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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a deep hole that Brynjolf dropped into, but the partially-blocked entrance to an obviously-active mine; and as soon as he hit the floor he dropped into a crouch and drew his daggers. Lamps hung at intervals down the initial incline. At the first corner, where the original ore vein had given out, there were a table and chair. The clear sounds of a pickaxe striking ore drifted up from beyond. He frowned; it made no sense, but all the hints had drawn him here and he wasn\u2019t going to leave without finding out why. He slipped around the support posts and peered down the next corridor.<\/p>\n
A man in Legion armor picked away at a spot of ore, and clearly hadn\u2019t heard him enter the mine.\u00a0 Brynjolf moved directly behind him, marveling once more at how very silently a vampire could do such a thing.\u00a0 He\u2019d long since learned how to walk with the shadows; it was part of his profession as a thief.\u00a0 But this power made him practically undetectable. He took hold of the man and drained him of his blood.<\/p>\n
A noise behind him caught his attention. He turned just as a second Imperial soldier came up from the next-deeper level of the mine, his torch raised.\u00a0 Brynjolf held his breath and slipped next to the wall, hugging the shadows that remained and hoping he could get behind the man while his head was turned.<\/p>\n
Much to his relief, the soldier was peering up the ramp, squinting into the dark while simultaneously blinding himself with his own carried light. He didn\u2019t see the hanging bone chime rigged up to serve as an intruder alert, and walked into it himself.\u00a0 The noisy bones covered Brynjolf\u2019s movement as he circled around behind the soldier and rose to sink his fangs into the man\u2019s neck and drain him, dropping his corpse to the floor.<\/p>\n
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He looked up and froze.\u00a0 He\u2019d just dropped a groaning body onto the ground. The light the man had been carrying had gone out.\u00a0 Between the two of them, they\u2019d made enough noise to alert just about anyone.\u00a0 And yet, at the bottom of the slope was a wooden door with an Imperial soldier \u2013 one of them an officer – standing sentry on either side.\u00a0 It made no sense.<\/p>\n
Either these men are drunk, or deaf, or just completely incompetent. They should at least have noticed that the light went out all of a sudden. Whatever they\u2019re being paid to guard this mine, it\u2019s too much.<\/em><\/p>\n He spent only a moment wondering how he should approach the problem. He knew that with each body he drained, the tug of his vampirism was a little stronger and he was a bit more wedded to his condition. It was harder, each time, to think about giving up his power. And yet, those thoughts occupied only a moment.\u00a0 In the next moment, he drained the officer and backed into the deepest shadow he could find.<\/p>\n The regular soldier did notice the officer falling to the floor at his feet. So he is alive after all, Brynjolf thought as the man moved to stand over the officer\u2019s body.\u00a0 It\u2019s good to know. I prefer my meals fresh.<\/p>\n \u201cDamn it!\u201d the soldier cried out, drawing his sword. \u201cThis will not<\/em> stand!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps not,\u201d Brynjolf murmured. \u201cBut I will.\u201d\u00a0 He rose from his crouch and seized the soldier\u2019s head, once again piercing a soft neck and pulling all its sweet, metallic nourishment into his own body.<\/p>\n He lowered the corpse to the floor alongside the other and looked at them in satisfaction, but also in dismay.\u00a0 He needed to stop. He couldn\u2019t keep doing this.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll never be able to give it up if I don\u2019t stop. Even if there is a cure, I won\u2019t be able to let go.<\/em><\/p>\n The door before him was locked, and of a make that he could not pick. Frowning, he searched the corpses and, in one of the officer\u2019s interior pockets, found the heavy key to fit that lock. The door swung open silently; and Brynjolf\u2019s eyes opened in surprise. \u00a0He had expected to see a continuation of the mine, the door perhaps guarding caged rooms full of the most valuable items, or untapped deposits of the richest ore.\u00a0 He\u2019d seen mines like that before. That wasn\u2019t what he found.<\/p>\n Instead, the door opened onto a round, rough chamber. There was, in fact, a great deal of untouched ore plainly visible around the walls of the room. But there were also barrels, and shelves, and a small round table with a number of bulging coin purses sitting there, out in plain sight.