Ari and Lucien were on a mission. Nothing official, but something entirely self indulgent for the pair of scholars. That was how they found themselves deep underground in a dwemer ruin collecting components to a machine Ari had designed as a pet project, with Lucien’s enthusiastic support. A dwarven autocannon that could be deployed during combat to fire projectiles at their enemies.
“Lucien, come see this!” Ari called, his voice echoing off the stone walls.
“What did you find?” The imperial’s voice was laced with excitement. Behind them, they didn’t see Kaidan and Inigo’s wary expressions, they were on edge.
“Oi you two, don’t run off on your own down ‘ere!” Kaidan hissed after Lucien.
“I think this is the last component we needed.” Ari ignored the tall man’s warning and pointed to a cog behind a locked gate. His smile was blinding.
“It’s perfect! There’s just um…well the door’s locked, and I don’t see a lock on this side that you can pick, Ari.” He looked down at the short breton. “Unless you’ve devised some way to open a lockless door?” He was joking, of course, but Ari only got that look in his eyes. The look that meant he was seriously contemplating something meant to be ridiculous. It was the cause of most of the group’s more exotic escapades.
“Hmm…give me a second. Stay here.” Ari ran off, slipping silently past Kaidan and Inigo in his haste to locate a switch. It was Inigo who noticed first that their resident breton was missing.
“Where is Ari?” he asked.
“I think he’s looking for the mechanism to open this door.”
“Alone?!” Kaidan balked, a hint of panic tainting his voice.
“We should stick together down here,” Inigo insisted, looking around for a sign of which direction their friend had run off in.
“How do you expect me to stop the dragonborn? Even if he wasn’t some kind of demigod of legend, you two know how slippery he is,” Lucien countered. He believed Ari could handle himself, after all, they’d fought dragons and undead and all manner of monsters and lived.
“I really hate it when you’re right. Well, which way did he go?” Imperial and khajiit watched as Kaidan tensed and began searching for the man he’d sworn to protect. How does one protect someone who sneaks away? With a look shared between them, they began walking after the large man. Though, no sooner had they taken a few steps had the door behind Lucien swung open with a loud metallic thud. On the other side, Ari, standing with that blinding smile that made his mismatched eyes crinkle at the corners.
“That was almost disappointingly easy. What are you lot staring at? C’mon!”
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