Gah, mallet got there first. Yup, I'm betting Azura as well.

And I must say that the 'impersonate the Ashkan' thing is one heck of an interesting adition.

Indeed, it was Azura that appeared. (and as for how long will it take for Gaius to realize, it's either until the 'Ashkhan' jumps at him with giant tentacles, or someone says it to him.) Though I'm not here to say just this - I'm here with a new chapter that I titled after a famous line of Gaius (Wait a second...) Jullius Caesar - "Veni, Vidi, Vici." "I came, I saw, I conquered." Though our Gaius didn't find it that easy, and didn't really acomplish the 'I conquered' part.

Chapter 9: Veni, Vidi, Vici.

After an hour of sweet sleep, as well as a short meal, the ash storm began to die down. Gaius decided they would leave under the cover of ash, in the event of someone watching them. Even if no one did, it was apparent that the thick wall of ash would soon settle down, and they would be in Ald-Ruhn quickly. And then it was whatever that laid inside the city against the pair.

With moaning and grumbling, the pair took off into the Ashlands once more. They didn’t want to set out again, even though Gaius was being bugged by waiting and delays – it was much more comfortable to just stay here and wait more in comfort the fortress-city offered. And the fact that a storm was raging didn’t help – now it seemed even worse than before, given the fact that they were already used to no ash flying into their faces.

Fortunately, the storm died down soon enough, leaving them to find out that the sky was getting darker. The sun was heading west already, though they wouldn’t arrive into the previous seat of Redoran during night – with the ash storm down, their pace increased. Though, as Gaius stated, ‘It’s not if it wasn’t good to arrive at night’.

*********

Finally, the two stood behind the Skar. A massive building, the shell of the Emperor Crab itself, it used to be the base of Redoran… Though it was obvious it was no longer used for that purpose. Corprus beasts sluggishly walked around the entrance, waiting for a ‘guest’ that was Gaius. Several dead bodies were lying around; some already clean bones, sinking into ash slowly. Irr didn’t want to think of what happened to them so they’re so clean.

“Alright… So there we are, standing behind Ald-Ruhn, our destination.” Gaius muttered, scratching his chin. Since the Ash Storm died down, he no longer had the need for a full-face helmet – its not that if Corprus monsters had bows or something, and Gaius found it hard to breathe with it.

“This one doesn’t like the way this looks… Doesn’t good-friend Gaius think that the twisted beasts should be more alert?” Irr replied, whispering as well. They had no intent to alert the monsters that seemed to have so kindly not noticed them.

“You’re probably right… It’s too quiet.” Gaius turned his head a bit, facing Irr. It was then when a load roar, accompanied by a couple of groans, shook the air. Both the Legionnaire and the thief swore heavily, turning around.

A group of monsters seemed to have ambushed them. How they managed to get into intelligent actions like that was beyond Gaius… But for now they had more worries.

“You know, now, suddenly, it’s too loud. I really preferred when it was quiet.” A comment was made by the Imperial, before he leaped on the top of the Skar. Irr darted off under an invisibility spell – they already discussed what he would do in case of an ambush.

The front Corprus beasts were foolish enough to stumble down the quite steep hill which stood near the Skar, and on which Gaius stood moments ago. The others leaped on the roof of the Skar as well, alerting the other monsters with loud groans and other noises.

One of the beasts was ahead of the others, probably intending to claim the honor of slaying Gaius himself. Unfortunately, the legionnaire unsheathed his broadsword in a wide motion, leaving a scratch on the beast. The wound itself wasn’t too dangerous, though what came after them was by far much worse – the monster was in flames, caused by the sword’s enchantment. The second enchantment was what kept the flames growing over time, finally reducing the monster into ashes from the intense heat.

By the time the first monster burned down, others reached Gaius. There were quite a lot of them, and their numbers and sheer strength usually made up for the lack of intelligence. Not this time…

Even though Imperials were good with blades, Redguards were better. And a combination of the two was quite devastating – the speed of Redguards along with the strength and tactics of a trained Legionnaire. Thus, beasts fell left and right, some engulfed in flames, others killed by the steel itself, dying before having the chance to burn. The sounds of battle were heard inside the Skar…

“Good, he arrived. It is the time to put him down.”

A ring with a large blood-red diamond slipped off of an Indoril gauntlet, before white flames claimed the person that wore the ring. The armor melted into the skin, connecting to the bones; ash blue skin turned into white, and the face was covered up with a golden mask that came seemingly from nowhere.

The Ash Vampire stood straight. He towered above the Ash Slave in front of him, both in rank and in height.

“Let him come. Let him come NOW!” The Creature roared, slamming its fist into a wooden pole. The thing broke, loosening the bridge it was supposed to hold. Both the bridge and the part of the pole that was chopped off fell down to the bottom of the Skar.

Gaius let go of another swing, though was surprised to hit nothing but air. Corprus beasts slowly retreated from him – either from fear… or from something else. But there was no time to assume and theorize – he had to move fast. There was one place in which he could find all the items - the Skar.

