The old stone bridge led to a once locked door. More rats had found their way into the foggy tunnel and Caim had to quickly dispatch them with his new spear. Using the tool against the weaker foes made getting used to it easier.

Down the wet tunnel, he found the mentioned gate. Sealed closed. The key from the handmaiden opened the gate and he let himself in out of the water and onto dry land. The small tunnel split to the left and right. To the right burned dozens of small candles around a shrine. The statue depicted a slender figure in large robes with a long mask. One hand was stretched to the side, the other clutched a tablet to her chest.

Caim stepped closer. "Velka," he murmured remembering the goddess. "Goddess of sinners and forgiveness." He sighed. The goddess had been well known back home. One that Gin and Elaine and most of the village had followed. Caim had never cared for her. Looking to others, even gods, for forgiveness to your own sins seemed like a cheap way out.

He and the gods had never quite seen eye to eye. Likely since he spent most of his time looking elsewhere. Caim left the shrine and made his way down the tunnel. He collected a halberd with a red haft, tucking the weapon away to examine later. Scattered light illuminated the corners of the hall and the open area beyond. The tunnel became a wide catacomb chamber with scattered stone alcoves. The floor shifted as Caim's feet disturbed countless scattered bones.

He nudged a long white femur aside into a pile of ribs. The rattling bones disturbed the silence. Then it broke again. More clicking clattering bones scraping across the floor. The ground churned as the scattered bones regrouped and collided. Bones rolling and clicking into place. A leg. An arm. Then the body became whole. A full skeleton standing. With a casual flick it rolled a skull into its hand and placed it onto its neck with a final crack.

The mocking smiling visage turned towards him, a large curved sword in one hand. It made no sound beside its scraping bones and stepped forward.

"Fucking skeletons." He growled, drawing the broadsword. "Never know when to stay down." He rushed as the Skelton stepped in swinging its wide sword in a huge arc. The blow rebounded from his shield and left the bones open to a punishing blow of the sword. Ribs shattered under the impact. He swung up and broke an arm, then down and cracked the creature's hip.

Skeletons were tricky. The power that held them together was fickle. Twisted magic that forced the bones to continue to work but did nothing to repair their brittle nature from years of decay. Still, they had no heart to pierce or brain to sever. No blood to empty or organs to cripple. The only way to stop them was to destroy the host until the magic dissipated. Sometimes a few broken bones would do. Sometimes you had to leave nothing but dust.

This one fell after another overhead blow split the skull and shattered its other arm. The body gave a single tremor and the bones fell apart. The puppets strings cut in a final deafening clatter of bones on stone. Caim waited. They may not be that clever but he had seen skeletons use this trick before. For good measure, he crushed the skull into powder.

"Stay dead." He hissed. "like everything else."

The path did not get any easier. The ground continued to churn as more of the skeletons began to form. He rushed the first before they could fully form and broke them apart. He spun from one another and broke them down. The skeletons fell aside as he cut his way down the smoothing tunnel. When the sky greeted him again his feet sank into the water.

Caim sighed. "I really wish I could find some place that isn't flood and infested." He groaned. Stepping out of the marsh he looked up. The ravine had a sliver of the sky visible above him. Overcast and dully illuminated. The rock face was too high and sheer to even consider climbing. He followed the path collecting some discarded items and found another carved tunnel in the rock. Inside he stopped at the head of a short ladder.

The chamber below opened like a sewer basin. Wide and flat, the ground soaked through and infested with several large rats. He didn't like how many there were. Rats were just vermin but anything in large numbers was dangerous. He surveyed the battlefield one more time before stepping down to the soft ground.

The beady eyed creatures turned and scurried his way immediately. He hurled a fireball to engulf two of them and unleashed a fire stream to stave off the others. It killed four of them but more pulled their way free from the sewer grates. He waded in as they pushed through the fire cleaving one head off and splitting another side open. Brown brackish blood sprayed across the floor as he rolled into the horde and cut down another and another.

The room was still except for Caim's breathing. He took a drink of estus to heal the scrapes on his legs where the rats had gotten bites of him. He waited to ensure no more were coming from the grates in the wall before walking to the tall ladder beyond them and hauling himself up.

The small tunnel broke into a T junction. The right was a barred metal gate that led back to the sunlight. He turned to the left and paused, hand on his sword. The candles burned freely around the small square room. Seated in the corner was a woman dressed in white plain robes.

