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<\/p>\nThe shade didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n
There was a short, tiled corridor roughly twice Sayma\u2019s height.\u00a0 They were covered to the extent that they were out of the direct sunlight, but they were not out of the heat.\u00a0 She eased her way forward through the entrance and gasped at the sheer size of the structure before her.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Before them was a large, very bright, open plaza, its center corridor made of sand. \u00a0Next to the huge walls of the structure on either side were planters created by wide tiled platforms and filled with flowering cacti, palms, and grasses. The building itself was constructed of variously sized smooth stone blocks that reached up at least four times the height of the entry passage through which they had just come. Midway up the walls over each planter was an inset: a large single block of stone with inscriptions in Daedric lettering.<\/p>\n
Three tall columns atop the tile platforms graced each side of the courtyard. These had red stone bases and capitals covered in horizontal Daedric writing, and yellow sandstone shafts with vertically inscribed words.\u00a0 Sayma had no idea what any of it said, but she watched the vertical lines appear to waver and wriggle as the intense heat rose from the surrounding stone and sand.<\/p>\n
They were about halfway down the central sand pathway when a desert wolf hurtled out from behind one of the palms.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take long to put it down, between the two of them; but they were both dressed completely in black and that much exertion in the heat of the day had Brynjolf\u2019s face bright red and Sayma\u2019s soaked with sweat by the time they\u2019d finished it.<\/p>\n
She dashed for the building\u2019s entry door and turned to wave Brynjolf along behind her.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s get in here before we melt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAye. You\u2019ll get no argument from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
They stepped through the door into Al Shedim proper and breathed nearly identical sighs of relief.\u00a0 It was very dark, the narrow corridor lit only by a row of low candles on either side.\u00a0 More importantly, it was very cool, the thick stone walls on all sides and overhead serving to keep the interior a constant, dry, comfortable temperature.\u00a0 Both Sayma and Brynjolf sipped water in silence while they waited for their eyes to adjust to the darkness.\u00a0 After a few moments she turned to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cReady?\u00a0 We\u2019re looking for a key in here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m right behind you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to guess it\u2019ll be a bit of a maze. At least it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTruly. I guess we\u2019d better get used to doing things at night here.\u201d<\/p>\n
She grinned in the dark, knowing that he was unlikely to be able to read her expression. \u201cI thought you were used to that sort of thing, Red.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brynjolf snorted. \u201cI had better night vision then. And bigger teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sayma crept forward. The hall turned to the right and then left, to a well-lit area.\u00a0 She stepped out into the light and nearly collided with a skeleton patrolling the area, brandishing a scimitar.\u00a0 She reacted out of sheer instinct, barreling into it with swords drawn; and as was often the case with skeletons it simply collapsed into a pile of bones on the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWow,\u201d she muttered. \u201cI guess I\u2019d better be paying more attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at these,\u201d Brynjolf said from behind her.\u00a0 The area she\u2019d just passed through was, it turned out, a small room with a large pillar in the center. Alcoves along the walls contained pedestals with Daedric inscriptions, and some of them were topped with burial urns.\u00a0 Brynjolf had already examined a couple of the urns and pulled out a substantial amount of coin and several fine pieces of jewelry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the whole place is like this\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised. That\u2019s why there\u2019s a chest of gems and such back in the house,\u201d Sayma said, grinning. \u201cThe entire route I took to get there was lined with urns and chests and strongboxes and every one of them filled with wealth.\u00a0 Can you do the collecting?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course,\u201d he said, slipping the coins into a purse and the gems into one of the pouches on his bandolier.\u00a0 \u201cI like the sound of that many coins rubbing together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sayma chuckled and turned back to the route before her.\u00a0 In the wall opposite the entrance, a staircase led down to another narrow corridor. \u00a0She could see an urn at the far end, resting in an enticing shaft of light atop a pedestal; and she would have run forward to open it if not for the odd shape of the hallway itself.\u00a0 There were two areas jutting out into the passage, as if meant to act as doorframes, but there were no doors.\u00a0 Something made her look down just as she was about to pass through the first, just in time to stop before tripping a pressure plate set onto the floor.\u00a0 She looked ahead and saw a second such plate just inside the second door frame.<\/p>\n
