Communion

Chapter 3

Blaidd’s armor looked so small now that it was empty.

The Tarnished fell to his knees. He felt the Black Knife fall from his grasp as he watched Blaidd fade to nothing. His empty armor clattered to the ground in a heap.
“No! No please no!” He grasped desperately at the Half-wolf’s cloak. He’d done this. It was his fault.
“It was inevitable, Tarnished,” said the doll riding in his pocket. “We both understood that when I set out to walk the dark path, Blaidd would be unable to follow.” The Tarnished ripped the miniature Ranni from his robes. Its porcelain face maintained Ranni’s signature smirk.
“You knew? You knew and you still brought me here? Tell me, when you constructed that body for yourself, did you neglect to give it a heart?”
“Do not presume to understand my feelings, Tarnished.” The witch’s voice boomed, magically amplified, from the doll’s body. “Mistake not the limitations of this form for lack of grief. That these glass eyes could cry rivers would fall from them. After all, he was my brother long before he was your friend.” The Tarnished knew this. He knew Ranni had known Blaidd for longer. He knew that he had no right to question the way Ranni mourned him. But at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel the bond they shared was somehow deeper than friendship, deeper than brotherhood but he had no words to articulate how. “He asked that it be thee.” The doll paused. “To, to release him from his duty. Not Kalé, not Iji, not me, thee.” The Tarnished buried his face in Blaidd’s cloak. “I know not why, only that he insisted it had to be thou who did it. He also asked that I bequeath to thee his sword and armor.” The Tarnished was beginning to understand what Blaidd had meant to him and the weight of the knowledge made him feel like his soul was collapsing. “I will give thee some time to be alone, beloved of my brother.” The light faded from the doll’s eyes. A scream ripped itself from the Tarnished’s throat, so powerful it felt as if it was channeled through him rather than came from him. Not from this man who was too weak to save the man he cared for most in the world. He hurriedly donned the armor, hoping it would confer some semblance of closeness to his dead love.

After that he didn’t have the heart to go through with Ranni’s plan. He let Fia have her happy ending this time. He half hoped that Blaidd would return to him, living in death like her beloved Godwyn. But things rarely shake out so romantically. He waited on his cold lonely throne for Blaidd to come but his only company remained the chill fog of death. Eventually as the endless days and nights stretched on he began to feel himself slip into a deep sleep. It began slowly, with the Tarnished being unable to stand from the throne, until eventually most of his time was spent in dreams and then finally, he slipped away. And then he was back in the Chapel of Anticipation. He thought it was yet annother dream at first, until he was caught unawares by the grafted scion. As he felt the agony of death once again he thought he would wake up, that the dream would end, but it didn’t. The Tarnished woke again to Torrent sniffing his hand. He shot up. Melina pulled back on Torrent’s reins in surprise.
“Melina?”
“Do I know thee?”
“You’re alive!” The last time he had seen her she had thrown herself into the Giants’ Forge. He’d begged her not to but she’d insisted it was the only way to burn the Erdtree. He only later discovered the Frenzied Flame Proscription and the unalloyed needle capable of removing the outer god’s influence. “Thank the stars, you’re alive!” His eyes grew wet under his helmet for the first time in years.
“There, there brave Tarnished?” Melina’s hand hovered over his head. She didn’t seem to know how to react to this man she’d never met suddenly having such an emotional reaction to her presence.
“Apologies, Miss, know that I see you in the light you could not possibly be her. From a distance you appeared the very image of my dead daughter.”
“Thy dead daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Thy dead daughter who shares my name.”
“Your name is Melina as well? Oh what cruel fate is it that brings me before you instead of her?” The Tarnished was not a particularly gifted actor and he knew Melina wasn’t really buying it, however he hoped the strangeness of the alternative would keep her from interrogating his story too much. He wasn’t exactly lying after all, the Tarnished had come to think of the young woman like a daughter after their long journey. She seemed to take a moment to gather herself.
“Whether ‘twas fate or coincidence that brought us together, I know not. However, you seem well enough to hear my request, Tarnished. I come offering an accord.”

The Tarnished checked his pack once Melina went on her way. Most of the important things, his spells and equipment were still there. If this was going to work his deception would have to be more or less complete. He carefully removed Blaidd’s armor and donned the black confessor’s mantle he had begun his journey in. He set out towards the beach. It took him a few hours, but he eventually brought enough lumber to the shore to cobble together a raft. The Tarnished set aside a few pieces of armor and weapons that he hoped wouldn’t raise eyebrows. He kept his Wolf Imp helm, despite knowing it looked ridiculous he had grown a strange attachment to it, his confessor’s garb, his old broadsword, and his collection of incantations. His knowledge of magic would be easier to hide than the Black Knife he had carried for much of his last journey through the lands between. He also set aside a set of armor and a weapon he had never used previously. The Bloodhound’s Fang and Bloodhound Knight set. He had learned of their order as he traveled the Lands Between. He thought it romantic somehow how the knights swore themselves to one master and one alone for their entire lives. He had never been able to wear the armor or wield the blade previously. The sword was too heavy for him and by the time he’d found the Bloodhound knight’s set Blaidd was... This time around though, things would be different. He piled the remaining equipment onto the raft Leaving only Blaidd’s armor and sword left. He held the chestplate in his arms for a moment before placing it on the raft with the rest. “This time I won’t lose you.” He pushed the raft out to sea and sent out a ball of Giant’s Flame to set it alight. “I promise.” He turned his head in the direction of Agheel lake. Yura had warned him long ago that taking the power of dragons for oneself would only lead to corruption, but what was corruption in the face of the emptiness he had experienced. What was corruption in the face of decades and centuries alone. The Tarnished would drink the Swamp of Aeonia if it meant Blaidd would live. He donned the greenish brown armor and took up his broadsword. How hard could killing a dragon be after all? He’d already managed two gods.

The Tarnished woke up next to Blaidd. Light streamed in through the windows of the Fortified Manor. Kenneth had insisted that he take up residence in the Erd Tree Sanctuary, in his words, a home befitting the Elden Lord. However, the Tarnished preferred to stay here in the old Roundtable Hold. Thank the stars Nepheli was there to keep Kenneth from tying him to the throne. Blaidd was still sound asleep. The sunlight kissed his dark fur turning black into strands of gold. He was thinner than expected under the armor, built like a runner rather than a brawler. While Blaidd was gone the Tarnished had devoted most of his runes to increasing his physical strength, attempting desperately to become a knight equal to his beloved. He hadn’t realized how far he’d come until a fight with a Fallingstar Beast. He had taken out the Ruins Greatsword, since gravity magic seemed to work well on the thing, and realized halfway through the fight that he was only wielding it with one hand. He felt pride in how much more physically powerful he’d become, but did miss the days when Blaidd could pick him up like a doll. Although he supposed the opposite might be true now if the previous night had been any indication. In the morning light Blaidd’s skin had an odd pallor to it, and not in a way that seemed natural. Likely it was due to his extended stay in the Evergaol as well as his habit of never removing his armor. He felt guilty about having to leave him there, but the Tarnished knew he would’ve gone mad otherwise. He would have to find a way to make it up to him. He could take him to see the stars at the Heretical Rise, or to see the Haligtree now that Malenia’s rot was no longer interfering with its growth, or maybe just to the beach in Limgrave. The Tarnished couldn’t swim but it was still nice to sit by the water and listen to the waves come in. He wrapped his arms around Blaidd and gently kissed him on the shoulder. Blaidd stirred and began to wake. They were together now. The Tarnished had all the time in the world to set things right.