He stepped into the small room and the woman shifted turning her eyes up towards him. Caim froze. Not dead then.

"Ahh, is someone there? Is someone there? Anyone?" She asked, her voice shaking. Her head turning to scan the room.

She's blind. He realized as she continued to turn her head around the room and wrap her arms around herself.

"The dark surrounds me. Nibbles at my flesh. Little creature's, they never stop biting. So please, hold out your hand and touch me." The girl sounded on the verge of tears. Distraught and terrified. How long had she been locked away in the dark like this? He wondered.

Slowly, letting his feet scrap he stone and make noise, Caim approached and knelt beside the woman, gently placing one hand on her shoulder. "I am here." He said softly.

"Ah yes, there you are so close indeed. Then I am not entirely alone just yet. Praise the merciful gods above." She whimpered. The woman clasped her hands in a solid prayer. Caim retracted his hand slowly.

"My name is Caim." He said quetly. "Who are you? How did you find yourself here?"

"Oh, forgive me." She said with a start. "I am Irina of Carim. I came to this land that I might be a firekeeper. Your touch has freed me from the darkness. You are a champion then? I am weak and unfit to tend the flames." She paused. "But if it would not trouble you might I enter your service instead?"

Caim cocked his head to the side. What did this girl think she could be of service? She was small, frail and blind. An attempted firekeeper but had not been able to do it. There wasn't anything this girl could give him. She was no use. He had to bite back his immediate urge to decline. As he opened his mouth to answer he stopped.

Leaving her here, alone and in the dark, did not sit well with him either.

He gave a long slow breath. "I can, if nothing else, give you a better place to stay. If you can provide any assistance than I will welcome it. Or you can at least get out of this dark hole."

Her face curled under her veil into a genuine smile. "Oh, thank you sweet champion. I shall take my vows."

"No need…."

She was speaking before he could interject. "I, Irina of Carim, solemnly swear to serve you." She clasped her hands and bowed her head.

The pyromancer sighed. "Very well. Here, take this bone. It will take you to the Firelink shrine. A safe place. No dark creatures should harm you there." His mind drifted to Yoel for an instant and Hawkwood. But he banished these thoughts and pressed the bone into her hands.

"Thank you, Champion. You have given this wretch a chance to be of use again." With that she crushed the bone in her hands and vanished in a swirl of smoke. Caim sighed. Another stray taken in out of pity. If he didn't start to reign in this damn pity he would be up to his eyeballs in helpless women and thieves in no time.

Still, he couldn't have left her here. The world itself might be breaking and dying but that didn't mean he had to leave those that still held their minds to die with it. Hollows might be beyond help but anyone with their minds was worth at least offering a home. Until they proved otherwise.

He walked back to the bars and unlatched them. Strange to have the lock on the inside. Then again, a blind woman was surly unable to find and undo her own lock. He stepped down the small tunnel and came back to the sunlight. A familiar tower to the left and another, less favorable sight, to his right.

The hammer wielding man chuckled darkly. "You like poking around in cells do you? How very genteel." He laughed.

"I suppose you were her jailor then? You lock a blind girl in a dark cell and leave her there while you watch the door?"

"Ah-ha, taken an interest in her, have you?" he shook his head. "Well she is a lost cause. Couldn't even become a fire keeper. After I brought her all this way and got her all ready. She's beyond repair I tell you."

"You're a bastard." Caim spat. "Your broken girl is gone now. I've sent her back to the Shrine. Your charge is done. Go rot in the abyss."

"You've gone and rescued her, have you?" He said with a genuine interest behind the dragon head helm.

"You have issue with it?" Caim said, gripping his sword tightly.

"hmph, how very quaint, pitying creatures that are beyond help."

Seems to a habit I'm quickly forming. He thought to himself.

"Very well, I am sick of looking at her at any rate. I am Egyon, a knight of Carim. I am allied to you as long as you assure the girls safety." He paused. "and only for that long."

The subtle threat did not go unnoticed. Caim clenched his fingers around the hilt of his blade but rather than retort he turned and stormed away. Let the knight sit and sully. He had better things to do than argue with a coward.

. . .

It took time but Caim soon sat down at the bonfire amid the ruined fortress once again. Anri and Horace were gone on their own quest. Caim took a small respite at the bonfire before heading on his way. He had his own quest to see to and too much to do in order to see it through.

