Well, now that I've completed The Shadow Unending, I can finally complete this too. Enjoy!

Nils stepped over the threshold first. He doubted he'd ever stepped through such a massive doorway in his life. But he moved on all the same, into the sheer darkness of the corridor ahead.

Already, this felt different. The air was cool, and still, and a bit dry. And for an underground chamber that had been sealed off from the outside world for hundreds of years, it wasn't particularly stale. Nils wasn't sure whether to feel assured or unnerved by that. It gave him the feeling of a particularly well-kept secret vault.

He switched hands for his axe, putting it in his non-spellcasting metal hand, then let off a candlelight spell as he walked forward. The stark white light illuminated enough space around him that he wouldn't trip over anything, but little more. All it showed him properly was the stone floor beneath his feet, with faint distant views of the walls and ceiling. This corridor must have been twenty feet wide, and about as tall. Practically the same size as the room he'd just been in.

Behind him, Sinderion's voice asked, "Are you sure about this?"

Nils spared only the briefest glance over his shoulder. The Altmer was still standing there at the middle of the huge circular doorway, peering uncomfortably in at him.

"Yes, I'm sure," he said, as he turned back around to continue surveying the corridor. If he got attacked by something ahead while he was looking backward, he would never forgive himself.

But the space ahead did seem to be empty, and quite silent, at that. Nils proceeded forward slowly. Sinderion joined him in short order, casting a candlelight spell of his own on the way. Neither of them spoke.

Then a realization hit him. It was silent in here, wasn't it? The noise of the Dwemer machinery was receding behind them. Whatever devices lay ahead, none of them were running.

The last time Nils had been in a Dwemer ruin whose machinery no longer worked, he had found a disaster waiting for him instead. He didn't appreciate the reminder now.

Two golden shapes on the walls slowly emerged into view. Doors, big broad double doors, across from one another, heading off to other rooms. Nils and Sinderion exchanged a glance.

"Hold on a moment," Sinderion muttered, before readying another light aura.

This time, it was a proper magelight spell. The glowing orb traveled steadily down the corridor in a perfectly straight line, illuminating a bright white ring of space around it on the way. There was another pair of doors a short distance down, then a junction with another corridor to the right, then a barred door at the far end of the room. The whole space was dotted with grated lamps on the walls, as with the previous areas of the ruin, but these were all dark.

Nils swallowed involuntarily. Something was waiting for them in here. And all they had to do was figure out where.

First, he renewed his candlelight spell. Then he went for the first door on the right, and reached for its handle. The Dwemer metal was cool to the touch. And to his surprise, when he pulled on it, it turned smoothly and disengaged the latch.

He held his axe up on guard, and pushed open the door carefully. It didn't even creak on the hinges. It was perfect.

The room on the other side was full of machinery. It was square, maybe. A square-shaped room, with a high ceiling. It was full of machinery, and Nils didn't recognize any of it. Intricate arrays of gears lay underneath protective grates, built into boxy freestanding machines connected by rails and pipes. In this light, it all threw bizarre, unreal shadows on the far walls of the room.

None of the machinery was functioning. Nils could see what looked like controls here and there, with buttons and levers and the like, but they weren't doing anything.

He held back a shudder as he turned away from the room. Sinderion was standing in the corridor, waiting for him. He couldn't quite tell in this light, but the Altmer's face seemed to be a bit pale.

"Don't worry," Nils said, in the steadiest tone he could manage. "None of the machinery here is functional. There's nothing that can hurt us."

"Whatever you say," Sinderion replied numbly.

Nils closed the doors behind him, and proceeded to the ones across the corridor. Again, the handle turned smoothly, and again, he was greeted by a silent dark room. And once again, he had no idea what he was looking at. The room was roughly the same dimensions as the last one, but the only object in it was a central, tiered pedestal, about waist-high, made of intricate plates and struts of Dwemer metal. It was surrounded by four overarching spires of metal, one towards each corner of the room, all curved to point downward at whatever would go on the pedestal's top surface. The surface was empty.

