The Great War-A Skyrim Fanfiction-Book One

Chapter Five

Despite everything that had happened to him the last few days, Talen couldn't believe anything he could see. As he passed through the shimmering wall, he stepped into a vast cavern, carved with ancient symbols and sculptures of anceint times. On the far wall a huge carving dominated the room, covering more than half of the wall. From a distance, it appeared to depict a giant dragon, fighting a series of humanoids. However, the place didn't fit the category of ancient,  and was instead a lively place, full of light, chatter, and wonder. A cluster of dark wooden long tables sat in the center of the room, covered with both a huge variety of food and drink and various items of curiosity. Many people were seated there, either eating or working, all talking about one thing or another. On the side walls, an assortment of weapon racks, armor stands, display cases, and cabinets of various bottles and ingredients were set up. A series of specialist tables were scattered around the room, people hard at work with weapons, or enchanting, or more. The sound of hammers against metal overpowered everything, and a giant molten forge stood tall on the left wall. In the middle of the room, however, was the main attraction of the room. A giant crystal cube was set up, standing over four people tall. Three circular crystals formed a triangular outline in the center of the side facing Talen, which glowed with an eerie blue light that seemed to seep into every corner of the room, despite the multitude of bright torches that donned the walls. At the base of it, a hooded figure nealt, feeling surface with an apparantly gloved hand. Talen found himself staring at the structure, and the person studying it.

Apparently, the person noticed him too. He, as Talen could now tell, was a tall, skinny fellow, clearly Altmer. His face appeared sculpted and nearly perfect, his ears pointed as could be expected for any elf, his cheekbones high, and his chin elongated and sharp. He beared a strange likeness to Linwen. He was dressed in simple clothes, likely for research. His mouth slowly crinkled into a smile, forced but warm. After a moment of something that made Talen feel uncomfortable, the connection of sorts broke and the man turned to Linwen.

"Who is this?" he asked, inquisitively.

"Caldion, this is Talen-Glim. Talen-Glim, Caldion. My brother. Okay, we all set? 'Cause if I have to spend all day explaining each others names in different languages like I did with that guy-"

"That was a Falmer. A well-trained one, but a Falmer nonetheless. And you'd be surprised how bad they are at remembering words."

"Wait. Why was there a Falmer in here again? Oh right. You wanted him for research. Didn't he touch the box and then just kinda...."

Linwen demonstrated something with her hands that Talen had trouble understanding. He assumed it had to do with dying, but the way her arms moved, it was hard to tell. It could be a sibling thing. Eventually, Caldion turned back to Talen, and Linwen walked away to supervise the forge.

"So, Talen-Glim-what brings you here?"

"Just Talen is fine. And I didn't really have a choice." He paused, thinking. "Well, I did, but I really didn't. Would have died, probably. So now I'm here in this really cool but kinda terrifying place, not sure what to do."

"Would have died? What trouble did she get you into? Burglary? Stealing a horse?"

"Nah. Some assassin tried to kill me so she woke me up in my sleep, used me as bait and we killed her. She seemed kinda upset about the whole thing, though. Do you think I should talk to her, now that we're back here?"

"Upset? What did she say?"

"It was someone from her past."

"Hmm. Interesting. She doesn't usually care. Maybe it was something else. Something she saw."

"Well.... There was something. Something pretty important. She called it the Blade of Woe."

Caldion froze in an instant.