//------------------------------//
// 26: The Elder Scroll 
// Story: Sonata's Crazy and Wacky Adventure in Skyrim 
// by Sonata Blaze 
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	The group eventually found themselves standing on a small walkway that allowed them to stare up at the humongous cavern that they had suddenly found themselves in. Directly in front of them was a well worn road that split into three directions, one of which would lead them to a small hut of some kind that sat right in front of where they were standing. They had two choices, go to the left or go to the right, though Sonata had to admit that she was surprised by the sheer size of what they were looking at. She also found it hard to believe that something like this even existed beneath Skyrim, though considering how far down they must have traveled to find the entrance she guessed that it was possible.

"So this is Blackreach?!" Sonata asked, wonder filling her voice for a moment as she took in the sights, momentarily forgetting about the host of orcs that might still be following them, "I'm impressed that anyone could build something of this size, not to mention so far beneath Nirn's surface."

"It could take us days, if not weeks, to search for the Elder Scroll we need," Kree commented, worriedly looking around them and seeing all the potential buildings that they could search through, "we don't have that much time to waste on searching all of these buildings... I'm afraid that we'll only have the time to search one of the buildings, so we'll have to guess which might have the scroll and go from there."

Sonata hated the fact that they had to guess which building had the scroll, as it made her feel like they were gambling with the fate of the entire world. The old man that had given her the two metallic items she was holding didn't say much about where the scroll was actually housed, only mentioning something called 'Tower Mzark' before she and her friends had left his company. She was about to say something about walking around the area and observing all the buildings, but then she stopped herself as she realized that she had been incorrect. The old man had, in fact, given her the building that she needed to look for... they were looking for some type of tower, where they would likely find the Elder Scroll.

"Clever old man," Sonata commented, turning to her friends for a moment with a grin on her face, "He told us that the scroll was housed in a tower, so we know exactly what type of structure we're looking for. I mean, how hard could it be to find a tower underground?"

"There should be one around here somewhere," Kree replied, looking around for the tower in question as they walked down to the stone road that had been constructed by the dwarves, "though I'm sure that the dwarves built some guardians that we'll have to destroy before we find our destination."

As soon as the words left her mouth they heard several contraptions open and noticed some more of the dwarven creations moving out of the walls, spheres and spiders at the moment. Sonata, not wanting to get involved with the creatures, moved them into the shadows and walked around them, stopping for a moment to watch where the creatures were going. She then looked at the door they had come through and noticed some of the orcs from earlier standing there, though she noticed that they had lost some of their number to the Falmer. While she was glad that some of the blind elves had taken out some of the orcs, which she was thankful for, she was also annoyed that they had still managed to follow her this far.

Either Lord Grul wanted the Elder Scroll for some strange reason, which Sonata would not allow to happen, or his soldiers had been sent here to recover something else, but Sonata didn't want to stick around and find out.

Kree beckoned everyone to follow her down the road that they had taken, the one on the left of the door they had used to enter Blackreach, though as they passed by a sleeping centurion she made sure to activate it as they slipped into the shadows. Sonata wanted nothing more than to bring the entire cavern down upon her enemy's heads, but at the moment she was nowhere near the power that could have allowed her to do that. She also thought against that idea after a few minutes, because she was sure that it could have some effects on the world above them and might cause some destruction.

"Death to the Dwarves!" Sonata heard one of the orcs shout, to which she heard the sound of metal hitting metal as she and her companions slipped away from the fighting.

It took them some time to find the tower they were looking for, mainly because they had to hide whenever more of the dwarven creatures passed by where they had been standing a few moments ago, but they eventually made it to their destination. They found an elevator that started to take them to the top of the tower, but as they waited for the contraption to move Sonata summoned lightning into her hands. She was going to destroy the elevator the moment they reached the top, because she didn't want to give the orcs another way out if they intended to use Blackreach as another base of operations for their master.

