AN: And I missed my deadline again, by almost a week. Well, at least it's better than leaving the story for a month and a half without having another project going to justify moving off of this one. Also, the ideas that I introduce here aren't just headcanons. There's actual, valid evidence to back them up. If you find yourself wondering look up the video "Rediscover Dark Souls Lore: Ash Lake, Havel, and the Plot against the Gods" by Hawkshaw on YouTube. It's quite long, but that's where I got some of these ideas. Because Havel's suspected arranged marriage and a separate lover is based in pure speculation, I'm going to assume that his lover who is found dead in the Duke's Archives was his actual wife and not just a mistress. And because of the shit that I've already written which IS headcanons, regarding Havel and Sieglinde, we're going to be assuming that that girl is Sieglinde and chalking her appearance there up to timeline convolutions. I also can't incorporate some other stuff because I've already written the story in an entirely different direction.

Chapter Nine: Darkwraith Drama

Siegmeyer was having an altogether too good time, Havel decided. The silver-plated knight was cavorting around in his bulky, onion-like armor as if there was no one else in the world. Havel understood the joy that came with being welcomed back into one's home - it had been denied to Havel himself for far too long. However, Siegmeyer seemed to be filled with more than joy. He seemed almost... smug, as if he was rubbing in the fact that he got to come home, and no other undeads did. Havel let him be, however. He was too focused on completing his task of finding a map to worry about the amazed stares that he was getting from the general populace; Havel knew that it had been likely several hundred years since anyone had seen the likes of him in any city, anywhere. After the miserable failure of the plot against the gods that he had taken part in, most of his knights had been executed or imprisoned, left to go hollow. Havel ignored the stares, but that didn't mean he wasn't observing the condition of the city. Most of the general populace seemed as if they had seen better days; their jubilant expressions were pulled over thin faces, or tempered with emotions like caution, or fear. In some rare cases, the trademark expressions of the Catarinans was simply gone. Havel made a note to ask a merchant about it, once he got his map. Siegmeyer, probably once the epitome of Catarinan society, now looked extremely out of place, being as joyful and frolicky as he was. When he bumbled his way back towards Havel, Havel grabbed Siegmeyer by the shoulder and pointed this out to him.

"You're right... they simply don't look as upbeat as they should be... that just means that someone needs to spread cheer to them! And I suppose I'll have to be the one to do it! Thanks for the tip, friend!" Siegmeyer bounced away to continue radiating his altogether too jolly personality to the people around him, who just seemed to be getting more exasperated by the attempt. Havel shook his head in exasperation himself, and continued walking, leaving Siegmeyer to his frolicking fun. He still needed a map quite desperately, after all. He couldn't afford to waste time in the clearly useless attempt of keeping Siegmeyer on a leash. Havel scanned his surroundings for any sort of merchant, and there wasn't anyone who appeared to be selling anything - he would have to keep walking and looking around deeper in the city. He allowed his thoughts, and his memories in particular, to run rampant. When he allowed that to happen, his mind inevitably jumped back to Sieglinde. Curse Seath to the depths of Izalith - the paledrake hadn't only stolen Havel's life by locking him in that makeshift cell, but had also stolen his reason, his justification to live by kidnapping the girl who he was going to marry, and condemning her to die despite the fact that she wasn't undead, or imbued with any sort of special soul that would allow her to come back to life at the cost of hollowing out gradually. She had just been killed, flat out. Siegmeyer's claim that Sieglinde had hardly been there at all wasn't accurate, and it was even more off-base, because Lin, as both Havel and Siegmeyer had called her, hadn't left Lordran at all. She had died there. Havel supposed that that was one good way to shut down Siegmeyer's jolly mood, telling him that his daughter was dead in Lordran, but Havel didn't want a Zweihander in the chest either. As it was, he was filled with despair at the thought as well, redoubled when his mind jumped to the fact that he had only learned after her death: she had been pregnant with Havel's child when Seath took her. It didn't help matters that Gwyn and every one of his followers, basically the equivalent of the entire city of Anor Londo, save for a few men and women with minds of their own, such as Velka, had turned a blind eye to Seath's activities, claiming that the duke would never reduce himself to such levels. Even now, years removed from the issue, Havel wanted to scream with rage. Havel had no clue whether or not their child had survived, but he knew that Lin hadn't. He found her corpse rotting in a cell when he and his team were storming Seath's archives during the rebellion.

