Marika
The nights had grown cold in their travels. Long and cool as Torrent took them towards the small flickering light. The steed was drawn to it, and both trusted him. They suspected as they came onto a massive tower that glittered magically to be the fortress of their ally Ranni. The problem was that their cohort and her own allies were seemingly nowhere to be found
The steed passed by the pale illusions and small trap spells that were meant to deter unwanted visitors and came through as he dispersed for them to dismount a large ruined fortress tied to a mountain side. Blue and pale alabaster pillars lay broken and strewn amidst wild forests of blue and green trees while flowers sprouted from corpses of what once were invaders.
The queen's eyes followed the spectral dots of blue that seemed as common as scattered snowflakes and observed the sheer vastness of magic here. She felt a spark of pride deep within, knowing this to be her daughter's handiwork. If only she had been more attentive in Ranni's life, perhaps she could have been even more.
A soft hand traced the ghostly petals of a flower as the duo slowly walked up the shattered remains of a small stairwell. The queen's gaze lingered briefly on the shoulder of her knight. Only a small stump wrapped tightly in bandages and burned shut. It would not come back, she feared. The grace could restore fatal injuries with ease, but wounds that simply altered life had not been something it had ever accounted for. Her knight told her it wouldn't be an issue. She would fashion a replacement once they reached a workshop.
The sentiment did not calm the storming anxieties Marika still had whenever her gaze landed on the missing limb.
"Staring at it won't magically undo it, ya know." Her knight quipped playfully.
Marika began to retort when a small creature, made entirely of fingers, rushed towards them frantically. It was followed quite quickly by two much larger hands that each had a jeweled ring and seven long grabbing fingers. She did not think this was the welcome wagon.
Acting quickly, she drew her mace as the smallest one leaped into the air and flew at her. Her metal arm cracked against the back of its palm with a nice, painful crack of bone before being burned by a brief incantation of lightning. Short ranged but potent, it had become a small favorite of Marika's.
Her knight had charged the larger hands and had one cleaved in half before it sparkled away into golden dust with her scythe. She was caught a bit by surprise by the other hand when it quite literally walked over her in a march of fingers that had the knight let out an exaggerated and rather humorous grunt that had the gilded queen giggling a bit. It didn't stop her lover who soon split the other hand in half and recooperated with a swig of red tears.
"Strange guards," her knight noted, "Never been much more finger food."
The queen rolled her eyes. "Your jokes require a great deal of work." As the queen knelt down and collected a few valuables from the remains. It was more of those peculiar white stones her knight used whenever she was working on weaponry.
"These could be useful." She mused. Her knight smiled as she walked back over to her.
"You were listening.." she said rather happily, surprised.
"I was quite the maker of weapons myself back in the day. Besides, all that time spent in those mines left me with nothing but time." The queen responded jokingly, mocking.
"Ohhh... sorry about that." Her knight intoned feebly.
"You can make it up after tonights dinner's."
"How will i do that?"
"By being dessert."
A fierce blush and a rapid nod left the queen a giggly, happy woman. Both kept close and began their exploration of this strange and glowing ruins. More of those bizarre hand light monsters and several wolves who scattered when they approached had begun to call this place home. Still, there had to be more security. Her daughter wouldn't rely on just finger cretins and random animals to guard her home territory, would she?
Eventually, figuring out an ascent, they soon broke through a small veil of mist and came onto a massive hilly plain that was entirely bathed in moonlit fog. It was bursting with power, and in the distance, Marika could spot three great towers. Only one glowed with the tell-tale signs of occupancy.
"We should ask Melina to scout ahead." The queen muttered as her grip on her knight's arm tightened.
"Been trying, somethings been up since the academy, though. Can't get ahold of her." Her knight whispered back as both cautiously began to step out into the fog. Soft howls of wolves were the only indication that life lingered in the mist.
"We are being watched.." the queen whispered nervously.
"And here I thought we just had gotten an entourage," her knight was quick to jokingly add.
"A what?"
"... don't worry about it, love."
"You will explain later. Once we are out of this mess."
"Sure. Once we are out."
Four wary eyes slowly peered and observed as footsteps tread through the misty grass. They came across a great nest where a dragon may have made its bedding. The crater was warm, and the bedding was fresh. Yet there was no sign of any dragon.
"Something happened here.." the gilded goddess whispered. She knelt down and grazed the nesting with her fingertips. It was cool to the touch, even as soot coated her fingers. "Strange..."
