First chapter of the year! Hopefully the first of many! Thanks to deityoftheuniverse and bragi1396 for the reviews! And as always, thanks to everyone for reading :)
Perfection.
Beauty.
Power.
Unlike humans, gods must not strive to obtain these qualities.
They are inherent to them.
They are their birthright, their natural gift, their true essence.
But you possessed none.
Not to the eyes of your father, nor to the eyes of the world.
Alas, poor unfortunate Gwyn.
Betrayed by his firstborn, forgotten by his daughter, irrelevant to his bastards, and so disappointed by his last child.
And yet…
Your loyalty and love for him has not wavered.
Oh, Gwyndolin.
Hideous and weak god.
Herald of the downtrodden, god of the pariah, leader of a dying covenant, keeper of a waning lie.
Underneath the scattered rubble, lay a godly body. Misshapen, frail, broken, but alive.
Dark claws seized the small frame, gently, tenderly, like a crying child had once clung onto her doll, her one true friend in a world that had condemned her from birth for the unforgivable sin of being alive.
Priscilla. Oh Gwyndolin, why does your heart still ache at the memory of that bastard girl? The lost, the sick, the ugly, the outcast… Gwyndolin, why are your mercy and compassion exclusive of those that remind you of yourself?
She swallowed the god.
Your warmth.
Your taste.
You texture.
The feeling of being satisfied made her immortal and divine.
I love you, Gwyndolin.
Tears welled in Fina's eyes; they were drops of Humanity, dark like dew against a starless sky.
I love you, my Lord.
"The illusion may be but an empty puppet, but his words are true."
Solaire shook his forehead away from his talisman. Oswald was staring down at him, his hands joined behind his back. Had the church not been so dark, the pardoner's shadow would have engulfed Solaire completely, kneeling down in prayer as he was.
Fearing Oswald would collapse again because of his injuries, Solaire stood up clumsily and reached for him. Too late he realized his brusque movements had given the mistaken impression that Oswald's comment had angered him.
The pardoner reacted by taking a step back, while Oscar, who had been resting on the stairs nearby, immediately rushed to Solaire's side. After stretching a protective arm before Solaire, he kept Oswald at bay by pointing the coiled sword at him.
"Is this why you returned to us, pardoner?" Oscar asked in fury. "To cause us grief and strife when we need it the least? To mock us in some sick way to amuse yourself? I will not allow it, not this time."
"Oscar, please."
Solaire lowered Oscar's arm and made him pull down his sword. Oscar resisted, but only at first. Though reluctantly, he did not oppose Solaire.
An awkward silence that none of the three men knew how to fill or break followed. In the distance, Tarkus' heavy and metallic steps rang clearer in their direction. He only stopped after Solaire, with a subtle wave of his hand and a nod, informed him that the situation would not escalate into conflict.
Tarkus stood still. Eventually, he returned to the blacksmith's side, just in front of the church's entrance. He did not ask any questions.
"You have learned nothing since we parted ways at the fortress." Oswald sneered after making sure Tarkus would not interfere. "You two remain frail of heart and soul. All you'll gain by clinging to each other like this is dragging yourselves to hell."
"We've had this conversation before. There's no need to repeat what has already been said. You have your beliefs, pardoner, and we have ours. That's all there is to it, so waste not our time on this nonsense, no more than you already have."
"What an impudent and stubborn man you are, Oscar of Astora." Oswald faced Oscar completely, as if Solaire had vanished from existence. " If you showed the same defiance and fierceness to your enemies in battle that you show to those who offer you counsel, your place as the most powerful and skilled knight of all time would be guaranteed. Not even Sir Ornstein the Dragon Slayer would be a match for your prowess."
"Do forgive me pardoner, but what did you say?" Oscar couped his ear. "My hearing suddenly got clogged by something that sounded very much like a flood of bullshit."
"Enough, both of you!"
