Day Ninety-six: New ruins

I delivered the Scarab blueprint to Edwinna today. She was greatly pleased, not only with the plans but that I showed up at exactly the right moment. She had the guild hall was in an uproar.

I got up this morning expecting a fairly peaceful day. Ahnassi and I shared a quiet breakfast. I am truly in love with my tiger woman. She went to Mebestian's shop before he was open for business. He lives upstairs, and she brought him back to the house. Over soothing tea brewed from hackle-lo leaf we negotiated a fair price for the latest load of Dwemer artifacts. He took what he could, limited by what he could pay for as well as what he could carry. Over the next couple weeks he will be stopping by to pick up the rest from Ahnassi.

Pelagiad is perfectly located. I have found that my intervention spell, used for teleporting to the nearest temple will take me to Vivec if I am on the south side of the main street, but by the simple crossing of the street I am closer to Balmora. One of the benefits of Pelagiad as a place to stay out of site is that it has no ready access to fast transportation; no silt strider, no guild guides, no port. Only traffic from the main road passes through, mostly traders leading pack guar or herdsmen. Not the idle travelers that could turn out to be Dark Brotherhood assassins. Having my magic mark set in the house is the only thing that gives me the ready access that I have.

Anyway, I avoided making an appearance in Balmora, where I would likely be recognized, by teleporting into the throngs of pilgrims and functionaries of teeming Vivec City. Again, I am thankful for Ahnassi. I told her my plan, and my reasoning...and she purred softly but looked perplexed. "My love, you go this way to Vivec to avoid recognition, yes?" she asked. I nodded. "I have a gift. A fine common brown robe for you to wear." The Khajiit are very sensitive to feelings, and she did not want to offend me, but I could tell by the light dancing in her eyes that there was more to this disguise than met the eye.

My eye, not hers. I looked down at myself. Indoril boots, made of chitinous shells bound with hardened resins, gleaming a deep blue. Armored leggings reinforced with the bright green fibers of Red Mountain's volcanic glass. Breastplate made from the ruddy hide of a dreugh and the golden glow of Dwemer metal bracers on my forearms completed the rainbow. I wanted to be inconspicuous, but looked like I had gotten seperated from my circus. When I looked back at the delicately stripped face we both collapsed with laughter. I took the robe.

The hike across Vivec was interesting, as always, but uneventful, and I hurried through the guild hall. The petty jealousies there seem to have cooled. My promotion by the Archmage was well earned, I think, and despite the generally low morale of his staff they are coming to accept that he may have been right for once. I was quite happy though to transport on to Ald-ruhn.

I had no sooner appeared on the guild guide platform than Erranil was shouting. "Edwinna! Edwinna! Arvil Bren is here!" Then she muttered "thank the divines, maybe now she will calm down." With that as a herald I stepped into the mayhem, hoping the plans in my hand would shield me from whatever was going on. They didn't. My arrival did get everyone else off the hook though.

Edwinna snatched them with a quick word of thanks and continued without stopping for breath, "You are just in time! A new ruin has been discovered! Someone needs to get over there right away and recover any critical artifacts before some dreugh clawed barbarian with the brain of a mudcrab sells them to a smuggler for a jug of sujamma!" I could tell by the way the local guild hall staff were slipping quietly into corners that they were thankful her 'someone' had taken form other than them. There was no question that I was the one she now had firmly in mind. "The kwama broke into it from the Gnissis egg mine. The legion there has been apparently keeping it quiet. The Deathshead garrison there is mostly conscripts and Orcs so they certainly can't be trusted with such a find. Go at once! Take the silt strider to Gnissis and get down in that egg mine."

"Edwinna, if I get riding around on a silt strider the Dark Brotherhood is sure to pick up my trail," I protested.

She smiled a cold smile. "You've handled their petty assassins before Arvil Bren, and this is important. Our scuttleheaded Archmage doesn't understand the importance of my research, but I thought you did." The smile turned from cold to dazzling in an instant. I suspect some amount of magica went into a charm spell but I didn't actually catch it. Edwinna didn't get to be a guild hall steward without a powerful command of spellcraft. The next thing I knew I was on my way to the strider port.

I slipped into the Gnissis temple as quickly and quietly as I could. It's a good thing I joined the temple. They were happy to provide a bed for the night, and among the pilgrims that come and go here I may be able to remain out of sight; for one night at least.