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Calcelmo was an Altmer mage, that much she could tell from his height alone.\u00a0 When he turned to face her, his golden skin also revealed his racial heritage.\u00a0 When he spoke, his voice told her that he was quite elderly.\u00a0 Given the long lives of all the elven races, that made him a very old man indeed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d he snapped at her.\u00a0 \u201cThe excavation site is closed.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need any more guards or workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, it\u2019s a lovely day, thanks for asking, she thought sourly.\u00a0 My goodness, I seem to have a talent for finding foul-tempered men in Skyrim.<\/p>\n
Dag smiled. \u201cNo, no, I wasn\u2019t looking for work.\u00a0 I was actually looking for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou idiot! Do you even know who I am? I\u2019m the most recognized scholar on the Dwemer in all of Tamriel, and you people keep bothering me!\u201d<\/p>\n
Dag stood and looked at him, grinding her teeth.\u00a0 I am not going to get angry with an old man, no matter how obnoxious he is being.\u00a0 I just won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u2026I\u2019m sorry,\u201d Calcelmo said. \u00a0\u201cI got too excited.\u00a0 I\u2019m in the middle of some very stressful work and I shouldn\u2019t have yelled.\u201d\u00a0 He straightened up and looked at her.\u00a0 Yes, very old, but she could see that he\u2019d clearly been a handsome Altmer indeed in his youth.\u00a0 He still retained a regal presence, even if his voice was querulous and thin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s quite all right,\u201d Dag said.\u00a0 No it isn\u2019t, but I\u2019ll just lie to you because it\u2019s not important enough to bother with.\u00a0 \u201cI understand you\u2019re something of an expert on Falmer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes. As a matter of fact, I am nearing the completion of my magnum opus, a complete translation of the Falmer language. Calcelmo\u2019s Guide to the Falmer Tongue<\/em>. It will be quite exciting once it\u2019s finished. I expect it to revolutionize the understanding of the Falmer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d she said, smiling and trying her very best to be persuasive, \u201cI\u2019d love to have a look at your research.\u00a0 I\u2019m quite an admirer of your other works.\u00a0 The first volume of Dwarves <\/em>was a favorite of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n He smiled, just slightly, but shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cWhile I appreciate the sentiment, I still have to decline. Being an admirer, I\u2019m sure you can appreciate the need to keep my research a secret.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, that\u2019s a shame,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cI do understand, though.\u201d\u00a0 Calcelmo nodded and turned back to his enchantments.<\/p>\n Dag growled internally.\u00a0 Yes, I understand.\u00a0 You\u2019re just exactly as Enthir described, a cranky old piece of work. \u00a0Damn, now what.\u00a0 I could pick the lock, but I would need to get past that guard first, and I don\u2019t have an invisibility potion.<\/em>\u00a0 Her eyes scanned the room and came back to the three volumes of Dwarves<\/em>.\u00a0 There was something else there, she noticed, and walked to the table.\u00a0 Partially hidden under the edge of Volume Two was a heavy dwarven key.\u00a0 Perfect. \u00a0If this didn\u2019t work \u2013 and she suspected that it would \u2013 she\u2019d try something else. She looked around to see whether anyone was watching, but Calcelmo might well have already forgotten she\u2019d been there, for all the attention he was giving her.\u00a0 She swept the key into her palm and walked across the wide hall, grinning.<\/p>\n The guard was ready to puff up his chest and stall her again, but she waved the key and said \u201cCalcelmo gave me the key.\u201d<\/p>\n He frowned, but he stepped aside and allowed her to enter.<\/p>\n The Dwemer Museum was in a large, fully-excavated room, filled with display cases and tables of artifacts.\u00a0 There were thick bars of Dwemer metal, various cogs, plates, and levers from the fantastic, steam-powered machinery that was the hallmark of so much of the ancient Dwemer\u2019s handiwork.\u00a0 Various locked display cases held copies of Calcelmo\u2019s treatises and samples of the most valuable artifacts, such as gems that had been used to power some of the Dwemer robot constructs.\u00a0 The highlight, though, was on a pedestal in the center of the room:\u00a0 a fully-intact Centurion.\u00a0 It was a huge, human-shaped robot holding an oversized dwarven axe, easily the size of two men combined, and had it not been inert Dag was convinced that it could have run roughshod over the entire contingent of Keep guards without a moment\u2019s hesitation.