\u201cCareful, Brynjolf,\u201d she called out. \u201cI don\u2019t know what these trigger but there are plates on the floor. Two of them. I don\u2019t think we want to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you.\u00a0 Be careful you make the jumps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sayma hopped the plates and stepped into the large room beyond.\u00a0 Like its smaller counterpart at the top of the stairs, this room was essentially an open square surrounding a central, square block.\u00a0 Its walls were covered in Daedric inscriptions, and there were pedestals and tables along the interior walls, some holding urns.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
There were also skeletons.\u00a0 She could see two in one direction, and the distinctive creaking of bones told her there was at least one more that she couldn\u2019t see.\u00a0 She rolled forward and slashed at the nearest one, taking it down; out of the corner of her eye she watched Brynjolf striding toward the second with his bow drawn.\u00a0 He shot at it while she swung her flame-enchanted Bosmer short sword at it, and it went down easily.\u00a0 Brynjolf started laughing and drew his wicked-looking Daedric sword and an ebony dagger; he swung around the central structure and slashed at a skeleton Sayma hadn\u2019t seen. One more skeleton moved out from the darkness; and while Brynjolf took down the skeleton he\u2019d engaged she struck down the last, its residual soul exploding and rushing in to fill one of her empty soul gems.<\/p>\n
While Brynjolf collected the spoils of the room, Sayma took stock of where they were.\u00a0 Exits to the left and in the far wall were barred, but the remaining exit, a right hand turn from their entrance, was open.\u00a0 A skeleton rattled about just beyond one of the sets of bars; it started descending stairs beyond her vision, and she fired an arrow, catching but not killing it before it completely disappeared.\u00a0 It rushed back to the bars.<\/p>\n
Before she could fire another arrow, Brynjolf ran to meet it.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood, I could use some practice,\u201d he growled, drawing his sword and striking the skeleton through the bars. It took only one blow to drop the creature.<\/p>\n
Sayma turned toward the open doorway and took stock of the upward staircase beyond. \u201cThis looks uncomfortably familiar,\u201d she grumbled. \u201cI would like to have the hours back that I spent looking for ways to lower bars like this in the Halls of the West.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brynjolf had come up closer behind her than she\u2019d expected, and she almost jumped when he spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll be good at it, in that case,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re a lot better with those swords than you were the last time we fought together, with Karliah.\u00a0 And you got a good drop on those bastards, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUh\u2026thank you,\u201d she said, feeling unaccountably embarrassed.\u00a0 I thought I was a pretty fine swordsman back when we were chasing Mercer, but I guess I have gotten a lot faster with these blades in the meantime. I\u2019m surprised he noticed. <\/em>\u201cI can tell you\u2019ve been doing a bit of practicing, too. We seem to make a pretty good team.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAye. That we do.\u201d<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t help but smile as she climbed the two flights of stairs up to the next level of the monument.\u00a0 The second flight emptied out into a huge space with regularly-spaced arches throughout.\u00a0 The small amount of light in the room diffused through a dense mist that filled the area, making it difficult to see; but she definitely heard the shuffling, creaking sounds of more skeletons ahead.<\/p>\n One of them passed directly in front of her. As she tackled it, Brynjolf ran past her and barreled into a second.\u00a0 It took no great effort on their part to fell the skeletons, but they then stopped, staring at each other, as the room shook.\u00a0 The sound of stone dropping onto stone filled the area, followed by a great grinding noise and a second impact that shook the room.