//------------------------------// // 50: Nchardak's Hidden Fear // Story: Sunset's Adventure in Skyrim // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Sunset and her friends followed Neloth as he descended to the ground floor of his tower, though they spent a good ten minutes making sure that everyone managed to reach the bottom level before they walked out into the ash once more. Neloth's apprentice, Talvas, accompanied them on their journey, no doubt to see his master perform his 'feats of magic' against whatever enemies happened to reside in the dwarven ruin. Sunset knew that they would find something to fight in the ruin, though she had the feeling that her friends would be able to defeat whatever waited for them, with or without Neloth and Talvas' help. After a few minutes of walking they reached another one of the Stones that dotted Solstheim's landscape, though Sunset was somewhat pleased to find that it had been been released from Miraak's control, telling her that the former Priest had abided by his Master's orders. Miraak, on the other hand, seemed annoyed by the fact that he had been forced to give up all the progress he had made in enslaving the entire island, something that Sunset knew thanks to how Frea glanced at him all the time. Neloth snapped his fingers as they encountered a group of ash spawn, summoning lightning into his hands before spinning around and planing the blasts into the leader's chest, obliterating the creature in an instant. He then snapped once more and a storm atronach appeared next to him, which lashed out with more lightning and struck one of the remaining enemies in the chest. He turned towards the remaining enemy and prepared to strike it down, but just seconds before he released the spell a massive ice spike struck the creature in the head and killed it almost immediately. He turned around and found that his apprentice had cast the spell, to which he sighed and nodded his head towards him, before turning back to the path and heading down the mountainside. When they reached the front of Nchardak, which Sunset discovered that the majority of it had been buried by the water, the group found a nest of bandits patrolling the outside of the ruins, but none of her friends made a move at the moment, as if they were waiting for something. "Go ahead guys," Sunset told her friends, including Miraak, Neloth, and his apprentice, before she beckoned to the bandits that were the closest to them, "Show them that you mean business." "As Magic wishes," Cicero said, pulling out a bow, something he had picked up while traveling on the ships to Solstheim and trained with thanks to several of the soldiers, and loosed an arrow at one of the bandits. Sunset had to admit it, and Bjorn did as well, but when the arrow struck the bandit they assumed that the person would turn toward them and sound the alarm, but he dropped dead, no doubt due to a poison that coated the arrow. Cicero then beckoned to the others and they advanced into the area that the bandit had been patrolling, though moments later the sound of weapons hitting each other could be heard. Sunset chuckled as she watched Fiona and Raja cut down whoever got near them, exchanging blows on those that fought them while appearing to not let anything touch them, while Lydia smashed those that approached her. Bjorn stayed beside Cicero, pointing out enemies that wanted to stay at the back and pin their friends with arrows, to which they loosed their arrows in unison and struck their targets down. Sunset was impressed that her friends were able to curb the tide of a force of bandits, so much so that neither Miraak, Neloth, or Talvas needed to get their hands dirty with the business of slaying the bandits themselves. "The Dwemer certainly knew how to build for the ages." Neloth commented, as if he was trying to impress Sunset with his knowledge on the dwarves, though while he spoke Talvas nodded his agreement with what his master was saying, "These towers have outlasted their creators by millenia. The book is housed inside that dome. I'll need to unlock the door for us. Lets get on with it. I had to clean out the riff-raff last time I was here, too. Where do they come from?" "One can only guess Master," Talvas answered, causing Neloth to sigh as they followed Sunset's friends to the sealed off door, as it was the only entrance they could see. "The Dwemer of Nchardak appear to have been fond of these control pedestals." Neloth explained, beckoning to the pedestal in question, "Luckily I found a cube to operate it inside on my last visit. I sealed the door when I left to keep out ignorant meddlers. Let me unlock it." Sunset nodded and let the dark elf open the door, to which the group walked into the ruin and found a seemly empty room that had only one other exit point... and the Black Book that happened to be sealed beneath the floor. She knew that they were going to have to clear out the entirety of the ruin to get at the book, but she hadn't been expecting it to be found the moment they entered the first room. Even her friends seemed surprised by the fact that they discovered the book's location so quickly, though they also appeared to share her disappointment that they couldn't access it just yet. "You can see the book right there." Neloth continued, sighing for a moment before he headed towards the other