EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Yes, I can at least be glad to be down here for that. I'm actually feeling a bit warm right now; I need to find somewhere to put my coat..." Rukeewei began before walking with Ariel into the barracks. It would be hard for him to stop worrying for quite a while, but he could at least find other things to occupy his time with.

The barracks were not exactly spacious, but they were much more comfortable than freezing in tents above ground. As such, they slept better that night than they had since they left the ship in Windhelm. They set out towards the Silent City first thing the next morning, or at least what they approximated to be morning. One effect of living underground was that they tended to lose concept of any normal day and night cycle, something that compounded the longer they stayed underground. Generally, any group sent out away from the clanhome on longer term missions would spend a day or two up in Raldbthar so they could re-acclimate themselves.

Just as Meesei had said, the journey to the Silent City took the better part of a day. However, it was by far the most relaxed part of the trip so far, considering that they were able to ride in the back of a carriage the whole way. Given the distances that needed to be crossed in Blackreach, the clan had brought down horses and constructed carriages to help traverse the road between Raldbthar, the Silent City, and any other outpost they decided to settle. It allowed them to still be well rested as they approached the City itself, which, much like the rest of Blackreach, was a sight to behold for Ariel and Rukeewei. The glowing orb at the city's center could be seen even before the city was in view, so they would know exactly where to look as they emerged from the veritable forest of giant glowing mushrooms. Since taking the Silent City for their own, the clan had cleared away any and all rubble from the area, as well as setting up fortifications of their own. They had built a gatehouse out of stone from collapsed Dwemer structures in the area placed it at the bottom of the massive staircase leading up to the towering city, while the gate itself was entirely metal and ad been scavenged from one of the same collapsed structures. On the surface, it seemed odd to have a gate for a hidden city far underneath Skyrim, but if they were ever attacked, they would be able to close themselves off completely.

---

Ri'vashi actually gave a slight chuckle. "For the longest time, Ri'vashi didn't cope well at all. She kept it all bottled up, broke things, cried alone in her quarters at night, slept with you..." Grinning, Ri'vashi nudged Gallus' elbow. She wanted to make an attempt to at least somewhat elevate his mood, but she quickly returned to being serious. "Anything to help relieve the stress. You remember what Ri'vashi was like back in Elsweyr, how she didn't trust herself? You did help her with that. In just the months since then, Ri'vashi has had a lot of time to think, a lot of time to gain experience with new people. The decisions she has to make are not getting any easier, but she has started to think about some things differently. Try asking yourself this: is there anyone you are currently in command of that you really, truly believe would do a better job than you at what you are doing now?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Only a few seconds after Ariel leaned in to give him a kiss, Rukeewei held his arms more tightly around her, pulling her in even closer. He held the kiss for some time, which also allowed her to feel his quickening heartbeat. Sadly, it was still motivated more by fear than anything. His hands were clutching onto her clothes tightly enough that she could feel his claws pressing into her, and his breathing became more unsteady. With all of the uncertainty they were stepping into, she was the only thing he could hold onto, literally and metaphorically.

"Let's just...make sure to stay together, okay? We need to be together; out of all times, we need to be together right now. I'll try to be optimistic about it all, as long as you're there with me." Rukeewei finally answered.

---

Ri'vashi reached her hand over and placed her hand on Gallus' back once he hunched over, silently allowing him to vent his emotions. It did not take long before he revealed the core of the issue. Yizan's likely death had certainly affected him, but the real problem he faced was failure. Failure to live up to his promises, failure to protect those he cares about, failure in his leadership. He was doubting himself and his own competence in his position. Those were feelings that were not alien in the slightest to Ri'vashi.

"None of us have a very good score, Gallus. It's not your fault. What you can say, though, is that you've been trying harder than almost all of us. Ri'vashi, she was so afraid of making mistakes that she fell for a cheap trick and almost walked half of her entire clan straight into Vile's hands. This one could have been more careful, more...thorough in vetting that impostor, uh...Dar-Tzesa's identity. But, she was so focused on pleasing the 'Champion' that she let her have free reign of the clan. And it's not only Ri'vashi. During the attack, Meesei pushed herself into a bad position and nearly died because she was so focused on killing their general. When you lead, it's your failures that follow you into your nightmares. When we fail, we get other people hurt. We lose friends, make the lives of those we care about worse. Leadership is a terrible burden, something that no sane person should ever want. But, the thing is, no one else does it better than you are right now, Gallus. Ri'vashi has made those kinds of mistakes, Meesei has failed. We just have to press on until we can make those failures more rare. Ri'vashi remembers looking at her father growing up and thinking he was so perfect. She always saw how effortlessly he seemed to keep our people united, safe, and happy. But, she didn't see his failures like he did. Last time Ri'vashi spoke to him about all of this, about leadership, he tried to tell her how not to make his mistakes." Ri'vashi breathed in slowly, forcing herself to make eye contact with him. "The point is, everyone you look up to, no matter how much larger than life they seem, has been haunted by their failures. Your father might have some stories about the things he's done wrong."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Rukeewei was still uncertain. "Yes, but how can we really know for sure? We only have their word to go off of. What if this place is great for lycans, but not great for us? We've hardly even seen any of the others that live here yet; just guards that we haven't really spoken to. How could we ever protect ourselves if something goes wrong. Sure, I do believe that Meesei and the others want to keep us safe. They've never done anything wrong to us. But if there are so many of them living in this place, how do we know that not a single one of them will do anything to us? It doesn't matter if Meesei punishes them afterwards, it wouldn't undo the damage they could do to us."

