Remnants of the past.

You start heading in the direction of Skingrad again, this time Nacius makes a left turn onto a worn out looking footpath.

"Off the roads eh?" You ask.

"Yup, should be completely safe, I've come here more times than I can count, the only trouble I ever bumped into was a pair of skooma junkies." Nacius replies.

You look around, just off in the distance you can see Castle Skingrad and it's iconic bridge. The rest of the city was hidden behind trees and hills.

"I know somewhere around here is an ancient wayshrine." Nacius says.

"A wayshrine?" You ask.

"Something the ancient elves built when they controlled Cyrodiil, I think the one around here is devoted to Kynareth, I don't know, I can't read whatever language those elves wrote in." Nacius replies.

You think back to the history books you spotted at the house back when it was still dusty, you wondered if Nacius was into history at all.

"You like history Nacius?" You ask.

"I don't know a lot, but I find a lot of it interesting." He replies.

"I couldn't tell you about Dunmeri or Redguard history, but Imperial history i'm pretty familiar with!" He says, excitedly.

"Judging from our earlier conversations, you don't know much about Khajiiti history, no?" You ask.

"I only know what you've told me, and that one time Pelinal Whitestrake confused your people for elves and slaughtered them." He replies.

"Grim, how could someone mistake Khajiit for elves? Elves do not even have fur!" You ask, surprised.

"Well, according to legend, the man was mad." Nacius replies.

"Well it would take a mad man to make such a mistake." You say, laughing.

"You said that some of your people look like Bosmer though, right?" Nacius asks.

"Yes, the Ohmes." You answer.

"Well, maybe he saw a few of them and then just started blindly killing, we don't know." He says.

"Fair point, but Sanna feels like once you start seeing fur, that should be an indicator that these aren't elves you are killing." You respond.

The two of you go silent for a while, you hear the wind blow through the trees and the occasional chirping from a bird flying overhead. The grass around the footpath was knee high, bees and other insects would fly around the area, you where still in awe from the sheer amount of green in Cyrodiil, growing up in the arid desert of Anequina made such sights alien to you.

"Sanna is never going to get used to how green your province is." You tell Nacius.

"Cyrodiil has a bit of everything, forest, swamps, snow peaked mountains, dry grasslands-" You cut him off.

"Deserts?" You ask.

"Nope, but we have Hammerfell to the northwest and Elsweyr to the south, they don't call our province the heartlands for nothing." He responds.

"It is a beautiful place, Sanna can't wait for you to show her Anvil and the Imperial City, she's let your words get into her head and she's hyped herself up for the trip." You say.

"Well, everything I've said about them is true, maybe we can visit Stirk, nice and quiet." He says.

"Stirk?" You ask.

"Island off of the gold coast, it has a little town on it, I've never been, but I hear it's a relatively popular vacation spot." He answers.

"Well, we already have plans to visit two cities, let's wait before we get on a boat to some island." You say, laughing.

"I know, it's just a pleasant thought, and I promised that one day we could visit Pelletine, remember?" Nacius asks.

"Oh, that's right, well, let's get the Cyrodiil locations done first, then Sanna can take you down to Pelletine." You respond.

"Heh, we might as well travel all of Tamriel at this rate." Nacius says, chuckling.

"Sanna is not opposed to the idea." You respond.

Things went quiet again, you look back at the path behind you, the road is nowhere in sight and you can't make out Castle Skingrad anymore, you two are pretty deep in the wilderness.

"You sure we are safe out here love? Sanna can't help but feel a little anxious after the wolf attack." You ask.

"We should be fine, so long as the birds are chirping, that means there aren't any predators about." Nacius responds.

You listen for a moment and you do in fact hear birds all around you, you take comfort in this newfound knowledge and you ease up, eventually you see something just off of the path, it was white, there was some red and black there too.

"What is that?" You ask, pointing at the mysterious object.

Nacius looks towards what you're pointing.

"That might be the wayshrine, wanna check it out?" Nacius asks.

"Why not, it's not far from the path." You answer.

Nacius turns Whiterun towards the object and you get closer to it, you both have to swat away some tree branches but eventually you see it. It was a wayshrine, but all around it where remnants of what was once an oblivion gate, giant black and red spikes coming out of the ground all around it, Nature had begun to take back the area, vines and grass growing around the daedric abominations coming out of the ground.

"By the moons, you didn't tell this one that there where daedric ruins here!" You ask, stunned.

"I didn't want to mention it, just to surprise you, you want to check it out?" He asks.

"Sanna has to hold the roast." You say, holding up the roast.

"It'll be fine, just take it with you." He says.

He hops off of the horse and you hand him the roast, following him down.

"You stay here boy." Nacius tells Whiterun, giving him a quick pat on the side.

You reach for the roast and Nacius hands it to you, then you just look up at the wayshrine, taking in the sight.

"How come it hasn't been cleaned up?" You ask.

"They just never got to it, gate ruins are rare nowadays, the empire did a good job cleaning up most of them, I guess this one is just a straggler." He responds.

You walk closer to the Wayshrine, making sure you don't accidentally bump into one of the daedric spikes coming out of the ground, the wayshrine is still intact, cracked and old, but still intact.

"Sanna finds it beautiful in a dark way." You say.

"Well, if anyone else stumbles upon it the empire will probably come sweep it up, especially anyone from the church." Nacius says.

"Sanna understands, she would be surprised if the church allowed the foul touch of oblivion to **** a holy site." You respond.

"So was this the surprise place?" You ask Nacius.

"Nope, it's still a bit further down the footpath, we can have our picnic here if you want?" He offers.

"No, Sanna wants to see this other surprise you have planned, if this isn't it then she is eager to see whatever this place is." You say.

The two of you stand and admire everything for a while and then you decide to get back on the horse and keep heading down the footpath, the roast is still warm in your hands, you're starting to feel hungry now.

"How much further? Sanna is beginning to feel hungry." You ask.

"Just a little longer love, you'll know it when you see it."

And with that, the two of you kept moving, you kept your eyes peeled for anything that wasn't green until eventually, you saw something...