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Chapter 5

Valka dodged back from the decapitated insect, severed limb uplifted, and watched it flail madly about for several seconds before it finally concluded that it was dead and collapsed. Its last twitches were unpleasant. He did not stay to watch. He had a weapon now, better than nothing, and he turned to resume his walk to the East.

As the night wore on, he passed from the bracken into a dark forest of deciduous trees, the color of the leaves seemingly random and seasonless, some green, some purple or black, some red-gold and gently shedding. The little lights were always there, pink or purple in the lands of Dementia. On the Mania side where the hated Aureals roamed they would no doubt be golden or fiery orange. Tiny fireflies flitted about, and purple and blue moths visited the tentacular arabesque flowers. He listened closely, but there was no other sound but his feet rustling in the moss.

Was there some Aureal walking toward a guard post on that other side, thinking the same thoughts? Could an Aureal even_have_the same thoughts? They were arrogant, brash. Probably these moments of introspection were foreign to them.

An even stranger thought rose to his mind as he walked. He wondered what Eldrin Llethri was doing right now. Why had he been inside the great shell? He had been saying something about things being all right with the guards, so apparently he had managed to avert the consequences of his actions... Again. No wonder he was so absorbed with himself. Nothing he did ever came back to harm him. Perhaps he could live an entire mortal life and never face any real consequences for his actions. That thought made Valka less angry than he expected. If it was true it would be because a mortal life was short, not because the consequences weren't real.

There was no point in hating his mortal master for enslaving him. There had been no point in hating Kerghed either. In fact, he thought that on balance he had hated Kerghed less. The mage had done much worse things to him than Eldrin so far had. But things had never been_personal_with Kerghed. He treated Valka as a useful tool. The question_do you hate me_had never passed between them because the old mage had not cared, for better or worse. He would not twist the knife (other than in the most clinical way, as part of an experiment) because he no more saw Valka as a person to be tormented than Valka saw him as a person to be loathed. There had been a sort of detente.

Eldren hated him. He hated Eldrin. But Eldrin still wanted to summon him and tell him things about the guards. That was a confusing puzzle. He was still thinking about it the next time the summons gripped him.

---

"I call Valka."

It was the following day, a few hours after sunrise. Valka materialized to find himself in Eldrin's lit bedroom, standing before a mer clad head to toe in Gah-Julan styled bonemold. A cloth cowl made of bright jade linen hung from the back of the rounded helm and gathered around his neck, black padding and black gloves beneath to cover the gaps in the armor. The long, sweeping pauldrons of the armor did not seem very practical for combat, but they curved up toward the neck in a cradling shape to protect both from strikes and from ash. The single-slatted visor was pushed back, revealing part of Eldrin's face, but the plate over his mouth was immovable.

He still carried his tanto on his belt, but Eldrin was also holding a steel spear as tall as himself, a green ribbon tied below the spearhead. Valka's own spear stood leaning against the wall by the door, his helm on the floor beside it. And beside all of that was a very large knapsack bulging with heavy sacks that felt like sand and some smaller, hard tools. A pair of waterskins were tied to the straps and a bed roll was strapped to the back of it.

Valka looked around briefly, elytra arm in one hand tapping against his thigh. Then he turned to look silently at Eldrin. The green-on-black eyes were tired, nothing more.

"So you didn't die, did you? Disappointing," Eldrin said, and pointed behind Valka to his things. "Put on your stupid helmet and pick up that bag. And what the hells is that disgusting thing?"

"Unfortunately, your prohibition against lying also denies me the use of sarcasm. It is the limb of an elytra, a giant insect. It attacked me and I retained it as a weapon." His heart lifted slightly as he recognized his own helm and the issued spear. Perhaps he would have a chance to arrive at Stipplehand in other than complete disgrace after all. He donned one and hefted the other in his free hand, trying not to look relieved. Reluctantly he set the elytra arm aside long enough to put on the knapsack one-handed, then picked it up and shoved it through one strap, pinned against his shoulder. The weight was heavy, but he did not find himself unable to bear it.

"If that smears anything on the tile you're licking it up!" Eldrin snapped, inspecting the floor where the arm had touched before huffing and turning toward the door. "Come on."

