Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter CXXXII - Crossroads

Author's Note:

Dear all, I hope you're ready for adventure ;) Destiny awaits.

I just thought it might be good to mention that I changed up the layout and size of Blackreach considerably for the purposes of the story. I moved some landmarks a tiny bit and I included Mzulft as one of the landmarks as well (since we could see one of the Blackreach entrances there in the College of Winterhold plotline). I tried to make the distances correspond more with how I'm portraying traveling on the surface, so no five minute walks from one end of Blackreach to the other :D It covers most of the Pale, half of Winterhold Hold, and the entirety of Eastmarch. It's going to be a challenging journey for certain ;)

I hope you'll all enjoy the upcoming chapters and thank you all for your continued readership <3

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Aeyrin and Bishop had heard a fair amount about Blackreach by now.

An enormous underground cavern complex. Crossroads between the ancient Dwemer cities. Ruins teeming with Falmer. They imagined a lot. A lot of danger, a lot of bleak, dark environments and the same old structures they had known from their previous ventures beneath the earth.

They never would have imagined this.

"Damn," Bishop let out an astonished sigh. "I didn't think this place would be so..."

"Beautiful," Aeyrin finished the thought as her eyes roamed all over the sights in front of them.

It was so big they couldn't even see the cavern walls. Granted, they knew that most of this place was supposed to span over a large portion of Skyrim's area. It may even be as big as an entire Hold. It was dark, but not as they had imagined. There were actual roads, paved with sturdy tiles and lined with the occasional Dwemer light. There were large structures all over the place too. It actually looked like a bustling hub – it must have been, back in the day. Why would they just imagine dreary caverns?

But there were things much more mesmerizing than the size and the state of the complex. There were enormous glowing mushrooms growing all over, illuminating the place in an enchanting teal light. The ceiling, high above their heads, was almost glittering with what they could only assume were some glowing fungi. They had seen them before in deep cavern ceilings, but not in this scope. It was almost like millions of bright stars in the night sky. It was hard to remember that they were deep underground right then. And on top of all that, beautiful softly glowing crystals lined the stones and walls around them.

It almost felt like they were in a different world, on a different plane. Everything just looked so magical.

"And here I didn't think you'd still be showing me new 'beauties of Skyrim' after all this time," Aeyrin smiled at Bishop softly. Granted, Blackreach wasn't really his idea, not really, but he did promise a very long time ago that he would show her 'everything worth seeing' in Skyrim. This place should definitely make that list.

"I feel like we're not even in Skyrim anymore," Bishop chuckled in response. If he knew a place like this existed, he would have definitely tried to take her there a lot sooner, despite the dangers. It made all their travels through Alftand worth it to be able to see this. Especially to be able to see this with her. They had seen so much together, traveled so many places together, but there was still more to see and there were still more of these moments when he couldn't stop thinking how glad he was to have her by his side in a place like this. He couldn't really explain it, but the feeling was always there. When he took her to Nilheim for the first time, in that sanctuary to Kynareth in the tundra, or just in that small hunting cabin near Whiterun.