them to a ledge that happened to be above the area that they had traveled to not a few seconds ago, though everyone remained at the ready and proceeded with the upmost caution, as one wrong step might make them fall down into the depths of this area, though it sure looked like this might be bringing them outside, as odd as it seemed. Sure enough not a few moments later they reached the top of the path and stopped when Za'kera noticed what was in front of them, as they were in what appeared to be a valley that was cut off from the rest of the world, one with all sorts of flowers they had never seen before, more of the odd sabre cats and deer, a wayshrine about five to ten minutes away from the hole, and who knew what else. Amaryllis even noticed a path leading to the next part of the Vale, one that seemed to be full of cobwebs, though Za'kera nodded her head towards her and she took off without delay, quickly discovering that they were at the start of a valley that also had some glacier pieces here and there, plus a waterfall or two, in fact it was rather beautiful when she looked at it, and there was an elegant building on top of the entire place, which had to be the Inner Sanctum.
"This has to be where Auriel's Bow is resting, we just need to make our way through the place, open the wayshrines, and do as Gelebor instructed," Amaryllis said, where she returned to the others without delay, who were glancing out at this valley and knew that they would be here for some time, in fact it might take them a day or two and she realized that they were lucky to have packed some food, otherwise this would have gotten bad.
"Well, at least we can't be mad at him, since he was telling the truth about the cave bringing us here," Serana spoke up, as if she had considered the idea that maybe Gelebor was someone who sent adventurers to their doom, more than what he had done since their arrival in the area that he rested in, before she sighed as they glanced out at the rest of the Vale, as it seemed like quite the trek in front of them, "we had better get started... the longer we take to find Auriel's Bow, and claim it from Vyrthur, the more time my father has to track us down and send more of his minions after us."
Za'kera said nothing as she stepped down the rocks that were in front of them and started to make her way over to where the next wayshrine rested, causing Amaryllis and the others to follow after her, though they discovered that the sabre cats didn't care for them and started to stalk them, though in response to that Amaryllis used her bow to take a few down while Wind used some Fireballs to do the same thing. Other than that it didn't look like there were any other enemies in this part of the Vale, so they would be fighting wildlife for a while before reaching the spiders that had made the cobwebs, though it did give Serana time to comment about the fact that this place was like an entirely different world and that they had to be the first ones to step foot in this place since the attack on the Inner Sanctum. In addition to that they found a path that had been, at one point in time, a road lined with Snow Elven arches, so they followed it and focused on making sure nothing came at them, though Amaryllis wasn't detecting much and her flight earlier hadn't shown her much either, save for that pack of spiders that would be coming up after the next wayshrine. As such they were able to walk over to the structure in no time and found a Prelate tending to the closed structure, where he asked Za'kera the same question that the first one had asked earlier and she replied with an identical answer in no time, causing him to raise the structure and reveal the next wayshrine for them to acquire the water of, which Wind did without delay.
"Interesting, we don't have to pass five trials to gain the right to fill the ewer," Wind remarked, as she had been expecting each closed shrine to possess some sort of test for them to overcome, just like the first one that Gelebor had opened for them earlier, though she was pleased with that information since it meant they could save time and not have to waste any precious time on going through multiple trials, "so, where's the next wayshrine?"
"Up the hill, passed the spiders... beyond that, no idea." Amaryllis replied, due to the fact that she had checked out the rest of the area and didn't take a note of where everything else rested, to save some time and focus on her scouting of this odd place, where Za'kera nodded her head for a moment as she made sure everyone was ready, as the moment they finished collecting the water she had them depart.
Like Amaryllis said they encountered several spiders in the pass she had discovered earlier, where this time Serana used a bit of her frost magic by unleashing a spinning wave of frost that knocked all of the spiders down in a few moments, which allowed them to make their way through the rest of the cobwebs and stop at what seemed to be an area that gave them a good look at the rest of the Vale. Everyone took in everything Amaryllis had seen, though now she found a stone on top of a waterfall that seemed important, meaning they might check it out, a frozen river that was breaking up into floating bits of ice, which they might have to cross over at one point, and who knew what else lurking in parts of the walls, because if their new friend's information was right there should be an army of Falmer in this place. Of course Wind found some more old Snow Elven arches, or at least the fragments of them, and with how old everything else looked it made sense that they lost the path that they were following, as in the ancient road disappeared, though it didn't stop them from headed down to the frozen river and found that if they headed to their left it would bring them to another wayshrine. As such that was what all of them did, they walked over to where the shrine rested and found one of the Prelates tending to it, so Za'kera answered the question once more and he opened it so they could fill the ewer with more water, once more showing them that they didn't have to tackle another challenge to earn the right to use this basin.
