It was late on the third day that we found The Tower of Mzark, someone had been here in the not to distant past. If their had been any automatons in this tower they had been disabled by the people that left their stuff behind. Unfortunately for them at least one member of their party had left their corpse in the Tower.
Looking at the Dwemer machine it was obvious where Septimus's lexicon went. It was also rather plain where the Elder Scroll was. The hard part would be to determine which button to push when. Marcurio and I decided to move our stuff to this place. So before we touched the machines we went back to the small building.
Eating dinner Macurio and I discussed how we would go about activating the machine. Neither of us had seen any traps and it appeared that the skeleton had died of starvation. We also decided that instead of carting everything over to the Mzark Tower, we would take it up to Alftand on the lift.
So I packed up all the Herbs I didn't recognize from up above, making sure that light wouldn't get to them. Put the loot that we wanted to take into a different pack and put a label on the pack of herbs. I figured if anyone found our stuff and decided to "loot" our loot, herb's might be the last thing they would want. Marcurio and I divided the precious gem's between us.
First thing in the morning we went over to the lift and took our stuff up, I unlocked the gate, leaving it closed, but jamming the lock in a way that could be undone, but would take some work. We then went back to the small building and made sure it was neat and tidy. I then locked the door, put a small rune acrossed it and we hurriedly went to the Tower.
I put Septimus's lexicon in the machine and we watched it spin and take on another color. We both noticed that one of the lights on the console of button's lit up. So I went and pushed that button, the mechanism in the center of the room moved and another light lit up. I kept doing it that way until the mechanism lowered an egg shaped device that opened and revealed an Elder Scroll, that looked just the same as the one Serana carried.
Taking the Lexicon from it's holder we walked down and then climbed up the device, taking care to stay on part's that appeared solid metal. I wrapped the Elder Scroll in one of Marcurio's spare robes and made a carry strap out of leather strip's that I always carried for repairing armor. I gave the Scroll to Marcurio to carry, as the War Axe he carried was more for show than for use. I on the other hand actually used my sword and crossbow and the Scroll would make it awkward to draw.
Their was a lift in the down the hallway from the Dwermer machines. As we took that lift upwards, I asked Marcurio if he wanted to go back to Alftland and get the packs we left of just head on to Fort Dawnguard. After asking if the herb's I had packed would go bad and being assured they wouldn't, I didn't really know that, but none of them were one of a kind, he said he would rather head to the nearest town with a carriage, spend the night, getting a mug or two of ale, a full hot meal, a pretty lass on his knee and a warm bed, not necessarily in that order. I laughed, cause I really didn't feel like hiking all that much myself. I made sure to rib him about sore feet verses a sore behind though. This would not have been a good trip to have a horse.
Early that afternoon we made it into Whiterun, selling off our loot first thing. I also asked the smith if I could use her forge and other equipment to do some repair's on our armor. After agreeing I told her I would be back after I changed out of it and had a good lunch. After going to the general store, we went to the Alchemy shop where I sold some of the reagent's that I knew she would know of and some of the more rare ones. I then asked if their was anyone here in Skyrim that she knew of that was an expert on Nirnroot's. She replied that while she knew of someone she wasn't sure of her name, but if I asked in Riften they may know as the woman lived in The Rift. We then headed to the Bannered Mare, where we rented room's, We both went and changed out of our armor, bringing it out to the common room where I put both set's on a chair and ordered a light lunch. Marcurio ordered a heafty lunch. He'd probably end up sleeping half the afternoon away, which was fine. After eating lunch I headed to the blacksmith shop with our armor.
As I was pounding away on one of the Pauldron's, a large man stopped next to me, just in my line of sight, obviously waiting til I finished what I was doing. I finished knocking the small ding out of the metal and then wiped my hands and asked him how I could help.
"Well we need the plowshare fixed because it cracked when I hit a large rock." The young man spoke so fast that I almost didn't catch what he was saying. As I shook my head, his hopeful face fell, I had to quickly tell him that I wasn't the smith, she had went inside to eat her lunch, but he could go arrange the repair with her husband.
I was sitting outside on the edge of the bridge, replacing some of the leather plates on Marcurio's armor when they came back outside. Adrianne came out and knelt down next to the blade, ran her hand's along the crack and then shook her head. Telling the young man what I had already known, the crack in the metal was to extensive to simply repair, the blade would have to be remade. When she gave him a price, he told her he simply didn't have that much money, even with selling all the produce and hunted meat he had brought.
I spoke up, "Adrianne, what about taking some of the cost, in trade", I nodded toward the pile of swords, " If the young man came back tomorrow, wrapped all the hilt's and sharpened the blades, that would save you a good days work. Actually, that might be two days worth of work. Melt the blade tonight and you can have it half done by tomorrow noon, make some more swords in the afternoon, have the young man work those also. Have him help you with the actual shaping of the blade, I'm given to understand that is easier with a second person. He can finish any swords up in the afternoon and leave the next morning with the plow done." She looked thoughtful for a moment and then looked at the young man and said "Well?".
He looked confused for a moment and said that was a deal. Adrianne looked at him and told him to go inside and tell her husband to fix him a bowl of stew and show him a bed for the night. "Could you imagine him down at the Mare?" I laughed softly and said,
" No a man came in and asked me if I wanted to get in a drinking contest with him, I declined. I thought for a moment my partner was going to accept, specially when he said the prize was a staff, but a pretty little blonde walked up and he also said no." Adrianne shook her head and said that the boy probably would have excepted and ended up married to a Hargraven or something.
She thanked me for thinking about having the young man do all that work for her, she hated the tedious but necessary task of hilt wrapping and sharpening blades. I told her I understood completely, then got up and walked back to the Bannered Mare. Either the erstwhile merry maker had went elsewhere or had found someone to have his contest with and they drank themselves into an early stupor.
I ordered a light dinner and took it up to my room, where I read for a while and fell into a deep sleep.
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