With the sound of rattling armor and clanking boots, Sir Yeral dashed around the corner and out of the graveyard below Firelink Shrine. He had replaced his broadsword with an enormous Zweihander from the graveyard, but his intrusion had angered the skeletal residents. He peeked around the corner, and saw that the living skeletons had stopped following him. A few still ambled about below him, including one giant that was twice Yeral's height, but they seemed to have forgotten the thief. Sighing with relief, Yeral turned and headed towards the shrine.
Firelink Shrine was a dreary place, nothing but crumbled buildings overgrown with moss. Perhaps it was once teeming with life, but now it was just a grassy ruin. Still, Yeral felt an odd sense of familiarity with the place, almost like he was home. In the center of the shrine sat a crackling bonfire, burning higher than most due to the firekeeper maintaining it. The firekeeper in question was an undead woman named Anastacia, who wore ragged, soot-stained robes, could not speak, and stayed in a cage under Firelink. Yeral briefly felt sorry for her terrible fate, but he was quickly distracted by what was sitting across from the cage.
The figure's shining golden armor, somehow untarnished by the filth of Lordran, was recognizable at once. It was none other than Sir Lautrec, Yeral's temporary comrade. Lautrec had been gone when Yeral had first returned to Firelink, so he had decided to explore the area as he waited for Reise to return. Reise was still nowhere to be seen, but at least Lautrec had returned, so Yeral was happy nonetheless. He didn't particularly enjoy Lautrec's company, but he needed someone to talk to.
"Ah, Sir Lautrec! Greetings!" Yeral exclaimed loudly. Lautrec, who had been staring intently at Anastacia, looked up at him slowly. His face was hidden, but his body language made it obvious that he was scowling with annoyance.
"Yes... Sir Yeral, wasn't it? Did ringing the bell prove too difficult for you?" Lautrec asked sarcastically. Yeral simply glared, suddenly remembering why he didn't like the knight from Carim. As Yeral descended the stairs to where Lautrec was, the golden knight spoke up again. "Just a little joke, I know you are capable enough. Perhaps your fetching companion will have similar luck." he said quietly, clearly attempting to prevent Yeral from getting angry. At the mention of a companion, however, Yeral's ears perked up.
"Wait, you know Lady Reise?" he asked curiously. How would a knight from Carim know a knight from Astora? Unless they had met during Lautrec's travels...
"Well, we are acquainted. I happened to run into her in the depths of the Undead Burg's sewers, on the way to Blighttown. I found her to be rather humorless..." Lautrec recounted, thinking back to the encounter with the elite knight. She had been quite determined to get to the Blighttown bell, and she had a violent streak as well. He chuckled to himself. "Of course, I later found out that there was a shorter way to get to Blighttown. If only the poor woman knew that, she might be back by now." He said, clearly hoping to pique Yeral's curiosity. It worked like a charm, as Yeral quickly ran right up next to him.
"Please, tell me this shortcut! I would aid Reise if I could." Yeral pleaded, desperately hoping to join up with Reise again. He knew that she could handle herself, but still he worried for her safety. Blighttown was supposed to be far more dangerous than the Parish. Even more than that, however, he simply hated feeling useless. Reise was still undertaking a dangerous journey, while Yeral had rung his bell and returned to safety. He knew that Reise was far braver than he. Lautrec chuckled again, sounding more menacing this time.
"Oh, yes, I can tell you. From the entrance of New Londo, you can find a door, which will take you into a valley, where a tunnel leads straight to Blighttown. Only... the door is locked. It could be opened if you had the key, but you do not." Lautrec explained with a hint of smugness. A moment later, he rummaged around in his pouch of supplies, and produced a metal ring of keys. "Of course, I could always give you my master key. I do not deal in charity, however. How does... five-thousand souls sound?" he asked shrewdly, knowing that Yeral wouldn't refuse his steep price. He briefly wondered if he should have just given the knight the key, but he couldn't resist the opportunity to get more souls. Yeral grumbled angrily about being ripped off, but he still drew a large glowing clump of souls from himself and offered them to Lautrec, who handed him the master key without a word.
