Chapter Five - Aftermath
Malenia stood upon the back of the now headless Mohg, her breathing heavy and irregular, blade trembling in her hand. This was not due to fear or adrenaline, as she had subdued both years ago, but pure unbridled rage. Rage at the miserable pile of flesh lying beneath her. Yea, rage and anger not only for what he had done, but more so the fact that - like it or not - Mohg was family. A fact that sickened Malenia to her core, for though she did not want to imagine a creature as vile as him sharing her blood, he did. What's more, Mohg's relation only served to remind Malenia of the Rot coursing through her veins. Of the many sins her family shared…
"Are you alright?"
Freomund. She'd almost forgotten he was there.
"Yes, I'm alright," Malenia said at last, cleaning the blood from her blade with a small flick. "It's just… I never thought I'd see the day when Miquella and I were reunited."
She lifted her calcified gaze to meet Freomund's, and though the upper-half of her face was not visible on account of her helmet, the Draconian could see a myriad of emotions dance across it.
"I… I've slept for so long, Freomund," she said, a tremor in her voice as she moved to take hold of her brother's wizened hand. "I've wasted so much time waiting in that blasted tree, hoping he would return, yet doing nothing to ensure it."
Malenia let her hand fall with a stuttered sigh. If she could still cry, the swordswoman had no doubt she would. Out of relief and joy, anger and hate, loathing and disgust. For as she gazed upon her brother's cocooned form she felt all of these things; yet none more keenly than the last as, ultimately, it had been her failure that allowed Mohg to steal Miquella in the first place.
"As I recall…" Freomund began as he hoisted Maliketh's blade over his shoulder. "You had your hands full with Radahn and the rest of the war. All things considered, I don't think you should blame yourself."
"I could have posted a guard," she said, a bit harshly. "Some of my brother's knights perhaps, or even the Misbegotten. Instead I chased glory like a fool, and my brother's suffered because of it. Because of me."
Sheathing his blade, Freomund stepped forward to take Malenia by the prosthetic. His other hand - which was armored thankfully - he brought up to cup her cheek, causing her to flinch both from the unexpected physical contact and the coolness of the metal.
"We all make mistakes Malenia," Freomund said gently. "And while some are worse than others, and some might haunt us for the rest of our days, what matters most is that we learn from them."
He chuckled, a sound akin to shifting gravel, and the red-headed Empyrean could've sworn she blushed - though she couldn't say why exactly.
"I mean just look at me! Why if I hadn't learned from my mistakes, I'd still be stuck in Liurnia! With all of the lobsters…"
Freomund adopted an air of mock-seriousness then, and his voice took on an exaggeratedly fearful tone.
"...and the crabs. By the Erdtree, the crabs!"
"Ah yes, crabs. Truly the most fearsome creatures ever to stalk the Lands Between," Malenia laughed, shooting Freomund an amused grin before turning her attention back to her brother's cocoon.
"We'll need to find a way to get him out of here eventually," she said after a while, breaking the silence that had settled between them. "His home is the Haligtree, not this-"
She motions to the ruins around them.
"Godforsaken place."
"I agree, though we'll need a lot more manpower to pull it off - as I'm loath to use the power of the Ring," Freomund explained. "And while Radagon could use it to teleport, I've yet to figure that part out. Anyway, I might be able to gather some survivors from the capital since I'm technically in charge now, but I think it best if we returned to the Haligtree to round up some knights. Probably safer too."
Malenia nodded, but said nothing more, for there was nothing more to be said. Merely work to be done, and quite a lot of it at that.
Before any of that, however, she remembered one last thing she needed to do.
"Thank you," she said softly. "For everything."
"Well… I wouldn't thank me just yet. We've still got one more thing to take care of after all."
Ah yes. The Rot. When she'd first met Freomund she had doubted the veracity, and indeed the very plausibility, of his claim. But now that Mohg had been defeated and her brother reclaimed? Now she didn't doubt him for a second. There was no question in Malenia's mind that they would travel to Farum Azula and purge the Scarlet Rot from her body so she could finally live a life free of pain for the first time in forever. That much her companion would make certain, even if she couldn't fully envision what such an existence - one in which others no longer shied from her touch, and pain no longer wracked her form - would be like.
Turning away, she readied herself for the long trek back to the tunnels from whence they'd come, when Freomund striding past her to kneel by Mohg's corpse gave her pause. Confused, she turned round just in time to see - in a manner of speaking - her companion extract the fallen demigod's Great Rune, and suddenly his momentary delay made a great deal of sense. It stood to reason that he'd take at least a passing interest in them, to say nothing of the inherent ownership he had over them by virtue of being the reigning lord, and it wasn't as if the former Lord of Blood would be needing it in any case.