And thus, Gaius hurled himself off of the roof. At a younger age, he received some training in acrobatics and stealth from a travelling acrobat. If he was ever to continue training that, he could become a great acrobat. But fate placed it that Gaius had more strength than stealth now, given the fact that he became a legionnaire. Still, he had knowledge of how to land from heights properly without injuring himself.

Gaius landed near the entrance. He only had to step several times before reaching the oddly shaped entrance to Skar’s interior… But the push he gave the doors revealed a view the legionnaire had not expected. A gasp left his mouth, only to be distinguished by loud roaring laughter.

End of Chapter 9.

[I guess I don't have to tell you who's the Ash Vampire. Seriously.]

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Nov 6 2007, 08:48 PM

I noticed a homage to RVB, that's a piece of humor there. Yeah, the Ash Vampire was that Ordinator they saw in the ashlander village.
I want MORE!!!

Praise the quiet, folks. Praise it at the tip of your lungs.

And I guess my questions regarding the Ordinator have been answered.

There is only one thing I don't get though. The Redguard comment. I thought Gaius was an Imperial, or does this mean he has been trained by a Redguard?

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Oct 14 2007, 06:59 PM

Gaius is an Imperial-Redguard cross from his father's side. Both the natural ways of Redguards with swords, combined with the Legion training he recieved from a Redguard made up for the usual slowness of Imperials (I'd guess they are slower than Redguards, seeing as their stats focus mostly on persuasion and balance). Also you can find a comment earlier in the story that Gaius suspected he had some Redguard bloos, seeing as he didn' quite mind the heat in the Ashlands (I actually wrote 'cold', though never got around fixing that. Should do it right now...)

No new update now, though I'm working on it.

Chapter 10: Fire and Ice.

Upon opening the doors, Gaius was presented with a large room. It was the Skar, alternatively known as the Manor District of Redguard. But once-noble building changed sine its true occupants left and evil took over.

Half of the bridges were knocked down, resting on many bones of Redoran warriors, no doubt. Instead, an odd, swirling resource was used for connecting the doors with the middle. No doubt, the ‘bridges’ were only maintained by magic; only one man did Gaius know who could use such magic. But Dagoth Ur was, supposedly, a great mage, so everything is possible.

Where the magical bridges collided, in the very middle of the hall, rested some sort of an altar, emitting strange blue smokes of some sort. The smokes settled slightly above the floors, shrouding the remains of the bridges and the skeletons of deceased warriors in a mist of some sort. For whatever reason, the smoke didn’t rise up.

The ‘altar’ itself was a structure made out of red material of some sort. It was divided into three levels of sort – on the lowest one rested bowls with highly disgusting meat inside, probably the meat of a Corprus monster; on the second level rested several magical items – enchanted gauntlets and hammer of some sort. And the third level, the top one, was the resting place of a statue of some sort. The statue was what emitted the smokes, though even through the thick layer of mist Gaius could see burning red eyes. The ‘altar’ wasn’t very large, despites having three levels – they were more flat that rising.

Next to the whole structure rested bells, probably used for rituals. A large and seemingly very heavy hammer was lying nearby, most likely used for ringing the bells. Indeed, next to the bells stood a hunchback figure Gaius could recognize as an Ash Slave – he saw several of those unpleasant humanoids back in Kogoruhn.

The whole area was lit with red candles. Due to the mist that was floating around, and the fact that most candles were set up on the floor, the lighting was quite spooky, and reminded of some sort of a burial place. It was no surprise that a shiver went up Gaius’ spine when he pushed the doors open.

To complete the picture our Legionnaire received, only one more detail remains to be added – a large, taller than six feet high figure. A mask covered up its face, as well as most of the hair. The ones that could be seen were a mixture of red and blue, while the whole skin of the creature was white, though not in a clean way. It was a dirty white, bearing a shade of grey. The blood-red nails – or rather claws – were somewhere three times longer than those of a normal Man or Mer. As a completion, this already imposing figure held an Ebony Scimitar that added up to the already spooky lighting with a vibrant blue.

Gaius had a good memory for tools of war, even though otherwise it was nothing above the average. He could remember most, if not all weapons used alongside him, or against him. And the memory of this sword standing in his broadsword’s path was quite fresh, so it was no wonder suspicions arose quickly. It was either that the creature slew the Ordinator he encountered before, or, by means of whatever magic this was, this WAS the Ordinator. Both seemed highly unlikely, since if Ordinators attempted to regain control of Ald-Ruhn, they would’ve set up more than a party of one man.

But the Legionnaire was soon ripped out of his thoughts by the creature.

“So, you have come. Lucillus Jullius is your name, correct? Do not wonder how I know this, for the House of Lord Dagoth knows a great many things… Why are you laughing?”

Indeed, Gaius was the one to laugh now. But even though he was laughing, his minds were far from joyful.