Solaire, tired of the insults and ill-intended assertions, pulled Oscar and Oswald away from each other by yanking them from their shoulders. The pull was strong enough to cause Oscar to lose his grip on the coiled sword.
The scorched weapon created an echo that sounded almost deafening in the church's absolute silence.
"Fools! What do you think you are doing?" Tarkus exclaimed, stomping this foot on the floor, denting it with his sole. "Look at you, squabbling and arguing like children! I don't care what sort of unfinished business and resentments you have among yourselves, but whatever it is, you'd better put it behind you at once! I will not allow your inner and ridiculous discord to undermine our mission! Or have you forgotten about what is at stake?"
Tarkus turned his gaze to his right. Solaire followed it, and his heart shriveled at the sight of the unconscious knightess.
"Of those that will be forever damned if we fail?"
"No." Oswald answered. Solaire had never heard so much embarrassment and humbleness in his voice as he did then. "Truste me, shadow, that we have not."
Oscar said nothing, but the way he looked down gave away his shame. Solaire rested his arm around his shoulders and pulled him slightly closer to him, but Tarkus gave them no quarter.
"I pray for all that is good in this dark and rotten world that you speak the truth, pardoner of Carim, for it will be a sad day when a shadow like me behaves more honorably than humans of flesh and blood like yourselves."
Oswald did not reply, and Tarkus did not wait for his answer. As soon as he finished his reprimand, he returned his attention to the barricade he and the blacksmith were putting together with the boulders and remnants of the marble pillars they had destroyed
The church would be in need of careful and detailed repair, but it was a price too little to pay in exchange for everyone 's safety, for even a small blockage could give them precious time to keep Fina at bay if she returned.
Not 'if', but 'when'.
Solaire's chest became cold and rigid. His silent prayers had done nothing to ease his fears. He could only hope Oscar's moment of meditation had been more effective and reassuring than his own.
"Any of us can die." Oswald said. There was no malice in his statement, no mockery or cruelty, just a cold and indifferent sincerity. Perhaps it was because of it that it cut deeper than any of his japes had done. "And judging from our odds, all of us will."
Oswald's bony and gloved hands traveled slowly to his mask and seized it. He lifted it from his head, revealing his features to Oscar and Solaire.
Threads of white long hair, freed from the mask's confinement, rained down on his back and shoulders like drapes. Patches of dried blood were scattered across his hair, staining it with uneven dark spots like drops of ink on a canvas.
The sunken eyes that for so long had glared at Oscar and Solaire became stricter and hollower without the mask that covered them. Oswald's age, and the frailty that came with it, also became more evident, but so did his wisdom.
The more Solaire stared at him, the more he realized he was not looking at the semblance of a tired old man. His scars, the stern and fearless look in his eyes, his eternally marked frown; those were the features of an experienced warrior.
"Are you ready to confront death?" Oswald continued. "Are you strong enough to endure it?"
The questions stunned Solaire's mind.
Death was a concept he had never enjoyed contemplating.
Death was meaningless for the Undead, a foreign and intranscendental thing, a small inconvenience in a cursed and potentially eternal existence; but regarding death as a trivial matter, as little more than an accident, was something Solaire's mind couldn't do.
Not after what had happened in the Depths.
He looked at Oscar.
I have a reason to come back, but I do not have the strength of spirit to do it. Once I believed I did, but now…
"I needn't ask to know your lives as Undead have been painfully short." Oswald observed neutrally. "Your kindness, your selflessness, your bravery, your sentimentality, the fondness you hold for the strangers that cross your path… blame this not completely on your Astoran blood. These traits all reek of the innocence exclusive of those whose hearts are new to the curse. I mock you not for these qualities, for they are evidence of your strength of heart; maybe not the strength I would have demanded from warriors of my own choosing, nor is it a strength that would be praised in Carim, but it is a strength worthy of recognition nonetheless… one I shouldn't have ridiculed as I did. My scorn was misplaced, no matter how well intentioned it was."
