Event 1: First Memory
Every full moon, for one night, the inmates of the Undead Asylum are released from their cells into the yard. Amidst the snow, under the light of the moon, these "Hollows," those who have died so many times they have lost their sanity, wander or sit as they wish. One may think Hollows, devoid of memories and spirit, would tear each other apart under these circumstances. But the Hollows here are different; they have been contained so many countless moons that they have given up. With no need to do a thing but exist, they wander. Some don't even bother to leave their cells when they are allowed. On this particular night, more Hollows than normal have come out. They crowd together near the faintly burning bonfire in the center of it. A few sit around the yard, not bearing the motivation or will to stand by the others. One sits alone in the shadows, the cursed Darksign on the side of her stomach. It sits just under her ribs, glowing a dull orange, and is just a simple perfect circle. As her head lolls to and fro, her eyes pass over the crowd in the yard. Something stops her gaze, and her limp head. She fixes on something. A finger, raised to the sky, pointing. Another Hollow, the only other cursed Hollow of the Asylum, had his head raised and was staring at the stars. He was pointing at one at random, still very much insane. This scene triggered something within the cursed woman, and struck the last remaining cord sanity had left her: curiosity. She too looked up from where she sat, and stared at the band of stars she could see. It would be her first memory in her new-found sanity and life...
As the sun rose, the demon assigned to watch over the Asylum opened the massive doors to the main hall and began scaring the Hollows back to their cells. None had an assigned place, so they all simply ran. Being immortal, it wasn't pain or fear of death that drove them back, but the fear of such quick motion and tumultuous sound the demon made. Not two days later and the cursed woman could hear metal boots on the brick of the Asylum, passing over her. She had the current displeasure of a water-logged cell on the second floor. Nothing was worse for an Undead than to have fungus slowly kill them from the rotted feet up. A slow death meant pain. A quick death meant rebirth in the ashes of the bonfire and finding a new cell before the demon showed itself. As the cursed female looked up at the ceiling, a booted foot suddenly crashed through as the bricks gave way. In a thundering boom, the man in knights' armor fell in all at once. Half-buried, and rather crushed by the heavy stone bricks, the man seemed dead. The cursed female, however, was still perfectly fine. She crossed the room, sure the danger was past, and clambered over the dead knight to the sunlight above. The first thing she sought was the bonfire in the yard, so she began exploring to find it. As she prepared to carefully lower herself to the bonfire from the roof of the Asylum, quite a long drop if one didn't land on a walkway of the second floor first, a gate below banged open. Another Undead, in tattered clothing and holding a straight-sword hilt, walked through the opening with purpose, drew power from the bonfire, and quickly moved to open the door to the main hall. The cursed female strained to make some noise the Undead would hear, to try and stop it from angering the demon, but too late. The doors were being forced open, and soon the Undead was inside. The cursed woman could hear the demon crash to the floor, and she moaned at the sound assaulting her ears. She dropped carefully to the second floor walkway, then down to the yard. She looked toward the main hall in time to see a gate slam shut behind the other Undead she had seen, signaling it had avoided the demon for the time being. The cursed woman huddled next to the stairs leading up the main hall door, and jammed herself as close to the corner as possible, praying not to be found and captured again...
What felt like an eternity later, she could hear the demon roar in what sounded like pain. Creeping up the stairs in a crawl, the woman peered into the room to see the other Undead. It had a proper weapon now, and was fighting the demon! This Undead, much faster than the demon, and small enough to avoid its searching eyes, struck the demon's hide again and again. The many wounds sprayed blood, and the demon quickly began to slow from blood loss. In only moments, the demon crashed to the floor dead. The victorious Undead lifted a hand, absorbing his fallen adversary's soul, adding it to his own power. Even through his new clothes, the Darksign on his back glowed with the new power. Stepping around the corpse of the Asylum Demon, this Undead opened the main door of the Asylum, and headed up the hill. A hissing noise rose from the ground at the nose of the woman, causing her to scramble back instinctively. When she looked at the ground where the sound had come from, a simple message on an orange ribbon lay on the floor.
"Follow, quickly."