Apparently, his lies to the Ashkhan and the Wise Woman worked in a way that he didn’t expect they would. Seeing as the two were the only ones aware of a person named ‘Lucillus Jullius’ (only Ashlanders could be fooled by a lie like this one, seeing as this wasn’t even a proper Imperial name), and since the Ash Vampire imagined to know who Gaius was, the circle of suspects suffered a great loss, decreasing to as little as two people. So it was obvious that either the Ashkhan or the Wise Woman was working with this ‘House of Dagoth’.

“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, your Ash-ness, but Lucillus Jullius is not me. I actually doubt a person by that name exists at all. You either have bad sources of information, or someone made a fool out of you.” While thoughts circled around betrayal, treachery and other things like that, Gaius’ mouth worked out a suitable reply. The tone these words were spoken with was quite offensive, and thus it was quite natural that the Ash Vampire became enraged.

“You will not laugh for long! For now you face the glory of Sixth House, one who seeks the title of Nerevarine!” The massive creature roared in rage, taking a step forward. The Ash Slave picked up the massive hammer, slamming it against the bells as if to announce an arena battle arranged by a disliked noble to become more popular in the eyes of his people.

The Ash Vampire wanted to get this over with quickly, apparently. The creature leaped forwards with great strength, landing next to where Gaius was supposed to be. But, to his great surprise, the Imperial was not there.

Instead, Gaius was already running for the center of the Skar. Due to the reflexes gained from Legion training, employed in many years of battling, he was able to time his roll beneath the opponent perfectly, and when the creature landed, he was already behind him.

It didn’t take long for the Ash Vampire to make out what was going on here, and Gaius barely had the time to turn his head at the sounds of another leap before being slammed down. He slid a short distance, while his monstrous opponent roared in supposed victory, hurling itself down on the Legionnaire. Unfortunately for the servant of Dagoth Ur, the new bridge was slippery enough for Gaius to turn face-to-mask with the Ash Vampire.

Only be several inches did the thrust of Gaius miss the Vampire’s golden mask. The creature had to retreat for the moment, in order to avoid the ruining of his mask by a burning sword. But even these several moments were enough for the Legionnaire.

Swinging himself to his feet again, Gaius was the one to attack this time. His sword was swung forward, leaving a slight trail of fire behind it, before meeting the ice-pulsing scimitar of the Ash Vampire. Only at the moment when their swords crossed did Gaius realize that his opponent was truly the same Ordinator – it felt very much alike to the time when the two struggled in the Ashkhan’s yurt.

Both blades were retreated after several moments of trying to push the opponent off of the bridge. Their retreat was highly temporary – the ice-covered blade was the one to stroke this time. But ice can be countered with fire, and thus did Gaius’ sword counter the blow from his opponent. Once again, attempts to push the opponent off of the bridge followed the coalition, though to no avail. But something told Gaius he wouldn’t be able to win this by sheer force – the strength of the Ash Vampire was greater than his…

Gaius’ broadsword was swung again, only to be met by the same Ebony Scimitar. But this time, as the Ash Vampire prepared for a strong coalition once again, the broadsword only barely touched the surface of his blade.

Instead of colliding with the opposing blade, Gaius’ broadsword was directed left, sliding down to the handle, then further. Finally, when the sword was brought so far left that the current wielding hand could no longer comfortable grasp it, the enchanted steel was thrown up slightly, caught by the free hand. All this took only mere seconds, and before the Ash Vampire could realize what happened, the broadsword collided with his sword-wielding arm.

Roaring in pain as fire engulfed him, the Ash Vampire dropped his enchanted scimitar. Before it hit the ground, though, the creature realized what happened to his weapon, and forced itself to attempt to pick the blade up… But Gaius wasn’t sleeping, and just when the Ash Vampire’s hand grasped the handle of the scimitar, another roar left the creature. But this one was a roar of pain.

Blue blood slid down the broadsword that pierced the Ash Vampire’s chest moments ago. Intense fire spread on its body, creating immense pain. Knowing what would happen next, the creature forced its body to turn with great force, breaking the steel that was still in its chest. Now, Gaius only grasped the handle and approximately one third of the blade, though before he could make note of that, white flames engulfed his opponent, extinguishing the true flames that raged on its body.

Then, with a loud clang of metal hitting against whatever the bridge was made of, the Ash Vampire was gone. Only now did Gaius realize two things. He apparently won this fight, if this wasn’t treachery of some sort. That was the first thing. The second thing was that he was standing on a bridge that’s made out of some magical substance, with a bow-worthless piece of steel in his hands, and an angry Ash Slave behind him.

Good point – the Ash Slave was still there. Thus, Gaius turned around, only to see the creature running at him with clenched fists. Apparently, lower ranking members of the Sixth House didn’t have access to such leaping that the Ash Vampire performed.

Instead of fighting the thing head-to-head, Gaius hurled the remains of his sword at it. Due to years of hurling javelins at enemies and training dummies, even something that didn’t have a sharp tip would enter the target’s insides if hurled by the Legionnaire. And, of course, he was quite accurate with throwing things, since Legion didn’t tolerate missed throws.