<\/p>\n Those very guards were talking about how Calcelmo had pulled all of his excavation workers to guard his research up in the tower. It was a waste of manpower, they thought, but at least the museum job was safe. Uh-oh, Dag thought. Was that because of me, or is someone else trying to get this information as well? Mercer, for instance? Just because she and Karliah had the journal didn\u2019t mean they had the only source of Gallus\u2019 ideas.\u00a0 He might well have left other notes in Falmer in a place where Mercer could get to them.<\/p>\n The guards looked her over warily as she walked in, but she waggled the key about in the air. It was good enough to get her across the room, because, as the guard outside had said, one needed Calcelmo\u2019s permission to enter.\u00a0 But Dag didn\u2019t like the way they were behaving.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet they usually get word from him, she thought, and it\u2019s only a matter of minutes before they double-check and figure out that I stole the key.<\/p>\n There were rooms to either side, and her brief glance told her that she could become very wealthy in a short period of time, here, if not for all the guards.\u00a0 It would have to wait for another day, though; the staircase behind the Centurion was where she needed to go. She hoped to infiltrate the place quietly and sneak her way up to the tower. She sauntered around the room, peering at each display and nodding sagely from time to time just as though she knew what she was doing; then, once the guards\u2019 backs were turned for a moment, she dropped into a crouch, crept up the stairway, and picked open the metal doors to Calcelmo\u2019s laboratory.<\/p>\n Things did not go well after that.<\/p>\n She had just had enough time to register the voice ordering \u201cKill any intruders on sight\u201d when a metal gate to her left opened and a guard strode into the room. Dag had no chance to hide; and, while there was an oily patch on the floor that might have helped burn the man, she didn\u2019t want to chance setting fire to it.\u00a0 Instead, she pulled her bow and sank an arrow into his neck just as he came directly opposite her.<\/p>\n She bolted into the next room, only to be met by two more guards.\u00a0 With no distance between her and them her best choice \u2013 her only choice, really — was her swords.\u00a0 The one thing that worked to her advantage was the placement of the thick, ornately-carved stone supports throughout the room. \u00a0She ducked in and out behind them, forcing the guards to come at her single file.\u00a0 She whirled and slashed and blocked; and while she took several deep gashes, the guards fell relatively easy.\u00a0 Still, it was a nasty bit of business; the floor was now covered by oil and blood. It was an oddly lovely juxtaposition of colors, she thought: the deep red of the blood and the orangey-pink, glistening oil.<\/p>\n Dag took a moment to heal herself and relieve the dead guards of a satisfying amount of coin and a couple of keys that might go somewhere important. The room they were in, as well as the next, might be considered beautiful if she\u2019d really had time to admire them, and she was desperately interested to see what she might lift from the various Dwemer cabinets and off the tables. But she could hear voices ahead and up a small staircase.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you suppose this is?\u201d a male voice asked.<\/p>\n \u201cProbably another trap,\u201d a woman replied. \u201cWe lost another group of men, the other day, to the steam.\u201d\u00a0 Indeed, there was steam in this hallway, and she could hear clunking and an occasional hiss.\u00a0 It would seem that the Dwemer machinery wasn\u2019t all as inert as the Centurion in the museum.<\/p>\n She crept quietly up the short flight of stairs and found herself at the head of a long hallway containing what looked like a Dwemer mechanical defensive device.\u00a0 There was a long slot running the length of the hall.\u00a0 Spaced at regular intervals were posts, with what appeared to be fan-like blades folded along their sides. Dag wasn\u2019t sure what she was seeing, but the blades certainly looked sharp.<\/p>\n Dag frowned, ducking behind one of the support pillars at the near end of the hall, wondering how she was going to get past the two guards.\u00a0 They were patrolling back and forth the length of the hall, and while there were a couple of spots where she might otherwise have hidden, there was no possibility that she could time her passage to avoid being seen.\u00a0 She drew her bow.\u00a0 One, at least, could be taken out that way.\u00a0 That would give the other time to rush her, though, and she didn\u2019t much care for the odds of that option.\u00a0 Then she saw the valve, at the far end of the hall.