The Mansion

My hands are trembling from the weight of the broken sword I've been using. Killing these...undead, that attempt to devour my soul. I can feel that I'm stronger than them. I can hear the knocking of their bones as they move, as if they were hollow on the inside. I can feel an energy guiding me through this path I'm on. I feel weak as I walk and I slip, landing on the fence. I lean on it to get myself up but it breaks and I land on a platformed rock. In pain, I roll over and see a pair of binoculars just sitting there, as if it were waiting for me. I grab them and see a shimmering light glowing to my right. In the distance I see a far fire and what appears to be someone standing by it. I get up and glance at the beautiful wide ocean in front of me too. It looks like water but as if it were a dream. I put my hands against the mountain side and walk slowly until I get close enough to the fire. Eventually there's a platform I can jump down from and I see a woman. She seems, at peace, while she stares at the ocean water from the edge of the cliff near a dead tree. I can see that it's slightly windy but I can't feel the breeze. I approach her and she starts to speak to me, as if she already knew I was coming.

"Bearer of the curse, seek misery. For misery will lead you to greater, stronger souls. Are you... the next monarch?" She speaks in a heavy and wise tone. As if she has asked this question a thousand times before and has seen their answers a thousand times before.

"I don't know what I am, or what you speak of. What is this place? Who are you?"

"It's up to you to prove whether you're just another pawn of fate. I will remain by your side, lest this frail hope shatters yet again. You may call me, The Emerald Herald. Go on to the sea King, Vendrick, he who emerged from the essence of the soul and made Drangleic what it once was."

"How? I don't know the way. There are dangerous things out there, I've seen them."

"Explore Drangleic and learn of it by following old paths. What you've seen is barely the dawn of what you will see. Here, take this with you, and may it ease your journey." She gives me a green tinted flask. She calls it the Estus. She continues,

"This precious flask will fill at every bonfire that you rest at. Go on and give it a try. you will never meet the King with a soul so frail and pallid. When you're feeling ill or weak, drink from it and it will restore you, but there are only so many uses before it will need refilling." I sit by the bonfire and it is as she said. I feel replenished. Strong again and ready to explore this land and see what the Emerald Herald means by all of this. I am a curse bearer now and I don't quite understand what that means. I need a better weapon and better equipment if I am to make this journey. I look up while sitting by the bonfire and see a depressed man that appears to be going hollow. I get up to go and speak with him about the building he's leaning against, for he seems to be a blacksmith. But the Emerald Herald grabs me by the arm,

"Seek the four, the unutterables, for they are endowed with immense souls. Their souls will serve as beacons to you. Return to me once you have found them and prevent hope from fading. Go, speak to Lenigrast about weapons and armour, he may need your help first."

I see a mansion in the distance. I turn around and ask Emerald, "What's in the mansion?"

And she replies, "Soon you shall know the answers for what you seek, when you have explored deep enough and have an understanding of this land. The key may not be very far but I do not know where it resides."