Aithne could not stop craning her neck – everything she saw seemed like the most interesting thing she had ever seen. The other students were not so enthralled but, of course, they had been here many times before. It was Aithne’s first time in an ancient ruin.

 

Professor Tolfdir motioned toward various things Aithne could not begin to put a name to as he walked beside her. “Saarthal was one of the earliest Nord settlements in Skyrim. It was also the largest. Sacked by the elves in the infamous ‘Night of Tears,’ not much is known about what happened to Saarthal. This is an exciting opportunity for us. To be able to study such an early civilization, and the magics they used...”

 

Merks interrupted with an impatient grunt. “Yeah, you’ve told us that a million times.”

 

“I know, I was just explaining to our new student. She must…”

 

“Student,” Merks scoffed. A warning look from the professor turned his expression from disdain to sulk but did not stop Shar from speaking up.

 

“Maybe our new student can kick your ass again.”

 

Merks glowered as a round of laughter rebounded off the stone walls of the ruin.

 

Tolfdir held up his hands. “All right, let’s settle down. We need to focus on what we’re doing here. Merks and the rest of you Year Eighteens, why don’t you go into section C and continue with the categorization of the finds. Shar, why don’t you take our new student and the rest of the Year Nineteens to help Professor Gane in section A.”

 

There was some grumbling from the students in Aithne’s group but they turned and headed toward a tunnel and Aithne followed in silence. It was a silence that felt like a burning hole – there were so many things she wanted to ask!

 

Some of the students muttered to each other about section A and Aithne grimaced.

 

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

 

Shar turned to her and quickly responded, “No, it’s okay!” at the same time Kemle touched Aithne’s arm and said, “No, it’s fine. We just like to bitch about things. It’s just that section A was the first part of Saarthal that was explored, so everyone thinks the newer uncovered sections are more exciting.” She laughed and leaned closer and added in a mock whisper, “The terrible truth is that none of the new sections have revealed much of interest either. But this will be fun! I forgot what it was like when we got here the first time. All the excitement seeing an old ruin!”

 

“And there are some interesting things in section A,” added Leb, the only male of their small group. “It will be fun to view everything from the point of view of someone who hasn’t been here.”

 

“Yes!” Shar looked around with an enthusiastic grin. “It will be like being here for the first time. I haven’t been so excited for section A for months!”

 

 They all laughed as the mood lightened and they chatted as they went through the twisted tunnels to a small alcove where Professor Gane was hunched over a table. He looked up as they approached and raised an eyebrow.

 

“Ah, some hapless students forced to work in section A today, hm? What did you do to deserve such a fate?”

 

Shar fluttered her eyes. “We said we wanted to because it meant we got to work with you, Professor Gane.”

 

He snorted as the class laughed again. “Flattery will get you everywhere. Specifically, it will get you to passage A131. Someone a few days ago said they found residual magical energy there but no one has been able to confirm it. I don’t think there’s really anything there but we must be thorough. Please go take a look.”

 

“Of course!” Shar linked arms with Aithne and led the way. As they went, the others recounted their section A adventures.

 

“Here’s where I found that ring!”

 

“Oh yeah! Whatever happened to that?”

 

“Oh, it turned out it had just fallen off of the hand of some other student. It wasn’t even a real artifact. I was so disappointed! I was sure I had found a powerful talisman from ages past!”

 

Laughter, then, “And isn’t that where Chesif thought he found something?”

 

“Oh, he found something, all right – a skeever hive. I didn’t know he could run so fast!”

 

More laughter, then Kemle sighed.

 

“I kind of envy you, Aithne. Saarthal was much more fun when we didn’t see it as a chore.”

 

Aithne didn’t know how to respond to that but fortunately she didn’t have to – Shar interrupted the conversation by saying, “Okay, we’re here! Let’s spread out. Aithne, let me show you the prison!” She said it in a dramatic tone with a mischievous glint to her eyes but her expression changed when she saw Aithne, who had stopped moving without realizing it.

 

Prison? Was this some sort of trick? Had it all been…

 

“I’m sorry!”

 

Shar lifted placating hands and Kemle glared and said, “Shar, you know where she came from.”

 

“I know!” Shar reached out but didn’t quite touch Aithne, as if suddenly afraid. “It’s nothing bad, I promise! It’s just what we call this…weird thing. I swear, you’re not…it’s not…”

 

Aithne forced herself to take a breath as the world began to move around her again. She shook her head and took one of Shar’s hand in both of hers.

 

“It’s…fine. Sorry, I just…” She shook her head, hoping to remove the last of the panic that had leaped to the fore. “It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean anything.”

 

Leb gave Shar a light backhand on the shoulder and said, “Kemle, we’d better go with them. Shar still can’t be trusted on her own, it seems.”

 

Shar sputtered. “Hey! I…”

 

 Kemle laced her response with a heavy sigh. “Some things never change. Come on!”

