A/N: Elden Ring's done for the month, onto the other categories~!
Slept through my alarm today, gonna be late for work. Sorry for any errors.
Many thanks to Slifer, he wrote the bulk of this chapter, I just tweaked it and added bits.
I'll say it plain, if this email opt-in business with the site doesn't get resolved soon, I'm probably going to retire.
It HURTS to say that, but with this new system, reviews and readers have dropped to an all time low, authors are leaving the site in droves.
If you're not already aware of it, ever since the 16th of November, you now have to turn ON your email alerts in account settings -AND MAKE SURE YOU CLICK SAVE SETTINGS!- else you won't be notified when anyone updates. No alerts, no email, no nothing. Apparently that's a thing we all have to do every ninety days or so, now. Alas, not many are aware of it...which is a problem. As things stand this new "fix" as it were, has cut everyone's viewership/reviewers in half because most folks don't know about it.
Sometimes opting in works. Sometimes it doesn't. Really depends. Hopefully its fixed soon.
Time for the usual disclaimer: Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this story, and others. If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular? POOF! Gone. Completely. I'm working two jobs -for now- so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy.
So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.
No questions this time. Got some surprise in store!
As ever, I own no references, quotes, memes or themes. Not a wit or a one. They're merely tributes to those far greater than I.
Here we go. Hopefully this puts a smile on your face and warms your heart.
Looking forward to chatting with you all once I get back from work~!
Chapter title is another pun, but for whom...?
"Let me be frank. I'd kill to keep this kid safe.
So think veeery carefully before you think about harming her.
Because if you try...buddy, pal...they'll find pieces of you scattered all over the world.
~?
Zeal
Dawn came like a fitful child.
As the sun slowly rose to its zenith in the sky, Liurnia's usual light drizzle was broken for the first time in several days in favour of a clear horizon, and for once, warm weather could be appreciated from the usually draughty academy. A cool mist rose from waterlogged surroundings to waft lethargically over the surface of lakes that seemed determined to swallow up the academy grounds and give it an ostentatiously large moat.
It wasn't something that bothered Naruto all that much; in fact, for the first time in several weeks, Naruto felt himself approaching something that might have been called serene.
The blond's look had changed slightly since his lodging in Raya Lucaria had begun, now sporting a somewhat plush midnight blue doublet that he had...liberated from one of the now-long-defunct dormitories. Its body was festooned with light blue filigree and the straps that might have once attached a scholarly mantle. Naruto and Kurama had collectively sighed in relief at being able to find warm and clean clothes preserved by some kind of spell woven into the storage trunks.
'Really glad I found the sandals, weird to think that there are Samurai in this land tho,' the former mused, looking at the tips of his toes wiggling out from the ends of open-toed sandals. 'Don't get me wrong, boots are nice for the cold, but twenty years of sandals makes you appreciate free toes.'
In the days that had passed since their odd group's arrival, there had been a number of curious changes to the usual dynamic of moving from one place to another, and their new host was more than happy to offer room and board on the academy grounds. Indeed, Rennala had been a gracious host even if it was clear that she was used to being the one served as opposed to serving. In return, she'd only asked two things as payment for their lodging:
"Tell me, how hath the world changed in my absence? Talk to me. It has been far too long since I have heard voices other than my own." she had said to them all in a quiet voice, watching fondly as Melina rolled around with the great red wolf in front of the fire. While Naruto had not been in the position to fill in the blanks for the Full Moon Queen, he had been caught by just how vulnerable she sounded. Her beautiful face was porcelain white from years, nay, decades, in some dusty library; her new hope was new and tender as a green shoot poking from winter hard ground.
Boggart, bless the big iron-masked softie, had stepped in then, doing the lion's share of the explanation, his voice carrying a cadence that indicated he was stunned to be in the presence of some mythical figure. At the end of the explanation that had lasted an entire night, Ranalla had put her head in her hands and let her shoulders slump, her visible skin luminous in the gloom of the room, the fire having long burned down to embers. Before Naruto could extend a hand in comfort and ask what was wrong, she had straightened and graced them with a queenly nod. She thanked them for their words and gave them leave to remain in the academy as long as they pleased.
Naruto smiled softly, turning a corner towards the central annex to take in the midday glory. It hadn't stopped him and Boggart from making themselves useful.
A chime of sound and scream of danger was all the warning Naruto needed to lazily tilt his head to the side, a blue-white streak of magic went sailing past his ear to slam into one of the stone pillars, glittering crystal briefly manifesting from the point of impact. "Speaking of making myself useful," he uttered, turning on his heel and launching himself towards the shadow where the glintstone magic had come.