entrance, "So tantalizingly close... But trust me, no magic will open that. I'd have had the book already if I could. No, we'll have to do this the hard way. If we can restore the steam supply to this room, I'm certain I can open it. As you'll see, that's easier said than done. This way to the boilers." The group followed the wizard into a lift and descended into the depths, though while they went down it gave Neloth time to tell them some things before they arrived at their destination. "The last time I was here, I only explored a small part of the ruins." Neloth spoke, though Sunset had the feeling that he had enjoyed his previous visit to the ruins, "I was here alone then, and I find an assistant - or in this case a group of assistants - is absolutely essential for this kind of dirty, dangerous work." The the lift reached its destination they immediately got off of it, following Neloth as he led them into a massive chamber that was mostly covered by water. Sunset had the feeling that to activate the boilers they'd have to drain the water enough to allow them access, but then what they needed to do after that was beyond her understanding. She had almost no experience with dwarven ruins and had no idea what to expect from this one, which was why she was somewhat glad that she was sitting this one out. "Nchardak, The 'City of a Hundred Towers'." Neloth exclaimed, spreading his hands out to indicate that this was where they were supposed to be, "In its day it was the largest of the great Dwemer Archives and perhaps the most advanced. In the old stories, when the Nords came to conquer it, it's said the Dwemer sumberged the entire city beneath the sea until the invaders gave up. I have my doubts. But the city was a marvel of Dwemer engineering. Now... reduced to this." As Neloth approached one of the two pedestals in front of them Talvas moved to one of the stone slabs that his master walked by, though it appeared as if he was studying them so he could tell them where they needed to go. "The pumps only operate when a cube is in the pedestal." Neloth explained to the group that was following him, "And unfortunately, I have only one cube. These four boilers provide steam to the room upstairs. They're shut down, but they still respond to the control cubes. So, if we can find four more cubes, we can turn these boilers back on and restore steam power to the room upstairs. Then I should be able to open the book's protective case. Bring that cube. We'll need it. Talvas, have you made any progress reading those panels?" "Yes Master Neloth," Talvas replied, turning to face the wizard for a moment, "This device shows the location of four more cubes in this section of the city. It looks like most of the cubes were moved to the lower levels, perhaps to try to control the flooding before the city was abandoned. Interesting. That would suggest that the city must have originally sunk during the first cataclysm of Red Mountain." "Or that the Dwemer's servitors continued to try to preserve the city after their creators' disappearance." Neloth added, turning to the panel while his apprentice nodded his head once, before he turned to the door to the left of the pedestals, "Three of the cubes are through here. This seems like a sensible place to start. We should be able to unseal this door with the control cube I gave you." "I'll wait in the room with the Black Book," Sunset said, to which Bjorn turned to her and nodded his understanding, "I'll regain whatever energy I can for the fight with Fear... something tells me that I'll need every ounce of power I have to best her." Sunset didn't like to leave her friends and have them fight her battles, but they all knew that her fight with Violence had taken a lot out of her and that she needed to be prepared for her fight with Fear. She had seen how skilled her friends were in combat, especially when they were working together, so she had faith that they would be able to complete the trails that the ruin was going to throw their way. As Bjorn pressed the cube into the pedestal and opened the door for them to move onward Sunset turned around and walked back to the entrance of the ruin, with Miraak in tow. He had been told to help her accomplish her goals, but it seemed like he was choosing to be some sort of protector while she regained her energy. Sunset merely wished her friends luck and hoped that they would clear their task quickly, only because they were running out of time before Tirek brought about the end of Nirn. --------------------------------- Once Bjorn and his companions entered the next area of Nchardak they immediately found a cube sitting on a pedestal, not a few step away from the door, and beckoned for Cicero to pick it up, who grinned as he lifted the cube off of the pedestal. The moment the deed was done they heard the familiar sound of the dwarven machines waking up, though as they turned to the now opened walkway they found a trio of dwarven spiders making their way up to them. Neloth and Talvas, eager to get underway, each summoned a lightning bolt and threw them into two of the automatons, blasting them into the walls as the third one continued towards them. That was before Lydia took out her battleaxe and smashed it into the spider, crushing the gears and shattering whatever was keeping it alive, as it dropped to the floor in a heap seconds