Chapter 8 – Memories of Godwyn
Alden's POV
When I came out of the mist the first thing I noticed was how close I was to the Erdtree, even though it was night the golden tree still glowed. It might be just me, but the tree looked brighter. Looking around, I was on the roof of a building in a big city, big buildings made with the most beautiful architecture were everywhere, the roofs and buildings were adorned with gold.
Judging by the architecture and how close I am to Erdtree, I must be in Leyndell, The Capital.
Now what am I supposed to do here? Usually when I travel to memories I have to accomplish some goal in order to leave. I got a hint of what I should do. Farther down on a roof there was a group of people, they were thin, tall, and wearing hooded clothes, people were crouching and whispering to each other.
Equipped the Ring of the Sleeping Dragon, Ring of Simpleton and Ring of Whispers, crouched down and started to approach the group, jumped onto a roof that was below the one I was previously on, but was above the place where the group was still crouching and approached of the group and hiding behind a stone decoration that was on the edge of the roof, I started to hear the group's conversation.
"Are you sure about that Alecto?" One of the hooded ones said. It was a woman's voice.
"Yes. We will receive a fortune for the service we perform tonight." Alecto replied. She was also a woman.
"Mom I'm worried! What we will do today is absurd. Kill a demigod! Godwyn the Golden! Marika's favorite son!" Another hooded person said. All of them were women.
"Don't call me mom during a mission Tiche! You don't have to worry after all we all have this." Alecto said as she pulled out a dagger.
It was a warped dagger, a strange red and black energy flowed through the blade, and all these people had these daggers.
"As you wish Alecto." Tiche said as she went silent.
"Let's start the mission!" Alecto ordered.
All the hooded people got up and started jumping from roof to roof heading towards the biggest building in the capital. Kill a demigod? So far I haven't heard of this Godwyn guy. I need to follow the assassins, let's see how far this memory will take me.
I came out of my hiding place and started following the assassins, but I kept my distance, I jumped from roof to roof, but the assassins kept getting farther and farther away, I'm not agile like them. Suddenly the assassins stopped as they approached the castle in the capital, I hid behind a higher part of the building where we were from my hiding place I watched the assassins.
I saw Alecto making gestures with her hands while pointing to something below, the group of assassins were eight in total, four jumped from the top of the building, I went around the building and observed the four assassins below, in the castle there were balconies that led to inside, beside the balconies there were glass windows, I could see knights in golden armor walking through the halls of the castle.
The assassins jumped on the balconies, two on each balcony and approached the knights, there was a knight walking towards the left of the corridor and another one on the right, two assassins started to sneak behind each knight, they prepared their daggers that glowed red. Suddenly something strange happened, the assassins made small cuts on the knights, there was no fighting or screaming, the knights simply fell to the ground without moving.
These knights were large and wore high quality golden armor, there was no way a simple dagger would kill them right away. There was something wrong with those daggers.
One of the assassins inside the hallway waved to the ones outside, the ones on the roof with me jumped towards the castle, they entered the balcony, gathered in the hallway and headed right hiding in the shadows.
I came out of my hiding place and looked at the castle, there was a great distance between the roof I was on and the castle balcony, I approached the edge of the roof and looked down, and it was a long fall to the ground. I crossed my arms and started to think.
Do I really have to do this? Does it really matter? After all, whatever happened that night probably happened years ago? Does it really matter trying to figure out what's going to happen?
Looking through the castle windows, I saw flashes of red light quickly through the windows. I sighed; let's see what happens to this Godwyn guy.
I started to take distance from the edge of the roof, when I had taken enough distance I started to run towards the balcony, when I got to the edge of the roof I jumped.
It looked like I was going to make it, but when my jump reached its apex I started to fall, at the last second I managed to grab the edge of the balcony and pull myself up. That was close.
Inside the corridor I approached one of the knights lying on the ground, removed his gauntlet and tried to feel his pulse, there wasn't one, he was dead. Checking the body, I saw a small cut on the back of his shoulder. A strange place for an assassin to hit.
During my trip in Drangleic I met many enemies who used assassination techniques, usually they tried to slit my throat, pierce my heart or poison me. The knights weren't cut anywhere important; that ends up leaving the poison option, but the knights died instantly, no poison is that fast. There's something about those daggers that makes assassins not have to worry about where to hit.
I've wasted enough time. I started running to where the assassins went.
Alden's POV
I was running through the halls of the castle, on the way I passed the bodies of several dead knights, I ended up coming to a place where the path divided; there was a path ahead, left and right. Where should I go? I got my answer when I saw a small red glow in the hallway to the left. I ran towards the glow.
