Once they had reclothed themselves, they made for her actual chambers in the manner, one of the only spaces untouched by the damnable Cuckcoo Knights. Ranni's many enchantments must have been far too much for them to break. As they entered her room, Owain was struck by the strongest sense of nostalgia he'd felt yet. The sentinel tumbled forward a few paces as countless memories in this very place flooded his mind. "Wain?" Ranni asked softly.
"A moment." He gasped out. A few more breaths passed before he could stand solidly. He'd never get used to such large swaths of his mind suddenly returning to him. It felt as limbs he did not know he'd been missing were once more attached. He turned to the do- Ranni, "Your room looks almost unchanged from the day I last left it."
"I've not entered here since thou were't slain." She began slowly unclasping the many buckles of his armor. His heart sank at the thought of her living so like a ghost.
"Do you not need to sleep?"
She would not look up from his chest plate. "This form dost not require it."
"But does your soul?" He pressed.
"I rest quite satisfied in my chair." He frowned.
Owain helped her shrug him out of his armor leathers. "You will sleep with me tonight, yes?"
A ghostly brow raised. "Thou wouldst sleep with a doll?"
"I would sleep with my beloved."
She scoffed as she helped unbuckle his greaves.
"Ranni."
"Wain, I-"
He caught her by the chin, gentle fingers clasping the smooth porcelain. Its likeness was so close to her own, it was uncanny. "I have passed through death and life again to come once more to your side. I'll not have you away from me now."
Ranni huffed in frustration as two of her arms undid her robe while the others yanked down his breeches. They stood before one another fully bare now. "I have not the flesh of a body to welcome thee home properly, Owain." She murmured. "I canst not bearest thee an heir, or even provide thee with succor. I know that thou love me true, but thou needst not lookest only to me for worldly comfort. I can arr-"
"Do not finish such evil words." He interrupted with a frown. Owain scooped up the crumbling doll, lifting dustless covers to secure them both fully in her large bed. He knew that Ranni had likely given such matters heavy thought since she found him to be resurrected. In their first lives they had planned for children once he'd retired. Planned his ascension to prince-consort. Planned many things that seemed now to be nought but dreams.
He whispered into her dark hair, "We will find a path forward Ranni, you and I . No others will enter our bed nor my heart." He wrapped his arms around his princess, ignoring the sharp edges and rough knots.
Four slim arms made their way in turn around him. Her toes, she deposited as she ever did, under his legs. Old habits truly were hard to break. "Together." She whispered. Owain smiled.
He opened his eyes and knew that he was dreaming. Soft moonlight poured through Ranni's broad windows, motes of dust floating suspended in the air. His princess lay curled in his arms, only, it was her true form that looked at him with shaded eyes and wicked grin. "Starlight-" She silenced him with a lingering kiss.
"My Sunbeam in mine bed. Dost thou know how oft I dreamt this very scene?" She lay her chin on folded hands, rising and falling with the tempo of his chest.
Owain could not find his way out of her sparkling eyes. "Were it so that I was wiser in my first life, I never would have left you." His hand caressed the fiery river that was her hair. It flowed in wild curls down to her shapely hips.
Ranni smiled sadly. "Regrets are best left in the past, methinks. Mine own have certainly burdened me long enough." She kissed his nose. "Thinkest thee of our future." She slithered her legs tighter between his. "Of our present ." She purred.
Owain laughed, truly happy for the first time in his second life. "Ever are you wise where I am not."
"Oh aye, my dear, I am very wise." her voice was throaty with passion as she toppled him over with heated kisses.
To make love to her, even in a dream, was an experience he would wage war to feel. He would make peace, found nations, drink seas, just for one night with his princess. She had lamented her lack of a body, but he suspected that she was only seeking reassurance. With Ranni, such wondrous magic as shared dreams was commonplace. They shared few words, save sweet nothings, until at last they were satisfied.
Ranni curled into his side, resting her head on his arm so that she could still see him. "Tell me of thine travels since last we met, my love."
"I slew the craven, Godrick, and claimed his great rune besides." The princess looked as if she wanted to ask him something but held her tongue. He met her eyes squarely. "You know I do not seek the elden throne, only to heal our lands."