"Tsamabi!" Eldrin called impatiently at the top of the stairwell. The little gray Khajiit came briskly from the dining room, a wash rag still in her hand. She stopped abruptly when she saw Valka, green eyes growing large as dinner plates and the fur of her nape standing up straight. Her tail and ears rose as if she'd been zapped. She was dressed in clean but plain linens mended many times over.

"Y-yes, Master Eldrin!" she managed to squeak after taking a moment to collect her wits.

"Dispose of this... thing," he said, pointing to the elytra arm.

Tsamabi's eyes darted back and forth between the severed limb and her master's face several times, simultaneously too stunned and too fearful to chose an action, but the scowl on Eldrin's brow finally compelled her to scoot forward meekly to take the arm away. Her ears flattened as she came close to the Mazken and she looked down, avoiding his eyes, and she shuddered when her hands touched the chitinous limb.

Valka surrendered the arm to the Khajiit politely, bowing his head. Her obvious fear confused him. Was she not a woman? Then she scurried off the way she had come to throw it away and Eldrin was already moving out the door. Valka turned to follow Eldrin with a slight frown.

It was bright out, cool but warming, a slight wind stirring ash around their ankles. Eldrin set off toward the Eastern exit of town. He could not go North directly, the hills at the base of Red Mountain were far too steep. He would have to follow the foyada as it lazily wound its way East, then turned Northwest to follow the Ghostfence.

The sky was strange to Valka, blue and speckled with white cloud. He lowered his head to let his eyes adjust in the shadow of his helm. When he looked up again, following Eldrin, he saw the distant shoulders of the mountain rising high above, ringed at its base by something that from here seemed iridescent and insubstantial. As far off as it was, the ring of glittering purple-blue must actually be many times as tall as Valka, which made the mountain unimaginably vast. Before when they were outside they had been in alleys, or the ash had hidden it from him. He checked in his stride for a moment as he stared at it, then moved quickly to catch up, one hand on the strap of the knapsack as the other held his spear. He gripped it very tightly, anchor to what was real in this strange place.

"Do you want to know where we're going?" Eldrin asked after some time, almost conversationally, without looking back at the Mazken.

"Yes, Master Eldrin," Valka said. Knowing probably would not help him, as ignorant as he was of this part of this world. But then, perhaps Eldrin did not intend to tell him. Perhaps it was the opening of another punishment.

"We're going to a tomb. Have you ever seen a Dunmer tomb before?" He slowed, letting Valka come up beside him before resuming his pace. He hadn't lowered the visor.

"I don't believe so," Valka said. "Before you summoned me my experience of this world was limited to caves, ruins, and Kerghed's tower."

He felt a faint dread curling in the pit of his stomach. Shutting him up inside a tomb would be a torment of some duration, because the terms of the summoning would not allow him to kill himself. Without physical needs he would be trapped inside until he could dig or break his way out. He was fairly certain that he could claw his way out of even a stone building in a few decades, but after that long completely alone he might not be sane. The Madgod favored insane mortals. He had never heard of a mad Mazken or Aureal. Who knew what would be his fate then?

But no, he tried to reassure himself. Eldrin's act of killing had been impulsive. This would require a sort of planning of which he did not believe the Dunmer capable. Best not suggest it to him if he had not thought of it.

"Is that so?" Eldrin said. "A tomb is a much quieter place than a ruin, I'm sure. It's a sacred place where living people seldom go. This one, the Nazthiri ancestral tomb, is deep beneath Red Mountain." He pointed needlessly at the towering ruddy-gray shape on the horizon. "It's a bit special because there's a maze in the basement with lots of dead ends. There will probably be some skeletal guardians patrolling in there, but you and I together will be able to take care of them easily. After we clear the way, we're going to find a dark little dead end and then, with your help, I'm going to seal you behind a wall with that stucco you're carrying. And do you know what my final orders to you will be before I walk off and leave you?"

Eldrin stopped and turned to look raptly at Valka's face, grinning cruelly.

"I'll order you to lay down, helpless and inert, as if asleep. And you will wait there in this state until someone happens upon you. Oh, I'm sure it shouldn't be too long, perhaps a century or two? That's nothing to you, is it not? Some looter or custodian of the tombs might eventually notice the section of wall that looks different from all the rest. I'll be dead before too long, but you'll still be there, quietly waiting in the dark until someone comes along to end you."