"Well intentioned?" Oscar couldn't keep himself from scoffing. "What good did you ever think you could achieve by acting like you did, pardoner?"
"Little of worth is taught with kindness and understanding, Oscar. That which is truly good is seldom nice. When a child misbehaves because he knows no better, should his mother reward his conduct with hugs and kisses, or should she discipline her child with a strict scolding and a fitting punishment? Which would help the child correct his ways? Which would shape him to live up to his full potential?"
"Discipline is one thing, cruelty is another." Oscar interrupted Oswald abruptly. "I'm afraid your perception of both is mingled, for I see only cruelty when I remember your treatment of Solaire."
Solaire flinched. The memories of Oswald stabbing his shoulder, of his endless threats of hurting Oscar if he didn't do exactly as he was told. The mercilessness of Oswald's heart, the ruthlessness in his judgements. Was there really a valuable lesson in it?
Solaire wished he had the energy to ponder on it, but those were memories he didn't want to recall, not while in the middle of a dark cathedral in a fallen city of gods.
"That could be, lad." Oswald chuckled without humor, as if conceding defeat after a heated debate. " I am as much of a man as I am a pardoner. Free of sin I'm not. Yet, it is not my behavior which worries me, but yours. So once again, I ask you both: are you prepared to endure death and watch each other die?"
Solaire's eyes met with Oscar's. They were only a faint, blue glow in the darkness, but they told Solaire everything about the thoughts and emotions rampaging inside Oscar like a storm. No wonder, Solaire thought with a soft smile, why Oscar was so keen on hiding his face behind his helmet.
Your features easily betray the heart you try so hard to conceal.
"I will not die." Solaire said with sudden confidence, as if a sun was burning in his chest. "And neither will Oscar. I promise I won't allow that to–"
"Do not make promises you can't keep," Oswald silenced him, "especially if you have broken them before."
Solaire's hopeful bravado perished alongside the rest of his promise. Suddenly, he felt more like a child than a knight, not because of Oswald's reprimand, but for his own pretentious and empty claims. All his promises of keeping Oscar safe had done nothing to prevent his brutal death at the hands of the knight of thorns.
Laurentius' fate had been no different.
Sentiment alone has seldom kept people from harm.
Who had told him that? Pardoner Oswald? The knightess? Andre?
Griggs.
Intelligent, stoic and sensible Griggs. All that Griggs was, Solaire wasn't. It would be no surprise if the sorcerer ended up living an Undead existence as long as that of his master.
But what of him?
What of Oscar?
Had they been cursed to a short life as Undeads from the start?
"He broke no promise." Oscar said, furious but without raising his voice. "I have said this before, and I will say it again, I will say it a thousand times if necessary. Solaire didn't fail me, he never has. My death was not his–"
"I may be a pardoner, but I refuse to be the addressee of this confession." Oswald gently, almost comically, grabbed Oscar's chin and turned his head towards Solaire. "There, much better. Well then, proceed."
Oscar didn't.
"You already know this, right?" He finally said. "When I say my death was not your fault, you believe me, don't you Solaire?"
There was no quick answer to that question.
"I should have been wiser, I should have been better."
Solaire's voice left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth, as if he was spewing all the venom of his heart.
"But I wasn't. I acted like a fool and it was you who paid the price of my mistakes, Oscar. Even if you don't blame me for it, I cannot do the same, and I don't do it to victimize myself. Whatever my intentions were, I caused something horrible to happen, that's the truth. It was my fault, my responsibility. I was the catalyst of my best friend's death. How can I say I played no part in it? How can I forgive myself and act as if it hadn't happened at all?"
Solaire took a shaky breath. He expected Oswald's mocking remark, but it never came. Oscar too stayed quiet; maybe because he was overwhelmed, or maybe because he knew not what to say or how to react. Whatever his reasons, he said nothing at all.