And when the Ash Slave’s body, now with the remains of a sword in its head, fell off the bridge, Gaius sighed. The battle, though short, was hard, harder than any battle he yet fought. He was worn out, and certainly wouldn’t hold out against the Corprus beasts inside…

Silent footsteps entered the hall. The Legionnaire lifted his head up, only to see the familiar figure of a Khajiit stepping out of the shadows.

“Good-friend Gaius! This one has found a suitable place for fallback as Gaius requested. However, this one also noticed that while Gaius was inside this… place… an ash storm drew near the ash-skin built city! If good-friend Gaius and this one intent to ever return to the Ashlander camp, they should hurry up and take cover inside the cave this one found.” Irr proclaimed performing a wide gesture around the Skar’s interior at the mention of ‘place’.

Gaius sighed. How much events could a single day pack? This was surely not something he was used to – travelling to an Ashlander Camp through one of the worst regions of Vvardenfell, speaking with a quite stuck-up chieftain that later turned out to be a traitor, embarking on another journey through Ashlands during an ash storm, fighting with an Ash Vampire, and then finding out that there is another ash storm coming…

“Alright, Irr. Lead the way; though do pick the most secretive route you can… I’m quite worn out.” Gaius sighed, speaking slowly. Irr smiled, revealing his white fangs yet again, before taking off one of his numerous rings.

“Take this. As long as good-friend Gaius doesn’t unsheathe speak a word, it shall turn Gaius invisible. Gaius only needs to turn the jewel from left to right, and he shall become unseen to the beasts outside. This one has an amulet for himself as well, so our escape shall be swift and unnoticed… Unlike good-friend Gaius’ usual escapes.”

A slight frown appeared on the Legionnaire’s face.

End of Chapter 10, as well as Grand Chapter 2.

Next: Grand Chapter 3: In the caverns of Vvardenfell.

A very good fight scene. You also used wonderfull description to describe the inside of Skar. Now I don't know what the hammer is, but I wouldn't be surprised if those were Rhandagulf's gauntlets.

One thing that made me laugh was the fun you poked at Gaius' fake identity. It really made the Ash vampire look like a total idiot.
,,I know your name, mortal! For I am blessed with great powers you can't even comprehend!"
,,Actually, the name you said just now is so stupid, no one would ever name his child like that. So no, you don't know."
,,.......Crap."

Jack summed it up well. Excellently described fight scene. I could follow each blow easily. Now with the big baddie dealt with, Gaius shouldn't have too much of a problem clearing out the rest of the vermin. One can hope I guess.

It appears that Gaius no longer has a sword?

Interesting story so far. I'm curious to see what happens next.

Yeah, it is quite annoying when the bad guys always know your name and have 'great knowledge blahblahblah', so I though Id poke some fun at it.


Oh, Ald-Ruhn will have to wait until later to be dealt with. (COUGHDuringtheendCOUGH)


Indeed. And it will be some time until he finds one that will stick - many blades will be used throughout this story.


Chapter 11: Dungeons, without Dragons.

The kind-of-fresh air outside was a welcome change from the smell that was reigning within the Skar. Of course, the fact that stench of Corprus beasts was surrounding everything didn’t really help make Ald-Ruhn the number one visited spot in Vvardenfell, though as long as some leap-like-Oblivion shape shifting Ordinators weren’t trying to kill him, Gaius was fine with it. Especially since the monsters didn’t see him. The legionnaire wasn’t feeling very courageous without a weapon, and the spell shrouding him was a relief, mostly because spells tended to go against him, and not WITH him.

Even though shrouded in magical shadows, the minutes spent dodging the Corprus creatures were still tense. Only now did Gaius realize how many servants did Dagoth Ur possess – there were seemingly hundreds of Corprus monsters patrolling in the streets of Ald-Ruhn. Many buildings they passed on the way were completely destroyed by the monsters, others only partially damaged. The Skar seemed to be the only structure that did not receive some kind of ruining.

Finally, after minutes that seemed to be hours, the shadowy outlines of Gaius and Irr made it out of the city. Ash began blowing into their faces once again, drastically decreasing their field of vision. Before that, it was already hard for the legionnaire to spot Irr. If it was not for the fact that invisible people could see other invisible people as purple outlines, he would’ve probably got completely lost. Now, it was a nightmare.

Oh well, A not very comforting thought came up. At least I’ll surely get lost now.

And such, driven by pleasant thoughts, Gaius followed the purple wisp of smoke that at the moment was Irr, supposedly heading towards a good hideout. From there, they could plan their actions further, without the fear of being roared upon by large deformed meat sacks. That alone was a plus, not to mention the fact that they will have a cover from the ash.

It did not take long for Irr to reach the entrance to the cave he found. It was looking like a traditional Dunmer Burial Tomb, with the exception of skulls hung at the archway that covered the doors. Whatever inspired Dunmeri to build a tomb in wilderness was beyond Gaius – how comes they didn’t just place it in a town?

But there was no time to wonder. Even through the whooshing ash, Gaius heard the already familiar screech of a Cliff Racer. Since he had no weapon, the legionnaire found no time to punch the creature to death, and instead just ducked inside the tomb. Irr was already inside, that was obvious for the fact that the doors opened themselves several moments ago.