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat in Oblivion is that?\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n \u201cNot a clue.\u00a0 There\u2019s light up around the corner there. Can you see anything?\u201d<\/p>\n There was a hallway extending to Sayma\u2019s right from the far end of the room.\u00a0 She found it lined with candles; and when she turned to look down it the light clearly revealed a square stone resting on the floor ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cPressure plates. Two of them, again. Something must have triggered one and that\u2019s what we heard.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what it is, but it involves stone and it\u2019s heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we want to find out exactly what it is, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNope.\u00a0 But whatever it is took care of a few skeletons for us.\u201d<\/p>\n She leaped the plates and slid into a warren of medium-sized rooms. Neither the left room nor the one straight ahead held anything of interest; but they didn\u2019t know that until they had wandered into each and been faced with skeletons and mummies.\u00a0 Sayma was grateful that there were two of them fighting, and that Brynjolf had more gold to collect.<\/p>\n The third area, to the right of the stairs, wound through several doglegs, into small rooms, past another set of pressure plates on the floor, and finally into a very dark, winding corridor.\u00a0 Sayma ground her teeth.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just like the Halls of the West. I hate this place.<\/em><\/p>\n She rounded the darkest of the corners and found herself in a relatively well-lit corridor.\u00a0 There was another hallway branching to the left; and on the wall before it a huge circular stone bearing a large symbol.\u00a0 She stopped and waited until Brynjolf caught up to her and then whispered.<\/p>\n \u201cDaedric?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes. It\u2019s \u2018G\u2019.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it stands for anything special but that\u2019s what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n She glanced at him sideways.\u00a0 He gave her a frustrated look in response.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat, it surprises you that I know a few things?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot at all, Red. It just surprises me sometimes, the particular things you know.\u201d<\/p>\n He made a disgusted noise.<\/p>\n Every time I call him Red, that\u2019s what I get. I think I like it.<\/em><\/p>\n There was a matching stone mounted on the other side of the doorway to their left. Beyond it was an odd room full of mist, its walls almost wedge-shaped, leaning in toward the ceiling.\u00a0 Unlike the rest of what they\u2019d seen in Al Shedim the stone tiles were large, and square, and devoid of markings. Only small vertical candle niches broke the monotony of the space.\u00a0 Sayma could hear skeletons moving about. She saw one of them, near the far side of the room, and dispatched it with a carefully placed arrow.\u00a0 Two others rushed out from their hiding spots on either side of the doorway; they too were easy to take down as the door served as a choke point, and they seemed oblivious to her presence until they were almost on top of her.\u00a0 Her swords broke them apart easily.<\/p>\n Behind them, though, were both a skeletal archer that took up position at the rear of the room, and a mummy that had hurled itself soundlessly toward them. The mummy was not nearly as stupid as the skeletons, and was not only aware of Sayma but very good with its scimitar. Sayma pulled out her swords and laid into it, rolling past it only to collide with a second mummy that had appeared seemingly from nowhere. She bounced off it sideways and scrambled to regain her footing and heal the gash that one of them \u2013 she didn\u2019t know which \u2013 had opened in her arm.<\/p>\n \u201cNo mercy for the weak!\u201d Brynjolf shouted, pushing into the room to slice at the second mummy.\u00a0 His greater mass and confidence helped him down the creature with only a few strikes.\u00a0 He turned without missing a beat and began slashing at the other mummy.\u00a0 Sayma stood, drew her own swords once more and delivered a crushing overhand blow to it with her Daedric sword; the room exploded in sound as its soul rushed to fill an empty gem.\u00a0 The skeletal archer had advanced on them while they were slaying the mummies, and Brynjolf took it apart with one powerful swipe of his sword.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s the end of that,\u201d he said once it was down.<\/p>\n Sayma made a quick circuit of the near portions of the room before heading back to its far end.\u00a0 In a triangular niche was the thing she had expected to find: a chain pull mounted to the wall.<\/p>\n \u201cHere we are,\u201d she said as she pulled it and heard the unmistakable sounds of a mechanism releasing.