TES : Order from Chaos

[Keira Kelly]

Liliana let out a noisy breath as she picked her way around and over fallen rubble as best she could in the dilapidated hallway, trying to forget about the cold that pervaded everything. The breath came out as steam in the chilly air of the crypt, or what the locals liked to call it, a barrow. She cursed as she caught a toe on a larger piece of rock on the floor and held up the magelight in her hand higher, trying to see better so as to avoid hitting another. These damned, superstitious Skyrim locals. Crypts back home in High Rock had better upkeep than this by far.. but then again, these Nords seemed to fear these Barrows, more often than not for good reason, and so tended to avoid such places. But that was why Liliana was here, picking her way through a centuries old storage for bodies. To look for those still-walking corpses that the Nords so feared.

All the bodies she had so far found in this barrow were already... well, dead wasn't quite the right word. They were already inanimate. What this Breton wanted was to find the draugr that the Nords around here feared, the walking dead that had once served Dragon Priests in a far off age, another era. It was rumoured that the servants of these Dragon Priests had been killed and made to rise again, to serve their masters for eternity, taking turns rising for a span, feeding energies to their hibernating priest and then returning to a death-like sleep once more.

In the four years since Liliana had been forced to flee High Rock, she had become interested in learning arts darker than many lands tolerated. At least the Nords here were.. less likely to try to execute her for dabbling in the arts of necromancy than her home would have been. The thought brought up the bitter resentment for her involuntary exile. Ironic that she had been accused of necromancy long before she had ever even considered breaking such a law of her peoples. It had only truly been the false accusation that had eventually piqued her interest in the field. They had thought her a monster and so she had escaped and set out to become one.

She took another deep breath of the cold air as she progressed, smelling the damp rot of ancient wooden items lining the halls, sour mould and bitter dust of ages, of the mummified bodies interred here. And the cold... she didn't much like the bone-chilling, pervasive cold. Back home in Wayrest, it had never gotten this cold. She didn't know how the Nords could stand living in such a land and pulled her cloak tighter.

Suddenly, she halted. Ahead was a bend in the hall, angling to the left. Firelight flickered in an ancient brazier somewhere around the corner but what had stopped her was the fact that a shadow was being cast by the flickering light. There was somebody there... Liliana let the magelight in her hand extinguish and instead prepared a frostbite spell as she began to slowly move around the bend. Finally, coming into view was a tall figure, semi-armoured, arms splayed out aggressively and a large sword held in one hand. The flesh was desiccated, the bones beneath clearly visible beneath the thin, dry skin. A draugr!

Liliana cast out her hand to release the steam of ice at the undead servant. A blast of ice that put the conditions inside the barrow to shame streamed out, hitting the draugr... and as she began to get ready to cast more magic before it could close in to a dangerous melee distance.... the draugr... shuddered. And then tipped over backwards, bouncing once as it hit the ground. Liliana stood there stunned for a long moment, trying to comprehend what was going on.

Slowly, she began to move forwards, hands at the ready, each with a different spell prepared to cast at the first sight of trouble. As she reached the draugr, she stopped, finally seeing something.. that made some sense and no sense at the same time. There was a wooden stand that had been propping the corpse upright. It's arms had been lashed to arms on the stand to position it in a threatening manner. She took a closer look at the body, only now realizing that the eyes of the supposed draugr had not been glowing with the blue energy that was commonly reported of the servants of dragon priests. This corpse was not the walking dead now, if it had ever been. Someone had propped it up for some unknown reason, like a scarecrow.

She kicked at the corpse's leg, just to be sure and when it elicited no reaction, she sighed. Too bad. It would have been interesting to try to research a 'live' one. Still, it might come in useful. If someone had gone through the trouble to set it up as she had found it, that could mean there might be other traps around, even if whomever had done this, had done it a long time ago. That the braziers were lit though made her wonder if perhaps she was not alone in this barrow after all though.

