Fates Ignored (Pt III)

• Posted by Seeker Marik March 31, 2013 - 669 views
  15 Last Seed, 3E 427 (continued)

   

  My first impression of the Guild Hall in Wolverine Hall wasn't especially inspiring. A large square room with no windows and a low ceiling, lit only by candlelight, I felt like I'd been teleported into a tomb. Unlike the hall in Vivec, there wasn't even a lot of free space to be had; mages scurried around the room, speaking with each other in low voices and taking up what little standing room there was. I was surprised to see that there were hardly any Dunmer at all, after my walk through Vivec. The Guild Guide, an Altmer woman with her hair up and long blue robes with intricate weaving on the sleeves, greeted me after I'd had a moment to find my bearings.

   

  "Greetings, Journeyman Seidvala," she intoned. "Welcome to Sadrith Mora."

   

  "Thanks, I guess," my disappointment evident in my tone. Trying to mask it better to avoid offending her I quickly asked, "Could you please point me to Skink-in-Tree's-Shade?"

   

  "Certainly. See the Argonian over there, speaking with Uleni?" she asked, pointing straight across the room where, opposite a small wooden table cluttered with alchemy equipment and ingredients haphazardly strewn across the surface, stood the lone Dunmer in the hall. 

   

  Speaking with her was the most unassuming Argonian I've ever seen. Dressed in simple worker's clothes, Skink-in-Tree's-Shade was the last person I would've felt safe pointing at and saying, 'that one there, he's in charge here.'

   

  "Got it, thanks," I said, walking towards that end of the room, stopping several times to let an oblivious mage or sorcerer dash in front of me. The amount of activity in such a small room baffled me. I was beginning to think that this was just one room of the hall, and that the door on the wall near where I had been teleported in (which I had almost overlooked) would reveal the rest of it, if opened.

   

  Skink-in-Tree's-Shade's conversation had reached its end by the time I made it to him, and he had just turned to look at me as I got close, squeezing my way around the table.

   

  "Ah, Journeyman Seidvala, is it?" he asked, his voice a sibilant hiss that could be clearly heard over the bustle of activity.

   

  "Yes, Master Wizard. It is a pleasure to meet you," I offered politely, extending my hand to shake his.

   

  I've never been very good at reading an Argonian's emotions, but I've heard that the affliction isn't unique to me. I think that I had done something that pleased him; he held his hand out, and we clasped wrists in greeting.

   

  "It is so good to meet an outlander again. Here in Sadrith Mora, civility towards my kind is hard to come by," he explained.

   

  I've heard that the Dunmer still take and keep slaves, and that the so-called "beast races" are the favored laborers. Having spent most of my life in the Empire, the idea was completely alien to me, but I still felt awkward at having the topic brought up. Thankfully, he spared me the obligation of a reply by motioning me off to the side a little, so we stood out of the way near a bookshelf. He looked over the shelf for a moment before selecting a tome sandwiched between two clay vases.

   

  "Wizard Romori had this sent ahead of you, and told me to make sure it was given to you first-thing. She believed, and I agree, that it might help you, and give you some ideas for getting started."

   

  He held the book, an unimpressive red thing with the title worn off the cover, out to me. I took it from his hands, and flipped the cover open with my right hand, the back of it resting on my left forearm.

   

  "Ancestors and the Dunmer" read the title page, the ink only slightly faded despite the rough condition of the cover.

    

  "It's an old book, true, but you might find some of the history presented in it of interest. Much of it is outdated. If you have questions about it, I recommend you seek a Dunmer priest. I can recommend a few who might be more open to answering an outlander's questions, if you like," the Argonian said.

   

  "Oh, thank you!" I said, genuinely excited. A brief skim of the book, which spoke about the bindings of spirits and using physical remains as conduits for summoning rituals and protection charms in the Dunmer culture, told me that it would, in fact, be incredibly helpful.

   

  Again, though it was hard to tell by his face, I believe Skink-in-Tree's-Shade was pleased.

   

  "I'd show you around myself, but as the only Master Wizard on Vvardenfell, I am kept very busy," he apologized.

   

  "It's not a problem at all, Master Wizard. Thank you again for the book," I replied.