\u00a0 A chandelier hung above a lectern holding a fat book.<\/p>\n Brynjolf approached the table first and wasted no time in tucking the various coin purses into his pockets. There was a note on the table as well, which he picked up to read.<\/p>\n Dear Grave Robber,<\/p>\n You cannot comprehend the evil you will unleash if you remove these cursed items. If hard of coin please help yourself to this gold, please allow these accursed items rest.<\/p>\n ~Champion of Cyrodiil<\/p>\n \u201cThe Champion of Cyrodiil? He was busy in these parts, then,\u201d Brynjolf snorted, remembering the stories Sayma had told him about her trek to find the Champion\u2019s burial place. \u201cSomehow I doubt a note two hundred years old would be in this kind of condition.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll humor you and take the gold anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n The shelves lining the back wall of this cavern were loaded with armor, shields, and weapons, all enchanted. He didn\u2019t need to get terribly close to any of them to feel the energies radiating out into the vault or to recognize those energies, similar to those of the bow and daggers he carried. They were Daedric items, no doubt, and exceptionally powerful to boot.<\/p>\n \u201cTempting,\u201d he murmured. \u201cVery tempting. But this isn\u2019t what I came for.\u201d<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t need more weapons, or armor, or more enchantments. No, what he was here for was bloodgrass.<\/p>\n He looked in everything that resembled a container. Barrels near the entrance held salt; and the scent from inside them spoke of their having once held meat as well. A satchel on one of the shelves contained some dried frost mirriam, which he took because that was always useful.\u00a0 But there were no red stems or leaves anywhere. His shoulders drooped in disappointment and he blew out a frustrated breath.<\/p>\n Damn it. All this way. I\u2019ve obviously found the vault of Daedric items that the archaeologist was speaking of. Melka set me on the right path. But it gets me no closer to a cure.<\/em><\/p>\n He kicked a loose pebble near his feet and watched it ricochet noisily off the walls of the vault and come to a rest near the wooden doors. He scanned the room once more; and his gaze finally rested on the thick book resting on the lectern. There was a large Oht \u2013 the Daedric letter O <\/em>\u2013 imprinted on the tome\u2019s cover.<\/p>\n Suddenly he remembered standing in Al Shedim with Sayma, looking up at three circular discs imprinted with Daedric lettering and an inscription written vertically below them. \u201cAny idea what it means?\u201d <\/em>she had asked him.\u00a0 And he had answered: \u201cWell that middle letter is \u2018O\u2019 and I\u2019d assume it stands for Oblivion, seeing how it\u2019s Daedric.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis can\u2019t be a coincidence,\u201d he murmured to the room. \u201cWe didn\u2019t go to Oblivion from Al Shedim, but it did turn out to be our way back to each other.\u201d\u00a0 He shook his head again, not really trusting his own thought processes.\u00a0 \u201cBut Oht still means O, so there\u2019s a chance\u2026 Maybe my little bit of knowledge is enough to get me into real trouble this time, eh Da?\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf picked the heavy tome up off its pedestal. Flipping its cover open, he found two pages of writing in Daedric lettering; one looked like a foreword or dedication of some kind and the other the actual text. He frowned at it, and at his less-than-perfect understanding of the language.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll take time to translate it once I\u2019m back home, but for now\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n The world went black.<\/p>\n He only had time to be disoriented for a moment.\u00a0 Then he was half-blinded by brilliant, red light.\u00a0 He got the impression of a structure on a rise in front of him; but any rational thought about it was drowned by the sound of his own shrieking.<\/p>\n He was standing in the middle of flames.<\/p>\n He felt intense heat rising from below him and looked down; swiveling to each side as far as he could without losing his footing, and saw one very solid stone beside him and roiling, bubbling lava everywhere else.\u00a0 His heart pounded; he fought against the panic that gripped him by the throat just as firmly as he ever took the throat of one of his victims.\u00a0 And he couldn\u2019t stop howling with panic, with rage.