His route to Caria manor was as straight as he could make it, this land too had fallen to disrepair, with most of the massive academy city now sunk into the swamp. As he made his way through the lakes, unease grew in his gut. Why had Ranni allowed Caria to come to this state?
The imposing Academy of Raya Lucaria sat regal atop a cliff at the center of the many lakes of Liurnia. Owain supposed that it too would become more blemished the nearer he journeyed. He worried for Queen Renalla, but he would see to her after he met with Ranni.
Several fervent days of horseback finally saw him at the small town before the Caria Manor. The unease that had been cloying in his throat only thickened as he faced naught but wraiths and wild wolves on his path through the crumbling town. Where was all the citizenry? He'd expected a drop as he'd seen in all the lands before but there was not even a single living soul left here. Owain slashed through the hidden wall in a panic only to stop short at the sight of an old friend. Many of his memories with Ranni included her old tutor, Owain almost felt like he could say he knew him well again.
The troll and the sentinel looked at each other in silence before Owain sprinted forth, flinging up his visor in his joy. "Iji! I am heartened to see you yet live!"
Iji gently closed the book he had been reading, placing it atop the massive anvil before him. "Young Owain! When Lady Ranni told me you had been revived, why, I wept tears of joy. You have no idea how much Caria has missed you, my boy."
Owain happily clasped the hand the troll put forth, but at the thought of Caria, he frowned. "Caria is so diminished Iji, what fel thing happened here?"
Iji rubbed what Owain knew to be aching knuckles, he would need to source more tonic for the troll's arthritis from the perfumers now that he had station in Leyndell once more. "Ah, you would not know, would you? The Knights of the Cuckoo have staged a coup against the manor and more recently, the academy. Poor Queen Renalla has been locked in the library for some months now."
Owain felt more confused than ever. "Why has Ranni not stopped them?"
He could not see Iji's eyes through his mirror helm, but he knew the troll was looking at him with a sad gaze, he could tell by the set of his shoulders.
"She has not the magic to spare, she prepares for a grand spell. Besides, the cuckoo cowards know what traps await them should they attempt to encroach too far within the academy, I should think Queen Rennala is safe for now. Moongrum as ever guards her well."
Owain furrowed his brow, he would right this mess. "I will make sure she is safe, once I have met with Ranni. Caria will rise once more, Iji, be not afeared."
Iji coughed into a withered elbow, but laughed lightly all the same. "I know you will, young Owain. My heart sings that Caria's lord apparent has returned."
It oft surprised him when Igi spoke thusly, but perhaps he had had the right of it all along. "I shall return soon." He said with a smile, making his way past the wizened troll.
"Oh and, Wain." The sentinel turned to regard the troll curiously. "Be gentle with little Ranni, won't you. These years have not been so kind to the Carians, her most of all." Owain nodded resolutely.
Iji's words would not leave his mind. His slog through the crumbling manor only heightened his fear. Low indeed had House Caria fallen. No servants remained to keep up the estate. No true guards yet served, only savage wolves, ghostly enchantments, ensorcelled hands, and a pale reflection of Lady Loretta.
Just what would he find when he passed this threshold to the upper garden? The distant rumbling of Adula's patrol was the only thing keeping Owain from spiraling entirely. Surely no intruder had ever made it past the mighty dragon. He made quick travel to Ranni's tower atop Torrent's back. Melina had remained strangely silent since his entrance to Liurnia; it worried him that she would not appear whenever he sat besides a site of grace.
With growing haste, he leapt from the steed and began sprinting through the corridors of the small tower. It was as cluttered as ever, only, it did not comfort him as all of her books were covered in thick dust. Ranni loved her books . The magical lift to the highest section of her rise was maddeningly slow, he rushed past more clutter and up the exterior stairs, he was almost to her, his Starlight!