He sighed under his breath and closed the doors again. This was teaching him so little. It was going to drive him mad, seeing all these machines whose purpose was a complete mystery. But there was nothing he could do. He suspected that even if he were the world's most knowledgeable scholar of all things Dwemer, he still would have failed to identify the things in this part of the ruin.

Sinderion asked quietly, "What do you think?"

"I think there aren't any automatons down here," Nils replied. "I haven't seen any ports for them on the walls. This area must have been for living Dwemer only."

The next pair of doorways yielded the same result. Each time, he opened the doors, and found a room containing machinery he didn't understand. One had its walls completely covered in spindly jointed metal arms for green glass lenses, all laid flatly horizontal in a resting position. The other had a giant wheel-like device in the middle of the floor, surrounded by pipes and valves and tanks. That was all Nils could say about them.

But as he approached the end of the corridor, he quickly realized what was ahead. To the right was another, more spacious-looking path to somewhere else, but directly ahead was a barred doorway to a single, small chamber. The bars threw massive shadows all over the inside walls, shifting over each other from Nils' and Sinderion's light sources, but even that didn't matter. He knew what this was.

It was a Dwemer lift. There was very clearly a metal lever sitting on the middle of the chamber's floor. Nearby on the outside wall was a single metal button, presumably to open the doors. Nils went over and very cautiously tried pressing it with his thumb. The metal clicked under his touch, but nothing else happened. The switch wasn't working.

"I wonder where this goes," Sinderion murmured. "I'm not sure if we're at the bottom or the top."

That was a valid point, Nils thought. He couldn't even answer it himself.

Instead, he renewed his candlelight spell once again, and turned back to head down the intersecting corridor. Part of him was starting to wonder just how large this section of the ruin was. At first, he'd thought this to be akin to a vault, but… for all he knew, those previous rooms had been nothing more than an elaborate antechamber.

Without being told to, Sinderion cast another ball of magelight down the corridor. It didn't reveal any doors this time. Instead, there was a section of corridor up ahead that was missing its left wall. There was a great open gap instead, with a low metal railing along the bottom.

A balcony. Nils didn't know what to make of this. He broke into a brisk striding pace to see where it went.

There was nothing visible over the balcony's edge. It was complete pitch darkness for as far as he could see. And it looked like the balcony itself continued on for quite some distance ahead. Whatever it was overlooking, the space must have been huge.

"Sinderion," he said. "Could you try casting your magelight out over this?"

The Altmer said nothing. His eyes were wide in awe. But all the same, he tossed another orb of magelight out over the railing. The glowing orb traveled out and shrank slowly into the distance, on and on for some agonizingly long seconds… before winking out into nothing, without ever touching any surface. It hadn't illuminated a single thing the entire time.

Nils sighed slowly as he resumed walking. "Well, I suppose the lift back there goes down."

The balcony went on for an incredible distance. Nils had to renew his candlelight spell twice. Fitting, he supposed, for something overlooking a space too large for magelight to illuminate. But eventually, the left wall resumed, met from the outside by a large, slightly slanted stone surface. Strangely, it looked like it was actually smoothed and shaped. Nils understood deep-underground spaces like this one to generally just be natural caverns.

But still, the corridor resumed, and a short distance ahead was another pair of doors. Nils opened them with the same caution as always—and, as always, they didn't offer him any resistance. If it weren't for the total darkness, this place would've felt completely ready to use.

On the other side was a long, wide, vaulted hall, whose space was mainly filled with a giant, domed metal shape. Sinderion threw another magelight orb ahead, and it revealed that the metal was actually a cylinder, half-imbedded in the ground, running parallel to the hall's length. It was like a watchtower laid on its side. A long series of radial pipes connected it to the ceiling and walls at regular intervals.

Sinderion asked, "Is this a steam boiler?"