<\/p>\n Flames! I\u2019m in fire! I\u2019m\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Just as he had that thought, just as quickly as they had risen around him, the flames disappeared.\u00a0 He caught the scream that was in his throat before it could erupt once more, and reached out to touch the very warm but very solid boulder beside him.\u00a0 He looked down at his own body, felt his armor, felt his face, and then took the deepest breath he could manage of what was, unfortunately, scorching hot air.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not burned. I stood in fire but I did not burn. How can this be?<\/em><\/p>\n Where in Oblivion am I?<\/em><\/p>\n He took a few shuddering steps away from the boulder and looked back up at it. It wasn\u2019t simply a rock; he\u2019d been standing at the base of one side of an archway.\u00a0 It was, to be certain, placed precariously next to the edge of a cliff, but it was on solid ground. He recognized its shape from research he\u2019d done long ago, back when he was learning about the Daedric alphabet. He recognized the sharp points extending out from the arch.<\/p>\n I just answered my own question. That\u2019s a portal. Like an Oblivion gate, only smaller.<\/em><\/p>\n So where, in Oblivion, am I exactly?<\/em><\/p>\n This clearly was neither the Soul Cairn nor anything like it. There were no faded lavenders or blacks, no wisps or ghosts floating about over endless ashy soil.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t resemble what Sayma had described to him as the dark world of Coldharbour, with its deep purple oceans and nearly black foliage and stones. He seemed to be completely alone in a landscape that was grey and brown and, as far as he could tell, devoid of life.\u00a0 The air was full of steam, sulphurous gases that were chokingly hot to the lungs. The mass of land he stood on, as well as the smaller islands of rock he could see in the distance were, in fact, floating on lava.<\/p>\n In spite of having realized that he was safe Brynjolf shrank back from the lava. Fire. Flames. Those would harm him, could actually kill him.\u00a0 Lava would not only turn him to ash almost instantaneously but would destroy those ashes so that there was nothing whatsoever left of him, not even the smallest particle.<\/p>\n He was afraid. He longed for the days of his youth, rushing alongside Dynjyl, heedless of any danger and knowing that they could escape the tightest of spots. But those days were long past.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t do this. I don\u2019t know where I am and I don\u2019t know how to get out.<\/em><\/p>\n He closed his eyes for a moment and saw the flame-red locks of his infant daughter, as she had reached up to grasp his own and pull them, hard enough to make him wince. He saw his son, his own flame-red hair dancing as he ran around the yard in their home in Riftvale.<\/p>\n And then he saw Sayma.\u00a0 Her hair was black, her skin was dark, but her eyes were a pale green that burned with a flame of their own \u2013 a flame that could kindle a matching fire within him at their slightest glance.<\/p>\n We made those children, those little flames, together. We saved the Guild, together. I promised that lass forever and I need to find some way to give it to her.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Panicking is not going to find our forever. I need to take stock of the situation. I need to think.<\/em><\/p>\n For a moment he imagined that he felt an increased warmth around his finger, from the sparkling ruby that he could see even without opening his eyes. Yes, lad, he thought.\u00a0 I need to calm down. I\u2019ve been in worse situations.\u00a0 I\u2019ll keep going. Thank you.<\/p>\n Brynjolf opened his eyes and took stock of the area. He circled the portal, keeping to a crouch in the event there was some other creature \u2013 living or not \u2013 in this place with him.\u00a0 All he could see through the steam were stones, ash, and dirt.\u00a0 Off to his left, though, shapes rose from the ground in what looked to be a pattern, so he headed toward them.<\/p>\n There were six stones, shaped like the Standing Stones on the surface of Skyrim but much smaller, arranged in a circle, and carved with the scrollwork one found in Dwemer ruins. Beyond them were a table and a single chair, also of Dwemer construction, situated as if their owner intended to watch the circle of stones for some reason.<\/p>\n Dwemer furniture in a pocket of Oblivion? How does that make any sense at all?<\/em><\/p>\n How does any of it make any sense?<\/em><\/p>\n He sat down in the chair for a moment, looked back out past the portal and shuddered at both the expanse of lava before him, and the fact that the portal seemed completely inert.