The Uzumaki's hands locked around the lapels of the interloper and roughly dragged them into the hall to toss them against the stone-flagged floor. A muffled grunt of pain emanated from the masked visage of a Lucarian scholar, his jewel-tipped catalyst spinning away from him and rolling along the floor until Naruto stopped it with his heel.
"How many does this make this morning?" he asked Kurama, kicking the catalyst up into his hands before promptly snapping it over his knee.
The great fox sleepily opened a single sizable red eye, stifling a yawn as the Scholar clambered to his feet, biting out antiquated curses towards the blond, "One shy of a baker's dozen, seems to be a busy day."
Naruto rolled his eyes in exasperation, "How the hell do they keep getting in? I'd have thought Rennala would have closed down all the secret paths into the grounds,"
"She's too busy taking care of the munchkin, though I doubt she'll be able to convince her to give your jacket back, Melina is rather attached to it."
"Damnit, I really liked that jacket," Naruto said, finally addressing the Scholar who was imperiously pointing a withered finger at him. "Hey there, sorry about breaking your glitter stick, but you did try to shoot me in the back of the head. The Queen's offer of forgiveness still stands. Are you gonna be smart or dumb like the rest of you Scholars?" he asked, tapping the toes of his sandals on the floor.
While Rennala was content to just have them talk to her, he and Boggart had tried to make themselves useful in their new digs. Boggart had sequestered himself in the large academy kitchens from which he produced a variety of delicious meals for the group of three adults, one child, a wolf and a giant lobster every night. It seemed that the usually gruff distrusting blackguard was very happy to have a fully stocked pantry to work with rather than whatever game he could scrap together.
"You, you despicable jackanape! You dare to wear the raiments of sacred Raya Lucaria and compare me to an imbecile!? You are a fool and heretic!" the Scholar screeched at him, his whole head mask and mortarboard wobbling comically. "The fallen moon harlot is a heretic gone mad; we drove her into the library in her madness and stood vigil to ensure she stayed there while we studied the mysteries she kept for herself!"
Naruto let the Scholar's tirade peter off before raising a finger and gesturing at the de-fanged magical practitioner. "So I'm gonna take that as a no? You lot say in 50 words what could have been said in 5, so I can't really tell."
"NO!" The Scholar screamed again, then felt a chill race up his spine when Naruto's face broke into a predatory rictus.
"Okay then," he said before vanishing in a blur of movement, seizing the masked man and lifting him off his feet effortlessly. Still in motion, Naruto twisted on his heel and let his foe slip wide. He span once, twice, thrice! Building in centrifugal force until the Scholar was little more than a blur of billowing robes, then with a flourish, Naruto let him go. The Scholar was launched over the edge of the annexe and over the academy walls with great speed, pirouetting end over end like a cloth pinwheel before splashing down in the mist-covered lakes. It was with no small pleasure that Naruto watched the annoying weed skip atop the surface of the lake like a stone until he was well out of sight.
"Baker's dozen, time for lunch." He chirped before resuming his walk towards the inner sanctums of the academy in search of Boggart and Rennala.
While the blackguard had appointed himself the cook, Naruto had set about cleaning out the academy in more ways than one. The Undead had been the easiest to rend down to nothingness, their crypts having burned at his touch after clearing out the initial infestation. The giant ball trap had been a health and safety hazard he could not stand Melina to be around and now served as a toy for the giant lobster and red wolf. And cleaning proved surprisingly expedient with Shadow Clones.
The Scholars, however… had proven to be an annoying thorn in their collective backside. After the first night, Rennala made an address through her magic to the scholars and sorcerers that had henned her into the library for reasons he had yet to ask; she understood their actions and was willing to offer clemency if they surrendered peacefully. Some of them had done so, but the majority hadn't, still drunk off the power of running the place. They had waged a series of annoying gorilla attacks under the leadership of an illusive 'Sorceress Sellen' who had evaded capture. So every day was spent rooting them out and quite literally tossing them over the boundary.
He hoped that their tide would stop soon because he was getting really tired of interrupting time with Rennala explaining her view on his own situation.
"Papa!" came a familiar cry of happiness, causing Naruto's smile to grow as he stepped into the apartments of the headmistress. Melina toddled towards him, his black jacket swaddled around her like an oversized cloak.
Dropping to one knee, he offered no resistance when the young girl embraced him before scurrying around him to rest on his back, arms around his neck. "Someone's happy this afternoon!" he chirped, feeling her pudgy fists play with his thicket of golden spikes. He sniffed deeply when she nuzzled into his neck, her fuzzy head of hair tickling his nose, "Oof, you smell like dog."