Liliana held out both hands over the corpse, took a deep breath to charge all her energy into one big blast which hit the corpse, sending tendrils of light all around and through the body on the ground. Slowly, limbs began to twitch and then bend with the cracking and popping of long dried and dead tissues. All at once, the corpse sat up and then slowly stood, turning to stare in her direction, but almost staring right through her. It stood there, impassive and waiting as she began to study her new servant. The eye sockets were sunken, no real trace of the eyeballs remained but now there was something of a blue glow within. Lips were pulled back from blackened gums and teeth. The armour was in surprisingly good condition, blackened, dented but whole and not rusted.

It would do for now, she thought, as it stood there passively, groaning quietly every so often. She would send it ahead to be bait for any traps until it fell. That was the biggest reason why she was here, in Skyrim. Liliana had already learned some of the basics of necromancy, of raising the dead... but keeping them raised was the aspect that currently eluded her. She could only keep her undead servants powered for a matter of minutes or an hour at best. That the dragon priests had kept their draugr servants viable for hundreds of even thousands of years was... delicious knowledge that she desired to learn. She turned to her current servant. "Pick up your sword, walk ahead of me." she told it. "Stop at any intersections for direction." she added, with a light wave of her hand, watching as her new, although temporary, companion complied with her commands and proceeded deeper into the barrow.

[rivaan]

"Ugh... winter will probably arrive earlier this year... Jugding by this cold. It's even colder than usual. Might need to grab a few more blankets next time I'm in town... and more winter clothing." Saga said quietly, being alone for prolongued amounts of time, she often talked quietly to herself, voicing her thoughts when alone. She rubbed her shoulders while tossing a bit more firewood into the fireplace at the center of the room. Well maybe calling it a room was an stretch. It was a part of the barrow complex that she had taken over. It was neatly situated close to Darkwater crossing and it's hot springs. In less than a day she can get to it and in few hours if she puts a fast pace to it. Hollowstone Barrow as it became known, was a somewhat of a smaller barrow all things considered. It had gotten discovered after a huge earthquake that rend the this area, cuasing a rockslide, uncovering hte entrance. Some had taken steps to loot it, but most never really went too deep even for it's smaller size.

She had also discovered it years back, turning it into her more permanent hideout and home in this area of Skyrim. Riften was in reasonable distance and the town of Darkwater Crossing was basically in a morning's walk distance. Thus after discovering it, she made sure to explore it fully, killing a lot of the draugr to reach it's end. She even found the word wall. It was too small to house a dragonpriest after all. She knew that Draugr will reanimate soon and after fully exploring it, she decided to use it as her home back then. With a lot of efforts she had used this final room of the barrow that housed some of the treasure as her home. Saga had put a lot of effort into masking out the entrance to it. She hid it behind a lot of 'rubble' she placed in front of it, leaving herself an opening to the side that was covered by a stone. So she only had to remove the stone to get in and out without touching the pile of rubble. It was honestly rather convincing! What's more she had over the years remodelled quite a bit of the barrow. To make up for the slow reanimate of the draugr, she put up stands with fake ones. Put in traps and a whole other slew of set ups in case someone came snooping about.

Tossing the firewood into the fire, she started hearing the low crackle of it as she reached for the blanket on her bed and wrapped it around herself for warmth while she read a book. There was still some time till nightfall, so she might have to go out. Maybe it was time to go to Darkwater Crossing again. She could stock up on food and other supplies. For most Nords just hte few rigged up scarecrows would be enough to make them back out. In case it didn't work, she had set up a lot of traps around the place and as a piece the resistance at hte very end in front of the word wall she had set up a mobile 'Dragon Priest' she could easily manipulate from a hidey hole nearby, to move about using the thin threads of frostbite spider silk ropes she had painstakenly braided together just for it. Frostbite spider threads were very strong and thin, making for great near see through ropes when made properly. She also had a few pipe horns set up around the chamber, so if she make noise it would echo about, making it hard to pin point and make it ghostly. All locals would be dead scared to see a dragonpriest moving about. That was a great deterrent for would be adventurers. In and in the worst cases... well she had set up rockfall traps on the ceiling as well. Never too much precaution when yo uwere on the wrong side of the thieve's guild.