\u00a0 \u201cMy guess is that we return to the big room at the beginning and we\u2019ll find one of those sets of bars down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAye.\u00a0 Let me check all these urns and we\u2019ll go.\u201d\u00a0 Brynjolf was quick about it, and rejoined her before she\u2019d made it all the way out of the room.\u00a0 He was stuffing some gems into a pouch when he said \u201cYou know, at this rate I\u2019ll have enough to buy Proudspire when we get back and still give that whole chest of wealth to the Guild.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cProudspire?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d he nodded. \u201cIn Solitude. Vitus owned a mansion there. He told me that Volkihar Castle was to be Serana\u2019s. He didn\u2019t say a thing about Proudspire. I want it. There are things of his there, and\u2026\u201d\u00a0 He trailed off.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe that would be a good place to take the children? If\u2026\u201d Sayma started offering the notion as they walked back through the darkened hallways, trying not to trip over bones and dropped weapons.\u00a0 But as soon as she said it she realized what a foolish thought it was. \u201cNever mind. If war breaks out Solitude will be a hot spot.\u00a0 Still, I suppose I can\u2019t blame you for wanting his things.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t imagine the wealth he had stashed away there, Sayma. He never let on to any of us but he was probably worth more than the Guild and the Brotherhood combined.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo why did he work for us?\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf shrugged. \u201cHe wanted to. It\u2019s the only reason he did anything at all.\u201d<\/p>\n I guess I really didn\u2019t know him very well. He certainly had me fooled, all that time. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAt any rate,\u201d he continued, \u201cI\u2019m sure that if I offered Elisif enough money she would gladly sell the place to me. She wouldn\u2019t necessarily know that there\u2019s more than enough in there to make up anything I would give her for it. I just need the funds up front.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma nodded, peering around the corners to make certain there were no more skeletons, and watching for the pressure plates.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t do to be halfway back and become a casualty by being careless.\u00a0 \u201cFalk, you mean. He\u2019s the one you\u2019ll need to bribe.\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf chuckled. \u201cYes. I see you know them well, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had to infiltrate the castle to get to the Emperor. Or at least the one we all thought was the Emperor.\u00a0 That\u2019s a tale for another time.\u201d<\/p>\n They made it back to the large entry room and found that the bars through which Brynjolf had killed a skeleton had dropped down into slots in the floor, as she had expected.\u00a0 The staircase beyond its remains was intensely dark, and they eased their way down it slowly.\u00a0 Around a corner to the left they found a huge vaulted vestibule with pillars flanking a staircase up, on which stood three skeletons.\u00a0 Sayma pulled out her bow and took them down, silently, with three quick bow shots.<\/p>\n Up the stairs she went, around a corner, and into a large, quiet room with a mummy resting quietly in its open coffin.\u00a0 She stabbed it just to be safe, and its collapse back into itself told her that it had still had the spark of life, the capability to rise and fight.\u00a0 Beyond it, and around another corner, was a warren of tiny alcoves to either side of a long hallway mined with pressure plates, leading to yet another staircase descending deep into the darkness.<\/p>\n At the base of this long stair was another doorway with huge circular stones on either side.\u00a0 Sayma looked back at Brynjolf, who was close behind her.<\/p>\n \u201cB,\u201d he said without prompting.<\/p>\n \u201cAlright then.\u201d<\/p>\n There was another of the odd, almost pyramidal rooms beyond this door, nearly identical to the first. As with the first it was full of skeletons and mummies.\u00a0 Once again the two of them waded into the battle, directing each other only with the briefest of glances and motions, and making short work of clearing the room.<\/p>\n By the gods we still work well together. And he has no fear. He\u2019s just all business.<\/em><\/p>\n I suppose if you\u2019ve been dead and lived to tell the tale, fear is relative.<\/em><\/p>\n Sayma grinned at him and trotted to the far end of the room to pull the chain.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s that.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go find out what\u2019s down that last hallway.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019d only made it halfway up the longest of the staircases when Sayma heard a skeleton moving off to her right.