Something warm and soft was covering his eyes. Owain breathed in slowly. A dream perhaps? Wherever he was held Ranni's scent. He brought a slow hand to his face, grasping what lay against his eyes. Ah, it was Ranni. She'd sprawled herself atop him in her sleep. Owain stretched luxuriously, the bones of his shoulders cracking from disuse. They were in their quarters at the manor somehow. Given Ranni's soft snores and unblemished face, it was unlikely she had been crying recently, she was sleeping quite peacefully.
For just a few moments, he'd allow himself to assume that they had prevailed and Radahn had been brought back with no cosmic complications. Owain was so very tired of fighting. He scooped his beloved up in a gentle embrace, laying her atop him fully; she had always been his favorite blanket. The princess murmured sleepily and kissed his jaw, Owain struggled mightily not to rouse her with his stifled laughter.
As he breathed in the scent of his better half, he contemplated. Something had shifted in his chest, some greater power now dwelt within him. He could feel its, as well as his own great rune's, unrelenting pressure. Did he now hold another shard somehow? His hands skimmed his princess' hips in thought. This was a problem for a more awake man.
Owain could not recall feeling this rested in months, he'd at last slept without dreams. He freely furrowed his brow as he pressed soft kisses into Ranni's hair. There must have been a great deal that had happened since his battle with Radahn. Ah, what a battle it had been! When next he spoke to Radahn he would demand restitution for breaking his beloved spear like so much firewood. Hopefully it, and all his armor, could yet be mended.
Peeking at the lowering moon, Owain decided that he'd worked through enough heavy thoughts. For now, he would enjoy Ranni's sweet presence; soft and safe and untouched by the accursed rot. He settled back against his pillow more comfortably, smiling as she unconsciously wound her legs with his.
"-wake sometime soon, princess. The runes are stable within him and his body has healed completely." Was that Tricia? Owain cracked open his eyes with a low yawn. "Ah, see. I'll leave you two to catch up, Your Highness." Tricia excited the room after offering him a warm smile.
Ranni turned to him, a smile on her face. "Hello, my dear." She said as she floated over to him, touching noses. She looked at him with a relaxed ease that settled his heart in a way he'd not felt in what seemed like years.
He smiled into their kiss, chuckling as she peppered him with more all about his face. "Starlight." Owain wrapped his arms around her slender shoulders languidly. "Tell me this is not a dream."
"No dream, rascal." He could feel her pulse through his chest. "I am proud of thee, it only took thee a few days to wake this time."
Owain hummed contentedly. "How goes our efforts?"
"Oswald and Aldo work their way through Caelid. Thou art awake just in time to break fast with mother and I. Ready thyself." She bit him and he laughed; it was time to wake then.
Mother Rennala actually ate all that was on her plate. Since lord Radagon's departure, he'd never seen her so healthy, never seen the grief fully leave her face. Mayhap is saving Radahn, something had finally resolved itself within her. Owain chewed thoughtfully on a slice of bacon. "Good tidings as well as bad, doth I bear; mine golden son." Rennala watched him steadily over the rim of her tea cup.
"I would hear the bad first, that it might be softened by the good." He said with a small smile. He was sure it could not be anything quite so terrible if she and Ranni were not still distraught.
"Thy armor and armaments hath been destroyed to a piece. I wast forced to use their properties in my spellcraft." She said gently. That was…that was very disheartening, actually. Owain made to respond when he felt a memory steal his senses.
"This is…this is a gift far too kingly for me, my queen." He said, looking in wonder at the great gift she had prepared for him. His armor and weapons of plated gold had been reforged into such glorious pieces of art, he could feel the magic of such a great amount unalloyed gold with ease.
"Thou'rt a lord of Leyndell, Wain. Such armor befits thy station." His queen's gaze was soft, gentler than he was accustomed to. "It is for my own selfishness that thou'rt to be so adorned. My commander mustn't heed any voice save mine." She admitted quietly. Had his queen said that before he'd fallen for Ranni, he would have laughed it off; instead, he only nodded seriously.