I arrived in a room and in that room there were the bodies of more knights, looking around I could see the silhouette of someone passing through a corridor on the right, entering this corridor I could hear the voices of the assassins. I glued my body to the wall and started to approach slowly, reaching the end of the hallway I stuck my head out of the hallway and out of the corner of my eye I could see the assassins.
"The target is close. Tiche, you and three others will be in the back, me and the others will go forward. We need to finish the mission before anyone sees the knights' bodies." Alecto said.
"Yes Alecto." Tiche replied.
Alecto and three more assassins moved on, after a few minutes Tiche and the assassins who were with her went the same way as Alecto.
I started to run after Tiche and the assassins, my leggings and Ring of the Sleeping Dragon silencing my steps. I kept some distance between Tiche and myself. Suddenly Tiche stopped and turned around, I rolled into a hallway to my right, the Simpleton Ring making me invisible as I rolled.
"Is there a problem Tiche?" One of the assassins asked Tiche.
"Hmm! No... I don't think so..." Tiche and the assassins continued forward.
That was close. As I was about to leave the corridor I heard the sound of footsteps, by the metallic sound it must be one of the knights, looking around the corridor I saw a large door at the end of the corridor, I quickly opened the door, entered the room and closed it behind me.
Looking around the room I realized I was in a royal bedroom, a large closet full of clothes was on the right, full of dresses mostly black dresses, on the left hanging on the wall was a large war axe, and below the ax was a hammer with a golden light inside, in one corner of the room was a table full of parchments and papers and beside the table were shelves full of books.
The most notable part of the room was the big bed right in front of me, getting closer I saw that in the bed there was a giant man with long white hair and beside him there was a tall woman, but smaller than the man, she had long golden hair. The man must be Godfrey and the woman must be Marika.
I swallow hard; I'm in the worst possible place.
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I heard someone knocking on the door, people on the bed started to move. I need to hide! But where? Looking around the room I decide to hide inside the closet, I ran inside the closet and hid in the left corner of the closet out of sight of the others.
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"I'm on my way." Godfrey said as he rose from his bed.
I saw Godfrey pass in front of the closet, he went towards the door and opened it, and there was a knight in golden armor on the other side of the door.
"What do you want?" Godfrey asked.
"Lord Godfrey, there are intruders in the capital, several knights were found dead in the halls of the castle, there were no signs of a struggle, and all knights were found dead with small cuts on their bodies. We suspect some kind of magic." The knight said as he knelt down.
"Alert all guards, no one enters or leaves the capital until further notice, I want all knights searching the castle now!" Godfrey said.
"Yes, my lord!" The knight replied as he got up and walked away.
Godfrey went through the closet again. I couldn't see what was happening.
"Marika wake up!"
"Godfrey? Did something happen?" Marika asked.
"There are intruders in the capital! Several knights were found dead!"
"We need to go now!"
I heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the closet; suddenly a hand was inside the closet trying to grab something.
"Where is it?"
The hand started to go left and right, I saw the hand going towards my head, I bent down and the hand went over me, I saw that there was a black dress next to me, I took this dress and put it close to the hand.
"I found it!"
The hand took the dress and then it was gone, I could see through a crack in the closet, Godfrey and Marika grabbed their weapons that were on the wall and prepared to leave the room, but suddenly Godfrey stopped.
"What's the matter Serosh?" A ghostly lion began to emerge from Godfrey's back.
"Is anyone here?" Godfrey asked. Serosh began to sniff the air.
"Godfrey let's go!" Marika said.
"One moment, Serosh's nose is never wrong, there's someone here." Godfrey said as he approached the closet.
What should I do? Think Alden! I have no space to fight here. Not to mention, of course, the first Elden Lord and the Goddess of the Lands Between who are just a few feet away from me.
The footsteps stopped in front of the closet. Know what? To hell with it! I lit my pyromantic flame and cast Toxic Mist, a black cloud of toxins took over the room.
"What is this?! COUGH! COUGH!" Marika screamed.
"COUGH! COUGH! Coward, face me like a warrior!"
I ran through the room, golden rays flew through the mist trying to hit me, I reached a balcony looking around I saw that there were small stone ornaments that were part of the castle's architecture, I weighed this part of stone with my back glued to the wall. Do not look down! Do not look down! I thought as I slowly dragged myself along the stone adornment.
I continued through the adornment until I reached another balcony that led to an empty room, I entered the room and went towards the door, I opened the door a little and saw the corridor, there was no one, I left the room and started to run down the corridor.
