Things betwixt.
For many, it is the home of a constant beginning.
The beginning of a journey. A journey countless of souls share and seek to conquer. Countless souls, all once confident in step, staring at their one goal with unbridled determination in their eyes, but evidently, stepping into the abyss hoping for their journey to finally have reached an end. All of them, failed. Their goal, their hopes, their journey, their selves, all once a spark of emotions, constantly bringing joy and sadness, solidifying the humanity they once felt. These feelings once so strong and apparent, now gone...
Hollow.
It's said to happen to them all. Seeking a journey in a place called Drangleic, seeking the cure, hoping to be the one with the will to be the next monarch, only to succumb to the curse of the undead. The curse of those known as hollow.
Yet there exists hope for these poor lost souls, there is hope in one, a bearer of the curse. A common among the bunch, yet as common as this hero may be, her journey is long, terror filled, and the single uncommon among the bunch.
"Ya know. Just for that, I'm gonna become a god among men and go through this life changing journey, possibly changing history, and maybe even killing a god, all without dying once. Ya know why? Cause I'm not a hollow, and I'm never gonna be a hollow, I'm a person, and that's not changing you old dried up witch." And here our hero stands, in the face of the ancient holders of wisdom known as the fire keepers.
"...Pardon?"
"You heard me, you're talking to me as if my destiny is some book that you wrote and gave to a bunch of people all over the world that they took as fact. It's not. You say I'm gonna gather a bunch of souls, die, lose them, then go hollow. You're, at the core of it, saying I'm gonna disappear forever like some clumsy little idiot. Fuck you. I'll become all powerful, I'll become the strongest, without dying, to prove you wrong. Fuck you."
Our hero, a tall woman with fair, pale skin, hair as black as the abyss, and eyes as green as an emerald, stood there, staring down defiantly at the old keeper, with a stance the showed off the barest of detail about her. Details like her blush red cheeks, contrasting with her pale face, or her puckered red lips, perched in what seems to be a permanent scowl.
Her body evenly sized, head and all, lacking muscle, yet being poised in a way that it almost seems as if her slim figure is made for combat.
Silence loomed for moments on end.
"...Hue, hue hue hue hue! HUEHUEHUE!"
Breaking the silence, one of the last ancient fire keepers reaction to likely one of the most disrespectful things she had been exposed to in a very long time, was to burst into a fit of uncontrolled giggles that sounded eerily similar to a crow.
"My oh my...A hollow with a mouth, well aren't those rare. What was your name again? Lilith, correct? Well then, Lilith, if you manage such an incredible feat, nothing like "I almost did", then I'll tell you what. You'll have earned something on that day, you'll have earned mine, and my sisters, respect. Something very rarely given. Now as fun as a conversation with you would likely be, please, scurry off now, I'd like you to fail in your task as soon as can be, to show you're soon to be mindless self how wrong you were."
The newly named Lilith huffed in irritation and began her treck into the outside world, opening the door in the fire keepers small home, she turned back, lifted her sword, pulled down her hood and spoke.
"Honestly your respect is meaningless, once again, fuck you." And with that, our hero, Lilith, walked off, ready to start an adventure, partially to rid herself of a curse, and partially to prove an old hag wrong.
Chapter 1: Bearer of the curse
Lilith, after immediately leaving the small building, stopped herself and took a moment to look at a small patch of sand with a broken sword sticking out of it, right in front of the fire keepers home. An oddity just out in the open.
"...And what, pray tell, is that? A failed sandcastle that someone got mad at?"
Having quietly asked herself that, Lilith decided to figure out the answer to her own question before she actually began her journey.
Lilith slowly walked up to the strange sight, cautiously, she lifted a gloved hand to give a light grasp on the hilt of the blackened sword, to see if she could pull it out and examine it further.
PHWOOSH
Lilith jumped back in shock, nearly tripping in doing so, taking a moment to stare down the newly lit fire.
"...Drangleic is almost guaranteed be a strange place. You don't see patches of sand that light on fire everywhere."
