Again, I am gratified at the response the previous chapter gained, but remember, there's no guarantee of it becoming a full story. Hell, after these two chapters, it nearly derailed, until I managed to get it back on the rails. Should this attempt fall through, I will work on an Elden Ring story with a different pairing or pairings. Melina, Millicent and Malenia are on the shortlist. And yes, should I do a Harry/Melina fic, she will be saved from her canon sacrifice.
In addition, I do have plans for other crossovers. I've brought up crossovers with Arifureta, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, and The Legend of Drizzt before. However, there is another crossover that I am now putting serious thought into, one I know a lot of you will be excited for. And which crossover is it? Well, I have just three words for you...
"FUS RO DAH!"
HARRY POTTER, FAIR CONSORT
CHAPTER 2:
THE PRINCESS IN THE DOLL
Ranni had to admit, this was a pleasant change. True, his speaking to her before he became aware of her presence didn't bode well to his sanity. But unlike most of the accursed Blacks who dared to disinter her and interrogate her for her secrets, he showed remarkable equilibrium and courtesy once he realised her true nature.
True, his first thought was that she could potentially attack her, but that was understandable. Being under threat of the Two Fingers and their Baleful Shadows, the accursed catamites of the Greater Will, she understood the desire for caution. Her words would mean little, but he accepted them to some degree. He was still wary, but the fact that he decided to continue talking further was heartening. Why, she knew of scholars at Raya Lucaria who would have been firing spells at her if she had done something similar, regardless of whether they knew who she was or not.
What, then, of this lad, caught twixt boyhood and manhood? He was easy on the eyes, she supposed. A touch scrawny and lanky, but she didn't mind. His hair was a messy mop of darkness, partly obscuring a scar marring his forehead, one that was faded. It resembled a stylised lightning bolt. Entrancing emerald eyes peered out from behind glasses.
However, she knew at a glance that this lad had seen war. There was a haunted quality to his emerald eyes. Too young to be involved, even by the standards of the Lands Between, but too common.
Pity filled Ranni's soul. She had seen long periods warfare, starting with the Shattering, which petered out once the current stalemate came about, a stalemate that began more or less with Malenia and Radahn's inconclusive clash, the one that left Caelid a wasteland. As much as she knew that war may be a consequence of the conspiracy between herself, Queen Marika, and Godwyn, she didn't truly desire it, and certainly not to the degree that it turned out to be.
And what resulted? The destruction of her family, and many more. A status quo that was yet to break. Only now, with the Two Fingers' attention less on her, did she feel safe to send her agents to begin seeking out the rumours that the Two Fingers feared. Chasing rumours of Nokron, the Eternal City.
When Melina, at Ranni's request, slew Ranni's Empyrean flesh, the subsequent bonding of Ranni's soul to her doll blunted her emotions. But they did not make her emotionless. It just enhanced her by-then natural stoicism, and stifled the emotions. For all that she was ruthless, Ranni did not truly lack empathy. She just put it to one side, in order to concentrate on her self-appointed mission.
Perhaps with this lad, she could loosen her control a bit. Oh, she would still maintain the regal demeanour, as was expected by one of her lineage, not that of Radagon, accursed consort to Queen Marika after discarding her mother…but of Queen Rennala of the House of Caria. But did it hurt to reach out to this lad who did not live on her world?
Still, she wished she could make this doll taller. She'd always had a bit of a complex about her height. As it was, he towered over her. Rather disconcerting, to say the least.
"…So, you're a princess?" he asked uncertainly.
"Indeed, though my mother still lives," Ranni said. "I am also, albeit by adoption, a demi-god. I say this not to boast, but to inform."
"…A demi-god?" Harry asked. "Like, half-human, half-god? But by adoption?"
"Not quite like that. My sire, Lord Radagon, was a Numen, a race of people from far beyond the Lands Between, but my mother was of Carian royalty. Radagon left my mother for Queen Marika the Eternal, a Numen herself who was the God of the Lands Between. However, from what I understand, thy people hath a more limited lifespan compared to those in the Lands Between. My parents both came from more long-lived stock, effectively immortal, barring accidents or malice. I hath lived for centuries, and will live for centuries still, in all likelihood. As for power, I am far from omniscient or omnipotent. I am a powerful sorcerer, true, but I am a demi-god by adoption. I am no true deity, nor do I wish to be. Few deities truly care about those under them."