With a sigh of relief, Gaius closed the massive wooden doors behind himself, then turned around to face already-visible Irr. Wearily pulling the ring off of his finger, Gaius handled it to his Khajiit companion, before proceeding to give this supposed tomb a closer look.

Inside of this tomb was completely different from any Dunmer Burial Tomb Gaius ever saw.

The walls were from the same material from which the other Tombs were constructed, though they were covered with carvings of some sort – Daedric Runes, and pictures. The pictures depicted either a hammer and an anvil, or a head with horns. Whatever that meant was beyond Gaius – only that it probably meant something dangerous. The Daedric Runes he never knew how to read, and wasn’t intending to learn.

Many skulls were placed on both sides of the stairs that went deep down, further than Gaius could see. As far as he noticed, they were widening, as indicated by the increasing amount of space between the lights – there were candles placed inside the skulls. It was evident that whoever built this place wanted no guests, since an entrance like that was sure to scare off even the most curious people.

This looked very suspiciously to Gaius, like it would’ve looked to anyone else. Of course, not many people would’ve suspected this being a dwelling of a white-skinned large Ash Vampire. But in this Legionnaire’s case, everything seemed possible.

As the Imperial was staring down the stairs intensively, oblivious of the rest of the world around him, Irr decided it was the time to snap the legionnaire out of this dreamy state and return him to the real world.

“This one is concerned about those stairs. Perhaps if we were to stay here-“ He began only moments ago, and already did Irr see his words wouldn’t help. Gaius’ eyes lit up with the adventure flame that always was there before something bad occurred to them.

“You must be kidding. There’s probably a nest of those Sixth House creatures down below, and we’re not going to let them get away with that!” With these words, the eager Legionnaire began walking down the stairs in a hurried step. His Khajiit companion sighed, rolled his eyes, and then followed down into the unknown.

*

“Well, undoubtedly, that has to be the longest set of stairs I’ve ever climbed. But now, we can finally see what’s down here.” Gaius exclaimed as the end of these seemingly endless stairs came into view. By now, the staircase was wide enough for four horses to ride at once, and still have enough space to maneuver.

“This one suffers endless joy.” Irr responded grumpily.

“Oh, come on. D-“ Gaius did not finish, stunned by the view they came to see after descending down the stairs.

A large metal door, seemingly Dwemer of construction was standing there in their path. It was, without doubt, the largest door either of the two ever saw – perhaps as tall as seven Altmeri place on one another, and as wide as five Ogrims alongside each other. Crafted from the same yellowish material like all Dwemer doors on Vvardenfell (it was said that there were different variations of Dwemer metals on the Mainland, though Vvardenfell Dwemeri obviously relied on this type), it was locked by a fittingly large lock – perhaps the size of an Ogrim. All out of sudden, it was obvious why such stairs were needed.

Behind the doors, a distant sound of metal hitting against metal was heard… With the occasional noise that seemed to be the roar of flames.

End of Chapter 11.

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Oct 21 2007, 09:21 PM

This was definitely my favorite line: the legionnaire found no time to punch the creature to death. I'm sad that he didn't have the time, however, because it would have been amusing to read about.

I'm definitely looking forward to learning about what lies behind the massive Dwemer door.

Oh goody, the Dwemer! I just can't wait to see what's beyond that door.

I'm intrigued! Continue!

Unfortunately, the doors will have to wait - opening them now or in nearby future would provide a plot distraction too great to overwhelm. Then again, after the Saga of Vvardenfell, I'm devoting a fanfic only to the secrets of the doors (Also the creation of Gaius' full-time weapon. That's right, I'm not giving Gaius Chrysamere, the probably most popular Nerevarine blade.). For now, though, you'll have to be satisfied with what I give you in this chapter.

Chapter 12: Dwemer Forge.

For several minutes the pair stood speechless. The sheer grandness of the door amazed them so much that they couldn’t make a move, even though their curiosity grew – both wanted to find out what such a door is guarding. Surely, there was something important behind them, and both wanted to find out, though for completely different reasons.

Irr was a Khajiit, and an ex-thief, and his instincts, though mostly kept at bay, now took over. If there was something valuable behind these doors, it would be even more valuable in the underworld than in legal world. He had enough connections to sell an artifact with ease, and a large amount of money could ensure a safe travel towards Elsweyr… The province which was the home of his kinsmen, though he never saw it. It was a great dream of his, to feel the warm sands of desert beneath his feet (or, more correctly, paws)…

Gaius, on the other hand, was being a practical soldier. Even though he was expected to become a great hero and the like, he still couldn’t ignore such basic things like arming himself – just like Irr, his kind-of instincts took over. If there was something valuable behind these doors, chances were that that valuable thing was a powerful weapon, which he would require to defeat whatever he had to. A soldier without a weapon felt like a horse in trousers, and that’s the obvious truth.

“So… You think we should try to open them? The doors?” Gaius finally spoke after a long silence. He was still considering his chances of finding a powerful weapon behind the massive gate, so paid only so much attention to what he was speaking, resulting in not really tied sentences.

