The Bound - A Tale Of Tamriel

12

12

i. Öenthir.

The corridor continued on for another two hundred yards, or so, the flameless lights flickering on each time that they neared them. Soon, the corridor opened out into a room with an alcove on each side and it was here that they saw the first wandering spirit in the tomb.

The spirit floated in an aimless fashion, completely ignoring the group, or not sensing their presence at all. Öenthir noticed a skeleton, that had, most like, been the body of the spirit, laid on the floor in the corner of one of the alcoves, surrounded by camping paraphernalia. It had likely been some adventurer or treasure seeker that had somehow gained entry to the tomb but never managed to leave.

The room then gave way, through an archway that appeared carved whole from the rock, as the rest of the ruin seemed be, to a set of stairs leading downwards. The stairs led into another room, this time of enormous size. Bigger than the cavern outside that they had left.

Upon entering the huge room, lights throughout the room came to life, forcing the shadows into the corners and revealing the intricate nature of the room. Columns rose from the floor and blended into the roof without any seams that they could see. An altar of some kind could was to one side and another, of a different design, on the other. Across from them, another set of stairs lead upwards and, in the centre, a circular dais held a well-like structure with sharp, horn shaped protrusions leaning in towards the centre and four tall columns of stone, parallel to the corners of the room, around it.

"An Ayleid well." Öenthir whispered.

"A what?" Revna, ever at the ready, stood beside her, her eyes surveying their surroundings for possible threats.

"A source of healing and revitalisation." She almost couldn't stop herself from running down to start taking measurements and making notes, but she controlled her intellectual urges. "It looks completely drained though."

They continued, down the stairs, stepping with caution forward and, as they did so, they began to see more of the wandering spirits and their corresponding, lifeless skeletons. There were ceremonial pots and chests dotted here and there and Öenthir found herself frustrated that she couldn't take the time to examine and catalogue everything. She had to remind herself that she wasn't here for research.

That was no more clear than when, upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, they ran into, or, more accurate, almost ran through one of the spirits. With a hiss, its eyes glowed bright as it reached a clawed, almost transparent hand out towards Öenthir. She jumped backwards, bumping into Tilly, but, no sooner had the spirit noticed them than a swing from Itagaki's sword swept through it causing the apparition to howl an unnatural sound and to dissipate like smoke.

"Do not let them touch you!" Itagaki kept her sword at the ready, matching the surveying looks that Revna was performing, watching one side of the group as the Khajiit watched the other. "Their touch is the touch of the damned."

"You've fought spirits before, then, Redguard?" Revna didn't look at Itagaki, her constant moving eyes watching their surroundings.

"Once." Was all the reply the Redguard seemed willing to give. "Let us keep moving."

They edged their way across the floor of the room, taking wide circles whenever a spirit came close, until they reached the stairs on the other side. With no spirit ahead, that they could see, they soon ascended the stairs out of the great altar room and up into a room the twin of the one at the other side.

Except it wasn't a twin. There was no corridor ahead, but a door of intricate forged metal was to the left and the alcoves, here, were in front and to the right and, in the centre of this room there were four skeletons, sat in a circle. The skeletons were almost perfectly articulated, almost all the bones still attached to each other by some unknown means and, as the party entered the room, all four skeleton heads twisted around on bony spines to look at them with sightless, eyeless sockets.