"I always make a fool out of myself." Solaire continued, feeling a growing tightness in his chest and throat. "I keep making promises I can't keep. My faith is not the shield I thought it was. My good intentions, my willingness to sacrifice my life for my friend, my beliefs, my honor, my morals… none of it shielded you from Lordran's brutal reality, Oscar. After I was sure you would never come back, they all felt like lies, like the frail weapons of a childish, stupid man."
"A naive perspective indeed, for you to have thought that faith and good intentions alone would protect you or him from the world."
Oswald spoke calmly, almost fatherly. His words were not kind, but neither were they cruel. There was no judgment in them, just a neutral softness that made Solaire feel somewhat comforted, in a way he couldn't explain.
"Your heart is not a reflection of reality, Solaire. Oscar, I believe, put it quite well: everyone has their own beliefs. Those who do not share your code of honor are not bound to your rules and laws. They will not act as you would have done in their place; they see no fault in actions you find abhorrent, or maybe they simply don't care. Perhaps they have reasons of their own that justify their deeds, or maybe they don't see the world as you do. Your faith won't change the hearts of others, nor is it a warrant of safety and success; that is not the purpose of faith."
"I know that!" Solaire snapped. He was trembling, baring his teeth at Oswald in defiance. "I know well how cruel others can be! And yet… It makes no sense to me. I know it's the truth, but it's not the truth I want to accept. What good has my faith ever done to me, then? It only made an idiot out of myself. It has always been me, praying to a god that never listened, struggling against a fate that never favored me, seeking beauty and hope in senseless tragedy. Faith didn't even give me the strength to protect my friend when he needed me most. In that awful moment, no god ever came to save me, no miracle occurred to mend the injustice that had been committed. There was no salvation, no divine intervention, no sun to shine down upon me. I was alone, and all that was real was Oscar's corpse in my arms."
Oscar reached for him, but Oswald blocked his path with an arm. If Oscar tried to push Oswald away, he gave up his efforts the moment Solaire started to cry.
A moment of solitary grieving.
At last, a moment to fully confront all that happened in the sewers and Blighttown.
The curse of the basilisk that would never be lifted from his body. Lautrec's betrayal and accusations. The warmth of Laurentius' flame, a parting gift that had never been allowed to be. The blood of the knight of thorns on his hands. The sight of his sword piercing the cursed maiden's shoulder. The screams of her deformed guardian as he begged him not to kill her. The maggot's teeth sinking into his flesh as it took control over his mind.
The fading weight of Oscar's body as it vanished into nothingness after his death.
Solaire cried for it all.
"How can I have faith when not once it has rewarded me?" He stuttered after a failed attempt to suppress his sobbing. "How can I hope for a better tomorrow when all that surrounds me is chaos and despair? How can I have faith you will return if you perish again, Oscar?"
It was not an weren't even questions that demanded an answer; they only were Solaire's fears given form. For how long have he had carried them inside him, locked away in the deepest corners of his soul?
Oswald spoke again before Solaire could ponder about it.
"So you've lost your faith not only in your god, but also in the world, in yourself and in the man you call your brother and friend? After so many disappointments, all your mind can foresee is failure. There is no hope for the future, there is no chance of success. Everyone is doomed to fall and die. Is this how it is, Solaire?"
Solaire wiped his tears with the back of his hand. One last hiccup escaped him. When his blurry eyesight cleared, he discovered Oscar had been crying too, but unlike him, he did so in silence. He covered his eyes behind a hand, with only the faintest trace of a shudder in his shoulders.
After noticing that Solaire's attention was not fixed on him, Oswald put himself between him and Oscar.
"If that's how it is," Oswald continued, "then you and Oscar should just drop dead. There's no point in fighting a battle that's already deemed lost."
Oswald raised his arm. In his hand, he held a talisman as dark as the night.
"Come! Let your despair consume you and reduce you both to Hollows. Accept your destiny and perish by my hand. Do not despair, your suffering shall soon come to an end! Who will be first? You, or him?"
Solaire didn't know if the last question was directed at him or Oscar, but that didn't stop him from unsheathing his weapon to protect his friend before Oswald decided to attack. His sword clashed against another.