Thus she enjoyed her time in her cold stone home. Though the room had turned a lot more homey over hte years she had to admit despite her somewhat weaker constitution. It had gained a number of conveniences and luxuries. For example the bed. At first it was just a bedroll, then she added some furs underneath and over it. Then it was a makeshift bed and now it was more of a proper bed she had had made from planks, using furs as cushion and warmth underneath. A lot of them with blankets and even more furs. Then there was the bookshelves where she kept her collection of books, all kinds on various subjects. She had even gotten a table on which she could eat, craft and also write. Of course there were also the chests and the like to hold her gear, clothing and so on. It had everything, it was nice and cozy and she was ready to kill to protect it. As long as noone lived to tale the tale that she lived here, it ws a safe haven. What's more the back entrance of the barrow led outside, but the entrance was both hidden to the outside and could only be opened from the inside. It led directly to this room, but no way anyone was getting in, unless she opened it. Those old nords weirdly knew how to craft secret doors.

She had just about neared the end of her book, it was a book on daedric princes when she teh faint sounds of commotion traveled the old stone halls. It was very faint and was almost masked by the low crackle of the fire, but she spotted it since it was different form teh ordinary sounds in the barrow. It sounded like metal armor hitting the stone. Possibly sounds of battle in the entrance of the barrow? She fronwed, this was bad, none of the draugr at the entrace were actually reanimated. There were a few reanimated ones between there and the word wall, but the fact it was the sound of battle, meant whomever was going for it, had some confidence. Sadly last time that happened, they made it all the way to the main chamber and only left after they found the display bait treasure item. So there were less draugr now.

Tossing the blanket aside, she picked up her bow and sword, opened the door, crept throug the hidden entrance, closed it behind herself and then hurried to climb up the word wall to the alcoves above, hiding in the darkness of the stone alcoves behind a pillar. She took the ropes that were leading to this place that she could use to pull the dragon priest about and started making it move left and right, to appear 'living' and dangerous. She also started growling words on draconic in the pipes, making the growling words echo in the room. If she was lucky the intruders would get scared off the few actual draugr currently animated and the traps. Heck just because she had oiled one of the sets of stairs... that one was quite effective most of the time. If they made it here however and the dragonpriest puppet didn't scare them off, there was the traps with the falling rocks, she'd just make fall on their heads when they get closer to the coffin before the word wall.

[ShadowWolf]

Sneaking softly through the stone halls, this one had learned young to carefully tread in crypts such as these. She only stopped to collect the occasional trinket. Her mother taught her as a kitten to only take from those wrapped in fine shrouds. This one remembered well. She would take the gems and gold for it did not matter.
The cold air made her grateful for the warmth of her fur and the softness of her lined armor. The cold didn't bother her so much unlike most thieves who tended to avoid such places. Most would go for the warmer easier marks. Picking pockets was not this one's style. Nor was breaking into inns. This one preferred the harder more guarded targets that would also fetch more coin. Or to chase for a a buried treasure that most would not.
She carefully walked over the the next body. She had been informed that there was a larger treasure hidden somewhere in here. Had heard the stories. She doubted any were true. Most seemed to fear this place.
Sneaking into the next room she held her breath at the beauty of the carving that were meant to ease a passing. Why they put so much work into death she would never understand.
She stopped when she heard a sound. Draugr sometimes resided here. Her ears twitched as her eyes picked up the details in the dark and the faintest hint of light. Draugr didn't need light or torches really. She crept slowly forward. Her steps silent as she tried to find out what was in her chosen crypt. Carefully keeping to the shadows where none would notice her.

[Keira Kelly]

Moving forward, Liliana and her new minion encountered no walking draugr.. or creatures of any kind for that matter, just a number of propped up corpses or even constructs meant to look like groups of the walking dead in the normally dim lighting of the cave-like barrow. As she had proceeded, she had knocked down each set... or at least ordered her draugr to knock them down. There had been a number of traps as well but those she had seen before tripping them. Obviously someone had meant to scare and keep out intruders but she was not so easily fooled nor scared off. No, she wasn't worried at all in this crypt. Merely annoyed. She had come for a purpose, to learn from the walking dead that should have been here but all she had found were corpses with the original magic used to resurrect them gone or inanimate puppets. Someone, at some point, had been here first and destroyed what she had needed. Her final hope was to find the central room of the barrow now, where the locals said that the most powerful of the draugr would be kept. Perhaps some there may have survived.... That was all she could hope for.

