We killed Anccelmo before going down the ladder. Honestly if we left him he would've starved. However I wanted to test if killing him would give anything. Sadly the exp was too small to notice. I landed at the bottom of the ladder and soon Canary and Viree followed.
First thing to do was free the soldiers. We entered the prison and all the prisoners looked to us. Time to work a little speechcraft I suppose. "Men and Women of Skyrim. Imperial, Stormcloak, civilian. I ask you... Do you want to kill some Thalmor?"
They all looked at each other and many of them nodded. Canary pulled out the key to the jail cells. They all gathered before us, some gave Canary angry looks, but I soon addressed that. "I see some of you glare at my companion. However know, without her. We would've never discovered any of you. Those who can't and won't fight go up the ladder behind us now. For those who want revenge on your capturers. Follow us to victory or sovengarde."
{Speechcraft 100}
It seems I have inspired all of them to move. Speeches were the best material to level up speechcraft. We moved forward through the halls. With the flood of soldiers the weaker Thalmor were beaten and trampled. With Elven weapons the kidnapped soldiers moved through the halls quicker.
Canary shouted, "Get down!"
A giant torrent of fire wrapped around the halls. I expected this, Muril, the wizard I had seen earlier stood in the middle of the hall. Before the fire could reach the soldiers I grabbed the Amulet of the Hearth and activated Living Blizzard. Snow, Wind and Ice clashed with the torrent of fire and drained it of life. I made it surge forward toward Muril. He raised his hands and suddenly he was cloaked in flame.
I yelled, "Run past the wizard. I will handle him. Kill them all!"
The soldiers ran forward and Muril let them. He watched as they run past him, but the moment one swung a sword down on him they turned to ash. Canary stood beside me, "I'll help y-"
I pushed her forward, "Destroy whatever you see. I got this."
I shrugged while smirking. Muril watched as Canary and Viree run past him. He spoke, "You have interesting companions."
I laughed, "You knew I was in disguise."
He raised his had in arrogance, "I wanted to see what you would do. The moment Anccelmo went missing I suspected something. I already moved the Heart so if you believe you can stop our plans you are mistaken. In fact this little show you are putting on is pointless."
I laughed once more, this time it was manic. His face contorted in disgust. "Have you lost your mind?"
When I stopped laughing I spoke calmly. "No, nothing of the sort. I just surprised you think we are after the heart. Even if you didn't move it I had no idea how to destroy it. Besides my only plan is killing you."
This time he laughed, "You think you can kill me?"
I smirked, and ran towards him. He shook his head and raised his hands in fire. I wish he used frost, I wouldn't have to dodge then. I moved out of the way of each firebolt. The fire around him grew in power. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't getting closer to fight in melee range.
My hand glowed with purple light. It was the spell necromantic ritual. Next I shouted, "I choose you! Flaming Familiar."
A fiery wolf spawned from my hands and ran towards Muril. His eyes lit up and it jumped toward him exploding. He dodged it barely and he stumbled back to suspected safety. Thanks to necromantic ritual half the cost of the flaming familiar came back to me. I summoned three more. They all ran forward and the arrogance he was showing off earlier vanished.
He held up his hand and a blue ward shielded him as the flaming dogs crashed into him. The explosion overwhelmed his ward and he was sent staggering. With one last motion the last of my mana summoned 5 more flaming familiars. They exploded one after the other against him.
He was barely holding up against the summons. Though my own breathing was quick since I went above the summon limit. It didn't last long though as I activated Hircine's ring. I transformed into a normal werewolf and ran forward. I pounced on him and bit down on his neck despite the flames.
His eyes went wide as he tried to yell. "A wereghk! Arrrrghk!" He tried to push me off of him, but I tore out his throat as I pulled back. The life in his eyes died quickly. I tore out his heart and ate it soon after.
{Heart consumed, Werewolf Perk-point gained.}
I went around eating the hearts of previous slayed Thalmor. I gained a total of 5 werewolf perk-points, excluding the one I got for eating Muril's heart. I breathed out and deactivated the ring's power. I collapsed to the ground in a bit of pain and soreness. As long as I didn't lose myself it seems I could freely shift back.
I got up and stumbled forward. I saw a few dead prisoners, but most of the corpses were the Thalmor. Eventually I arrived at the factory. I saw a few people arguing, it seems after killing their capturers the stormcloaks and imperial soldiers started arguing.
I pushed a bottle off a tbale and when it shattered they all turned to me drawing their weapons. I gave a smile, "Calm down everyone. One stormcloak and one Imperial soldier step forward. We can talk like adults after all we are still inside a thalmor factory."
