Chapter Text
~O~
Malenia, my beloved Blade.
Awaken.
Come to me.
Malenia opening her eyes when she heard his voice whispering in her ear. He was calling for her help. He needed her. She felt the soft embrace of his honeyed voice that could bring many legions to their knees.
Her dearest Miquella. He needed her.
The first breath she took was pain.
She shifted those golden heels across the damp floor. Flowers had bloomed and Malenia could see only the great tree before her. Her body was aching, burning with the fires of Scarlet Rot deep in her bones.
Malenia's lips formed words and the first was his name.
"Miquella?"
She could see her golden helmet and arm laying there at her feet. Bending down, she picked them up, fitted them to her body and looked up at the tree. Oh, yes, her brother had placed himself there. She remembered it in ribbons of thought and dream. Memory had been taken from her.
Miquella.
"Miquella? My brother?" she reached up to touch the rotted branches.
He was gone? How? How had he been taken?
A terrible storm filled Malenia's thoughts. She dropped to her knees, gasped as pain filled her chest. It was so much. She felt the Scarlet Rot between her fingertips as rage rolled through her.
Miquella was gone.
Someone had taken him. That must have been him calling to her. He was calling for her help. She had to move quickly.
Her knights. Yes. They would follow her.
Malenia struggled to move from the great hall and looked around. The Haligtree had been overwhelmed with Rot and her memory of it was filled with fog and war. How had this happened so quickly? How had...
No attendants remained. Malenia knew they stood outside the gates. She would find them, hopefully.
But the church was empty when she walked out into sunlight. It nearly seared her eyes and she had to shield them, even with her helmet. Pain in her head, far too bright.
Brother, where are you?
It hurts.
Please.
Malenia looked through her fingers, noticed the Cleanrot Knight standing with her back to her near several gravestones. It made her feel some measure of relief. Perhaps she could tell her what happened to the Haligtree. Surely, this woman would give her the answers.
"You there." Malenia called, wincing as she felt pain in her leg. "Hearken to me, knight. What happened to this place?"
The knight didn't respond. She simply kept her back to her, even swayed a little where she was leaning. Malenia was surprised by her silence. Did she not hear her? Her knights never hesitated to answer her call.
"Knight." she repeated, sternly. "Face me and speak. I will - "
The knight's throat was filled with fluid as she turned on her blade, body bowed and helmet missing. Malenia's lips parted in horror and she shook her head, unable to fathom the depths of the thing looking back at her.
Horror.
The knight's skull was missing in several places, replaced with sharp feelers and rotted plants. Malenia could see blood and congealed flesh pooling from between spaces in her armor, little insect wings at her waist. A single eye seemed to stare at her from that mutilated flesh, wide and in unbearable agony.
It screamed at her.
Malenia raised her prosthetic blade and cleaved the creature in two.
She had no choice.
She had to do it.
She had to...
The scream that the knight uttered was sick; she was far gone, but Malenia could hear the human whisper through her mind. She didn't want to hear it, but she knew in her heart and soul that her Rotted curse connected her with them.
[It hurts...]
Malenia stared down at the dead knight, struggling to come to terms with what happened to her. She knew in her heart this was the fate that would eventually befall them when they stood at their side. She knew that. She told them that. She warned them time and time again and they refused to abandon her.
They did. They were so faithful to her in the end.
Malenia fell to her knees.
O
"Sister, look!"
Miquella was holding Malenia's hand and they walked through Leyndell's market. He was so small then. Even as children, they were always worshipped as Demigods by the people of the city. And even then, Malenia never left his side as they walked together.
"Miquella, don't run so fast." Malenia called, with a small laugh.
"Sister, quickly, before they're gone!"
Malenia sighed, laughed and shook her head as Miquella took interest in the small market stand where others were gathered. There was an older woman giving flowers to the people who came to see her and Miquella eagerly approached them.
"Ah! Little Lord!" the old woman smiled. "You honor me with your presence! I am delighted to see you."
Miquella beamed. "You're kind."
Malenia continued to hold his hand.
"Does your little brother want a flower, my Lady?"
Malenia smiled, a bit embarrassed. "He is my older brother, actually."
She looked shocked. "Forgive me! I did not know."
"It's...alright." Malenia nodded, wanting to be away from the crowds once Miquella had what he wanted. "It happens often. He would like a flower. Do you have any left?"
"Yes! A good one, actually. A lily for the Lord. Something golden. A gift from his Mother and our most Esteemed Eternal!"
Miquella grinned, happily taking the little lily the woman offered. Malenia smiled down at him and he looked happy. She was quite pleased.
"Miquella, we should return home soon." she reminded him, still holding his hand. "Mother will want us back."
"She never lets us leave the palace, Malenia. Let's enjoy it while we can!"
Malenia looked around warily at the watching eyes. Everyone was in awe to see them there, but the crowds were so much.
"Miquella, you know how I feel about this..."
Miquella tightened his hold on her hand. "It's alright, Malenia. I can make you strong. You know that."
It was true.
He always gave her strength when she needed it most. But she was alone now, sitting in front of a little fire in the empty church, surrounded only by the Rotted plague that had consumed her home.
She was alone.
Malenia looked down at her hand, threaded with Unalloyed Gold. She remembered Miquella's design and how he had planned to spare her from this fate. She remembered her joy when he had eased her pain bit by bit. Everything he did made it all feel much better in the end.
And now, he was gone.
"Miquella..." she whispered, pain choking her. "Where are you?"
She heard footsteps and immediately rose, aimed her blade at a...
Misbegotten?
He looked old, hunched over with withered wings. He had braids in long, white hair and horns filed down. He was wearing a coat over his chest made up of fur and looked surprised by the blade in his face.
Not as surprised as she would have thought.