\u00a0 He had no idea how to get home again. His heart started galloping with panic once more.<\/p>\n Shor\u2019s bones, get a grip, lad! he told himself.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t helping right now.<\/p>\n He glanced left. There were large structures there, the structures he\u2019d seen momentarily when coming through the portal, but which he\u2019d been far too rattled to consider before now.\u00a0 They were, like the chair he sat in, very clearly of ancient elven make.\u00a0 Most were Dwemer, but at least one archway reminded him more closely of the Ayleid ruins he\u2019d seen in the outskirts of Bruma.<\/p>\n He rose from the chair, put his hood back on and readied his bow, then started toward the Dwemer columns.\u00a0 As he neared them it became clear that they were supports for a narrow bridge across the lava \u2013 a bridge that had no side walls to speak of.\u00a0 He fought down panic yet again and prepared to cross.<\/p>\n Then he saw something that had his heart pounding once more, but in a different way.<\/p>\n There was something on the shore of the lava lake, something with a shape that said \u201cgrowing thing.\u201d\u00a0 He heard Melka in his mind, saying \u201c<\/em>Only grows near fire, next to the lakes of fiery stone. Oblivion.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Shor\u2019s bones. <\/em><\/p>\n He couldn\u2019t tell what he was looking at, not even as he edged closer to it.\u00a0 Everything here looked gray aside from the oranges and reds of the lava. This item looked black from where he stood. But the closer he got to the thing, the more excited he became. Once he was nearly on top of the plant \u2013 for it was clearly a plant \u2013 he could see that it was a deep, blood red.<\/p>\n Thin stems.\u00a0 Red plant, growing next to the lava lakes.<\/em><\/p>\n When Melka had told him about bloodgrass she\u2019d made gestures that had given him the impression of slender, upright shoots of grass.\u00a0 This was lower to the ground than he\u2019d expected, and was twisted and gnarled; but who knew what this pocket of Oblivion might have done to living things?\u00a0 It was, in fact, the only living thing he had seen since coming through the portal.\u00a0 And it was red, like blood.<\/p>\n His hands shaking, Brynjolf reached for the plant and carefully harvested as much of it as he could manage without destroying the plant altogether.\u00a0 Who knew whether it would grow back? \u00a0He certainly didn\u2019t.\u00a0 What he did know, however, was that it was the closest he\u2019d ever come to something that might be called \u201cbloodgrass.\u201d<\/p>\n The formula Melka had given him had been for two bloodgrass.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t know how much of a plant was involved in an alchemist\u2019s unit of the plant.\u00a0 But at least he had something, now; and a day or two before this he\u2019d had none at all.\u00a0 He slipped the plant carefully into a pouch and headed for the narrow stone bridge.<\/p>\n It was wider than, say, the fallen tree over a waterfall across which he\u2019d scampered many times in his life.\u00a0 The fall from that tree would kill just about anything; and yet he\u2019d never been especially afraid of the dash across it.\u00a0 This bridge was at least twice that width.\u00a0 Still, he shuddered non-stop as he edged across it, the lava on either side sending up an occasional bubble, a burst of liquid flame.\u00a0 The farther across he got, the more irritated he became with himself.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not like me to be afraid of things! What is this? <\/em><\/p>\n Suddenly he remembered holding Vitus as he\u2019d trembled next to the water beneath a bridge, having barely survived the onslaught of a Vigilant of Stendarr. \u201cBut fire, Bryn,\u201d<\/em> he\u2019d said; and Brynjolf had needed no further explanation than that to understand Vitus\u2019 fear.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same right now.\u00a0 I suppose I need to be a bit more gentle with myself if I\u2019m going to get out of this mess.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019d like to have someone hold me right about now.<\/em><\/p>\n I guess that\u2019s exactly why I\u2019m here, isn\u2019t it?<\/em><\/p>\n He gritted his teeth and pushed forward, across the bridge to the archway at its far end.\u00a0 Beyond it was another large island, and a building of Dwemer construction.<\/p>\n Now to see what else is here.<\/em><\/p>\n He drew his bow and moved as silently as he could around the corner of the building.