My bodyguard and I headed to the now destroyed statue in the middle of the plaza.

Our mission was simple: get in, find out what we could, and report back.

One of the High Ordinators asked what we were doing. "Investigating this hole for the Temple." I replied.

"Then may the grace of the Lady be with you." was his reply.

We located the ladder, and made our way down the entrance into the cave below.

It took the Belt of Night Eye to see what was down here. I had to wonder who put up the ladder in the first place.

It was obvious that someone wanted these machines to attack the city. The question was "who?"

We started heading down the tunnel when we suddenly heard shock spells and the clash of metal on metal up ahead.

Quickly, we made out way to the source of the racket. Suddenly, there was a huge opening in the tunnel ahead of us. It opened up into a huge chamber.

The view before me was astounding. It was a huge arena, and there was a battle raging down on the floor below me.

There, on the floor below us, we could see huge Dwemer steam centurions and sphere centurions doing battle with a number of these new machines.

As each Dwemer machine attacked, the other machines changed, moving behind their attackers, sometimes attacking in packs, sometimes attacking from behind.

I wasn't certain who was winning, or if the Dwemer machines had attacked first. It was very confusing.

The fabricant machines attacked, then dropped back, staying out of the range of the steam centurion's battle mace attack.

As one group of new machines backed away, a different type of machine jumped in to continue the attack.

One Dwemer centurion sphere was holding his own, keeping one of the machines off guard by shooting darts at it.

Two of the fabricants attacked a huge steam centurion, taking bites out of his metal legs, then jumping back to avoid the centurion's attack.

Suddenly, the air was filled with the sound and light of shock spells. I wasn't certain who was casting them. It looked like the Dwemer machines started them, but I wasn't able to tell for sure.

More shock spells.

They seemed to come from everywhere now, affecting both Dwemer and the fabricants alike.

My bodyguard tapped me on the shoulder, obviously noticing that I was mesmerized by this unusual display of mechanical battle tactics.

"Seen enough?" he asked.

"Yes." I replied. "I am certain these new devices are not of Dwemer origin, and that someone else controls them directly."

We made our way back down the tunnel and up the ladder to the damaged plaza statue.

I told my bodyguard to wait for me while I reported back to the Temple with the information we had gathered.

Fedris Hler was most anxious for the news when I arrived, immediately asking if I had found out anything about the disturbance in the plaza. I explained to him the battle raging under our very feet by two very different styles of machines.

"You say these new creatures were fighting with the Dwemer creatures?" he said. "This is very disturbing. Only someone with great power could control these fabricant creatures."

He thought for a moment, the continued, "Almalexia will be interested to hear this news. I'm sure she'll have some insight into it.

I had to chuckle to myself.  And here I thought I was done with Mournhold, and was heading back home.

No rest for the weary, I guess.

Once again, I headed to the High Chapel to discuss business with Almalexia.