Havel's line of thought was interrupted by a clamor in the market square ahead. Havel raised his shield instinctively, and realized that it wasn't regarding him. There was a robed figure with a dark, blood red aura standing over a corpse. Havel growled in fury. The figure that stood before him was a darkwraith - while Kaathe was far more truthful than his counterpart Frampt, Havel couldn't stand for Kaathe's chosen group of servants. Havel sprinted forwards, and before the darkwraith could react, Havel slammed his massive dragon tooth club down on the man, killing him instantly. A cloud of bloodred smoke drifted upwards from the point of impact, and Havel quickly cleaned what he could only assume was dark soul essence off of his great club before bringing it to rest back on his shoulder. It almost seemed too... easy. Havel scanned the crowd suspiciously, and suddenly felt a flaring pain in his back, before he was thrown to the ground. Somehow, the darkwraith had managed to circle around behind him and stab him in the back while he was recovering from his attack. As Havel got up and spun around, the darkwraith grabbed him by the throat. Havel felt a horrifying cold chill pass through him, and with it, a pull on his essence. The darkwraith was using the art of lifedrain on him. Havel knew that this was when the darkwraith was hardest to resist... but also when it was most vulnerable to outside interference. Havel slipped out his talisman, a relic of the time when he was a bishop, an age long past, and focused his energy. His time alone with Solaire while Oscar had been trying to breach Anor Londo had resulted in him learning a thing or two; a bolt of lightning formed in Havel's hand around the talisman, and before the effects of the darkwraith's lifedrain began to take hold, Havel slammed the bolt of lightning into the Darkwraith's chest. Not expecting the attack, the darkwraith had no chance to do... whatever it had done to avoid his massive dragon's tooth. The darkwraith tensed, and Havel felt its hold on him loosen, before he was dropped to the ground. The darkwraith dropped to the ground as well, significantly more dead than Havel himself. It had been a quick fight, far faster than he expected for the fact that it ended in his favor. However, he knew that, even with the haste he made, he was already too late. There was a withered remnant, all but a corpse, of what used to be a man laying on the ground next to where Havel had crushed the darkwraith, and Havel knelt down to acknowledge his life, before sighing and crushing the remnant, putting him out of his misery. A woman near him screamed.

"Why would you do that? Don't you have any respect for the dead?" she yelled at him, angry. Clearly she was one of the dead man's loved ones. Havel shook his head sadly.

"I have respect for the dead. I also know what power the Darkwraiths have - they drain every last bit of essence from you, leave you without memories, or humanity, or... anything. But they don't kill you. They turn you into an insane, hollow husk of your former self, which, if you aren't put out of your misery quickly enough, will run rampant, stealing the essence of others in the same way, a vain attempt to regain what it has lost, and those people will become the same way in turn. I have respect for the dead. I also have enough respect for the living to know when death would be preferable," Havel answered sadly. That was the true danger of the darkwraiths - their ability to corrupt those around them and transform them into horrible, defiled creatures, more dangerous than simple hollows but with no higher quality of life. Eventually, those creatures, if left unchecked long enough to absorb enough life for themselves, would evolve into full darkwraiths themselves, and the cycle would continue, over and over, until either the darkwraiths or the humans were wiped out. And gods forbid that the latter alternative come to pass. Havel had no idea what darkwraiths would be doing in Catarina, but it was certainly a massive problem. Havel's attention was suddenly turned away from the problem to, well, the problem, when Havel heard Siegmeyer's voice scream out,

"Havel! There's a darkwraith over here!" Havel, following the sound of the Onion Knight's voice, rushed forwards, slinging his shield over his back and raising his club to attack. Sure enough, a few blocks away, Siegmeyer was locked in combat with a second darkwraith. One, Havel could pass off as an unfortunate coincidence, a happenstance that he was lucky to be there for to prevent it from growing worse. Two, arriving in conjunction with Havel and Siegmeyer themselves, caused Havel's suspicions to grow. Havel didn't have any time to worry about that now, though; his friend was in danger. While Siegmeyer had lasted this long, he was quickly losing ground, his much larger and slower sword, and much too small pierce shield, designed only for deflection and some offense, were simply unable to keep up with the quick, striking blows of the darkwraith's unique sword. In fact, as Havel approached, Siegmeyer slipped once, and then twice, taking two heavy blows to his center of mass which caused him to stumble backwards slightly. The darkwraith was on him in an instant, grabbing his throat. A red aura glowed around the darkwraith's hand, and Siegmeyer gasped in shock. Havel knew that Siegmeyer had just fallen into the same attack that Havel had been afflicted by a moment before, and Havel knew how quickly Kaathe's gift could do it's work. Havel would never cover the remaining block between them in time, and there was no time for him to set up his greatbow either, due to the high draw time, not to mention the risk of hitting Siegmeyer. However, a lightning bolt just might. Havel slipped his talisman out once again, and flung a spear of lightning straight at the darkwraith. Fortunately, Havel's aim was true. The lightning bolt caught the darkwraith in the side of the head and blew the abomination sideways, killing him instantly and freeing Siegmeyer from its grip.

"Thanks. Where did that thing come from?" Siegmeyer asked, standing up and picking up his Zweihander. However, Havel had no time to reply, much less give his suspicions voice, as the shadows of buildings around the both of them melted into a grand total of five darkwraiths, far more than the two of them would be able to handle apart from each other. However, each guarding the other's back... it might just be possible. Before any of the newly appeared darkwraiths had time to react, Havel rushed towards Siegmeyer, closing the distance between them and stopping just by his side.

