Marika
She breathed softly against the back of her traveling companion, tracing the new golden threaded scarf she had sewn in their time resting for her knight. A full month had passed before she had felt confident enough to let her knight leave their camp. Some of her ribs still concerned the golden lady, but they seemed fixed enough to allow them some light travel.
Their steed was a rather comfortable one and had a rather stable stride. She knew he was a spirit, but to feel the difference made her smile gently. It reminded her of peaceful days where riding horses was something she looked forward to. Her and Miquella had even bonded long ago over the practice before she had become too enraptured by her political games.
Soon, her eyes fell onto the sight of the Redmane fortress they were approaching, once a sight of true glory in Caelid. Now, a squalid and broken series of battlements, banners, and battered walls that led to a long crumbling fortress just on the other side of a fractionally guarded bridge.
The sight of it broke her heart into pieces. She knew the fallout of her breaking of the Elden Ring had been chaotic, but to see even her greatest child now be left in such ruin made her once gilded heart begin to crack with pain. She felt tears begin to form before a soft hand dabbed away the forming tears with a small piece of cloth.
"Here," her knight intoned, "Can't have my Lady Ward looking fresh from a night of tears now, can I?"
"N-no, I suppose not.." she trailed off as she took the cloth, gently dabbing beneath her eyes.
"What was it like, back then?" She asked as Torrent, their new steed, trotted slowly towards the battlements to give them time to talk and to plan.
"The Redmanes?" She inquisited just to her knight, looking towards her.
"Well, yes, them as well," she responded, "But all of it. The Golden Order. What was it like when things were good?" She asked, an innocent curiosity to her question at that.
She sat there, really considering that question. "It was never... fully good. Even at its glory, there was always tension and strife.."
"Well... you did conquer a lot of places."
"Yes, I am grimly aware of my sins."
The knight seemed taken aback by the queen's admission of sin, and a small smirk formed just out of her knights view. She could still surprise her.
"Your sins?" She said, as if asking not to reoeat but to clarify.
"Yes. I am not so calluses as to think my actions were without cruelty. Many choices I would change now, knowing what I now know," she said, a tremble to her voice that denoted the raw pain she was feeling deep inside to even think on it, "Nor I blind to the cost I levied onto my own children.." as her eyes drifted over the broken fortress before glancing away as thought filled her.
A few moments of quiet, she continued. "But it was beautiful. The streets were always flowing with drinks and fruits, and no one under my gaze knew suffering if I could allow it. It was an era where all were safe and free from pain beneath my Golden Order."
"So long as they obeyed, and did not dare be born of wrong bloods." her knight added softly.
"Yes... and that is one of my countless regrets. My selfishness and hate. I... I have... reconsidered many choices. Many were born out of anger and hate. Not wisdom. That is not how a queen who loves her people operates. For that... I can never truly be sorry enough.." fading off as her eyes drifted to the trodden dirt behind them, thinking to all she had stepped over to get where she had gone.
"You are starting to talk like my wife," spoke the knight, and the gilded queen's mind nearly fumbled out of her skull.
"Y-your -"
"Yes, I am indeed married. Several times over, actually. My first wife, however, is who I meant."
".... tell me about her?"
"She is a strong-willed soul who would take a hundred arrows for our children and smile at them as she did. Selfless, kind, and a bit of a picky eater!" She chuckled along, the sound making Marika's worried heart ease.
"She sounds like quite the treasure."
"Would you believe we started out quite rocky. I was... more arrogant then. Foolish and head strong. It... nearly cost me everything."
It was quiet again for a moment.
"Wives?"
"It is.. complicated to explain."
"Well, maybe once we reach the festival Melina told us about, we can have a moment of peace."
"That is the hopeful goal."
Both took their own moments to steady their minds as Torrent reached the first steps near the bridge. Corpses and weaponry lay littered like trash in the wind, and the whole place smelled of rotting flesh.
"What vileness..." the knight muttered quietly, dismissing Torrent after dismounting with Marika. "This... I knew something had infected these lands.. but... I'm seeing it up close... on something tangible and still... " The knight gently traced a globe across the engorged postules of a corpse that reeked far worse than any rot she had smelled. "This is closer to a... parasite almost... or a foreign growth... on the plants, I could have dismissed this, but..." lightly rubbing the odd, oily substance that grimly glew with a reddish tint.
