She shakes her head. "No. For one, I need to warn you about something - the Dark Brotherhood's sent an assassin after me. Reportedly a vampire named Babette, in the form of a girl child. I suspect she's a good bit behind me, since I somewhat cheat when traveling, but she should show up eventually."

"Well, that's a mess." He shakes his head. "She won't be let directly into the city, but there's paths around the gate. We've found and guarded most, but that's no guarantee, and someone determined could get in anyways. And she might just lie in wait out in Markarth Side." He leans back a bit. "We're not fond of the undead, and I could increase detection measures - put more mages among the outer guards - under the excuse of keeping out vampiric infiltrators. Which is a legitimate threat, and is how I suspect most vampires were getting inside cities to cause chaos in the first place."

"That'd probably be smart." She rubs at her face. "There's intelligence I need to pass on. That I should, honestly, probably give to every hold and faction. The vampires that've been attacking have a singular leader. A dangerous one." She explains the Volkihar, then - though she skims over Ena betraying her. "They've got some interest in the Elder Scrolls, though I haven't been able to find out what. Prophecy, most likely."

"Let's hope they're not an apocalyptic vampiric cult. I've had enough trouble with the dragon cults experiencing a come-back." He makes a face. "Still, thanks for the warning. I'll see what information our elders know, and what can be found in Markarth's archives - or that Museum of the Voice here. I'll pass anything I find on."

"Thanks." Lianda lays back beside him. "This entire situation is… Tough. To understate things dramatically. But I'm glad to have you as an ally."

He nods, opens his mouth - but is interrupted by a commotion from below. A guard is trying to get up the trails, waving her arms at them and whistling.

Maeghin stands, says, "I need to respond to that," and starts nimbly jumping down the mountainside.

Lianda follows, and is in time to hear the ensuing conversation.

"Report!" Maeghin calls, as he slides to a halt before the guard.

"Sir, there's a situation in the Keep. Our Lady would like your assistance in containing it," the guard responds, only somewhat out of breath.

Maeghin nods, says, "I'll be right there," and then turns to Lianda. "Sorry to cut this short, but I need to go."

"That's fine," she says immediately, then pauses to think. He's unlikely to turn her away if she goes with him, especially if a sword-arm is needed, but she's not sure she wants to further entangle herself…

She considers just going about her day. Very, very briefly. And then: "I'll come with you, to help."

Maeghin clearly hesitates, then nods. "Sure. Come on, let's go see what's on fire."

She follows him and the messenger down the mountainside and across the city - at a fast walk, not a run, the streets are moderately crowded and he's apparently valuing not alarming people over speed. The guards at the Keep let them in immediately, and their messenger leads them to the left instead of further into the throne area - though from the shouting and clanging it's fairly obvious where the problem is.

The already cavernous entrance hall opens into a gargantuan room, clearly once the entrance to a Dwemeri city, going by the elaborate facade along one wall and the outlying towers. There's also giant spiders swarming over the walls towards the exits, and one as large as a mammoth shrieking in the center. The guards seem to be mostly trying to get their people out of the room, and keep the spiders from getting elsewhere.

Lianda thinks, evaluates the shouts she knows, and says to Maeghin: "If you can get me a path clear of people we don't want hurt…"

He glances at her, then evaluates the room. "Depending on your aim, that wall's clear. Let's get you to the front."

She nods, and follows him into the fray. As soon as she's clear of allies, she pauses, plants her feet, and roars, sending a blast of force rippling through the spiders in front of her, throwing them and killing most of the smaller ones. There's a pause, and then the survivors shrieks and more pour down towards her. Another shout causes a few to balk and try to flee over their fellows, entangling them in little fights - and reducing the numbers that face her sword while she catches her breath on the first shout.

A fireball arcs past her, explodes in the center of the spiders, and then Maeghin is surging forwards, cloaked in flame as he fights. His weapon's odd, like a large flattened club, but it seems useful against the spiders.

The two of them tear their way through their side of the room, arcing towards the largest spider in the center. Elsewhere the guards seem to be having their own luck, as more reinforcements arrive and the number of spiders pouring from the entrance into the Dwemeri city thins out.

Finally, they reach the ravine that separates them from the rear wall. Maeghin pauses, and glances at her.

"You alright getting to the bridge?" she asks. "I can clear the ravine."