Eldrin had the satisfaction of hearing Valka's breath catch, eyes widening in unfeigned horror as he stumbled to a halt. He breathed rapidly for a couple of seconds, eyes locked on the Dunmer's. There was black sclera visible all around the iris.He didn't think of it. He thought of something infinitely more terrible.

"Well done," he said very quietly, when he felt able to speak. "You have created a torment worse than I was able to imagine."

He would be locked away forever, never again to see the sky above the Isles. Never again to hear a voice, not even a reprimanding officer. No mortal thing was eternal, and at some point someone or something would break through the wall; but by that point the thing that lay waiting in insane, crushing silence would not be Valka any more.

Eldrin tittered gleefully. That was the visceral emotion, the true fear Eldrin wanted to see, not the cold hatred, not the ingratiating smile that infuriated him even more.

"I might be persuaded to change my mind if you asked nicely, although I already know you're too proud for that," Eldrin said flippantly, shrugging, before he resumed his pace. He'd been hoping Mazken didn't have a stupidly good sense of smell like betmer did, otherwise Valka might know he was carrying several sacks of saltrice, not sand and lime. But based on his response, that was obviously not the case. Perhaps not this moment, but at some point Valka would break and he would beg and then Eldrin would have that victory over him for the rest of both their lives.

Of course, Valka thought. Eldrin didn't want to lose his valuable summoned daedra forever. He wanted to see Valka beg for mercy. Conflicting emotions warred within the Mazken's breast as he stood motionless, watching Eldrin start to walk away. He tried without success to control his ragged breathing.Fear. Rage. Deep, seething hatred.

Was Eldrin Llethri petty and cruel enough to do it? If he pushed it to that line, would Eldrin render him to that fate?

He had cut Valka's throat for nothing more than words when Valka was unable to disobey him, without the power to do him harm. Valka was carrying enough weight to justify the idea that Eldrin had planned for it very coldly.

No, I see what is happening here. It is not enough that I obey. He wants me crushed and fearful of him forever. He wants my complete submission. If he cannot get it I am of no use to him, and it is not enough that he throw me away, he must ensure that I suffer for all time.

Kerghed with all his experiments was a kind mer compared to this one.

There was a soft_thip-thip_as Valka sank to his knees in the dust, one trembling hand resting on the spear.

"Please," he said, his voice barely audible, taut with fear and loathing.

Eldrin stopped, frowning. That was too easy. Valka was supposed to stew over his fate for a while longer yet. He turned, narrowing his eyes at the Mazken, wondering if this was real and not just a contrived display for Eldrin's benefit.

"'Please' isn't a request," Eldrin said coldly. Already he could feel something twist in his guts. He'd finally been able make Valka see him as an actual threat and not some fragile mortal whose life and deeds therein bore no gravity. Eldrin must have respect from_one_person. If he backed down now that would be lost, but- was Valka's hand trembling? Eldrin's own hand tightened imperceptibly on his spear.

This wasn't bringing him the joy he had thought that it would, just as Valka's death had not made him feel any bit of satisfaction. His face hardened, eyes visible but mouth hidden by the helm.

For the first time since his first summons Valka turned his eyes away from Eldrin's, shoulders twitching convulsively as he dry-heaved. "Hk. Khk." His own heart thundered in his ears for the first time in centuries. He had learned not to fear pain - but all daedra fear the darkness.

It was unbearable. He felt that his mind would break. But the alternative was worse, so much worse.

The words must be clear, or Eldrin would just make him say it again. He swallowed, breathed, forced his voice out level. It still cracked, forcing him to partly repeat himself.

"Please do not - please do not send me into the dark."

The show Valka put on was disgusting to Eldrin. A stoic daedra did not seem so person-like. But this... the terror in his eyes, the sound that he made... it made Eldrin feel like he had tortured another mer. Parts of Eldrin were at war with one another now, and he could feel the excuses rising to the surface.His kind were created for the sole purpose of servitude, whether to mortals or to a Prince should make no difference. I have my own will. His will is only through instinct, like an animal.

