Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

She’s been watching. Of course she has. It wasn’t like she’d gone off to sulk and feel sorry for herself or anything. Certainly not after letting the Tarnished not only claim the Frenzied Flame, but also letting him convince her to stick around and see things through. No, Melina wasn’t so petty as all that. She’d watched on as he’d made his way to the Mountaintop of the Giants. She’d watched on as he’d gone practically everywhere in those forbidden lands EXCEPT for the Forge of the Giants.
 
What was the point of him taking the Frenzied Flame upon himself if he wasn’t going to actually use it to burn the Erdtree? True, there was no real rush, even now. All the reasons there might have been, had been removed from the board most… effectively. Only Morgott’s demise might have been cause for concern, since it left Leyndell undefended and the path to the Erdtree unprotected.
 
But what did that matter? Let the Royal Capital burn. The Erdtree would not burn alongside it without the Fell Flame of the Giants, after all. And besides… most of the demigods had already been taken care of. Those who would have pounced upon the Capital’s weakness in the wake of Morgott’s defeat had been removed from the board.
 
One by one, her chosen champion had gone around handling things. One after another, he’d dealt with any would-be problems before they could potentially expand further. It was easy now, in hindsight, to see how his path had led him to unilaterally fell some of the greatest monsters the Lands Between had ever seen. And neuter some of its greater schemers besides.
 
More than that though, his actions in the Mountaintops of the Giants had finally allowed Melina to understand her Tarnished at long last. After what he’d done for the Albinaurics with the spirit Latenna, and then what he’d done for Millicent… and then what he’d done for MALENIA of all people, Melina finally understood him quite well. There was no longer any doubt in her mind. There were no more mysteries, as far as her champion was concerned.
 
It was simple, really. He was a self-sacrificing asshole.
 
Admittedly, that should have been obvious to her ages ago. Indeed, one of the very first things he’d done after they’d had their chat was go gallivanting across Limgrave and Caelid, making contact with and rescuing damsels in distress wherever they needed his help, completely disregarding his own safety in the process.
 
Hell, he’d picked up the one-armed swordswoman all the way back at the beginning, hadn’t he? Moving with unerring accuracy, he’d gotten her back on her feet, putting that needle into her. All part of his grand scheme to save both her and Malenia later on.
 
How? How did her chosen Tarnished seemingly know just about everything ahead of time? In hindsight, it all seemed so planned and carefully plotted out. Melina, who had been with him every step of the way, could recognize it now. One might think he’d just bumbled into everything, taking it all as it came and handling life one step at a time like most in the Lands Between did.
 
But Melina knew better. She knew that her Tarnished had put that needle in Millicent’s flesh in order to have her carry it all the way to the Haligtree, where he could then use it on Malenia. And while that sort of act would seem to hold a special callous disregard for Millicent and in many cases mark her as his patsy, it wasn’t that simple. No, because he’d used her prolonged experience with the needle to loosen the Scarlet Rot’s hold on her… and then forced an unnervingly large amount of Preserving Boluses down her throat in order to finish the job.
 
Saving Millicent was one thing. Saving Malenia? From herself? Yes, Melina’s champion truly was a self-sacrificing imbecile. Did he not understand what he had done? All he’d done was temporarily free Malenia from her curse of rot. It was still there, lurking beneath the surface. The Scarlet Rot was the instrument of something much more powerful than that needle he’d used. He couldn’t possibly expect it to hold back an Outer God’s influence forever.
 
Melina wouldn’t deny it. For the briefest of moments, when she’d seen what the needle could do, she’d thought that perhaps it was the key to the Tarnished’s plan. That he would use it to solve his troubles, and free himself of the Frenzied Flame. But, even as he’d cured Millicent, he hadn’t used it on himself. He’d used it on Malenia, and it quickly became obvious, at least to Melina, that it wouldn’t have worked on him anyways.
 
It wasn’t even going to work on Malenia forever, but that didn’t stop the Tarnished from dragging her halfway across the Lands Between, deep underground, to Mogwyn Palace. The domain of the Formless Mother and her servant Mohg, Lord of Blood. The prison of Miquella, the Eternal Child. Malenia’s brother.
 
Melina has watched it all. She promised she would be with her Tarnished until the end, whatever form that took, and so she’s stayed by his side, even if she hasn’t appeared before him again in the flesh since their last… interaction. No, she’s not being petty. And no, she’s definitely not hiding or anything ridiculous like that. She’s just… she’s just making her displeasure known, while also avoiding any… distractions.
 
Yes, that’s it. If her Tarnished has a plan, then clearly that plan doesn’t involve her. And so, she’ll stay back, and take on the role of an observer. Yes. No need for her to give her advice. He won’t listen to it anyways, after all…
 
After Mohg’s demise at Malenia’s hands, Melina watches on further still as her champion leverages Malenia’s gratitude into obedience. She watches as he hands a letter to Millicent, sending his sworn blade on to Nepheli Loux, over at Stormveil Castle. It’s another strike of odd behavior, another thing that Melina can’t quite explain. After all, she never saw him write that letter, and she’s been with him every step of the way.
 