later. They followed the pathway the spiders had come from, as it was the only way they could go besides turning around, where they came to a submerged chamber that had a simple bridge for them to cross. Once on the other side Neloth pointed out the pedestals, to which Cicero eagerly placed his in the one one the right and allowed the water level to decrease. The bad news was that the metallic creatures that called the chamber home woke up and decided to attack them, but they had been prepared for something like that. As the smaller creatures, the spheres and spiders, came towards them Neloth and Talvas focused their firepower on the two massive centurions that had awoken as well. Lydia would not allow any of the creatures to approach her friends, so she stayed at the front of the walkway and made sure that if any of the creatures wanted to fight her friends they would have to go through her first. In a few short minutes, however, the fighting was over at the moment, thanks to the fact that the ranged attacks picked off the enemies that either ran from Lydia or took down the centurions before they could reach their destination. With the chamber cleared at the moment they approached the middle of the chamber, where Bjorn put the cube into a pedestal for a moment to raise a bridge that was blocking the way, before tossing it up to Cicero, who activated the actual walkway. They then moved into the upper area, where they quickly searched for the third cube for a few seconds before Raja discovered it, though as it was removed the water rose once more. They briefly backtracked the where they set down the cube at the end of the walkway, retrieving it and forcing the water to rise back to covering the entire chamber once more. Talvas beckoned them to a door that had been closed when they had first entered the chamber and they came to an passage that was almost filled with water, though it gave them the ability to swim up to the next doorway. Once in the next chamber they found a duo of dwarven ballista, both of which seemed eager to fight them off, before they heard something else awaken from its slumber... which turned out to be another centurion. Neloth, deciding that they didn't have time to waste, snapped his fingers and a storm atronach appeared beside him, to which he directed it towards the centurion as the group dealt with the two ballista. It was rather short lived, as the moment the atronach was finished with the creature it had been summoned to kill it proceeded up the stairs and tore the other two enemies apart. When their enemies dead the group moved up to the next pedestal and removed the fourth cube, forcing the water level to rise once more and opening the way for them to return to the main chamber. They returned to the two pedestals for a moment, giving Raja and Cicero time to place a cube in both of the pedestals, causing the water to lower enough for them to walk into the other area that held another cube. As they walked down the pathway they were attacked by more dwarven creatures, which Neloth concluded that they had been tied to the water level and only came out when it had reached the depth they were currently at. It was another easy fight, as it was mostly spiders and a lone sphere, but as they began towards the next door Bjorn spotted two more of the ballista machines waiting for them, to which he beckoned for Neloth and his apprentice to take one out while he and the others focused on the last one. Neither machine stood a chance against the combined barrage of spells and arrows, giving the group the ability to open the next door and walk into the final chamber. Once they were through the door they found an area that was divided by water, though it seemed that the only way they would be able to move forward would be to lower the three bridges that connected the room together. Bjorn, holding the cube that he had picked up at the beginning of the ruin, found a trio of pedestals sitting above their heads and walked up there, wondering if the three of them moved the bridges at all. He gently moved the cube into the one on his left, causing one bridge to lower while another rose up, before he tried the middle one, lowering the raised bridge into place. Neloth had him stop there, as he had blindly guessed the combination he needed to get them across the three lowered bridges, but as they started walking more spiders and spheres came out of their hiding places and attacked them. They fought on the bridges, tossing the remains of their foes into the water that surrounded them, before they finally crossed the final bridge and found another pedestal waiting for them. Neloth, still carrying the last cube from the last room, placed the cube on the pedestal and lowered the water, but before any of them could move a nearby pillar broke into pieces. With the way now open he told one of them that they would have to go down into the now uncovered area and recover the final cube, to which Bjorn said that he would be right back. Bjorn quickly found his way into the opened area, avoiding the metallic bodies they had dropped into the water, before opening the path he needed to take and proceeding onward. He then turned into an area that had spinning blade traps and the cube locked behind a door, but he sighed for a moment before heading inside the instant the two blades had separated from each