AN: Alright, a real author's note this time. As soon as I met Lucatiel in Dark Souls 2 I knew she would be a favorite of mine. So after beating the game numerous times, I find myself writing about her badass self. Her "ending" is open to interpretation, so I figured it would make an interesting story. Hopefully I'll be able to see it through to the end. Updates will not be regular because life.
Oh, also there will be some liberties taken, so obviously not everything will necessarily line up perfectly with the lore. Theorizing is something the Souls series seems to want to push people to do anyway.
Italics without "" around them are Lucatiel's thoughts.
Thanks to those who reviewed so far! It's good know what people think.
When I opened my eyes I was running. Up the flight of stairs where the great dragon skeleton lay, left again and up yet another few flights of stairs…onto a third floor, this one open and lofty. I halted. Just ahead, before an open doorway was an enormous basilisk in a cage that looked far too flimsy for the great, ugly beast. Sighing in frustration, I crossed my arms and pinched the bridge of my nose. Patience.
I kept my eye on the door while drawing my sword and making my way toward the creature. Surprisingly, the huge basilisk did not so much as turn toward me. Quickly I went through the open door. Facing me was the statue of a dragon, a pulley in its jaws.
"Probably for the door…" I muttered to myself; grabbing and pulling with some effort. The door behind me shut as the one before me slid open. The hall I stepped into was large, with a seemingly endless ceiling. To my right one of those Pharros contraptions stared eyelessly from its place in the wall, its mouth held a stone already. Perhaps the traveler had come through this Keep already.
There were scores of caged monstrosities in this area. Specifically, dangling from the eternally-high ceiling. The light of the giant torches above allowed for each of the hideous unfortunates to be seen. Ogres, Undead Aberrations, Poison Horn Beetles, more Basilisks…These creatures were the very same I had met and slain all over other parts of Drangleic. Yet here they were, hanging in cages…what was the purpose of this?
I suppose I had to admit, traveling alone and avoiding more social interaction has its drawbacks. I did not know much about Drangleic before traveling to it, and had gathered little knowledge from others thus far. That was a mistake. One only had to take a quick glance at any place in the bloody kingdom to see that there was much to know. Too much, perhaps…the only thing I knew about Lord Aldia was that he was the King's brother, and that at some point Vendrick locked him away in this Keep. I greatly regretted not making a larger effort in learning why that was. Perhaps if I'd bothered to learn more, I would have found a cure already…or some way to suppress the curse at least.
Resisting the urge to slap myself, I instead threw my gaze around to absorb what might've been missed. Large paintings sat on the walls here and there, expensive furniture and large vases were pushed against the sides of the hall in places. Blue light came into view through the crack behind the painting to my left.
I blinked. That's not weird or anything. When I looked more closely, I noticed the painting was hiding an alcove of some sort in the wall.
So I did the logical thing and sliced the damned thing off the wall.
What appeared to be a man with a white hood over a strange reflective mask hopped out of the hidden alcove, brandishing an oddly shaped hammer and a large creature's skull for a shield. Around his waist was tied a crude belt holding a few pouches and several tools for various grisly purposes.
Immediately he charged me with hammer and bone shield upraised. I dodged a vertical swing lightly and swung horizontally to catch his shield with the flat of my blade, knocking it and his arm aside. Simultaneously, he reeled his hammer back and tried for a wobbly, rushed diagonal swing. Stepping into him while striking his attacking arm with my open left hand, I gutted him with my greatsword. Twisting the blade, I pushed the strangely dressed man off and left him dying on the floor. The blue glow disappeared. Magic. And I don't like the look of those tools on his belt...I need to...I need to keep going. What was I looking for..? Not him, not the magic man, I wasn't…it was…
My left hand came up to clasp my forehead as I grit my teeth. The cure for this damned curse is what I was looking for! Angrily flicking blood off my sword, I stomped down the hall under the low cage of an ogre and entered a door on the left which led to an attached room filled with shelves. These shelves were filled with glowing green bottles. There was a stairway that went under ground level. I followed it and came upon the lovely sight of a bonfire in a small room on the first landing going down. Resting reinvigorated and calmed me. The ghostly figures of those in parallel worlds sat with me or passed me by, going about their business. It's time I got back to mine.
Swiftly descending the rest of the way, I found myself in a room before archways of rusted bars that extended all the way across it. The bars each held a number of sharp spikes facing inward. Behind them were two beastly hunting dogs, raw pink skin giving them away immediately as they waded through at least a foot of yellow corrosive liquid. Upon getting close to the bars, I noticed a hole in the ceiling. Large, deformed hands and legs hung over the edges, along with what appeared to be tendons and a small amount of trickling blood. I narrowed my eyes and started up the stairs once more.