Breathing deeply, Rukeewei wrapped his arms around Ariel. "I just hope we can have a place to ourselves soon. I will feel a lot better if we can just have a safe place to stay out of sight."

---

Ri'vashi looked away slightly for a few moments, though for the sake of empathy, she resumed eye contact. Although, she was still quite uncomfortable saying what she wanted to say. She did not want to give the impression that she was criticizing Gallus, but that would be an easy thing for her to do accidentally. "You were...born into this, right Gallus? Born a lycan. That might make it harder for you to really empathize in this kind of situation. It's something that's hard to understand just from hearing it explained. Ri'vashi was very young when she was turned, but even she remembers it all being horribly frightening. Just, how to describe it..."

There was a flash of inspiration in Ri'vashi's eyes as a thought popped into her mind. "Wait, yes, that might be a good way to put it. The soul-tearing gas, you know it just as well as this one. If you are like Ri'vashi, you have lost sleep just thinking about it. Not only does it kill us outright, but it takes our souls straight into Vile's domain. It puts us in the control of a terrifying Daedra, and keeps us away from our loved ones in death. Dying is frightening enough by itself, but the thought that Ri'vashi would never be able to see her father again...it has been a part of her nightmares for months. That is what becoming a lycan is like for normal people like Yizan. It means taking them away from their families for eternity and being bound to a Daedra that they probably fear and do not trust. To answer your question, this one doesn't think there is a right choice. Giving him a full life would, of course, make his life here better, but we can't really know if he would have been happy in the hunting grounds. The only right choice would be...his choice. Whatever would make him happiest in the long term."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ariel stopped Rukeewei just outside the barracks Meesei guided them to. It consisted of a group of two small Dwemer buildings. They did not look like they could hold too many people overall, but one of the buildings would be sufficient if the beds were densely packed enough. Rukeewei himself looked more uncertain than anything. He certainly was amazed at the scenery, as any average person would be, but it was frightening all the same.

"I don't know, I just...I still don't want to be here. I want to be home with our friends and family. I want to go back to running my inn and serving drinks. This all just seems like insanity. I mean, what do you make of these machines? Even your friends didn't know about them." Rukeewei responded.

---

Ri'vashi hesitated, uncertain if she was even partially qualified to talk about any of this. If she said the wrong things, she could potentially make the whole situation worse for Gallus. Regardless, she had to show him some kind of support. "Ri'vahsi doesn't really know about all of that with the Hist and them being reborn. She never knew that many Argonians. But, you were offering to make him a lycan to cure him, yes? That is something that is universally difficult to come to terms with, no matter where you're from. Whether you're going to be reincarnated, or end up in somewhere in Oblivion, or Sovngarde, or somewhere else in Aetherius, being a lycan demands that you throw all that away. If someone didn't choose it, then you'd be asking them to eternally disconnect themselves from their families. For someone who is dying, someone who has spent maybe months or even years coming to terms with their mortality, this one can understand why he would make that choice. He was probably ready to pass on long before you arrived, but can you really blame him for wanting to stay connected to his people? Ri'vashi thinks you made the right decision in going to him, letting him know what happened, and letting him find some peace."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Since they were going to be staying the night, Meesei started to guide the others towards the nearby barracks, though she was finding Ariel's continued spree of surprises just as amusing as Sabine. Ahnasha gave a glance towards Fendros while they were heading off of the platform, hesitating a moment before speaking. "Actually, I think that tower to the west might still technically be in, or rather under, the Pale. Though, I guess the cavern itself still does extend a bit went of that. I did scout out that ways with a group once. Not all of the maps of the surface are identical, though so it's kind of hard to tell. It's definitely close, though.