\u00a0 She frowned, and turned to Brynjolf in confusion.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t remember a doorway heading in that direction, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, but I wasn\u2019t looking for one.\u201d<\/p>\n The passage, as it turned out, was beside one of the pressure plates they\u2019d needed to leap over on their way through.\u00a0 Sure enough, there was the distinctive row of metal grooves into which a set of bars had fallen, opening the way to a fairly well-lit set of descending staircases.\u00a0 A skeleton waited for them at the bottom.<\/p>\n Sayma stopped at the landing midway down, pulling out her bow while Brynjolf raided the chests in the niches to either side.\u00a0 She took careful aim at the skeleton.\u00a0 And then something happened that froze her heart nearly solid.\u00a0 Just as it had happened in Cragslane Cavern so long before, an arrow that should have dropped her target cleanly and without fuss caught, inexplicably, on the edge of the stairs before her.<\/p>\n It dropped onto the stones. Click.<\/em><\/p>\n The skeleton turned to fix her in its deathly, blue gaze.<\/p>\n Suddenly, where there had been a single skeleton, there were at least six.\u00a0 They seemed to erupt from every corner of the space before her.\u00a0 She froze, just long enough for Brynjolf to run, snarling, headlong into their mass.<\/p>\n She shook herself back into action; but it was hard to know where to aim.\u00a0 In the dark, with as many forms as there were, it might easily have been Brynjolf she hit with an ebony arrow, not a skeleton.\u00a0 She did manage to drop one who stepped back from the group for just a moment; the lighting behind it made its bony outlines clear.\u00a0 Every few moments she heard Brynjolf grunt, and she knew he was taking damage.\u00a0 She gritted her teeth and fired as quickly as she could at the targets at the back of the pack.<\/p>\n Just as she thought they were making headway, a pair of mummies emerged.\u00a0 One joined the skeletons hacking at Brynjolf and the second, an archer, stood at the back of the room and fired at her.<\/p>\n Brynjolf cried out, a sound of exhaustion and pain, and she stopped thinking.\u00a0 She swapped her bow for her two swords and rushed down the second flight of stairs into the room.\u00a0 There was one skeleton in the stairwell behind Brynjolf, struggling to regain its feet; she slammed her Daedric blade down on it and rushed past as the sound of the soul trap exploded around them.\u00a0 She pushed past Brynjolf and whirled behind the mummy he was fighting to attack it from behind; it too exploded in a riot of blue energy and dropped to the floor.\u00a0 Both of them turned on the final mummy, firing arrows at them from behind an urn at the back of the room. It took a few moments, but with both of them hammering at it, the creature finally dropped.<\/p>\n Sayma and Brynjolf stood gazing at each other, panting.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you alright?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI will be,\u201d he said, pulling out a water skin and taking a drink.\u00a0 \u201cGive me just a moment. A couple of those hit pretty hard.\u201d\u00a0 He cast a light healing spell on himself.<\/p>\n Damned fool probably was a lot more hurt than he\u2019s letting on.\u00a0 I wish he wouldn\u2019t rush in like that. But I was just standing like some kind of statue, what else was he supposed to do? <\/em><\/p>\n While Brynjolf was tending to himself Sayma moved around the edge of the room looking for a pull chain, or a strong box, or something that would reveal the reason they\u2019d just come close to death in the stairwell.\u00a0 She found nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not here?\u00a0 You mean there\u2019s more?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUndoubtedly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStendarr\u2019s balls.\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf chuckled.\u00a0 \u201cIf you say so.\u201d\u00a0 He scouted the room and pointed toward the left wall. \u201cDown here. There\u2019s another staircase. And one of those stone circles.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma crept down the stairs with swords drawn, ready for another onslaught.\u00a0 The disc \u2013 with the letter \u201cD\u201d according to Brynjolf \u2013 and the chain beneath it were the only things in the room, though; she pulled the chain and they retreated back through the ruined skeletons, and up the stairs toward the first large room.<\/p>\n She\u2019d passed almost to the end of the hallway when the sound of grinding stone was followed by the shaking of it crashing to the floor.\u00a0 She froze; her heart leapt into her throat.<\/p>\n Brynjolf.\u00a0 No. Oh no. It can\u2019t be.<\/em><\/p>\n Her mind started racing, and her eyes began to fill with tears. He\u2019d caught a pressure plate and been killed by the falling column of rock. She\u2019d led him to his death and she was going to be killed herself when she reported it to the Guild.