"Should be," he says, though he's breathing heavily and clearly low on magicka. "See you there." And he's off, wrecking his way through the few ground spiders.

Lianda turns, lines herself up, and calls, the thu'um lending her enough speed to fling herself forwards and over the gap.  There's fewer spiders where she lands - fortunate, since it takes her a moment to recover herself. The main threat here is the largest spider, which is currently being forced back towards the door by a very, very angry Aithne.

(There's other guards helping her. They don't seem to be doing nearly as much damage).

Lianda darts in, identifies a clear path, then uses her thu'um to create spikes of ice under the spider. It shrieks and dances, but it's moving more slowly and sluggishly now. Targeting its belly will be hard with just her sword, and it's too large to easily throw, so she focuses on slashing at its legs, spinning to unleash fire or frost as seems appropriate whenever she catches her breath.

The other guards back off as Maeghin arrives, leaving the spider to just the three of them.

Soon enough the spider crashes to the ground, flailing and trying to bite them. Lianda backs off, and Aithne scowls. A brilliant light forms in the Forsworn woman's hand, which she thrusts towards the spider, scorching it - and evidently killing it. The woman turns, glances at Lianda, and says, "Clear out the rest of this rabble," before throwing herself back into the fray.

Lianda doesn't bother wasting time acknowledging that, instead spinning to cut down a spider leaping at them. The spiders are increasingly agitated, many of them turning to swarm down towards the largest's corpse, lunging at anyone in their way. A few manage to scratch Lianda, and she has to breath through the pulsing pain their venom causes. She's barely given time to heal herself as the fight wears on, but gradually the booms from elsewhere fade (she glimpses Aithne littering the floor with explosive runes out of the corner of her eye), and the horde of spiders thins.

The last spider in her reach dies, and she turns to look around. There's stragglers, still, mostly on the walls and ceilings, but they're being rapidly picked off by the guards' bows. A small force is picking its way through the downed spiders, making sure they're all dead, and another is retrieving the battle's casualties. Lianda heals herself another time, then goes to help.

One thing she notices, as she joins the healers in the field hospital, is that there's far, far fewer dead among the defenders than she'd expect from a confrontation this size. Plenty of wounded, but the healers - Forsworn and Markarth alike - are skilled, even if the Markarth healers linger longer over their patients, smoothing over future scars. She takes the Forsworn's approach when healing - if it won't hinder your future mobility, it doesn't matter. Beauty's for diplomats, not warriors.

Aithne strides up after a while, and joins the healers herself after helping fix the ad hoc organization and triage. Her aid, and the aid of more guards with minor magical talents to help the least injured, speeds up the process considerably, and soon she's gesturing at Maeghin and Lianda to follow her.

Lianda stands, hands over care of her patients, washes her hands, then follows.

Aithne leads them in what appears to be a war room. The maps of the overland have been moved aside in favor of maps of what seems to be a Dwemeri cave system. The court wizard's pacing on one side, clearly agitated and showing signs of having been recently healed. There's others - some Lianda recognizes as people belonging to Markarth, who seem uncertain about the Forsworn around them, and others she doesn't know.

"We need to find out what caused this," Aithne says, voice blunt. "Calcemo sent an expedition into the ruins three months ago, and hasn't heard from them in two months - around the time spiders blocked off the deeper entrance. The spiders have never swarmed like this before, and it's unclear what has them doing so."

Another Forsworn - a man, a bit on the small side for his people, clears his throat, then at a nod from Aithne speaks up. "They were frightened. Fleeing, with little regard for their own safety, and no regard for what stands in their way. There are few things animals that size will naturally fear. I'm no expert on the Dwemer, but this seems… Concerning, to say the least."

"The Dwemer are long gone, and the ruins - well they're obviously not safe, but the hasn't been a single recorded case of Dwemeri automatons threatening those outside their ruins," Calcemo snaps. "My workers know better than to touch anything strange, too."

"I doubt it was your expedition," Aithne says, evenly. "There's records of prior expeditions into those ruins. This is something else, most likely."

Lianda considers, but - for all that she's been into Dwemeri ruins before, usually accompanying Malielle on some quest, she's not an expert in the way she is on Daedric matters.

Aithne raises a hand to cut off any further protests, and continues with, "In fact, I'm sending another expedition in, to get to the root of this matter. Which is why I've called many of you here - I won't make it a demand. I ask for volunteers only."