"T'would be our fault, methinks," a crisp, amused voice cut through the hall, Rennala gracefully descended the steeps stairs with Radagon's red wolf at her side. She cast an amused look down at her companion, "This one more so; I have endeavoured to bathe in more than rainwater."
The great wolf chuffed indignantly at his Queen's words before bounding down the steps to pad around Naruto.
"You're looking better," Naruto observed neutrally before taking in the grandiose entry hall of the apartments, completely missing the dusting of pink that briefly tinged the Full Moon Queen's cheeks at his comment. Indeed, compared to the foggy-eyed half-mad witch queen who had done little more than croon over a golden egg a few weeks ago, the woman before him was a true aristocratic beauty. Her long black hair had been split into a silky ponytail secured by a gilded red ribbon with long bangs framing her healthier face.
Rennala pursed her lips, painted a glossy maroon, in amusement, beating the warmth in her cheeks away. "Thy words are kind, young errant, the first I have heard in some time," she compliments, descending the rest of the steps to stand face to face with the blonde. She had traded out the commodious headmistress robes in favour of a long-sleeved bustle dress in midnight blue, its scarlet petticoats peeking out from the ankle-length hem.
Naruto gave Renala a playfully aggravated look, "how many times do I have to ask you to just call me Naruto? The whole decorum stuff really ain't me." Looking up at her, it hit Naruto again just how tall the Full Moon Queen was. Even at his six feet, she was a good head taller than him.
Rennala's eyes crinkled in amusement, "A few times yet…Naruto." she managed to say, thrilled by the novelty of being able to use given names again. "Now, would you and the sweeting care to join me for lunch? There is still so much of your tale I wish to discuss."
Naruto wasn't sure what to think of the glint in her pretty eyes, an scholarly interest underscored by the lonely need for interaction and acknowledgement that he knew very well. "Of course, I'm starving as is, and I don't think Melina will forgive me if I eat without her." he posited, proven correct when a pair of pudgy fists bonked either side of his head.
"Silly papa, we always eat together." Melina stated like it was a fact of the world, drawing amusement and exasperation in equal parts from the adults before Rennala bayed him to follow her, the scent of untold culinary delicacies wafting through the doors.
(.0.0.0.)
Far distant from the steadily warming halls of Raya Lucaria stood a rise and upon its zenith a thin tower, its entrance glinting in the afternoon sun from the variety of large blue crystals that jutted from the ground. Ascending the spiral staircase to the tallest parapet revealed a homey, if dusty, room festooned on all sides with countless books. Many of them were confined to tall wooden bookshelves, their aged leather bindings frayed with time and use, while a great many more sat piled around the floor itself, almost blocking out the windows.
In this odd yet strangely homey space, two figures could be observed, one daintily perched upon a wooden throne while the other, much larger and hairier, was bent to one knee in front of them.
"Blaidd, you are my shadow, one who I have the utmost confidence in," Ranni said, her voice level and full of royal grace, "and to date, you have never once fed me a falsehood nor half-truth; this I know as do you."
The great wulfen knight lowered his head in practised appreciation of the praise, years of service preventing his ears from wagging in excitement, yet his large blue eyes remained fixed on his mistress. He knew that despite her voice and demeanour, his latest report had set Ranni on edge. Her four hands, usually clasped in the lap of her snow-white gown in stately repose, were all out of sorts. Two embraced one another in an epic display of twiddling thumbs with the porcelain digits nothing more than blurs; another was fiddling with the wide brim of her hat while the final hand was twisting in esoteric mudras, drawing magical sigils on the air.
"I am much obliged in your faith as always, my lady. If there's anything else you need know, then simply ask." Lips peeling back to smile sheepishly, Blaidd added, "but there isn't much more to tell than you already know."
Ranni's brow twitched, her shoulders slumping in mock of a sigh, a force of habit even without a true body. "Just… indulge your mistress's curiosity a moment longer, sweet Blaidd."
"As you command, so it shall be." the tall shadow rumbled out, shifting his footing before slipping to sit on the ground and cross his legs.
"Right then," Ranni said, steeling herself before pushing on. "Several weeks ago, I perceived a shift in the heavens and to the best of my divinations, whatever it was had headed in the direction of Liurnia to which I sent you to investigate."
"Aye, and I must say I'm glad you furnished me with new armour for it, I didn't relish trying to remain hidden with rusty greaves scraping against each other." the wolf-headed figure chipped in, drawing a stiff nod of assent from Ranni.