“This one thinks so… Perhaps there is something that could be of use there… Behind the doors.” Similarly to Gaius, Irr was also speaking quite dreamily. His eyes were glass-like, staring at the doors in a way it seemed that if he would stop, something terrible would happen. He even stopped blinking, deep in his thoughts.

Gaius took a step forward, quite a slow and small one. The acoustics in this hall was better than in any other place, resulting in very loud footsteps. With every step, the already massive door became a bit larger and the noises from behind it – slightly louder. The gap between the tow metal doors increased a bit, as the soldier took another step forwards.

Finally, he approached enough to be able to press himself against the cold metal, and look through the gap. At the moment his cheek collided with the yellowish material, his heartbeat increased… Blood started running through his veins faster. Something behind these doors made him feel full of power, and the only time when he felt like that was when he interacted with a mage of great power…

Through the gap, another large room was visible. It looked like a very advanced smithy, with a large anvil, apparently made out of the same material as the doors, several tables, littered with (Gaius’ heart jumped slightly) various weapons of seemingly Dwemeri production… Many other tools, required for the work of a smith were also placed there, along with buzzing, puffing glass devices of unknown purposes. While Gaius stared at all these wonders, a noise of metal hitting against metal dragged his attention.

In the corner of the room, a person was working. A red piece of odd metal that was being obviously shaped into a sword was placed on top of a significantly smaller anvil than the one in the middle of the room. As far as Gaius could see, both the weapon that was being worked on and the hammer that was used for the work were of Dwemeri production. But the most interesting feature was the person working.

Due to the fact that Gaius was on the other side of the heavy doors, he couldn’t compare his height with that of the person’s on the other side, though he was quite sure, if taking into account the distance and optical tricks, that the smith was slightly taller than him. When the hammer hit against the weapon, creating a cloud of ember for a short amount of time, the legionnaire could see the lush, long beard of the person, as well as deeply black eyes. He knew that Bosmeri had deeply black eyes, and he saw several pairs of such eyes himself, but in comparison to this, they were dull grey. The eyes of the person seemed to be hiding thousands of years of experience, and great knowledge. It was obvious that a Man couldn’t live long enough to gather such knowledge – only an Elf could live long enough… But there were no such elves in existence, who had such eyes and could grow such beards…

Unless…

No, that cannot be it. Impossible. Gaius rejected the theory immediately. For some reason, panic filled him, and he had to force himself off of the surface of the doors. As soon as he was no longer touching the cold metal, his heartbeat returned to normal, and his flow of blood slowed down… He could almost feel the heat going out of his face. It was similar to hanging upside-down for some time, before returning into the normal position, and feeling the blood flow out of your head.

“Is good friend Gaius okay?” The question woke Gaius up completely. He once again had full control over himself, with the doors no longer influencing his state… However they did that. In order to make sure he didn’t belong to the gate in front of him, the legionnaire shook his head.

“Yes, I’m fine… it’s just that we should move on. The-there’s nothing interesting on the other side.”

“Go already? This one wants to see for himself what is behind the doors…” Irr was obviously disappointed by such a solution. He approached the doors himself, though Gaius grabbed his arm with great strength, dragging him back. The Khajiit frowned, jumping back as the legionnaire let go of his arm as suddenly as he grabbed it, as if it burnt him.

“I- Sorry, Irr, but there’s something about the doors… Something I don’t like. They contain…powerful magic. We would be risking our lives if we were to attempt breaking in.” The words were somewhat distant-sounding to Gaius. It was as if someone was speaking through his mouth. Someone who knew things about magic – Gaius did not.

Irr shot another suspicious glance towards Gaius, then shifted it towards the door. For a moment, it seemed as if he would attempt to get to them even after such drastic measure were taken against the action, though just shrugged and turned away from the gate several moments later. Gaius sighed in relief.

“Come on. Help me… There should be another way out of here. I have no intent to go up the stairs and start a brawl against the Cliff Racers.” He gestured towards the walls, looking at Irr with a questioning look. For a short moment, the Khajiit seemed to hesitate.

“Well… Okay, this one agrees. There is no fun, nor point in trying to fend off the Air-Rats with a shortsword…” He finally replied, before walking towards the walls. They were made not out of the Dwemer metal, but of the odd material Dunmeri used for their tombs. With an uneasy look, Gaius approached the walls as well. His actions seemed to create a rift between the pair… And only time would tell what this seemingly small thing will become.

End of Chapter 12.

Trouble is beginning to form between the two, that might prove to detrimental to their mission as it seems that they often must rely on each other to get out of sticky situations. Hopefully they manage to patch things up shortly.

I look forward to seeing them revisit this place in the future. Perhaps a discussion with the Dwemer in there is bound to happen.

While I am disappointed that they didn't go through the doors, some of my curiosity has been satisfied and I'm confident that they will return. I wonder what else there is for them to find in this area?

This is good, the door part has piqued my interest, it wil be interesting to see the Dwemer alive. Interesting take on the whole neverene business to, the imperial guard doing it as a publicity stunt.