\u00a0 She was alone. Her pulse was racing, pounding in her ears. Her body felt frozen; but she forced herself to turn, slowly, expecting to watch the stone rise and find his crushed body on the floor.<\/p>\n The stone rose, shakily; and beyond it Brynjolf stood, glaring at it.<\/p>\n \u201cDamn pressure plates,\u201d he grumbled.\u00a0 \u201cI just barely got back in time. I need to keep my eyes open.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma tried to catch her breath and to stand on legs that suddenly felt like water.\u00a0 She reached up and wiped the tears away from her eyes as she waited for her heartbeat to return to normal.\u00a0 She wanted to run to him, embrace him just for being alive, still; but she didn\u2019t dare presume.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. That was close!\u201d\u00a0 She smiled a shaky smile at him and turned around, to continue onward.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll never know what I felt like just then.<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s probably just as well.<\/em><\/p>\n They wound their way back through the maze of rooms to find the descending staircase beyond the final set of bars that they\u2019d lowered.\u00a0 Halfway down, Sayma could see three huge stone circles mounted on the far wall of the next area.<\/p>\n She stopped, looked back at Brynjolf, and pointed.\u00a0 \u201cSee those?\u00a0 Four letters on each?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAye.\u201d\u00a0 He ran his hand over his chin. \u201cHmm.\u00a0 I\u2019ll wager it\u2019s some kind of puzzle. Like the animal symbols in the old Nordic barrows. Turn them somehow to get the right answer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh.\u201d She frowned. \u201cI\u2019ll bet you\u2019re right.\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 Well at least we can see these pressure plates clearly,\u201d she said, pointing\u00a0 at the floor.\u00a0 \u201cMind your feet.\u201d<\/p>\n The room was long and narrow, and held four open caskets with mummies resting peacefully. Sayma drew her swords.\u00a0 I give it ten or fifteen seconds before they rise and shine and try to kill us.<\/em><\/p>\n Sure enough, as she passed near the left-hand side of the room the first mummy growled and rose slowly.\u00a0 Sayma attacked it, and noticed the second pulling itself up to a sitting position as she did so.\u00a0 Brynjolf took that one on, calling it pathetic and making short work of it.\u00a0 Just as the first mummy went down, the pair on the opposite side of the room rose from their caskets.\u00a0 Brynjolf harrumphed and ran for one of them, and Sayma sighed and took on the other.<\/p>\n There was a table of sorts at the end of the room, with four turn handles embedded in it, three of them in a row and the fourth by itself at the far side of the table.\u00a0 A curious vertical slab just beneath the three huge stone circles bore Daedric lettering, the central letter huge and prominent.\u00a0 Sayma turned to Brynjolf, eyebrows raised.<\/p>\n \u201cAny idea what it means?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell that middle letter is \u2018O\u2019 and I\u2019d assume it stands for Oblivion, seeing how it\u2019s Daedric.\u00a0 The bottom part says \u2018Alik\u2019r\u2019 \u2013 see the apostrophe? And the top is a bit hard to read but I\u2019d guess it says \u2018Nirn.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I\u2019m impressed, Red. Any ideas what we do with these?\u201d\u00a0 She didn\u2019t wait for an answer, but rather pulled the left handle.\u00a0 The left-most of the great stone circles turned clockwise, moving the Daedric symbols around.<\/p>\n \u201cThere. That\u2019s it. You\u2019ve put the \u2018G\u2019 on top, see?\u201d Brynjolf murmured, coming to stand behind her so closely that she could feel the heat radiating from him.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you say so. What if it\u2019s supposed to be on the bottom? Or the left?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll find out. But I\u2019m sure that\u2019s the right choice. That was the first letter we found.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh!\u00a0 Right. That makes sense.\u201d\u00a0 She reached for the center handle. \u201cWhat was the next one?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cB. Here, let me do it for you.\u201d He pulled the central handle twice, to align the proper symbol at the top, and then without pausing adjusted the final circular dial.\u00a0 \u201cThere you go.\u00a0 Ready to try for the prize?\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma glared at him. \u201cYeah. Right.\u00a0 Well, stand back. I\u2019ll pull the thing from over here and duck if something bad happens.\u201d<\/p>\n She pulled the handle and twisted it.