But ultimately it doesn’t matter. Malenia, grateful to the Tarnished, allows him to help her bring Miquella’s cocoon back to the Haligtree. The Empyrean Twins will be reunited, some day soon. Melina can only wonder at what her chosen champion thinks he’s doing there. Of all the shardbearers, of all the demigods, he’s left those two alive? Well… he’s left Rennala and Ranni alive as well, she supposes.
 
Still, surely Malenia and Miquella will cause trouble, when he finally ascends to the throne. How can they possibly not? How can this not come back to bite him in the ass? Unless he doesn’t intend to survive any of this. Which brings Melina back around to her original epiphany. Her Tarnished is a self-sacrificing asshole.
 
Once Malenia has secured Miquella at the Haligtree, well aware that it will take quite a lot of time for him to regain himself, she allows the Tarnished to lead her further onward. At long last, they come upon the Forge of the Giants.
 
The battle with the final Fire Giant takes place first, of course, but it is nothing to write about, barely a footnote in the journey of Melina’s Tarnished. Melina is reminded of Queen Marika’s words as she watches the Tarnished and Malenia make quick, easy work of the last of the Giants.
 
“O trifling giant, mayest thou tend thy flame for eternity.”
 
The eternity bit isn’t the important part here, because quite obviously nothing lasts forever, not even Queen Marika the Eternal herself, nor the things she’d built. But trifling? Trifling is right. Even ripping off his own foot and burning it to cinders as a sacrifice to his Fell God does not help him. The weakness of his race that led to Lord Godfrey and Queen Marika proving victorious against them in the first place shines through, and the last of the Giants falls to her Tarnished’s blade.
 
And then he and Malenia have reached the Forge. Tis here that Melina herself should have done the deed. Tis here that she should have burned, not her Tarnished. Tis here that the end will come. He’s going to do it. He does not call for her, and she does not go to him. Instead, Melina can only watch as he gestures Malenia back, and then steps up to the lip of the Forge.
 
The Fell Flame inside roars into being in his presence. The Frenzied Flame that marks him, burning even now within his breast, reaches back. The two forms of fire comingle, before the Frenzied Flame quickly overtakes the Fell Flame. It was to be expected. Queen Marika herself had killed the Giants’ Fell God all those years ago. The Fell Flame was thus rudderless. It would not go out, not ever, which was why Marika had had to leave one Giant alive, to tend to it.
 
But at the same time, it had no TRUE master. Not like the Frenzied Flame did. That was what Melina would have been counting upon, as the kindling maiden. That was what would have allowed her to turn the Fell Flame to the task of burning the Erdtree, at the cost of her own life.
 
Now though… now she can only watch in silence, not daring to materialize, as the flames lick at her Tarnished instead. As they cover his body, before flowing upward and onward to the Erdtree itself. If she were corporeal, Melina doesn’t doubt she would be sobbing, her body wracked with emotion and sorrow beyond her reckoning.
 
… So, she doesn’t. And yet, somehow it still hurts to the bottom of her soul all the same. It hurts even more, when the Tarnished pitches forward into the Forge, falling into the fire.
 
“No!”
 
Malenia’s reaction, the Blade of Miquella lunging forward a heartbeat too late to catch him, shows just how much he’d impacted even her in such a short amount of time. Perhaps Malenia had even come to love the Tarnished, in her own way. Melina had heard her refer to him as ‘Sweet’ quite clearly more than once.
 
But what could her fleeting, temporary love be to what Melina felt for the man no lost to her? What could-
 
Melina stiffens, cut off just before she can really begin the death spiral of despair she’s leading into, as a hand suddenly grasps the edge of the Forge. As the Tarnished, burnt and burning but not broken or beaten, climbs back out of the Forge of the Giants, worse for wear certainly, but not down for the count just yet.
 
“You… you live.”
 
Malenia’s incredulous, shocked words match Melina’s own feelings quite well. The incorporeal kindling maiden would narrow her one visible eye, if she was actually solid at the moment. As it is, she just finds herself gazing upon her Tarnished as the Erdtree burns merrily in the background. Then… it hits her.
 
Of course. He’s not going to die here. The Frenzied Flame won’t LET him. No, it will wait until he has achieved his goal, it will wait until he is ready to claim the Elden Throne, to sit upon it as Elden Lord. And then it will take its due and claim his body for its own purposes. It will only destroy the world when it is sure there are no challengers left to stop it. And that means taking the Elden Ring for itself.
 
She has no air in her lungs, but the realization still feel like a punch to a nonexistent gut. Her Tarnished yet lives… but the moment he returns to the Erdtree, to walk the path opened by burning away the brambles, she knows he will die. And that knowledge… it very nearly breaks her.
 
Of course, her Tarnished just smiles at Malenia, and holds out a hand to the swordswoman. The red head blushes, before hesitantly giving him her flesh and blood hand to take. As he intertwines his fingers in hers, he begins to draw her away from the Forge, away from the Mountaintop of the Giants. He moves… but not towards the Erdtree.
 
