Sombra visits Skyrim

by Blackdrag-rose

23: Septimus Signus and the Ruins of Alftand

"What did Urag say this man's name was again?"

Sombra was curious as to who they would soon be speaking to, after all they were walking through the frozen tundra that Urag said that the man had last been seen entering some odd years ago. As he was the former King of the Crystal Empire he was used to the near freezing temperature as if it was a light breeze. Raika, wrapped up in her fur, was equally grateful for her own advantage over the freezing winds, though she was also pleased to have any heat source that wasn't her own. Luna and Celestia, also used to the temperature of the Crystal Empire, walked along as if the breeze was nothing to them, but Trixie, on the other hand, was shivering over the wind.

"He said this man was called Septimus Signus," Raika replied, shaking her head as she looked right and left for the supposed location of the man's hiding spot, "an expert of the Elder Scrolls. All we need from him is the location of the Scroll we need and then we'll hightail it to wherever it is located."

Sombra had absolutely no idea what was so important about these Elder Scrolls, supposedly ancient fragments of creation that almost no one in Tamriel knew about. They were hard to locate when they weren't needed, but when they were needed the adventurer searching for it was nearly lost in how to discover one of them. Now, thanks to someone named Paarthurnax, they needed to find one that the ancient nords used to send Alduin the World-Eater forward in time, so Raika could learn the Shout they used to defeat him. Sombra hoped that this Septimus Signus knew where the Elder Scroll they needed was located, because if he didn't he suspected that Raika would murder the poor fool where he stood.

"I'm assuming this is what Urag was walking about?" Raika asked, forcing the group to come to a halt.

In front of them stood a trapdoor that was attached to a small mound of snow, one that seemed to be slowly falling apart thanks to the winds that continued to lash out at it. Raika, not wasting a second, tore open the trapdoor and climbed down the ladder, descending into the frozen cave that she assumed held the man they were looking for. The rest of the group followed her down into the cave, but the moment that Raika started to move forward she did so alone, as she had done the same thing when she had spoken to Paarthurnax. She could get the information she needed all by herself, without any of the Equestrians getting in the way.

Raika turned around a corner and found an opening that revealed a large cavern, with a giant dwemer cube resting against one of the two free walls. As she walked down the spiral walkway, that must have been carved into the cavern by whoever was in here, she spotted an old man standing in the center of the area. The man seemed to be unaware of her presence, but the moment that she slammed her heavy hammer, that she had found on the way there, into the ground he jumped quite a bit and turned around to face her.

"Do you see this masterwork of the Dwemer?" the man asked, placing a hand on the box as he spoke, "Deep inside their greatest knowings. Septimus is clever among men, but he is but an idiot child when compared to the dullest of the dwemer. Lucky then that they left behind their own way of reading the Elder Scrolls. One yet lies in the depths of Blackreach."

"Um...excuse me?" Raika asked, getting no reply from the seemingly insane man that she had been searching for, "Your saying that there is an Elder Scroll resting in this Blackreach? Then tell me, where can I find Blackreach?"

"'Cast upon where Dwemer cities slept, the yearning spire hidden learnings kept.'" Septimus recited from memory, not answering her question immediately, "Below the dark. The hidden keep. Tower Mzark. Alftand. The point of puncture, of first entry, of the tapping. Delve to its limits, and Blackreach lies just beyond. Septimus has two objects for you, two shapes. The round one for tuning; dwemer music is soft and subtle, needed to open their cleverest of gates. The edged lexicon for inscribing; to the Dwemer a library full of knowings. Find Mzark and you will find Blackreach. Trust Septimus, he knows you can know."

Raika looked down at the two objects that Septimus was holding and sighed, accepting them with the only thought that she now knew exactly where she needed to travel next. That alone was enough to stay her hand from ending the poor insane fool for the moment, but if he was wasting her time then she'd come back and take his soul.

