Elayne scoffed at Hector's well intentioned off-hand sexism, but nonetheless obliged his offer to take a breather. Why do a lot of heavy lifting that someone is eager to do for you? Settling as cozily as she could into an alcove, Elayne withdrew a small book from her bag and relaxed for awhile, reading absent-mindedly, not drawing any meaning from the words but more so just glancing her eyes over them. She might have seemed quite lazy to some of the others, taking a rest while Hector and the Elves worked, but the moment of calm served a practical purpose, allowing the young mage's magicka to replenish. If there was another small army of draugr behind the debris, she'd be useless against them unless she allowed her body to replenish after the firestorm she'd conjured earlier.

Once the group set off again, Elayne relished the opportunity during the trudge through the dark tunnel to inspect her contemporary's magelight. It had improved, evidently; she must have either learned to manipulate it better all of her own accord or been given a few quick pointers by one of the other magic users. Elayne hoped it was the latter—resorting to trial and error was entirely pointless when there were plenty of potential tutors around to draw from. Besides that, manipulation of magic was always a dangerous endeavour. When a mage adjusted her handling of a spell, there was also the possibility it'd morph into something else entirely. It would be quite embarrassing for Merci, and quite painful for whoever was right in front of her at the time in the close quarters of the tunnel, if her efforts to improve her magelight's brightness turned it into a fireball.

Once the party reached a mercifully wider open area, what seemed to be an old library, Elayne's inquisitive nature in inspecting the room's many scroll-covered tables led to her forgetting entirely about the small cache of treasure that the others were already looting. Once she'd found the scrolls in too poor condition to learn anything from, Elayne got around to grabbing her share of what remained. There were a small few amethysts and a couple bits of gold left, as well as a much more interesting prize: a dagger, glimmering with some sort of enchantment. Though she was not a warrior, Elayne figured having a blade stashed somewhere easy to grab could definitely come in handy in close quarters like those of the Nordic tomb she now found herselfdeep inside. She slipped the dagger into her robes, leaving what remained of the valuable baubles to the others.

When Balen spoke, Elayne gave a quick shake of her head. "Nothing I've seen so far is even slightly legible, unfortunately. Best leave it all alone. All risk for no reward. Even if there aren't any traps, it'd be a waste of time."