Sabine had to think some more during Ahnasha's pause. Admittedly, talking as much as she did was better than saying nothing, but Sabine didn't feel that it addressed Ahnasha's own new fears.
Sabine took a slow breath in and spoke comfortingly. "Ahnasha, it's being scared. When your scared, it hurts for a long time." Sabine didn't know whether she was saying the right things or not, but her intentions meant well. "It might hurt, but, just keep your eyes open and notice when you get scared of things that you weren't scared of before, and then you might know what to say. Just don't keep quiet for too long." Sabine got up and walked over to Ahnasha, putting her arms around her neck and pulling herself in to hug her, "I love you, sister. Do not ever think we won't."
The path to the old settlement didn't have much talking, save for small and insignificant comments, or brief points of discussion. The matter of what had stuck in Fendros' mind hung like a cloud over all of them. He walked briskly ahead, setting an unnecessarily fast walking pace, he didn't say much unless directly spoken to, he was sometimes coaxed into a smile, but never laughed, and other times he always had this tense frown as if every moment tarrying was a waste of valuable time. During the walk, there was only one enquiry into what exactly had happened in the keep, and his response was a hand wave and a 'Not now,' dismissal that was spat like a snake. It was clear that he wasn't going to talk about it with them. At least, well, not now.
The now mostly ruined settlement they had found stood eerily empty. There was plenty of evidence from yesterday's fight. The shattered open gates, the many houses that had been gutted by fire, some of which were still smouldering with wisps of smoke. The smell of rotting corpses in the air had attracted a number of hackwings circling above. Most unsettling was the fact that the only rotting corpses were the ones left on the ground in a state of dismemberment that were strewn around very intermittently. The sheer amount of other dead bodies from yesterday were missing. The pack could easily guess why. The few corpses had some recoverable equipment, but their top priority was their own equipment. Not that they wanted to stay there a second longer than they had to. Even the aftermath of a nightmare left a lasting impression.
The first thing of use they spotted was Sabine's potion satchel not far from the gate, surrounded by the furs and wrappings, and other paraphernalia she had left behind. Some of the potion containers had been shattered or burst when trampled upon, but there were a few that had survived. This was also the area in which Kaleeth had transformed, but as evidenced by her wearing her wamasu armour back to the xanmeer, she had obviously picked up her own belongings on her way out.
Once all was recovered from there, the search stopped by where they believed they had transformed as a group. Janius and Lorag of course found that their armour and weapons had gathered some rust. Janius found himself wishing for an axe and perhaps some armour pieces made from Dwemer metal or orichalcum. He knew those at least lasted through the elements with less maintenance, especially Dwemer metal, but it had always been beyond his means. It didn't take too long to gather their weapons and equipment up, including any salvageable pieces of clothing, and then moving on to the keep.
The keep, being made of stone, didn't take the embers in the air so easily, but no doubt an act of retribution on the cultists' had left an entire corner of the structure collapsed into a large pile of rubble. Inside, the interior furniture, art, and decorations had all been melted or burned by artificial means. Next to nothing was spared on the ground floor and above, but nothing was apparently worth burning in the underground floor. The dungeon held an easily broken locked door where they found a chest containing prisoners' belongings. As soon as the group found this, Fendros rushed forward and rummaged through recklessly until he found Ahnasha's Dwemer metal arrowhead necklace. This he held tightly in his fist while he took an apparently relieved breath. Other things were recovered, like clothing, Fendros' bow, arrows, shield, and so on. More valuable things, like Fendros' sword, the black soul gems and the soul trapping dagger, were not present in the chest. They were later found in one of the keep's burned out bedrooms in a reinforced chest that somehow survived. Within this chest there also happened to be a few more instruments, such as silver blades, books on Molag Bal, and various other documents. It was a fair assumption that they had stumbled upon the noble's bedroom.
Now that the pack had recovered all that they knew to find, it came time to scavenge through the ruins to replace what they had lost in the xanmeer. It took some time to find buildings that still had surviving items in them, let alone ones that hadn't been razed completely. Of the paltry places they found, there was a few pieces of town clothing that looked about the size of some members of the pack, a couple of old knives, one and a half good sheets of hide, and a few septims. When picking the items out, there was an uneasiness throughout the pack in picking out the possessions of the now captured or dead. It didn't make the fact that the pack were accomplices to whatever horrendous situation that the prisoners were no doubt in any easier.
More luck was had when the pack came upon an intact basement that had been spared the fires of the cultists. Within was three rolled up and dusty fur bedrolls, preserved fruits and meats, and several kegs of Argonian and Cyrodilic beverage still in the process of fermenting. By the shape of the charred foundations sticking up from the ground, the building they had found was probably an inn. It was amazing that no fire had found the drinks, but no matter how Lorag groaned, they couldn't take the entire stash with them. In fact, with the load they already had, Lorag struggled to even carry one small keg of ale back with him.
After the inn, striding through the rest of the ghost town for the rest of the day yielded little of interest apart from the occasional portion of someone's body holding onto something useful. With all the food they had found in the inn, it seemed a shame to let it go to waste. Janius and Lorag both wished they had use of a horse and cart. For different reasons, of course. They headed back with less than they had lost, but far from empty handed. What they had would do well to give the pack a head start when they left. They all arrived back at the xanmeer before sunset, though they could hardly tell whether that was the case when they entered the fog again.
