matter how fast we run, the Night follows,” fretted Gray, swishing his tail.
Zariah stared at her friend. “That’s it!” she said. “What the dying man said. Dusk always falls!”
They ran from the tendrils of Night to Castle Duskfall. Gray’s magic cast their movements in shadow. Zariah noticed the curious lines on the scrap of map made the shape of the Treva to the north.
|c990000A castle on the river Treva? Could this be about the overlook tower? I’ve never heard it referred to by that name. Regardless, we’re in the Rift! |r
“Are you certain this will work?” said Gray, keeping lookout as Zariah dug at the base of the highest tower. “Stealing the Gryphon’s treasure—”
“And blaming it on the Lady of the Night,” said Zariah. “Yes.”
“You really ought to keep your voice down!” Gray fretted, hopping back and forth.
But Zariah just laughed. “What haunts this old keep doesn’t care what we say.”
But Gray’s eyes were keen, and what Zariah saw as simple crows Gray knew to be something much, much worse.
Just then, Zariah’s shovel hit something hard, and Gray yipped as the Night’s Messengers began to
gaped as they saw a fox drag Zariah out of the tavern. Their drinks would have gone dribbling down their fronts if they heard him talk.
In the dark of the alley, mead-drunk and sentimental, Zariah wept into her friend’s fur. “I thought they took you back to the Crow’s Wood!” she cried. “I didn’t realize they understood my thieves’ cant.”
“I’m all right,” Gray said, brushing her off. “But you’re spending gold we don’t have, drinking like that. The Gryphon’s treasure is worth nothing unless we can find all three pieces. Are you listening, Riah?”
Zariah was not listening. Her eyes had that light from before, and she felt around like she was grasping at starlight. “It’s here!” she said. “Here in the city!”
Gray looked around. “How is that possible? It must have been placed here before there was a town here.” He peered down into the dark canal. “Maybe even before there was a lake.”
|c990000Lake Honrich, I presume. He must be speaking of Riften. |r
“Sai is with us,” said Zariah. She broke the wards and revealed the treasure just as dawn broke and drove back the shadows.
“Only one more piece,” said Gray, “until we find the door and the Gryphon very likely kills us.”
“Or,” countered Zariah, “all we need to do is step out of the way. Let his talons contend with the Lady of the Night. I don’t seek the power of this mythical creature, only the means to let us live a life where we don’t have to keep running.”
Gray looked up at her with shining eyes. “It is not too late for me to go back.”
But Zariah would not hear it. “No, my friend. You are too kind and clever to be kept in a prison of shadows for all your days. This will work. I am certain of it.”
beneath Forelhost, for it had been hidden when the land was new.
|c990000Beneath Forelhost. So not at Forelhost proper? Perhaps a cavern below it. That must be Brokenhelm Hollow. |r
Zariah was happy not to contend with the risen dead. But in explaining as much, she had not watched where she was going, and trod into a circle of hibernating snow bears.
Zariah fled through the broad circuit of the caves, shouting to Gray where she saw the thumbprints on the face of Nirn and trusting her friend to recover the final piece of their treasure.
imperiously down at them, blocking the magic doorway built upon a tomb. Though far from dusk, the site lay already in shadow of Hrothgar. Snow-buffed wind blew through the door, billowing Zariah’s cloak and revealing the stolen treasure beneath.
|c990000Near dusk, already in the shadow of Mount Hrothgar. Meaning a barrow close on the eastern side of the mountain’s base. Ivarstead is built near one such place. |r
“The Lady of Night would not know me, and therefore never move against me this way,” said the Gryphon. But even then, doubt crept into his voice. He had spent an age in solitude and knew not of the Daedra, nor any of their kin. And already, they were surrounded by crows and tendrils of shadow.
“We lied!” Gray cried, frightened and compelled to truthfulness. “I am her pet and sought escape. Zariah helped me. But the Lady of Night takes all things back in the dark.” He peeked past the Gryphon into the doorway. “We will return your treasures and take all the more on your behalf if you give us sanctuary!”
The dark closed in like water, pooling around them, lapping at their feet. Zariah drew her weapons, defending Gray from tendrils of shadow. The Gryphon then judged her worthy of his boon of power, being both of great skill and courage, and loyal to her small friend.
The Gryphon raked his talons through the tendrils of shadow, but they had no quarrel with him, only the two thieves. “To my domain!” called the Gryphon, moving back to let them through the door at last.
But it was too late.
Zariah held back the night’s darkness with a thin tunnel of starlight, just wide enough for Gray to slip through. Then, using the boon of power the Gryphon had just given her, she sealed the door to the Gryphon’s domain with Gray and the Gryphon on the far side.
Gray keened for Zariah. He pawed and scratched at the locked door until his nails bled. The Gryphon, however