When I emerged from the room full of green bottles, the painting across from me crashed noisily to the stone floor and another Acolyte jumped out from the alcove. This one was eager; so after his hammer crashed against and slid off my shield, I thrust my sword into his throat and, gripping with both hands, slashed horizontally with the blade still embedded in him. His head toppled to the floor with a thump and rolled once. The body soon followed when I shoved it with a forearm and continued a little ways down the hall to yet another door in the wall, on the right side this time. It seemed made of iron. I pushed it open and stepped quickly into the room when I spotted another white-hooded acolyte.
This one was at an examination table with the corpse of an undead man and several blades of different shapes and sizes laid out on it. His back was to me, so I hamstrung him and sliced both sides of his neck after he fell to one knee. A flash of blue to my left caused me to bring up my shield just as a witching urn smashed against it. It shook my bones and rattled my brain a bit, but most of the damage was absorbed by the round Mirrah shield. I sprinted up to the robed thing, and spun with my greatsword when I was in range of him. He caught my attack with the skull-shield, but was flung into a metal table to the left and lost his hammer. Groaning, he immediately reached for the huge, saw-like blade leaning against the table. I wasn't standing idle, so the idiot lost his arm. A good diagonal slice through his spine finished him and I turned.
Large, bladed hooks hung from the ceilings…they looked identical to the weapons those fat, artificial undead used. I doubted that was a coincidence. One enormous cage sat further down the length of the large room, inside it a poison horn beetle to match it's size. It anxiously fumed orange smoke from it's pores as I approached, but I went around the creature. I never quite had a stomach for slaying scared, cornered animals. Instead I opened the small iron door that surely led back into the large hallway. A tail swishing caught my eye immediately and I froze. Creeping up to peek around the corner, I realized it was the tail of an ogre. Ogres were troublesome at best. However…I reached into a pouch on my belt. Finding poison knives, I sneakily threw a few into the big beast's rump and jumped back to cover. When it reared it's ugly face in the open doorway, I threw a few more into it for good measure. The beast roared in pain and anger, but I left it to it's tantrum and retraced my steps to the hallway.
Behind the cage of an undead aberration, there was a final small door. This one was wooden. I pushed it open and was met with the sight of a pile of giant's corpses hanging over the edge of a large hole in the floor. There was also another acolyte, and I noticed him after getting over the shock of the scene before me. He turned away from whatever bloodied pile of meat he was staring at on his table, and ran at me. The fool. I swung my weapon in an arc, slicing off his feet, then pinned his skull to the floor with a crunch. I put a foot to that skull and drew my blade back out, returning my attention to this pile of giants. I'd heard about the war and seen the trees of the giants, but…gods, they were doing experiments here. Heinous, criminal experiments, it's so obvious. Is this where all these creatures came from? What were they trying to find out? Was it all by Aldia's order? Did Vendrick know? Perhaps…he didn't, but when he found out he imprisoned his brother here, that would explain that…Can't execute family I suppose...but why? What did he need to know so badly…?
As I puzzled out my realization in my head and exited the room, the wall to my left exploded and the ogre I had poisoned was raging after me. I barely dodged the first swipe of it's large, meaty hand but recovered too quickly for the creature. I rolled under a second swipe and was close enough to stab it in the gut. So I did just that. It had weakened considerably from the poison knives, so that strike was enough to destroy it. The beast made me a shortcut, so I took it and strode up to the metal gate past a particularly nasty-looking torture device. After forcing it open and approaching the stone wall of a dead-end before me, I was welcomed with the sight of yet another gods damned ogre crashing through it. It began walking towards me, and I threw a few more poisoned knives at it. They stuck in the round flesh of it's belly, and I turned to sprint back through the door where I'd seen the tail of the last one. Repeating the process of slaying the stupid thing, I finally was able to continue.
Stepping over the rubble and through the gaping hole in what used to be a dead-end, I discovered a short stairway that led to a tall, arched doorway. The sun beamed brightly through it in long, joyful blades. An enormous, nasty looking cage covered in leather, spikes, hooks and chains stood at the end of the stone walkway that started at the doorway.
Before I could decide whether to go into this cage, I was alerted to the presence of an invader. I turned, and spied the dark red of the phantom rushing towards me from the end of the hall. Defeating invaders was nothing new to me, but for some reason…this one raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I hefted my shield and adjusted the grip on it and my greatsword. The black spirit took the shortcut through the side room, and was suddenly before me. I knew the reason for the chill I'd gotten before.
It was my brother.