He would need to thank his Lord Miquella and Master Hewg as well for this, Owain knew well how exceedingly difficult it was to craft gold of such purity. He'd supervised Lord Miquella often when the prince had first begun his experimentation.
The sentinel knelt before his queen, taking her proffered hand with utmost care. "Then, I will do my best to make you proud, my lady. I shall not tarnish the sanctity of these precious tools." He pressed his lips, then his brow, to her most holy of hands. "I thank you, great goddess." He spoke with supreme reverence, rough voice as gentled as he could make it. This was a moment of highest honor for him.
He felt his queen's tentative touch against his hair. "Pray, namest me not as goddess, Wain." she said softly, "This is a queen's gift to her knight; not a goddess' blessing to a believer." Had he…slighted her? It was always hard to read his monarch.
He dared to gaze upon divinity, finding her eyes saddened for some reason. "Thank you then, my queen. I am greatly honored and overjoyed." He smiled.
She was silent a moment, regarding him blankly. "Yes, Wain. Use well, what I hath given."
Owain blinked away his disorientation. "Wain?" Rennala questioned.
"I am well, be not afeard, it was only a memory. Pray, mother, what is the good news?" Owain unclenched his jaw, he could feel Ranni watching him suspiciously.
Rennala grinned at him and it made her look much younger. "Radahn is hale and hearty. Tricia hast him entranced as his soul adjusts fully to his body. Tanya guards his quarters."
Owain matched the queen's grin, laughing excitedly. It was confirmed! Radahn was saved! "This is most wonderous news! Shall I recall my forces to the manor, that we might hold a grand celebration?" He'd already called back five hundred of his men to Caria through the Caelid portal before he'd faced his brother. The failure of security at the feast had not been forgotten, even now, he was sure Lord Moongrum was running the men through the strictest of drills.
Ranni picked at the greens on her plate distractedly, her carnivorous diet always amused him. "Not quite yet, Radahn should not be woken for another moon. Iji and Blaidd hath gone on an excursion for some rare meteoric ore or somesuch, Iji left thee a note." She floated a large envelope over to him lazily. He'd read it after breakfast, such a gathering was one he need enjoy to the fullest.
They laughed as they ate, spoke lightly, breathed easier. What serenity this was! Owain ate slowly, savoring the taste of real food prepared by the skilled manor chefs. Rather than the hard tack and dried meat he'd been eating for months, this was heavenly. He was also rather dazzled by Ranni's constant smiles. To keep such joy upon her face…Owain would do most anything.
Ranni and mother both went to the academy to source books from its expansive library; Linde and three score of his sentinels went with them. Apparently Rennala had instituted Preceptor Miriam as Raya Lucaria's newest governor. Owain was heartened by this news, the queen's days at the academy were best left behind her, he thought.
The rare absence of his family left him to his own devices. And, rather than start on the mountains of paperwork in his office, he cracked open Iji's letter. Its portends were dire.
Could he not have a single week of fair weather, he wondered. One of the outer gods was surely laughing at him, that he must face crisis after crisis. Instead of searching for some 'rare ore' as he'd told Ranni, Iji had gone to seal Blaidd in an evergaol, fearing his forced compulsion under the fingers now that the carians' fate had been unbound and their plans had passed any point of pretense. He'd also left Owain two more burdens to take on. The first; the weapon of Nokron Ranni had been seeking, was under Jerren's care at castle Redmane. The second; a black knife sat in the evergaol of the cathedral of Manus Celes, trapped during the shattering war by a scheme of Iji's.
Owain burned the letter in the brazer of his office, running his hands through his hair in stress. The blade he would consult Ranni for; the black knife he would handle himself. He could not trust Ranni to not kill the woman instantly before he was able to extract any wisdom from her; loathe as he was to act without his wife at his side.
So it was that he and Osgalath set off alone for the dark deed. Owain had sourced the armor, shield, and halberd of one of his fallen sentinels from the manor's armory; such was the lessened weight from his own set, he felt as if he could leap thrice as high! Leaving with instructions to Tanya to let Ranni know he was safe and would be home shortly.