 

They both started moving down the passage as Shar protested, “But I…”

 

Shar got no further than that. The banter had broken the tension and released the last of Aithne’s panicked shell and she laughed as she stepped after Leb and Kemle, this time taking Shar’s arm in her own and tugging her along.

 

“Come on. If I’m going to a prison, I’m not going alone.”

 

“It’s not like that! I swear!”

 

“I know, it’s fine, it’s…”

 

“Here we are.” Leb again, interrupting just in time to forestall a resumption of the tension.

 

He had stopped in a small oblong room. The walls were smooth stone except for a spot where a peculiar relief of something Aithne couldn’t quite identify had been molded to the wall. She stepped toward it, noticing only then the series of holes laid in a straight line from one side of the entrance of the room to the other.

 

Kemle motioned at the holes. “That’s why it’s called the prison. There is a lever on the wall a little ways down the passage that closes the entrance to this room behind metal bars set in those holes.”

 

Shar laughed, apparently over her stumbling shame. “It was quite a fright for the first person who got caught in it! Poor Sonji!”

 

Aithne frowned at the holes before moving toward the relief. “What were they for? Does anyone know?”

 

Shrugs and Leb began, “The only thing anyone can think of is…”

 

“…this!” A familiar voice interrupted Leb followed by a scraping sound and a loud metallic clang. In less than a heartbeat, the entrance to the small room was blocked by a series of sturdy-looking metal poles that extended from the floor into the ceiling. Merk’s triumphant face soon presented itself on the other side.

 

“What the…Merks!” Shar jumped to the bars and shook them. Ancient, they may have been, but they were still sturdy – they did not budge. “Open this!”

 

 “Maybe I will. If you suck my dick.”

 

 “It’ll be hot day in Coldharbor before that happens.”

 

“Well then. Enjoy your time. I’m sure someone will be along in a few hours. Or days.” He laughed as he turned and sauntered away, ignoring the screams and curses from the other students.

 

Aithne just closed her eye. Of course. She should have known he would do something. “I’m sorry. This is my fault.”

 

The screams stopped as the others turned as one toward her with expressions that ranged from anger to bewilderment. None of them appeared judgmental.

 

“What?” Shar shook her head. “This is not your fault.” She gestured toward the others, a clearing motion with her hand. “Stand back, I’m going to try to blast the bars.”

 

“I don’t think that...” began Kemle, but her words turned to a yelp as a firebolt shot from Shar’s hand and slammed into one of the bars. It elicited a loud clang but otherwise appeared to have to effect. Shar swore and shot again, then again. After five more equally ineffectual results, she dropped her hands and glared while taking heavy breaths.

 

Leb shrugged. “We’ll just have to wait for one of the professors to come. At least they know where we are. In general, anyway.”

 

“That could take hours.” Shan gave the bars another shake and shook her head. “Not even warm after all that. Damn ancients knew how to build to last.”

 

Aithne frowned. She felt agitated. Well, that was to be expected after Merk’s latest gambit, but she felt more agitated than she might have expected. Was it because she was, after all, in a sort of prison?

 

She mulled the thought as she moved closer to the back wall near the relief. No, she did not really have residual fear of bars or prisons - other than sitting in the one cage outside the tavern while waiting for, it turned out, Collette to buy her, she had not really spent time behind bars. There were many things that still made her twitch, but cells, oddly enough, were not one of them.

 

So why was she so agitated? It didn’t seem like it was coming from inside her. She frowned and looked around.

 

“Do any of you feel…” she trailed off, uncertain how to describe what she was feeling.

 

There was a pause, then Kemle prompted, “Feel…what?”

 

Aithne shook her head as she looked around with a more critical eye.

 

“There is…something…”

 

The others looked puzzled and began looking around warily themselves.

 

“What is it?” Shar looked toward the bars, then tossed a glare at Aithne. “If this is to get back at me for…”

 

“It’s here.” Aithne reached out a hand and touched the relief. There was definitely something to it – she felt a tiny vibration pass through her hand as she touched it. She brushed at the accumulated dust. “There is something carved into this.” It was a pattern and, after licking her finger and then using the spit to clean the spot a little better, she got a better look at it.

 

A series of curves inside curves. Two U shapes, one facing up the other down, joined at the apex of their curves, each cradling its own series of decreasingly smaller U shapes. It looked…spiderlike. Sort of. Only with many more legs than a spider would have. Or perhaps it looked like two candelabras with the holders of each side arching together to meet in the middle.

 

More important than what it was, was where she had seen it before. Because she was certain she had. But where? Perhaps…

 

“What do you see?”

 

Aithne jumped out of her reverie. The others had gathered around, faces pressed close. She had not noticed them and silently cursed her lack of peripheral vision, though her own intent focus was more likely the culprit.

 

“I’m…not certain. Do any of you recognize this symbol? I swear I have seen it before. I just cannot remember where.” The logical answer was a book, but it just didn’t quite feel right - no matter which book she thought about, it didn’t seem to fit.