With that done they retraced their steps back to where the path ended before heading to the right, finding a path on the floating ice and the mountain that was beyond it, though one thing they glanced at was a giant who seemed more frosty than the others Amaryllis had seen so far, a Frost Giant she guessed, though she and the others ignored it as they headed up a hill and found a jagged stone bridge that brought them to another wayshrine.
"You know, if these three were easy to track down, we might be done with this in no time," Serana commented, speaking her mind as Za'kera answered the Prelate's repeated question, leading to him opening the shrine so Wind could obtain more of the water from the basin, though Amaryllis found herself agreeing with her, as while the first one was difficult the last three had been incredibly easy to find, making her wonder what sort of difficulty might be attached to the last shrine, before she glanced out at the frozen water near the large stone.
Za'kera shared her desire to check out the area, since this might be the only time they pass through this area, though as all of them walked out onto the ice something interesting happened, two large orange scaled dragons burst out of the ice and flew through the air for a moment, but instead of stopping and attacking them, like all the others had done, they glanced at the group for a few seconds before flying off towards Skyrim.
"Hm... I think they heard Alduin's call and were waiting for someone to awaken them," Amaryllis said, because it seemed like the most reasonable explanation for what was going on, since she was sure that all of the dragons had answered the call and were on their way to Skyrim, or were already lurking in places as they waited for a call to war, before Za'kera took a moment to walk up to the stone and found a Word of Power etched on it, allowing her to expand her arsenal before she rejoined them.
Once everyone was ready to go they retraced their steps once more and returned to the fourth shrine, heading across the stone walkway once more before discovering a path that seemed to be carved into several sides of the valley that seemed to wrap around this Vale, and, sure enough, there were a number of Falmer structures and that told everyone what was going to be happening in the near future. Amaryllis decided to use the height of the surrounding area to their advantage, as in she flew up to some of the higher ledges and loosed arrows at the twisted elves that were scattered around this part of the Vale, making sure to weaken the groups that Za'kera and everyone else were approaching before they arrived, that way none of them were got in her way and received an arrow that was for someone else. In addition to that she loosed a fair number of arrows off into the distance, tracking down Falmer who weren't aware of the fact that they were here and took a few number of them out, before she found one who looked more elegant than those her companions were taking down, as he had a yellow sash and some armor that was more refined than the normal Falmer attire. When she spotted the bow in his hands, however, she focused on him and loosed a few arrows at her new target, three of them striking his chest before he collapsed, causing her to let out a sigh as she slipped over to where the odd Falmer had been resting, only to find that the bow was far more elegant than all of the modern bows she had seen.
It was a Snow Elven bow, an artifact of a bygone era, and sure enough she found that the odd Falmer had a quiver on his back that was full of grand looking arrows, which she claimed as well, even though part of her was going to keep them for a more challenging foe, so in the end she ended up replacing Firiniel's End, which she carefully returned to her pack, since it was a reminder of her fallen Family members, and carried her new bow into battle, where she nocked an arrows and let it fly, sending it straight into the heart of a Falmer, killing it instantly.
"Gelebor wasn't joking when he said a large number of Falmer invaded this place," Amaryllis remarked, speaking when she rejoined the others as they walked over one of the ledges and used a bridge, one made by the Falmer at some point in the past, to cross over to another part of the valley, where Wind loosed a pair of Fireballs at another foe who dared to hiss at them from where he was standing, knocking her target down in no time, "though it's a good thing we haven't attracted the attention of every foe in this place... would have made this far harder for all of us."
"With you and Wind, not to mention our vampire friends and our warriors, I have a feeling even an army of Falmer would fall before our combined might," Za'kera replied, where she dodged an incoming attack from one of the enemies, causing the sword head to get stuck between the sections of the bridge, opening the way for her to swing her blades and cut an x into her foe's chest, before she beheaded the Falmer and resumed walking over the walkway.