   

  "I'll make sure your thanks are passed on to Malven, too, then," he smiled back ('smiling' being the wrong word entirely, of course, but while his face itself never moved, I like to believe that his eyes shone a little more; maybe it was just the tone of his voice). "I know you are an outlander, and I don't know what you have been told, but Sadrith Mora is not a friendly city. If you would like, I can probably find somebody willing to give you a brief tour of Wolverine Hall, and who can warn you away from the unsafe streets."

   

  Filled with gratitude and excitement, I accepted the offer, and was introduced to the Dunmer he had been speaking with, Uleni Heleran. A short Dunmer woman with short hair and expensive-looking robes, Uleni didn't seem especially pleased to be given the job of showing me around.

   

  

   

  "Come with me," she said after Skink-in-Tree's-Shade had left us, leading me towards the only door. She stopped me before we reached it, pointing at a chest to the right. "Supplies. Take what you need, but no more. The Telvanni in town will probably not sell you anything, so you'll have to get everything from here."

   

  I opened the chest, trying not to feel rushed. Resting inside the chest were two wooden squares, like crates with the tops and bottoms removed, with potions in them. I lifted one potion from each, and read the label. Taking one of the restorative potions, I slid it into a pocket in my robes, and turned my attention to the scrolls lying down to the right in the chest. Unfamiliar with two of them, I decided that I had to ask; better to look the fool than to prove it by using an unfamiliar enchantment to get myself hurt.

   

  "What are these two?" I asked, holding the scrolls up.

   

  Uleni rolled her eyes, muttered something about "ignorant outlanders," and snatched them from me.

   

  "This one is what we call an 'Almsivi Intervention' scroll. You probably won't want to use it. They've been  specially prepared and blessed by the Temple. There are five specially sanctified Shrines on Vvardenfell, and this enchantment will bring you to whichever is nearest. From here, it would be the Temple outpost in Molag Mar, to the west. Because they are blessed, they are safer and more guaranteed than any personal Marks you might cast," she explained in a voice as though she had known the information since her youth, full of quickly-evaporating patience.

   

  "This one," she said, waving the other in the air, "is enchanted with 'Divine Intervention'. Same idea as the other, only it brings you to an Imperial Cult altar. From anywhere in or near Sadrith Mora, it would take you downstairs, to the Cult altar here. Now, is that all?"

   

  I nodded quickly, glad that I had the information but not too happy to have annoyed my guide to the foreign city. Keeping the Divine Intervention scroll and putting the other away, I also took out from the chest a single soul gem. It was a long, thing bluish thing, and probably couldn't hold any especially large souls, but after I'd wasted the ones I came with trying to enchant my dagger, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a spare. With that, Uleni ushered me through the door.

   

  My hopes that the Guild Hall was larger than one rectangular room were quickly squashed. The doorway opened right into a dark, narrow stairwell. Stone stairs curved up to the right, and down to the left.

   

  Motioning up the right stairwell, Uleni grunted, "Up is nothing, just the roof."

   

  She led me down. Candles spaced along the walls made sight possible, but cast shadows that made me wary of missing a step and falling onto my unwilling guide. Thankfully, the stairs didn't go on long before we reached a landing. The stairs continued down on our right, but the hallway flattened out to our left. At the end of it was a door, and right before that it branched off to the left again.

   

  "Imperial Shrine," Uleni pointed. "Alchemist and healer."

   

  Going down the next set of stairs felt a lot like going down the first: hallway to the left, ending in a door, more stairs to our right.

   

  "That's the Fighter's Guild. They have beds, if you're willing to share them," Uleni remarked, her eyes on my face to see my reaction. Apparently she found whatever she saw funny, because she actually smiled. It was a little frightening, to be honest. Pointing right, she continued, "That way is out, but only to the docks. No boats come there any more, though."

   

  Thinking of what she said about the Fighter's Guild, and not remembering any more doors in the Mages Guild, I had to ask.

   

  "Where do I sleep?"

   

  She sighed, and led me back the stairs to the Imperial Cult's floor. She led me into the shrine itself, but didn't give me time to see more than some priests gathered around a table, eating dinner and sharing some jest. Through another door to our right, and I finally felt fresh air again.