"Maybe," Nils shrugged. "Let's look around."

They took the hall in a counterclockwise pass around the perimeter, beneath the array of pipes. The lowest ones were connecting to the walls about ten feet up. If this was a steam boiler, it was absolutely gigantic. But the metal plating of the cylinder itself was betraying nothing. Its surface was perfectly smooth.

After a few rows of pipes, Nils reached the back wall. And here was another whole array of machinery. A dense block of gears and pipes, the size and general shape of a dining table, with a whole row of levers above it on the wall. The levers all had labels above them, written on metal rectangles in Dwemer lettering. And they were all pointing upward, except for the one at the far left. That one was downward.

"I can't read Dwemer," Sinderion said.

Nils chuckled softly. "Me neither. I hadn't really been planning to explore a Dwemer ruin today. Might've brought a relevant scholar along if I had."

"Do you suppose we should try activating these?"

"We seem to be at a dead end, so, yes." Actually, the real reasoning for Nils' answer was that he didn't want to give himself time to think it over. If he did, he might have run out of nerve, right here and now.

So without any further ado, he walked up to the leftmost lever, and gave it an upward pull.

The lights in the room flickered to life.

Nils looked around slowly. Just with that one activation, everything was starting up. The table of gears in front of him had begun to turn. All along the length of the now brightly lit room, the pipes were groaning lowly with the motion of hydraulic controls. And in the background, the ceaseless noise of Dwemer machinery was beginning all through the ruin.

"You know what this means," Sinderion murmured. His face was almost one of awe. It looked a bit more like one of sheer wide-eyed fright.

"Yes," Nils nodded. "I do."

He wasted no more time in leaving the room. The doors were open, and the corridor outside was also lit up. It was empty, but it was lit brightly. Nils could appreciate now just how long it ran. The far end's wall was so distant, he could hide it behind his thumb at arm's length.

Honestly, this could have been far worse. He'd half expected the whole ruin to start throwing automatons at them as soon as it reactivated. But there just weren't any down here. All in all, it seemed to be decently safe.

But it wasn't just the corridor that was lit up. The open space beyond the balcony was lit up too. And even from here, he could tell that the space was largely empty. There must have been something in it somewhere. Nils proceeded at a striding pace.

Then he came out far enough to see what was out there. He saw it, and screamed.

He was looking at a giant metal face.

The space beyond the balcony was absolutely vast. It was an open, vertical chamber of shaped stone, with a dome above covered in a spiderweb of huge pipes, and a sheer vertical pit below, with a floor so distant that it practically wasn't even there. The whole thing was dotted with a multitude—hundreds, maybe thousands—of metal-framed white lights, shining brightly from all angles. And the chamber had exactly one thing inside. One single, gigantic thing.

Its shape was hard to tell, at first glance. It was so covered in metal scaffolding all over. But Nils didn't have to guess. He was looking at the skeletal, partially-built form of a Dwemer automaton—one that was the size of a city.

He sank slowly to his knees, and stared in silent horror. In this instant, everything finally made perfect sense.

This was why the ruin had never been marked on a map. It was why it had all been sealed away—and, with a twisting jolt of horror, he realized something more. This was why the Dwemer in this place had killed each other. They had begun work on a weapon so powerful that they had ended up fighting to the death to control it.

Behind him, Sinderion's voice asked quietly, "Did you… did you just scream?"

Good question. He supposed he had. That face had been quite the startle. But his thoughts were all in total chaos. He wasn't sure what to say.

The Altmer waited for a couple seconds, then asked, "Is this Numidium?"

Nils pushed himself back up to his feet. Even with this much less chagrining question, he was still struggling for words. He wanted to talk, but… nothing was coming out. His heart was pounding his temples were throbbing, he couldn't think. What had they just found?

"I thought Numidium vanished," the Altmer added.

"… It did," Nils nodded slowly. At least he could say that much. He glanced over his shoulder at the mer by his side. They exchanged a brief look. This whole thing was sickening. It was so horrifying that it was making Nils physically sick. "They must have decided to build another."