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Trixie, leaning on a wall that allowed her to stand away from the freezing winds that entered from the trapdoor, sighed as she pulled out the sword that had saved her hide a few hours ago. She still had no idea how the blade had cut through the magical veil that had protected the draugr that she and Raika had fought. There was some type of magical enchantment on the blade, but whatever that special enchantment was she also had no idea. Skyrim was full of odd creatures and weapons that held odd enchantments, so she suspected something like this in the beginning.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Trixie looked up from the blade and found Princess Luna standing next to her, though she was also staring at the weapon that she was holding with a look of wonder in her eyes. Somehow she knew exactly what Trixie was holding and that made her want to know exactly what was resting in her hands.

"Depends," Trixie replied, holding the sword out for her to get a better look at, "on what you think it is."

"It can only be one thing," Luna said, examining the sword's blade as she thought about it, "this can only be 'The Magistrate', the very blade that Starswirl the Bearded carried with him in addition to his staff. I've never seen the blade in battle myself, but according to the legends and tales that my sister has told me it is said that this blade could cut through most magic like butter. This is one of the reasons that Starswirl was considered a legend, as his weapons aided him in his quests as much as his innate magical powers did. It is said that Starswirl used both the Magistrate and the Conclave, his staff, to defend Equestria before he disappeared from the Crystal Empire.

Starswirl would never have parted with this weapon, not unless he believed that someone from Equestria would eventually follow him to Tamriel. If the Magistrate is here then that means that the Conclave must be hidden somewhere else, but where I couldn't be sure of without scouring all of Tamriel. You should be honored to be carrying such a weapon Trixie, as the last one to see the blade in action was likely Starswirl himself."

Trixie knew from what happened in Saarthal that the blade had been special, but never in a thousand years did she think that she carried one of the weapons of Starswirl himself. That explained why it had done what it had done in Saarthal, though she knew that once they returned to Equestria that it would need to be returned to the Starswirl wing of the Canterlot Library. She knew that Twilight Sparkle would be jealous at the fact that Trixie had found the blade and had used it in her time of need, something that Twilight would never be able to claim for a long time.

"Raika comes," Luna said, causing Trixie to turn in time to see Raika come around the corner, "What information does Septimus Signus give us to act on this time?"

"He said something about the Dwarves and Aftand," Raika replied, thinking of the objects that she now carried, "said that if I wanted to find the Elder Scroll that I needed to locate a 'Blackreach' that can only be accessed by traversing Aftand. I hope your all ready to cut our way through an ancient dwarven ruin to find the one thing that will help me defeat Alduin."

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Getting to Aftand might have sounded easy, but in reality the group had to traverse the ice fields that they had crossed to find Septimue, climb up some slopes that hindered their progress, and had to do battle with a group of stupid bandits that wanted their gold. Raika, not wanting to waste anymore time on worthless enemies, made short work of the enemies that came to hinder their progress, dispatching them to the chill of Skyrim's winter. Eventually they came to where Aftand was located on the map, but they had to work their way around the bridges that the workers left behind and had to deal with several trolls that made the area their home. When all their enemies laid dead on the ground Raika, not bothering to sheath her weapons, continued until she and her friends entered the cave that would bring them one step closer to the Elder Scroll.

The beginning of their trek through the ancient dwarven ruin started out dull, but the further they got in the more exciting and dangerous it got. The first batch of dwarven enemies they came across was a group of several worker spiders that became aggressive the moment the group neared them, but the moment that the fighting started Raika heard more scraps of metal on the stone floor. It was a nightmare come true, the sound of their fight was awakening every nasty machine that the dwarves had built over the years and they were hungry for the invaders that had awoken them.

The small group of spiders that they found soon turned into a tidal wave of mechanical creations that began to fill the halls ahead of them, though by the other sounds there was someone else fighting them off. Raika smashed one of the spiders into the stone floor as she and her friends quickly made their way deeper into the ruins, hoping to avoid the most of their enemies as they searched for the entrance to Blackreach. She knew that with the powers that three of the Equestrians held they could easily destroy everything that stood in their way, but seeing how the ruins were still churning out machines to fight them she didn't even consider that an option.