Oscar's coiled sword.
Their weapons had touched accidentally when Oscar, in an equally desperate attempt to protect Solaire, had rushed at him with his sword in hand.
They stared at each other. Then, they put down their arms.
"I didn't want to come back." Oscar said. Solaire listened in numbfound silence. "I wanted to stay in the darkness of death forever. I wanted to let go of everything, that's why it took me so long to–"
He choked on his words. Oscar couldn't find his voice, and neither could Solaire. The lump in his throat hardly allowed him to breathe.
"I've always failed the people I love the most. What I told you is true, Solaire. My fellow elite knights, the citizens of Astora I couldn't protect, the Undead from the Asylum, my mother. They all died and all I could do was watch. They trusted me and I failed them. I cannot bear to go through this pain again, I just can't. That's why the mere thought of watching you die is something unfathomable to me. I trust you, lords, I do! I believe in your skills, in your prowess. You are twice the knight I could ever be. Your heart is strong, your soul is resilient. You don't need my protection to be safe, I know that well… but this land, this godforsaken world! It's as if it had a mind of its own, as if all it wanted was to watch us die. I won't stand for this, I can't let it take anything dear from me again. If I lose you, if I can't even protect my best friend, then why am I here? What purpose would I have?"
Solaire, speechless and bewildered, wished he could take Oscar's pain and cast it into nothingness. Instead, he stood where he was, too stunned by Oscar's confession to order his thoughts.
"Ah, you are done talking? At last! I had almost forgotten how fond Astorans are of their little speeches." Oswald observed so casually that Solaire had to fight the urge of punching the pardoner in the mouth. "I must say I didn't expect such a tender reasoning from you, Oscar. For you, Solaire signifies one last chance of redemption, an opportunity to prove to yourself you are not the failure you're convinced you are. You think of him not as his own person, but as a catalyst to make up for all your past misdeeds. Selfish, so cinically so! No wonder you are so scared of going Hollow if he dies for good."
"That's not true!" Oscar exclaimed. He looked at Oswald, and a moment after, he looked at Solaire. "You are not my redemption, Solaire. You are not my second chance at becoming my best self. You are yourself. You are my friend. You are my brother. You are the Chosen Undead. I want to see you succeed. I want you to be happy, cursed and trapped in this Undead life as we are. I want you to live! Please live, Solaire. Even if the time comes when I'm no longer by your side, you must live."
"Why?" Solaire couldn't hang on to his silence any longer. He feared he would go Hollow if he did. "Why do you assume you will die and never return? Why did you tell me you would always be by my side if you are already convinced you won't come back the next time you die?"
"Because he is not unlike you, Solaire." Oswald intervened, as if stating the obvious. "Oscar has lost his faith too. Be careful before you accuse him of a sin you too are guilty of. Or are you not equally convinced that, if you die, you won't have the strength of will that it takes to come back?"
Solaire's world stopped around him. His hands, feet and face tickled in numbness, as if Oswald had slapped him without warning. He breathed in shallow gasps.
The revelation was so evident and simple that Solaire couldn't believe he hadn't seen it by himself. He was truly an idiot.
A big, stupid–
No.
He couldn't.
How do I dare?
He couldn't hide behind that excuse this time.
How do I dare to get angry at Oscar when we share the same fears?
In the question, he found the answer, and in the answer he found shame. Once more, Oswald was in charge of leading the conversation away from an endless silence.
"Foolish, foolish knights of kind hearts." There it was again, his fatherly tone. "Oh Velka, what am I to do with these Astorans? What are they meant to make of me, a pardoner of Carim? I struggle to understand the mappings of their hearts. They resent my counsel and judgment, and not without reason, for it is true I am a cruel and heartless man. We don't understand each other. Alas, our minds are shaped too differently. Tell me please, my dear Velka, why was I fated to become the guide of these dark souls?"