My only comment on the writing is that yu might want to consider some more imagery in the description which is already very good.

I'll look forward to the next part.

How that will end is beyond even me - I just wrote the most logical response which I would give if a good friend of mine suddenly dragged me away for apparently no reason. I guess it's one of those times when things develop all by themselves. You might notice that in this chapter, Gaius is no longer 'good friend', only 'friend'.


I should mention as a funfact, it's going to be Gaius' personal quest. I was waiting for the opportunity to write of Gaius questing alone, and it came with the second fanfic about Gaius...


As a matter of fact, English isn't my first language, only second. It's nothing hard to write basic things, though I should say that since my native language has a much wider selection of words of the same, or similar, meaning (whereas English has more than one meaning to most of words, making it quite a difficulcy for me to type so it seems normal) that I can't really use much imagery. Though I'm learning. You might notice that (at least, in my opinion) there is quite a change between how I wrote in the frist chapter, and how the later chapters are done.

And now, a new chapter. Every hero needs a weapon (well, at least every TES Nerevarine that doesn't punch everyone, which is quite rare), and Gaius is getting at least a temporary one.

Chapter 13: Arming.

It wasn’t a pleasant activity for Gaius, to brush his hand against a somewhat slimy, cold earth that surrounded them as walls, in search of door of some sort. The darkness was almost solid; it seemed to bear down on the Legionnaire like a cloth of some sort, making it hard to breathe. Alongside the walls, the darkness seemed almost magical, creating the illusion of someone – or something – breathing down your neck. Gaius wasn’t a coward, for sure, but something caused shivers on his spine there.

Irr, on the other hand, had no better time. For whatever reasons, he did not possess the ability to see in the dark – which is very odd, considering that all Khajiiti have it – and his position was equal to Gaius’, maybe even worse, since his paws were notably larger than Gaius’ feet, so the Khajiit would occasionally yelp after hitting his paw against a sticking out rock.

I’d kill to get out of here… The Legionnaire thought, muttering something along the same lines under his nose. And – a miracle or maybe just a coincidence – his hand touched cold metal at the same moment!

For a short moment, Gaius assumed this could be the same old large door. He brushed that theory away immediately, though – he would’ve known if it was the gates. First, he would’ve made a turn, which he did not. Second, there was no special feeling to touching the doors, only slight vibration. And third, he would be in the light that the doors seemed to emit, but he was still in darkness.

So, he found something new. Perhaps that something would lead them out of this place…

“Irr, come here. I think I found something.” Gaius called out, giving the metal a push. He could hear a slight creak, though nothing more - the thing wasn’t going to give up easily, whatever it was. Nevertheless, the Legionnaire didn’t give up, continuing to push.

“Would friend Gaius mind explaining to this one what he is doing?” Irr distracted the Imperial. Though neither could see each other, the Khajiit would easily know where Gaius was from his heavy breathing. Gaius, on the other hand, would only know where Irr was from his speaking.

“I’m trying to make sure whenever this is a door leading out of this accursed place or just a random section of Dwemer metal on the wall. Mind helping?” The legionnaire gave a short description of current events, stopping the pushing for a moment as he talked, before resuming the work. Irr shrugged.

“This one thinks this is better than doing nothing…”

*

Finally, after ten minutes of pushing, the thing gave in to the combined strength of Gaius and Irr. Now, there was a gap large enough even for the Legionnaire to slip through, and, even better, inside, several Dwemer lamps were located, as far as they could see. The pleasant light shed by the devices cheered them up, and encouraged to continue on. Thus, both slid in.

And froze in their tracks.

They were at an end of a long Dwemer-constructed corridor that branched into many directions. Gaius could see that the nearest branching had a set of Dwemer Runes nearby – probably describing where did the branch lead to. Neither of them knew how to read Dwemeri, so they did not know that the inscription meant ‘Tureynulal’.

On the ceiling, Dwemer lamps were positioned, creating the odd lighting present in all Dwemer ruins. On the ground, an odd shape was present – what appeared to be a golem of some sort, defending against a large snake. Further were pictures of what appeared to be a daemon of some sort, a tower, a dancing woman, a standing woman, a tall man with quite long arms, and a man with a dagger.

But the greatest wonder was the walls, and what rested nearby them. It was a true paradise for an archaeologist or a scholar.

Hanging on the walls were various graphics, depicting such things like large robots of some sort, ships with odd engines, scarabs, spiders, and the like. Others even included such things like doors similar to those that indicate a Dwemer ruin, also some tunnels and underground facilities. Gaius roughly assumed these were Dwemer devices.

And the thing that interested the Legionnaire and the ex-Thief most was the tables that were positioned alongside the walls. On the tables rested weapons, small devices which could be lifted with one hand, and armor, also various small wrenches, nails and the like. The weapons that interested Gaius so much were unlike anything he’d seen.

