44: Return to Oblivion

I hobbled towards the burning gateway and summoned a scamp to deal with a stunted, feeble looking scamp who was quite easily dispatched by my minion. Darkasha still stood a long way away from the portal. I stepped over the scorched body of the scamp runt and stood before the gate. Fiery tendrils licked at me from the edge of the portal, but they did not burn. I reached out and touched the thin film that separated me from the plane of Oblivion, and once again felt the unusual chill that had run through me when I had stepped through the portal at Kvatch. My touch caused slight ripples in the filmy surface, and they continued to bounce around even after I had withdrawn my finger.

I turned and yelled at Darkasha, “Come! These flames do not burn! You needn’t worry, vampire!” I motioned with my hand, signaling him to come closer. “COME!”

He stepped cautiously towards me, and then was standing at my side in a flash. The portal’s tendrils licked at him, but I knew he wasn’t being burned. He stared at the surface of the portal, mesmerized by its twisting facets.

“Now this may be a bit of a shock…” I said, and pushed him with all my strength. He started and tried to push me away, but in doing so he lost his balance and fell through the portal. I sighed and stepped through after him. I felt the chill pass through my body, followed by the inferno of Oblivion.

Darkasha was standing slightly in front of me, his usually graceful body slumped and still. He was staring at the sight before us. I found myself staring as well. Three huge towers rose from the rubble strewn wastes, and corpses hung from the sides of the spires. Fire shot from the middle tower in intermittent bursts, leading me to believe that was where the Sigil Stone was. I clambered on top of some nearby rubble in order to get a better view of my surroundings, but all I could see was the entrances to the two nearest towers. I hopped down and tapped Darkasha on the shoulder. He started and jumped back from me.

“Careful,” I said, “it is unwise to not watch where you are stepping here. We need to find a way into that tower,” I pointed to the center tower. “In there is a thing called a Sigil Stone. If we can remove that we can close this gate. There’s going to be a lot standing in our way though. Come on.” I started moving towards the base of the closest towers.

“It’s so hot.” Darkasha stared into space. “I can’t handle this. My skin is… burning!” He scratched his arms vigorously. I searched through my pack momentarily. I pulled up a large flask of potion that had “HEAT RELIEF” written on it in my own writing. I wasn’t particularly adept at potion making, but I was proud of this. I had made it back in Cheydinhal to be a slow acting relief from heat. I handed it to him and told him to drink it. He chugged it and flinched, but was visibly relieved. I pulled a second and third vial from my satchel, drank one and handed the other to Darkasha for later. He placed it somewhere in his robe and we started towards the tower.

The nearest spire had the words “The Sorrow Keep” written in Daedric runes across its gigantic stone doors. I pressed my hand against the ashen door and it ground open slowly. A blast of spiteful energy exploded beside my head, and I raised the staff to retaliate. The hideous face of a Dremora churl jumped out at me, screaming vile obscenities and swinging a huge mace. A blast of frost from my staff threw him off balance, and I finished him off with a strike from my staff.

“Something is wrong.” I said, kicking the churl’s body away from the door. “This is too easy.” I cast a spell to detect life, hoping to cut through the blackness within the tower. There was no pillar of flame erupting from the center pool of lava like the last tower I had been in in Kvatch’s portal. I stepped back outside and looked toward the central tower. It lay on the other side of a river of lava. However, a pair of extend able bridges jutted out from the two nearby towers and would connect to the central tower. I just needed to find a way to extend them. I pulled Darkasha into the tower and we ascended through the dark, echoing halls.

We fought our way past many scamps and churls, but each died quickly and without much fight. Darkasha never even helped me, and I bashed my way up to the top level with him in tow. The chamber at the top of the spire was similar to the one I had encountered before, but the sigil stone and pillar of fire were gone. Also, a number of huge gears dominated one side of the upper level of the chamber. I left Darkasha to guard a door that led to a bridge connecting the two subordinate towers. There was a crank next to the massive gears that, after I had dispatched the feeble guards, sent the gears spinning. I heard the grinding of stone and hurried to meet Darkasha. Hopefully the bridge to the Sigil Keep would be extended now.

I met Darkasha and opened the door to the outside of the tower. The bridge in front of me was extending towards the other subordinate tower, but a glance at the main spire told me the bridges were not yet extended. The door leading in to the other lesser tower opened and a Dremora stepped out. I immediately summoned a scamp to deal with it, but was surprised to see my summoned creature incinerated before it could even reach the Dremora. I hurled a fireball at the heavily armored thing, but it just shrugged it off. Clearly, this wasn’t like the churls I had fought in the Sorrow Keep.

The Dremora screamed and ran towards me along the narrow bridge. I realized I wouldn’t be able to match it in hand-to-hand or even magical combat for very long, so I readied a dangerous plan that would send either the daedra or myself plummeting several hundred feet into a pool of lava.

As the obscene creature charged, I pulled the Staff back as if I was going to hit the dremora in the face, but then hooked the end of the staff around the thing’s leg and yanked it towards the edge of the bridge. It screamed and plummeted to the lake of lava. I yelled in triumph, and then turned to enter the other tower. Something told me that this “Anguish Keep” would be more difficult to cleanse than the other. I pushed Darkasha in front of me and opened the stone door.

“Let’s go,” I said. “Just two more to go.”