Melina follows along, for what else can she do? When she realizes where he’s going, she’s left wondering just what his plan is. Farum Azula has long been crumbling, for quite a while. Once the City of Dragons, a domed city as great if not grander than Leyndell, Farum Azula existed above the grasslands of Limgrave before the time of the Golden Order, before even the time of the Erdtree and the Elden Ring.
 
In fact, some said that Farum Azula’s destruction, and subsequent failed retreat, were a byproduct of the arrival of the Greater Will in the Lands Between. For the great flying city of Farum Azula was destroyed even before Marika was Queen Marika the Eternal. Before the Erdtree was the Erdtree, and before Death itself was quelled.
 
Farum Azula’s ruins could be found strewn across Limgrave’s grassy highlands to this day, as could the Beastmen who had once so loyally served the dragons that called it home. But Farum Azula itself had been moved, relocated even, in an attempt to save what was left of its population from whatever calamity befell it.
 
This does not stop her Tarnished from reaching the crumbling ruins of the once great city with Malenia by his side. It does not stop him from seeking out Farum Azula. What precisely does he hunt for there? Melina, despite herself, finds that she’s watching a bit more closely, as her Tarnished and his demigod companion make their way through crumbling Farum Azula.
 
They don’t just make their way through, however. They make their way DOWN. Descending through the ruins and through the storm that rages around the destroyed city to this day, the Tarnished and Malenia go further and further downward. And still Melina doesn’t understand. Still, she cannot comprehend exactly what the fuck her Tarnished is after.
 
She’d thought she understood his plan. To sacrifice himself and burn the Erdtree in the process, leaving her alive and leaving it all in the hands of those who he had helped before his death. But then he’d survived. And the Frenzied Flame had survived with him. From there, a return to the Erdtree had seemed like the obvious next step, even if it was destined to end in tragedy.
 
Instead, they were here, in this long-forgotten place, going lower and lower, further down into the storm. Soon, there were barely any ruins left at all. Soon, every step was treacherous, the buffeting winds making each action a possibly fatal one if you moved even one foot in the wrong direction.
 
Of course, Melina was fine, being as she wasn’t even corporeal at the moment. Having bound herself to the Tarnished’s presence in this world, it was easy enough for her to keep pace. Likewise, neither her Tarnished nor Malenia were likely to fall either. They were much to sure of foot for that, the two of them.
 
But finally… finally they reach the bottom. There’s nowhere left to go. But also… nothing around, that Melina can see. Confusion wells up within her, and is mirrored by Malenia, but the Blade of Miquella does not resist when the Tarnished takes her by the hand and carefully lays her down in a carved out depression in the rock.
 
When he lays down beside her and takes her hand in his, Malenia even blushes, a bright red crimson as red as her hair. Melina is almost certain she would have a tic in her jaw right now, were she solid. Only… what is he doing?
 
Laying there in the depression in the rock next to Malenia, Blade of Miquella, Melina’s Tarnished is holding out his other hand… unerringly in her ‘direction’. She’s technically not really there, but even incorporeal, she has a ‘place’ where she exists. And somehow, it’s as if he knows that exact location. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous even but… tch, is he making a GRABBY hand at her?!
 
As he gropes at the air in her direction, Melina moves into place and materializes beside him, arms crossed over her chest.
 
“Just WHAT do you think you-eep!”
 
Before she can finish her question, his grabbing hand catches on her skirt and yanks her right off her feet. For a moment, Melina is afraid that the wind will take her, that she’ll fall right off into the storm below them. Not that it would have mattered, she could have just dematerialized, but not all fear is rational or logical, and in that moment, she’s certainly not thinking clearly.
 
But her fears are ultimately baseless anyways, because he drags her down to lay next to him instead, pushing her into place as Malenia lifts her head to look at her in surprise. Melina can’t help but flush in embarrassment at how humiliating the demigod’s first impression of her is. It’s not like she WANTS to impress Malenia or anything like that, b-but still…
 
Her Tarnished is insistent however, in his ever-silent manner. And so, soon enough they’re all just… just laying there, hand in hand, staring upwards at crumbling Farum Azula overhead and the storm raging all around them.
 
Melina opens her mouth to ask what they’re even waiting for, when suddenly… everything stops. The storm stops, but not in a manner that would suggest it dissipates. No, it just STOPS. The fragments of the domed city above them that had been flying around for who knew how long also stop. Everything freezes in place… as if time itself has suddenly stopping moving forward. It’s suddenly very, very quiet.
 
And then… it all starts going backwards. Melina shrinks back and whimpers as she finds herself clinging to her Tarnished’s side for dear life, despite her anger at him. No matter how upset she was with him, regardless of her purpose as a kindling maiden being usurped… Melina had a certain limit for bullshit, and they’d most certainly just reached it.
 
She really, really wanted to wail right about now. Exactly WHEN was her Tarnished going to stop doing utterly insane things?!

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