\u00a0 Once more his pulse rose: there was another of the red plants nestled into the grey, ashy sands beside the building.\u00a0 He eagerly harvested it, again being careful not to pull the entire plant out of the ground.<\/p>\n That\u2019s two.\u00a0 I have two bloodgrass.\u00a0 By all the gods, I have two bloodgrass!<\/em><\/p>\n Now I have to get home.<\/em><\/p>\n He climbed onto a boulder next to the plant, just in time for a lava flare to erupt from the lake\u2019s surface, nearly singeing him. He scrambled back down onto the dirt, nearly panicking once again, and shook his head.<\/p>\n \u201cEasy, lad,\u201d he told himself, in the same tones he would have used speaking to any of the younger thieves in the Guild. \u201cIt will be alright. You\u2019re not burned.\u201d<\/p>\n Circling around the end of the building, he discovered another narrow bridge leading to a third island of stone.\u00a0 He stood for a moment looking ruefully at it and at the lava underneath; but he couldn\u2019t justify not crossing it. It was important to know what might be hidden in the steam across the way, in case it was the way back to Skyrim.<\/p>\n To his utter amazement, what he found on the third rocky land mass was a smithy. It was a complete smithy, too, including a forge, a smelter, a work bench, and a tanning rack.\u00a0 There was water in a trough next to the forge, although he suspected that it wasn\u2019t exactly the type of water one used on the surface. No normal water could have escaped almost instantaneous evaporation in this heat.\u00a0 There was a Dwemer table in the middle of this area, laden with ingots of various metals.<\/p>\n This looks like it\u2019s been used, and recently.\u00a0 Does someone \u2026 live here?<\/em><\/p>\n He returned to the central island. If someone did live there they would be inside the building, not out here in the lava.\u00a0 Just to make certain he hadn\u2019t missed anything, though, Brynjolf clambered up a boulder beside the structure.\u00a0 From there, it was a simple hop to the roof, where he walked from one end to the other.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t missed anything obvious, or moving, or living.\u00a0 As he\u2019d suspected, everything save the two bloodgrass plants was fire, or steam, or rock\u2026 or lava.<\/p>\n He jumped down from the roof, preparing himself in the event something hostile was waiting inside, and pushed open the Dwemer-metal doors.<\/p>\n The first thing that struck him was that it was considerably cooler inside the building than outside. He shuddered for a moment, his body shedding extra heat.\u00a0 Two stylized dwarven faces flanked the entry; and he spent a moment staring at them, wondering whether somehow he was being watched.\u00a0 Nothing came out of the shadows at him, though; so he continued through the foyer to the next set of Dwemer doors.<\/p>\n What in Oblivion is this?<\/em><\/p>\n There was a large, mostly open chamber, with a gargoyle-shaped fountain spilling hot water into a pool in its center.\u00a0 Once again nothing emerged to attack, so Brynjolf rose from his crouch to search the room. Tables lined the walls, most of them strewn with books. He found nothing particularly interesting in this room aside from the pool; and he grinned, picturing Sayma telling him to take a bath because after all the panicked sweating he\u2019d done, he smelled.<\/p>\n Another set of metal doors opened into a fully equipped kitchen. There were cooking pots, a spit for roasting meats, and even a sweet roll of indeterminate age set on the central dining table.\u00a0 A baking oven was against the opposite wall from the cooking spit, and in the corner near it, a fully-stocked wine rack.\u00a0 There was absolutely anything a person could want here, assuming that a person dined on normal foods and not human blood. He spied alchemy ingredients laid out on a small table, among them a Daedra heart; he scooped that up eagerly, for both his bow and his dagger could be improved with them and they were hard to come by. He checked carefully for more bloodgrass, but found none inside.<\/p>\n Through another set of doors was a round foyer with rooms to either side.\u00a0 On his left was a large closet full of dwarven armor that he admired, but ignored.\u00a0 Across the way, though, the small room he entered had his mouth dropping open in astonishment.\u00a0 There were an enchanting table, an alchemy station, and a staff enchanter. Cabinets and shelves were loaded down with more alchemy ingredients, some of them quite rare; he scooped a few items up for his own use and continued his explorations.<\/p>\n At the end of the corridor was a bedroom.\u00a0 He grinned seeing the stone bed.