Secrets Overheard in Apocrypha Content . The Seeker s pretend that they cannot talk , but they can . For I have heard them . They can both understand speech , and utter it , though they do so with a hissing lisp . I shall tell you how I know . As is so often the case since I came to Apocrypha , I was cowering behind a stack of books , hiding from the baleful attentions of a towering gill - man whose notice I had inadvertently caught . I listened to hear if I was still gibbering , but I couldn ' t hear it , which usually means I ' m not . Then I heard something else . Just beyond my concealing tower of tomes was one of those endless halls lined with numberless urns , halls that I have assiduously avoided ever since I learned that each urn houses , in a broth of noisome fluid , a living concept - organ excised from its corpus . I do not like those urns . From the entrance to this hall of urns came the all - too - familiar squelching sound of a Seeker ' s footfalls . But then it stopped , and in its place I heard , for the first time , the sticky sound of a speaking Seeker . — I know a thing , the Seeker lisped , as a frisson of horror danced down my spine . — Is it a thing worth knowing ? came the hollow , sourceless voice of the organ in the hithermost urn . — You shall judge , Floater . I have learned why we have seen no mortal intruders , save for the demented wizard , in many turns of the Great Pages . — You know nothing , said the organ . — I know Old Antecedent has entered into an agreement with the mortals , a compact , as they say . Is that nothing ? asked the Seeker . — Next to nothing . The Golden Eye is always entering into pacts with mortals . Thus my woeful condition . — Avoid self - pity , or I shall mock you . You do not like it when I mock you . Listen attentively . — I listen . — In truth , the Scryer enters into many pacts with mortals — but never before has he made a pact with every mortal on Nirn . — Bah . Unlikely . — I state it ! It is a thing that is known . — How ? — I heard a discussion between Scrivener Uu - Thorax and the Eleventh Preceptor . They came into the Crepuscule , where I was quietly … . — Seeking ? — Yes . In fact . Now , listen : the Scrivener told the Preceptor that the Inevitable Knower had agreed to a pact , to cease all direct interposition in Mundial affairs . — Impossible . I scoff . Mock me as you will . — So thought I , and likewise the Preceptor expressed skepticism , but then the Scrivener spoke a Word of Asseveration . Books scattered everywhere , ichor fountained from my ear - holes , and I knew what he said was a Known Thing . — But why ? To meddle with mortals and wrest from them their knowledge is the Ur - Daedra ' s favorite pastime . — He seems to have been paid a great price , something he dearly desired , but I could not clearly hear what , due to the injury to my ear - holes . — It is knowledge , of course . Some great secret . It is ever so . — So I deem it as well . And it seems this compact binds in both directions , which is why the mortals come here no more , added the Seeker . — Except for the mad mage . How came he here , and upon what ill errand ? asked the urn - organ . — I know not . But if we catch him , we will pull out his … what is that sound ? I heard it too , and so I ran . For I knew that sound . It was gibbering .