15th of Heartfire, 4E201
I don't know how long we slept, only that I was still tired when we woke up. I was tempted to go back to sleep, but my desire to get out of this place stopped me. I got  out some of our food for breakfast as Jenassa looked out the room's barred window. There were no signs of anything out there at the moment, and thankfully nothing had tried to get in. We ate in silence, afraid that something would hear us talking and come after us. We washed our breakfast down with a few stamina potions to keep us going, then got our armor and gear back on. I pocketed the room's key, just in case it opened any other doors. A key was much faster than a lockpick, and lockpicks couldn't lock doors behind you. At least not that I knew of. I removed my floor runes and opened the door as quietly as I could. Nothing out there, thankfully. We set out further into the unknown, our weapons ready for the inevitable things that would surely try to kill us.

Not far from the room we stayed in, I found more moonstone ore. I managed to mine it without anything coming to attack us. In a nearby hallway, we found another of the Altmer like monsters, dead. There weren't any machines around though, except the ones attached to the walls, just pipes and gears. We weren't sure what killed him, but we didn't stay around long enough for it to come kill us too. Down the hall, we found a locked room. I tried the key and it opened it. Inside was another of the insect monsters, but my frost atronach took care of him. It was a bedroom. The bed was on a raised, what was it called, dais I think? It was larger than the other room, and also had a table with a chair and a chest sitting on it. In the chest was a beautiful amethyst, a gold and amethyst necklace, and a silver one with an emerald in it, that seemed to be enchanted. There were dishes everywhere, and various metal components from something. I also found a helmet on the desk. It seemed to cover your whole head, and a likeness similar to some of the metal decorations we'd seen on the wall was made onto it. I wondered if they just liked that face, or if perhaps they all looked like that. I left it sitting on the desk, and we continued further into the ruin.

In the next room two more of the creatures were skulking about, and one of them even summoned a bound sword like I used! I explored the room after we killed them, and we found what seemed to be a water reservoir. Amazingly, the water was still clear and seemed to be drinkable. We refilled our water jugs, and had some to drink. I was glad that the creatures hadn't spoiled it. We found another bedroom near the reservoir, and it had one of those large insects in it. I had to summon  two frost atronachs to kill it. In the room, there was a large chest on a desk. It seemed that the bedrooms were getting nicer and nicer. It worried me though, that these bugs had somehow managed to get into them though. I found an amulet to one of the divines in the chest, as well as another amethyst. The Dwemer seemed to like them. I also found the main piece of a set of armor, which Jenassa said looked Orcish. How had this gotten here? She picked it up and managed to fit it into her bag after throwing out a few other things. I asked her why she wanted it, and she said that it was worth quite a bit of money. That seemed to be a fair reason. If we got out of here alive, we were going to be able to afford to buy a feast fit for a Jarl, or even a king.

I'm never going to make it out of this place. Those creatures, those horrible horrible creatures, managed to kill Jenassa. I flew into a rage and shouted at them, knocked them backwards and cutting them until they fell, and even after. I was covered in blood and had gotten it everywhere. I held her for hours it seemed, begging her to come back. I could have raised her from the dead, but it wouldn't really be her, just a soulless zombie that looked like her. I cried and cried until I was empty. Then, hate started to fill me. Hate for this place, those creatures, and for the gods for letting her die. There was no dirt to bury her in, everything was stone. I knew that she hated it underground, but I hoped that she would forgive me. I managed to carry her back to one of the bedrooms, and laid her on the bed. I made a bouquet of nightshade and lavender for her, and left it clutched in her hands on her chest. I also left a note with her, letting anyone that found her know that she had fought bravely, and had fallen to the horrible creatures of this accursed place. I left her there, and locked the door behind me. Now it was time for me to make some of her art in her honor. My brushes would be my sword, my bow, my spells, and my hands if they had to be. The paint would be the blood and insides of those creatures. The canvas would be the walls and floors of this place, and any of their fellow creatures who got too close while I was killing them.

I went back to the room where the creatures had been, and tripped over something in the dark.I picked it up and carried it over to some light to see what it was It was a metal sphere, with a metal ring around it. Part of the sphere was missing, and there were crystals inside. I assumed that this had been the crystal thing that the dying mage had been talking about. It was broken, likely thanks to those damned things. I put it in my bag anyways, in case I managed to find one of those Synod mages alive here. Along the side of the room, I found another dead one. I kicked her body out of spite, for coming to this place. If they hadn't come here, I wouldn't have been sent here, and Jenassa would still be alive.Part of me knew that it wasn't their fault, but I still blamed them anyway in my anger and despair. I tried all of the doors in the room. One, I couldn't pick open, and my key didn't open it. Another, I managed to pick open, and it had a small chest and some moonstone inside. I left it where it was. The third door led down a hallway,and seemed to be my only option.

I  found two more of the creatures, already dead. I stabbed them anyways out  of hate. There were more dead in a room nearby, and one of the sphere machines was there, curled up and waiting.  I summoned a frost atronach and shut the door behind them. My atronach didn't last long. Thankfully it didn't come out of the door after me, and I kept to the shadows. I did it again and again, each atronach being sent back to Oblivion faster than I liked. It was my only option, since I knew I'd never survive if I fought it. For a brief moment, I considered letting it kill me, but quickly dismissed the thought. If I did that, Jenassa would never forgive me. Soon it did come out though, and I had to fight it. I kept summoning atronachs to distract it, and hacked at it until it finally fell to the ground in pieces. It had cut me up pretty badly, and I downed a few healing potions to heal my wounds. I limped back to the room it had been in, and kicked and stabbed at the dead creatures in the room. It was a bedroom, larger than any of the others I'd seen so far. I searched the dead creatures to see if any had any healing potions, and ironically one of them had a nightshade flower in his pocket. I took it of course, and kicked him for defiling it by touching it. A chest in the room also held another key, probably the one I needed. I was exhausted, so I dragged the creatures' bodies out of the room, tossing them into the hallway. Then I shut the door and places a few runes just inside of it. I used some of the scrap metal in the room to patch up my armor as best as I could. It was still in terrible shape. Luckily I knew a couple of mage armor spells that I could use if I needed to. I crawled into the bed, not even bothering to eat anything.