Oswald chuckled and offered one hand to Oscar. Then, he offered the other to Solaire. They looked at each other, unsure of how to proceed. In the end, it was Solaire who took Oswald's hand first. Following his example, Oscar did so too, if more reluctantly.
"You too." Oswald said. "Hold each other's hands."
They did. Oscar removed his gauntlet first. His hand was cold, but to Solaire, it felt warmer than the sun.
"Love your fate." Oswald spoke like a priest in mass. "This wisdom I shared with you was not the wisdom you needed. I shared it carelessly, with the same eagerness of a charlatan desperate to show off the concepts he read in a book but does not understand. For that, I apologize. While I do hope such wisdom becomes pertinent and useful to you in due time, I ask you to forgive me for trying to offer you guidance before I first tried to understand your hearts. The loss of your faith, the fear of losing your purpose, the weight of past pains, the longing of becoming a better version of yourself, the dread of losing each other. All these doubts without an answer, they weigh you down, and if you are not careful, they will consume you until nothing remains but your Hollowed corpses. Alas… I cannot offer you the answers you seek, even less the ones you wish to hear. I cannot make promises of safety and justice. I cannot mend the faith you've lost in the gods you once adored, nor can I take away the pain of your past. Those are wounds you must heal on your own."
The difficulty of those duties overwhelmed Solaire. He wondered if he had what was necessary to accomplish it, and ended up deciding that, if nothing else, he would try.
"But in this world of pain and uncertainty, I can offer you this." Oswald pulled Oscar and Solaire's hands closer. He rested Solaire's above Oscar's and held them together. Then, a purple aura, soft and warm like a silk blanket, engulfed their hands from their fingers to their wrists.
"What is this?" Oscar demanded, but Oswald gave him no answer. "Solaire!"
"Don't worry, I'm alright." Solaire replied, and only then did Oscar relax.
"Let certitude be the light that guides you." Oswald continued. He pressed Oscar and Solaire's hands tighter together, the aura closing around them like chains. "Faith demands you to believe in that which cannot be proven. This solemn vow you are now making will require you to remember that which is certain. Fate, gods, this world… in all these you can have faith; but between each other, you can have something stronger. More tangible, more real, something you cannot demand from a deity you cannot see or a force you can't control. In each other, you can trust. Oscar of Astora, should you die in the upcoming battle, will you rise from the ashes and come back to Solaire's side?"
"I–" Oscar swallowed. He straightened his shoulders and strengthened his hold on Solaire's hands. When he spoke again, his voice was firm and proud. With his breath hitching in his throat, Solaire felt in the presence of the bravest knight the world had ever known. "I will. As your friend and brother, this vow I make to you, Solaire."
"Solaire of Astora, should you perish in the near future, will you break through the darkness of death and find your way back to life and Oscar?"
Solaire, moved by an impulse too fierce to ignore, raised his hands and Oscar's and pressed them against his forehead, the same way he did with his talisman when he engaged in thoughtful prayer. Oscar gasped in fear, but the aura caused no harm to Solaire when it touched him.
The nature of the essence became clear to him.
"I will, Oscar." Solaire closed his eyes, making a short pause to allow his words to settle in. "Trust me that I will."
"I trust you, Solaire. I always have."
What a wondrous gift, and given to him so sincerely. Solaire would always treasure that moment.
"Don't forget to trust in yourselves too. That is just as important." Oswald reminded them. "You have no control of how the world unfolds around you, you have not the power to demand an answer from the gods who abandoned you, but you do have power and control over yourselves. If you can trust nothing else, then trust in yourselves and each other. Always rise above, and in doing so, you'll find a power truer than faith."
The purple essence let out a final glow and vanished. Oswald let go of their hands. He offered a gentle smile to Oscar and Solaire before putting on his mask again. He stepped away in silence, walking slowly toward Tarkus and the blacksmith.
"Was it a curse?" Oscar ventured once the pardoner was gone. He raised his hand and inspected it carefully. "What he did to us?"
"No." Solaire said. "It was a miracle."
