Dawn flashed with its elegant orange flame through my eyelids. I opened my eyes to a beautiful scene of a tangerine sun peeking from a cover of scarlet clouds. My eyes flashed fully awake when I realised I was in a derelict building instead of by the -hopefully- corpse of the Tree Sentinel. I shifted upwards against the wall I was laid against, a piercing pain submitting my efforts instantly. My breath now heavy from pain, I looked around and caught sight of a woman even more beautiful than the sunrise. Perfectly dark brown skin like the colour of the richest and most noble chocolate. Her skin was smooth and contained a lustre that was irresistible to my tired eyes. It caught the light in a way that my eyes couldn't leave it, the warm glow of the Sun giving her image a beautiful background. My eyes slowly moved from her soft cheeks and jaw up to her hair. Black, straight hair, much like my own, dropped down and framed her face. Her midnight black strands cut off just past her chin which drew my attention back to the lower section of her face. My eyes looped in this same pattern until her face was memorised, consumed like an Ouroboros upon her sleeping elegance.
I snapped out of my trance with a soft murmur to myself. I stared in this same way with Finlay and we were fighting to the death, the pathetic lonely fool I am. I took a deep breath before reaching back to balance myself against the wall before pushing myself up to my feet. My legs felt like they were liquefied and my arms could barely support my weight. I bared my teeth in a scowl before slowly shambling forwards, finding Oak hitched up next to a small donkey which bore a heavy load. I sighed in relief. A man dressed like a travelling merchant sat next to a campfire and kept a careful eye on me. A soft gasp struck behind me and I spun around to find the woman was awake and scrambling for her dagger. I'd be just as scared too so I slowly leaned against a wall, trying to show a relaxed body language. "Uhm, good morning and thanks for not leaving me out there. My name is Khirza, what's yours?" I introduce myself, inhaling deeply through my nose in nervous anticipation.
"My name is Nyx, and you're welcome." The brisk reply came through. She slowly stood up, a hand always held tightly against her hip, beside her sheath. Smart. I shifted back, looking down anxiously.
"...Yeah, did you see the massive curved sword I was using?" I asked awkwardly. I think with practice... I could get the hang of it. A confusing weapon built for slaughter but slaughter is all I have and will do anyways.
She pointed out of the church. "Out there, along with the corpse of that big golden guy over there. You better grab it before he decides to just get up again." She warned and I winced. Every major battle in the Shattering was followed by soldiers simply waking up in the scene of their deaths and wandering like lost souls until brought back into their armies. The first time that happened, the tactics changed. We were used as fodder to protect the demigods we served. A swarm of flies hanging off a greater being. The thing is not everybody came back, the Elden Ring was broken and therefore so was the system so upheld by the Golden Order. Slowly, our armies dwindled and slowly, did the blaze of the Shattering war devolve into small embers of fight.
We had given up on living far before that in all honesty, when we made that march against Leyndell. That final conflict between us and the Haligtree... We were barely even thinking through our exhaustion. I thought back on my journey and realised I've been passing out far too much.. I so badly wanted to blame Malenia for my weakness but it's not like she hasn't been suffering from the same disease for her whole life. I gave up on blame when we marched against Radahn to give him a worthy death and failed, now I can only blame myself for somehow struggling into life. I exhaled strongly through my nose as the feeling of melancholy echoed through my thoughts. What the hell am I even fighting for? I quickly pushed those thoughts down because I already knew the answer.
"Thank you." I nodded gratefully after realising I was just staring in silence. I decided to go to the merchant looking person I had seen earlier. "Hello there, what are you trading? And do you use Leyndell minted coins?"
He looked up at me with eyes that glowed with embers of hate. The yellow flame. Something bit at me internally and I averted my gaze to his forehead instead. Awfully wrinkly. "You are not Tarnished, me or my people's wares are not of sale to you."
I stared in confusion "Tarnished? You mean those of Godfrey's army? They've been gone for years, decades even."
"The Tarnished have been back for a very long time now. His army and their descendants have returned to conquer the Lands Between once more, but Lord Godfrey is still overseas it seems." His words rang with a disconcerting sense of clarity. Radahn's spell has somehow either sent me forward in time or I somehow remained in coma for that long. A realisation blazed into my eyes. The Redmanes! The army I spent so long of my life with, could they have lasted up to now? I felt dizzy, but I no longer cared. That question took up my whole mind, a new obsession.
"Thank you for that information, merchant." I nod gratefully. I turned to Oak, gently stroking his side before hopping onto his saddle.
Nyx leapt up to her feet and called out "Which direction are you travelling?" I blinked slowly in surprise. Does she plan to hitch a ride off me?
"I'm due to Caelid. I have business there." I slowly led Oak down to the shattered wall easily stepping past. Nyx followed in silence.
"May I... join you? According to my map, you must pass north in order to cross over to anywhere and that is my destination." She spoke up once I crossed the threshold. I brought Oak to a gentle stop to consider the offer. She did help me, and presumably dragged my relatively heavy body over to the wall I woke up on.