"And in that time, you discovered nothing for the first few days and were about to return to me when you spotted something… more peculiar than usual," she uttered, reluctant to continue for the idiocy of the rest of the story. "A blonde vagabond, an iron-masked blackguard and an aspiring maiden tucked into the blonde's sling… all riding atop one of Liurnia's great crustaceans as if it were a housebroken steed?"
Blaidd nodded, "Aye, I'm unsure how the trio managed to wrangle the thing, but it was taken a bit and bridle well enough, as well as I could see through my binoculars anyway."
Ranni pressed a set of hands to her temples while the others braced her on the armrests of her wooden throne. "And upon seeing this… miraculous transit of hard-shelled beast of burden, you followed it all the way to the walls of Raya Lucaria, where they could not pass the warded gate… until it came undone and my mother of all people welcomed them inside." The doll bodied witch said to him, her eyes full of disbelief, "you're quite sure it was her?"
Grinning wolfishly, Blaidd answered honestly. "Oh yes, she even had your father's great hound at her side, I'd never forget that big red beast."
Gathering her thoughts, Ranni fell into silence for several minutes, thinking about the rest of the story, of how apparently the trio, particularly the blonde had set themselves up in the academy before seeking to rid the grounds of the traitorous former faculty and students of the cornerstone of Lucaria. Miraculous, borderline impossible in fact. The last she had known her mother was beyond help, her mind addled by the emotional damage of her father's returning to Marika, her own 'death' and the mental damage of overusing the great rune in such a state.
She still checked in on her mother from time to time, even if the wards of the academy were deeply annoying to get past she made sure her mother was at least comfortable in her madness. Yet these newcomers had brought something with them, something that had seemingly done the impossible and seen Ranalla the Full Moon Queen returned to lucidity.
It filled Ranni with joy…and an intense, almost paranoid worry. 'What could do something so miraculous that I had written it off as impossible? Is this the great change I perceived making its way to Liurnia….do I trust it to be near my mother?' she thought, clasping all four hands together while Blaidd waited patiently at her feet. Ranni had… a complicated relationship with her family, but her mother was one that she had never for an instant stopped loving, and right now something, new and powerful lodged next to her.
"Is there anything my lady would have me do?" Blaidd asked, breaking the silence and returning Ranni to the present.
She hummed in thought, weighing the pros and cons of everything they knew and everything they did not. "We are in a critical lack of information, something that we must rectify. Blaidd, travel to Raya Lucaria and observe this trio and mother, find out what you can without getting too close but if any of them should prove a danger to mother then dash them against the rocks."
Blaidd rose to one knee, "It will be done my lady… and if they should prove benign and affable to conversation?"
Ranni gave a strained smile in reply, "Then… I have some explaining to do, something I should have done a long time ago."
There was a scrape of metal on the carpet as her shadow rose to his towering height before retrieving his greatsword and leaving the tower. Ranni was left alone, slowly but surely letting her face fall into her hands.
'Mother…what are you doing right now?'
(.0.0.0.)
"Off with your clothes."
Naruto sputtered. "Excuse me?"
After a long, pleasant lunch in which Naruto had been asked a never-ending series of questions that ranged from the type of moon that had hung on the night of his birth to his experience with the mysterious voice that brought him to The Lands Between; Rennala had insisted that he accompany her into her workshop. Perplexed, Naruto had followed, expecting to find a tool shed only to be brought into what seemed closer to a baroque medical clinic.
It was a perfect octagon edged with pillars composed of compacted glintstone that glowed when Renalla and Naruto had entered. A great relief of the Carian royal sigil was set into the marble floor in rivulets of molten gold that maintained their glow and liquid state even though it held no heat. Dozens of tables, desks and cabinets were arranged with an incomprehensible order and meaning, all with magical artefacts that span and whirred in their own unique way. The most noticeable thing about the workshop was its roof, a perfect parabolic dome carved from sapphire and glintstone bearing stained glass representations of the heavenly bodies that moved through the dome in an orrery.
His host had left Naruto standing next to what appeared to be a plush medical examination table upholstered in quilted cobalt blue cushions and red buttons. The blonde had watched on perplexed as the Queen had busied herself retrieving a silver tray which she piled with a series of tools that he couldn't make head nor tails of. When all was said and done, she had laid the collection on a small table next to the examination table, then rounded on the Uzumaki and asked him to strip much to his protest.
Rennala wasn't having it. With surprising speed, she undid the buttons on the doublet and tugged his shirt off. "I need to see those runes on your back and chest."
"Oi oi oi! Not so rough!" Naruto complained, being able to do little more than flail as the taller woman methodically stripped him of his clothes until he was in little more than his underwear and sandals before manhandling him onto the examination table.