other. He quickly unlocked the gate, collected the cube, and hightailed it out of the chamber as the water began to rise once more, though the moment he returned to the area his companions were standing in Neloth noticed him and removed the other cube, rising the water even further. With the cubes in hand they returned to the door that they had entered and returned to the main chamber, where they swiftly made their way up to the two lone pedestals that overlooked everything. Cicero picked up the cube he had sent down and the group approached the four boilers, where they quickly placed the cubes into the slots and reactivated the machinery that would allow Sunset to access the final Black Book. The moment the boilers were on a bridge lowered and another centurion appeared on the opposite side of the chamber, though it noticed them and immediately started coming their way. Neloth, growing tired of having to fight the creatures that called Nchardak home, snapped his fingers and threw a lightning bolt at the centurion, which was followed by one from his apprentice. Once the two mages made short work of the centurion they returned to the lift, which Sunset had sent back down the moment she and Miraak had arrived at their destination, and they began the journey back to the reading room. The moment they reached their destination and moved into the reading room they found Sunset sitting on the ground with her back leaned against the wall, while Miraak was standing close by with his gaze turned towards the door that would take them out into Solstheim. As they walked into the chamber Sunset pulled her head up and noticed them, to which she got onto her feet and stretched for a moment, before walking over to the button that Neloth was moving towards. "Now that the boilers are working, it should be simple to release the book from it's protective case." Neloth told them, pressing the button and allowing them all to watch as the seal that prevented someone from taking the book opened before their eyes, to which it was raised into the air by a pedestal, "Go ahead Dragonborn, its time that you dealt with your fear." Sunset nodded her understanding and approached the Black Book, casting a quick glance around to make sure that no one got caught in the spell when she traveled to Apocrypha, before she placed her hand on the cover and allowed its magic to take her to her next destination. --------------------------------- When Sunset appeared in the next piece of Apocrypha she was greeted by a moving walkway that was surrounded by the same eerie water she had seen everywhere else. The High Seeker that had been helping her throughout the other books was nowhere to be seen, so she figured that either he stopped showing because he had other business to attend to, or Hermaeus Mora didn't want to give her any more help. Either way she flashed over to the walkway, crossed through it swiftly, jumped over to what she assumed was the key to activating the other bridge, and then flashed to the book that would take her further. The next area she came to seemed to be a simply spiral corridor, though when she activated the key to move on she found that it was actually a large room, but without anything trying to kill her. She swiftly advanced into the next area, where she found that she could either leap down to a section of it and explore or move into the moving passageway that would likely take her to her goal. Along the way she spotted several of the Lurkers staring at her, but they simply kept their distance from her as she unlocked the way that the passage was taking her down. She then found herself standing on a balcony of sorts with the copy of the Black Book resting on a structure in front of her, but as she activated the key that would allow her to move on she still found no sign of Fear. With the other emotions it had been easy to find them, as the Seeker had brought her right to them, but it almost seemed like this one wanted to be alone for the moment. Unfortunately she had no time to waste at the moment, so she needed to locate her missing emotion, do battle with it, and defeat it so she could have access to Pride. She walked onto the bridge as she looked around for any signs that would point her in the direction of her missing emotion, but she was beginning to think that Fear was hiding herself on purpose. "What is it that you fear?" a voice whispered, causing her to look around for the one who had spoken, "Death? Absolutely not. How about failure? No, that's already happened and you've overcome it. Maybe a person perhaps? Certainly not any of the Princesses and your collection of friends. Oh, but now I can see your FEAR!" Sunset looked down at the level she had chosen not to look at and found a dark purple version of herself, Fear she realized, standing there and glaring up at her. She cursed herself for not checking the entire area to the best of her ability, because now her emotion had the drop on her and she was ill prepared for whatever she brought to the fight. She did notice that Fear didn't appear ready for a fight either, but she had thought the same way when she faced Despair and that had nearly cost her everything. "You fear Tirek!" Fear shouted up at her, causing Sunset to stop in her tracks for a moment, "Don't even bother trying to fool yourself into believing that you don't fear him and the