The cursed woman looked up, seeing the Undead reach the peak of the hill. He was instantly snatched up by a huge bird and carried away. Desperate, the cursed woman ran for the hill, ignoring the dead demon. She reached the top, looked over the cliff, then watched as the bird and the Undead flew away. With nothing else to do, she salvaged a black and tattered cloak from a nearby body and waited...
Hours went by, perhaps even days, leaving the woman time to find several other useful items. Her black cloak was nothing special, however, she also found an empty green flask and a green and yellow ring. The ring was now on her left ring finger, and the flask was clutched in her right hand. There was a small crack in it near the bottom, but she couldn't fully break it for some reason. That meant no weapon. Luckily, she seemed to be the only Undead who had escaped, or at least the only one who had gone this way. As she scanned the sky for what she hoped would be her own way out, she got lucky once again. The huge crow was flying back, aimed right at her. She pulled her cloak close, hugging the flask to her stomach. The crow spread its wings, slowing down enough to just grab her and not kill her, snatched her up and flew away. Fear of falling gripped the Undead as she watched the mountains below pass by. The crow flew far away, the gloom of the Undead Asylum behind them forever. As the crow passed over a huge chasm, apparently aiming for a large outcropping with a bonfire on it, something caused the crow to drop her. The crow struggled to stay in the air, shrieking in pain, but the Undead woman fell freely... Straight through a huge chasm in the ground, striking a massive pillar, and slamming to the dirt at its base. The last thing she heard was something shatter before she died.
A gentle hand probed for life, softly touching the lump of black cloth and shriveled skin. The Undead woman inhaled quickly, her body returning to life. The memory of her previous death made her shudder and sit up in a jerking motion. She still had her cloak, and the unbroken flask poked out of the dirt beneath her, but her ring had cracked cleanly in half and gone black.
"My, my, you are a lucky one," said the figure who had woken her. "I am Quelaana, of Izalith. Who are you, to have fallen from the sky in such a way?"
Obviously, this Quelaana, a woman in black robes and a black hood, was talking to the cursed Undead woman, but she didn't remember her name. She tried to speak, and by some blessing or curse, she actually had a voice despite her missing teeth and eternally gaping mouth.
"N-... Naaame...?" she rasped.
"Yes, child, your name," said Quelaana, being patient with her.
"N-... No... Name..." responded the Undead.
"Well, then I can name you, if you wish. But you'll have to try something for me first."
The woman nodded, no reason to refuse.
"Raise your hand, and aim your palm at one of those foul leeches you see in the ooze."
The woman did so, showing her skinny and wrinkled arm from under the cloak.
"Now, I want you to relax. Think only of who you know you are. With no name, it may be difficult. Perhaps try imagining who you wish to be. When you have such an image, hold it in your mind. Let that image become your strength. Then, let that strength well up within you, and be set free from your outstretched hand." Quelaana spoke slowly and softly, perhaps even moreso than she normally did.
A soft moan issued from the woman, of pain or despair, and for a long moment nothing happened. Quelaana sighed after a long silence, with nothing to go on for a name.
"Well, the point is that you gave an honest attempt. Now, as for a na-" she cut off in mid-sentence.
A blue fireball had shot from the palm of the Undead, striking the leech and instantly burning right through it. The leech writhed once or twice, then died.
"I-... I am honestly speechless..." said Quelaana. "You not only produced Pyromancy, but you've done something I've never seen before. Very well done. You may wish to practice that for a while after we've finished speaking. Now I have something to go on for a name! Let me see..."
Quelaana went quiet, thinking. The Undead looked at her hand, still sporting small tongues of blue flame in the darkness.
"What do you think of 'Seiko?' It means 'Blue Child.'"
"Sssssei... Ko...?"
"Yes. A simple name, and a fitting one, I think."
The Undead lifted her flask from the dirt, clutching it by the neck near the top. "Sei... Ko..."
Quelaana smiled under her hood. "Now, I have precious few of these, but I am willing to share in this case. Tell me, would you be my student if you could? I can teach you many things concerning Pyromancy; that is, what you just shot from your hand. If you can commit yourself to that, and promise to abide by my teachings, you may have this..."