They all paused and did as they were told. The stormcloak representee was a commander. It was obvious by his armor. Honestly one of my favorites.... maybe I should make a cape from an animal hide.
The stormcloak spoke up, "Is this a scheme by the Imperials consorting with the Thalmor?"
What kind of stupid ass question was that. I rolled my eyes, "Are any of you the daughter of Angeline from Solitude?" When no one raised a hand I smiled. "Trick question I already knew she was killed here. Her severed hand is what tipped the imperial interrogator off."
I pointed to Canary while speaking, but before the stormcloak soldier tried to speak I slapped him. "Get a grip, not every Altmer is a Thalmor, and not every nord is a stormcloak." The stormcloak officer raised his hand before his buddies could do something. "You are right, I was making assumptions."
The imperial who stepped up wore the standard issue armor. However his sword was not standard and seemed close to a scimitar. "Sir, do you know what was happening here? Weren't the Thalmor... Well, they were peaceful with us weren't they?"
I nodded, "Good question! I'll explain it to all of you here. Don't trust your higher ups, not even they have the whole story. You may be soldiers, but you are residents of skyrim. I want all of you to be safe... I can't explain any other details to you all either due to rank or armor."
The stormcloak commander nodded, "That's fair." He looked around, "What are you going to do about all this?"
I looked at where the red crystal once was. It was as big as a carriage, how did they move it. I looked at him and sighed, "We have to cover it up. The thalmor know it was discovered. However they don't know by who. If all the soldiers here leave alive it will confuse them even more. So I hope you lot can leave here in peace."
The commander nodded, "Understood, when you mentioned Angeline's daughter, you were talking about Celia right? She was the officer I met on the battlefield. That boy is holding her sword, she sacrificed her life for her men. I can't actually hurt them, it would be a grave mistake."
So the man had honor, seems I can trust him to lead them all out of here. I looked over at the imperial who had the special sword. He was young seemingly, he had to be a teenager. I made a mental note of his face. He met my eyes and froze a little and looked back down. I looked at the stormcloak commander and pointed behind us. "Back there is a ladder, I suggest going up in order one stormcloak then one imperial."
He nodded, "I get what you mean. I'll be the last one up." He then turned to the soldiers, "Men! Women! Sons and Daughters of skyrim! Let's leave this horrid place, as a broken family. Now follow me out!"
He started marching with all the soldiers behind him. The kid with Celia's sword stopped, "uh, sir?"
I looked at him, and he asked. "Are you planning on burying this place? If so I would like to remain with you so I can... say good bye."
I patted his shoulder, "I assume you followed her into the legion as soon as you could?"
He nodded and I sighed. I shook my head, "I'll say your prayers for you kid. Save yours for her funereal. You are holding her only Memento after all."
He nodded and ran after the other soldiers. Viree looked at me, "Will you actually say prayers?"
I shrugged, "I don't know any. So it will likely be silent to spare myself from the cringe."
Canary spoke behind me making me jump. "What's cringe mean?"
I held my chest from the scare. I was anxious, if it wasn't for cheesy tactics Muril would have been a real boss battle. I was still feeling the nerves from that fight. I waved Canary off and asked, "Did you handle the teleportation platform thingy."
She nodded, "It's called a Tonal Sending Gate, but yeah." I froze when she said Tonal, "Why is it called a Tonal Sending Gate."
She looked at me and Viree also perked up at my curiosity. So canary explained, "It uses Tonal magics to connect to places together. It is a dwemer technology, something the Thalmor stole."
Interesting... I made a note of that in my head. Tonal magics were complicated, but Thu'ums were technically a Tonal magic. I was struggling to learn shouts despite me studying my Draconic Dictionary front to back several times.
Viree asked, "So what do we do here?"
I looked around, They took several things from this room. The red crystal heart thing was gone. The copy of Alduin's wall was broken to bits and I could tell the tables and shelves were fewer in their ingredients.
The dragon's corpse was missing as well. I really wanted that. I sighed, "Harvest." The spell activated and magic covered the room. My inventory was instantly full and I had to start dropping things. Canary however was bug eyed, "how did you do that?"
I held the harvest spell in my hand as I dropped things from my inventory. "Magic, see? I am actually a master at Alteration and can diverge any spell into a new one."
She pointed to the things dropping out of my inventory, "How are you doing that!"
Viree patted Canary's shoulder. "Suck it up buttercup. The answer is magic."
My pet was acting smug. However she was right, "The answer is in fact, advance magic!"
Canary sighed rubbed forehead. "Let's talk about destroying this place then? Do you have a method to do that?"
I thought for a moment and the creative uses for spells. "Actually I do."