Ceralyne rod until she saw the familiar castle looming on the distance. Her horse cantered over the bridge and toward the Mauseleum. She rapped on the door twice with her elegant knuckles and was granted entry. Inside she saw a rather peculair entryway - one she'd not seen upon entering, maybe because she was too distraught to notice. She eyed the brillant stone pillars supporting a vaulted ceiling. Stone guardians were positioned at certain intervals along the stone walkway. There were also torches burning in brackets between the statues and another arched doorway that she passed through.
She stoon saw that the pathway sloped downward via a set of spiral stairs. At the bottom, she saw her father and the three Nords crowed around an urn amidst the plentiful stone caskets lining the walls in the undercroft.
While she walked, she took note of several caskets - going so far as touching them, retalively sure one of theme would make a hole or something appear to some unforsee chamber which she was reasonably sure existed. She looked from her father, head bent low over his mother's earn and saw a peculair pattern on the urn - one of stars forming a six pointed star with a soul gem at the center. She noted this for later and resumed inspecting every inch of the mausoleum to find the same or similar pattern depicted on the urn's ivory surface.
She murmured to herself as she ran her hands over each of the indentation in the stone resting places to find an openinng or some kind. She was about to give up when she rembered her wolfish night vsion. The entire tomb blossomed into deepest blue and, she nearly crashed into a pile of nearby coffins. The coffins surrounding her mother's urn lit up, bright as the satrs in a pitch black sky.
Ceralyne ran her hands over the illuminated symbols oon the coffing - six pointed stars with soul gems at the center like the urn. The Altmer search the mausoleum's undercroft, found a sword laying against one of the urn set deep into the wall and used this new leverage to breaking apart the stone wall until a doorway appeared in the place where the coffins were moments before.
Her father noticed the sounds of rocks falling away and approached her.
"Ceralyne, what is the meaning of this?" He asked, eyes narrowed, "Disturbing your ancestors' rest? What has gotten into you? Must've been that Argonian no doubt."
Ceralyne shook her head franticall and gestered to the open area in the stone crypt.
"Father, I think I may have stumbled onto Summerset's best kept secret."
The two elves stepped through the opening and found themselves in a high-cielinged domed room with pillars whose markings matched the entire room. In the center on a round platform stood a trinagular looking object etched with ancient markings.
"Ceralyne, what is this thing?" Faelion asked
Ceralyne inpected the strange object saying she did not know. She looked from the object to the giant dwarven mechanism above it. She saw it ended in a two-pincered arm.
"This may just be a hypothesis but I think this is a soul transfenerence apparatus. As to why the Altmer kept this her all these years or its purpose I have no idea. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that this may've been used by Molag Bal during the Unholy union to creat his vampire or to forcefully rip the soul from the Altmer and implant them into the lower dumner. In doing so, I think he insteads to use it for-" She thought for a moment, "It doesn't matter. We can, theoretically use this to gain access to his realm." She gesticulated wildly as if she were a bee who has too much too do. "The physical shell of the person in not allowed in Coldharbour. If they try, his or her atoms will break apart upon impact with that unholy realm. so the only entry is this machine. As I understand it, thiis machine will latch onto your very essence and deposit it direclty into the impermiable realm as if it were a drop of water sucked up a straw.
Ceralyne turned to her father and sighed. She could read the concern in her father's narrowed eyebrows.
"This is great, but how can we be sure this is connected to the Unholy Union?"
Faelion fixed his daughter with that curious expression.
"How do it-? Ceralyne, this may be just the thing we need to combat Molag Bal and purge his filth from the tarnished pavement that is our world."
Ceralyne looked at the machine; head cocked slightly.
"Does it still work? I mean if this thing is meant to transport souls to the dreaded realm of Coldharbo can it aslo act like a two-way gate? By that same token, can it transport souls to Aetherius?"
Faelion toyed with the notion for a while and sighed.
"Theoretically, yes it is possible but Lyne, we've no idea how this works much less to what extent. That is not to say we can extract souls from Coldharbor and release those tortured souls to Aetherius."
The elf shook her head frantically.
"That's not what I meant. I meant we could save people here," She gestured to the hole which they'd come through, "so they don't get snatched up like they're skeevers being fed to a hungry serpent. We can use it to ensure Molag Bal never again can taint the pure soul of the men, mer and beasts of Tamriel. We can use this machine to starve the vampire of blood he so desperately craves."
Ceralyne turned to her father and asked if they should test this new-found theory on her mother's soul so it doesn't disintegrate deep into the ash filling her unearhtly home. Faelion shook his head nervously and said they should get back to Elsweyr to tell her Argonian friend what they've found.
Ceralyne turned red as a crison nirnroot at these words of ignorance.
"Dad, I told you: he is my boyfriend. Not my-, fine," She said hiding her face in her hands, "you wouldn't understand anyway." she looked scathingly at her father. "All this pureblood nonsense spreading like wildfire around the Isles. For your information, his name is Hasir. You'd better start using it as, odds are, he'll be visit far more often." She took a breath to compose herself, "but you're right, we should get to Elsweyr and tell him what we found out."
With that they let the mausoleum, mounted their horses at the stables and headed for Elsweyr. They got halfway along the road seperating the verdent land from the sand drenched land when they spotted two dark-green scaled Argonian wearing ebony armor riding toward them.
Ceralyne and her father exchanged worried looks.
"By the divines, the drykillers... Wonder what they want?"
Ceralyne wondered this as well but the picture took form immediately as she witnessed her father being beaten to a pulp. She stopped, dismounted and ran to intervene.
"Stop, what are you doing?" She asked trying to wrench a scaly arm off of her father. "He's done nothing wrong. Just... Who are you anyway? She said, shooting one of them a malicious look.
The drykillers ceased their beating and advanced on the golden haired female elf.
"We are here, by law, to discourage a mixed race relationship. We've gathered intel that he," The drykiller said, gesturing to the bloodied Altmer, "sought to harbor an Argonian who has no respect for Black Marsh traditions; which clearly stated the a scale back must gain into relationship with fish of their own scales not with an entirely different school." He said scowling. He nodded to the other dryskin who resumed the beating.
Ceralyne stepped between them and her father. The drykiller looked up at her in mild amusement.
"Do not come between a reptile and his prey. You think you can save his miserable life? Fine. Just renounce the Argonian and you'll never see us again. If you refuse, however, there will be dire concequences for your father." He said, grinning with malice.
Ceralyne shook her heading and thus, sealed her father's fate.
"Fine!" The drykiller said, batting her aside. "Justice will be swift then. You could've spared yourself so much heartache by just say your love with the Argonian was a mistake." He said, plunging his sword in her father's heart.
Ceralyne unsheathed her sword from her belt and swung it, execution style, at the drykiller's head. She turned from the decapitated snaketo the other drykiller who smirked at her.
"You think by killing us you can stem the rising tide? The waters will drown you whether you want them to or not; it's only a matter of time. As you may or may not be aware, with the An-Xileel dead, the drykillers run the marsh now and it's a completely different circus, believe me." She eyed them in confusion. She'd no idea who the An-Xileel were nor did she care. Her mind reeled for a bit and then fixed on Molag Bal. "We don't follow him. Why would we? If he sees us coming, him and his cronies would head for the hills. No one messes with the drykillers." He said, smiling.
The elf wiped the blood from her sword and lashed out again; decapitating the second snake in the exact same way she did the first. Sobbing - partly for losing her father and being angry for Haisr - she got back onto her horse and headed for Elsweyr.
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