Having dealt with the immediate dangers, the ashen one finally had a moment to rest at the fire and think. Though as he stared into the rapidly diminishing flames, he realized with a start just how dangerous this bonfire really was. If the fire-keeper's vision was correct, which it seemed to be, then there must be a new fire somewhere fueling this world, the second flame if you will.

It would be catastrophic if they were to be discovered by it or the new gods it created. He doubted they would look at them favorably, rather than usurpers of the old age coming to take their souls.

Best case scenario they are hunted down and killed for being threats to their rule. Far more likely than that however, they'll be imprisoned for the rest of their, possibly, eternal lives and interrogated mercilessly.

The idea of being imprisoned again caused him to snarl in aggravation, even more so thinking about what would happen to the fire-keeper if they did.

Tapping his finger against his knee, he started considering his odds against them. He had certainly slain many gods before… but none of them were at their prime when he did, nor were they working together. If anything, their minds and bodies were usually deteriorated to an abysmal point and even then, it still took him many deaths to finally put them out of their misery. A luxury he was currently lacking. If these new gods were even comparable to the ones he fought, but with a clear mind and armies at their beck and call, he didn't like his odds.

In other words, they had to avoid a confrontation with them at all cost, no they had to avoid detection at all, otherwise...

Feeling a hand gently squeeze his shoulder he looked up and saw the fire-keeper smile reassuringly towards him.

Sighing heavily, he nodded as he let some of his worries fade. He had no actual proof that these gods even existed. This new flame might have carried different kinds of souls than the previous one, it might not have even caried any at all. Even if it did and even if they do exist, there is no guarantee that they are as united as the previous ones were under Gwyn. Without the dragons to present a common and uniting threat they could have easily descended into bloody infighting and already taken each other out, although that was probably wishful thinking.

There were simply too many possibilities and too little information to draw any useful conclusions from.

The only thing he could be sure of, was that the fire-keeper would certainly be more than aware of these dangers when she lit the bonfire, so it was probably fine… Though, they should still avoid lighting any more of them if it wasn't necessary.

That aside, their current situation wasn't actually too bad. They were both 'alive', which was good. They were also still in the kiln of the first flame, which means they had been undisturbed and undiscovered until now.

Were their existences and the significance of this place known, he doubted that whoever ruled the world now would just send a couple knights and bandits. At the very least they would have sent elite knights and their battalions.

On the off-chance that this was the best they could do, he supposed he had nothing to worry about.

No, it was far more likely that these people came here out of pure curiosity or something and just happened to stumble upon them.

Speaking of which, he slowly got up and started walking to the nearest corpse. They were the best sources of information he had at this point and well… he was also a little excited at the prospect of expanding his collection further.

Eyeing the armor and weapons on the fallen knights, he quickly moved closer.

The fire-keeper giggled amusedly as she watched the ashen one approaching the fallen knight with a spring in his step. He didn't change equipment all that often and usually it was just to a different combination of ultra-greatsword and heavy armor. Yet, despite that, he still collected weapons and armors of all kinds. From greatswords to longswords, scythes, whips, claws and even knives. From armor made of stone to armor made of leather and even… dresses for some reason. In fact, every time he returned to firelink shrine she could hear him buying more and more equipment from the shrine handmaid and she was fairly certain that he barely used any of it.

Still, she was glad that there was still something he could find joy in, especially considering how dour he usually was. It did seem strange to her though. She, herself, never had nor really felt the need to have anything beyond her present attire. Even then, though, these clothes weren't really hers, they were part of her duties as a fire-keeper, including the tiara covering her… eyes…

Tracing her fingers over them, her smile slowly faded.

Her eyes. That's right, they were the first possession she could truly consider her own. They were gifted to her by the ashen one, yet, unlike the clothes, it was not out of obligation, nor expectation, but out of simple care.

They may have failed to return her sight, but they still felt… important to her. Although the feeling had always been bittersweet, as they also marked the first step down the path of betrayal.

It was then, as she watched the little bonfire she had lit already extinguishing, that the weight of her actions finally started sinking in. She had broken her oath. She had failed her one duty. Failed to convince a single undead to rekindle the first flame. If anything… she was largely responsible for the opposite happening. Back then, had she simply not… and now? she was a fire-keeper with no fire to keep.

Stiffly bowing her head, she heard the fire finally burn out, as if taunting and reminding her of her transgressions. Reminding her that she had become obsolete.

That she had made herself obsolete.

But…

No, that wasn't entirely true…

She might have failed her duty to the first flame, but in exchange she had fulfilled her duty to the ashen one.

Raising her head again, she quickly scanned her surroundings.

Kneeling next to a corpse, she found the ashen one inspecting a broken blade while pinching the bridge of his nose, or at least the metal helmet above it. Pulling his hand off his helmet, he glanced at it one last time before tossing it away in annoyance and moving towards another body, still unaware of the eyes that followed him.

That's right, she was still needed.

Glancing at the extinguished bonfire, she started walking towards one of the corpses that had been bisected vertically. The cut was jagged and starting from the left shoulder it reached all the way to just above the right knee, exposing bones from both halves. Kneeling next to it, the fire-keeper carefully started pulling out its bones and after cleaning them thoroughly, stored them in a pouch at her side.

After going through a number of corpses, it turned out that his earlier excitement might have been somewhat… misplaced.

