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Hunger dragged at the throat of the great beastman who guarded the temple far in the depths of Caelid. His service had been so very long, and his hunger had grown unsated. Deathroot and all its buds had become an obsession since his queen entrusted him with their destruction. Death was his domain alone, in secret and in hushed whispers. Those who would dare defy the order of things were deserving of such visceral rendings as far as the beastman was concerned.
So he was the first to feel the sudden embers that lit across every torch in the temple as the gargoyle outside began to crumble audibly. Long had it guarded him and this place, but as the flame of change began to kindle within the beastman himself, his thoughts instantly snapped back to visions of many golden threads dangling between great corpse pillars. His queen sat amidst a vast quantity of blood as gold was born. He saw the tragedies of countless burning bodies and the endless quivering damned bereft of grace in the vast catacombs of the lands between. Lost to the favor of the erdtree, their souls are doomed to wander in darkness and death. Those who lived in death suffered greatly at that fate.
He roared loudly as it quaked the stone walls and flickered the many sconces of the ancient place. His mind assaulted by so many visions of things he either sealed away or had long since forgotten. Secrets and tragedies his queen had done and had both himself and her own children take part in.
It was then the beastman saw the fallen Godwyn before him, if ever so briefly. The golden haired man with the perfect physique befitting a demigod. Shirtless with a slightly ripped cloak that hung around his waist and the same braided headband in his hair that Marika often wore.
"Prince... Godwyn...?" the beastman mumbled in pained confusion. It only took moments to realize this was not a vision but a soul before him. The soul of Godwyn the golden, who had surely died at the hand of the stolen rune of death. The symbol of the beastman's greatest shame. Now, stood before him as alive as any who slept within the Erdtree.
"Thank you, Maliketh. In doing your duty, you preserved me enough for this day. You are free now. Mother thanks you, Uncle." He spoke so kindly, and with the same warm nature he had remembered. As that spirit began to fade away from his vision, the beastman felt his eyes begin to water in a way they had not for many centuries.
He was free.
That was when the rumbling truly began to rip across all of Caelid.
...
???
The lady slowly looked up with tearful eyes as she laid weakly on her chair. A smile slowly spread as she witnessed the trail of little golden spirits as it arced across the now moving stars, and she recognized her god. Her beloved god was to be reborn. She felt the rumbles within moments of this realization, but there was little concern to be found in her heart.
Her goal had been realized. Even if he was to be born to another's womb, he was to be born, and those who lived in death would at last be as loved as those who lived. She felt the ground begin to grow loose, and for a moment, the worry of the end came like a creeping worm at the edge of her thoughts. She began to feel her own mind drift as the crumbling ground began to give way. Perhaps it was shock. Perhaps it was even just acceptance.
She would not be awake for the arms that caught her and carried her to safety. The omen would take great care, however, to ensure her comfort. While he had not seen her for some time, he knew this Fia was important to his sister Melina. He had his suspicions, but they were best left quiet.
His sister was a fickle little candle, after all.
...
Melina
"This sucks." The little candle grumbled around the fire as she huddled into her cloak.
Ranni sighed gently before moving and wrapping her heavy cloak around her. "Here." She said gently. Melina relaxed slightly, nestling into the thick wooly cloak and Ranni's strangely warm body. While whatever condition seemed to have robbed Melina of her spirit form entirely, it had strangely restored Ranni to her demigod self. Flesh and bone, alongside the powers that came with. For Ranni, as a child of Radagan, she exuded a perpetual warmth. Normally, this would seem like charisma, but when in the flesh, it also acted as a natural ability to warm those she came in close contact with from even harsh weather.
"Hopefully, Blaidd will return with good news." She said. He had set up their camp before hurriedly rushing back to Liurnia to meet up with their allies. She knew he could navigate the strange and elaborate passageways, but she worried he may have forgotten their task. She had, with Blaidd's aid, slain her own two fingers. It had freed her in more ways than she had realized, especially when she mysteriously returned to flesh. However, it had laid bare a worry of hers. Blaidd had become strangely fitful in the fight, even berserk at times. They had calmed down after the two fingers laid dead, but her worries were still present. She wondered if he had found them and then forgotten entirely about Ranni and Melina.
Melina, for her part, had taken time to do what she could to gather supplies. It thankfully was not a far journey from where she was to get back, but the lack of flight and a horse alongside the fact most of the lands between sounded like it was currently tearing itself in half made the actual trek quite a bit harder than just distance.
They had decided to make camp instead where she had landed and hope that Blaidd would eventually lead them to the snowfields to meet up with them. Sadly, she was not there to guide them away from Leyndell. She hoped Morgott was that aligned to simply aid them instead after all they'd discussed, but she was not free of doubt just yet. Morgott was old and tired. She chose, however, to have faith in him. He had surprised her in her defense before. She trusted he would come through once more.
