Girolduses Journey

Chapter 24

Quelaria could see through his lie, it showed in his eyes, the way it always had. She had begun to notice it when she had spoke to him on his second escort mission with her, the conversation revolving around their relationship. She had asked him an awkward but blunt question, how he felt about her. She had gotten an answer she didn't expect through his words, but his eyes, that's what gave her the real answer. His words insisted he felt that their relationship was strictly professional and nothing more, though his eyes screamed he wished it to be something more.

"Well, I'm glad that's all." She lied back, snapping back to the current conversation, she knew it was best not to try to force him to talk, not because he wouldn't; but because she knew that if he wouldn't tell even her, that it was something she probably wouldn't even want to hear.

"Yes, but before we continue on, I'd like to rest, my head is killing me." Giroldus said with a wiry smile.

"I don't see why not, my legs could use a break as well." She replied as they began to walk back, stopping near Ornstein and Maerana who both seemed oblivious to the world around.

"The thing I miss most is the masquerades." Ornstein said as he plucked some grass and let it float away in the wind. "They were always a great escape from the copious amount of work constantly piled onto our plates."

"They were also a great excuse to see my sister." Quelaria chimed in a sassy but joking tone as the two noticed the others.

"I think what I miss the most." Maerana said as she stood up and dusted her legs off. "Was seeing the subjects and my friends. They were always smiling and were so nice, even if some of it was because they had too. Nowadays you're lucky to find someone who will do you the common decency of stabbing you in the front."

"A reminder of why we must always try our hardest to remain with our honor in tact, even with no cause or King to rally behind." Ornstein added as they approached the shrine, Giroldus and Quelaria beginning to settle in as they neared the fire.

"Why are we stopping?" Maerana asked as the two others began to lie down, Giroldus laying his head in Quelaria's lap.

"Well I figure the four kings aren't going anywhere, and with this riddle Vaeldric gave us to solve, we have more than enough time to take a small rest." Giroldus said, massaging the bridge of his nose, "Plus my head's killing me."

"Well then this seems like more than an adequate time to tell you all." Ornstein said as Giroldus finished, "I must take my leave from our little party of punishers."

"What?" They all said in unison.

"I stuck around simply to help deliver the dragon's head, I came to see if it was alive as a sort of last check before I left Lordran." The dragon slayer said in a matter of fact tone.

"I guess it was only a matter of time." Giroldus said from his position in Quelaria's lap. "A knight like yourself is bound to go and see the condition of the surrounding lands. You do it because you know it's what Gwyn would have you do. You also do it so that you can find the answers you seek deep down in your subconscious." Giroldus said in a bland tone. "I wish you the best friend."

"As do I." Quelaria said.

"Well I didn't know you long." Maerana said, "But I sure had a good time getting to know you." As she finished she shook his hand. "Be safe friend." After they had all said goodbye, they watched in a respectful silence as the captain climbed to the crow's nest, briefly looking down at them and giving a small smile before putting his helmet on, looking up as the bird hovered above him. The captain simply jumped onto the bird's back, saying some unknown location to it, and then in a brief moment, flying away to some far off place, off to find the answers he so desperately sought after. Giroldus had fallen asleep easily enough, leaving Quelaria and Maerana to their own devices. The two didn't speak much, only little snippets of conversation passing between them. Quelaria found that just watching the gradual rise and fall of the knight's chest was calming, while maerana simply stared off into space and pondered whatever it was that she thought about. The shrine was quiet and gave off the vibe of peace and serenity that Quelaria had not encountered in a long time, and while the outside may have been calm and peaceful, what went on in the knight's head was not.

The dream had started out innocent enough, Giroldus had been speaking to Ornstein about the recent rumor of some sort of cult forming in New Londo, but had moved on where he had learned that Artorias and Ciaran had been sent to take care of it.

"Now I must ask Ornstein do you happen to know the whereabouts of Gough? I am surprised to not be able to find him." Giroldus said as they approached the small room that Ornstein had made his office.

"I do believe he is up on the hill near the archives, off on another one of his meditation trips." Ornstein said stepping into the room, "But for now I must bid you goodbye, I am very busy." The captain finished closing the door and going to whatever work he had. The walk to the seemed to be normal but Giroldus caught himself turning around often as if he heard a voice in the distance. When he reached the forest where Gough was Giroldus found him with relative ease, as he had been here many a time when Gough had spoken to him on issues that troubled either himself or the community around him.

"Ah, I see you have finally tracked me down." Gough said with a laugh, "What bothers you friend?" Giroldus could tell he was carving something; it was what he did when he was in deep thought.

"Well I was wondering if I could speak to you on a personal matter." Giroldus said taking a seat up against the giants back.

"Of course." Gough said, "What troubles you?"

"Well, you know how I've been sent out on many escort missions with one of the witches of Izalith?" Giroldus asked, "Well-"

"You can't save her." A deep and booming voice boomed.