power that he already commands... and the power that he's sure to bring to the fight if you dare to strike him. You cannot win Sunset Shimmer... and I'm going to prove it to you." Sunset watched as Fear's body began to break apart, swirling together as strands of darkness seemed to merge with whatever she was doing, before a massive red arm broke out of the vortex and grabbed onto the area around it. She watched as a second red arm repeated the same process, though not seconds later a massive black body seemed to emerge from the darkness. Her eyes widened as she recognized the form from all the stories she had heard and all the books she had read, as it was the centaur form of Lord Tirek. She then understood the game that Fear was playing, she was forcing her to face the one creature that she feared, though she knew that the emotion would likely be copying the power's of the demon as well. When the vortex died down Fear stood tall before Sunset, taking on the size of a giant, as the hooves touched the water below her and the head was all the way up at the pedestal the copy of the Black Book. "Come then, Sunset Shimmer," Fear taunted her, her voice twisted into a mockery of Tirek's own voice, "come and face your fear." Fear pulled her left arm back for a moment before swinging it towards the bridge, causing Sunset to flash to the balcony she had been standing on before activating the bridge, pausing to watch the structure shatter into pieces. Fear then pulled her other arm back and repeated the process, again causing Sunset to move out of the way, but this time when the fist struck the balcony she noticed that there were waves that followed it. That alone confirmed her suspicions that Fear would replicate the powers of Lord Tirek, to make it seem like she was actually fighting the demon and force her to face her fear. The emotion turned towards her as she landed on the structure that the copy of the Black Book rested on, but she was forced to move as another attack crushed the area to pieces seconds later. "Get back here you coward!" Fear roared, magic forming around her right hand, which cause Sunset to flash into the air as she attempted to flee, before the hand punched the air and cracks started to spread out. The force behind the attack was enough to knock Sunset out of the air, forcing her to land on one of the walkways she had used to reach the end of the book, before she turned around and found the gigantic form of Lord Tirek slowly approaching her. She hated to admit it, but this time running away and planning her next move was proving to be ineffective at the moment, so she sighed and faced her emotion. She knew that if she could deliver a good blow to either the heart or the head she could manage to win this fight, but considering the size and power that Fear commanded she also knew that it would be tricky to do that. Fear, seeing that Sunset was choosing to fight this time, grinned and pulled her magically charged up arm back, but this time she swung downward at the walkway... aiming right at Sunset the entire time. Sunset groaned as she engaged her magic, flashing out of the way as the fist struck the structure she had been standing on, shattering the entire thing and causing ripples to occur. She landed on Fear's left arm, something that she hadn't been expecting when she got out of the way, but didn't have time to think about it as she was forced to run up the arm before Fear grabbed onto her. Fear noticed this and tried to shake her off, so that she might get a better shot at crushing Sunset into the ground or one of the walls, but all that did was make Sunset sink her sword into her arm to keep from being blown away. Once she determined that shaking her arm wasn't going to work she settled down and decided to grab her, to which Sunset pulled her blade out of her arm and swung it, cutting a gash into the palm of her right hand for a moment. Sunset took that opportunity to flash onto the other arm before beginning to run up it, her eyes focused on Fear's head as she gathered more power into the daedric sword. This time Fear swung her arm into one of the massive walls that surrounded them, forcing Sunset to flash to another structure before the attack happened, making her come up with another plan of attack. At first she couldn't come up with anything, but then she remembered this weird game that Pinkie wanted her to play, something that involved a mortal killing giant creatures by running up their bodies and delivering decisive blows to key locations. She had no idea what it was called, but she decided that she might as well try to combat Fear that way, to which she converted the energy stored in the blade into a magical chain that would allow her to pull off some of the crazy moves that Pinkie had mentioned. Before she had time to consider where to strike first Fear turned towards her and struck the structure, causing it to collapse as she flashed towards one of her hind legs. As she briefly touched the new structure she knew that she had little time to enact her plan, so she threw her sword towards Fear's left hind leg and nearly cheered when it dug into her, to which she pulled onto the magic and sailed through the air. As she got ready to bounce off her landing and do it again, this time aiming higher, Fear's left hand came closer, so she instantly revised her plan