"Where are all these blasted things coming from?" Sombra asked, opening a shadow gate that allowed them to safely traverse a ruined section of the ruins, "I didn't think that the dwarves stockpiled all these metallic creations ahead of time."

"It doesn't matter how many of them there are," Luna huffed, more from exhaustion from the battle than the actual walking they had done, "I would gladly fight them if it will get us closer to the Elder Scroll that was used so many years ago. I just hope that whoever is in this ruin with us isn't after the Scroll as well, otherwise we might have to share words with this person."

Eventually they came to a locked door that provided them with the perfect area to hide themselves in so they could gather their energy back up after a few minutes of rest. They couldn't stay there very long, not with the constant sounds of fighting ringing throughout the ruins and the sounds of the dwarves machines drawing ever closer. When they came out of the room Sombra summoned a wall of crystals from the floor, reaching towards the ceiling until it separated them from their enemies. He had no idea how long it would take the machines to destroy his wall, but he hoped that they would be long gone by the time that happened.

As the group delved deeper into the ruins they passed by dozens of corpses of creatures that most citizens of Skyrim referred to as the Falmer, the fallen Snow Elves of Skyrim's ancient past. At that point they knew exactly who had been fighting the mechanical army, but by the carnage they discovered it took at least five of the Falmer to defeat one or two of the swarven machines. Whatever Falmer was calling the ruins home was slowly being exterminated, all because they had entered the ruins and began searching for a Scroll. Raika didn't care for the monsters, as they provided a way for them to finally get to the end without getting killed by an army of metallic creations.

After navigating the hazards that called the ruins home they came to another open chamber, this one with an open gate that had been sealed at one point and another gateway that was being patrolled by a large dwarven construct. Raika, hating the journey with every fiber of her being, was glad when Luna easily toppled the creature without any help at all. They climbed the stairs and came to a square stone block with a circular indent that Raika knew was the key they were searching for.

"Raika dear," Sombra said, looking back as he heard the doors start to open, "I know we're in a hurry, so please do whatever it is that we're supposed to do while I gather another wall for us."

As Sombra summoned a double layered wall to prevent them from being overrun Raika approached the indent and slid the sphere she had been given into the hole. For a moment nothing happened and her heart began to still, fearing that she had been sent to her death by an insane man and that her friends had followed her to theirs as well. Then, out of nowhere, the area around the square began to sink, revealing a hidden staircase that could only lead to the Blackreach they had been searching for.

"Come on Sombra," Raika called, heading down the steps as fast as her legs could take her, "let's get out of here before something else happens to us."

Sombra cast one last glance at his new crystal wall and, satisfied that it should hold the dozens of metallic creations for some time, followed the group down the hidden staircase. When he passed through the door he found himself standing on a small walkway that allowed him to stare up at the humongous cavern that the group 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.

"So this is Blackreach?" Raika asked, amazed at the sheer size of the place they had discovered, "I am simply amazed that the dwarves could keep something like this hidden for so many ages without someone else stepping foot in here. The only thing I want to know is where the dwarves kept the Elder Scroll, because it looks like we could spend months searching this place without finding what we're looking for."

"I'm thinking we should head down the path to the left," Trixie said, not liking the fact that the right path looked darker than the one she suggested, "Who knows, we might find some dwarven artifact that could very well point us in the direction that we need."

Raika, having no idea if Trixie was right or not, decided that going down the left path may aid them better instead of preventing them from doing what they came to do. Even as they started down the path they came across a lone dwarven sphere, which decided to open up and move towards them before Luna decided that she had enough of it. Unfortunately for them the more they followed the path the more enemies that they found standing in their way. There were at least a dozen Falmer standing on the road, surrounded by dozens of their chaurus pets, and none of them looked happy to see them.

Raika drew her bow and put an arrow between the eyes of one of the Falmer, knocking it off its feet before causing it to crash against the ground behind his allies. The rest of the Falmer, realizing that they had enemies to fight, gathered their weapons as Luna and Celestia marched forward, weapons at the ready. Sombra and Trixie, falling into the roles of mages, immediately began to fling spells at the enemies that were the furthest from the group, allowing the others to fight those closest to them. However, just like when they started fighting the spiders in the beginning, their fighting only awoke the sleeping dwarves machines that were near them.