Suddenly she halted in her tracks. Her undead minion was already stopped ahead, waiting for her next command so the rustle she had thought she'd heard hadn't been from him. Looking back over her shoulder, she scanned the hallway behind that quickly fell off into darkness beyond the glow from the magic she held in her hand. From here, she could see nothing but the hairs on the back of her neck were raised and she couldn't shake the feeling that something.. or someone was watching her. She backtracked a little ways, but found nothing. She stood there for a long moment, staring out into the dark but when nothing was forthcoming, Lili sighed, shaking her head as she turned and headed back to her pet draugr. He would not last forever. She didn't have time to sit and play hide and seek with what was probably simply her imagination.

Coming to the juncture where the draugr waited, she glanced down both directions. To the right, it ended in an old cave in. To the left though, a short span and then a doorway which seemed to open up into a much greater room than any she had yet seen within the barrow. She pointed past the draugr. "Go that way." she commanded, and began to follow it into the large room. Was this the room that was the final room? Walking in, she began to study it, the walls.. the structure and rubble. And there was a lot of rubble. Many of the decorative pillars that had once lined the room had collapsed at some point, making it slow to progress across. Beyond that, there was what seemed a large, curved wall off to one corner.

Coming around one of the larger pillars, she finally got clear sight on the odd wall. It was carved with odd characters that glowed, with an odd rhythmic sound coming from it, but what caught her attention even more so was the figure standing in front of the wall. And this one, unlike the previous ones she had encountered, was moving. "Attack that!" she ordered her minion, who with a growl, raised its sword and took off with an uneven gait at the figure. As it did so, Liliana cast out a fireball at the figure, then another as she also moved in closer. Her plan was to weaken it, get close enough and then end the fight with ice so as to better study it... but to her surprise, when one fireball hit, then the other... the figure seemed to... collapse... already. Just as she caught up, her minion turned its sword down and stabbed into the downed figure. "Stop!" she yelled, before it could do more, wreck more of the.... body?

As she knelt, Liliana could see that this figure was no draugr. It was no corpse. And what were those strands coming from it? Wisps of.. something like spider silk had been attached to this dummy, strands that her fireballs had disconnected. Her brow furrowed in confusion. A quick check over the fake guardian showed nothing of any real worth... Slowly, she stood, looking around cautiously for any ambush or further traps but there seemed to be nothing but the sound of the wall.

Her concentration turned to it instead now, knowing her minion draugr would be watching her back. She moved towards the wall, the sound got louder until she was inside the ring of the curved wall and the sound was nearly deafening, intolerable. Holding her hands to her ears, Liliana retreated. Merely 3 or 4 meters away now, the sound had died to a whisper. So odd. With how loud it had been, at this distance, it should still have been loud.. but it wasn't at all. She knew little of these 'word walls' as the locals called them, but she knew enough that they had little or nothing to do with what kept the draugr in places like this animated and so it was of little more than a curiosity to her. And without being able to properly approach the wall without deafening herself, of little worth. She moved further, studying more of the room behind, trying to find out where the strands that had held the dummy up led to.

Liliana lifted her nose, taking in a deep breath. She could smell.... wood smoke. A fire. And she had only noticed it as she had gotten closer to the rear of the room. Slowly she moved forwards up to it and began to study some rocks against one portion of the rear wall. Looking more closely, something... didn't quite look right but she couldn't put her finger on it. Something about the order of the rocks just had caught her attention. One rock in particular. As she moved towards it, she felt her foot catch on something for a split second, enough to realize that it was a trip wire. She jumped back just as number of precariously placed rocks from the top of the pile were jarred loose, managing to be missed by the bigger ones but one nearly the size of her head hit her ankle, sending her to the ground with a cry as her magelight extinguished.