and, when the arm came close enough, she latched onto it. This time when she landed on Fear's arm she immediately ran up it, not giving her emotion time to strike her, though she did swing her sword and cut gashes into the arm. She then noticed the right arm coming her way, but this time she was ready and swung her blade into the side of the hand as she leapt off the left arm, activating the chain and swinging around until she was on the back on the right hand. "I will not be defeated so easily!" Fear roared, annoyed beyond belief that Sunset was playing this game with her, especially when she could shatter the majority of this area on her own. While she had the opportunity Sunset pulled one of the last soul gems she had been carrying, as she usually didn't pick them up anymore, and gripped it tight as she tossed it into Fear's mouth as the right arm passed by so her emotion could glare at her. She did see it disappear into the massive mouth, so she allowed her magic to silently gather inside the gem, so that she might have an ace up her sleeve if this plan she was currently on failed. Fear turned to another one of the walls and swung her arm at it, intending to crush Sunset, but she was prepared for it and latched onto another part of her emotion, moving out of the way before she could be hit. When she swung towards Fear's head she finally thought that she'd be able to end this fight, but then her emotion smacked her from the air with her replication of Tirek's spell and forced her to the ground. It went on this way for a good ten minutes as Sunset tried to get close enough to do some serious damage, but every time she tried Fear would simply knock her back to the ground and force her to try again. It was getting tiring, so when she determined that she wasn't actually doing anything more than annoying her emotion she summoned the Staff of Magnus, intending to deliver enough charge to the swallowed soul gem to do what she needed. "Do you surrender, Sunset Shimmer?" Fear asked, magic swirling around her right arm as she prepared to crush her anyway, "Do you submit to your fear?" "Never," Sunset replied, activating her magic as a glow appeared in Fear's chest, before a massive explosion tore a hole in her emotion's chest, causing her eyes to widen in surprise. "Curse... you..." Fear moaned, collapsing into the water as the guise she had been wearing shattered, leaving the wounded emotion floating in the eerie water. Sunset sighed as the magical toll caught up with her, nearly knocking her to the ground, but she managed to flash to where her emotion was floating so she could return her to where she belonged. Fear glanced up at her for a moment as her body began to return to the magic she had been crafted from, but unlike Violence she said nothing to Sunset. Then she broke up into pieces and the magic returned to Sunset, who felt better now that she had conquered six of her emotions, despite the powers that they had commanded. She glanced up at the floating copy of the Black Book and grunted as she flashed up to it, tapping the cover so she could return to her friends. --------------------------------- When Sunset appeared in Nchardak she nearly collapsed, mostly due to how much power she had been pouring into her attacks, though Bjorn was ready to catch her the moment she returned to the ruin. She was thankful that her friends were concerned for her well being, though when she looked over to the other side of the chamber she found that Neloth was just staring at her. She knew that he wanted, and she was more than willing to let him have the book now that she had completed what she needed the book for, so she pulled herself to a standing position and faced the wizard. "I take it that you succeeded in defeating your emotion?" Miraak asked from her right, cutting off the wizard before he could say anything, something that Sunset was fine with at the moment, "Or do we have to wait for you to regain your energy so you can try again?" "Fear will not trouble me anymore," Sunset replied, before turning to Neloth for a moment, "and that means that you can have this Black Book. Before you get the last one I need to get a good nights sleep, so I can fight Pride on equal ground..." "Then I shall take this Black Book back to Tel Mithryn and meet you at your fortress tomorrow morning," Neloth said, picking up the Black Book and heading for the exit, "I am eager to hear how well you will do in the final Black Book, so I will be sure to arrive before you venture into the tome and face your trial. I hope that you rest well Dragonborn, because your final test will also be your most toughest one of them all." Sunset knew that her battle with Violence and Fear were the toughest she had experienced in her time on Nirn, but she knew that Neloth was right about her final fight being the toughest one of them all. If she were to fight Pride now she knew that she would be completely destroyed, giving her emotion what she and the other six wanted... her body. She needed to rest and regain her power, something that everyone around her agreed on, so they made their way out of the dwarven ruin and started the journey towards Fort Frostmoth. Sunset would defeat Pride and gain whatever power Hermaeus Mora was trying to make her regain, confident that she would then have the power to put up a decent fight against the demon.