The group moved with military precision down the hall.  I wasn't a soldier, no, but I'd done a little military (read, 
mercenary) work in the days when Nightshade was alive and before we met Nyx.  So I knew what was expected of 
me.  
    As we moved, I checked out the others making up Vex's Chosen.  There seemed to be almost equal numbers of 
males and females, all of them different, yet all of them strikingly attractive.  Humans made up the bulk of it, but I saw a 
few high and dark elves and even a lone Khajiit.  Again I had to wonder why anyone would serve a daedra prince, much 
less a count.  It was true I had some reverence for Hermeus Mora, as did many mage-scholars, but that was entirely 
different.
    We stopped before a massive steel portcullis.  It was worked in abstract designs...abstract until you looked at them 
sideways, that is.  Then you saw things that would have made Nyx's friend Elsbeth blush.
    Lord Zul shouted an order.  Two massively built morphoid daedra came forward and worked the winches on either 
side of the portcullis.  It slowly rose into the ceiling, silent as oiled smoke.  I scratched my head at this--portculli usually 
made enough noise fit to awaken Akatosh from one of his century long naps.  This could only work to my friends' 
advantage--if any of them could lift it.
    We moved out--and into the most darksomely beautiful forest I'd ever seen.
    It was mostly evergreens--tall and dusky bluish green.  A few leafy trees I couldn't identify stood everywhere.  Their 
trunks were nearly black, their pointed leaves a deep grayish green.  I looked up to the sky but the canopy was so thick 
that I saw only the occasional scattering of blue.
    Flowers of dusky hue--purple, midnight blue, maroon, ochre--bloomed everywhere.  Black lillies, purple-black roses, 
and blue-black lotuses seemed to dominate the others.  The scent was rich and wonderful and not a little dizzying.  If it 
were possible to become stoned merely from scent, I would have been.
    It was incredibly beautiful, and incredibly dangerous.  I knew that instinctively.  I would have to be careful.  In addition 
to daedra, who knew what beasts lurked in this realm?