"Next time, Sir Lautrec, please think about something other than your own pockets." Yeral said coldly, clearly unimpressed with Lautrec's scam. That sort of greed was completely unbecoming for a knight, and on any other day Yeral would have refused. He wasn't sure that he really wanted to be around Lautrec anymore, but still... perhaps some help would be nice. "Would you journey with me again?" he asked hesitantly, but Lautrec shook his head.
"I helped you once, but let's not be too friendly. Besides, I have... other business." Lautrec replied dryly, staring intently at Anastacia's cell. Yeral was really starting to get unnerved now, he was certain that Lautrec must be planning something. Without any idea as to what, however, he simply sighed and turned away, heading for the ruins of New Londo below Firelink. As he climbed down the stairs to the elevator, he kept thinking about what he might find in Blighttown. Stepping onto an elevator, he-
"Ahem, Sir Yeral, might I interrupt thy tale?" Priscilla suddenly spoke, cutting off Yeral in the middle of his story. Her voice was still polite, so Yeral knew that she wasn't trying to be rude, but this was the first time that the crossbreed had spoken during his stories.
"Yes, Lady Priscilla?" he asked her curiously. Priscilla seemed to have calmed down from her earlier sadness, but Yeral was still worried about upsetting her.
"I doth not mean to seem rude, but might thou skipeth forwards? Thou hast already described thy experiences of Blighttown enough. I wouldst care to hear about thy reunion with Lady Reise far more." Priscilla asked him lightly, hoping that her request would not offend him. After all, she really did want to hear more of his stories. "Not that thine story is not interesting." she added quickly, not wanting Yeral to misunderstand.
"No, no, I understand. Talking about Blighttown made you unhappy, so we will not talk about Blighttown." Yeral replied warmly. He really didn't mind the interruption at all. After all, the story was being told to get Priscilla to open up, of course he would try to make her happy. If that meant skipping parts of the story, then so be it. "Reise and I met up at the very bottom of the swamp, so I guess I will continue from there..."
Trudging through the poisoned water, smacking the occasional giant mosquito with his sword, Yeral searched the swamp at the bottom of Blighttown intently. He had come across the fresh bodies of several monsters, so he knew that Reise must have ventured this far. After almost an hour of searching (and consuming lots of poison-curing moss), he finally heard sloshing footfalls in the distance. Dashing as fast as he could through the sludge, he saw the silhouette of a person appear through the murky fog. Looming into view was none other than Reise, her elite knight's armor stained and battered from her harrowing journey.
"Sir Yeral? Is that you? …..What are you doing down here?" Reise called out, sounding simultaneously confused and relieved. Her voice wavered slightly, lacking the strong confidence that it had before. Clearly, her long and difficult trek had worn her down, and Yeral understood why. He had avoided the worst of it, and yet he was still miserable. No wonder Reise would be on-edge.
"I came to offer you aid. The first bell had powerful guardians, I suspect this one will be no different." Yeral replied, trying to make himself sound courageous. "...if we can find it, that is." he added a moment later. He hadn't seen any signs of a bell tower in the swamp. Reise, however, simply turned and pointed towards what seemed to be a large hill, not far from where they were.
"This mass is made of webs. It must have taken a mighty spider indeed to create it. If there were to be a 'powerful guardian', I suspect that would be it." she analyzed shrewdly. Squinting his eyes, Yeral saw that she was correct: the supposed hill was actually a webbed lair. Gigantic tree roots snaked their way out of the sides of the web, but Yeral didn't see a tree to accompany them. "Come now, Sir Yeral! Our business is within." Reise called back, and Yeral suddenly noticed that she had started to run towards the lair.
Thankfully, the journey up the mound was uneventful, since the swamp's nastier creatures didn't seem to notice them. Within a few minutes, the two knights found a hole in the side of the webs, leading deeper in. Seeing no other options, they nodded at each other and headed in. The hole turned out to be a thin, snaking web tunnel which the knights gradually made their way through, before it opened up into a large empty chamber. Reise pointed down at the floor of the chamber and spoke. "Look! These are stone tiles. This must have been some sort of structure. Part of the bell tower, perhaps?" she mused. Yeral didn't have much time to consider her theory, however, before the room was filled with stomping sounds.