One colder, darker than his own, different in nature from the lighting essence that powered his spears or the soothing aura that served as base for his healing miracles.
"A miracle?" Oscar couldn't hide his disbelief.
"Don't worry." Solaire put his hand on top of Oscar's. "It will cause you no harm."
Oscar didn't seem so sure at first, but it wasn't long before his frown softened and was replaced by a smile. "Your words put me at ease, Solaire. I trust you, don't ever forget that, alright?"
"After all this, I don't think I can."
"Pardoner Oswald does know how to leave an impression, I'll give him that. Now, if he only mastered the skill of doing so without first acting like an absolute ass…wait, aren't you going to scold me for using such foul language inside a holy church? Who are you and what did you do with my friend, you impostor?"
"Usually, I would," Solaire agreed, lowering his voice to keep his conversation with Oscar as private as possible, "but to be honest, I would have worded it the same way."
Solaire's ears turned red immediately after.
"That was overly rude and inappropriate, wasn't it?"
"Perhaps, but it was also true and accurate. It's nice to see this side of you, Solaire! It makes me feel like I'm a bad influence on you, though… and if I am, I don't regret it. Not one bit."
"Oscar!"
"Ah, there it is. There's no doubt about it, you really are Solaire after all."
Solaire quickly forgot about his shame and indignation. Instead, he laughed together with Oscar.
It was a fleeting merriment, one that couldn't compete against the dark reality that surrounded them, but Solaire enjoyed every second of it.
"We'll make it through this." He said once their laughter had died off. He pulled Oscar closer to him and rested his chin on his shoulder. "I know we will. Don't forget about the vow we made."
"Yes." Oscar answered, reciprocating the gesture and locking his arm around Solaire's back. " We–"
Demonic shrieks and the chaotic flapping of dozens of wings swallowed Oscar's voice. He and Solaire broke apart from each other, their eyes darting around the halls as they searched for the source of the cries.
"Damn those traitors to hell!" Oswald exclaimed in rage. "As they wish! We'll kill them all! Such is the price they must pay for siding with that unrepentant and sinful harlot!"
"How can this be?" Tarkus lamented in despair, his greatsword looming eerily over the floor as he gripped it in a single-hand stance.
"Focus, shadow! Right now, we'll need your strength, not your musings and doubts! Blacksmith, join us in this fight, and by sweet Velka, mind your step or else you'll end us all! Oscar, Solaire, forget not your vows…!"
Like vermin being chased out from their hiding place in an abandoned shack, an endless flow of winged demons infiltrated the halls of the church from the staircase that gave access to the rooms and the roof. In a heartbeat, they filled the place with their disgusting figures and cries.
"And fight!"
Oswald's last claim had not yet faded in the wind when the winged demons, as hungry and savage as a colony of rabid bats, dived down in their direction.
The power of her blow had been repelled and redirected at her with twice the strength. The immaterial, purple essence that covered the church's doors like lacquer had suffered no damage at all.
It is as I expected.
Fina thought, her wounds searing close and healing in matters of seconds.
Tis' one of Velka's dirty tricks.
The pardoner.
The pardoner did this.
The pardoner must die.
Quiet! Do not disturb my lady's soul with your mournful laments!
Her knight subdued the other voices until only silence remained, and Fina very much thanked him for it with a gentle, incorporeal kiss from within.
My lady, let me take care of him. Just say the word and I'll bring you his head and heart. Let me serve, my lady, let me protect you.
It was a tempting offer, and the eagerness with which her knight would obey her commands, the willingness with which he would dispose of her enemies if she ordered him to do so filled Fina with divine satisfaction.
My lady? My goddess?
Do not despair, my knight. Soon I shall grant you the chance to unleash my fury upon those who wronged us.
Soon?
The growing chaos that could be heard from the other side of the doors caused a parody of a smile to form on Fina's face.
The miracle that prevented her advance began to dwindle.
Yes, my Lautrec. Soon.