<\/p>\n It was a big valve, painted red so as to leave no doubt of its importance.\u00a0 Nobody could miss that valve.\u00a0 I wonder, Dag thought.\u00a0 That guard was just complaining about losing people to steam.\u00a0 There\u2019s steam in the hall.\u00a0 I can hear it hissing.\u00a0 I just need to get these two out of the way for a few moments. What do I have to lose?\u00a0 She turned and faced the doorway through which she\u2019d just come, then fired an arrow; a short shot, just enough to draw the guards toward the sound and give her a chance to dash down the hall.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you hear something?\u201d<\/p>\n She inched back and around the far side of the support pillar, keeping it between herself and the guards as they headed for the doorway.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t going to move out of the hall completely, that much was clear.\u00a0 When the second guard got close to the door she bolted for the valve.<\/p>\n \u201cNow you\u2019ll be sorry!\u201d the female guard yelled.<\/p>\n Dag ducked just ahead of an iron arrow that would have buried itself into her neck, and grabbed for the valve.\u00a0 She yanked it open.<\/p>\n There was a louder hiss, nearby.\u00a0 The vertical shafts in the hallway raised themselves up higher, and the petal-like blades unfolded themselves.\u00a0 They started traversing the hall, moving along the slot, whirling as they went.\u00a0 There was no place for the guards to go, any more than there would have been a place for Dag to hide.<\/p>\n It was, again, a messy business.<\/p>\n Dag simply stood and stared for a moment, marveling at what a lot of carnage a set or two of whirling blades could create in such a short time.\u00a0 Then she closed the valve and watched the blades fold themselves up, sink back down into the slot, and turn off.\u00a0 She searched about until locating the pieces of the guards that held their coin purses, relieved them of their money, and pressed on.<\/p>\n Around a few more corners, Dag found herself at the near side of a dead-end hallway.\u00a0 There was one other opening; one of the metal cage doors stood open on the left, and from that direction were voices.\u00a0 She couldn\u2019t really make out what they were saying for the steam hissing all around, but it sounded like more discussions of intruders and guarding.\u00a0 She needed to get a better look at what was going on below, so she crept slowly down the hallway to its far end.\u00a0 There was another valve, just beside the grating. \u00a0If she could sneak past the open door she\u2019d at least have a place to hide while she cased the area.<\/p>\n Dag slid down the hallway, hugging the far wall, then stood as far as she dared and peered through the metal caging into the room below.\u00a0 It held several work tables, an enchanting station, and a desk at which stood a mage engaged in conversation with the several guards.\u00a0 What caught her eye, though, was the pair of slotted blades, at rest, seemingly harmless.\u00a0 Dag grinned, and turned the valve.<\/p>\n There was a huge explosion, followed by the now-familiar sound of whirling blades and screaming.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat? No!\u201d\u00a0 That was the mage, who had escaped everything else by virtue of his position in the room.\u00a0 He came rushing up the steps and turned to his right, obviously intending to bolt for reinforcements.\u00a0 Dag aimed her bow and dropped him neatly from the back.<\/p>\n \u201cThere we go,\u201d she muttered, closing the valve.<\/p>\n Knowing that there weren\u2019t any live guards behind her, Dag took a moment to search the room for valuables. There were some gems, coins, and a couple of pieces of jewelry in various Dwemer containers.\u00a0 She wanted desperately to take some of the bits of dwarven metal with her but they were exceptionally heavy, so she passed.\u00a0 Up in the hallway, the mage she\u2019d shot had no valuables, just an astonishing amount of food.\u00a0 Perhaps he\u2019d been bringing it to the guards, who knew. She was just about to move on when something caught her eye: a cube, resting on a small stand in a niche.\u00a0 She picked it up and turned it over, trying to determine what it was, and failed.\u00a0 What a puzzle.\u00a0 It was definitely an interesting trinket, though, she thought.\u00a0 It went into her pack, for Delvin, assuming that she was ever going to see Delvin again.<\/p>\n This room emptied onto a balcony overlooking Markarth.\u00a0 It was a truly secure location; the only access to it was the way she\u2019d just come, through Understone Keep and the maze of the Dwemer Museum and the laboratory.\u00a0 She walked the length of the balcony, enjoying a moment of fresh air and scouting the place.\u00a0 A stone staircase to her right led to what had to be the wizard\u2019s tower, but what caught her attention was a broken section in the balcony wall, just beyond the foot of the stairs.