She quickly scooted backwards, along the ground, trying to get some distance between herself and the rocks should any more be coming down but after a moment, it seemed that all that would fall, had fallen. She began to examine herself. She seemed undamaged besides her ankle, which was really beginning to hurt. Struggling, she managed to reignite the magelight, casting it beside her, before she turned to the ankle, pulling the hem of her dress up enough to see her foot and lower leg. Her well worn tall, leather boot on her right leg looked even more scratched up and touching the ankle at all made her cry out in pain. Likely broken... But she was lucky; the heavy leather of the boot had probably saved her foot from being crushed. Even luckier.. she knew a bit of how to heal...

Holding her hands over her ankle as she shook with the pain, she closed her eyes, taking a slow breath to focus. Her hands began to glow with a yellow white light that cast down to her leg. The pain began to abate as the healing took hold, the warmth taking its place. A few moments and Liliana let the healing spell die off. Touching the ankle now brought no pain and slowly, she worked to stand up once more, being careful not to catch on her long dress, but soon enough, she was standing again, her ankle feeling perfectly normal once more.

She turned to the rocks once more, staring at it suspiciously. She raised a hand, casting another spell on herself. It took a few seconds to warm up but suddenly, Liliana could feel the warmth of life around, though there was very little of that in the vicinity.. yet more than she had expected. There was life ahead, just beyond the rocks.. whomever was hiding out in this barrow, who had set up the traps likely. She turned her head to look behind quickly. Another spot of life not far behind, hiding behind some of the fallen pillars in the room, waiting.. watching the Breton. She was surrounded. For all she knew, these two were working together. In any case, while there didn't seem to be anything here for her, she was cut off from the exit now.

She ordered her draugr to stand slightly behind her, and she stood between it and the rocks, leaving some fair distance. She cast Stoneflesh on herself, ready for an attack. Likely these two were here for some treasure or, perhaps, something else. Nothing that Liliana had interest in. "I know you have me surrounded!" she called out in a clear voice. "Come out and face me! I have no wish for any trinkets or spoils from this dilapidated hole. What I seek, I do not find here. I have no cause to wish you harm but should you seek to cause me harm, know that I know how to protect myself! I have been through many crypts, barrows and other places of unfathomable danger.. and treasures, and have survived. Two bandits seeking to steal my wealth will not be an issue!" she challenged. "If you wish me no harm, come out and prove that you are honourable!" she added, keeping her head partially to the side so she could keep track of the life forces ahead and behind.

( Just to be clear to all, Saga, rivaan's char, is the one behind the rocks in the next room, and Shadow, we can say your char followed Liliana at a distance into this boss room and is the one behind. Hopefully this way we can all finally meet up lol. )

[rivaan]

Saga's usually perfect set up to scare off or trick would be robbers and raiders turned out insufficient in dealing with this woman who happened to be a necromancer. The fact seh commanded and undead with her proved her as such. She frowned, that was one of the draugr of the barrow. For crying out loud... now she wasn't sure if the thing would get reanimated into one of hte draugr guarding this place after this necromancer's spell was over with. THat was one less defender between her and any troubles in the future. Then there was the fireball that melted the spidersilk threads keepign the 'dragonpriest' floating. Why did it have to be fire of all things!? couldn't she have used ice or lightning!? Then the rocktrap didn't finish ehr off and what was damaged was healed up. Great she had a necromancer infiltrator into her hideout. The only good thing was that the woman looked nothing like a Thieves guild member.

The fact there was a second person at the barrow just made her crindge so damn hard right now. Still hiding behind the walls and pillars she decided that she might as well deal with it. If traps weren't going to work on those people, she was going to deal with it by hand. She pulled her bow, notched an arrow and made her way out the door into the rubble hiding the entrance to her room. Readying the bow, she used her leg to push over the coverstone, without leaving the safety of the actually pretty sturdy rubble tunnel and aiming it at the necromancer.

"Honor is earned, not granted freely." Saga stated in low voice. She can pierce the eye of hte woman with her arrow before the woman could react and the rubble provice ample protection from magical attacks." Especially given where we stand."

