Walk by the Shadows

XXIV. Blindsighted

Irkngthand was a sprawling mass of dwarven ruins sinking into a sea of snow. Bandits had claimed it with wooden bridges connecting the crumbling and collapsed towers. On the way up the mountain to the ruins, a freezing blizzard blinded them, greatly slowing their progress. Even though they could barely see three feet in front of them because of the harsh wind and snowflakes, Macayla, Brynjolf, and Karliah soon realized their cautious approach wasn't needed: each and every bandit had been slaughtered, their pools of blood striking against the white snow. Mercer.

"I hope we aren't too late," Karliah breathed as they headed up into the ruins, trying to find the entrance. After following the crisscrossing bridges, they found the golden double doors into the Irkngthand Arcanex.

They gratefully ducked out of the frigid weather and found more gruesome evidence of Mercer Frey's passing: more dead bandits, some gutted still in their bedrolls. Blood had never bothered Macayla—she had spilt enough to probably bathe the entire city of Markarth—but she hurried by with the others—bandits were notoriously cruel and ruthless, but they still didn't deserve to be butchered in their sleep.

As they crept through the crumbling ruins, they had to fight off some Dwemer automatons that had somehow slipped past Mercer—pieces of fellow guardians littered the path he took. Macayla noticed Karliah's head turning to admire a stone fountain or the sturdy dwarven architecture; she probably would've liked to stop and study it, but they couldn't be distracted.

They took a lift down further into the underground city and emerged onto a gated platform in a huge cavern. The platform overlooked the ground with golden-roofed towers and stone Dwemer structures. The extremely high ceiling was aglow with the mysterious glowing mushrooms known to grow underground; the ceiling looked like a craggy night sky with stars.

The Nightingales took just a moment to gape as they walked up to the golden bars, preventing them from falling off. Movement through the bars caught Macayla's eyes, and she looked down. A dark figure slinked up a set of steps; she recognized the arrogant walk.

"Look down there: it's Mercer," she whispered to the other two.

They moved closer to the bars to look. Brynjolf gave the bars a shake—they barely shuddered. "Damn it, we can't get through these."

"This way, then; hurry," Karliah called as she headed toward the next opening.

Mercer looked to have known he would be followed, for he left traps waiting to ensnare them; it only slowed them down some. They came onto a puzzle needing both lamps on either side of a door to be lit to raise the gate; they found two levers and after realizing there was a timer, Brynjolf and Macayla took a lever each and, pushing them down within seconds of each other, lowered the bars.

After winding hallways, another enormous chamber waited them. More crumbling structures littered it, but still standing stone bridges wound in the air to meet doorways. A problem was the Falmer skulking about—they resembled humans but were extremely pale, scrawny, hunched over, and blind. Being unable to see only increased their reliance on hearing, so even as quiet as the Nightingales could be, the slightest scrape of a boot would alert them.

So, Macayla and Karliah took charge of killing the creatures from afar with their bows; it would be hard for Brynjolf to sneak close enough to slit one's throat since he only fought with daggers. He trailed close behind them as they silently dwindled their number, watching for stragglers or survivors.

A booming sound of falling rocks suddenly sounded out; as the crashing stones struck the ground, the floor vibrated under their feet. They didn't know where the sound came from, but they hurriedly cleared a stone bridge in case it decided to fall. It took a while for the falling rocks to settle, and now they noticed clouds of dust blown into the air ahead of them.