"Quell thine complaint, I am a mother of three, there is nothing beneath your clothes that I haven't seen before." Rennala said teasingly, finding Naruto's bleats of annoyance and indignant blushing to be greatly amusing.
Kurama took this moment to chime in and add to Naruto's mounting embarrassment, "I know my knowledge of human mating rituals is sketchy at best, but I was under the impression that a woman tearing your clothes off was a sign of a good time." Kurama chuckled.
'Screw off, you furry instigator!' Naruto blushed, the warmth in his cheeks remaining as he let his arms drop to rest on the provided armrests.
The amused smile was still on Rennalla's face when she was content with Naruto's positioning, and then her eyes gained that intense scholarly interest again as she began her examination. Picking up a gem-tipped stylus, she gave Naruto the request to remain as still as he could before she began to run the tool gently over the broad black runes that scrawled across the young blonde man's chest. They settled into a comfortable silence as she worked, the only sounds punctuating the silence being the tinkling sounds of the various magical apparatus and the scratching of Rennala making notes in a fresh journal of her findings.
Zoning out, Naruto didn't notice the slight warmth returning to Rennala's cheeks as she roughly sketched out an anatomical drawing of Naruto's chest and how the runes were inlaid across it. A modicum of embarrassment twisted in her chest even as she maintained a serious focus, for her prior mention of having seen scantily dressed men before she couldn't deny that Naruto's had a level of… 'aesthetic appeal'.
'Down girl, it may have been decades since Radagon, but you can hold off sordid thoughts long enough to do your job.' she thought, adding a tad more shadow to give the diagram more realism for later reference.
Ten minutes later and finally Naruto could not hold his silence any longer, "Say, Renalla."
"Hmm?" the Carian royal answered, pausing from where she sat at a lectern, cross-referencing her notes with storied tomes and astrology charts.
"There's something that I've been curious about since I arrived here, something that keeps getting brought up, but I haven't the foggiest what they mean." Naruto leant up on the examination table, resting his weight on one arm. "What the hell even is the Elden Ring?"
"That's… something of a loaded query, young Naruto," said Renalla, rising from the seat behind the lectern and manifesting her catalyst in a shimmer of blue light. "T'would be easier to show thee."
Somewhat slowly, the witch queen raised her catalyst until a small orb of glittering magic emerged from its jewelled tip before rising up into the air, Naruto's eyes following it as it began to unwind and bend into a complicated shape. "Think of the Elden Ring as a Metaphysical foundation, composed of many runes that each symbolise a facet of the Lands Between." The spectral pictogram continued to grow and twist until it reached its final shape, a quartet of interlocked circles bisected by a long, thin line that was topped by a pair of parabolic arches. "It was a 'gift' from the Greater Will, the deity which, from your vivid story, I believe brought you here."
"The gold voice?" Naruto ventured, the shadows from the flickering light playing across his face.
"It would not be too far of a venture. The Will is hardly beyond manipulations and indirect intervention in the creation that it views the Lands as. Especially after Marika…" Rennala trailed off, a note of bitter sadness briefly bleeding into her words before shaking her head to rid herself of old ghosts. She jabbed the staff towards the representation of the Elden Ring, Naruto watched it shatter into myriad smaller fragments. "-shattered the Ring, it split into its constituent facets, becoming the Great Runes that the Empheran tore the realm apart to gain. Some of which are now carved into your flesh."
Naruto's eyes bugged in their sockets, sputtering out a "What!?"
"Indeed it is; your condition is similar to Queen Marika in that you have had Greater Runes carved directly into your being, though not ones that I have seen before." With a snap of her fingers, Renalla rearranged the Elden Ring above her head into four Runes as well as numerous extraneous lines. "Whilst I know not the machinations at work here, I can at least tell you of their meaning in the language of the starts handed down by the Carian linage."
Swiping her finger to point at the first three runes, she began to list their meaning, ""Serenity", "Compassion", "Healing"" she then pointed to the largest of the Runes, her voice briefly hitching before she returned to normal, ""Life.""
Naruto stared at the runes, deep in thought, even as they faded away. He absentmindedly ran his hands over the runes branded into his body, feeling the muted power that tingled deep within them.
'For every answer, a million more questions…' Kurama commiserated, just as frustrated as Naruto was perturbed.
"What does it all mean?" Naruto eventually asked, swinging his legs over the end of the examination table, regarding Rennala curiously.
"I…don't honestly know. Not entirely, I believe it was the proximity to me with these runes that abated my madness, but for the truth to be found, there is yet to be much research. All I can do is warn you that it is likely not as benevolent as it seems, Naruto."