_How black my heart, roasting fiercely._How many times had Eldrin heard that at Temple sermons without stopping to consider what it meant? Why did it occur to him now?

"Get up," Eldrin snapped impatiently, as if Valka had not been doing exactly as Eldrin wished him to do. The command jerked Valka to his feet. He almost fell again under the weight of knapsack and weak knees, but his hand on the spear saved him.

"I don't want to seal you in," Eldrin said. "You're more valuable at my side."Don't give in so easily. It's too obvious."But we're still going to the tomb - I have other business there. I could still change my mind. Remember that."

Eldrin whirled and stalked angrily ahead without looking back to make sure the Mazken was following. He already knew that he would. He had no choice.

Valka's breathing was harsh for minutes after as he followed Eldrin, eyes fixed on the ground. It was at least that long until he could think any coherent thought. He gibbered and railed inside his own head. When at last things began to clear the whelming terror died back to a slow burn of sick dread.

_This is how I will live for the next hundred and fifty years._Eldrin had managed in three days to devise a worse punishment than any he had ever known. What torments now awaited him at this mer's hands?

There was no comfort in praying to the Master, who knew no fear. The Mazken and the Aureal gathered to him for his strength, not his mercy. Valka walked on in silence, and the apples of his eyes were so small that each iris almost looked solid green.

Eldrin didn't speak and he rarely glanced aside at Valka as they moved through the foyada, following the only possible trail. There were hardly any living things, just the occasional tangle of trama and a few old dead trees whose bark and limbs had been battered away by high winds over the years. There were hardly even cliff racers, having no prey to hunt. At one point they saw a racer wedged between boulders on the mountainside, keening mournfully, neck hanging limp against the rock. Every once in a while it would weakly shuffle its wings in an attempt to escape.Blighted.

Valka stared at the trapped and sickly creature until he could no longer do so without turning to walk backwards. He had a vague memory that he had seen one before, but he couldn't recall where; it must have been long, long ago, perhaps in the exterior of some ruin where Kerghed had brought him to strike down the scamps and the clannfear. Its suffering would be brief, and then over forever. He lowered his head to fix his eyes on the ground again as he shuddered.

The shimmering purple-blue wall that was the Ghostfence drew nearer until they could make out the massive pillars that held the top rim of the fence aloft. Every pillar was carved with sacred imagery, either the Tribunal, or St. Nerevar, or scenes from the Battle of Red Mountain. Much of the carvings were chipped and eroded, the lines impacted with ash. From below the rim the wall itself fell like a veil, pure vibrant magicka shifting and swirling across its surface with a multi-tonal hum that Eldrin could feel all the way down to his bones. It was deeply humbling to be near it.

The Mazken at last looked up when he felt the ambient power begin to seep into his body, tingling up and down his spine. It was revivifying even if it was not from the source that was familiar to him. The structure in front of him was the largest made thing he had yet seen, though he did not understand many of the images carved into the great pillars. The foyada had led them right to its base and continued through it in one direction, while another path branched Northwest to gradually diverge from the wall. The translucency was something like stained glass, and beyond it Eldrin could just make out humanoid shapes shuffling stiffly along.

"I don't suppose you know anything about the Ghostfence?" Eldrin asked, finally breaking the long silence. This was the power of Eldrin's own gods given form and he wanted Valka to know it.

"No, Master Eldrin." Valka turned to eye Eldrin warily. He didn't see any easy way for the Dunmer to trap him inside one of the pillars. Possibly the membrane was adhesive, or a trap specifically to daedra.

"This was--"

A wave of odd sensations washed over him suddenly- deja vu coupled with dizzying confusion, and for a moment Eldrin wasn't sure whether he was awake or dreaming. Forgotten memories from the night before engulfed him, overwhelmingly vivid.

His limbs were too heavy, rubbery, boneless. Eldrin couldn't raise them and he could not tell whether he was lying down or standing. The air was thick with a familiar cloying scent that almost choked him when he breathed, but he became progressively lighter and detached as he inhaled it and soon Eldrin did not worry about anything at all. His hand finally floated up to touch his face and Eldrin felt it cave inward under his fingertips, as if the front half of his skull were being dissolved in acid below his skin. His facial structures collapsed as if melting. His eyes sank, liquefied, and ran down the bowl of his face but Eldrin could still see in every direction all around himself. It was too dark to make anything out other than black, angular shapes limned by a dull red glow, the source of which he could not find.