"Oh, you're awake." he hummed, in a rough voice. "Good morning then, Lady Malenia."
"Who are you?" Malenia asked, "Speak quickly."
"I am Hamish," he said, with a smile. "Nice to meet you, too."
Malenia frowned deeply. She didn't like the light-hearted tone. She was in no mood for it today. "Do not joke with me, dull creature."
"If I did, I imagine this conversation would be different." he agreed. "But I smelled the fire and just assumed one of my own had tried to cook something. I was in the middle of gathering some deer. You look like you need to eat, too."
Malenia looked down at herself. Her body was thin and withered from lack of nutrition and the sickness of her curse. She had no idea how obvious it was until the Misbegotten had spoken.
"You have your wits about you," she said. "Perhaps you could tell me how you got here and what became of Elphael."
Hamish nodded his head sagely. "Ah, a lot of time passed." he told her. "A lot of civil wars, a lot of infighting amongst each other. Most were killed or too sick anymore and others were put in those terrible cocoons to wait for Miquella's return."
"How did I get here?" Malenia asked, trying to come to terms with it all. "I remember the battle with General Ra..." She shook her head of the fog in her brain. "Radahn. I remember the Rot then..."
"Ah." Hamish nodded sadly. "You must mean Finlay."
"Finlay."
Her commander. Yes. Malenia remembered her. She was by her side before she made her first attack on General Radahn. She was faithful, loyal and true. Of all her knights, Finlay was the first to answer her call.
"Where is she?" she asked.
Hamish stared at her, then sighed through his nose.
O
Hamish led her passed several cocoons.
Malenia felt sick by the sight of them, the smell of bodies having been liquefied inside. Someone must have been hungry and ate them. She noticed holes where flesh had been left to rot, fester and smelled the flies buzzing.
She held her arm to her nose. It was a smell she was used to, but not this.
Hamish led her toward a cocoon at the center of the room.
A woman was hanging there, eyes wide and lifeless. Her long, brown hair, braided in several places had fallen over her face, heavily scarred and empty. A memory of Finlay had filled her mind and it was this woman.
"She carried you all the way home." Hamish explained, sadly. "She brought you here. I'd never seen it before; such duty and devotion. She was so tired when she came here and her body was burning hotter than the sun. She lost her arm to...well..."
Malenia saw her arm in the webbing. Claws and rot. But Finlay's face was pristine. She looked untouched.
"She's dead?" Malenia whispered, voice shaking out of her.
"No. She's alive." Hamish told her. "Just dreaming... I think. Like you."
Malenia rested her ear against Finlay's chest. She could hear the heart beating, but it was so faint. She was alive.
"She did that..." Malenia whispered, looking at her with shock and awe. She'd never known that level of loyalty before. "She brought me all the way home from Caelid? That's hundreds of miles!"
"Yes," Hamish replied, with a nod. "All of us revered her. To keep her alive, I put her in there. We had hoped she'd awaken one day. But time...well, it ate away at most of them. I still had hope in some way, I think. So I take care of them. I make sure they're alive."
Malenia looked at the other cocoons and he seemed to understand well enough what she was looking at.
"I don't always win." he said, quietly now.
"Cut her down."
"What?"
"Cut her down, Hamish." Malenia ordered. "She will awaken now. I will speak with her. I will understand."
Hamish nodded his head. He reached up with Malenia's help to rid Finlay from the ribbons of silk that kept her here. He sliced it with ease and she felt her heart racing. She'd never known such fear and awe before. Not since she was young.
Finlay's body was burning hot in her arms and Hamish moved to her side, his hand raised and he pressed it to her chest. Malenia watched him. Crucible or not, she could see that he was once a cleric in another time.
"Come on now, lass," he sighed. "Take that first gulp of air."
Finlay's eyes were still lifeless. But Malenia could feel her heart slowly starting to beat quicker. She could see the terrible changes the Rot had done to her body; scars on her chest, her left arm a monstrous hand of claws. Her hair was sticky with strings of silk.
"My commander, I beg of you, awaken." Malenia whispered.
Finlay remained immobile for a few moments more before her eyes snapped wider and she suddenly screamed.
She thrashed wildly in Malenia's arms and it took the combined strength of Hamish and the Demigod to hold her steady. She was screaming with terror and agony, and Malenia tried to speak over her.
"Finlay!" she shouted, "Finlay, it's me! It's me! It's Malenia!"
Finlay continued to scream and claw at her for several long moments before her screams eventually subsided into several horrible whimpers that tore at her heart. She felt her mind ripped in two, felt the Rot had touched her only a moment before Hamish had saved her from an eternity of mindlessness as it had done the knight below.
She had been in a nightmare of her own. Malenia saw her mind open, saw how raw the battle was and how she had been living it over and over again in that sleep.
By her brother, such torment.
"M-Malenia." Finlay whimpered her name. "Malenia, please."
"I am here, Finlay." Malenia soothed. "I am here."
Hamish sighed through his nose. He gave Finlay a little pet to her head and the knight flinched away from him as if she'd been struck. It tore at Malenia's heart. Just how much had her knight been through?
"Come on." Hamish suggested. "Let's get her into a bath. She needs time..."
Time.
So much time.
Malenia was gentle as she rose, scooped Finlay up into her arms. Her knight shivered and whimpered, looked frightened and Malenia shushed her. She hurt so much to see her like this, feel her mind twisting in the connection to the Rot. Hamish had done so much for her, but she was still tainted.
She didn't deserve that.
"It's alright, Finlay. You're safe." Malenia soothed.
Finlay's wide, terrified eyes seemed to focus only on her, even if she looked through her. She was shaking so much.
"M-My Lady..."
My Lady.
Such wonderful words to hear again. Malenia was no longer alone.