Owain called out as he neared the doorway, "Ranni! Ranni, I am here!" He stopped short in the archway to her study. Sat atop her usual chair was the very doll that she'd used to communicate with him before. What was it doing here? "Ranni?" He called softly. He could not see her anywhere in the room. With a sigh he placed his spear and shield against the wall, leaving his helm and gauntlets beside them. They would be safe here.
"Sunbeam." Came a small voice, he whirled around. The doll again?
"Ranni, where are you? Why use this doll?" He laughed. "Do not tell me I have been led on a wild goose chase and you are laughing at me from afar."
"I am here." The doll spoke once more, this time coming alive with the same spectral spell that had animated it before. It was such an odd thing, the shadow face was the twin of Ranni's real one.
Owain chuckled nervously while kneeling to see under her large brimmed hat. "Starlight, where are you?"
"I am here, Wain."
"What do you-" He breathed out slow, now addressing the doll. "I do not understand, beloved."
"I see thou dost not remember. I'd feard as much." A hand reached for him and he grabbed it softly. Another of her hands removed her witch's hat. "My empyrean flesh, it doomed me to subservience to the two fingers."
A dull ache spread throughout his chest, like his body mourned what his mind did not yet realize. "Your flesh…" He groaned as his sight grew dim.
"A grave sin you commit so joyfully, horrible man." Gentle hands ran through his hair. Owain snatched them up and smiled into her warm palms.
"Hardly a sin, Starlight. I believe I treat you with all the reverence and love you deserve." He kissed her wrists.
Great tree , she was always so lovely in the moonlight. It suited her. "So the way the sin is done can negate its gravity? Interestin'."
He sat up fully in their bed, sheets pooling in his lap. "Enough of you calling it a sin, Ranni." He laughed and leant across her thighs to look up at her, he loved that she was taller than him, even after all their years it was still novel. "It took you centuries just to admit plainly your love for me. How many more centuries will it take for you to accept my proposal?"
The Lunar Princess stuck her regal nose up at him. "I'll not marry a sentinel of the golden tree, especially one of such high standing. Mother would have a full conniption, even if she loves thee dearly, Wain. It is the principle of the thing." Owain frowned, he hadn't meant to sour the mood. "You know I would leave the order for you-"
"Do I?" Her blue eyes were darkening, he could see the storm brewing in their depths. Alas, why had he even brought it up!
"You do . Only, I am needed in the palace, things are ever precarious. Especially with Queen Ma-"
"Do not speakest her name; not in our bed." Her voice was on the blunter edge of anger. Slender fingers rubbed softly at the heavy bags under his eyes. He tried to look away in shame but she held him fast. "You are needed here, with me, with mother. She grows better when she sees us together, it lightens the burden on her mind."
"I should not have broached the matter, I am sorry, beloved." Owain leaned forward, kissing her with the gentleness he could never seem to show through words. "I have told Lord Maliketh that I wish to retire from the palace. I shall soon have leave to join you here always. Long have I prepared Oswald to replace me."
The crinkle of her nose when she scowled at him always made him laugh, even if he shouldn't. "He is a poor replacement and Maliketh knows it, that old dog. There is not a sentinel that is thy equal, Sunbeam. Why dost thou think Maliketh hast strung thee along for so long?" Ranni poked his chest angrily.
"One day, we will be free of the will of that woman, Wain." Owain only smiled indulgently, were it so easy to escape the grasp of the eternal queen. If only his betrothed could see Queen Marika as he did.
He lifted his face from the thick cloth of her robe with a shake of his head. "Apologies, beloved." He looked up at the sad face of the doll only to blink as he felt yet another memory overtake him. "No-"
"Leave the order!" Her hands were tight around his wrists, her dark eyes pierced him to his core.
Owain was unsettled by her intensity."Wh-what? Ranni, what has brought this on?" He turned fully on the couch they shared in his study.
Her projection flickered for a moment. "Thou must come to me in Caria, please Owain. Leave the order of the sentinels. Leave Leyndell. Cometh to me at once, wed me. I shalt make you lord of Caria, anythin' thou desirest; only come to me at once!" Her projection flickered once more, stronger this time.