The cathedral had fallen into ruin during his long death, Owain frowned at the sight. One more project for him to undertake when at last they had the resources. Osgalath was overjoyed to be away from Caelid, even more so to be running so free upon the soft grass of Liurnia. Owain let his steed sprint himself to satiation before they plodded to the prison. At least one of them would be happy before what was to come.
Owain understood why Iji had handled this matter with such secrecy. The old war counselor knew the woman within this gaol likely held precious knowledge. Only, who was he to turn to to handle her in safety at the time? The Carian knights had disbanded and Moongrum could not be called from mother Rennala's side. Ranni held but a shadow of her former might. The cuckoos had decimated the manor's forces. Now though, it was different. Owain had faced this threat before and slain many of them.
Owain stood with stone-sword key in hand. He sighed.
The dark garbed figure swirled into being as he entered the separate space of the gaol. They were an ancient magic of curious potency. He'd no idea how they worked, only that they were effective for most any personage. He raised his shield, he would not be cut by that cursed knife of misty ink.
"After so very many years trapped in this spell, they send a sentinel to slay me? You've not the strength of your highlord, welp. Entering my prison was a mistake most foolish." Owain paused his advance abruptly, his shield clattering to the stone beneath him. He…he'd heard that voice many times before.
He threw off his helm, surely he must be mistaken. After a moment, the black knife too, revealed herself, lowering her hood. No. No, it could not be!
"W-Wain? Tis truly you?" Alecto's face stared at him in abject shock. Her voice was a breathy whisper.
Owain could scarcely feel his extremities, such was his distress. His blood thrummed in baited rage, held back only by the thinning thread of his confusion. "Alecto." He bit out. "What- what treachery is this?"
"You are dead, vision! I-I k-killed you true myself!" She rubbed her eyes with frantic palms. "Mad, have I gone in my confinement. You cannot be real."
The shine of her eyes sparked a memory, Owain grit his teeth, trying to remain present but it was no use.
Owain answered the door of his quarters laggardly, he'd only just set down his shield. Why had he promoted Reginald if the man sent for him at every oddly flickering shadow? Tiche's dark eyes met his in surprise for a moment before the woman spoke. "Wain, would you like to come over for supper? The kitchens sent up far too much soup." Well, soup sounded wonderful indeed.
"I would be most honored, Tiche. Lead the way."
Alecto and Tiche's quarters were more expansive than his, but all the cozier from all the many warm touches. Owain's own quarters were rather barren save for the sword Ranni had bequeathed to him at their betrothal, and the spear his aunt Siluria had gifted him as a youth. Perhaps he should invest in more decoration than weaponry. He would leave it up to Ranni, but her contributions had amounted primarily to most of his walls becoming bookshelves.
Alecto herself regarded him warmly, as she set a new place at their small table. "It seems you only visit when food is promised. How rude Wain." The shine of her eyes was the only indication that she was jesting; Alecto could keep her emotions from her face better than any Owain knew save Rykard.
"And here I thought you would be thankful for the aid in defeating this excess soup; my mistake." He smiled broadly. Though their acquaintance had started rocky, he and she had bonded closely by their shared love of the queen.
"Oh yes, your aid is most welcome." She rolled her eyes. "So too would your company be, even if we did not need your aid." Owain laughed as Tiche tugged him along to the table, these two oft brightened his days after feeling so over burdened.
When had she unsheathed her black knife? He scowled. "You? You did the deed?"
His last moments flashed behind his eyes, the tears that shone on the face of the woman who'd cut his throat. How had he never seen them before?
He shook his head violently, away pestering past! "So it was you who is my killer!" He started forward in anger. "You who betrayed my lord!" Searing fire burned in his chest, such low treason!
Alecto's eyes were equal measure wrath and despair. "You slew them, my sisters!" She said venomously.
Owain was struck speechless for a moment. Grief and anger warring for his tongue, he growled out a curse. "You slew me! Stole my lord's life! I should have your head, what little satisfaction it would bring." The two stared at each other in razor sharp tension, their vehement breaths all that stirred the stale air of the evergaol.