Amaryllis had a feeling that even without their Daedric allies, and the new power that Dagon had given her, the end result would have been the same, as the Dragonborn was a legendary figure in Nord legend and there was no telling what might happen if it was just her and Serana making their way through this place, before she focused on the enemies that were in front of them as she readied another arrow. Her reasoning for that was because another group of Falmer appeared on a bridge that was higher than where they were currently standing, one who didn't have any armor on over their chest, which meant she could take her target down with a well placed arrow to the chest, though when she spotted another Falmer, as in one with dark armor, she took off and removed it's head with her daggers. Based on what Amaryllis knew the enemies with this attire were some of the tougher ones, as their spells hurt and it was possible that they might do some serious damage to the others, so by taking it out she allowed Za'kera and the others to continue moving, where she resumed her own task and kept her eyes on the enemies that were scattered throughout the area they were currently moving through, loosing arrows to take out some of their enemies before they knew what was going on. Of course the one thing that came as a surprise to her was that they were heading straight for the side of a massive glacier, one that seemed to be blocking the way forward, save for the stream that seemed to cut through it, though based on her searches from the air she had no idea where the final wayshrine rested, so traversing the glacier seemed to be the best course of action.
Za'kera agreed with her as she listened to the information that they were given, even though Lydia and Sharva cut down some enemies that were in their way as Wind and the other ranged fighters took out another set of enemies with a spell or two, but she knew that they were likely going to run into some additional enemies inside the glacier, to which she and the others continued to push their way through the enemies that were in front of them before they finally reached the glacier's opening and headed inside.
The first thing they had to worry about was that the passage eventually changed into a flowing river of sorts, with floating bits of ice a fair distance in front of them, though everyone hugged the wall to their left and made their way into a rather massive chasm, where they currently right at the bottom, but there was no telling where the exit was and that meant they were going to have to fight their way through more Falmer before they found it. Sure enough they found a troll that was all by itself, who was in the middle of fighting two enemies, more Falmer to be exact, though in that moment they found out that the sound of them fighting was drawing the attention of the others in the area, so while the others dealt with the ongoing battle Amaryllis raised her bow and focused on the enemies that were resting on the other side of the chasm, as a fair number were coming towards them. In that moment she took out several Falmer, making sure to strike their hearts so they died either instantly or in a few seconds, allowing Za'kera and the others to focus on their enemies without having to worry about being overwhelmed, even though she knew that with the power of the Dragonborn on their side they had no reason to worry about anything right now, especially when her friend unleashed one of her Shouts, Unrelenting Force, and knocked the group of Falmer that happened to be in front of them into the wall behind them. Such a thing allowed the group to quickly take them out, with Amaryllis keeping her eye on everything else that was in this chasm, since she could sense more Falmer moving around the upper parts of the area, meaning more enemies were on their way to this part of the chasm, though once they were done clearing out their enemies the group resumed moving as Za'kera headed into the icy tunnel that had been carved into the glacier at one point in time.
As it turned out the icy tunnel brought them to one of the Falmer's traps, which they activated from afar so no one got hit by it, before walking out onto a thinner walkway that happened to have some crude guardrails that the Falmer must have set up at one point in the past, before totally losing their sight anyway, though Amaryllis continued to loose arrows at the enemies that were ahead of them, since this glacier seemed to have plenty of Falmer for them to fight, all while making sure to retrieve her arrows and anything of value that their foes had on their bodies.
Eventually they reached a path that had to be the end of the icy area that they had to pass through, since it was leading to what had to be the outside, and sure enough Amaryllis and everyone else discovered that they were in the outskirts of a Falmer valley, given all the structures that were in front of them, to which everyone sighed as Za'kera stepped up and cut one down as it emerged from one of the huts. In the following seconds Amaryllis loosed some arrows into the Falmer that were off in the distance and took her targets down without wasting time, allowing the others to focus on those who were in front of them, though they didn't have to worry about the more powerful magic Falmer, as those ones were slain due to Amaryllis's arrows, which she was thankful for since she really didn't want to contend with those foes. Wind, of course, did make sure to track down any staffs that might be in the hands of the Falmer, since they would be put to better use in the hands of their army, to be turned against the Thalmor, though that was secondary to blasting their enemies and making sure the path was clear so Za'kera, Lydia, and Sharva could deal with their melee enemies. Other than that they didn't have to worry about any Chaurus sneaking up on them or joining the battle, for a time anyway since when Amaryllis walked into a cave passage she found some along the way, as in the flying variety to be exact, though it didn't stop her and the others from slashing and blasting their way through their enemies as they followed the passage in question.
At the end of the tunnel, however, everyone smiled as they discovered the wayshrine that they were looking for, where the Prelate asked his question and Za'kera gave the answer without delay, allowing him to open it up so Wind could access the basin, though once that was done they headed down the rest of the path and paused for a moment as they found a rather large temple, the Temple of Auri-El, and knew that this quest was about to be over, and Amaryllis was ready to put Harkon behind them so they could focus on the cultists and Miraak.