"Regardless of the cavern's exact borders, it is certainly massive, obviously." Meesei added. "If you look out in the distance, you can faintly make out a glow over the horizon. That comes from the Silent City, our home. Also...the cave has a horizon." She chuckled. "From what we have learned of this place, it connected three or four of the Dwemer's largest cities in Skyrim. Although, I would honestly say that Blackreach itself was their largest city. There are Dwemer structures spread all across the cavern. It was a meeting place for them, and a mine for a magical crystal they called Aetherium. Some writings we have found suggest that the Falmer were brought here by the Dwemer as slaves until they rebelled. The records stop rather abruptly, likely when the Dwemer disappeared off of the face of Nirn. As for the dragon, I personally have no idea how it found its way down here. We have not found any use for the bones, as of yet. As mystic as the dragons are in both myth and reality, the bones and scales have no magical properties, and we do not have any smiths with the skill or experience to work with them. So, we just locked them away."

---

Ri'vashi had to pause to think back on what she had picked up over the years about Argonians, with Gallus' reminders to guide her thoughts. "Yes...Ri'vashi is pretty sure she remembers that. About them being reborn, that is. There were not many Argonians in our clan, but this one seems to remember that was a problem for every single one of them. They had a particularly hard time coming to terms with the fact that their souls would be bound to Hircine. Reincarnation is a very important part of their beliefs. There was one thing...Khajiit cannot remember what they call themselves, but she does remember what it means. 'People of the Root.' They believe that they are all connected to each other through their Hist. This one is sorry; she probably isn't the most qualified to talk about this. She just remembers some of the problems she had to deal with when her father was trying to teach her how to lead. But she can say for sure that it wasn't just one priest that was telling the boy all of that. Being reborn is a belief that all of them hold, no matter where they live."

In truth, Ri'vashi was not entirely sure where she was trying to go with her words, but she knew that she wanted to stop Gallus from thinking that he had made any sort of mistake. From what she could remember of speaking with the Argonians in her own clan, she could guess that Gallus had stepped into a culture that was very alien compared to his own.

Coruscant Sacked: Aftermath

Yeah, ironically, the Strike Team is actually a bit short on Jedi.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"We have a few werevultures here, though not many. They emigrated from Valenwood after we arrived here. I doubt they expected to have room to fly when they were told they would be living in a cave" Meesei answered.

Lorag huffed at Ariel's last comment. "Probably ain't anything like it anywhere. Cave's massive, well-protected, though it's damned inconvenient to get anywhere in it."

Meesei gave a nod. "That is true. It may be best for us to sleep here for the night before making the trek to the Silent City. It takes the better part of a day to get there from here, and we have already been walking all day. There is a Dwemer building nearby that we have re-purposed into barracks that we can use."

Rukeewei held his thickest fur coat under his arm, as the air in the cavern was not cold enough to warrant wearing it. He had gone from looking up to the ceiling to staring out across the expanse of the cavern. "A whole day of traveling? Underground?"

"Not a whole day, precisely, but certainly long enough that we would not want to attempt it tonight." Meesei answered.

---

For Ri'vashi, Gallus' explanation of what had transpired in Black Marsh was worse than she was actually expecting. She sat down beside him, though did not make eye contact with him. She did not want to make it seem like she was putting much pressure on him as he was recounting such a painful memory.

"Okay...Ri'vashi can see why you did not want to talk about it. But, she is glad you are. This one cannot claim to know too much about Argonians, but she has known them in her old clan. They are...different from a lot of other people. Don't blame yourself for what happened; she is sure you did everything you could to help. Maybe...why do you think he made that kind of a choice?" She asked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

What the pack had become accustomed to in Blackreach was nothing short of a natural wonder for the clan's new guests. Although, even a few members of the pack stopped along with them to appreciate the sight after months of being away. For Meesei, it was the kind of place that she had a hard time believing would be anything but spectacular.

Awestruck, Rukeewei looked up above them with his mouth half-opened. "W-what kind of place is this?" He repeated. "It doesn't seem real. Is this a cavern? The roof is so high up that it might as well be the sky. It's even glowing like the stars." Around them on the platform outside the lift, there was another group of guards and another two Dwemer spheres, but they could not draw any attention away from the splendor of the cavern itself.

Meesei kept calm in her tone, though she had to admit some satisfaction from seeing the reactions of the couple. "Most of the lights come from the glowing mushrooms and fungus that live in this place. I believe a few werevultures actually went up there to investigate. The other lights come from either Dwemer structures, magical torches we have set up, or a form of crystal that forms naturally in this cavern. As you might imagine, there is still a great deal left to learn about this place."