He made a last check of his equipment before standing and making his way past the broken walls and the long path. Below, great trees rose to form a smothering canopy over a broken landscape. Swamp and earth mixed below along with countless smaller wooden frames. Handmade crucifixes piled like a thousand wooden tombstones.

The path weaved back and forth in a series of switchbacks down below the trees to the waterline. More trees stood in the shallow water, looming over the swamp below and the smaller figures in it. Several people were walking along the water's edge, moving with slow lethargy, in no small part because they each bore a great lance of wood taller than themselves.

Moving down the path two of these men turned his way. Tattered things in fragmented clothes holding their great wooden lances, little more that wilted tree trunks, they gave a low haunting groan and lowered their weapons before charging.

Caim ran to meet them. The heavy wood would easily overcome his guard. He rolled aside, coming up and driving his blade into the shambling man's back. Another set of blows and he fell in a pool of black blood. Another of the hunters charged. He too fell in a simple sidestep and combination of slashes.

These men were hardly threats so long as he could see them coming. They were hardy and required several strikes to fell but their motions were easy to read and slow. Fools to try and wield those poles like weapons.

The ground leveled off and Caim paused. The swamp smelled like home. Mold and musk thick with damp plant life and the distant hint of burning leaves. He almost expected to hear the distant crackle of fires and the stomping of the garrison. The trees should have held bridges criss crossing the peaks, small huts nestled above. People going about simple boring lives.

Those lives were gone. All he saw when he looked to the trees were ghosts. Long dead ghosts.

This swamp was patrolled by several of the wood bearers and in the distant a crab twice the size of a horse skittered through the water with a staccato beat of clicks and splashes. Wooden totems surrounded the trees. Light cut through the canopy reflecting on the clear water.

He stopped at the edge and brushed his foot through the water. It was warm and familiar. He stepped into the shallow water and walked out into the swamp. The water didn't come higher than his shin and let him let him walk about the swamp easily.

As he moved deeper into the clear swamp water many small crabs began to take notice and slowly edge towards him. Caim watched the little crustaceans warily. They were large, for crabs, coming just above his ankles and clicking their little claws.

As one neared him he stepped back. "Are you just curious?" he asked, standing still as the creature skittered closer on its many legs. Then with a sudden lurch it closed the distance with a splash and struck with one of its claws, snapping at Caim's ankle.

"Ah! You little bastard!" he snapped scrambling away. The snap had managed to cut through the tattered leather and he could feel blood spilling into the water. He quickly drew his sword and drove it down through the crab's chitin and into the water.

The little critter flailed helplessly on the sword before falling still. Caim put his boot on the crab and pulled his sword free. More of the little creatures were moving around the swamp, several towards him. No doubt they were going to be just as violent as the first one. No more giving them chances.

If ever there was a chance to test the new weapon it was now. He sheathed the sword and drew out the spear. It wasn't really necessary. The broadsword gave him enough reach to dispatch the crabs without getting in any danger. The spear was just for practice.

He stepped towards the first and two thrusts was enough to end the carbs movements. He moved through the swamp, jabbing the sharp weapon into any small crab foolish enough to approach him. All the while, he moved through the swamp, picking at the trees, scouting the area.

There were several points of interest in the swamp. He moved through the water, feeling the hot warmth of the sun on his back as he passed through beams of light that cut through the canopy. The trees cut the distance off into a misty haze so he strode forward. He could see the frame of a stone structure looming just beyond the wood and he pressed on.

The crabs proved little more than a nuisance when he didn't allow himself to be stopped. It was as he began to make out the shape of the wall that the peaceful quiet ceased. It was subtle at first. Distant. A rapid series of splashes that became more fervent and distracting until he spun to his left.

To behold a giant crab charging him like a bull.

The monster towered over him. Several feet above his own head and nearly fifteen feet wide it was if one of the smaller carbs had been inflated by a giant. One of it's the claws, the one it raised to strike as it neared, was bigger than Caim himself.

Instinct yelled and he dodged as the claw struck the ground sending a plume of water into the air. Clearly the beast was angry. He stood and drew up his spear. "Alright then, bigger crab." He huffed, shaking the water from his face. The spear pierced the crab's side the chitin giving far easier than he had expected. Rather than hard armor, the rough skin gave like wet leather.

