Marika
She felt so heavy. Every muscle felt like unused masonry pinned to the soft surface she realized she was on. She felt silk fabric over her, her hair splayed out across a comfortable pillow, and the warm glow of candle light. "Where...?"
There was a scramble on the edge of her hearing before she managed to catch the sound of her beloved. A gentle hand, callused with battle, clutched her left hand. "Marika?" She heard her sweet and warm voice speak. The first thing she saw as she opened her eyes were those beautiful blue eyes. Little whirlpools always seemed like they held a gentle glow behind endless ice flows. She smiled tenderly.
"I am back..." she whispered through a hoarse throat, "My Knight..." she spoke as she gently cupped the cheek of Luna with a weak hand.
Her knight leaned against her palm, a few tears beginning to shed as she smiled happily. "My golden queen..." She spoke tearfully as she turned her face to kiss Marika's palm tenderly. "I was so scared..."
"Shhh... You.. sent me somewhere... to heal... didn't you...?"
A little smile. "I guess they aren't very good at keeping my secrets."
"You always were terrible... mm.. at lying..." She coughed slightly as her moonlit knight fed her a bowl of fresh water. She sipped at it, letting the cool liquid calm the scratchiness in her throat.
"Is that my auntie?" She heard a little voice she almost recognized say. She turned with a slight confusion to the source as a little redheaded girl with one eye stared back at her. She stood beside a small easel with a childish depiction of the room on it. It was cute, and the colors were mostly accurate, but it held the adorable mismatched shapes of childhood simplicity.
"Who is...?" She turned to Luna.
"This is Blaidd's daughter. He found her in the great fissure."
"Found her..?"
"Yeah, that's about all I got out of him before he booked it to find Ranni and Melina."
The eternal queen slowly raised herself on her palms into a sitting position, whining slightly at the ache of unused muscles. "How long...?
"It's been about two months since you took your little catnap." Her knight gave a jovial chuckle.
"Two months.. no wonder I feel so weak..." she flexed her arms, breathing through the ache.
"Got a solution for that." Her knight responded, offering her flask filled with strange white fire. "The one who sent me told me to keep this safe. Said it would come in handy a few times. Just enough in here for.. maybe three sips."
"What is it?" She asked, mesmerized by the beautiful flame as it hummed with an oddly familiar golden light at its edges. Impure gold, like ore plucked from the vein.
"The white fire, the furnace that forges souls. It will restore you entirely."
"Even after all this time?"
"Hopefully."
"Hopefully?"
"I uh, don't exactly have enough to go around testing it, but yes, it should."
She glanced at her knight skeptically but decided she would rather risk it than spend however long it would take to recover her muscles from a near atrophied state. Taking the flask, she popped the quirk seal carefully and was struck by a scent she could never even begin to place. There wasn't a single smell, but a cacophony of aromas seemingly spanning every flora she had ever seen, and countless more she had not. With a nervous gulp, she tilted her head and the flask, taking a careful sip of the flames.
She felt warmth spread across her without really tasting anything specific. It was cozy, safe, and so very gentle. It felt like the roots of a great tree spreading through her veins and bathing her in the sunlight it had collected over the years. All the aches began to melt away in seconds as she let out a far more eased breath. A flex of her arm revealed her muscles were back to full form, and she smiled at the feeling of her strength returning.
"Woo!" She heard the little girl cheer. "Auntie's buff again!" She bounced up and down as those red curls shook adorably with her excitement.
"Yeah, she is." A soft kiss on her lips from her knight was met with a gentle swoon. Marika nearly dragged her into bed at that moment, but her knight reminded her of the child present, and she thought better of it.
"So..." As the two separated their lips, "What is the plan now?"
"Next stop is to head north east. There's a lift there like in Caria that is supposed to take up to some place where we can meet up with Melina and Ranni again. There's supposed to be a fire there that can burn The Erdtree's roots in our way. Seems like the only way to go for now." She lightly squeezed Marika's hand as she spoke.
"The land of the giants..." She whispered with a hint of trepidation.
"Yes." Her knight responded gently. "Don't worry, there will be no obstacle that can impede us. Not now. Not ever again."
...
"Alright. All packed and ready." Her knight patted Torrent's side as the formerly spiritual steed neighed gently. He had not lost some of his abilities, but he had become as material as countless others were now, too. He didn't seem to mind it all that much. He had spent most of the months grazing on the grasslands outside of Leyndell in the safety of the little graces they had found.
"Wee, horsie ride!" Little Malli shouted as she hugged Torrent neck. The queen couldn't help but chuckle at her abundance of energy. She had an arm made from silver that her knight had crafted in their extra time and had a matching one herself. She referred to them by a name she had struggled to pronounce, an issue made only worse when her knight had shown her how it was spelled.
"Airgetlám." She had said it as clearly as if it were breathing, but it sounded very foreign to Marika's ears. "It's an omage of a very old legend." She flexed the fingers, metal whirls, and magic locks, giving it the same fluidity as skin. "A side of me has heritage to a place known for being rather unique in their ways of letters."
Hauling herself onto Torrent, followed by the knight, the queen quipped, "Unique way with letters, hm?"
"Just don't ask to spell Saoirse without a book on hand." She answered, and Marika decided to let it drop with a playful smile.
"A side of you?"
"Let's just say this isn't my first rodeo."
"Road... E.. O?"
"Don't worry about it." Her knight chuckled as she grabbed hold of the reigns and set her gaze across the old battlefield towards the hill that supposedly held or led to the lift they would need. Their journey was just reaching what felt like its finale, but now it felt like it had barely begun. That brought a smile to the golden goddesses face. What was another few months with her beloved in these lands, anyway?