"What?" Giroldus said turning to face the knight, the sky suddenly becoming pitch black, causing him to stand and back up and into the trunk of a tree. The giant archer remained motionless, but the deep voice boomed on.

"No matter what you do, what you find, you won't always be around to save her. Or her."

"Who the hell are you?" Giroldus yelled at the motionless figure.

"I am your nightmares, I am the dark, and I am what lurks in all humans." The voice boomed, "I am the reason you will never save her." It finished, the dark seeming to consume everything but gough and Giroldus.

"I don't understand who you are talking about!" Giroldus yelled at what was no longer gough, the dark now moving to where it was just surrounding him and the tree he stood against. The voice seemed to laugh, a deep and booming laugh, and as it laughed Giroldus saw something roll into his view, a small wooden carving that had two faces on it. As he picked it up and looked in horror the voice chimed in,

"Is it her? Or her?" The voice said as Giroldus flipped the carving, the face of Quelaria carved into one side and Mildred's on the other.

"Get out of my head!" Giroldus yelled throwing the carving as ten red lights came into view. "I said get out!" He yelled again as the laughter came back louder than before, it causing him to clutch his ears and fall to the ground, as he sat at his knees, the red eyes drew closer, and all his friends from his memories were shown. Artorias, fighting some unseen enemy, but looking odd, his lack of shield and flopping arm showing something was wrong. Ciaran, kneeling at a large grave, tears sliding down her porcelain mask. Ornstein locked in the jaws of some beast, blood seeping from his armor and its mouth. Gough, standing and looking at some unseen thing, then falling limply to the ground. He watched them die, all in a different way, and it seemed to burn his eyes, causing him to yell louder and the laughter to continue even louder as well. It then suddenly stopped.

"This is what you have to look forward to if you continue on your current path. Forget the amulet, and forget the legend, or what you have seen will be so.

"I will not give into the likes of you, for if you were as powerful as you seem, you would know Gough and Artorias have long died and I had no control, I was locked away like some animal while they died."

"I beg to differ." The voice said, practically seeping venom, "If you continue, I will bend you to my will, and then I will break you, just as I broke him." The voice said as the darkness encompassed Giroldus.

Girolduses body had begun to twitch, it was odd and as Quelaria looked down she could see that he had begun to sweat profusely, his face contorted into a look of fear.

"What's wrong with him?" Maerana said walking over.

"I don't know, I think he's having a nightmare." Quelaria said, "I'm going to try to wake him up."

"I don't know if that's such a good-" Maeranas sentence was interrupted when Giroldus shot up gasping for air, eyes wide open.

"Are you okay?" Quelaria asked him as he looked around and wiped his forehead.

"Yeah." He said through his ragged breaths, the laughter still echoing in his mind, "Just had a bad dream is all."

"Well if you really are okay." Maerana said offering him a hand and helping him up. "I think we should get going to this lake Vaeldric told us about."

"I couldn't agree more." Giroldus said in a calm but worried voice.

"Hey." Quelaria said grabbing his shoulder, "Are you okay? Seriously?" She asked in serious and concerned tone.

"Yeah I'm fine." Giroldus said, "Seriously." He finished with a smile.

"Then let's go." She said with a smile.

"Alright, but where are we going?" Maerana asked, "Where is this lake anyway?"

"If I remember correctly, it's accessible through an old tower near where I fought the Taurus demon." Giroldus said, "Should be easy enough." The journey there was in fact easy enough, the undead being punched, sliced, and burned with relative ease.

"This is it?" Maerana asked as she finished off a hollow soldier with a skull cracking punch.

"Yep." Giroldus said standing in front of an old wooden door.

"How do we get in?" Quelaria asked.

"Like this." Giroldus said backing up, lowering his shoulder, and slamming through the door.

"That was simple enough." Maerana said as she stepped through the broken frame of the door.

"It should be at the bottom of the tower." Giroldus said dusting himself off. The group had gotten about two levels down in the tower, until Giroldus noticed an odd noise.

"What is that?" Giroldus said thinking out loud.

"What's what?" Quelaria said.

"I hear it. It sounds like someone carving into the wall." Maerana said, "Let's tread carefully."

The crew got down another flight, peeking around a corner, to see a soldier clad in a fairly iconic armor.

"By the gods." Giroldus said in shock.

"What?" Maerana said confused.

"That's impossible." Quelaria added.

"I don't get it. Who is this guy?" Maerana said. All of a sudden the man stopped carving into the wall and released a short laugh.

"This 'man' is the reason your kingdom didn't get consumed by dragon fire." The mystery figure boomed. "I'm a little disappointed you didn't recognize me Maerana." The man said in an old but still booming voice. The group walked down the steps further.

"Is it really you?" Giroldus said in a voice drenched in awe.

"Tis my boy." The man said removing his helmet to reveal a bald head and grey beard.

"After all these years. It's really you Havel." Giroldus said.

"How do you know all these people?" Maerana wondered out loud.