It was horrible. It_should_be horrible. But Eldrin only felt calm acceptance. He wanted to bask in that sensation forever. There were voices, just above the threshold of his hearing, and Eldrin craved to know the words they spoke. He would be able to understand them someday. For now he shuddered and enjoyed the dull, calm fog.

Then the images were gone and Eldrin was in the foyada with his mouth still hanging open, and he remembered feeling calm in the dream but now he was horrified and disoriented. His hand slapped to the helm over his forehead and Eldrin stumbled back a step.

_Next time it looks like I need help._Valka's free arm darted out to catch him around the waist without the slightest thought. He bit his tongue rather than speak. If this was some mortal weakness Eldrin would be angry that he acknowledged it.

Eldrin dug the butt of his spear against the stony ground to hold some of his weight, but Valka was already there and for a moment Eldrin thought he was being attacked. He turned to shove against the daedra's chest with his left gauntlet before sanity took hold and he realized Valka had only meant to catch him, but he stepped away from the embrace. His heart was pounding, eyes wild with fear.

Valka did not move in the slightest. It was like pushing a tree. He let go when it was clear Eldrin was definitely both trying to move away and able to remain standing on his own. The Dunmer had felt cold. Was that normal? He couldn't remember. No. Yes. Mortals were cold. Kerghed's hands had been freezing, always.

"What are you- what happened?" Eldrin asked stupidly, then realized it was stupid. He'd remembered a dream, but never before had a memory been so vivid or disorienting. Something was wrong.

"I don't know," Valka said wearily. "You were still, and then you stumbled." He looked up at the glowing membrane and back down at the Dunmer, frowning. "Does this Fence do this to you?"

_Lord and Master, this mer is obviously aspected with Mania. He should be inflicted on one of the Aureals._There was no answer to his prayer. He had not really expected one. The Madgod tended to appear or respond when he was less expected; it took a powerful offering to attract his attention to one time and place deliberately.

"It shouldn't," Eldrin said uncertainly, following Valka's gaze. He could no longer see anything moving on the other side. Had they merely shuffled out of view, or had he hallucinated them? Eldrin felt a prickling down his spine and along his arms.

"Let's get out of here. It doesn't matter. I'm fine," he said quickly and hurried along down the foyada, trying not to look at the Ghostfence or whatever lay beyond it to his right. He felt as though someone were watching him. It was very disconcerting.

_The eyes of your ancestors are watching you preparing to rob a tomb,_he thought bitterly, although Eldrin knew it was something else that had made him so unsettled. Although he knew nothing about the particulars of the Nazthiri ancestral tomb, (the maze in the basement had been a lie) he_had_inspected a map and knew that it was coming up soon. As the foyada curved away from the Ghostfence, a wall of black volcanic rock rose between them and it, and it was here that a Velothi-style double arch sheltering a wooden door protruded from the hill._Nazthiri_was carved into the uppermost lintel in Dunmeris.

Eldrin stopped in front of it, hand tight on his spear, lips pressed together.

_Am I really going to do this?_he thought, dread growing in the pit of his belly, and then he felt Valka's eyes on him from behind. Any sign of hesitation on his part might be interpreted as backing down from his threat. Eldrin shut the visor on his helm.

"Be alert. There will be guardians," he said, touching the handle experimentally - not trapped, he didn't think- and pulled it open, dry, dusty air blowing against his helm from within when he did. As an afterthought, Eldrin added, "And Valka? Never, ever tell anyone you've been here with me." He stepped into the dark corridor, his eyes slowly adjusting to the faint glow of fire in a wall sconce further down.

Valka felt a lurch in his gut as he looked up at the name above the door. Tombs were a strange and unpleasant idea to a daedra, places to commemorate mortal death. It redoubled the horror of Eldrin's earlier threat. For a moment he felt paralyzed, not able even to take a step forward. The Dunmer's voice dragged him across the threshold.