The corridor led to one of the main sections of the castle, in the main section there was a large double door on the right, in front there were windows where you could see the capital. I saw a group of the assassins enter that big double door.
I waited for them to enter and I was facing the door, when I tried to open the door it was locked, I suddenly heard the sound of footsteps and I had the feeling of something being thrown towards me. My time in Drangleic sharpened my instincts, I drew Rogier's Rapier in my right hand, twisting my body and blocking with the Rapier a throwing knife that had been thrown my way.
I ended up coming face to face with Tiche's group of assassins.
"So you were the one following us." Tiche said.
"Did you notice? I was sure I was doing a good job of hiding." I replied.
"An amateur job, judging by your equipment you must be a sorcerer; you must have cast some cheap spell to infiltrate the capital."
"Don't insult my spells, you might regret it."
"Brave words for someone about to die." Tiche said as he pulled out his dagger he jumped and spun in the air, its blade flashed red and black, then a blade of energy was shot towards me.
The attack surprised me, I didn't have time to dodge so I prepared myself for the damage that would come, and when the blade hit me nothing happened.
"How?!" I heard Tiche scream.
"Was something supposed to have happened?" I asked.
"Kill him!" All the assassins drew their daggers and came at me.
I rigged my bell and cast Wrath of the Gods, two of the assassins further up were hit by the shock wave, the ones further back ducked and let the ones hit by the miracle fly over them.
Tiche tried to cut me in the throat and the other assassin tried to cut me in the stomach, I rolled to the left with my back to the hallway window, raised my Rapier and tried to punch Tiche in the stomach, strangely I couldn't focus on Tiche for some reason she was hard to see. It was as if she had turned into a blur.
I tried to cut Tiche in the throat, she jumped back and again she looked like a blur as I dodged out of the corner of my eyes saw a blur appear to my left, I slashed the blur horizontally but just hit the air, and felt something cutting me on the chest, when I looked down, I saw a wound on the left side of my chest.
The blur recoiled back and when it stopped moving I saw it was one of the assassins.
"How are you still alive?" She asked.
"That's the funny part! I am not!" I replied while using the Rapier's Ash of War, swords of magic surged above me.
For some reason these assassins blur when they move, I can't trust my eyes but I can trust my magic.
The assassins who were thrown by the Wrath of the Gods stood up, prepared their daggers and ran towards me, Tiche and the other assassin did the same.
I cast Blinding Bolt, an orb of electricity came out of my bell and floated through the air, as the assassins approached it, the orb exploded shooting lightning in all directions, chandeliers were knocked from the ceiling, windows were shattered, the floor and walls were pierced, but mostly all the assassins were hit, taking advantage of the situation, I approached one of the assassins who was on my right.
She was stunned by the miracle, due to the proximity all the magic swords above me shot towards her, she didn't have time to dodge and ended up being pierced by all the swords, she fell to the ground dead.
"You will pay for this!" Tiche screamed.
Wasting no time I cast Emit Force with my bell, aimed at the assassins, a shock wave shot out of the bell, the shock wave flew through the air, but the remaining assassins jumped in different directions, two jumped to the left and Tiche jumped to the right. The shock wave ripped a hole in the wall.
I didn't stop, I used the Rapier's ash of war again, and I cast Emit Force several times, trying to hit the blurs that were coming towards me, the shock waves opened big holes in the walls, floor and ceiling, but I couldn't hit the assassins, the swords above me shot, one of the assassins was hit in the shoulder and stopped.
But I couldn't dodge the other two blurs that were coming towards me, I was cut in the stomach and throat, but being an undead that wasn't a big problem, it takes a lot more than that to take me down.
The assassins returned to their original positions, I cast the Regeneration miracle, a golden light covered my body and my wounds began to heal over time. I was going to conjure another miracle, but suddenly the ground began to shake. Did it sound like footsteps? Something big was coming.
The wall on the right side of the hall was completely destroyed, and out came Godfrey with a great ax in his hands, with just one blow two of the assassins were cut in half, leaving only Tiche and me.
"You dared to invade the capital, killed our brave knights, and tried to poison my wife and me. You will pay for your insolence." Godfrey said as he raised his axe.
Without thinking twice I cast Toxic Mist again, a black cloud swooped down the hallway, I ran towards the door that was locked and knocked it down with a strong kick, on the other side there was a big hallway, I started to run along this hallway, looking back I saw Tiche coming out of the toxin cloud and she started to run until she reached my side.
"Did you try to poison Godfrey and Marika?!" Tiche asked.
"It was an accident!" I replied.