"What's our plan here?" Siegmeyer asked, hefting his Zweihander in preparation for combat, a nervous look doublessly crossing his face under his helmet.

"Stay close to each other, and out of grabbing range. Watch each other's backs, and be mindful if they evaporate. They manage that, they aren't really dead." Havel told him, and, the planning window ending, the darkwraiths charged in unison. Havel immediately smashed the closest one, which evaporated. Havel immediately spun his club in a circle, catching the darkwraith as it melted out of Havel's own shadow behind him. The darkwraith couldn't vanish a second time, and was sent flying by Havel's club. One down, four to go. A second darkwraith tried to grab him from behind with lifedrain while his back was turned to the main crowd, but that one was met with the blade of Siegmeyer's Zweihander, which quickly lopped off the offending darkwraith's head. Havel spun back to face the remaining three enemies.

"These aren't so bad, so long as you're careful," Siegmeyer noted as he spun to face the crowd as well. As it turned out that was exactly the wrong thing to say. All three darkwraiths growled, seemingly in rage at being dismissed as easy to defeat, and the glowing dark red auras on each wraith's left hand was raised towards them, and bled from a dark blood red color to a bright orange, almost like a flame. Pyromancy. Too late, Havel realized what was about to happen and desperately unslung his shield off of his back as he pivoted in front of Siegmeyer. A massive plume of black flames, not unlike those he had seen Raven use on a few select occasions, erupted from each Darkwraith's hand, and the force was incredible. While Havel's massive greatshield protected him from being incinerated on the spot, he had no time to brace against the incredible force which came alongside this particular variant of flame. Havel's guard was blown wide open, and he was knocked backwards into Siegmeyer, who was bowled over as well. Neither one of them could stand up in time, and the three darkwraiths were on them in a blur. Both Havel and Siegmeyer were helplessly trapped by the wraiths. Havel tried to reach his talisman, but the monster holding him was apparently Havel's lightning trick, and restrained his arm as a precaution. Havel knew that he and Siegmeyer were done for.

Their salvation came in the form of the third darkwraith, who grew angry that he wasn't getting a share in the feeding. Instead of going off to find an easy victim among the general populace, the third wraith grabbed the one holding Havel, who in turn released Havel to defend against the onslaught. During their clash of lifedrain, which seemed to be very occupying, Havel pulled himself to his feet and crushed the darkwraith pinning Siegmeyer, who gasped in relief and collapsed to the ground, clearly too drained by his own wraith's grab that he was unable to fight. No matter. So long as more wraiths didn't pop up, Havel could handle the situation from there. He spun in a circle with his club, slamming it into both of the wraiths locked in a battle with each other simultaneously, killing them both. Siegmeyer managed to get some Estus swigged, and Havel helped him up. By now, Havel knew for sure what the problem was.

"I'll ask again," Siegmeyer stated between deep gasps for breath, "Where are these things coming from?"

Havel's felt his expression darken inside of his helmet as he began to explain his horror filled theory.

AN: Shit. I spoiled WAY too much when I revealed Hawkshaw's lore video. There's an obvious conclusion that you can come to that I didn't want you to find out. I could just remove it, but I have a philosophy that what I write, I write, and I can't go back and change it, even before I publish it (besides fixing grammar errors and really shit writing). I took that oath after the chapter 2 revamp hit people out of nowhere. While I didn't get any complaints about it, per se, I still felt guilty. So I'll leave it in there, and I'll leave this open to reviews to see if anyone can guess just what they're not supposed to know yet. Additionally, I want to know your opinions on two other things: First, how exactly should Solaire and Ornstein get themselves caught and shipped back to Lordran. That's the simple question. Then, second, the more complicated one: It should be obvious, to those of you who are paying attention, that Raven is going to be faced with a choice. While she has chosen to stay with Oscar, what will she DO with him? The choice is going to be symbolized by the legacy Oswald gave her, representing her own life and desires, versus that of Lordran (multiple characters, between Giant Dad and the Witch of Izalith and... there's another one that would be spoiling way too freaking much.) Anyways, I want to know, which side do you think she should choose first? As I've teased before, this story is going to be written with multiple alternate endings, potentially branching all the way back to the displacement incident. Chapter 11 is going to be a similar branch point. You'll all get to see all the possibilities with where this could go eventually, but I'll leave it up to public opinion which story I write first. I'm going to veto anyone who says that I should write the standard linear Dark Souls experience first, that ship has sailed... (although you kinda get that with Tarkus, and I'll do that again later with everyone staying in Lordran and the curse never breaking, that ending is going to be the most depressing as a warning) but I just want to know what you guys want to see. Lastly, and less important, how did you like the darkwraiths' new power to teleport out of the way of attacks that would be lethal? I felt like it added a nice

PS: Feel free to spam me with private messages until I finally cave if I don't release the next chapter on a reasonable timescale.