\u00a0 It seemed as though one of the heavy stones supporting the equally heavy stone rail had broken and fallen over on its side, toward the waterfall roaring down from the keep\u2019s mountaintop.\u00a0 She edged out onto it and looked down.\u00a0 The waterfall poured through an opening below, into a pool next to the smithy.\u00a0 Allright, she thought.\u00a0 I know where I am now.\u00a0 Then she turned back to the tower.<\/p>\n There was nobody else in the area.\u00a0 It was just a large room, with a balcony at its far side with no apparent access.\u00a0 She headed down the left side of the room and discovered one more staircase, a short one, leading to closed metal doors.<\/p>\n \u201cAh,\u201d she said, stepping into the next area.\u00a0 \u201cHere we go.\u201d\u00a0 This room was full of things.\u00a0 Desks, cabinets, magic equipment.\u00a0 There were Dwemer chests, desks, books, and rolls of paper, charcoal, and other writing equipment scattered over several large tables.\u00a0 It was much like the room where she\u2019d killed the mage, earlier, but far more extensive.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t find anything that looked like the language in Gallus\u2019 journal, but it was promising.<\/p>\n A set of doors opened onto the balcony she had seen below.\u00a0 In the center of the balcony was a tablet, carved from a massive stone, topped by a head that might be either a dwarf or a snow elf, but she didn\u2019t know which. There were two sets of markings on the face of this tablet, one on the top and one beneath, and one of them was a match for the writing in Gallus\u2019 journal.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, there\u2019s only one way I\u2019m going to get this information back to Enthir,\u201d she murmured, and that\u2019s to make a copy of the whole thing.\u201d\u00a0 She ran back into the previous area and grabbed the largest pieces of paper she could find and one of the sticks of charcoal from a table, then returned to the tablet and started rubbing.\u00a0 This was going to take a bit of doing.<\/p>\n Her hand was charcoal black and cramping by the time she got to the end of the procedure.\u00a0 She put a second large piece of paper over her rubbing to prevent it smudging, then rolled both up and tucked them into her pack.<\/p>\n The door opened.<\/p>\n \u201cSearch the place from top to bottom.\u00a0 Nobody gets out of here alive.\u201d<\/p>\n Damn, Dag thought.\u00a0 I knew they were going to go ask Calcelmo about the key.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t going to be able to retreat the way she\u2019d come into this room, and there were probably more guards combing the wreckage that she\u2019d left behind in the laboratory.\u00a0 To the left of the stone tablet, the balcony curved around the edges of the room, far enough above the main area that she could creep out onto it unseen.\u00a0 She did so, bow drawn, ready to fire if necessary.<\/p>\n The guards moved into the room and toward the stairs, grumbling about how this was probably just another false alarm.\u00a0 Dag didn\u2019t much like her chances; there were four of them and only one of her.\u00a0 She waited till the last one had moved completely into the main area, then dropped down and dashed for the door.<\/p>\n \u201cHey!\u201d she heard behind her just as the metal clanged shut behind her.\u00a0 Damn, they were behind her.\u00a0 She had exactly one option, and she ran for it.<\/p>\n It seemed like a very long way down into that pool of water, and the rocks on either side seemed very, very close. And the water was barely warmer than ice.\u00a0 She erupted from the pool and onto the smithy\u2019s path, then fled to and out of Markarth\u2019s main gate as though the gates of Oblivion itself had just opened behind her.<\/p>\n \u201cI need a ride to Winterhold, right now,\u201d she panted at the carriage driver, shoving coins at him.<\/p>\n \u201cClimb aboard, and we\u2019ll be off.\u00a0 Better bundle up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Once she was safely aboard, Dag opened her pack and dug frantically into it.\u00a0 The bearskin cloak hadn\u2019t gotten too wet.\u00a0 Best of all, though, between it and the extra piece of paper she had put atop the rubbing, only a few spots of charcoal, on the outer edges where she had extended her rubbing far past the characters, had gotten wet or smudged.<\/p>\n Dag heaved an enormous sigh, wrapped herself in her cloak, and tried to relax.<\/p>\n Dag took a couple of hours to complete the errands Vex and Delvin had given her to do.\u00a0 The mine overseer\u2019s house was easy to get into during daylight; everyone was busy working at the mine or the smithy, or guarding one of them, and she let herself in while they were all occupied. 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