Ruby's pain tolerance really is getting trained up, here though honestly after the giant he thinks nothing can faze him again. Still, the fight ends quickly enough; none of the orc raiders seems to have kept their mind, and they all attack indiscriminately—sometimes even their own people.

He doesn't like how nonchalant this experience is making him about killing people. He really doesn't.

And when it's done, Erandur stops, closes his eyes, and murmurs, "Mother Mara, please forgive us for the violence that was necessary, and please forgive your children their sins. We are small and mortal, and we know not the extent of the consequences of our actions." Then he opens his eyes again and looks at Ruby. "There are some more rooms farther down that aren't blocked off by the forcefield and which probably have more people in them."

He's probably really a priest of Mara. It's only that, if Ruby is wrong about that and Erandur releases the Skull of Corruption the problem will be much worse than just Ruby's death or whatever the terrible worse-than-death fate is that Vaermina can inflict on him. There's a whole city being affected by all of this and that's while the Skull is sealed.

Anywho, they can explore the parts of the tower that aren't sealed off by that one energy field.

They run into more fighters. The majority of them seem to have had their minds deteriorated beyond reason, with only a handful of exceptions amongst some of the Vaermina devotees, who are nevertheless incredibly angry about the invading orcs and about how all of their friends are dead and are also fighting to the death. Erandur doesn't cast any magic that harms the people there, only buffs and protects and heals Ruby, and when Ruby asks he says that he made a holy vow to Mara to never use magic to harm another again.

The library spans two rooms, and then beyond it is an alchemy lab and a store room for alchemical ingredients. And yes, they can in fact find vials of Vaermina's Torpor there.

"No. I'm sorry, I know this must be frustrating, but it is too much of a risk. And besides, we don't even know whether I would count as sufficiently unaffiliated, given Sanguine."

He sighs. "I understand. Then I would ask you to watch my back while I work on this barrier. It will take a while."

"That I can do."

It does, in fact, take a while. It's pretty impressive, actually, that Erandur can remain concentrated on one thing for this long, but Ruby supposes that it must be interesting, actually; from what he can see, the barrier is deviously built, with lots of traps Erandur is having to work around or disable. Ruby thinks that the battering ram approach just would not work, here, and might kill you to boot.

It does, in fact, take a while. It akes an hour. Two hours. At hour three Erandur is sagging. At four he releases the magic and stumbles over to lean against a wall.

And the barrier is still up.

"...no good?"

"I'm—I'm sorry. 'Tis beyond me." He shakes his head. "Perhaps this is Mara's trial for me. If I renounce her, I might be able to drink the Torpor myself."

"Mara's trial?"

"What is important here is not following a god, it is following her precepts. If the path of love and compassion is one in which I am no longer Mara's, then... I believe she would forgive me, and I believe she would want me to do it. The innocents who are being affected by the nightmares and those who might yet suffer at the hands of the cultists are worth more than my devotion or the salvation of my own soul."

...Ruby's tired of holding onto the suspicious frame of mind. He thinks, he really thinks, that Erandur has had enough opportunities to get rid of him, or work against him. Hells, if he had taken the side of his more lucid erstwhile companions during the earlier fight, Ruby doesn't think he would've been able to overcome them.

"I'll do it."

"No. Your suspicions are warranted, and I would not ask that you betray your principles for this. This is my project, and it is my sin to atone for. Your help has been invaluable, but I will not have you shoulder this burden."

"You've... proven yourself. I think it would be just as much a betrayal of my principles, to not believe the evidence of my senses.

"I... trust you."

"...very well. I will do my best to be worthy of your trust."

"And just in case, the Dremora is still bound to me, so if you do anything untoward you will have it to contend with."

Erandur cracks a smile at that. "Trust, but verify."

"Oh that's a useful phrase, I like it, I'm stealing it."

They can return to the alchemical lab and fetch the Torpor, then.

"It should be just a matter of imbibing it. I will hold aloft a memory, and I believe it will preferentially use that memory. When you find yourself on the other side of this barrier, will yourself awake, and you will be there."

"Sounds straightforward enough. Here's to hoping this works." And he drinks the potion.

Erandur is in the inner sanctum of the tower, standing by the altar where the Skull of Corruption can be found. Two other cultists are there with him.

    "The orcs have reached the inner sanctum, Brother Veren," says one of them.

        "We must hold; we cannot allow the Skull to fall into their hands," the other one replies.

    "I share your conviction, Brother, but... no more than a handful of us remain. The orcs have us overpowered and outnumbered. You know what we must do, yes?"

"We have no choice," Erandur agrees. "We must release the Miasma."

    He nods. "We have no alternative. We must put our faith in Lord Vaermina, that she will send her chosen to recover the Skull."

        The one named Veren looks at Erandur. "Brother Casimir, you must activate the barrier and release the Miasma." Then he looks at the other one: "Brother Thorek, you and I must remain here and see to it that none reach our Lord's holiest artefact."

    "To the death."

"I... I will not disappoint you. Farewell, my brothers. The will of Vaermina be done."

    "The will of Vaermina be done," the other two agree.

The rest of the memory seems almost a blur, probably an artefact of Erandur himself not remembering it well. He walks past pockets of fighting, through rooms and up stairs and ramps, all the way up to just before where the barrier will be, in the future. An image of Lord Vaermina is engraved on the wall, there, and after sending a prayer up into the heavens, Erandur—Casimir—activates a complex spell hidden inside the image to release the Miasma into the whole tower and to activate the barriers in and around the temple.

...and, after a moment's hesitation, he decides to escape rather than stay inside with the other cultists.

But Ruby doesn't want to follow him out, so he wills himself awake before Casimir can cross the threshold of the barrier-to-be.

It feels just like waking up from a daydream, like he was reliving a memory of his own in a moment's reverie, and he would almost believe it to be so, were it not for the fact that he does now find himself on the other side of the barrier.

He can feel the Miasma on this side, thick on the ground, start to take effect on him, but before it can do that he sends the pulse of magicka into the barrier which Erandur said should suffice to break it. It's meant to keep people out, not to keep anyone in, and thus is designed to be easy to take down from here.

It works as expected, and as the Miasma starts spilling out it stops affecting Ruby.

"Remarkable... Your body just vanished and then reappeared on the other side."