Iachesis would have preferred that I return with the Dawnbreaker, but this was at least progress.
"I would rather have Meridia, Daedric Prince of Light, as an ally, so rescuing Darien for her would be a beneficial move. He'll no doubt want to assist in finding the sword, too. And she is correct about the gem. Its connection with Darien will allow me to use his awareness of his location to place a portal. Normally, I'd need to have visited the other end before, but just holding the Dawnstar gem should be enough."
Valsirenn and I stepped through the portal he opened, expecting to encounter Darien's guards. What we did not expect was to be separated. So my first task was to find her, rather than Darien. I could hear her, and the Dawnstar gem was guiding me, but whether that was towards her or Darien wasn't clear. Hopefully, it would be both.
When I found her, she had been captured, and cocooned in spider silk. Her guard was no tougher than the other daedra I'd had to deal with along the way, and she was soon free.
Now to find Darien.
That wasn't too hard, as he was a noisy prisoner, and we could just follow the sound of the cursing. The difficulty was the number of daedra we had to deal with on the path. And when we reached him, there were a couple of Ogrim, and a Spiderkith between us.
After we cut them down, we cut him down, from the webs. He seemed ungrateful fior the rescue, or at least annoyed that we'd taken so long. Valsirenn was not amused, and suggested leaving him here.
I spoke with Darien. "So you're the golden knight that's been trying to contact me?"
"Guilty as charged! Meridia was trying to send me earlier, but something prevented that. Look, we can talk about it later,. Right now we need to get out of here."
He continued anyway. "How did you find me, by the way? Mephala specifically told me she'd put me where nobody would ever look."
"I have the Dawnstar gem. It lead us right to you."
"Oh, right, the gem. That makes sense. You need Meridia's champion, so I can restore Dawnbreaker. But not right now. I'm in no condition to do much, especially not fighting. Let's get out first."
Valsireenn was looking for a safe spot to open a portal back, and she thought she'd found one. Of course, more daedra turned up while she was opening it, perhaps attracted by the magicka, and I had to deal with those myself. Valsirenn was busy opening the portal and Darien was too exhausted to help.
Back on Arteum, Valsirenn took Darien off to be healed, while I discussed progress with Iachesis. He'd made some of his own. A little more of his memory had returned. He could hear a woman's voice, repeating the same words, over and over, in a langage he did not understand. Just a whisper, but always there.
"What do you think it means?" I asked.
He didn't know, but he'd asked Oriandra to research the words, and see if she could translate them. He asked me to check with her, and see if she'd made any progress.
She had eliminated Ancient Ayleid, and found evidence of Daedric language patterns, but that was getting beyond her scope. She'd received help from Grand Master Forte, who had sent her his notes from Ebon Stadmont. The language of the inscriptions there seemed related.
"I just wish Leythen was still one of us," she told me."He's the expert on ancient languages."
I took her notes to Leythen.
As is expected, his curiosity got the better of his reluctance to help us. Still, he didn't know that particular language either. The Ebon Stadmont connection seemed to be our best hope, and of course, he couldn't go there to examine the inscriptions.
However, I could take a rune with me, and go there myself. He'd be able to see through the rune, and use the inscription to help decypher Iachesis' memory. The rock bearing the inscription was too large to bring back, so this was the only viable method.
Since the rock was outdoors, and the whole time-distorting issue was inside the Sanctum building, there shouldn't be any of those problems this time. But the portal maze was still going to be a nuisance.
"Refer to Forte's notes," Leythen told me. "He seems to have solved that problem for you."
When I got back there, it statted to make sense. The stone archways surrounding the portals were disnguishable by the number of crows carved into them, and the right sequence was in the nortes.
Crows. That suggested someone I knew had cretaed this maze, and I wondered what its purpose really was.
When I reached the inscribed rock, Leythen's image was prjected by the rune, and he begane to examine the inscription. But his image began to flicker, and the connection was being lost. Soon, it was replaced by one of Nocturnal's agent, Veya, or Lord Tundilwen, as she now prefers to be known.
"Nocturnal can't risk this information getting back to Mephala," she told me. "At this time, it is sufficient for Iachesis to know that the words are a spell. He'll know the right time to use the, and reveal the Heart."
And she disappeared again. Apparently, she hadn't remembered me from Morrowind, and also didn't know of my association with Nocturnal. The Daedric Princess was holding her cards close to her chest, and as one of them, that was a nice place to be.
When I returned to Ceporah Tower, Leythen was anooyed that he hadn't had time to finish his analysis of the inscription, but Iachesis was satisfied with the news. It meant that he probably didn't need any more information at this time, and could proceed with the next step. We would need Darien's help with that.
I found Darien outside, doing push-ups. He appeared to have made a very rapid recovery from his injuries. I knew that the damage could be repaired almost instantly with sufficient magic, but you still needed time to undo the other effects, like learning that doing \i that\i0 wouldn't hurt any more.
"This may seem like a strange question," he began, 'but do you know me? I'd never seen you before, but you seemed to be aware of who I am, as if you knew me before."
"That's probably because my Seryn knows you and Gabrielle, and she told me to look out for you," I replied, leaving out Nocturnal's part in it. "And that golden armour is rather unique, isn't it?"
"Fair enough," he replied. "I thought maybe we'd met in Coldharbor. That was a hectic, if short campaign, and it didn't end up the way I'd have liked. Meridia's all right, but she's not big on free will, so I don't get to choose my battles. She sent me here to help you, but hasn't explained much about how I 'm supposed to do that."
"I take it that you'd have preferred to return with Gabrielle," I told him."She'd have preferred that, too. But at least I can let her know, through Seryn, that you're safe."
"For now," he replied. "If Meridia doesn't consider me disposable. Who knows what we're about to get into."
We talked a bit more, and some things began to make more sense. Those times he'd appeared and gone away again, in Shimmerene, and near the sinkhole in Relenthil. Meridia had tried to send him here too soon, before he'd gone off to Coldharbor, and was still somewhere else in Tamriel. I knew that wouldn't work, but did Meridia not undestand, or had she just got the timing wrong?
I made sure Nocturnal and Azura were aware of everything we discussed. Seryn needed to tell Gabrielle, and Nocturnal might not know of Meridia's limitations.
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