Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Even after all this time, Blaidd still remembers first meeting his Lady’s husband. Obviously, the Tarnished hadn’t been such, back then. Blaidd’s initial impression of the man was that he wasn’t much at all, to the half-wolven warrior’s eventual chagrin. Indeed, that first time he’d met the Tarnished in Lady Ranni’s Tower, Blaidd had believed him to be no more than any other of his ilk.
 
There were many Tarnished in the Lands Between. They were so numerous you couldn’t walk five feet without tripping over one, or so it felt at times. But the vast majority of them were altogether worthless. Useless at best, outright detrimental at worst. Blaidd had actually had to slay a few himself, to protect his Lady’s interests.
 
But this Tarnished had apparently been different enough for Lady Ranni to make use of him. When Blaidd had asked his Lady about the man after first meeting him in her tower, Ranni had seemed ambivalent. She’d made it clear that she did not trust the Tarnished, lowly as he was, and of no renown… but that she would give him a chance all the same. The rope to hang himself if he so chose, Blaidd had interpreted from his Lady’s statements.
 
And so, he and the Tarnished had worked together, traveling deep beneath the earth to Siofra River. There, Blaidd had searched out the area, trying his damnedest to find a way up to the Eternal City of Nokron. As he’d told the Tarnished when the nameless, voiceless man had finally come across him, he could see it, but that didn’t mean he could get there.
 
Luckily, the Tarnished had come through for him then. Or rather, Seluvis had… but the less said about Seluvis, the better. The bastard had turned out to be just another traitor, just like Darriwil, in the end. Frankly, it had taken Blaidd a little off guard. He would have thought it would be their newest recruit, this lowly Tarnished, who would prove utterly useless, but instead…
 
Well, Blaidd had been both upset and thrilled to find out that his Lady’s fate was kept in stasis by none other than her mad brother himself. General Radahn, driven insane by the Scarlet Rot that infested the whole of Caelid, was supposedly holding back the stars even then. Twas maddening, in Blaidd’s own opinion… but it was the best lead they had to go off of.
 
And so, they had traveled to the festival Blaidd had heard mention of together, him and the Tarnished. And they had joined the battle against General Radahn himself. The fighting was… glorious, for all that it was the most intense battle of Blaidd’s life. Starscourge Radahn was no pushover. But then, he’d known that hadn’t he? He who was once called the strongest of all the demigods… how COULD he be anything but a living legend?
 
Still, they’d beaten him all the same. In no small part due to the efforts of the Tarnished as well. He was… he was amazing. If General Radahn was a living legend, then his Lady’s Tarnished was a legend in the making that day. Watching the two of them fight, watching Radahn and the lowly Tarnished do battle, only for the latter to come out on top… it was glorious.
 
Blaidd had not hesitated to say so either, in the aftermath. He had fully underestimated, and perhaps misjudged the Tarnished that his Lady had taken into his service. He’d told him as much when he’d told the man that the glory of the clash was shared by both him and Radahn. Of course, at the time Blaidd hadn’t even considered that the Tarnished and Starscourge Radahn could be said to be equals.
 
Knowing what he knew now… well, suffice to say, General Radahn had been wholly surpassed.
 
Regardless, their true goal was achieved. Radahn received his final, glorious battle, the festival goers received their spectacle… and Blaidd saw his Lady’s fate finally freed from its stasis as the stars began to move once more. Radahn’s long vigil was at a close. And with it, the path to Nokron had been cleared, a falling star biting the earth and making it obvious where they were to go next.
 
Blaidd had had every intention of following the Tarnished down into the Eternal City and seeking out the Fingerslayer Blade for his Lady right alongside the man. He’d said as much to him at Redmane Castle, in the wake of Radahn’s defeat.
 
But before he could… Iji had locked him away. Even now, even after all this time and all that had happened, Blaidd couldn’t help but be a little bitter over that betrayal. In the grand scheme of things, he could and had forgiven old Iji for what he’d done, but it still hurt. Oh, how it hurt.
 