The crab while large was also cumbersome and easy to evade. A few sharp jabs of the spear spilled blood and ichor into the water. The spear did good work piercing the chitin and ripping a good hole in the flesh. He staggered back as the crab slammed its great claw into the water sending up another spray of water and Lilly pads.

Ducking the claw, he drove the spear in again. Then he repeated. For all its strength, the crab fell easily after a minute of spear thrusts, the final blow piercing one of its beady eyes and twisting in its skull before Caim yanked it free spilling blood and filth into the clear water.

He pulled the spear free and sighed. "That's was interesting." He said, cleaning his weapon in the clear water before continuing on. The stone arched to the left but Caim's eyes were drawn to the right. In the water was a body, familiar brown robes shrouding a hunched form.

The water got deeper as he stepped in coming up to his waist. He had to wade through the water slowly but came to the body. Old brown robes were over the shriveled corpse. Clutched in its hands was something else. A thick tomb that was wrapped in robes and propped above the water. He picked it up and found a familiar flame emblem on the cover.

"A pyromancy tome." He whispered. Thumbing through the pages he found he couldn't read it very well. The words of some language he couldn't decipher but the emblem was unmistakable. "Maybe Cornyx can make sense of it." He tucked the tome away and wrapped it from the elements. It would hold until he made it back to the shrine.

He left the water onto dry land moving towards the looming stone structure. The Farron walls rose on either side. The ground was dry here and bathed in heavy sunlight. It changed the setting from swamp to hard stone keep quickly. Caim stopped before he neared the stairs.

Standing guard on the top of the stone stairs was a man in great heavy black iron amour. His face hidden behind a mask, one hand holding a great wooden club over one shoulder while his other was strapped with a small shield. The lone guard was alive swaying in the air. His attention drawn elsewhere as he hadn't noticed Caim yet.

The Unkindled ducked aside and watched. The sentry showed no signs of moving. No chance he could slip by. "Just another obstacle." He murmured as he sized up his quarry. The heavy armor would do good to protect him from the sword and spear. Pyromancy might be a good way to go. More so to stay out of reach of that enormous club.

He prepared before he stepped out drawing an arrow and losing it. The shaft dug into the guards shoulder but seemed to gain no purchase on flesh as the man turned sharply and ran towards his attacker.

Caim put away the bow and strode to meet the iron clad foe. Sword and shield at the ready. The man rushed with a furious grunt and swung the club overhead to smash him but Caim was already moving. The blow caved in the earth sending a spray of leaves in the air as Caim rolled to his feet and charged. The sword dug into the armor but again he didn't feel the catch of flesh. That armor was thick and widened to give him more room from the impact of incoming blows. The club came around in a wide arc that sent Caim stumbling back. The following swing impacted his shield and threw him across the dirt into the water.

Caim got hit feet under him and rose again. The large armored man slowly strode towards him gripping the club with both hands. He stepped in, the club whipping past his head as he laid another strike along the knight's legs. The next blow came up and sheared into the armor. Metal shards flew into the air in a shower. The sword bit into flesh, spilling blood from the metal.

The big beast growled and swung its great weapon down. The wood met his shield with a crack, shaking his arm. It hurt but he pushed through it and drove his sword through the cracked armor. The warrior stumbled back, rolling over the root covered ground. As he came up, his left hand held a small totem. Yellow light gathering in his hand.

Caim rushed. He had seen divine miracles before and knew this. He closed the gap and swung his sword biting into the shoulder and he twisted it into the warrior's neck. The words died in his mask. The miracle died in his hands as the man's blood spilled from his neck and stained the armor.

Caim stepped back. Pulling his sword away in a spray of blood and sending the black armored man to the dirt. The clatter of his armor echoed. Then it continued. A moment later he realized the man was still but he could still hear grating metal.

Behind.

Caim spun just as a second man in similar armor with a great curved blade in his hands swung in with a vicious hum.

He rolled away but the edge caught his back, shearing armor and flesh. It was heavy and powerful. That thing would carve him apart if he let it. He got to his feet as the man charged again swinging the blade in a wide arc.

The sword swung fast and fierce in a savage combo. Caim stepped back and deflected the sword. The hit was harder than the club. The impact jarring. He dodged the next swing and stepped in, laying into him. The armor scratched but didn't give.