To be honest, I'd already made the decision and was just thinking about it so I didn't look suspiciously happy to bring her along. I sighed and patted the back of my saddle. She gracefully climbed on, her arms wrapped around my waist in an extremely awkward manner. I winced at the feeling of her arm on my left and murmured "Some sort of injury on my left side so be careful."
I could feel the air sucked into her mouth from the back of my neck. "An injury that is that severe and you haven't checked?" She spoke in a pure disbelieving tone but let up the pressure on my left side, squeezing harder on my right to compensate. "Idiot." She followed up. I couldn't even get angry at that, not like she was wrong after all.
"Just keep hugging me." I mocked back, setting Oak into slow trot as we headed northwards. A soft jab to my uninjured side made me suck in my breath in pain and I chuckled, thankful she took it lightly.
"Oh sorry, I thought I'd just... spur you on." She spoke in a light tone, that made it clear she was smiling. It only made her more beautiful in my eyes to see her have a soldier's humour. And to be honest, I felt a little warm under my armour with her soft arms around me. By no means was she weak, as I had previously felt, but the way she held on to me made it clear. A gentle pressure instead of a rough gauntlet digging into my stomach for hours. It certainly helped that she's wearing light clothing compared to a typical soldier's armour.
"So, I'm guessing you're a Tarnished?" I asked, wanting to start up a conversation while we travelled.
"Yeah? Whatever that means since I keep getting called one." She scoffed. Well, obviously she wouldn't know what a Tarnished is. She obviously isn't a revered soldier of Godfrey with those ragged clothes.
I coughed a bit to clear my throat before answering "Merely another title to let those cursed royals look down upon us. It simply means you died without having Gold in your eyes and had to be resurrected by Queen Marika bringing it back to you as she'd promised your ancestors an age ago."
She took a while to acknowledge and digest the information before asking "Who's Marika?" I sighed, that was a pretty tough question because I just didn't know where to start.
"Blonde lady." I shrugged before getting jabbed in the side again. "Okay, fine.. She's the revered Queen Eternal who's lived long enough to watch your grandfather's grandfather to be born. She also is a literal goddess who takes a worthy warrior to become her consort and Elden Lord. Most Tarnished came here to become her Elden Lord but I doubt you came here for that, right?"
"...She seems a bit stereotypical of a goddess." She said carefully. I could hear the pure confusion in her voice, and to be honest, I'd be worse off than her in this situation.
"She is, we liked her when she promised gold and eternity and then it turns out the eternity was an endless war and gold is pretty useless when it's all you have. She decided to conveniently disappear after shattering the damn Elden Ring too." I seethed quietly. It was like a trap of honey. A hungry man would lick it only for the poison within the honey to drain the rest of his life. And that's what she'd done. Taken a world she'd broken to her will and made it so it wouldn't survive without her before taking herself out of the equation.
Nyx muttered, her tone almost reminiscent of a life before now. "Even Eternity couldn't forever... It's like Order and Chaos are in a cycle. The more you search for order, the more chaos will attempt to tear it all down."
My eyes widened. That was pretty deep introspection. After a while of thinking it over in my head, I spoke "Order and Chaos seems to me just a way to name concepts only humans could come up with. A star is chaotic beyond comprehension yet contains order in a purpose beyond our knowledge."
Nyx laughed, a beautiful tone, a siren that had already led me astray from my bearing to Caelid. Though, I knew somewhere deep down that I'd find every reasonable excuse to not truly go to Caelid before I actually did. I didn't want to acknowledge it: The buzzing of flies, the streams of blood soaked into mud like a sponge soaks up water- "Look at you, a little philosopher." She remarked.
I smiled, realising that I probably had a very big issue internally. But I didn't care.
We talked and laughed all the way up to nightfall. Despite our flawed immortality, sleep was a requirement shared. Oak stoof guard, munching on some grass as we laid under the cover of a makeshift shelter. Nyx helped me cut out an A-frame to throw some foliage on... The sleeping part was the most awkward. None of us was necessarily bothered to construct another A-frame, so I spoke up
"I don't mind just sleeping by a tree, I've slept in far worse positions..." I could see her eyes furrowed, even under the dark cover of the shelter- she had already slipped under while I was speaking.
"No, not when you're already half-dead as it is. I don't think your horse would like it very much if his owner died trying to be a gentleman. I trust you enough to sleep near me, if you were of the sickening kind of man them you would have already acted." Her voice was strong, and it's not like I really wanted to sleep without shelter anyways.
"Thanks." I muttered as I slipped under the foliage, trying to not think about the fact that this is basically the closest I got to a woman. No wonder I'm so pathetic...
"Shut up, I'm repaying the favour. I'm trying not to think about how irritating your presence and state of dress is to me." She responded with a teasing grin.
"Well-spoken for someone dressed like a a bandit, how about you try looking nice when you're beaten up and thrown into a lake?"
"Thrown into a lake?" she scoffed "No fucking wonder you're so injured, I'd have thought that the golden knight had punched you with his shield..."
The banter continued until we slowly fell asleep. Hopefully, we didn't wake up in a strange position. Feel like getting stabbed as a good morning wouldn't end too well...