She looked at the fire that crackled in their little camp. A smile crept across her face as she admired its dancing flames. She had always loved the way it burned, but her mother had warned her early about the dangers of frenzied flames. She knew that true fire existed to make way for new things, not simply reduce all things to nothing.
A hand gently stretched from their shared cloak and caressed a few dancing flames. Ranni watched a bit in awe at the clear talent for pyromantic sorcery. The flames seemed to even caress Melina's fingers the way a friend would playfully tease anothers fingers while whispering a secret. It was a truly beautiful thing to watch for the snow witch.
"I had no idea you could.." she trailed off slowly as she watched.
Melina smiled gently. "You never asked, lady Ranni."
"Just... Ranni, from now on." She said softly, hugging Melina just a little bit closer to the reddening of the younger's cheeks. Ranni felt a need to cling, if a little, to her friend now. She had terribly little experience with such direct communication but felt that honesty would serve best.
"Well.... Ranni," the little candle started, "You may call me Melina then."
"Oh, no more little candle then?" The witch playfully teased.
"Hmph, only when it is just us from now on." She pouted and slightly puffed her cheeks.
"I can do that." The snow witch whispered in Melina's ear.
It sent a subtle shiver through Melina, and a feeling of both relaxation began to come over her as her eyes grew heavy. "Rest..." she heard the snow witch whisper, and the flames slowly faded from her slumbering vision.
...
Marika
She watched her knight preparing the ropes and satchel back onto Torrent as they packed up camp. Looking ahead was the great stone walkway that led like a paved golden road towards her once so glorious capital. Her eyes trailed across the now crumbled and broken cobblestones, and once golden brickwork that had become overgrown in moss and deteriation.
A hand drifted quietly to her stomach as a smile dared to form still. Her eyes lingered instead on the little sapling flowered that had persistently sprouted through the cracks. The little forests dotted the slowly growing forests near the long slumbering Erdtree saplings that counted numerously along these lands. She had hoped once that they would one day become roots for each of her children to raise great kingdoms of their own. A distant fever dream now, yet hope still lingered to a future now less restricted by old ways.
"Hey, come on." Her lover said as she offered her a hand with a smile.
"All packed?" She said as she took the palm, hoisted onto the back of Torrent.
"Yep. Now we ride for the Capitol."
"That is what I fear."
"Why?"
"Because I do not think any will welcome me home." She said fearfully.
Her knight seemed to get quiet as Torrent began a steady trot along the stone walkway. She would get so thoughtful at times. It made Marika wonder just how deep this theatrical, dramatic side was real and how much was a mask, or even which was the true mask. Worse still, she wasn't sure which held her heart. The stoic battleworn knight, or the goofy and jovial dramatic girl that spoke in poetry when she wanted to make Marika's heart do somersaults.
Perhaps she did know which did, or perhaps she knew there was no true difference. It was an issue that needed not be resolved til journey's end if it ever indeed proved to be an issue at all.
She looked to the sky and saw the clouds seem to shift. Something was happening. She could feel it.
That was when the ground decided to agree. A massive fissure splitting across the ground from the start of the plateau where they had arrived all the way to the dead Erdtree to the northeast of them. Torrent neighed in sudden fear as both watched in shock, backing away slowly as the ground began to tremble all over. They heard a thousand times a thousand wailing screams across the entirety of the lands between and watched as countless specs of golden light rose into the sky and flew toward the Erdtree in the Capitol. Marika watched in shock as she clutched to her knight's chest, completely confused by this sudden event.
Her eyes turned into the distance and watched in horror as the fissure began to drag the erdtree sapling under. "No... no!!" She screamed, hand reached out in fruitless effort as the shattering giant tree cracked and crumbled into the earth. The forest and the surrounding hills visibly buckled as the sudden shift in the ground caused many to collapse. Trees broke and shattered while the animals scattered towards the surrounding areas.
Strangely, Marika did not feel a single death even as the rumbling began to end. She watched with a furrowed brow as, after nearly a half hour of shaking, the lands between began to still.
"And so it begins." Her knight mumbled softly.
"What begins?" She slowly turned her eyes towards her lover.
"Death has returned to these lands." She said, and it was full of pride.
Marika looked slowly at the massive fissure left behind and began to realize that her knight was right. Death had come back to the Lands between. Maliketh had failed or fallen somehow. The thing she had spent millenia fighting to keep as far from her home had come back.
So why did she feel so happy? She watched the surroundings as animals began to return and remake their tiny homes. Squirrels turned fractured trees to nests, and countless birds began to resp bounties of fresh and flexible twigs of the wreckage.
"What's happening...?" She asked softly.
"Life is healing. It needs death to avoid stagnating. Now, nature is doing what its meant to. Picking up the pieces." The knight answered. "This is simply the start."
The queen slowly looked back to her lover and began to wonder. "Who... are you?"
Her lover smiled, turning and gingerly kissing her queen. "Simply an old friend. My love."
And with that, the queen's woes and worries were silenced.