"There is much power in a restored elden ring."
"Power I care not for." He wrapped her tighter in his embrace.
"Power that must be claimed, Wain. The world hast already shattered for it once." He misliked when she looked at him like that, hers was a face that should never be marred by strife.
Owain played absentmindedly with the tips of her fingers. "I know, Ranni. I will gather the great runes for safe keeping, and tend to the demigods."
Her eyes flickered down. "Tend to them?" She murmured.
"Restore them if I might, just as I wish to restore our peoples."
"And if they are beyond restoration?"
He shifted to look at her fully, fingers sunk into her curls. "What do you know that I do not, Starlight?"
"The fates of a few of those thou wishest to save. My brothers." Her lip quivered.
The sentinel brushed clear a stay tear with a curled knuckle. He already knew Radahn would likely be already lost to the rot. "How fares Rykard?" His voice was as soft as he could make it.
A choked sob escaped the princess. "He is no more, only the serpent yet remains."
"The serpent?"
Owain, I cannot-" She broke into true sobs now, her chest shivering. He rushed to fully enfold her in his arms, rubbing small circled on her lithe back at her anguished cries and tormented moans. Eventually she reared back from him, eyes and nose red. "Thou must freeth them both from their torture. Mine brothers are long dead." Her whisper was a fervent plea that he could not deny. Owain only nodded, resigned to losing yet more of his family.
When he awoke in truth to the doll'ed form of his beloved, he was struck by a sudden inspiration. "Ranni." He whispered.
Her soul's shape flared to being. "Aye, Wain?"
"What became of your true body? Empyrean flesh is not so easily destroyed."
The princess frowned at him. "I burned it atop the divine tower. It embers there still."
He gave her a quick kiss to the brow. "I only ask because I've had a sudden thought. Mother's rune can shift shapes and reform bodies to their holder's whim, yes?" Ranni sighed, he knew she'd already tried to subvert the two fingers in this way. Before she could protest, he continued. "But what if that body possessed a soul not born into it?"
"What dost thou… Owain, thou canst not be serious!" She pushed herself up, scowling down at him.
"The fingers lay claim to your body and soul combined! Take my body, Ranni! Reform it to your will. Bind my soul to your old flesh-"
"My flesh is dead! Marked by destined death!"
"Dead to your soul, beloved, but not mine! I am tarnished now, ever resurrecting. I am golden, beloved by the greater will. Can we not trick it into resurrecting your flesh as mine, whilst you use your magics to bind your soul to my living body?"
"No! Of course we…" She was thinking it through now, excellent! Ranni's mind was much sharper than his, Owain was sure she'd find the solution he sought.
She too sat up fully, steepling her fingers in the way that denoted she was working through a complex problem; or that he had particularly annoyed her. "If there is a way to do as thou hast described, I do not know it. Though, perhaps…"
"Ranni?" He leant forward, leaning his brow to hers.
"Mother is the greatest sorceress to ever live. If she were yet possessed of her right mind, she may be able to devise such a spell."
"But-"
"I knowest that, better than thee." He only just noticed the doll's eyes were almost the exact shade of blue of Ranni's natural ones. They held the same tempestuous anger.
"But-"
"Yes, Owain, let us still attempt to at least seest if it layest within the realm of possibility." He smiled. "Though, if there is any true danger to thy life, I wilt not allow the research to continue, confoundin' man." Owain grinned and kissed her porcelain cheeks. She caught his wrist. "There are matters I'd yet discuss with thee, afore thou escapest our sheets."
Owain chuckled as two of her hands secured him around the middle. "Yes, my lady?" He laughed harder at her scowl, he knew she despised it when he called her that.
"Blaidd seekest Nokron in the Mistwood, as well as Darrowil, who hast turned traitor." Owain's smile faded.
"Do you wish for me to aid him?"
"With dispatching Darrowil, yes; I may yet forsakest the search for Nokron for now. Its discovery was to advance my designs with the Dark Moon." One of her free hands smoothed the crease in his brow, she misliked when he furrowed them at her.
