"Lord?" I didn't realize I was the one speaking at first until Melina answered me directly.
"What shall I call one that wields power so great, other than a Lord?" Melina said while she stood up and stared at me directly in the eye.
"Well, when you put it like that," I shrugged, "I guess you can call me whatever you want."
Melina nodded, "Could I intrude upon your time, for but a moment, m'lord?"
I put on my best straight face, then sat my rear on the grass, sitting cross-legged, Sellen following me to sit beside and a bit behind me. I hadn't told her to do that, but I wagered Melina thought her deduction about this "Lord" status of mine was justified by Sellen's action.
"Sit down, best we make ourselves comfortable first, don't you think?" I said to Melina.
She followed suit, positioning both her knees in front. She looked a bit uncomfortable, but whatever.
"What should I call you?"
"You can call me Melina, m'lord."
I nodded and gestured for her to continue.
"My Lord, have you heard of the finger maidens?"
"Just the bare minimum,"
She nodded, "they serves the Two Fingers, who themselves are agents for the Golden Order. The maidens serves their chosen Tarnished, to give guidance and aid on their journey to brandish the Elden Ring."
She gestured to me slowly, "I speak this in good faith. And with all due respect, but you are maidenless, m'lord."
Shit, I knew that was coming, but that still kinda hurt. Hopefully, she didn't notice my wince.
I gave her a nod, "how did you know that? What if the woman beside me was this 'maiden' you spoke about?"
Melina turned her gaze toward Sellen for a moment before looking at me again, "By the clear verity this woman is known throughout the Lands Between through her past deeds," she glanced at Sellen, "forgive my blunt words, Glintstone Witch."
Sellen harrumphed but didn't answer Melina in the end.
"And I have means to ascertain such connection a Tarnished have with their fated maidens. Those threads don't exist within you, m'lord," she bowed her head once she finished.
"Fair enough, so you're offering to be this maiden?" I asked.
"If you shall have me. And forgive my transgression, m'lord. For I'm not a proper finger maiden. But I can still offer you the strength of runes, to turn them into your own strength to aid you for the journey ahead." Melina bowed again, it was becoming old really quick.
"Okay, that's great and all, but what do you get from becoming a maiden to mine?" I tried to probe, to see if she had the same goal.
Melina was silent for a moment, "..you need only take me to the foot of the Erdtree, m'lord."
Okay, same answer, not much more at all.
"Why do you need to go there?"
A hesitant expression came to Melina's face, the first one she made since we started talking, actually.
"I need.. to find my purpose once again," She said, not actually giving any more information.
I shrugged, "Fine, keep it to yourself." Not really caring, I would know in time, anyway.
Melina bowed once again, "then, do we have an accord, Lord..?"
"Aaron Reid," I answered simply, "yes, we do have an accord."
She nodded while offering me one of her hands, "I.. as you may have surmised, am a spirit, I cannot maintain a physical body for long. Unless I have an anchor, I will fade to my spirit form, only but a strong emotion and desire could hold me in one place for long." She said slowly, then looked into my eyes, "May I rest my own hand upon you, m'lord? For but a moment only, to anchor me to yourself."
"Make sense I guess, sure," I extended my hand toward her, preparing to bound her to myself.
Her hand touched mine, and I saw currents of energy cycling between us before settling at the same time on our core. But mine seemed to be the bigger one, though I wasn't sure what that meant exactly.
Melina tried to take her hand away, but I held it a moment longer to finish the binding. After that, I released her, burned hand, I noted.
She gave me a weird look but chose not to dwell on why I did it.
"Then, as the symbol of our agreement. I bequeath to you this ring," she said while a ring materialized on her open palm, "This is Torrent's own anchor, a mighty spectral steed. She was, is a companion of mine, she has chosen you as her new master. I hope you will treat her with respect."
I picked up the ring to inspect it. Nothing special about it, just a regular ring, yellow color.
"And how do I call her?" I asked curiously, the game version worked by using the ring as a whistle. But I didn't see how a ring would help me in any way to whistle with it.
"Infuse a bit of your energy into it, and Torrent shall answer your call," Melina answered.
"Then, if that-" Melina stopped speaking suddenly and touched her abdomen, "you- I.. you.. what did you do?" She finished, her eyes boring into mine, expression slightly panicked.
I was confused at first, but I managed to connect the dots after seeing her hand on her stomach, she was bound, already.
But that shouldn't have been possible? It took three days to bind a person. Or could it be our accord, and this.. anchor thing helped with the binding process?
"Okay, explain it to me. What did you feel?" I said calmly to her, wanting her to stop panicking. She looked like a cornered animal right now, not a good look.
"I.. you bound me.. to yourself," Melina muttered under her breath, then promptly vanished.
I sighed then palm my forehead, "Melina, show yourself and stay here," I said with the most commanding tone I could manage.
She appeared once again, her eyes wide open. Welp, seemed the command just spooked her more. Of course, genius.
"Calm down, girl. We do not have any bad intentions toward you," Sellen's bored voice reached Melina's ear, making her stare at Sellen.
"I did bind you to myself," I admitted, "but I won't hinder your purpose, whatever it is. That was why I asked you just now,"
"Besides, the outcome of this meeting has been decided before it even started," Sellen snorted, and pressed her body to mine, "My husband does not really need your help to strengthen himself with rune fragments; I already figured out a way to do it myself, long ago."
Sellen's word hit me like a truck, you know which word specifically. That was the first time she called me that. Warmth came to my chest, and I decided I like, no, I love this feeling.
"As he said, we don't need your help. But we will still help you in your quest. For a price, obviously," Sellen finished.
Well now, she put that too bluntly. I didn't know if that would make it better or worse.
"I did not, ask for this," Melina seethed silently, head bowed down.
"I said, everything has a price," Sellen answered back easily.
I sighed, "Melina, I don't ask you to trust me. Just come along with us for now. I'll help you in your own goal as best I can, we'll be going the same way anyway, that's why you made an accord with me in the first place, didn't you?"
She stayed silent.
I shrugged, nothing I could do now, not to mention my skill at communication wasn't even that great to begin with, "Just have to prove myself through action, then." I said to myself.
I stood up, Sellen followed me silently. Melina followed a second later, then she vanished without prompting. I let her this time, she would come around.
I was still surprised she immediately realized being bound to me as soon as the process finished. I guess her nature as a spirit had something to do with it?
I checked my Company phone idly. Then saw Melina's name and my eyes almost bulged out of its socket upon reading it.
The girl was a hecking Tier-8, somehow. Either she was so much stronger than me, or she had an ability so rare it managed to raise her own Tier to 8.
Because Tier didn't always equal to pure strength in combat exactly. What kind of ability did she have that the Company categorized her so high? Food for thought, or ask, I guess.
I turned toward Sellen curiously, "Do you really know how to turn these runes into strength?"
"Yes, but I can only do it for myself," Sellen said.
"Then why did you lie to her?"
"Just because," she followed her answer with a huff of breath.
"..you do realize she's still in the vicinity?" I asked after a moment.
"I'm aware," she said, a cheeky little smile on her face.
Which made me just the more bewildered. Women.
I didn't understand at all.
A/N: I decided to change something in chapter 6, a comment on it make me realize sellen having rats as the guardian to her secret fake hiding place kind of make sense in hindsight. I mean, who would've thought a venerable witch would make home amongst disgusting creatures as rats?
You can read it again if you wanna see the change, but its only that bit tho, everything else is the same.