"Underground? How did they plan to use it?"

"I… I don't know, I think they could've. They, uh, they probably would've just teleported this thing out, once they finished making it."

"Except they didn't. They never finished."

"Yes, and good for us," Nils said. And right as those words came out of his mouth, the realization hit him anew. He'd thought of the Dwemer all wrong. Right from the beginning, he'd been wrong about them.

The Dwemer hadn't been fighting to control this weapon. If they had, they wouldn't have deactivated the machinery down here, or jammed shut the ruin's front doors, or collapsed the lift shaft. That didn't add up. No one would have won from doing that.

Some of them, some of the Dwemer that had once lived here, had decided to stop the completion of their own creation. They had sacrificed themselves to spare the world from the wrath they would have unleashed on it.

It must have been such a terrible choice for them to make. Now more than ever, Nils knew that he was looking upon the ending of a forgotten story. He couldn't imagine the sheer amount of effort to have gone into this place, for it to have come so far in total secret.

And just the same, he couldn't imagine how much destruction this automaton would have wreaked. The first Numidium had been used by Tiber Septim to subjugate every single province in Tamriel, creating his own Empire in the process. One in the hands of the Dwemer would have ushered in an even crueler future than that.

Sinderion asked, "What do you think we should do?"

"We should get out of here," Nils said instantly. He was beginning to slow down, collect himself, gather his thoughts. It wasn't easy, with the world's greatest weapon in the making in front of him. Of course, he had to remind himself, he'd seen worse in his time. Not by much, but he had. "I'm going to turn this machinery back off, and we're going to leave."

"Really? I… don't you think this…" The Altmer was fumbling for words. Maybe he didn't know what he was trying to say either. "You wanted to go in here. Now you want to leave? Shouldn't we be trying to do something with what we've found?"

"There's only one thing this—" Nils gestured to the colossal machine before them— "can ever do. And even the Dwemer didn't want to see it in action. They died to keep this place a secret. We should at least honor their wish. Gods know they had good reasons for it."

"Well, yes, but…"

Nils turned and looked silently at Sinderion. A few seconds passed in silence.

"I have such a multitude of questions right now," the Altmer said. He was struggling to keep his eyes on Nils. The automaton was right there beyond him. "We're looking at the single greatest discovery of Dwemer archaeology in… well, ever! Do you realize how much we could change the world with this? Not even by using the weapon itself. Simply studying it and using the principles from its design—to say nothing of whatever was going to power it. There's so much we could learn. This is incredible. This is… this isn't simply a once-in-a-lifetime matter. This is once-in-a-civilization. Do you intend to throw it away?"

What a good question. Nils already knew what his answer was going to be. He chose his words carefully all the same.

"We're going to leave this place behind. And neither of us will ever speak a word about it again. Not a word, not to anyone, not for anything. I know I won't." As he spoke, he took a step forward, and pointed his finger right at Sinderion's chest. "And if this place ever comes to light again, if I ever hear the slightest whisper of its existence, I'll know it came from you. And not even this would-be Numidium will protect you then."

Sinderion stared at him, wide-eyed, for another long moment. Then he sighed and shook his head. "Well, I can't argue with you. You're the one with Wraithguard for a hand."

"That's right," Nils said primly, as he started walking back down the corridor. "Follow close. Now is no time for us to get separated."

The long room at the far end was just like they'd left it. Nils knew what he needed to do. He strode through to the very back, where the row of levers was. Then, after a moment's thought, he tossed aside the axe he'd picked up earlier, and cast a candlelight spell.

Sinderion watched him silently. That was fine. At least he wasn't arguing.

With his metal hand, Nils pulled the leftmost lever back down. The lights instantly went out, and the sounds of machinery began to slow to a halt.

Then, for good measure, he braced his free hand on the wall, and ripped the lever out of its socket. It came out with a loud, messy noise of metal cracking apart.