"How do you poison someone by accident?!"
I was going to reply, but I was interrupted by the sound of something being destroyed.
CRASH!
Pieces of stone and wood flew over us, and when we looked back we saw Godfrey chasing us.
"Come back here and face me!"
Tiche and I did the only thing we could do, we screamed and ran faster.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
At the end of the hall there was another double door, we opened it and closed it behind us. It did no good to stop Godfrey. He tore down the door and the wall around it.
And the process repeated itself several times, Tiche and I ran through the halls of the castle closing the doors behind us only for Godfrey to knock them down without caring, he didn't even bother to punch or kick the door, he just ran towards them and knocked them down with his body.
This isn't getting you anywhere! I lit my pyromantic flame and cast Lingering Flame several times, further down the hall, ten small fireballs appeared, I ran past, Tiche jumped on top of a table that was in the hallway and jumped over the fireballs.
CRASH!
Godfrey had just arrived, we saw him run after us, and in front of us was a great double door, bigger than all the others we've found so far, the door was adorned with gold.
Godfrey was getting closer and closer to us; soon he got closer to the fireballs, exactly what I wanted.
The fireballs started to glow, all of a sudden...
BOOM!
A huge explosion shook the castle, the hallway behind us started to collapse, Tiche and I ran faster, we lifted our legs and kicked the door ahead and closed it behind us.
The door swung, the hallway must have collapsed completely on the other side.
Tiche and I looked at each other and started laughing.
"HAHAHAHA!" We put our hands on each other's shoulders.
I pulled out a vial of crimson and cerulean tears to restore my health and spells.
"Tiche!" We heard someone scream.
When we looked ahead, we saw Alecto and three more assassins holding the arms of a man, it was a big man with long blond hair, he wore black robes, but his back was exposed, there was a dagger piercing each of his hands.
Alecto had his dagger raised, ready to pierce the man's back.
"Mother! I mean Alecto! Stop it, the mission was a failure, the entire capital is after us. Godfrey is chasing us. Stop this madness and let's get away while there's still time!" Tiche said as she approached Alecto.
Alecto seemed to think for a while, it looked like she was going to put away her dagger, but suddenly a golden light began to shine behind us.
BOOM!
In a golden explosion the door behind us was destroyed, and out came a woman carrying a hammer and wearing a black dress. Queen Marika.
The queen looked around the room, her eyes narrowed as she saw the condition of the long haired man.
"Die."
Marika said with disdain in her voice, Marika held out her hand and golden rays flew towards me and the other assassins.
I quickly cast Repel with my Sunset Staff for a moment I became indestructible, the lightning hit me harmlessly.
"What dirty sorcery is this?" Marika per asked as she pointed her hammer in my direction.
"Tiche!"
Looking back I saw Tiche standing in front of Alecto, two spears of golden light pierced her body, Tiche then fell dead into Alecto's arms.
"AAAHHH!" Letting out a cry of suffering and sadness, Alecto raised his dagger and pierced the blond haired man's back, a red and black energy flowed through the man's body, he thrashed desperately, and then he fell to the ground motionless, his body becoming a gray tone.
"Godwyn!" Marika yelled as she passed me and ran towards the man.
Seizing her chance, Alecto grabbed Tiche's body and ran towards one of the bedroom windows.
CRASH!
The window glass shattered and Alecto fled into the night.
Looking at Marika, I saw that she was crying as she held Godwin's body. Hearing the sound of footsteps I saw Godfrey entering the room. He didn't say a single word; he just looked around, lifted his ax and brought it down towards me.
As an undead I didn't worry too much about it, there was nowhere to run; if I died here I would probably show up in the last grace I rested.
But as the blow approached I felt the mist enveloping me, then I was gone.
Alden's POV
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the same cave below Stormveil, looking around I saw that the world was relatively gray; I was still inside a memory.
In the place where the giant face was, there was a man, a tall man with long blond hair and wearing black robes.
"Hello!" The man said to me as he smiled and sat down on the floor.
"Hello!" I replied.
"You know, I would have made myself more presentable, but as you can see I don't get many visitors."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Oh! Where are my manners?" The man said as he stood up and extended his big hand towards me.
"You can call me Godwyn."
END OF CHAPTER
Hi! Thanks for reading this far. Before I leave, I'd like to leave a note.
From now on I will start referring to weapons and equipment by their names. With the amount of weapons and armor that Alden gets increasing with each chapter, I believe it will be easier for me and the reader if I refer to it by name than the particular weapon I got in a certain place.
That's it for now.
Until the next chapter.