\u00a0 It seemed like a very long time ago that he\u2019d spent all of his nights on a horribly old, terrifically uncomfortable cot in the Cistern.\u00a0 Since then he\u2019d been spoiled, if he really thought about it; the noble-styled beds in Honeyside and in their new home in Riftvale were much easier on his aging bones.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t quite picture sleeping on a slab of stone, not even as a vampire.\u00a0 The room itself was pleasant enough, and held a number of books including a spell tome that taught how to dispel Daedra.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t expect to run across any such creatures, any time soon; but if he did he would at least have some defense against them.<\/p>\n At least until I\u2019m cured.<\/em><\/p>\n He frowned again at that thought; because the fact still remained that he needed to both find his way out of this place and somehow brew a potion that none of the people he knew had ever made before.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t convinced that he had the skills to make such a thing, even after he had gathered all of the ingredients.\u00a0 More immediately, though, he was still in a Dwemer house in the middle of Oblivion, surrounded by lava and flames, and he was still a vampire.<\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d he said to the room, mostly to hear the sound of a voice, \u201clet\u2019s go see what I missed.\u201d<\/p>\n He walked slowly back down the length of the home, admiring how neat and well-stocked it was, and wondering who it belonged to and whether or not that owner might be angry that he was in it.\u00a0 He checked out each of the side spaces again, and looked in all the corners.\u00a0 He stood and admired the bath for a long moment, but didn\u2019t feel comfortable removing his armor in such an odd place.<\/p>\n There was simply nothing else here.\u00a0 The only thing he could think of to do at this point was to return to the portal by which he\u2019d entered, and hope that there was something there, maybe a lever or a button, anything at all that would reactivate that portal so he could return home.\u00a0 He pushed out through the doors and peered down the narrow bridge once more.<\/p>\n And he threw himself into a crouch as quickly as he could, backing behind one of the pillars of the Ayleid-design archway.<\/p>\n At the far end of the bridge, barely visible through the steam, he\u2019d detected movement.\u00a0 For the first time since arriving in this place, he was not alone.\u00a0 He drew his bow as silently as he could manage, and watched, and listened.<\/p>\n \u201cI smell\u2026 weakness!\u201d a hollow, gurgling voice called.<\/p>\n \u201cA challenger is near!\u201d said a similar, but separate voice.<\/p>\n Gods damn it. Not just one Daedra, but two!<\/em><\/p>\n He might have tried out his new spell if it had been just one of them \u2013 or if he\u2019d felt truly comfortable with his own skill in spellcasting. For all his cockiness in demonstrating his conjuration skills in front of Edwyn, he\u2019d been sure of those abilities. He could call things from Oblivion to Tamriel well enough. This was no time to experiment with reversing the process.<\/p>\n Stepping back onto the end of the bridge, he nocked an arrow and took aim at the two Daedra running toward him, the second of which had a ward spell in front of it. Just as he released his first arrow, motion to his right distracted him.\u00a0 There was a third Daedra, running around on the island behind the two who had spotted him. Because he\u2019d flinched ever so slightly at the last moment, his shot went wide. He readied another arrow; by the time he released it the Dremora \u2013 a Kynreeve, he could now see \u2013 was halfway across the bridge.\u00a0 His arrow struck home, though, and with a great deal of force.\u00a0 The Kynreeve cried out, then turned back to run toward the far end of the bridge.<\/p>\n In front of him, the Dremora with a ward spell active drew closer.\u00a0 It was a Kynval, he could see; a Dremora, but one dressed only in robes.\u00a0 This one might be easier to kill, if he could only get a shot off quickly enough.\u00a0 When his arrow struck the creature it shrieked and dropped its ward, turning back toward the far island.<\/p>\n To his dismay, Brynjolf saw the Kynreeve coming back toward him; and behind it, on the island and milling around the end of the bridge, were at least three other Dremora, possibly four.<\/p>\n How many? Can I get them all? Am I going to die here?<\/em><\/p>\n He thought of that horrible night when he\u2019d inadvertently alerted every one of the angry, vengeful spirits in the hidden town in Hammerfell.