He jumped away as the knight spun into a fluid combo with his blade, the weight leading in a wide spiral arc that sent him forward, sword humming. Caim leapt away. That combo would shred him. But it had cost the knight his footing.

Caim got out of range and hurled a fireball. The fire dashed over the armor and staggered the knight. He hurled another fireball and let it splash across the knight before rushing into the flames. The curved sword knight staggered under the sword strike. The second cut through the heated armor easily. The swordsman stood his ground taking the attack and swinging in an arc.

Caim ducked and gripped, stepping into his stance and swinging upward. The sword cleaving from groin to shoulder. The mask fell away into pieces, the sword falling from his grip before he fell to the ground. Moments later he vanished in a haze of lost souls.

Caim took a long breath and drank in the power before sipping at the estus flask and healing his bloody back. Looking around it became clear that both warriors had left their weapons behind. The heavy club and curved great sword. Both too big and heavy to consider using now. He put them away and went to the shore to wash up and clean his sweaty face

He wiped the water away and stopped. Another old body lie on the shore. He had missed it before. Now he saw it was dressed in tattered dark armor. Metal plates under dark ripped cloth. It was fine armor. Still in remarkable shape despite the sorry condition of the wearer.

"You had good taste pal." He said out loud taking the armor from the corpse and putting it away. When he could stop again he would see about using the armor. For now, he shouldered his new loot and moved towards the stairs the pair of exile guards had been guarding. It was the way forward. Into the stone ruins.

The shattered keep was scarcely lit by dying candles. Flickering fires that illuminated a large hole to the right with a ladder leading down. A quick glance said it led a great way down. Caim ignored it and moved beyond to the opening in the far wall. The air opened to a view.

The sky opened up to a view of Lothric far above. Below the waist high railing the forest spread out bellow. A scattered canopy of large trees and thick swampy water spread out below. The forest and swamp was caged in by the great white stone walls that circle the base of Lothric rise and the surrounding area. Rising to the right was the great bridge that led to Lothric. Or what was left at least.

Caim's eyes were drawn to three towering pillars that struck up from the trees of the swamp. Each burning with a great fire at their peak. "The fires Hawkwood mentioned?" he questioned. "Could be. This place would have been a part of the Farron's keep once upon a time." Looking around it was sad to see the state the keep had fallen.

The forest below was nothing like what lay behind him. The air was foul and wreak of an acidic stench. Rot was prevalent and permeated the air. Darkness had claimed this land ages ago. He tried to commit the locations of the towers in his mind but with little other landmarks to go by he resolved that he would be wandering the swamp when he got down there.

He took a step back and breathed deeply. The air up here was fresh at least. And the sky clear. Two things he was likely not going to see for some time after this. He moved down the stairs to the right, down the broken stairs but found the path blocked. An iron gate was broken in the doorway, heavy rubble wedging it in place.

He gave it a cautionary push and pull but the iron bars had no give. Worse, he could see something just beyond them. Something glowing and smoldering in the arms of a corpse in a chair. "Damn." He knew the way forward must be below, down the ladder in the last room. He returned, making his way down the very long ladder to the forest swamp below.

The smell hit first. The acrid burning scent became terrible. the burning sick scent from above became a physical veil he felt he was pushing through. Each breath burning his nose and lungs as he inhaled the stench. The small rom did have the respite of a small bonfire but before resting he walked to the door and surveyed his next task.

He was not hopeful.

The swamp was nothing like above. The water was a thick sludge that wreaked of death. The air itself smelled poisonous. Miasma of the swamp was thick and darkened the light of the sun here. The trees covered in gnarled parasitic roots and bulbs that sapped the life from them. Fires flickered in the distance. The sludge shifted at his feet. This place was sick. Dying. Nothing but fire could save this world. A cleaning fire to start again from ashes.

Before he could consider the foolishness, he was about to commit he went back to the bonfire, aiming to see about his damaged armor and his weapons. He may yet need tools to traverse this place but only time would tell. Homeward bones would be fine to have if he needed to return and try again from the beginning. He could feel the vastness of this swamp and knew it was a great leg to accomplish.

For a moment, he left himself sit at the bonfire and rest. Refilling his estus and laying out his equipment. Planning ahead was key. Fools and dead men rushed in. Caim was…. He chuckled as his own mind stopped him. "Well, no need to be a dead man twice." He muttered.