Her first strike was lightning quick, but she was not back by scores of her sisters this time. His halberd out reached her easily, he struck with the flat of the blade; the force of it sending her in a high flip. She landed on readied feet, eyeing him darkly. "After what you did to my sisters, I should carve out your heart!"
They clashed repeatedly, faster than most mortal eyes could track. Owain was hampered by the need to keep her alive for the answers he sought, but Alecto was under no restriction. "After what you did to my lord, I should cleave you in twine! Traitor!" Alecto roared in fury before charging at him once more.
"I am no traitor! I am loyal! I am faithful!" She cried out, voice a desperate gasp. "I followed the order of my queen, even against the deepest wishes of my heart!" Goddess, was this woman fast!
She slashed at his hands with such blinding speed he was forced to drop his halberd to save his fingers. "Loyal? Faithful? Where was your loyalty as your knife slashed across my throat, old friend? Where was your faith as you slew the son of our goddess?" Owain was bellowing now, blocking her slashes with the plates of his gauntlets, delivering heavy blows with his fists only to have her side step at the last moment.
"I did as I was ordered!" She screamed hoarsely. "You would not know the pain of committing such a sin! You were ever allowed to live in the sun!" Her voice a deeply embittered growl.
At last Owain was able to snatch one of the woman's wrists, squeezing until she dropped her knife, he flung her against the boundary of the gaol, stomping the cursed blade into the stone beneath. "You fooled me well, Alecto." His face seemed fixed in a frown. "You speak of sin yet name it order. Then the queen truly did order your knives into my lord's back?" He'd not wanted to accept his theory, but this seemed as damning an admission as he would find. The woman stood slowly, cradling her wrist. They stood across the gaol from each other, faces twinned in grief.
Alecto wiped furiously as her eyes, running slim fingers through her hair of dull gold. "Aye! And against- Owain I did not wish to kill you, never you!" A low keening noise spilt from her throat. "But why? Why would Marika bade us kill her first born son and loyal commander! Why! Why has she given you life anew?" The woman whirled, reddened eyes shadowed.
Owain scowled. "My new life and renewed grace comes from the greater will."
Alecto scoffed. "Grace can only be given by Queen Marika herself, Wain. It is she who bade you to rise from death." Her voice was roughened with emotion.
He could hear little save for the rushing blood through his ears. His queen was behind his resurrection as well as his death? What…what did this mean? "I…I do not understand."
"Nor I, commander." Her brow was as furrowed as his own. He felt yet another memory steal him as the two matched panting breaths. Fie! Enou-
"Wain! Wain! Mama needs you!" Tiche called out as she barreled into his office. The tears on the little girl's face made him order Reginald and Aldo to handle the logistics they'd been discussing on their own. Reginald whined as Owain scooped up Tiche and charged out the door.
"What is wrong, little one? Is your mother hale?" Tiche buried her face into his chest with a whine not dissimilar to Reginald's
"Mama has a fever! She's all sweaty!" Owain hummed his acknowledgement as he strode through the airy palace corridors. This was likely a matter better handled by Tricia, but he would tend to Alecto anyway, perhaps his magic might help, coarse as it was.
The woman nigh leapt from her bed in surprise at his entrance, but seemed not to have the strength even to sit up. "W-Wain? Ah-I'm so sorry, I bade Tiche fetch Tricia! I've no idea why she sought you out instead." She said quietly.
Owain took in the ailing woman with a frown, it was a rare thing to see her guard so lowered. Little Tiche patted his cheeks in annoyance as he'd yet to release her. "Mama, Wain knows magic too! An' he's so big and strong, he can help even though he looks so scary!"
He breathed out a laugh as he put the girl down, taking it upon himself to wet a nearby towel and go to Alecto side. "It is no trouble, my friend." He dabbed at her overheated brow with the towel, holding back another frown as she did not even protest with an ounce of her usual fervor. "I will call for Tricia shortly, let me tend to you for now, though my healing skills are better meant for the battlefield." He murmured. His healing spells only brought a hint of color back to her face, she would need Tricia after all.