\u00a0 He\u2019d been nearly downed, ice spikes piercing him through the shoulder, making every breath intensely painful.\u00a0 He\u2019d looked up at Sayma, far down the street with her own attackers, and had sent her the message with every fiber of his being. \u201cRun, lass.\u201d <\/em>He\u2019d never seen a look quite so desolate and pained as the one she\u2019d had, thinking that he was dying.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t do that to her again.<\/em><\/p>\n He ducked back behind the pillar for a moment, readying his next shot.\u00a0 When he stepped into the open again his heart leapt; the Kynreeve had lost sight of him and turned back toward the far island.\u00a0 Brynjolf let the arrow fly. It struck the Kynreeve in its back, and the creature crumpled onto the bridge with a gurgling sigh.\u00a0 He could see the Kynval \u2013 perhaps the one he\u2019d already injured \u2013 near the far end of the bridge.\u00a0 One more arrow flew the length of the bridge and struck the Dremora dead center; it too fell dead.<\/p>\n He hadn\u2019t pulled the shadows in around him, or bent the light to his favor.\u00a0 Even so, it seemed that the Dremora were having difficulty finding him. \u00a0A Caitiff was coming down the bridge toward him, clearly sensing his presence but unable to spot him. Perhaps it was the steam. Brynjolf didn\u2019t care; he fired an arrow just as the creature turned back toward the far shore, striking it in the back and killing it instantly.<\/p>\n He would have taken a moment to be pleased with himself, but he could see at least two more Dremora.\u00a0 One \u2013 another Caitiff, wielding a huge warhammer – was hurtling down the bridge, leaping over the bodies of its dead comrades. It stopped for a moment to look around and Brynjolf dropped it with a single arrow.<\/p>\n The final Dremora was a Kynreeve that took two shots to defeat.\u00a0 It fell in a heap in the center of the bridge.\u00a0 Brynjolf rose slowly, taking a long shuddering breath and looking around himself at the collection of bodies he\u2019d created.<\/p>\n Well then. There are hearts and blood to be harvested.\u00a0 I would be foolish not to do that.<\/em><\/p>\n He moved cautiously up and down the length of the bridge, doing what needed to be done to glean the most value from the Dremora.\u00a0 Every so often he\u2019d glance to the side, see the lava surrounding him, and shiver; but he shook it off and continued his work.\u00a0 Still, he heaved a sigh of relief once he was back on the island standing near the portal.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t much<\/em> solid ground; but at least, for this moment, it was <\/em>solid.<\/p>\n Brynjolf made another circuit around the island, looking behind every stone and in every corner.\u00a0 He went back through the other two land masses as well, to see whether he had missed any bloodgrass or something obvious that would serve as an exit; but there was nothing.\u00a0 Eventually he stood before the portal, staring up at it in dismay.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat did I miss?\u201d he asked the sky.\u00a0 \u201cWas there something obvious? Something I left behind in the Vault?\u201d<\/p>\n He mentally scoured the Vault again. There had been nothing other than the armor and weapons he\u2019d decided to leave, the coin he\u2019d taken at the invitation of its former owner and\u2026 the book. Sighing, he pulled the book with Daedric text out of his pack and flipped it open.<\/p>\n Once again, the world went black.<\/p>\n Once again, he found himself standing in a bed of flames.\u00a0 This time, though, he knew where he was, immediately, by the lectern in front of him.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a gods-damned portal. The book is the portal, not the stones.<\/em><\/p>\n Get me out of here.<\/em><\/p>\n He ran back out of the vault and through the old mine, climbing up out of the opening into the cool, fresh air of Falkreath.\u00a0 It was dark, and it was late; but he had every intention of visiting Roggi and Dardeh.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a deep hole that Brynjolf dropped into, but the partially-blocked entrance to an obviously-active mine; and as soon as he hit the floor he dropped into a crouch and drew his daggers. Lamps hung at intervals down the initial incline. At the first corner, where the original ore vein had given out, there … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/5-2-20-3.png\")
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<\/p>\nPart II: Resolution<\/a><\/div>\nPrevious<\/a> \/ Next<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"