30 Drown in the Deep

Lucius and Ciri made their way over the frozen waste. A small door stood out from a glacier, and a docked boat that had frozen over accompanied it.

"This has to be it." Ciri said the Lucius. "Urag, the librarian, warned me he was a little crazy." She cautioned Lucius as she went towards the door.

'Another crazy old man? Yay.' He mulled and followed the girl.

It was small area. Encased in ice was a large Dwarven construct with only the face peaking into the room. A small table next to a rugged bookshelf, an and old man in hooded blue robes scurrying away between them.

"When the top level was built, no more could be placed. It was and is the maximal apex." The man could be heard rambling away.

"Yeah~ You can deal with that." Ciri declared, urging Lucius forward.

With a deep sigh he walked towards the old scholar. "We heard you were an expert on Elder scrolls. We need to find one." Lucius said.

The old man spun with speed not matching his old appearance. "The Empire. They absconded with them. Or so they think. The ones they saw. The ones they thought they saw. I know of one. Forgotten. Sequestered. But I cannot go to it, not poor Septimus, for I... I have arisen beyond its grasp." He spun his crazed tale.

"Okay. So where is this forgotten scroll. Do you have it here?" Lucius carefully asked, leaning down to make eye contact with the man.

"The ice entombs the heart. The bane of Kagrenac and Dagoth Ur. To harness it is to know. The fundaments. The Dwemer lockbox hides it from me. The Elder Scroll gives insight deeper than the deep ones, though. To bring about the opening. But, i've seen enough to know their fabric. The warp of air, the weft of time. But no, it is not in my possession." He hastily muttered.

"So, where is the Scroll?" Lucius's fuse was beginning to light.

"Here. Well, here as in this plane. Mundus. Tamriel. Nearby, relatively speaking. On the cosmological scale, it's all nearby." Septimus replied, stretching out his shaking arms to show the scale.

"A-are you okay?" Ciri probed with wrinkled brows.

"Oh, I am well. I will be well. Well to be within the will inside the walls." The scholar chirped.

"Look, can you help us find the scroll or not? I'm sure you'd love to get back to your...research, yes?" Lucius reasoned with the afflicted man.

"One block lifts the other. Septimus will give you what you want, but you must bring him something in return." Septimus bargained with the duo.

'Not so crazy after all.' Ciri noted.

"You see this masterwork of the Dwemer?" The scholar asked motioning towards the dwemer construct. "Deep inside their greatest knowings. Septimus is clever among men, but he is but an idiot child compared to the dullest of the Dwemer. Lucky then they left behind their own way of reading the Elder Scrolls. In the depths of Blackreach one yet lies. Have you heard of Blackreach? 'Cast upon where Dwemer cities slept, the yearning spire hidden learnings kept.'" He finished looking at Lucius with shot up brows.

"Yes i have read of it. There's elevators in to the place scattered across Skyrim...I only vaguely remember one being near Whiterun." Lucius responded in deep thought, hand twirling a strand of his silver hair.

"Yes!~ The tower. Under deep. Below the dark. The hidden keep. Tower Mzark." He giddily hopped on each foot. "Go, you take the scroll and i keep the key. A deal, a deal?" He happily held out a cube to Lucius.

"So we inscribe this cube, which is the 'key' you want, and take the scroll. We have a deal?" Ciri asked, taking the cube from Septimus's hand.

"Yes, a deal.~"Septimus sung.

"We had better get searching. Can you flash us to whiterun?" Lucius asked Ciri, pulling out his map to look for any Dwarven ruins.

"Wait, one more thing for you." Septimus gave Lucius a round ball. "The key for the stairs, hehe." He finished.

'He's a creepy old man.' Lucius observed.

"Yeah, i can get us to Whiterun. You ready?" Ciri asked with a held out hand.

"Mhm." Lucius nodded, still looking at Septimus who continued his crazed ramblings from earlier, and took ciri's hand.