"I shall send a few sentinels then, to assist Blaidd." Ranni blinked at him in surprise.
"Sentinels?"
"Yes, Lord Morgott reinstated my station, I've leave to command my old forces in whichever way I see fit to restore order to these lands, now that Godrick is slain."
"Lord Morgott…restored thy position?" Her hands tightened around his middle.
"Aye, beloved, but I'll not return so biddable to the palace. Not until I have brought peace to all the lands south of the grand lift will I make for the golden city." She withdrew her hands from around his middle.
"I thought thou were't now mine alone, unbeholden to gold."
"I am yours first, love will always come before duty in this life. Let us use my position to advance our goals." The princess frowned, cupping his cheek.
"A dangerous balance, Owain. Morgott wilt not be blind to thy actions."
He smoothed her mussed blue hair. "Lord Morgott desires not the throne any longer, he only now keeps it safe until a worthy heir can be found. What's more, he knows all my work will be to lift up our peoples, not sow division."
"How couldst thou knowest that?
"Because he told me quite plainly, I suspect he awaits his lord father's return."
"Lord Godfrey? Is his return likely?"
"Lord Morgott seems to believe so. Before much of my memory returned, I was set on gathering the runes for my lord."
"And now?" She asked cautiously.
"Now, I will make no move that will not be your betterment, Ranni. I place your wellbeing above all else in these Lands Between."
His princess smiled, for if anything eased Ranni's worries, it was the knowledge that she was yet in control. She was one that needed to rule her own fate, Owain did not place such value on autonomy if it meant he might stay by her side. "If Lord Godfrey dost truly return, I will leave how to handle such an occurrence up to thee." Her eyes found his, solemn. The sentinel nodded. "One last thing wouldst I bring afore thee."
"What would you ask of me?" He helped her out of bed; she aided him in gathering and adorning his scattered armor. Her levitation magic always turned the tedious task into such a simple thing.
"Selivus, a mage sworn to mine service. I would have you meet with him." She requested it without pomp, but he'd known her long enough to sense that she was hiding something. "For what purpose?"
"I have kept him close for his skill as a puppeteer, as old Pidia can scarcely hold a needle now. I suspect that with thy newfound resources, I'll no longer require Selivus' services." Pidia must have hidden when Owain entered the manor, he'd yet to see the old albinaric.
He aided her into her thick robe. "What are you hiding from me, Starlight?" Her eyes glittered as she tied her robe anew. "Selivus seeks to make a puppet of a demi-god. A puppet of me, specifically."
Fire pooled in his gut, scalding and righteous. "Why have you not slain him like the pestilence he is? Why keep such a traitor close?"
"He held special knowledge on the magic of bindin' a soul to an unlivin' thing. I've since recorded all his spells. I'd thought I would be unable to source a better tender for this body, but with thee here, things have changed."
Indeed they had, this Selivus would never lay his disgusting fingers on Ranni again. "A poor job he's done." Owain bit out as he held the tattered wrist of one of her arms.
"I despise his touch, needed though it hast been. Only under the most dire of circumstance hath I let him work his spells on me." She cupped his face with all four hands, floating up to reach him. "Tend to him, see if he holds secrets I've yet to find, do what thou thinkest best." she kissed his nose.
"You would not begrudge me his death? For such a foul aspiration as his, I'll surely kill him." he growled. She assisted him in donning his cloak as she again wiped away his scowl.
"I feel safer already, mine knight in shining armor." Ranni patted his cheek. He rolled his eyes. His princess kissed him sweet and slow, but it did little to cool his rising temper.
He found the man in the third of the towers of the rear gardens. The sorcerer glanced up from the grimoire on his desk only briefly as Owain leaned both spear and shield against the archway. "Ah yes, the newest of our mistress' conscripts. I am Selivus, preceptor of the sorcerous arts." He turned a page of his large book. "Our lady informed me of your coming, though not your identity. How odd that a tree sentinel could be pulled by the sway of the Dark Moon. Perhaps you are smarter than you yet appear." Owain's hands twitched.
