Curse of Cold harbor.

Ancient ruins and the Betrayed.

Finding the ancient Dwemer fortress was easy finding the correct entrance to it proved more challenging. Serana and I had made our way to the glaziers housing the ruins of the Alftand upper fortress.

It had the typical gray deeprock architecture that the Dwemer used adorned with the typical golden metal the Dwarfs used to decorate their buildings. Half-sunken buildings lay before us snowed under by centuries of snowfall and glaziers pushing the buildings to near breaking point.

A few forward encampments were built with rickety wooden walkways connecting the fallen buildings to each other. We had entered a few but found that most of them had caved in or the entryways to the deeper parts had been made inaccessible due to the landslides.

We had started to lose hope to find an entryway to the deeper parts. As we suddenly stumbled upon a rift in the glaziers which excreted steam.

"That looks promising," Serana remarked.

I nodded as we headed to the crevice in the ice.

We were met with tight corners and turns which we quickly navigated eager to exit the cold environment. We turned a few corners before hearing muffled voices I motioned for Serana to come closer as we silently proceeded further.

Through a crack in the ice, I could make out a khaijit arguing with himself.

"J'zharr I told you it was your fault we are trapped, trapped I tell you, you wouldn't listen now look what that has brought you." The khaijit rambled he seemed to be in a crazed state I figured he suffered from skooma withdrawal.

"Is there a way we can avoid him?" Serana whispered.

"I don't think so, he seems to suffer from skooma withdrawal if we turn the next corner we probably have to fight him," I whispered back.

"We never should have come here J'zharr these walls are closing in on us. And those white beasts might return if they hurt us J'zharr." The khaijit rambled on.

We decided to face the inevitable as we couldn't wait here for the rest of eternity.

Serana made the first move as she rounded the corner with me following closely. Our presence startled the khaijit who grabbed a woodcutter's axe he looked malnourished and weak as he gazed at us with a fearful expression.

"What's this? J'darr will not be captured again. No no not again arhhh!" The crazed khaijit screamed as he ran towards Serana.

Serana nimbly avoided the wild slashes of the khaijit. As she ducked under another one of the khaijit's vicious slashes she planted her knife in his chest making him fall to his knees. Frantically trying to stop the bleeding before falling to the ground.

"I am sorry..." Serana whispered as she closed the eyes of the khaijit.

I rubbed her shoulder.

"It couldn't be helped he wouldn't have seen any reason anyways. I have dealt with skooma addicts back in Cyrodill they are beyond reason when they withdraw." I said to Serana.

"That doesn't hide the fact his death was not necessary," Serana replied with a sad expression.

I saw the dead body of another khaijit laying just a few feet away.

"Looks like he didn't want to abandon his friend," I said pointing to the dead body.

"The way he talked about the stronghold worries me Dracar. It seemed like they came here with more people." Serana remarked worrisomely.

"We will be okay we got each other after all," I replied smiling at the female vampire.

Serana returned my smile before we continued on our journey. It wasn't long before the tight glazier walls opened up in a wide hallway adorned with the same Dwemer metal and broken pipes running all along the ceiling leaking its contents on the ground. The air was humid and a lot warmer than the outside.