As the machines began to tear into the Falmer Raika gathered her friends and began down the path as fast as her feet could talk her, hoping that they didn't come across anymore of the dwarves ancient machines. She knew that Luna was itching for another fight after the massive draugr army she had defeated, but she didn't want to get caught up in a war with any of the dwarves machines. They rounded another corner and found yet another giant construct fighting yet another group of Falmer, so they snuck by the fighting as silently as possible.

"Think that's where we need to go?" Trixie commented, pointing to a large cylinder shaped building that was off in the distance.

"I sure hope so," Raika replied, loosing an arrow at a stray Falmer that was following them, "but when we get in there we had best destroy whatever mechanics are used to bring us up in case any of these guys can pull the lever. Wouldn't want any of these constructs to find their way to the surface anytime soon."

Surprisingly they managed to avoid any more enemies, though that made sense seeing how all of them were engaged in battle with each other all over Blackreach. Once they reached the area that Trixie had been pointing to Raika had them all pile in around the lever and, once she was certain that none of their enemies were near them, she pulled it without delay. The floor began to rise and they patiently waited for it to stop outside an open chamber filled a variety of ingredients for alchemy. How any of the ingredients were still good after thousands of years was beyond Raika's guess, but she wasn't going to bother using them anyway.

Raika cast a look at the second door and opened it, revealing a large dwarven machine that looked as if it hadn't been used since the day that the dwarves vanished. She walked up a ramp and noticed that there were large crystals hanging above their heads, all of which were attached to metal beams in the ceiling. She then spotted a control panel, with a small indent that she assumed was the area that the lexicon was supposed to put in. Once she reached the control panel she pulled out the cube and gently placed it in the indent, hearing a soft click before the entire room began to wake up once again.

"I wonder what this does," Raika said to herself, pressing one of the buttons and causing something in the floor below her to shift.

Raika, noticing the changes, pressed the button a few more times before another button opened up, allowing her to mess with the floor some more. When the third button opened up and Raika pushed it the entire system of beams that were handing from the ceiling began to move, lowering to where her friends were standing. After a few more presses and the fourth button opened Raika hesitated, wondering if there was some trap that she was overlooking, but 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.

"This is an Elder Scroll?!" Raika asked, leaving the lexicon behind as she approached the ancient artifact, "Its...beautiful."

"Take it Raika," Celestia said, patting her on the shoulder as she pointed towards the item they had come for, "Take it and you can finally discover how the ancient nords defeated Alduin in battle so many ages ago."

Raika moved forward and ran her hand over the golden case, not believing that for once she was actually going to get some answers that were actually true. Septimus had been telling the truth, but before she returned the lexicon to him she was going to leave it there and deal with the dragons before they got out of hand. Raika gently picked up the scroll and was amazed at how heavy it was, but knew that it was a small price to pay in the long run. All they had to do now was make their way back to High Hrothgar and present the scroll to Paarthurnax.

Raika was well on her way to learning the dreaded Dragonrend Shout and she was waiting for that time to come.

Comments

[Blackdrag-rose]

5681604 OH. Now I see. And now that I see I can laugh. Makes sense that you couldn't pass that opportunity up.

[Blackdrag-rose]

5681677 Too true. So very true.

[Sonata Blaze]

5677964 Mmmm...munchies...now I definitely need a snack.

[Sonata Blaze]

Onto the chapter...all I can say is that I hate the dwemer ruins.
At least they got what they came for and got out with their lives.

[Blackdrag-rose]

5685588 Its something much grander than that.

[Vigilant of Stendarr]

I never cared for the dwarven ruins... I've died quite often in them, whether its been due to the Falmer or the constructs that call the places home.

[Moon loving Changeling]

6998939 me too. I've been avoiding them despite knowing I have to go through them.