They aren't talking much, and the two that exchange words don't do so in an easily understandable language (it sounds tauntingly familiar, though, but not quite able to be placed). They're dressed in what looks like scavenged clothing - rags, often of the same material as the creatures' cloth, and occasionally a bit of chitinous armor. Most carry either the same sort of weapons as the eyeless creatures or rarely dwarven knives. They avoid the eyeless creatures, largely, but aren't hostile towards them.

Slaves, or descendants of slaves, most likely. Is there a way to get up closer to the lamp without drawing attention?

They might be sneaky enough, the area isn't exactly crowded, but there isn't any obvious way up to the lamp itself - maybe through some of those buildings? One overlooks the lamp. The area under the lamp itself doesn't have any buildings; it isn't clear from here if it has people.

She just wants to get close enough to discern the magic powering it.

They could go directly under it, or that tower across from them has a platform very nearby it - possibly angled just right to jump onto the intricate metal cage around the orb, if they're feeling reckless.

She is probably not feeling that reckless but that sounds like a better vantage. She indicates it to Ena.

She nods, and starts scouting out a path - there isn't one really without running into the creatures or their slaves, but the enemies are far enough apart from each other she should be able to silently take them out one by one.

Good. As long as there aren't any unexpected automata and that giant doesn't come back, even if an alarm is raised they should be able to handle it.

Ena is extremely efficient when her opponent is standing in brightly lit surroundings and she isn't. Even once she moves into the light, she's able to stay mostly unseen - one of the servants gets a glimpse of her, but no chance to yell before he's dead and she's easing him to the ground.

The tower itself has a small crowd in its entrance hall, mostly slaves sitting around a table. Ena downs two before combat begins, but the one eyeless creature in the room is no threat, and the slaves are even less of one.

The problem comes when it's time to ascend - the only way up is a lift, and a creature is standing right in the doorway at the top. It shrieks when it sees them, and cries of alarm raise from elsewhere in the tower.

Ena curses, drops a flame atronach, and backs up enough to shift into her vampire lord form.

She hates having to fight her way out of places.

On the other hand, sometimes it's nice to cut loose.

One of the creatures is far more powerful than the others, dressed more heavily in engraved chitin, wielding bolts of lightning, but even that one still goes down.

Once the dust settles, the platform itself can be explored. There's a throne overlooking the orb and city. The orb is tantalizingly close, the detail in the metal cage surrounding it readily apparent. It's bright, up here, almost painfully so after the gloom of Blackreach.

Most interesting. She's not seen anything like this before. What of the throne?

Ornate and metallic, though much of the detail's been covered by layers of grime.

Any connections to the orb?

They're clearly both made by the same people, sharing details in the design, but nothing magical it seems.

That's a little disappointing. She'd hoped the throne would be some sort of control.

Ena, meanwhile, is using the new vantage to scope out enemies - and their path going forward.

She glances uneasily at the sun. "Is it me, or is something moving in there?"

Elana takes a closer look.

There is definitely something moving in there. It's hard to tell if it's the slow swirl of a liquid or something sinuous and coiling.

The sun almost pulses softly.

"Something tells me we would prefer not to find out."

"Yeah. Do you still want a closer look?"

"No. Let us move on."

Nod. She glances around again, says, "I don't think there's anything else between us and that tower we spotted earlier, too, so it shouldn't be too hard from here on out."

"Good."

And back down the lift, across the plaza, and down the road they go. Ena is indeed able to trace a path without any opposition.

There's a lift up from the base of the tower when they get there, and Ena's on high alert as it rises after what happened last time, but the room at the top's entirely empty.