Liurnia

As I stood away from the Grace with Melina across from me, and the player's character next to her asleep, I spoke without missing a beat to her request. "Ah, Thy lord's maiden appeareth before me, greetings. I believe this is the first time we've met." I greeted her with a bow of my hand.

I kept my arms crossed to show no hostility towards the child of Marika. Melina nodded in return, before speaking, keeping her lone eye on me with a measured look of caution, "For you, it is. I, on the other hand, have kept my distance behind the scenes. Watching the Tarnished make his journey through these lands."

Melina then settled herself to sit on her knees to get more comfortable before speaking more, "But yes, this would be an official meeting between us. I wasn't sure until then to keep myself out of sight, until I was sure of your nature, of your intention, of your loyalty to the Tarnish I struck and accord with."

"Ah, an accord." I duly noted, "So you are not, in fact, his maiden?" I questioned her, causing her to thin her lips a bit, before answering me.

"Not quite…" Melina answered, but kept her face firm and thoughtful, "But I will be helping him in the function of one." she nodded once at that.

"Hm." I mused, before speaking back, "So, miss, what is it wish to actually speak of with me?"

"Not a bad new cut scene, to be honest chat. No, yeah, he's definitely being quite the Knightly gentleman with her."

He must be talking with the chat, while keeping half of his attention on the game.

Melina blinked once, before answering my question, "Ah yes…" she began with, before she seemed to be hesitant on her next words, before speaking fully, "The accord I have with the Tarnish, it will inevitably take us to the capital. I must ask you this. If you are truly willing to serve the Tarnished as his Vassal…"

She seemed hesitant on what she wanted to say next, so I figured I helped her along, I knew where this was going.

I held my hand up in a halting gesture, "Bestill your worries, ethereal maiden of my Lord." I then patted my sword at my hip, "When I took up an oath to him, to meant it. Even if the Tarnished Lord of mine seeks to dismantle the order itself, I shall follow!" I nodded at her.

"Such an awesome dude!"

"-You should see if the mod include a weapon or something that lets him buff you-"

"Thanks for the two hundred bits, doddlebob! And yeah! Like that weapon in Calid? We can see if that does anything, and if it does, what else?!"

Huh, that would be an interesting thing I could do, I think what the chatter is talking about is that one boss character within the Rotten lake that you get a needle off from after beating him, and his weapon as well that can buff you and your allies. Kinda like in Dark Souls 2, you can give armor to that one girl that you unfreeze from stone.

Melina gave me a discerning look, before responding back, "So you say…and if he should ever…find a certain…" She then shook her head, before standing up to brush her leggings off of dirt, before giving me a nod, "Forget it." She was definitely probably hiding information about the chaos hand below the capital.

"Woah, I bet she was almost going to speak of the Chaos flame hand thing below the capital!"

Well yeah, but I am definitely going to kill your character down there if you ever reach there. That there's the ultra bad ending, besides the turd ending with the Dungeater…I've heard people call it the doo doo ending…

Melina gave me a bow of her head, before walking backwards as her body disappeared into motes of light, "Till we meet again." her voice faded off.

Silence pervaded the campsite, before the merchant off in the distance spoke up, "Been a long while since any reasonable conversation took place around here." He mused.

Well that was random…

"Random ass npc dialog…"

Not my exact wording, but I suppose the player's right.

As the morning dawned upon the lake and its castle, I stretched before I helped Hyetta up from her camping spot; it was just a simple piece of fabric I took off from the horse seat saddle, that I was able to use for the maiden herself to sleep on. After helping her onto the horse, I took the reins and took my leave.

"Well, looks like he's already heading off on his own, guess I should do my own adventure. I should see how he fairs against one of the Deathbirds…but I don't know how to get that to work…"

While I hopped onto my horse to sit in front of Hyetta, and for her to hold onto me by the sides, the player soon took off past me on foot. "Hail, Lord Tarnish, one more thing!" I hollered over to him, as he passed by me.

"Oh?"

I stopped my horse, and waited for the player to walk up to me, before I spoke as he approached me, "Beware of the night around these parts, I've once heard rumors of Deathbirds that stalk the night, as well as Night Calvary." I then nodded to the player, "If you seek help from me, my lord, don't be hesitant to use the finger I gave you. I am sure my sign will show up near the closest grace to those foul fiends!"

"Sweet! The summoning finger Sir Willem gave me, upgraded!...says…Sir Willem knew only war between the gods before he met a certain Tarnished. This finger signifies his trust towards the path his new lord will take."

"-Sir Chad Willem be handing out small dishes of lore-"

"Ey, thanks for the hundred bits, stonerman69! But yeah, this mod is definitely cooking up something fierce!"

I nodded once more at the player, "Until we meet at the Academy, my lord!" I announced, before urging my horse forward to head on, while the player dashed passed me on his Torrent.

While the player was off killed the enemies around where he could collect the first map for the area, Hyetta began speaking behind me while the player finally vanished off into the distance. "Lord Willem, Dost thee know of any grapes I could eat?" She questioned curiously. "You see, there were these people that came to me with strange grapes, and they tasted quite different from what I'm familiar with."

Oh fuck no, I'm not going down that lane. "I'm afraid not, nor am I sure what you are talking about any particular grape strain" I answered back, as I took caution to steer clear of the nearby enemies. I'll be taking the long way around to avoid most of the hazardous enemies this place has. "But if you wish, I can offer a different fruit to suit thy taste." I reasoned.

"That's the thing, each time I ate these grapes, I was able to see a distant flame." Hyetta insisted, speaking with a clear tone and excitement.

I frowned, while keeping my tone firm, "...Miss Hyetta…do you truly wish to know the truth of those grapes. From what you speak of, it does not bode well for these lands in the slightest." I warned her, a grave tone in my voice.

As I approached the collapsed bridge that led to one great, and down towards the Academy itself, Hyetta spoke back to me with an unsure tone, "...I…what do you know of these grapes I've tasted?"

I allowed Hyetta to quickly get off the horse and puke off to the side, "Oh Gods…I…they…" she made more dry heaving into the water, as I stood beside my horse.

"Miss Hyetta…does thou truly wish to taste chaos, choose thy words carefully." I intoned, giving her a stern talking.

Hyetta in turn picked herself up and turned towards me with a frown as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, a soft frown marred her features, "No, oh Gods no! I just thought those people were offering me magic fruit that gave me sight!" she cried out in worry.

It was inevitable this would have happened with her, it was better to have just ripped the bandaid off with her.