In Over His Head Ch. 08

"He's alive!" Shouted a woman several feet from Edovan, as she feverishly moved to tend to Baryk's wounds, hands full of bandages and jars of salve. He had suspected as much. Dead people don't spurt blood like this gentleman had. Someone brought a stretcher for him and they quickly carried him away, even as the young healer trailed behind them with her bandages, her hands and skirts bloody. Edovan still knelt by Mountains' side. Staan hovered protectively behind him.

"What will happen to her?" he asked Staan. Everyone standing was tending to the wounded around them. No one was paying any attention to her at this point, except for the tiny Bosmer.

"Her? She will be fine. It seems Baryk's poison didn't work, and even if it did, when she released she probably purged it..." he responded quietly.

Edovan narrowed his brows. The big Nord wasn't getting it. "No... I mean... what will they do with her... now that they know what she... is?" He reached out a hand and gingerly patted the sleeping Giant on her side where the coat was covering her, as if to reassure he was looking out for her.

Staan went down to one knee beside Edovan so he could lower his voice.

"Oh, that. Well, she's a Zerk for sure. It's considered an honored gift among our people. Especially within the guild. But for the people that have it... I don't know much of a gift it really is. That had to be her first time. Never seen one go so big before. Should have seen that coming, given her family history and all..."

He paused and reached out a hand to adjust the coat to cover her more.

"Zerks aren't usually held accountable for the stuff they do while they are Zerked...." Staan's customary smile was gone from his face as he trailed off.

"No matter what they do..." he finished softly.

Edovan could sense some hidden pain in his voice. Something Staan wasn't saying, but he didn't want to press the matter. Not here, not now.

"So they won't kick her out?" Edovan asked, as he sighed a small sigh of relief on her behalf.

"Her? No. Gods, no. And it's a good thing. Not much use for a Zerker outside of the fighter's guild. They used to be very rare, but lately we are getting more than our share. Zerks can be dangerous friends, but they make a lot worse enemies. No, the guild takes care of its Zerks. They never know when they might need them."

Staan's voice was flat, monotone by the end, but even the assurance he wanted to impart to Edovan was evident in his tone. When Edovan looked up at him, he was staring off at something unseen.

Edovan guessed his mind was on something painful in his past, and decided this might be a good time to change the subject.

"You know I don't think you ever told me exactly what I'm supposed to be doing here..." he said nonchalantly, as if a giant woman hadn't just exploded and nearly killed people.

Staan looked at his little friend, first with confusion, but then realization slowly dawned across his face, and it lit up again with his customary infectious grin.

"Oh yeah... forgot to tell you. Mountains here is your new partner... but... you have to FIGHT her first," Staanovaar said, still grinning.

Edovan looked at Staan in mock horror and put both of his hands on his cheeks and made a big O with his mouth. Staan burst out in uncontrollable laughter that drew stares from the rest of the guildmates who were tending to the wounded or staggering to their feet, but he didn't stop, he just laughed even louder till he started to cough and sputter.

"Oh wow. That face you did. I can't breathe..."

Edovan was glad to see his big friend back in his usual high spirits, but he was still worried about the unconscious woman beside him, and stole her a glance to be sure she was still breathing. He didn't have to look hard. Even under the huge heavy coat you could have seen the the rhythmic rise and fall of that chest from across the keep.

"She's gonna be just fine Edo. Don't you worry. She'll prolly sleep it off for the next 20 hours or so and be right as rain. You'll see," Staan promised him.

As if to prove his point, her huge hand, the one resting beside Edovan's, flexed its fingers and then curled into a fist. There was a low moan and she blinked twice then slowly, blearily, opened her eyes.

Staan grabbed Edo by the shoulder and tugged him up to his feet.

"...or maybe she will wake up right now. We should get going. You do remember she seems to want to kill you right?"

Edovan nodded in agreement.

"I wish I had a single clue as to why... but yes, let's go. That's a discussion for a different day." he said as they hurried away.

The unlikely pair headed up the low dirt incline to the higher ground of the inner keep, through another gate and portcullis into a courtyard very unlike the one below where they had just come from. It was not immaculately trimmed shrubs or manicured lawns by any means, but it was definitely better kept than the hard packed dirt and the clutter of the sparring yard below. The grounds were clean and untracked, everything looked very organized, and there were even green shrubs of some tall skinny variety that Edovan had never seen before, planted in strategic locations. But plants in this city were so rare Edovan noticed them right away. Somebody was making an effort to make the place look at least half civilized.

There were several stone buildings against the larger high outer walls with wide stone paths leading back and forth between them. One was an obvious smithy where Edovan could see a large and burly orc, shirtless and sweaty, hammering glowing steel on a giant anvil. So intent was his gaze on his work that Edovan was sure that he hadn't even looked up at the giant commotion below when it happened. If anything, he looked irritated that anything would distract him from his craft. Staan waved as they passed and the Orc just grunted and raised the right corner of his mouth in the barest of possible acknowledgments.