   

  From the outside, Wolverine Hall was just as unimpressive as it was on the inside. Smaller than any actual fort I've ever seen, it appeared that the main tower, furthest from the bridge that I assumed led to the rest of Sadrith Mora, held all of the services. The other two were narrow and shorter, and looked like they couldn't hold any rooms at all, let alone a place to sleep. Uleni led me down the narrow stairs past a number of bored-looking Imperial guardsmen to the central courtyard, if it could be called that. A single well sat in the middle, and the archway to the right opened up onto a stone bridge that led to the main island. She stopped be at the end of the bridge, and directed my gaze.

   

  "See that, straight across?" she asked, pointing at a simple-looking two-story building with glass windows and a slanted roof. When I nodded, she went on, "Dirty Muriel's. A cornerclub, and full of thieves."

   

  "Thanks for the warning."

   

  "That wasn't the warning," she answered, directing my attention off to the left. "See the giant mushrooms?"

   

  And of course, now that she'd pointed them out, I couldn't see anything else.

   

  "By Julianos," I muttered. 

   

  

   

  Sprouting up out of the ground were the largest fungi I had ever seen. Nearer to Wolverine Hall, right near the cornerclub across the bridge, they were comparatively small. Even still, they towered taller than Dirty Muriel's, thin stalks opening up into massive umbrella tops. And behind them, even further away, was the single largest living thing I had ever imagined. It rose up from the other side of a hill, wide and twisted and utterly, completely, unfairly huge.

   

  "What in the Divines' creation is that," I asked out loud.

   

  "That is Sadrith Mora. Tel Naga, more specifically. Telvanni Councilor Neloth's residence."

   

  "That... that thing is a house?!" I sputtered.

   

  "House, palace, mansion, wizard's tower, whatever you want to call it. The Telvanni are all wizards, and they grow them," the Dunmer said, dismissively.

   

  Looking further down the road, across the bridge and to the left, I saw a number of smaller mushrooms, squat and ugly, jutting up out of the ground on the hillside.

   

  "So those are all houses, too?" I asked.

   

  "Houses, shops, businesses, yes," Uleni answered. "There's no guarantee thath they'll serve you, though."

   

  "Why not?" I asked, finally curious about why everybody seemed so sure that I wouldn't be welcome here.

   

  "Number of reasons. One, you're an outlander. We don't like outlanders. Two, you're Mages Guild. The Telvanni hate Mages Guild. Three, it's the rules. Some pompous Telvanni lawmaker decided a few decades back that non-Telvanni would need a special piece of paper before they should be allowed to conduct business in Sadrith Mora. You can buy it from the 'Prefect of Hospitality' for 25 gold; without it, it's technically illegal for you to walk the streets."

   

  "Well, that's a little stupid," I stated, unthinkingly.

   

  Uleni looked at me for a moment, hostility replaced with something else. She pointed off down the road to the left.

   

  "At the end of that road is the Gateway Inn. It's the only place non-Telvanni are legally allowed to sleep in Sadrith Mora. The Prefect of Hospitality works out of there, to catch people coming in from the docks on the other side of the inn from us. You can find beds there. Just take the left after the bridge, and follow it all the way to the end. Look for the big round gate; that's the Inn."

   

  That's the whole tour? I thought. "Thanks," I said. Fixing the strap on my pack, I started to walk across the bridge. A late afternoon wind billowed down from the giant mushrooms, carrying with it a slightly odd, green smell. I assumed it was from the mushrooms, and figured that I could get used to it over time.

   

  "Journeyman, one moment," Uleni called, trotting to catch up with me.

   

  "Hm?" I asked, cautiously, turning to face her.

   

  "I was wondering if you might do me a quick favor, if it isn't too much to ask?"

   

  Why should I help her? I thought to myself. She's been nothing but rude. "Um... sure, I guess. What is it?" I said out loud.

   

  "This is going to sound strange," she confessed, reaching into a pocket with her left hand, and bringing out a small cloth pouch. "I know I haven't been very polite. I'm just an Apprentice still, even though I've been in the guild for almost thirty years, and that lizard... Master Wizard Skink-in-Tree's-Shade, that is, has been talking about your arrival for weeks. I guess I was... I guess I was just jealous, okay?"

   

  Surprised at the confession, I wasn't sure what to say.

