Simon took Serana to the Elven Tooth ruins, which connected to Blackreach. He had come here with Jonas before, but this time his target was the mechanism that opened the passage.
This was a brass truncated pyramid, with a square base measuring four feet and three inches on each side, a top measuring three feet on each side, and a height of one and a half feet. Its four sides were slatted panels, inside was a sound-producing structure, and at the bottom, steam pipes connected to the ruins' boiler pipes. Simon disassembled it.
In the days to come, Simon intended to thoroughly study this item. Besides that, the brass orb in the Tower of Mzark used to decipher the elder scrolls also greatly intrigued him, but this item was too important to simply dismantle. Simon planned to explore other Dwemer ruins to find similar brass orb machines.
Serana had recently been playing the lute. She said that she had received a formal music education in her youth, a noble-style private tutelage. Although music was still very primitive back then, art often doesn't pursue novelty; instead, it's the retro-style melodies that can truly captivate and resonate with people.
Serana: "Legend has it that the first instrument on Nirn was made from the body of a beautiful maiden. The Mad God, who walked among mortals, tore her apart. Her tendons became a lute, her skull and femurs became drums, and her leg bones became flutes. It's quite terrifying to think about."
Simon merely hummed in response. He stood before the brass music platform, placed the spherical tuner into its groove, and then manipulated the crystal disc, like a DJ scratching records.
The internal structure of the Dwemer music platform was multifaceted, including a steam power system, mechanical transmission structure, magical constructs, photosensitive components, sound emitters, and more, which made Simon scratch his head.
Although the interior was extraordinarily complex, the external operating components were quite simple: four nested, overlapping brass mechanism spheres. They were cut off along the top of the music platform, revealing onion-like layers. The innermost brass sphere was intact and inlaid with blue crystal, forming part of the photosensitive component.
The brass spheres could rotate and move, effectively acting as trigger buttons. By adjusting them to different angles and positions, this process would drive the internal mechanical assembly of the music platform to record information, which would then be converted into different notes and even tones by the tuner. If one were to make an analogy, it is very similar to a synthesizer: sound effects are set via the brass spheres, then processed by the tuner, and finally, the internal system converts mechanical information into sound information.
The exposed parts of the three partially cut brass spheres were three brass rings, each with marker points. These three rings were the note zones, while the central brass sphere, inlaid with crystal, was used to control volume, frequency, and other information.
The tuner could record a complete melody, like a memory card, allowing an entire piece of music to be played.
Dwemer music, of course, was no ordinary music; it was magicka resonance music, which sounded very high-class. In reality, it was indeed high art, appreciated by few.
Listening to resonance music demanded high qualities from the audience: one had to be a genius highly sensitive to magicka, and possess a considerable degree of appreciation and imagination to grasp its artistic beauty. The utterly ignorant would only hear the mechanical sound of vibrating reeds, deaf to the vast, deep-space-like melodies hidden behind, while the general public would be bewildered by the music's expressive content.
Simon had recently lamented his lack of leisure, but now he had directly become a musician... After leaving Yngol's Barrow, Simon and Serana went to Windhelm. They heard that it had been snowing intermittently for three months, with overcast skies most of the time. Only a few days were clear, and even then, the sky wasn't pristine blue; lingering clouds still hovered.
Since one was a beast-person and the other a Vampire, they always wore some disguise when out.
Simon wore a large cloak and robe, his tall stature intimidating. His arms were unusually long, his fingertips reaching his knees when standing straight. Even with his gentle expression, he was difficult to approach.
Serana had changed out of her iconic black and red Vampire leather armor, donning a comfortable, thick, deep-purple down-filled cotton cloth coat and a clumsy, icy-white wolf fur felt hat. To conceal her crimson eyes, she also wore a silver enchanted mask with a hundred-flower engraving. Although it had no eyeholes, her vision was excellent, and all colors were visible.
Their attire made them seem like eccentric strangers. Before entering, they were questioned by the guards. Serana's Nordic was not very good, and Simon's explanation left the Imperial soldiers from Cyrodiil utterly confused.
Soldier: "Are you Nords?"
Simon: "Yes."
Soldier: "Is she too?" He pointed to her eyes.
Simon nodded, "She can see the way, no need to worry."
Soldier: "What is your purpose in coming to Windhelm?"
Simon: "Sightseeing."
Soldier: "I've seen many young people like you, relying on their strength to ask the Jarl to join his personal guard. But I don't recommend you do that. Remember my advice."
Simon: "Can we go in now?"
The soldier let them pass.
Each city in Skyrim has its own characteristics, of course, referring to the prosperous cities. The impoverished ones are all uniformly ugly; places like Solitude, Dawnstar, and Winterhold look pretty much the same.
If Solitude's temperament is melancholic, Whiterun's is ardent, Markarth's is manic-depressive, and The Rift's is insidious, then Windhelm's temperament is oppressive and iron-blooded. This tall, ancient stone city has massive red iron city gates that are thirty feet high. Even two giants stacked on top of each other could swagger in, let alone Simon.
Thick, pale snow accumulated everywhere, covering all flat surfaces. Snowdrifts lined the streets, and people in burlap clothes shoveled snow into carts to be transported out of the city and discarded. Grey-black stones reflected a heavy glimmer under the gloomy, cloudy weather. Even during the day, fires and braziers burned throughout the city, with thinly dressed vagrants and beggars—elderly, disabled, and children—huddling around them for warmth.
There were two groups responsible for guarding: one consisted of Imperial soldiers in brown leather armor, and the other was the Stormcloaks army in blue leather armor. The latter were Jarl Ulfric's personal guard, recently gaining fame, with many young people coming to join them. As for the former, they were garrison troops sent by Cyrodiil to monitor Windhelm's movements, ready to suppress any uprising at a critical moment.
The two factions were incompatible and often engaged in verbal clashes.
Simon: "It seems that crisis is inevitable."
Serana: "What crisis?"
"War."
"Ha, isn't that quite normal for the Nord people?"
"Good point."
Windhelm's best tavern was, of course, Candlehearth Hall. The owner would explain the origin of its name to curious guests.
"The candle on the hearth was lit 150 years ago and has not gone out since. Back then, this building belonged to a great warrior named Vundheim. When he fell in battle, his son, Davicott, lit the candle to commemorate his father's glory. See, brothers, this is history, the pride of the Nords."
His words drew cheers from several Nords on the first floor of the tavern, then those upstairs also joined in, creating a lively atmosphere. However, people of other races fell into an awkward silence.
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