\u00a0 Nothing at all happened for a moment, just long enough for her to start wondering how the letters were supposed<\/em> to be aligned, and then, slowly and noisily, the great stone slab that said Alik\u2019r on the bottom began to sink into the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt worked!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes. I wonder what\u2019s in the next room.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell it had best be that key we\u2019re looking for after all this.\u201d<\/p>\n What lay beyond the stone door was a tunnel:\u00a0 a narrow, dark tunnel descending through the dirt just like thousands she\u2019d seen before.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re kidding.\u201d<\/p>\n She heard Brynjolf chuckle behind her and whirled to glare at him. Then she proceeded down the tunnel.\u00a0 It was a short one, a tunnel that emptied out into a rocky cave.\u00a0 There were ledges along both sides, as there had been in the caves she\u2019d passed through on her way to Ben Erai. One held a burning brazier and the other did not; she climbed onto the dark one half expecting to find a chest of wealth.\u00a0 There was no such chest but from the ledge\u2019s vantage point she saw what they\u2019d come for.<\/p>\n Beyond the cave was a three-sided room, stone, with four pillars like those they\u2019d seen at the entrance of Al Shedim.\u00a0 A large coffin rested in its center, at the top of a raised platform.\u00a0 Behind it, on the far wall, a lighted niche held crossed Alik\u2019r scimitars.<\/p>\n This must be the resting place of that Alik\u2019r the door mentioned.<\/em><\/p>\n She crept forward, hoping to look at the chests and urns on either side of the casket; but she hadn\u2019t even made it to the platform\u2019s base when the sarcophagus lid flew open and a mummified corpse lifted itself out.\u00a0 Sayma rushed forward to strike with her flame-enchanted sword and nearly fainted when she reached the mummy.<\/p>\n It was enormous.\u00a0 Nearly twice her height. It wielded a cruel-looking scimitar and a shield almost as long as her torso, and its eyes shone cold and blue.\u00a0 Sayma hesitated for a moment and then struck at it with her Daedric sword just as Brynjolf rushed it with his; the creature blocked with its shield and jumped back up onto the edge of its coffin.\u00a0 It growled, then, and moved its shield aside for a better look at them; and that was its mistake. Brynjolf brought his sword around in a massive, sweeping slice that knocked the creature off the coffin, sending it flying headfirst into one of the pedestals at the side of the room. Sayma was standing near it. Even though she was fairly certain the fall had sent the Alik\u2019r back to Oblivion she stabbed her sword down into its body to be sure.\u00a0 She grinned at Brynjolf.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was well done.\u00a0 I thought we\u2019d be fighting it for ages.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was big.\u00a0 But it was stupid.\u00a0 Don\u2019t open yourself up like that.\u201d<\/p>\n They sheathed their weapons and began searching the room for valuables.\u00a0 Sayma examined the crossed scimitars. There would be no taking them; they were securely fastened to the wall in some way that she couldn\u2019t determine.\u00a0 Beneath them, though, was a chest; and when she opened it she found the item they\u2019d been looking for since entering Al Shedim.<\/p>\n \u201cHere it is. Finally,\u201d she said, pulling the key out.\u00a0 \u201cThis is the key to get us into the oasis where the Cowl is. That\u2019s what I was told, at any rate.\u00a0 It had better be right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAye, let\u2019s hope so.\u00a0 I got everything else. Let\u2019s get out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n It took them a fair amount of time to find their way back through the cave and out the maze of stairwells and chambers.\u00a0 Eventually, though, they emerged, back into the great open plaza.\u00a0 It was evening once more, cool and clear.\u00a0 Sayma looked at Brynjolf and smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cNow what?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n \u201cTime to go see some cheetahs about a piece of jewelry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou do realize that sounds ridiculous?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u201d\u00a0 She chuckled and moved out onto the dunes, heading north.<\/p>\n The shade didn\u2019t last long. There was a short, tiled corridor roughly twice Sayma\u2019s height.\u00a0 They were covered to the extent that they were out of the direct sunlight, but they were not out of the heat.\u00a0 She eased her way forward through the entrance and gasped at the sheer size of the structure before … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/4-1-17-3.png\")
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<\/p>\nPart I: Sayma Sendu<\/a><\/div>\nPrevious<\/a> \/ Next<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"