Chapter Text
As the ash vampire and the Telvanni Divayth Fyr clashed in the tower above her, the Dwemer girl descended into one of the cruel wizard's labs. She prayed for Nerlic’s safety, if rumors served well, this mer could be exceptionally horrible to deal with. But he had sounded confident as he had broken down the door to the tower and allowed her entry to the prison Divayth kept beneath his home. The stench of rot made her sick to her stomach, she tried to keep her head high and eyes peeled. The one she sought out would be here, she could feel it. The sick and maddened prisoners mostly stared at her with eyeless faces. Some ambled about without purpose, a couple startled her as they ran up to her or raced past her, some that could speak spoke of strange nothings she didn’t comprehend. And she found that many of the poor men and mer who were stuck here looked nothing like they must have before the blight touched them.
How the sight of this horrific laboratory frightened her, and after seeing so many victims that appeared to have lost themselves to the divine disease, she was starting to lose hope, even if she found the old mer she was hoping too, would he even recognize her? Or would he be as mindless as the rest of the prisoners in this place? How long had he been infected? How long could the Dwemer fight such a violent illness without going mad? She had half a mind to turn around, had not she still heard the distinct sound of spells flying above her head and the muffled shouts of battle.
But then, a spark of hope lit once more, the sound of metal gears, the hammering of metal into shape, something once so very familiar to the Dwemer as a child, the clicking of machinery. Her eyes lit in recognition, ahead of her a light, flickering slightly, but present. She quickened her steps until she appeared before the opening. There she finally found who she had lost hope in finding. She was silent at first, unsure if she was truly looking upon the mer she thought she was. How different he appeared compared to how she remembered him. Eras had passed, corpus riddled his body, he didn’t even have legs anymore, but he had crafted his own to get by, he was currently tinkering with the tool he was attempting to fix, grunting slightly in frustration as his damaged fingers refused to obey commands once so familiar to them. They just didn’t function as they used to it seemed.
Dadryna gulped nervously, he hadn’t noticed her presence yet and she felt guilty just gawking at the poor mer, but she couldn’t think of any proper greeting, and correct words to announce her presence, not any that would be adequate to express what she felt right now. But then the old architect turned his head catching a glimpse of his visitor in the less than optimal light.
“Hm? Who goes there, Divayth is that you? No, no, who are you? Come closer please, my eyes aren’t like they used to be,” he called from his little workshop.
Dadryna froze for a second before stepping forward.
“Yagrum… is that you? One of Kagrenacs former architects?” She asked, her voice a bit shaky, oh why did she go and ask that? Of course, it was him! There was no one else it could be.
The spider legged Dwemer squinted and came a little closer to the girl. “Now how did you know that then-?” he muttered slightly before recognizing some peculiar features of the relatively young-looking woman. Stone grey skin, aetherial colored eyes, black brass beaded hair, the recognizable click of metal prosthetic legs. Those once engineered eras ago. And the voice, yes that voice so eerily familiar. Didn’t it belong to that little dwarf he remembered running around the old city when his people were still around, Kagrenac’s little girl? But he scoffed a bit laughing at his foolishness. Was this it? His once logical mind, the last piece of his body he could trust as the rest of him corrupted from blight, he was seeing things, he was the last Dwemer after all.
“Ah, I see, so the time has finally come, I’ve truly gone mad, I had hoped that this day wouldn’t come so so-”
But the ill Dwemers monologue was cut off from a short sob from the woman, who wiped at her eyes with one arm.
“No, no, you are far from mad sir, I-I know it sounds impossible, but I’m real. It’s me, Dadryna, daughter of Kagrenac. Y-you, remember me, don’t you?… I swear you aren’t seeing things, sir, I’m here,” she said in a desperate plea that was hard to pass off as a mere illusion.
The Mer was taken off guard for a moment, his many legs taking a step or two back.
“Why? By the twelve tones? Dadry? How are you here? Where in Oblivion did you come from, little one? Well no, you most certainly aren’t a little girl anymore, are you? I-I apologize for the harshness of my greeting Lil Dadry, but ever since your mother struck that heart and I returned to an empty citadel--I just couldn’t believe my eyes. You must know how this nasty disease works right? Corpus? Muddles the body and the mind, I thought you were just an illusion, a trick of the light if you will.” He sighed scratching his chin as he thought. “Well I’m more than happy to know I’ve not lost my marbles just yet, and to think that after all my years searching for any sign of survivors it would be you that shows up to find me. I’m glad you’ve been safe Dadry, but you know… I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but this place isn’t exactly safe for someone like yourself, from what I can tell you’re all perfectly healthy. It’s far too easy to catch the blight and by the twelve tones the last thing I want is someone like you suffering like me.”
Dadryna gulped. “And that is why I’m here Yagrum… I came to get you out of this place… when- when I caught wind of the rumors, I- I just had to see if they were true, and I’m so happy I found you, but I can’t in good conscience just, leave you here with this wicked mer? Like some puppet--my friend is distracting him right now, we just need to find a way for you to get out! Is there any back entrance? Something? Or-”
Yagrum frowned stroking his beard in thought, “Listen, I know you are Kagrenac’s girl, and I can see how much your worrying right now, but I’m sick kiddo. As much as I would love to join you, I don’t think I can, nor do I think I should, I’ll end up infecting others. Why, I could even get you or whoever that friend of yours is up in the tower.”
Dadry shook her head
“Oh--trust me you really don’t have to worry too much about my friend--and I, I have my ways of keeping safe, please just trust me. I want to help you, and if we work together, maybe we can finally find a cure for this damned disease… and if you spoke to my aunt or any of my uncles, their blessings can stave off the effects of the disease, I will find a way to help you if you just let me.”
She glanced back at the hallway nervously, she was running low on time… they would need to move quickly.
“Yagrum, please, come with us,” she said quietly.
Time was ticking away and the elder Dwemer architect let out a sigh of defeat, seemed the girl had her mother's stubbornness. There would be no convincing Dadryna to let him stay put. And to let her down now after she came this far just to see him? It would be rude to turn her offer away.
“Alright Dadry, you’ve convinced an old architect to try his hand at freedom one more time. But, you promise me Dadry, if things get out of hand, if it gets too dangerous for you to help me, I want you to run. It’s not your responsibility to protect an old man like myself, you take care of yourself first. If I become a danger, I do not want to hurt you.”
He picked up some of his tools from the table he was working at.
“You won’t, I give you my word Mr.Bagarn. We’ll find a cure for this. For now, let’s just focus on getting out. I have three scrolls of recall, it will take you out of the village. Now go, I will be right behind you, I promise.”
She handed him the sealed parchment and held her breath as he looked it over.
“For both of our sakes kiddo, I hope you know what you're doing…”
With that said the Dwemer architect broke the seal and disappeared to a point just outside the Telvanni village. After Dadryna called up to her friend in the upper tower, she too broke the seal of the second scroll and joined the now free architect.