Rounding the corner from a ruined stone staircase on the opposite end of the chamber was a massive flaming spider-like beast. Or perhaps it was not a beast, for conjoined to it was the body of a woman. She would've been beautiful, with her jet-black hair covering her chest, if it were not for her monstrous state. Seeing the intruders, the spider-woman – named Quelaag – smiled and drew a strange black curved sword, clearly pleased with the opportunity to kill those that had trespassed in her domain. The head of the spider let out a mighty roar, and Quelaag charged at the two knights.
As soon as Quelaag got near them, Yeral moved to swing at her with his Zweihander, only to find himself slashed from the side by Quelaag's sword. The blade clearly had some sort of enchantment, as it trailed glowing orange lines of light and it burned like fire where it touched. Yeral screamed and clutched at his side, the blade's heat cutting right through his armor. Quelaag followed up by swing broadly down at Reise, who ducked under the blade's reach and struck at Quelaag's legs with her claymore. The spider hissed quietly in pain, but appeared otherwise uninjured by the blow. In the brief moment that his foe was distracted, Yeral had taken a hearty swig from the Estus Flask on his belt, which healed the nasty burn he had received.
Quelaag's spider head growled and opened its mouth, spewing out a stream of boiling hot magma, hoping to incinerate the pesky knights. The lava splashed onto the ground all around them, and for a moment Yeral was afraid, before he found himself yanked out of harm's way by Reise. Thinking quickly, he smashed his heavy blade down onto the face of Quelaag's spider. Unlike Reise's relatively light strike, this hefty blow left a sizable cut and disoriented the beast. Quelaag swung wildly with her sword, but Yeral and Reise simultaneously held up their shields, deflecting the swings with ease. As soon as she saw that her attacks were not working, Quelaag wrapped her arms around herself and stood perfectly still. The knights moved to strike during this supposed pause, only for Quelaag to release a powerful burst of red magical energy in a sphere around her, blasting Yeral and Reise backwards with immense force.
"Alright, back off when she gathers power like that." Reise instructed Yeral sternly, although she too had fallen for the trap. Yeral opened his mouth to remind her of that fact, only to be interrupted by Quelaag leaping at him. He quickly rolled to the side as the spider's heavy body slammed downwards. Reise slashed twice at the spider's legs, causing Quelaag to rear up sideways and try to smash her left legs into Reise, who nimbly slipped between them. By now, Yeral had noticed a pattern: Quelaag did not seem to be able to focus on two targets at once, instead constantly taking her eyes off one to attack the other. Taking advantage of this lull, he sliced broadly at her with his huge blade, leaving a deep cut across all of her right legs. As soon as she had turned towards him, Reise – who had noticed the same pattern – repeated Yeral's move and smashed her sword into the spider's face. As Quelaag reeled, the two knights turned to each other. Moving in perfect sync, they drove their blades deep into the spider's hide. Quelaag let out a pitiful scream, and then she was gone, disappearing in a way that was familiar to Yeral.
"Well, I suppose that the bell must lie beyond. I doubt anything more fearsome awaits ahead." Reise said, trying to sound calm. Her body language, however, showed that she was as stressed as Yeral was, her arms trembling. "Still, that was quite a fight." she said, with an air of satisfaction to her voice. Yeral felt uneasy more than anything, but he nodded anyway, and the two trudged towards the staircase.
"Just as we expected, the bell was just past Quelaag's chamber. Of course, we did not know she had a name at the time..." Yeral said, his story just trailing off awkwardly. Priscilla was smiling again, so it seemed that he had succeeded at cheering her up. This had been his longest and most detailed story yet, and it contained some interesting things indeed.
"A half-human hybrid, thou sayeth? Thou art not making this up to please me, art thou?" Priscilla asked him with an air of suspicion. Of course, she was really certain that he was telling the truth, but Yeral didn't need to know that. Besides, it was hard to tell which details were exaggerated.
"Well, I am not certain she was really human to begin with, nor was she born that way. The similarities to you are loose indeed." Yeral explained. This answer satisfied Priscilla, who knew that there were many odd things in the world. Still, she appreciated Yeral's explanation, and she felt like she could trust him more now. She was also glad that he had respected her request and skipped the middle part of the story. The final act was by far the most exciting anyway. She started to think that, perhaps, she should repay the favor and tell a story about herself, though she wasn't sure what she would want to share. As she contemplated her past experiences, she motioned for Yeral to tell his next story. It would give her time to think, at the very least.