"I have no need for your money. Though I am curious as of what you are searching for in this barrow, necromancer?" Saga asked, eyes narrowed. She was already also peering into the darkness behind the magician where the second person should be hiding." As for the other one still hiding, you better pray you aren't with the thieve's guild because I will hunt you down before you can get far enough from teh Barrow's grounds to escape from me."

[ShadowWolf]

Her ears twitch at the person's comment. She froze careful not to move blending in. She had left the theives guild when they started to fall apart. She stuck to her methods and continued to make gold. She wasn't sure what this stranger had to do with them.
Her eyes flicked from one to the other. What was a necromancer doing here? It was a forbidden art and most preferred to hide their magicks better when it came to the forbidden.
She carefully tucked your small purse of stollen coins and gems away careful not to clink them. Her furs ruffling at the thought of anyone taking what she had rightfully stolen. No one could take from her once she had taken. SHe carefully stuck to the shadows to watch the exchange for a bit. Then she could better decide if to show herself. She hadn't lived this long without using caution.

[Keira Kelly]

Liliana watched and listened carefully as there was movement ahead, the sound of stone moving and she could see parts of dark figure mostly hidden behind rubble. Not a clear line of sight to them but Liliana was happy enough to wait and see for the moment. Suddenly a voice answered from ahead. The sound of it was not what the Breton had expected of a bandit, sounding younger than she would have thought. Young and only two of them? No, these weren't bandits.. at least not a normal bandit pack. She grunted at the answer she received though. She had asked for the other to prove their good intentions, their honour.. "I have proven my intentions." she called back. "Else we would not be standing here, merely talking.. Had I no honour, you would both now be attacked. I have no interest in such an outcome however."

Her head cocked slightly. "What I am searching for? Why, knowledge.. of course." she answered, as if it was the most obvious answer ever. Wealth was a trifling thing; Liliana had never wanted for money even after her exile. She had taken enough with her to provide for herself for many years to come. She pursed her lips together for a moment. "If you are the one that dealt with the undead that roamed this place, the draugr as they are called.. I would wish to speak with you about how you found this crypt though..." she added. "If need be, I can compensate you for the information... You say you have no need of money, name your price and I will decide if what information I can glean would be worth it."

Hearing the one before her call out to the person hiding behind brought the realization that the two weren't, in fact, working together. Interesting... Liliana glanced back over her shoulder, towards where she had felt the life force of the final person. With a dainty wave of one hand, the draugr minion Lily had been keeping fell bonelessly to the ground, the body quickly falling to ash as her magics that had bound it to her will lay waste to the remains of the corpse. She was becoming more and more sure that neither of the two in this place wished her any harm and were merely afraid. She felt some disdain for their fear, but at the same time.. perhaps it was understandable. She was, after all, a necromancer now.

She turned as she threw a glance over her shoulder at the doorway where the one who had talked still hid, before looking out into the darkness where the final person was. "Thieves guild or not, I wish neither of you harm. Come out. And I make the same deal to you. If you have information that I seek, or can be of aid to me, I can pay. I will compensate you fairly." she called out into the darkness. If this one was a thief, they might have interesting talents that could be used in future endeavours. And even if they weren't, well.. they seemed stealthy enough to be of use just the same.

She turned back to the one who had spoken before, throwing her arms wide, showing she was now unarmed, hands out no longer in a threatening gesture of one ready to cast magic. "I am not here to fight. Besides knowledge that I can get no other way but by your choice, you have nothing I want." she said, then gave a heavy sigh. "I will protect myself but, if I am right, that is all that either of you seek as well. To stay alive, to protect yourself. I hold no weapon now on either of you. I have proven my intentions. It's your turns..." she trailed off, waiting. It was a dangerous move, perhaps a stupid one to leave herself so vulnerable but.. if she was reading the situation right, and she was fairly confident she was, the risk was worth getting out of here without more mishap.

[rivaan]

Saga looked at the woman with calm eyes, bow still trained on her and arrow aimed for her eye for a good long while, she listened as the woman gave her reply. The other intruder was keeping quiet for the moment. She was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because the Thieves guild wouldn't risk appearing so close. She hadn't dealt with just one or two of would be upstarts from those rogues...