A deep silence passed between them, Naruto quietly sleeping his clothes back on as he contemplated these new truths, what fate was the Will setting for him to fulfil. Little did he know that Rennala was of a similar mind.
"Where will you go from here? Have you given any thought to your next destination?" she asked quietly,
"Not really." Naruto shrugged. "So long as Melina's happy, I'm good."
Taking a deep breath, Renalla asked something that she had wanted to ever since the trio had first turned up on her doorstep. "Could you not...stay awhile? 'Tis safe here."
He paused a second, then flashed a bright grin, smiling as the woman smiled in turn. "...I'd like that."
(.0.0.0.)
Millicent looked at herself in the mirror, barely recognising herself. The definable details were still there, the blazing gold eyes and fiery red hair characteristic of those touched by the Rot, but she had never been so clean. Instead of her grey and stained red bodice and boots, she was clad in a flowing black and gold chiton with a broach of the golden order holding it closed.
She heard a set of steps approach the door to the chamber, the doors opened and a pair of women dressed in the gold and white habit of nuns in service to the Golden Order. The younger of the pair openly sneered at Millicent while the elder looked at her with neutral reverence. "It is time, child."
Silently nodding, Millicent followed the pair of sisters through the vaulted corridors of this temple of the Golden Order.
The details of her dream with the Greater Will remained seared cleanly into her Rot-addled mind. Every detail of what the outer god had desired, why it needed her and what it would give her if she played along. She had hardly been in any position to refuse the offer and thus had done as she was bayed, travelled on foot to the Altus Plateau to a temple of the Golden Order. When she had seen locked swords and raised shields at her approach, Millicent had contemplated running away, but the cooler heads of the priests had prevailed.
They had known she was coming, the words of the Greater Will communed to them through the Fingers, foretelling of the arrival of a child of Rot. Taken within, she had been prepared for the ritual that was required of her, she was bathed in blessed water to burn away any outer corruption of the Rot. She grimaced at the memory, many of the priests here seethed at the very concept of someone touched by another Outer God, the sisters in charge of purifying her for the ritual had enjoyed the sounds of her screams as the holy waters seared necrotic lesions shut and left Millicent with clean skin for the first time in years.
The chiton felt breezy as she stepped through the halls and corridors, the distant sound of muffled bells and hymns permeating the walls that grew louder as they came closer to the central chamber. A dull ache thumped up from her stump of a right arm, the Rot was not happy to be so close to 'them', but the purification and consecrated clothing kept it at bay for now.
Passing into the main hall, she nearly faltered at the site of them, a long hall lined on either side by priests and sisters each clutching a ceremonial bell and incense burner. The scent of heavy incense punched at the senses, but what caused the redhead to falter was the finger, a trio of them poking crookedly from the desiccated 'palm' that served as an altar.
Swallowing thickly, Millicent attempted to stride with purpose down the lines of priests, doing her best to ignore their myriad stares until she was before the fingers, slowly kneeling at the Golden Order's sigil on the floor.
For several minutes there was nothing, no movement or sounds beyond breathing and the shuffling of cloth, and then it began. From the end of the lines, the priests began to slowly ring their bells, one by one down the line. By the time all were taking part the cathedral-sized main hall was booming with their sound, enough for Millicent to wince in slight pain, pain that was soon swept under the rug by trepidation when the fingers began to move.
Slowly, the trio of fingers began to bend back until they were an 'open hand' before veins of a familiar golden light crawled up their lengths. Slowly turning inwards with arthritic cracks, the fingers converged until they were separated by exactly two feet, then began to spark with motes of golden light that swirled and coalesced above Millicent's head, resolving into a microcosm of familiar auric nebulae.
"Child of Rot, heed my words and obey," came the sonorous voice of the Greater Will boomed in infrasound, drawing startled cries from the less believing clergy. "Name thyself and announce thy reason for harkening to my will."
Momentarily struck dumb by the tremendous pressure pushing down on her, Millicent's voice was barely a whisper yet still carried across the entire cathedral. "I am Millicent, a Child of the Rot, and I come to seek a boon from the Greater Will. For which I shall do thy bidding to achieve."
"Indeed it was, a boon offered for a service rendered, speak then of what you are required to do."
The words were well practised, even if the voice that spoke them was somewhat afraid, the Rot squealing in her guts to run as far away from this thing as possible. "An Elden Beast was called to the Lands Between to set right the world gone mad, yet it has gone astray and must be made to know its place in the causality of the world."
The fingers vibrated ghoulishly as the facsimile stars glittered in what might have been a laugh of approval. From the heart of the golden star cluster, strings of golden energy span into existence before slowly snaking down to where Millicent quavered, their heat warming her skin in the otherwise cold hall.