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(A short time later)

Lucius and Ciri cut through the band of bandits in front of them till they reached the bottom of the mine. A dead mammoth's corpse in the centre of the room and a hulking orc chief leaning over a table at the end of the cavern, with two bandits either side of him.

"I call the big one." A grinning, and blood covered, Lucius called as he rushed forwards sword in hand.

The chief turned to face the rhythmic noise of clinking armour and met a sparkling blade of black fire that cleaved his head from his shoulders with ease.

Lucius spun on his heel in a fluid step and brought his blade forward a second time on the stunned bandit, mounting him on his sword as he lifted him on his blade like a flag.

"I see you took my advice." Ciri said, pulling her sword from the bandit she killed, and walked towards the table the chief leaned on.

"Yup, it works wonders. Great advice." Lucius complimented with a small smile.

Ciri smiled before looking down on the table. "There's a spell book here. Transmutation? Do you want it?" She asked.

"It could be useful with my smithing, sure." He idly responded, taking a pouch of gold of the table with the book.

"The entrance to this Blackreach shouldn't be too far over this hill. I just hope the door can be opened." Ciri said to Lucius, who was reading the book with an iron sword in his hand.

"I should be able to open it with my magic, even if it's closed." He idly responded, and with a turquoise flash the iron turned to silver. "Damn, i wish i knew this earlier. I'd be rich." He muttered.

"Oh, and the necklace can be made of silver...Thank you~" Ciri cheekily called back over her shoulder, walking back out the mine.

Lucius released an amused breath as he followed behind her.

They continued their hike up the small mountain. After killing a few giants they came upon a buried tower of yellow metal and etched stone, hidden away in the mountains side.

"This is it." Lucius said, holding his map up to Ciri.

"Well, do your thing." She said, wiggling her fingers towards the metal gate.

An orange blast flew and reflected off the metal back at Lucius, causing him to stumble and land in the snow.

"Ow." He deadpanned, ignoring the boisterous laugh Ciri released.

Lucius walked up to the gate, scanning the interior of the elevator and spotted a small lever handle peaking past the stone wall. He reached his arm through and using his telekinesis pulled it down.

"There. Stop laughing and hurry up." Lucius grumbled as he walked into the Dwarven elevator.

"Fine, fine. But that was the funnies thing i've seen in years." She smiled while wiping her eyes.

Lucius cursed under his breath as he activated the elevator to descend into the the deep abyss of the Dwarves.

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"Are we going back to the old guy if we get the scroll?" Ciri asked as the elevator finally came to a halt.

"No. He creeped me out." Lucius replied.

"Phew~ I didn't want to bring it up first, but he was too creepy." Ciri voiced.

"So, cube in the cog thing. And randomly press the buttons until something happens?" Lucius ponder aloud.

"There's no instructions, might as well." Ciri responded and placed the cube into the holder.

Lucius pressed the first button and loud mechanical noises echoed around the room. A massive arm revealed itself from the sealing.

He pressed the second and starlight pierced through into the room bouncing of the crystal like points on the contraption.

The third, and the arms moved to reflect the light into a large stone in the centre and a fourth button opened on the furthest left of the board.

A final press and a magnificent scroll of gold and white graced the room with its mystery.

"Holy shit." Lucius muttered in awe and slowly walked to pick it up. He carefully raised it with two hands and felt the thrumming of power it held within.

"Wow. I've never seen anything like it... I can feel it from here." Ciri whispered.

"Let's get back to Paarthurnax!" Lucius urgently voiced.

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I'm not gonna describe scenes in depth anymore, apparently its too hard to comprehend for some readers...Somehow that doesn't even surprise me...brainlets -_-

So was this simpler chapter better?

I actually have a headache from trying to understand these people.

One comment said: "An entire paragraph for description???" What the fuck do you want in a narrative story?

She has tits. She has eyes. Hair is long. They then fucked...

Bruh, i'm actually triggered, you can ignore me. Sorry.

Have a good one,

Your "patently evil" Author ;)