"I acknowledge my orders," Valka said. It was not a phrase he normally used in a tongue other than daedric. He tried to rouse himself to pay closer attention as he walked beside Eldrin through the narrow doorway, but he felt leaden now, heavy and dull. Strange fire - orange rather than blue - lit the sloping hallway below. Valka moved ahead, spear grasped in both hands. There was a second door at the bottom of the corridor. The air felt dense and cool, and he thought that he heard voices just below the threshold of hearing, whispering words that could not be deciphered.

He held the spear at the ready as he opened the door with his other hand. Another corridor stretched out ahead and dove down out of sight. There were doors to right and left, and in the near distance he heard a rhythmic clicking. Something round and pale rose above the threshold of the distant slope. Gradually it rose upward, revealing empty sockets, a triangular ragged hole where no nose was, naked grinning teeth above a column of spine. The skeleton opened its jaw and made a noise somewhere between a creak and a groan, ragged and high-pitched, and then he could see all of it as it charged them. The undead wielded a round blackened shield and an axe so old that the blade was more rust than iron.

Valka watched it draw nearer with a complete lack of interest. Only the dull, bitter fear of Eldrin drove him as he inverted the spear and drove the butt forward to knock the shield aside. Then he swept the point down to hack vertebra from vertebra, rib from rib. The ancient pelvis crumbled to dust as the point struck it, and the bone man fell to pieces, weapon and shield unbearably loud as they rattled on the floor. Valka silently watched them fall. On the shaft of the spear his hand still shook.

Eldrin cringed inwardly watching Valka hack the skeletal guardian to pieces._This is wrong, so wrong._But he steeled himself and strode forward when the skeleton fell, taking care not to crush the bones under his boots.

Eldrin pointed at the downward sloping corridor and let Valka go first. The woman from the shop had said Hlavren Nazthiri would be found in the lowest room. Eldrin didn't even want to look beyond the other doors. Perhaps if the Mazken did the fighting, some small part of Eldrin's guilty conscience might be soothed...

The walkway spiraled around as it lead them deeper, and then widened into a longer hall lined with rows of ceramic urns on big flat pedestals, two dim flames on either side the only source of light. Little trinkets were carefully placed on the countertops, some glittering with enchantment. There was a faded, moth-eaten cloth dolly propped against one of the urns, the hair a tangle of red yarn. Eldrin had never felt so despicable, but seeing that somehow made him feel even worse.

An entire skeleton was laid out on a pedestal in the center of the room, and not far beyond it was a door to the next chamber. The skeleton must have been the remains of someone important; a very fine ebony longsword lay beside it, and several elaborate rings were arranged in an arc around the skull. A book was placed under the skeletal fingers of its left hand. Eldrin didn't get close enough to look at the title.

Valka looked around blankly at the objects displayed on their counters as he passed them. They were obviously offerings, but to what? Jewelry and weapons he understood. No daedra asked for a sacrifice of dolls and clothes. There were scrolls. There were bottles whose decorative shape probably indicated alcohol or expensive potions. At one point there was a quilt draped carefully over one side of a counter, pinned in place by the weight of an urn. It was crudely made, the stitches uneven, and it looked as though the patches that composed it had been cut from old clothes. The quilt was newer than some of the other things. Many were covered with the dust of years.

Only when he saw the skeleton laid on its own pedestal surrounded by finery did he understand. He felt something at last, a jolt of fear and adrenaline.

These are offerings to the dead.

Was every one of these perished mortals conscious somewhere, aware that they had been given something? Were they watching now, furiously offended at this intrusion? Why_was_Eldrin here?

Eldrin was quite certain he heard ragged breathing, and then he saw the light shift at the bottom of the door. Something was standing there, and very few things inside a tomb could breathe.Bonewalker. It would have already heard their heavy footsteps, he was sure, so Eldrin did not attempt to creep as he moved toward the door. It would be best if he pulled it open to let Valka strike quickly.

Eldrin transferred his spear to his left hand, right hand on the door, and locked eyes with Valka to make sure he understood.

The voices here had risen to the threshold of a soft whisper. Valka was aware of them every second, from all directions. The fine hair on the back of his neck stood up as Eldrin turned suddenly to meet his eyes, hand on the door. He looked reflexively down and to the left.

And then the door opened, creaking softly on hinges unused in years upon years.