"Good, they know thy place and purpose, to follow the plan and help correct those that will not. Then speak, Millicent, Child of Rot and descendent of a whore's bloodline. What boon do you seek for this service?"
Closing her eyes before opening them, Millicent's arms raised up in a pose of reverence, the same pose as Queen Marika on the distant stained glass window, now dark with the evening. "I beg of thee, grant me a body unspoiled, made new and that no Rot can blight, I accept any charge or bondage to free myself of being overrun as my ancestors were, so that I may meet them with pure heart and redeemed body!"
She remained in the pose for some time with the golden threads swirling around her, her stump of a right arm beginning to throb again. She feared for a time that the light would simply dim and her request would go unfulfilled.
Pain roared through her when without warning the golden threads plunged themselves into her skin, burrowing deep through the veins and arteries of her body and filling her with unearthly golden light.
"You ask too much, the Rot is meant to be a blight for the actions of your ancestors and one I will not completely free you of." motes of golden light rained down on the screaming redhead, swirling around her in an ever-growing denser cocoon of light. "Yet a boon was asked, so I do unto you the gift of Regression and Strength. Your body renewed!"
Millicent's golden eyes looked around wildly before feeling a molten burning at the tip of her stump, strands of golden light and fire manifesting and solidifying into the shape of an arm. Yet the fog, heat and light grew brighter, feeling as if she was growing smaller.
No… she was growing smaller!
"Let Regression lead you to the Beast, and let the Beast bring about the wheels of causality! The Accord is made!"
In a flash of brilliance that rendered the closest priests and sisters blind, Millicent vanished in a tide of sound indescribable to mortals, a perverse apotheosis and transmogrification that would never be written about, a travesty done by a supposedly benevolent god and sent to set things right.
It was a calculated risk…
But stars above was it bad at maths.
(.0.0.0.)
Sensation returned to Millicent slowly, pulling her out of the white sensory overload like a photographer slowly closing the aperture on his camera. Tactile and olfactory information pulled itself from the white noise until finally, she could see again, slowly looking around her with wide eyes akin to an owl. She felt tingly, from the ends of her hair to the tips of her fingers and toes…
She blinked, then slowly raised her arms in front of her face and stared, confused and the two sets of fingers and thumbs that twitched before her, the flesh pinkened with newness. Unbidden she let out a high pitched squeal, not quite terror but neither surprise. She was…euphoric! Her arms, they were restored, her body made new and the ever-present 'voice' of the Rot little more than a cowed voice at her core. She jumped up and down in happiness, spinning around and letting her bare feet become caked in mud, something in the back of her mind telling her that she was thigh-deep in water and that something was amiss.
She paid it no mind, sloshing through the water and kicking at its surface with a burble of pure excited happiness, her legs had never been so smooth…or short.
'Wha..?'
Millicent slowly came to a stop and once again brought her hands in front of her face, disturbed to find that they too were shorter than they should be, and pudgier with a baby fat she had long since lost. "What is…" she stuttered before grabbing her throat, her voice much higher pitched than she remembered. She stepped backwards with mounting panic and let out a cry of distress when she slipped on a bed of silt, sending her to land on her rump, now up to her armpits in water.
Powerful emotions, old emotions, childish emotions began to lap at her soul in earnest as confusion drove the former warrior woman into a frenzy, only to stop when she caught the reflection of her face on the surface of the water. The important details were still there, but they were changed, her gold eyes and bob of red hair was now set into the face of a child no older than six, a child whose eyes were slowly filling with confused tears.
"I…no..this…Regressshun?" she lisped, on the verge of hyperventilating.
In its infinite wisdom and infinitely idiotic understanding of humanity, the Greater Will had blundered, in its attempt to both fulfil Millicent's request yet still maintain the punishment of the redhead's ancestors it had returned Millicent to a child and strengthen her body to be able to resist the Rot…not wasting the effort in preventing the mentality of a child coming with it.
She may have still had the mind and memories of an adult, but the extreme emotions and low thresholds of resistance were washing rational thought aside, right now she was a confused six-year-old, submerged in a sodden dress and unsure what to do even as she whipped her head from left to right.
"Are you okay?"
Millicent turned in the direction of a young girl's voice and took in her surroundings a little more, instead of some bog or evil witches' forest, she found herself sitting in front of the bottom of a winding rampart leading to the entrance of what appeared to be a castle, surrounded on all sides by water and glowing with a cool blue light.
'Pretty' her childish mentality conjured into her psyche, making her instantly remember her own distress, "No, I'm not okay! I don't know I don't know I don't KNOW!" she squealed, thumping a hand in the water before shivering at the touch of her wet black chiton that now clung to her like an oversized leech.