The sentinel took a few steps forward, standing before the desk. He slowly lifted his left hand, waiting for the traitor to look up. When he did, Owain lightly slapped him with the back of his gauntlet. Several teeth vacated Selivus' mask, and the man went flying to crash into a shelf of assorted potions. "You would dare to even dream of turning my beloved Starlight into a mere puppet? One bent to your depraved whims?" Owain's voice was a guttural snarl, he'd not felt such a potent desire to kill since his own death.
Selivus tried to speak but Owain had seemingly broken the man's jaw, how unfortunate. The sorcerer pulled his short staff from his belt, trying to launch a spell. Owain snatched it out of his hands, striking him with it with such force that the thing broke upon the thinner man's ribs. He cast a greater heal, his own Erd Tree Seal ever hanging at his hip.
Selivus sputtered. "How dare you! I'll kil-" Owain shot his hand forward and wrapped it around the man's flimsy throat. He tore off Selivus' mask, that he might see the wretch beneath. Nothing remarkable to found, only close cropped hair, pock marks, and shifty eyes.
"You will show me what secrets you have yet hidden from my Ranni." Owain slid his visor up to spit in the foul cravens face. "You will do this, or I shall turn a swift death into a crawling nightmare." He sunk an upper cut into the man's midriff, satisfied at feeling the cracking of several ribs as the man groaned, drooling. He cast another healing spell and dropped the fiend to his feet.
The wretch made a mad dash outside. "Mistress Ranni! Mistress, please! This brute seeks your hidden knowledge!" Selivus wailed out the open door. Such pathetic mewling, the sorcerer did not yet understand his own damnation.
Owain watched him sprint towards Ranni's tower before calling Torrent. Torrent ran the screaming sorcerer down in mere moments. Owain dismounted in a shower of ethereal dust. "Keep her name off of your filthy tongue, mongrel." The sentinel grasped one of the dazed sorcerer's ankles hard enough to hear it snap and began dragging him once more to his tower. He ignored the man's frantic pleas, tossing him bodily back inside.
"Fi-fine! Fine , you beast! I will show you the secrets you seek, just do not kill me!" Owain said nothing, only casting another healing spell.
Selivus spent the next few minutes revealing every hidden crevice in the tower. He submitted notebooks, grimoires, tinctures, potions, even special stones he called starlight shards. They stood before his desk once more and Selivus repeatedly bowed, praying for mercy. Owain scowled. There was still more the man was obscuring, he could sense it. The sentinel slowly raised a hand noting the way Selivus' eyes flickered to the exterior door. "I will not ask again, snake."
Sweat beaded heavily on the reedy sorcerer's brow, Owain watched his throat bob several times. "Follow me, golden cur." He said curtly.
Selivus led them to the ruins of what Owain knew to be the old storehouse for the manor. He and Ranni had snuck into the basement many times at the beginning of their courtship, then still a fledgling thing. The heavy scents of produce muddied Blaidd's nose and gave them precious moments alone together. Owain smiled despite his foul mood. His smile fell as Selivus waved away an illusory floor.
The two entered abreast of each other, but the sorcerer leapt ahead, laughing as he activated some sort of fail safe. Chains surged up from the ground to wrap around Owain's body several times, leaving his arms trapped to his sides.
"You did not think me so witless as to expect to survive after showing you this, did you?" His laugh was sinister. "Now your grace given body will be just another of my many puppets." Selivus swept his arms around grandly, and it was only now that Owain realized how many living beings were trapped in this room. Their eyes were yet open, but they were frozen by some wicked sorcery. A finger maiden, a nox, even an omen killer, and more besides. Owain scowled at his bound arms, he would break these chains and then this man. "Your precious Starlight will be none the wiser to my plans, oh how I wish you could see how foolish you look right now, hulking monster!"
"I am of the mind he lookest rather dashing, Selivus." Said a dulcet voice from beyond his view. Laughter burst forth from his mouth, how like her to use him as bait. The sorcerer had gone deathly pale.
"My-my lady! I-"
Ranni tapped the chains that bound him, canceling their spell. She floated up to kiss his cheek before turning an icy gaze upon Selivus.