Balen ignored the young Mage’s suggestion about the papers not being legible (It’s not like she spoke Draconic, right?), and upon seeing the Bosmer’s gesture which, at least to Balen, implied that he didn’t care if Balen went wild, so Balen grabbed a bunch of scrolls from one of the cabinets – he had found someone to blame after all. Thankfully, this time, no ancient traps were sprung. It relaxed Balen, though he assumed that the Mage, Elayne, would be annoyed. Balen did not care if they were illegible or not – if legible, they would provide for some good scholarly pieces, and if not, he could always sell them to stupid treasure collectors as directions or magic passwords for mounds.

Balen opened one of the scrolls and spread it on one of the tables, deciding to sit down for a better reading experience and to get his head further away from the ceiling. An immature part of him wanted to send smug looks at Elayne to boast about ignoring her, but he was beyond that and simply analyzed the contents of the scroll. She was half right, Balen realized – over time, the ink and the papers had simply faded into each other. Nonetheless, there were some legible parts that Balen focused on. ‘’[b]…Hardulf Twisted-Tongue’s husk has been placed in the Twentieth Row…[/b]’’ Similarly, other parts were also focused on who was placed where. ‘’[i]Figures,[/i]’’ Balen thought – this place was, after all, a burial mound.  

‘’Does this room lead anywhere?’’ The Bosmer asked. ‘’I don’t think so,’’ Balen said. ‘’If I’m reading right, this place is just for the records. I think we can sell them for a pretty penny, tho-‘’ A gust of wind took the scroll off the table and threw it onto the ground. ‘’[i]An air stream,[/i]’’ Balen thought. Indeed, he could feel a faint gust flowing through his mustache and his receded hairline. ‘’There must be a connection – there’s an air stream.’’ Balen got up and started feeling the walls, and indeed, the stream felt stronger near one of the cabinets. ‘’Let’s move this out of the way, shall we?’’ He asked to Sibassius and the Nord, and together, they were able to move the ancient thing out of the way without making much noise in a satisfying amount of time.

‘’Would you look at that.’’ There was a tunnel, smaller than the one that took them here but nonetheless large enough for someone to walk through, although barely. ‘’So I suppose this place leads somewhere.’’ He turned to the others. ‘’Do we check the other tunnel, or do we go in here?’’ He knew he wasn’t going to go in first.