They seemed deadly, yet somewhat light, constructed from the same material as sort-of common Dwemer weapons, though more… agile. Curved edges, decorations, gems – they seemed to be weapons of kings and emperors, belonging to a treasury, and not a mere Dwemer-built corridor. There were axes, spears, halberds, daggers, shortswords, longswords, claymores, honoured user swords, bows, darts, arrows, throwing stars...

Needless to say, the armor differed as well. Unlike the usual heavy Dwemer armor, this one seemed more... round, sliding. The armor looked like it would be designed for quick movements. Needless to say, they were also decorated heavily, and not even the Emperor Tiber Septim would’ve felt satisfied wearing them.

Gaius’ eyes seemed to be devouring the weapons on the spot – how much they weighted, were they endurable… In contrast, Irr was wondering how much money he could earn by selling as much of this as he could lift. Probably the price would’ve been much higher if it depended on how much Gaius could lift – with such fine weapons before him, the Legionnaire was willing to lift the world to be able to use them.

“Irr…” Gaius finally managed to put his mouth into use, though not yet fully. While he spoke, his eyes didn’t leave the weapons for a single moment – every moment spent without watching the weapons was a huge loss for him now. The Legionnaire didn’t realize how he bore with the broadsword that was shattered recently.

“Friend Gaius..?” Irr managed to respond. His thoughts seemed to be similar to those of Gaius.

“Do- do you think it… You think it would be thieving if we took a weapon for ourselves? Because I figure if someone left these things without care here, then they ought to be no longer needed…” Gaius asked, trying to make an excuse before his own eyes for his greed.

“This one… doesn’t think so. No… Friend Gaius is probably right… Th- they’re probably no longer needed…” Irr replied, speaking in a manner similar to the Legionnaire’s. After these words, the Khajiit took an unsure step forward.

Gaius, satisfied with the excuse he needed only to feel clean, took a much more confident step forward. Irr also seemed to gain confidence in the fact that the weapons weren’t needed – and thus, the two people followed the same lie they made up only to make an excuse in their own eyes, like smart vassals that make up excuses for keeping a thing and not handing it over to their suzerain.

The table nearest to them had a wide assortment of weapons, though the one that interested Gaius the most was a lean, long dai-katana within a sheath decorated with rubies. Unsheathing the weapon revealed a quite light and swift weapon. With several swings into air, the Legionnaire found out that the dai-katana was light enough to be held only in one hand. The Dwemer metal contrasted greatly with the swiftness of the weapon, though Gaius figured that it would trick his opponents – while usually, Dwemer weapons were heavy like stones, this one – either because of the shape, or because of some special way the metal was worked with – was light, seemingly lighter than paper.

With a satisfied grin, Gaius strapped the katana’s sheath to his back, before sheathing the weapon. It slid in without any problems, leaving the Legionnaire satisfied – it wouldn’t get stuck in a critical moment.

Worth mentioning is the fact that the blade was decorated. A large serpent was depicted on the blade, beginning from the very bottom-most point of the hilt, where the tail was located, curling around the blade to the very tip, where the opening mouth was shown. The sheath possessed a snake on it as well, though this one’s head was located nearby the part where the hilt collided with the sheath. The ruby was in the place where the eye of the snake should’ve been.

Due to these decorations, Gaius dubbed the sword ‘Serpent’.

Irr, at the meantime, was interesting himself with a short scimitar. The thing wasn’t as lean as Gaius’ dai-katana, but it was notably shorter, allowing it to move with greater speed. It reminded the legionnaire of the blade of the Ash Vampire-Ordinator he faced not that long ago, though it was shorter. The blade was decorated with curved lines; this, and the shape of the blade made Gaius dub the weapon ‘Wisp’. There was no sheath, only a simple leather strip that was wide enough for the blade to freely enter, though not enough for the hilt to pass through.

The weapon didn’t feel enchanted as well, though it seemed to be fast enough to make up for the lack of magical effects. Just like with Serpent, the Dwemer metal seemed to be unable to store such speed, so it could’ve earned Irr the upper hand.

Without much hesitation, Irr strapped the blade to his simple belt. What took more will to overcome was the urge to pick up every weapon and piece of armor on the table, though the ex-thief overcame that as well.

Gaius fixed his gaze on the corridor in front of us, finally removing them from the magnificent weapons and armor. The corridor – or, rather, the tunnel – was so long he couldn’t see the other end of it. Great. Another enormously long trip underground.

“We should probably get moving, and see where this corridor will lead.” The Legionnaire suggested after starring at the path in front of them for a while. Irr, with some difficulty, nodded, and followed the Imperial’s lead. A short smile passed over the Khajiit’s face, too quick for Gaius, who was looking in front of him, and not behind, to notice. The sight of a heavily armored Legionnaire with a katana strapped to his back was quite odd, considering that katanas and dai-katanas alike were considered fast weapons, used by lighter and more acrobatic people.

End of Chapter 13.

Another interesting update. First, they bypass the large dwemer doors and the (assumed) dwemer armorer behind, then they leave most of the unguarded armor/weapons behind. Their behavior seems fairly odd to me; if the armor was that good, they could have taken at least a little to supplement their own. A new weapon is all well and good, but you can't use it if you are dead.