True, Ranni thought privately, the Dark Moon had helped her. But that Outer God emphasized freedom of choice, a quiet, cold kind of anarchy. It directed her, but it would never order her. She chose to follow its path, to free her world from the tyranny of the Greater Will, or the influence of any other god, like the Scarlet Rot, the Formless Mother, or, heavens forfend, the Flame of Frenzy.
"…So, am I supposed to call you Your Highness or something?" Harry asked.
Ranni huffed quietly. "I care little for titles, especially in a world where my titles are meaningless. As long as thine address has due respect, thou may address me simply as Ranni."
"…That's fine. I'm not one for titles anyway. I've had one from only a year old: the Boy Who Lived," he said.
"…Curious title," she said. "How did thou attain such a name at such a young age?"
"…I survived when my parents didn't," Harry said quietly. "A warlock calling himself Lord Voldemort murdered them, and tried to murder me with a curse that normally kills instantly on impact. I survived thanks to my mother setting something up with her sacrifice."
"…I see," Ranni said. "My condolences. But that was a rather portentous and pretentious name. Admittedly, I hath heard worse from my family. My brother Radahn was known as the Starscourge, for example."
"It was an acronym of his real name. He was Tom Marvolo Riddle, which can be re-arranged to 'I am Lord Voldemort'. I'd laugh if it weren't for the fact that he was a major threat to everyone I cared about." He then frowned. "Starscourge Radahn?"
"Indeed. He used gravitational magic to halt the movement of the stars themselves."
"…What? How is that even…?" Harry shook his head. "Never mind. For all I know, your world has cotton-candy clouds and lakes of tomato puree."
Ranni thought to what the swamps of Caelid, filled with the festering Scarlet Rot, and grimaced to herself. If the tomatoes here were the same as back home, then yes, they did have lakes of tomato puree…which could infect you with a horrible illness that was the physical manifestation of an Outer God. Not a pleasant thought.
"What thou consider to be stars may be different to what I do," Ranni said. "But let us not speak of such matters. Thou art at least a more pleasant speaker than many I hath had the misfortune to, at least in this doll body that was stolen. This warlock…he is dead?"
"…Yeah. Finally," Harry said. Those two words carried a lot of emotion. Grief, not towards Voldemort, but presumably to friends and allies who had fallen. Anger. Weariness. The pain of scars yet to truly heal, indeed, that were still wounds yet to close.
"A hard-won battle, then. I shalt not pry any further on the latter, unless thou wish it otherwise," Ranni said.
"…Thanks," Harry said.
Ranni then stood from where she had been seated on the table. "Still, I find myself curious, about more than thine past. That…thing thou hast on thine lap…what is that?"
"…It's a laptop…a kind of computer," Harry said. Which explained little to Ranni. "I had to get this place hooked up to the internet, which I only managed to get done not so long ago, and…"
"Computer? Internet?" She peered closer at the thing, like a folder made of metal rather than paper, and instead of containing papers, half of it seemed to show a picture on it, while the other half had an array of numbers and letters in a grid.
"Yeah, a lot of wizards and witches don't get technology," Harry said. "I don't know how it is on your world, but magic is hidden here."
"I see." Magic, hidden? True, some magic was considered heretical and persecuted back home, but hidden completely?
What followed was an explanation of what a computer was, as well as the internet. The latter appeared to be a vast network of information contained on computers, machines that could do calculations far in advance of any abacuses or similar devices back home. Electricity seemed to be the basis of powering technology, not magic.
Harry did apologise, saying that his friend Hermione would be able to explain it better than he would. Apparently she was a would-be scholar herself. Ranni idly mused as to how this girl would do in Raya Lucaria, before she dismissed the thought. Even before everything went to pot, the political backbiting overshadowed any actual learning in Raya Lucaria. As things were now, she'd be lucky to avoid being killed, or worse, ending up like the students that her mother clumsily rebirthed using the Great Rune gifted to her. Vacuous and infantile, fit only to crawl around, singing the lullabies they learned at Rennala's feet, or biting the ankles of any foolish enough to intrude.
She fought down a pang of guilt at the thought of her mother. Ranni couldn't do anything for her condition, and even if she could, if she showed too much interest in her, the Two Fingers could hold her hostage to try and force Ranni to submit to the Greater Will once more. So keeping her distance was the best course, at least from a cold, pragmatic point of view.
It didn't stop it from hurting, though…
"So, what's your world like?" Harry asked. He wasn't sure whether he truly trusted Ranni, but he had to admit, she didn't seem as dangerous as Kreacher or Andromeda made out. At least to those who didn't piss her off anyway.
