How to Pickpocket a Pickpocket

Chapter 31

The moment they stepped foot inside the ruins of Irkngthand, Artis paused. It was magnificent! Literally everything was carved and built out of stone and golden metals. The pillars that were holding the place up had strange, yet fascinating markings and patterns on them and she found herself staring too much at them.

Brynjolf smirked at her stunned expression, "First time in a Dwemer ruin, lass?"

She nodded, still staring at a pillar, "Uh, yeah."

"How's your leg feeling?"

"Fine, fine..."

The redhead cracked up and drew her out of her staring trance. Artis blushed and picked up her pace, following Karliah and leaving him laughing behind her. Since they woke up a few hours ago Brynjolf just couldn't seem to stop smiling. He was more energetic than usual and was joking all the way from where they camped. Artis, on the other hand, tried her best to act as if nothing happened – for if she'd let herself relive that kiss, she would lose all focus on the quest to kill Mercer. Brynjolf had become a distraction really quick.

Then Karliah stopped again and Artis bumped into her from behind. She peered over the Dunmer's shoulder to see what the holdup was when she saw a strange object lying on the floor. It was made of golden metal and lied scattered in a dozen of pieces.

"That's new." She muttered.

"That's a Dwarven sphere." Karliah told her, "Machines made by the Dwemer to guard their ruins. Be careful, since they have razor sharp blades and faster than the eye can see."

The Dragonborn swallowed and stepped over the sphere, suddenly not so interested in it anymore. Brynjolf took a second to loot it before joining them. Artis' luck seemed to have run out though, for they reached a room with two Dwemer spheres rolling around, patrolling the ruins. Her eyebrows arched when seeing what they looked like when they're, well, alive.

"We're going to need to take them out to get past." Karliah whispered as they snuck forward. She glanced at Artis, "Word of advice, don't waste your fire spells on them. They're immune to it last time I checked."

Artis nodded and smothered the flame spell in her hand, "Thanks for the advice. How do we take them out exactly?"

Bryn smirked, "Well, like this I suppose..."

To Artis' horror he rolled from their cover and charged right at the two spheres. The machines spun around on their mechanisms and razor sharp blades shot from their arms. Karliah stuck to a higher approach again and shot at their mechanisms from afar, leaving Artis to go help Brynjolf do the physical fighting. Upon studying the spheres, she noticed that they relied on their speed the most.

Artis conjured a frost spell in her free hand before calling out to Brynjolf, "Bryn, duck!"

The redhead didn't turn around to see what she was planning. He trusted her enough to duck after a split second, only to find a jet of frost and ice flying over his head. It hit the sphere and its mechanisms slowed down, allowing him to stab his blade into it. Artis did the same to the other one and Karliah was sure to finish it off with an arrow.

"Good job." She told Artis and Brynjolf, "Let's keep moving."

Brynjolf pulled his blade from the machine's part and turned to look at Artis, "Clever thinking there, lass."

Artis shrugged, "Good thing I remembered I had that spell."

But upon reaching the next part of the ruins, they discovered that it was one big trap, with strange contraptions turning in slow circles while spewing fire in all directions.