“Nice flowers!” – Garrus commented when they returned to the Wolf Sanctuary the previous evening. “I see I am not your only admirer.”

He smiled. He was such a charmer.

“Lily of the valley and blue hyacinth. That’s no casual affair” – he remarked, looking at Lena quizzically.

She didn’t owe him an explanation, they only just met properly three days ago. And yet…

“He…” – she blushed. “We’ve known each other for ages” – she said as if it clarified anything.

“But he is not the one” – Garrus concluded with satisfaction, reading her face.

…

They got up fairly early in the morning and decided to go to Vahtacen. It was nearby, and the mages there still hadn’t solved the riddle blocking the entrance. Or was something else holding them back?

“Surely, University mages are skilled enough to solve a riddle” – Lena was saying to Garrus at breakfast. “I rather think they solved it ages ago, but don’t want to open that portal because they suspect danger inside. There were probably warnings of that, and anyhow any mausoleum that’s been sealed for centuries, is bound to be filled with undead.”

“Then let’s sharpen our blades before we go” – Garrus replied, attending to his weapons.

At Vahtacen things proved to be exactly as Lena suspected. The mages claimed that they were stumped by that magical pillar, not being able to open the portal. Yet, they’d already translated the inscriptions from ancient Ayleid, knew which spells were required and even prepared a bunch of relevant scrolls, as if waiting for someone gullible enough to pick them up and open the portal. It would then be the “honour” of that person to go first into the unknown.

“To take the heat of the wraiths and liches inside, more like” – muttered Lena under her breath.

But she had accepted this assignment knowing full well what she’d find, so it was time to go in and face the music.

…

“Wraiths with crowns on?” – Garrus was checking his armour for breaks while Lena kept touching him with healing spells. “Ow, that tickles!”

“Stop absorbing it then and let me heal you!”

“I can’t help it. Never could control which spells get absorbed and which not. That’s the Atronach’s blessing for you” – Garrus pointed up. Atronach was his birthsign.

Vahtacen was filled with Gloom Wraiths – crowned sword-wealding spell-throwing wraiths with more powers than was good for you. Dispel potions were just as useless as turn undead spells – there was no other way than to stand and fight. After a nasty battle against three wraiths in a small room, Garrus was no longer eager to face them.

“From now on I’ll let your daedroth go first” – commented Garrus after his third knock-out. His strength, endurance and willpower were all damaged as well, his health and magicka were close to nil. Lena handed him some cooked beef and a bottle of ale and took a Font of Magicka potion herself.

“Let’s get you fixed up. Gloom Wraiths are not to be taken lightly.”

And that was just the first turn, not even a hall. The walls dropped on both sides, and Lena and Garrus were locked between three wraiths with their backs practically against the entrance, minus the two wraiths that had met them at the door. No wonder the other mages had no wish to go in.

After the welcoming committee, the traps followed. Slicing blades, frost crystals, rising floors, more crystals out of sight…

“There must be something of importance here” – Lena remarked. “It isn’t just the undead – look at all the traps. Something is being protected.”

They came to a hall with a raised platform in the middle – the steps to it would be lowered with a switch. There was a pedestal in the centre of the platform with a Varla cage presumably hiding an item of value. The hall was empty. The exit door was locked.

“This is not good. The moment we lower those steps, we’ll be attacked from all sides. Let’s at least get that door unlocked and check the exit.” Lena did not like the quiet. “And let’s hope that whatever was supposed to be under that hood, is in fact still there. I’d hate to find another one of those ‘Dear adventurer’ notes.”

“Another one?”

“Some horn in Skyrim. Never mind that now.”

Things went as Lena predicted. They lowered the steps with a switch and started climbing them when four wraiths and two liches materialised surrounding them from all sides. The safest thing to do was to take cover behind the pillars and let summoned daedroth do the fighting. In the meantime Lena found the switch to raise the hood and grabbed the item under it – an Ayleid helmet.

“A helmet? All this for an Elven helmet?” – Garrus could not believe his eyes.

“It is probably called an ‘Ayleid Crown’, and it must be old, but yeah, all this for an Elven helmet. Raminus better be ecstatic when we take it to the Arcane University.”

With the wraiths cleared out of the way, they made it to the exit leaving the daedroth fight the liches. The door shut behind them and three more wraiths came forward.

“Will this never end?!”

It did end eventually. At least that little room had a good sum of gold in a cask.

The mage that had been studying the locked pillar, was no longer there. Heard the screeches of the wraiths through the wall, realised it was a trap and didn’t hang around to help the gullible Evoker that had the “honour” to go in. No, thank you – it could be quite detrimental to one’s health!

Lena was fuming when they finally got to the entrance hall.

“What have you there?” – Skaleel looked unimpressed. “Better take it to the University at once – it looks important” – she said completely without enthusiasm. “What a waste of my talents!”

“What a waste of…” – Lena muttered but then decided to remain civil.

…

“I prefer goblins and bandits” – said Garrus when they were outside.

“Over University mages? Me too! Every day of the week” – Lena laughed.

“Over Gloom Wraiths” – Garrus corrected with a smirk. “Aren’t you a University mage yourself?”

“No, well, yes, technically I am – I use the Spellmaker and the Enchanter sometimes, and plunder their garden for ingredients. And get sent to fight wraiths and liches, obviously, even though that might be quite detrimental to my health!”

“Come on – you need to blow off some steam. I believe there’s a fort just on the other side of the river, let’s hope it’s been beset by bandits or something.”

Garrus put his arm around Lena’s waist and gently led her across the water.