Lilith quickly regained her composure and carefully started walking back towards the newly lit bonfire, feeling strangely drawn towards it. She stopped in front of the bonfire, feeling inclined to sit down and enjoy the warmth, and inadvertently doing so.
"This...This feels great. Feels like all of my worries are gone. Feels like I was never stricken with a curse in the first place. Feels like a that strange sense of calm you get before a storm...Damn it that's not good." Deciding not to linger anymore after spending a minute enjoying the warmth, Lilith stood back up and started walking into the cave opening, deciding to, finally, start her journey.
After walking a moment, Lilith came up to a patch of land that seemed to spread off like branches, choosing to simply ignore all of the fogged gates that they led to, she decided to simply continue on her journey, saving the, in her opinion, unimportant areas for a different time, or not, depending on how everything played out from her point of view.
Reaching the end of the main path, Lilith started walking through a newly discovered cave, exiting shortly after to come face to face with a beautiful, sunny, area with what seemed to be a run down village In the distance.
"Finally, some light, brightens my mood up. Maybe this will be easier than I thought. Maybe the hag was just delusional, she's certainly old enough for that to happen."
(Mild flash forward to an unspecified time for comedic effect)
"FUCKING HELL! YOU FOUL BEING NOT EVEN WORTH THE SHIT THAT I'VE STEPPED IN, STOP STABBING ME AND LET ME GET MY SOULS! GODS SMITE YOU! I HATE YOU WITH THE MOST UNHOLY OF PASSIONS. JUST DIE ALREAD-AH...Fuck...I'll come back and brutally murder you..."
Fwoosh
And she was gone.
(Thank you for your time.)
"Yes. That's probably it. Just a woman too old for this time...Well let's get going."
Lilith began walking down the very apparent path, seeming to ignore anything that lies in the road, available for the taking. Just continuing down the short path.
Arriving in the town, Lilith spotted another one of those strange sand sword places, but decided to ignore it for now and walk into the building to her immediate left. Arriving inside she was greeted to the first person, aside from the fire keepers, that she'd meet in this land.
"Well hello there sad looking man."
The quote on quote "sad looking man" peered his gaze up from the ground to look at the woman in front of him.
"Err, oh, hello there! W-welcome, to my shop. I-I'm Maughlin, and I sell armour. Oh, sorry, I… Please, do have a look at my wares. I could really use the business… If you'd be so kind…"
Lilith lifted an eyebrow at his rather timid way of speaking. "Mhmm. Well looks like I was right in my assumption. Well as much as I'd like to give you my business, I've got no currency. At all. But, I don't feel like leaving a sad little man like you to be here, sitting, very clearly depressed for some unknown reason. So..."
Lilith sheathed her schimiter that she had been constantly holding in case battle arose, and plopped down onto the ground.
"Tell me Maughlin the sad man, why are you sad. Tell me about your sad story."
Gaining a very light blush, Maughlin began to speak, mildly stunned from Lilith's manner of speak.
"Uh, umm. What would you like to know?"
"How should I know, that's what you're supposed to tell me. What would I like to know about you, Maughlin the sad armourer. Wait, where have my nonexistent manners gone, before you continue, I should probably introduce myself. I am Lilith, swordsman of...Wherever I was born. Just call me Lil though."
"Oh, um, nice to meet you L-lil. Well where should I start. I came from the west, from Volgen. Have you been there? It's a lively place, vibrant with trade. Very competitive, of course. And y-you have to grease the wheels to get anywhere. But I didn't have the funding for that, so I left home in hopes of striking gold. It's been years since then, and I've… well I've made very little headway…hah hah. I don't even know why I'm still here… Everything's all run-down and dying… It's t-terrible for business, really…A group calling themselves the Blue Sentinels have gained much power in Volgen. You can't even run a shop without their blessing. They claim to be working for the greater good, oh…but it's absolute hogwash. Hmm…Oh, by the gods…Why the hell am I here?"