"One could say that about this whole place," her knight whispered, "but I think I have found out destination." Adding in a definitive tone. Ahead stood their companion Blaidd, who grinned from the entrance.
Marika's gaze turned toward that of her lover, and a smile soon spread. They stood beside the largest tower that visibly glowed with lunar magic along every blue crystal that seemed to grow out of its very rocks. The light at the top window also assured her of Ranni's presence within said tower.
"This is it." She stated definitively, smiling as she ran up the steps into the waiting arms of the laughing Blaidd who quickly wrapped her in one of his warm and furry hugs.
"Haha! Bout time, you two finally showed up!" The wolfman laughed as he soon scooped the knight into another heavy hug. "Been waiting what must have been a month for you lot, but no worries. We got a feast waiting for ya right inside!" He turned and rushed in, eager to show them the feast prepared. Across the two lower halls had been placed a large stone table that was now covered in roasted foods the wolfman had been preparing ever since he caught their scent at the edge of the illusionary defenses.
"Blaidd, it is lovely to see you again," the queen started as both took moments to pause and drool just a little more than intended at both the smell and sight of the food, "But where is your mistress? Lady Ranni?"
The wolfman rubbed his chin. "That's... a good question..."
"You don't know?" The queen asked in a shocked tone as her and her lover sat down at one of the chair sets closest to the meats. Both were unrelenting carnivores, but given the muscles both did also visibly sport when not contained by armor or robes, one would find it was proteins put to very good use.
"Nah. Can't even find her scent. See," as the wolfman indulged with them, "Had this buzz in my head the last week or so. Mistress had me stay here when she heard about it and guard the place. Said she was headin north after that. Lost her scent soon after, but then the buzzin stopped, too. Bout three or four days ago, in fact." Taking a healthy bite out of a pork leg between speaking.
Both slowly looked at one another, mentally finding that date to be a little too conspicuous. They decided with a look, however, to drop the matter. It was a frightfully foolish assumption.
"Funny thing is I can't hear the two fingers neither now. Like the little signal fire from them in my head went out." Happily chomping into the plate of ribs he had set, he left his two allies truly stumped on what that could mean.
"What about Melina. Have you received any word or correspondence?" Marika asked while she reduced a plate of steaks to juices and bone chunks.
"Sadly, no. Little candle hasn't passed by since Mistress up and vanished. Iji's out searchin, but he was pretty insistent I stay and protect home. Not that I'm complaining. Food and hunt is plenty here! And with my friends here, well, it really is a home." The beastman cheered with a turkey leg raised high.
Her knight laughed and raised a mug of ale in earnest compradery. The sight brought a smile to the queen's face as the two quickly began to share their most recent stories. It made her wonder if, back in her world, her lover had a shadow of her own.
As the two quickly fell into childish games like speed eating and arm wrestling, despite her knight being down one appendage, the queen took notice of a mark she had not caught on her knight.
Armor and tunic gone, she saw on her upper left shoulder just above where the heart would be a set of strange symbols. Perhaps numbers. There was writing beneath it.
00.0000.013
The Epitaph
Something about the sight of it sent a chill across her spine and made her heart beat faster. It sent her back to that urn far beyond this place where her only companions were heat, darkness, and suffering.
Her gaze quietly turned back up from the mark to the smile that painted her lovers face and wondered anew what the cost of that smile must have been?
A part of Marika hoped she would never fully understand. Sadly, it was not with ease. Marika left anything unanswered. She would inquire, yes, when she felt the time was right. The memories of monsters and their makings were rarely the kind given out without practically yanking emotional teeth. She was the prime example of that.
Yet, as she watched the two dance and laugh as they wrestled, feasted, and drank, Marika felt visions come to her of a very different fate that may await at the journey's end. She saw Blaidd laughing as a little Malenia crawled up his cloak while Ranni napped in his neck. She saw her lover showing a small Godwyn and Morgott how to swing their little wooden swords while a sleeping baby Melina cuddled an even tinier Miquella in her lap while Messmer made fireworks pop to the delighted eyes of infant and toddler aged Radahn, Rykard, and Mohg.
It sent a new kind of flame alight in her heart she had never before considered as a hand soon rested on her own stomach. She felt warm in a place she had not ever felt warm. She felt something, someone growing again in a place she had thought had become barren. Wetness soon began to kiss the edges of her eyes.
She was with child once more. A child truly born of love.