"Was that Kagrenac you killed?"

"I think so... He looked like the - actually bizarrely firm image in my head, I'm not sure if from Akatosh or the vision..."

"Good. So then you have his presumably-important notes, and..." glance over her shoulder, "everything else seems to be burning nicely."

"Yeah. Don't think there's anything else holding us here." Squeeze. "Unless we want to try for the volcano workshop..."

"Do you consider your obligation to Akatosh discharged?"

She nods. "For this, at least - still have 'read a random physics textbook when home' but that's not really relevant here."

"Then I think we're done here."

"Yeah."

Back down the road then, as Lace keeps healing - sometimes off it, it's best not to be spotted coming away from all that smoke...

Indeed. Quite aside from vengeful Dwemer, the other locals might take exception to the disruption of a hitherto lucrative trading opportunity.

Well, with no actually exploding volcanoes, the land around the path is lush, green, and easy to quickly hide in. They're able to make it back to port with no one noticing them - or which direction they entered from - and from there it's relatively easy to book a ship to Morrowind, near the largest shrine of Azura on Tamriel (and the best initial lead for the Star). 

And they can make some subtle inquiries as to its present or recent whereabouts.

That's a bit hard to find out - but eventually (plus or minus some hypnosis) the trail leads them to 'it was stolen in a raid, and the survivors identified their attackers as vampires.'

Tch. Typical.

'Vampires' could cover a lot of ground, but under the circumstances, 'Harkon' is a likely bet.

"Unpleasant..." Lace murmurs. "And I don't think we'll catch it in transit back."

"No," Elana agrees. "We will have to confront him."

She nods. "And we haven't had a chance yet to draw away his people really..."

"No, but our hand is forced. We cannot allow him to complete his ritual."

"That'd be worse, yeah." Lean. "I bet we can handle them together, anyways."

"There hasn't proven to be much in this world we can't."

Grin. "Yeah. Some caution doesn't hurt, though. Nor does planning."

"Indeed. Which we can do on the way back."

"Onward, then."

Back to the the port, to take ship to Solitude.

Lace has not gotten over her hatred of boats, sadly.

Solitude is much the same as they left it - there's some increased hints of unease in the streets, but the world hasn't suddenly ended yet or anything. Someone without a heart beat, but who can't seem to help shuffling around, is watching the port from a convenient shadow. It's the early morning, the sun having just risen, and the port's already bustling.

Elana quietly points them out to Lace. "A potential informant."