He was his Lady’s shadow. He was Mistress Ranni’s ever loyal hound. To think him capable of betraying her… old Iji had flat out told him that he’d bring naught but bale to Lady Ranni, if he was left free. Blaidd didn’t want to believe it. But, trapped as he was in the Evergoal by his old friend’s duplicity, there was not much he could do.
 
Until they came along… and let him out. The assassins of the Two Fingers, their agents, freeing him from his prison. He knew not why, but he’d fought his way clear of them, making his way back to the Three Sisters and Lady Ranni’s Rise. He had to make sure his Mistress was safe. He had to return to her side. He had…
 
… He had lost his mind for a bit there. All these months later, removed from the situation, Blaidd could admit that it had happened. Something had invaded his thoughts, taken over… and ultimately turned him against his Lady. Old Iji had been right. Blaidd had been a threat to Mistress Ranni. Or at least, her enemies had tried to turn him into one.
 
He still remembered that moment, standing outside of her Rise, waving his sword around at anyone who dared approach. In a blind rage, he’d slaughtered not only the Two Fingers’ assassins, but also Lady Ranni’s pet wolves. He’d killed everything around him in a bid to keep her safe, to protect his Lady. Or so he’d been thinking, in the moment. Except, when even she’d approached him, he’d barked at her, and taken a swing at her.
 
“Heel, mine loyal hound.”
 
Thankfully, his Mistress was no pushover. Thankfully, she had finally come into her own. Blaidd was quite confident that even as Ranni the Witch, his Lady would have easily put him down. But she could not have saved him, as she’d been, trapped in that doll’s body. Alas, when she finally came before him… she was so much more. Lunar Princess Ranni, reborn. A gestating Goddess coming into her own, right before his eyes.
 
She had caught his blade upon her hands with ease and wrenched it from his grasp. She had taken him to his knees with but a thought and brought all four of her hands upon his face. While the lower two had stroked through his fur, the upper had laid upon his brow, where she had focused her power.
 
“Let thee be calmed, mine leal shadow. Let thy mind be quieted, mine vassal.”
 
She’d healed him… freed him even, from the last lingering influence of the Greater Will and its dogs. Blaidd had gone so mad he’d tried to attack Ranni herself, and yet still she had saved him. Still, she had healed him before taking him to Iji, leaving him in the old blacksmith’s care. Iji was apologetic of course, but in the end, Blaidd’s bitterness over the blacksmith’s decision was utterly eclipsed by his gratitude. If not for old Iji’s actions, who could say what Blaidd would have done, before Lady Ranni completed her path and ascended at long last.
 
And what was the lowly Tarnished of no renown doing, while Blaidd was trapped in the Evergoal, only to eventually be driven half-mad by the Two Fingers’ whispers? Heh, whatever the fuck he wanted, it would seem. The Tarnished had retrieved the Fingerslayer Blade for Blaidd’s Mistress. To hear Ranni tell it, he had then been dismissed from her service… only to show up later on, completely of his own accord.
 
Blaidd was glad for that. From what he’d been able to piece together, even if Lady Ranni would never say as much, her situation had not been great, after Iji made the decision to imprison him for her sake without actually warning her. At the same time, she’d been forced to slay Seluvis for his despicable plans regarding her personage.
 
Her allies, at that point in time, had been greatly diminished indeed. And the Tarnished had had no reason to continue helping her… less than no reason, in fact. That he had done so anyways, that he had continued to follow her all the way to the end of her path… it spoke well of him. His, heh, dogged pursuit of Blaidd’s Mistress and Lady… had earned him the greatest honor one could earn.
 
It made sense, that his Lady’s Consort would go on to become the new Elden Lord. What did not make nearly as much sense was that Mistress Ranni was expected to share this ‘Tarnished Lord’ with her peer, Queen Marika the Eternal. Blaidd still wasn’t entirely sure what to think of all that. He didn’t like it, that Lady Ranni had been stymied, her plans forced to adapt and change. He didn’t appreciate that the Tarnished, no matter how powerful he was, had strung Blaidd’s Mistress along.
 