"Hold, sweet Starlight. What has you so rattled? I will do as you say, only grant me a few days in the capitol to get my affairs in order. Lord Godwyn and Lady Fortissax arrive anon as well, I must at least guard them the first night of their visit."
Ranni only grew more and more distressed as he spoke. " No! No, Owain! Come to me now! I am bound by spell, I could only conjure this form for but a few moments! Now , mine love! I will await thee at Car-" The projection of his beloved flickered and died. That was the first time in centuries that he could recall her raising her voice to such a volume at him. Owain stumbled up from his couch, he would rush his departure. Godwyn would forgive him staying only the one night.
Once more he was back in his own body, he fell back to sit on the dusty floor. Owain looked at the doll in horror. Many more memories continued to surface as he frantically tried to catch his breath. "You knew."
The doll would not look at him.
"Tell me it is not true. Tell me the woman I love had no part in slaying the man I called brother. In slaying me." He whispered, afraid of the response.
"It was not my choice! I tried to warn thee, I called thee home! As soon as I could muster the magic I called thee!" Ranni's voice cried out and the doll spasmed.
"Choice!" He spat. "Ever have you preached of free will, yet you did not have it when it came to my death ?"
"Thou were't not supposed to be there! The eternal bitch promised thy safety in return for my aid. She swore thou would be safe!"
He'd known the queen was involved but not Ranni, never his Ranni! "Your aid in what, Princess? In killing Godwyn? What did you do?" Owain surged to his feet.
The doll floated up, all four arms gesturing emphatically. "In binding destined death! In ensorcelling the black blades! It was the only way, Owain!"
He scoffed, eyes wide with disbelief, "The black blades? The very blades that cut my throat? The only way to what ? Throw these Lands Between into chaos? The worlds gone mad, Ranni!"
Icy magic pulsed from the doll, the force of it throwing him back several steps. "The only way to casteth off mine empyrean flesh, to slip the yoke of the golden will. I thought it the only way I couldst yet save these lands from Marika's treacherous rule." The magic reversed, blowing him towards the wretched doll, it's cold arms wrapping around his middle and his neck in a profane mockery of Ranni's loving touch. "I have gone mad! I have gone ravin'! Without thee, the dark moon is too piercin'. Without mine Sunbeam I've lived in the deep dark, Owain." Porcelain fingers jointed by fraying rope sunk into his hair as a harsh sob escaped her. "Why can thou not seest me plainly?"
An arm wrapped unbidden around the fragile waist of the doll, called by his wife's pleading voice. What horror was this? What dreadful nightmare? Ranni too, was bodiless, trapped in a doll! His breath would not return to him, he could not seem to calm himself. He pushed the doll away to snatch one of its fragile hands. "You forsook your divine flesh for this ? For fraying rope and cracked porcelain? You doomed my most noble lord Godwyn to horrible undeath for this? A world that eats itself more with each day?" He turned from the thing, fie, why could he not breathe? "What great work you have done, princess. To cast our lands to ruin at the behest of a mad woman." his voice was a ragged wheeze.
Four hands culled around his middle gently; horror, they touched him! "I mourn the mistakes I made. My greatest apologies and most profound pardons for what I had a hand in doin' to you and thine brother and all these lands between." Her voice, ever dulcet in his ears almost calmed him; it almost made him falter, he knew she was being sincere, knew she meant what she said from her heart of hearts.
"My sorrows wilt not amend my sins! We must replace the elden ring. Destroy it and cast aside all that came before it! Give our people wills unto themselves! Let them choose their own paths, free to feel, to think, to act, as they wishest. An order that they can not see or touch or hear, but one that is there all the same. I know thou saw Marika's decent!"