Most of the weapons he found were surprisingly fragile and overly bendable, to the point that he could easily twist and break them with his bare hands. They also tended to be lighter than what he was used to and also overall thinner and smaller.

He noticed pretty quickly that there wasn't much variety either. Mostly just longswords, daggers and a couple maces.

The shields and armors followed that trend pretty closely as well. Thin, light and brittle.

He supposed it was a good sign that their enemies had such poor equipment, but still, he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. There was nothing worth taking here, even considering there wasn't a limit to his bottomless box, that he knew of anyway.

Even the pieces that were clearly made by skilled hands were, while better, still incomparable to what he already had. At least this was another point against the idea that the gods of this age were involved in this incident.

Tossing another broken sword away, he stood and took one last look around. Scanning his surroundings thoroughly, his eyes eventually drifted to the crater he made earlier. Finding a lone blade half buried in its middle there, he curiously walked towards it.

Lifting it up he realized it was the sword that had been imbedded in his chest not too long ago. Its blade had turned a shade of black from the heat and blood it was subjected to, though the crossguard, handle and pommel were still silvery white. Unfortunately, it had lost its edge, especially at its tip and had developed some small fractures as well. In other words, it was completely unusable at this point. He still chose to keep it though, if nothing else it was a reminder not to lose his composure again. It also looked quite nice, with its opposing colors and what not…

Sword aside, he also decided to keep one of the crests he found, as well as some of the coins a lot of them had been carrying.

While a few of the coins were gold and some were silver, most were made of copper, or perhaps bronze and depicted various faces and symbols. Notably though, unlike the coins he found in the past, these ones seemed to be in very good condition, so he decided to keep a couple of each.

The crest, meanwhile, depicted the image of a roaring lion holding down a defeated wolf. He almost felt offended just looking at it. He knew from experience just how ferocious and resourceful wolves could be and in his many many years of travel, rarely had he ever witnessed such blatant arrogance on display. He also very much doubted that it was deserved.

It was still good to have though, that way he would know to avoid them in the future. Even though, judging by the knights they employed, it was pretty clear that they wouldn't be much of a threat, they just… seemed the kind that were very burdensome to deal with.

Lastly, he also found a note on one of the corpses whose humanity he stole. He couldn't really read it. But some of the words did seem familiar to him. Something about a weapon and glory? Still, it seemed pretty official, so he decided to keep it for the time and maybe try to decipher it later.

In any case, now that he had finished gathering what little information he could, it was finally time to figure out what they should actually do.

Looking around, he found the fire-keeper kneeling next to one of the corpses. She was trying to break and pull out a rib, though she was attempting to do so bare-handed. Taking out a dagger he walked towards her and kneeled down facing her.

Seeing this the fire-keeper spoke calmly "Tis alright ashen one, you needn't dirty thine hands in such a way again."

Shaking his head in dismissal, the ashen one severed the rib in a swift cut, allowing her to easily pull it out. Spinning the dagger around and holding it by the blade, he then offered it to her.

She hesitated for a moment, before carefully taking hold of its handle and nodding in thanks, quickly resuming her work.

Pulling out a second one the ashen one followed her example and started cutting as well.

For the next couple minutes there was relative silence as they both focused on extracting the bones, but eventually though without halting her work, the fire-keeper asked quietly "Have thee found the target of thine search, ashen one?"

Without stopping either, he briefly lifted his hand rotated his open palm back and forth.

"I see… Tis fortunate then, that thine armory is already quite grand then, is it not?." She replied as she looked up and tilted her head to the side.

The ashen one stopped and glanced at her with narrowed eyes, before huffing and turning back to his work.

Smiling amusedly at his reaction, she did so as well.

A couple minutes of pleasant silence later the ashen one drew her attention and pointed towards the vast desert, then the two of them, before cocking his head.

Understanding his meaning the fire-keeper straightened up and spoke confidently "I may tend to the flames no longer, ashen one, however I still tend to thee. Whichever path is thine choice, I will follow…" followed by a quieter "for as long as you wish me to"

Feeling guilt start to gnaw at his mind, he shook his head and pointed towards her while rotating his palm upwards.

"Oh, um…" seemingly surprised the fire-keeper briefly looked towards the sun, before lowering her gaze in contemplation. Eventually she answered "I… would like to witness more of this new world… the one that followeth the fire's fading."

Following a short pause, the ashen one nodded seriously, before returning back to his work, as did the fire-keeper shortly after.

'The world after the first flame huh?' he chuckles soundlessly 'I want to believe that it is better. That it hasn't made the same mistakes the last one did. A peaceful and fair place to live, but… I just can't bring myself to.

Though I guess it doesn't really matter what I believe. I'll find out soon enough anyway…

As much as I like the idea of fortifying this place and repelling any and all intruders till the end of time, I know better than anyone that no-one is invincible. Eventually, everyone falls. 'He glanced at the coiled sword' Some just take a couple more tries…

Not really much to say this time around. This was an interesting chapter to write, since exploring character's thoughts, motivations and interactions is among my favorite things to read. Ironically it is also the thing I find the hardest to write, but I'm pretty satisfied with how this came out. Then again, i am also quite sleep deprived right now, so who knows how I'll feel about it in the morning. Fingers crossed I suppose.