Granted, it seemed as though some semblance of worry had managed to worm its way into Malenia's features, for Freomund quickly moved to reassure her of his intentions.
"Not yours," he said solemnly. "Never yours, and never by force at that."
Getting to his feet, Freomund's expression turned cheery once more as he closed the distance between them.
"Now! Let's go take care of that Rot!"
I-X-I
The journey to Farum Azula had been much less eventful than Malenia expected, and mainly consisted of a whole lot of walking. Or riding, in Freomund's case, as he'd elected to make use of Torrent for the longer stretches of their venture across the land. Other than that, when they weren't fending off the odd enemy, the two of them had spent the majority of their time searching for places to camp or treats for Torrent to eat. Mostly apples since they were the spectral steed's favorite - as Malenia quickly came to learn by the fifth tree they stopped at.
How he was able to eat so many, or indeed where he even found the room in his stomach to put them, the Empyrean knew not. All she knew was that if you had an apple, then - inevitably - Torrent would eat it. In any case the trio eventually reached the coast, and it was here that the red-haired swordswoman began to wonder just how it was Freomund intended to get to the crumbling city. A question that was promptly answered by her companion pulling out a colossal halberd and setting to work on the surrounding foliage, which he then whittled down little by little until - some five days later - they had a fully functional rowboat at their disposal.
"We'll have to be the ones to row it unfortunately," he said as they prepared to cast off an hour or so before dawn. "As I don't exactly have the skill or materials necessary to make a rudder and sail."
Freomund had allowed Malenia to get into the boat first before taking up the oars he'd made and hopping into the craft himself. Once they were both safely aboard, along with any supplies they might need, the two of them set off into the vast blue beyond. At some point during the voyage, however, they'd gotten swept up in a storm and blacked out, only to wake up some time later on the very outskirts of Farum Azula.
After taking a moment to get their bearings and check for potential injury, Malenia and Freomund began making their perilous descent to the very edge of the vortex whirling eternally at the city's heart. Once there her Draconian companion bid her lay in one of the many alcoves embedded in the platform on which they stood, before doing the same himself. At first Malenia wasn't sure what this would accomplish, though after a moment or two she noticed that the eye of the storm had begun rapidly expanding towards them, until at last her entire world was naught but the constant roar of wind and debris.
Then…
Nothing.
No sound nor wind. No whipping and crackling of stone as it was hurled this way and that. Just... silence.
"The storm's enveloped us. You can get up now," Freomund said from off to her right. "Oh and don't worry about having to fight. I took care of the Dragon Lord the last time I was here."
Pushing herself upward into a sitting position, Malenia couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy when it came to the downright tomblike atmosphere of the place.
"Wait, the last time?" she asked, turning to face the direction his voice had come from.
"Yes, I came here in search of the Rune of Death and faced Maliketh the first time around," he explained. "Unbound death and got the Black Blade in the process."
"That explains Mohg's pathetic reaction I suppose. But, does this not also mean that death comes for all in the Lands Between?"
Freomund nodded. "For now, at least. But we can speak of such things later. Just rest for the time being."
He paused for a moment to remove his gauntlets, chestplate, greaves, boots, and hood - so only a simple tunic and breeches remain - before continuing.
"Since the needle's already embedded in your chest there isn't much left for us to do but wait."
She did so, and as the minutes ticked by she gradually felt her body begin to change. No, not change. Rather, the Rot was receding, restoring her flesh to its formerly unblemished state as it was pulled inexorably into the length of Miquella's needle, bit by bit, until at the last it was gone. Bringing her hands up to her face, Malenia felt tears warm and wet streak down her cheeks for the first time in a long time, while a lump coalesced in her throat.
It was at this point that Malenia finally allowed herself to break and pulled the needle from her chest with an incredulous sob. For its mission had been completed and intended work done.
Then, for what was perhaps the first time in recorded history, Malenia the Severed allowed herself to find comfort in the embrace of another.
Author's Note: And there's chapter five! I will say that I kind of zoned out/rushed the end, but hey, I got what I wanted down eventually. Anyway, chapter six will cover the rest of this interaction, along with their return to the Haligtree to get some help moving Miquella. Oh, and if you're wondering why Freomund took off his armor, well would you want to hug someone wearing a suit of Tree Sentinel armor? I certainly wouldn't.