… But in the end, he was merely Ranni’s loyal, leal hound. Her shadow, tailored to be her vassal, fit for an Empyrean and perhaps a Goddess as well. It was not his place to speak up, not his place to decry the Tarnished Lord’s actions. In the end, for all that his Mistress had been forced to share… she was happy, at least.
 
And so was Blaidd.
 
In the present, the half-wolven warrior smiles as he stretches out a claw and watches with joy as four small, blue hands each with five tiny blue fingers, all latch on with a strength that still surprises and impresses him.
 
“W-Whoa there little Renna! Quite the strong grip you have, haha!”
 
Less than a year old, Lady Ranni’s daughter is nevertheless frighteningly adorable and cute as a button, really. And Blaidd thanks his lucky stars every damn day that he’s still around to see her, to experience her, to look after her.
 
The Lands Between were healing. For the first time in a long time, progress was truly possible. Stagnation was a thing of the past, and people were coming together like never before. The true monsters were being cleared out everywhere Blaidd looked. Nowhere was this more obvious than Caria Manor. While the Academy of Raya Lucaria was the home of Ranni’s mother to this day, his Mistress needed a place that was all her own.
 
After all, how could she be taken seriously as a Goddess if she was still living with her mother? Caria Manor had long fallen into disrepair in the wake of the Shattering and the dissolution of the Carian Royal Family… but it was back now. The estate had been cleared of the… hands that were scattered all over them, and the place was currently in a process of renewal and repair, as crews worked around the clock to return the Manor and its Grounds to their former glory.
 
It was here that Blaidd watched over his Mistress’ daughter, Lady Renna. It was here that he protected the infant child with all of his might, every fiber of his being.
 
… Lunar Princess Ranni truly had shed her previous life. Even if she had become what the Two Fingers wanted of her in the end, a Goddess in truth, she had gone about it in a completely different way than they’d desired, flaunting their path and carving her own. That was what ultimately mattered. She was a Goddess of her own creation. A new existence of her own initiative.
 
Nowhere was this clearer, than the fact that Lunar Princess Ranni had not a hint of her birth father in her. Nay, when she’d ascended to the status of a Goddess and made her doll form her reality, she had solidified her new nature as her TRUE nature. As such, the daughter she had given birth to had nothing of Radagon in her… but was instead born the spitting image of Ranni’s mentor, Renna the Witch.
 
Blue-skinned, four-armed, and so very beautiful. So of course, his Mistress had named her daughter after her mentor. Little Renna, taking after her namesake in every way possible. Needless to say, the babe was the most adorable thing Blaidd had ever laid his eyes upon.
 
Even now, she giggles at his exclamation. Whether she understands the words quite yet, Blaidd knows not. He’s not quite sure what the development of a child of Renna’s pedigree will be like, how fast she’ll grow up, how quickly she’ll come to know things. But he does know she knows him for who and what he is. Her protector… and her big, hairy dog.
 
When Renna lets go of his claw, she makes grabby hands with all four of her limbs, waving them in the air and whining a bit at him. Letting out a rumbling chuckle, Blaidd shakes his head. He finds it utterly impossible to say no to his young charge, even now. He can only imagine how much of a terror she’ll be when she finally grows up.
 
Reaching down, he carefully pulls her from her cradle and lays her against his chest. She very quickly reaches up and fists all four of her hands in his fur, flexing her fingers and running her itty-bitty little digits through his soft mane. She can’t get enough of petting him, of playing with his coat. But then, to be fair, Blaidd can’t get enough of her either. She’s his world, little Renna, just as much as her mother ever was. And he will happily spend the rest of his days watching over his Mistress and her family, as their ever-present, ever-loyal shadow.
 
Taking a walk through the gardens with Renna held in his arms and playing with his fur, Blaidd isn’t surprised that the young babe quickly gets tuckered out. Soon enough, she’s laid her head down on his shoulder, and is drooling into his fur. He doesn’t mind though, not one bit.
 
Looking up at the stars overhead, Blaidd smiles a big, wolfish smile. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last… he gladly thanks his lucky stars for getting to be here to see this future.
 
In the end, everything turned out for the best.

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