"Thank you, Wain." Alecto laughed weakly. "I see now what our queen means when she says you can be gentle." Her hand rest upon his. "She is fortunate to have so gallant a man at her side." Owain chuckled; it was amusing how the hardest of women turned soft when they were afflicted like this.
"I am fortunate she will have me, I'm a bluntstone compared to you." Tiche rushed in from the other room, story book in hand. Both adults met eyes with a smile.
"Wain! Wain!-" He caught her gently before she could impact her suffering mother.
"Only if your mother agrees, little one." At Alecto's slow nod, Owain smiled.
He'd fallen to a knee, but Alecto only watched him warily. Who should he pray to to deter these memories this day? Too many at once were overwhelming him, each one like a physical blow. He met the black knife's eyes. "I had thought we were friends, Alecto. I hold-held such love for you and Tiche." His voice had lost the braying rage of moments before; the weight of his past had stolen it.
"And I felt the same." She whispered brokenly. "Alas, I could not defy the eternal one anymore so than you!" Alecto laughed bitterly. "What refreshed misery is this?"
"Your actions belay your words." Owain said.
"I have agonized over that day for many years, Wain. So much ruined in the span of but a few hours." She scrubbed at her face with a hand.
Owain pressed on. He too, needed to know why the queen had made such a choice. He stood, trying to rouse himself. "Queen Marika gave you no reason? No insight? How could she…she loved Godwyn so dearly." He had thought she loved him as well, what a fool he was.
Alecto's eyes flashed in anger. "We are our queen's knives to cleave as she sees fit, were she to ask me to slash my own throat, even then, I would not dare question her."
How could such an intelligent woman behave so foolishly? "What utter stupidity, Alecto! You did not even try to caution her? Did not even speak out in the spirit of prudence?"
"Who am I to deny my goddess! Her eyes see far past my own, never has she acted without purpose!"
"Purpose." He spat. "What purpose could she see in shattering our very order?" He felt just as lost as he'd been when he'd awoke in that chapel.
She threw up her hands. "And now we circle once more in our ignorance, players on a stage, babbling without a script."
Owain clasped the handmaiden's shoulders, eyes boring into hers. "What were her words? What say she exactly, when she bade you to slay my lord?"
Alecto met her gaze unwaveringly. "We did not speak. Ser Ofnir delivered the missive." Lo, a creeping dread began to climb its way up his body,
"Ofnir?" He choked back the disgust at speaking the man's name.
"We worked closely with the all knowing one and his confessors, he oft delivered the queen's orders." Was this the 'dirty work' the man had mentioned? Just how much had Owain been blind to!
"Why was I not-" She slashed her hand angrily through the air, shaking off his hands.
"The queen would never have you soil your hands, Wain. Not her most noble Lord Commander. Not Owain the Burnished." He made to voice his disagreeance, but felt a third memory begin to overlay his sight. Please, goddess, no. He could not bear anymore grief!
"Wain." His queen called softly.
Owain quickly strode to stand beside her, eying the sprawling mess of documents atop her overlarge desk. "Yes, my lady?" He questioned.
"A query for thee." She turned to regard him, gaze strangely conflicted. "Thou hast come upon a terrible realization; thou canst yet save the many, but only at the cost of the great suffering of the few. What is thine choice?" Owain misliked the intensity of her stare, he shifted nervously.
His queen often posed him odd hypotheticals like this, Owain was not naive enough to think them purely out of her own curiosity. This was likely a matter of the realm that she was yet struggling with, he morosely pondered which province was facing such a crisis now. He cleared his throat to stall for time. "I would rather that no innocents should suffer, my queen. If…if I might take on the weight of their salvation, I would do so gladly." He blinked rapidly, the hair of his nape beginning to rise. Had he given her a good answer? "Is there some decision I might aid you with, my queen?"
Her face was solemn, too solemn for an innocent question. "No…no Owain, thou hast given me answer enough. Thy moral compass hast long been mine own as well. I am grateful for thy noble heart."
"I-ah- thank you, my lady. I am ever happy to be of service."
Her lips made a sad attempt at a smile, when had he last seen her joyful, he wondered. "Thou keepest me more human than thou know."