Quelaana held out her hand. From thin air, a black flame of sorts began to grow. It had a soft white glow, and seemed alive somehow.
"It is Humanity. With this, I've seen another reverse his Hollowed state at a bonfire nearby. He would not be my student, nor did he show any promise. However, like you, he had the Darksign. Yes, child, I can sense its power on you. I'd like you to try and make yourself human. If you succeed, I will teach you."
Seiko reached out her free hand and the small black Humanity shifted to her hand effortlessly, as if it wanted to be there.
"Come with me, then. We'll go to the bonfire."
In the darkness, near the huge pillar Seiko had struck, was a small patch of dirt. Beyond the dirt, there seemed to be peat or mud everywhere. Off in the distance there was a landmass covered in white, but it was guarded by massive ogres that were busy mining something. In the other direction, there was a huge waterwheel turning nothing, and several large bugs. At their heart, the beasts held what looked like a small flame. Quelaana strode over the mud fluidly, approaching the first bug. As Seiko struggled to follow, and as she watched, the bug breathed fire at Quelaana. Quelaana raised a hand and shot a fireball through the stream of flame from the bug. The bug swelled, glowing from within, and died.
"This way, child," said Quelaana, beckoning. She and Seiko quickly found an indent in the stone wall, leading into what seemed like a large sewer tunnel. There, just inside the entrance, and out of the mud and dirt, was a faintly glimmering bonfire. Seiko knelt, holding out the Humanity in her hand. The Humanity leapt into the fire, and the fire reached back, swallowing Seiko quite suddenly. Seiko drew in an impossibly long breath from the flame, flesh and teeth and eyes growing visibly from her. In seconds she had perfect skin, all her teeth, and bright blue eyes. Her hair was no longer wispy and thin, but long and black. She had filled out her rags as well.
"Brilliant!" said Quelaana, forceful, but not loud.
"I-... I've never seen this before..." said Seiko, finally able to speak properly.
"Until my last visitor, nor had I," said Quelaana. "Come. There is a chamber ahead where we may study in peace..."
"My first lesson, and the most important, is that Pyromancy is the actualization of the inner self. The stronger your resolve, your spirit, the stronger and more focused your flames will be. I want you to try launching another fireball, like the one you did earlier."
Seiko raised her hand, aiming at the stone wall, and only seconds later repeated firing the blue flame.
"Excellent. How many times can you do that?" asked Quelaana.
"Don't know..." said Seiko. She fired another, hitting the first scorch mark perfectly. She fired another six times, a total of eight so far, not counting her first.
"Save your strength!" pleaded Quelaana.
"But..." said Seiko.
"You may be able to cast plenty of times, but I need you to conserve your strength if we are to get anywhere for now. Can you do anything else with the flame? For example..."
Quelaana clenched her hand and opened it, placing it on the ground. A single pillar of bright orange flame rose from the ground. Next she drew power and threw an arcing fireball, which hit the stone wall very high up and exploded in a wide radius.
"Try to mimic those two techniques. I want to see how far your natural skill goes."
Seiko nodded, and did so. She tried the pillar of flame first, placing her hand on the ground. Pillars of blue flame began ripping out of the ground, repeatedly, and uncontrollably. Quelaana gracefully avoided any that got too close just before they erupted under her feet.
"We'll need to work on your control, but that was quite impressive. If I'm being honest, I would actually go so far as to say you're a genius in Pyromancy. Unless you've had some prior training?"
Seiko shook her head, by nature rather quiet.
"In that case, I fear and hope you will surpass me. But always heed my warnings. My last student succumbed to his own flame, lost in his power. I do not wish the same fate of you. Now, try the second technique..."
And so, with no regard to time, the two spoke of and practiced Pyromancy. Out of the Asylum, and already involved in something, the cursed Undead woman, Seiko has set roots in Lordran. In the bowels of Blighttown, almost as far from safe as one can be in Lordran, Seiko prepares for her task. What it is, she still has no idea. But the Undead who she followed out of the Asylum was busy as well, and it seemed decided from the beginning that they cross paths again...