   

  "If you could just do me a favor, though, I'd really appreciate it. I'm trying to get my Journeyman this year, and was hoping you could help me put the finishing touches on a project I've been working on. Inside this pouch is some enchanted powder. If you could just sprinkle it around the doorway to your room--- it wouldn't even have to be in your room, it can be anywhere in the inn, but it might be hard to explain if you get caught--- well, it'll just help me a lot."

   

  I took the pouch from her, and held it in my palm. It was light and if I squeezed it I could feel what felt like flour inside of it.

   

  "What will it do?" I asked, hesitantly. I was afraid she was going to try and get me into trouble.

   

  "It'll just let me form a kind of link with the fungus. I'm just trying to learn a little about how the Telvanni grow the mushrooms, that's all, I swear."

   

  I shouldn't help her. What if she's lying? What if it does something that gets you in trouble? What if you get kicked out of the city? What if you get arrested?

   

  "Fine, I suppose it shouldn't be too hard. Just around my room, right? And it won't damage it or anything?"

   

  "Oh, no, not at all. No visible effects whatsoever," she swore.

   

  Sighing, I nodded and turned back away from her. I chastised myself all the way across the bridge and all the way down the road, barely feeling any awe at walking through a jungle-city made completely of mushrooms. Thankfully most of the citizens were closing up their shops and heading home for the night, so I didn't have to worry about drawing too many stares. Once again, I stood out as one of the very few non-Dunmer that I saw, but worst I got was people pointedly ignoring me. After a short hike, I finally reached the giant stone circle of a gate, over which grew another massive mushroom. 

   

  

   

  The gate pivoted at the middle at my touch, opening a semi-circle large enough for me to step through to the other side. On the right and left, curved stairways grown from the mushrooms themselves arched over my head, meeting in the middle. I climbed one of them, suppressing the flash of remembered nausea at the sight of sails to the north, and stopped in front of what I assumed was the doorway. Like the gateway had been, the portal itself was round, and the doors were grown straight out of the mushroom, a darker brown color to the usual green. Trying the handle, I was grateful to discover that, despite everything else that felt so alien and strange, the doors themselves still turned upon hinges. Ducking down, I walked through into the inn.

   

  The first floor was apparently a kind of office, and I saw a Dunmer in fancy robes stamping papers for an Imperial couple, proudly announcing:

   

  "Your Hospitality Papers, my good sir and madam!"

   

  I couldn't help but roll my eyes as I hurried past. If I ever ended up needing to conduct business with one of the shopkeepers, and they refused to accept the good-old septim, then the papers might be worth something; as far as I was concerned, though, I was an Imperial citizen, and Sadrith Mora was still part of the Empire. My rights were still worth something.

   

  I climbed up the curving stairs to the first level, a crowded restaurant-like portion of the inn, with not an empty seat in view. The next floor had the bar, more tables, and a much more casual atmosphere. I approached the Redguard by the bar, and inquired about rooms available for the next few nights. After a brief description of which rooms were available, I offered fifty coins for a week's stay in a private room in the west wing. I bought myself some dinner, starving from having completely forgotten to pack anything for lunch, and ending up trying a stew with floating chunks of a savory meat. I considered asking what was in it, but decided not to ruin it. Julianos forgive me, but some things are probably worth not knowing.

   

  Before I retired, making sure nobody was looking, I "became lost" in the South Wing for a few minutes. Thankfully, the only person in there was a pitiful Argonian, the cuff on his wrist denoting him a slave. He sat just inside the door to the wing, and only looked up at me once before he stared back down at the floor. I suppressed my pity and anger for the moment, climbed the stairs, and tried the door to the private room. It opened easily enough and I, looking around once more to make sure nobody could see me, untied the pouch Uleni had given me. I sprinkled the contents (a fine gray dust that became invisible as it fell through the air) around a bit and tucked the empty pouch back into my pocket. Shutting the door again, I made my way back to the central room of the inn, unnoticed by anybody other than the slave who seemed content to ignore me.

   

  I managed to find my way to my room in the west wing, only getting lost in the winding organic hallways once or twice. It was a plain room, but the sheets seemed clean enough, even if the potted mushroom growing up by the head of it was a little off-putting. I sat myself down in the chair next to the foot of the bed, dug "Ancestors and the Dunmer" out of my pack, and started reading the first page of the first source I planned on using for my research.