"Are you cold?" the young girl's voice said again, drawing Millicent's eyes up to its source and widening. She saw a little girl with plum-coloured hair and a sealed eye looking down at her with childish concern, an oversized black jacket slung around her shoulders and rustling in the evening wind. What scared Millicent though, was the gigantic red wolf that the little girl was sitting astride, looking at her with predatory interest. "P-please don't eat me."
The other girl's face became quizzical before patting the great red wolf between the ears, drawing a pleased chuff. "Eat you? No! Doggy would never hurt anyone, he only hurts bad people. Are you cold?" the girl said before her eyes flashed in realisation, "Sorry, I'm Melina, by the way, I live here with my papa, biggy bog and the pretty lady."
Millicent, teeth now chattering, knew rationally that she should leave this place, find gear and lodging before heading into unknown territory. But the childish part that only coveted warmth and succour was firmly at the reigns. "Milli-c-ent, ccc-cold.." her words wor accompanied with a plume of steam.
"Hmm, Milli, do you wanna come inside? Papa is always telling me to help people when I can." Melina said, holding out a pudgy fist in offer.
Not trusting her tongue, Millicent nodded feverishly, letting out a yelp when the great red canine stepped behind her and picked her up by the neck of her chiton, carrying her as if she was a freshborn cub up the rampart towards the light and warmth of the castle, the giggling of Melina ringing through the air like joyous church bells.
"Hehehe, I found a sister, Papa!" echoed through the night, followed closely by the sub-audible tumult of celestial fury within the domain of the Greater Will.
While there is no translation to the common tongue of what the Greater Will said in that moment, the closest analogue would likely be:
DAMNIT, NOT AGAIN!
(.0.0.0.)
"Papa! Look I found a sister!"
"Sure, that's great-OI?! Who is this small redheaded child and where did she come from?!"
Melina thought papa took it pretty well, all things considered.
Yuuup. Pretty well.
A/N: Poor Naruto.
Might as well start calling him the All-Father at this rate. Pun intended.
Didn't see that coming, did ya?
Well, should this continue to be a story?
Hmm? What say you? Yay or nay! We need to hear from you guys!
Slifer's going to be doing the bulk of the next chapter; so it might take a bit, but we'll undoubtedly have it ready for you by the end of November.
Of course that is, if you want to see this continued.
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this particular story, and others.
If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular? POOF! Gone. Completely. I'm working two jobs -damn holidays!- so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy. So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.
Aaaand there we go. As ever, reviews keep me alive. Without them, I cannot write. So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly? And have some previews -potential blot bin things- that I'm working on.
Things that may or may not become stories in the far flung future.
(Previews)
Naruto eyed the wolf with a sidelong glance. "Sit!"
It obeyed almost immediately.
"Heh. Good boy."
Rennala cooed softly. "Such a darling girl! Wherever did she come from?!"
"You may act like a grump, but you're really a big softy underneath it all, ain'tcha?
"Oi, oi!" Boggart waved his fist. "Say that again, I dare ya!
"Softy~!"
"Fighting a dragon with a kid in a sling...why meeeeee?"
Melina knew what shadow clones were; clever little lass that she was, she absolutely delighted in them.
Knives in the dark.
"Drop it!
"Awwww...
"RUN!"
"Did you have a bad dream?"
She hiccuped softly. Nodded.
"Alright, c'mon up here. There's plenty of room.
Melina needed no further prodding. She all but dove beneath the blankets.
EDIT: Hey, you made it! Thanks for reading!
I'll say it plain, if this email opt-in business with the site doesn't get resolved soon, I'm probably going to retire.
It HURTS to say that, but with this new system, reviews and readers have dropped to an all time low, authors are leaving the site in droves.
If you're not already aware of it, ever since the 16th of November, you now have to turn ON your email alerts in account settings -AND MAKE SURE YOU CLICK SAVE SETTINGS!- else you won't be notified when anyone updates. No alerts, no email, no nothing. Apparently that's a thing we all have to do every ninety days or so, now. Alas, not many are aware of it...which is a problem. As things stand this new "fix" as it were, has cut everyone's viewership/reviewers in half because most folks don't know about it.
Sometimes opting in works. Sometimes it doesn't. Really depends. Hopefully its fixed soon.
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this story, and others. Meaning, if folks don't like this, it won't be continued. If the story itself isn't popular? I'll likely discontinue it. I'm working two jobs -holidays are kicking my ass!- so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy.
So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.
Looking forward to chatting with you all when I get back from work~!
R&R~!