"Hmmm. They must be close..." Edovan thought wryly to himself.

There was a two story building far away from all the others on his left that Edovan quickly deduced as some kind of infirmary given the traffic of wounded in and bandaged out. But Edovan's attention was immediately captured by where they were headed. In the middle was a large bronze colored tower, that stood out starkly against the grey stone everywhere. It was Dwemer for sure but, he noted, also unlike all the Dwemer structures the town itself was built on. Most of those were mechanical, non symmetrical, made for function over form. This, this was made to beautiful. It was graceful, round and concentric in design, with lots of ornamentation on the buttresses.

Edovan could tell two things about it right away. Immediately, he could tell it wasn't mechanical. There were no large visible pipes, no steam coming out, no clanking noises. The second thing was that he knew he wasn't seeing all of it. He could tell by the way the architecture was designed that this was the only the top of a potentially much larger structure. The large burnished doors made of the strange Dwemer metal that they were heading towards were most likely originally opening on to some sort of balcony. How this tower got partially buried and still remained here intact was a mystery Edovan earnestly wanted to unravel. Perhaps it was an ancient volcanIc eruption? Or maybe the ground collapsed under it and it sank.. Or perhaps-..

"You lost in those big thoughts again?" Staan's voice came from directly in front of him. Edovan's eyes refocused on his friend's grinning face, level with his own, and the big hand he was waving back and forth in front of his nose.

"Oh, yes. Sorry." Edovan stammered, blushing a bit. "This... This tower is different from the rest," he told Staanovaar.

Staan had gone down on one knee again in front of Edovan so they could talk easier. "Oh yeah. Its dwarven and the rest of the keep is good solid Nord stone, instead of this weird metal." He banged on the side of the building with his fist to emphasize the point. It reverberated with a low GOOOOOOONNNNGGGGG noise, not unlike some gigantic bell.

"No, I mean it's different from all the Dwe-" Edovan cut himself off because he didn't want to seem pretentious, " --dwarven structures as well. See how there's no pipes or steam? And it's all decorated and inscribed?" he said. Edovan didn't mention that it was also fairly bristling in runes that even he didn't recognize.

"You know, I think you're right. I've lived here all my life and I've never seen any other building in town that's like this one. I guess I just never thought about why..." Staan trailed off thoughtfully. But not nearly as thoughtfully as Edovan had considered the difference.

Edovan ran a hand across the cool metal, feeling the power of the runes he was touching crackling under his fingertips. He definitely would have have to take a closer look at this. If his theory about the structure the town was built on was correct, then THIS building had to have been constructed as some kind of command and control/living quarters for some very high ranking Dwemer official.

"Lost you again!" Staan said, chuckling.

"Ugh, I'm sorry Staan. It's just... I studied Dwe- I mean Dwarven, society at length at the Academy, and it was my most fascinating subject. And now I find myself in front of what may well be one of the rarest buildings of them all. I'm a bit giddy to be honest," Edovan admitted.

Staan laughed again at his small friend. "Well good, because we're keepin ya around till you get sick of the place. And now you get to see the inside, because we have to go in here to meet the Commander."

Staan easily pushed his way through the large metal doors, and they disappeared inside.

It was like back at the Boar, with the noise canceling wards. Once the doors closed they were in a different world, only this time Edovan was sure it was due to the properties of the materials the place was constructed from and, not majik. Once his eyes adjusted to the much darker interior he had to blink several times to assure himself he was seeing what he was seeing. Edovan had studied and even explored Dwemer ruins before, so he thought he knew what to expect. He'd even seem them repurposed and made habitable like the city of Markarth back in Skyrim, and the whole town down below. But this was no ruin.

It was if he had stepped back in time, what, over two thousand years? Everything was polished, shiny, and looked as new as it must have when its owners vanished into the unknown along with the rest of their race, over two millennia ago! He didn't understand how such a thing was possible. But yet here it was, possibly one of the greatest finds of Dwemer archaeological science in centuries, perhaps, even ever... and they were using it as the headquarters for their fighters guild.

"It's pretty nice isn't it?" Staan was grinning down at him. "But you should probably close your mouth before something flies in," he teased.

Edovan was taking in the surroundings. They were in a large entry way, behind them the metal walls of the inside of the tower curved around. In front of them two twin staircases curved upwards to meet on a single landing in front of a large set of metal double doors, not much smaller than the ones they had come in through. There was also a smaller door directly below the landing, and two hallways leading off to each side. Everything was carved, inscribed, etched or gilded in some way, but the thing that grabbed Edovan's attention was the floor. Where they were standing was a small slab of dwemer stone, covered by a typical Nord rug to wipe your feet on, but the rest of the floor was neither stone nor metal, but covered in some kind of ornate, thick red patterned rug that covered the entire floor perfectly, right up the edges of the walls. Edovan had come from considerable wealth. He knew the finer things. But even he had never seen a single seamless rug that covered the entire floor! Running water, pipes that provided steam on demand, and now this? The Dwemer must have been far advanced indeed beyond the rest of the world!

