The low, booming voice that all at once filled the crypt would have caught Elayne's ear even if it hadn't caused the draugr to abandon their fight and flee back into the darkness. Elayne knew just enough of the language to identify it—as Dovah-Zul, the language of the dragons—but could not understand it with nearly the fluency that Balen seemed to. The words, apparently, had been an order to the draugr to retreat, and to allow their master to face the intruders. Elayne felt a lump form in her throat at the thought of a Dragon Priest laying in wait further inside this dark, foreboding tomb. She was unsure that she could pose adequate challenge to such a being, even with her allies, powerful mages among them, at her side. 

Yet, Elayne's curiosity did not disperse altogether even in the face of such an incredible danger. If this ruin held a Dragon Priest, an ancient, long-dead servant of the Dovah that ruled these lands long past, it would without a doubt hold artefacts of immense historical value. The young merchant's daughter from Camlorn now had a chance to shine light upon one of Skyrim's greatest historical enigmas: the nature of the relationship between the Dovah, the children of Akatosh, and those most fervent and powerful of their Merethic Era worshippers. The origin of the Dragon Priests' power was a secret that the Dovahkin had been all too happy to ignore in the events preceding Alduin's defeat, and to be the one to both defeat one of the priests and have the knowledge and curiosity to discover all that could be discovered about the fallen dragon-worshipper would be a point of immense pride to Elayne. It could perhaps even win the young mage a name for herself in Tamriel's magical and scholarly circles, something which would be sure to come in handy in Elayne's future adventures.

Of course, there was also the possibility that the master these draugr obeyed in their hasty retreat was not one of the Dragon Priests, but merely another draugr of higher rank. That would be considerably less frightening, but also considerably less interesting. A careful balance always needed to be struck between the desire to discover and the desire to live, and for Elayne, that balance may very well have required [i]she[/i] not run into any dragon-worshipping Arch Mages from the Merethic Era. With all of these thoughts running anxiously through her head, and ambient magical energy slowly flowing back into her now somewhat spent body, Elayne spoke a simple, tired word of agreement to the grubby pirate that offered that the group keep moving. "Let's."