After having finished his short lived rant, Lilith stood up, started stretching to get the stiffness of sitting out of her system, and she began to speak.
"Quite a vague story Maughlin. Quite a vague story indeed, as much as I'd like to give some inspirational speech about "hanging in there", I can't really, I'm not the most inspiring person. So for now I'll just say, I wish you the best Maughlin, and I'll be sure to buy some armor once I've earned myself some souls via brutal murder of my fellow undead. Good luck with life until then."
And with that, Lilith walked out of the small armorers shack and took a quick glance around. Spotting the the mansion to her left, she walked up to it and pulled on the handle.
"Damn. Locked."
Deciding to move on to the next building, she walked up to the door, and pulled it open, wondering what kind of unique individual would be in this building. Mayhaps a blacksmith of great confidence, or possibly a sorcerer who hated their father, it was surely another interesting fellow like Maughlin with another interesting story.
'Oh! Maybe it's a an ancient being who...A cat. It's a cat'
"Oh…Undead, are we? And one without much time remaining. Just about ready to fall apart, I'd say. Not exactly the time to be chatting with a cat! Well, suit yourself. Oh, yes, you may call me Shalquoir. Enchanté. So, what did you want, anyway? Ooh, you smell wonderful. Hee hee hee…"
Lilith lowly rolled her eyes and spoke under her breath. "Sounds just like the fire bitch."
"Hmm?"
"Nothing."
The cat stood up from it's spot on the only table in the building and took a moment to stretch out her limbs.
"So what's your story talking cat?"
"Call me Shalquoir, I do rather like my name more so then the title of "talking cat". And I don't have much of a story. I'm just a cat who happens to sell rings to all the interesting people who pass through Majula."
Giving a slight nod of the head, Lilith, still not having any currency to buy those previously mentioned rings, chose to move on.
"Ok I'm just gonna leave then. Talking cat with magic rings is a bit too much for me at this moment. I promise we'll get acquainted once I've gotten used to...The idea of you."
Walking back outside the building, and pushing the door shut, Lilith started another quick trek to the first thing that had caught her eye when she had walked into this little town now identified as Majula. The strikingly similar bonfire in the seemingly center of the town.
"Well let's see if all these strange sand pits light up like a pyromacer with a wooden staff, or if the witches just have a weird secondary fireplace."
Walking up and putting her hand to the blackened hilt yet again, she watched as, yes indeed, these strange bonfires were a common occurrence and not just some weird item on Things Betwixt's porch.
"...Ok this is adventure is getting dull, I really need to find something to feed my ever expanding bloodlust. Get some actual action."
Looking around, Lilith spotted a large gate like door, just begging to be explored. "And that's my cue."
Lilith started sprinting to the door, ready to finally get some action going on in this journey of hers.
Quickly running down the stairs after passing a strange contraption, pulling the lever up the stairs on the side of the gate she arrived at, then jumping down and starting to run again, Lilith found herself facing a hall at the end of the little water way. Going with her gut, she slowly walked down the corridor, unsheathed her schimiter, and eventually reached the end of the curved hallway.
"Oh by the fucking gods."
And there it stood, the first enemy for Lilith to have come upon. A giant knight in aged green armor, that seemed to have spotted her.
Walking backwards in blatant fear, Lilith stopped herself before she even realized she was retreating. "Damn it. I'm not gonna wuss out like a bitch cornered..."
Giving a renowned sigh, Lilith raised her blades and gave a short, quiet shout at the giant of a knight.
"Let's go you giant hollowed trash can!"
Lilith worked up some courage and ran straight towards the knight, praying that it was weaker than it looked.
Taking a single, strong, running slash at the hollowed warrior, a train of thoughts and mild worries soon followed along,
'What will it feel like when I revive? Where will I end up? What's it even like to die as a hollow?'
With a sword impaled directly through her chest, these were the thoughts traveling through Lilith's mind.
"Oh no. That old hag can't find out about this can she?"
And with that, Lilith faded into dust, to be revived in a later moment.
Line break
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