"Right, you're still strong," Sinderion mumbled. "Forgot about that."

Nils ignored him and sauntered back out through the darkness. When he reached the balcony this time, he threw the broken lever handle over the edge. He never heard it land.

The rest of the exit took place in total silence. There just wasn't anything to say. When they reached the big doorway and re-entered the illuminated portion of the ruin, Nils pressed one of the buttons, and the massive metal door very slowly returned itself into place, sealing the ruin beyond once again.

He then proceeded to smash both of the buttons with his fist, for good measure. It took a few punches for each. Sinderion just stood by and tried not to wince.

From there, it was simple to get back to the surface. It wasn't even a very long walk. They went past the ruined centurion, and out into the room with the low balcony, and through the upward corridors filled with the remains of Dwemer spiders. They even went past the room where all of the Dwemer had killed each other. Neither of them said a word.

Soon enough, they were walking right back out the last two doorways—the one whose latch had been forced shut, and the one that led to the natural cave beyond. Nils had been starting to wonder if he would ever breathe fresh air again. But here they were, alive and safe. The cold of the night was a welcome feeling now.

As they headed out the narrow passage to the outside, Sinderion asked, "What are you going to do now?"

"Stay here for a while," Nils said. "The bandits had a few Dwemer artifacts, I'll probably put those back inside the ruin. Then, uh… figure out a way to collapse this cave entrance, I suppose. Can't be too hard, it's not that big."

"Collapsing a stone tunnel can take entire weeks of digging," Sinderion said.

"Then I'll spend weeks digging. It has to be done. This place was unmarked for a reason. It'll stay that way, for the rest of all Time."

Outside, the camp was just as Nils had remembered. The ground was littered with the bodies of all the bandits that he'd fought through, lying in pools of now-frozen blood. The campfire was still burning, but only barely. And the sky above was dark with clouds.

Sinderion gasped when he saw the bodies. "Oh. Oh, that's how that looks. All right."

Nils walked out into the middle of the camp, then sighed and shook his head. "You know, I was sort of hoping that the sun would be coming up by now. It would've felt a lot more symbolic."

A minute passed in quiet contemplation. Nils picked up one of the bandits' steel swords from the ground, and tried fitting it in the scabbard for his now-sundered glass one. It was a bit loose, but he imagined it would do to defend himself till he could find a better replacement.

As though he needed a sword at all, with his right hand being what it was. … As though any weapon mattered, when he'd just seen one that was powerful enough to render all others entirely pointless.

Then he went over to the bandits' storage hut, intending to move their box of Dwemer trinkets inside the cave. But Sinderion was already there, a fur haversack in hand, filling it up with various supplies.

"That was quite the expedition just now," Nils said, as casually as he could manage.

"Let's not talk about it," Sinderion said tersely. "Really, if it's all the same to you, I'll be on my way now. I was traveling into Skyrim when I was captured. I'm sure I'll find something else to study, up there."

Traveling into Skyrim. Nils thought that over for a moment. He had been planning on going back to Cyrodiil, himself. More likely than not, he would never cross paths with this elf again. "You want to travel at night?"

Sinderion shrugged. "I'll manage. Falkreath isn't far away."

There wasn't much to say to that. Not much to think, either. This was it for the two of them. Nils smiled softly. "In that case, good luck to you, Sinderion. It was my pleasure to have met you."

With that, he walked up to Sinderion, and held out his left hand. The Altmer met it with a brief shake, then nodded and turned for the gates.

That left Nils standing by himself in the middle of the camp, surrounded by the bodies of the bandits he'd slain. And to think, he'd come here intending only to deal with these miscreants. He hadn't even known there was anything else to look for. The threat of world-ending crises just never seemed to leave him alone.

Ultimately, he supposed, this was just another day's work. He simply had one more secret to carry with him. For such a terrible brush with fate, that was a small price to pay.

The End