With rising panic he pried the dolls arms away, turning to face the creature. "Your-your dark moon has poisoned you! The people need a lord they can see! One to believe in! One whose hand they can take in times of need! I too wish for their freedoms, but you would have us fully apart from these lands I love! You would take me into the long dark, and I am not a creature of such loneliness, Ranni."
Damnit, he could not breathe! His hands shook, they could not feel the porcelain beneath them. Shadowed tears slipped from the spectral face- her soul, it was her soul! "Not loneliness, I would be there still. Owain, we would be wed in truth! Thou wouldst be mine consort eternal!" Her voice was rising now, edged with a mania he'd never heard before. What had his death done to her? What had these many years of solitude shifted in her once noble heart?
Pale blue fingers reached for him but he batted them away softly, turning his face. "Show her to me then, the woman that would be my wife. Show me the Lunar Princess Ranni!" The edges of his vision were darkening but he cared not. "All I see is a-" No. No, even in his panic he could not call her that. His cheeks were well wet with frantic tears.
"Is a what, Lord Commander? Pray, tell me what thou seest." At last, her fury was unleashed. She unmade the ties at the top of her grand robe, letting it fall past thin shoulders and leaving bare the doll beneath.
He could not tear his eyes from its skin of shattered porcelain, the innards of knotted rope. The joints of her four arms were tattered and the thing looked as if it'd seen much kinder days. He scowled.
"Dost thou seest naught but a crazed spirit possessing a doll? Seest thou only the wretched thing and not the soul, the woman within?" Her soul's face spoiled in disgust. "Dost thou only hunger for mine royal flesh? Such a simple solution, Lord Commander!" Ranni waved a hand. A perfect illusion of her old self stood before him; pale skin splashed with freckles, dark red hair shining in the heavy moonlight, stormy blue eyes looking down on him imperiously.
Owain was so furious he could scarcely think. "Do you think me so shallow? So lustfully easy as this, Ranni?" He growled out a frenzied breath. "This is not a matter of whether or not I love you, imbecilic woman! Your face was the last thing I thought of as I died! It was the first memory I recovered after I revived! I will love you until I am made dust, until the stars burn out, until this land fades in full. Past death and life and death again will I adore you, will my heart be yours! Had you no body, and all that you were was the voice within my mind, still I would be yours and yours alone." Owain stood before the dream of his long dead beloved and panted. The sentinel fell to his knees, lungs unable to bear the continued strain. He had never yelled at her so loudly before.
The princess before him flickered and failed, once more the crumbling doll. Gone was the sneer, in its place was an expression of total heartbreak. For long breaths, she did not speak. "I hath pledged myself to the dark moon, Owain." She said smally.
"There must be another way, beloved. Replacing one outer god with another can not be our only choice, that is no true choice at all. My golden tree has clearly failed, I see that now. I have seen the failure of grace in all ruined lands I journeyed through to reach you. You said you wished for our peoples to have free will, well, let us find the path to it together." Owain could finally breathe again, thank the goddess.
For a long beat neither spoke, then slowly, the doll- Ranni , made her way to crouch before him. "Thou wouldst ask me to abandon my plan, which has been centuries in the makin'."
Hesitantly, he brought one hand to Ranni's new form, then the other, pulling her to him. "I would ask you to trust me, as you always have. Trust that I will help light our way out of the dark." Now that he was thinking more clearly, he was ashamed of his outburst. Crimes done under the duress of the eternal, undeniable queen were hardly Ranni's to bear. He would still mourn Godwyn, always; but he could not blame Ranni for doing that which she was forced to. None save Queen Rennala had ever defied Marika and lived. "I am sorry for my harsh words, forgive me, Starlight."
Ranni placed her lips of porcelain against his of flesh, smiling as she whispered. "I trust thee, I love thee always, Sunbeam. If thou would forgivest my own wrongs, how couldst I ever not forgivest thee thine?"
He felt a fool for a moment, sat on the ground cradling a doll, but the feeling swiftly passed. He held the soul of his beloved. After death and weeks of struggle, he held her again, and that was all that mattered.