 

“I don’t know.” Shar squinted at the etching. “Is that what you felt? Now that were close, I think I might feel something?”

 

“I still don’t.” Kemle shook her head and backed away. “I don’t like this. I think we should stay away from that until one of the professors gets here.”

 

Shan cast an incredulous look. “What are you talking about? It’s just a carving. Everyone has seen it, including all the professors.”

 

Kemle shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m just getting a bad feeling about it, that’s all.”

 

Shar scoffed and turned to Aithne and Leb as if fishing for support. “What do you think?”

Leb shrugged. “I don’t feel anything either. Maybe Merks just spooked you?” He tilted his head toward Aithne. “I know he’s had it out for you for a while.”

 

Aithne shook her head, still staring at the relief. “No, it’s not him. There’s something…stand back. I’m going to blast it.”

 

“What?” from all three as Aithne stepped back as far as the room would allow and lifted her arms. The other three scattered, pressing against the walls.

 

Aithne focused and cast the same spell Shar had attempted on the bars. “Gìḍ-neb-ḷesye!”

 

The firebolt sizzled through the air and cracked into the relief. A sound like thunder echoed through the tunnels and for a moment the air was filled with a thick cloud of dust. When it cleared (with a little help from Leb casting “Hazel’s Minor Gust”), they froze in place and stared at what clearly was a constructed doorway leading into darkness. All that remained of the wall/door was about a two-foot portion at the bottom.

 

Then the silence was broken as they all started talking at once.

 

“We really need the professors. Professor Gane?!”

 

“I don’t believe that worked.”

 

“How did you know?”

 

“Where does it go, do you think?”

 

The talking stopped as abruptly as it has started, then Shar stepped toward the opening and peered in.

 

“Well, we were told to search this area.” She held out a hand and a small but bright light appeared in her palm.

 

“What?” Kemle stared at the magelight, aghast. “No! We need to wait for one of the professors!”

 

“We won’t go far. But think about it.” Shar’s eyes took on a wild glint – or maybe that was just the reflection of the magelight – as she turned toward them. “We can be the first ones in this area in…who knows how long? Millennia!”

 

“Yes, but what if it’s dangerous?” Kemle, already farthest from the new opening, stepped away further until her back was to the bars.

 

“Dangerous? For four students of the College of Winterhold? Nearly graduated students, at that?” Shar scoffed. “What could possibly be there that we couldn’t handle?”

 

“There could be draugr.” Leb’s voice carried neither Kemle’s fear nor Shar’s excitement. He stared at the doorway and tapped his lip with a finger. “Maybe we should wait.”

 

“Draugr? The dead come to life? Don’t tell me you believe in those old fairy tales.”

 

“They’re not tales.” Leb’s voiced dropped close to a whisper. “I’ve seen them.”

 

Shar raised an eyebrow. “What? When did this allegedly happen?”

 

“At my ma and pa’s. Well not there, but on the hill behind. Late one night, I saw the one stalking along the path.”

 

 “Late one night? That was probably just a traveler.”

 

“A regular person wouldn’t walk that way.”

 

“Well, how did he walk?”

 

“I don’t know. Like this.” Leb demonstrated a sort of limping gait and Shar waved him away.

 

“That was just someone being drunk. Maybe your pa was getting home late or something.”

 

Leb shook his head. “I know what I saw.”

 

A pause, then Shar shook her head. “Well, even if you’re drunk dead friends are there, I’m sure between the four of us we won’t have any problems with them.” She turned and stepped toward the tunnel, then, when no one else seemed to be following straight away, she looked back with an annoyed frown. “Well? I thought you were all tired of seeing the same old things in this place? Imagine the look on Merks’ face when he finds out we were the first ones to find this new area!”

 

This thought did seem to encourage the others. Aithne, uncertain of the proprietary of it, had not wanted to speak, but it wasn’t a question in her mind – something was there, hidden in the bowels of this place. She needed to find out what it was. She stepped forward and Shar beamed.

 

“See? Aithne’s with me. Come on you two, don’t let the new student show you up.”

 

Led sighed. “Very well. But we need to come back the moment something – anything! – seems amiss.”

 

“Of course. I don’t want to die in this creepy place any more than you do. Tell you what, Kemle, it would be good to have someone here to explain to them what happened when the professors do arrive. You stay here and wait for them.”

 

“Wait by myself?” Kemle’s voice squeaked on the last syllable.

 

“Yes? You’ll be safe here.”

 

Kemle shook her head. “I wouldn’t feel safe. If you’re going, I’m coming too.”

 

Shar passed her beam to Kemle. “That’s the spirit! Let’s show this place what it means to be a student of the College of Winterhold!” She lifted her hand and the magelight floated up and ahead, lighting the tunnel like a beacon, and they stepped through, one after the other, and passed into the depths of the ancient ruin.

 

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