When they arrived, and everyone had climbed off the elevator, Sonata turned to the contraption and threw her lightning into the stone, shattering everything that allowed the contraption to hold itself together. She then shattered the stone platform into a thousand pieces as the lightning coursed down the tunnel they had climbed up, tearing it to pieces and ensuring that the orcs could no longer follow them up to where the scroll was hidden.

"There, now they won't be able to follow us," Sonata said, pulling out the cube as she moved into the room they needed to enter, where she found a large dwarven machine that looked as if it hadn't been used since the day that the dwarves vanished.

The group walked up the ramp in front of them and noticed that there were large crystals hanging above their heads, all of which were attached to metal beams in the ceiling. It didn't take her long to spot a control panel on the walkway above them, one that had a small indent that she assumed was the area that the lexicon was supposed to fit into. Sonata smiled as she fit the cube into the indent, where she heard a soft click before the entire room began to wake up once again, to which she spotted a button that could be pressed. Once her friends were standing around her, and she had a nod from Kree, she pressed the button and caused the rings below them to move.

She immediately noticed the changes and pressed the button a few more times, causing the rings to continue to turn before another button opened up, allowing her to change the structure on the floor a couple more times. When the third button opened up, and Sonata pushed it, the entire system of beams that were handing from the ceiling began to move, lowering to the floor where her friends had once been standing. After a few more presses and the fourth button opened up she hesitated, wondering if there was some obvious trap that she was overlooking, but then shook her head and pressed the final button. The crystals began to move, separating from each other as the larger one came to a rest in the center of the room and cracked open, revealing a golden scroll with gems on the case.

Sonata stared at the scroll as she approached it, because even with her fractured powers she could still feel the ancient power that had been woven into whatever material the scroll was made of.

"The Elder Scroll..." Sonata commented, picking up the scroll and staring at it for a moment, "We had better get this back to High Hrothgar and see what it can tell us about the Dragonrend Shout... and then we'll be able to figure out how to defeat Alduin."

Fortunately for them there happened to be another elevator that they could take, one that hopefully would allow them to get away from where the orcs had entered Blackreach. Sonata seriously wondered what the orcs wanted with the dwarven city, and the ruins that had been resting before the entrance to the hidden city, but she decided that it didn't matter at the moment. She needed to stop Alduin... so stopping the orcs would have to come later, but she hoped that she wasn't making a mistake in allowing those orcs to live.





The lead orc frowned as the tower the Siren Queen had taken shattered into a large number of pieces, mainly because he wanted to be the one that turned her over to his master. Still, capturing the Queen wasn't there main goal in coming to this area in the first place, so he turned to his surviving soldiers and nodded to them for a moment. The surviving mages set a brazier on the ground between them and used their magic to light it, though when the green flames appeared everyone knelt before the fire. It was fortunate that all of the braziers that the orcs carried had a special enchantment that allowed them to connect to the main encampment, because it allowed their masters to travel from place to place without wasting their own time in walking everywhere.

The orc had been expecting Aggronak, or one of the other Lieutenants, to appear in Blackreach and direct them to their next task, but then their true master, Lord Grul, stepped out of the flames and touched the floor in front of the brazier. Their master walked up to the fallen centurion that they had felled before activating the portal, though he remained silent the entire time as he studied the contraption.

"Is its heart intact?" Grul asked, not bothering to turn around as he addressed the orcs around him, to which the leader took it upon himself to bring the answer their master desired.

"Yes Lord Grul, we made sure to keep its heart in one piece," the orc answered, though he would never admit that he was interested in why their master wanted them to make sure one of the machines survived the attack.

"Good, then we can begin our work," Grul commented, pressing a dark green crystal into the machine's heart, a grin appearing on his face as he noticed the arms move for a moment,"Gather everything you need from the surrounding area and then take the portal to Fellglow Keep... we should have our surprise ready for when the Queen next returns to the city of Whiterun."