Staan pointed cautiously at the big double doors at the top of the stairs. "That's where the Commander's office is..." Staan put a little too much emphasis on "that's" for Edovan's comfort, and he was about to ask about it, but he had stepped forward onto this marvelous new surface covering the floor... and it had turned out to be very unlike anything he had ever walked on. His toes sunk in deep, too deep, and when they finally caught on the real floor below, he tripped and instantly fell face first into the thankfully soft, somewhat spongy, but luxurious surface.

"You okay?" Staan was asking, as straightfaced as possible, but Edovan could already read his new friend well enough to see he was trying desperately not to burst out laughing as he offered Edovan a hand. He took it and Staan and pulled him back to his feet.

"Of course, no problem at all... it's... uh. Spongey," Edovan finally decided.

Normally Edovan would have been horribly embarrassed by such a clumsy incident as this, but something about Staan put him at ease, and he found himself trying to stifle his own laugh, which of course caused them both to bust into full blown laughter. After they both got control of themselves again, Edovan gingerly stepped out for a second try. He held his foot flat and let it sink in. The plush fibers came up almost to his ankle! He repeated with his other foot and found he was able to effectively, if awkwardly, traverse the surface.

He slowly made his way toward the stairs. They, too, were covered in the stuff, and were particularly tricky to navigate, save for the curved metal handrail he was holding onto for dear life. Staan was right behind him, and seemed to have no trouble at all. He gave Edovan a sheepish grin, as if to say "you'll get used to it".

When the tiny Bosmer finally reached the top stair, he paused in front of the large, intimidating doors. Even though these were metal and covered in Dwemer runes, he couldn't helped but be reminded of passing through another pair of huge double doors.... Mavka's huge, dark, inviting... doors. DOORS! He felt light headed for a second or two... "Doors!" Logical brain repeated, as he finished tying the gag around an already bound lizard brain before stuffing him in the closet.

"Whoa. That must have been a really big thought!" Staan joked as Edovan came out of his memory.

"Oh, you have no idea..." Edovan replied matter of factly.

Edovan stood still waiting for Staan to push the doors open and usher them both in, but the big Nord was making no move to do so. In fact, Edovan could sense anxiety coming from his huge friend.

"I take it you aren't coming in with me?" he asked carefully.

For a second, Edovan thought he saw sheer terror in Staan's eyes, but then the light came back and the customary huge smile spread across his face once more.

"Oh no-no-no-no-no-no. I gotta run go check on Mountains and Baryk. I'm sure the Commander is going to want a report on how banged up they are."

He gently turned Edovan toward the huge metal doors and begin to shove him forward. But the little elf quickly put both his hands up, bracing himself against the outside of the huge doors in a desperate attempt to stop his forward progression. They had two huge pull handles protruding from the bronzed meta surface and he was gripping both of them as hard as he could. He knew he couldn't resist the superior size and strength of his burly buddy, but he WAS on the wrong side of obviously outward opening doors, and he was counting on Staan's good and honest nature to come to his rescue. It worked. Staan stopped pushing and looked suddenly very uncomfortable. The fear was back on his face.

"Staan? Why does it feel like there is something you are not telling me?" Edovan asked.

"Because you are about to meet the second scariest woman in the entire guild..." Staan admitted after a few moments of fearful silence.

"Scary how, exactly?" Edovan asked. He had a hard time wrapping his mind around the idea of Staan being scared of anyone. After all, he had approached a 15 ft tall harbinger of death/legend come to life not even 30 minutes ago, and had not even flinched.

"Oh wow, it's getting late. Well, you better not keep her waiting!" Staan said, slipping easily back into his cheery self.

"Wait! Staan! You didn't answer the question. Scary how? Why?" Edovan asked, feeling his own fear creeping up.

Staan was pushing firmly now, and Edovan's feet were slipping through the thick floor stuff. To make matters worse, the doors were somehow giving INWARD on their hinges, because of course they were. As they started to part before him, he realized he had forgotten to ask the other question. Perhaps the most important one.

"Wait... Staan. You said second. Who's the FIRST scariest?" he asked.

The big man gave him one final shove from behind as the doors gave way completely. Edovan was thrust forward into a richly appointed, but dimly lit, interior.

"You've already met her!" Staan said hurriedly as he disappeared behind the doors while they swung back closed, leaving Edovan alone in a room with presumably the second scariest woman in the entire guild.

He swallowed slowly, took a deep breath, and turned around.