"Power?" Saga asked, evaluating the necromancer's words in her mind as she gave it a deep thought." I see... A necromancer... you are seeking the power behind the creation of the draugr." She stated flatly. The sharp arrow was the only thing that was glissening on the light from her hiding place and the arrow very carefully lowered down, nto completely, but enough. She then slowly left her hiding place, eyes never leaving the necromancer, but at the same time keeping an eye out for the other invader that was still hiding. SHe couldn't quite charge after them to hunt them down right now with the possible other danger in the face of this magic wielding... woman.

"You already passed by the likely reason for this happening." She said and pointed out the word wall that was still feeling like it was pulsating with power and the chanting that was present constantly since the very start she found it years ago was still there." That's a Word Wall, made by the Nords of Old, from the olden eras. Some of those hail back to the times before hte first dragon war. Others are newer. Anyways... I've heard that these walls are connected to the Thu'um... the Voice. The power of Dragons. You could still hear the wall's chanting no? It's likely the power of the Voice is contained within the wall and it's mere presence is causing the Draugr here to raise and protect this place. Normally from what I know it's usually places where the Dragon Priests reside that have draugr. This place has no Dragon Priest. It's the wall." She stated, eyes still locked on the woman.

'REK-GROHiiK WahLaaN QETHSEGOL
VahRUKIV ZOK BRUNiiK KRiiD GleDA
DaaNIK Dir BRiiNahii VahRUKT THalA

The She-Wolf raised this stone
to commemorate the most savage slayer, Gleda
doomed to die for her sister Thala'

That was what was written on the word stone. She wasn't saying it aloud though. The Thu'um was her little trump card, allowing her to hide all her notes safely away withotu the danger of it being understood. THe number of people who actually spoke or even understood hte language even here in Skyrim were probably less than 10 total and that included the Greybeards. The greybeards not counted, the number probably fell barely enough to be counted on one hand.

"If you can gleam anything from it feel free. They say that to be able to harness the power of a word wall, you need to have been born with the soul of a dragon however - a Dovahkiin, a dragonborn." And Saga highly doubted that this woman was a dragonborn. The last dragonborn vanished years ago and it still baffled her. Why did he have to go? Where had he gone!? When Skyrim and the Empire need him again, they are still missing.

Her hands tightened on the bow again, the elven bow was very slowly pulled, turning into a slight curve as she still didn't raise it, but an arrow was notched." I'm giving you a last chance, before I start hunting you down to show yourself. If you aren't part of the guild, you have nothing to fear..." Saga warned. The steel arrow was of a interesting design, not as heavy as the typical nord arrrows, this one was leaner, the arrowhead was slightly longer and clearly quite a bit sharper than the regular northern ones. This way it was easier to puncture at the weak points of armors if she had to. The arrows also flew faster and well were lighter the carry in greater numbers.

[ShadowWolf]

Her ear twitch at the mention of power. Maybe she should hear them out. She Drops from her vantage higher up on a broke column. Carefully stepping to the edge of the light so as to be barely visible she speaks clearly. "This one would like to know more of this power." Distrust still showing plain on her face. Her ears twitch as she keeps both within her sight. The exit nearby but her back to a wall to keep others from possibly coming up behind her. She glance from the bow to the draugr. Then over to the stone. Taking in everything with practiced ease as she waits patiently for an answer.

[Keira Kelly]

Liliana sighed deeply to herself. "Yes, power." she replied in a nearly condescending tone. She had to remember that not everyone had the level of knowledge she had on the subject. 'Power' was such a broad term to cover not only all the different schools of magick but the applications and potential teachings of it as well. She smiled just a little bit at being called a necromancer. A smile, but a sad smile. "A necromancer... if it pleases you to call me so." she replied. Of course.. even here she couldn't escape it. The ability to raise a corpse was only one of many of the spells she knew... She could heal, but was she called a healer? No. She could conjure a spiritual pet, or even a weapon but was she a conjurer? No. Simply a necromancer. At least, this time, there was some truth to that appellation. She nodded, emphasizing the gestures so the other would not miss it, that she was here seeking necromantic power.