Furious tears fell from his eyes, why must he be forced to see such things now of all times! Fie! He wiped them away with a palm. "I-I did not realize I was so blind. I-" He shook out his shoulders, they were not done! He must press forward. "The missive?" He questioned, trying still to regain some of his former anger. A vain effort, as only further misery took him.
She frowned, looking at him strangely. "Such was our way when the queen demanded the death of another. Never did she speak the words, that none would hear so dark an order from so holy of lips. The commandments always bore the queen's seal and magic beside."
The dread had risen to his heart now, constricting it tightly in his chest. "You did not…you did not verify such intent with Her Majesty? D-did not even stop to consider that such a missive could be forged?" His breath was elusive, his palms well moist with sweat.
Alecto sneered. "Forged? Her seal perhaps but none could forge her magic!"
Owain began to laugh. It was a manic and dark thing, a slipping thing that he could feel pulling at him. "At last…at last I understand it now." Curse his thick-headedness, he was finally beginning to see . "The fingers, Alecto. The Queen's fingers, steeped in her power.
She stumbled away from him with a gasp. "No. No…that can not be so." Alecto's voice was breathy, disbelieving.
Owain swore loudly. "Ofnir ever served the fingers, ever sought them out for guidance."
"Why would the fingers desire Godwyn's death?" The woman's eyes darted about, he could see she was beginning to accept what he already had realized. They were, all of them, deceived.
"Why would the queen? You saw as clear as I that he was her most beloved child. Not even Prince Messmer, did she cherish so." He swallowed through the dryness of his throat, the same panic that had gripped him at the knowledge of Ranni's involvement in this plot, gripped him double-tight now. "P-perhaps they sought to punish her, perhaps it was a warning? The effects of which we two were not there to see." Owain began to pace, clenching his hands to still their shaking. "Woe, what a scheme this was, how masterfully they played us!"
Alecto stared morosely into the middle distance, voice a rising pitch. "Without her handmaidens, her oldest friends, she would be most distraught indeed. Without you, Owain, lost too was her bulwark, her sense of safety. She would not turn to Malekith, a gift of the fingers, after such an act; and Lord Radagon-he would not have comforted her. The queen was left alone with her grief."
With each puzzle piece that fit into place, Owain's horror grew ever heavier. "Ofnir would have known that Godwyn, even freshly roused, would be a force to be feared. That I would have remained at my Lord's side, even if Malekith bade me aid in the search." The tight laughter returned in force, Owain could not help himself. "That…that evil man, he and the fingers likely hoped we would be the full end of each other, clearing away any that could bring the plot to light."
Alecto sank slowly to her knees, there was some emotion on her face that he could not decipher as she looked upon him. "Then it was all for naught."
Owain halted his pacing to turn his frantic eyes on the crumbling woman. "Tell me, did Ranni ever speak to you directly?"
She bowed her head in resignation. "No, we only exchanged letters by way of…Ofnir's proxy. Oh goddess, Owain! What have we done?" A harsh sob escaped her.
"Ofnir." He growled. All this time, Owain had been dancing in the palm of that craven's hand and been none the wiser! "Ranni told me the queen promised I would not be harmed, should she have my princess' cooperation. Oswald recounted that Lord Malekith and my sentinels were searching for the stolen rune." He panted, unable to fully catch his breath. "I had thought it strange…why would my Lord Malekith conjure such a search by way of every palace sentinel. It would be an action of great rashness, of genuine surprise. A desperate act to leave so much of the palace without proper guard. As if he truly did not know how the rune had been stolen."
A low moan tore from Alecto's lips, an aching noise of pure anguish. "And thus, I was forced to kill the man I-" She cut herself off viciously. "Thus the queen shattered the elden ring in her grief. Thus the world was broken." She mumbled scratchily.
Owain too, collapsed to his knees. Just as before, his legs could not bear his weight; they trembled too greatly. Only, this time, Ranni was not there to comfort him. The gaol sounded with naught but the muffled sobs of two who were sworn to protect their queen and failed in the end. Both knife and shield used as tools against their liege, instead of by her hand.