"It is called the Scarlet Rot," the queen spoke, softly kneeling over the body and giving a quiet prayer, "And it is a trult terrible curse.." She finished before asking the Greater Will to free them and not let the rot take hold of their soul.
"We should push ahead. Who knows what else might be waiting across that bridge." The knight said softly, right hand resting on the moon pale sword on her right hip, a parrying dagger sheathed on the left along her belt.
"Yes, that would be wise," she answered, standing and soon, turning into her spirit form. It had grown more comfortable, and smaller miracles could be cast to aid now. It had taken Melina's aid, but her daughter had done much after their night. She only hoped that she could make up for what she let come to her poor children.
Luna
Soon, they began to make their way closer as a great wooden structure that acted as a clear outpost came into view. Within seconds, the knight felt hairs on the back of her neck standing. A quick leap to the right as a few arrows buried themselves in the ground where she had stood. A roll along the dirt and a quick glance spotting a ladder let her run with purpose. Swift and quick, she heard her gilded companion intone in her mind, "Two on the top of the ladder, then two more I think inside with spears!"
Rushing up the ladder, she quickly lept off its top rung to dodge the slashing swipes of the two knights above that Marika had warned her of, clad in colors of Red and gold with gilded shields, with one soon dropping as four throwing knives struck the crook of each shoulder. The other quickly tried to charge with its shield only for the knight to stomp onto the the front, leveraging her weight and leaping off it to get behind the know stumbled knight, just as her blade swiped the air. His head rolled for a second or two before fading into dust.
Turning on her heel and charging inside as the two shielded spear knights rose to their feet in alarm with one stabbing at her with a furious shield charge with their much larger tower shields. She side stepped the first stab, dipped beneath the second just far enough to throw a knife beneath the shield, pinning their foot just as the other stabbed at the knight. She stepped aside, bouncing the spear off the still planted shield and causing both to stagger back with the foot stabbed one even dropping their shield.
A single arc of steel curved through the air like a crescent moon, relieving the disarmed shieldman of his head. The other quickly recovering, swiping at her angrily with swings of their spear that only covered small quarter circles due to the shield remaining level. She stepped back, thinking and dodging as the shieldman reared back, then launched the spear at her before gripping a sword on its belt. The spear toss through her off, grazing thankfully off her shoulder with a small cut to show before burying itself in the wall behind her.
Both stared the other down quietly before the knight slowly sheathed her blade. The shieldman looked confused before rushing forward with its metal shield. He thrust forward angrily, sword stabbing forward a bit more as the shield slightly turned. She slid to the wide, slashing down in an arc of moonlight, followed by sparkles of fading spirits.
At last, free of further foes, it seemed, the knights eyes gazed over the structure. There were some supplies she could use for further travels, and quickly summoned and dismissed Torrent to stow them before seeing a chest tucked away in a corner of the room. She walked over, soon breaking the lock and opening to find an old, strange talisman with three arrows aimed downward. It filled her with a sense of accuracy and direction, making her more sure of her aim if only with arrows. 'The trinkets of this land held such curious magics,' she considered.
A quick glance about it, and she was sure to have cleared it, descending soon and passing another grace as she approached the bridge. She saw a portal nearby, likely a way for would-be travelers to arrive at the festival without weathering the horrors of the outer walls, but if a warrior needed it to get there then it was likely they'd have little skill to aid in the central festivities.
After a quick study of the bridge, she saw nothing to impede her as she resummoned and rode Torrent across it as her ward floating alongside. "It feels so... empty now." The queen of gold said with a quiet somberness and quivering lip.
The knight nodded sadly, unable to disagree or even offer support. She was a stranger in these lands. She knew only what she could possibly know now of this world. The last thing to fade was whatever study she had taken to prepare for her mission. While she kept memories of home, of who she was, the barrier that always loomed around her during these times was thick and powerful. It allowed her to interact and help places like this, but it could, at times, grow aggravating to be so strictly bound by old rules. Still, it was an important secret to keep. For now, at least.
Across the bridge, they passed another portal. Whoever organized the festival was surely seeking as many great warriors as they could find, and the knight hoped to not disappoint when they finally arrived. As they passed up the encroaching hill, the knight saw a small, old pipe on the ground that made her think of a younger brother of sorts she had in a past human life. She would have to remember the recipe for those protein cookies someday.