True, there was a quiet arrogance in her tone, but it wasn't the haughtiness of the Malfoys, something they quickly regained once Voldemort was dead. It was closer to an assuredness, born presumably of her station and her power. And her demeanour had more of a genuine courtesy than the thin veneer of the Malfoys.
What's more, unlike the Blood Purists, she seemed genuinely curious about technology. He'd pulled up a video on Youtube from Doctor Who, and she seemed entranced. Though he had to explain what TV was, and something about Doctor Who. The concept of an alien travelling through time and space in a time machine disguised as an old police box was a baffling one to her.
She also had the tact not to pry about the pain he felt during his battle with Voldemort. Given how many times he was interrogated by well-meaning people and less-well-meaning officials and journalists (from The Daily Prophet, anyway: he had no objection speaking with Luna), he appreciated that. So, while he wasn't sure whether he trusted her, he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt for now. She had made it explicit that she controlled this doll from where she was, in her world.
Ranni pursed her lips in thought. "Mayhap 'tis better to show than to tell," she said. "I am a master of many kinds of sorcery, but one of my specialities is of illusion magic. I can create illusions so powerful, they art as solid as any real object. I tell thee this because I wished to forewarn thee of what I intended."
With that, she waved a hand. A sigil outlined in azure light briefly appeared, and then, the wall in front of Harry seemed to fade away, revealing a vast countryside. An aerial view, as if the viewpoint was of a bird flying over the countryside. Ruined buildings dotted the countryside.
And dominating all…was a massive tree.
In the distance, it grew, as large as a mountain. Glowing from within, a golden radiance like the very sun. Beautiful, and yet, there was something just slightly wrong about it. Harry wasn't sure why. True, Andromeda spoke of the world-tree earlier, but it was still magnificent to see, despite the disquiet it inspired.
"The Lands Between, the lands I call home," Ranni said softly. "This is a part of the Lands Between known as Limgrave." The viewpoint flew past some hills and cliffs, a castle wreathed in a storm, while Ranni continued. "This comes from memory, of a flight of a familiar. I viewed the world through their eyes."
"And that tree?"
"The Erdtree. The symbol of the Golden Order." At this, Ranni seemed to sneer, though it was more in her tone than on her face. She could give Snape pointers, honestly. For all her quiet, solemn rasp of a voice, it was surprisingly easy to hear her feelings in her voice.
The viewpoint soon soared over what looked like a massive lake, with various ruins and buildings dotting the islands. Eventually, they came to what looked like a sunken town, all clustered around the foot of a building complex, like a castle, sitting on a hill. Those buildings were wreathed in mist and aurora-like ribbons of light.
"The Academy of Raya Lucaria," Ranni commented. "A college of sorcerers and mages, now a shadow of its former glory. I spent much of my youth there, and indeed, throughout Liurnia of the Lakes, the realm thou see now."
An academy, probably with a huge library? Harry knew Hermione would be champing at the bit to be allowed there. Though Ranni's tone held a mixture of both scorn and wistfulness. She clearly had mixed feelings about it.
The viewpoint soared further on, over more ruined structures, before it came to a large mansion. "Caria Manor…once my childhood home," she said quietly and solemnly. "Yet it too is a shadow of its former glory. And behind it…" The viewpoint flew over the manor, before arriving at an area behind it, where three stone towers stood. "The Three Sisters. Once the residence of my mentor, now, my own."
She waved her hand, removing the illusion. "Quite impressive," Harry said. "Both the magic and the landscape."
"I hath not shown thee the full length and breadth of mine power, but I appreciate thy kind words," Ranni said. "The truth is, the Lands Between hath been long-ruined by war. What thou witnessed was the wreckage left over. Beautiful wreckage to be sure, but wreckage all the same."
Her words had a touch of melancholy to them, and Harry felt his heart reach out to her. Still, he also noticed an edge of guilt. But about what?
Elsewhere in the world, a magnificent bird with red and gold plumage, like the embodiment of fire and the sun, blinked. It had not felt this presence in a long time. A lifetime ago, one it was only now remembering.
Ranni…sister…is that you?
CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:
So, Harry and Ranni have gotten to talking…but what's this? Who seems to have a link to Ranni in the Potterverse?
Also, for the sake of this story, the events of the books have been moved forward a decade, so this is in August-September 2008.
No numbered annotations this time.