---

Ri'vashi clearly was not going to back down so easily, just as Gallus was probably expecting. "Ri'vashi is not going to tell you to see them; she is going to tell you to talk to her. This one knows you better than most, Gallus. This one knows the real you, the person who supported her and became her friend. You can lie and bluff your way past most others, but you can't escape this Khajiit.

ri'vashi stepped a bit closer to Gallus and pointed to her eyes with two of her fingers. "Nothing escapes these eyes; you know that. Sure, you are a focused enough person to still do your work while you are troubled, but that doesn't mean Ri'vashi is just going to let you stay that way. You went and confronted the son of an enemy agent that we killed. There is no situation that Ri'vashi can see where that would be easy. Cuts has given part of the story, but this one knows there is more to it."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Not all of our scholars are actually lycans themselves, but we have collected quite a few." Meesei answered as they were walking along. "After we found this place, I sent word to all the clans that we had something that would be of interest to any scholar of the Dwemer. There were only one or two among the Bruma clan when we moved, but over time, almost all of the Dwemer scholars among all of the clans had moved here. Curiosity has quite an appeal, I suppose. Several of them also brought in trusted colleagues from outside the clans. From what they have explained to me, there have been other scholars that have gained control over Dwemer machines, just not on a large scale. None of them have ever had access to a Dwemer Aminonculory, from my knowledge. I believe it is the published works of those researchers that our scholars have based their work off of. I have helped them as best as I can, before we left, but sadly, I am not terribly knowledgeable on the Dwemer."

Newt had not recognized the Dwemer automaton to be a potential threat as Ariel had, so he did not quite understand the meaning of Fendros' comment of her being "shocked." He looked down at leaps and waved his hand. "Bad Leaps, no shocking!"

Kaleeth looked down at Newt in her arms. "That's...not what he means."

Rukeewei was, of course, just as startled as Ariel had been. He had never even heard of a lift of this kind. Buildings in Black Marsh did not tend to be too tall, so he had only rarely seen lifts made from simple wood and pulleys. The calm of the pack around them again kept him form trying to run away as soon as the floor started to move, but each of these surprises were starting to compound within him in terms of how frightened he was becoming. With Ariel holding him so tightly, she could easily feel his accelerating heartbeat. "What kind of place is this? It is...insanity."

---

Ri'vashi shook her head lightly. "Not quite."

Resuming her walk, Ri'vashi stepped into the chamber and closed the door behind her. She approached Gallus, being careful not to get too close or stay too distant. "Ri'vashi has been busy, very busy. This clan has grown so much larger than the Orcrest clan ever was, and then she also has to direct the whole military strategy of every other clan. There is always another problem to solve." She exhaled slowly. "Speaking of which, Ri'vashi did not come to talk about herself. You have been acting strangely, Gallus. Others have seen it. She is concerned for you."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei remained distinctly calm, even with Ariel's frightened reaction. "This ruin still had a functioning animonculory when we found it. For a while, it produced hostile automatons until our scholars temporarily shut it down. Before we left, they had made the animonculory produce a non-hostile, but mindless automaton, so we tasked them with studying the machines to produce automatons under our control. Evidently, that research has bore fruit. I am eager to speak with the scholars to see what solutions they found."

Thanks to his unfamiliarity with Dwemer machines, Rukeewei had actually been less startled than Ariel before Meesei's explanation. Still, it was another surprise that seemed to give him more reasons to worry. At the very least, it was already apparent that the air inside the ruin was much warmer than that outside. He extinguished his torch after the doors closed behind them, since the interior of the ruin was well-lit.

With the military discipline of their scouts, they stood respectfully at attention as they greeted Meesei and her pack. "Champion, it is good to see you return. Do you need assistance with anything." A Nord among them asked.

"No thank you. We will be fine heading to the city on our own." Meesei answered. Raldbthar was, of course, a city in itself, and no doubt contained much that would be of interest to someone like Ariel, but Meesei suspected the next great surprise would come when they took the lift down to Blackreach itself.

---

Gallus was quite alone in the training room when Ri'vashi set out to pay him a visit. Others might have used the room during that time, but they had taken to avoiding it whenever Gallus was using it to avoid any potentially awkward situations. Fortunately for Ri'vashi, she had already shown Gallus more than enough awkwardness on her part that she could approach him with relative impunity.

Opening the tall, metal door to the chamber, Ri'vashi paused at the entryway of the room with her arms crossed over her chest as she watched Gallus bashing away one one of the dummies. "Do not bother with this one, she is simply here to investigate the unusual number of broken training dummies coming out of this room recently." She said in a distinctly non-serious tone.