Soon dismounting as enemies came into view, the knight readied herself. The front gate was shut, likely from the fact that the guardsmen here were only hollow memories of themselves, going through the motions of a life once having purpose. Now, that purpose was all that remained to them, and the moonlit knight felt a twinge of pain at that thought.
A quick scale of the wall and a leaping over of the ramparts landed her in a stone causeway. In the distance, she saw two large things stalking back and forth. Omen beasts resembling greyish lions with a massive one-sided blade seemingly fused to one forward paw while their head was a mix of unkepmt silver hair and crooked, jagged horns that almost acted like a natural armor against slashing strikes. These creatures towered above at nearly 3 meters to the shoulders, yet they lacked the powerful muscle and even seemed almost starved.
Even so, the two together would be a harrowing battle, especially in the relatively cramped space of this courtyard, with several buildings lining her sides and another fort wall behind them. They also seemed to guard the path forward, making the presence of them further frustrating.
She took a few moments as her goddess surveiled them both from her invisible, spectral vantage point. Both seemed weak on the unbladed leg and didn't seem to be particular coordinated. It could make exploiting their aggressive and hungry nature easier if she could find a way to turn them on one another. They likely had been trained to cooperate, but hunger and boredom could easily wear down that training. She watched around the arena, seeing a few points where she could draw thwir attention in places where she could have the advantage, as a smirk soon landed on her lips beneath the new golden scarf.
A few minutes passed before a knife flew across the air and struck one of the horned lions in the toe. It was a barely damaging strike, but plenty painful. It roared and turned, teeth bared as its eyes sought out the knight. It found her standing on a few of the wooden planks near the eastern side of the open courtyard and lept into the sky with a storm swirlibg around it briefly in a fury. With crashing force, it shattered the timber and dirt beneath the knight's former position, triggering a pile of fire pots she had buried a minute ago underneath the piled wood, turning the first beast nearly instantly to scatters golden particles as its last roar bellowed with fiery agony.
The other would not be so easily tricked, charging more thoughtfully at the knight as its salivating naw beared violently hungry fangs that seemed to have gone without meat for years. Its eyes burned, telling the knight that her prior assumption about their training was indeed correct, and even perhaps more so than she had assumed. Those eyes burned hatefully. The other may have been its mate.
It slammed a heavy paw down with a smattering of dust and splintered rock as the knight rolled aside before taking a brutal hit to the head as she was rocked backward into a few barrels. The beast smelled blood, and it roared and lept up much as the first had, intent to end it seemed what its mate had started.
The knight managed to get to her feet in time to see the beast descend, only avoiding the initial crushing weight and instead thrown by its spiraling winds, only for those same winds to whip up her second trap. A pair of pots filled with toxin fluids she had scooped out of a plant that now splashed oger the entire beast, afflicting it with rot in seconds as it roared in pain. Within moments, its body struggled and then collapsed under its own weight before it too faded into golden dust.
She relaxed, sad she had to use so many of her resources but glad they had found a good use. It meant that she would not have the stores for the battle ahead, but she would be ready regardless. Both beasts held abundant runes for her to redorect now, and hopefully, that would make up the deficit. She felt her ward materialize as the knight slowly ascended the odd stairwell the pair of beasts had guarded and even passed by an open portal that she assumed was for the pair outside by the bridge. Those two beasts would have been a test for many a warrior, and she had won on cleverness and preparedness, along with quite the ability to get hit without instantly dying to even those kinds of glancing blows that would make most into splatters. She was not invincible, though.
Her ward fixed the scarf protecting her face, her own old loose blue hooded scarf. Crossing up, the remaining battlements of broken spike lines and lines above ofnhanging weapons, likely those of failed invaders by the colors and variety. Many had failed to breach here, once upon a time. It made her wish to have seen it when the great comqueror was still at the height of his glory. The forward wall opened into a passage along a small flight of stairs that possessed a grace nearby to the right, while straight ahead led into a vast courtyard.
It was lined with old, broken down but usable chairs, and a few pews clearly dragged out from a nearby church. The people varied heavily, from a tall and dark armored man with a greatsword and a wolf like face to a massive urn with arms, legs, and a warrior's stance. Beyond them on the ramparts of a large walkway leading to a vantage point over the nearby battlefield was an elderly man in Redmane colors with a heavy beard and the bearings of old battle.
Inside, Luna was certain that this festival would be a beautiful battle. One to be remembered.