She watched as, slowly, a woman crept out from behind the rubble that was partially blocking the doorway ahead. Dressed in the typical Nord fashion, she wore what appeared to be a mix of leather armour with furs and had dark hair, the light in the barrow here being insufficient to tell much more than that. She was younger than Liliana though. Likely close to the age Lili had been when she had been force to leave home, actually. Though she didn't yet turn around, she kept her ears open for any sounds from behind that might signal an attack, though more likely such an attack would be a thrown weapon or arrow that the Breton would never hear coming. Well, if she was to die this day... it could not be any worse than what she had already lived through, could it.

Her eyes turned to follow where the woman before her gestured, towards the large wall with runes cut into it, where the sound and pulse of power was emanating. The term 'Word Wall' was not new to her. Lili had heard it used before in her investigations as well that it had somehow been connected with dragon attacks around twenty years previous. This.. 'Voice' though was new to her. Her learnings about dragons were... vague at best. Though they had apparently be brought back to life in the world, they had not been common in her travels in the slightest, barely more than rumours often for the most part.. except when she had come to the land of Skyrim. She had still not seen one herself but the locals spoke of first or secondhand knowledge of sightings and even attacks. She had begun to question how too much Nord mead must affect the mind at times....

In any case though, she was less than sure about the rest of what this woman explained. "No... no..." she muttered to herself, working it out in her own head, wagging a finger. "It's not the walls that support the near infinite life of the spell... I have been to other such crypts where the walls had been.. expended somehow. And yet, in some of the furthest corners of the places, draugr still walked... It cannot be the walls themselves... That cannot be the answer.. or perhaps not the only answer..." she said, beginning to move closer to the wall, feeling the power of it as she studied it, stopping a distance away, as close as she could get without it overwhelming her, the others forgotten for a moment.

Nothing.. nothing! Damn this place. She was no closer to understanding. She could not read the runes, could not understand the words being spoken by the wall. She could feel its power but that was of little help as it was something completely unfamiliar to her. She had hoped to find... what? Books? Writings? Something! She had found the necromantic book back home, where the practice had been outlawed... but here, in a place where it had been common practice at some point, in a specific place where it was currently functioning, she could find nothing of any help! She sighed, turning back to the two living beings, disappointed but now curious about each of them.

Liliana's eyes turned as the Nord woman called out whomever was still in hiding and watched as, ever so slowly a shadow at the top of a broken column moved, dropping down to the ground and advanced towards where there was light in the room. A young lightly-armoured Khajiit, timid being an understatement. Wide, dark eyes and ears turned back showed a creature ready to flee at the first loud sound. The voice, when the Khajiit finally spoke was most definitely female. Liliana smiled at the words. "You like power, young one?" she asked. She waved a hand behind her towards the wall. "I can teach you some more useful power than what can be found here...." The mix of the timidness and the interest in power likely spoke to some sort of traumatic history.

Lili was becoming more and more interested in recruiting these two to herself. They seemed they could be... useful. And perhaps.. perhaps she could just see a bit of who she had once been in both of them, a scared young woman thrust out into a dangerous world. Liliana had met.. bad things, very bad things.. during her first year or two of exile. She had to admit that a small part of herself wanted to help these two avoid such things. Her eyes turned to the Nord woman once more, giving a brief glance at the bow still held nocked and ready to be brought to bear if need be. "What troubles do you have with the Thieves Guild? Perhaps I can be of help to you with them..." she began.

She cast her eyes between both the Khajiit and the Nord. "Perhaps I can be of help to the both of you. I have power. I have... means." She trailed off, realizing she had to take the first step here and she had not as of yet. "My name is Liliana Relin, a daughter of one of the noble houses of Wayrest.. well, I was once, long ago, anyways..." she amended, with a sad half smile. "Trouble can befell anyone but we must find ways to rise above it, yes? We can find ways to make ourselves strong to that none can assail us again, so that none can ever do us wrong again. Perhaps I can help you both find that path?" she offered. That was her own whole purpose in life now. Perhaps she could spare these two some of the pains along that path that she had suffered.