ʜ ᴇ ʀ ᴏ // Teldryn Sero

o.1.5 // city of a hundred towers

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No one's POV
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It wasn't long before the trio had arrived at Nchardak. With Neloth's mindless rambling, Teldryn and Rhea giggling behind at him, and the ash spawn, time went by relatively quickly.

"The Dwemer certainly knew how to build for the ages. These towers have outlasted their creators by millenia. The book is housed inside that dome. I'll need to unlock the door for us. Lets get on with it." Neloth hummed, stopping abruptly. Rhea raised her head, now realizing where she was.

"Oh. I should've expected a dwarven ruin before i had even found you. They seem to hold all knowledge i seek." The Dragonborn sighed, pulling out her bow. Neloth didn't seem to acknowledge her and started forward. Teldryn stuck beside Rhea.

"I assume you've seen plenty of Centurions, then?" The dunmer cracked a joke as they walked towards the entrance. Rhea snorted with a nod.

"More than you could imagine."

Just as she spoke, she heard chattering. Some reavers up ahead seemed to be talking nonsense to each other. Terrible move.

Rhea pulled back the string of her bow, letting an ebony arrow soar straight through one of the reaver's heads. Neloth quickly readied his spells.

"I had to clean out the riff-raff last time I was here, too. Where do they come from?" Neloth cried, running forward to take on the bandits.

Teldryn glanced at Rhea with a menacing grin before they took off into battle.

After the last reaver was defeated, they approached a large dwemer gate covering a door.

"Maybe now we can finally begin what we came here for." Neloth remarked sneakily, pulling an odd looking cube from his cloak. "The Dwemer of Nchardak appear to have been fond of these control pedestals. Luckily I found a cube to operate it inside on my last visit. I sealed the door when I left to keep out ignorant meddlers. Let me unlock it."

He walked forward, setting the cube on the pedestal. The cube shook, emitting a blue glow before the gate opened. He took it back, pocketing it as he opened the door. Rhea grinned under her cowl whilst Teldryn eyed the cube.

The three walked inside. It opened to a large room. The floor was a sort of glass with a golden ring in the very center. Rhea walked forward, seeing the book from beneath the glass. She was more than eager to take out her warhammer and smash through, but Neloth quickly spoke.

"You can see the book right there. So tantalizingly close...But trust me, no magic will open that. I'd have had the book already if I could." He sighed, looking over at the two others. "No, we'll have to do this the hard way. If we can restore the steam supply to this room, I'm certain I can open it. As you'll see, that's easier said than done. This way to the boilers." He hummed, quickly walking off.

Rhea growled under her breath, but followed anyway. Teldryn glanced at the book before walking beside Rhea.

"The dwarves were a clever race. I wonder what happened to them?" The spellsword mumbled, looking around at all the machinery. Rhea shrugged.

"Perhaps they died out. The falmer are always wandering about in these. Maybe they had something to do with it?" The girl hummed, swinging her sword absentmindedly as Neloth opened another door with the cube. Ah! An elevator. Perfect. As if these buildings aren't rickety enough.

Teldryn nodded as he entered the elevator with Rhea. "Likely. Maybe we should look into that before we delve into another ruin like this." He grinned, elbowing Rhea in the side lightly. She elbowed back, Teldryn yet again retaliating. They started an elbow fight for a moment until Neloth raised an eyebrow at them. Rhea quickly shoved Teldryn and moved aside before he could shove back. The mercenary looked up at Neloth's gaze and cleared his throat, standing still. Rhea snickered under her breath, earning a glare from her partner.